Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts / Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902

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BUCCANEERS AND PIRATES OF OUR COASTS

by

FRANK R. STOCKTON

Illustrated







[Illustration: "The pirates climbed up the sides of the man-of-war as if
they had been twenty-nine cats."--Frontispiece.]


[Illustration]




Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers
New York
by arrangement with The Macmillan Company
Copyright, 1897-1898,
By the Century Co.
Copyright, 1898, 1926,
By the MacMillan Company.
All rights reserved--no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who wishes to quote
brief passages in connection with a review
written for inclusion in magazine or
newspaper.
Set up and electrotyped July, 1898. Reprinted November,
1898; September, 1905; May, 1906; April, October, 1908;
October, 1910; March, 1913; September, 1914; January,
1915; October, 1917.
Printed in the United States of America




FOREWORD


Tempting boys to be what they should be--giving them in wholesome form
what they want--that is the purpose and power of Scouting. To help
parents and leaders of youth secure _books boys like best_ that are also
best for boys, the Boy Scouts of America organized EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY.
The books included, formerly sold at prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.00
but, by special arrangement with the several publishers interested, are
now sold in the EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY Edition at $1.00 per volume.

The books of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY were selected by the Library Commission
of the Boy Scouts of America, consisting of George F. Bowerman,
Librarian, Public Library of the District of Columbia; Harrison W.
Craver, Director, Engineering Societies Library, New York City; Claude
G. Leland, Superintendent, Bureau of Libraries, Board of Education, New
York City; Edward F. Stevens, Librarian, Pratt Institute Free Library,
Brooklyn, N.Y., and Franklin K. Mathiews, Chief Scout Librarian. Only
such books were chosen by the Commission as proved to be, by _a nation
wide canvas_, most in demand by the boys themselves. Their popularity is
further attested by the fact that in the EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY Edition,
more than a million and a quarter copies of these books have already
been sold.

We know so well, are reminded so often of the worth of the good book and
great, that too often we fail to observe or understand the influence for
good of a boy's recreational reading. Such books may influence him for
good or ill as profoundly as his play activities, of which they are a
vital part. The needful thing is to find stories in which the heroes
have the characteristics boys so much admire--unquenchable courage,
immense resourcefulness, absolute fidelity, conspicuous greatness. We
believe the books of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY measurably well meet this
challenge.

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA,

        [signed] James E. West

        Chief Scout Executive.




Contents


Chapter                                                  Page

I.      The Bold Buccaneers                                 1

II.     Some Masters in Piracy                              7

III.    Pupils in Piracy                                   16

IV.     Peter the Great                                    23

V.      The Story of a Pearl Pirate                        31

VI.     The Surprising Adventures of Bartholemy Portuguez  39

VII.    The Pirate who could not Swim                      49

VIII.   How Bartholemy rested Himself                      59

IX.     A Pirate Author                                    65

X.      The Story of Roc, the Brazilian                    72

XI.     A Buccaneer Boom                                   89

XII.    The Story of L'Olonnois the Cruel                  94

XIII.   A Resurrected Pirate                              100

XIV.    Villany on a Grand Scale                          109

XV.     A Just Reward                                     119

XVI.    A Pirate Potentate                                132

XVII.   How Morgan was helped by Some Religious People    145

XVIII.  A Piratical Aftermath                             153

XIX.    A Tight Place for Morgan                          159

XX.     The Story of a High-Minded Pirate                 171

XXI.    Exit Buccaneer; Enter Pirate                      192

XXII.   The Great Blackbeard comes upon the Stage         200

XXIII.  A True-Hearted Sailor draws his Sword             210

XXIV.   A Greenhorn under the Black Flag                  217

XXV.    Bonnet again to the Front                         224

XXVI.   The Battle of the Sand Bars                       233

XXVII.  A Six Weeks' Pirate                               243

XXVIII. The Story of Two Women Pirates                    253

XXIX.   A Pirate from Boyhood                             263

XXX.    A Pirate of the Gulf                              277

XXXI.   The Pirate of the Buried Treasure                 291

XXXII.  The Real Captain Kidd                             309


[Illustration: The Haunts of "The Brethren of the Coast"]




Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts




Chapter I

The Bold Buccaneers


When I was a boy I strongly desired to be a pirate, and the reason for
this was the absolute independence of that sort of life. Restrictions of
all sorts had become onerous to me, and in my reading of the adventures
of the bold sea-rovers of the main, I had unconsciously selected those
portions of a pirate's life which were attractive to me, and had totally
disregarded all the rest.

In fact, I had a great desire to become what might be called a marine
Robin Hood. I would take from the rich and give to the poor; I would run
my long, low, black craft by the side of the merchantman, and when I had
loaded my vessel with the rich stuffs and golden ingots which composed
her cargo, I would sail away to some poor village, and make its
inhabitants prosperous and happy for the rest of their lives by a
judicious distribution of my booty.

I would always be as free as a sea-bird. My men would be devoted to me,
and my word would be their law. I would decide for myself whether this
or that proceeding would be proper, generous, and worthy of my unlimited
power; when tired of sailing, I would retire to my island,--the position
of which, in a beautiful semi-tropic ocean, would be known only to
myself and to my crew,--and there I would pass happy days in the company
of my books, my works of art, and all the various treasures I had taken
from the mercenary vessels which I had overhauled.

Such was my notion of a pirate's life. I would kill nobody; the very
sight of my black flag would be sufficient to put an end to all thought
of resistance on the part of my victims, who would no more think of
fighting me, than a fat bishop would have thought of lifting his hand
against Robin Hood and his merry men; and I truly believe that I
expected my conscience to have a great deal more to do in the way of
approval of my actions, than it had found necessary in the course of my
ordinary school-boy life.

I mention these early impressions because I have a notion that a great
many people--and not only young people--have an idea of piracy not
altogether different from that of my boyhood. They know that pirates
are wicked men, that, in fact, they are sea-robbers or maritime
murderers, but their bold and adventurous method of life, their bravery,
daring, and the exciting character of their expeditions, give them
something of the same charm and interest which belong to the robber
knights of the middle ages. The one mounts his mailed steed and clanks
his long sword against his iron stirrup, riding forth into the world
with a feeling that he can do anything that pleases him, if he finds
himself strong enough. The other springs into his rakish craft, spreads
his sails to the wind, and dashes over the sparkling main with a feeling
that he can do anything he pleases, provided he be strong enough.

The first pirates who made themselves known in American waters were the
famous buccaneers; these began their career in a very commonplace and
unobjectionable manner, and the name by which they were known had
originally no piratical significance. It was derived from the French
word _boucanier_, signifying "a drier of beef."

Some of the West India islands, especially San Domingo, were almost
overrun with wild cattle of various kinds, and this was owing to the
fact that the Spaniards had killed off nearly all the natives, and so
had left the interior of the islands to the herds of cattle which had
increased rapidly. There were a few settlements on the seacoast, but
the Spaniards did not allow the inhabitants of these to trade with any
nation but their own, and consequently the people were badly supplied
with the necessaries of life.

But the trading vessels which sailed from Europe to that part of the
Caribbean Sea were manned by bold and daring sailors, and when they knew
that San Domingo contained an abundance of beef cattle, they did not
hesitate to stop at the little seaports to replenish their stores. The
natives of the island were skilled in the art of preparing beef by
smoking and drying it,--very much in the same way in which our Indians
prepare "jerked meat" for winter use.

But so many vessels came to San Domingo for beef that there were not
enough people on the island to do all the hunting and drying that was
necessary, so these trading vessels frequently anchored in some quiet
cove, and the crews went on shore and devoted themselves to securing a
cargo of beef,--not only enough for their own use, but for trading
purposes; thus they became known as "beef-driers," or buccaneers.

When the Spaniards heard of this new industry which had arisen within
the limits of their possessions, they pursued the vessels of the
buccaneers wherever they were seen, and relentlessly destroyed them and
their crews. But there were not enough Spanish vessels to put down the
trade in dried beef; more European vessels--generally English and
French--stopped at San Domingo; more bands of hunting sailors made their
way into the interior. When these daring fellows knew that the Spaniards
were determined to break up their trade, they became more determined
that it should not be broken up, and they armed themselves and their
vessels so that they might be able to make a defence against the Spanish
men-of-war.

Thus gradually and almost imperceptibly a state of maritime warfare grew
up in the waters of the West Indies between Spain and the beef-traders
of other nations; and from being obliged to fight, the buccaneers became
glad to fight, provided that it was Spain they fought. True to her
policy of despotism and cruelty when dealing with her American
possessions, Spain waged a bitter and bloody war against the buccaneers
who dared to interfere with the commercial relations between herself and
her West India colonies, and in return, the buccaneers were just as
bitter and savage in their warfare against Spain. From defending
themselves against Spanish attacks, they began to attack Spaniards
whenever there was any chance of success, at first only upon the sea,
but afterwards on land. The cruelty and ferocity of Spanish rule had
brought them into existence, and it was against Spain and her
possessions that the cruelty and ferocity which she had taught them were
now directed.

When the buccaneers had begun to understand each other and to effect
organizations among themselves, they adopted a general name,--"The
Brethren of the Coast." The outside world, especially the Spanish world,
called them pirates, sea-robbers, buccaneers,--any title which would
express their lawless character, but in their own denomination of
themselves they expressed only their fraternal relations; and for the
greater part of their career, they truly stood by each other like
brothers.




Chapter II

Some Masters in Piracy


From the very earliest days of history there have been pirates, and it
is, therefore, not at all remarkable that, in the early days of the
history of this continent, sea-robbers should have made themselves
prominent; but the buccaneers of America differed in many ways from
those pirates with whom the history of the old world has made us
acquainted.

It was very seldom that an armed vessel set out from an European port
for the express purpose of sea-robbery in American waters. At first
nearly all the noted buccaneers were traders. But the circumstances
which surrounded them in the new world made of them pirates whose evil
deeds have never been surpassed in any part of the globe.

These unusual circumstances and amazing temptations do not furnish an
excuse for the exceptionally wicked careers of the early American
pirates; but we are bound to remember these causes or we could not
understand the records of the settlement of the West Indies. The
buccaneers were fierce and reckless fellows who pursued their daring
occupation because it was profitable, because they had learned to like
it, and because it enabled them to wreak a certain amount of vengeance
upon the common enemy. But we must not assume that they inaugurated the
piratical conquests and warfare which existed so long upon our eastern
seacoasts.

Before the buccaneers began their careers, there had been great masters
of piracy who had opened their schools in the Caribbean Sea; and in
order that the condition of affairs in this country during parts of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may be clearly understood, we will
consider some of the very earliest noted pirates of the West Indies.

When we begin a judicial inquiry into the condition of our
fellow-beings, we should try to be as courteous as we can, but we must
be just; consequently a man's fame and position must not turn us aside,
when we are acting as historical investigators.

Therefore, we shall be bold and speak the truth, and although we shall
take off our hats and bow very respectfully, we must still assert that
Christopher Columbus was the first who practised piracy in American
waters.

When he sailed with his three little ships to discover unknown lands, he
was an accredited explorer for the court of Spain, and was bravely
sailing forth with an honest purpose, and with the same regard for law
and justice as is possessed by any explorer of the present day. But when
he discovered some unknown lands, rich in treasure and outside of all
legal restrictions, the views and ideas of the great discoverer
gradually changed. Being now beyond the boundaries of civilization, he
also placed himself beyond the boundaries of civilized law. Robbery,
murder, and the destruction of property, by the commanders of naval
expeditions, who have no warrant or commission for their conduct, is the
same as piracy, and when Columbus ceased to be a legalized explorer, and
when, against the expressed wishes, and even the prohibitions, of the
royal personages who had sent him out on this expedition, he began to
devastate the countries he had discovered, and to enslave and
exterminate their peaceable natives, then he became a master in piracy,
from whom the buccaneers afterward learned many a valuable lesson.

It is not necessary for us to enter very deeply into the consideration
of the policy of Columbus toward the people of the islands of the West
Indies. His second voyage was nothing more than an expedition for the
sake of plunder. He had discovered gold and other riches in the West
Indies and he had found that the people who inhabited the islands were
simple-hearted, inoffensive creatures, who did not know how to fight and
who did not want to fight. Therefore, it was so easy to sail his ships
into the harbors of defenceless islands, to subjugate the natives, and
to take away the products of their mines and soil, that he commenced a
veritable course of piracy.

The acquisition of gold and all sorts of plunder seemed to be the sole
object of this Spanish expedition; natives were enslaved, and subjected
to the greatest hardships, so that they died in great numbers. At one
time three hundred of them were sent as slaves to Spain. A pack of
bloodhounds, which Columbus had brought with him for the purpose, was
used to hunt down the poor Indians when they endeavored to escape from
the hands of the oppressors, and in every way the island of Hayti, the
principal scene of the actions of Columbus, was treated as if its
inhabitants had committed a dreadful crime by being in possession of the
wealth which the Spaniards desired for themselves.

Queen Isabella was greatly opposed to these cruel and unjust
proceedings. She sent back to their native land the slaves which
Columbus had shipped to Spain, and she gave positive orders that no more
of the inhabitants were to be enslaved, and that they were all to be
treated with moderation and kindness. But the Atlantic is a wide ocean,
and Columbus, far away from his royal patron, paid little attention to
her wishes and commands; without going further into the history of this
period, we will simply mention the fact that it was on account of his
alleged atrocities that Columbus was superseded in his command, and sent
back in chains to Spain.

There was another noted personage of the sixteenth century who played
the part of pirate in the new world, and thereby set a most shining
example to the buccaneers of those regions. This was no other than Sir
Francis Drake, one of England's greatest naval commanders.

It is probable that Drake, when he started out in life, was a man of
very law-abiding and orderly disposition, for he was appointed by Queen
Elizabeth a naval chaplain, and, it is said, though there is some doubt
about this, that he was subsequently vicar of a parish. But by nature he
was a sailor, and nothing else, and after having made several voyages in
which he showed himself a good fighter, as well as a good commander, he
undertook, in 1572, an expedition against the Spanish settlements in the
West Indies, for which he had no legal warrant whatever.

Spain was not at war with England, and when Drake sailed with four small
ships into the port of the little town of Nombre de Dios in the middle
of the night, the inhabitants of the town were as much astonished as the
people of Perth Amboy would be if four armed vessels were to steam into
Raritan Bay, and endeavor to take possession of the town. The peaceful
Spanish townspeople were not at war with any civilized nation, and they
could not understand why bands of armed men should invade their streets,
enter the market-place, fire their calivers, or muskets, into the air,
and then sound a trumpet loud enough to wake up everybody in the place.
Just outside of the town the invaders had left a portion of their men,
and when these heard the trumpet in the market-place, they also fired
their guns; all this noise and hubbub so frightened the good people of
the town, that many of them jumped from their beds, and without stopping
to dress, fled away to the mountains. But all the citizens were not such
cowards, and fourteen or fifteen of them armed themselves and went out
to defend their town from the unknown invaders.

Beginners in any trade or profession, whether it be the playing of the
piano, the painting of pictures, or the pursuit of piracy, are often
timid and distrustful of themselves; so it happened on this occasion
with Francis Drake and his men, who were merely amateur pirates, and
showed very plainly that they did not yet understand their business.

When the fifteen Spanish citizens came into the market-place and found
there the little body of armed Englishmen, they immediately fired upon
them, not knowing or caring who they were. This brave resistance seems
to have frightened Drake and his men almost as much as their trumpets
and guns had frightened the citizens, and the English immediately
retreated from the town. When they reached the place where they had left
the rest of their party, they found that these had already run away, and
taken to the boats. Consequently Drake and his brave men were obliged to
take off some of their clothes and to wade out to the little ships. The
Englishmen secured no booty whatever, and killed only one Spaniard, who
was a man who had been looking out of a window to see what was the
matter.

Whether or not Drake's conscience had anything to do with the bungling
manner in which he made this first attempt at piracy, we cannot say, but
he soon gave his conscience a holiday, and undertook some very
successful robbing enterprises. He received information from some
natives, that a train of mules was coming across the Isthmus of Panama
loaded with gold and silver bullion, and guarded only by their drivers;
for the merchants who owned all this treasure had no idea that there was
any one in that part of the world who would commit a robbery upon them.
But Drake and his men soon proved that they could hold up a train of
mules as easily as some of the masked robbers in our western country
hold up a train of cars. All the gold was taken, but the silver was too
heavy for the amateur pirates to carry.

Two days after that, Drake and his men came to a place called "The House
of Crosses," where they killed five or six peaceable merchants, but were
greatly disappointed to find no gold, although the house was full of
rich merchandise of various kinds. As his men had no means of carrying
away heavy goods, he burned up the house and all its contents and went
to his ships, and sailed away with the treasure he had already obtained.

Whatever this gallant ex-chaplain now thought of himself, he was
considered by the Spaniards as an out-and-out pirate, and in this
opinion they were quite correct. During his great voyage around the
world, which he began in 1577, he came down upon the Spanish-American
settlements like a storm from the sea. He attacked towns, carried off
treasure, captured merchant-vessels,--and in fact showed himself to be a
thoroughbred and accomplished pirate of the first class.

It was in consequence of the rich plunder with which his ships were now
loaded, that he made his voyage around the world. He was afraid to go
back the way he came, for fear of capture, and so, having passed the
Straits of Magellan, and having failed to find a way out of the Pacific
in the neighborhood of California, he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and
sailed along the western coast of Africa to European waters.

This grand piratical expedition excited great indignation in Spain,
which country was still at peace with England, and even in England there
were influential people who counselled the Queen that it would be wise
and prudent to disavow Drake's actions, and compel him to restore to
Spain the booty he had taken from his subjects. But Queen Elizabeth was
not the woman to do that sort of thing. She liked brave men and brave
deeds, and she was proud of Drake. Therefore, instead of punishing him,
she honored him, and went to take dinner with him on board his ship,
which lay at Deptford.

So Columbus does not stand alone as a grand master of piracy. The famous
Sir Francis Drake, who became vice-admiral of the fleet which defeated
the Spanish Armada, was a worthy companion of the great Genoese.

These notable instances have been mentioned because it would be unjust
to take up the history of those resolute traders who sailed from
England, France, and Holland, to the distant waters of the western world
for the purpose of legitimate enterprise and commerce, and who
afterwards became thorough-going pirates, without trying to make it
clear that they had shining examples for their notable careers.




Chapter III

Pupils in Piracy


After the discoveries of Columbus, the Spanish mind seems to have been
filled with the idea that the whole undiscovered world, wherever it
might be, belonged to Spain, and that no other nation had any right
whatever to discover anything on the other side of the Atlantic, or to
make any use whatever of lands which had been discovered. In fact, the
natives of the new countries, and the inhabitants of all old countries
except her own, were considered by Spain as possessing no rights
whatever. If the natives refused to pay tribute, or to spend their days
toiling for gold for their masters, or if vessels from England or France
touched at one of their settlements for purposes of trade, it was all
the same to the Spaniards; a war of attempted extermination was waged
alike against the peaceful inhabitants of Hispaniola, now Hayti, and
upon the bearded and hardy seamen from Northern Europe. Under this
treatment the natives weakened and gradually disappeared; but the
buccaneers became more and more numerous and powerful.

The buccaneers were not unlike that class of men known in our western
country as cowboys. Young fellows of good families from England and
France often determined to embrace a life of adventure, and possibly
profit, and sailed out to the West Indies to get gold and hides, and to
fight Spaniards. Frequently they dropped their family names and assumed
others more suitable to roving freebooters, and, like the bold young
fellows who ride over our western plains, driving cattle and shooting
Indians, they adopted a style of dress as free and easy, but probably
not quite so picturesque, as that of the cowboy. They soon became a very
rough set of fellows, in appearance as well as action, endeavoring in
every way to let the people of the western world understand that they
were absolutely free and independent of the manners and customs, as well
as of the laws of their native countries.

So well was this independence understood, that when the buccaneers
became strong enough to inflict some serious injury upon the settlements
in the West Indies, and the Spanish court remonstrated with Queen
Elizabeth on account of what had been done by some of her subjects, she
replied that she had nothing to do with these buccaneers, who, although
they had been born in England, had ceased for the time to be her
subjects, and the Spaniards must defend themselves against them just as
if they were an independent nation.

But it is impossible for men who have been brought up in civilized
society, and who have been accustomed to obey laws, to rid themselves
entirely of all ideas of propriety and morality, as soon as they begin a
life of lawlessness. So it happened that many of the buccaneers could
not divest themselves of the notions of good behavior to which they had
been accustomed from youth. For instance, we are told of a captain of
buccaneers, who, landing at a settlement on a Sunday, took his crew to
church. As it is not at all probable that any of the buccaneering
vessels carried chaplains, opportunities of attending services must have
been rare. This captain seems to have wished to show that pirates in
church know what they ought to do just as well as other people; it was
for this reason that, when one of his men behaved himself in an improper
and disorderly manner during the service, this proper-minded captain
arose from his seat and shot the offender dead.

There was a Frenchman of that period who must have been a warm-hearted
philanthropist, because, having read accounts of the terrible atrocities
of the Spaniards in the western lands, he determined to leave his home
and his family, and become a buccaneer, in order that he might do what
he could for the suffering natives in the Spanish possessions. He
entered into the great work which he had planned for himself with such
enthusiasm and zeal, that in the course of time he came to be known as
"The Exterminator," and if there had been more people of his
philanthropic turn of mind, there would soon have been no inhabitants
whatever upon the islands from which the Spaniards had driven out the
Indians.

There was another person of that day,--also a Frenchman,--who became
deeply involved in debt in his own country, and feeling that the
principles of honor forbade him to live upon and enjoy what was really
the property of others, he made up his mind to sail across the Atlantic,
and become a buccaneer. He hoped that if he should be successful in his
new profession, and should be enabled to rob Spaniards for a term of
years, he could return to France, pay off all his debts, and afterward
live the life of a man of honor and respectability.

Other ideas which the buccaneers brought with them from their native
countries soon showed themselves when these daring sailors began their
lives as regular pirates; among these, the idea of organization was very
prominent. Of course it was hard to get a number of free and
untrammelled crews to unite and obey the commands of a few officers. But
in time the buccaneers had recognized leaders, and laws were made for
concerted action. In consequence of this the buccaneers became a
formidable body of men, sometimes superior to the Spanish naval and
military forces.

It must be remembered that the buccaneers lived in a very peculiar age.
So far as the history of America is concerned, it might be called the
age of blood and gold. In the newly discovered countries there were no
laws which European nations or individuals cared to observe. In the West
Indies and the adjacent mainlands there were gold and silver, and there
were also valuable products of other kinds, and when the Spaniards
sailed to their part of the new world, these treasures were the things
for which they came. The natives were weak and not able to defend
themselves. All the Spaniards had to do was to take what they could
find, and when they could not find enough they made the poor Indians
find it for them. Here was a part of the world, and an age of the world,
wherein it was the custom for men to do what they pleased, provided they
felt themselves strong enough, and it was not to be supposed that any
one European nation could expect a monopoly of this state of mind.

Therefore it was that while the Spaniards robbed and ruined the natives
of the lands they discovered, the English, French, and Dutch buccaneers
robbed the robbers. Great vessels were sent out from Spain, carrying
nothing in the way of merchandise to America, but returning with all the
precious metals and valuable products of the newly discovered regions,
which could in any way be taken from the unfortunate natives. The gold
mines of the new world had long been worked, and yielded handsome
revenues, but the native method of operating them did not satisfy the
Spaniards, who forced the poor Indians to labor incessantly at the
difficult task of digging out the precious metals, until many of them
died under the cruel oppression. Sometimes the Indians were kept six
months under ground, working in the mines; and at one time, when it was
found that the natives had died off, or had fled from the neighborhood
of some of the rich gold deposits, it was proposed to send to Africa and
get a cargo of negroes to work the mines.

Now it is easy to see that all this made buccaneering a very tempting
occupation. To capture a great treasure ship, after the Spaniards had
been at so much trouble to load it, was a grand thing, according to the
pirate's point of view, and although it often required reckless bravery
and almost superhuman energy to accomplish the feats necessary in this
dangerous vocation, these were qualities which were possessed by nearly
all the sea-robbers of our coast; the stories of some of the most
interesting of these wild and desperate fellows,--men who did not
combine piracy with discoveries and explorations, but who were
out-and-out sea-robbers, and gained in that way all the reputation they
ever possessed,--will be told in subsequent chapters.




Chapter IV

Peter the Great


Very prominent among the early regular buccaneers was a Frenchman who
came to be called Peter the Great. This man seems to have been one of
those adventurers who were not buccaneers in the earlier sense of the
word (by which I mean they were not traders who touched at Spanish
settlements to procure cattle and hides, and who were prepared to fight
any Spaniards who might interfere with them), but they were men who came
from Europe on purpose to prey upon Spanish possessions, whether on land
or sea. Some of them made a rough sort of settlement on the island of
Tortuga, and then it was that Peter the Great seems to have come into
prominence. He gathered about him a body of adherents, but although he
had a great reputation as an individual pirate, it seems to have been a
good while before he achieved any success as a leader.

The fortunes of Peter and his men must have been at a pretty low ebb
when they found themselves cruising in a large, canoe-shaped boat not
far from the island of Hispaniola. There were twenty-nine of them in
all, and they were not able to procure a vessel suitable for their
purpose. They had been a long time floating about in an aimless way,
hoping to see some Spanish merchant-vessel which they might attack and
possibly capture, but no such vessel appeared. Their provisions began to
give out, the men were hungry, discontented, and grumbling. In fact,
they were in almost as bad a condition as were the sailors of Columbus
just before they discovered signs of land, after their long and weary
voyage across the Atlantic.

When Peter and his men were almost on the point of despair, they
perceived, far away upon the still waters, a large ship. With a great
jump, hope sprang up in the breast of every man. They seized the oars
and pulled in the direction of the distant craft. But when they were
near enough, they saw that the vessel was not a merchantman, probably
piled with gold and treasure, but a man-of-war belonging to the Spanish
fleet. In fact, it was the vessel of the vice-admiral. This was an
astonishing and disheartening state of things. It was very much as if a
lion, hearing the approach of probable prey, had sprung from the thicket
where he had been concealed, and had beheld before him, not a fine, fat
deer, but an immense and scrawny elephant.

But the twenty-nine buccaneers in the crew were very hungry. They had
not come out upon those waters to attack men-of-war, but, more than
that, they had not come out to perish by hunger and thirst. There could
be no doubt that there was plenty to eat and to drink on that tall
Spanish vessel, and if they could not get food and water they could not
live more than a day or two longer.

Under the circumstances it was not long before Peter the Great made up
his mind that if his men would stand by him, he would endeavor to
capture that Spanish war-vessel; when he put the question to his crew
they all swore that they would follow him and obey his orders as long as
life was left in their bodies. To attack a vessel armed with cannon, and
manned by a crew very much larger than their little party, seemed almost
like throwing themselves upon certain death. But still, there was a
chance that in some way they might get the better of the Spaniards;
whereas, if they rowed away again into the solitudes of the ocean, they
would give up all chance of saving themselves from death by starvation.
Steadily, therefore, they pulled toward the Spanish vessel, and
slowly--for there was but little wind--she approached them.

The people in the man-of-war did not fail to perceive the little boat
far out on the ocean, and some of them sent to the captain and reported
the fact. The news, however, did not interest him, for he was engaged in
playing cards in his cabin, and it was not until an hour afterward that
he consented to come on deck and look out toward the boat which had been
sighted, and which was now much nearer.

Taking a good look at the boat, and perceiving that it was nothing more
than a canoe, the captain laughed at the advice of some of his officers,
who thought it would be well to fire a few cannon-shot and sink the
little craft. The captain thought it would be a useless proceeding. He
did not know anything about the people in the boat, and he did not very
much care, but he remarked that if they should come near enough, it
might be a good thing to put out some tackle and haul them and their
boat on deck, after which they might be examined and questioned whenever
it should suit his convenience. Then he went down to his cards.

If Peter the Great and his men could have been sure that if they were to
row alongside the Spanish vessel they would have been quietly hauled on
deck and examined, they would have been delighted at the opportunity.
With cutlasses, pistols, and knives, they were more than ready to
demonstrate to the Spaniards what sort of fellows they were, and the
captain would have found hungry pirates uncomfortable persons to
question.

But it seemed to Peter and his crew a very difficult thing indeed to get
themselves on board the man-of-war, so they curbed their ardor and
enthusiasm, and waited until nightfall before approaching nearer. As
soon as it became dark enough they slowly and quietly paddled toward the
great ship, which was now almost becalmed. There were no lights in the
boat, and the people on the deck of the vessel saw and heard nothing on
the dark waters around them.

When they were very near the man-of-war, the captain of the
buccaneers--according to the ancient accounts of this adventure--ordered
his chirurgeon, or surgeon, to bore a large hole in the bottom of their
canoe. It is probable that this officer, with his saws and other
surgical instruments, was expected to do carpenter work when there were
no duties for him to perform in the regular line of his profession. At
any rate, he went to work, and noiselessly bored the hole.

This remarkable proceeding showed the desperate character of these
pirates. A great, almost impossible task was before them, and nothing
but absolute recklessness could enable them to succeed. If his men
should meet with strong opposition from the Spaniards in the proposed
attack, and if any of them should become frightened and try to retreat
to the boat, Peter knew that all would be lost, and consequently he
determined to make it impossible for any man to get away in that boat.
If they could not conquer the Spanish vessel they must die on her decks.

When the half-sunken canoe touched the sides of the vessel, the pirates,
seizing every rope or projection on which they could lay their hands,
climbed up the sides of the man-of-war, as if they had been twenty-nine
cats, and springing over the rail, dashed upon the sailors who were on
deck. These men were utterly stupefied and astounded. They had seen
nothing, they had heard nothing, and all of a sudden they were
confronted with savage fellows with cutlasses and pistols.

Some of the crew looked over the sides to see where these strange
visitors had come from, but they saw nothing, for the canoe had gone to
the bottom. Then they were filled with a superstitious horror, believing
that the wild visitors were devils who had dropped from the sky, for
there seemed no other place from which they could come. Making no
attempt to defend themselves, the sailors, wild with terror, tumbled
below and hid themselves, without even giving an alarm.

The Spanish captain was still playing cards, and whether he was winning
or losing, the old historians do not tell us, but very suddenly a
newcomer took a hand in the game. This was Peter the Great, and he
played the ace of trumps. With a great pistol in his hand, he called
upon the Spanish captain to surrender. That noble commander glanced
around. There was a savage pirate holding a pistol at the head of each
of the officers at the table. He threw up his cards. The trick was won
by Peter and his men.

The rest of the game was easy enough. When the pirates spread themselves
over the vessel, the frightened crew got out of sight as well as they
could. Some, who attempted to seize their arms in order to defend
themselves, were ruthlessly cut down or shot, and when the hatches had
been securely fastened upon the sailors who had fled below, Peter the
Great was captain and owner of that tall Spanish man-of-war.

It is quite certain that the first thing these pirates did to celebrate
their victory was to eat a rousing good supper, and then they took
charge of the vessel, and sailed her triumphantly over the waters on
which, not many hours before, they had feared that a little boat would
soon be floating, filled with their emaciated bodies.

This most remarkable success of Peter the Great worked a great change,
of course, in the circumstances of himself and his men. But it worked a
greater change in the career, and possibly in the character of the
captain. He was now a very rich man, and all his followers had plenty of
money. The Spanish vessel was amply supplied with provisions, and there
was also on board a great quantity of gold bullion, which was to be
shipped to Spain. In fact, Peter and his men had booty enough to satisfy
any sensible pirate. Now we all know that sensible pirates, and people
in any sphere of life who are satisfied when they have enough, are very
rare indeed, and therefore it is not a little surprising that the bold
buccaneer, whose story we are now telling, should have proved that he
merited, in a certain way, the title his companions had given him.

Sailing his prize to the shores of Hispaniola, Peter put on shore all
the Spaniards whose services he did not desire. The rest of his
prisoners he compelled to help his men work the ship, and then, without
delay, he sailed away to France, and there he retired entirely from the
business of piracy, and set himself up as a gentleman of wealth and
leisure.




Chapter V

The Story of a Pearl Pirate


The ordinary story of the pirate, or the wicked man in general, no
matter how successful he may have been in his criminal career, nearly
always ends disastrously, and in that way points a moral which doubtless
has a good effect on a large class of people, who would be very glad to
do wrong, provided no harm was likely to come to them in consequence.
But the story of Peter the Great, which we have just told, contains no
such moral. In fact, its influence upon the adventurers of that period
was most unwholesome.

When the wonderful success of Peter the Great became known, the
buccaneering community at Tortuga was wildly excited. Every
bushy-bearded fellow who could get possession of a small boat, and
induce a score of other bushy-bearded fellows to follow him, wanted to
start out and capture a rich Spanish galleon, as the great ships, used
alike for war and commerce, were then called.

But not only were the French and English sailors and traders who had
become buccaneers excited and stimulated by the remarkable good fortune
of their companion, but many people of adventurous mind, who had never
thought of leaving England for purposes of piracy, now became firmly
convinced that there was no business which promised better than that of
a buccaneer, and some of them crossed the ocean for the express purpose
of getting rich by capturing Spanish vessels homeward bound.

As there were not enough suitable vessels in Tortuga for the demands of
the recently stimulated industry, the buccaneer settlers went to other
parts of the West Indies to obtain suitable craft, and it is related
that in about a month after the great victory of Peter the Great, two
large Spanish vessels, loaded with silver bullion, and two other heavily
laden merchantmen were brought into Tortuga by the buccaneers.

One of the adventurers who set out about this time on a cruise after
gold-laden vessels, was a Frenchman who was known to his countrymen as
Pierre Francois, and to the English as Peter Francis. He was a good
sailor, and ready for any sort of a sea-fight, but for a long time he
cruised about without seeing anything which it was worth while to
attempt to capture. At last, when his provisions began to give out, and
his men became somewhat discontented, Pierre made up his mind that
rather than return to Tortuga empty-handed, he would make a bold and
novel stroke for fortune.

At the mouth of one of the large rivers of the mainland the Spaniards
had established a pearl fishery,--for there was no kind of wealth or
treasure, on the land, under ground, or at the bottom of the sea, that
the Spaniards did not get if it were possible for them to do so.

Every year, at the proper season, a dozen or more vessels came to this
pearl-bank, attended by a man-of-war to protect them from molestation.
Pierre knew all about this, and as he could not find any Spanish
merchantmen to rob, he thought he would go down and see what he could do
with the pearl-fishers. This was something the buccaneers had not yet
attempted, but no one knows what he can do until he tries, and it was
very necessary that this buccaneer captain should try something
immediately.

When he reached the coast near the mouth of the river, he took the masts
out of his little vessel, and rowed quietly toward the pearl-fishing
fleet, as if he had intended to join them on some entirely peaceable
errand; and, in fact, there was no reason whatever why the Spaniards
should suppose that a boat full of buccaneers should be rowing along
that part of the coast.

The pearl-fishing vessels were all at anchor, and the people on board
were quietly attending to their business. Out at sea, some distance
from the mouth of the river, the man-of-war was lying becalmed. The
native divers who went down to the bottom of the sea to bring up the
shellfish which contained the pearls, plunged into the water, and came
up wet and shining in the sun, with no fear whatever of any sharks which
might be swimming about in search of a dinner, and the people on the
vessels opened the oysters and carefully searched for pearls, feeling as
safe from harm as if they were picking olives in their native groves.

But something worse than a shark was quietly making its way over those
tranquil waters, and no banditti who ever descended from Spanish
mountains upon the quiet peasants of a village, equalled in ferocity the
savage fellows who were crouching in the little boat belonging to Pierre
of Tortuga.

This innocent-looking craft, which the pearl-fishers probably thought
was loaded with fruit or vegetables which somebody from the mainland
desired to sell, was permitted, without being challenged or interfered
with, to row up alongside the largest vessel of the fleet, on which
there were some armed men and a few cannon.

As soon as Pierre's boat touched the Spanish vessel, the buccaneers
sprang on board with their pistols and cutlasses, and a savage fight
began. The Spaniards were surprised, but there were a great many more
of them than there were pirates, and they fought hard. However, the man
who makes the attack, and who is at the same time desperate and hungry,
has a great advantage, and it was not long before the buccaneers were
masters of the vessel. Those of the Spaniards who were not killed, were
forced into the service of their captors, and Pierre found himself in
command of a very good vessel.

Now it so happened that the man-of-war was so far away that she knew
nothing of this fight on board one of the fleet which she was there to
watch, and if she had known of it, she would not have been able to give
any assistance, for there was no wind by which she could sail to the
mouth of the river. Therefore, so far as she was concerned, Pierre
considered himself safe.

But although he had captured a Spanish ship, he was not so foolish as to
haul down her flag, and run up his own in her place. He had had very
good success so far, but he was not satisfied. It was quite probable
that there was a rich store of pearls on board the vessel he had taken,
but on the other vessels of the fleet there were many more pearls, and
these he wanted if he could get them. In fact, he conceived the grand
idea of capturing the whole fleet.

But it would be impossible for Pierre to attempt anything on such a
magnificent scale until he had first disposed of the man-of-war, and as
he had now a good strong ship, with a much larger crew than that with
which he had set out,--for the Spanish prisoners would be obliged to man
the guns and help in every way to fight their countrymen,--Pierre
determined to attack the man-of-war.

A land wind began to blow, which enabled him to make very fair headway
out to sea. The Spanish colors were flying from his topmast, and he
hoped to be able, without being suspected of any evil designs, to get so
near to the man-of-war that he might run alongside and boldly board her.

But something now happened which Pierre could not have expected. When
the commander of the war-vessel perceived that one of the fleet under
his charge was leaving her companions and putting out to sea, he could
imagine no reason for such extraordinary conduct, except that she was
taking advantage of the fact that the wind had not yet reached his
vessel, and was trying to run away with the pearls she had on board.
From these ready suspicions we may imagine that, at that time, the
robbers who robbed robbers were not all buccaneers.

Soon after the Spanish captain perceived that one of his fleet was
making his way out of the river, the wind reached his vessel, and he
immediately set all sail and started in pursuit of the rascals, whom he
supposed to be his dishonest countrymen.

The breeze freshened rapidly, and when Pierre and his men saw that the
man-of-war was coming toward them at a good rate of speed, showing
plainly that she had suspicions of them, they gave up all hope of
running alongside of her and boarding her, and concluded that the best
thing they could do would be to give up their plan of capturing the
pearl-fishing fleet, and get away with the ship they had taken, and
whatever it had on board. So they set all sail, and there was a fine
sea-chase.

The now frightened buccaneers were too anxious to get away. They not
only put on all the sail which the vessel could carry, but they put on
more. The wind blew harder, and suddenly down came the mainmast with a
crash. This stopped the chase, and the next act in the performance would
have to be a sea-fight. Pierre and his buccaneers were good at that sort
of thing, and when the man-of-war came up, there was a terrible time on
board those two vessels. But the Spaniards were the stronger, and the
buccaneers were defeated.

There must have been something in the daring courage of this Frenchman
and his little band of followers, which gave him favor in the eyes of
the Spanish captain, for there was no other reason for the good
treatment which the buccaneers received.

They were not put to the sword nor thrown overboard, not sent on shore
and made to work as slaves,--three very common methods of treating
prisoners in those days. But they were all set free, and put on land,
where they might go where they pleased.

This unfortunate result of the bold enterprise undertaken by Pierre
Francois was deeply deplored, not only at Tortuga, but in England and in
France. If this bold buccaneer had captured the pearl fleet, it would
have been a victory that would have made a hero of him on each side of
the Atlantic, but had he even been able to get away with the one vessel
he had seized, he would have been a rich man, and might have retired to
a life of ease and affluence; the vessel he had captured proved to be
one of the richest laden of the whole fleet, and not only in the heart
of Pierre and his men, but among his sympathizers in Europe and America,
there was great disappointment at the loss of that mainmast, which,
until it cracked, was carrying him forward to fame and fortune.




Chapter VI

The Surprising Adventures of Bartholemy Portuguez


As we have seen that the buccaneers were mainly English, French, and
Dutch sailors, who were united to make a common piratical warfare upon
the Spaniards in the West Indies, it may seem a little strange to find a
man from Portugal who seemed to be on the wrong side of this peculiar
fight which was going on in the new world between the sailors of
Northern and Southern Europe. But although Portugal is such a close
neighbor of Spain, the two countries have often been at war with each
other, and their interests are by no means the same. The only advantage
that Portugal could expect from the newly discovered treasures of the
West were those which her seafaring men, acting with the seafaring men
of other nations, should wrest from Spanish vessels homeward bound.

Consequently, there were Portuguese among the pirates of those days.
Among these was a man named Bartholemy Portuguez, a famous
_flibustier_.

It may be here remarked that the name of buccaneer was chiefly affected
by the English adventurers on our coast, while the French members of the
profession often preferred the name of "flibustier." This word, which
has since been corrupted into our familiar "filibuster," is said to have
been originally a corruption, being nothing more than the French method
of pronouncing the word "freebooters," which title had long been used
for independent robbers.

Thus, although Bartholemy called himself a flibustier, he was really a
buccaneer, and his name came to be known all over the Caribbean Sea.
From the accounts we have of him it appears that he did not start out on
his career of piracy as a poor man. He had some capital to invest in the
business, and when he went over to the West Indies he took with him a
small ship, armed with four small cannon, and manned by a crew of picked
men, many of them no doubt professional robbers, and the others anxious
for practice in this most alluring vocation, for the gold fields of
California were never more attractive to the bold and hardy adventurers
of our country, than were the gold fields of the sea to the buccaneers
and flibustiers of the seventeenth century.

When Bartholemy reached the Caribbean Sea he probably first touched at
Tortuga, the pirates' headquarters, and then sailed out very much as if
he had been a fisherman going forth to see what he could catch on the
sea. He cruised about on the track generally taken by treasure ships
going from the mainland to the Havanas, or the island of Hispaniola, and
when at last he sighted a vessel in the distance, it was not long before
he and his men had made up their minds that if they were to have any
sport that day it would be with what might be called most decidedly a
game fish, for the ship slowly sailing toward them was a large Spanish
vessel, and from her portholes there protruded the muzzles of at least
twenty cannon. Of course, they knew that such a vessel would have a much
larger crew than their own, and, altogether, Bartholemy was very much in
the position of a man who should go out to harpoon a sturgeon, and who
should find himself confronted by a vicious swordfish.

The Spanish merchantmen of that day were generally well armed, for
getting home safely across the Atlantic was often the most difficult
part of the treasure-seeking. There were many of these ships, which,
although they did not belong to the Spanish navy, might almost be
designated as men-of-war; and it was one of these with which our
flibustier had now met.

But pirates and fishermen cannot afford to pick and choose. They must
take what comes to them and make the best of it, and this is exactly
the way in which the matter presented itself to Bartholemy and his men.
They held one of their councils around the mast, and after an address
from their leader, they decided that come what may, they must attack
that Spanish vessel.

So the little pirate sailed boldly toward the big Spaniard, and the
latter vessel, utterly astonished at the audacity of this attack,--for
the pirates' flag was flying,--lay to, head to the wind, and waited, the
gunners standing by their cannon. When the pirates had come near enough
to see and understand the size and power of the vessel they had thought
of attacking, they did not, as might have been expected, put about and
sail away at the best of their vessel's speed, but they kept straight on
their course as if they had been about to fall upon a great, unwieldy
merchantman, manned by common sailors.

Perceiving the foolhardiness of the little vessel, the Spanish commander
determined to give it a lesson which would teach its captain to
understand better the relative power of great vessels and little ones,
so, as soon as the pirates' vessel was near enough, he ordered a
broadside fired upon it. The Spanish ship had a great many people on
board. It had a crew of seventy men, and besides these there were some
passengers, and regular marines, and knowing that the captain had
determined to fire upon the approaching vessel, everybody had gathered
on deck to see the little pirate ship go down.

But the ten great cannon-balls which were shot out at Bartholemy's
little craft all missed their aim, and before the guns could be reloaded
or the great ship be got around so as to deliver her other broadside,
the pirate vessel was alongside of her. Bartholemy had fired none of his
cannon. Such guns were useless against so huge a foe. What he was after
was a hand-to-hand combat on the deck of the Spanish ship.

The pirates were all ready for hot work. They had thrown aside their
coats and shirts as if each of them were going into a prize fight, and,
with their cutlasses in their hands, and their pistols and knives in
their belts, they scrambled like monkeys up the sides of the great ship.
But Spaniards are brave men and good fighters, and there were more than
twice as many of them as there were of the pirates, and it was not long
before the latter found out that they could not capture that vessel by
boarding it. So over the side they tumbled as fast as they could go,
leaving some of their number dead and wounded behind them. They jumped
into their own vessel, and then they put off to a short distance to take
breath and get ready for a different kind of a fight. The triumphant
Spaniards now prepared to get rid of this boat load of half-naked wild
beasts, which they could easily do if they should take better aim with
their cannon than they had done before.

But to their amazement they soon found that they could do nothing with
the guns, nor were they able to work their ship so as to get it into
position for effectual shots. Bartholemy and his men laid aside their
cutlasses and their pistols, and took up their muskets, with which they
were well provided. Their vessel lay within a very short range of the
Spanish ship, and whenever a man could be seen through the portholes, or
showed himself in the rigging or anywhere else where it was necessary to
go in order to work the ship, he made himself a target for the good aim
of the pirates. The pirate vessel could move about as it pleased, for it
required but a few men to manage it, and so it kept out of the way of
the Spanish guns, and its best marksmen, crouching close to the deck,
fired and fired whenever a Spanish head was to be seen.

For five long hours this unequal contest was kept up. It might have
reminded one of a man with a slender rod and a long, delicate line, who
had hooked a big salmon. The man could not pull in the salmon, but, on
the other hand, the salmon could not hurt the man, and in the course of
time the big fish would be tired out, and the man would get out his
landing-net and scoop him in.

Now Bartholemy thought he could scoop in the Spanish vessel. So many of
her men had been shot that the two crews would be more nearly equal. So,
boldly, he ran his vessel alongside the big ship and again boarded her.
Now there was another great fight on the decks. The Spaniards had ceased
to be triumphant, but they had become desperate, and in the furious
combat ten of the pirates were killed and four wounded. But the
Spaniards fared worse than that; more than half of the men who had not
been shot by the pirates went down before their cutlasses and pistols,
and it was not long before Bartholemy had captured the great Spanish
ship.

It was a fearful and a bloody victory he had gained. A great part of his
own men were lying dead or helpless on the deck, and of the Spaniards
only forty were left alive, and these, it appears from the accounts,
must have been nearly all wounded or disabled.

It was a common habit among the buccaneers, as well as among the
Spaniards, to kill all prisoners who were not able to work for them, but
Bartholemy does not seem to have arrived at the stage of depravity
necessary for this. So he determined not to kill his prisoners, but he
put them all into a boat and let them go where they pleased; while he
was left with fifteen men to work a great vessel which required a crew
of five times that number.

But the men who could conquer and capture a ship against such enormous
odds, felt themselves fully capable of working her, even with their
little crew. Before doing anything in the way of navigation they cleared
the decks of the dead bodies, taking from them all watches, trinkets,
and money, and then went below to see what sort of a prize they had
gained. They found it a very good one indeed. There were seventy-five
thousand crowns in money, besides a cargo of cocoa worth five thousand
more, and this, combined with the value of the ship and all its
fittings, was a great fortune for those days.

When the victorious pirates had counted their gains and had mended the
sails and rigging of their new ship, they took what they wanted out of
their own vessel, and left her to sink or to float as she pleased, and
then they sailed away in the direction of the island of Jamaica. But the
winds did not suit them, and, as their crew was so very small, they
could not take advantage of light breezes as they could have done if
they had had men enough. Consequently they were obliged to stop to get
water before they reached the friendly vicinity of Jamaica.

They cast anchor at Cape St. Anthony on the west end of Cuba. After a
considerable delay at this place they started out again to resume their
voyage, but it was not long before they perceived, to their horror,
three Spanish vessels coming towards them. It was impossible for a very
large ship, manned by an extremely small crew, to sail away from those
fully equipped vessels, and as to attempting to defend themselves
against the overwhelming power of the antagonists, that was too absurd
to be thought of even by such a reckless fellow as Bartholemy. So, when
the ship was hailed by the Spanish vessels he lay to and waited until a
boat's crew boarded him. With the eye of a nautical man the Spanish
captain of one of the ships perceived that something was the matter with
this vessel, for its sails and rigging were terribly cut up in the long
fight through which it had passed, and of course he wanted to know what
had happened. When he found that the great ship was in the possession of
a very small body of pirates, Bartholemy and his men were immediately
made prisoners, taken on board the Spanish ship, stripped of everything
they possessed, even their clothes, and shut up in the hold. A crew from
the Spanish ships was sent to man the vessel which had been captured,
and then the little fleet set sail for San Francisco in Campeachy.

An hour had worked a very great change in the fortunes of Bartholemy and
his men; in the fine cabin of their grand prize they had feasted and
sung, and had gloried over their wonderful success, and now, in the
vessel of their captor, they were shut up in the dark, to be enslaved or
perhaps executed.

But it is not likely that any one of them either despaired or repented;
these are sentiments very little in use by pirates.




Chapter VII

The Pirate who could not Swim


When the little fleet of Spanish vessels, including the one which had
been captured by Bartholemy Portuguez and his men, were on their way to
Campeachy, they met with very stormy weather so that they were
separated, and the ship which contained Bartholemy and his companions
arrived first at the port for which they were bound.

The captain, who had Bartholemy and the others in charge, did not know
what an important capture he had made; he supposed that these pirates
were ordinary buccaneers, and it appears that it was his intention to
keep them as his own private prisoners, for, as they were all very
able-bodied men, they would be extremely useful on a ship. But when his
vessel was safely moored, and it became known in the town that he had a
company of pirates on board, a great many people came from shore to see
these savage men, who were probably looked upon very much as if they
were a menagerie of wild beasts brought from foreign lands.

Among the sightseers who came to the ship was a merchant of the town who
had seen Bartholemy before, and who had heard of his various exploits.
He therefore went to the captain of the vessel and informed him that he
had on board one of the very worst pirates in the whole world, whose
wicked deeds were well known in various parts of the West Indies, and
who ought immediately to be delivered up to the civil authorities. This
proposal, however, met with no favor from the Spanish captain, who had
found Bartholemy a very quiet man, and could see that he was a very
strong one, and he did not at all desire to give up such a valuable
addition to his crew. But the merchant grew very angry, for he knew that
Bartholemy had inflicted great injury on Spanish commerce, and as the
captain would not listen to him, he went to the Governor of the town and
reported the case. When this dignitary heard the story he immediately
sent a party of officers to the ship, and commanded the captain to
deliver the pirate leader into their charge. The other men were left
where they were, but Bartholemy was taken away and confined in another
ship. The merchant, who seemed to know a great deal about him, informed
the authorities that this terrible pirate had been captured several
times, but that he had always managed to escape, and, therefore, he was
put in irons, and preparations were made to execute him on the next day;
for, from what he had heard, the Governor considered that this pirate
was no better than a wild beast, and that he should be put to death
without even the formality of a trial.

But there was a Spanish soldier on board the ship who seemed to have had
some pity, or perhaps some admiration, for the daring pirate, and he
thought that if he were to be hung the next day it was no more than
right to let him know it, so that when he went in to take some food to
Bartholemy he told him what was to happen.

Now this pirate captain was a man who always wanted to have a share in
what was to happen, and he immediately racked his brain to find out what
he could do in this case. He had never been in a more desperate
situation, but he did not lose heart, and immediately set to work to
free himself from his irons, which were probably very clumsy affairs. At
last, caring little how much he scratched and tore his skin, he
succeeded in getting rid of his fetters, and could move about as freely
as a tiger in a cage. To get out of this cage was Bartholemy's first
object. It would be comparatively easy, because in the course of time
some one would come into the hold, and the athletic buccaneer thought
that he could easily get the better of whoever might open the hatch.
But the next act in this truly melodramatic performance would be a great
deal more difficult; for in order to escape from the ship it would be
absolutely necessary for Bartholemy to swim to shore, and he did not
know how to swim, which seems a strange failing in a hardy sailor with
so many other nautical accomplishments. In the rough hold where he was
shut up, our pirate, peering about, anxious and earnest, discovered two
large, earthen jars in which wine had been brought from Spain, and with
these he determined to make a sort of life-preserver. He found some
pieces of oiled cloth, which he tied tightly over the open mouths of the
jars and fastened them with cords. He was satisfied that this unwieldy
contrivance would support him in the water.

Among other things he had found in his rummagings about the hold was an
old knife, and with this in his hand he now sat waiting for a good
opportunity to attack his sentinel.

This came soon after nightfall. A man descended with a lantern to see
that the prisoner was still secure,--let us hope that it was not the
soldier who had kindly informed him of his fate,--and as soon as he was
fairly in the hold Bartholemy sprang upon him. There was a fierce
struggle, but the pirate was quick and powerful, and the sentinel was
soon dead. Then, carrying his two jars, Bartholemy climbed swiftly and
noiselessly up the short ladder, came out on deck in the darkness, made
a rush toward the side of the ship, and leaped overboard. For a moment
he sank below the surface, but the two air-tight jars quickly rose and
bore him up with them. There was a bustle on board the ship, there was
some random firing of muskets in the direction of the splashing which
the watch had heard, but none of the balls struck the pirate or his
jars, and he soon floated out of sight and hearing. Kicking out with his
legs, and paddling as well as he could with one hand while he held on to
the jars with the other, he at last managed to reach the land, and ran
as fast as he could into the dark woods beyond the town.

Bartholemy was now greatly in fear that, when his escape was discovered,
he would be tracked by bloodhounds,--for these dogs were much used by
the Spaniards in pursuing escaping slaves or prisoners,--and he
therefore did not feel safe in immediately making his way along the
coast, which was what he wished to do. If the hounds should get upon his
trail, he was a lost man. The desperate pirate, therefore, determined to
give the bloodhounds no chance to follow him, and for three days he
remained in a marshy forest, in the dark recesses of which he could
hide, and where the water, which covered the ground, prevented the dogs
from following his scent. He had nothing to eat except a few roots of
water-plants, but he was accustomed to privation, and these kept him
alive. Often he heard the hounds baying on the dry land adjoining the
marsh, and sometimes he saw at night distant torches, which he was sure
were carried by men who were hunting for him.

But at last the pursuit seemed to be given up; and hearing no more dogs
and seeing no more flickering lights, Bartholemy left the marsh and set
out on his long journey down the coast. The place he wished to reach was
called Golpho Triste, which was forty leagues away, but where he had
reason to suppose he would find some friends. When he came out from
among the trees, he mounted a small hill and looked back upon the town.
The public square was lighted, and there in the middle of it he saw the
gallows which had been erected for his execution, and this sight,
doubtless, animated him very much during the first part of his journey.

The terrible trials and hardships which Bartholemy experienced during
his tramp along the coast were such as could have been endured only by
one of the strongest and toughest of men. He had found in the marsh an
old gourd, or calabash, which he had filled with fresh water,--for he
could expect nothing but sea-water during his journey,--and as for
solid food he had nothing but the raw shellfish which he found upon the
rocks; but after a diet of roots, shellfish must have been a very
agreeable change, and they gave him all the strength and vigor he
needed. Very often he found streams and inlets which he was obliged to
ford, and as he could see that they were always filled with alligators,
the passage of them was not very pleasant. His method of getting across
one of these narrow streams, was to hurl rocks into the water until he
had frightened away the alligators immediately in front of him, and
then, when he had made for himself what seemed to be a free passage, he
would dash in and hurry across.

At other times great forests stretched down to the very coast, and
through these he was obliged to make his way, although he could hear the
roars and screams of wild beasts all about him. Any one who is afraid to
go down into a dark cellar to get some apples from a barrel at the foot
of the stairs, can have no idea of the sort of mind possessed by
Bartholemy Portuguez. The animals might howl around him and glare at him
with their shining eyes, and the alligators might lash the water into
foam with their great tails, but he was bound for Golpho Triste and was
not to be stopped on his way by anything alive.

But at last he came to something not alive, which seemed to be an
obstacle which would certainly get the better of him. This was a wide
river, flowing through the inland country into the sea. He made his way
up the shore of this river for a considerable distance, but it grew but
little narrower, and he could see no chance of getting across. He could
not swim and he had no wine-jars now with which to buoy himself up, and
if he had been able to swim he would probably have been eaten up by
alligators soon after he left the shore. But a man in his situation
would not be likely to give up readily; he had done so much that he was
ready to do more if he could only find out what to do.

Now a piece of good fortune happened to him, although to an ordinary
traveller it might have been considered a matter of no importance
whatever. On the edge of the shore, where it had floated down from some
region higher up the river, Bartholemy perceived an old board, in which
there were some long and heavy rusty nails. Greatly encouraged by this
discovery the indefatigable traveller set about a work which resembled
that of the old woman who wanted a needle, and who began to rub a
crow-bar on a stone in order to reduce it to the proper size. Bartholemy
carefully knocked all the nails out of the board, and then finding a
large flat stone, he rubbed down one of them until he had formed it
into the shape of a rude knife blade, which he made as sharp as he
could. Then with these tools he undertook the construction of a raft,
working away like a beaver, and using the sharpened nails instead of his
teeth. He cut down a number of small trees, and when he had enough of
these slender trunks he bound them together with reeds and osiers, which
he found on the river bank. So, after infinite labor and trial he
constructed a raft which would bear him on the surface of the water.
When he had launched this he got upon it, gathering up his legs so as to
keep out of reach of the alligators, and with a long pole pushed himself
off from shore. Sometimes paddling and sometimes pushing his pole
against the bottom, he at last got across the river and took up his
journey upon dry land.

But our pirate had not progressed very far upon the other side of the
river before he met with a new difficulty of a very formidable
character. This was a great forest of mangrove trees, which grow in
muddy and watery places and which have many roots, some coming down from
the branches, and some extending themselves in a hopeless tangle in the
water and mud. It would have been impossible for even a stork to walk
through this forest, but as there was no way of getting around it
Bartholemy determined to go through it, even if he could not walk. No
athlete of the present day, no matter if he should be a most
accomplished circus-man, could reasonably expect to perform the feat
which this bold pirate successfully accomplished. For five or six
leagues he went through that mangrove forest, never once setting his
foot upon the ground,--by which is meant mud, water, and roots,--but
swinging himself by his hands and arms, from branch to branch, as if he
had been a great ape, only resting occasionally, drawing himself upon a
stout limb where he might sit for a while and get his breath. If he had
slipped while he was swinging from one limb to another and had gone down
into the mire and roots beneath him, it is likely that he would never
have been able to get out alive. But he made no slips. He might not have
had the agility and grace of a trapeze performer, but his grasp was
powerful and his arms were strong, and so he swung and clutched, and
clutched and swung, until he had gone entirely through the forest and
had come out on the open coast.




Chapter VIII

How Bartholemy rested Himself


It was full two weeks from the time that Bartholemy began his most
adventurous and difficult journey before he reached the little town of
Golpho Triste, where, as he had hoped, he found some of his buccaneer
friends. Now that his hardships and dangers were over, and when, instead
of roots and shellfish, he could sit down to good, plentiful meals, and
stretch himself upon a comfortable bed, it might have been supposed that
Bartholemy would have given himself a long rest, but this hardy pirate
had no desire for a vacation at this time. Instead of being worn out and
exhausted by his amazing exertions and semi-starvation, he arrived among
his friends vigorous and energetic and exceedingly anxious to recommence
business as soon as possible. He told them of all that had happened to
him, what wonderful good fortune had come to him, and what terrible bad
fortune had quickly followed it, and when he had related his adventures
and his dangers he astonished even his piratical friends by asking them
to furnish him with a small vessel and about twenty men, in order that
he might go back and revenge himself, not only for what had happened to
him, but for what would have happened if he had not taken his affairs
into his own hands.

To do daring and astounding deeds is part of the business of a pirate,
and although it was an uncommonly bold enterprise that Bartholemy
contemplated, he got his vessel and he got his men, and away he sailed.
After a voyage of about eight days he came in sight of the little
seaport town, and sailing slowly along the coast, he waited until
nightfall before entering the harbor. Anchored at a considerable
distance from shore was the great Spanish ship on which he had been a
prisoner, and from which he would have been taken and hung in the public
square; the sight of the vessel filled his soul with a savage fury known
only to pirates and bull dogs.

As the little vessel slowly approached the great ship, the people on
board the latter thought it was a trading-vessel from shore, and allowed
it to come alongside, such small craft seldom coming from the sea. But
the moment Bartholemy reached the ship he scrambled up its side almost
as rapidly as he had jumped down from it with his two wine-jars a few
weeks before, and every one of his crew, leaving their own vessel to
take care of itself, scrambled up after him.

Nobody on board was prepared to defend the ship. It was the same old
story; resting quietly in a peaceful harbor, what danger had they to
expect? As usual the pirates had everything their own way; they were
ready to fight, and the others were not, and they were led by a man who
was determined to take that ship without giving even a thought to the
ordinary alternative of dying in the attempt. The affair was more of a
massacre than a combat, and there were people on board who did not know
what was taking place until the vessel had been captured.

As soon as Bartholemy was master of the great vessel he gave orders to
slip the cable and hoist the sails, for he was anxious to get out of
that harbor as quickly as possible. The fight had apparently attracted
no attention in the town, but there were ships in the port whose company
the bold buccaneer did not at all desire, and as soon as possible he got
his grand prize under way and went sailing out of the port.

Now, indeed, was Bartholemy triumphant; the ship he had captured was a
finer one and a richer one than that other vessel which had been taken
from him. It was loaded with valuable merchandise, and we may here
remark that for some reason or other all Spanish vessels of that day
which were so unfortunate as to be taken by pirates, seemed to be richly
laden.

If our bold pirate had sung wild pirate songs, as he passed the flowing
bowl while carousing with his crew in the cabin of the Spanish vessel he
had first captured, he now sang wilder songs, and passed more flowing
bowls, for this prize was a much greater one than the first. If
Bartholemy could have communicated his great good fortune to the other
buccaneers in the West Indies, there would have been a boom in piracy
which would have threatened great danger to the honesty and integrity of
the seafaring men of that region.

But nobody, not even a pirate, has any way of finding out what is going
to happen next, and if Bartholemy had had an idea of the fluctuations
which were about to occur in the market in which he had made his
investments he would have been in a great hurry to sell all his stock
very much below par. The fluctuations referred to occurred on the ocean,
near the island of Pinos, and came in the shape of great storm waves,
which blew the Spanish vessel with all its rich cargo, and its
triumphant pirate crew, high up upon the cruel rocks, and wrecked it
absolutely and utterly. Bartholemy and his men barely managed to get
into a little boat, and row themselves away. All the wealth and
treasure which had come to them with the capture of the Spanish vessel,
all the power which the possession of that vessel gave them, and all the
wild joy which came to them with riches and power, were lost to them in
as short a space of time as it had taken to gain them.

In the way of well-defined and conspicuous ups and downs, few lives
surpassed that of Bartholemy Portuguez. But after this he seems, in the
language of the old English song, "All in the downs." He had many
adventures after the desperate affair in the bay of Campeachy, but they
must all have turned out badly for him, and, consequently, very well, it
is probable, for divers and sundry Spanish vessels, and, for the rest of
his life, he bore the reputation of an unfortunate pirate. He was one of
those men whose success seemed to have depended entirely upon his own
exertions. If there happened to be the least chance of his doing
anything, he generally did it; Spanish cannon, well-armed Spanish crews,
manacles, imprisonment, the dangers of the ocean to a man who could not
swim, bloodhounds, alligators, wild beasts, awful forests impenetrable
to common men, all these were bravely met and triumphed over by
Bartholemy.

But when he came to ordinary good fortune, such as any pirate might
expect, Bartholemy the Portuguese found that he had no chance at all.
But he was not a common pirate, and was, therefore, obliged to be
content with his uncommon career. He eventually settled in the island of
Jamaica, but nobody knows what became of him. If it so happened that he
found himself obliged to make his living by some simple industry, such
as the selling of fruit upon a street corner, it is likely he never
disposed of a banana or an orange unless he jumped at the throat of a
passer-by and compelled him to purchase. As for sitting still and
waiting for customers to come to him, such a man as Bartholemy would not
be likely to do anything so commonplace.




Chapter IX

A Pirate Author


In the days which we are considering there were all sorts of pirates,
some of whom gained much reputation in one way and some in another, but
there was one of them who had a disposition different from that of any
of his fellows. He was a regular pirate, but it is not likely that he
ever did much fighting, for, as he took great pride in the brave deeds
of the Brethren of the Coast, he would have been sure to tell us of his
own if he had ever performed any. He was a mild-mannered man, and,
although he was a pirate, he eventually laid aside the pistol, the
musket, and the cutlass, and took up the pen,--a very uncommon weapon
for a buccaneer.

This man was John Esquemeling, supposed by some to be a Dutchman, and by
others a native of France. He sailed to the West Indies in the year
1666, in the service of the French West India Company. He went out as a
peaceable merchant clerk, and had no more idea of becoming a pirate
than he had of going into literature, although he finally did both.

At that time the French West India Company had a colonial establishment
on the island of Tortuga, which was principally inhabited, as we have
seen before, by buccaneers in all their various grades and stages, from
beef-driers to pirates. The French authorities undertook to supply these
erratic people with the goods and provisions which they needed, and
built storehouses with everything necessary for carrying on the trade.
There were plenty of purchasers, for the buccaneers were willing to buy
everything which could be brought from Europe. They were fond of good
wine, good groceries, good firearms, and ammunition, fine cutlasses, and
very often good clothes, in which they could disport themselves when on
shore. But they had peculiar customs and manners, and although they were
willing to buy as much as the French traders had to sell, they could not
be prevailed upon to pay their bills. A pirate is not the sort of a man
who generally cares to pay his bills. When he gets goods in any way, he
wants them charged to him, and if that charge includes the features of
robbery and murder, he will probably make no objection. But as for
paying good money for what is received, that is quite another thing.

That this was the state of feeling on the island of Tortuga was
discovered before very long by the French mercantile agents, who then
applied to the mother country for assistance in collecting the debts due
them, and a body of men, who might be called collectors, or deputy
sheriffs, was sent out to the island; but although these officers were
armed with pistols and swords, as well as with authority, they could do
nothing with the buccaneers, and after a time the work of endeavoring to
collect debts from pirates was given up. And as there was no profit in
carrying on business in this way, the mercantile agency was also given
up, and its officers were ordered to sell out everything they had on
hand, and come home. There was, therefore, a sale, for which cash
payments were demanded, and there was a great bargain day on the island
of Tortuga. Everything was disposed of,--the stock of merchandise on
hand, the tables, the desks, the stationery, the bookkeepers, the
clerks, and the errand boys. The living items of the stock on hand were
considered to be property just as if they had been any kind of
merchandise, and were sold as slaves.

Now poor John Esquemeling found himself in a sad condition. He was
bought by one of the French officials who had been left on the island,
and he described his new master as a veritable fiend. He was worked
hard, half fed, treated cruelly in many ways, and to add to his misery,
his master tantalized him by offering to set him free upon the payment
of a sum of money equal to about three hundred dollars. He might as well
have been asked to pay three thousand or three million dollars, for he
had not a penny in the world.

At last he was so fortunate as to fall sick, and his master, as
avaricious as he was cruel, fearing that this creature he owned might
die, and thus be an entire loss to him, sold him to a surgeon, very much
as one would sell a sick horse to a veterinary surgeon, on the principle
that he might make something out of the animal by curing him.

His new master treated Esquemeling very well, and after he had taken
medicine and food enough to set him upon his legs, and had worked for
the surgeon about a year, that kind master offered him his liberty if he
would promise, as soon as he could earn the money, to pay him one
hundred dollars, which would be a profit to his owner, who had paid but
seventy dollars for him. This offer, of course, Esquemeling accepted
with delight, and having made the bargain, he stepped forth upon the
warm sands of the island of Tortuga a free and happy man. But he was as
poor as a church mouse. He had nothing in the world but the clothes on
his back, and he saw no way in which he could make money enough to keep
himself alive until he had paid for himself. He tried various ways of
support, but there was no opening for a young business man in that
section of the country, and at last he came to the conclusion that there
was only one way by which he could accomplish his object, and he
therefore determined to enter into "the wicked order of pirates or
robbers at sea."

It must have been a strange thing for a man accustomed to pens and ink,
to yard-sticks and scales, to feel obliged to enroll himself into a
company of bloody, big-bearded pirates, but a man must eat, and
buccaneering was the only profession open to our ex-clerk. For some
reason or other, certainly not on account of his bravery and daring,
Esquemeling was very well received by the pirates of Tortuga. Perhaps
they liked him because he was a mild-mannered man and so different from
themselves. Nobody was afraid of him, every one felt superior to him,
and we are all very apt to like people to whom we feel superior.

As for Esquemeling himself, he soon came to entertain the highest
opinion of his pirate companions. He looked upon the buccaneers who had
distinguished themselves as great heroes, and it must have been
extremely gratifying to those savage fellows to tell Esquemeling all the
wonderful things they had done. In the whole of the West Indies there
was no one who was in the habit of giving such intelligent attention to
the accounts of piratical depredations and savage sea-fights, as was
Esquemeling and if he had demanded a salary as a listener there is no
doubt that it would have been paid to him.

It was not long before his intense admiration of the buccaneers and
their performances began to produce in him the feeling that the history
of these great exploits should not be lost to the world, and so he set
about writing the lives and adventures of many of the buccaneers with
whom he became acquainted.

He remained with the pirates for several years, and during that time
worked very industriously getting material together for his history.
When he returned to his own country in 1672, having done as much
literary work as was possible among the uncivilized surroundings of
Tortuga, he there completed a book, which he called, "The Buccaneers of
America, or The True Account of the Most Remarkable Assaults Committed
of Late Years Upon the Coasts of the West Indies by the Buccaneers,
etc., by John Esquemeling, One of the Buccaneers, Who Was Present at
Those Tragedies."

From this title it is probable that our literary pirate accompanied his
comrades on their various voyages and assaults, in the capacity of
reporter, and although he states he was present at many of "those
tragedies," he makes no reference to any deeds of valor or cruelty
performed by himself, which shows him to have been a wonderfully
conscientious historian. There are persons, however, who doubt his
impartiality, because, as he liked the French, he always gave the
pirates of that nationality the credit for most of the bravery displayed
on their expeditions, and all of the magnanimity and courtesy, if there
happened to be any, while the surliness, brutality, and extraordinary
wickednesses were all ascribed to the English. But be this as it may,
Esquemeling's history was a great success. It was written in Dutch and
was afterwards translated into English, French, and Spanish. It
contained a great deal of information regarding buccaneering in general,
and most of the stories of pirates which we have already told, and many
of the surprising narrations which are to come, have been taken from the
book of this buccaneer historian.




Chapter X

The Story of Roc, the Brazilian


Having given the history of a very plain and quiet buccaneer, who was a
reporter and writer, and who, if he were now living, would be eligible
as a member of an Authors' Club, we will pass to the consideration of a
regular out-and-out pirate, one from whose mast-head would have floated
the black flag with its skull and cross-bones if that emblematic piece
of bunting had been in use by the pirates of the period.

This famous buccaneer was called Roc, because he had to have a name, and
his own was unknown, and "the Brazilian," because he was born in Brazil,
though of Dutch parents. Unlike most of his fellow-practitioners he did
not gradually become a pirate. From his early youth he never had an
intention of being anything else. As soon as he grew to be a man he
became a bloody buccaneer, and at the first opportunity he joined a
pirate crew, and had made but a few voyages when it was perceived by his
companions that he was destined to become a most remarkable sea-robber.
He was offered the command of a ship with a well-armed crew of marine
savages, and in a very short time after he had set out on his first
independent cruise he fell in with a Spanish ship loaded with silver
bullion; having captured this, he sailed with his prize to Jamaica,
which was one of the great resorts of the English buccaneers. There his
success delighted the community, his talents for the conduct of great
piratical operations soon became apparent, and he was generally
acknowledged as the Head Pirate of the West Indies.

He was now looked upon as a hero even by those colonists who had no
sympathy with pirates, and as for Esquemeling, he simply worshipped the
great Brazilian desperado. If he had been writing the life and times of
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, or Mr. Gladstone, he could not have
been more enthusiastic in his praises. And as in The Arabian Nights the
roc is described as the greatest of birds, so, in the eyes of the
buccaneer biographer, this Roc was the greatest of pirates. But it was
not only in the mind of the historian that Roc now became famous; the
better he became known, the more general was the fear and respect felt
for him, and we are told that the mothers of the islands used to put
their children to sleep by threatening them with the terrible Roc if
they did not close their eyes. This story, however, I regard with a
great deal of doubt; it has been told of Saladin and many other wicked
and famous men, but I do not believe it is an easy thing to frighten a
child into going to sleep. If I found it necessary to make a youngster
take a nap, I should say nothing of the condition of affairs in Cuba or
of the persecutions of the Armenians.

This renowned pirate from Brazil must have been a terrible fellow to
look at. He was strong and brawny, his face was short and very wide,
with high cheek-bones, and his expression probably resembled that of a
pug dog. His eyebrows were enormously large and bushy, and from under
them he glared at his mundane surroundings. He was not a man whose
spirit could be quelled by looking him steadfastly in the eye. It was
his custom in the daytime to walk about, carrying a drawn cutlass,
resting easily upon his arm, edge up, very much as a fine gentleman
carries his high silk hat, and any one who should impertinently stare or
endeavor to quell his high spirits in any other way, would probably have
felt the edge of that cutlass descending rapidly through his physical
organism.

He was a man who insisted upon being obeyed, and if any one of his crew
behaved improperly, or was even found idle, this strict and inexorable
master would cut him down where he stood. But although he was so strict
and exacting during the business sessions of his piratical year, by
which I mean when he was cruising around after prizes, he was very much
more disagreeable when he was taking a vacation. On his return to
Jamaica after one of his expeditions it was his habit to give himself
some relaxation after the hardships and dangers through which he had
passed, and on such occasions it was a great comfort to Roc to get
himself thoroughly drunk. With his cutlass waving high in the air, he
would rush out into the street and take a whack at every one whom he
met. As far as was possible the citizens allowed him to have the street
to himself, and it was not at all likely that his visits to Jamaica were
looked forward to with any eager anticipations.

Roc, it may be said, was not only a bloody pirate, but a blooded one; he
was thoroughbred. From the time he had been able to assert his
individuality he had been a pirate, and there was no reason to suppose
that he would ever reform himself into anything else. There were no
extenuating circumstances in his case; in his nature there was no alloy,
nor moderation, nor forbearance. The appreciative Esquemeling, who might
be called the Boswell of the buccaneers, could never have met his hero
Roc, when that bushy-bearded pirate was running "amuck" in the streets,
but if he had, it is not probable that his book would have been written.
He assures us that when Roc was not drunk he was esteemed, but at the
same time feared; but there are various ways of gaining esteem, and
Roc's method certainly succeeded very well in the case of his literary
associate.

As we have seen, the hatred of the Spaniards by the buccaneers began
very early in the settlement of the West Indies, and in fact, it is very
likely that if there had been no Spaniards there would never have been
any buccaneers; but in all the instances of ferocious enmity toward the
Spaniards there has been nothing to equal the feelings of Roc, the
Brazilian, upon that subject. His dislike to everything Spanish arose,
he declared, from cruelties which had been practised upon his parents by
people of that nation, and his main principle of action throughout all
his piratical career seems to have been that there was nothing too bad
for a Spaniard. The object of his life was to wage bitter war against
Spanish ships and Spanish settlements. He seldom gave any quarter to his
prisoners, and would often subject them to horrible tortures in order to
make them tell where he could find the things he wanted. There is
nothing horrible that has ever been written or told about the buccaneer
life, which could not have been told about Roc, the Brazilian. He was a
typical pirate.

[Illustration: "In a small boat filled with some of his trusty men, he
rowed quietly into the port."--p. 77.]

Roc was very successful, in his enterprises, and took a great deal of
valuable merchandise to Jamaica, but although he and his crew were
always rich men when they went on shore, they did not remain in that
condition very long. The buccaneers of that day were all very
extravagant, and, moreover, they were great gamblers, and it was not
uncommon for them to lose everything they possessed before they had been
on shore a week. Then there was nothing for them to do but to go on
board their vessels and put out to sea in search of some fresh prize. So
far Roc's career had been very much like that of many other Companions
of the Coast, differing from them only in respect to intensity and
force, but he was a clever man with ideas, and was able to adapt himself
to circumstances.

He was cruising about Campeachy without seeing any craft that was worth
capturing, when he thought that it would be very well for him to go out
on a sort of marine scouting expedition and find out whether or not
there were any Spanish vessels in the bay which were well laden and
which were likely soon to come out. So, with a small boat filled with
some of his trusty men, he rowed quietly into the port to see what he
could discover. If he had had Esquemeling with him, and had sent that
mild-mannered observer into the harbor to investigate into the state of
affairs, and come back with a report, it would have been a great deal
better for the pirate captain, but he chose to go himself, and he came
to grief. No sooner did the people on the ships lying in the harbor
behold a boat approaching with a big-browed, broad-jawed mariner sitting
in the stern, and with a good many more broad-backed, hairy mariners
than were necessary, pulling at the oars, than they gave the alarm. The
well-known pirate was recognized, and it was not long before he was
captured. Roc must have had a great deal of confidence in his own
powers, or perhaps he relied somewhat upon the fear which his very
presence evoked. But he made a mistake this time; he had run into the
lion's jaw, and the lion had closed his teeth upon him.

When the pirate captain and his companions were brought before the
Governor, he made no pretence of putting them to trial. Buccaneers were
outlawed by the Spanish, and were considered as wild beasts to be killed
without mercy wherever caught. Consequently Roc and his men were thrown
into a dungeon and condemned to be executed. If, however, the Spanish
Governor had known what was good for himself, he would have had them
killed that night.

During the time that preparations were going on for making examples of
these impertinent pirates, who had dared to enter the port of Campeachy,
Roc was racking his brains to find some method of getting out of the
terrible scrape into which he had fallen. This was a branch of the
business in which a capable pirate was obliged to be proficient; if he
could not get himself out of scrapes, he could not expect to be
successful. In this case there was no chance of cutting down sentinels,
or jumping overboard with a couple of wine-jars for a life-preserver, or
of doing any of those ordinary things which pirates were in the habit of
doing when escaping from their captors. Roc and his men were in a
dungeon on land, inside of a fortress, and if they escaped from this,
they would find themselves unarmed in the midst of a body of Spanish
soldiers. Their stout arms and their stout hearts were of no use to them
now, and they were obliged to depend upon their wits if they had any.
Roc had plenty of wit, and he used it well. There was a slave, probably
not a negro nor a native, but most likely some European who had been
made prisoner, who came in to bring him food and drink, and by the means
of this man the pirate hoped to play a trick upon the Governor. He
promised the slave that if he would help him,--and he told him it would
be very easy to do so,--he would give him money enough to buy his
freedom and to return to his friends, and this, of course, was a great
inducement to the poor fellow, who may have been an Englishman or a
Frenchman in good circumstances at home. The slave agreed to the
proposals, and the first thing he did was to bring some
writing-materials to Roc, who thereupon began the composition of a
letter upon which he based all his hopes of life and freedom.

When he was coming into the bay, Roc had noticed a large French vessel
that was lying at some distance from the town, and he wrote his letter
as if it had come from the captain of this ship. In the character of
this French captain he addressed his letter to the Governor of the town,
and in it he stated that he had understood that certain Companions of
the Coast, for whom he had great sympathy,--for the French and the
buccaneers were always good friends,--had been captured by the Governor,
who, he heard, had threatened to execute them. Then the French captain,
by the hand of Roc, went on to say that if any harm should come to these
brave men, who had been taken and imprisoned when they were doing no
harm to anybody, he would swear, in his most solemn manner, that never,
for the rest of his life, would he give quarter to any Spaniard who
might fall into his hands, and he, moreover, threatened that any kind of
vengeance which should become possible for the buccaneers and French
united, to inflict upon the Spanish ships, or upon the town of
Campeachy, should be taken as soon as possible after he should hear of
any injury that might be inflicted upon the unfortunate men who were
then lying imprisoned in the fortress.

When the slave came back to Roc, the letter was given to him with very
particular directions as to what he was to do with it. He was to
disguise himself as much as possible, so that he should not be
recognized by the people of the place, and then in the night he was to
make his way out of the town, and early in the morning he was to return
as if he had been walking along the shore of the harbor, when he was to
state that he had been put on shore from the French vessel in the
offing, with a letter which he was to present to the Governor.

The slave performed his part of the business very well. The next day,
wet and bedraggled, from making his way through the weeds and mud of the
coast, he presented himself at the fortress with his letter, and when he
was allowed to take it to the Governor, no one suspected that he was a
person employed about the place. Having fulfilled his mission, he
departed, and when seen again he was the same servant whose business it
was to carry food to the prisoners.

The Governor read the letter with a disquieted mind; he knew that the
French ship which was lying outside the harbor was a powerful vessel and
he did not like French ships, anyway. The town had once been taken and
very badly treated by a little fleet of French and English buccaneers,
and he was very anxious that nothing of the kind should happen again.
There was no great Spanish force in the harbor at that time, and he did
not know how many buccaneering vessels might be able to gather together
in the bay if it should become known that the great pirate Roc had been
put to death in Campeachy. It was an unusual thing for a prisoner to
have such powerful friends so near by, and the Governor took Roc's case
into most earnest consideration. A few hours' reflection was sufficient
to convince him that it would be very unsafe to tamper with such a
dangerous prize as the pirate Roc, and he determined to get rid of him
as soon as possible. He felt himself in the position of a man who has
stolen a baby-bear, and who hears the roar of an approaching parent
through the woods; to throw away the cub and walk off as though he had
no idea there were any bears in that forest would be the inclination of
a man so situated, and to get rid of the great pirate without provoking
the vengeance of his friends was the natural inclination of the
Governor.

Now Roc and his men were treated well, and having been brought before
the Governor, were told that in consequence of their having committed no
overt act of disorder they would be set at liberty and shipped to
England, upon the single condition that they would abandon piracy and
agree to become quiet citizens in whatever respectable vocation they
might select.

To these terms Roc and his men agreed without argument. They declared
that they would retire from the buccaneering business, and that nothing
would suit them better than to return to the ways of civilization and
virtue. There was a ship about to depart for Spain, and on this the
Governor gave Roc and his men free passage to the other side of the
ocean. There is no doubt that our buccaneers would have much preferred
to have been put on board the French vessel; but as the Spanish Governor
had started his prisoners on the road to reform, he did not wish to
throw them into the way of temptation by allowing them to associate with
such wicked companions as Frenchmen, and Roc made no suggestion of the
kind, knowing very well how greatly astonished the French captain would
be if the Governor were to communicate with him on the subject.

On the voyage to Spain Roc was on his good behavior, and he was a man
who knew how to behave very well when it was absolutely necessary: no
doubt there must have been many dull days on board ship when he would
have been delighted to gamble, to get drunk, and to run "amuck" up and
down the deck. But he carefully abstained from all these recreations,
and showed himself to be such an able-bodied and willing sailor that the
captain allowed him to serve as one of the crew. Roc knew how to do a
great many things; not only could he murder and rob, but he knew how to
turn an honest penny when there was no other way of filling his purse.
He had learned among the Indians how to shoot fish with bow and arrows,
and on this voyage across the Atlantic he occupied all his spare time in
sitting in the rigging and shooting the fish which disported themselves
about the vessel. These fish he sold to the officers, and we are told
that in this way he earned no less than five hundred crowns, perhaps
that many dollars. If this account is true, fish must have been very
costly in those days, but it showed plainly that if Roc had desired to
get into an honest business, he would have found fish-shooting a
profitable occupation. In every way Roc behaved so well that for his
sake all his men were treated kindly and allowed many privileges.

But when this party of reformed pirates reached Spain and were allowed
to go where they pleased, they thought no more of the oaths they had
taken to abandon piracy than they thought of the oaths which they had
been in the habit of throwing right and left when they had been
strolling about on the island of Jamaica. They had no ship, and not
enough money to buy one, but as soon as they could manage it they sailed
back to the West Indies, and eventually found themselves in Jamaica, as
bold and as bloody buccaneers as ever they had been.

Not only did Roc cast from him every thought of reformation and a
respectable life, but he determined to begin the business of piracy on a
grander scale than ever before. He made a compact with an old French
buccaneer, named Tributor, and with a large company of buccaneers he
actually set out to take a town. Having lost everything he possessed,
and having passed such a long time without any employment more
profitable than that of shooting fish with a bow and arrows, our doughty
pirate now desired to make a grand strike, and if he could take a town
and pillage it of everything valuable it contained, he would make a very
good fortune in a very short time, and might retire, if he chose, from
the active practice of his profession.

The town which Roc and Tributor determined to attack was Merida, in
Yucatan, and although this was a bold and rash undertaking, the two
pirates were bold and rash enough for anything. Roc had been a prisoner
in Merida, and on account of his knowledge of the town he believed that
he and his followers could land upon the coast, and then quietly advance
upon the town without their approach being discovered. If they could do
this, it would be an easy matter to rush upon the unsuspecting garrison,
and, having annihilated these, make themselves masters of the town.

But their plans did not work very well; they were discovered by some
Indians, after they had landed, who hurried to Merida and gave notice of
the approach of the buccaneers. Consequently, when Roc and his
companions reached the town they found the garrison prepared for them,
cannons loaded, and all the approaches guarded. Still the pirates did
not hesitate; they advanced fiercely to the attack just as they were
accustomed to do when they were boarding a Spanish vessel, but they soon
found that fighting on land was very different from fighting at sea. In
a marine combat it is seldom that a party of boarders is attacked in the
rear by the enemy, although on land such methods of warfare may always
be expected; but Roc and Tributor did not expect anything of the kind,
and they were, therefore, greatly dismayed when a party of horsemen from
the town, who had made a wide detour through the woods, suddenly charged
upon their rear. Between the guns of the garrison and the sabres of the
horsemen the buccaneers had a very hard time, and it was not long before
they were completely defeated. Tributor and a great many of the pirates
were killed or taken, and Roc, the Brazilian, had a terrible fall.

This most memorable fall occurred in the estimation of John Esquemeling,
who knew all about the attack on Merida, and who wrote the account of
it. But he had never expected to be called upon to record that his
great hero, Roc, the Brazilian, saved his life, after the utter defeat
of himself and his companions, by ignominiously running away. The loyal
chronicler had as firm a belief in the absolute inability of his hero to
fly from danger as was shown by the Scottish Douglas, when he stood, his
back against a mass of stone, and invited his enemies to "Come one, come
all." The bushy-browed pirate of the drawn cutlass had so often
expressed his contempt for a soldier who would even surrender, to say
nothing of running away, that Esquemeling could scarcely believe that
Roc had retreated from his enemies, deserted his friends, and turned his
back upon the principles which he had always so truculently proclaimed.

But this downfall of a hero simply shows that Esquemeling, although he
was a member of the piratical body, and was proud to consider himself a
buccaneer, did not understand the true nature of a pirate. Under the
brutality, the cruelty, the dishonesty, and the recklessness of the
sea-robbers of those days, there was nearly always meanness and
cowardice. Roc, as we have said in the beginning of this sketch, was a
typical pirate; under certain circumstances he showed himself to have
all those brave and savage qualities which Esquemeling esteemed and
revered, and under other circumstances he showed those other qualities
which Esquemeling despised, but which are necessary to make up the true
character of a pirate.

The historian John seems to have been very much cut up by the manner in
which his favorite hero had rounded off his piratical career, and after
that he entirely dropped Roc from his chronicles.

This out-and-out pirate was afterwards living in Jamaica, and probably
engaged in new enterprises, but Esquemeling would have nothing more to
do with him nor with the history of his deeds.




Chapter XI

A Buccaneer Boom


The condition of affairs in the West Indies was becoming very serious in
the eyes of the Spanish rulers. They had discovered a new country, they
had taken possession of it, and they had found great wealth of various
kinds, of which they were very much in need. This wealth was being
carried to Spain as fast as it could be taken from the unfortunate
natives and gathered together for transportation, and everything would
have gone on very well indeed had it not been for the most culpable and
unwarranted interference of that lawless party of men, who might almost
be said to amount to a nationality, who were continually on the alert to
take from Spain everything she could take from America. The English,
French, and Dutch governments were generally at peace with Spain, but
they sat by quietly and saw their sailor subjects band themselves
together and make war upon Spanish commerce,--a very one-sided commerce,
it is true.

It was of no use for Spain to complain of the buccaneers to her sister
maritime nations. It is not certain that they could have done anything
to interfere with the operations of the sea-robbers who originally
sailed from their coasts, but it is certain they did not try to do
anything. Whatever was to be done, Spain must do herself. The pirates
were as slippery as they were savage, and although the Spaniards made a
regular naval war upon them, they seemed to increase rather than to
diminish. Every time that a Spanish merchantman was taken, and its gold
and silver and valuable goods carried off to Tortuga or Jamaica, and
divided among a lot of savage and rollicking fellows, the greater became
the enthusiasm among the Brethren of the Coast, and the wider spread the
buccaneering boom. More ships laden almost entirely with stalwart men,
well provided with arms, and very badly furnished with principles, came
from England and France, and the Spanish ships of war in the West Indies
found that they were confronted by what was, in many respects, a regular
naval force.

The buccaneers were afraid of nothing; they paid no attention to the
rules of war,--a little ship would attack a big one without the
slightest hesitation, and more than that, would generally take it,--and
in every way Spain was beginning to feel as if she were acting the part
of provider to the pirate seamen of every nation.

Finding that she could do nothing to diminish the number of the
buccaneering vessels, Spain determined that she would not have so many
richly laden ships of her own upon these dangerous seas; consequently, a
change was made in regard to the shipping of merchandise and the
valuable metals from America to her home ports. The cargoes were
concentrated, and what had previously been placed upon three ships was
crowded into the holds and between the decks of one great vessel, which
was so well armed and defended as to make it almost impossible for any
pirate ship to capture it. In some respects this plan worked very well,
although when the buccaneers did happen to pounce upon one of these
richly laden vessels, in such numbers and with such swift ferocity, that
they were able to capture it, they rejoiced over a prize far more
valuable than anything the pirate soul had ever dreamed of before. But
it was not often that one of these great ships was taken, and for a time
the results of Spanish robbery and cruelty were safely carried to Spain.

But it was very hard to get the better of the buccaneers; their lives
and their fortunes depended upon this boom, and if in one way they could
not get the gold out of the Spaniards, which the latter got out of the
natives, they would try another. When the miners in the gold fields find
they can no longer wash out with their pans a paying quantity of the
precious metal, they go to work on the rocks and break them into pieces
and crush them into dust; so, when the buccaneers found it did not pay
to devote themselves to capturing Spanish gold on its transit across the
ocean, many of them changed their methods of operation and boldly
planned to seize the treasures of their enemy before it was put upon the
ships.

Consequently, the buccaneers formed themselves into larger bodies
commanded by noted leaders, and made attacks upon the Spanish
settlements and towns. Many of these were found nearly defenceless, and
even those which boasted fortifications often fell before the reckless
charges of the buccaneers. The pillage, the burning, and the cruelty on
shore exceeded that which had hitherto been known on the sea. There is
generally a great deal more in a town than there is in a ship, and the
buccaneers proved themselves to be among the most outrageous, exacting,
and cruel conquerors ever known in the world. They were governed by no
laws of warfare; whatever they chose to do they did. They respected
nobody, not even themselves, and acted like wild beasts, without the
disposition which is generally shown by a wild beast, to lie down and go
to sleep when he has had enough.

There were times when it seemed as though it would be safer for a man
who had a regard for his life and comfort, to sail upon a pirate ship
instead of a Spanish galleon, or to take up his residence in one of the
uncivilized communities of Tortuga or Jamaica, instead of settling in a
well-ordered Spanish-American town with its mayor, its officials, and
its garrison.

It was a very strange nation of marine bandits which had thus sprung
into existence on these faraway waters; it was a nation of grown-up men,
who existed only for the purpose of carrying off that which other people
were taking away; it was a nation of second-hand robbers, who carried
their operations to such an extent that they threatened to do away
entirely with that series of primary robberies to which Spain had
devoted herself. I do not know that there were any companies formed in
those days for the prosecution of buccaneering, but I am quite sure that
if there had been, their shares would have gone up to a very high
figure.




Chapter XII

The Story of L'Olonnois the Cruel


In the preceding chapter we have seen that the buccaneers had at last
become so numerous and so formidable that it was dangerous for a Spanish
ship laden with treasure from the new world to attempt to get out of the
Caribbean Sea into the Atlantic, and that thus failing to find enough
richly laden vessels to satisfy their ardent cravings for plunder, the
buccaneers were forced to make some change in their methods of criminal
warfare; and from capturing Spanish galleons, they formed themselves
into well-organized bodies and attacked towns.

Among the buccaneer leaders who distinguished themselves as land pirates
was a thoroughbred scoundrel by the name of Francis L'Olonnois, who was
born in France. In those days it was the custom to enforce servitude
upon people who were not able to take care of themselves. Unfortunate
debtors and paupers of all classes were sold to people who had need of
their services. The only difference sometimes between master and
servant depended entirely upon the fact that one had money, and the
other had none. Boys and girls were sold for a term of years, somewhat
as if they had been apprentices, and it so happened that the boy
L'Olonnois was sold to a master who took him to the West Indies. There
he led the life of a slave until he was of age, and then, being no
longer subject to ownership, he became one of the freest and most
independent persons who ever walked this earth.

He began his career on the island of Hispaniola, where he took up the
business of hunting and butchering cattle; but he very soon gave up this
life for that of a pirate, and enlisted as a common sailor on one of
their ships. Here he gave signs of such great ability as a brave and
unscrupulous scoundrel that one of the leading pirates on the island of
Tortuga gave him a ship and a crew, and set him up in business on his
own account. The piratical career of L'Olonnois was very much like that
of other buccaneers of the day, except that he was so abominably cruel
to the Spanish prisoners whom he captured that he gained a reputation
for vile humanity, surpassing that of any other rascal on the western
continent. When he captured a prisoner, it seemed to delight his soul as
much to torture and mutilate him before killing him as to take away
whatever valuables he possessed. His reputation for ingenious
wickedness spread all over the West Indies, so that the crews of Spanish
ships, attacked by this demon, would rather die on their decks or sink
to the bottom in their ships than be captured by L'Olonnois.

All the barbarities, the brutalities, and the fiendish ferocity which
have ever been attributed to the pirates of the world were united in the
character of this inhuman wretch, who does not appear to be so good an
example of the true pirate as Roc, the Brazilian. He was not so brave,
he was not so able, and he was so utterly base that it would be
impossible for any one to look upon him as a hero. After having attained
in a very short time the reputation of being the most bloody and wicked
pirate of his day, L'Olonnois was unfortunate enough to be wrecked upon
the coast, not far from the town of Campeachy. He and his crew got
safely to shore, but it was not long before their presence was
discovered by the people of the town, and the Spanish soldiers thereupon
sallied out and attacked them. There was a fierce fight, but the
Spaniards were the stronger, and the buccaneers were utterly defeated.
Many of them were killed, and most of the rest wounded or taken
prisoners.

Among the wounded was L'Olonnois, and as he knew that if he should be
discovered he would meet with no mercy, he got behind some bushes,
scooped up several handfuls of sand, mixed it with his blood, and with
it rubbed his face so that it presented the pallor of a corpse. Then he
lay down among the bodies of his dead companions, and when the Spaniards
afterwards walked over the battlefield, he was looked upon as one of the
common pirates whom they had killed.

When the soldiers had retired into the town with their prisoners, the
make-believe corpse stealthily arose and made his way into the woods,
where he stayed until his wounds were well enough for him to walk about.
He divested himself of his great boots, his pistol belt, and the rest of
his piratical costume, and, adding to his scanty raiment a cloak and hat
which he had stolen from a poor cottage, he boldly approached the town
and entered it. He looked like a very ordinary person, and no notice was
taken of him by the authorities. Here he found shelter and something to
eat, and he soon began to make himself very much at home in the streets
of Campeachy.

It was a very gay time in the town, and, as everybody seemed to be
happy, L'Olonnois was very glad to join in the general rejoicing, and
these hilarities gave him particular pleasure as he found out that he
was the cause of them. The buccaneers who had been captured, and who
were imprisoned in the fortress, had been interrogated over and over
again by the Spanish officials in regard to L'Olonnois, their commander,
and, as they had invariably answered that he had been killed, the
Spanish were forced to believe the glad tidings, and they celebrated the
death of the monster as the greatest piece of public good fortune which
could come to their community. They built bonfires, they sang songs
about the death of the black-hearted buccaneer, and services of
thanksgiving were held in their churches.

All this was a great deligh