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BUOCANBEBR 



lorttner found among the Uand* or on the coasts of the vast American 

 continent wa* treated as a smuggler and rubber, and thi* being the 

 eat* it it no wonder that seafaring adventurers toon became so, and 

 ky by cruelty. As early a* 1517. when an English ship 



* ,* _*... . . .* i 



appeared at St. Domingo to request liberty to trade, the Spaniard* 

 find their cannon at her and drore her away. When this unexpected 

 visit wat reported to the Spaniah government at home, the minister 

 wnt out a harp reprimand to the governor of St. Domingo beoauw 

 he had not artfully seated the ahip inetoad of driving her away, and to 

 disposed of the English that no one of them should have returned to 

 teach othen of their nation the route to the Spaniah Indie*. But the 

 enterprising nation* of Europe were not to be checked by the tyranny 

 of Spain, nor could a papal bull abut the eye* of navigator* and make 

 them blind to the improving science of navigation, or to their way 

 aero** the ocean. The mariner* of Europe, moreover, still considered 

 the New World at an Eldorado where gold and treaure were to be 

 had for the fetching, and thia made them brave the monstrous cruelties 

 of the Spaniard*. In 1526 one Thomas Tyaon wa* sent to the West 

 Indie* a* factor to some Kngluh merchant*, and many adventurers 

 toon followed **"" The French began to make voyages to Brazil, and 

 the Portuguese and the Dutch successively began to show themselves 

 in numbers in the Weit Indie*. Knowing what they had to expect 

 they were always prepared to fight desperately. From an ingenious 

 phrase, ' a? Mdommayar (Taeanet,' uaed by one of the French flibustiera, 

 it appear* they did not always wait to be attacked, but in case of a 

 favourable opportunity became themselves the assailants. To repress 

 than interlopers the Spaniards employed guarda-fottat, the com- 

 manders of which were instructed to massacre all their prisoners. 

 This tended to produce a cloae alliance, offensive and defensive, among 

 the mariners of all other nations, who in their turn made descents on 

 the coasts, and ravaged the weaker Spanish towns and settlements. A 

 permanent state of hostilities was thus established in the West Indies 

 entirely independent of peace or war at home. ' The Brethren of the 

 Coast ' cared not if their respective native countries in the Old World 

 were at peace with Spain ; in the New they must of necessity fight 

 the Spaniards or die, or relinquish the benefits which that immense 

 region offered. When not engaged in traffic with the Indians or in 

 predatory excursions against the Spaniards, the principal occupation of 

 these men was hunting wild cattle, of which they made their boucan, 

 but they did not begin the latter occupation until several years after 

 their finrt appearance in the Caribbean seas. At a still later date many 

 of them became logwood cutters in the bay of Campeachy, and as both 

 Ihosn occupations soon became very profitable, and trading ships from 

 Europe began to retort to them in numbers for their hides, suet, dried 

 meat, wood, Ac., there i* good reason for supposing that if the Spaniards 

 had left them in peace they would gradually have settled down into 

 quiet industrious communities. But instead of this, the Spaniards 

 continued to murder them whenever they could surprise them, to 

 burn their log-huts, to hunt them from place to place, and even to kill 

 the shipwrecked mariners who were thrown by misfortune upon their 

 coast*. The effect of all this was, that the buccaneers became as 

 sanguinary a* their enemies, increased their numbers, condensed their 

 operations, and toon considered everything Spaniah as fair prize, and 

 every Spaniard's life a forfeit to them. Some home-returning flibus- 

 tiers brought account* of the barbarities of the Spaniards into Europe, 

 where they toon got into print, were circulated as popular stories, and 

 produced an j""^n. sensation. A Frenchman of the name of Mont- 

 ban on reading one of theae stories conceived such a deadly hatred of 

 the Spaniards that he became a buccaneer, and killed so many of that 

 ntti in the Wett Indie* that he obtained the title of ' The Extermi- 

 nator.' Other men joined the brethren of the coast from leas ferocious 

 motive*. Kavenean de Lu**an took up the trade of buccaneering and 

 robbing because he was in debt, and wished, a* every honeit man should 

 do, to have wherewithal to pay his creditors. By degrees many men 

 of retpectable birth joined the associations, on which it was customary 

 for them to drop their family name and assume a new one. Some of 

 the buccaneer* were of a religious temperament. A French captain, 

 Tfm^d Daniel, shot one of hi* crew in church for behaving irreverently 

 during the celebration of mat*. Captain Richard Hawkins, an English- 

 man, threw the dice overboard on finding them in use on the Sunday ; 

 and the firtt thing Captain John Walling did was to order hia robbers 

 to keep holy the Sabbath. 



In 1625 the Engliah and French conjointly took possession of the 

 itlmrt of St. Christopher, and five yean later of Tortuga, which islands 

 became the head-quarten of the buccaneen, who, whenever the 

 countries of which they were natives were at war with Spain, obtained 

 umnillttliins or letter* of mark from Europe, and acted a* regular 

 privateer* in the Watt Indie* and on the Spanish Main. This latter 

 custom gave a colour of legitimacy and honour to their calling, and 

 confounded the notion* of right and wrong in their ignorant minds. 

 Tnt governor* of the Ant Engliah colonies in the We*t Indies, or at least 

 the majority of them, were great rogue*, and on condition of sharing 

 moils with the buooaneen they let them do pretty much a* they 

 chose, even when there wa* no war with Spain. 



In 1488 the Spaniards in force surprised Tortuga, while most of the 

 adventuren were absent in Hiananiola hunting cattle, and they mas- 

 sacred all the Engliah and Franca buccaneen that fell into their li.in.lx. 

 The buccaneen toon retook the ialand, and made it the centre of their 



hunting and cruising a* before. Theae singular associations were held 

 together by a very simple code of law*. It i* said that every member 

 of it had his chosen and declared chum or comrade, between whom 

 and himself property was held in common while they lived together, 

 and when either of the two died the survivor succeeded to whatever 

 he possessed ; but as buccaneers were known at times to bequeath 

 property by will to their friends in Europe, this cannot have been a 

 coinpulsatory regulation. What, however, was insisted upon by their 

 cor]-orate law* was, that there should be a general participation in 

 certain essentials, among which were enumerated meat for present 

 consumption and other necessaries of life. It has been said that bolte, 

 locks, and all kinds of fastenings were prohibited among them, as 

 implying a doubt of the "honour of their vocation." 



In addition to the names already mentioned, Peter of Dieppe, called 

 "Peter the Great," Bartolomeo Portugucz, Francois L'Olonnais, and 

 Mansvelt were distinguished captains of buccaneen, who made them- 

 selves terrible in those seas. But the fame of all these men was 

 eclipsed by Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who succeeded Mansvclt in 

 a sort of general command. He took and plundered the town of 

 Puerto del Principe in Cuba, attacked Puerto Bollo, one of the best 

 fortified places in that part of the world, and took and sacked Mara- 

 caibo and Gibraltar. Morgan displayed not only the greatest bravery, 

 but many of the higher qualities of a commander ; like most of his 

 predecessors, however, he was treacherous, cruel, and bloodthirsty. 

 He was in the habit of torturing his prisoners in order to make them 

 confess where they had concealed their treasures. The boldest and 

 most astonishing of all Henry Morgan's exploits was his forcing his 

 way across the isthmus of Daricn from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 ocean. His object was merely to plunder the rich city of Panama, but 

 his expedition opened the way to the great southern seas, wh< 

 buccaneers soon achieved strange exploits, and laid the foundation of 

 much of our geographical knowledge of that ocean. In December, 

 1670, thirty-seven vessels, having on board about 2000 men, rendez- 

 voused atCapeTiburon under the enterprising Welshman, whom l-'nn. U 

 and English obeyed with equal alacrity. On the 16th of December he 

 took the island of Santa Catalina, where he left a strong garrison. He 

 next took the strong castle of San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the rivrr 

 Chagre, on the east side of the isthmus of Darien, where out of 314 

 Spaniards he put 200 to death. He left 500 men in the castle, 150 to 

 take care of his ships, and with the rest, who, after deducting the 

 killed and wounded, amounted to about 1200 men, he began his land 

 march through one of the wildest and most difficult countries, which 

 was then only known to the wild Indians. The fatigues and dill 

 they suffered on this march were dreadful. On the tenth day after In 

 departure from San Lorenzo, Morgan, after a desperate combat with 

 the Spaniards, who had 2000 foot and 400 horse, took and pint 

 the rich city of Panama, which then counted about 7000 houses. 

 Here again his cruelties were abominable. Ho returned in safety, and 

 loaded with wealth, to San Lorenzo, where he found all his ship-. 

 undisturbed. Having tricked most of the fleet out of their share of 

 the spoils, he sailed for Jamaica, which was already an English colony. 

 This dexterous ruffian was afterwards knighted by Charles II.. ..ii.1 

 became successively commissioner of the admiralty court in J.v 

 and deputy governor of that island. 



In 1673 the Spaniards murdered 300 French flibustierg, who h.i.l 

 been shipwrecked at Puerto Rico a barbarous act which provoked 

 atrocious reprisals. 



The short way to the South Seas had been shown l>y Morgan, ami. 

 in 1680, about 330 English buccaneers started from the shores of the 

 Atlantic to cross the Isthmus. The route they pursued varied slightly 

 from that followed by Morgan ; but they had men with them more 

 capable of describing what they saw. These were Basil Kingrovc, 

 Barty Sharp. William Dampicr, and Lionel Wafer, each of whom, in 

 after years, wrote and published an account of his advent 

 description of the country. Although they formed an alliance wiih 

 the Darien Indians, who hated the Spaniards, this expedition was not 

 in sufficient force to attack Panama. Two hundred of them, ho-. 

 having procured a number of small Indian canoes, launched into the 

 bay of Panama, attacked three large armed ships, took two of 

 and began cruising in them. These fellows had even some diplomatic 

 xkill. Kingrove tells us that the governor of Panama sent to <1 

 of Sawkins their captain, " Why, during a time of peace between 

 England and Spain, Englishmen should come into those teas to commit 

 injury t and from whom they received their commission ? " Saw kin-, 

 replied, "That he and his companions came to assist their friend tic- 

 king of Darien, who was the rightful lord of Panama, and all the 

 country thereabouts.'* They then proceeded to capture ships and 

 plunder the towns along the coast, and some of them remained a long 

 time in the South Seas, and made many discoveries. 



In 1684 another expedition, in which also the skilful seaman 

 Dampier and the surgeon Wafer were engaged, sailed from Virginia, 

 and, stretching along the whole of South America, doubled Cape Horn 

 and entered the South Seas to plunder the Spaniards. Many of these 

 hardy adventurers explored the Pacific, from the coasts of ( hih. 

 Peru, Mexico, and California, to the shores of China, Malacca, an. I 

 India ; and we scarcely know anything of the sort so interesting as 

 Dam pier's narrative of this expedition. 



In 1670 a solemn treaty of peace, known in diplomacy by the name 



