The Island Pirate

About this issue

The Island Pirate: A Tale of the Mississippi by Captain Mayne Reid, published by Beadle and Adams. A travel narrative and adventure tale set in the Mississippi valley during an earlier period when outlaws operated freely in the region. The narrator, a young traveler seeking adventure, visits the Tennessee State Penitentiary where he encounters the notorious pirate and murderer John Murrell, a blacksmith-turned-river robber who preyed on flatboats and crews carrying cargo and currency along the Mississippi. Murrell's extensive criminal network allegedly included merchants, planters, justices, and clergymen; he received only a ten-year sentence despite numerous robberies and murders. After leaving the prison, the narrator meets a courteous young planter who invites him to visit a Tennessee cotton plantation and reveals he knows the narrator through a mutual acquaintance, Miss Woodley, encountered during an earlier steamboat journey.