The boys' book of buccaneers

by A. Hyatt Verrill

“Very true,” replied his father. “Many of the most remarkable deeds and adventures of the buccaneers and many of the most noted leaders have been practically forgotten. Fiction has kept alive such men as Morgan, while others, who were far more worthy of being perpetuated, are unknown to the world at large. As I said before, Sharp and his men outdid every other buccaneer and yet not one person in a thousand ever heard of them or the ‘most dangerous voyage.’ ”

“But it seems to me they were really pirates,” said Fred. “They knew the war was over and it was a low, mean trick to tell the Indians to kill the prisoners after the Spaniards had treated them so well.”

“Of course they were pirates,” agreed his uncle. “As I told you in the beginning, the buccaneers [[151]]were pirates—even though pirates were not always buccaneers—and the buccaneers freely admitted the fact. Indeed, Esquemeling, Ringrose and the other chroniclers always wrote of themselves and their fellows as pirates. And as far as letting the Indians butcher the captives was concerned, you must remember that Ringrose’s party were the ones who received the favors from the Dons and he was merely a pilot or navigator and had no say in regard to the orders given by the captains. Moreover, the ‘reasons he could not dive into’ were perhaps sufficient to warrant the leaders’ orders. But to return to the doings of the buccaneers after their defeat at Puebla Nueva. Sawkins was liked and respected by all the men; he was brave, courteous, fair and, for a buccaneer, very honorable, and when he was killed and Bartholomew Sharp was given command of the expedition many men refused to continue with the latter. They had joined the venture under Sawkins, they did not care to be under any one else and they disliked Sharp. Moreover, the new commander announced that it was his intention to fit the Blessed Trinity as a buccaneer ship, to cruise along the west coast of South America, ravishing the Spanish towns, and to return [[152]]to the Caribbean by sailing through the Straits of Magellan and completely circumnavigating South America. Even the hardy and daredevil buccaneers were amazed at this. It was a venture fraught with the greatest hazard, a voyage such as no buccaneer had ever undertaken, and there were those who openly expressed the opinion that Sharp must have gone mad to think of it.

“And there is little wonder that they thought him insane. Imagine a lone ship—and a half-burned, far from seaworthy galleon at that—going pirating in the Pacific where every town, every man, every ship was an enemy; where there was not a friendly harbor in which to lie; where Spanish warships were numerous; where there was no buccaneers’ lair in which to refit or provision and secure men, and where the buccaneers were completely cut off, separated by thousands of miles, from their own countrymen. And then, even if the ship and its crew survived, think of the thousands of perils to be faced at every turn in attempting to navigate the almost unknown Antarctic seas and to round South America and sail for thousands of miles across the Atlantic to the West Indies. It was a scheme so wild, so dangerous and so unheard of that nearly one-third of the [[153]]men refused to stand by Sharp, and nearly seventy men declared their intention of braving the perils and hardships of a return march through the jungles of Darien rather than attempt the voyage. Among these deserters was Dampier; Wafer, the surgeon; Jobson of the Greek Testament, and others. Ringrose himself freely admits in his ‘log’ that he was minded to accompany them and would have done so had he not been more afraid of the jungle and the Indians than of the proposed voyage. It is fortunate for us that he stuck to the ship, for otherwise we would have no record of that marvelous cruise.

“And the deserters had anything but an easy time of it, and often, ere they reached the Caribbean and their own ships, they heartily wished that they had remained with Captain Sharp.

“Bad as the crossing had been before, it was now a thousand times worse. It was the height of the rainy season; it poured incessantly day and night; the forest was little more than a vast morass and the rivers were swollen, raging torrents. The Indians refused to guide the men, owing partly to the weather conditions and partly as they were disgusted at having been cheated out of their revenge on the Dons and the joy of [[154]]butchering them, and the buccaneers were in a sad plight. In vain they offered beads, cloth, hatchets and similar articles of trade for guides. They were in despair until one of the men, evidently familiar with women’s ways, dug a sky-blue petticoat from among his loot and slipped it quickly over the head of the chief’s wife. His ruse worked like a charm. The wife added her arguments to those of the buccaneers, and the chief, throwing up his hands in despair, agreed to lead the buccaneers across the Isthmus. But even with their Indian guide their plight was pitiable. They plunged through deep swamps, fought their way through wicked, thorn-covered jungles, hacked and hewed a pathway through the forest, swam swollen rivers, were drenched with rain, infested with ticks, tortured by mosquitoes and almost starved. For days at a time they could not light a fire; they had no shelters; the clothes were torn from their bodies; their sodden shoes fell from their blistered, bleeding feet. Sometimes a whole day’s labor would result in less than two miles of progress and their best time was but five or six miles a day. For twenty-three days they endured every hardship and torture, traveling one hundred and ten miles and losing their way a hundred [[155]]times despite their Indian guide. On the morning of the eighth day they reached a river so wide and swift none dared to attempt it, and after a deal of argument it was decided to choose a man by lot to swim the torrent with a line. The lot fell upon one George Gayney. Unfortunately for him he was an avaricious fellow and insisted on carrying his share of loot—three hundred pieces of eight—in a bag lashed to his back. When midway across he was whirled about by the current, he became entangled in the rope and was carried under and drowned. But another took his place, the rope was gotten across and, half-drowned, the party reached the opposite bank. A few days later they found poor Gayney’s body with the bag of coins still lashed to his back, but so miserable and spent were the men that they did not even bother to secure the silver but left the corpse there upon the river’s bank, money and all. Another unfortunate was the surgeon, Wafer. By an accidental discharge of some powder he received a serious wound in the leg and, unable to walk, was left with some Indians to recover. While convalescing he used his skill for the Indians’ benefit, and the redmen, impressed by what they considered magic, treated him like a god. [[156]]To show their gratitude and esteem they stripped him of his ragged garments, painted him from head to foot with every color of the rainbow and enthroned him in a regal hut. But Wafer had no mind to pass his remaining days as an Indian witch doctor or medicine man. Watching his opportunity he stole away, and garbed only in his coat of paint, sneaked off through the forest towards the coast. Months later, after untold hardships, he came in sight of the sea, and, without thinking of his appearance, rushed toward a party of buccaneers who fortunately were at hand nearby. For an instant the buccaneers gaped in amazement, utterly at a loss to understand who the nude, gorgeously painted creature was, and not until he shouted to them in English did they realize that it was the long-lost surgeon, Wafer. Never had buccaneer appeared before in such guise; they roared with laughter, and many were the rude jests and coarse jokes passed at the doctor’s expense. But poor Jobson, the divinity student, was less fortunate. He too had been overcome and left behind, and while he eventually managed to rejoin his comrades he was too far spent to recover and a few days later he died, his Greek Testament still clasped in his hand. But [[157]]aside from Gayney and Jobson no lives were lost, and a few days after reaching the Caribbean shores the buccaneers were rescued by a French buccaneer, Captain Tristian, along with the loot they had carried throughout their awful journey, and Dampier’s ‘joyente of bamboo’ which the naturalist-buccaneer had preserved unharmed and within which was the closely written journal wherein he had daily set down every event of interest or note.

“Meanwhile, back at Coiba Island, Sharp and his companions were preparing for their momentous undertaking. Stripping the other vessels of all fittings and arms, Sharp scuttled and burned them and proceeded to equip the Blessed Trinity for a pirate ship. Her high and ornately gilded poop was in the way, and with axes and hatchets the buccaneers hacked and chopped away the galleries and moldings, knocked off a tier or two of cabins and, hastily boarding it up, mounted guns with their grim muzzles protruding from what once had been the stained glass windows. Ports were cut in bulwarks and topsides, the decks were stripped of all unnecessary gear, the rigging was overhauled, and the ship with the holy name was ready for her most unholy work. At Coiba they [[158]]laid in a supply of turtles, salted deer meat, and water, and on the afternoon of June 6, 1679, they sailed forth from Coiba Island on their marvelous voyage.

“It is not necessary to relate in detail all that took place thereafter. They cruised along the coast, captured all the ships they saw and either sunk them or, cutting away all but one mast, filled them with their prisoners and set them adrift to sink or sail as the fates decreed. Sharp at times showed intense cruelty, and whenever priests were taken he ordered them butchered out of hand and often tossed them overboard while still living. Ringrose says, ‘Such cruelties, though I abhorred very much in my heart, yet here was I forced to hold my tongue as having no authority to oversway them.’ And they captured many a town, too. Arica, Hilo, Coquimbo, La Serena, were attacked, sacked and burned; but the buccaneers often came near to destruction also. Only by luck did they escape, and at La Serena the Dons, under cover of darkness, swam to the Trinity on inflated hides, placed combustibles and explosives between the rudder and the stern post of the ship and fired them. Just in time the buccaneers discovered the source of the blaze and prevented [[159]]the loss of ship and all within her. Fearing their numerous prisoners would plot successfully against them, the buccaneers, after this, set all the Dons ashore and, finding it necessary to refit, sailed to Juan Fernandez island.

“It was now December, and the buccaneers spent a wild and riotous Christmas upon the isle, firing salutes, building bonfires, singing and shouting, drinking and carousing; frightening the seals and the birds with their wild cries, startling the goats with their ribald laughter; gambling and making merry, for which we can scarcely blame them, for it was the first holiday they had had since leaving Coiba, five months before.

“And here at Juan Fernandez dissensions among the men once more arose. Some were for going home at once; others wished to remain longer, while all declared they would sail no longer under Sharp for the reason—incredible as it may seem—that he had failed to observe the Sabbath! So here on Juan Fernandez the ungodly pirates deposed their commander because he was not sufficiently religious and in his stead elected a hoary old buccaneer named John Watling. Sharp, naturally resenting this, was quickly silenced by being cast, willynilly, into the hold, [[160]]where he had ample chance to think over his wicked past and moralize on the psychology of men who would slit a friar’s throat one moment and clamor for prayers and divine services the next.