348 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



worse for wear, in fact, much respected, and looked 

 upon with a sort of compassion, as men who had 

 been unfortunate and broken up in business. We 

 had now reached the focus of their operations. 



It is not many years since the coast of Cuba and 

 the adjacent continent were infested by bands of 

 desperadoes, the common enemies of mankind, and 

 doomed to be hung and shot without trial, wherever 

 caught. Tales of piracies and murders which make 

 the blood run cold are fresh in the remembrance of 

 many. The sailor still repeats or listens to them 

 with shuddering interest, and in those times of rap- 

 ine and blood, this port was notorious as a ren- 

 dezvous for these robbers of the sea. 



It commanded a view of many leagues, and of all 

 vessels passing between Cuba and the Spanish Main. 

 A long, low flat extended many miles out; if the 

 vessel was armed, and of superior force, the pirates 

 pulled back into shoal water, and if pursued by boats, 

 scattered and saved themselves in the interior. The 

 plunder brought ashore was spent in gaming and 

 revelry. Doubloons, as one of the inhabitants told 

 us, were then as plentiful as medios are now. The 

 prodigality of the pirates brought many people to 

 the place, who, profiting by their ill-gotten gains, 

 became identified with them, and pirate law pre- 

 vailed. 



Immediately on our arrival we had visiters, some 

 of whom were silent and uncommunicative upon the 

 historical associations of the place ; and when they 



