SOME BUCCANEERS AND THEIR WAYS
“Now, having learned why the buccaneers were so called and how they
came into existence, we’ll take up a more interesting matter, and I’ll
try to tell you something of the men themselves, of the most famous
buccaneers and of their deeds,” continued Mr. Bickford.
“Certain famous buccaneers’ names are almost household words—such as
Morgan, Montbars, L’Ollonois and your friend Captain Kidd, who, as I
said, was no buccaneer—but others, who did even braver and more
terrible things and were the most noted of buccaneers in their day, are
almost unknown to the world to-day. Among these was Pierre Le Grand,
Brasiliano, Bartholomew Portugues, Sawkins, Sharp, Davis, Red Legs,
Cook, Dampier, Mansvelt, Prince Rupert and many others.”
“But you’ve forgotten Drake and Hawkins and Blackbeard,” put in Jack.
“None of those men were buccaneers,” his father declared. “Drake and
Hawkins were privateers—Drake being Admiral of Queen Elizabeth’s
navy—and won their fame in the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Later
they attacked and took towns on the Spanish Main and destroyed Spanish
ships, but they were neither pirates nor buccaneers. In fact, they were
both dead before buccaneers became of any importance as sea rovers. On
the other hand, Blackbeard was an ordinary pirate—a sea robber who made
no attempt to discriminate between friend and foe and scuttled and
robbed ships of his own countrymen as readily as those of other
nationalities. But as he was an interesting character and was among the
last of the important or dangerous pirates of the Caribbean I will tell
you something of his life and career later.
“The first buccaneer to rise to any fame was Pierre Le Grand, or as he
was oftener called, Peter the Great, a native of Dieppe in Normandy. Le
Grand’s first and only achievement, and the one which brought him fame,
was the taking of the Vice Admiral of the Spanish fleet near Cape
Tiburon in Haiti. With a small boat manned by twenty-eight of the rough
buccaneers Le Grand set forth in search of prizes and cruised among the
Bahamas, but for many days saw no ship. Provisions were running low,
his men were grumbling and he had about decided to give up in despair
when they sighted a huge Spanish ship which had become separated from
the rest of the convoy. Setting sail they headed for the vessel and at
twilight were very close. In order to force his men to their utmost, Le
Grand ordered one of his crew to bore holes in the bottom of the boat
and then, running their tiny craft alongside the Don, and armed only
with swords and pistols, the buccaneers swarmed over the sides of the
doomed ship. Taken absolutely by surprise, for the Spaniards had not
dreamed that the handful of ragged men in a tiny sail boat intended to
attack them, the crew of the ship, nevertheless, resisted stoutly. But
they were ruthlessly cut down and while some of the buccaneers drove
the Spaniards across the deck, others with Le Grand at their head,
dashed into the cabin where the unsuspecting Vice Admiral was enjoying
a quiet game of cards with his officers.
“As Le Grand leaped across the room and placed his pistol at the
Admiral’s breast the dumbfounded Spaniard exclaimed, ‘Lord bless us!
Are these devils or what?’
“But he soon realized that whatever they were his ship was in their
hands and that he and his men were prisoners. Le Grand, however, was
neither a brutal nor a bloodthirsty wretch, as were many of his
successors, and, having impressed as many of the Spanish seamen into
his service as he required, he set the others, including the Admiral
and the officers, ashore, and set sail with his prize for France. So
great was the booty he secured by this one coup that he gave up
buccaneering and settled down in France for life.
“But his deed fired the buccaneers on Tortuga with dreams of easily
acquired prizes and riches, and soon a host of the rough hunters and
woodsmen were cruising about in small boats and attacking every Spanish
ship they saw. Indeed, many, unable to secure sailboats, actually went
a-pirating in tiny dugout canoes, and so daring and reckless were they
that, despite their handicaps, they took two huge galleons laden with
plate within the first month, as well as many smaller vessels. Now that
they had seaworthy ships and plenty of wealth at their disposal they
became bolder and bolder, and were soon not only cruising the Caribbean
Sea, and taking ships, but were attacking the fortified and wealthy
towns along the Central and South American coast with success. And let
me mention here that it was very seldom that the buccaneers made use of
the larger ships in their piratical raids. The smaller vessels were
faster, they were more easily handled, and when necessity arose they
could slip through narrow, shoal channels through which the Spanish
men-of-war could not follow. The buccaneers’ vessels seldom carried
over six guns, many had but two or three, but they swarmed with men
armed to the teeth, and the buccaneers depended far more upon a dashing
attack and hand-to-hand fights than upon cannon fire.”
“Excuse me, Dad,” interrupted Jack, “but are there books that tell all
these things?”
“Yes, Jack,” replied Mr. Bickford. “And the best and most complete is a
book called ‘The Buccaneers of America.’ It was written by a buccaneer,
a man named Esquemeling, who took part in nearly all the most famous of
the buccaneers’ raids and served with Morgan, L’Ollonois and many other
buccaneer chiefs. His own history is almost as interesting as that of
any of the men of whom he wrote. He was a Hollander by birth, but went
to Tortuga as a clerk for the West India Company of France. The
company, however, found that although the buccaneers were quite willing
to purchase goods it was quite another matter when it came to paying
for them, and as a result, the West India Company abandoned their
agency in Tortuga and gave orders that all their goods and chattels on
the island should be sold for what they would bring. This included
servants of the company as well, and Esquemeling found himself sold for
a slave for thirty pieces of eight. His master was a cruel, tyrannical
man and abused his Dutch slave shamefully, although offering to let him
buy his freedom for three hundred pieces of eight. Esquemeling,
however, as he says himself, ‘was not master of one in the whole
world.’ Finally Esquemeling became weak and ill from abuse and
inadequate food, and his cruel master, fearing the man would die and he
would be out of pocket and without a slave as well, disposed of the
sick Hollander for seventy pieces of eight. His new master was a
surgeon and a kindly man and, having doctored Esquemeling and restored
him to health and strength, at the end of a year he gave him his
liberty, exacting only the promise that Esquemeling should pay him one
hundred pieces of eight when in a position to do so. Being, as he
himself says, ‘at liberty but like unto Adam when he was first created,
that is, naked and destitute of all human necessities,’ and with no
means of earning a livelihood, Esquemeling threw in his lot with the
buccaneers and he remained with them for a number of years. Being by
profession a clerk, Esquemeling kept the logs and accounts of the
buccaneers and also a journal of his own in which he recorded all the
details and events of his adventurous life. His work is, in fact, the
only authentic account of these men, and his quaint phraseology and
droll remarks are very amusing. I have the book here, boys, and you’ll
find it more interesting and absorbing than any story or fiction of the
buccaneers that ever was written.
“The first buccaneer of note with whom Esquemeling sailed was
Bartholomew Portugues, so called as he was a native of Portugal.
Portugues left Jamaica in a small ship of four small carronades with a
crew of thirty men, and went cruising off Cuba. A few days later he met
a heavily armed galleon bound to Havana from Cartagena and at once
attacked her. Although the Spaniard carried a crew of over seventy, in
addition to passengers, and was armed with twenty heavy cannon, yet
Portugues assaulted the Dons without hesitation and after a desperate
battle in which nearly fifty Spaniards were killed and wounded, the
buccaneers took the galleon with a loss of only ten men killed and four
wounded. Owing to contrary winds Portugues could not return directly to
either Tortuga or Jamaica and so set sail for Cape San Antonio at the
western extremity of Cuba. There he made necessary repairs to his prize
and secured a supply of fresh water. As they were setting sail the
buccaneers were surprised by three great Spanish ships and, greatly
outnumbered, were taken prisoners and stripped of the booty they had so
recently secured, a treasure of over ten thousand pieces of eight, in
addition to valuable merchandise. We can imagine the chagrin of the
buccaneers at this turn of fate and no doubt they gave themselves up
for lost. But luck was with them. Two days after they had been made
prisoners a great storm arose, the vessels became separated and the one
containing the buccaneers was driven to Campeche in Yucatan. When the
residents learned that Portugues and his fellows were captives on board
there was great rejoicing, and the authorities sent off to the ship
demanding that the buccaneers be delivered to them. After a
consultation, however, it was decided safer to leave the prisoners
aboard and in preparation for a general hanging a number of gibbets
were erected on shore. These were in plain view of the buccaneers, and
Portugues resolved to make a desperate effort to escape and to cheat
the expectant Dons of the grewsome spectacle. He managed to secure two
earthen wine jars and, having plugged their necks with the idea of
using them as floats, he waited patiently for darkness. But the sentry,
who hitherto had been a careless, sleepy fellow, was unusually alert,
and seeing this, Portugues seized a knife which he had surreptitiously
obtained and, to quote Esquemeling, ‘gave him such a mortal stab as
suddenly deprived him of life and the possibility of making any noise.’
Then the buccaneer captain leaped into the sea and aided by his
extemporized water-wings managed to gain the shore. But his troubles
had only begun. At once the hue and cry of his escape was raised, and
for three days Portugues concealed himself in a hollow tree without
food while the Dons searched all about. At last, abandoning their hunt,
the Spaniards returned to the town, and Portugues set out afoot for the
Gulf of Triste, where he hoped to find other buccaneers to aid him in
rescuing his comrades.
“It is almost impossible to imagine what this meant or the seemingly
insurmountable hardships the buccaneer captain deliberately faced, and
it is also a most striking example of the faithfulness of the
buccaneers to one another, which was one of the chief causes why they
were so successful. Remember, Portugues was unarmed, for he had left
the knife in the sentry’s back, he was without food, he had been half
starved by his captors, and yet he calmly set out on a one hundred and
fifty mile tramp through the jungle and along the jagged rocks of the
seacoast; through a country infested by mosquitoes and stinging
insects, by savage hostile Indians, and through swamps reeking with
malaria. Every settlement and town had to be avoided, as they were all
filled with his enemies, the Spaniards, and throughout that long and
terrible journey the buccaneer subsisted entirely upon the few
shellfish he found along the shore and upon the roots of forest herbs.
“Moreover, several large and many small rivers crossed his route and
not being able to swim his case seemed hopeless. But while searching
about the banks of the first large stream, looking for a possible ford,
he found an old plank with a few large spikes in it. After tremendous
efforts he managed to withdraw these nails and with infinite patience
whetted them against stones until he secured a sharp knifelike edge.
Just think of that, boys, when you read of modern hardships endured by
men left to their own resources in a forest. Imagine rubbing a ship’s
spike back and forth upon a stone until it has been transformed into a
knife!
“But the preparation of the nails, incredible as it sounds, was not the
worst of his labors. With these crude implements the buccaneer actually
hacked off branches of trees, cut vines and pliant reeds and with these
constructed a raft with which he crossed the stream. At every large
river he repeated the work and eventually arrived safely at the Gulf of
Triste fourteen days after escaping from the ship. Here, as he had
expected, he found a buccaneer vessel with a captain whom he knew and,
telling of his comrades’ plight, he begged the captain to lend him a
boat and twenty men to go to his men’s rescue. This the captain gladly
did, and eight days later, Portugues was back at Campeche. So small was
the boat that the Spaniards never dreamed that its occupants were
enemies or buccaneers, but thought it a craft from shore bringing off
cargo, and they watched it approach without the least fear or
preparations for defense.
“Thus the buccaneers completely surprised the Dons and after a short,
sharp struggle were in possession of the ship and had released the
imprisoned buccaneers—or rather most of them, for the Dons had hanged a
few.
“Realizing that other Spanish vessels might appear and attack him with
overwhelming force at any time, Portugues at once set sail in the ship
wherein he had so long been a helpless captive, and once more in
possession of his booty with vast riches in addition. Steering a course
for Jamaica he was off the Isle of Pines when the fickle fate which
always followed him once more turned her back and the ship went upon
the reefs of the Jardines. The ship was a total loss and sunk with all
her treasure, while Portugues and his comrades barely escaped with
their lives in a canoe. Although they managed to reach Jamaica without
misfortune, luck had deserted Portugues for all time and while he tried
time after time to recoup his fortunes all his efforts were in vain. He
became an ordinary seaman and was soon forgotten.
“Another buccaneer whose exploits were as remarkable as Portugues’ and
whose most notable exploits also took place in Yucatan, was a Dutchman
who was nicknamed Rock Brasiliano, owing to his long residence in
Brazil. As an ordinary mariner he joined the buccaneers in Jamaica and
soon so distinguished himself by his bravery and resourcefulness that
when, after a dispute with his captain, he deserted the ship, he was
chosen chief by a number of his fellows and, securing a small vessel,
he set forth to capture a prize. Within a few days he seized a large
Spanish ship with a vast treasure aboard which he carried into Jamaica
in triumph. This exploit at once brought him fame and men flocked to
his service. But, unlike Portugues, who seems to have been a very
decent and respectable sort of rascal, Brasiliano was a drunken, brutal
scallawag. As Esquemeling says, ‘Neither in his domestic or private
affairs had he good behavior or government over himself.’ When drunk,
as he always was when ashore, his favorite amusement was to race up and
down the streets, beating, stabbing or shooting all whom he met, very
much as our Western ‘bad men’ used to ‘shoot up’ a town in the old
days.
“Moreover, Brasiliano was unspeakably bloodthirsty and cruel. Whenever
he captured Spaniards he put them to the most horrible tortures, and in
order to force them to reveal the hiding places of their treasures he
would flay them alive, tear them limb from limb or roast them on spits
over slow fires. As a result, he became a feared and dreaded man, and
the mere mention of his name caused the Dons to shudder and to huddle
within their stockades. Nevertheless Brasiliano was a brave, a
resourceful and a most remarkable man and performed some most
noteworthy exploits. On one occasion he was cruising off the coast of
Yucatan when a violent storm drove his ship upon the rocks, and he and
his men escaped with only their muskets and a slender stock of
ammunition. They landed on a desolate, uninhabited stretch of coast
midway between Campeche and the Gulf of Triste and, quite undeterred by
their plight, commenced an overland march towards the Gulf exactly as
Portugues had done. But they had not proceeded far when they were
surprised by a cavalcade of over one hundred Spanish horsemen. Despite
the fact that the buccaneers numbered less than thirty, yet they had no
thought of either retreat or surrender, but at once prepared to meet
the oncoming cavalry. Expert marksmen as they were, a Don fell for
every bullet fired and for an hour the handful of buccaneers kept the
Spaniards at bay until, finding the cost too heavy, the cavalry
retreated towards the town. Killing the wounded and stripping the dead
of their arms and equipment, the buccaneers continued on the journey
mounted on the horses of the dead Dons, the total loss of Brasiliano’s
forces being but two killed and two wounded. Quite encouraged by their
success, the buccaneers approached a little port and saw a boat lying
at anchor in the harbor and protecting a fleet of canoes that were
loading logwood. With little trouble the buccaneers captured the canoes
and with wild shouts and yells bore down upon the little gunboat. The
Spaniards aboard, terrified at sight of the buccaneers, surrendered
after a short fight, but, to the buccaneers’ chagrin, they found
scarcely any provisions on their prize. This did not trouble them long,
however, and promptly killing the Spaniards’ horses they dressed them,
salted the meat and, thus equipped, sailed forth to capture more
vessels. In this they were highly successful, and in a few weeks
Brasiliano sailed into Port Royal with nearly one hundred thousand
pieces of eight and much merchandise. But the buccaneers invariably
wasted all their hard-won money recklessly. It was not uncommon for one
of them to spend several thousand pieces of eight in a single night of
drinking, gambling and carousing and so, within a few days, Brasiliano
and his men were forced to go to sea again. Having had good fortune at
Yucatan, he set sail for Campeche, but fifteen days after his arrival
on the coast he was captured with several of his men while spying on
the city and harbor in a canoe. They were at once cast into a dungeon
to await execution, but Brasiliano was by no means at the end of his
resources. By some method he managed to secure writing materials and
composed a most wonderful letter purporting to be written by another
buccaneer chief and in which the supposed author threatened dire
reprisals on any Spaniard captured by the buccaneers if Brasiliano and
his men were harmed. This epistle was delivered to the Governor—though
how on earth Brasiliano managed it no one knows—and His Excellency,
having had plenty of experience with buccaneers, was so frightened at
its contents that he at once liberated his prisoners, only exacting an
oath that they would abandon buccaneering. Then, to insure their
keeping their promise, he sent them as sailors on a galleon bound for
Spain. With their wages from the trip they at once returned to Jamaica
and, regardless of pledges, were soon harassing and murdering the Dons
right and left.
“But neither Portugues or Brasiliano could compare in cruelty, daring,
bloodthirstiness or rascality with Francis L’Ollonois. In his youth
L’Ollonois was transported to the West Indies as a bond servant, or
virtually a slave, and, winning his freedom, made his way to Tortuga
and joined the buccaneers.
“So unspeakably cruel and bestially inhuman was this Frenchman that
even his fellow buccaneers sickened of his ways and Esquemeling speaks
of him as ‘that infernal wretch’ or ‘that despicable and execrable
pirate.’ For a time after joining the Brethren of the Main, L’Ollonois
served as a common seaman, but his courage and reckless daring soon
brought him to the attention of Monsieur de la Place, the governor of
Tortuga, who was heartily in sympathy with the buccaneers. The governor
therefore provided L’Ollonois with a ship and outfitted him, the
agreement of course being that La Place should have a share of the
booty taken. Within a very short time L’Ollonois had taken several
vessels and immense riches, while his awful cruelties made him a
dreaded and famed character throughout the Caribbean. Indeed, so
merciless was he that the Dons, rather than surrender to the monster,
would leap into the sea or blow out their own brains, knowing that
quick death by any means was preferable to the tortures they would
endure at L’Ollonois’ hands. His first disaster occurred when his ship
was wrecked on the coast of Yucatan. The men all escaped, but were
immediately attacked by the Spaniards, who killed the greater portion
of the buccaneers and wounded L’Ollonois. Seeing no means of escape the
captain smeared himself with blood and sand and crawling among the dead
bodies lay motionless. The Dons were completely fooled and, not
recognizing L’Ollonois and thinking him merely a dead sailor, left the
field after a brief search for the buccaneer chief, whereupon he made
for the woods and lived upon roots until his wounds healed. Then,
having stolen garments from a Spaniard whom he killed, the rascal
walked calmly into Campeche. Here he conversed with several slaves and,
promising them liberty in return for their services, he succeeded in
getting a large canoe and with the slaves to help he reached Tortuga in
safety. In the meantime the Spaniards were rejoicing at thought of the
dread L’Ollonois being killed, for his men, who had been made
prisoners, told the Dons that he had fallen in the battle.
“His next raid was on the town of Cayos in Cuba, and word of his
approach was sent post-haste to the governor at Havana. We can readily
imagine the amazement and terror of His Excellency when this dreaded
buccaneer, who was supposed to be safely dead at Campeche, bobbed up
alive and well at Cuba. At first the governor could not believe it, but
nevertheless he dispatched a ship with ten guns and with a crew of
eighty to attack the buccaneers and commanded the captain not to dare
to return unless he had totally destroyed the pirates. In addition, he
sent aboard a negro as a hangman with instructions that every buccaneer
taken alive should be hanged, with the exception of L’Ollonois, who was
to be brought alive to Havana. No doubt the governor wished to make
sure of the buccaneer chieftain’s death this time, but fate decreed
otherwise. Instead of trying to escape, the buccaneers, when they
learned of the warship coming to attack them, set forth in two canoes
and unexpectedly bore down on the Spanish ship as she lay at anchor in
the Estera River. It was two o’clock in the morning when they drew near
the doomed vessel, and the watch, seeing the canoes and not dreaming
that they contained buccaneers, hailed them and asked if they had seen
any pirates. To this the buccaneers replied that they had seen no
pirates or anything like them. The watch thus satisfied was turning
away when the canoes dashed close and the buccaneers swarmed over the
ship’s rails. Taken completely by surprise, still the Dons put up a
gallant fight and for some time the battle raged desperately. But, as
usual, the buccaneers, though but twenty-one all told, triumphed and
drove the surviving Spaniards into the hold. Then, stationing his men
by the hatchway with drawn swords, L’Ollonois ordered the prisoners to
come up one at a time, and as fast as they appeared his men struck off
their heads. The last to appear was the negro hangman who begged
piteously for mercy, but L’Ollonois, after torturing him to confession
of various matters, murdered him like the rest. Only one man was spared
and to him L’Ollonois gave a note addressed to the governor in which he
informed His Excellency of the fate of his men and assured him that he
would never give quarter to any Spaniard and only hoped to be able to
torture and kill His Excellency as well.
“With the ship captured from the Spaniards, L’Ollonois cruised along
the Spanish Main, took several ships and returned to Tortuga with the
idea of fitting out a large company of ships and boldly attacking the
Spanish towns and cities, as well as their vessels. The fleet he
gathered together consisted of eight ships, the largest carrying ten
guns, and with six hundred and sixty buccaneers. But long before they
reached the South American coast they were flushed with success. Near
Porto Rico they captured a ship of sixteen guns laden with cacao and
with treasure consisting of forty thousand pieces of eight and over ten
thousand dollars’ worth of jewels, and near the island of Saona they
took the payship of the Dons and obtained nearly four tons of
gunpowder, many muskets and twelve thousand pieces of eight. It would
be tiresome to describe in detail their arrival at Maracaibo, their
taking of the forts and their capture of the town. The Spaniards
resisted valiantly, but were beaten back and then commenced a series of
orgies, of cruelties and of inhumanities which are almost without an
equal. The people, as soon as they realized the town would fall to
L’Ollonois and his freebooters, took to the outlying country, and these
refugees the buccaneers hunted down and dragged before their chief. In
order to make them confess where they had hidden their
valuables—although L’Ollonois had already obtained vast plunder—they
were put on the rack, broken on the wheel, cut to pieces, flayed alive
and subjected to every cruelty and torture the corsairs could devise.
For fifteen days the buccaneers occupied the town and butchered and
tortured the inhabitants until, convinced that no more loot could be
secured, they left Maracaibo, sailed up the Lake and took the town of
Gibraltar. Here they were ambushed and many killed, but in comparison
to the losses of the Dons the buccaneers suffered little, losing but
forty men killed and about fifty wounded, while over five hundred
Spaniards were killed and several hundred taken prisoners. Many of the
captives died from starvation or illness under the buccaneers’
treatment, many more were butchered for pure sport and hundreds were
put to the torture. Then, not satisfied, L’Ollonois threatened to burn
the town unless he was paid ten thousand pieces of eight and when this
was not instantly forthcoming he actually set fire to the place.
However, the money being eventually paid, the buccaneers had the
decency to aid the inhabitants in putting out the conflagration, for,
oddly enough, they usually kept to their promises, and after eighteen
days set sail for Maracaibo again. Here they demanded a payment of
thirty thousand pieces of eight under penalty of having the town
destroyed, and the poor harassed and cowed Dons managed to raise the
sum and with heartfelt thanks saw the fleet sail away. When Tortuga was
reached and a division of spoils made it was found that over two
hundred thousand pieces of eight had been taken in addition to immense
stores of silks, gold and silver plate and jewels.
“Hardly had he landed when L’Ollonois prepared for another raid and
with seven hundred men set sail with six ships for Honduras. Here the
beastly buccaneer chief tortured and killed and robbed to his heart’s
content, but finding comparatively little loot and thinking the
inhabitants had secreted their wealth, he became mad with fury and
outdid all his former inhuman acts. On one occasion, when a prisoner
insisted that he did not know the route to a certain town, L’Ollonois
slashed open the fellow’s breast with his sword, tore out his still
throbbing heart and bit and gnawed at it with his teeth, as Esquemeling
says, ‘like a ravenous wolf,’ and threatened to serve the other
prisoners in the same manner unless they showed him the way to San
Pedro. This they did, but the Spaniards had placed ambuscades and the
buccaneers were compelled to fight savagely every inch of the way.
Finally the Dons agreed to deliver the town if the buccaneers would
grant quarter for two hours, but no sooner was the time up than
L’Ollonois hurried his men after the people, robbed them of what they
had and slaughtered them without mercy. But L’Ollonois was too bestial
and cruel even for his own men. A short time after the sack of San
Pedro, dissensions arose and the party divided, the majority of the
buccaneers leaving with Moses Vanclein to raid the coast towns of Costa
Rica and Panama. From that time on L’Ollonois had nothing but ill luck
and soon afterwards his ship was wrecked off Cape Gracias à Dios. With
the remains of the wreck, the buccaneers set to work to construct a
small boat, and to sustain themselves, planted gardens. For six months
they were marooned until the boat was completed, and L’Ollonois, with
part of his crew, set out for the San Juan River in Nicaragua. But fate
had turned against him which as Esquemeling naïvely remarks, ‘had long
time been reserved for him as a punishment due to the multitude of
horrible crimes which in his wicked life he had committed.’ Attacked by
the Spaniards and their Indian allies, he was forced to retreat with
heavy loss and, still hoping to retrieve his fortunes, headed southward
for the coasts of Darien. And here the villain met with the end he so
richly deserved. He was taken by the savage Indians of the district,
was torn to pieces while alive and his limbs cast into a fire. Finally,
that no trace or memory of him might remain, the savages scattered his
ashes in the air.”