The King of Pirates: Being an Account of the Famous Enterprises of Captain Avery, the Mock King of Madagascar

ONE of the particular Advantages of the following Letters from Captain Avery, is, the Satisfaction they will give the Readers how much they have been impos'd upon in the former ridiculous and extravagant Accounts which have been put upon the World in what has been publish'd already. It has been enough to the Writers of this Man's Life, as they call it, that they could put any Thing together, to make a kind of monstrous unheard of Story, as romantick as the Reports that have been spread about of him; and the more those Stories appear'd monstrous and incredible, the more suitable they seem'd to be to what the World would have been made to expect of Captain Avery. There is always a great Deference between what Men say of themselves, and what Others say for them, when they come to write Historically of the Transactions of their Lives. The Publisher of these Letters recommends this Performance to the Readers, to make their Judgment of the Difference between them and the extravagant Stories already told, and which is most likely to be genuine; and, as they verily believe these Letters to be the best and truest Account of Captain Avery's Piracies, that ever has or ever will come to the Knowledge of the World, they recommend them as such, and doubt not but they will answer for themselves in the Reading