Benito de Soto

Benito de Soto Aboal (March 22, 1805, Mouriera, a hamlet now a suburb of Pontevedra, Spain - January 25, 1830, Gibraltar.

[2] The most notable attacks were on the British Indiaman Morning Star and the American ship Topaz, which involved great violence.

In 1827 the Brazilian government gave Sarmento a licence to trade in slaves and as privateer,[4] participating in the irregular warfare between Brazil and its neighbour the United Provinces of Buenos Aires (later Argentina).

[5] The most infamous episode in de Soto's career came on 19 February 1828, when the Burla Negra happened upon the Morning Star en route from Ceylon to England.

[6] Many of the captured crew were killed, while women passengers were raped before de Soto's men locked them in the hold with the rest of the survivors.

[6] When de Soto heard that the survivors had been locked away and not murdered, he was furious, turned them around to try to find the sinking Morning Star to finish the job.

- we had now indeed from repeated instances, become so familiarized with the shedding of human blood, that the shrieks and groans of the devoted victims were about music to our ears!

Martin Brewster, born in Kingston, Mass., aged 32, master, Arnold S. Manchester, Little Compton, R.I., aged 30, first mate; Edward Smith, Ipswich, Mass., 21, second mate; John Barber (black), New York, 28, steward; Samuel Gulliver (black) New York, 36, cook; T. J. Yates, Boston, 27; William S. Burton, do.

[6] When the hangman discovered that he had set the rope at the wrong height, De Soto calmly stood on his own coffin and obligingly placed his head inside the noose.