18 



THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



dazzled and astonished world. In 1526, two years 

 after the issue of the bull, a Mr. Tyson was deputed 

 to the new countries as agent for a company of Eng- 

 lish merchants. He was abundantly successful, and 

 private enterprise was of course stimulated into great 

 and constantly increasing activity, by the profits 

 which accrued to the adventurers. To check the au- 

 dacity of the trespassers upon his new dominions, 

 the sovereign of Spain instituted a coast guard, 

 whose 'duty it was to capture and slay all intruders 

 upon the shores of the Spanish main and West India 

 islands. A more hopeless task, powerful as Spain 

 was before her gold and silver discoveries, can scarce- 

 ly be imagined. To aid the otherwise altogether in- 

 sufficient efforts of the guarcla-costas, the terror of 

 mutilation and torture was superadded to that of 

 death, by the Spanish authorities, and Europe 

 rang with the stories, doubtless somewhat exag- 

 gerated, of cruelties practiced by the Spaniards 

 upon the luckless traders who fell into their 

 hands. These iniquities were retorted upon the 

 perpetrators with abundant interest. The American 

 seas speedily swarmed with buccaneers, flibusters* 

 — Brethren of the Coast — consisting of English, 

 Scotch, "Welch, and Frenchmen, whose self-imposed 

 mission it was, whilst enriching themselves by trade 



* The origin of these names is curious enough. Flibustier, the 

 French term, is a corruption of the English word Freebooter ; and the 

 term Buccaneer arose from the name " Boucan," by which the Barib- 

 bean Indians designated meat which they taught the c< Brethren of the 

 Coast" to preserve in a peculiar manner, and which constituted the 

 chief portion of the rover's focd. Hence '' Boucanier" — Buccaneer. 



