During the time that preparations were going on for making examples of
these impertinent pirates, who had dared to enter the port of Campeachy,
Roc was racking his brains to find some method of getting out of the
terrible scrape into which he had fallen. This was a branch of the
business in which a capable pirate was obliged to be proficient; if he
could not get himself out of scrapes, he could not expect to be
successful. In this case there was no chance of cutting down sentinels,
or jumping overboard with a couple of wine-jars for a life-preserver, or
of doing any of those ordinary things which pirates were in the habit of
doing when escaping from their captors. Roc and his men were in a
dungeon on land, inside of a fortress, and if they escaped from this,
they would find themselves unarmed in the midst of a body of Spanish
soldiers. Their stout arms and their stout hearts were of no use to them
now, and they were obliged to depend upon their wits if they had any.
Roc had plenty of wit, and he used it well. There was a slave, probably
not a negro nor a native, but most likely some European who had been
made prisoner, who came in to bring him food and drink, and by the means
of this man the pirate hoped to play a trick upon the Governor. He
promised the slave that if he would help him,--and he told him it would
be very easy to do so,--he would give him money enough to buy his
freedom and to return to his friends, and this, of course, was a great
inducement to the poor fellow, who may have been an Englishman or a
Frenchman in good circumstances at home. The slave agreed to the
proposals, and the first thing he did was to bring some
writing-materials to Roc, who thereupon began the composition of a
letter upon which he based all his hopes of life and freedom.

When he was coming into the bay, Roc had noticed a large French vessel
that was lying at some distance from the town, and he wrote his letter
as if it had come from the captain of this ship. In the character of
this French captain he addressed his letter to the Governor of the town,
and in it he stated that he had understood that certain Companions of
the Coast, for whom he had great sympathy,--for the French and the
buccaneers were always good friends,--had been captured by the Governor,
who, he heard, had threatened to execute them. Then the French captain,
by the hand of Roc, went on to say that if any harm should come to these
brave men, who had been taken and imprisoned when they were doing no
harm to anybody, he would swear, in his most solemn manner, that never,
for the rest of his life, would he give quarter to any Spaniard who
might fall into his hands, and he, moreover, threatened that any kind of
vengeance which should become possible for the buccaneers and French
united, to inflict upon the Spanish ships, or upon the town of
Campeachy, should be taken as soon as possible after he should hear of
any injury that might be inflicted upon the unfortunate men who were
then lying imprisoned in the fortress.

When the slave came back to Roc, the letter was given to him with very
particular directions as to what he was to do with it. He was to
disguise himself as much as possible, so that he should not be
recognized by the people of the place, and then in the night he was to
make his way out of the town, and early in the morning he was to return
as if he had been walking along the shore of the harbor, when he was to
state that he had been put on shore from the French vessel in the
offing, with a letter which he was to present to the Governor.

The slave performed his part of the business very well. The next day,
wet and bedraggled, from making his way through the weeds and mud of the
coast, he presented himself at the fortress with his letter, and when he
was allowed to take it to the Governor, no one suspected that he was a
person employed about the place. Having fulfilled his mission, he
departed, and when seen again he was the same servant whose business it
was to carry food to the prisoners.

The Governor read the letter with a disquieted mind; he knew that the
French ship which was lying outside the harbor was a powerful vessel and
he did not like French ships, anyway. The town had once been taken and
very badly treated by a little fleet of French and English buccaneers,
and he was very anxious that nothing of the kind should happen again.
There was no great Spanish force in the harbor at that time, and he did
not know how many buccaneering vessels might be able to gather together
in the bay if it should become known that the great pirate Roc had been
put to death in Campeachy. It was an unusual thing for a prisoner to
have such powerful friends so near by, and the Governor took Roc's case
into most earnest consideration. A few hours' reflection was sufficient
to convince him that it would be very unsafe to tamper with such a
dangerous prize as the pirate Roc, and he determined to get rid of him
as soon as possible. He felt himself in the position of a man who has
stolen a baby-bear, and who hears the roar of an approaching parent
through the woods; to throw away the cub and walk off as though he had
no idea there were any bears in that forest would be the inclination of
a man so situated, and to get rid of the great pirate without provoking
the vengeance of his friends was the natural inclination of the
Governor.

Now Roc and his men were treated well, and having been brought before
the Governor, were told that in consequence of their having committed no
overt act of disorder they would be set at liberty and shipped to
England, upon the single condition that they would abandon piracy and
agree to become quiet citizens in whatever respectable vocation they
might select.

To these terms Roc and his men agreed without argument. They declared
that they would retire from the buccaneering business, and that nothing
would suit them better than to return to the ways of civilization and
virtue. There was a ship about to depart for Spain, and on this the
Governor gave Roc and his men free passage to the other side of the
ocean. There is no doubt that our buccaneers would have much preferred
to have been put on board the French vessel; but as the Spanish Governor
had started his prisoners on the road to reform, he did not wish to
throw them into the way of temptation by allowing them to associate with
such wicked companions as Frenchmen, and Roc made no suggestion of the
kind, knowing very well how greatly astonished the French captain would
be if the Governor were to communicate with him on the subject.

On the voyage to Spain Roc was on his good behavior, and he was a man
who knew how to behave very well when it was absolutely necessary: no
doubt there must have been many dull days on board ship when he would
have been delighted to gamble, to get drunk, and to run "amuck" up and
down the deck. But he carefully abstained from all these recreations,
and showed himself to be such an able-bodied and willing sailor that the
captain allowed him to serve as one of the crew. Roc knew how to do a
great many things; not only could he murder and rob, but he knew how to
turn an honest penny when there was no other way of filling his purse.
He had learned among the Indians how to shoot fish with bow and arrows,
and on this voyage across the Atlantic he occupied all his spare time in
sitting in the rigging and shooting the fish which disported themselves
about the vessel. These fish he sold to the officers, and we are told
that in this way he earned no less than five hundred crowns, perhaps
that many dollars. If this account is true, fish must have been very
costly in those days, but it showed plainly that if Roc had desired to
get into an honest business, he would have found fish-shooting a
profitable occupation. In every way Roc behaved so well that for his
sake all his men were treated kindly and allowed many privileges.

But when this party of reformed pirates reached Spain and were allowed
to go where they pleased, they thought no more of the oaths they had
taken to abandon piracy than they thought of the oaths which they had
been in the habit of throwing right and left when they had been
strolling about on the island of Jamaica. They had no ship, and not
enough money to buy one, but as soon as they could manage it they sailed
back to the West Indies, and eventually found themselves in Jamaica, as
bold and as bloody buccaneers as ever they had been.

Not only did Roc cast from him every thought of reformation and a
respectable life, but he determined to begin the business of piracy on a
grander scale than ever before. He made a compact with an old French
buccaneer, named Tributor, and with a large company of buccaneers he
actually set out to take a town. Having lost everything he possessed,
and having passed such a long time without any employment more
profitable than that of shooting fish with a bow and arrows, our doughty
pirate now desired to make a grand strike, and if he could take a town
and pillage it of everything valuable it contained, he would make a very
good fortune in a very short time, and might retire, if he chose, from
the active practice of his profession.

The town which Roc and Tributor determined to attack was Merida, in
Yucatan, and although this was a bold and rash undertaking, the two
pirates were bold and rash enough for anything. Roc had been a prisoner
in Merida, and on account of his knowledge of the town he believed that
he and his followers could land upon the coast, and then quietly advance
upon the town without their approach being discovered. If they could do
this, it would be an easy matter to rush upon the unsuspecting garrison,
and, having annihilated these, make themselves masters of the town.

But their plans did not work very well; they were discovered by some
Indians, after they had landed, who hurried to Merida and gave notice of
the approach of the buccaneers. Consequently, when Roc and his
companions reached the town they found the garrison prepared for them,
cannons loaded, and all the approaches guarded. Still the pirates did
not hesitate; they advanced fiercely to the attack just as they were
accustomed to do when they were boarding a Spanish vessel, but they soon
found that fighting on land was very different from fighting at sea. In
a marine combat it is seldom that a party of boarders is attacked in the
rear by the enemy, although on land such methods of warfare may always
be expected; but Roc and Tributor did not expect anything of the kind,
and they were, therefore, greatly dismayed when a party of horsemen from
the town, who had made a wide dГ©tour through the woods, suddenly charged
upon their rear. Between the guns of the garrison and the sabres of the
horsemen the buccaneers had a very hard time, and it was not long before
they were completely defeated. Tributor and a great many of the pirates
were killed or taken, and Roc, the Brazilian, had a terrible fall.

This most memorable fall occurred in the estimation of John Esquemeling,
who knew all about the attack on Merida, and who wrote the account of
it. But he had never expected to be called upon to record that his
great hero, Roc, the Brazilian, saved his life, after the utter defeat
of himself and his companions, by ignominiously running away. The loyal
chronicler had as firm a belief in the absolute inability of his hero to
fly from danger as was shown by the Scottish Douglas, when he stood, his
back against a mass of stone, and invited his enemies to "Come one, come
all." The bushy-browed pirate of the drawn cutlass had so often
expressed his contempt for a soldier who would even surrender, to say
nothing of running away, that Esquemeling could scarcely believe that
Roc had retreated from his enemies, deserted his friends, and turned his
back upon the principles which he had always so truculently proclaimed.

But this downfall of a hero simply shows that Esquemeling, although he
was a member of the piratical body, and was proud to consider himself a
buccaneer, did not understand the true nature of a pirate. Under the
brutality, the cruelty, the dishonesty, and the recklessness of the
sea-robbers of those days, there was nearly always meanness and
cowardice. Roc, as we have said in the beginning of this sketch, was a
typical pirate; under certain circumstances he showed himself to have
all those brave and savage qualities which Esquemeling esteemed and
revered, and under other circumstances he showed those other qualities
which Esquemeling despised, but which are necessary to make up the true
character of a pirate.

The historian John seems to have been very much cut up by the manner in
which his favorite hero had rounded off his piratical career, and after
that he entirely dropped Roc from his chronicles.

This out-and-out pirate was afterwards living in Jamaica, and probably
engaged in new enterprises, but Esquemeling would have nothing more to
do with him nor with the history of his deeds.




Chapter XI

A Buccaneer Boom


The condition of affairs in the West Indies was becoming very serious in
the eyes of the Spanish rulers. They had discovered a new country, they
had taken possession of it, and they had found great wealth of various
kinds, of which they were very much in need. This wealth was being
carried to Spain as fast as it could be taken from the unfortunate
natives and gathered together for transportation, and everything would
have gone on very well indeed had it not been for the most culpable and
unwarranted interference of that lawless party of men, who might almost
be said to amount to a nationality, who were continually on the alert to
take from Spain everything she could take from America. The English,
French, and Dutch governments were generally at peace with Spain, but
they sat by quietly and saw their sailor subjects band themselves
together and make war upon Spanish commerce,--a very one-sided commerce,
it is true.

It was of no use for Spain to complain of the buccaneers to her sister
maritime nations. It is not certain that they could have done anything
to interfere with the operations of the sea-robbers who originally
sailed from their coasts, but it is certain they did not try to do
anything. Whatever was to be done, Spain must do herself. The pirates
were as slippery as they were savage, and although the Spaniards made a
regular naval war upon them, they seemed to increase rather than to
diminish. Every time that a Spanish merchantman was taken, and its gold
and silver and valuable goods carried off to Tortuga or Jamaica, and
divided among a lot of savage and rollicking fellows, the greater became
the enthusiasm among the Brethren of the Coast, and the wider spread the
buccaneering boom. More ships laden almost entirely with stalwart men,
well provided with arms, and very badly furnished with principles, came
from England and France, and the Spanish ships of war in the West Indies
found that they were confronted by what was, in many respects, a regular
naval force.

The buccaneers were afraid of nothing; they paid no attention to the
rules of war,--a little ship would attack a big one without the
slightest hesitation, and more than that, would generally take it,--and
in every way Spain was beginning to feel as if she were acting the part
of provider to the pirate seamen of every nation.

Finding that she could do nothing to diminish the number of the
buccaneering vessels, Spain determined that she would not have so many
richly laden ships of her own upon these dangerous seas; consequently, a
change was made in regard to the shipping of merchandise and the
valuable metals from America to her home ports. The cargoes were
concentrated, and what had previously been placed upon three ships was
crowded into the holds and between the decks of one great vessel, which
was so well armed and defended as to make it almost impossible for any
pirate ship to capture it. In some respects this plan worked very well,
although when the buccaneers did happen to pounce upon one of these
richly laden vessels, in such numbers and with such swift ferocity, that
they were able to capture it, they rejoiced over a prize far more
valuable than anything the pirate soul had ever dreamed of before. But
it was not often that one of these great ships was taken, and for a time
the results of Spanish robbery and cruelty were safely carried to Spain.

But it was very hard to get the better of the buccaneers; their lives
and their fortunes depended upon this boom, and if in one way they could
not get the gold out of the Spaniards, which the latter got out of the
natives, they would try another. When the miners in the gold fields find
they can no longer wash out with their pans a paying quantity of the
precious metal, they go to work on the rocks and break them into pieces
and crush them into dust; so, when the buccaneers found it did not pay
to devote themselves to capturing Spanish gold on its transit across the
ocean, many of them changed their methods of operation and boldly
planned to seize the treasures of their enemy before it was put upon the
ships.

Consequently, the buccaneers formed themselves into larger bodies
commanded by noted leaders, and made attacks upon the Spanish
settlements and towns. Many of these were found nearly defenceless, and
even those which boasted fortifications often fell before the reckless
charges of the buccaneers. The pillage, the burning, and the cruelty on
shore exceeded that which had hitherto been known on the sea. There is
generally a great deal more in a town than there is in a ship, and the
buccaneers proved themselves to be among the most outrageous, exacting,
and cruel conquerors ever known in the world. They were governed by no
laws of warfare; whatever they chose to do they did. They respected
nobody, not even themselves, and acted like wild beasts, without the
disposition which is generally shown by a wild beast, to lie down and go
to sleep when he has had enough.

There were times when it seemed as though it would be safer for a man
who had a regard for his life and comfort, to sail upon a pirate ship
instead of a Spanish galleon, or to take up his residence in one of the
uncivilized communities of Tortuga or Jamaica, instead of settling in a
well-ordered Spanish-American town with its mayor, its officials, and
its garrison.

It was a very strange nation of marine bandits which had thus sprung
into existence on these faraway waters; it was a nation of grown-up men,
who existed only for the purpose of carrying off that which other people
were taking away; it was a nation of second-hand robbers, who carried
their operations to such an extent that they threatened to do away
entirely with that series of primary robberies to which Spain had
devoted herself. I do not know that there were any companies formed in
those days for the prosecution of buccaneering, but I am quite sure that
if there had been, their shares would have gone up to a very high
figure.




Chapter XII

The Story of L'Olonnois the Cruel


In the preceding chapter we have seen that the buccaneers had at last
become so numerous and so formidable that it was dangerous for a Spanish
ship laden with treasure from the new world to attempt to get out of the
Caribbean Sea into the Atlantic, and that thus failing to find enough
richly laden vessels to satisfy their ardent cravings for plunder, the
buccaneers were forced to make some change in their methods of criminal
warfare; and from capturing Spanish galleons, they formed themselves
into well-organized bodies and attacked towns.

Among the buccaneer leaders who distinguished themselves as land pirates
was a thoroughbred scoundrel by the name of Francis L'Olonnois, who was
born in France. In those days it was the custom to enforce servitude
upon people who were not able to take care of themselves. Unfortunate
debtors and paupers of all classes were sold to people who had need of
their services. The only difference sometimes between master and
servant depended entirely upon the fact that one had money, and the
other had none. Boys and girls were sold for a term of years, somewhat
as if they had been apprentices, and it so happened that the boy
L'Olonnois was sold to a master who took him to the West Indies. There
he led the life of a slave until he was of age, and then, being no
longer subject to ownership, he became one of the freest and most
independent persons who ever walked this earth.

He began his career on the island of Hispaniola, where he took up the
business of hunting and butchering cattle; but he very soon gave up this
life for that of a pirate, and enlisted as a common sailor on one of
their ships. Here he gave signs of such great ability as a brave and
unscrupulous scoundrel that one of the leading pirates on the island of
Tortuga gave him a ship and a crew, and set him up in business on his
own account. The piratical career of L'Olonnois was very much like that
of other buccaneers of the day, except that he was so abominably cruel
to the Spanish prisoners whom he captured that he gained a reputation
for vile humanity, surpassing that of any other rascal on the western
continent. When he captured a prisoner, it seemed to delight his soul as
much to torture and mutilate him before killing him as to take away
whatever valuables he possessed. His reputation for ingenious
wickedness spread all over the West Indies, so that the crews of Spanish
ships, attacked by this demon, would rather die on their decks or sink
to the bottom in their ships than be captured by L'Olonnois.

All the barbarities, the brutalities, and the fiendish ferocity which
have ever been attributed to the pirates of the world were united in the
character of this inhuman wretch, who does not appear to be so good an
example of the true pirate as Roc, the Brazilian. He was not so brave,
he was not so able, and he was so utterly base that it would be
impossible for any one to look upon him as a hero. After having attained
in a very short time the reputation of being the most bloody and wicked
pirate of his day, L'Olonnois was unfortunate enough to be wrecked upon
the coast, not far from the town of Campeachy. He and his crew got
safely to shore, but it was not long before their presence was
discovered by the people of the town, and the Spanish soldiers thereupon
sallied out and attacked them. There was a fierce fight, but the
Spaniards were the stronger, and the buccaneers were utterly defeated.
Many of them were killed, and most of the rest wounded or taken
prisoners.

Among the wounded was L'Olonnois, and as he knew that if he should be
discovered he would meet with no mercy, he got behind some bushes,
scooped up several handfuls of sand, mixed it with his blood, and with
it rubbed his face so that it presented the pallor of a corpse. Then he
lay down among the bodies of his dead companions, and when the Spaniards
afterwards walked over the battlefield, he was looked upon as one of the
common pirates whom they had killed.

When the soldiers had retired into the town with their prisoners, the
make-believe corpse stealthily arose and made his way into the woods,
where he stayed until his wounds were well enough for him to walk about.
He divested himself of his great boots, his pistol belt, and the rest of
his piratical costume, and, adding to his scanty raiment a cloak and hat
which he had stolen from a poor cottage, he boldly approached the town
and entered it. He looked like a very ordinary person, and no notice was
taken of him by the authorities. Here he found shelter and something to
eat, and he soon began to make himself very much at home in the streets
of Campeachy.

It was a very gay time in the town, and, as everybody seemed to be
happy, L'Olonnois was very glad to join in the general rejoicing, and
these hilarities gave him particular pleasure as he found out that he
was the cause of them. The buccaneers who had been captured, and who
were imprisoned in the fortress, had been interrogated over and over
again by the Spanish officials in regard to L'Olonnois, their commander,
and, as they had invariably answered that he had been killed, the
Spanish were forced to believe the glad tidings, and they celebrated the
death of the monster as the greatest piece of public good fortune which
could come to their community. They built bonfires, they sang songs
about the death of the black-hearted buccaneer, and services of
thanksgiving were held in their churches.

All this was a great delight to L'Olonnois, who joined hands with the
young men and women, as they danced around the bonfires; he assisted in
a fine bass voice in the choruses which told of his death and his
dreadful doom, and he went to church and listened to the priests and the
people as they gave thanks for their deliverance from his enormities.

But L'Olonnois did not waste all his time chuckling over the baseless
rejoicings of the people of the town. He made himself acquainted with
some of the white slaves, men who had been brought from England, and
finding some of them very much discontented with their lot, he ventured
to tell them that he was one of the pirates who had escaped, and offered
them riches and liberty if they would join him in a scheme he had
concocted. It would have been easy enough for him to get away from the
town by himself, but this would have been of no use to him unless he
obtained some sort of a vessel, and some men to help him navigate it. So
he proposed to the slaves that they should steal a small boat belonging
to the master of one of them, and in this, under cover of the night, the
little party safely left Campeachy and set sail for Tortuga, which, as
we have told, was then the headquarters of the buccaneers, and "the
common place of refuge of all sorts or wickedness, and the seminary, as
it were, of all manner of pirates."




Chapter XIII

A Resurrected Pirate


When L'Olonnois arrived at Tortuga he caused great astonishment among
his old associates; that he had come back a comparative pauper surprised
no one, for this was a common thing to happen to a pirate, but the
wonder was that he got back at all.

He had no money, but, by the exercise of his crafty abilities, he
managed to get possession of a ship, which he manned with a crew of
about a score of impecunious dare-devils who were very anxious to do
something to mend their fortunes.

Having now become very fond of land-fighting, he did not go out in
search of ships, but directed his vessel to a little village called de
los Cayos, on the coast of Cuba, for here, he thought, was a chance for
a good and easy stroke of business. This village was the abode of
industrious people, who were traders in tobacco, hides, and sugar, and
who were obliged to carry on their traffic in a rather peculiar manner.
The sea near their town was shallow, so that large ships could not
approach very near, and thus the villagers were kept busy carrying goods
and supplies in small boats, backwards and forwards from the town to the
vessels at anchor. Here was a nice little prize that could not get away
from him, and L'Olonnois had plenty of time to make his preparations to
seize it. As he could not sail a ship directly up to the town, he
cruised about the coast at some distance from de los Cayos, endeavoring
to procure two small boats in which to approach the town, but although
his preparations were made as quietly as possible, the presence of his
vessel was discovered by some fishermen. They knew that it was a pirate
ship, and some of them who had seen L'Olonnois recognized that dreaded
pirate upon the deck. Word of the impending danger was taken to the
town, and the people there immediately sent a message by land to Havana,
informing the Governor of the island that the cruel pirate L'Olonnois
was in a ship a short distance from their village, which he undoubtedly
intended to attack.

When the Governor heard this astonishing tale, it was almost impossible
for him to believe it. The good news of the death of L'Olonnois had come
from Campeachy to Havana, and the people of the latter town also
rejoiced greatly. To be now told that this scourge of the West Indies
was alive, and was about to fall upon a peaceful little village on the
island over which he ruled, filled the Governor with rage as well as
amazement, and he ordered a well-armed ship, with a large crew of
fighting men, to sail immediately for de los Cayos, giving the captain
express orders that he was not to come back until he had obliterated
from the face of the earth the whole of the wretched gang with the
exception of the leader. This extraordinary villain was to be brought to
Havana to be treated as the Governor should see fit. In order that his
commands should be executed promptly and effectually, the Governor sent
a big negro slave in the ship, who was charged with the duty of hanging
every one of the pirates except L'Olonnois.

By the time the war-vessel had arrived at de los Cayos, L'Olonnois had
made his preparation to attack the place. He had procured two large
canoes, and in these he had intended to row up to the town and land with
his men. But now there was a change in the state of affairs, and he was
obliged to alter his plans. The ordinary person in command of two small
boats, who should suddenly discover that a village which he supposed
almost defenceless, was protected by a large man-of-war, with cannon and
a well-armed crew, would have altered his plans so completely that he
would have left that part of the coast of Cuba with all possible
expedition. But the pirates of that day seemed to pay very little
attention to the element of odds; if they met an enemy who was weak,
they would fall upon him, and if they met with one who was a good deal
stronger than themselves, they would fall upon him all the same. When
the time came to fight they fought.

Of course L'Olonnois could not now row leisurely up to the town and
begin to pillage it as he had intended, but no intention of giving up
his project entered his mind. As the Spanish vessel was in his way, he
would attack her and get her out of his way if the thing could be done.

In this new state of affairs he was obliged to use stratagem, and he
also needed a larger force than he had with him, and he therefore
captured some men who were fishing along the coast and put them into his
canoes to help work the oars. Then by night he proceeded slowly in the
direction of the Spanish vessel. The man-of-war was anchored not very
far from the town, and when about two o'clock in the morning the watch
on deck saw some canoes approaching they supposed them to be boats from
shore, for, as has been said, such vessels were continually plying about
those shallow waters. The canoes were hailed, and after having given an
account of themselves they were asked if they knew anything about the
pirate ship upon the coast. L'Olonnois understood very well that it
would not do for him or his men to make answer to these inquiries, for
their speech would have shown they did not belong to those parts.
Therefore he made one of his prisoner fishermen answer that they had not
seen a pirate vessel, and if there had been one there, it must have
sailed away when its captain heard the Spanish ship was coming. Then the
canoes were allowed to go their way, but their way was a very different
one from any which could have been expected by the captain of the ship.

They rowed off into the darkness instead of going toward the town, and
waited until nearly daybreak, then they boldly made for the man-of-war,
one canoe attacking her on one side and the other on the other. Before
the Spanish could comprehend what had happened there were more than
twenty pirates upon their decks, the dreaded L'Olonnois at their head.

In such a case as this cannon were of no use, and when the crew tried to
rush upon deck, they found that cutlasses and pistols did not avail very
much better. The pirates had the advantage; they had overpowered the
watch, and were defending the deck against all comers from below. It
requires a very brave sailor to stick his head out of a hatchway when he
sees three or four cutlasses ready to split it open. But there was some
stout fighting on board; the officers came out of their cabins, and some
of the men were able to force their way out into the struggle. The
pirates knew, however, that they were but few and that were their
enemies allowed to get on deck they would prove entirely too strong, and
they fought, each scoundrel of them, like three men, and the savage
fight ended by every Spanish sailor or officer who was not killed or
wounded being forced to stay below decks, where the hatches were
securely fastened down upon them.

L'Olonnois now stood a proud victor on the deck of his prize, and, being
a man of principle, he determined to live up to the distinguished
reputation which he had acquired in that part of the world. Baring his
muscular and hairy right arm, he clutched the handle of his sharp and
heavy cutlass and ordered the prisoners to be brought up from below, one
at a time, and conducted to the place where he stood. He wished to give
Spain a lesson which would make her understand that he was not to be
interfered with in the execution of his enterprises, and he determined
to allow himself the pleasure of personally teaching this lesson.

As soon as a prisoner was brought to L'Olonnois he struck off his head,
and this performance he continued, beginning with number one, and going
on until he had counted ninety. The last one brought to him was the
negro slave. This man, who was not a soldier, was desperately frightened
and begged piteously for his life. L'Olonnois, finding that the man was
willing to tell everything he knew, questioned him about the sending of
this vessel from Havana, and when the poor fellow had finished by
telling that he had come there, not of his own accord, but simply for
the purpose of obeying his master, to hang all the pirates except their
leader, that great buccaneer laughed, and, finding he could get nothing
more from the negro, cut off his head likewise, and his body was tumbled
into the sea after those of his companions.

Now there was not a Spaniard left on board the great ship except one
man, who had been preserved from the fate of the others because
L'Olonnois had some correspondence to attend to, and he needed a
messenger to carry a letter. The pirate captain went into the cabin,
where he found writing-materials ready to his hand, and there he
composed a letter to the Governor of Havana, a part of which read as
follows: "I shall never henceforward give quarter unto any Spaniard
whatsoever. And I have great hopes that I shall execute on your own
person the very same punishment I have done to them you sent against me.
Thus I have retaliated the kindness you designed unto me and my
companions."

When this message was received by the dignified official who filled the
post of Governor of Cuba, he stormed and fairly foamed at the mouth. To
be utterly foiled and discomfited by this resurrected pirate, and to be
afterwards addressed in terms of such unheard-of insolence and abuse,
was more than he could bear, and, in the presence of many of his
officials and attendants, he swore a terrible oath that after that hour
he would never again give quarter to any buccaneer, no matter when or
where he was captured, or what he might be doing at the time. Every man
of the wretched band should die as soon as he could lay hands upon him.

But when the inhabitants of Havana and the surrounding villages heard of
this terrible resolution of their Governor they were very much
disturbed. They lived in constant danger of attack, especially those who
were engaged in fishing or maritime pursuits, and they feared that when
it became known that no buccaneer was to receive quarter, the Spanish
colonists would be treated in the same way, no matter where they might
be found and taken. Consequently, it was represented to the Governor
that his plan of vengeance would work most disastrously for the Spanish
settlers, for the buccaneers could do far more damage to them than he
could possibly do to these dreadful Brethren of the Coast, and that,
unless he wished to bring upon them troubles greater than those of
famine or pestilence, they begged that he would retract his oath.

When the high dignitary had cooled down a little, he saw that there was
a good deal of sense in what the representative of the people had said
to him, and he consequently felt obliged, in consideration of the public
safety, to take back what he had said, and to give up the purpose, which
would have rendered unsafe the lives of so many peaceable people.

L'Olonnois was now the possessor of a fine vessel which had not been in
the least injured during the battle in which it had been won. But his
little crew, some of whom had been killed and wounded, was insufficient
to work such a ship upon an important cruise on the high seas, and he
also discovered, much to his surprise, that there were very few
provisions on board, for when the vessel was sent from Havana it was
supposed she would make but a very short cruise. This savage swinger of
the cutlass thereupon concluded that he would not try to do any great
thing for the present, but, having obtained some booty and men from the
woe-begone town of de los Cayos, he sailed away, touching at several
other small ports for the purpose of pillage, and finally anchoring at
Tortuga.




Chapter XIV

Villany on a Grand Scale


When L'Olonnois landed on the disreputable shores of Tortuga, he was
received by all circles of the vicious society of the island with loud
acclamation. He had not only taken a fine Spanish ship, he had not only
bearded the Governor of Havana in his fortified den, but he had struck
off ninety heads with his own hand. Even people who did not care for him
before reverenced him now. In all the annals of piracy no hero had ever
done such a deed as this, and the best records of human butchering had
been broken.

Now grand and ambitious ideas began to swell the head of this champion
slaughterer, and he conceived the plan of getting up a grand expedition
to go forth and capture the important town of Maracaibo, in New
Venezuela. This was an enterprise far above the ordinary aims of a
buccaneer, and it would require more than ordinary force to accomplish
it. He therefore set himself to work to enlist a large number of men and
to equip a fleet of vessels, of which he was to be chief commander or
admiral. There were a great many unemployed pirates in Tortuga at that
time, and many a brawny rascal volunteered to sail under the flag of the
daring butcher of the seas.

But in order to equip a fleet, money was necessary as well as men,
and therefore L'Olonnois thought himself very lucky when he succeeded
in interesting the principal piratical capitalist of Tortuga in his
undertaking. This was an old and seasoned buccaneer by the name of
Michael de Basco, who had made money enough by his piratical exploits
to retire from business and live on his income. He held the position
of Mayor of the island and was an important man among his
fellow-miscreants. When de Basco heard of the great expedition which
L'Olonnois was about to undertake, his whole soul was fired and he could
not rest tamely in his comfortable quarters when such great things were
to be done, and he offered to assist L'Olonnois with funds and join in
the expedition if he were made commander of the land forces. This offer
was accepted gladly, for de Basco had a great reputation as a fighter in
Europe as well as in America.

When everything had been made ready, L'Olonnois set sail for Maracaibo
with a fleet of eight ships. On the way they captured two Spanish
vessels, both of which were rich prizes, and at last they arrived
before the town which they intended to capture.

Maracaibo was a prosperous place of three or four thousand inhabitants;
they were rich people living in fine houses, and many of them had
plantations which extended out into the country. In every way the town
possessed great attractions to piratical marauders, but there were
difficulties in the way; being such an important place, of course it had
important defences. On an island in the harbor there was a strong fort,
or castle, and on another island a little further from the town there
was a tall tower, on the top of which a sentinel was posted night and
day to give notice of any approaching enemy. Between these two islands
was the only channel by which the town could be approached from the sea.
But in preparing these defences the authorities had thought only of
defending themselves against ordinary naval forces and had not
anticipated the extraordinary naval methods of the buccaneers who used
to be merely sea-robbers, who fell upon ships after they had left their
ports, but who now set out to capture not only ships at sea but towns on
land.

L'Olonnois had too much sense to run his ships close under the guns of
the fortress, against which he could expect to do nothing, for the
buccaneers relied but little upon their cannon, and so they paid no
more attention to the ordinary harbor than if it had not been there, but
sailed into a fresh-water lake at some distance from the town, and out
of sight of the tower. There L'Olonnois landed his men, and, advancing
upon the fort from the rear, easily crossed over to the little island
and marched upon the fort. It was very early in the morning. The
garrison was utterly amazed by this attack from land, and although they
fought bravely for three hours, they were obliged to give up the defence
of the walls, and as many of them as could do so got out of the fort and
escaped to the mainland and the town.

L'Olonnois now took possession of the fort, and then, with the greater
part of his men, he returned to his ships, brought them around to the
entrance of the bay, and then boldly sailed with his whole fleet under
the very noses of the cannon and anchored in the harbor in front of the
town.

When the citizens of Maracaibo heard from the escaping garrison that the
fort had been taken, they were filled with horror and dismay, for they
had no further means of defence. They knew that the pirates had come
there for no other object than to rob, pillage, and cruelly treat them,
and consequently as many as possible hurried away into the woods and the
surrounding country with as many of their valuables as they could carry.
They resembled the citizens of a town attacked by the cholera or the
plague, and in fact, they would have preferred a most terrible
pestilence to this terrible scourge of piracy from which they were about
to suffer.

As soon as L'Olonnois and his wild pirates had landed in the city they
devoted themselves entirely to eating and drinking and making themselves
merry. They had been on short commons during the latter part of their
voyage, and they had a royal time with the abundance of food and wine
which they found in the houses of the town. The next day, however, they
set about attending to the business which had brought them there, and
parties of pirates were sent out into the surrounding country to find
the people who had run away and to take from them the treasures they had
carried off. But although a great many of the poor, miserable,
unfortunate citizens were captured and brought back to the town, there
was found upon them very little money, and but few jewels or ornaments
of value. And now L'Olonnois began to prove how much worse his presence
was than any other misfortune which could have happened to the town. He
tortured the poor prisoners, men, women, and children, to make them tell
where they had hidden their treasures, sometimes hacking one of them
with his sword, declaring at the same time that if he did not tell where
his money was hidden he would immediately set to work to cut up his
family and his friends.

The cruelties inflicted upon the inhabitants by this vile and beastly
pirate and his men were so horrible that they could not be put into
print. Even John Esquemeling, who wrote the account of it, had not the
heart to tell everything that had happened. But after two weeks of
horror and torture, the pirates were able to get but comparatively
little out of the town, and they therefore determined to go somewhere
else, where they might do better.

At the southern end of Lake Maracaibo, about forty leagues from the town
which the pirates had just desolated and ruined, lay Gibraltar, a
good-sized and prosperous town, and for this place L'Olonnois and his
fleet now set sail; but they were not able to approach unsuspected and
unseen, for news of their terrible doings had gone before them, and
their coming was expected. When they drew near the town they saw the
flag flying from the fort, and they knew that every preparation had been
made for defence. To attack such a place as this was a rash undertaking;
the Spaniards had perhaps a thousand soldiers, and the pirates numbered
but three hundred and eighty, but L'Olonnois did not hesitate. As usual,
he had no thought of bombardment, or any ordinary method of naval
warfare; but at the first convenient spot he landed all his men, and
having drawn them up in a body, he made them an address. He made them
understand clearly the difficult piece of work which was before them;
but he assured them that pirates were so much in the habit of conquering
Spaniards that if they would all promise to follow him and do their
best, he was certain he could take the town. He assured them that it
would be an ignoble thing to give up such a grand enterprise as this
simply because they found the enemy strong and so well prepared to meet
them, and ended by stating that if he saw a man flinch or hold back for
a second, he would pistol him with his own hand. Whereupon the pirates
all shook hands and promised they would follow L'Olonnois wherever he
might lead them.

This they truly did, and L'Olonnois, having a very imperfect knowledge
of the proper way to the town, led them into a wild bog, where this
precious pack of rascals soon found themselves up to their knees in mud
and water, and in spite of all the cursing and swearing which they did,
they were not able to press through the bog or get out of it. In this
plight they were discovered by a body of horsemen from the town, who
began firing upon them. The Spaniards must now have thought that their
game was almost bagged and that all they had to do was to stand on the
edge of the bog and shoot down the floundering fellows who could not get
away from them. But these fellows were bloody buccaneers, each one of
them a great deal harder to kill than a cat, and they did not propose to
stay in the bog to be shot down. With their cutlasses they hewed off
branches of trees and threw these down in the bog, making a sort of rude
roadway by means of which they were able to get out on solid ground. But
here they found themselves confronted by a large body of Spaniards,
entrenched behind earthworks. Cannon and musket were opened upon the
buccaneers, and the noise and smoke were so terrible they could scarcely
hear the commands of their leaders.

Never before, perhaps, had pirates been engaged in such a land battle as
this. Very soon the Spaniards charged from behind their earthworks, and
then L'Olonnois and his men were actually obliged to fly back. If he
could have found any way of retreating to his ships, L'Olonnois would
doubtless have done so, in spite of his doughty words, when he addressed
his men, but this was now impossible, for the Spaniards had felled trees
and had made a barricade between the pirates and their ships. The
buccaneers were now in a very tight place; their enemy was behind
defences and firing at them steadily, without showing any intention of
coming out to give the pirates a chance for what they considered a fair
fight. Every now and then a buccaneer would fall, and L'Olonnois saw
that as it would be utterly useless to endeavor to charge the barricade
he must resort to some sort of trickery or else give up the battle.

Suddenly he passed the word for every man to turn his back and run away
as fast as he could from the earthworks. Away scampered the pirates, and
from the valiant Spaniards there came a shout of victory. The soldiers
could not be restrained from following the fugitives and putting to
death every one of the cowardly rascals. Away went the buccaneers, and
after them, hot and furious, came the soldiers. But as soon as the
Spaniards were so far away from their entrenchments that they could not
get back to them, the crafty L'Olonnois, who ran with one eye turned
behind him, called a halt, his men turned, formed into battle array, and
began an onslaught upon their pursuing enemy, such as these military
persons had never dreamed of in their wildest imagination. We are told
that over two hundred Spaniards perished in a very short time. Before a
furious pirate with a cutlass a soldier with his musket seemed to have
no chance at all, and very soon the Spaniards who were left alive broke
and ran into the woods.

The buccaneers formed into a body and marched toward the town, which
surrendered without firing a gun, and L'Olonnois and his men, who, but
an hour before, had been in danger of being shot down by their enemy as
if they had been rabbits in a pen, now marched boldly into the centre of
the town, pulled down the Spanish flag, and hoisted their own in its
place. They were the masters of Gibraltar. Never had ambitious villany
been more successful.




Chapter XV

A Just Reward


When L'Olonnois and his buccaneers entered the town of Gibraltar they
found that the greater part of the inhabitants had fled, but there were
many people left, and these were made prisoners as fast as they were
discovered. They were all forced to go into the great church, and then
the pirates, fearing that the Spaniards outside of the town might be
reГ«nforced and come back again to attack them, carried a number of
cannon into the church and fortified the building. When this had been
done, they felt safe and began to act as if they had been a menagerie of
wild beasts let loose upon a body of defenceless men, women, and
children. Not only did these wretched men rush into the houses, stealing
everything valuable they could find and were able to carry away, but
when they had gathered together all they could discover they tortured
their poor prisoners by every cruel method they could think of, in order
to make them tell where more treasures were concealed. Many of these
unfortunates had had nothing to hide, and therefore could give no
information to their brutal inquisitors, and others died without telling
what they had done with their valuables. When the town had been
thoroughly searched and sifted, the pirates sent men out into the little
villages and plantations in the country, and even hunters and small
farmers were captured and made to give up everything they possessed
which was worth taking.