378 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



at a million of dollars. In Europe, immense editions of books 

 were published, giving accounts of the barbarities committed by 

 the Spaniards and of the holy reprisals waged against them by 

 the buccaneers. A Frenchman by the name of Montbars, on 

 reading these narratives, conceived so deadly a hatred for the 

 Spaniards, and, after becoming a buccaneer, killed so many 

 of them, that he obtained the title of "The Exterminator." 

 His audacity was only equalled by his love of shedding Spanish 

 blood, by which he believed himself to be avenging the unhappy 

 victims of Spanish colonization. 



Other men joined the "Brethren of the Coast" — as they were 

 sometimes called — from less ferocious motives. Raveneau de 

 Lussan joined the association because he was in debt, and in 

 consequence of a conviction entertained by him that u every 

 honest man ought in conscience to pay his creditors." Many 

 of the buccaneers were men of a religious temperament ; or, at 

 least, they thought that proper respect should be paid to ap- 

 pearances, and that due deference should be had towards the 

 prejudices of society. It was doubtless from such sentiments 

 as these that Captain Daniel shot one of his crew in church 

 for behaving irreverently during mass, that Captain Sawkins 

 threw a pair of dice overboard on finding them contributing to 

 a game of chance on Sunday, and that Captain Watling ordered 

 his men to regard, as the very first rule of their association, 

 that which instructed them to keep holy the Sabbath day. 



But the fame of all the buccaneer commanders was eclipsed by 

 that of Henry Morgan, a Welshman. The boldest and most 

 astonishing of his exploits was his forcing his way across the 

 Isthmus of Darien from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

 His object was to plunder the rich city of Panama : his expedi- 

 tion, however, opened the way to the great Southern Sea, where 

 the buccaneers laid the foundation of much of our geographical 

 knowledge of that ocean. He first took the castle of San Lo- 

 renzo, at the mouth of the river Chagres, where out of three 



