THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA.* JOHN EsnumnuNG, the author of the

first part of this book, was a Dutchman, who went to the Island of Tortuga in the West Indies, in the service of the West India Company of France, in the year 1666. He had not been long in the island when the company failed, and sent out orders to their agents to realise their assets, amongst which figured John Esqueme- ling. He does not mention what he fetched at the sale, but only that all the company's servants were sold, and he amongst them. This modification of his contract does not appear to have caused him to feel any resentment, or even surprise, but he does complain of his new master's cruelty, who increased it by offering the penniless slave his liberty for three hundred pieces of eight. Bat bad treatment and in- sufficient food caused the poor slave to fall ill, and to depreciate so much in value that his master (the governor of the island) was at length obliged to reduce his terms, and to part with him to a surgeon for only seventy pieces of eight. The surgeon treated him well, and at the end of a year offered him his liberty, on the condition that he should pay him one hundred pieces of eight as soon as he was able to do so. This bargain, he says, he " could not choose but accept with infinite joy, and gratitude of mind," and probably some in- ward chuckling, for the poor surgeon and his hundred pieces of eight are never mentioned again. Having now no means of subsistence, he "determined to enter into the wicked order of pirates, or robbers at sea. Into this society I was received with common consent, both of the superior and the vulgar sort, and among them I continued until the year 1672. Having assisted them in all their designs and attempts, and served them in many notable exploits I returned to my own country." But before telling us the story of his adventures, Mr. Esquemeling has a good deal to say upon " venemous insects, as vipers, spiders and others," as mosqui- toes and dragon-flies, which, as his translator justly observes, "enlarges our acquaintance with natural history with several observations not easily to be found in other ac- counts already received from America." In other accounts that have more recently come to hand such observations may not unfrequently be met with. He says :— " But a sort of spider which is here found (Hispaniola), is very hideous. These are as big as an ordinary egg, and their feet as long as those of the biggest sea crab. Withall they are very hairy, and have four black teeth, like those of a rabbit, both in

bigness and shape after the insects above-mentioned. I shall not omit to say something of that terrible beast called cayman. This is a certain species of crocodile Amongst these caymans, some are found to be of a corpulency very horrible to the sight. Certain is it that such have been seen as had no less than three score and ten foot in length, and twelve in breadth. Yet more marvellous than their bulk is their cunning and subtlety

wherewith they purchase their food they con- tinually lurk in the same place waiting till some wild-boar or salvage cow comes to drink or refresh themselves at that place.

But what is more worthy of admiration is that three or four days before the caymans go upon this design, they eat nothing at all ; but, diving into the river, they swallow one or two hun- dredweight of stones, such as they can find. With these they render themselves more heavy than before, and make addition to their natural strength (which, in this animal, is very great), thereby to render their assault the more terrible and secure. The prey being thus stifled, they suffer it to lie four or five days under the water untouched. For they could not eat the least bit thereof, unless half-rotten. But when it is arrived at such a degree of putrefaction as is most pleasing to their palate, they devour it with great appetite and voracity."

Mr. Esquemeling goes on to relate that when these animals are not filling their corpulences with stones, or sitting over drowned salvage cows, they " are ordinarily busied in hunting and catching of flies" like Nero. The female caymans bury their eggs in the sand, but when they fear birds will attack them, they swallow them, and keep them in their stomach till danger is over, when they bring them "forth again out of their belly." It is probable, though Mr. Esquemeling does not mention it, that the careful cayman wrapped the eggs in cotton-wool or sawdust before swallowing them to prevent their being broken by the hundredweight of stones inside. As soon as the young ones are hatcl,d, they play with their

* The Buccaneers of Asnerion. By John Esquonoling. With an Introduction by Henry Powe11. London: Swan Sonnensobein and Co. Now York, Charles Seribuer's Sons. 1893.

mother " according to their own custom. In this sort of sport, they will oftentimes run in and out of their mother's belly, even as rabbits into their holes. This," the author has the hardihood to declare, "I have seen them do many times."

But Mr. Esquemeling does not confine his observations to the habits of the lower animals ; he has studied the customs of the natives, and has what appears to be a very plausible ex- planation to offer of at least one of their religious superstitions. Talking of the Caribs, he says :—" At their entertainments it is usual that when the man dies his wife buries him with all his azagayas, aprons, and jewels that he used to wear at his ears Her next obligation is to come every day to her husband's grave, bringing him meat and drink for a whole year together Some historians affirm that the Devil comes to the sepulchres, and carries away all the meat and drink which is placed there." Our author would have found no difficulty in believing this, but says :—" I myself am not of this opinion, seeing I have oftentimes with my own hands taken away these offerings, and eaten them instead of other victual. To this I was moved, because I knew that the fruits used on these occasions were the choicest and ripest of all others, as also the liquors of the best sort they made use of for their great regale and pleasure." This shows rather bad taste on the part of our author, and perhaps it was thinking of these and other shabby tricks that brought on the attack of " Court modesty " that is so much deplored by the translator, who cannot imagine why "these unparalleled, if not inimitable, adventures and heroic exploits of our own countrymen" were "not as yet published in England."

Space does not permit us to follow him in the adventurous life he now pursued. The story of it is as fall of murder and bloodshed as any reader of Mayne Reid or Marryat can desire ; and it is gratifying to our English pride to find that in their contests with the Spaniards, the English pirates with whom he served were almost always successful. But in cruelty to their prisoners they were not one whit behind the Inquisitors of Spain or the demons of Dante ; while at the same time a Spaniard who reads Don Leon Fernandez' Historic de Costa Mica will be equally gratified to find that in the same engagements the Spaniards were equally successful, and that after them they were not less cruel. Leaving, then, the stories of racked and flayed Spaniards, it will be more profitable, in these times of riot and Anarchy, if we make a few observations upon the nature of the profession of pirate in the olden time, which may be of use as warning to the followers of the sister professions of Anarchist and rioter at the present day.

From their frequent reference to the direct interference of Providence on their behalf, and from the scrupulous obser- vance of Sunday on the pirate-ships (Captain Sawkins, after murdering half the population of a town, threw his men's dice overboard because they played with them on Sunday), there can be no doubt that the old pirate was a strictly religious person. That he was aboat as merciful as he was pious seems proved by the fact that on one occasion, after a " dispute" with some Spaniards, which ended in the flight of such of the Spaniards as were in a position to fly, the pirates had com- passion on the sufferings of the wounded, and " such as were not already dead they helped to quit the miseries of life with the end of their muskets."

It was an elementary principle with the buccaneers that only those who worked should live. "No prey, no pay" was their maxim, and, conditional upon that understanding, the following was the usual scale of remuneration and of com- pensation for accidents:--For an ordinary man, one or two hundred pieces of eight; for a surgeon, two hundred ; for a master's mate, about three hundred; and for a captain, five or six times as much as an ordinary man; while the scale of com- pensation for damages varied from six hundred pieces of eight or six slaves for the loss of the right arm down to one hundred pieces of eight or one slave for the loss of one eye or one finger. One would have expected that an eye would be valued much higher than a finger. It would be interesting to know the scale of compensation adopted by the kindred brotherhoods of to-day.

After taking a prize, the first thing to do is to set on shore all the prisoners except a few that will be wanted as slaves or for ransom. This is to avoid the unnecessary expense of feeding them. It may be avoided also by shooting them, or throwing them overboard. Another custom, in which there is no divergence between ancient and modern practice, is to "put in very frequently for refreshment," and the same inconveni- ences were apt to follow it then as they do to-day, for after one of these occasions it is narrated, " That night we stood out to sea all night long, most of our men being fuddled."

Should the pirate in his moments of leisure seek relaxation in " tavern or ale-houses, in which places they always have great credit," he should make inquiries about the scope of the Debtors' Act in that locality before sitting down, for we read that " in such houses at Jamaica they ought not to run very deep in debt, seeing the inhabitants of that island easily sell one another for debt. Thus it happened to my patron or master, to be sold for a debt of a tavern, wherein he had spent the greatest part of his money. This man had within the space of three months before three thousand pieces of eight in ready cash, all which he wasted in that short space of time, and became as poor as I have told you," That is how an honest pirate might expect to be treated by his friends—for Jamaica was a depot where the pirates got rid of their "purchases," and where he was always welcome—and his enemies had still less consideration for his feelings, for if they had the oppor- tunity, they would remove every sign of provisions from his line of march—when he would be visiting places of interest in the interior, and he would often experience the greatest diffi- culty in supporting life. On such occasions, a pirate should be able to eat many things that he has not been accustomed to see in his " mother's kitchen," such as snakes and leather, and as it is not every cookery-book that contains a recipe for preparing the latter (recipes for cooking eels would probably be applicable to snakes), the following, which was adopted by Mr. Esquemeling, may be studied with advantage. It sounds delicious :- "Some persons, who never were out of their mother's kitchens, may ask how those pirates could eat, swallow, and digest those pieces of leather so hard and dry. To whom I only answer : That could they once experiment what hunger, or rather famine, is, they would certainly find the manner, by their own necessity, as the pirates did. For these first took the leather and sliced it in pieces. Then did they beat it between two stones, and rub it, often dipping it in the water of the river to render it by these means supple and tender. Lastly, they scraped off the hair and roasted or broiled it upon the fire. And being thus cooked, they cut it into small morsels, and eat it, helping it down with frequent gulps of water."

On the whole it can hardly be said, that the life of a pirate was a happy one, sometimes he feasted on salt goats, and more wine than was good for him, but oftener he starved on nothing, or on broiled leather. Sometimes he was fortunate enough to be able to pull his enemies to pieces on the rack, or flay them alive, but it was an even chance that they operated in the same way upon him. Frequently he made enormous "purchases" as he was pleased to call his plundering, but he almost in- variably lost them at once, either by gambling on board, or by drinking on land. Some few seem to have survived their life of danger and hardship and to have died in their beds, of these last, the most important was Sir Henry Morgan, a Welshman who, visiting the West Indies, was first sold as a slave, then became a pirate, sacked Panama, returned to England, was knighted by the King, and returned to Jamaica as governor of the island. But all could not hope for such good fortune, and the average pirate died as he deserved to die, like a dog, —which is the most satisfactory truth that can be learned about him. If we except the information conveyed to us by Rudyard Kipling in the following verse :— " Then said the souls of the gentleman adventurers,

Fettered wrist to bar all for read iniquity, Ho, we revel in our chains O'er the sorrow that was Spain's ;

Heave or sink it, leave or drink it, we were Masters of the Sea l" It is to this period of the pirate's career that we especially wish to draw the attention of his modern representative.