The Story of Roc, the Brazilian
Having given the history of a very plain and quiet buccaneer, who was a
reporter and writer, and who, if he were now living, would be eligible
as a member of an Authors' Club, we will pass to the consideration of a
regular out-and-out pirate, one from whose mast-head would have floated
the black flag with its skull and cross-bones if that emblematic piece
of bunting had been in use by the pirates of the period.
This famous buccaneer was called Roc, because he had to have a name, and
his own was unknown, and "the Brazilian," because he was born in Brazil,
though of Dutch parents. Unlike most of his fellow-practitioners he did
not gradually become a pirate. From his early youth he never had an
intention of being anything else. As soon as he grew to be a man he
became a bloody buccaneer, and at the first opportunity he joined a
pirate crew, and had made but a few voyages when it was perceived by his
companions that he was destined to become a most remarkable sea-robber.
He was offered the command of a ship with a well-armed crew of marine
savages, and in a very short time after he had set out on his first
independent cruise he fell in with a Spanish ship loaded with silver
bullion; having captured this, he sailed with his prize to Jamaica,
which was one of the great resorts of the English buccaneers. There his
success delighted the community, his talents for the conduct of great
piratical operations soon became apparent, and he was generally
acknowledged as the Head Pirate of the West Indies.
He was now looked upon as a hero even by those colonists who had no
sympathy with pirates, and as for Esquemeling, he simply worshipped the
great Brazilian desperado. If he had been writing the life and times of
Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, or Mr. Gladstone, he could not have
been more enthusiastic in his praises. And as in The Arabian Nights the
roc is described as the greatest of birds, so, in the eyes of the
buccaneer biographer, this Roc was the greatest of pirates. But it was
not only in the mind of the historian that Roc now became famous; the
better he became known, the more general was the fear and respect felt
for him, and we are told that the mothers of the islands used to put
their children to sleep by threatening them with the terrible Roc if
they did not close their eyes. This story, however, I regard with a
great deal of doubt; it has been told of Saladin and many other wicked
and famous men, but I do not believe it is an easy thing to frighten a
child into going to sleep. If I found it necessary to make a youngster
take a nap, I should say nothing of the condition of affairs in Cuba or
of the persecutions of the Armenians.
This renowned pirate from Brazil must have been a terrible fellow to
look at. He was strong and brawny, his face was short and very wide,
with high cheek-bones, and his expression probably resembled that of a
pug dog. His eyebrows were enormously large and bushy, and from under
them he glared at his mundane surroundings. He was not a man whose
spirit could be quelled by looking him steadfastly in the eye. It was
his custom in the daytime to walk about, carrying a drawn cutlass,
resting easily upon his arm, edge up, very much as a fine gentleman
carries his high silk hat, and any one who should impertinently stare or
endeavor to quell his high spirits in any other way, would probably have
felt the edge of that cutlass descending rapidly through his physical
organism.
He was a man who insisted upon being obeyed, and if any one of his crew
behaved improperly, or was even found idle, this strict and inexorable
master would cut him down where he stood. But although he was so strict
and exacting during the business sessions of his piratical year, by
which I mean when he was cruising around after prizes, he was very much
more disagreeable when he was taking a vacation. On his return to
Jamaica after one of his expeditions it was his habit to give himself
some relaxation after the hardships and dangers through which he had
passed, and on such occasions it was a great comfort to Roc to get
himself thoroughly drunk. With his cutlass waving high in the air, he
would rush out into the street and take a whack at every one whom he
met. As far as was possible the citizens allowed him to have the street
to himself, and it was not at all likely that his visits to Jamaica were
looked forward to with any eager anticipations.
Roc, it may be said, was not only a bloody pirate, but a blooded one; he
was thoroughbred. From the time he had been able to assert his
individuality he had been a pirate, and there was no reason to suppose
that he would ever reform himself into anything else. There were no
extenuating circumstances in his case; in his nature there was no alloy,
nor moderation, nor forbearance. The appreciative Esquemeling, who might
be called the Boswell of the buccaneers, could never have met his hero
Roc, when that bushy-bearded pirate was running "amuck" in the streets,
but if he had, it is not probable that his book would have been written.
He assures us that when Roc was not drunk he was esteemed, but at the
same time feared; but there are various ways of gaining esteem, and
Roc's method certainly succeeded very well in the case of his literary
associate.
As we have seen, the hatred of the Spaniards by the buccaneers began
very early in the settlement of the West Indies, and in fact, it is very
likely that if there had been no Spaniards there would never have been
any buccaneers; but in all the instances of ferocious enmity toward the
Spaniards there has been nothing to equal the feelings of Roc, the
Brazilian, upon that subject. His dislike to everything Spanish arose,
he declared, from cruelties which had been practised upon his parents by
people of that nation, and his main principle of action throughout all
his piratical career seems to have been that there was nothing too bad
for a Spaniard. The object of his life was to wage bitter war against
Spanish ships and Spanish settlements. He seldom gave any quarter to his
prisoners, and would often subject them to horrible tortures in order to
make them tell where he could find the things he wanted. There is
nothing horrible that has ever been written or told about the buccaneer
life, which could not have been told about Roc, the Brazilian. He was a
typical pirate.
[Illustration: "In a small boat filled with some of his trusty men, he
rowed quietly into the port."--p. 77.]
Roc was very successful, in his enterprises, and took a great deal of
valuable merchandise to Jamaica, but although he and his crew were
always rich men when they went on shore, they did not remain in that
condition very long. The buccaneers of that day were all very
extravagant, and, moreover, they were great gamblers, and it was not
uncommon for them to lose everything they possessed before they had been
on shore a week. Then there was nothing for them to do but to go on
board their vessels and put out to sea in search of some fresh prize. So
far Roc's career had been very much like that of many other Companions
of the Coast, differing from them only in respect to intensity and
force, but he was a clever man with ideas, and was able to adapt himself
to circumstances.
He was cruising about Campeachy without seeing any craft that was worth
capturing, when he thought that it would be very well for him to go out
on a sort of marine scouting expedition and find out whether or not
there were any Spanish vessels in the bay which were well laden and
which were likely soon to come out. So, with a small boat filled with
some of his trusty men, he rowed quietly into the port to see what he
could discover. If he had had Esquemeling with him, and had sent that
mild-mannered observer into the harbor to investigate into the state of
affairs, and come back with a report, it would have been a great deal
better for the pirate captain, but he chose to go himself, and he came
to grief. No sooner did the people on the ships lying in the harbor
behold a boat approaching with a big-browed, broad-jawed mariner sitting
in the stern, and with a good many more broad-backed, hairy mariners
than were necessary, pulling at the oars, than they gave the alarm. The
well-known pirate was recognized, and it was not long before he was
captured. Roc must have had a great deal of confidence in his own
powers, or perhaps he relied somewhat upon the fear which his very
presence evoked. But he made a mistake this time; he had run into the
lion's jaw, and the lion had closed his teeth upon him.
When the pirate captain and his companions were brought before the
Governor, he made no pretence of putting them to trial. Buccaneers were
outlawed by the Spanish, and were considered as wild beasts to be killed
without mercy wherever caught. Consequently Roc and his men were thrown
into a dungeon and condemned to be executed. If, however, the Spanish
Governor had known what was good for himself, he would have had them
killed that night.
During the time that preparations were going on for making examples of
these impertinent pirates, who had dared to enter the port of Campeachy,
Roc was racking his brains to find some method of getting out of the
terrible scrape into which he had fallen. This was a branch of the
business in which a capable pirate was obliged to be proficient; if he
could not get himself out of scrapes, he could not expect to be
successful. In this case there was no chance of cutting down sentinels,
or jumping overboard with a couple of wine-jars for a life-preserver, or
of doing any of those ordinary things which pirates were in the habit of
doing when escaping from their captors. Roc and his men were in a
dungeon on land, inside of a fortress, and if they escaped from this,
they would find themselves unarmed in the midst of a body of Spanish
soldiers. Their stout arms and their stout hearts were of no use to them
now, and they were obliged to depend upon their wits if they had any.
Roc had plenty of wit, and he used it well. There was a slave, probably
not a negro nor a native, but most likely some European who had been
made prisoner, who came in to bring him food and drink, and by the means
of this man the pirate hoped to play a trick upon the Governor. He
promised the slave that if he would help him,--and he told him it would
be very easy to do so,--he would give him money enough to buy his
freedom and to return to his friends, and this, of course, was a great
inducement to the poor fellow, who may have been an Englishman or a
Frenchman in good circumstances at home. The slave agreed to the
proposals, and the first thing he did was to bring some
writing-materials to Roc, who thereupon began the composition of a
letter upon which he based all his hopes of life and freedom.
When he was coming into the bay, Roc had noticed a large French vessel
that was lying at some distance from the town, and he wrote his letter
as if it had come from the captain of this ship. In the character of
this French captain he addressed his letter to the Governor of the town,
and in it he stated that he had understood that certain Companions of
the Coast, for whom he had great sympathy,--for the French and the
buccaneers were always good friends,--had been captured by the Governor,
who, he heard, had threatened to execute them. Then the French captain,
by the hand of Roc, went on to say that if any harm should come to these
brave men, who had been taken and imprisoned when they were doing no
harm to anybody, he would swear, in his most solemn manner, that never,
for the rest of his life, would he give quarter to any Spaniard who
might fall into his hands, and he, moreover, threatened that any kind of
vengeance which should become possible for the buccaneers and French
united, to inflict upon the Spanish ships, or upon the town of
Campeachy, should be taken as soon as possible after he should hear of
any injury that might be inflicted upon the unfortunate men who were
then lying imprisoned in the fortress.
When the slave came back to Roc, the letter was given to him with very
particular directions as to what he was to do with it. He was to
disguise himself as much as possible, so that he should not be
recognized by the people of the place, and then in the night he was to
make his way out of the town, and early in the morning he was to return
as if he had been walking along the shore of the harbor, when he was to
state that he had been put on shore from the French vessel in the
offing, with a letter which he was to present to the Governor.
The slave performed his part of the business very well. The next day,
wet and bedraggled, from making his way through the weeds and mud of the
coast, he presented himself at the fortress with his letter, and when he
was allowed to take it to the Governor, no one suspected that he was a
person employed about the place. Having fulfilled his mission, he
departed, and when seen again he was the same servant whose business it
was to carry food to the prisoners.
The Governor read the letter with a disquieted mind; he knew that the
French ship which was lying outside the harbor was a powerful vessel and
he did not like French ships, anyway. The town had once been taken and
very badly treated by a little fleet of French and English buccaneers,
and he was very anxious that nothing of the kind should happen again.
There was no great Spanish force in the harbor at that time, and he did
not know how many buccaneering vessels might be able to gather together
in the bay if it should become known that the great pirate Roc had been
put to death in Campeachy. It was an unusual thing for a prisoner to
have such powerful friends so near by, and the Governor took Roc's case
into most earnest consideration. A few hours' reflection was sufficient
to convince him that it would be very unsafe to tamper with such a
dangerous prize as the pirate Roc, and he determined to get rid of him
as soon as possible. He felt himself in the position of a man who has
stolen a baby-bear, and who hears the roar of an approaching parent
through the woods; to throw away the cub and walk off as though he had
no idea there were any bears in that forest would be the inclination of
a man so situated, and to get rid of the great pirate without provoking
the vengeance of his friends was the natural inclination of the
Governor.
Now Roc and his men were treated well, and having been brought before
the Governor, were told that in consequence of their having committed no
overt act of disorder they would be set at liberty and shipped to
England, upon the single condition that they would abandon piracy and
agree to become quiet citizens in whatever respectable vocation they
might select.
To these terms Roc and his men agreed without argument. They declared
that they would retire from the buccaneering business, and that nothing
would suit them better than to return to the ways of civilization and
virtue. There was a ship about to depart for Spain, and on this the
Governor gave Roc and his men free passage to the other side of the
ocean. There is no doubt that our buccaneers would have much preferred
to have been put on board the French vessel; but as the Spanish Governor
had started his prisoners on the road to reform, he did not wish to
throw them into the way of temptation by allowing them to associate with
such wicked companions as Frenchmen, and Roc made no suggestion of the
kind, knowing very well how greatly astonished the French captain would
be if the Governor were to communicate with him on the subject.
On the voyage to Spain Roc was on his good behavior, and he was a man
who knew how to behave very well when it was absolutely necessary: no
doubt there must have been many dull days on board ship when he would
have been delighted to gamble, to get drunk, and to run "amuck" up and
down the deck. But he carefully abstained from all these recreations,
and showed himself to be such an able-bodied and willing sailor that the
captain allowed him to serve as one of the crew. Roc knew how to do a
great many things; not only could he murder and rob, but he knew how to
turn an honest penny when there was no other way of filling his purse.
He had learned among the Indians how to shoot fish with bow and arrows,
and on this voyage across the Atlantic he occupied all his spare time in
sitting in the rigging and shooting the fish which disported themselves
about the vessel. These fish he sold to the officers, and we are told
that in this way he earned no less than five hundred crowns, perhaps
that many dollars. If this account is true, fish must have been very
costly in those days, but it showed plainly that if Roc had desired to
get into an honest business, he would have found fish-shooting a
profitable occupation. In every way Roc behaved so well that for his
sake all his men were treated kindly and allowed many privileges.
But when this party of reformed pirates reached Spain and were allowed
to go where they pleased, they thought no more of the oaths they had
taken to abandon piracy than they thought of the oaths which they had
been in the habit of throwing right and left when they had been
strolling about on the island of Jamaica. They had no ship, and not
enough money to buy one, but as soon as they could manage it they sailed
back to the West Indies, and eventually found themselves in Jamaica, as
bold and as bloody buccaneers as ever they had been.
Not only did Roc cast from him every thought of reformation and a
respectable life, but he determined to begin the business of piracy on a
grander scale than ever before. He made a compact with an old French
buccaneer, named Tributor, and with a large company of buccaneers he
actually set out to take a town. Having lost everything he possessed,
and having passed such a long time without any employment more
profitable than that of shooting fish with a bow and arrows, our doughty
pirate now desired to make a grand strike, and if he could take a town
and pillage it of everything valuable it contained, he would make a very
good fortune in a very short time, and might retire, if he chose, from
the active practice of his profession.
The town which Roc and Tributor determined to attack was Merida, in
Yucatan, and although this was a bold and rash undertaking, the two
pirates were bold and rash enough for anything. Roc had been a prisoner
in Merida, and on account of his knowledge of the town he believed that
he and his followers could land upon the coast, and then quietly advance
upon the town without their approach being discovered. If they could do
this, it would be an easy matter to rush upon the unsuspecting garrison,
and, having annihilated these, make themselves masters of the town.
But their plans did not work very well; they were discovered by some
Indians, after they had landed, who hurried to Merida and gave notice of
the approach of the buccaneers. Consequently, when Roc and his
companions reached the town they found the garrison prepared for them,
cannons loaded, and all the approaches guarded. Still the pirates did
not hesitate; they advanced fiercely to the attack just as they were
accustomed to do when they were boarding a Spanish vessel, but they soon
found that fighting on land was very different from fighting at sea. In
a marine combat it is seldom that a party of boarders is attacked in the
rear by the enemy, although on land such methods of warfare may always
be expected; but Roc and Tributor did not expect anything of the kind,
and they were, therefore, greatly dismayed when a party of horsemen from
the town, who had made a wide détour through the woods, suddenly charged
upon their rear. Between the guns of the garrison and the sabres of the
horsemen the buccaneers had a very hard time, and it was not long before
they were completely defeated. Tributor and a great many of the pirates
were killed or taken, and Roc, the Brazilian, had a terrible fall.
This most memorable fall occurred in the estimation of John Esquemeling,
who knew all about the attack on Merida, and who wrote the account of
it. But he had never expected to be called upon to record that his
great hero, Roc, the Brazilian, saved his life, after the utter defeat
of himself and his companions, by ignominiously running away. The loyal
chronicler had as firm a belief in the absolute inability of his hero to
fly from danger as was shown by the Scottish Douglas, when he stood, his
back against a mass of stone, and invited his enemies to "Come one, come
all." The bushy-browed pirate of the drawn cutlass had so often
expressed his contempt for a soldier who would even surrender, to say
nothing of running away, that Esquemeling could scarcely believe that
Roc had retreated from his enemies, deserted his friends, and turned his
back upon the principles which he had always so truculently proclaimed.
But this downfall of a hero simply shows that Esquemeling, although he
was a member of the piratical body, and was proud to consider himself a
buccaneer, did not understand the true nature of a pirate. Under the
brutality, the cruelty, the dishonesty, and the recklessness of the
sea-robbers of those days, there was nearly always meanness and
cowardice. Roc, as we have said in the beginning of this sketch, was a
typical pirate; under certain circumstances he showed himself to have
all those brave and savage qualities which Esquemeling esteemed and
revered, and under other circumstances he showed those other qualities
which Esquemeling despised, but which are necessary to make up the true
character of a pirate.
The historian John seems to have been very much cut up by the manner in
which his favorite hero had rounded off his piratical career, and after
that he entirely dropped Roc from his chronicles.
This out-and-out pirate was afterwards living in Jamaica, and probably
engaged in new enterprises, but Esquemeling would have nothing more to
do with him nor with the history of his deeds.