The boys' book of buccaneers

by A. Hyatt Verrill

“Please, Dad,” cried Jack. “Do tell us what a piece of eight is before you go on. We read about them and about doubloons and onzas, but no one seems to know what they are.”

“That’s a question well put,” replied Mr. Bickford. “A piece of eight was a silver coin of eight reals. As a real was nominally twelve and one-half cents, or half a peseta of twenty-five centavos, the piece of eight was nominally a dollar of one hundred centavos. The doubloon was one hundred reals, or about ten dollars, and was a gold coin, while the onza, or double doubloon, was two hundred reals, or about twenty dollars, and was also of gold. But as the peseta is really worth only twenty cents in present values the piece of eight is worth eighty cents, and if you go to any money exchange you can buy Spanish silver ‘dollars,’ as they are called, for eighty cents, which are genuine ‘pieces of eight.’ For smaller [[10]]coins, the old Dons and buccaneers used what were called ‘cross money.’ These were irregular-shaped slugs cut from the pieces of eight and with the lettering hammered out, leaving only the cross-shaped center of the Spanish shield to prove the coin was minted silver of a definite value. Sometimes, if the piece did not bear this cross, the priests stamped a cross upon it to prove its genuineness—a sort of hall mark so to speak. These odd cross money coins are still in use in remote parts of Panama and, although no two are exactly alike in size or shape, the natives recognize them as quarters, eighths or sixteenths of a piece of eight, or in other words, as half reals, one-real and two-real pieces. And speaking of these old coins, did you ever know that the piece of eight was the grandfather of our own dollar, and was the forerunner of the metric system, and that our symbol for the dollar came from the sign used to designate the piece of eight?”

“No, indeed,” declared Fred. “Do tell us about that.”

“In the old days,” smiled Mr. Bickford, as he continued, “nearly all countries used the piece of eight as the standard of exchange and barter. It [[11]]was used in the American colonies, but after the United States were formed it was decided to mint a standard coin for the new republic. As the piece of eight was the recognized standard, the new coin was made of the same weight and value to avoid trouble and confusion in trade and commerce. All the accounts had been kept in pieces of eight, the symbol for which was a figure eight with a line through it like this,

, and which may have originally been a figure eight with a line through it or, as some claim, a conventional Pillar of Hercules such as appeared on the pieces of eight, and so the accountants and clerks found it easier to use the same symbol with the addition of another line to designate dollars than to evolve a new symbol. So you see our dollar sign is really a modification of the old sign for the piece of eight.”

“Gosh! I’ll be more interested in dollar signs now,” declared Jack, “and every time I see one I’ll remember what a piece of eight was.”

“As I was saying,” went on his father, “the agreements and papers were drawn up, a captain was chosen, the buccaneers made forays into the Spanish territory and stole what cattle and hogs [[12]]and other supplies they required, and the ships set forth to capture Spanish prizes and raid the towns on the Spanish Main.

“The crews were rough, reckless, daredevils of every race; soldiers of fortune who had drifted to Tortuga and joined the Brethren, and as they had everything to gain and nothing to lose they exhibited bravery, took risks and performed deeds which have never been equaled. But they were not real pirates by any means—except in the eyes of the Spaniards. They never molested French or British ships, they were openly welcomed and aided in the French or British islands, and even when peace was declared and the buccaneers still continued to prey upon the Dons, the authorities winked at them and gave them refuge. But in time dissensions arose between the English, the Dutch and the French buccaneers at Tortuga, and the various nationalities separated and each took separate spots for their strongholds. The Virgin Islands were favorite lairs, for the Danish and Dutch owners were safe from their attacks by sheltering the freebooters, who spent money as recklessly as they won it, and the buccaneers had stringent rules, and the death penalty was inflicted upon any man who molested the persons or properties [[13]]of the friendly islanders. The British buccaneers made Port Royal, Jamaica, their stronghold, and that town became famed as the richest and wickedest city in the world. Another lair was a little island in Samaná Bay in Santo Domingo, and the Cayman Islands south of Cuba, the Bay Islands off Honduras and several islands off the Coast of Venezuela also became nests for the freebooters.

“At first, of course, all the buccaneers were equal. There were none who knew more of buccaneering than the others, all pooled their resources and the captains were elected by vote or won their place through owning a ship or having captured one. But gradually certain men won fame and prestige for their cruelty, their daring or their success, and rapidly rose to recognized leadership and became famous as buccaneer chiefs. [[14]]