6 THE SEA. 



he was just created that is, naked and destitute of all human necessaries not knowing* 

 how to get my living 1 , I determined to enter into the order of pirates or rohbers at sea. 

 Into this society I was received with common consent, both of the superior and vulgar sort,, 

 where I continued till 1672. Having assisted them in all their designs and attempts, and 

 served them in many notable exploits, I returned to my own native country." 



After some very graphic descriptions of the alligators and other animals, he gives some 

 interesting particulars respecting the numerous wild mastiffs and boars of the island, the 

 former of which were introduced by the bucaniers. He says : 



" The Governor of Tortuga, Monsieur Ogeron, finding that the wild dogs killed sa 

 many of the wild boars that the hunters of that island had much ado to find any, fearing 

 lest that common sustenance of the island should fail, sent for a great quantity of poison 

 from France to destroy the wild mastiffs. This was done anno 1668, by commanding horses 

 to be killed and empoisoned, and laid open at certain places where the wild dogs used to- 

 resort. This being continued for six months, there were killed an incredible number ; and 

 yet all this could not exterminate and destroy the race, or scarce diminish them, their number 

 appearing almost as large as before. These wild dogs are easily tamed among men, even 

 as tame as ordinary house-dogs. The hunters of those parts, whenever they find a wild 

 bitch with whelps, commonly take away the puppies and bring them home, which, being 

 grown up, they hunt much better than other dogs. 



" But here the curious reader may perhaps inquire how so many wild dogs came here. 

 The oce?.sion was, the Spaniards having possessed these isles, found them peopled with 

 Indians a barbarous people, sensual and brutish, hating all labour, and only inclined to 

 killing and making war against their neighbours : not out of ambition, but only because 

 they agreed not with themselves in some common terms of language; and perceiving the 

 dominion of the Spaniards laid great restrictions upon their lazy and brutish customs, they 

 conceived an irreconcilable hatred against them, but especially because they saw them take 

 possession of their kingdoms and dominions. Hereupon they made against them all the- 

 resistance they could, opposing everywhere their designs to the utmost; and the Spaniards, 

 finding themselves cruelly hated by the Indians, and nowhere secure from their treacheries, 

 resolved to extirpate and ruin them, since they could neither tame them by civility nor 

 conquer them with the sword. But the Indians it being their custom to make the 

 woods their chief places of defence at present made these their refuge whenever they 

 fled from the Spaniards. Hereupon, those first conquerors of the new world made use 

 of dogs to range and search the intricatest thickets of woods and forests for those their 

 implacable and unconquerable enemies ; thus they forced them to leave their old refuge, 

 and submit to the sword, seeing no milder usage would do it ; hereupon they killed 

 some of them, and, quartering their bodies, placed them in the highways, that others- 

 might take warning from such a punishment. But this severity proved of ill consequence, 

 for instead of frighting them and reducing them to civility, they conceived such 

 horror of the Spaniards that they resolved to detest and fly their sight for ever; hence 

 the greatest part died in caves and subterraneous places of the woods and mountains, in 

 which places I myself have often seen great numbers of human bones. The Spaniards, 

 finding no more Indians to appear about the woods, turned away a great number of dogs 



