OF THE LIFE OF A BUCCANEER.
Next morning Nicky asked me to accompany him, with two others to
guide them to the spot where their comrades had suffered, in order
that they might bury the bodies; we accordingly set off in the canoe,
our companions being one Jonas, as he was called, an Englishman,
and Pierre le Noir, or Black Peter, a Frenchman from the coast of
Normandy. Jonas was so called, owing to the great ill-luck which he
had met with in cruising, having been twice taken, and once very
nearly hanged by the Spaniards on the coast of Porto Rico; while once
upon the Mosquito coast, in the expedition in which l’Olonnais, a
famous French Buccaneer, was killed, he had been left for some months
in a small quay or island near the Mosquito shore, eating what wild
fruit he could get, and what birds he could catch with his hands. We
landed in the same creek in which I found the canoe, and after less
troublous walking than I expected, my comrades knowing the country,
found the bodies still hanging, but already defaced by the hideous
vultures, so as to present a horrid spectacle. Nevertheless, having
brought shovels and pickaxes with us, we performed our task, and over
the grave, for they all three were laid in one, we put a rude cross
made of withies, or willow wands, and so left them to take their long
sleep in the wilderness.
Being returned to the opposite side, I rambled through the village,
for such it was, to note the appearance of the place, and its
inhabitants.
The huts were built upon a green bank, rising pleasantly from the
sea, the little headland of which I spoke sheltering it. Behind some
lofty ridges, partly covered with luxuriant wood, which here and
there had been cleared, certain small fields were marked out, these
last being planted with a brown herb, like overgrown rhubarb, which
they told me was tobacco. At the water’s edge was a rude wharf,
made of wood called shingles—and several canoes and European-built
boats lay there. While I was sauntering about, one of the former
put off, navigated by two Indians, who spoke both French and
English reasonably well. These Indians were better and more neatly
attired than the whites; they were of a sallow-brown hue, had long,
lank black hair, and very bright eyes. In person they were tall,
raw-boned, and muscular. In the canoe they carried an assortment,
as it were, of spears, called fizgigs and harpoons, for striking
fish; at which exercise they are inconceivably expert, often killing
in a forenoon what will form a good dinner for a hundred men. The
Mosquito men, for so are these Indians called, are therefore very
highly prized by the whites, who give them good wages to go on board
their ships, or to stay at their settlements on shore, to provide
turtle or manatee for the company. While I was looking at them,
Nicky came up to me, and we walked through the village together, he
bringing me into many of the cabins, all of which were similar to
his own. Those of the men who were not in the mountains or savannahs
hunting, were attending to their boucans, or fires, for the drying
of the meat, and I thought as I saw them, working like butchers and
cooks, that I would rather take the huntsman’s part of the business.
All around lay the quarters of slaughtered beeves and hogs, while the
Buccaneers, armed with long knives, cut the flesh from the bones.
These lumps were then carefully salted in open sheds used for that
purpose, and after being well steeped in brine, were placed on the
boucan—that is to say, upon the grille of wood above a slow fire,
which gradually dried and cooked the meat, giving it at the same
time a sort of smoky taste, which however is not without an aroma to
the palate. This method of preserving meat may be called national
in these islands, for so did the original Charibs dress their food,
whether fish or flesh. These savages were so fond of this cookery,
and of such endurance, that an Indian returning from the chase,
fatigued and hungry, would often wait patiently by the boucan, or
as they called it, the _barbecu_, the best part of a day, until a
fish or slice of hog, or beeve, was well cooked, the morsel being
suspended almost two feet above a little and slow fire. The Charibs,
being cannibals, were often in use to treat their prisoners just
as they treated their game, and I know many who, visiting some of
the smaller windward islands, and also the Brazilian coast, saw
great flitches of human flesh, smoked and barbecued, hanging in the
huts. The meat, when sufficiently preserved in the manner which I
have described, the Buccaneers placed in storehouses, built so that
both land and sea winds may play well around them. The hides are
also prepared in a rude fashion, and the tallow, the whole being
periodically sold, either for money or goods, to the captains of
privateers for their crews, or to certain planters in those islands
in which cattle do not abound. The latter are the best customers,
making regular contracts with the Buccaneers for the supply of a
certain quantity of meat and hides for a fixed sum, the stipulations
on both sides being honourably adhered to. Many of the Buccaneers
have servants and hired assistants, who are chiefly employed in
conveying the cattle from the spot where they are killed to the
boucan, and afterwards in helping to stow away the food. Although
this appeared to be a regular settlement, its inhabitants led but a
roving life. Many of them intended to go to sea for a change at the
first opportunity, and others, conceiving that there were more cattle
and fewer hunters to the eastward, spoke of shifting their quarters.
This I heard while wandering about with Nicky, from boucan to boucan,
and hut to hut. The scene indeed was a new one to me. Such groups of
wild-looking blood-stained men; such slashing and cutting of meat,
as though one were in the shambles; such shouting and singing in
different tongues, mixed with the clamour of dogs and the screams of
parrots, and other birds from the neighbouring groves; such quaffing
of bumpers of brandy and constant smoking of tobacco; such an
appearance indeed of rude plenty and coarse health and enjoyment—all
this made a curious impression on me, and I returned to the hut
pondering on it.
‘Well,’ says Nicky, ‘will you stay with us, and be my comrade, in
lieu of poor Benjamin? Here is his stock in trade,’ pointing to two
good guns and a little assortment of household stuff. ‘By the rules
of the coast, as you know, we all work in couples. Each man has his
comrade, with whom he shares all: and when one dies, the survivor is
entitled to his partner’s wealth and implements—the last of which I
will very willingly bestow upon you, should you deem it meet to join
me.’
We talked for some time about the matter. My own mind was naturally
buoyant, and my spirits easily fitted themselves to circumstances;
and so, concluding that I would lead an adventurous life, and see
much well worthy of being beheld, we in the end concluded a bargain;
and then putting on a doublet which had belonged to poor Benjamin,
and which being almost new, was but slightly smirched with blood, my
partner summoned in several of the chief men to the hut; and they
being accommodated with great goblets of brandy, admitted me by
acclamation into the body of the brave Huntsmen and Buccaneers, and
the ancient order of Brethren of the Coast, baptizing me in brandy,
with various mummeries, by the nick-name of Will Thistle, as showing
my Scottish nativity. Then Jonas, who was there, would fain have had
a carouse, but they persuaded him not, saying that there was ample
work to do, and little time to do it in, before the ships would
arrive from Jamaica and Nevis for boucan.
Behold me now, therefore, a Buccaneer on the coast of Hispaniola!
I let my beard and moustache grow, and they and my hair, which
was naturally luxuriant, mingling, I speedily looked as grim and
grisly as any of them. My comrade, Nicky, was a good man and true;
he had really felt the death of Benjamin his partner, and so had
been at first more grave and more reserved than usual. But as this
natural feeling wore away, he became truly a merry madcap, with a
jest, sometimes of the coarsest, or a lusty sea-song, or a tale of
brave privateersmen, ever in his mouth. Under his tuition, I soon
became a good shot, and learned to break up a bull or cow most
scientifically with the knife. Also I became acquainted with the
various trees and shrubs, birds and beasts of the coast. I knew how
to fell the mountain cabbage, and to roast the savoury plantain in
the hot cinders. I could bake the mealy cassava cake, and I knew how
to bore the Frank palm for the luscious sap which flows from the
wounded bark. Besides, these great forests and fair beaches teem with
infinite food. We turned the lazy turtles which we found upon the
shore, or hunted for their eggs in the hot sand. We intercepted and
roasted the land-crab in his annual journey from the mountains; we
shot the guano or yellow lizard, as he whimpered in the boughs, and
prejudice being set aside, found his flesh like that of a barn-door
fowl; while the racoon and the monkey both formed good roasts when we
tired of pork and beef. Then on every pond bred flocks of fat ducks,
and, in the season, the delicious ortolan fed amid the guinea grass.
Great hosts of pigeons built in the high trees and the rocks, and the
bright-coloured woodpeckers afforded us many a savoury dish. For the
sea, the Mosquito men kept us well supplied. Standing in the bows of
the canoe, with their barbed spears poised and ready, and their keen
eyes fixed upon the water beneath, there was hardly a fish at which
they darted their harpoons which the next moment lay not quivering
and bleeding in the bottom of the boat.