Money of the buccaneers’ times

Cruising about in small boats and attacking every Spanish ship they saw

“But he soon realized that whatever they were his ship was in their hands and that he and his men were prisoners. Le Grand, however, was neither a brutal nor a bloodthirsty wretch, as were many of his successors, and, having impressed as many of the Spanish seamen into his service as he required, he set the others, including the Admiral and the officers, ashore, and set sail with his prize for France. So great was the booty he secured by this one coup that he gave up buccaneering and settled down in France for life.

“But his deed fired the buccaneers on Tortuga with dreams of easily acquired prizes and riches, and soon a host of the rough hunters and woodsmen were cruising about in small boats and attacking every Spanish ship they saw. Indeed, many, unable to secure sailboats, actually went a-pirating in tiny dugout canoes, and so daring and reckless were they that, despite their handicaps, they took two huge galleons laden with plate within the first month, as well as many smaller vessels. Now that they had seaworthy ships and plenty of wealth at their disposal they became [[18]]bolder and bolder, and were soon not only cruising the Caribbean Sea, and taking ships, but were attacking the fortified and wealthy towns along the Central and South American coast with success. And let me mention here that it was very seldom that the buccaneers made use of the larger ships in their piratical raids. The smaller vessels were faster, they were more easily handled, and when necessity arose they could slip through narrow, shoal channels through which the Spanish men-of-war could not follow. The buccaneers’ vessels seldom carried over six guns, many had but two or three, but they swarmed with men armed to the teeth, and the buccaneers depended far more upon a dashing attack and hand-to-hand fights than upon cannon fire.”

“Excuse me, Dad,” interrupted Jack, “but are there books that tell all these things?”

“Yes, Jack,” replied Mr. Bickford. “And the best and most complete is a book called ‘The Buccaneers of America.’ It was written by a buccaneer, a man named Esquemeling, who took part in nearly all the most famous of the buccaneers’ raids and served with Morgan, L’Ollonois and many other buccaneer chiefs. His own history is almost as interesting as that of any of the men of whom [[19]]he wrote. He was a Hollander by birth, but went to Tortuga as a clerk for the West India Company of France. The company, however, found that although the buccaneers were quite willing to purchase goods it was quite another matter when it came to paying for them, and as a result, the West India Company abandoned their agency in Tortuga and gave orders that all their goods and chattels on the island should be sold for what they would bring. This included servants of the company as well, and Esquemeling found himself sold for a slave for thirty pieces of eight. His master was a cruel, tyrannical man and abused his Dutch slave shamefully, although offering to let him buy his freedom for three hundred pieces of eight. Esquemeling, however, as he says himself, ‘was not master of one in the whole world.’ Finally Esquemeling became weak and ill from abuse and inadequate food, and his cruel master, fearing the man would die and he would be out of pocket and without a slave as well, disposed of the sick Hollander for seventy pieces of eight. His new master was a surgeon and a kindly man and, having doctored Esquemeling and restored him to health and strength, at the end of a year he gave him his liberty, exacting only the promise [[20]]that Esquemeling should pay him one hundred pieces of eight when in a position to do so. Being, as he himself says, ‘at liberty but like unto Adam when he was first created, that is, naked and destitute of all human necessities,’ and with no means of earning a livelihood, Esquemeling threw in his lot with the buccaneers and he remained with them for a number of years. Being by profession a clerk, Esquemeling kept the logs and accounts of the buccaneers and also a journal of his own in which he recorded all the details and events of his adventurous life. His work is, in fact, the only authentic account of these men, and his quaint phraseology and droll remarks are very amusing. I have the book here, boys, and you’ll find it more interesting and absorbing than any story or fiction of the buccaneers that ever was written.

“The first buccaneer of note with whom Esquemeling sailed was Bartholomew Portugues, so called as he was a native of Portugal. Portugues left Jamaica in a small ship of four small carronades with a crew of thirty men, and went cruising off Cuba. A few days later he met a heavily armed galleon bound to Havana from Cartagena and at once attacked her. Although [[21]]the Spaniard carried a crew of over seventy, in addition to passengers, and was armed with twenty heavy cannon, yet Portugues assaulted the Dons without hesitation and after a desperate battle in which nearly fifty Spaniards were killed and wounded, the buccaneers took the galleon with a loss of only ten men killed and four wounded. Owing to contrary winds Portugues could not return directly to either Tortuga or Jamaica and so set sail for Cape San Antonio at the western extremity of Cuba. There he made necessary repairs to his prize and secured a supply of fresh water. As they were setting sail the buccaneers were surprised by three great Spanish ships and, greatly outnumbered, were taken prisoners and stripped of the booty they had so recently secured, a treasure of over ten thousand pieces of eight, in addition to valuable merchandise. We can imagine the chagrin of the buccaneers at this turn of fate and no doubt they gave themselves up for lost. But luck was with them. Two days after they had been made prisoners a great storm arose, the vessels became separated and the one containing the buccaneers was driven to Campeche in Yucatan. When the residents learned that Portugues and his fellows [[22]]were captives on board there was great rejoicing, and the authorities sent off to the ship demanding that the buccaneers be delivered to them. After a consultation, however, it was decided safer to leave the prisoners aboard and in preparation for a general hanging a number of gibbets were erected on shore. These were in plain view of the buccaneers, and Portugues resolved to make a desperate effort to escape and to cheat the expectant Dons of the grewsome spectacle. He managed to secure two earthen wine jars and, having plugged their necks with the idea of using them as floats, he waited patiently for darkness. But the sentry, who hitherto had been a careless, sleepy fellow, was unusually alert, and seeing this, Portugues seized a knife which he had surreptitiously obtained and, to quote Esquemeling, ‘gave him such a mortal stab as suddenly deprived him of life and the possibility of making any noise.’ Then the buccaneer captain leaped into the sea and aided by his extemporized water-wings managed to gain the shore. But his troubles had only begun. At once the hue and cry of his escape was raised, and for three days Portugues concealed himself in a hollow tree without food while the Dons searched all about. At last, abandoning [[23]]their hunt, the Spaniards returned to the town, and Portugues set out afoot for the Gulf of Triste, where he hoped to find other buccaneers to aid him in rescuing his comrades.

“It is almost impossible to imagine what this meant or the seemingly insurmountable hardships the buccaneer captain deliberately faced, and it is also a most striking example of the faithfulness of the buccaneers to one another, which was one of the chief causes why they were so successful. Remember, Portugues was unarmed, for he had left the knife in the sentry’s back, he was without food, he had been half starved by his captors, and yet he calmly set out on a one hundred and fifty mile tramp through the jungle and along the jagged rocks of the seacoast; through a country infested by mosquitoes and stinging insects, by savage hostile Indians, and through swamps reeking with malaria. Every settlement and town had to be avoided, as they were all filled with his enemies, the Spaniards, and throughout that long and terrible journey the buccaneer subsisted entirely upon the few shellfish he found along the shore and upon the roots of forest herbs.