We hear much of the bold, wild ways of these adventurers; we have been taught by history and tradition to consider them devoid of redeeming qualities, and few of us realize that the buccaneers were far from being true pirates, that they were not alike, that many were corsairs through force of circumstances rather than by choice, that they had their own laws and code of honor, and that they were a most important factor in shaping the [[vii]]destiny of the New World. To them, incredible as it may seem, we owe an immense debt of gratitude. Had it not been for them the British never would have retained their foothold in the Caribbean, and we, to-day, might be under Spanish rule. Many of them, too, were educated men and left us records which are of incalculable scientific or historic value; for example, Dampier, who was a keenly observant field naturalist and devoted far more of his time to penning descriptions of fauna and flora than to slitting Spanish throats;[1] and Esquemelling,[2] the erstwhile accountant, who [[viii]]left us a classic as a result of his years as a ship’s supercargo among the buccaneers.
Yearly, Americans by the thousands flock southward to tour or to stop for a time in the West Indies or about the shores of the Caribbean, but few of these are aware of the intimate associations with the buccaneers which all these places hold. Yet we may dwell in the very hostelry wherein pirate chieftains reveled and spent their ill-gotten gold; we stroll through little towns which have echoed to the ribald songs and lusty shouts of roistering pirate crews; we sail, in palatial steamships, above the long-forgotten hulks of burned and scuttled galleons, and we haggle with shopkeepers or native boatmen in whose veins may flow the blood of Morgan, Hawkins, or Montbars.
Bereft of the buccaneers, the Caribbean and its shores lose their greatest fascination, and as the most desirable localities are those intimately associated with the sea-rovers and their deeds or misdeeds, it seems fitting to travel about the Spanish Main and the West Indies in the wake of the buccaneers.
It is to point out the romantic associations of [[ix]]these waters and islands and make a visit to them more interesting, to weave a little of the lives and deeds of the buccaneers into the story of the locality, and to give brief sketches of the most noteworthy, while at the same time describing the places, their attractions, and their present condition, that this book has been prepared.
So much of a purely fictional nature has been related of these sea-rovers that many of the statements contained herein will come as a distinct surprise, for time and tales have woven a glamour and a deal of misconception about them. But even stripped of all romance, with their histories before us, the “Brethren of the Main” retain enough and to spare of adventure, deeds of daring, and picturesque villainy, and many of the true stories of these men are more thrilling, more astounding than any the imagination could invent.
When such stories are made more vivid by a setting of actual present-day scenes, or are read in the very places and in the same surroundings in which the buccaneers held forth, their interest is enhanced, while the whole neighborhood is given an added attraction.
The author, who has lived and traveled in the West Indies and about the shores of the Caribbean for nearly thirty years, knows every island and [[x]]town intimately. Being deeply interested in the history of the vicinity and particularly in the reckless freebooters who frequented it, he has written this narrative of a most novel cruise. A cruise taken in a real pirate ship manned by a native West Indian crew some of whom were lineal descendants of notorious buccaneers; and while not all the Caribbean islands or the lands and towns of the Spanish Main were visited, those places are included which are of particular interest from an historical point of view and their associations with the freebooters.
The volume is not intended as a guide-book, but rather as a colorful account of the places visited on this unusual cruise; a description of many little-known, out-of-the-way corners; with mention of their most interesting features, the customs of the people, a bit of their turbulent past and their somnolent present, and their existing relics of buccaneer days. [[xi]]
[1] Dampier was the son of a Somerset farmer, but at seventeen years of age was apprenticed to a sea captain sailing from Weymouth. Deserting in the West Indies, he took to the occupation of a logwood cutter for a time, and later joined the buccaneers. He wrote several books, working at his manuscripts between battles, and keeping his notes in a joint of bamboo which, to use his own words, he “kept stopt at the ends with wax to keep out water. In this I preserved my Journal and other Writings tho’ I was often forced to swim.” His descriptions of fauna and flora, his maps, and his detailed accounts of the Indians and their customs and languages are of great scientific value, though his conclusions are often erroneous. [↑]