THE BOYS’ BOOK OF BUCCANEERS
BY
A. HYATT VERRILL
AUTHOR OF
“AN AMERICAN CRUSOE,” “THE BOYS’ OUTDOOR
VACATION BOOK,” “THE BOYS’ BOOK OF WHALERS,” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1923
Copyright, 1923,
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
The Quinn & Boden Company
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
RAHWAY NEW JERSEY
CONTENTS
PAGE
Chapter I Who and What Were the Buccaneers? 1
Pirates and buccaneers. How the buccaneers originated. The first
buccaneers. Settlement of Tortuga. How the buccaneers received
their name. How the first prizes were taken. Originators of
accident insurance. Pieces of eight and the origin of the dollar.
Organization of the buccaneers.
Chapter II Some Buccaneers and Their Ways 14
Pierre le Grand, the first famous buccaneer. How Le Grand took the
admiral’s ship. Esquemeling and his chronicles. Bartholomew
Portugues and his deeds. A remarkable escape. Rock Brasiliano. A
brutal buccaneer. Brasiliano’s ruse. Francis L’Ollonois the cruel.
The most bloodthirsty buccaneer. Cruelties of L’Ollonois. How
L’Ollonois took Maracaibo. The death of L’Ollonois.
Chapter III Morgan and His Road to Fame 39
Bravery of Spaniards. Attitude of the buccaneers. Early life of
Morgan. The truth about Morgan. Queer character of Morgan.
Treatment of prisoners. Buccaneers and Indians. Port Royal, the
lair of the buccaneers. Attack on Old Providence. Morgan’s first
raids. Morgan’s attack on Puerto Príncipe. The buccaneers in Cuba.
Morgan prepares to attack Porto Bello. The Gold Road. Capture of
Porto Bello. Morgan’s brutality. An exchange of pleasantries.
Chapter IV The Sacking of Maracaibo 64
Morgan gathers a great fleet. Morgan’s treachery. Morgan’s narrow
escape from destruction. Tortures and butcheries. Morgan is
blockaded. The buccaneers defeat the Spanish fleet. Morgan’s ruse.
The buccaneers escape from Maracaibo.
Chapter V The Taking of San Lorenzo 81
Morgan’s greatest undertaking. The buccaneers’ greatest fleet. The
capture of St. Catherine. The governor’s treachery. The buccaneers
sail for the Chagres. Attack on San Lorenzo. The battle. How
accident won the day. Valiant Spaniards. Capture of the castle. The
buccaneers start for Panama. Hardships of the journey. In sight of
Panama.
Chapter VI The Sack of Panama 100
The Jolly Roger. Buccaneers’ standards. How the buccaneers dressed.
The battle before Old Panama. The buccaneers take the city.
Morgan’s fury. Burning of Panama. Looting and torturing. Morgan’s
vengeance. Morgan demands ransoms. Morgan’s gallantry. The return
to the coast. Division of booty. Morgan deserts his men.
Chapter VII The Misfortunes of Monsieur Ogeron 119
The golden altar of San José. Arrest of Morgan. Morgan knighted.
The ex-buccaneer suppresses piracy. The end of Sir Henry Morgan.
Ogeron sails for Curaçao. The buccaneers come to grief. How Ogeron
escaped. Ogeron returns to Puerto Rico. Defeat of the buccaneers.
Le Sieur Maintenon and his misfortunes. Odd characters among the
buccaneers. The buccaneer poet. A buccaneer naturalist. The
divinity student who was a buccaneer. Ringrose the navigator.
Chapter VIII A Perilous Undertaking 133
A mad scheme. The plan of Sharp and his fellows. The buccaneers
start across Darien. A terrible journey. Aid from the Indians. The
buccaneers sight El Real de Santa Maria. Attack on the town. The
buccaneers’ chagrin. The buccaneers go on towards Panama. Humanity
wins its reward. In sight of the town. The Spanish fleet. A daring
attempt. How the buccaneers took the Spanish fleet. Capture of the
Santissima Trinidad. Valuable prizes. Dissensions and desertions.
Trading with the Dons. Messages from the governor. Sawkins
remembers an old friend. Loss of Captain Sawkins.
Chapter IX The “Most Dangerous Voyage” of Captain Sharp 150
More desertions. Captain Sharp tells his plans. An amazing program.
An awful trip. What happened to Wafer. The transformed galleon
starts on its cruise. Raids on the coast. At Juan Fernandez. The
men want religion. Sharp is deposed. Watling and his ways. Sharp’s
prophecy. The prophecy fulfilled. Watling’s death. Sharp takes
command. The buccaneers repulsed. Mutinies and deserters. Sharp
refits the Blessed Trinity. The buccaneers set forth on their most
dangerous voyage. The buccaneers miss the Straits of Magellan.
Around the Horn through unchartered seas. Up the Atlantic. At the
journey’s end. The treasure the buccaneers threw away.
Chapter X The Last of the Buccaneers 174
The buccaneers in the South Sea. The cruise of the Revenge. The
Bachelors’ Delight. Davis and his raids. The cruise of the Cygnet.
Reunion of old friends. The buccaneers are disappointed. Swan’s
defeat. Ringrose’s death. Across the Pacific. The buccaneers in
Madagascar. Townley takes vast treasure. The end of Townley. The
sack of Guayaquil. Back to the Antilles. Buccaneers in the East
Indies. Red Legs. A moral pirate. Red Legs’ chivalry. The penalty
of a scolding wife. Major Stede Bonnet. An unfortunate pirate. End
of Bonnet. The pirates in the Virgin Islands. Hamlin at St. Thomas.
Chapter XI Kidd, the Pirate Who Wasn’t a Pirate 192
Pirate treasure in fact and fancy. The truth about pirate treasure.
Kidd’s unfounded fame. The true story of Captain Kidd. Trial of
Captain Kidd. Death of Captain Kidd. A Don Quixote of the sea.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine. A romantic figure. Shipwreck of Prince
Rupert’s fleet. The death of Prince Rupert.
Chapter XII Picturesque Pirates 208
The “Man with the glove in his hat.” My Lord, the Earl of
Cumberland. The cruise of The Scourge of Malice. The Earl’s attack
on Puerto Rico. The English take San Juan. The unseen foe. A losing
battle. The Earl retreats. The most famous real pirate. Blackbeard.
A monster in human form. Blackbeard’s courage. Blackbeard’s ways.
Blackbeard’s castle. Origin of Blackbeard. How Blackbeard became a
pirate. Blackbeard’s appearance. How Blackbeard amused his men. A
pirate’s joke. A much-married pirate.
Chapter XIII The End of Blackbeard 225
Lieutenant Maynard’s attempt. The attack on the pirates. Maynard
repulsed. A hand to hand battle. The fight. Maynard and Blackbeard
fight a duel. A gruesome sight. Blackbeard’s death. The end of the
pirates. The Lafitte brothers. Who the Lafittes were. The
Baratarians. Smugglers. The governor’s proclamation. Denounced as
pirates. Lafitte’s trial. The arrival of the British. Lafitte’s
patriotism. The governor’s attack. The Baratarians destroyed.
Lafitte proffers his services to General Jackson. Bravery of
Lafitte and his men. Pardons. What became of the Lafittes. The end
of piracy. What we owe the buccaneers.
ILLUSTRATIONS
At dawn the buccaneers sailed away. Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Money of the buccaneers’ times 16
Cruising about in small boats and attacking every Spanish ship
they saw 17
He managed to secure two earthen wine jars and plugged their
necks, with the idea of using them as floats 34
The buccaneers swarmed over the ship’s rails 35
Sir Henry Morgan, the most famous of the buccaneers, with one
of his crew 76
Burning the galleon 77
The buccaneers’ fleet 116
The ruined tower of the cathedral in Old Panama 117
Near the cathedral are the walls of the ancient fort 117
Dampier wrote his journal during lulls between battles 140
Piraguas. It was in boats like these that the earlier buccaneers
captured their first Spanish ships 141
Two ships were promptly fired and sunk 168
The battered, patched old galleon sailed southward around Cape Horn 169
The merchants bid for the loot brought ashore 188
All were in the best of spirits, smoking, drinking, spinning
yarns of the sea 189
The last of the pirate ships, the Vigilant, as she was originally
rigged. Now a packet in the West Indies 244
THE BOYS’ BOOK OF BUCCANEERS
CHAPTER I
WHO AND WHAT WERE THE BUCCANEERS?
Jack looked up from the book he had been reading. “Father,” he asked,
“what was a buccaneer? Cousin Fred says buccaneers and pirates were the
same thing, and Jim says they were not, and in this story they speak of
pirates and buccaneers both.”
“Fred and Jim are both wrong and both right,” replied Mr. Bickford.
“Buccaneers were pirates, but pirates were not necessarily buccaneers.
But nowadays the two are often confused and writers of stories do not
seem to realize the difference and make it still more confusing. When
Fred comes over to-night bring him into the library, and I’ll try to
straighten out the puzzle and tell you about the buccaneers.”
“Say, Fred!” cried Jack, when his cousin came bouncing into Jack’s den
that evening. “You were way off. Buccaneers were not the same as
pirates. Dad says so, and he’s going to tell us all about them
to-night. Come on down to the library.”
“That’ll be dandy,” agreed Fred, enthusiastically. “And of course if
Uncle Henry says they’re not the same, why they’re not, but I always
thought they were. I wonder if Captain Kidd was a pirate or a
buccaneer.”
“Ask Dad, he knows!” laughed Jack, as the two raced downstairs to Mr.
Bickford’s library.
They found him surrounded by books with odd, old-fashioned, worn
leather bindings and with some faded and yellowed maps and cuts on the
table before him.
“Well, boys,” he greeted them, “I suppose you want to know all about
the buccaneers who sailed the Spanish Main, eh?”
“Yes, and Fred wants to know if Captain Kidd was a pirate or a
buccaneer,” replied Jack.
“Neither!” laughed his father. “Captain Kidd was, as you boys would
say, ‘the goat’ of a lot of unprincipled men. But we’re getting ahead
too fast. We’ll discuss the famous Kidd when we come to him.”
“Well, that gets me!” declared Fred, as the boys found comfortable
seats in the big leather chairs. “Captain Kidd not a pirate!”
“Pirates,” began Mr. Bickford, leaning back in his chair, “have been
known ever since men first used boats. The earliest histories mention
them. There were Phœnician pirates, Greek pirates, Roman pirates, and
the old Vikings were nothing more or less than pirates. Then there were
the Malay pirates, the Tripolitan pirates and the Chinese pirates who
still exist, and we still have harbor pirates, oyster pirates and river
pirates. A pirate is any one who preys upon shipping or steals
merchandise in a boat, and he may be and usually is a sneaking,
cowardly rascal without a redeeming feature. Moreover, a pirate preys
on any one and every one, and while some pirates, such as the Vikings,
confined their forays to certain nations and their ships and did not
molest others, yet most pirates loot, murder and destroy with
impartiality and fall upon their own countrymen or others alike. But
the buccaneers were very different. In the first place, buccaneers were
not known until comparatively recent times and the first buccaneers had
their origin in 1625.
“At that time England was at war with Spain, and the Spanish Government
claimed all the New World and decreed that any ships found trading in
the Caribbean or neighboring waters, or any settlers found upon the
islands or the Spanish Main, were pirates and would be treated as
such.”
“But, Dad, what is the Spanish Main?” asked Jack, interrupting.
“I don’t wonder you ask,” replied his father. “To read of it one would
think it a body of water, for we hear of ‘sailing the Spanish Main.’
But in reality it was the mainland of South and Central America and
when the buccaneers spoke of ‘sailing the Spanish Main’ they meant
skirting the coast. But to continue. Of course the British and French
claimed many of the West Indies and, despite the dangers, settlers went
to them. Among the others that were settled was the island of St.
Kitts, which was settled by both French and English. Although the
settlers quarreled among themselves, still they managed to exist and
were becoming fairly prosperous when in 1625 the Spanish vessels swept
down upon them, burned their plantations and, after killing many of the
settlers, drove them into the woods. Without homes or means the
survivors sought to reëstablish themselves, but a few set sail in
little dugout canoes seeking new lands. In these little craft they
reached Santo Domingo, which was then known as Hispaniola, and was a
stronghold of the Spaniards. But it was such a marvelously rich and
promising country that the fugitive Frenchmen landed and sent back for
their companions. At first the Dons knew nothing of these new arrivals,
but as they increased, word of their presence reached the authorities,
and soldiers were sent to drive them off or destroy them.
“At that time Hispaniola was teeming with wild cattle, wild hogs, wild
horses and wild dogs, descendants of the animals introduced by the
Spaniards, and the Frenchmen occupied most of their time hunting and
killing these creatures. Their hides were valuable, and their meat was
preserved by drying it over fires or transforming it into a product
known to the Spaniards as ‘bucan.’ Thus the Frenchmen became known as
‘bucaniers,’ from which the name ‘buccaneer’ was derived. So you see
the buccaneers were not pirates at all at that time, and the name has
no connection with piracy.
“Owing to their occupation, the buccaneers became expert shots, good
woodsmen, hardy, reckless and daring, and they hated the Dons like
poison. But they could not stand against the Spanish troops and so,
taking to their canoes, they fled to the island of Tortuga, off the
northern coast of what is now Haiti. Here there were a few Spanish
settlers, but they were so outnumbered by the buccaneers that they made
no objection to their new neighbors. The Dons, however, had no
intention of letting the buccaneers alone and sent expeditions to drive
them off. Then the buccaneers started a merry game of puss in the
corner. When the Dons arrived at Tortuga the buccaneers slipped over to
the mainland, and when the Spaniards sought them there they sneaked
back to the island. By this time they had been joined by many English,
a few Portuguese and a number of Dutch, and feeling their numbers were
sufficient to make a stand, they proceeded to fortify Tortuga. They
selected a high rocky hill on the summit of which was a deep depression
and with infinite labor converted this into a fort, mounted cannon and
stored a supply of wood and ammunition. Then they destroyed the only
approach—a narrow defile—and the fort could only be reached by means of
ladders lowered from the parapets.
“For a long time the Dons left them alone, realizing the impossibility
of taking the fort, and the little settlement prospered and grew. The
French sent out a governor and there at the very threshold of the Dons’
richest possession the handful of buccaneers lived and plied their
trade. But although they were composed of half a dozen different races,
one and all hated the Spaniards and soon, not content with
buccaneering, they became ambitious and with reckless bravery set out
in small canoes with the intention of capturing Spanish ships. It seems
incredible that these rough, untrained hunters could seize a heavily
armed ship swarming with sailors and soldiers, but nevertheless they
did. Lying in wait in the track of ships they would pull to the first
Spanish galleon that appeared and, while their expert marksmen would
pick off the Spanish gunners and the helmsman, they would dash
alongside, so close that the cannon could not bear upon them. Jamming
the ship’s rudder with their boat, they would swarm up and over the
bulwarks, pistols and swords in hand and knives in teeth and, yelling
like demons, would rush the crew, cutting, slashing, shooting and
stabbing. Seldom did they fail, and thus having secured ships and guns,
to say nothing of treasure, they would sail back to their lair, flushed
with victory. Then, having good ships and plenty of heavy guns, they
transformed their prizes into privateers and set sail in search of more
Spanish ships to conquer.
“You must remember that at this time England and France were at war
with Spain, and hence the buccaneers were in no sense pirates. Many of
them were given commissions to prey on the Dons as privateers, and
their acts were considered a legitimate part of warfare and were
encouraged and fostered by the officials.
“And having gone thus far they realized that organization was
necessary. Hence a sort of association was formed, or perhaps we might
call it a society, which they called ‘Brethren of the Main’ and laws,
rules and agreements were drawn up, to which, oddly enough, the
buccaneers were wonderfully faithful.
“Another interesting thing is the fact that these buccaneers were the
originators of life and accident insurance. Before a ship set out a
council was held, and papers were drawn up stating how large a share of
the loot each man should have for his services, aside from his ‘lay’ of
loot, and how much should be paid for the death of a man or injuries
received. Thus the loss of a right arm was valued at six hundred pieces
of eight or six slaves; a left arm was valued at five hundred pieces of
eight or five slaves; a right leg, five hundred pieces of eight or five
slaves; a left leg, four hundred pieces of eight or four slaves; an eye
or a finger, one hundred pieces of eight or one slave.”
“Please, Dad,” cried Jack. “Do tell us what a piece of eight is before
you go on. We read about them and about doubloons and onzas, but no one
seems to know what they are.”
“That’s a question well put,” replied Mr. Bickford. “A piece of eight
was a silver coin of eight reals. As a real was nominally twelve and
one-half cents, or half a peseta of twenty-five centavos, the piece of
eight was nominally a dollar of one hundred centavos. The doubloon was
one hundred reals, or about ten dollars, and was a gold coin, while the
onza, or double doubloon, was two hundred reals, or about twenty
dollars, and was also of gold. But as the peseta is really worth only
twenty cents in present values the piece of eight is worth eighty
cents, and if you go to any money exchange you can buy Spanish silver
‘dollars,’ as they are called, for eighty cents, which are genuine
‘pieces of eight.’ For smaller coins, the old Dons and buccaneers used
what were called ‘cross money.’ These were irregular-shaped slugs cut
from the pieces of eight and with the lettering hammered out, leaving
only the cross-shaped center of the Spanish shield to prove the coin
was minted silver of a definite value. Sometimes, if the piece did not
bear this cross, the priests stamped a cross upon it to prove its
genuineness—a sort of hall mark so to speak. These odd cross money
coins are still in use in remote parts of Panama and, although no two
are exactly alike in size or shape, the natives recognize them as
quarters, eighths or sixteenths of a piece of eight, or in other words,
as half reals, one-real and two-real pieces. And speaking of these old
coins, did you ever know that the piece of eight was the grandfather of
our own dollar, and was the forerunner of the metric system, and that
our symbol for the dollar came from the sign used to designate the
piece of eight?”
“No, indeed,” declared Fred. “Do tell us about that.”
“In the old days,” smiled Mr. Bickford, as he continued, “nearly all
countries used the piece of eight as the standard of exchange and
barter. It was used in the American colonies, but after the United
States were formed it was decided to mint a standard coin for the new
republic. As the piece of eight was the recognized standard, the new
coin was made of the same weight and value to avoid trouble and
confusion in trade and commerce. All the accounts had been kept in
pieces of eight, the symbol for which was a figure eight with a line
through it like this, $, and which may have originally been a figure
eight with a line through it or, as some claim, a conventional Pillar
of Hercules such as appeared on the pieces of eight, and so the
accountants and clerks found it easier to use the same symbol with the
addition of another line to designate dollars than to evolve a new
symbol. So you see our dollar sign is really a modification of the old
sign for the piece of eight.”
“Gosh! I’ll be more interested in dollar signs now,” declared Jack,
“and every time I see one I’ll remember what a piece of eight was.”
“As I was saying,” went on his father, “the agreements and papers were
drawn up, a captain was chosen, the buccaneers made forays into the
Spanish territory and stole what cattle and hogs and other supplies
they required, and the ships set forth to capture Spanish prizes and
raid the towns on the Spanish Main.
“The crews were rough, reckless, daredevils of every race; soldiers of
fortune who had drifted to Tortuga and joined the Brethren, and as they
had everything to gain and nothing to lose they exhibited bravery, took
risks and performed deeds which have never been equaled. But they were
not real pirates by any means—except in the eyes of the Spaniards. They
never molested French or British ships, they were openly welcomed and
aided in the French or British islands, and even when peace was
declared and the buccaneers still continued to prey upon the Dons, the
authorities winked at them and gave them refuge. But in time
dissensions arose between the English, the Dutch and the French
buccaneers at Tortuga, and the various nationalities separated and each
took separate spots for their strongholds. The Virgin Islands were
favorite lairs, for the Danish and Dutch owners were safe from their
attacks by sheltering the freebooters, who spent money as recklessly as
they won it, and the buccaneers had stringent rules, and the death
penalty was inflicted upon any man who molested the persons or
properties of the friendly islanders. The British buccaneers made Port
Royal, Jamaica, their stronghold, and that town became famed as the
richest and wickedest city in the world. Another lair was a little
island in Samaná Bay in Santo Domingo, and the Cayman Islands south of
Cuba, the Bay Islands off Honduras and several islands off the Coast of
Venezuela also became nests for the freebooters.
“At first, of course, all the buccaneers were equal. There were none
who knew more of buccaneering than the others, all pooled their
resources and the captains were elected by vote or won their place
through owning a ship or having captured one. But gradually certain men
won fame and prestige for their cruelty, their daring or their success,
and rapidly rose to recognized leadership and became famous as
buccaneer chiefs.