Considered as a short novel, the history "Of Captain Misson and his Crew" reveals many of the same techniques which Defoe used in his longer works. To gain a sense of verisimilitude the narrator pretends to be working from a manuscript, a device which Defoe also employed in his _Memoirs of a Cavalier_. As in _Colonel Jack_ real historical figures and events from the War of the Spanish Succession are woven into the adventures of the _Victoire_. Captain Misson and his crew sink the Winchelsea, an English ship lost in the West Indies at the end of August, 1707, and they barely escape from Admiral Wager's fleet which fought a famous battle there in 1708. Even the name of Misson's ship, the _Victoire_; was undoubtedly familiar to Defoe as the vessel commanded by the famous French corsair, Cornil Saus.[6] So convincing is Defoe that although his hero is shown meeting a real freebooter, Captain Tew, ten years after Tew's death, Misson is still included in the histories of piracy.[7] Also typical of Defoe's fiction is the relationship between Captain Misson, the leader, and his intellectual mentor, Carracioli. Colonel Jack and his tutor, Moll Flanders and her Governess and particularly, Captain Singleton and William Walters form similar groups. Just as William Walters, a Quaker, reminds Captain Singleton and the crew that their business is not fighting but making money, so Carracioli addresses lengthy speeches to the crew, converting everyone on the _Victoire_ to democracy and deism. Misson's Libertalia takes root in Madagascar, where Singleton wanted to establish a colony, while both Carracioli and Walters adapt the secular aspects of their religion to piracy. But whereas Walters eventually converts Singleton into an honest Christian, Carracioli leads Misson into piracy. In the history "Of Captain Misson and his Crew," Defoe decided to pursue the same method of third person narrative as in his brief biographies of real pirates. The result is that he merely provides a sketch of political theories rather than a study of human beings. Of course there are good reasons for this. Defoe was more interested in dramatizing proletarian utopian ideals than in developing the inner workings of Misson's mind. The novelette is unified by its epic theme, not by its study of character or its episodic plot.