Surely, when a fellow pirate and one of his own companions penned such an indictment, we may safely consider Lolonais the most outrageous rascal who ever scourged the Spanish Main.
It was owing partly to the inhuman methods of the French buccaneers, such as Lolonais, partly to jealousies and the fact that the French were favored, partly to natural distrust and dislike for one another, and partly to more or less loyalty to their own governments, that the British pirates and the French freebooters of Tortuga began to quarrel. At first it was merely a matter of brawls among the men, but gradually the breach widened; armed parties of French and British clashed, riots took place, and at last open antagonism broke out and the French, outnumbering the English, in 1641 drove their erstwhile allies from the island. Scattering about the Caribbean, the English freebooters established themselves here and there among the Virgin Islands, on the Bay Islands, in Samana Bay, and elsewhere, until in 1654, when Penn and [[242]]Venables sought to take Jamaica from Spain, they rallied under the British ensign and joined the navy of their king.
It was largely owing to the part the English buccaneers took in this concerted attack on Jamaica, in which they won the admiration of the British admirals and officers for their courage and resourcefulness, that Jamaica became a colony of the English crown. The acquisition of this island by the British provided the English buccaneers with a base for their operations and a safe refuge, and for many years Jamaica—or, rather Port Royal, its chief port—became the most notorious resort of the pirates. [[243]]
[1] Curiously enough, the term “buccaneer,” from the French boucanier, was later adopted by the English freebooters and was applied exclusively to them, whereas the French corsairs took to themselves the English term “freebooters” and pronouncing it to the best of their ability called themselves fribustiers or flibustiers, which eventually became filibustiers.
According to some authorities, notably Van Esveldt in his work on the buccaneers published in 1756, the word “Filibuster” was originally derived from the Spanish “Flibotero,” meaning one who uses a small boat. The British corsairs altered this to “Flybusters” or “Freebooters”; the French used the form “Flibustiers” and the Dutch “Vlieboters.” [↑]
CHAPTER XIV
THE GRANDDADDY OF THE DOLLAR
Having seen all that was to be seen at Tortuga, even clambering up the rocky heights to the ruins of that first ancient buccaneers’ fort overlooking the harbor, we boarded the Vigilant and bore westward for Jamaica.