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diff --git a/38631-8.txt b/38631-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d65ed9c --- /dev/null +++ b/38631-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6696 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3), by +Walter Thornbury + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) + Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers + + +Author: Walter Thornbury + + + +Release Date: January 21, 2012 [eBook #38631] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME I +(OF 3)*** + + +E-text prepared by Adam Buchbinder, Rory OConor, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of +public domain material generously made available by the Google Books +Library Project (http://books.google.com/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work. + Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38632 + Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38633 + + + Images of the original pages are available through + the the Google Books Library Project. See + http://books.google.com/books?vid=PCYCAAAAYAAJ&id + + + + + +THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN; + +Or, + +Adventures of the Buccaneers. + +by + +GEORGE W. THORNBURY, ESQ. + +"One foot on sea and one on shore, +To one thing constant never." + MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. + +In Three Volumes. + +VOL. I. + + + + + + + +London: +Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, +Successors to Henry Colburn, +13, Great Marlborough Street. +1855. + +London: Sercombe and Jack, 16 Great Windmill Street. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + +CHAPTER I.--THE PRECURSORS OF THE BUCCANEERS. + +History of Tortuga--Description of the island--Origin of the +Buccaneers--Conquest of Tortuga by the French and English--Hunters, +planters, and corsairs--Le Basque takes Maracaibo--War with the +Spaniards of Hispaniola--The French West Indian Company buy +Tortuga--Their various governors 1 + +CHAPTER II.--MANNERS OF THE HUNTERS. + +Indian derivation of the word Buccaneer--Flibustier--The three +classes--Dress of the hunters--West Indian scenery--Method of +hunting--Wild dogs--Anecdotes--Wild oxen--Wild boars and wild +horses--Buccaneer dainties--Cow-killing, English, French, and Spanish +methods--Amusements--Duels--Adventures--Conflicts with the Fifties, or +Spanish militia--The hunters driven to sea--Turn corsairs--The hunters' +_engagés_, or apprentices--Hide curing--Hardships of the bush life--The +planters' _engagés_--Cruelties of planters--The _matelotage_--Huts, +manners, and food 35 + +CHAPTER III.--THE FLIBUSTIERS, OR SEA ROVERS. + +Originated in the Spanish persecution of French hunters--Customs--"No +peace beyond the line"--"No prey, no pay"--Pay and pensions--Their +helots the Mosquito Indians--Lewis Scott, an Englishman, the first +Corsair--John Davis takes St. Francis in Campeachy--Their +debauchery--Gambling--Religion--Classes from which they sprang--Equality +at sea--Mode of fighting--Food--Dress 111 + +CHAPTER IV.--PIERRE-LE-GRAND, THE FIRST BUCCANEER. + +Plunder of Segovia--Pierre-le-Grand--Peter Francis--Captures of Spanish +vessels--Mode of capture--Barthelemy Portugese--His escapes and +victories--Roche the Brazilian--Fanatical hatred of the Spaniards--His +wrecks and adventures 152 + +CHAPTER V.--LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. + +Lolonnois' stratagems--His cruelty--His partner, Michael le +Basque--Takes Maracaibo--Tortures the citizens--Sacks the town--Takes +Gibraltar--Attempt on Merida--Famine and pestilence--Retreat--Division +of spoil--Ransom--Takes St. Pedro--Burns Veragua--Wrecked in the Gulf of +Honduras--Attacked by Indians--Killed and eaten by the savages 188 + +CHAPTER VI.--ALEXANDRE BRAS DE FER, AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. + +Bras de Fer compared by French writers to Alexander the Great--His +exploits and stratagems--Montbars--Anecdote of his childhood--Goes to +sea--His first naval engagement--Joins the Buccaneers--Defeats the +Spanish Fifties--His uncle killed--His revenge--Anecdote of the negro +vessel--Adam and Anne le Roux plunder Santiago 267 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I claim for this book, at least originality. But this originality, +unfortunately, if it attaches interest to an author's labours, adds also +to his responsibilities. + +The history of the Buccaneers has hitherto remained unwritten. Three or +four forgotten volumes contain literally all that is recorded of the +wars and conquests of these extraordinary men. Of these volumes two are +French, one Dutch, and one in English. The majority of our readers, +therefore, it is probable, know nothing more of the freebooters but +their name, confound them with the mere pirates of two centuries later, +and derive their knowledge of their manners from those dozen lines of +the Abbé Reynal, that have been transferred from historian to +historian, and from writer to writer, for the last two centuries. + +The chief records of Buccaneer adventurers are drawn literally from only +three books. The first of these is _Oexmelin's Histoire des Aventuriers_. +12mo. Paris, 1688. Oexmelin was a Frenchman, who went out to St. Domingo +as a planter's apprentice or _engagé_, and eventually became surgeon in +the Buccaneer fleet--knew Lolonnois, and accompanied Sir Henry Morgan to +Panama. + +The second is _Esquemeling's Zee Roovers_. Amsterdam. 4to. 1684.--A book +constantly mistaken by booksellers and in catalogues for Oexmelin. +Esquemeling was a Dutch _engagé_ at St. Domingo, and his book is an +English translation from the Dutch. The writer appears of humbler birth +than Oexmelin, but served also at Panama. + +The third is _Ringrose's History of the Cruises of Sharpe, &c._ This +man, who served with Dampier, seems to have been an ignorant sailor, and +a mere log-keeper. + +The fourth is _Ravenau de Lussan's Narrative_. De Lussan was a young +French officer of fortune, who served in some of Ringrose's cruises. +This is a book written by a vivacious and keen observer, but is less +complete than Oexmelin's, but equally full of anecdote, and very amusing. + +For secondary authorities we come to the French Jesuit historians of the +West Indian Islands, diffuse Rochefort, the gossiping _bon vivant_ +Labat; Tertre, dry and prejudiced; Charlevoix, careful, condensed, and +entertaining; and Raynal, polished, classical, second-hand, and +declamatory. + +The English secondaries are, Dampier, with his companions, Wafer and +Cowley. Several old pamphlets contain quaint versions of Morgan's +conquest of Panama; and in 1817, Burney, in his "History of Discoveries +in the South Sea," devotes many chapters to a dry but very imperfect +abridgment of Buccaneer adventure, omitting carefully everything that +gives either life or colour. Captain Southey, in his "History of the +West Indies," supplies many odd scraps of old voyages, and presents many +scattered figures, but attempts no picture. + +Nor has modern fiction, however short of material, discovered these new +and virgin mines. Mrs. Hall has a novel, it is true, called _The +Buccaneer_, the scene of which is, however, laid in England; and Angus +B. Reach has skimmed the same subject, but has evidently not even read +half the three existing authorities. Dana, the American poet, has a poem +called the Buccaneer, but this is merely a collection of lines on the +sea. Sir Walter Scott's Bertram, although he had been a Buccaneer, is a +mere ruffian, who would do for any age, and Scott himself places +Morgan's conquest of Panama in the reign of Charles I., when it actually +took place in that of Charles II., fifty years later. + +Defoe himself, little conscious of the rich region he was treading, +sketched a Buccaneer sailor when he re-christened Alexander Selkirk +Robinson Crusoe, and condensed all the spirit of Dampier into a book +still read as eagerly by the man as by the boy. + +When I find a writer of Scott's profundity of reading and depth of +research placing the great event of Buccaneer history fifty years +before its time, booksellers mistaking a Dutch for a French writer, and +living historians confounding the Flibustiers of Tortuga, who attacked +only the Spaniards, with their degraded successors the pirates of New +Providence, who robbed all nations and even their own without mercy, I +think I have proved that my book is not a superfluity. + +It is seldom that an author can invite the whole reading world to peruse +the self-rewarding labour of his student life. Mine is no book for a +sect, a clique, a profession, or a trade. It brings new scenes and new +creations to the novel reader, jaded with worn-out types of conventional +existence. It supplies the historian with a page of English, French, and +Spanish history that the capricious muse of history has hitherto kept in +MS. It traces the foundation of our colonial empire. To the psychologist +it furnishes deep matter for thought, while the philosopher may see in +these pages humanity in a new aspect, and man's soul exposed to new +temptations. + +What Dampier has described and Defoe drawn materials from, no man can +dare to assert is wanting in interest. The readers to whom these books +are new will be astonished to find the adventures of Xenophon paralleled +in De Lussan's retreat over the Isthmus, and Swift forestalled in his +conception of some of the oddest customs of Lilliput. Oexmelin, I may +boldly assert, is a much more amusing writer than half our historians, a +keen and enlightened observer, who looked upon Buccaneering as a +chivalrous life, in which the sea knight got equally hard knocks as the +land hero, but more money. + +If my characters are not so grand as those of history, I can present to +my reader men as greedy of gold, ambitious and sagacious as Pizarro or +Cortes, and as reckless as Alexander, and as cruel as Cæsar. If the +Buccaneers were but insects, bred from the putrefactions of a decaying +empire, their plans were at least gigantic, and their courage +unprecedented. + +Anomalous beings, hunters by land and sea, scaring whole fleets with a +few canoes, sacking cities with a few grenadiers, devastating every +coast from California to Cape Horn, they only needed a common principle +of union to have founded an aggressive republic, as wealthy as Venice +and as warlike as Carthage. One great mind and the New World had been +their own. + +But from the first Providence sowed amongst them the seeds of +discord--difference of religion and difference of race. Never settling, +their race had its ranks renewed, not by descendants, but by fresh +recruits, men with new interests and lower aims. In less than a century +the Brotherhood had passed away, their virtues were forgotten and their +vices alone remembered. + +The Buccaneers were robbers, yet they sought something beyond gold. +Mansvelt took the island of St. Catherine, and planned a republic, and +Morgan contemplated the destruction of the Bravo Indians. They were +outlaws, and yet religious robbers, yet generous and regardful of the +minutest delicacies of honour; lovers of freedom, yet obeying the +sternest discipline; cruel, yet tender to their friends. + +All the light and shade of the darkest fiction look poor beside the +adventures of these men. Catholics, Protestants, Puritans, gallants, +officers, common seamen, farmers' sons, men of rank, hunters, sailors, +planters, murderers, fanatics, Creoles, Spaniards, negroes, astrologers, +monks, pilots, guides, merchants--all pass before us in a motley and +ever-changing masquerade. The backgrounds to these scenes are the wooded +shores of the West Indian Islands, woods sparkling at night with +fire-flies, broad savannahs dark with wild cattle, the volcanic islands +peopled by marooned sailors, stormy promontories, the lonely sand "keys" +of Jamaica, and the rocky fastnesses of Tortuga. + + + + +MONARCHS OF THE MAIN. + +CHAPTER I. + +HISTORY OF TORTUGA. + + The precursors of the Buccaneers--Description of Tortuga--Origin of + the Buccaneers--Conquest of Tortuga by the French--The hunters, + planters, and corsairs--Le Basque takes Maracaibo--War in + Hispaniola--French West Indian Company buy Tortuga--The Governor, M. + D'Ogeron. + + +Drake, Cavendish, and Oxenham, indeed all the naval heroes of +Elizabeth's reign, were the precursors of the Buccaneers. The captains +of those "tall ships" that sailed from Plymouth Sound, and the green +nooks of the sunny coast of Devon, to capture stately carracks laden +deep with silks, spices, pearls, and precious stones, the treasure of +Potosi and Peru, were but Buccaneers under another name, agreeing with +them in the great principle of making war on none but Spaniards, but on +Spaniards unceasingly. "No peace beyond the line" was the motto on the +flag of both Drake and Morgan. + +Sir John Hawkins, who began the slave trade, and who was Drake's +earliest patron, took the town of Rio de la Hacha, and struggled +desperately with the galleons in the port of St. Juan d'Ulloa. Drake +sacked Nombre de Dios, and, passing across the isthmus, stormed Vera +Cruz. He destroyed St. Domingo and Carthagena, burnt La Rancheria, and +attacked Porto Rico. But still more truly a Buccaneer was John Oxenham, +one of Drake's followers, who, cruising about Panama, captured several +bullion vessels; but was at last slain, with all his men, having fallen +in love with a Spanish captive, and liberated her son, who surprised him +with reinforcements from Nombre de Dios. Then came Raleigh, more +chivalrous than them all--looser in principle, but wiser in head. He +planned an attack on Panama, and ravaged St. Thomas's. + +The first Buccaneers were poor French hunters, who, driven by the +Spaniards out of Hispaniola, fled to the neighbouring island of Tortuga, +and there settled as planters. + +This Buccaneer colony of Tortuga arose rather by accident than by the +design of any one ambitious mind. The French had established a colony in +the almost deserted island of St. Christopher's, which had begun to +flourish when the Spaniards, alarmed at a hostile power's vicinity to +their mines, to which their thoughts then alone tended, put a stop to +the prosperity of the French settlements by frequent attacks made by +their fleets on their way to New Spain. From the just hatred excited by +these unprovoked forays sprang the first impulse of retaliation. These +injuries provoked the French, as they had done the Dutch, to fit out +privateers. But a still more powerful motive soon became paramount. A +spirit of cupidity arose, which was stimulated by the heated +imaginations of men poor and angry. Before them lay regions of gold, +timidly guarded by a vindictive but feeble enemy; and Spain became to +these pioneer settlers what a bedridden miser is to the dreams of a +needy bravo. + +The report of the Dutch successes spread through all the ports of +France. Sailors were the ready bearers of wild tales they had themselves +half invented. Some hardy adventurers of Dieppe fitted out vessels to +carry on a warfare that retaliation had now rendered just, war made +legal, and chance rendered profitable. The sailor who was to-day +munching his onion on the quays of Marseilles might, a few weeks hence, +be lord of Carthagena, or rolling in the treasures of a Manilla galleon, +clothed in Eastern silks, and delighted with the perfumes of India. +Finding their enterprise successful, but St. Kitt's too distant to form +a convenient depôt for their booty, they began to look about for some +nearer locality. At first they found their return voyages to the West +Indian islands frequently occupying three months, which seemed years to +men hurrying to store up old plunder, and to sally forth for new. In +search of an asylum, these privateersmen touched at Hispaniola, hoping +to find some lonely island near its shores; but as soon as they had +landed, and saw the great forests full of game, and broad savannahs +alive with wild cattle, and finding it abandoned by the Spaniards, and +the Indians nearly all dead or emigrated, they determined to settle at a +place so full of advantages, where they could revictual their ships, and +remain secure and unobserved. The sight of Tortuga, a small neighbouring +island, rocky, and yet not without a harbour, convinced them that nature +had constructed for their growing empire at once a magazine, a citadel, +and a fortress. They had now a sanctuary and a haven, shelter for their +booty, and food for their men. + +The Spaniards, although not occupying the island, were anxious that it +should not be occupied by others. They had long had a foreboding that +this island would become a resort for pirates, and had just garrisoned +it with an alfarez and twenty-five men. The French had, however, little +difficulty in getting rid of this small force, the soldiers being +enraged at finding themselves left by their countrymen, without +provisions or reinforcements, upon a barren rock. + +Once masters of the heap of stones, the French began to deliberate by +what means they could retain it. The sight of buildings already begun, +and the prospect of more food than they could get at St. Christopher's, +determined these restless men to settle on the spot they had won. Part +of them returned to Hispaniola to kill oxen and boars, and to salt the +flesh for those who would remain to plant; and those men who determined +to build assured the sailors that stores of dry meat should always be +ready to revictual their ships. + +The adventurers, having a nucleus for their operations, began to widen +their operations. They became now divided into three distinct classes, +always intermingling, and never very definitely divided, but still for +the main part separate: the _sea rovers_, or flibustiers; the +_planters_, or habitans; and the _hunters_, or buccaneers. For the first +class, there were many names: the English, following an Indian word, +called them Buccaneers, from the Indian term _boucan_ (dried meat); the +Dutch denominated them Zee Roovers, and the French Flibustiers, or +Aventuriers. A fourth class, growing by degrees either into the +Buccaneers or the planters, were the apprentices, or _engagés_. + +A few French planters could not have retained the island had not their +numbers been swelled by the addition of many English. In a short time, +French vessels touched at the island, to trade for the booty that now +arrived more frequently, unintermittingly, and in greater quantities. +The trade grew less speculative and uncertain. French captains found it +profitable to barter not only for hides and meat with the Buccaneers, +but with the Flibustiers for silver-plate and pieces of eight. The high +prices paid for wine and brandy soon rendered the commerce with Bordeaux +a matter worthy the attention of the French Government. In a few days of +Buccaneer excess more was spent in barter than could have been realised +in months of average traffic with the more cautious. + +The Spaniards, fully alive to the danger of this planter settlement, +determined to destroy it at a single blow. The design was easy of +accomplishment, for the Buccaneers had grown careless from long +impunity, and had long since crowned themselves undisputed kings of +Hispaniola and its dependencies. Taking advantage of a time when the +English corsairs were at sea and the French Buccaneers hunting on the +mainland, the Spanish General of the Indian Fleet landed with a handful +of soldiers and retook the island in an hour. The few planters were +overpowered before they could run together, the hunters before they +could seize their arms. Some were at once put to the sword, and others +hung on the nearest trees. The larger portion, however, taking advantage +of well-known lurking places, waited for the night, and then escaped to +the mainland in their canoes. The Spaniards, satisfied with the terror +they had struck, left the island un-garrisoned, and returned exultingly +to St. Domingo. Hearing, however, that there were a great many +Buccaneers still settled as hunters in Hispaniola, and that the wild +cattle were diminishing by their ravages, the general levied some troops +to put them down. To these men, who were known as the Spanish _Fifties_, +we shall hereafter advert. + +The Spanish fleet was scarcely well out of sight before the Buccaneers, +angry but unintimidated, flocked back to their now desolated island, +full of rage at the sight of the bodies of their companions and the +ashes of their ruined houses. The English returned headed by a Buccaneer +named Willis, who gave an English character to the new colony. The +French adventurers, jealous of English interference, and fearful that +the island would fall into the possession of England, left Tortuga, and, +going to St. Christopher's, informed the Governor, the Chevalier de +Poncy, of the ease with which it could be conquered. De Poncy, alive to +the scheme and jealous for French honour, fitted out an expedition, and +intrusted the command to M. Le Vasseur, a brave soldier and good +engineer, just arrived from France, who levied a force of forty French +Protestants, and agreed to conquer the island for De Poncy and to govern +in his name, as well as to pay half the expenses of the conquest. In a +few days he dropped anchor in Port Margot, on the north side of +Hispaniola, about seven leagues from Tortuga. He instantly collected a +force of forty French Buccaneers from the woods and the savannahs, and, +having arranged his plans, made a descent upon the island in the month +of April, 1640. As soon as he had landed, he sent a message to the +English Governor to say that he had come to avenge the insults received +by the French flag, and to warn him that if he did not leave the island +with all those of his nation in twenty-four hours, he should lay waste +every plantation with fire and sword. The English, feeling their +position untenable, instantly embarked in a vessel lying in the road, +without (as Oexmelin, a French writer, says) striking a blow in +self-defence. The French population of the island then, rising in arms, +welcomed the invaders as friends. + +Le Vasseur, the bloodless conqueror of this new Barataria, was received +with shouts and acclamations. He at once visited every nook of the +island that needed defence, and prepared to insure it against reconquest +either by the Spaniards or the English. He found it inaccessible on +three sides; and on the unprotected quarter built a fort, on a peak of +impregnable rock, rising 600 feet above the narrow path which it +commanded. The summit of this rock was about thirty feet square, and +could only be ascended by steps cut in the stone or by a moveable iron +ladder. The fort held four guns. A spring of water completed the +advantages of the spot, which was surrounded with walls and fenced in +with hedges, woods, precipices, and every aid that art or nature could +furnish. The only approach to this steep was a narrow avenue in which no +more than three men could march abreast. + +The Buccaneers now flocked to Tortuga in greater numbers than before, +some to congratulate the new governor on his victory, and others to +enrol themselves as his subjects: all who came he received with +promises of support and protection. The Spaniards, in the meanwhile, +determined to crush this wasp's nest, fitted out at St. Domingo a new +armament of six vessels, having on board 500 or 600 men. They at first +anchored before the fort, but, receiving a volley, moored two leagues +lower down, and landed their troops. In attempting to storm the fort by +a _coup de main_, they were beaten off with the loss of 200 men, the +garrison sallying out and driving them back to their ships. + +The now doubly victorious governor was hailed as the defender and +saviour of Tortuga. The news of victory soon reached the ears of M. de +Poncy, at St. Christopher's, who, at first rejoiced at the success, +became soon afraid of the ambition of his new ally. Fearing that he +would repudiate the contract, and declare himself an independent +sovereign, he took the precaution of testing his sincerity. He sent two +of his relations to Tortuga to request land as settlers, but really to +act as spies. Le Vasseur, subtle and penetrating, at once detected their +object. He received the young men with great civility, but took care to +secure their speedy return to St. Christopher's. Having now attained the +summit of his wishes, he became, as many greater men have been, +intoxicated with power. His temper changed, and he grew severe, +suspicious, intolerant, and despotic. He not only bound his subjects in +chains, but delighted to clank the fetters, and remind them of their +slavery. He ill-used the planters, loaded the merchants with taxes, +punished the most venial faults, and grew as much hated as he had been +once beloved. He went so far in his tyranny as to forbid the exercise of +the Catholic religion, to burn the churches and expel the priests. The +murder of such a persecutor has always been held a sin easily forgiven +by the confessor, and lust and superstition soon gave birth to murder. + +Charlevoix relates an amusing instance of the governor's contumacy. De +Poncy, informed that his vessels had taken a silver idol (a Virgin Mary) +from some Spanish cathedral, wrote to demand its surrender. Le Vasseur +returned a wooden image by the messenger, desiring him to say, that for +religious purposes, wood or silver was equally good. One of his most +cruel inventions Le Vasseur called his "hell." It seems to have +resembled the portable iron cages in which Louis XI. used to confine his +state prisoners. + +M. de Poncy, informed of the extraordinary change in the character of Le +Vasseur, endeavoured to beguile him by promises, threats, and +entreaties. Justice gave him now a pretext of enforcing what +self-interest had long meditated. The toils were growing closer round +the doomed man, but Heaven sent a speedier punishment. Le Vasseur, still +waiving all openings for formal complaint, was exulting in all the glory +of a small satrapy, when two nephews conspired against his life. +Cupidity inspired the crime, and they easily persuaded themselves that +God and man alike demanded the expiation. One writer calls them simply +captains, "companions of fortune," and another, the nephews of Le +Vasseur. + +These ungrateful men had already been declared his heirs, but they had +quarrelled with him about a mistress he had taken from them, and one +fault in a friend obliterates the remembrance of many virtues. They +believed that the inhabitants, rejoiced at deliverance from such +tyranny, would appoint them joint governors in the first outburst of +their gratitude. They shot him from an ambush as he was descending from +the rock fort to the shore, but, only wounding him slightly, were +obliged to complete the murder with a poignard. The wounded man called +for a priest, and declared himself, with his last breath, a steadfast +Catholic. He seems to have been a dark, wily man, of strong passions, +tenacious ambition, and ungovernable will. + +While this crime was perpetrating, De Poncy, determined to recover +possession of at least his share of Tortuga, and weary and angry at the +subterfuges of Le Vasseur, had resolved upon a new expedition. The +leader was a Chevalier de Fontenoy, a soldier of fortune, who, attracted +by the sparkle of Spanish gold, had just arrived at St. Kitt's in a +French frigate. Full of chivalry, he at once proposed to sail, although +informed that the place was impregnable, and could only be taken by +stratagem. While the armament was fitting up, he made a cruise round +Carthagena, on the look out for Spanish prizes, and joined M. Feral, a +nephew of the general, at Port de Paix, a rendezvous twelve leagues from +Tortuga. Informed there of the murder of Le Vasseur, they at once sailed +for the harbour, and landed 500 men at the spot where the Spaniards had +formerly been repulsed. The two murderers immediately capitulated, on +condition of being allowed to depart with all their uncle's treasure. +The Chevalier was proclaimed governor, and received with as many +acclamations as Le Vasseur had been before him. The old religion was +restored, and commerce patronized and protected, by royal edict. Two +bastions were added to the fort, and more guns mounted. The Buccaneers +crowded back in greater numbers than even on Le Vasseur's arrival. +Before they had only imagined the advantages of this conquest, but now +they had tasted them. The Chevalier hailed all Buccaneers as friends +and brothers, and even himself fitted out privateers. The Spanish ships +could scarcely venture out of port, and one merchant alone is known to +have lost 300,000 crowns' worth of merchandise in a single year. + +It is easier to conquer than to retain a conquest, and vigilance grows +blunted by success. The Chevalier, too confident in his strength, +allowed half his population to embark in cruisers. The sick, the aged, +the maimed, laboured in the plantations with the slaves. The Spaniards, +informed of this, landed in force, without resistance. The few +Buccaneers crowded into the fort, which the enemy dared not approach. +Discovering, however, a mountain that commanded the rock, precipitous, +but still accessible, they determined to plant a battery upon it, and +drive the Buccaneers from their last foothold. With infinite vigour and +determination they hewed a road to the mountain between two rocks. +Making frames of wood, they lashed on their cannons, and forced the +slaves and prisoners to drag them to the summit, and, with a battery of +four guns, suddenly opened a fire upon the unguarded fort. The +Chevalier, not expecting this enterprise, had just deprived himself of +his last defence, by cutting down the large trees that grew round the +walls. In spite of all the threats and expostulations of the governor, +the garrison, galled by this plunging fire, at once capitulated. They +left the island in twenty-four hours, with arms and baggage, drums +beating, colours flying, and match burning, and set sail in two +half-scuttled vessels lying in the road, having first given hostages not +to serve against Spain for a given time. In another vessel, but alone, +set sail the two murderers, who, being short of food, consummated their +crimes by leaving the women and children of their company on a desert +island. + +The Spanish general, repairing the fort, garrisoned it with sixty men, +whom he supplied with provisions. Fontenoy, repulsed in an attempt to +recover the island, soon afterwards returned to France. + +In 1655, when Admiral Penn appeared off St. Domingo with Cromwell's +fleet, the Spaniards, to increase their forces in Hispaniola, recalled +the troop which had held Tortuga eighteen months--the commander first +blowing up the fort, burning the church, the houses, and the magazines, +and devastating the plantations. Not long afterwards, an English refugee +of wealth, Elias Ward (or, as the French call him, _Elyazouärd_), came +from Jamaica, with his family and a dozen soldiers, and with an English +commission from the general, and was soon joined by about 120 French and +English adventurers. + +The treaty of the Pyrenees, in 1659, brought no repose to the hunters of +Hispaniola from Spanish inroads. The planters were compelled to work +armed, and to keep watch at night for fear of being murdered in their +beds. In 1667 the war recommencing, let the bloodhounds, who had long +been straining in the leash, free to raven and devour. De Lisle again +plundered St. Jago, and obtained 2,500 piastres ransom, each of his +adventurers secured 300 crowns, the Spaniards abandoning the defiles +and carrying off their treasure to Conception. + +This was the golden age of Buccaneering. Vauclin, Ovinet, and Tributor, +plundered the towns of Cumana, Coro, St. Martha, and Nicaragua. Le +Basque, with only forty men, surprised Maracaibo by night. He seized the +principal inhabitants and shut them in the cathedral, and threatened to +instantly cut off their heads if the citizens ventured to rise in arms. +Daylight discovering his feeble force, he could obtain no ransom. The +Flibustiers then retreated, each man driving a prisoner before him, a +pistol slung in one hand and a naked sabre raised over the Spaniard's +head in the other. These hostages were detained twenty-four hours, and +released at the moment the French departed. This is the same Le Basque +whom Charlevoix describes as cutting out the Margaret from under the +cannon of Portobello, and winning a million piastres. At another time, +they retreated laden with booty and carrying with them the Governor and +the principal citizens of St. Jago; but the Spaniards, rallying, placed +themselves, 1,000 in number, in an ambuscade by the way, trusting to +their numbers and expecting an easy victory. The French, turning well, +scarcely missed a shot, and in a short time killed 100 of the enemy's +men, and, wounding a great many more, drove them off after two hours' +fighting. They rallied and returned in a short time, determined to +conquer or die; but the French, showing the prisoners, declared that if +a shot was fired by the enemy they would kill them before their eyes, +and would then sell their own lives dearly. This menace frightened the +Spaniards, and the Flibustiers continued their retreat unmolested. +Having waited some time in vain on the coast for the ransom, they left +the prisoners unhurt, and returned gaily to Tortuga. + +In 1663, Spain, finding that France in secret encouraged the Buccaneers +of Hispaniola, gave orders to exterminate every Frenchman in the island, +promising recompence to those who distinguished themselves in the war. +An old Flemish officer, named Vandelinof, who had served with +distinction in the Low Country wars, took the command. His first +stratagem was to attempt to surprise the chief French boucan, at +Gonaive, on the Brûlé Savannah, with 800 men. The hunters, observing +them, gave the alarm, and, collecting 100 "brothers," advanced to meet +them in a defile where the Spanish numbers were of no avail. The Fleming +was killed at the first volley, and after an obstinate struggle the +Spaniards fled to the mountains. + +The enemy, after this defeat, returned to their old and safer plan of +night surprises--which frequently succeeded, owing to the negligent +watch kept by the Buccaneers. The hunters, much harassed by the constant +sense of insecurity, began to retire every night to the small islands +round St. Domingo, and seldom went alone to the chase. Some boucans, +such as those at the port of Samana, grew rapidly into towns. Near this +excellent harbour the cattle were unusually abundant, and in a few hours +the Flibustier could carry his hides to his market at Tortuga. Gradually +French and Dutch vessels began to visit the port to buy hides and to +trade. + +Every morning before starting to the savannah, the hunters climbed the +highest hill to see if any Spaniards were visible. They then agreed on a +rendezvous for the evening, arriving there to the moment. If any one was +missing he was at once known to be taken or killed, and no one was +permitted to return home till their comerade's death had been avenged. +One evening the hunters of Samana, missing four of the band, marched +towards St. Jago, and, discovering from some prisoners that their +companions had been massacred, entered a Spanish village and slew every +one they met. + +The Spaniards too had sometimes their revenge. "The river of massacre" +near Samana was so called from thirty Buccaneers who were slain there +while fording the river laden with hides. Another band of hunters, led +by Charles Tore, had been hunting at a place called the Bois-Brûlé +Savannah, and having completed the number of skins the merchants had +contracted for, returned to Samana. Crossing a savannah they were +surprised by an overwhelming force of Spaniards, and, in spite of a +desperate resistance, slain to a man. The Buccaneers, irritated by these +losses, began to think of revenge. When the Spaniards destroyed the wild +cattle, some turned planters about Port de Paix, others became +Flibustiers. + +The death of De Poncy threw the French colonies into some disorder, and +Tortuga was for awhile forgotten both by the home and colonial +government. During this interval a gentleman of Perigord, named Rossy, a +retired Buccaneer, resolved to resume his old profession. Returning to +St. Domingo, he was hailed as a father by the hunters, who proposed to +him to recover Tortuga. Rossy, knowing that fidelity is the last virtue +that forsakes the heart, accepted their proposal with the enthusiasm of +a gambler accustomed to such desperate casts. He was soon joined by five +hundred refugees, burning for conquest and revenge. They assembled in +canoes at a rendezvous in Hispaniola, and agreed to land one hundred men +on the north side of the island and surprise the mountain fort. The +Spaniards in the town, not even entrenched, were soon beaten into the +fort. The garrison of the rock were rather astonished to be awoke at +break of day by a salute from the neighbouring mountain, when they could +see the enemy still quietly encamped below. Sallying out, they could +discern no opponents, but before they could regain the fort were all cut +to pieces or made prisoners. The survivors were at once thrust into a +boat and sent to Cuba, and Rossy declared governor. He soon after +received a commission from the French king, together with a permission +to levy a tax, for the support of his dignity, of a tenth of all prizes +brought into Tortuga. Rossy governed quietly for some years, and +eventually retired to his native country to die, and La Place, his +nephew, reigned in his stead. + +In 1664, the French West India Company became masters of Tortuga and the +Antilles, and appointed M. D'Ogeron, a gentleman of Anjou who had failed +in commerce, as their governor. He proved a good administrator, and +built magazines and storehouses for his grateful and attached people. +D'Ogeron soon established order and prosperity in the island, which +became a refuge for the red flag and the terror of the Spaniards. He +colonised all the north side of Hispaniola, from Port Margot, where he +had a house, to the three rivers opposite Tortuga. He attracted +colonists from the Antilles, and brought over women from France, in +order to settle his nomadic and mutinous population. In 1661, the West +India Company, dissatisfied with the profits of their merchandize, +resolved to relinquish the colony and call in their debts; and it was in +the St. John, sent out for this purpose, that the Buccaneer historian +Oexmelin, whom we shall have frequently to quote, first visited Tortuga. +D'Ogeron, determined not to relinquish a settlement already beginning to +flourish, hastened to France, and persuaded some private merchants to +continue the trade. They promised to fit out twelve vessels annually, if +he would supply them with back freight. He on his part agreed to provide +the colonists with slaves and to destroy the wild dogs, which were +committing great ravages among the herds of Hispaniola. This new +company did not answer. The inhabitants suffered by the monopoly, and +grew discontented at only being allowed to trade with certain vessels, +and being obliged to turn their backs on better bargains or cheaper +merchandize. An accident lit the train. M. D'Ogeron attempted to prevent +their trading with some Dutch merchants, and they rose in arms. Shots +were fired at the governor, and the revolters threatened to burn out the +planters who would not join their flag. But succours from the Antilles +soon brought them to their senses, and, one of their ringleaders being +hung, they surrendered at discretion. The governor, alarmed even at an +outbreak that he had checked, made in his turn concessions. He permitted +all French merchants to trade upon paying a heavy harbour due, and the +number of ships soon became too numerous for the limited commerce of the +place. M. D'Ogeron next procured colonists from Brittany and Anjou, and +eventually, after some further exploits, very daring but always +unfortunate, he was succeeded in command by his nephew M. De Poncy. + +There are several Tortugas. There is one in the Caribbean sea, another +near the coast of Honduras, a third not far from Carthagena, and a +fourth in the gulf of California; they all derived their names from +their shape, resembling the turtle which throng in these seas. + +The Buccaneer fastness with which we have to do is the Tortuga of the +North Atlantic Ocean, a small rocky island about 60 leagues only in +circumference, and distant barely six miles from the north coast of +Hispaniola. This Tortuga was to the refugee hunters of the savannahs +what New Providence became to the pirates, and the Galapagos islands to +the South Sea adventurers of half a century later. It had only one port, +the entrance to which formed two channels: on two sides it was +iron-bound, and on the other defended by reefs and shoals, less +threatening than the cliffs, but not less dangerous. Though scantily +supplied with spring water--a defect which the natives balanced by a +free use of "the water of life"--the interior was very fertile and well +wooded. Palm and sandal wood trees grew in profusion; sugar, tobacco, +aloes, resin, China-root, indigo, cotton, and all sorts of tropical +plants were the riches of the planters. The cultivators were already +receiving gifts from the earth, which--liberal benefactor--she gave +without expecting a return, for the virgin soil needed little seed, +care, or nourishment. The island was too small for savannahs, but the +tangled brushwood abounded in wild boars. + +The harbour had a fine sand bottom, was well sheltered from the winds, +and was walled in by the Coste de Fer rocks. Round the habitable part of +the shore stretched sands, so that it could not be approached but by +boats. The town consisted of only a few store-houses and wine shops, and +was called the _Basse Terre_. The other five habitable parts of the +island were Cayona, the Mountain, the Middle Plantation, the Ringot, and +Mason's Point. A seventh, the Capsterre, required only water to make it +habitable, the land being very fertile. To supply the want of springs, +the planters collected the rain water in tanks. The soil of the island +was alternately sand and clay, and from the latter they made excellent +pottery. The mountains, though rocky, and scarcely covered with soil, +were shaded with trees of great size and beauty, the roots of which +clung like air plants to the bare rock, and, netting them round, struck +here and there deeper anchors into the wider crevices. This timber was +so dry and tough that, if it was cut and exposed to the heat of the sun, +it would split with a loud noise, and could therefore only be used as +fuel. + +This favoured island boasted all the fruits of the Antilles: its tobacco +was better than that of any other island; its sugar canes attained an +enormous size, and their juice was sweeter than elsewhere; its numerous +medicinal plants were exported to heal the diseases of the Old World. +The only four-footed animal was the wild boar, originally transplanted +from Hispaniola. As it soon grew scarce, the French governor made it +illegal to hunt with dogs, and required the hunter to follow his prey +single-handed and on foot. The wood-pigeons were almost the only birds +in the island. They came in large flocks at certain periods of the year; +Oexmelin says that, in two or three hours, without going eighty steps +from the road, he killed ninety-five with his own hand. As soon as they +eat a certain berry their flesh became bitter as our larks do when they +move from the stubbles into the turnips. A Gascon visitor, once +complaining of their sudden bitterness, was told by a Buccaneer as a +joke that his servant had forgot to remove the gall. Fish abounded round +the island, and crabs without nippers; the night fishermen carrying +torches of the candle-wood tree. The shell fish was the food of servants +and slaves, and was said to be so indigestible as to frequently produce +giddiness and temporary blindness; the turtle and manitee, too, formed +part of their daily diet. The planters were much tormented by the white +and red land-crabs, or tourtourons, which lived in the earth, visited +the sea to spawn, and at night gnawed the sugar-canes and the roots of +plants. Their only venomous reptile was the viper, which they tamed to +kill mice; in a wild state, it fed on poultry or pigeons. From the +stomach of one Oexmelin drew seven pigeons and a large fowl, which had +been swallowed about three hours before, and cooked them for his own +dinner, verifying the old proverb of "robbing Peter to pay Paul." In +times of scarcity these snakes were eaten for food. Besides chameleons +and lizards, there were small insects with shells like a snail. These +were considered good to eat and very nourishing. When held near the +fire, they distilled a red oily liquid useful as a rheumatic liniment. +Though the scorpions and scolopendrias were not venomous, nature, always +just in her compensations, covered the island with poisonous shrubs. The +most fatal of these was the noxious mançanilla. It grew as high as a +pear tree, had leaves like a wild laurel, and bore fruit like an apple; +this fruit was so deadly, that even fish that ate of it, if they did not +die, became themselves poisonous, and were known by the blackness of +their teeth. The only antidote was olive oil. The Indian fishermen +used, as a test, to taste the heart of the fish they caught, and if it +proved bitter they knew at once that it had been poisoned, and threw it +away. The very rain-drops that fell from the leaves were deadly to man +and beast, and it was as dangerous to sleep under its shadow as under +the upas. The friendly boughs invited the traveller (as vice does man) +to rest under their shade; but when he awoke he found himself sick and +faint, and covered with feverish sores. New-comers were too frequently +tempted by the sight and odour of the fruit, and the only remedy for the +rash son of Adam was to bind him down, and, in spite of heat and pain, +to prevent him drinking for two or three days. The body of the sufferer +became at first "red as fire, and his tongue black as ink," then a great +torment of thirst and fever came upon him, but slowly passed away. +Another poisonous shrub resembled the pimento; its berries were used by +the Indians to rub their eyes, giving them, as they believed, a keener +sight, and enabling them to see the fish deeper in the water and to +strike them at a greater distance with the harpoon. The root of this +bush was a poison, so deadly that the only known antidote for it was its +own berries, bruised and drunk in wine. Of another plant, Oexmelin +relates an instance of a negro girl being poisoned by a rejected lover, +by merely putting some of its leaves between her toes when asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MANNERS OF THE HUNTERS. + + Derivation of the words Buccaneer and Flibustier--The three + classes--Dress of the hunters--West Indian scenery--Method of + hunting--Wild dogs--Anecdotes--Wild oxen, wild boars, and wild + horses--Buccaneer food--Cow killing--Spanish + method--Amusements--Duels--Adventures with the Spanish militia--The + hunters driven to sea--The _engagés_, or apprentices--Hide + curing--Hardships of the bush life--The planter's + _engagés_--Cruelties of planters--The _matelotage_--Huts--Food. + + +The hunters of the wild cattle in the savannahs of Hispaniola were known +under the designation of Buccaneers as early as the year 1630. + +They derived this name from _boucan_,[1] an old Indian word which their +luckless predecessors, the Caribs, gave to the hut in which they smoked +the flesh of the oxen killed in hunting, or not unfrequently the limbs +of their persecutors the Spaniards. They applied the same term, from the +poverty of an undeveloped language, to the _barbecue_, or square wooden +frame upon which the meat was dried. In course of time this hunters' +food became known as _viande boucanée_, and the hunters themselves +gradually assumed the name of Buccaneers. + +[1] Charlevoix's "Histoire de l'Ile Espagnole," p. 6, vol. ii + +Their second title of Flibustiers was a mere corruption of the English +word freebooters--a German term, imported into England during the Low +Country wars of Elizabeth's reign. It has been erroneously traced to the +Dutch word _flyboat_; but the Jesuit traveller, Charlevoix, asserts +that, in fact, this species of craft derived its title from being first +used by the Flibustiers, and not from its swiftness. This, however, is +evidently a mistake, as Drayton and Hakluyt use the word; and it seems +to be of even earlier standing in the French language. The derivation +from the English word freebooter is at once seen when the _s_ in +Flibu_s_tier becomes lost in pronunciation. + +In 1630, a party of French colonists, who had failed in an attack on St. +Christopher's, finding, as we have shown, Hispaniola almost deserted by +the Spaniards, who neglected the Antilles to push their conquests on the +mainland, landed on the south side and formed a settlement, discovering +the woods and the plains to be teeming with wild oxen and wild hogs. The +Dutch merchants promised to supply them with every necessary, and to +receive the hides and tallow that they collected in exchange for lead, +powder, and brandy. These first settlers were chiefly Normans, and the +first trading vessels that visited the coast were from Dieppe. + +The origin of the Buccaneers, or hunters, and the Flibustiers, or sea +rovers, as the Dutch called them, was contemporaneous. From the very +beginning many grew weary of the chase and became corsairs, at first +turning their arms against all nations but their own, but latterly, as +strict privateersmen, revenging their injuries only on the Spaniards, +with whom France was frequently at war, and generally under the +authority of regular or forged commissions obtained from the Governor of +St. Domingo or some other French settlement. Between the Buccaneers and +Flibustiers no impassable line was drawn; to chase the wild ox or the +Spaniard was the same to the greater part of the colonists, and on sea +or land the hunter's musket was an equally deadly weapon. + +Two years after the French refugees from St. Christopher's had landed on +the half-deserted shores of Hispaniola, the Flibustiers seized the small +adjoining island of Tortuga, attracted by its safe and well-defended +harbour, its fertility, and the strength of its natural defences. The +French and English colonists of St. Christopher's began now to cultivate +the small plantations round the harbour, encouraged by the number of +French trading vessels that visited it, and by the riches that the +Flibustiers captured from the Spaniards. These vessels brought over +young men from France to be bound to the planters for three years as +_engagés_, by a contract that legalized the transitory slavery. + +There were thus at once established four classes of men--_Buccaneers_, +or hunters; _planters_, or inhabitants; _engagés_, who were apprenticed +to either the one or the other; and _sea-rovers_. They governed +themselves by a sort of democratic compact--each inhabitant being +monarch in his own plantation, and every Flibustier king on his own +deck. But the latter was not unfrequently deposed by his crew; and the +former, if cruel to his _engagés_, was compelled to submit to the French +governor's interference. Before giving any history of the various +revolutions in Tortuga, or the wars of the Spaniards in Hispaniola, we +will describe the manners of each of the three classes we have +mentioned. + +And first of the Buccaneers, or hunters, of Hispaniola. + +These wild men fed on the bodies of the cattle they killed in hunting, +and by selling their hides and tallow obtained money enough to buy the +necessaries and even the luxuries of life,--for the gambling table and +the debauch. While the Flibustiers called each other "brothers of the +coast," the Buccaneers were included in the generic term "_gens de la +côté_," and in time the names of Buccaneer and Flibustier were used +indiscriminately. + +The hunter's dress consisted of a plain shirt, or blouse (Du Tertre +calls it a sack), belted at the waist with a bit of green hide. It was +soon dyed a dull purple with the blood of the wild bull, and was always +smeared with grease. "When they returned from the chase to the boucan," +says the above-named writer, "you would say that these are the butcher's +vilest servants, who have been eight days in the slaughterhouse without +washing." As they frequently carried the meat home by cutting a hole in +the centre, and thrusting their heads through it, we may imagine the +cannibals that they must have looked. They wore drawers, or frequently +only tight mocassins, reaching to the knee; their sandals were of bull's +hide or hog skin, fastened with leather laces. + +In Oexmelin's _Histoire des Aventuriers_, the hunter is represented with +bare feet, but this could not have been usual, when we remember the +danger of chigoes, snakes, and scorpions, not to speak of prickly pear +coverts and thorny brakes. From their leather waist belt hung a short, +heavy _machete_ or sabre, and an alligator skin case of Dutch hunting +knives. On their heads they wore a leather skull-cap, shaped like our +modern jockey's, with a peak in front. They wore their hair falling +wildly on their shoulders, and their huge beards increased the ferocity +of their appearance. Oexmelin particularly mentions the beard, although +no existing engraving of the Buccaneer chiefs represents them with this +grim ornament. According to Charlevoix, some of them wore a shirt, and +over this a sort of brewer's apron, or coarse sacking tunic, open at the +sides. From this shirt being always stained with blood, perhaps +sometimes purposely dipped into it, the Abbé Reynal supposes that such a +shirt was the necessary dress of the Buccaneer. Oexmelin says that as his +vessel approached St. Domingo, "a Buccaneers' canoe came off with six +men at the paddles, whose appearance excited the astonishment of all +those on board, who had never before been out of France. They wore a +small linen tunic and short drawers, reaching only half down the thigh. +It required one to look close to see if the shirt was linen or not, so +stained was it with the blood which had dripped from the animals they +kill and carry home. All of them had large beards, and carried at their +girdle a case of cayman skin, in which were four knives and a bayonet." +Like the Canadian trappers, or, indeed, sportsmen in general, they were +peculiarly careful of their muskets, which were made expressly for them +in France, the best makers being Brachie of Dieppe, and Gelu of Nantes. +These guns were about four feet and a half long, and were known +everywhere as "Buccaneering pieces." The stocks were square and heavy, +with a hollow for the shoulder, and they were all made of the same +calibre, single barrel, and carrying balls sixteen to the pound. Every +hunter took with him fifteen or twenty pounds of powder, the best of +which came from Cherbourg. They kept it in waxed calabashes to secure it +from the damp, having no shelter or hut that would keep out the West +Indian rains. Their bullet pouch and powder horn hung on either side, +and their small tents they carried, rolled up tight like bandoliers, at +their waist, for they slept wherever they halted, and generally in their +clothes. + +We have no room and no colours bright enough to paint the chief features +of the Indian woods, the cloven cherry, that resembles the arbutus, the +cocoa with its purple pods, the red _bois immortel_, the stunted bastard +cedar, the logwood with its sweet blossom and hawthorn-like leaf, the +cashew with its golden fruit, the oleander, the dock-like yam, and the +calabash tree. + +What Hesperian orchards are those where the citron, lemon, and lime +cling together, and the pine-apple grows in prickly hedges, soft custard +apples hang out their bags of sweetness, and the avocada swings its +pears big as pumpkins; where the bread-fruit with its gigantic leaves, +the glossy star apple, and the golden shaddock, drop their masses of +foliage among the dewy and fresh underwood of plantains, far below the +tall and graceful cocoa-nut tree. + +Michael Scott depicts with photographic exactness and brilliancy every +phase of the West Indian day, and enables us to imagine the light and +shade that surrounded the strange race of whom we write. At daybreak, +the land wind moans and shakes the dew from the feathery palms; the +fireflies grow pale, and fade out one after the other, like the stars; +the deep croaking of the frog ceases, and the lizards and crickets are +silent; the monkeys leave off yelling; the snore of the tree toad and +the wild cry of the tiger-cat are no more heard; but fresh sounds arise, +and the woods thrill with the voices and clatter of an awaking city; the +measured tap of the woodpecker echoes, with the clear, flute-like note +of the pavo del monte, the shriek of the macaw, and the chatter of the +parroquet; the pigeon moans in the inmost forest, and the gabbling +crows croak and scream. + +At noon, as the breeze continues, and the sun grows vertical, the +branches grow alive with gleaming lizards and coloured birds, noisy +parrots hop round the wild pine, the cattle retreat beneath the trees +for shelter, to browse the cooler grass, and the condouli and passion +flowers of all sizes, from a soup plate to a thumb ring, shut their +blossoms; the very humming-birds cease to drone and buzz round the +orange flowers, and the land-crab is heard rustling among the dry grass. +In the swamps the hot mist rises, and the wild fowl flock to the reeds +and canes in the muddy lagoons, where the strong smell of musk denotes +the lurking alligator; the feathery plumes of the bamboos wave not, and +the cotton tree moves not a limb. + +The rainy season brings far different scenes: then the sky grows +suddenly black, the wild ducks fly screaming here and there, the carrion +crows are whirled bodingly about the skies, the smaller birds hurry to +shelter, the mountain clouds bear down upon the valleys, and a low, +rushing sound precedes the rain. The torrents turn brown and earthy, all +nature seems to wait the doom with fear. The low murmur of the +earthquake is still more impressive, with the distant thunder breaking +the deep silence, and the trees bending and groaning though the air is +still. Besides the rains and the earthquakes, the tornadoes are still +more dreadful visitants, when the air in a moment grows full of shivered +branches, shattered roofs, and uptorn canes. + +The great features of the West Indian forests are the fireflies and the +monkeys. At night, when the wind is rustling in the dry palm leaves, the +sparkles of green fire break out among the trees like sparks blown from +a thousand torches; the gloom pulses with them as the flame ebbs and +flows, and the planters' chambers are filled with these harmless +incendiaries. The yell of the monkeys at daybreak has been compared to a +devils' holiday, to distant thunder, loose iron bars in a cart in Fleet +Street, bagpipes, and drunken men laughing. + +To Coleridge we are indebted for word pictures of the cabbage tree, and +the silk cotton tree with their buttressed trunks; the banyan with its +cloistered arcades; the wild plantain with its immense green leaves rent +in slips, its thick bunches of fruit, and its scarlet pendent seed; the +mangroves, with their branches drooping into the sea; the banana, with +its jointed leaves; the fern trees, twenty feet high; the gold canes, in +arrowy sheaves; and the feathery palms. Nor do we forget the figuera, +the bois le Sueur, or the wild pine burning like a topaz in a calix of +emerald. Beneath the broad roof of creepers, from which the oriole hangs +its hammock nest, grow, in a wild jungle of beauty, the scarlet cordia, +the pink and saffron flower fence, the plumeria, and the white datura. +The flying fish glided by us, says H.N. Coleridge, speaking of the +Indian seas, bonitos and albicores played around the bows, dolphins +gleamed in our wake, ever and anon a shark, and once a great +emerald-coloured whale, kept us company. Elsewhere he describes the +silver strand, fringed with evergreen drooping mangroves, and the long +shrouding avenues of thick leaves that darkly fringe the blue ocean. By +the shore grow the dark and stately manchineel, beautiful but noxious, +the white wood, and the bristling sea-side grape, with its broad leaves +and bunches of pleasant berries. The sea birds skim about the waves, and +the red flamingoes stalk around the sandy shoals, while the alligators +wallow on the mud banks, and the snowy pelicans hold their councils in +solemn stupidity. + +Leaving the sea and the shore we wander on into the interior, for the +West Indian vegetation has everywhere a common character, and see +delighted the forest trees growing on the cliffs, knotted and bound +together with luxuriant festoons of evergreen creepers, connecting them +in one vast network of leaves and branches, the wild pine sparkling on +the huge limbs of the wayside trees, beside it the dagger-like Spanish +needle, the quilted pimploe, and the maypole aloe shooting its yellow +flowered crown twenty feet above the traveller, or amid the dark +foliage, twines of purple wreaths or lilac jessamine; and the woods +ringing with the song of birds, interrupted at times by strange shrieks +or moanings of some tropic wanderer; we see with these the snowy +amaryllis, the gorgeous hibiscus with its crown of scarlet, the +quivering limes and dark glossy orange bushes; we rest under the green +tamarind or listen to the mournful creaking of the sand box tree. + +The Buccaneers went in pairs, every hunter having his _camerade_ or +_matelot_ (sailor), as well as his _engagés_. They had seldom any fixed +habitation, but pitched their tents where the cattle were to be found, +building temporary sheds, thatched with palm leaves, to defend them from +the rain and to lodge their stock of hides till they could barter it +with the next vessel for wine, brandy, linen, arms, powder, or lead. +They would return three leagues from the chase to their huts, laden with +meat and skins, and if they ate in the open country it was always with +their musket cocked and near at hand for fear of surprise. With their +_matelots_ they had everything in common. The chief occupation of these +voluntary outlaws was the chase of the wild ox, that of the wild boar +being at first a mere amusement, or only followed as the means of +procuring a luxurious meal; at a later period, however, many Frenchmen +lived by hunting the hog, whose flesh they boucaned and sold for +exportation, its flavour being superior to that of any other meat. + +The Buccaneers sometimes went in companies of ten or twelve, each man +having his Indian attendant besides his apprentices. Before setting out +they arranged a spot for rendezvous in case of attack. If they remained +long in one place, they built thatched sheds under which to pitch their +tents. They rose at daybreak to start for the chase, leaving one of the +band to guard the huts. The masters generally went first and alone +(sometimes the worst shot was left in the tent to cook), and the +_engagés_ and the dogs followed; one hound, the _venteur_, went in front +of all, often leading the hunter through wood and over rock where no +path had ever been. When the quarry came in sight the dogs barked round +it and kept it at bay till the hunters could come up and fire. They +generally aimed at the breast of the bull, or tried to hamstring it as +soon as possible. Many hunters ran down the wild cattle in the savannah +and attacked it with their dogs. If only wounded the ox would rush upon +them and gore all he met. But this happened very seldom, for the men +were deadly shots, seldom missed their _coup_, and were always +sufficiently active, if in danger, to climb the tree from behind which +they had fired. The _venteur_ dog had a peculiar short bark by which he +summoned the pack to his aid, and as soon as they heard it the _engagés_ +rushed to the rescue. When the beast was half flayed, the master took +out the largest bone and sucked the hot marrow, which served him for a +meal, giving a bit also to the _venteur_, but not to any other dogs, +lest they should grow lazy in hunting; but the last lagger in the pack +had sometimes a bit thrown him to incite him to greater exertion. He +then left the _engagés_ to carry the skin to the boucan, with a few of +the best joints, giving the rest to the carrion crows, that soon sniffed +out the blood. They continued the chase till each man had killed an ox, +and the last returned home, laden like the rest with a hide and a +portion of raw meat. By this time the first comer had prepared dinner, +roasted some beef, or spitted a whole hog. The tables were soon laid; +they consisted of a flat stone, the fallen trunk of a tree, or a root, +with no cloth, no napkin, no bread, and no wine; pimento and orange +juice were sufficient sauce for hungry men, and a contented mind and a +keen appetite never quarrelled with rude cooking. This monotonous life +was only varied by a conflict with a wounded bull, or a skirmish with +the Spaniards. The grand fête days were when the hunter had collected as +many hides as he had contracted to supply the merchant, and carried them +to Tortuga, to Cape Tiburon, Samana, or St. Domingo, probably to return +in a week's time, weary of drinking or beggared from the gambling table, +tired of civilization, and restless for the chase. + +The wild cattle of Hispaniola--the oxen, hogs, horses, and dogs--were +all sprung from the domestic animals originally brought from Spain. The +dogs were introduced into the island to chase the Indians, a cruelty +that even the mild Columbus practised. Esquemeling says, those first +conquerors of the New World made use of dogs "to range and search the +intricate thicket of woods and forests for those their implacable and +unconquerable enemies; thus they forced them to leave their old refuge +and submit to the sword, seeing no milder usage would do it. Hereupon +they killed some of them, and, quartering their bodies, placed them on +the highways, that others might take a warning from such a punishment. +But this severity proved of ill consequence, for, instead of frighting +them and reducing them to civility, they conceived such horror of the +Spaniards that they resolved to detest and fly their sight for ever; +hence the greatest part died in caves and subterraneous places of the +woods and mountains, in which places I myself have often seen great +numbers of human bones. The Spaniards, finding no more Indians to +appear about the woods, turned away a great number of dogs they had in +their houses; and they, finding no masters to keep them, betook +themselves to the woods and fields to hunt for food to preserve their +lives, and by degrees grew wild." + +The young of these maroon dogs the hunters were in the habit of bringing +up. When they found a wild bitch with whelps, they generally took away +the puppies and brought them to their tents, preferring them to any +other sort of dog. They seem to have been between a greyhound and a +mastiff. The Dutch writer whom we have just quoted mentions the singular +fact, that these dogs, even in a wild state, retained their acquired +habits. The _venteur_ always led the way, and was allowed to dip the +first fangs into the victim. The wild dogs went in packs of fifty or +eighty, and were so fierce that they would not scruple to attack a whole +herd of wild boars, bringing down two or three at once. They destroyed a +vast number of wild cattle, devouring the young as soon as a mare had +foaled or a cow calved. + +"One day," says Esquemeling, "a French Buccaneer showed me a strange +action of this kind. Being in the fields hunting together, we heard a +great noise of dogs which had surrounded a wild boar. Having tame dogs +with us we left them in custody of our servants, being desirous to see +the sport. Hence my companion and I climbed up two several trees, both +for security and prospect. The wild boar, all alone, stood against a +tree, defending himself with his tusks from a great number of dogs that +enclosed him, killed with his teeth and wounded several of them. This +bloody fight continued about an hour, the wild boar meanwhile attempting +many times to escape. At last flying, one dog leaped upon his back; and +the rest of the dogs, perceiving the courage of their companion, +fastened likewise on the boar, and presently killed him. This done, all +of them, the first only excepted, laid themselves down upon the ground +about the prey, and there peaceably continued till he, the first and +most courageous of the troop, had eaten as much as he could. When this +dog had left off, all the rest fell in to take their share till nothing +was left." + +In 1668, the Governor of Tortuga, finding these dogs were rendering the +wild boar almost extinct, and alarmed lest the hunters should leave a +place where food was growing scarce, sent to France for poison to +destroy these mastiffs, and placed poisoned horse flesh in the woods. +But although this practice was continued for six months, and an +incredible number were killed, yet the race soon appeared almost as +numerous as before. + +The wild horses went in troops of about two or three hundred. They were +awkward and mis-shapen, small and short-bodied, with large heads, long +necks, trailing ears, and thick legs. They had always a leader, and when +they met a hunter, stared at him till he approached within shot, then +gallopped off all together. They were only killed for their skins, +though their flesh was sometimes smoked for the use of the sailors. +These horses were caught by stretching nooses along their tracks, in +which they got entangled by the neck. When taken, they were quickly +tamed by being kept two or three days without food, and were then used +to carry hides. They were good workers, but easily lamed. When a +Buccaneer turned them adrift from want of food to keep them through the +winter, they were known to return ten months after, or, meeting them in +the savannah, begin to whine and caress their old masters, and suffer +themselves to be recaptured. They were also killed for the sake of the +fat about the neck and belly, which the hunters used for lamp oil. + +The wild oxen were tame unless wounded, and their hides were generally +from eleven to thirteen feet long. They were very strong and very swift, +in spite of their short and slender legs. In the course of a single +century from their introduction, they had so increased, that the French +Buccaneers, when they landed, seldom went in search of them, but waited +for them near the shore, at the salt pools where they came to drink. The +herds fed at night on the savannahs, and at noon retired to the shelter +of the forests. A wounded bull would often blockade, for four hours, a +tree in which a hunter had taken refuge, bellowing round the trunk and +ploughing at the roots with his horns. The French hunters generally shot +them; but the Spanish "hocksers" rode them down on horseback, and +hamstrung them with a crescent-shaped spear, in form something like a +cheese-knife with a long handle. + +The wild boars, when much pressed, adopted the same military stratagem +as the oxen. They threw themselves into the form of a hollow square, the +sows in the rear and the sucking pigs in the middle, the white sabre +tusks of the boars gleaming outwards towards the foe. The dogs always +fastened upon the defenceless sow in preference to the ferocious male, +whom they seldom attacked if it got at bay under a tree, though it might +be alone, glaring before the red jaws of eighty yelping dogs. The wild +boar hunting was less dangerous than that of the wild oxen, and less +profitable. The hogs soon grew scarce, a party of hunters sometimes +killing 100 in a day, and only carrying home three or four of the +fattest. It was not uncommon for solitary hunters or _engagés_ who had +lost their way in the woods to amuse themselves by training up the young +hogs they found basking under the trees, and teaching them to track +their own species and pull them down by tugging at their long leathery +ears. Oexmelin, the most intelligent of the few Buccaneer writers, +relates his own success in training four pigs, whom he taught to follow +at his heels like dogs, to play with him, and obey his orders. When they +saw a herd of boars they would run forward and decoy them towards him. +On one occasion, one of them escaped into the plains, but returned three +days after, very complacently heading a herd of hogs, of which his +master and his _matelot_ killed four. It is not many years since that an +English gamekeeper brought up a pig to get his own bread as a pointer. + +At first, when the green savannahs were spotted black with cattle, the +hunters were so fastidious that they seldom ate anything but the udders +of cows, considering bull meat too tough. Many a herd was killed, as at +present in Australia or California, for the hide and tallow. If the +first animal killed in the day's hunt was a cow, an _engagé_ was +instantly sent to the tent with part of the flesh to cook for the +evening. When the _engagés_ had each gone home with his joint and his +hide, the Buccaneer followed with his own load, his dogs, tired and +panting, lagging at his heels. If on his way back he met a boar, or more +oxen, he threw down his fardel, slew a fresh victim, and, flaying it, +hung the hide on a tree out of reach of the wild dogs, and came back for +it on the morrow. + +On returning to the boucan, each man set to work to stretch +(_brochéter_) his hide, fastening it tightly out with fourteen wooden +pegs, and rubbing it with ashes and salt mixed together to make it dry +quicker. When this was done, they sat down to partake of the food that +the first comer had by this time cooked. The beef they generally boiled +in the large cauldron which every hunter possessed, drawing it out when +it was done with a wooden skewer. A board served them for a dish. With +a wooden spoon they collected the gravy in a calabash; and into this +they squeezed the juice of a fresh picked lemon, a crushed citron, or a +little pimento, which formed the hunter's favourite sauce, _pimentado_. +This being done with all the care of a Ude, they seized their hunting +knives and wooden skewers, and commenced a solemn attack upon the +ponderous joint. The residue they divided among their dogs. Père Labat, +an oily Jesuit if we trust to his portrait, describes, with great gusto, +a Buccaneer feast at which he was present, and at which a hog was +roasted whole. The boucaned meat was used in voyages, or when no oxen +could be met with. + +When they wanted to boucan a pig, they first flayed it and took out all +the bones. The meat they cut in long slips, which they placed in mats, +and there left it till the next day, when they proceeded to smoke it. +The boucan was a small hut covered close with palm-mats, with a low +entrance, and no chimney or windows: it contained a wooden framework +seven or eight feet high, on which the meat was placed, and underneath +which a charcoal fire was lit. The fire they always fed with the +animal's own skin and bones, which made the smoke thick and full of +ammonia. The volatile salt of the bones being more readily absorbed by +the meat than the mere ligneous acid of wood, the result of this process +was an epicurean mouthful far superior to our Westphalia hams, and more +like our hung beef. Oexmelin waxes quite eloquent in its praise. He says +it was so exquisite that it needed no cooking; its very look, red as a +rose, not to mention its delightful fragrance, tempted the worst +appetite to eat it, whatever it might be. The only misfortune was that +six months after smoking, the meat grew tasteless and unfit for use; but +when fresh, it was thought so wholesome that sick men came from a +distance to live in a hunter's tent and share his food for a time. The +first thing that passengers visiting the West Indies saw was a +Buccaneers' canoe bringing dry meat for sale. The boucaned meat was +sold in bales of sixty pounds' weight, and their pots of tallow were +worth about six pieces of eight. + +Labat--no ordinary lover of good cheer, if we may judge from his +portrait, which represents him with cheeks as plump as a pulpit cushion, +and with fat rolls of double chin--describes the Buccaneer fare with +much unction, having gone to a hunter's feast,--a corporeal treat +intended as a slight return for much spiritual food. Each Buccaneer, he +says, had two skewers, made of clean peeled wood, one having two spikes. +The boucan itself was made of four stakes as thick as a man's arm, and +about four feet long, struck in the ground to form a square five feet +long and three feet across. On these forked sticks they placed cross +bars, and upon these the spit, binding them all with withes. The wild +boar, being skinned and gutted, was placed whole upon this spit, the +stomach kept open with a stick. The fire was made of charcoal, and put +on with bark shovels. The interior of the pig was filled with citron +juice, salt, crushed pimento, and pepper; and the flesh was constantly +pricked, so that this juice might penetrate. When the meat was ready, +the cooks fired off a musket twice, to summon the hunters from the +woods, while banana leaves were placed round for plates. If the hunters +brought home any birds, they at once picked them and threw them into the +stomach of the pig, as into a pot. If the hunters were novices, and +brought home nothing, they were sent out again to seek it; if they were +veterans, they were compelled to drink as many cups as the best hunter +had that day killed deer, bulls, or boars. A leaf served to hold the +pimento sauce, and a calabash to drink from, while bananas were their +substitute for bread. The _engagés_ waited on their masters, and one of +the penalties for clumsy serving was to be compelled to drink off a +calabash full of sauce. + +The English "cow killers" and the French hunters were satisfied with +getting as many hides as they could in the shortest possible time, but +the Spanish _matadores_ gave the trade an air of chivalrous adventure by +rivalling the feats of the Moorish bull-fighters of Granada. They did +not use firearms, but carried lances with a half-moon blade, employing +dogs, and, being generally men of wealth and planters, had servants on +foot to encourage them to the attack. When they tracked an ox in the +woods, they made the hounds drive him out into the prairie, where the +matadors could spur after him, and, wheeling round the monster, +hamstring him or thrust him through with a lance. Dampierre describes +minutely the Spanish mode of hocksing. The horses were trained to +retreat and advance without even a signal. The hocksing-iron, of a +half-moon shape, measuring six inches horizontally, resembled in form a +gardener's turf-cutter. The handle, some fourteen feet long, was held +like a lance over the horse's head, a matador's steed being always known +by its right ear being bent down with the weight of the shaft. The place +to strike the bull was just above the hock; when struck the horse +instantly wheeled to the left, to avoid the charge of the wounded ox, +who soon broke his nearly severed leg, but still limped forward to +avenge himself on his formidable enemy. Then the hockser, riding softly +up, struck him with his iron again, but this time into a fore leg, and +at once laid him prostrate, moaning in terror and in pain. Then, +dismounting, the Spaniard took a sharp dagger and stabbed the beast +behind the horns, severing the spinal marrow. This operation the English +called "polling." The hunter at once remounted, and left his skinners to +remove the hide. + +The stately Spaniard delighted in this dangerous chase, with all its +stratagems, surprises, and hair-breadth escapes, when life depended on a +turn of the bridle or the prick of a spur. However pressed for food or +endangered by enemies, he practised it with all the stately ceremonies +of the Madrid arena. The fiery animal, streaming with blood and foam, +bellowing with rage and pain, frequently trampled and gored the dogs and +slew both horse and rider. Oexmelin mentions a bull at Cuba which killed +three horses in the same day, the lucky rider making a solemn pilgrimage +to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadaloupe when he had given his victim +the _coup de grace_. + +These Spanish hunters did not rough it like the Buccaneers, and kept +horses to carry their bales. They were particular in their food, and ate +bread and cassava with their beef; drank wine and brandy; and were very +choice in their fruit and preserves. Gay in their dress, they prided +themselves on their white linen. Every separate hunting field had its +own customs. At Campeachy, where the ground was swampy, the +logwood-cutters frequently shot the oxen from a canoe, and were +sometimes pursued by a wounded beast, who would try to sink the boat. +When the woodmen killed a bull, they cut it into quarters, and, taking +out all the bones, cut a hole in the centre of each piece large enough +to pass their heads through, and trudged home with it to their tents on +the shore. If they grew tired or were pursued, they cut off a portion of +the meat and lightened their load. + +The Spaniards, less poor, greedy, and thoughtless than the English and +French adventurers, killed only the bulls and old cows, and left the +younger ones to breed. The French were notorious for their wanton waste, +using oxen merely as marks for their bullets, and as utterly indifferent +to the future as Autolycus, who "slept out the thought of it." About +1650 the wild cattle of Jamaica were entirely destroyed, and the +Governor procured a fresh supply from Cuba. + +Whenever the oxen grew scarce, they became wilder and more ferocious. In +some places no hunter dared to fire at them if alone, nor ever ventured +into their pastures unattended. All animals grow shy if frequently +pursued, and no fish are so unapproachable as those of a much frequented +stream. Dampierre says that at Beef Island the old bulls who had once +been wounded, when they saw the hunters or heard their muskets, would +instantly form into a square, with their cows in the rear and the calves +in the middle, turning as the hunters turned, and presenting their horns +like a cluster of bayonets. It then became necessary to beat the woods +for stragglers. A beast mortally wounded always made at the hunter; but +if only grazed by the bullet it ran away. A cow was thought to be more +dangerous than a bull, as the former charged with its eyes open, and the +latter with them closed. The danger was often imminent. One of +Dampierre's messmates ventured into the savannah, about a mile from the +huts, and coming within shot of a bull wounded it desperately. The bull, +however, had strength enough to pursue and overtake the logwood-cutter +before he could load again, to trample him, and gore him in the thigh. +Then, faint with loss of blood, it reeled down dead, and fell heavily +beside the bleeding and groaning hunter. His comerade, coming the next +morning to seek for the man, found him weak and almost dying, and, +taking him on his back, bore him to his hut, where he was soon cured. +The rapidity of such cures is peculiar to savages, or men who devote +their whole life to muscular exertion; for the flesh of the South Sea +Islanders is said to close upon a sword as india-rubber does upon the +knife that cuts it. Often, in the heat and excitement of these +pursuits, the solitary hunter, and still more often, from want of +experience and from youthful rashness, the _engagé_, would lose his way +in the woods, or, falling into a forest pool, become a prey of the +lurking cayman, if not alarmed by the premonitory odour of musk that +indicated its dangerous vicinity. Nature is full of these warnings: and +the vibrating rattle of the Indian snake has saved the life of many a +Buccaneer. + +Besides an unceasing supply of beef on shore, and salted turtle at sea, +the Buccaneers ate the flesh of deer and of peccavy. On the mainland +wild turkeys were always within shot, and fat monkeys and plump parrots +were resources for more hungry and less epicurean men. The rich fruits +of the West Indies, needing no cultivation to improve their flavour, +grew around their huts, and were to be had all the year round for the +picking. The parched hunters delighted in the resinous-flavoured mango +and the luscious guava as much as our modern sailors. In such a country +every one is a vegetarian; for when dinner is over, to be a fruit eater +needs no hermit-like asceticism. The plantain and the yam served them +instead of the bread-fruit of the Pacific, or the potato of Virginia, +and the custard-apple took the place of pastry; but the great dainty +which all their chroniclers mention was the large avocado pear, which +they supposed to be an aphrodisiac. This prodigious lemon-coloured fruit +was allowed to mellow, its soft pulp was then scooped out and beaten up +in a plate with orange and lime juice; but hungry and more impatient men +ate it at once, with a little salt and a roast plantain. A Buccaneer +never touched an unknown fruit till he had seen birds pecking it on the +tree. No bird was ever seen to touch the blooming but poisonous apples +of the manchineel, which few animals but crabs could eat with impunity; +as this tree grew by the sea-shore, even fish were rendered poisonous by +feeding on the fruit that fell into the water. The verified stories of +the manchineel excel the fables related of the upas of Batavia. The very +dew upon its branches poisoned those upon whom it dropped. Esquemeling +says: "One day, being hugely tormented with mosquitoes or gnats, and +being as yet unacquainted with the nature of this tree, I cut a branch +to serve me for a fan, but all my face was swelled the next day, and +filled with blisters as if it were burnt, to such a degree that I was +blind for three days." + +The hunters tormented by mosquitoes and sand flies used leafy branches +for fans, and anointed their faces with hog's grease to defend +themselves from the stings. By night in their huts they burned tobacco, +without which smoke they could not have obtained sleep. The mosquitoes +were of all sorts, the buzzing and the silent, the tormentors by day and +night; but they dispersed when the land breeze rose, or whenever the +wind increased. The common mosquito was not visible by day, but at +sunset filled the woods with its ominous humming. Oexmelin describes on +one occasion his lying for eight hours in the water of a brook to escape +their stings; sitting on a stone or on the sand, and keeping his face, +which was above water, covered with leaves to protect him from the fiery +stings. + +The Buccaneers made their pens of reeds, and their paper of the leaves +of a peculiar sort of palm, the outer cuticle of which was thin, white, +and soft; their ink was the black juice of the juniper berries, letters +written with which turned white in nine days. They kept harmless snakes +in their houses to feed on the rats and mice, just as we do cats, or the +Copts did the ichneumons. They frequently used a handful of fire-flies +instead of a lantern: Esquemeling, himself a Buccaneer, says, that with +three of these in his cottage at midnight he could see to read in any +book, however small the print. + +The Buccaneers carried in their tobacco pouches the horn of an immense +sort of spider, which Esquemeling describes as big as an egg, with feet +as long as a crab, and four black teeth like a rabbit, its bite being +sharp but not venomous. These teeth or horns they used either as +toothpicks or pipe-cleaners; they were supposed to have the property of +preserving the user from toothache. They are described as about two +inches long, black as jet, smooth as glass, sharp as a thorn, and a +little bent at the lower end. + +Their favourite toy, the dice, they cut from the white ivory-like teeth +of the sea-horse. Great observers of the use of things, and well +lessoned in the bitter school of experience, they turned every new +natural production they met with to some useful purpose, uniting with +the keen sagacity of the hunter the shrewd instinct of the savage. Their +horsewhips they formed from the skin of the back of a wild bull or +sea-cow. The lashes were made of slips of hide, two or three feet long, +of the full thickness at the bottom, and cut square and tapering to the +point. These thongs they twisted while still green, and then hung them +up in a hut to dry; in a few weeks they shrank and became hard as wood, +and tough as an American cowhide, an Abyssinian scourge, or the +far-famed Russian knout. From the skin of the manitee they cut straps, +which they used in their canoes instead of the ordinary tholes. + +The wild boar hunters frequently lived in huts four or five together, +and remained for months, frequently a year, in the same place, supplying +the neighbouring planters by contract. The most perfect equality +reigned between the _matelots_; and if one of them wanted powder or +lead, he took it from the other's store, telling him of the loan, and +repaying it when able. + +When a dispute arose between any of them, their associates tried to +reconcile the difference. A dispute about a shooting wager, or the +smallest trifle, might give rise to deadly feuds between such lawless +and vindictive exiles, unaccustomed to control, and ready to resort to +arms. If both still determined to have revenge, the musket was the +impassive arbiter appealed to. The friends of the duellists decided at +what distance the combatants should stand, and made them draw lots for +the first fire. If one fell dead, the bystanders immediately held a sort +of inquest, at which they decided whether he had been fairly dealt with, +and examined the body to see that the death-shot had been fairly fired +in front, and not in a cowardly or treacherous manner, and handled his +musket to see whether it was discharged and had been in good order. A +surgeon then opened the orifice of the wound, and if he decided that +the bullet had entered behind, or much on one side, they declared the +survivor a murderer; Lynch law was proclaimed, they tied the culprit to +a tree, and shot him with their muskets. In Tortuga, or near a town, +this rude justice was never resorted to, and, even in the wilder places, +was soon abandoned as the hunters grew more civilized. These duels +generally took place on the sea beach if the Flibustiers were the +combatants. + +As these men took incessant exercise, were indifferent to climate, and +fed chiefly on fresh meat, they enjoyed good health. They were, however, +subject to flying fevers that passed in a day, and which did not confine +them even to their tents. + +With the Spanish Lanceros, or Fifties as they were called by the +Buccaneers, the hunters were perpetually at war, their intrepid infantry +being generally successful against the hot charges of these yeomanry of +the savannahs. There were four companies of them in Hispaniola, with a +hundred spearmen in each company; half of these were generally on the +patrol, while the remainder rested, and from their number they derived +their nickname. Their duty was to surprise the isolated hunters, to burn +the stores of hides, make prisoners of the _engagés_, and guard the +Spanish settlers against any sudden attack. At other times they were +employed in killing off the herds of wild cattle that furnished the +Buccaneers with food, and drew fresh bands to the plains where they +abounded. In great enterprises the whole corps cried "boot and saddle," +and they took with them at all times a few muleteers on foot, either to +carry their baggage, or to serve as scouts in the woods, where the +cow-killers built their huts. But, in spite of Negro foragers and Indian +spies, the keener-eyed Buccaneers generally escaped, or, if met with, +broke like raging wolves through their adversaries' toils. Accustomed to +the bush, inured to famine and fatigue, and more indifferent than even +the Spaniards to climate, the Buccaneers were seldom taken prisoners. +Unerring marksmen, with a spice of the wild beast in their blood, they +preferred death to flight or capture. + +It is probable that even for this toilsome and dangerous pursuit the +Spaniards easily obtained recruits. Constant sport with the wild cattle, +abundant food, and a spirit of adventure would prove an irresistible +bait to the bravos of Carthagena, or the matadors of Campeachy. The +hangers-on of the wineshops and the pulque drinkers of Mexico would +readily embark in any campaign that would bring them a few pistoles, and +give them good food and gay clothing. + +Oexmelin relates several instances of the daring escapes of the Buccaneer +hunters from the blood-thirsting pursuit of the Fifties. It was their +custom, directly that news reached the tents that the Lanceros were out, +to issue an order that the first man who caught sight of the horsemen +should inform the rest, in order to attack the foe by an ambuscade, if +they were too numerous to meet in the open field. The great aim, on the +other hand, of the Lanceros, was to wait for a night of rain and wind, +when the sound of their hoofs could not be heard, and to butcher the +sleepers when their fire-arms were either damp or piled out of reach. +Frequently they surrounded the hunters when heavy after a debauch, and +when even the sentinels were asleep at the tent doors. + +The following anecdote conveys some impression of these encounters. A +French Buccaneer going one day into the savannahs to hunt, followed by +his _engagé_, was suddenly surrounded by a troop of shouting Lanceros. +He saw at once that the Fifties had at last trapped him. He was +surrounded, and escape from their swift pursuit, with no tree near, was +hopeless. But he would not let hope desert him so long as the spears +were still out of his heart. His _engagé_ was as brave as himself, and +both determined to stand at bay and sell their lives dearly. The hunter +of mad oxen, and the tamer of wild horses, need not fear man or devil. +The master and man put themselves back to back, and, laying their common +stock of powder and bullets in their caps between them, prepared for +death. The Spaniards, who only carried lances, kept coursing round them, +afraid to narrow in, or venture within shot, and crying out to them +with threats to surrender. They next offered them quarter, and at last +promised to disarm but not hurt them, saying they were only executing +the orders of their general. The two Frenchmen replied mockingly, that +they would never surrender, and wanted no quarter, and that the first +lancer who approached would pay dear for his visit. The Spaniards still +hovered round, afraid to advance, none of them willing to be the first +victim, or to play the scapegoat for the rest. "C'est le premier pas qui +coute," and the first step they made was backward. After some +consultation at a safe distance, they finally left the Buccaneers still +standing threateningly back to back, and spurred off, half afraid that +the Tartars they had nearly caught might turn the tables, and advance +against them. + +The steady persistency of the Buccaneer infantry was generally +victorious over the impetuous but transitory onslaught of the Spanish +cavalry. + +Another time a wild Buccaneer while hunting alone was surprised by a +similar party of mounted pikemen. Seeing that there was some distance +between him and the nearest wood, and that his capture was certain, he +bethought himself of the following _ruse_. Putting his gun up to his +shoulder he advanced at a trot, shouting exultingly, "_à moi, à moi!_" +as if he was followed by a band of scattered companions who had been in +search of the Spaniards. The cavaliers, believing at once that they had +fallen into an ambush, took flight, to the joy of the ingenious hunter, +who quickly made his escape, laughing, into the neighbouring covert. + +The Spaniards were worn out at last with this border warfare, +unprofitable because it was waged with men who were too poor to reward +the plunderer, and dangerous because fought with every disadvantage of +weapon and situation. In the savannahs the Spaniards were formidable, +but in the woods they became a certain prey to the musketeer. Unable to +drive the plunderers out of the island, the Spaniards at last foolishly +resolved to render the island not worth the plunder. Orders came from +Spain to kill off the wild cattle that Columbus had originally brought +to the island, and particularly round the coast. If the trade with the +French vessels and the barter of hides for brandy could once be +arrested, the hunters would be driven from the woods by starvation, or +perish one by one in their dens. They little thought that this scheme +would succeed, and what would be the consequence of such success. The +hunters turned sea crusaders, and the sea became the savannah where they +sought their human game. Every creek soon thronged with men more deadly +than the Danish Vikinger: wrecked on a habitable shore, they landed as +invaders and turned hunters as before; driven to their boats, they +became again adventurers. In this name and in that of "soldiers of +fortune" they delighted: a more honest and less courteous age would have +termed them pirates. By the year 1686, the change from Buccaneer to +Flibustier had been almost wholly effected. + +The Buccaneers' _engagés_ led a life very little better than those white +slaves whom the glittering promises of the planters had decoyed from +France. The existence of the former was, however, rendered more bearable +by their variety of adventure, by better food, and by daily recreation. +If all day in the hot sun he had to toil carrying bales of skins from +his master's hut towards the shore, we must remember that American +seamen still work contentedly at the same labour in California for a +sailor's ordinary wages. Mutual danger produced necessarily, except in +the most brutal, a kind of fellowship between the master and the servant +of the boucan. Up at daybreak, the _engagé_ sweltered all day through +the bush, groaning beneath his burden of loathsome hides, but the good +meal came before sunset, and then the pipes were lit, and the brandy +went round, and the song was sung, and the tale was told, while the +hunters shot at a mark, or made wagers upon the respective skill of +their _matelots_ or their _engagés_. + +We hear from Charlevoix, that young prodigals of good family had been +known to prefer the canvas tent to the tapestried wall, and to have +grasped the hunter's musket with the hand that might have wielded the +general's baton or the marshal's staff. + +The Buccaneer's life was not one of mere revelry and ease; no luxurious +caves or safe strongholds served at once for their treasure house, their +palace, and their fortress. They were wandering outlaws; hated both by +the Spaniards and the Indians, they ate with a loaded gun within their +reach. The jaguar lurked beside them, the coppersnake glared at them +from his lair. If their foot stumbled, they were gored by the ox or +ripped up by the boar; if they fled they became a prey to the cayman of +the pool; they were swept away as they forded swollen rivers; they were +swallowed up by that dreadful foretype of the Judgment, the earthquake. +The shark and the sea monster swam by their canoe, the carrion crow that +fed to-day upon the carcase they had left, too often fed to-morrow on +the slain hunter. The wildest transitions of safety and danger, plenty +and famine, peace and war, health and sickness, surrounded their daily +life. To-day on the savannah dark with the wild herds, to-morrow +compelled to feast on the flesh of a murdered comerade; to-day +surrounded by revelling friends, to-morrow left alone to die. + +The present system of hide curing practised in California seems almost +identical with that employed by the Buccaneers. The following extract +from Dana's "Three Years before the Mast" will convey a correct +impression of what constituted the greater portion of an _engagé's_ +labour. He describes the shore piled with hides, just out of reach of +the tide; each skin doubled lengthwise in the middle, and nearly as +stiff as a board, and the whole bundles carried down on men's heads from +the place of curing to the stacks. "When the hide is taken from the +bullock, holes are cut round it, near the edge, and it is staked out to +dry, to prevent shrinking. They are then to be cured, and are carried +down to the shore at low tide and made fast in small piles, where they +lie for forty-eight hours, when they are taken out, rolled up in +wheelbarrows, and thrown into vats full of strong brine, where they +remain for forty-eight hours. The sea water only cleans and softens +them, the brine pickles them. They are then removed from the vats, lie +on a platform twenty-four hours, and are then staked out, still wet and +soft; the men go over them with knives, cutting off all remaining pieces +of meat or fat, the ears, and any part that would either prevent the +packing or keeping. A man can clean about twenty-five a-day, keeping at +his work. This cleaning must be done before noon, or they get too dry. +When the sun has been upon them for a few hours they are gone over with +scrapers to remove the fat that the sun brings out; the stakes are then +pulled up and the hides carefully doubled, with the hair outside, and +left to dry. About the middle of the afternoon, they are turned upon the +other side, and at sunset piled up and turned over. The next day they +are spread out and opened again, and at night, if fully dry, are thrown +up on a long horizontal pole, five at a time, and beaten with flails to +get out the dust; thus, being salted, scraped, cleaned, dried, and +beaten, they are stowed away in the warehouses." + +The Buccaneer's life was not spent in quaffing sangaree or basking under +orange blossoms--not in smoking beside mountains of flowers, where the +humming-birds fluttered like butterflies, and the lizards flashed across +the sunbeams, shedding jewelled and enchanted light. No Indian in the +mine, no Arab pearl-diver, no worn, pale children at an English factory, +no galley-slave dying at the oar, led such a life as a Buccaneer +_engagé_ if bound to a cruel master. Imagine a delicate youth, of good +but poor family, decoyed from a Norman country town by the loud-sounding +promises of a St. Domingo agent, specious as a recruiting sergeant, +voluble as the projector of bubble companies, greedy, plausible, and +lying. He comes out to the El Dorado of his dreams, and is at once taken +to the hut of some rude Buccaneer. The first night is a revel, and his +sleep is golden and full of visions. The spell is broken at daybreak. He +has to carry a load of skins, weighing some twenty-six pounds, three or +four leagues, through brakes of prickly pear and clumps of canes. The +pathless way cannot be traversed at greater speed than about two hours +to a quarter of a league. The sun grows vertical, and he is feverish and +sick at heart. Three years of this purgatory are varied by blows and +curses. The masters too often loaded their servants with blows if they +dared to faint through weakness, hunger, thirst, or fatigue. Some +hunters had the forbearance to rest on a Sunday, induced rather by +languor than by piety; but on these days the _engagé_ had to rise as +usual at daybreak, to go out and kill a wild boar for the day's feast. +This was disembowelled and roasted whole, being placed on a spit +supported on two forked stakes, so that the flames might completely +surround the carcase. + +Most Buccaneers, even if they rested on Sunday, required their +apprentices to carry the hides down as usual to the place of shipment, +fearing that the Spaniards might choose that very day to burn the huts +and destroy the skins. An _engagé_ once complained to his master, and +reminded him that it was not right to work on a Sunday, God himself +having said to the Jews, "Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou +hast to do, for the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." +"And I tell you," said the scowling Buccaneer, striking the earth with +the butt-end of his gun and roaring out a dreadful curse, "I tell you, +six days shalt thou kill bulls and skin them, and the seventh day thou +shalt carry them down to the beach," beating the daring remonstrant as +he spoke. There was no remedy for these sufferers but patience. Time or +death alone brought relief. Three years soon run out. The mind grows +hardened under suffering as flesh does under the lash. Nature, where she +cannot heal a wound, teaches us where to find unfailing balms. Some grew +reckless to blows, or learned to ingratiate themselves with their +masters by their increasing daring or sturdy industry. An apprentice +whose bullet never flew false, or who could run down the wild ox on the +plain, acquired a fame greater than that of his master. They knew that +in time they themselves would be Buccaneers, and could inflict the very +cruelties from which they now suffered. There were instances where acts +of service to the island, or feats of unusual bravery, raised an +_engagé_ of a single year to the full rank of hunter. An apprentice who +could bring in more hides than even his master, must have been too +valuable an acquisition to have been lost by a moment of spleen. That +horrible cases of cruelty did occur, there can be no doubt. There were +no courts of justice in the forest, no stronger arm or wiser head to +which to appeal. But there are always remedies for despair. The loaded +gun was at hand, the knife in the belt, and the poison berries grew by +the hut. There was the unsubdued passion still at liberty in the +heart--there was the will to seize the weapon and the hand to use it. +Providence is fruitful in her remedies of evils, and preserves a balance +which no sovereignty can long disturb. No tyrant can shut up the +volcano, or chain the earthquake. There were always the mountains or the +Spaniards to take refuge amongst, though famine and death dwelt in the +den of the wild beasts, and, if they fled to the Spaniards, they were +often butchered as mere runaway slaves before they could explain, in an +unknown language, that they were not spies. But still the very +impossibility of preventing such escapes must have tended to temper the +severity of the masters. A Flibustier, anxious for a crew, must have +sometimes carried off discontented _engagés_ both from the plantations +and the ajoupas. The following story illustrates the social relations of +the Buccaneer master and his servant. + +A Buccaneer one day, seeing that his apprentice, newly arrived from +France, could not keep up with him, turned round and struck him over the +head with the lock of his musket. The youth fell, stunned, to the +ground; and the hunter, thinking he was dead, stripped him of his arms, +and left his body where it had fallen and weltering in the blood flowing +from the wound. On his return to his hut, afraid to disclose the truth, +he told his companions that the lad, who had always skulked work, had at +last _marooned_ (a Spanish word applied to runaway negroes). A few +curses were heaped upon him, and no more was thought about his +disappearance. + +Soon after the master was out of sight the lad had recovered his senses, +arisen, pale and weak, and attempted to return to the tents. +Unaccustomed to the woods, he lost his way, got off the right track, and +finally gave himself up as doomed to certain death. For some days he +remained wandering round and round the same spot, without either +recovering the path or being able to reach the shore. Hunger did not at +first press him, for he ate the meat with which his master had loaded +him, and ate it raw, not knowing the Indian manner of procuring fire, +and his knives being taken from his belt. Ignorant of what fruits were +safe to eat, where animals fit for food were to be found, and not +knowing how to kill them unarmed, he prepared his mind for the dreadful +and lingering torture of starvation. But he seems to have been of an +ingenious and persevering disposition, and hope did not altogether +forsake him. He had too a companion, for one of his master's dogs, +which had grown fond of his playmate, had remained behind with his body, +licking the hand that had so often fed him. + +At first he spent whole days vainly searching for a path. Very often he +climbed up a hill, from which he could see the great, blue, level sea, +stretching out boundless to the horizon, and this renewed his hope. He +looked up, and knew that God's sky was above him, and felt that he might +be still saved. At night he was startled by the screams of the monkeys, +the bellowing of the wild cattle in the distant savannah, or the +unearthly cry of some solitary and unknown bird. Superstition filled him +with fears, and he felt deserted by man, but tormented by the things of +evil. The tracks of the wild cattle led him far astray. Long ere this +his faithful dog, driven by hunger, had procured food for both. +Sometimes beneath the spreading boughs of the river-loving yaco-tree, +they would surprise a basking sow, surrounded by a wandering brood of +voracious sucklings. The dog would cling to the sow, while the boy +aided him in the pursuit of the errant progeny. When they had killed +their prey, they would lie down and share their meal together. The boy +learned to like the raw meat, and the dog had acquired his appetite long +before. Experience soon taught them where to capture their prey in the +quickest and surest manner. He caught the puppies of a wild dog, and +trained them in the chase; and he even taught a young wild boar that he +had caught alive to join in the capture of his own species. After having +led this life for nearly a year, he one day suddenly came upon the +long-lost path, which soon brought him to the sea-shore. His master's +tents were gone, and, from various appearances, seemed to have been long +struck. + +The lad, now grown accustomed to his wild life, resigned himself to his +condition, feeling sure that, sooner or later, he should meet with a +party of Buccaneers. His deliverance was not long delayed. After about +twelve months' life in the bush, he fell in with a troop of skinners, to +whom he related his story. They were at first distrustful and alarmed, +as his master had told them that he had _marooned_, and had joined the +Indians. His appearance soon convinced them that his story was true, and +that he was neither a _maroon_ nor a deserter, for he was clothed in the +rags of his _engagé's_ shirt and drawers, and had a strip of raw meat +hanging from his girdle. Two tame boars and three dogs followed at his +heels, and refused to leave him. He at once joined his deliverers, who +freed him from all obligations to his master, and gave him arms, powder, +and lead to hunt for himself, and he soon became one of the most +renowned Buccaneers on that coast. It was a long time before he could +eat roasted meat, which not only was distasteful, but made him ill. Long +after, when flaying a wild boar, he was frequently unable to restrain +himself from eating the flesh raw. + +When an apprentice had served three years, his master was expected to +give him as a reward a musket, a pound of powder, six pounds of lead, +two shirts, two pairs of drawers, and a cap. The _valets_, as the French +called them, then became comerades, and ceased to be mere _engagés_. +They took their own _matelots_, and became, in their turn, Buccaneers. +When they had obtained a sufficient quantity of hides, they either sent +or took them to Tortuga, and brought from thence a young apprentice to +treat him as they themselves had been treated. + +The planters' _engagés_ led a life more dreadful than that of their +wilder brethren. They were decoyed from France under the same pretences +that once filled our streets with the peasants' sons of Savoy, and the +peasants' daughters from Frankfort, or that now lure children from the +pleasant borders of Como, to pine away in a London den. The want of +sufficient negroes led men to resort to all artifices to obtain +assistance in cultivating the sugar-cane and the tobacco plant. In the +French Antilles they were sold for three years, but often resold in the +interim. Amongst the English they were bound for seven years, and being +occasionally sold again at their own request, before the expiration of +this term, they sometimes served fifteen or twenty years before they +could obtain their freedom. At Jamaica, if a man could not pay even a +small debt at a tavern, he was sold for six or eight months. The +planters had agents in France, England, and other countries, who sent +out these apprentices. They were worked much harder than the slaves, +because their lives, after the expiration of the three years, were of no +consequence to the masters. They were often the victims of a disease +called "coma," the effect of hard usage and climate, and which ended in +idiotcy. Père Labat remarks the quantity of idiots in the West Indies, +many of whom were dangerous, although allowed to go at liberty. Many of +these worse than slaves were of good birth, tender education, and weak +constitutions, unable to endure even the debilitating climate, and much +less hard labour. Esquemeling, himself originally an _engagé_, gives a +most piteous description of their sufferings. Insufficient food and +rest, he says, were the smallest of their sufferings. They were +frequently beaten, and often fell dead at their masters' feet. The men +thus treated died fast: some became dropsical, and others scorbutic. A +man named Bettesea, a merchant of St. Christopher's, was said to have +killed more than a hundred apprentices with blows and stripes. "This +inhumanity," says Esquemeling, "I have _often seen_ with great grief." +The following anecdote of human suffering equals the cruelty of the +Virginian slave owner who threw one slave into the vat of boiling +molasses, and baked another in an oven:-- + +"A certain planter (of St. Domingo) exercised such cruelty towards one +of his servants as caused him to run away. Having absconded for some +days in the woods, he was at last taken, and brought back to the wicked +Pharaoh. No sooner had he got him but he commanded him to be tied to a +tree; here he gave him so many lashes on his naked back as made his body +run with an entire stream of blood; then, to make the smart of his +wounds the greater, he anointed him with lemon-juice, mixed with salt +and pepper. In this miserable posture he left him tied to the tree for +twenty-four hours, which being past, he began his punishment again, +lashing him as before, so cruelly, that the miserable creature gave up +the ghost, with these dying words, 'I beseech the Almighty God, Creator +of heaven and earth, that He permit the wicked spirit to make thee feel +as many torments before thy death as thou hast caused me to feel before +mine.' + +"A strange thing, and worthy of astonishment and admiration: scarce +three or four days were past, after this horrible fact, when the +Almighty Judge, who had heard the cries of that tormented wretch, +suffered the evil one suddenly to possess this barbarous and inhuman +homicide, so that those cruel hands which had punished to death the +innocent servant were the tormentors of his own body, for he beat +himself and tore his flesh after a miserable manner, till he lost the +very shape of a man, not ceasing to howl and cry without any rest by day +or night. Thus he continued raving till he died." + +It was by the endurance of such sufferings as these that the early +Buccaneers were hardened into fanatical monsters like Montbars and +Lolonnois. + +In the early part of his book, Esquemeling gives us his own history. A +Dutchman by birth, he arrived at Tortuga in 1680, when the French West +India Company, unable to turn the island into a depôt, as they had +intended, were selling off their merchandise and their plantations. +Esquemeling, as a bound _engagé_ of the company, was sold to the +lieutenant-governor of the island, who treated him with great severity, +and refused to take less than three hundred pieces of eight for his +freedom. Falling sick through vexation and despair, he was sold to a +chirurgeon, for seventy pieces of eight, who proved kind to him, and +finally gave him his liberty for 100 pieces of eight, to be paid after +his first Flibustier trip. + +Oexmelin was probably sold almost at the same time as Esquemeling, and +was bought by the commandant-general. Not allowed to pursue his own +profession of a surgeon, he was employed in the most laborious and +painful work, transplanting tobacco, or thinning the young plants, +grating cassava, or pressing the juice from the banana. Overworked and +under fed, associating with slaves, and regarded with hatred and +suspicion, he scarcely received money enough to procure either food or +clothing; his master refusing, even for the inducement of two crowns +a-day, to allow him to practise as physician. A single year of toil at +the plantations threw him into dangerous ill health; for weeks sheltered +only under an outhouse, he was kept alive by the kindness of a black +slave, who brought him daily an egg. Feeble as he was, the great thirst +of a tropical fever compelled him often to rise and drag himself to a +neighbouring tank, that he might drink, even though to drink were to +die. Recovering from this fever, a wolfish hunger was the first sign of +convalescence, but to appease this he had neither food, nor money to buy +it. In this condition he devoured even unripe oranges, green, hard, and +bitter, and resorted to other extremities which he is ashamed to +confess. On one occasion as he was descending from the rock fort, where +his master lived, into the town, he met a friend, the secretary of the +governor, who made him come and dine with him, and gave him a parting +present of a bottle of wine; his master, who had seen what had passed, +by means of a telescope, from his place of vantage, when he returned, +took away the wine, and threw him into a dungeon, accusing him of being +a spy and a traitor. This prison was a cellar, hollowed out of the rock, +full of filth and very dark. In this he swore Oexmelin should rot in +spite of all the governors in the world. Here he was kept for three +days, his feet in irons, fed only by a little bread and water that they +passed to him through an aperture, without even opening the door. One +day, as he lay naked on the stone, and in the dark, he felt a snake +twine itself, cold and slimy, round his body, tightening the folds till +they grew painful, and then sliding off to its hole. On the fourth day +they opened the door and tried to discover if he had told the governor +anything of his master's cruelties; they then set him to dig a plot of +ground near the Fort. Finding himself left unguarded, he resolved to go +and complain to the governor, having first consulted a good old +Capuchin, who took compassion on his pale and famished aspect. The +governor instantly took pity on the wretched runaway, fed and clothed +him, and on his recovery to health placed him with a celebrated surgeon +of the place, who paid his value to his master; the governor being +unwilling to take him into his own service, for fear he should be +accused to the home authorities of taking away slaves from the planters. + +The _engagés_ were called to their work at daybreak by a shrill whistle +(as the negroes are now by the hoarse conch shell); and the foreman, +allowing any who liked to smoke, led them to their work. This consisted +in felling trees and in picking or lopping tobacco; the driver stood by +them as they dug or picked, and struck those who slackened or rested, as +a captain would do to his galley slaves. Whether sick or well they were +equally obliged to work. They were frequently employed in picking mahot, +a sort of bark used to tie up bales. If they died of fatigue they were +quietly buried, and there an end. Early in the morning one of the band +had to feed the pigs with potato leaves, and prepare his comerades' +dinner. They boiled their meat, putting peas and chopped potatoes into +the water. The cook worked with the gang, but returned a little sooner +to prepare his messmates' dinner, while they were stripping the tobacco +stalk. On feast-days and Sundays they had some indulgences. Oexmelin +relates an instance of a sick slave being employed to turn a grindstone +on which his master was sharpening his axe; being too weak to do it +well, the butcher turned round and clove him down between the shoulders. +The slave fell down, bleeding profusely, and died within two hours; yet +this master was one of a body of planters deemed very indulgent in +comparison to those of some other islands. One planter of St. +Christopher, named Belle Tête, who came from Dieppe, prided himself on +having killed 200 _engagés_ who would not work, all of whom, he +declared, died of sheer laziness. When they were in the last +extremities he was in the habit of rubbing their mouths with the yolk of +an egg, in order that he might conscientiously swear he had pressed them +to take food till the very last. Upon a priest one day remonstrating +with him on his brutality, he replied, with perfect effrontery, that he +had once been a bound _engagé_, and had never been treated better; that +he had come all the way to that shore to get money, and provided he +could get it and see his children roll in a coach, he did not care +himself if the devil carried him off. + +The following anecdote shows what strange modifications of crime this +species of slavery might occasionally produce. There was a rich +inhabitant of Guadaloupe, whose father became so poor that he was +obliged to sell himself as an _engagé_, and by a singular coincidence +sold himself to a merchant who happened to be his son's agent. The poor +fellow, finding himself his son's servant, thought himself well off, but +soon found that he was treated as brutally as the rest. The son, +finding the father was old and discontented, and therefore unable to do +much work, and afraid to beat him for the sake of the scandal, sold him +soon after to another planter, who treated him better, gave him more to +eat, and eventually restored him to liberty. Of the ten thousand Scotch +and Irish whom Cromwell sent to the West Indies, many became _engagés_, +and finally Buccaneers. Many of the old Puritan soldiers, who had served +in the same wars, were enrolled in the same ranks. + +The same principle of brotherhood applied to the planters as to the +ordinary Buccaneers. They called each other _matelots_, and, before +living together, signed a contract by which they agreed to share +everything in common. Each had the power to dispose of his companion's +money and goods, and an agreement signed by one bound the other also. If +the one died, the survivor became the inheritor of the whole, in +preference even to heirs who might come from Europe to claim the share +or attempt to set up a claim. The engagement could be broken up whenever +either wished it, and was often cancelled in a moment of petulance or +of transitory vexation. A third person was sometimes admitted into the +brotherhood on the same conditions. By this singular custom, friendships +were formed as firm as those between a Highlander and his +foster-brother, a Canadian trapper and his comerade, or an English +sailor and his messmate. + +The _matelotage_, or _compagnon à bon lot_, being thus formed, the two +planters would go to the governor of the island and request a grant of +land. The officer of the district was then sent to measure out what they +required, of a specified size in a specified spot. The usual grant was a +plot, two hundred feet wide and thirty feet long, as near as possible to +the sea-shore, as being most convenient for the transport of goods, as +well as for the ease of procuring salt water, which they used in +preparing the tobacco leaf. When the sea-shore was covered with cabins +the planters built their huts higher up and four deep, those nearest to +the beach being obliged to allow a roadway to those who were the +furthest back. Their lodges, or _ajoupas_, were raised upon ground +cleared from wood, the thicket being first burnt with the lower branches +of the larger trees. The trunks, too large to remove, were cut down to +within two or three feet of the earth, and allowed to dry and rot for +several summers, and finally also consumed by fire. The savages, on the +other hand, cut down all the trees, let them dry as they fell, and then, +setting the whole alight, reduced it at once to ashes, without any +clearing, lopping, or piling. When about thirty or forty feet of ground +was thus cleared, they began to plant vegetables and cultivate the +ground--peas, potatoes, manioc, banana, and figs being the daily +necessaries of their lives. The banana they planted near rivers, no +planter residing in a place where there was not some well or spring. +Their _casa_, or chief lodge, was supported by posts fifteen or sixteen +feet high, thatched with palm branches, rushes, or sugar-canes, and +walled either with reeds or palisades. Inside, they had _barbecues_, or +forms rising two or three feet from the ground, upon which lay their +mattresses stuffed with banana leaves, and above it the mosquito net of +thin white linen, which they called a _pavillon_. A smaller lodge served +for cooking or for warehousing. Friends and neighbours always assisted +in building these cabins, and were treated in return with brandy by the +planter. The laws of the society obliged the settlers to help each +other, and this kindness was never refused. The same system of mutual +support originated the Scotch penny weddings and the English friendly +custom of ploughing a young farmer's fields. + +Now the _ajoupa_ was built, the tobacco ground had to be dug. An +enclosure of two thousand plants required much care, and was obliged to +be kept clean and free from weeds. They had to be lopped, and +transplanted, and irrigated, and finally picked and stored. The people +of Tortuga, the Buccaneers' island, exchanged their tobacco with the +French merchants for hatchets, hoes, knives, sacking, and above all for +wine and brandy. + +From potatoes, which the planters ate for breakfast, they extracted +maize, a sour but pleasant beverage. The cassava root they grated for +cakes, making a liquor called _veycon_ of the residue. From the banana +they also extracted an intoxicating drink. + +With the wild boar hunters they exchanged tobacco leaf for dried meat, +often paying away at one time two or three hundred weight of tobacco, +and frequently sending a servant of their own to the savannahs to help +the hunter and to supply him with powder and shot. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE FLIBUSTIERS, OR SEA ROVERS. + + Originated in the Spanish persecution of French + Hunters--Customs--Pay and Pensions--The Mosquito Indians, their + Habits--Food--Lewis Scott, an Englishman, first Corsair--John Davis: + takes St. Francisco, in Campeachy--Debauchery--Love of + Gaming--Religion--Class from which they sprang--Equality at + Sea--Mode of Fighting--Dress. + + +The Flibustiers first began by associating together in bands of from +fifteen to twenty men. Each of them carried the Buccaneer musket, +holding a ball of sixteen to the pound, and had generally pistols at his +belt, holding bullets of twenty or twenty-four to the pound, and besides +this they wore a good sabre or cutlass. When collected at some +preconcerted rendezvous, generally a key or small island off Cuba, they +elected a captain, and embarked in a canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of +a single tree in the Indian manner. This canoe was either bought by the +association or the captain. If the latter, they agreed to give him the +first ship they should take. As soon as they had all signed the +charter-party, or mutual agreement, they started for the destined port +off which they were to cruise. The first Spanish vessel they took served +to repay the captain and recompense themselves. They dressed themselves +in the rich robes of Castilian grandees over their own blooded shirts, +and sat down to revel in the gilded saloon of the galleon. If they found +their prize not seaworthy, they would take her to some small sand island +and careen, while the crew helped the Indians to turn turtle, and to +procure bull's flesh. The Spanish crew they kept to assist in careening, +for they never worked themselves, but fought and hunted while the +unfortunate prisoners were toiling round the fire where the pitch +boiled, or the turtle was stewing. The Flibustiers divided the spoil as +soon as each one had taken an oath that nothing had been secreted. When +the ship was ready for sea, they let the Spaniards go, and kept only the +slaves. If there were no negroes or Indians, they retained a few +Spaniards to wait upon them. If the prisoners were men of consequence, +they detained them till they could obtain a ransom. Every Flibustier +brought a certain supply of powder and ball for the common stock. Before +starting on an expedition it was a common thing to plunder a Spanish +hog-yard, where a thousand swine were often collected, surrounding the +keeper's lodge at night, and shooting him if he made any resistance. The +tortoise fishermen were often forced to fish for them gratuitously, +although nearly every ship had its Mosquito Indian to strike turtle and +sea-cow, and to fish for the whole boat's crew. "No prey, no pay," was +the Buccaneers' motto. The charter-party specified the salary of the +captain, surgeon, and carpenter, and allowed 200 pieces of eight for +victualling. The boys had but half a share, although it was either +their duty or the surgeon's, when the rest had boarded, to remain behind +to fire the former vessel, and then retire to the prize. + +The Buccaneer code, worthy of Napoleon or Justinian, was equal to the +statutes of any land, insomuch as it answered the want of those for whom +it was compiled, and seldom required either revision or enlargement. It +was never appealed from, and was seldom found to be unjust or severe. + +The captain was allowed five or six shares, the master's mate only two, +and the other officers in proportion, down to the lowest mariner. All +acts of special bravery or merit were rewarded by special grants. The +man who first caught sight of a prize received a hundred crowns. The +sailor who struck down the enemy's captain, and the first boarder who +reached the enemy's deck, were also distinguished by honours. The +surgeon, always a great man among a crew whose lives so often depended +on his skill, received 200 crowns to supply his medicine chest. If they +took a prize, he had a share like the rest. If they had no money to +give him, he was rewarded with two slaves. + +The loss of an eye was recompensed at 100 crowns, or one slave. + +The loss of both eyes with 600 crowns, or six slaves. + +The loss of a right hand or right leg at 200 crowns, or two slaves. + +The loss of both hands or legs at 600 crowns, or six slaves. + +The loss of a finger or toe at 100 crowns, or one slave. + +The loss of a foot or leg at 200 crowns, or two slaves. + +The loss of both legs at 600 crowns, or six slaves. + +Nothing but death seems to have been considered as worth recompensing +with more than 600 crowns. For any wound, which compelled a sailor to +carry a _canulus_, 200 crowns were given, or two slaves. If a man had +not even lost a member, but was for the present deprived of the use of +it, he was still entitled to his compensation as much as if he had lost +it altogether. The maimed were allowed to take either money or slaves. + +The charter-party drawn up by Sir Henry Morgan before his famous +expedition, which ended in the plunder and destruction of Panama, shows +several modifications of the earlier contract. + +To him who struck the enemy's flag, and planted the Buccaneers', fifty +piastres, besides his share. + +To him who took a prisoner who brought tidings, 100 piastres, besides +his share. + +For every grenade thrown into an enemy's port-hole, five piastres. + +To him who took an officer of rank at the risk of his life, +proportionate reward. + +To him who lost two legs, 500 crowns, or fifteen slaves. + +To him who lost two arms, 800 piastres, or eighteen slaves. + +To him who lost one leg or one arm, 500 piastres, or six slaves. + +To him who lost an eye, 100 piastres, or one slave. + +For both eyes, 200 piastres, or two slaves. + +For the loss of a finger, 100 piastres, or one slave. A Flibustier who +had a limb crippled, received the same pay as if it was lost. A wound +requiring an issue, was recompensed with 500 piastres, or five slaves. +These shares were all allotted before the general division. If a vessel +was taken at sea, its cargo was divided among the whole fleet, but the +crew first boarding it received 100 crowns, if its value exceeded 10,000 +crowns, and for every 10,000 crowns' worth of cargo, 100 went to the men +that boarded. The surgeon received 200 piastres, besides his share. + +The Mosquito Indians were the helots of the Buccaneers; they employed +them to catch fish, and their vessels had generally a small canoe, kept +for their use, in which they might strike tortoise or manitee. These +Indians used no oars, but a pair of broad-bladed paddles, which they +held perpendicularly, grasping the staff with both hands and putting +back the water by sheer strength, and with very quick, short strokes. +Two men generally went in the same boat, the one sitting in the stern, +the other kneeling down in the head. They both paddled softly till they +approached the spot where their prey lay; they then remained still, +looking very warily about them, and the one at the head then rose up, +with his striking-staff in his hand. This weapon was about eight feet +long, almost as thick as a man's arm at the larger end, at which there +was a hole into which the harpoon was put; at the other extremity was +placed a piece of light (bob) wood, with a hole in it, through which the +small end of the staff came. On this bob wood a line of ten or twelve +fathoms was neatly wound--the end of the one line being fastened to the +wood, and the other to the harpoon, the man keeping about a fathom of it +loose in his hand. When he struck, the harpoon came off the shaft, and, +as the wounded fish swam away, the line ran off from the reel. Although +the bob and line were frequently dragged deep under water, and often +caught round coral branches or sunk wreck, it generally rose to the +surface of the water. The Indians struggled to recover the bob, which +they were accustomed to do in about a quarter of an hour. + +When the sea-cow grew tired and began to lie still, they drew in the +line, and the monster, feeling the harpoon a second time, would often +make a maddened rush at the canoe. It then became necessary that the +steersman should be nimble in turning the head of the canoe the way his +companion pointed, as he alone was able to see and feel the way the +manitee was swimming. Directly the fish grew tired, they hauled in the +line, which the vexed creature drew out again a dozen times with +ferocious but impotent speed. When its strength grew quite exhausted, +they would drag it up the side of their boat and knock it on the head, +or, pulling it to the shore, made it fast while they went out to strike +another. From the great size of a sea-cow it was always necessary to go +to shore in order to get it safely into their boats; hauling it up in +shoal water, they upset their canoes, and then rolling the fish in +righted again with the weight. The Indians sometimes paddled one home, +and towed the other after them. Dampierre says he knew two Indians, who +every day for a week brought two manitee on board his ship, the least +not weighing less than six hundred pounds, and yet in so small a canoe +that three Englishmen could row it. + +If the fishermen struck a sea-cow that had a calf they generally +captured both--the mother carrying the young under her side fins, and +always regarding their safety before her own; the young, moreover, would +seldom desert their mother, and would follow the canoe in spite of noise +and blows. The least sound startled the manitee, but the turtles +required less care. These fish had certain islands near Cuba which they +chose to lay their eggs in. At certain seasons they came from the gulf +of Honduras in such vast multitudes, that ships, which had lost their +latitude, very often steered at night, following the sound of these +clattering shoals. When they had been about a month in the Caribbean sea +they grew fat, and the fishing commenced. Salt turtle was the +Buccaneers' healthiest food, and was supposed to free them from all the +ailments of debauchery. The Indians struck the turtle with a short, +sharp, triangular-headed iron, not more than an inch long, which fitted +into a spear handle. The lance head was loose and had the usual line +attached. Their lines they made of the fibrous bark of a tree, which +they also used for their rigging. + +The manitee, or sea-cow, was a favourite article of food with these +wandering seamen. It was a monster as big as a horse, and as unwieldy as +a walrus, with eyes not much larger than peas, and a head like a cow. +Its flesh was white, sweet, and wholesome. The tail of a young fish was +a dainty, and a young sucking-calf, roasted, was an epicure's morsel. +The head and tail of older animals were tough, yet the belly was +frequently eaten. + +Dampierre speaks of his companions feasting on pork and peas, and beef +and dough-boys, and this nautical coarseness was generally found +associated with occasional tropical luxuriousness. In cases of +necessity, wrecked sailors fed on sharks, which they first boiled and +then squeezed dry, and stewed with pepper and vinegar. The oil of turtle +they used instead of butter for their dumplings. The best turtle were +said to be those that fed on land; those that lived on sea-weed, and +not on grass, being yellow and rank. The larger fish needed two men to +turn them on their backs. The Flibustiers also ate the iguanas, or large +South American lizards. Vast flocks of doves were found in many of the +islands, sometimes in such abundance that a sailor could knock down five +or six dozen of an afternoon. + +The Buccaneers' history is a singular example of how evil generates +evil. The Spaniards destroyed the wild cattle, and the hunters turned +freebooters. Spain discontinued trading to prevent piracy, and the +adventurers, starved for want of gold, made descents upon the mainland. +The evil grew by degrees till the worm they had at first trod upon arose +in their path an indestructible and devastating monster of a hundred +heads. First single ships, then fleets, were swept off by these locusts +of the deep; first, islands were burnt, then villages sacked, and at +last cities conquered. First the North and then the South Pacific were +visited, till the whole coast from Panama to Cape Horn trembled at the +very flutter of their flag. The first Flibustier, Lewis Scott, scared +Campeachy with a few canoes. Grognet grappled the Lima fleet with a +whole squadron of pirate craft. The Buccaneer spirit arose from revenge, +and ended in robbery and murder. At first fierce but merciful, they grew +rapacious, loathsome, and bloody. Their early chivalry forsook +them--they sank into the enemies of God and all mankind, and the last +refuse of them expired on the gallows of Jamaica, children of Cain, +unpitied by any, their very courage despised, and their crimes detested. +At their culminating point, united under the sway of one great mind, +they might have formed a large empire in South America, or conquered it +as tributaries to France or England. Always thirsty for gold, they were +often chivalrous, generous, intrepid, merciful, and disinterested. + +A greater evil soon cured the lesser. The Spaniards, dreading robbery +worse than death, ceased in a great measure to trade. The poorer +merchants were ruined by the loss of a single cocoa vessel; the richer +waited for the convoy of the plate fleets, or followed in the wake of +the galleon, hoping to escape if she was captured, as the chickens do +when the hen goes cackling up in the claws of the kite. For every four +vessels that once sailed not more than one could be now seen. What with +the war of France on Holland, and England on France, and all on Spain, +there was little safety for the poor trader. Yet those who could risk a +loss still made great profits. This cessation of trade was a poor remedy +against the sea robber: it was to rob oneself instead of being robbed, +to commit suicide for fear of murder. It was a remedy that saved life, +but rendered life hateful. The Buccaneers, starving for want of prey, +remained moodily in the rocky fastnesses of Tortuga, like famished +eagles looking down on a country they have devastated. To accomplish +greater feats they united in bodies, and made forays on the coast. They +had before remained at the threshold--they now rushed headlong into the +sanctuary, and they got _their_ bread, or rather other people's bread, +by daring dashes and surprises of towns, leaving them only when wrapped +in flames or swept by the pestilence that always followed in their +train. + +We may claim for our own nation the first pioneer in this new field of +enterprise. Lewis Scott, an Englishman, led the way by sacking the town +of St. Francisco, in Campeachy, and, compelling the inhabitants to pay a +ransom, returned safely to Jamaica. Where the carcase is there will the +eagles be gathered together, for no sooner had his sails grown small in +the distance than Mansweld, another Buccaneer, made several successful +descents upon the same luckless coast, unfortunate in its very +fertility. He then equipped a fleet and attempted to return by the +kingdom of New Granada to the South Sea, passing the town of Carthagena. +This scheme failed in consequence of a dispute arising between the +French and English crews, who were always quarrelling over their +respective share of provisions; but in spite of this he took the island +of St. Catherine, and attempted to found a Buccaneer state. + +John Davis, a Dutchman, excelled both his predecessors in daring. +Cruising about Jamaica he became a scourge to all the Spanish mariners +who ventured near the coasts of the Caraccas, or his favourite haunts, +Carthagena and the Boca del Toro, where he lay wait for vessels bound to +Nicaragua. One day he missed his shot, and having a long time traversed +the sea and taken nothing--a failure which generally drove these brave +men to some desperate expedient to repair their sinking fortunes--he +resolved with ninety men to visit the lagoon of Nicaragua, and sack the +town of Granada. An Indian from the shores of the lagoon promised to +guide him safely and secretly; and his crew, with one voice, declared +themselves ready to follow him wherever he led. By night he rowed thirty +leagues up the river, to the entry of the lake, and concealed his ships +under the boughs of the trees that grew upon the banks; then putting +eighty men in his three canoes he rowed on to the town, leaving ten +sailors to guard the vessels. By day they hid under the trees; at night +they pushed on towards the unsuspecting town, and reached it on the +third midnight--taking it, as he had expected, without a blow and by +surprise. To a sentinel's challenge they replied that they were +fishermen returning home, and two of the crew, leaping on shore, ran +their swords through the interrogator, to stop further questions which +might have been less easily answered. Following their guide they reached +a small covered way that led to the right of the town, while another +Indian towed their canoes to a point to which they had agreed each man +should bring his booty. + +As soon as they arrived at the town they separated into small bands, and +were led one by one to the houses of the richest inhabitants. Here they +quietly knocked, and, being admitted as friends, seized the inmates by +the throat and compelled them, on pain of death, to surrender all the +money and jewels that they had. They then roused the sacristans of the +principal churches, from whom they took the keys and carried off all the +altar plate that could be beaten up or rendered portable. The pixes +they stripped of their gems, gouged out the jewelled eyes of virgin +idols, and hammered up the sacramental cups into convenient lumps of +metal. + +This quiet and undisturbed pillage had lasted for two hours without a +struggle, when some servants, escaping from the adventurers, began to +ring the alarm bells to warn the town, while a few of the already +plundered citizens, breaking into the marketplace, filled the streets +with uproar and affright. Davis, seeing that the inhabitants were +beginning to rally from that panic which had alone secured his victory, +commenced a retreat, as the enemy were now gathering in armed and +threatening numbers. In a hollow square, with their booty in the centre, +the Buccaneers fought their way to their boats, amid tumultuous +war-cries and shouts of derision and exultation. In spite of their +haste, they were prudent enough to carry with them some rich Spaniards, +intending to exchange them for any of their own men they might lose in +their retreat. On regaining their ships they compelled these prisoners +to send them as a ransom 500 cows, with which they revictualled their +ships for the passage back to Jamaica. They had scarcely well weighed +anchor before they saw 600 mounted Spaniards dash down to the shore in +the hopes of arresting their retreat. A few broadsides were the parting +greetings of these unwelcome visitors. + +This expedition was accomplished in eight days. The booty consisted of +coined money and bullion amounting to about 40,000 crowns. Esquemeling +computes it at 4,000 pieces of eight, and in ready money, plate, and +jewels to about 50,000 pieces of eight more. + +Thus concluded this adventurous raid, in which a town forty leagues +inland, and containing at least 800 well-armed defenders, was stormed +and robbed by eighty resolute sailors. Davis reached Jamaica in safety +with his plunder, which was soon put into wider circulation by the aid +of the dice, the tavern keepers, and the courtesans. The money once +expended, Davis was roused to fresh exertion. He associated himself with +two or three other captains, who, superstitiously relying on his good +fortune, chose him as admiral of a small flotilla of eight or nine armed +gunboats. The less fortunate rewarded him with boundless confidence. His +first excursion was to the town of St. Christopher, in Cuba, to wait for +the fleet from New Spain, in hopes to cut off some rich unwieldy +straggler. But the fleet contrived to escape his sentinels and pass +untouched. Davis then sallied forth and sacked a small town named St. +Augustine of Florida, in spite of its castle and garrison of 100 men. He +suffered little loss; but the inhabitants proved very poor, and the +booty was small. + +In making war against Spain, the hunters were mere privateersmen +cruising against a national enemy; but in their endurance, patience, and +energy, they stood alone. In their onset--rushing, singing, and dancing +through fire and flame--they resembled rather the old Barsekars or the +first levies of Mohammed. But in one point they were very remarkable; +that they did more, and were yet actuated by a lower motive. Almost +devoid of religion, they fought with all the madness of fanaticism +against a people themselves constitutionally fanatic, but already +enervated by climate, by sudden wealth, and a long experience of +contaminating luxury. The galleons of Manilla were their final aim, as +they gradually passed from the devastated shores of South America to the +Philippine Islands and the coasts of Guinea. They had been the +instrument of Providence, and knew themselves so, to avenge the wrongs +of the Indian upon the Spaniard; they were soon to become the first +avengers of the Negro. Long years of plunder had made the Spaniard and +the Creole as secretive as the Hindu. At the first intelligence of some +terrified fisherman, the frightened townsman threw his pistoles into +wells, or mortared them up in the wall of his fortresses. Laden mules +were driven into the interior; the women fled to the nearest plantation; +the old men barred themselves up in the church. Their first thought was +always flight; their second, to turn and strike a blow for all they +loved, valued, and revered. + +The debauchery of the Buccaneers was as unequalled as their courage. +Oexmelin relates a story of an Englishman who gave 500 crowns to his +mistress at a single revel. This man, who had earned 1,500 crowns by +exposing himself to desperate dangers, was, within three months, sold +for a term of three years to a planter, to discharge a tavern debt which +he could not pay. A conqueror of Panama might be seen to-morrow driven +by the overseer's whip among a gang of slaves, cutting sugar canes, or +picking tobacco. + +Another Buccaneer, a Frenchman, surnamed Vent-en-Panne, was so addicted +to play that he lost everything but his shirt. Every pistole that he +could earn he spent in this absorbing vice--so tempting to men, who +longed for excitement, were indifferent to money, and daily risked their +lives for the prospect of gain. On one occasion he lost 500 crowns, his +whole share of some recent prize-money, besides 300 crowns which he had +borrowed of a comerade who would now lend him no more. Determined to try +his fortune again, he hired himself as servant at the very +gambling-house where he had been ruined, and, by lighting pipes for the +players and bringing them in wine, earned fifty crowns in two days. He +staked this, and soon won 12,000 crowns. He then paid his debts and +resolved to lose no more, shipping himself on board an English vessel +that touched at Barbadoes. At Barbadoes he met a rich Jew who offered to +play him. Unable to abstain, he sat down, and won 1,300 crowns and +100,000 lbs. of sugar already shipped for England, and, in addition to +this, a large mill and sixty slaves. The Jew, begging him to stay and +give him his revenge, ran and borrowed some money, and returned and took +up the cards. The Buccaneer consented, more from love of play than +generosity; and the Jew, putting down 1,500 jacobuses, won back 100 +crowns, and finally all his antagonist's previous winnings--stripping +him even to the very clothes he wore. The delighted winner allowed him +for very shame to retain his clothes, and gave him money enough to +return, disconsolate and beggared, to Tortuga. Becoming again a +Buccaneer, he gained 6,000 or 7,000 crowns. M. D'Ogeron, the governor, +treating him as a wayward child, taking away his money, sent him back to +France with bills of exchange for the amount. Vent-en-Panne, now cured +of his vice, took to merchandise; but, always unfortunate, was killed in +his first voyage to the West Indies, his vessel being attacked by two +Ostende frigates, of twenty-four or thirty guns each, which were +eventually, however, driven off by the dead man's crew of only thirty +Buccaneers. + +When the pleasures of Tortuga or Jamaica had swallowed up all the +hard-earned winnings of these men, they returned to sea, expending their +last pistoles in powder and ball, and leaving heavy scores still +unsettled with the cabaretiers. They then hastened to the quays, or +small sandy islands off Cuba, to careen their vessels and to salt +turtle. Sometimes they repaired to Honduras, where they had Indian +wives; latterly, to the Galapagos isles, to the Boca del Toro, or the +coast of Castilla del Oro. + +Some Buccaneers, Esquemeling says, would spend 3,000 piastres in a +night, not leaving themselves even a shirt in the morning. "My own +master," he adds, "would buy a whole pipe of wine, and, placing it in +the street, would force every one that passed by to drink with him, +threatening also to pistol them in case they would not do it. At other +times he would do the same with barrels of ale or beer; and very often +with both his hands he would throw these liquors about the street, and +wet the clothes of such as walked by, without regard whether he spoiled +their apparel or not, or whether they were men or women." Port Royal was +a favourite scene for such carousals. + +Even as late as 1694, Montauban gives us some idea of the wild +debaucheries committed by the Buccaneers even at Bourdeaux. "My +freebooters," he says, "who had not seen France for a long time, finding +themselves now in a great city where pleasure and plenty reigned, were +not backward to refresh themselves after the fatigues they had endured +while so long absent from their native country. They spent a world of +money here, and proved horribly extravagant. The merchants and their +hosts made no scruple to advance them money, or lend them as much as +they pleased, upon the reputation of their wealth and the noise there +was throughout the city of the valuable prizes whereof they had a share. +All the nights they spent in such divertisements as pleased them best; +and the days, in running up and down the town in masquerade, causing +themselves to be carried in chairs with lighted flambeaux at noon--of +which debauches some died, while four of my crew fairly deserted me." + +This, it must be remembered, was at a time when buccaneering had sunk +into privateering--the half-way house to mere piracy. The distinguishing +mark of the true Buccaneer was, that he attacked none but Spaniards. + +Of the Buccaneers' estimation of religion, Charlevoix gives us some +curious accounts. He says, "there remained no traces of it in their +heart, but still, sometimes, from time to time, they appeared to +meditate deeply. They never commenced a combat without first embracing +each other, in sign of reconciliation. They would at such times strike +themselves rudely on the breast, as if they wished to rouse some +compunction in their hearts, and were not able. Once escaped from +danger, they returned headlong to their debauchery, blasphemy, and +brigandage. The Buccaneers, looking upon themselves as worthy fellows, +regarded the Flibustiers as wretches, but in reality there was not much +difference. The Buccaneers were, perhaps, the less vicious, but the +Flibustiers preserved a little more of the externals of religion; _with +the exception of a certain honour among them, and their abstinence from +human flesh, few savages were more wicked, and a great number of them +much less so_." + +This passage shows a very curious jealousy between the hunters and the +corsairs, and a singular distinction as to religious feeling. Père +Labat, however, speaks of the Flibustiers as attending confession +immediately after a sea-fight with most exemplary devotion. A more +important distinction than that made by Charlevoix was that between the +Protestant and Roman Catholic adventurers, the latter being as +superstitious as the former were irreverent. Ravenau de Lussan always +speaks with horror of the blasphemy and irreligion of his English +comerades, one of whom was an old trooper of Cromwell's; and Grognet's +fleet eventually separated from the English ships, on account of the +latter crews lopping crucifixes with their sabres, and firing at images +with their pistols. A Flibustier captain, named Daniel, shot one of his +men in a Spanish church for behaving irreverently at mass; and Ringrose +gives an instance of an English commander who threw the dice overboard, +if he found his men gambling on a Sunday. + +We find Ravenau de Lussan's troop singing a _Te Deum_ after victories, +and Oexmelin tells us that prayers were said daily on board Flibustier +ships. + +It is difficult to say from what class of life either the Buccaneers or +the Flibustiers sprang. The planters often became hunters, and the +hunters sailors, and the reverse. Morgan was a Welsh farmer's son, who +ran away to sea; Montauban, the son of a Gascon gentleman; D'Ogeron had +been a captain in the French marines; Von Horn, a common sailor in an +Ostende smack; Dampierre was a Somersetshire yeoman, and Esquemeling a +Dutch planter's apprentice. Charlevoix says, "few could bear for many +years a life so hard and laborious, and the greater part only continued +in it till they could gain enough to become planters. Many, continually +wasting their money, never earned sufficient to buy a plantation; others +grew so accustomed to the life, and so fond even of its hardships and +painful risks, that, though often heirs to good fortunes, they would not +leave it to return to France." + +The life of M. D'Ogeron, the governor of Tortuga, is an example of +another class of Buccaneers, and of the causes which led to the choice +of such a profession. At fifteen, he was captain of a regiment of +marines, and in 1656, joining a company intending to colonize the +Matingo river, he embarked in a ship, fitted out at the expense of +17,000 livres. Disappointed in this bubble, he tried to settle at +Martinique, but deceived by the governor, who withdrew a grant of land, +he determined to settle with the Buccaneers of St. Domingo. Embarking in +a ricketty vessel, he ran ashore on Hispaniola, and lost all his +merchandise and provisions. Giving his _engagés_ their liberty, he +joined the hunters, and became distinguished as well for courage as +virtue. His goods sent from France were sold at a loss, and he returned +to his native country a poor man. Collecting his remaining money, he +hired _engagés_, and loaded a vessel with wine and brandy. Finding the +market glutted, he sold his cargo at a loss, and was cheated by his +Jamaica agent. Returning again to France, he fitted out a third vessel, +and finally settled as a planter in Hispaniola. At this juncture the +French West India Company fixed their eyes upon him, and in 1665 made +him governor of their colony. + +Ravenau de Lussan illustrates the motives that sometimes led the youth +of the higher classes to turn Buccaneers. He commences his book with +true French vanity, by saying, that few children of Paris, which +contains so many of the wonders of the world (ten out of the eight, we +suppose), seek their fortune abroad. From a child he was seized with a +passionate disposition for travel, and would steal out of his father's +house and play truant when he was yet scarce seven. He soon reached La +Vilette and the suburbs, and by degrees learnt to lose sight of Paris. +With this passion arose a desire for a military life. The noise of a +drum in the street transported him with joy. He made a friend of an +officer, and, offering him his sword, joined his company, and witnessed +the siege of Condé, ending his campaign, still unwearied of his new form +of life. He then became a cadet in a marine regiment. The captain +drained him of all his money, and his father, at a great expense, bought +him his discharge. Under the Count D'Avegeau he entered the French +Guards, and fought at the siege of St. Guislain. Growing, on his return, +weary of Paris, he embarked again on sea, having nothing but voyages in +his head; the longest and most dangerous appearing to his imagination, +he says, the most delightful. Travelling by land seemed to him long and +difficult, and he once more chose the sea, deeming it only fit for a +woman to remain at home ignorant of the world. His affectionate parents +tried in vain to reason him out of this gadding humour, and finding him +only grow firmer and more inflexible, they desisted. + +Not caring whither he went, so he could get to sea, he embarked in 1697 +from Dieppe for St. Domingo. Here he remained for five months _engagé_ +to a French planter, "more a Turk than a Frenchman." "But what misery," +he says, "soever I have undergone with him, I freely forgive him, being +resolved to forget his name, which I shall not mention in this place, +because the laws of Christianity require that at my hand, though as to +matters of charity he is not to expect much of that in me, since he, on +his part, has been every way defective in the exercise thereof upon my +account." But his patience at last worn out, and weary of cruelties that +seemed endless, De Lussan applied to M. de Franquesnay, the king's +lieutenant, who himself gave him shelter in his house for six months. He +was now in debt, and thinking it "honest to pay his creditors," he +joined the freebooters in order to satisfy them, not willing to apply +again for money to his parents. "These borrowings from the Spaniards," +he says, "have this advantage attending them, that there is no +obligation to repay them," and there was war between the two crowns, so +that he was a legal privateersman. Selecting a leader, De Lussan pitched +on De Graff, as a brave corsair, who happened to be then at St. Domingo, +eager to sail. Furnishing himself with arms, at the expense of +Franquesnay, he joined De Graff. "We were," he says, "in a few hours +satisfied with each other, and became such friends as those are wont to +be who are about to run the same risk of fortune, and apparently to die +together." The 22nd of November, the day he sailed from Petit Guave, +seemed the happiest of his life. + +Dampierre mentions an old Buccaneer, who was slain at the taking of +Leon. "He was," he says, "a stout, grey-headed old man, aged about +eighty-four, who had served under Oliver Cromwell in the Irish +rebellion; after which he was at Jamaica, and had followed privateering +ever since. He would not accept the offer our men made him to tarry +ashore, but said he would venture as far as the best of them; but when +surrounded by the Spaniards he refused "to take quarter, but discharged +his gun amongst them, keeping a pistol still charged; so they shot him +dead at a distance. His name was Swan (_rara avis_). He was a very +merry, hearty old man, and always used to declare he would never take +quarter." + +When the adventurers were at sea, they lived together as a friendly +brotherhood. Every morning at ten o'clock the ship's cook put the kettle +on the fire to boil the salt beef for the crew, in fresh water if they +had plenty, but if they ran short in brine; meal was boiled at the same +time, and made into a thick porridge, which was mixed with the gravy and +the fat of the meat. The whole was then served to the crew on large +platters, seven men to a plate. If the captain or cook helped themselves +to a larger share than their messmates, any of the republican crew had a +right to change plates with them. But, notwithstanding this brotherly +equality, and in spite of the captain being deposable by his crew, there +was maintained at all moments of necessity the strictest discipline, and +the most rigid subordination of rank. The crews had two meals a day. +They always said grace before meat: the French Catholics singing the +canticles of Zecharias, the Magnificat, or the Miserere; the English +reading a chapter from the New Testament, or singing a psalm. + +Directly a vessel hove in sight, the Flibustiers gave chase. If it +showed a Spanish flag, the guns were run out, and the decks cleared; the +pikes lashed ready, and every man prepared his musket and powder, of +which he alone was the guardian (and not the gunner), these articles +being generally paid for from the common stock, unless provided by the +captain. + +They first fell on their knees at their quarters (each group round its +gun), to pray God that they might obtain both victory and plunder. Then +all lay down flat on the deck, except the few left to steer and +navigate--proceeding to board as soon as their musketeers had silenced +the enemy's fire. If victorious, they put their prisoners on shore, +attended to the wounded, and took stock of the booty. A third part of +the crew went on board the prize, and a prize captain was chosen by lot. +No excuse was allowed; and if illness prevented the man elected taking +the office, his _matelot_, or companion, took his place. + +On arriving at Tortuga, they paid a commission to the governor, and +before dividing the spoil, rewarded the captain, the surgeons, and the +wounded. The whole crew then threw into a common heap all they possessed +above the value of five sous, and took an oath on the New Testament, +holding up their right hands, that they had kept nothing back. Any one +detected in perjury was marooned, and his share either given to the +rest, to the heirs of the dead, or as a bequest to some chapel. The +jewels and merchandise were sold, and they divided the produce. + +"It was impossible," says Oexmelin, "to put any obstacle in the way of +men who, animated simply by the hope of gain, were capable of such +great enterprises, having _nothing but life_ to lose and all to win. It +is true that they would not have persisted long in their expeditions if +they had had neither boats nor provisions. For ships they never wanted, +because they were in the habit of going out in small canoes and +capturing the largest and best provisioned vessels. For harbours they +could never want, because everybody fled before them, and they had but +to appear to be victorious." This intelligent and animated writer +concludes his book by expressing an opinion that a firm and organized +resistance by Spain at the outset might have stopped the subsequent +mischief; but this opinion he afterwards qualifies in the following +words, which, coming from such a writer so well acquainted with those of +whom he writes, speaks volumes in favour of Buccaneer prowess: "Je dis +_peut-être_, car les aventuriers sont de terribles gens." + +Charlevoix describes the first Flibustiers as going out in canoes with +twenty-five or thirty men, without pilot or provisions, to capture +pearl-fishers and surprise small cruisers. If they succeeded, they went +to Tortuga, bought a vessel, and started 150 strong, going to Cuba to +take in salt turtle, or to Port Margot or Bayaha for dried pork or +beef--dividing all upon the _compagnon à bon lot_ principle. They always +said public prayer before starting on an expedition, and returned solemn +thanks to God for victory. + +"They were," says a Jesuit writer, "at first so crowded in their boats +that they had scarcely room to lie down; and, as they practised no +economy in eating, they were always short of food. They were also night +and day exposed to the inclemency of the weather, and yet loved so much +the independence in which they lived, that no one murmured. Some sang +when others wished to sleep, and all were by turns compelled to bear +these inconveniences without complaint. But one may imagine men so +little at their ease spared no pains to gain more comforts; that the +sight of a larger and more convenient vessel gave them courage +sufficient to capture it; and that hunger deprived them of all sense of +the danger of procuring food. They attacked all they met without a +thought, and boarded as soon as possible. A single volley would have +sunk their vessels; but they were skilful in manoeuvre, their sailors +were very active, and they presented to the enemy nothing but a prow +full of fusiliers, who, firing through the portholes, struck the gunners +with terror. Once on board, nothing could prevent them becoming masters +of a ship, however numerous the crew. The Spaniards' blood grew cold +when those whom they called, and looked upon as, demons came in sight, +and they frequently surrendered at once in order to obtain quarter. If +the prize was rich their lives were spared; but if the cargo proved +poor, the Buccaneers often threw the crew into the sea in revenge." + +Their favourite coasts were the Caraccas, Carthagena, Nicaragua, and +Campeachy, where the ports were numerous and well frequented. Their best +harbours at the Caraccas were Cumana, Canagote, Coro, and Maracaibo; at +Carthagena, La Rancheria, St. Martha, and Portobello. Round Cuba they +watched for vessels going from New Spain to Maracaibo. If going, they +found them laden with silver; if returning, full of cocoa. The prizes to +the Caraccas were laden with the lace and manufactures of Spain; those +from Havannah, with leather, Campeachy wood, cocoa, tobacco, and Spanish +coin. + +The dress of the Buccaneer sailors must have varied with the changes of +the age. Retaining their red shirts and leather sandals as the working +dress of their brotherhood, we find them donning all the splendour +rummaged from Spanish cabins, now wearing the plumed hat and laced +sword-belt of Charles the Second's reign, and now the tufts of ribbons +of the perfumed court of Louis Quatorze. Sprung from all nations and all +ranks, some of them prided themselves upon the rough beard, bare feet, +and belted shirt of the rudest seaman, while others, like Grammont and +De Graff, flaunted in the richest costumes of their period. They must +have passed from the long cloak and loose cassock of the Stuart reign to +the jack-boots and Dutch dress of William of Orange; from the laced and +flowing Steenkirk to the fringed cock-hat and deep-flapped waistcoat of +Queen Anne. In the English translation of Esquemeling, Barthelemy +Portugues, one of the earliest sea-rovers, is represented as having his +long, lank hair parted in the centre and falling on his shoulders, and +his moustachios long and rough. He wears a plain embroidered coat with a +neck-band, and carries in his arms a short, broad sabre, unsheathed, as +was the habit with many Buccaneer chiefs. Roche Braziliano appears in a +plain hunter's shirt, the strings tying it at the neck being fastened in +a bow. Lolonnois has the same shirt, showing at his neck and puffing +through the openings of his sleeve, and he carries a naked broadsword +with a shell guard. In the portrait of Sir Henry Morgan we see much more +affectation of aristocratic dress. He has a rich coat of Charles the +Second's period, a laced cravat tied in a fringed bow with long ends, +and his broad sword-belt is stiff with gold lace. The hunter's shirt, +however, still shows through the slashed sleeves. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +PETER THE GREAT, THE FIRST BUCCANEER. + + Plunder of Segovia--Pierre-le-Grand--Pierre François--Barthelemy + Portugues--His Escapes--Roche, the Brazilian--Fanatical hatred of + Spaniards--Wrecks and Adventures. + + +The date of the first organized Buccaneer expedition is uncertain. We +only know that about the year 1654, a large party of Buccaneers, French +and English, joined in an expedition to the continent. They ascended, in +canoes, a river on the Mosquito Shore, a small distance on the south +side of Cape Gracias à Dios, and after labouring for a month against a +strong stream, full of torrents, left their boats and marched to the +town of Nueva Segovia, which they plundered, and then returned down the +river. + +It is difficult to trace the exact beginning of the Flibustiers, or, as +they were soon called, the Buccaneers. According to most writers, the +first successful adventurer known at Tortuga was Pierre-le-Grand (Peter +the Great). He was a native of Dieppe, and his greatest enterprise was +the capture of the vice-admiral of the Spanish _flota_, while lying off +Cape Tiburon, on the west side of Hispaniola. This he accomplished in a +canoe with only twenty-eight companions. Setting out by the Carycos he +surprised his unwieldy antagonist in the channel of Bahama, which the +Spaniards had hitherto passed in perfect security. He had been now a +long time at sea without obtaining any prize worth taking, his +provisions were all but exhausted, and his men, in danger of starving, +were almost reduced to despair. While hanging over the gunwale, listless +and discontented, the Buccaneers suddenly spied a large vessel of the +Spanish fleet, separated from the rest and fast approaching them. They +instantly sailed towards her to ascertain her strength, and though they +found it to be vastly superior to theirs, partly from despair and partly +from cupidity they resolved at once to take it or die in the attempt. It +was but to die a little quicker if they failed, and the blood in their +veins might as well be shed in a moment as slowly stagnate with famine. +If they did not conquer they would die, but if they did not attack, and +escaped notice, they would also perish, and by the most painful and +lingering of deaths. Being now come so near that flight was impossible, +they took a solemn oath to their captain to stand by him to the last, +and neither to flinch nor skulk, partly hoping that the enemy was +insufficiently armed, and that they might still master her. It was in +the dusk of the evening, and the coming darkness facilitated their +boarding, and concealed the disadvantage of numbers. While they got +their arms ready they ordered their chirurgeon to bore a hole in the +sides of the boat, in order that the utter hopelessness of their +situation might impel them to more daring self-devotion, that they +might be forced to attack more vigorously and board more quickly. But +their courage needed no such incitement. With no other arms than a sword +in one hand and a pistol in the other, they immediately climbed up the +sides of the Spaniard and made their way pell-mell to the state cabin. +There they found the captain and his officers playing at cards. Setting +a pistol to their breasts, they commanded them to deliver up the ship. +The Spaniards, surprised to hear the Buccaneers below, not having seen +them board, and seeing no boat by which they could have arrived (for the +surgeon had now sunk it, and rejoined his friends through a porthole), +cried out, in an agony of superstitious fear, "Jesu, bless us, these are +devils!" thinking the men had fallen from the clouds, or had been shaken +from some shooting star. In the mean time Peter's kinsfolk fought their +way into the gunroom, seized the arms, killed a few sailors who snatched +up swords, and drove the rest under hatches. + +That very morning some of the Spanish sailors had told their captain +that a pirate boat was gaining upon them, but when he came up to see, +and beheld so small a craft, he laughed at their fears of a mere cockle +shell, and went down again, despising any vessel, though it were as big +and strong as their own. Upon a second alarm, late in the day, when his +lieutenant asked him if he should not get a cannon or two ready, he grew +angry, and replied, "No, no, rig the crane out, and hoist the boat +aboard." Peter, having taken this rich prize, detained as many of the +Spanish seamen as he needed, and put the rest on shore in Hispaniola, +which was close at hand. The vessel was full of provisions and great +riches, and Pierre steered at once for France, never returning to resume +a career so well begun. + +The news of this capture set Tortuga in an uproar. The planters and +hunters of Hispaniola burned to follow up a profession so glorious and +so profitable. It had been discovered now that a man's fortune could be +made by one single scheme of daring and enterprise. Not being able to +purchase or hire boats at Tortuga, they set forth in their canoes to +seek them elsewhere. Some began cruising about Cape de Alvarez, carrying +off small Spanish vessels that carried hides and tobacco to the +Havannah. Returning with their prizes to Tortuga, they started again for +Campeachy or New Spain, where they captured richer vessels of greater +burden. In less than a month they had brought into harbour two plate +vessels, bound from Campeachy to the Caraccas, and two other ships of +great size. In two years no less than twenty Buccaneer vessels were +equipped at Tortuga, and the Spaniards, finding their losses increase +and transport becoming precarious, despatched two large men-of-war to +defend the coast. + +The next scourge of the Spaniard in these seas was Pierre François, a +native of Dunkirk, whose combinative, far-seeing genius and dauntless +heart soon raised him above the level of the mere footpads of the ocean. +His little brigantine, with a picked crew of twenty-six men--hunters by +sea and land--cruised generally about the Cape de la Vela, waiting for +merchant ships on their way from Maracaibo to Campeachy. Pierre had now +been a long time afloat and taken no prize, the usual prelude to great +enterprises amongst these men, who defied all dangers and all enemies. +The provisions were running short, the boat was leaky, the captain moody +and silent, and the crew half mutinous. To return empty-handed to +Tortuga was to be a butt for every sneerer, a victim to unrelenting +creditors; to the men beggary, to Pierre a loss of fame and all future +promotion. But, there being a perfect equality in these boats, the crews +seldom rose in open rebellion; and as every one had a voice in the +proposal of a scheme, there was no one to rail at if the scheme failed. +At last, amid this suspense, more tedious than a tropic calm, one more +daring or more far-seeing than the rest stood up and suggested a visit +to the pearl-fishings at the Rivière de la Hache. History, always drowsy +at critical periods, does not say if François was the proposer of this +scheme or not. We may be sure he was a sturdy seconder, and that the +plan was carried amid wild cheering and waving of hats and guns and +swords enough to scare the sharks floating hungrily round the boat, and +frighten the glittering flying-fish back into the sea. These Rancheria +fishings were at a rich bank of pearl to which the people of Carthagena +sent annually twelve vessels, with a man-of-war convoy, generally a +Spanish armadilla with a crew of 200 men, and carrying twenty-four +pieces of cannon. Every vessel had two or three Negro slaves on board, +who dived for the pearls. These men seldom lived long, and were +frequently ruptured by the exertion of holding breath a quarter of an +hour below the waves. The time for diving was from October till May, +when the north winds were lulled and the sea calm. + +The large vessel was called the _Capitana_, and to this the proceeds of +the day were brought every night, to prevent any risk of fraud or theft. +Rather than return unsuccessful, Pierre resolved to swoop down upon this +guarded covey, and carry off the ship of war in the sight of all the +fleet; a feat as dangerous as the abduction of an Irish heiress on the +brink of marriage. He found the fishing boats riding at anchor at the +mouth of the River de la Hache, and the man-of-war scarcely half a +league distant. In the morning he approached them, and they, seeing him +hovering at a distance like a kite above a farmyard, ran under shelter +of their guardian's guns, like chickens under the hen's wing. Keeping +still at a distance, they supposed he was afraid to approach, and soon +allowed their fears to subside. The captain of the armadilla, however, +took the precaution of sending three armed men on board each boat, +believing the pearls the object of the Buccaneer, and left his own +vessel almost defenceless. The hour had come. Furling his sails, Pierre +rowed along the coast, feigning himself a Spanish vessel from Maracaibo, +and when near the pearl bank, suddenly attacked the vice-admiral with +eight guns and sixty men, and commanded him to surrender. The Spaniards, +although surprised, made a good defence, but at last surrendered after +half an-hour's hand-to-hand fight, before the almost unmanned armadilla +could approach to render assistance. Pierre now sank his own boat, which +had only been kept afloat by incessant working at the pumps. Many men +would have rested satisfied with such a prize, but Pierre knew no Capua, +and "thought naught done while aught remained to do." He at once +resolved, by a stratagem, to capture the armadilla, and then the whole +fleet would be his own. The night being very dark, and the wind high and +favourable, he weighed anchor, forcing the prisoners to help his own +crew. The man-of-war, seeing one of its fleet sailing, followed, fearing +that the sailors were absconding with the pearls. As soon as it +approached, Pierre made all the Spaniards, on pain of instant death, +shout out "_Victoria, victoria!_ we have taken the ladrones," upon which +the man-of-war drew off, promising to send for the prisoners in the +morning. Laughing in his sleeve, Pierre gave orders for hoisting all +sail, and stood away for the open sea, putting forth all his strength to +get out of sight by daybreak. But the blood of the murdered Spaniards, +yet hot upon the deck, was crying to heaven against him, and he was +pursued. He had not got a league before the wind fell, and his ship lay +like a log on the water, just within sight of his pursuers, who kept a +long way off, burning with impatience and shame, and fretting like +hounds in leash when the boar breaks out. About evening the wind rose, +after much invocatory whistling, many prayers, many curses. Pierre, +ignorant of the power of his prize, and what canvas she could bear, +hoisted at random every stitch of sail and ran for his life, pursued by +the armadilla, wrathful, white-winged, and swift. Like many a fleet +runner, Pierre stumbled in his very eagerness for speed. He overloaded +his vessel with sail. The wind grew higher, and howled like an avenging +spirit, and his mainmast fell with the crash of a thunder-split oak. But +Pierre held firm; he threw his prisoners into the hold, nailed down the +hatches, and, trusting to night to escape, stood boldly at bay. He +despaired of meeting force by force, having only twenty-two sound men, +the rest being, before long, either killed or wounded. All in vain; the +great bird of prey bore down upon him like a hawk upon a throstle, +gaining, gaining every moment. Pierre defended himself courageously, and +at last surrendered on condition. The Spanish captain agreed that the +Buccaneers should not be employed in carrying, building-stones for three +or four years like mere negroes, but should be set safe on dry land. As +yet, the deep animosity of the two races had not sprung up. The prize +they so nearly bore off contained above 100,000 pieces of eight in +pearls, besides provisions and goods. At first the captain would have +put them all to the sword, but his crew persuaded him to keep his word. +The Frenchmen were then thrust down with curses into the same dark hold +from whence the imprisoned Spaniards were now released; so "the +whirligig of time brings about its revenge." When the crestfallen +Buccaneers were brought before the governor of Carthagena, an outcry +arose among the populace that the robbers should all be hung, to atone +for an alfarez whom they had killed, and who, they said, was worth the +whole French nation put together. The governor, however, though he did +not put them to death, ungenerously broke the terms of his agreement, +and compelled his prisoners to work at the fortifications of St. +Francisco, in his own island. After about three years of this painful +slavery, amid the jeers and contumely of the very negroes, they were +sent to Spain, and from thence escaping one by one to France, made their +way back to the Spanish main, more eager than ever to revenge their +wrongs at the hands of a nation whose riches furnished a ready means of +expiation, and whose cowardice rendered them incapable of frequent +retaliation. + +The third hero on our stage, equally bold and no less memorable, was +Barthelemy Portugues, a native of Portugal, as his name implied. + +Roused by the rumours of adventures which insured gold and glory, +Barthelemy (no saint, and certainly more ready to flay others than to +submit to flaying) sought out a small vessel at Jamaica, and fitted it +up at his own expense. As only his most remarkable enterprises are +recorded it is probable, from his having money, that he was already +known as a successful Flibustier. This boat he armed with four +three-pounders, and embarked with a crew of thirty men. Leaving Kingston +with a good wind at his back, he set sail to cruise off Cape de +Corriente, which he knew was the high road where he should meet vessels +coming from the Caraccas or Carthagena, on their way to Campeachy, New +Spain, or the Havannah. He had not been long beating about the Cape--a +point rounded with as much care by a Spanish merchantman, afraid of +Buccaneers, as Cape St. Vincent was by the European captain, dreading +the Salee rovers--before a great vessel, bound from Maracaibo and +Carthagena to the Havannah, hove in sight. It had a crew of seventy men, +and carried twenty guns, and many passengers and marines. The +Flibustiers, thinking a Spaniard so well armed and manned to be more +than their match, held one of their republican councils round the mast, +and refused to attack unless the captain wished. He decided that no +opportunity should be lost, for that nothing in any part of the world +could be won without risk. They instantly gave chase to the vessel that +quietly awaited their approach, as astonished at the attack as a swallow +would be if it were pursued by a gnat. Receiving one flaming broadside, +noisy but harmless, the half-stripped rovers instantly threw themselves +on board, but were repulsed by the Spaniards, who were numerous, +hopeful, and brave. Returning to their vessel and throwing down their +cutlass for the musket, they kept up a close fire of small arms for five +hours without ceasing. Every gunner and every reefer was picked off, the +decks were red, the return fire grew slack as the defence grew weaker, +and the foe's proud courage cooled; the Buccaneers again threw +themselves on board, and made themselves masters of the ship, with the +loss of only ten men and four wounded. They had now only fifteen men +left to navigate a vessel containing nearly forty prisoners. This number +was all that were left alive, and of these many were maimed with shot +wounds or gashed with sword cuts. The conquerors' first act was to throw +the dead overboard, officer and sailor, just as they fell, stripping off +the jewels and ransacking pockets for the dead men's doubloons. The +living Spaniards, wounded and dying, they drove into one small boat, and +gave them their liberty, afraid to keep them as prisoners and unwilling +to shed their blood. They then set to work to splice the rigging and +piece the sails, and lastly, to rummage for the plunder. They found the +value of their prize to be 75,000 crowns, besides 120,000 pounds of +cocoa, worth about 5000 additional. Having refitted the shattered +vessel, they would have sailed round the island of Jamaica, but a +contrary wind and current obliged them to steer to Cape St. Anthony, the +west extremity of Cuba, where they landed and took in water, of which +they were in great want. + +They had scarcely hoisted sail to resume their course, probably +intending to return to port to sell their spoil before starting afresh, +when they unexpectedly fell upon three large vessels coming from New +Spain to the Havannah, who gave chase, as certain of victory as three +greyhounds bounding after a single hare. The Flibustiers, heavy laden +with plunder, and unable to make way, were almost instantly retaken, +falling as easy a prey as a gorged wolf does to the hunter. In a few +hours the Buccaneers were under hatches, stripped of even their very +clothes, and counting the moments before execution--the Puritan doling +out his hymns, the Catholic muttering his Miserere, and the rude +Cow-killer vowing vengeance if he could but escape. Two evenings after a +storm arose and separated the leash of armed merchantmen. + +The vessel containing the luckless Portugues arrived first at St. +Francisco, Campeachy. Barthelemy, who spoke Spanish, had been well +treated by the captain, who did not know what a prize he had taken. The +news of the capture soon ran through the town, the captain became a +public man, the bells rang, the people flocked to see the caged lions, +and the principal merchants of the place crowded to congratulate him on +his success. Among the curious and timid visitors was one who +recognised Barthelemy, in spite of all his oaths and denials, and +demanded his surrender. No hate can match the hate of injured avarice +and frustrated cupidity. "This is Barthelemy the Portuguese," he told +every one, "the most wicked rascal in the world, and who has done more +harm to Spanish commerce than all the other pirates put together." He +ran everywhere and declared they had at last got hold of the man so +famous for the many insolences, robberies, and murders he had committed +on their coast, and by whose cruel hands many of their kinsmen had +perished. The captain, rather distrustful--somewhat favourable to +Barthelemy, perhaps, considering him as a brother seaman, worth any ten +land-lubbers, and annoyed at the arrogance of the merchant's +demand--refused to surrender the Portuguese, or to send him on shore. +The enraged merchant upon this proceeded to the governor, who, listening +to his complaint, sent to demand the Buccaneers in the king's name. He +was instantly arrested, spite of the captain's entreaties, and placed +on board another vessel, heavily ironed, for fear he should escape, as +he had done on a former occasion. A gibbet was erected, and the next day +it was resolved to lead him at once from his cabin to the place of +execution, without the hypocritical and useless ceremony of even a +prejudged trial. For some time Portugues remained uncertain of his fate, +till a Spanish sailor (for he seems to have had the power of winning +friends) told him that the gibbet was already putting together, and the +rope was ready noosed. In that delay was his safety; that very night he +resolved to escape, or perish by a quicker or less disgraceful death. No +doubt, with that strange mixture of religion remaining in the minds of +most Buccaneers, he prayed to God or the saints to aid him. + +He soon freed himself from his irons. Discovering in his cabin two of +those large earthen jars in which wine was brought from Spain to the +Indies, he closed over the orifices, and hung them to his side with +cords, being probably unable to swim, and the distance too far to the +shore. Finding that he could not elude the vigilance of the sleepless +sentinel that paced at his door, he stabbed him with a knife he had +secretly purchased, and let himself noiselessly down, from the +mainchains into the water, floating to land without the splash that a +swimmer would have made in still water. Once on land he concealed +himself in a wood, prepared to bear any danger, and glad at heart to +endure starvation rather than suffer a public and shameful death. He was +too cunning to set off at once on a route that would be explored, but +hid himself among trees half covered with water, in order to prevent the +possibility of his being tracked by the maroon bloodhounds--a common +stratagem with the moss-troopers, who found the sound of running water +drown the noise of their movements and the murmur of their breathing, +and destroy all traces of their track. Bruce and Wallace had long before +escaped by the artifice that now saved a robber and a murderer. His must +have been anxious nights, varied by the shouts of negroes, the deep bay +of the dogs, the oaths of the Spaniards, the discharge of fire-arms, the +toll of the alarm bell, the glare of beacons; and the flash of torches. +For these three days he lived on yams and other roots growing around +him. From a tree in which he sometimes harboured he had the satisfaction +of seeing his pursuers search the wood in vain, and finally relinquish +the pursuit. + +Believing that the danger had now in some degree decreased, the +lion-hearted sailor determined to push for the Golpho Triste, forty +leagues distant, where he hoped to find a Buccaneer ship careening. He +arrived there after fourteen days of incredible endurance. He started in +the evening from the seashore, within sight of the lit-up town where a +black gibbet was still standing bodingly against the sky. His forced +marches were full of terrible dangers and perils. He had no provisions +with him, and nothing but a small calabash of water hung at his side. +Hunger and thirst strode beside him, the wild beast glared in his path, +the Spanish voices seemed to pursue him. His subsistence was the raw +shell-fish that he found washed among the rocks upon the shore, fresh or +putrid he had no time to consider. He had streams to ford, dark with +caymans, and he had to traverse woods where the jaguars howled. Whenever +he came to a stream unusually dark, deep, and dangerous, and where no +ford was visible (for he could not swim), he threw in large stones as he +waded to scare away the crocodiles that lurked round the shallows. In +one spot he travelled five or six leagues swinging like a sloth from +bough to bough of a pathless wood of mangroves, never once setting foot +upon the ground. His day's progress was often scarcely perceptible. At +one river more than usually deep he found an old plank, which had +drifted ashore when the seaman was washed off, and from this he obtained +some large rusty nails. Extracting these nails, he sharpened them on a +stone with great labour, and used them to cut down some branches of +trees, which he joined together with osiers and pliable twigs, and +slowly constructed a raft. Hunger, thirst, heat, and fear beset him +round; and the voice of the sea, always on his right hand, came to him +like the hungry howl of death. In these fourteen nights he must have +literally tasted death, and anticipated the horrors of hell. + +"Fortune favors the brave." He found a Buccaneer vessel in the gulf, and +he was saved. The crew were old companions of his, newly arrived from +Jamaica and from England. He related to them his adversities and his +misfortunes. All listened eagerly to adventures that might to-morrow be +their own. He thought alone of revenge, and told them that if they chose +he would give them a ship worth a whole fleet of their canoes. He +desired their help. He only asked for one boat and thirty men. With +these he promised to return to Campeachy and capture the vessel that had +taken him but fourteen days before. They soon granted his request, the +boat was at once equipped, and he sailed along the coast, passing for a +smuggler bringing contraband goods. In eight days he arrived at +Campeachy, undauntedly and without noise boarding the vessel at +midnight. They were challenged by the sentinel. Barthelemy, who spoke +good Spanish, replied, in a low voice, "We are part of the crew +returning with goods from land, on which no duty has been paid." The +sentinel, hoping for a share, or at least some hush-money, did not +repeat the question. Allowing him no time to detect the trick, they +stabbed him, and, rushing forward, overpowered the watch. Cutting the +cable, they surprised the sleepers in their cabins, and, weighing +anchor, soon compelled the Spaniards, by a resolute attack, to +surrender; and, setting sail from the port, rejoined their exulting +comrades, unpursued by any vessel. Great was the joy of the adventurers +in becoming possessors of so brave a ship. Portugues was now again rich +and powerful, though but lately a condemned prisoner in the very vessel +upon whose deck he now stood the lord of all. With this cargo of rich +merchandise Barthelemy intended to achieve enterprises, for though the +Spaniards' plate had been all disembarked at Campeachy, the booty was +still large. But let no hunter halloo till he is out of the wood, and +no sailor laugh till he gets into port. While he was making his voyage +to Jamaica, and already counting his profits as certain, a terrible +storm arose off the isle of Pinos, on the south of Cuba, which drove his +prize against the Jardine rocks, where she went to pieces. Portugues and +his companions escaped in a canoe to Jamaica, and before long started on +new adventures. What eventually became of him we know not, but we are +told that "he was never fortunate after." Whether he swung on the +Campeachy gibbet after all, became a prey to the Darien man-eater, was +pierced by the Greek bullet, or was devoured by the sea, long expecting +its victim, we shall never know. He sails away from Kingston with +colours flying, and wanders away into unknown deeps. + +Of this wild man's end nothing was ever known. He was living at Jamaica +when Esquemeling left for England. His bones, perhaps, still whiten on +some Indian bay, with the sea moaning around that nameless dust for +ever--doomed to destroy man, but lamenting the very desolation it +occasions. + +This Roche Braziliano (or Roc, the Brazilian, as the English adventurers +called him,) was born at Groninghen, in East Friezeland; and his own +name being forgotten, he was called the Brazilian, because his parents +had been Dutch settlers in the Brazils. Roche was taught the Indian and +Portuguese languages at an early age, and, when the latter nation retook +the Brazils, removed with his parents to the French Antilles, where he +learned French. Disliking the nation, he passed into Jamaica. Here he +learned to speak English, and, settling among our more congenial race, +became attached to the country of his adoption. But he had lingered too +long in the desert to have much taste for even Goshen. He had already +acquired the Arab's love for wandering, and poverty combined to lead him +into an adventurer's ship. Into this mode of life all restless talent +and love of enterprise was now driven. + +After only three voyages, Roche became commander of a brig whose crew +had mutinied from their captain and offered him the command. In a few +days, this almost untried man had the good fortune to capture a large +vessel coming from New Spain with a great quantity of plate on board. On +his arrival in Jamaica, Roc became at once the acknowledged leader of +all the Vikinger of the Spanish main--their first sailor, their hero, +and their model. He soon grew so terrible that the Spanish mothers used +his name as a hushword to their children. + +Roc is described as having a stalwart and vigorous body. He was of +ordinary height, but stout and muscular. His face was wide and short, +his cheek-bones prominent, and his eyebrows bushy and of unusual size. +He was skilful in the use of all Indian and Catholic (Spanish) arms, a +good hunter, a good fisherman, and a good shot--as skilful a pilot as he +was a brave soldier. He generally carried a naked sabre resting on his +arm, and made no scruple of cutting down any of his crew who were idle, +mutinous, or cowardly. He was much dreaded even in Jamaica, and +particularly when drunk, says his candid biographer. At those times he +would frequently run a-muck through the streets, beating and wounding +any one he met, especially if they dared to oppose or resist him. In his +sober moments he was esteemed and feared, but he too often abandoned +himself to every sort of debauchery. + +In Roc we see the first indication of a new phase of Buccaneering +life--_a fanatical hatred of the Spaniard_. The sailor, at first a mere +privateersman at sea, and a hunter on shore, was now a legal robber, +with a spice of the crusader: a chivalrous Vendetta feeling had become +superadded to the mere love of booty. A thirst for gold had proved +irresistible: what would it be now when it became heightened by a thirst +for blood? + +To the Spaniards Roc was always very barbarous and cruel, out of an +inveterate hatred to that nation. He seldom gave them quarter, and +treated them with untiring ferocity. He taxed his invention for new +modes of torture, revenging upon them by a rather indirect mode of +retaliation the wrongs inflicted upon his parents by the Portuguese. He +is said to have even roasted alive some of his prisoners on wooden +spits, like boucaned boars, because they refused to disclose the +hog-yards where he might victual his ships. By the Spaniards he was +reported to be really an apostate outlaw of their own nation, this being +the only way in which they could account for his needless and useless +cruelties. + +On one occasion, as he was cruising on the coast of Campeachy, a dismal +tempest, says the chronicler, "surprised him so violently" that his ship +was wrecked, himself and his crew only escaping with their muskets, a +little powder, and a few bullets, much more useful, however, than gold +on such a coast. They reached shore not far from Golpho Triste, the +scene of Barthelemy's escape. Roc was not the man to be cast down by an +accident no more regarded by true adventurers than the upsetting of a +coach by an ordinary traveller. Getting ashore in a canoe, he determined +to march quickly along the coast, and repair to the gulf, a well-known +haunt of the members of their craft. Roc bade his men be of good heart, +and he would bring them safe out of every danger, and, giving them hope, +the promise was already half accomplished. Getting on the main road, +they proceeded on their march through a hostile country, with the air of +men who had conquered the whole Indies. They had already reached a +desert track, and were grown fatigued, hungry, and thirsty, when some +Indians gave the alarm, and the Spaniards were soon down upon them, to +the number of one hundred well-armed and well-mounted horsemen, while +the Buccaneers were but thirty men. + +As soon as Roc saw the enemy, the Brazilian cried out, "Courage, _mes +frères_, we are hungry now, but, Caramba, you shall soon have a dinner +if you follow me," and then, perceiving the imminent danger, he +encouraged his men, telling them they were better soldiers than the +Spaniards, and that they ought rather to die fighting under their arms +as became men of courage, than to surrender, and have their lives +pressed out by the extremest torments. Seeing their commander's +courage, the wrecked men resolved to attack, instead of waiting tamely +for the enemy's approach, and, facing the Spaniards, they at once +discharged their guns so dexterously, that they killed a horseman with +almost every shot. After an hour's hot fighting, the Spaniards fled. The +adventurers lost only two men, two more being lamed. Stripping the dead, +they took from them every valuable, and despatched the wounded with the +butt-end of their muskets. They then feasted on the wine and brandy they +found in their knapsacks, or at their saddle bows, and declared +themselves ready to attack as many again; and having finished their +meal, they mounted on the stray horses, and proceeded on their march. + +The victors had not gone more than two days' journey before they caught +sight of a well-manned Spanish vessel, lying off the shore beneath. It +had come to protect the boats which landed the men who cut the Campeachy +dyewood. Roc saw that the poultry-yard knew nothing of the kite that was +hovering near. He instantly concealed his band, and went with six +comerades into a thicket near the beach to watch. Here they passed the +night. At daybreak the Spaniards, pulling to shore in their canoe, were +received in a courteous but unexpected manner by the Buccaneers. Roc +instantly summoned his men, boarded and took the vessel. The little +man-of-war contained little plate, but, what was of equal use, two +hundred weight of salt, with which he salted down a few of the horses +which he killed. The remaining horses he gave to his Spanish prisoners, +telling them laughingly, that the beasts were worth more than the +vessel, and that once on their backs on dry land no rascal need fear +drowning. + +A Buccaneer's first thought on obtaining one prize was to gain another +as soon as possible. Roc had still twenty-six man by him, and a good +vessel to move in. He soon took a ship, bound to Maracaibo from New +Spain, laden with merchandise and money designed to buy a cargo of +cocoa-nuts. With this they repaired to Jamaica, letting the vessel +scorch in harbour till their money was all gone. Having spent all, +Braziliano put out to sea again, impatient of poverty and resolved to +trust to fortune, for he was her favourite child. He sailed for the +rendezvous at Campeachy, and after fifteen days started in a canoe to +hover round the port, beating about like a hawk in search of prey. + +He was soon after captured and taken with his men before a Spanish +governor, who cast them into a dungeon, intending to hang them every +one. But fortune only hid her smiles for a moment, and had not deserted +him. Roc, as subtle as he was intrepid, had not yet exhausted his wiles. +He was at bay and the dogs were gathered round, but they had not yet got +him by the throat. He made friends with the slave who brought him food, +and promised to give him money to buy his freedom if he would aid his +scheme. He did not wish to compromise the slave: he only wished him to +be the bearer of a letter to the governor. The slave told the governor +that he had been put on shore in the bay by some Buccaneers and had been +ordered to deliver the letter. The letter was an angry threat, supposed +to be indited by the captain of a French vessel lying in the offing. It +advised the governor "to have a care how he used those persons he had in +his custody, for in case he should do them any harm, they did swear unto +him, they would never give quarter unto any person of the Spanish nation +that should fall into their hands." The governor, lifting up his eyes +and twisting his moustachios at the threat, was intimidated, and became +anxious to get rid as soon as possible of such dangerous prisoners, for +Campeachy had already been taken once by the adventurers, and he feared +what mischief the companions who visited Spanish towns might do. He +began now to treat his prisoners with greater kindness, and on the first +opportunity sent for them, and, exacting a simple oath that they would +abandon piracy, shipped them on board the galleon fleet bound for Spain. +Roc, with his usual versatility, soon made himself so much beloved that +the Spanish captain offered to take him as a sailor, and he accepted the +offer. During this single voyage to Spain he made a sum of no less than +500 crowns by selling the officers fish that he struck in the Indian +manner with arrows and harpoons from the main-chains. His comerades, +whom he never forgot, were treated with consideration on his account. + +On his arrival in Spain, Roc, in spite of his oath, which had been +exacted by fear of death, and therefore absolvable by any priest, lost +no time in getting back to Jamaica, where he arrived without a vessel to +call his own, but in other respects in better circumstances than when he +left. He joined himself at once to two French adventurers. + +The chief of these, named Tributor, was an old Buccaneer of great +experience. They determined to land upon the peninsula of Yucatan, in +hopes of taking the town of Merida. Roc, who had been there before as a +prisoner, and had doubtless proposed the scheme, served as guide, but +some Indians got upon their trail and alarmed the Spaniards, who +fortified the place and prepared for an attack. On the Buccaneers' +arrival they found the town well garrisoned and defended, and while +they were still debating whether to advance or retreat, the question was +abruptly decided for them by a body of the enemy's horsemen who fell +upon their rear, cut half of them to pieces, and made the rest +prisoners. The wily Roc, never taken much by surprise, contrived to +escape, but old Tributor and his men were all captured. Oexmelin +expresses his wonder at Roc's escape, because he had always held it vile +cowardliness to allow another man to strike before himself. "Hitherto he +had been the last to yield, even when he was overborne by enemies, and +had been heard to say that he preferred death to dishonour." _Nemo +mortalium_, &c. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. + + Lolonnois--His stratagem--His cruelty--His partner, Michael le + Basque--Takes Maracaibo--Tortures the citizens--Sacks the + town--Takes Gibraltar--Attempt on Merida--Famine and + pestilence--Division of spoil--Takes St. Pedro--Burns + Veragua--Wrecked in Honduras--Attacked by Indians--Killed and eaten + by the savages. + + +The Spanish ships now decreased in number, merchants relinquishing a +trade so uncertain and perilous. The consequence of this was that the +Buccaneers, finding their sea cruises grow less profitable, began to +venture upon the mainland, and attack towns and even cities. + +The first Buccaneer who distinguished himself in this wider field of +action was Francis Lolonnois. He was born among the sands of Olonne, in +Poictou, and drew his _nom de guerre_ from that wild and fitting +birthplace. He quitted France in early life, and embarked at Rochelle as +an _engagé_ for the Caribbean Islands, where he served the customary +slavery of three years. Having heard much during this servitude of the +hunters of Hispaniola, he sailed for that island as soon as his +apprenticeship had expired, and he was again a free adventurer. He first +bound himself as a valet to a hunter, and finally became himself a +Buccaneer, having now passed through all the usual experiences of a +young West Indian colonist. Spending some time upon the savannahs, he +became restless and tired of shore, and desirous of enlisting as a +freebooter under the red flag. Repairing to Tortuga, the head-quarters +of Flibustier enterprise, he enrolled himself among the rovers of the +sea, with whom he made many voyages as simple mariner or companion. From +the first day he trod plank he is said to have shown himself destined +to attain high distinction, surpassing all the "Brothers" in adroitness, +agility, and daring. + +In these floating republics talent soon rose to the surface. Lolonnois +was elected master of a vessel, with which he took many prizes, but at +last lost everything by a storm which wrecked his ship, drowned his men, +sank his cargo, and cast him bleeding and naked upon a savage shore. His +courage and conduct, however, had won the admiration of the Governor of +Tortuga, M. de la Place, whose island he had enriched by the frequent +sale of prizes, and who launched him again in a new ship to encounter +once more all the fury of the sea, the hurricane, and the Spaniard. +Fortune was at first favourable to him, and he acquired great riches. +His name became so dreaded by the Indians and the Spaniards that they +chose rather to die or drown than surrender to one who never knew the +word mercy. He never learned how to chain fortune to his mast, and was +soon a second time wrecked at Campeachy. The men were all saved, but on +reaching land were pursued and killed by the Spaniards. Lolonnois, +himself severely wounded, saved his life by a stratagem. Mixing the sand +of the shore with the blood flowing from his wounds, he smeared his face +and body, and hid himself dexterously under a heap of dead, remaining +there till the Spaniards had carried off one or two of his less severely +wounded companions into Campeachy. As soon as they were gone he arose +with a grim smile from his lurking place among the slain, and betook +himself to the woods. He then washed his now stiffened wounds in a +river, and bound up his gashes as he could. As soon as they were healed +(the flesh of these men soon healed), he put on the dress of a slain +Spaniard, and made his way boldly into the neighbouring city. In the +suburbs he entered into conversation with some slaves he met, whom he +bribed by an offer of freedom if they would obey him and follow his +guidance. + +They listened to his proposal, and, stealing their master's canoe, +brought it to the sea-shore, where Lolonnois lay concealed. But before +this the disguised Buccaneer had gone rambling fearlessly through the +enemy's town, witnessing the rejoicings made at his own supposed death; +for his companions, who were kept close prisoners in a dungeon, had been +asked what had become of their captain, to which they had always replied +that he was dead, upon which the Spaniards lit up bonfires in their open +squares, thanking God for their deliverance from so cruel a pirate. + +The flames of these fires were red upon the bay when Lolonnois and the +slaves pushed off their canoe and made haste to escape. They reached +Tortuga in safety, and Lolonnois kept his promise, and set the slaves at +liberty--although, if he had been base and worthless enough, he could +have refitted his boat with the profits of their sale. He now thought +only of revenging himself on the Spaniards for their cruelty in +murdering the survivors of a wreck. He spent whole days in considering +how he could capture a vessel and restore himself to his former +reputation for skill and fortune. By some extraordinary plan, +Esquemeling--who writes always with affected horror of the men amongst +whom he lived--says, with "craft and subtlety," he soon obtained a third +ship, with a crew of twenty-one men and a surgeon. Being well provided +with arms and necessaries--how provided by a penniless man it is +impossible to guess--he resolved to visit De Los Cayos, a village on the +south side of Cuba, where he knew vessels from the Havannah passed to +the port of Boca de Estera, where they purchase tobacco, sugar, and +hides, coming generally in small boats, for the sea ran very shallow. At +this place meat was also obtained to victual the Spanish fleets. + +Here Lolonnois was very sanguine of booty, but some fishermen's boats, +observing him, alarmed the town. One of these canoes they captured, and, +placing in it a crew of eleven men, proceeded to coast about the Bayes +du Nord. The Buccaneers kept at some distance from each other, in hopes +of sooner surrounding their prey, for each of their crews was strong +enough to capture any merchant vessel that had not more than fifteen or +sixteen unarmed men on board. They remained some months beating off and +on Cuba, but caught nothing, although this was the very height of the +commercial season. After a long delay of wonder and vexation, they +learned the cause of their failure from the crew of a fishing-boat which +they captured, who told them that the people of Cayos would not venture +to sea because they knew that they were there. It would be dangerous for +them to remain, they added, for the chief merchants of the port had +instantly despatched a "vessel overland" to the Governor of Havannah, +telling him that Lolonnois had come in two canoes to destroy them, and +begging him to send and destroy the "ladrones." The governor could with +difficulty at first be persuaded to listen to the petition, because he +had just received letters from Campeachy bidding him rejoice at the +death of that pirate; but, aroused by the continued importunities of his +angry petitioners, he at last sent a ship to their relief. + +This ship carried ten guns, and had a crew of ninety young, vigorous, +and well-armed men, to whom he gave at parting an express command that +they should not return into his presence without having first destroyed +those pirates. He sent with them a negro hangman, desiring him to kill +on the spot all they should take, except Lolonnois, the captain, who was +to be brought alive in triumph to the Havannah. The ship had scarcely +arrived at Cayos when the pirate, advertised of its approach, came to +seek it at its moorings in the river Estera. Lolonnois cried out, when +he saw it loom in the distance, "Courage, mes camarades! courage, mes +bons frères! we shall soon be well mounted." Capturing some fishermen +busy with their nets, he forced them at night to show him the entrance +of the port. + +Rowing very quietly in the shadow of the trees that bordered the river's +banks and hid their approach, they arrived under the vessel's side a +little after two o'clock in the morning--not long before daybreak. The +watch on board the ship hailed them, and asked them whence they came and +if they had seen any pirates? They made one of the fishermen who guided +them reply in Spanish that they had seen no pirates or anything else; +and this made the Spaniards believe that Lolonnois had fled at their +approach. The Buccaneers instantly began to open fire on both sides from +their canoes. The Spaniards, who kept good guard, returned the fire, but +without much effect, for their enemies lay down flat in their boats, and +the trees served them as gabions. The Spaniards fought bravely, in spite +of the suddenness and vigour of the attack, and made some use of their +great guns. The combat lasted from dawn till midday, the crew of the +vessel discharging ineffectual volleys of musketry, which seldom injured +the assailants, whose bullets, on the other hand, killed or wounded +every moment some of the Havannah youth. When the firing began to +slacken, Lolonnois pulled his canoes out into the stream, and boarded +the vessel, which almost instantly surrendered. + +Those who survived were beaten down under the hatches, while the wounded +on the decks received the _coup de grace_. When this had been done, +Lolonnois commanded his men to bring up the prisoners one by one from +the hold, cutting off their heads as they came up with his own hand, and +tasting their blood. The negro hangman, seeing the fate of his +predecessors, threw himself passionately at the feet of the Buccaneer +chief, and exclaimed in Spanish, "If you will not kill me I will tell +you the truth." Lolonnois, supposing he had some secret to tell, bade +him speak on. But he refused to open his lips further till life were +promised him; upon the promise being made, the trembling wretch +exclaimed, "Senor capitan, Monsieur, the governor of the Havannah, not +doubting but that this well-armed frigate would have taken the strongest +of your vessels, sent me on board to serve as executioner, and to hang +all the prisoners that his men took, in order to intimidate your nation, +so that they should not dare ever to approach a Spanish vessel." +Esquemeling, who always exaggerates the cruelty of his quondam +companions, says, Lolonnois, making the black confess what he thought +fit, commanded him to be murdered with the rest; but Oexmelin gives a +more probable version. At the negro's mention of his being a hangman he +grew furious, and but for his words, "I give thee quarter and even +liberty because I promised it thee," would certainly have put him to +death. He then slew all the rest of the crew but one man, whom he spared +in order to send him back with a letter to the governor of the Havannah. +The letter ran thus: "I have returned your kindness by doing to your men +what they designed to do to me and my companions. I shall never +henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever, and I have great +hopes of executing upon your own person the very same punishment I have +done upon those you sent against me. It would be better for you to cut +your throat than to fall into my power." + +The governor, enraged at the loss of his ship and crew, and exasperated +by the insolent daring of the letter, swore in the presence of many that +he would not grant quarter to any pirate who fell into his hands. +Furious that two canoes, with twenty-two half-naked men, should be able +to deride the might of Spain in his person, he instantly sent round word +to the neighbouring Indian forts to hang all their French and English +prisoners, instead of, as usual, embarking them for Spain. The citizens +of Havannah, hearing of this imprudent bravado, sent a deputation to the +governor to represent to him that, for one Englishman or Frenchman that +the Spaniards captured, the Buccaneers took every day a hundred of their +people, that the men of Havannah were obliged to get their living by +trading, that life was far dearer to them than mere money, which was all +the Buccaneers wanted; and lastly, that all their fishermen would be +daily exposed to danger, the Buccaneers having frequent opportunity for +reprisal. Upon this the angry governor was at last persuaded to bridle +his passion and remit the severity of his oath. + +Lolonnois, now provided with a good ship, resolved to cruise from port +to port to obtain provisions and men. Off Maracaibo he surprised a ship +laden with plate, outward-bound to buy cocoa-nuts, and with this prize +returned to Tortuga, much to his own satisfaction and the general joy +of that strange colony of runaway slaves, disbanded soldiers, hunters, +privateersmen, pirates, Puritans, and papists. He had not been long in +port before he planned an expedition to Maracaibo, joining another +adventurer in equipping a body of five hundred men. In Tortuga he found +prisoners for guides, and disbanded adventurers resolute enough to be +his companions. His partner was Michael le Basque, a Buccaneer who had +retired very rich, and was now major of the island. He had done great +actions in Europe, and bore the repute of being a good soldier. +Lolonnois was to rule by sea and Le Basque by land. + +Le Basque knew all the avenues of Maracaibo, and had lately taken in a +prize two Indians, who knew the port well and offered to act both as +pilots and guides. Le Basque had consented to join Lolonnois, struck by +the daring and comprehension of his plans, and Lolonnois was overjoyed +at the alliance of so tried a man. Notice was instantly given to all the +unemployed Buccaneers that they were planning a great expedition with +much chance of booty. All who were willing to join them were to come by +a certain day to the rendezvous either at Tortuga or Bayala, on the +north side of Hispaniola; at the latter place he revictualled his fleet, +took some French hunters as volunteers into his company, careened his +vessels, and procured beef and pork by the chase. + +His fleet consisted of eight small ships, of which his own, the largest, +carried only twenty pieces of cannon; his crews amounted altogether to +about four hundred men. Setting sail from Bayala the last day in July, +while doubling Ponta del Espada (Sword Point), the eastern cape of +Hispaniola, Lolonnois overtook two Spanish vessels coming from Porto +Rico to New Spain, and one of these Lolonnois insisted on capturing with +his own hand, sending in his fleet to Savona. The Spaniards, although +they had an opportunity for two whole hours, refused to fly, and, being +well armed, prepared for a desperate resistance; the combat lasted for +three hours. The ship carried sixteen guns, and was manned by fifty +fighting men. They found in her a cargo of 120,000 pounds' weight of +cocoa, 40,000 pieces of eight, and the value of 10,000 more in jewels. +Lolonnois instantly sent this prize back to Tortuga to be unloaded, with +orders to return to the rendezvous at Savona. On their way to this +place, his vanguard had also been in luck, having met with a Spanish +vessel bringing military stores and money from Cumana for the garrisons +of Hispaniola. In this vessel, which they took without any resistance, +though armed with eight guns, they found 7,000 pounds' weight of powder, +a great number of muskets and other arms, together with 12,000 pieces of +eight. + +These successes encouraged the adventurers, and to superstitious men +seemed like promises of good fortune and success. The generosity of the +governor of Tortuga also tended to heighten their spirits. M. D'Ogeron, +the French governor, had been greatly delighted at the early arrival of +so rich a prize, worth, at the lowest calculation, 180,000 livres, and +threw open all his store-houses for the use of the prize crew. Ordering +her to be quickly unloaded, he sent her back to Lolonnois full of +provisions and necessaries. Many persons who had come from France with +the governor now joined an expedition which had begun so auspiciously, +desirous of gaining a fortune with the same rapidity as the older +colonists. By hazarding a little money a planter could obtain a chance +of sharing in the plunder of a distant city without moving from under +the shadow of his tamarind tree, and the governor's approval threw an +air of legal government patronage over the expedition. D'Ogeron even +sent his two nephews on board, young gallants newly arrived from France, +and one of whom afterwards ruled the island in the room of his uncle. +With a fleet recruited with men in room of those killed by the fever or +the Spaniards, and full of hope and spirits, Lolonnois sailed for +Maracaibo. His own vessel he gave to his comrade Anthony du Puis, and +went himself on board the _Cacaoyere_, as the largest prize was called. + +Before sailing, he reviewed his little invincible armada. His own new +frigate carried sixteen guns and 120 men. His vice-admiral, Moses +Vauclin, had ten guns and ninety men; and his _matelot_, Le Basque, +sailed in a vessel called _La Poudrière_, because it contained all the +powder, the ammunition, and the money for the sailors' pay. It carried +twenty pieces of cannon and ninety men. Pierre le Picard steered a +brigantine with forty men. Moses had equipped another of the same size, +and the two other smaller vessels were each managed by a crew of thirty +men. Every sailor was armed with a good musket, a brace of pistols, and +a strong sabre. At this review Lolonnois first disclosed his whole plan, +which was to visit Maracaibo, in the province of New Venezuela, and to +pillage all the towns that border the lake. He then produced his guides, +one of whom had been a pilot over the bar at Maracaibo, and who vouched +for the ease with which the attack could be made. Shouts and clamour +announced the universal satisfaction at the proposal. They all agreed to +follow him, and took an oath that they would obey him implicitly on the +penalty of being mulcted of their booty. The usual _chasse-partie_, or +Buccaneers' agreement, was then drawn up, specifying the exact share +that each one should receive of the spoil, from the captain down to the +boys of the ships, and not forgetting the wounded and the guides. + +Venezuela, or "little Venice," derived its name from its being very low +land, and only preserved from frequent inundation by artificial means. +At six or seven leagues' distance from the Bay of Maracaibo, or Gulf of +Venezuela, are two small islands--the island of the Watch Tower and the +island of the Pigeons. Between these two islands runs a channel of fresh +water--as wide across as an eight-pound shot can carry, about sixty +leagues long, and thirty broad--which empties itself into the sea. On +the Isla de las Vigilias stood a hill surmounted by a watch-tower; on +the Isla de las Palombas a fort to impede the entrance of vessels, which +were obliged to come very near, the channel being narrowed by two +sand-banks, which left only fourteen feet water. The sand-drifts were +very numerous; some of them, particularly one called El Tablazo, not +having more than six feet water. + +"West hereof," says Esquemeling--for we must describe the past, not the +present city--"is the city of Maracaibo, very pleasant to the view, its +houses being built along the shore, having delightful prospects all +round. The city may contain three or four thousand persons, slaves +included, all which make a town of reasonable bigness. There are judged +to be about 800 persons able to bear arms, all Spaniards. Here are one +parish church, well built and adorned, four monasteries, and one +hospital. The city is governed by a deputy-governor, substituted by the +governor of the Caraccas. The trade here exercised is mostly in hides +and tobacco. The inhabitants possess great numbers of cattle and many +plantations, which extend thirty leagues in the country, especially +towards the great town of Gibraltar, where are gathered great quantities +of cocoa nuts, and all other garden fruits, which serve for the regale +and sustenance of the inhabitants of Maracaibo, whose territories are +much drier than those of Gibraltar. Hither those of Maracaibo send great +quantities of flesh, they making returns in oranges, lemons, and other +fruits; for the inhabitants of Gibraltar want flesh, not being capable +of feeding cows and sheep." + +The inner lake within the great bar, so difficult to cross, was fed by +upwards of seventy streams, of which several were navigable. The two +capes on either side of the gulf were named respectively Cape St. Roman +and the Cape of Caquibacoa. The east side, though frequently flooded, +was unhealthy, but very fertile, something resembling the Maremma, +where, according to an Italian proverb, a man gets rich in six months +and dies in seven. + +In the bay itself, ten or twelve leagues from the lake, are the two +islands of Onega and Las Monges. On the east side, near the +_embouchure_, there was a fishermen's village called Barbacoa, where the +Indians lived in trees to escape the floods; for, after great rains, the +lands were often overflowed in broad tracts of two or three leagues. A +few miles from this was the town of Gibraltar, where the best cocoa in +the Indies was grown, as well as the celebrated "priests' tobacco." +Beyond this twenty leagues of jurisdiction, rose mountains perpetually +covered with snow, contrasting remarkably with the swampy fields and the +rich tropical vegetation of the well-irrigated district below. On the +other side of these mountains lay the mother city of Merida, between +which, during the summer alone, mules carried merchandise to Gibraltar; +the cocoa and tobacco of Merida being exchanged for Peruvian flour and +the fruits of Gibraltar. Near this latter town were rich plantations and +wooded districts, abounding with the tall cedars from which the Indians +scooped out solid _piraguas_, or canoes, capable of carrying thirty +tons, which were rigged with one large sail. + +The territory of Gibraltar was flat, and naturally fertile, watered by +rivers and brooks, besides being artificially irrigated by small +channels, necessary in the frequent droughts. Everything desirable for +food and pleasant to the sight grew here in abundance, the air was +filled with birds as beautiful as wandering blossoms, and the rivers +teemed with many-coloured fish. But into this Indian Paradise death had +entered, and these swamps were the lairs of the deadliest fevers that +devastate humanity. In the rainy season the merchants left Gibraltar, +just as the rich do Rome, and retired to Merida or Maracaibo to escape +the pestilence that walked not merely in darkness but even in the bright +noon. At six leagues from this town and its 1,500 inhabitants, ran a +river navigable by vessels of fifty tons' burthen. + +Maracaibo itself had a spacious and secure port, and was well adapted +for building vessels, owing to the abundance of timber in the +neighbourhood. In the small island of Borrica were fed great numbers of +goats, which were bred chiefly for their skins. In curious +contradistinction to all this bustle of commerce, life, and wealth, on +the south-east border of the lake lived the Bravo-Indians, a savage +race, who had never been subdued by the Spaniard. They also, like the +fishermen, dwelt in huts built in the branches of the mangrove trees at +the very edge of the water, safe from the floods, and from the equally +annoying, though less fatal, visitation of the mosquitoes. Beyond them +to the west spread a dry and arid country--where nothing but cacti and +stunted, bitter shrubs grew, so thorny as to be almost impassable by the +traveller--waste and barren. Here the Spaniards pastured a few flocks, +and the only houses were the huts of the armed shepherds who tended the +lonely herds. These cattle were killed chiefly for their fat and hides, +the flesh being left for the flocks of merchant birds--a sort of +vulture, four or five of whom would pick an ox to the bone in a day or +two. + +Lolonnois, arriving at one of the islands in the gulf, landed and took +in provisions, not wishing to arrive at the bar till daybreak, in hopes +of surprising the fort; and anchoring, out of sight of the watch-tower +weighed anchor in the evening from the island of Onega, and sailed all +night, but was seen by the sentinels, who immediately made signals to +the fort, which discharged its cannon and announced the approach of an +enemy. + +Mooring off the bar, Lolonnois lost no time in landing to attack the +fort that guarded the very door through which he must pass. The +batteries consisted of simple gabions or baskets masked with turf, and +concealing fourteen pieces of cannon and 250 men, with flanking +earthworks thrown up to protect the gunners. Lolonnois and Le Basque +landed at a league from the fort, and advanced at the head of their men. +The governor, seeing them land, had prepared an ambuscade, in hopes of +attacking them at the same time in flank and rear. The Buccaneers, +discovering this, got before the Spaniards, and routed them so utterly +that not a single man returned to the fort, which was instantly attacked +"with the usual desperation of this sort of people," says Esquemeling. +The fighting continued for three hours. The Buccaneers, aiming with +hunters' precision, killed so many of the Spaniards, and reduced their +numbers so terribly, that the survivors could not prevent the savage +swordsmen storming the embrasures, slaying half the survivors, and +taking the rest prisoners. A few survivors are said by one writer to +have fled in confusion into Maracaibo, crying, "The pirates will +presently be here with 2,000 men." + +The rest of the day Lolonnois spent in destroying the fort he had +captured, first signalling his ships to come in as the danger was over. +His men levelled the earth ramparts, spiked the guns, buried the dead, +and sent the wounded on board the fleet. The next day, very early in the +morning, the ships weighed anchor and directed their course, in +close-winged phalanx, like a flock of locusts, towards the doomed city +of Maracaibo, now only six leagues distant. They made but slow way, in +spite of all their impatience, for there was very little wind; and it +was not till the next morning that they drew in sight of the town, +standing pleasantly on the cool shore, with its galleries of shaded +balconies, its towers and steeples--the goal to which they steered. + +Suspicious of ambuscades after the danger at the bar, Lolonnois put his +men into canoes, and pulled to shore under protection of salvos from his +great guns, which he ordered to be pointed at the woods which lined the +beach. Half the men went in the canoes, and half remained on board; but +these furious discharges were thrown away, the Spaniards having long +since fled. To their great astonishment, the town itself was deserted. +The people, remembering the horrors of a former Buccaneer descent, when +Maracaibo had been "sacked to the uttermost," had escaped to Gibraltar +in their boats and canoes, taking with them all the jewels and money +they could carry. + +To the alarmed friends who received them, they said that the fort of the +bar had been taken, and nothing been saved, nor any soldiers escaped. At +Gibraltar they believed themselves safe, thinking the Buccaneers would +pillage the unfortunate and defenceless town and then retreat over the +bar. + +The hungry sailors, who had lived scantily for four weeks, found the +deserted houses well provided with flour, bread, pork, poultry, and +brandy, and with these they made good cheer. The warehouses were +brimming with merchandise, the cellars were flowing with Spanish wine. +The more prudent fell to plunder, the more thoughtless to revel. The +former class probably embraced the older, and the latter the younger +men. Each party abused the vice from which he abstained, and gave +himself up without scruple to his own more favourite indulgence. But +soon the man weary of wine began to plunder, and the man loaded with +pieces of eight began to drink. The moment that plunder ceased, waste +began, and prudence and folly alike ended the day,--poor and drunk. The +commanders at once seized on the best houses, indulging their natural +love of order and justice, by placing sentinels at the larger shops and +warehouses. + +The great monastery of the Cordeliers served them as a guard-house, for +a long time the abode of thieves, yet never so manifestly as now; for a +long time the shrine of mammon, yet now for the first time filled by +his avowed worshippers. Had the town not been deserted, that night would +have heard the groans of the victim of cruelty; as it was, it echoed +only with the songs and shouts of debauchery. The Buccaneer had reached +his Capua, but there were no Judiths ready to slay these Holofernes in +their drunken sleep. Perhaps a night surprise would have failed. These +men were still the vigilant hunters and the watchful sailors; sunken +rocks and lurking Spaniards, breakers and wild bulls, reefs and wild +panthers had taught them never to sleep unguarded and unwatched. + +The next day a fresh source of plunder was opened. Lolonnois--for Le +Basque's command, even by land, seems to have been secondary--sent a +body of 160 men to reconnoitre the neighbouring woods, where some of the +inhabitants were, it was supposed, concealed. They returned the same +night, discharging their guns, and dragging after them a miserable +weeping train of twenty prisoners, men, women, and children; and, +besides this, a sack of 20,000 pieces of eight, and many mules, laden +with household goods and merchandise. + +Some of the prisoners were at once racked, to make them confess where +they had hidden their riches, but neither pain nor fear could extort +their secret. Lolonnois, who valued not murdering, though in cold blood, +ten or twelve Spaniards, drew his cutlass and hacked one of them to +pieces before all his companions; and while the pale, tortured men were +still writhing and groaning by his side, declared, "If you do not +confess and declare where you have the rest of your goods, I will do the +like to all your companions." In spite of all these horrible cruelties +and inhuman threats, only one was found base enough to offer to conduct +the Buccaneers to a place where the rest of the fugitives were hidden. +When they arrived there, they found their coming had been announced, the +riches had been removed to another place, and the Spaniards had fled. +The exiles now changed their hiding-places daily, and, amid the +universal danger and distrust, a father would not even rely on his own +son. + +After fifteen days "taking stock" at Maracaibo, Lolonnois marched +towards Gibraltar, intending afterwards to sack Merida, as at these +places he expected to find the wealth transported from the City of the +Lake. Several of his prisoners offered to serve as guides, but warned +him that he would find the place strong and fortified. "No matter," +cried the Buccaneer, "the better sign that it is worth taking." + +Gibraltar was already prepared. The inhabitants, expecting Lolonnois, +had entreated aid from the governor of Merida, a stout old soldier who +had served in Flanders. He sent back word, that they need take no care, +for he hoped in a little while to exterminate the pirates. He had soon +after this hopeful bravado entered the town at the head of 400 +well-armed men, and was soon joined by an equal number of armed +townsmen, whom he at once enrolled. On the side of the town towards the +sea he raised with great rapidity a battery, mounting twenty guns, well +protected by baskets of earth, and flanked by a smaller traverse of +eight pieces. He lastly barricaded a narrow passage to the town, through +which the pirates, he knew, must pass, and opened another path leading +to a swampy wood that was quite impassable. + +Three days after leaving Maracaibo Lolonnois approached Gibraltar, and, +seeing the royal standard hung out, perceived there were breakers ahead, +and called a general council, one of those republican gatherings that +distinguished the Buccaneer armies, and remind us of the less unanimous +consultations that Xenophon describes. He confessed that the difficulty +of the enterprise was great, seeing the Spaniards had had so much time +to put themselves in a state of defence, and had now got together a +large force and much ammunition; "but have a good courage," said he, "we +must either defend ourselves like good soldiers or lose our lives with +all the riches we have got. Do as I shall do, who am your captain. At +other times we have fought with fewer men than we have now, and yet +have overcome a greater number of enemies than can be in this town; _the +more they are the more riches we shall gain_." His men all cried out, +with one voice, that they would follow and obey him. "'Tis well," he +replied, "but know ye, the first man who will show any fear or the least +apprehension thereof, I will pistol him with my own hands." + +The Buccaneers cast anchor near the shore, about three-quarters of a +league from the town, and the next day before sunrise landed to the +number of 380 determined men, each armed with a cutlass, a brace of +pistols, and thirty charges of powder and bullets. On the shore they all +shook hands with one another, many for the last time, and began their +march, Lolonnois exclaiming, "Come, _mes frères_, follow me and have +good courage." Their guide, ignorant of what the governor of Merida had +done, led them in all good faith up the barricaded way, where, to his +surprise, he found the paths in one place blocked up with large trees, +newly cut, and in another swamped so that the soft mud reached up above +their thighs. + +Lolonnois, seeing the passage hopeless, attempted the narrow way, which +had been carefully cleared as a trap for them. Here only six men could +go abreast, and the shots of the town ploughed incessantly down the +path. At the same time the Spaniards, in a small terraced battery of six +guns, beat their drums and hung out their silk flags. The adventurers, +harassed by the fire that they could not return, and slipping on the +swampy path, grew vexed and impatient. "Courage, my brothers," cried +their leader, "we must beat these fellows or die; follow me, and if I +fall don't give in for that." With these words he ran full butt, with +head down like a mad bull, against the Spaniards, followed by all his +men, as daring but less patient than himself. Cutting down boughs they +made a rude pathway, firm and sure, over the deep mud. When within about +a pistol shot from the entrenchments, they began again to sink up to +their knees, and the enemy's grape-shot fell thick and hot upon the +impeded ranks. Many dropped, but their last words were always, "Courage, +never flinch, _mes frères_, and you'll win it yet." All this time they +could scarce see or hear, so blinded and deafened were they by the +thunder and fire. + +In the midst of this discomfiture the Spaniards suddenly broke through +the gloom, just as they got out of the wood and trod upon firmer ground, +and drove them back by a furious onslaught, many of them being killed +and wounded. They then attempted the other passage again, but without +success, and finding the Spaniards would not sally out, and the gabions +too heavy to tear up by hand, Lolonnois resorted to the old stratagem, +so successful at Hastings, by which the very impatience of courage is +made to prove fatal to an enemy. + +At a preconcerted signal the Buccaneers began to retreat, upon which the +defenders of the battery, exclaiming, "They fly, they fly; follow, +follow," sallied forth in disorder to the pursuit, shouting and firing +like an undisciplined rabble. Once out of gun-shot of the batteries, the +pursued turned into pursuers, and falling on the foe, sword in hand, +slew about 200. Fighting their way through those who survived, the +Buccaneers soon became masters of all the fortifications. Not more than +100 out of the 600 defenders remained alive, and these, as Falstaff +says, would have to limp to the town-end and beg for life. The brave old +governor lay dead among his foremost men. + +The survivors who could crawl or run hid themselves in the woods, +impeded in their flight by the very obstructions they had themselves +raised. The men in the battery surrendered, and obtained quarter. +Neither Lolonnois nor Le Basque was scratched, but forty of their +companions perished, and eighty were grievously wounded. The greater +part of these died through the fevers and subsequent pestilence. 500 +dead Spaniards were found, but many more had hidden themselves, to die +alone in peace. + +The Buccaneers, now masters of Gibraltar, pulled down the Spanish +colours from tower and steeple, and hoisted their own red or black flag. +Making prisoners of all they met, they shut them up under guard in the +chief church, where they erected a battery of great guns, in case the +Spaniards should attempt to rally in a fit of despair. They then +collected the dead bodies of the Spaniards, and, piling them up, scarred +and gashed, in two large canoes, towed them out a quarter of a league to +sea, and scuttled them. They then gathered from every house, rich or +poor, all the plate, merchandise, and household stuff, which was not too +hot or too heavy to carry off, as rapacious as the borderer who stopped +wistfully opposite the hay-stack, wishing it had but four legs, that he +might make it "gang awa' wi' the rest." The Spaniards having buried +their treasure, as usual, armed parties were sent into the surrounding +woods to search for buried money, and to bring in hunters and planters +as prisoners to torture. Hung up by the beard, or burnt with +gun-matches, the wretched sufferers were forced to confess the +hiding-places. + +Lolonnois soon turned the fertile country into a smoking black desert, +and, still insatiable for money and blood, planned an expedition over +the snow mountains to Merida, but reluctantly relinquished it when he +found his men unwilling to risk what they had got for the mere +uncertainly of getting more, though Merida was only forty leagues +distant. They had now 150 prisoners, besides 500 slaves, and many women +and children, many of whom were dying daily of famine, so short were +provisions already in a city in which the small army had been encamped +only eighteen days. + +When they had spent six weeks in the town, Lolonnois determined to +return, nothing now being left to pillage. Disease and famine were worse +enemies than the Spaniard or the Indian, and cared for neither steel nor +lead. A pestilential disease appeared in consequence of the numerous +dead bodies left in the woods exposed to the wild beasts and the birds. +Those that lay nearest to the walls had been strewn over with earth, the +rest were left to taint the air, and slay the living--a putrid fever +broke out; the Spaniards killed more of the enemy after their death than +they had done in their life. The Frenchmen's wounds, already closing, +began now to re-open, the sick died daily, and the strongest pined and +sickened; all longed to return, even plunder grew distasteful to them +without health, and once more at sea they hoped soon to be well. + +Men who had been revelling in the plenty of two captured cities, could +not return without impatience to the restraints of a time of scarcity. +Gibraltar always depending upon Maracaibo for its meat, and not well +supplied with flour, was, in fact, like a miser dying for want of a +loaf, while his storehouses were brimmed over with gold. The little meat +and flour were quickly consumed by the Buccaneers, who left their +prisoners to shift for themselves. The cattle they soon appropriated, +giving the mules' and asses' flesh to those Spaniards whose hunger was +strong enough to conquer their disgust. A few of the women were allowed +better fare, and many who had become the mistresses of their captors +were well treated by their lovers. Some of these were mere slaves, +others were voluntary concubines, but the greater part had been +compelled, by poverty and fear, to abandon their fathers and husbands. + +Lolonnois, sending four of his prisoners into the woods, demanded a +ransom of 80,000 pieces of eight within two days, threatening the +fugitives to burn the town to ashes if his desire was not acceded to. +The Spaniards, already half-beggared, disagreed about the ransom; the +bolder and the more avaricious refused to pay a piastre, the old, the +timid, and the more generous preferred poverty to such a loss. Some said +it would serve as a mere bribe to allure a third adventurer, and others +declared it was the only means of saving Merida. While they were thus +disputing the two days passed, and the debate was put an end to by the +sight of flame ascending above the roofs. The city was already fired in +two or three places, when the inhabitants, promising to bring the +ransom, persuaded the Buccaneers to assist in quenching the flames, not, +however, till the chief houses were burned, and the chief monastery was +ruined. + +Oexmelin merely says that Lolonnois set fire to the four corners of the +town, and in six hours reduced the whole to ashes. Palm-thatch and cedar +walls burn quick, and the sea-breeze was there to fan the flames, while +the Buccaneers were learned in the art of destruction. Lolonnois then +collected his men by beat of drum, and embarked his booty. Before he +sailed, he sent two of his prisoners again into the woods, to tell the +inhabitants that all the prisoners in his hands would be at once put to +death if the ransom were not paid. All prisoners who had not paid their +ransom he took with him, even the slaves being valued at so much, and +having put on board all riches that were movable, and a large sum of +money as a ransom for what was immovable, the Buccaneer fleet returned +to Maracaibo. The city, now partly repeopled, was thrown again into +disorder, nor much lessened when three or four prisoners came to the +governor, bearing a demand from Lolonnois to pay at once 30,000 pieces +of eight down upon his deck, or to expect a second sack, and the fate of +Gibraltar. While these terms were under concession, and the Spanish +merchants were chaffering with the sailors, as a lowland farmer might +have done with a highland _cateran_, a party of well-inclined +Flibustiers, unwilling to waste their time, rowed on shore, and stripped +the great church of its pictures, images, carvings, clocks, and bells, +even to the very cross on its steeple, piously desiring to erect a +chapel at Tortuga, where there was much need of spiritual instruction. +The Spaniards at last agreed to pay for their ransom and liberty 20,000 +piastres, 10,000 pieces of eight, and 500 cows, provided the fleet would +do no further injury, and depart at once, and the blessing of Maracaibo +with them. + +We can imagine the trembling and suppressed joy with which the people of +Maracaibo must have beheld the fleet sail slowly out of their harbour, +all eyes on board bent onward to the horizon and the golden future--none +looking back with a moment's regret upon the misery and the black ruin +left behind. How many orphans must have cursed them as they sailed, and +how many widows! Three days after the embarkation, to the horror of the +city, a vessel with a red flag at its masthead was seen re-entering the +harbour, but only, as it soon appeared, to demand a pilot to take the +fleet over the bar. + +On their way to Hispaniola, Lolonnois touched at the Isle de la Vacca, +intending to stay there and divide the spoil. This island was inhabited +by French Buccaneers, who sold the flesh of the animals they killed to +vessels in want of victual. But a dispute arising here, the fleet again +set out to disband the crew at Gouaves in Hispaniola. + +They arrived in two months, and, unlading the whole "cargazon of +riches," proceeded to make a dividend of their prizes and their gains. +Lolonnois and the other captains began by taking a solemn oath in +public, that they had concealed and held back no portion of the spoil, +but had thrown all without reserve into the public stock. The ceremony +of this oath must have been an imposing sight: wild groups of +half-stripped sailors, wounded men, and female captives, negroes and +Indians, Spanish soldiers and mulatto fishermen, and in the middle piled +bales of silks, heaps of glittering coin, and rich stuffs streaming over +scattered arms and costly jewels, while, looking on, perhaps wistfully, +leaning on their muskets, a few hunters fresh from the savannahs, +bull's-hide sandals on their feet, and long knives hanging from their +belts. After the captains had taken the oath, the common _matelots_, +down even to the cabin boys, took the vow that they had given up all +their spoil, to be shared equally by those who had equally ventured +their lives to win it. + +After an exact calculation, the total value of their profits in jewels +and money was discovered to be 260,000 crowns, not including 100,000 +crowns' worth of church furniture and a cargo of tobacco. On the final +division every man received money, silk, and linen to the value of about +100 pieces of eight. The surgeon and the wounded were as usual paid +first. The slaves were then sold by auction, and their purchase-money +divided among the various crews. The uncoined plate was weighed, and +sold at the rate of ten pieces of eight to a pound; the jewels were sold +at false and fanciful prices, and were generally undervalued, owing to +the ignorance of the arbitrators. A Buccaneer always preferred coin to +jewels, and jewels, as being portable, to heavy merchandise, which they +often threw overboard or wantonly destroyed. The adventurers then all +took the oath a second time, and proceeded to apportion the shares of +such as had fallen, handing them to the _matelots_, or messmate, to +forward to their heirs or nearest relations. We do not know whether, in +peculiar cases, a _matelot_ became his _camarade's_ heir. + +The dividend over, they returned to Tortuga, amid the general rejoicing +of all over whom love or cupidity had any power. "For three weeks, while +their money lasted," says Oexmelin, probably an eye witness of the scene, +"there was nothing but dances, feasts, and protestations of unceasing +friendship." The _cabaretiers_ and the gambling-house keepers soon +revenged the cruelties of Maracaibo. The proud captors of that luckless +city in a few weeks were hungry beggars, basking on the quay of Tortuga, +straining their eyes to catch sight of some vessel that might take them +on board, and relieve them from that reaction of wretchedness. They were +jeered at as mad spendthrifts by the very men who had urged them to +their folly. The love of courtesans grew colder as the pieces of eight +diminished, and men were refused charity by the very wretches whom their +foolish generosity had lately enriched. No doubt watches were fried and +bank-bills eaten as sandwiches, just as they were during the war at +Portsmouth or at Dover. The prudent were those who made the money spin +out a day longer than their fellows, and the wildest were those who had +found out that two dice-boxes and two fiddlers ran through the +burdensome money a little faster than only one dice-box and one fiddler. + +Some of the Buccaneers, skilful with the cards, added to their store and +returned at once to France, resolved to turn merchants, and trade with +the Indies they had wasted. The extravagant prices paid by these men +for wine, and particularly brandy, rendered that trade a source of great +profit. Just before the return of the fleet two French vessels had +arrived at Tortuga laden with spirits, which at first sold at very +moderate rates, but ultimately, from the great demand and the limited +means of supply, reached an exorbitant price, a gallon selling for as +much as four pieces of eight. + +The tavern-keepers and the _filles de joie_ obtained most of the money +so dearly earned, and lavished it as those from whom they won it had +done. Cards and dice helped those who had not struck a blow at the +Spaniard, to now quietly spoil the captors. The story of Sampson and +Dalilah was daily acted. Even the governor hastened to benefit by the +expedition. He bought a cargo of cocoa of the Buccaneers, and shipped it +at once to France in Lolonnois' vessel, giving scarcely a twentieth part +of its value, and realising a profit of £120,000. The adventurers did +not grudge him this bargain, as he had risked everything for Tortuga, +and had suffered considerable losses. "M. D'Ogeron," says Oexmelin, with +some _naïveté_, "aimait les 'honnêtes gens,' les obligeait sans cesse, +et ne les lassait jamais manquer de rien." + +Neither Lolonnois' talent, rank, nor courage kept him further from the +tavern door than the meanest of his crew. The poor drudge of a negro +that served as a butt to the sailors could not give way to baser +debauchery. It was the voice of the cannon alone that roused him to +great actions. On land he was a Caliban, at sea a Barbarossa. In spite +of his great booty, in a few short weeks he was poorer than his crew. +Tortuga was to him the Circe's island that transformed him into a beast. +As soon as his foot trod the plank, he became again the wily and the +wise Ulysses: the first in daring or in suffering, ready to endure or to +attack, above his fellow men in patience and impatience. His expenses +were large, and when the prizes ceased to come in he was soon reduced to +live upon his capital, and that quickly melted away in open-house +feasting and entertainments given to the governor. He had been +before he returned, moreover, so burdened with debts that even his +prize-money could not have defrayed them. There was but one means of +release--another expedition. Let the Spanish mother clasp her child +closer to her breast, for she knows not how soon she may have to part +with it for ever. Is there no comet that may warn an unprepared and a +doomed people? + +Lolonnois had now acquired great repute at Tortuga. He was known to be +brave, and, what is a rare combination, prudent. Under his guidance men +who had forgot his previous misfortunes, thought themselves secure of +gold, and without glory gold is not to be won. He needed now no +entreaties to induce men to fill his ships; the difficulty was in +selecting from the volunteers. Those who had before stayed behind now +determined to venture; those who had once followed him were already +driven by mere poverty to enlist. The privations of land were +intolerable to men who had just revelled in riches--the privations of +sea could be endured by the mere force of habit. The planters threw by +their hoes, and quitted the hut for the cabin. + +The towns of Nicaragua were now to share the fate of those of Venezuela. +About 700 men and six ships formed the expedition. Lolonnois himself +sailed in a large "flute" which he had brought from Maracaibo with 300 +men; the other adventurers embarked in five smaller vessels. Having +careened and revictualled at Bayala, in Hispaniola, he steered for +Matamana, a port on the south side of Cuba. He here informed his +companions of the plan of the expedition, and produced an Indian of +Nicaragua who had offered to serve as guide. He assured them of the +riches of the country, and expressed his belief that they could surprise +the place before the inhabitants had secreted their money. His proposal +was received with the usual unhesitating applause. + +At Matamana, Lolonnois collected by force all the canoes of the tortoise +fishermen, much to their grief and dismay, these poor men having no +other means of subsistence but fishing. These boats he needed to take +him up the channel of Nicaragua, which was too shallow for vessels of +any larger burthen. While attempting to round Cape Gracias à Dios, the +fleet was arrested by what the Spanish sailors call a "furious calm"--a +sad and tedious imprisonment to men to whom every delay involved the +success of their enterprise. + +In spite of all their endeavours, they were carried by the current into +the Gulf of Honduras. Both wind and tide being against them, the smaller +vessels--better sailers and more manageable than that of Lolonnois--made +more way than he could do; but were obliged to wait for him, and stay +for his orders, being quite powerless without him and his 300 men. + +They spent nearly a month in trying to recover their path, but all in +vain, losing in two hours what they gained in two days, and, their +provisions running short, put ashore to revictual. + +Touching at the first land they could reach, they sent their canoes up +the river Xagua--their guides bringing them to the villages of the +"long-eared Indians," a race tributary to Spain, whose traders bartered +knives and mirrors with them for cocoa. The Buccaneers burned their huts +and carried off their millet, hogs, and poultry, loading the canoes with +all the food they could bring away to their impatient comerades, who +determined to remain here till the unfavourable weather had passed, and +burn and pillage along the whole borders of the gulf. The Indian +provisions proved but scanty for so numerous a band, but were divided +equally among the ships that were seeking food like locusts, and moving +daily on to new pastures. + +A council of war was now held to discuss their position. Some were for +discontinuing the expedition, since the provisions ran so short. The +oldest and most experienced proposed plundering round the gulf till the +bad season had passed; and this plan was decided on. Having rifled a few +villages, they came to Puerto Cavallo, a place where Spanish ships +frequently anchored, and which contained two storehouses full of +cochineal, indigo, hides, &c., from Guatimala. There happened then to +be lying in the port a Spanish vessel of twenty-four guns and sixteen +patarerros. Its cargo, however, was nearly all unloaded and carried up +into the interior to be exchanged in barter with the Indians. This ship +was instantly seized; and Lolonnois, landing without any resistance, +burned the magazines and all the houses, and made many prisoners. The +Spaniards he put to the torture to induce them to confess. If any +refused to answer, he pulled out their tongues, or cut them to pieces +with his hanger, "desiring," says Esquemeling, "to do so to every +Spaniard in the world." Many, terrified by the rack, promised to +confess, really having nothing to disclose. These men were always +cruelly put to death in revenge. One mulatto was bound hand and foot and +thrown alive into the sea to intimidate the rest, and to induce two +survivors to show the French chief the nearest road to the neighbouring +town of San Pedro. + +For this expedition Lolonnois selected 300 men, leaving his lieutenant, +Moses Vauclin, to govern in his absence, and despatching a few of his +small flotilla to help him by a diversion on the coast. Before starting, +he told his companions that he would never refuse to march at their +head, but that he should kill with his own hand "the first who turned +tail." San Pedro was only ten leagues distant. He had not proceeded +three before he fell into an ambuscade. + +The Spaniards' favourite scheme of attack was the treacherous +surprise--a mere sort of attempt at wholesale assassination--seldom +successful, and always exasperating the enemy to greater cruelties. They +had now entrenched themselves behind gabions in a narrow road, +impassable on either side with trees and strong thickets. Lolonnois +instantly striking down the guides, whether innocent or guilty, charged +the enemy with desperate courage, and put them to flight after a long +encounter, ending in a total rout. They killed a few Buccaneers and left +many of their own men dead upon the ground. The wounded Spaniards, being +first questioned as to the distance from San Pedro, and the best way to +get there, were instantly beheaded. The prisoners informed him that +some runaway slaves, escaped from Porto Cavallo, had told them of the +intended attack on San Pedro. Determined to prevent this, they had +planned the ambuscade, and two other still stronger earthworks which +awaited him further on. To prevent connivance, or any possible +treachery, Lolonnois then had the Spaniards brought before him one by +one, and demanded of each in turn if there was no means of getting into +another and less guarded road. On their each denying that there was, he +grew frenzied and almost mad at the thoughts of such inevitable danger, +and had them all murdered but two; and then, in ungovernable passion, he +ripped open with his cutlass the breast of one of these survivors, who +was bound to a tree. Esquemeling asserts that he even tore out his heart +and gnawed it "like a ravenous wolf," swearing and shouting that he +would serve them all alike if they did not show him another way. The +miserable survivor, willing to save his life at any risk, his memory or +invention quickened by the imminent danger, conducted him into another +path, but so bad a one that Lolonnois preferred to return to the old one +in spite of all its perils, so difficult, slow, and laborious was the +march. He now seems to have grown almost fevered with rage, anxiety, and +vexation. "Mon Dieu," he growled, "les Espagnols me le payeront," and he +cursed the delay that kept him from the enemy. + +There is no doubt that in these men a fanatical and almost superstitious +hatred of the enemy had sprung up, inflamed by mutual cruelties, for +forgiveness was not the chief virtue of the victorious Spaniard. To the +Buccaneer the Spaniard seemed cruel, cowardly, treacherous, and +degraded; to the Spaniard the Buccaneer seemed a monster scarcely +human--bloody, voluptuous, faithless, and rapacious. + +That same evening the chief fell into a second ambuscade, which, says +Esquemeling, "he assaulted with such horrible fury" that in less than an +hour's time he routed the Spaniards and killed the greater part of them, +the rest flying to the third ambush, which was planted about two +leagues from the town. The Spaniards had thought, by these repeated +attacks, to destroy the enemy piecemeal, and for this object, which they +did not attain, frittered their forces into small and useless +detachments. + +Lolonnois and his people, weary with fighting and marching, and +half-fainting with hunger and thirst, lay down in the wood that night, +and slept till the morning, the _matelots_ keeping good watch and ward, +and guarding their sleeping companions. At daybreak they resumed their +journey, with confidence increased by the clear light and with bodies +invigorated by rest. The third ambuscade was stronger and more +advantageously placed than even the two preceding. They attacked it with +showers of fire-balls, and drove out the enemy, slaying without mercy, +and giving no quarter. "No quarter, no quarter," cried their ferocious +leader, still thirsty for human blood, when they would have stayed their +hands, from exhaustion rather than from pity. "The more we kill here, +the less we shall meet in the town," was his war-cry. Very few of the +enemy escaped to San Pedro, the greater part being either slain or +wounded. + +Before they ventured to make the final attack, the Buccaneers rested to +look to their arms and prepare their ammunition. In vain they attempted +to discover a second approach. There was but one, and that was well +barricaded, and planted all round with thorny shrubs, which the best +shod traveller could not pass, much less barefooted men, clad only in a +shirt and drawers. These thorns, Oexmelin says, were more dangerous than +those crow's-feet used in Europe to annoy cavalry. + +Lolonnois, seeing that no other way was left, and that delay would imply +fear in his own men, and excite hope in the enemy, resolved to storm the +works, in spite of the rage and despair of a well-armed and superior +force, sheltered from shot and commanding his approach. "The Spaniards," +says Esquemeling, "posted behind the said defences, seeing the pirates +come, began to ply them with their great guns; but these, perceiving +them ready to fire, used to stoop down, and then the shot was made to +fall upon the defendants with fire-balls and naked swords, killing many +of the town." Driven back for a time, they renewed the attack with fewer +men; husbanding their shot, for they were now short of powder; never +shooting at a long distance; and seldom firing but with great +deliberation when an enemy's head appeared above the rampart; and +occasionally giving a general discharge, in which nearly every bullet +killed an enemy. Several times the Buccaneers advanced to the very +mouths of the guns, and, throwing down fire-balls into the works, leaped +after them, sword in hand, through the embrasures; but only to be again +driven back. + +This obstinate combat, so eager on both sides, had lasted about four +hours, and night was fast approaching, when Lolonnois, ordering a last +furious attack, put the now weakened Spaniards to flight, a great number +of them being killed as soon as they turned their backs. The citizens +then hung out a white flag, and, coming to a parley, agreed to surrender +the town on condition of receiving two hours' respite. During this +time, Lolonnois found that he had lost about thirty men, ten more being +wounded. This demand of two hours was employed by the towns-people in +loading themselves with their riches and preparing for flight--the +Buccaneers virtuously abstaining from any molestation till the time had +duly expired, and then pursuing the fugitives and plundering them of +every _maravedi_. But neither their self-denial nor their vigilance was +well rewarded, for fortune gave them nothing but a few leather sacks +full of indigo, the rest, even in that short time, having been buried or +destroyed--a disappointment which, we think, no reasonable person can +regret. Lolonnois had particularly ordered that not only all the goods +should be seized, but that every fugitive should be made prisoner. + +The Buccaneer chief, having stayed a few days at San Pedro, and +"committed most horrid insolences," was anxious to send for a new +reinforcement, and attack the town of Guatimala--a place a long way +distant, and defended by 400 men. On his men as usual refusing to +accede to an apparently rash project, Lolonnois contented himself by +pillaging San Pedro, intending to impress a recollection of his visit +upon the grateful inhabitants by burning their town. He obtained no +great booty, for the inhabitants were a poor people, trading in nothing +but dyes. If he had chosen to carry away their stores of indigo, he +might have realised more than 40,000 crowns; but the Buccaneers cared +for nothing but coin and bullion, and were too ignorant, too lazy, and +too improvident to stop their debauches by loading their vessels with a +perishable cargo of uncertain value. + +Having remained now eighteen days in San Pedro without obtaining much, +for the West Indian Spaniard had already learned to hide as skilfully as +the Hindoo ryot, Lolonnois called together his prisoners, and demanded +from them a ransom as the condition of sparing their town. They doggedly +answered, with all the insolence of despair, that he had taken from them +all they had, and that they had nothing more to give; that they could +not coin without gold, and that, as far as they went, he might do what +he liked to the town. + +Lolonnois then reduced the town to ashes, and, marching to the sea-side +to rejoin his companions, found that they had been employing their time, +innocently and usefully, in capturing the fishing-boats of Guatimala. +Some Indians, newly taken, informed him that a _hourque_, a vessel of +800 tons, bringing goods from Spain to the Honduras, was then lying in +the great river of Guatimala. Resolving to careen and victual at the +islands on the other side of the gulf, they left two canoes at the mouth +of the river to give notice when the vessel should venture forth. + +The time spent in thus watching outside the covert, they devoted to +turtle fishing, dividing themselves into parties, each having his own +station to prevent disputes. Their nets they made of the bark of the +macoa tree; a natural pitch or bitumen for their boats they found in +fused heaps upon the shore. The formation of this pitch, or "wax," as +Esquemeling calls it, the sailors attributed to wild bees; the hollow +trees in which they built being torn down by storms and swept down into +the sea. The rest of their time--which never seems to have been +wearisome, unless the subsequent mutiny indicates it, for these men had +the tenacity of a slot-hound in the pursuit of blood--was spent in +cruises among those Indians of the coast of Yucatan, who seek for amber +on the shore. These tribes were the willing serfs of Spain, having +served them without resistance for a full century. The Spaniards had, as +they believed, converted the whole nation to Christianity by sending a +priest to them once a-week, but, on their sudden return to idolatry, had +begun to persecute them, angry at their own failure. + +According to the Buccaneers' account, these Indian chiefs worshipped +each a peculiar spirit, to whom they offered sacrifices of fire, burning +incense of sweet-scented gums. They had a singular custom of carrying +their new-born children into their temples, and leaving them for a night +in a hole filled with wood-ashes, generally in an open place, untended, +and where wild beasts could enter. Leaving the child here they found in +the morning the foot-prints of some wild beast on the ashes. To this +animal, whatever it might be, jaguar, snake, or cayman, they dedicated +the child, whose patron god it became. To this animal the child prayed +for vengeance against its enemies, and to it he offered sacrifices. + +Their marriages were accompanied by a very beautiful and simple +ceremony. A young man, having satisfied his intended bride's father as +to his fitness to manage a plantation, was presented with a bow and +arrow. He then visits the maiden, and puts on her head a wreath of green +leaves and sweet-smelling flowers, taking off the crown usually worn by +virgins. A meeting of her relations is then called, the maize juice is +drunk, and the day after marriage the bride's garland is torn to pieces +with cries and lamentations. + +In these islands the Buccaneers found canoes of the Aregues Indians, +which must have drifted 600 leagues. They had remained turtle-fishing +and amber-seeking about three months, when the welcome tidings came that +the enemy's vessel had ventured out. All hands were now employed in +preparing the careening ships. It was, however, at last agreed to wait +for its return, when, as they expected, it would not only contain +merchandise but money. They therefore sent their canoes to observe her +motions, and, hearing of the ambuscade, the Spaniards returned to port. +Lolonnois, as weary of delay as a greyhound is vexed by a hare's +repeated doubling, determined to do what Mahomet did when the mountain +would not go to him; since the Spaniards would not come to him, he went +himself to the Spaniards. Informed of their approach by spies, Indians +or fishermen, the vessel was prepared to receive him. The decks were +cleared, the boarding-nettings up, and the guns double-shotted. The +Spaniard carried fifty-six pieces of cannon, and the crew were well +provided with hand grenades, torches, fusees, and fire-balls, especially +on the quarter-deck and bows, and a crew of some 130 men stood armed and +threatening at their quarters. But Lolonnois cared for none of these +things, and the rich cargo shone, to his eye, through the ship's +transparent sides. With his small craft of twenty-two guns, with a +single fly-boat as his only ally, he boldly attacked the enemy, but was +at first beaten off. + +To the Buccaneer a slight check was almost a certain precursor of +victory; waiting till about sixty of the Spanish sailors had fallen from +the fire of his deadly musketry, when their courage slackened, and the +smoke of their powder lay in a dark mist round the bulwarks, hiding his +movements, he boarded with four canoes, well manned. In spite of the +brave defence, the Buccaneers fought with such fury that they forced the +Spaniards to surrender. + +Lolonnois then sent his boats up the river to secure a small patache, +which they knew lay near at hand, laden with plate, indigo, and +cochineal. But the inhabitants, alarmed at the capture of the larger +vessel, swept away from under their very eyes, saved the patache by +preventing her departure. + +The booty of the prize was much less than was expected, the vessel being +already almost entirely unladen. Its cargo consisted of iron and paper, +and it still contained 20,000 reams of paper, and 100 tons of iron bars, +which had served as ballast. The few bales of merchandise were nothing +but linens, serges, and cloth, thread, and a few jars of wine. In the +return cargo there would have been at least a million in specie. These +heterogeneous articles were of no use to men who wanted nothing but coin +or jewels, lead or powder. Dividing the paper, they used it for napkins, +and other useless trifles, and several jars of almond and olive-oil were +wasted in the same reckless manner. + +Having now accomplished their purpose, without much return for their +three months' patience, Lolonnois called a general council of the fleet, +and declared his intention of going to Guatimala. Upon this announcement +a division arose in the assembly, and the hoarse murmurs of a coming +tempest were heard around the speaker. Many of the adventurers, new to +the trade, could no longer conceal their weariness and their +disappointment. They had set sail from Tortuga with the feeling with +which a country boy comes to London. They had believed that pieces of +eight grew on the trees like pears, and had overlooked the dragons that +guarded the Hesperian trees. Having seen their predecessors return home +laden with the plunder of Maracaibo, many had overlooked the toil and +dangers by which it was won, in the sight of the joy and prodigality +with which it was lavished; they had seen only the rich pearls, and +forgotten the stormy seas from which they had been gathered. They were +weary of the hardships, and mutinous for want of food. The mere seeker +for gold could not endure what was submitted to by those who were +desirous of earning distinction. The older hands laughed at their +pinings, derided their complaints, and swore that they would rather die +and starve there, than return home with empty purses, to be the scorn +and laughing-stock of all Hispaniola. The majority of the experienced +men, foreseeing that the voyage to Nicaragua would not succeed, and was +"little to their purpose," separated from Lolonnois, and set sail +secretly in the swift sailing vessel that Moses Vauclin had captured in +the port of Cavallo, and which he now commanded, boasting, with reason, +that it was the swiftest sailing vessel that had been seen in the West +Indies for fifty years. With Moses Vauclin went Pierre le Picard, who, +seeing others desert Lolonnois, resolved to do the same. + +Steering homewards, the fugitives coasted along the whole continent till +they came to Costa Rica, where they landed a good party, marched up to +Veraguas, and burnt the town, pillaging the Spaniards, who made a stout +resistance, carrying off a few prisoners, and obtaining a scanty booty +of some seven or eight pounds' worth of gold, which their slaves washed +from the mud of the rivers. Alarmed at the multitude of Spaniards that +began to gather round them, the marauders abandoned their design of +attacking the town of Nata, on the south sea-coast, although many rich +merchants lived there, whose slaves worked in the gold-washings of +Veraguas. Returning to Tortuga, these undisciplined men, impatient of +poverty, united themselves under the flag of a noble adventurer, the +Chevalier du Plessis, who had just arrived in the Indies, poor and +proud, and prepared to cruise against the Spaniard in those seas. +Vauclin being an experienced pilot, well acquainted with the turtle +islands, and every key and reef the surf washed from California to Cape +Horn, was taken into favour by the titled privateersman, who promised +him the first prize he captured, if he would sail in his company. But a +serious difficulty arose in the execution of this liberal promise, for +the Chevalier was soon after shot through the head while grappling with +a Spanish ship of thirty-six guns, and Moses was elected captain in his +stead. In his first cruise, the brave deserter was fortunate enough to +take a cocoa vessel from the Havannah, with a cargo valued at 150,000 +livres. + +During this time, Lolonnois and his men remained alone and deserted in +the gulf of Honduras. He was now in some distress, short of provisions, +and in a vessel too "great to get out at the reflux of those seas." His +300 men had no food but that which they contrived to kill daily on +shore, living chiefly on the flesh of parrots and monkeys. By day they +generally fished or hunted, by night, taking advantage of the land +breeze, they sailed painfully on till they rounded Cape Gracias à Dios, +and slowly the Pearl Islands hove in sight. Staunch and inexorable, +Lolonnois, amid all the tedium of this enervating idleness, still +nourished the project of making a swoop down upon Nicaragua, intending +to leave his cumbrous vessel behind, and row up the river St. John in +canoes, until he reached the lake. But the same reason that made his +vessel lag behind those of his companions, now drove it ashore in a +shallow near Cape Gracias, where it drew too much water to be +extricated. In vain he unloaded his guns and iron, and used every means +that experience and ingenuity could suggest to lighten the ship, and +float her again into deep water. Always firm and resolute, Lolonnois at +once determined to break her to pieces on the sand-shoal, and with her +planks and nails to construct a boat. + +His men, with perfect _sang froid_, not even impatient at the loss, much +less afraid of danger, escaping to land, began to build Indian +_ajoupas_, or huts. Lolonnois, accustomed to such reverses, concealed +his chagrin, if he even felt any. Regardless of himself, he adjured his +men to lose no courage, for he knew of a means of escape, and, what was +more, a way to make their fortune yet, before they returned to Tortuga. +Prepared for every emergency, and even for the longest delay, part of +the crew were at once employed in planting peas and other vegetables, +the remainder in fishing and hunting, all but the few who worked busily +at the boat in which Nicaragua was to be visited. In spite of desertion, +failure, wreck, and famine, Lolonnois held on to the plan of the +expedition, which he deemed cowardly and shameful to abandon. The men, +confident in the sagacity and courage of their leader, surrendered +themselves like children to his guidance. + +The Indians of the Perlas Islands, on which they had struck, were a +fierce and untamable race, strong and agile, swift as horses, hardy +divers, brave but cruel, warlike, and man-eaters. Their wooden clubs +were jagged with crocodiles' teeth; they had no bows or arrows, but +used lances a fathom and a-half long. They built no huts, and lived on +fruits grown in plantations cleared from the forest. Fishers and +swimmers, they were so dexterous as to be able to bring up with a rope +an anchor of 600 cwt. from a rock, a feat which Esquemeling himself saw +a few of them perform. The seamen in vain attempted to propitiate these +wild freemen, to serve them as guides or hunters. At last, finding a +great number together, and pursuing the fugitives, they tracked five men +and four women to a cave, and took much pains to propitiate them. The +captives remaining obstinately silent, as if from fear, in spite of the +food that was given them, were dismissed with presents of knives and +beads. They left, promising to return; "but soon forgot their +_benefactors_," says Esquemeling, disgustfully. The sailors believed +that at night all the Indians swam to a neighbouring island, as they +never saw either boat or Indian again. + +Some time before this the Frenchmen's terror had been excited by the +discovery that these Indians were cannibals. Two Buccaneers, a Frenchman +and a Spaniard, had straggled into the woods in search of game. Pursued +by a troop of savages, the latter, after a desperate struggle, was +captured, and heard of no more; the former, the swifter footed of the +two, escaped. A few days after, an armed party of a dozen Flibustiers, +led by this survivor, went into the same part of the forest to see if +they could find any traces of the Indian encampment. Near the place +where the Spaniard had fallen into the ambush they discovered the ashes +of a fire, still warm, and among the embers some human bones, well +scraped, and a white man's hand with two fingers half roasted, but still +unconsumed. + +For six months, till the long-boat was completed, the Buccaneers lived +on Spanish wheat, bananas, and on the fruits and green crops which they +had sown on landing. Their bread they baked in portable ovens saved from +the wreck. + +Lolonnois now once more prepared to carry out his unabandoned project. +With part of his crew he resolved to row up the river of Nicaragua, to +capture some canoes, and return to fetch away those whom the new boat +would not hold. The men cast lots for the choice of sailing with him. He +took about one-half of the shipwrecked crew with him, part in the +long-boat and part in a skiff which had been saved when the larger +vessel drove on the bank. They arrived in a few days at Desaguadera, +near Nicaragua, but attacked on the beach by an overpowering number of +Spaniards and Indians, they were driven back to their boats, with the +loss of many men, and escaped with difficulty, beaten and desponding. + +Lolonnois, now fairly at bay with fortune, still resolved neither to +return to Tortuga ragged and penniless, nor to rejoin his comerades till +he had obtained a sufficient number of canoes to embark his companions. +In order the better to obtain provisions he divided his men into two +bands. The one party proceeded to the Cape Gracias à Dios, where they +were well received; the other sailed to Boca del Toro, on the coast of +Carthagena, where adventurers frequently repaired for turtle and other +provisions, intending to embark in the first friendly vessel that should +arrive. + +Nicaragua was still destined to remain unscathed. "God Almighty," says +Esquemeling, who writes with some bitterness, and probably much +hypocrisy, "the time of His divine justice being now come, had appointed +the Indians of Darien to be the instruments and executioners thereof." +Landing at a place called the La Pointe à Diegue to obtain fresh water, +Lolonnois and his men, weary of "wave, and wind, and oar," drew their +canoes to land, and threw up entrenchments, knowing that they were now +in the neighbourhood of the Bravo Indians, the most savage race known on +the mainland--as cruel as sharks, and as numerous and greedy of blood as +the vultures. He himself and a few others, passing the river, near the +Gulf of Darien, landed in order to sack a town and obtain provisions. +Here this modern Ulysses found a termination to his troubles and his +life, for, being taken prisoner by the Indians, he was killed, chopped +to pieces, and devoured. Many of his companions were also burnt alive, +and but a few escaped to Tortuga, by the detail of their horrors to +check for a few days the love of adventure in the minds of its restless +and impetuous adventurers. + +Esquemeling, or his English translator--who generally considers it +necessary to conclude his chapters with a sanctimonious moral, a snuffle +of the nose, and a lifting up of the eyes--says, "Hither Lolonnois came +(brought by his evil conscience that cried for punishment), thinking to +act his cruelties; but the Indians, within a few days after his arrival, +took him prisoner, throwing his body limb by limb into the fire, and his +ashes into the air (_virtuous indignation_), that no trace or memory +might remain of such an infamous, inhuman creature.... Thus ends the +history, the life, and the miserable death of that infernal wretch, +Lolonnois, who, full of horrid, execrable, and enormous deeds, and +debtor to so much innocent blood, died by cruel and butcherly hands, +such as his own were in the course of his life." Towards the conclusion +of his malediction Esquemeling's wrath unfortunately gets much the +better of his grammar. + +The men left behind in the island de las Perlas, after long waiting for +their companions--who had only escaped Scylla to run into +Charybdis--were taken off by an English adventurer, who, collecting a +body of 500 men, resolved on an expedition to the mainland. Ascending +the river Moustique, near Cape Gracias, he sailed on, expecting to find +some inlet to the lake of Nicaragua, round which Lolonnois' men still +hovered. The expedition started full of hope, for the shipwrecked men +were rejoiced at ending ten months of suffering, anxiety, and privation. + +The result was worse than mere disappointment. In fifteen days they +reached no Spanish town, but only some poor Indian villages, which they +found deserted by the natives, who, aware of their coming, had fled, +carrying off all the produce of their plantations. These they burnt in +their rage, and marched recklessly onwards. They had carried no +provision with them, expecting to find everywhere sufficient; and, to +render their condition worse, had brought all their 500 men, except five +or six who were left to guard each vessel. "These their hopes," says +Esquemeling--turning up as usual the whites of his eyes--who looks with +great contempt on all unsuccessful attempts at thieving, "were found +totally vain, _as not being grounded_." In a few days the hope of +plunder, which had first animated them, grew clouded by despondency. +Scarcity rapidly became want, and they were reduced to such extreme +necessity and hunger that they gathered the plants that grew on the +river's bank for food. In a fortnight their courage and vigour had +entirely gone; their hearts sank, and their bodies were wasted by +famine. + +Leaving the river they took to the woods, seeking for Indian villages +where they might obtain food. Ranging up and down the woods for some +days in a fruitless search, they returned to the river, now their only +guide, and struck back towards the point of coast where their ships lay. +In this laborious journey they were reduced to much extremity--eating +their shoes, their leather belts, and the very sheaths of their knives +and swords. They grew at last so ravenous as to resolve to kill and +devour the first Indian they could meet; but they could not obtain one +either for food or as a guide. Some fell sick, and, fainting by the +wayside, were left to perish. Many were killed and eaten by the Indians, +and others died of starvation. At last they reached the shore, and, +finding some comfort and relief to their present miseries, at once set +sail to encounter more. After remaining some time on land, they +re-embarked, but a quarrel arising between the French and English +Buccaneers, who seldom kept long friends, they separated into small +parties, and engaged in fresh expeditions. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. + + Bras-de-Fer compared to Alexander the Great--His adventures and + stratagems--Montbars--Anecdotes of his childhood--Goes to sea--His + first fight--Meets and joins the Buccaneers--Defeats the Spanish + Fifties--His uncle killed--His revenge--The negro vessel--Adam and + Anne le Roux plunder Santiago. + + +We now come to a class of Buccaneers who lived at we scarcely know what +period, although they were probably contemporaries of Oexmelin. Their +adventures, though on a narrower scale, are perhaps more interesting +than those that had subsequently taken place, and are valuable as +illustrations of manners. + +Oexmelin relates, in his usual shrewd and vivacious manner, the singular +exploits of Alexandre Bras-de-Fer, a French adventurer, with whom he was +acquainted, and who, unlike his contemporaries, never joined in large +expeditions, preferring the promptitude of a single swift cruiser, with +none to share his risks or subtract from his booty. His life seems to +have been crowded with romantic and strange incidents. His character +appears to have been a strange combination of bravery and chivalry, a +love of rapine, and a fantastic vanity. Oexmelin says naïvely, that this +modern Alexander was as great a man among the adventurers of Tortuga as +the ancient Alexander was among the conquerors of the East. Nor does he +see much difference between the two worthies, except that the Macedonian +was the adventurer upon the larger scale. + +Our Alexandre was vigorous in body and handsome in feature--so, at +least, vouches Oexmelin, who, a surgeon by profession, once cured him of +a severe wound that he had received--a cure which, if Alexandre had been +generous (which he was not, in this instance at least), might have made +the doctor's fortune. + +Bras-de-Fer displayed as great judgment in the conception of his +enterprises as he did courage in the carrying them out. His head and +hand worked well together, and he seldom had to fight his way out of +dangers into which his own incautiousness had led him. The vessel which +he commanded he called the _Phoenix_, because it was of such a unique and +peculiar structure that it was said to be among vessels what the phoenix +was fabled to be among birds. + +Alexandre always went alone, in preference to crowding in a fleet. His +pride or his prudence may have given him a fondness for solitary +cruises, for the _Phoenix_ was a bird of prey. A picked crew and a single +swift vessel had many advantages over a rebellious flotilla--and +subordinate captains were often mutinous if not treacherous. If solitude +increased his risk, it also increased his probability of success. + +Oexmelin, the only writer who mentions Alexandre, relates but one of his +adventures, which he took down, as he tells us, from the hero's own +lips. The rest of his exploits he suppresses, either from a fear of +being tedious or a dread of being considered a mere romancer. + +On the occasion of which he speaks, Alexandre was bound upon an +expedition of great consequence--which, however, as it did not succeed, +the narrator, with a wise modesty, does not think worth mentioning. +After lying some time imprisoned in a tedious calm, his prayers for a +change of weather were answered by a great storm, that blew up the sea +into mountains--wind and fire seeming to struggle together in the air +for the possession of the helpless ship and its pale crew. The furious +thunder drowned the very roar of the sea, and the masts soon went by the +board. The lightning, striking its burning arrows through the deck, set +fire to the powder-magazine, and blew up the part of the vessel in which +it was stored. Half of the crew were hurled into the air, and were +killed before they reached the boiling sea that eagerly waited for their +fall. The remainder of the crew, finding the vessel going down by the +head, took to swimming, and soon reached dry land: Alexandre--strong and +brawny, brave, but desirous of life, and always awake to the means of +its preservation--by no means the last, setting an example at once of +prudence, coolness, and decision. On shaking the brine from their limbs +and looking around, the wrecked men found that they had been thrown upon +a tract of land as much to be dreaded by the Buccaneer as the realm of +Polyphemus was by the wise Ulysses. They stood upon an island near the +Boca del Drago (Dragon's Mouth), inhabited by a tribe of Indians, fierce +and cruel cannibals. Remaining for some time upon the shore, they +exerted themselves in recovering what they could from the scorched +driftings of the wreck. Amongst other things they saved--what was more +valuable than food, because they presented the means of saving their +lives for the present and for the future--a number of their hunters' +muskets, sufficient to arm all their number, together with a quantity of +powder and lead for bullets. Without either of the three requisites the +other two had been useless. They now gathered courage from the +possibility of escape, and determined to secure themselves from the +Indians, reconnoitre the place for fear of surprise, and after that +remain patiently encamped till some friendly vessel should arrive. + +One day, while some of the band were smoking, singing, and talking, +their past dangers already half forgotten in the desire of escaping the +present by encountering fresh in the future, the sentinels on the +look-out hill gave the signal of an approaching vessel. On all rushing +to the spot, the keener eyes detected a large ship, dark against the +grey horizon. It presently discharged a gun at the shore, and in the +direction in which they stood. Preparing for the worst, Alexandre and +his men hid themselves in a wooded hollow and held a council of war. +Some were of opinion that they should wait for the stranger's arrival, +and then quietly beg the captain to take them on board. The more +impatient and lawless, less pacific in such an emergency, believed that +such a plan would lead, if the vessel proved, as it probably would, a +Spaniard, to their all being taken prisoners, and at once strung from +the yard-arm, without inquiry, as Frenchmen and pirates. Bras-de-Fer +spoke last, and crushed all opposition by his voice and gesture. He was +for war to the death, and escape at any risk. Better Spanish rope than +Indian fire, better pistol shot than starvation. Quick in decision and +firm in execution, he had at once determined not merely to stand on the +defensive, but at all risks to assume the aggressive. The adventurers +yielded as if an angel had spoken, for Alexandre had more than the usual +ascendancy of a leader over them. Both his mind and body were of a more +athletic bulk and iron mould. He could dare and suffer more. His active +and his passive, his moral and physical courage, were greater than +theirs. They loved him because he shared their dangers, and did not +humiliate them by the assumption of his real superiority. He wore the +crown, but he was not always dazzling their eyes with its oppressive +glitter. They respected him, because he could control both his own +passions and those of the men whom he led to victory and never to +defeat. The success of his victories he doubled by the prudence with +which they were followed up, and the skill with which he conducted a +retreat rendered his very defeats in themselves successes. + +The vessel, which proved to be a Spanish merchant ship, with war +equipments, approached nearer, standing off and on, attracted by the +fruit and flowers whose perfume spread over the level sea, and allured +by that fragrance, a sure proof of the existence of good water not far +from the shore. The boats were lowered, and a well-armed party landed +with much caution. The captain marched at their head, followed by his +best soldiers, dreading an ambuscade of the Indians of that coast, who +were known to be warlike and treacherous, but not suspecting the +Buccaneers, who kept themselves in the wood, ready to swoop down upon +their prey, like the kite upon the dovecote. + +Already well acquainted with the paths and foot-tracks, Alexandre's men +crept quietly through the trees, which grew thick and dark, and, +defiling by secret avenues, surrounded the principal approach by which +the Spaniards had already entered, in good order and on the alert, but +with apprehensions already subsiding. The adventurers being very +inferior in number and scantily armed, kept themselves hidden, waiting +for chance to give them some momentary advantage. When the enemy was +well encircled in the defile, mistaking perhaps the lighted matches for +fire-flies among the branches, the French suddenly opened a murderous +fire upon the soldiers, who found themselves girt by a belt of flame, +coming from they knew not where. A pilgrim seeing a volcano opening at +his feet could not be more astonished. The Spaniards, seeing no enemies +to aim at, withheld their fire, thinking that the Indians were burning +the forest. The absence of arrows, and the report of muskets, convinced +them more deadly enemies awaited them, and that Europeans and not +Indians were the preparers of the ambush. With much promptitude, +instead of flying in a foolish headlong rout, they threw themselves upon +their faces; and the captain gave the word of command not to fire till +the enemy came in sight, being ignorant yet of their number and their +nation. + +The adventurers looked through the loopholes which they had cut in the +thick underwood for the passage of their firearms, to see what effect +their volley had produced, the smoke now clearing away and permitting +them to see more clearly. To their astonishment they could see no one; +the enemy had vanished, as if blown to pieces by the fire. They began to +think that they had retreated, although they had heard no sound of their +retreat; they could scarcely believe that they were all dead. + +Alexandre's impatience soon decided the question; determined to conquer, +he chafed at the delay and mystery. His resolution was soon made. He +left his ambush and broke out from the wood into the open. The mystery +was quickly solved, for he was instantly attacked by the Spaniards, +who, when they saw him break cover, sprang up to their feet, with a +shout, as swift as the foes of Cadmus. Alexandre, retreating for a +moment to make his spring the surer, leaped upon the hostile captain and +aimed a blow at his head with his sabre, which was warded off by a large +scull-cap, from which the steel glanced. Bras-de-Fer was about to repeat +his blow with better effect, when his foot caught in a root and he fell. +Closely pressed by his antagonist, and requiring all his skill to save +his life, rising up, with his left hand and with his strong right arm, +he struck the uplifted sabre from the hand of his enemy. This lucky blow +of a defenceless man gave Alexandre time to leap up and call the +adventurers, who had not then left the ambush, and were now pouring out +on every side, pressing the enemy in the rear and on the flank. Having +made a great carnage among the Spaniards, the Flibustiers, at a signal +from Alexandre, closed in, and, bearing down upon the craven and +terrified foe sword in hand, slew them to a man, taking special care +that not a single one should escape, for fear of spreading an alarm. + +The Spanish crew remaining to keep guard in the vessel, had heard the +sound of musketry, and at once supposed that their people had fallen in +with some hostile Indians, but knowing that their troops were brave and +numerous, and believing they could easily cut a few savages to pieces, +they sent no reinforcement, but contented themselves by discharging a +noisy broadside to turn the scale of the supposed battle, and increase +the terror of the fugitives. On the other hand, the victorious +adventurers lost no time in following up their ambush by an ingenious +stratagem. They stripped the dead, and arrayed themselves in their dress +and arms. They then collected a quantity of their own Indian arrows, +which they had previously taken from savages which they had killed. Then +pulling their broad-brimmed Panama hats over their eyes (even the +captain's, with a red gash through it), and shouldering their arms, +imitating the Spanish march, and uttering shouts of "victory, victory," +proceeded to the shore at the point nearest the vessel. The guards on +board, seeing their supposed companions returned so soon, victorious, +laden with spoil, and each one carrying a sheaf of arrows, received them +with open arms as they clambered up by the main-chains. Before they +could recover from their astonishment, the Buccaneers were masters of +the vessel. There was scarcely any struggle, for only the sailors and a +few marines had been left on board. The surprise was complete and +sudden, and the most watchful might be pardoned for being deluded by +such an artifice. The adventurers found the vessel laden with costly +merchandise, and soon started with it upon a trip of a very different +nature from that for which it had been first intended. + +Oexmelin laments that in many other adventures which Alexandre told him, +he found that he passed too lightly over his own exploits, and +attributed all the glory to the courage of his companions. But when his +comerades related the story, they were not so generous to him as he had +been to them, and, either from envy or shame, suppressed many of his +noblest actions. He concludes his sketch of the two Alexanders with +incomparable _naïveté_ in the following manner: "Au reste, je ne +prétends pas que la comparaison soit toute-à-fait juste, car s'il y a +quelque rapport, _il y a encore plus de différence_. En effet il étoit +aussi brave que téméraire, et lui étoit brave que prudent. Alexandre +aymoit le vin, et lui l'eau-de-vie. Aussi Alexandre fuyoit les femmes +par grandeur d'âme, et luy les cherchoit par tendresse de coeur; et pour +preuve de ce que je dis il s'en trouve une assez belle dans le vaisseau +dont j'ay parlé, qu'il préféra à tout l'avantage du butin." + +"To conclude: if I have compared him to the Great Alexander, I do not +pretend that the comparison is altogether just; for, if there are some +points of resemblance, there are many more of difference. Of a truth, +the one Alexander was as brave as he was headstrong, the other as brave +as he was prudent; the one loved wine, and the other brandy; the one +fled from women through real greatness of heart, the other sought them +from a natural tenderness of soul; and, as a proof of what I say, he met +a beautiful woman in the vessel of which I have spoken, whom he valued +more than all the other spoil." + +Providence, a French moral philosopher ventures to suggest, raised up +the Buccaneers to revenge on the Spaniards all the sufferings and +injustices of the Indians. The Spaniard was the scourge of the Indian, +and the Buccaneer the scourge of the Spaniard. + +Lolonnois and Montbars are always considered as equal claimants for the +hateful pre-eminence of being the most ferocious of the whole Buccaneer +brotherhood, considering them from their origin to their extinction. But +the sovereignty of blood must be at once awarded to Lolonnois. Montbars +seldom killed a Spaniard who begged for mercy, while Lolonnois delighted +to spurn them from his feet, and slew all he could without pity, or even +regard for ransom. It was from the very lips of Lolonnois that Oexmelin +was informed that Montbars was sprung from one of the best families in +Languedoc. He was well educated, but soon disregarded every other study +to practise martial exercise, and particularly shooting. These warlike +sports he pursued with a concentrated, unremitting eagerness, +approaching insanity. Even as a boy, when firing with his cross-bow, he +said he only wished to shoot well that he might know how to kill a +Spaniard. His mind had already become filled with a generous but cruel +determination, which grew rapidly into monomania. The animal force of a +strong but ill-balanced mind all grew to this point, and his thoughts by +day, and his dreams by night, became but a reiteration and reblending of +the one master passion. No one ever became his confidant, but the +following is the general explanation given of the deeds of his after +life. It is said that, in his early childhood, Montbars had read of the +almost incredible cruelties practised by the Spaniards during the +conquest of America. In the Antilles, they had exhibited the horrors of +the Inquisition in broad daylight. Fanaticism, avarice, and ambition had +ruled like a trinity of devils over the beautiful regions, desolated +and plague-smitten; whole nations had become extinct, and the name of +Christ was polluted into the mere cypher of an armed and aggressive +commerce. These books had impressed the gloomy boy with a deep, +absorbing, fanatical hatred of the conquerors, and a fierce pity for the +conquered. He believed himself marked out by God as the Gideon sent to +their relief. Dreams of riches and gratified ambition spurred him +unconsciously to the task. He thought and dreamed of nothing but the +murdered Indians. He inquired eagerly from travellers for news from +America, and testified prodigious and ungovernable joy when he heard +that the Spaniards had been defeated by the Caribs or the Bravos. + +He indeed knew by heart every deed of atrocity that history recorded of +his enemies, and would dilate on each one with a rude and impatient +eloquence. The following story he was frequently accustomed to relate, +and to gloat over with a look that indicated a mind capable of even +greater cruelty, if once led away by a fanatic spirit of retaliation. A +Spaniard, the story ran, was once upon a time appointed governor of an +Indian province, which was inhabited by a fierce and warlike race of +savages. He proved a cruel governor, unforgiving in his resentments, and +insatiable in his avarice. The Indians, unable any longer to endure +either his barbarities or his exactions, seized him, and, showing him +gold, told him that they had at last been able, by great good luck, to +find enough to satisfy his demands. They then held him firm, and melting +the ore, poured it down his throat till he expired in torments under +their hands. + +On one occasion, Montbars openly showed that his reason was somewhat +disturbed, and that, on the one subject of his thoughts, he had ceased +to be able to reflect calmly. While a boy, he had to take part in a +comedy which was to be acted by himself and the fellow-students of the +college, for his friends either ignored or disregarded his dreams and +fancies. Amongst other scenes was a prologue, in the shape of a dialogue +between a Spaniard and a Frenchman. Montbars was to represent the +Frenchman, and his companion the Spaniard. The Spaniard, appearing first +upon the stage, began to utter a thousand invectives against France, +mingled with much ribald rhodomontade, and Montbars became excited, and +could not contain his impatience. To his heated mind the mimic scene +became a reality. He broke in upon the stage, furiously interrupted his +comerade in the middle of his speech, and, loading him with blows, would +certainly have put him to death on the spot, as "a Spanish liar and +murderer," had the combatants not been separated by the terrified +bystanders. + +His father, rich, and loving his son much, perhaps all the better for +these wayward eccentricities, which, he believed, contact of the world +and the pleasures of youth would soon drive from his memory, desired to +enrol him in the army, or induce him to enter some profession. But to +all his questions and entreaties the boy only replied, that all he +wanted was "to fight against the Spaniards." Seeing that his friends +would oppose his project, he ran away from his father's house, and took +refuge at Havre with an uncle who commanded one of the French king's +ships. He was about to start on a cruise against Spain, with whom France +was then at war, and, pleased at the boy's avowed attachment to a +maritime life, wrote to his father, approving of the boy's resolution. +The father reluctantly gave what could be construed into a consent, and +in a few days the vessel sailed. + +During the voyage out, the young fanatic evinced the greatest eagerness +for an engagement, and directly a vessel appeared in sight ran to arm +himself, hoping it might be a Spaniard. At length, one did in reality +appear, and he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself against his +declared enemies. They gave chase to the Spanish vessel, and received +her broadside. The elder Montbars, seeing his nephew intoxicated with +joy, and, disregarding all risk of exposure, determining to throw away +his life, clapped him under hatches, as a reckless boy, and only let him +rush out when the boarding commenced, and the enemy's vessel was +evidently their own. The liberated youth led the boarders with all the +calmness of a veteran man-of-war's-man. Leaping, sabre in hand, upon the +foe, he fought with them pell-mell, broke through their thickest ranks, +and, followed by a few whom his courage animated to rival his own +rashness, rushed twice from end to end of the Spanish vessel, mowing +down all he met to the right and left. The Spaniards were refused +quarter, those who escaped the sword perished in the sea, and Montbars, +to whom the honour of the victory was unanimously awarded, refused +quarter to a single one. The prize was found full of spoil, the hold +crammed with riches, containing 30,000 bales of cotton, 2000 bales of +silk, besides Indian stuffs, 2000 packets of incense, and 1000 of +cloves, which made up the treasure. In addition to all this, they found +a small casket of diamonds, the case clasped with iron, and fastened +with four locks, which alone outvalued all the bulkier merchandise. +While his uncle and the sailors exulted over these treasures, Montbars +was counting the dead Spaniards, and gloating over the first victims of +the hecatomb he still hoped to slay. Blood, and not booty, was his +object. + +In spite of the young victor, a few Spanish sailors and officers had +been spared in the general carnage. From these survivors they learnt +that two other vessels had been parted from them in a storm, near where +they then were (St. Domingo), and that their rendezvous had been fixed +at Port Margot. Captain Montbars determined to wait for them there, and +to capture them by the stratagem of sending the captured vessel with its +Spanish colours out to meet them, as a decoy. While the French vessel +and its prize lay waiting at the rendezvous, some huntsmen's boats came +off to sea, bringing boucaned meat to barter for brandy. The Buccaneers +apologised for bringing so little meat, saying, "that a band of Spanish +Fifties had lately ravaged their district, burnt their hides, stolen +their dried meat, and burnt their boucans." + +"And why do you suffer it?" said Montbars, impetuously, for he had been +listening eagerly all this time, to the recital of a new proof of +Spanish perfidy. + +"We do not suffer it," answered the huntsmen, roughly. "The Spaniards +know well what sort of people we are, and they chose a time when we were +all away cow-killing; but our day is coming. We are now collecting our +companions, who have suffered worse than we have; we have given notice +far and wide, and if the fifty grow to 1000, we shall soon bring them to +bay." + +"If you are willing," says Montbars, "I will march at your head. I do +not want to command you, but to expose myself first, to show you what I +am ready to do against these accursed Spaniards." + +The old hunters, astonished at the daring of a mere youth, and glad of +another musket, accepted his proposal. His uncle, unable to rein him in, +and already weary of so hot-brained a volunteer, yielded to his +entreaties. He permitted him to go, giving him a party of seamen to +guard him, and supplied him with but few provisions, in hopes of +bringing him quickly back. He threatened, on parting, to leave him +behind if he was not on board to the very hour, then calling him a +foolish madcap, and cursing him for a hair-brain, he dismissed him with +his blessing, swearing the next minute there wasn't a braver lad at that +moment treading a plank. + +Montbars departed with some uneasiness, not caring about his uncle's +advice or the scantiness of provisions, but only afraid that he might +miss the Spaniards on land, and be absent also when the Spanish vessels +were attacked. He wanted no greater inducement to hurry his return than +the prospect of a naval engagement. He had scarcely landed with his men, +when the hunters brought them into a small savannah surrounded by hills +and woods. They had not taken many steps across this broad +hunting-ground before they saw some mounted Spaniards appear in the +distance--these men were part of a troop that had collected, hearing +that the Buccaneers were assembling to attack them. + +Montbars, transported with rage at the sight of a Spaniard, would have +rushed at once upon them, single-handed, but an old experienced +Buccaneer caught him by the arm: "Stop," said he, "there is plenty of +time, and, if you do what I tell you, not one of these fellows shall +escape." These words, "not one," would at any time have arrested +Montbars, and they did so then. The old Buccaneer, crying a halt, bade +the men turn their backs on the Spaniards, as if they had not seen them. +He next unrolled the linen tent, which he carried in the usual fashion +of his craft, and began to pitch it, followed by all his companions, who +did the same, imitating their fugleman, without inquiry, trusting to the +address that had often before delivered them out of danger. They then +drew out their brandy flasks and affected to prepare for a revel, +intending to deceive the Spaniards, who, they knew, would give them time +to drink, in hopes of surprising them, an easy prey, when asleep. The +empty horns were passed round with jokes, and songs, and shouts, and the +corked flasks circulated as merrily as if the feast had been a real one. +Without appearing to observe, they could see the Spanish patrols +disappear over the ridge of the hill, to warn their men in the valley +to prepare for a night surprise. The Buccaneer leader, passing the +signal from hand to hand, sent an _engagé_ into the woods to quickly +rouse all the "brothers" in the neighbourhood, to bid them come and help +them, and to prepare an ambush in the opposite forest. In the mean time, +other scouts were sent to watch the motions of the enemy, to be sure +that they were coming, and were not making any flank movement. + +At dusk the Buccaneers slipped quietly from beneath their tents, and +crept into the adjacent woods. Here they found their companions and +their _engagés_ already assembled and eager for the attack. Montbars, +weary of all preparations, was now burning to see the Spaniards, +declared they never would come, and that they had better go out and +surprise them while night lasted; but the Spaniards were purposely +delaying, knowing that the longer they delayed the deeper would be the +sleep of the revellers. At daybreak, they could see a dark troop +beginning to move forward over the ridge, and soon to descend the hill +into the plain in good order, a small detachment marching before them as +a forlorn hope. The Buccaneers, well posted and unobserved, waited for +them, sure of their prey, for the tents being pitched at some distance +one from the other, they could see every movement of the Spaniards. As +they drew nearer, the Fifties broke into small troops, and each +encircled a tent. To their astonishment, at that moment the wood grew a +flame, and a hot rolling fire led on the advancing Buccaneers, who, +breaking out with yell and shout, very terrible in the silence of the +dawning, overthrew horse and rider. Montbars, inspired by the fever of +the onslaught, which always seemed for a moment to restore the balance +of his mind, leaped on a horse, whose rider he had killed, and headed +the attack. Wherever resistance was made, he rode in, charging every +knot of troopers as they attempted to rally. Hurrying on too far beyond +his companions, while breaking into the heart of the squadron, he was +surrounded, and would have been quickly overpowered had he not been +rescued by a determined rush of his men. More furious at this escape, +he pursued the scattered enemy right and left, with increased fury, +inflicting blows as dreadful as they were unusual. One of the +Buccaneers, seeing many of his men suffering from the Indian arrows, +cried out to the Indians, in Spanish, pointing to Montbars, "Do you not +see that God has sent you a liberator, who fights for you, to deliver +you from the Spaniards, and yet you still fight for your tyrants?" +Hearing these words, and astonished at Montbars' contempt for death, the +archers changed sides and turned their arrows against the Spaniards, who +fled, overwhelmed by this new misfortune, and perhaps impelled by an +undefinable and superstitious terror. + +Montbars looked upon this day as the happiest in his life. He had seen +the Indians he had so pitied fighting by his side, and regarding him as +their protector. Cleaving down a wounded Spaniard, who clung to his +knees and begged for mercy, he cried, "I would it were the last of this +accursed race." An eye witness of the battle describes the carnage as +horrible--the living trampling on the living, and stumbling over the +dying and the dead. The Buccaneers and the Indians, rejoicing in their +liberty and their revenge, entreated Montbars to follow up his +successes, and wanted at once to ravage the Spanish plantations, and +extirpate the survivors, while they were still discouraged. Montbars +gladly consented to the proposal, and was about to march exultingly at +their head, when the boom of a cannon was heard. It was the report of a +gun from his uncle's vessel, and he could not resist obeying a signal +that might be the signal of an approaching battle. He instantly hurried +back, but found, to his annoyance, that the signal had been only fired +as a warning to announce the hour of instant sailing. + +The hunters, already attached to their young leader, refused to leave +him, and the Indians were afraid to abide the vengeance of the +Spaniards. They were all therefore at once placed on board the prize, +and supplied with muskets and sabres. The delighted uncle appointed +Montbars as captain, with an old officer, under the name of lieutenant, +to act as his guardian. + +After eight days' sail, Montbars was attacked, at the mouth of a large +key, by four Spanish vessels, each one larger than his own. They +surrounded him so suddenly that he had no time to escape, and he lay +amongst them like a wolf at bay. They formed, in fact, the van of the +great Indian plate fleet, which was, every year, as eagerly expected by +the king of Spain as it was by all the marauders of the Spanish main. +The elder Montbars, bold and hardy, unhesitatingly attacked two of the +vessels, and several times drove back their boarders. Although gouty +himself and unable to move, the staunch old Gascon shouted his orders +from his elbow chair; and, cursing alternately the enemy and the +disease, defended his ship to the last extremity. Having fought for more +than three hours with ferocious obstinacy, and seeing his young hero +terribly pressed by his two adversaries, he resolved upon a final +effort, the last struggle of a wild beast that feels the knife is at his +throat. Firing a tremendous broadside, he attacked both his enemies +with such fury that he sank them and himself, and died "laughing" in all +the exultation of that revenge which is the only victory of despair. + +Montbars the younger made great exertions to save himself and to avenge +his uncle. The old lion was dead, but the cub had much life in him yet. +He sank one of his antagonists with a crashing shot and boarded the +other. His Indians, seeing their leader enter the Spanish vessel at one +end, threw themselves into the water and clambered promptly up the +other. Their war-cries and arrows produced a powerful diversion, and +took the Spaniards by surprise. Throwing many into the sea, they killed +others, while Montbars put all that resisted to the sword. In a short +time he was master of a vessel larger even than those that had been +sunk. The friendly Indians, who now looked upon him as an invincible +demigod, he employed in a fruitless search for his uncle's body. +Conquerors and conquered were destined to remain locked in each other's +arms, and piled over with bloody trophies of burnt wreck until the day +that the sea should give up her dead. + +The hunters renewed their proposal of a descent upon the mainland, and +Montbars agreed to any scheme which would enable him to avenge his uncle +and his friends. He had formerly lived to avenge the wrongs of others, +to these were now added his own. The governor of the province, hearing +of the contemplated attack, prepared an ambuscade of negroes and +militiamen. Putting himself at the head of 800 men, divided into three +battalions, his wings strengthened with cavalry and his van guarded with +cannon, he prepared to prevent the landing of the "Exterminator." + +These preparations only increased the ardour of Montbars. It seemed +cowardly to ravage an unprotected country: its devastation, after +defeating its defenders, was a reward of conquest. Montbars was the +first to leap from the canoes, and the first to rush upon the Spanish +pikes. The front battalion was soon repulsed, and some Indians taking +the reserve force in the flank, they were driven back in great +disorder. Montbars, hotly pursuing, made a prodigious carnage of the +enemy, and carried fire and sword far into the interior. + +One day, while at sea, the young captain, already a veteran in +experience, was obliged to put into a bay to careen. To his great +surprise, although the place was a mere track of sand, he saw some +Spaniards on a distant plain, marching in good order and well-armed. +Fearing that if they saw his men they would take to flight, he sent a +few of his favourite Indians to decoy them towards him. Then falling +upon them with fury as they cried out for quarter Montbars shouted, in +Spanish, that they had nothing to hope for till they had killed himself +and all his men. These dreadful words, together with his revengeful +looks, drove them to take up their arms and fight with dogged and brutal +despair, till they were slain almost to a man. Advancing into the +country in search of more human prey, Montbars carried off the arms of +the Spaniards and a great quantity of fruits and provisions. + +It appeared, from a survivor, that the Spaniards had arrived in that +country in a singular manner. They had formed the crew in guard of a +vessel full of negro slaves who had conspired together to drive the ship +on shore. They had secretly bored holes in the ship's hold, in which +they had placed pluggets, which they drew out, and replaced, unseen, and +in a moment. While the Spaniards were seated together, talking with +their usual stately, stolid phlegm, this unaccountable leak would break +out and fill the cabin, or drench them in their hammocks. The slaves +never seemed alarmed, but always astonished, and filled the air with +interjections, in the Congo language. The water rushing in pell-mell, +even the ship's carpenter did not know from where, drove all hands, at +great danger to the ship, almost to leave the helm to save the cargo, +which was already damaged. The negroes, quiet and orderly, would +generally succeed, after a time, in stopping the leak, and excited +general admiration by their promptitude and naval skill. All then went +on well for a time; but with the least wind or storm the leak +recommenced, till the very captain began reluctantly to confess, with +tears in his eyes, that they were all as good as lost, for the vessel +was dangerous, and not seaworthy. In the middle of the night, or at meal +time, this supernatural leak would recommence, till the pumps were all +but worn out, and the men faint with want of sleep. One day, when the +vessel was skirting a reef, the negroes watched the opportunity, and the +leak commenced with redoubled fury, the slaves howling as if from the +very disquietness of their hearts. The Spaniards, thinking all hope +lost, and the vessel, as they declared, already beginning to settle +down, abandoned the ship, and threw themselves on that very tongue of +land where Montbars afterwards surprised them. The trick had been +cleverly planned and cleverly executed, but a hitch in the machinery had +nearly ruined all. One of the blacks, more timid or less sagacious than +the rest, seeing the water pour in with more than usual impetuosity, and +on all sides, lost his presence of mind. Not able at once, in his panic, +to find the hole which he had to stop, he believed that his companions +had also failed, and that all was indeed lost, and, throwing himself +overboard without inquiring, he joined the Spaniards, who were thanking +God (prematurely) for their deliverance. + +Looking back for his companions, to his horror he saw a dozen of them +tugging at the helm, and putting out wildly to sea. The truth flashed +upon him, and he knew in a moment that his safety was a loss. Giving way +to uncontrollable despair, he tore his wool, and stamped his feet, and +cursed his fetish, and stretched out his hands, as if to stay the +parting vessel. The Spaniards, astonished at this apparently passionate +desire to be drowned, began slowly to discover the successful stratagem. +They looked: "Demonio, St. Antonio!"--the vessel did not sink, but +glided swiftly out to sea. They could see the blacks laughing, pulling +at the ropes, and grinning from the port-holes. They turned with fury on +the unhappy survivor, and put him to the torture till he confessed the +truth. + +And this story completes all that history has preserved of one of the +strangest combinations of fanatic and soldier that has ever appeared +since the days of Loyola. In another age, and under other circumstances, +he might have become a second Mohammed. Equally remorseless, his +ambition, though narrower, seems to have been no less fervid. If he was +cruel, we must allow him to have been sincere even in his fanaticism. +Daring, untiring, of unequalled courage, and unmatched resolution, the +cruelty of the Spaniards he put down by greater cruelty. He passes from +us into unknown seas, and we hear of him no more. He died probably +unconscious of crime, unpitying and unpitied. + +Oexmelin, who saw Montbars at Honduras, describes him as active, +vivacious, and full of fire, like all the Gascons. He was of tall +stature, erect and firm, his air grand, noble, and martial. His +complexion was sun-burnt, and the colour of his eyes could not be +discerned under the deep, arched vaulting of his bushy eyebrows. His +very glance in battle was said to intimidate the Spaniards, and to drive +them to despair. + +In 1659, Santiago was pillaged by the Flibustiers, in revenge for the +murder of twelve Frenchmen, who had been shot by a Spanish captain, who +took them from a Flemish vessel, sparing only a woman, and a child who +hid itself under the robe of a monk. + +Determined on retaliation, the people of the coast assembled to the +number of 500. Obtaining an English commission, they embarked on board a +frigate from Nantes, and a number of small craft--De L'Isle being their +commander, and Adam, Lormel, and Anne le Roux their lieutenants. They +landed at Puerto de Plata, "le Dimanche des Rameaux," and marched upon +St. Jago at daybreak. Passing over the bodies of the guards, they rushed +to the governor's house, and surprised him in bed. He, knowing French, +threw himself on his knees, and told them that peace was about to be +declared between the two nations. They replied, that they carried an +English commission, and, reproaching him for his cruelties, bade him +either prepare for death, or pay down 60,000 crowns. Part of this ransom +he instantly paid in hides. The pillage of the town lasted twenty-four +hours, and nothing was spared; the very bells were carried from the +churches, and the altars stripped of their plate. No violence, however, +we are glad to record, was offered to the women, the Brotherhood having +agreed, that any such offender should lose his share of the spoil. + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + +LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET. + + +INTERESTING NEW WORKS. + + * * * * * + +MEMOIRS OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE + +RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. + +By TORRENS M'CULLAGH, Esq. + +2 vols. post 8vo. + +"We feel assured that Mr. M'Cullagh's Work will be received with general +satisfaction."--_Literary Gazette._ + +"Such a man as Sheil eminently deserved a biography, and Mr. M'Cullagh +has, we think, proved himself an exceedingly proper person to undertake +it. His narrative is lucid and pleasant, sound and hearty in sentiment, +and sensible in dissertation; altogether we may emphatically call this +an excellent biography."--_Daily News._ + + * * * * * + +SKETCHES, LEGAL AND POLITICAL, + +BY THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE + +RICHARD LALOR SHEIL. + +2 vols. post 8vo. + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +ATHENÆUM. + +"We cordially recommend these sketches as interesting in matter and +brilliant in composition. Their literary merit is very great." + +MESSENGER. + +"These volumes will delight the student and charm the general reader." + +DUBLIN EVENING MAIL. + +"These volumes contain more matter of high and enduring interest to all +classes of readers than any publication of equal extent, professing to +illustrate the social and literary position or treat of the domestic +manners and history of our country." + +DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. + +"Of the great power and brilliancy of these papers there can be no +second opinion. In the British senate, as in his own native land, the +name of Richard Lalor Sheil will be long remembered in connexion with +eloquence and learning and with genius. In these volumes he has left a +memorial of all the gems of his rich and varied intellect--every phase +and line of his versatile and prolific mind." + + * * * * * + +_Also, just ready,_ + +MR. CURRAN'S SKETCHES OF THE IRISH BAR. + +WITH A SELECTION OF OTHER PAPERS, LEGAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL. + +2 vols. post 8vo. + + +CHEAP EDITION OF MISS BURNEY'S DIARY. + +_In Seven Volumes, small 8vo,_ EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS, _Price only +3s. each, elegantly bound, either of which may be had separately,_ + + DIARY AND LETTERS + OF + MADAME D'ARBLAY, + +AUTHOR OF "EVELINA," "CECILIA," &c. + +INCLUDING THE PERIOD OF + +HER RESIDENCE AT THE COURT OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE. + + * * * * * + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +EDINBURGH REVIEW. + +"Madame D'Arblay lived to be classic. Time set on her fame, before she +went hence, that seal which is seldom set except on the fame of the +departed. All those whom we have been accustomed to revere as +intellectual patriarchs seemed children when compared with her; for +Burke had sat up all night to read her writings, and Johnson had +pronounced her superior to Fielding, when Rogers was still a schoolboy, +and Southey still in petticoats. Her Diary is written in her earliest +and best manner; in true woman's English, clear, natural, and lively. It +ought to be consulted by every person who wishes to be well acquainted +with the history of our literature and our manners." + +TIMES. + +"Miss Burney's work ought to be placed beside Boswell's 'Life,' to which +it forms an excellent supplement." + +LITERARY GAZETTE. + +"This publication will take its place in the libraries beside Walpole +and Boswell." + +MESSENGER. + +"This work may be considered a kind of supplement to Boswell's Life of +Johnson. It is a beautiful picture of society as it existed in manners, +taste, and literature, in the reign of George the Third, drawn by a +pencil as vivid and brilliant as that of any of the celebrated persons +who composed the circle." + +POST. + +"Miss Burney's Diary, sparkling with wit, teeming with lively anecdote +and delectable gossip, and full of sound and discreet views of persons +and things, will be perused with interest by all classes of readers." + +CHEAP EDITION OF THE LIVES OF THE QUEENS. + +_Now in course of Publication, in Eight Volumes, post octavo (comprising +from 600 to 700 pages each), Price only 7s. 6d. per Volume, elegantly +bound, either of which may be had separately, to complete sets_, + +LIVES + +OF THE + +QUEENS OF ENGLAND. + +BY AGNES STRICKLAND. + +Dedicated by Express Permission to her Majesty. + +EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS OF EVERY QUEEN, + +BEAUTIFULLY ENGRAVED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES. + +In announcing a cheap Edition of this important and interesting work, +which has been considered unique in biographical literature, the +publishers again beg to direct attention to the following extract from +the author's preface:--"A revised edition of the 'Lives of the Queens of +England', embodying the important collections which have been brought to +light since the appearance of earlier impressions, is now offered to the +world, embellished with Portraits of every Queen, from authentic and +properly verified sources. The series, commencing with the consort of +William the Conqueror, occupies that most interesting and important +period of our national chronology, from the death of the last monarch of +the Anglo-Saxon line, Edward the Confessor, to the demise of the last +sovereign of the royal house of Stuart, Queen Anne, and comprises +therein thirty queens who have worn the crown-matrimonial, and four the +regal diadem of this realm. We have related the parentage of every +queen, described her education, traced the influence of family +connexions and national habits on her conduct, both public and private, +and given a concise outline of the domestic, as well as the general +history of her times, and its effects on her character, and we have done +so with singleness of heart, unbiassed by selfish interests or narrow +views. Such as they were in life we have endeavoured to portray them, +both in good and ill, without regard to any other considerations than +the development of the _facts_. Their sayings, their doings, their +manners, their costume, will be found faithfully chronicled in this +work, which also includes the most interesting of their letters. The +hope that the 'Lives of the Queens of England' might be regarded as a +national work, honourable to the female character, and generally useful +to society, has encouraged us to the completion of the task." + + * * * * * + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +FROM THE TIMES. + +"These volumes have the fascination of romance united to the integrity +of history. The work is written by a lady of considerable learning, +indefatigable industry, and careful judgment. All these qualifications +for a biographer and an historian she has brought to bear upon the +subject of her volumes, and from them has resulted a narrative +interesting to all, and more particularly interesting to that portion of +the community to whom the more refined researches of literature afford +pleasure and instruction. The whole work should be read, and no doubt +will be read, by all who are anxious for information. It is a lucid +arrangement of facts, derived from authentic sources, exhibiting a +combination of industry, learning, judgment, and impartiality, not often +met with in biographers of crowned heads." + +MORNING HERALD. + +"A remarkable and truly great historical work. In this series of +biographies, in which the severe truth of history takes almost the +wildness of romance, it is the singular merit of Miss Strickland that +her research has enabled her to throw new light on many doubtful +passages, to bring forth fresh facts, and to render every portion of our +annals which she has described an interesting and valuable study. She +has given a most valuable contribution to the history of England, and we +have no hesitation in affirming that no one can be said to possess an +accurate knowledge of the history of the country who has not studied +this truly national work, which, in this new edition, has received all +the aids that further research on the part of the author, and of +embellishment on the part of the publishers, could tend to make it still +more valuable, and still more attractive, than it had been in its +original form." + +MORNING CHRONICLE. + +"A most valuable and entertaining work. There is certainly no lady of +our day who has devoted her pen to so beneficial a purpose as Miss +Strickland. Nor is there any other whose works possess a deeper or more +enduring interest." + +MORNING POST. + +"We must pronounce Miss Strickland beyond all comparison the most +entertaining historian in the English language. She is certainly a woman +of powerful and active mind, as well as of scrupulous justice and +honesty of purpose." + +QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +"Miss Strickland has made a very judicious use of many authentic MS. +authorities not previously collected, and the result is a most +interesting addition to our biographical library." + +ATHENÆUM. + +"A valuable contribution to historical knowledge. It contains a mass of +every kind of historical matter of interest, which industry and research +could collect. We have derived much entertainment and instruction from +the work." + +CHEAP EDITION OF + +PEPYS' DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE. + +_Now ready, a New and Cheap Edition, printed uniformly with the last +edition of_ EVELYN'S DIARY, _and comprising all the recent Notes and +Emendations, Indexes, &c., in Four Volumes, post octavo, with Portraits, +price 6s. per Volume, handsomely bound, of the_ + +DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF + +SAMUEL PEPYS, F.R.S., + +SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. + +EDITED BY RICHARD LORD BRAYBROOKE. + +The authority of PEPYS, as an historian and illustrator of a +considerable portion of the seventeenth century, has been so fully +acknowledged by every scholar and critic, that it is now scarcely +necessary to remind the reader of the advantages he possessed for +producing the most complete and trustworthy record of events, and the +most agreeable picture of society and manners, to be found in the +literature of any nation. In confidential communication with the +reigning sovereigns, holding high official employment, placed at the +head of the Scientific and Learned of a period remarkable for +intellectual impulse, mingling in every circle, and observing everything +and everybody whose characteristics were worth noting down; and +possessing, moreover, an intelligence peculiarly fitted for seizing the +most graphic points in whatever he attempted to delineate, PEPYS may be +considered the most valuable as well as the most entertaining of our +National Historians. + +A New and Cheap Edition of this work, comprising all the restored +passages and the additional annotations that have been called for by the +vast advances in antiquarian and historical knowledge during the last +twenty years, will doubtless be regarded as one of the most agreeable +additions that could be made to the library of the general reader. + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON PEPYS' DIARY. + +FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. + +"Without making any exception in favour of any other production of +ancient or modern diarists, we unhesitatingly characterise this journal +as the most remarkable production of its kind which has ever been given +to the world. Pepys' Diary makes us comprehend the great historical +events of the age, and the people who bore a part in them, and gives us +more clear glimpses into the true English life of the times than all the +other memorials of them that have come down to our own." + +FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +"There is much in Pepys' Diary that throws a distinct and vivid light +over the picture of England and its government during the period +succeeding the Restoration. If, quitting the broad path of history, we +look for minute information concerning ancient manners and customs, the +progress of arts and sciences, and the various branches of antiquity, we +have never seen a mine so rich as these volumes. The variety of Pepys' +tastes and pursuits led him into almost every department of life. He was +a man of business, a man of information, a man of whim, and, to a +certain degree, a man of pleasure. He was a statesman, a _bel-esprit_, a +virtuoso, and a connoisseur. His curiosity made him an unwearied, as +well as an universal, learner, and whatever he saw found its way into +his tablets." + +FROM THE ATHENÆUM. + +"The best book of its kind in the English language. The new matter is +extremely curious, and occasionally far more characteristic and +entertaining than the old. The writer is seen in a clearer light, and +the reader is taken into his inmost soul. Pepys' Diary is the ablest +picture of the age in which the writer lived, and a work of standard +importance in English literature." + +FROM THE EXAMINER. + +"We place a high value on Pepys' Diary as the richest and most +delightful contribution ever made to the history of English life and +manners in the latter half of the seventeenth century." + +FROM TAIT'S MAGAZINE. + +"We owe Pepys a debt of gratitude for the rare and curious information +he has bequeathed to us in this most amusing and interesting work. His +Diary is valuable, as depicting to us many of the most important +characters of the times. Its author has bequeathed to us the records of +his heart--the very reflection of his energetic mind; and his quaint but +happy narrative clears up numerous disputed points--throws light into +many of the dark corners of history, and lays bare the hidden substratum +of events which gave birth to, and supported the visible progress of, +the nation." + +FROM THE MORNING POST. + +"Of all the records that have ever been published, Pepys' Diary gives us +the most vivid and trustworthy picture of the times, and the clearest +view of the state of English public affairs and of English society +during the reign of Charles II. We see there, as in a map, the vices of +the monarch, the intrigues of the Cabinet, the wanton follies of the +court, and the many calamities to which the nation was subjected during +the memorable period of fire, plague, and general licentiousness." + +IMPORTANT NEW HISTORICAL WORK. + +_Now ready, in 2 vols. post 8vo, embellished with Portraits, price 21s. +bound,_ + +THE QUEENS BEFORE THE CONQUEST. + +BY MRS. MATTHEW HALL. + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + +FROM THE LITERARY GAZETTE. + +"Mrs. Hall's work presents a clear and connected series of records of +the early female sovereigns of England, of whom only a few scattered +anecdotes have hitherto been familiarly known to general readers. The +book is of great interest, as containing many notices of English life +and manners in the remote times of our British, Roman, Saxon, and Danish +ancestors." + +SUNDAY TIMES. + +"These volumes open up a new and interesting page of history to the +majority of readers. What Miss Strickland has achieved for English +Queens since the Norman era, has been accomplished by Mrs. Hall on +behalf of the royal ladies who, as wives of Saxon kings, have influenced +the destinies of Britain." + +SUN. + +"Mrs. Hall may be congratulated on having successfully accomplished a +very arduous undertaking. Her volumes form a useful introduction to the +usual commencement of English history." + +CRITIC. + +"The most instructive history we possess of the pre-Conquest period. It +should take its place by the side of Miss Strickland's 'Lives of the +Queens.'" + +OBSERVER. + +"Of all our female historico-biographical writers, Mrs. Hall seems to us +to be one of the most painstaking, erudite, and variously and profoundly +accomplished. Her valuable volumes contain not only the lives of the +Queens before the Conquest, but a very excellent history of England +previously to the Norman dynasty." + +BELL'S MESSENGER. + +"These interesting volumes have been compiled with judgment, discretion, +and taste. Mrs. Hall has spared neither pains nor labour to make her +history worthy of the characters she has essayed to illustrate. The book +is, in every sense, an addition of decided value to the annals of the +British people." + +NEW QUARTERLY REVIEW. + +"These volumes have long been a desideratum, and will be hailed as a +useful, and indeed essential, introduction to Miss Strickland's +world-famous biographical history." + + +THE PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. + +BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, + +ULSTER KING OF ARMS. + +A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED FROM THE PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS OF +THE NOBILITY, &c. + +With 1500 Engravings of ARMS. In 1 vol. (comprising as much matter as +twenty ordinary volumes), 38s. bound. + + * * * * * + +The following is a List of the Principal Contents of this Standard +Work:-- + +I. A full and interesting history of each order of the English Nobility, +showing its origin, rise, titles, immunities, privileges, &c. + +II. A complete Memoir of the Queen and Royal Family, forming a brief +genealogical History of the Sovereign of this country, and deducing the +descent of the Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, and Guelphs, through their +various ramifications. To this section is appended a list of those Peers +and others who inherit the distinguished honour of Quartering the Royal +Arms of Plantagenet. + +III. An Authentic table of Precedence. + +IV. A perfect HISTORY OF ALL THE PEERS AND BARONETS, with the fullest +details of their ancestors and descendants, and particulars respecting +every collateral member of each family, and all intermarriages, &c. + +V. The Spiritual Lords. + +VI. Foreign Noblemen, subjects by birth of the British Crown. + +VII. Extinct Peerages, of which descendants still exist. + +VIII. Peerages claimed. + +IX. Surnames of Peers and Peeresses, with Heirs Apparent and +Presumptive. + +X. Courtesy titles of Eldest Sons. + +XI. Peerages of the Three Kingdoms in order of Precedence. + +XII. Baronets in order of Precedence. + +XIII. Privy Councillors of England and Ireland. + +XIV. Daughters of Peers married to Commoners. + +XV. ALL THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD, with every Knight and all the Knights +Bachelors. + +XVI. Mottoes translated, with poetical illustrations. + + * * * * * + +"The most complete, the most convenient, and the cheapest work of the +kind ever given to the public."--_Sun_. + +"The best genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the Peerage and +Baronetage, and the first authority on all questions affecting the +aristocracy."--_Globe_. + +"For the amazing quantity of personal and family history, admirable +arrangement of details, and accuracy of information, this genealogical +and heraldic dictionary is without a rival. It is now the standard and +acknowledged book of reference upon all questions touching pedigree, and +direct or collateral affinity with the titled aristocracy. The lineage +of each distinguished house is deduced through all the various +ramifications. Every collateral branch, however remotely connected, is +introduced; and the alliances are so carefully inserted, as to show, in +all instances, the connexion which so intimately exists between the +titled and untitled aristocracy. We have also much most entertaining +historical matter, and many very curious and interesting family +traditions. The work is, in fact, a complete cyclopædia of the whole +titled classes of the empire, supplying all the information that can +possibly be desired on the subject."--_Morning Post_. + + + + +CHEAP EDITION OF THE DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF + +JOHN EVELYN, F.R.S. + +_Now completed, with Portraits, in Four Volumes, post octavo (either of +which may be had separately), price 6s. each, handsomely bound,_ + +COMPRISING ALL THE IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL NOTES, LETTERS, AND OTHER +ILLUSTRATIONS LAST MADE. + +"We rejoice to welcome this beautiful and compact edition of Evelyn. It +is intended as a companion to the recent edition of Pepys, and presents +similar claims to interest and notice. Evelyn was greatly above the vast +majority of his contemporaries, and the Diary which records the +incidents in his long life, extending over the greater part of a +century, is deservedly esteemed one of the most valuable and interesting +books in the language. Evelyn took part in the breaking out of the civil +war against Charles I., and he lived to see William of Orange ascend the +throne. Through the days of Strafford and Land, to those of Sancroft and +Ken, he was the steady friend of moderation and peace in the English +Church. He interceded alike for the royalist and the regicide; he was +the correspondent of Cowley, the patron of Jeremy Taylor, the associate +and fellow-student of Boyle; and over all the interval between Vandyck +and Kneller, between the youth of Milton and the old age of Dryden, +poetry and the arts found him an intelligent adviser, and a cordial +friend. There are, on the whole, very few men of whom England has more +reason to be proud. He stands among the first in the list of Gentlemen. +We heartily commend so good an edition of this English +classic."--_Examiner._ + +"This work is a necessary companion to the popular histories of our +country, to Hume, Hallam, Macaulay, and Lingard.--_Sun._ + + +LIVES OF THE PRINCESSES OF ENGLAND. + +By MRS. EVERETT GREEN, + +EDITOR OF THE "LETTERS OF ROYAL AND ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES." + +6 vols., post 8vo, with Illustrations, 10s. 6d. each, bound. Either of +which may be had separately. + +"This work is a worthy companion to Miss Strickland's admirable 'Queens +of England.' That celebrated work, although its heroines were, for the +most part, foreign Princesses, related almost entirely to the history of +this country. The Princesses of England, on the contrary, are themselves +English, but their lives are nearly all connected with foreign nations. +Their biographies, consequently, afford us a glimpse of the manners and +customs of the chief European kingdoms, a circumstance which not only +gives to the work the charm of variety, but which is likely to render it +peculiarly useful to the general reader, as it links together by +association the contemporaneous history of various nations. We cordially +commend Mrs. Green's production to general attention; it is +(necessarily) as useful as history, and fully as entertaining as +romance."--_Sun._ + + + + +SIR B. BURKE'S DICTIONARY OF THE + +EXTINCT, DORMANT, AND ABEYANT PEERAGES + +OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. + +Beautifully printed, in 1 vol, 8vo, containing 800 double-column pages, +21s. bound. + +This work connects, in many instances, the new with the old nobility, +and it will in all cases show the cause which has influenced the revival +of an extinct dignity in a new creation. It should be particularly +noticed, that this new work appertains nearly as much to extant as to +extinct persons of distinction; for though dignities pass away, it +rarely occurs that whole families do. + + +HISTORY OF THE LANDED GENTRY. + +A Genealogical Dictionary + +OF THE WHOLE OF THE UNTITLED ARISTOCRACY OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND +IRELAND. + +By SIR BERNARD BURKE. + +A new and improved Edition, in 1 vol., uniform with the "Peerage." + + +-->THE PURCHASERS of the earlier editions of the Dictionary of the Landed +Gentry are requested to take notice that + +A COPIOUS INDEX + +has been compiled with great care and at great expense, containing +REFERENCES TO THE NAMES OF EVERY PERSON (upwards of 100,000) MENTIONED +IN THE WORK, and may be had bound uniformly with the work: price, 5s. + + +ROMANTIC RECORDS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. + +By SIR BERNARD BURKE. + +SECOND AND CHEAPER EDITION, 2 vols., post 8vo, 21s. bound. + +"The most curious incidents, the most stirring tales, and the most +remarkable circumstances connected with the histories, public and +private, of our noble houses and aristocratic families, are here given +in a shape which will preserve them in the library, and render them the +favorite study of those who are interested in the romance of real life. +These stories, with all the reality of established fact, read with as +much spirit as the tales of Boccaccio, and are as full of strange matter +for reflection and amazement."--_Britannia._ + + + + +REVELATIONS OF PRINCE TALLEYRAND. + +Second Edition, 1 volume, post 8vo, with Portrait, 10s. 6d. bound. + +"We have perused this work with extreme interest. It is a portrait of +Talleyrand drawn by his own hand."--_Morning Post._ + +"A more interesting work has not issued from the press for many years. +It is in truth a most complete Boswell sketch of the greatest +diplomatist of the age."--_Sunday Times._ + + +THE LIFE AND REIGN OF CHARLES I. + +By I. DISRAELI. + +A NEW EDITION. REVISED BY THE AUTHOR, AND EDITED BY HIS SON, THE RT. +HON. B. DISRAELI, M.P. 2 vols., 8vo, 28s. bound. + +"By far the most important work on the important age of Charles I. that +modern times have produced."--_Quarterly Review._ + + +MEMOIRS OF SCIPIO DE RICCI, + +LATE BISHOP OF PISTOIA AND PRATO; + +REFORMER OF CATHOLICISM IN TUSCANY. + +Cheaper Edition, 2 vols. 8vo, 12s. bound. + +The leading feature of this important work is its application to the +great question now at issue between our Protestant and Catholic +fellow-subjects. It contains a complete _exposé_ of the Romish Church +Establishment during the eighteenth century, and of the abuses of the +Jesuits throughout the greater part of Europe. Many particulars of the +most thrilling kind are brought to light. + + +HISTORIC SCENES. + +By AGNES STRICKLAND. + +Author of "Lives of the Queens of England," &c. 1 vol., post 8vo, +elegantly bound, with Portrait of the Author, 10s. 6d. + +"This attractive volume is replete with interest. Like Miss Strickland's +former works, it will be found, we doubt not, in the hands of youthful +branches of a family as well as in those of their parents, to all and +each of whom it cannot fail to be alike amusing and +instructive."--_Britannia._ + + + + +MEMOIRS OF PRINCE ALBERT; + +AND THE HOUSE OF SAXONY. + +Second Edition, revised, with Additions, by Authority. 1 vol., post 8vo, +with Portrait, bound, 6s. + + +MADAME CAMPAN'S MEMOIRS + +OF THE COURT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE. + +Cheaper Edition, 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits, price 7s. + +"We have seldom perused so entertaining a work. It is as a mirror of the +most splendid Court in Europe, at a time when the monarchy had not been +shorn of any of its beams, that it is particularly worthy of +attention."--_Chronicle._ + + +LIFE AND LETTERS OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. + +3 vols., small 8vo, 15s. + +"A curious and entertaining piece of domestic biography of a most +extraordinary person, under circumstances almost unprecedented."--_New +Monthly._ + +"An extremely amusing book, full of anecdotes and traits of character of +kings, princes, nobles, generals," &c.--_Morning Journal._ + + +MEMOIRS OF A HUNGARIAN LADY. + +MADAME PULSZKY. + +WRITTEN BY HERSELF. 2 vols., 12s. bound. + +"Worthy of a place by the side of the Memoirs of Madame de Staël and +Madame Campan."--_Globe._ + + +MEMOIRS OF A GREEK LADY, + +THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF THE LATE QUEEN CAROLINE. + +WRITTEN BY HERSELF. 2 vols., post 8vo, price 12s. bound. + + + + +Now ready, Part XI., price 5s., of + +M.A. THIERS' HISTORY OF FRANCE + +UNDER NAPOLEON. + +A SEQUEL TO HIS HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. + +As guardian to the archives of the state, M. Thiers had access to +diplomatic papers and other documents of the highest importance, +hitherto known only to a privileged few. From private sources M. Thiers +has also derived much valuable information. Many interesting memoirs, +diaries, and letters, all hitherto unpublished, and most of them +destined for political reasons to remain so, have been placed at his +disposal; while all the leading characters of the empire, who were alive +when the author undertook the present history, have supplied him with a +mass of incidents and anecdotes which have never before appeared in +print. + +N.B. Any of the Parts may, for the present, be had separately, at 5s. +each; and subscribers are recommended to complete their sets as soon as +possible, to prevent disappointment. + +***The public are requested to be particular in giving their orders for +"COLBURN'S AUTHORISED TRANSLATION." + + +RUSSIA UNDER THE AUTOCRAT NICHOLAS I. + +BY IVAN GOLOVINE, A RUSSIAN SUBJECT. + +Cheaper Edition, 2 vols., with a full-length Portrait of the Emperor, +10s. bound. + +"These are volumes of an extremely interesting nature, emanating from +the pen of a Russian, noble by birth, who has escaped beyond the reach +of the Czar's power. The merits of the work are very considerable. It +throws a new light on the state of the empire--its aspect, political and +domestic--its manners; the _employés_ about the palace, court, and +capital; its police; its spies; its depraved society," &c.--_Sunday +Times._ + + +JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE, + +Comprising the Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in Japan, with an +Account of British Commercial Intercourse with that Country. + +By CAPTAIN GOLOWNIN. + +NEW and CHEAPER EDITION. 2 vols. post 8vo, 10s. bound. + +"No European has been able, from personal observation and experience, to +communicate a tenth part of the intelligence furnished by this +writer."--_British Review._ + + +MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF + +SIR ROBERT MURRAY KEITH, K.B., + +_Minister Plenipotentiary at the Courts of Dresden, Copenhagen, and +Vienna, from 1769 to 1793; with Biographical Memoirs of_ + +QUEEN CAROLINE MATILDA, SISTER OF GEORGE III. + +Cheaper Edition. Two vols., post 8vo, with Portraits, 15s. bound. + + + + +THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS; + +OR, ROMANCE AND REALITIES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. + +By ELIOT WARBURTON, Esq. + +CHEAP EDITION, revised in 1 vol., with numerous Illustrations, 6s. +bound. + +"A book calculated to prove more practically useful was never penned +than the 'Crescent and the Cross'--a work which surpasses all others in +its homage for the sublime and its love for the beautiful in those +famous regions consecrated to everlasting immortality in the annals of +the prophets--and which no other modern writer has ever depicted with a +pencil at once so reverent and as picturesque."--_Sun._ + + +LORD LINDSAY'S LETTERS ON THE HOLY LAND. + +FOURTH EDITION, Revised, 1 vol., post 8vo, with Illustrations, 6s. +bound. + +"Lord Lindsay has felt and recorded what he saw with the wisdom of a +philosopher, and the faith of an enlightened Christian."--_Quarterly +Review._ + + +NARRATIVE OF A + +TWO YEARS' RESIDENCE AT NINEVEH; + +With Remarks on the Chaldeans, Nestorians, Yexidees, &c. + +By the Rev. J.P. FLETCHER. + +Cheaper Edition. Two vols., post 8vo, 12s. bound. + + +ADVENTURES IN GEORGIA, CIRCASSIA, AND RUSSIA. + +By Lieutenant-Colonel G. POULETT CAMERON, C.B., K.T.S., &c. + +2 vols., post 8vo, bound, 12s. + + +CAPTAINS KING AND FITZROY. + +NARRATIVE OF THE TEN TEARS' VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, + +OF H.M.S. ADVENTURE AND BEAGLE. + +Cheaper Edition, in 2 large vols. 8vo, with Maps, Charts, and upwards of +Sixty Illustrations, by Landseer, and other eminent Artists, price 1_l._ +11s. 6d. bound. + +"One of the most interesting narratives of voyaging that it has fallen +to our lot to notice, and which must always occupy a distinguished space +in the history of scientific navigation."--_Quarterly Review._ + + + + +THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S CAMPAIGN + +IN THE NETHERLANDS IN 1815. + +Comprising the Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo. Illustrated +by Official Documents. + +By WILLIAM MUDFORD, Esq. + +1 vol., 4to, with Thirty Coloured Plates, Portraits, Maps, Plans, &c., +bound, 21s. + + +STORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. + +A COMPANION VOLUME TO MR. GLEIG'S + +"STORY OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO." + +With Six Portraits and Map, 5s. bound. + + +THE NEMESIS IN CHINA; + +COMPRISING A COMPLETE + +HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THAT COUNTRY. + +From Notes of Captain W.H. HALL, R.N. + +1 vol., Plates, 6s. bound. + +"Capt. Hall's narrative of the services of the _Nemesis_ is full of +interest, and will, we are sure, be valuable hereafter, as affording +most curious materials for the history of steam navigation."--_Quarterly +Review._ + + +CAPTAIN CRAWFORD'S NAVAL REMINISCENCES; + +COMPRISING MEMOIRS OF + +ADMIRALS SIR E. OWEN, SIR B. HALLOWELL CAREW, AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED +COMMANDERS. + +2 vols., post 8vo, with Portraits, 12s. bound. + + +ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER. + +WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. + +Being the Memoirs of EDWARD COSTELLO, of the Rifle Brigade, and late +Captain in the British Legion. Cheap Edition, with Portrait, 3s. 6d. +bound. + +"An excellent book of its class. A true and vivid picture of a soldier's +life."--_Athenæum._ + +"This highly interesting volume is filled with details and anecdotes of +the most startling character, and well deserves a place in the library +of every regiment in the service."--_Naval and Military Gazette._ + + + + +PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF + +MRS. MARGARET MAITLAND, OF SUNNYSIDE. + +WRITTEN BY HERSELF. + +Third and Cheaper Edition, 1 vol., 6s. bound. + +"Nothing half so true or so touching in the delineation of Scottish +character has appeared since Galt published his 'Annals of the Parish,' +and this is purer and deeper than Galt, and even more absolutely and +simply true."--_Lord Jeffrey._ + + +Cheaper Edition, in 3 vols., price 10s. 6d., half-bound, + +FORTUNE: A STORY OF LONDON LIFE. + +By D.T. COULTON, Esq. + +"A brilliant novel. A more vivid picture of various phases of society +has not been painted since 'Vivian Grey' first dazzled and confounded +the world; but it is the biting satire of fashionable life, the moral +anatomy of high society, which will attract all readers. In every sense +of the word, 'Fortune' is an excellent novel."--_Observer._ + +"'Fortune' is not a romance, but a novel. All is reality about it: the +time, the characters, and the incidents. In its reality consists its +charm and its merit. 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