A BUCCANEER BREASTWORK. 27 



shoal the water up very considerably, or the island 

 has been slowly rising a bit since the days of the buccaneers 

 nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. The first nxay 

 have had a good bit to do with it, but I fancy there's 

 something, too, in the last notion. I've seen it shoal 

 up myself — enough to notice — during the twenty years 

 and more I've been here," 



" Of course, mind you, I wouldn't swear the old dogs 

 ever did ride there actually at anchor, for they may have 

 simply used the place to run their vessels ashore — careened 

 them as they called it — to scrape off all the weed and 

 barnacles on their bottoms, and they may have thought 

 Swan Island a nice quiet, out of the way spot, which no 

 Spanisher would bother his head about, where they could 

 come and do the job without fear of being surprised. 

 All the same, you may take it they weren't going to take 

 risks ; so when the ships wera lying there, canted 

 over on their sides, some of the guns wouid be hauled ashore 

 and stuck down behind the breastworks in case of an 

 attack." 



In all probability these buccaneers were the very first 

 men, certainly the first white men, ever to set foot on 

 Swan Island ; for there does not seem any reason to 

 suppose that the Mosquito Indians, who lived along the 

 shores of the mainland, ever had a settlement on the 

 island, or were even likely to have visited it. These 

 Indians were, as we know from Dampier, notoriously 

 skilful with their canoes, and were past-masters in the art 

 of harpooning turtle and big fish ; but ninety-eight 

 miles of open sea would have been a very formidable 

 voyage to undertake in their cockle-boats, even if there 

 had been any good object in going so far, or even if 

 there had been any likelihood of their hitting off 

 such low-ljing islands. Moreover, as the shores of 

 Honduras swarmed with turtle and fish of every kind 

 and description, even the quantities present around 

 Swan Island would have presented no attractions. 



