INTERNAL DISSENSIONS.
The cutthroats are now master of all before them, but nature still interposed her forces to the best of her ability. On the following day, it is true, they arrived at another intrenchment, but the terror they had inspired was so great that they passed it unmolested, and on the 17th reached the banks of the longed-for river which was to carry them to the sea.[XXX‑65] The current was swift, and for leagues the waters rushed down rapids or plunged in cataracts over opposing rocks, eddying and seething in their course. Yet the freebooters hailed it with delight, and with wild enthusiasm constructed for themselves small rafts each capable of carrying two men.[XXX‑66] Trusting to these they launched themselves, many of them to their death. Besides paddles they were provided with long poles to aid them in avoiding the rocks. It was a fearful passage; the boldest trembled, and his brain grew giddy as he was swept past an overhanging precipice or whirled about in the surging flood. Most of the rafts were so overweighted that the men stood up to the waist in water. Among those who had escaped with their lives were many who had lost all their gains acquired by years of hardship and of crime.[XXX‑67] Numerous portages and the building of new rafts long delayed them, and it was not until the 20th of February that they arrived at the broader and less impetuous part of the river. In the mean time, in spite of peril and suffering, the evil passions of human nature were not dormant. As there were no Spaniards present to kill they killed each other as occasion offered.[XXX‑68]
When the river became navigable for boats the freebooters built canoes, and on the 1st of March one hundred and twenty of them,[XXX‑69] in four boats, started down the river, and arrived at the mouth the 9th of March. On the 14th an English vessel arrived from the isles of Pearls,[XXX‑70] on board of which about fifty of them, among whom was Lussan, embarked. This band of the survivors eventually reached French settlements in the West Indies. Of the subsequent fate of those left behind little is known;[XXX‑71] but the gratitude of the devout ruffians whom Lussan accompanied for their deliverance is thus chronicled: "When we were got all ashoar to a People that spoke French, we could not forbear shedding Tears of Joy, that after we had run so many Hazards, Dangers, and Perils, it had pleased the Almighty Maker of the Earth and Seas, to grant a Deliverance, and bring us back to those of our own Nation."[XXX‑72]
BUCCANEER BIBLIOGRAPHY.
A peculiar feature in the history, particularly of Spanish America, is presented by the buccaneers, a New World revival of the vikings, whose adventures were the absorbing theme of the old Norsemen, as preserved in the sagas, and a counterpart of their successors, the corsairs, who maintained equal sway in sunnier climes, spreading terror over entire kingdoms and exacting tribute to support a regal state of their own. The European hordes who under the name of conquerors were ever alert for plunder under the pretence of extending the domain of their divine and royal masters scattered freely the seeds from which sprang the freebooters, to whom the rivalry between Saxon and Latin races gave a desired opportunity to prey upon cities and commerce. Next to the early-discovery voyages none are so absorbing as the expeditions of these wild fellows, culled from all nationalities, and their narratives include not only daring raids, bloody feuds, and hair-breadth escapes by sea and land, but cover the usual topics of exploring voyages. Indeed, their transgressions against society, while covered in most cases by the mask of patriotism and of just war, or retaliation, were frequently condoned by discoveries for the benefit of trade and science, by the extension of geographic knowledge, of natural history, ethnology, and other branches.
The first special account of the buccaneers appears to be the Zee Roover, by Klaes Compaen; Amsterdam, 1663; but the great original for the many subsequent works on them is the book written by A. O. Exquemelin, corrupted by the English into Esquemeling, and by the French into Oexmelin. An employé of the French West India Company, he had in 1666 gone out to the Tortuga Island, but trade failing here, the company sold its effects and transferred its servants. Exquemelin fell into the hands of the lieutenant-governor, under whom he suffered great hardship till a new and kinder master left him at liberty. Finding nothing better to do, he joined the filibusters and sailed with them till 1672, sharing in many notable exploits. He then returned home to Holland, and employed his leisure in writing a history of buccaneer expeditions in the Antilles and adjoining regions, including his own adventures. This was issued as De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Behelsende een Partinent Verhael van alle de Roverye en Onmenselÿcke Vreetheeden die de Engelsche en France Roovers Tegens de Spanÿaerden in America Gepleeght Hebben; t'Amsterdam bÿ Jan Ten Hoorn, 1678, sm. 4o, 186 pp. Few books have been so extensively used, wholly or in part, or as a foundation for romances and dramas; but the ones used have generally been of the numerous foreign editions, particularly the Spanish, published with more or less variation, and often without credit to the author. The original is exceedingly rare, one copy only besides my own being known to Müller. It is a black-letter specimen, on coarse paper, illustrated with curious maps and plates, depicting battle scenes, burning towns, and portraits of leading captains, as Morgan and L'Olonnois. The title-page is bordered by eight scenes of freebooters' warfare and cruelty. Beginning with his voyage to the West Indies, Exquemelin proceeds to depict the geography and political and social condition of the islands, including the rovers' retreat, and then relates their doings in general. In a second and third part he gives special sketches of the different leaders and their expeditions; and in an appendix are found some valuable statistics for the Spanish possessions on wealth, revenue, and officials. The information is not only varied, but has been found most reliable. The English edition was first published in London by Th. Newborough in 1699, under the title of The History of the Buccaneers of America. The second and third editions of this translation appeared in 1704.
Several of the buccaneers have become known to readers in special treatises by their own hand, or by biographers, as Raveneau de Lussan, Journal d'un Voyage, Paris, 1689; Dampier's New Voyage, London, 1697, and others, which have also proved rich sources for compilers. To the edition of Exquemelin, issued in 1700, Ten Hoorn added two parts, one being an account of English buccaneer voyages under Sharp, Sawkins, and others, written by Basil Ringrose, who had also been a member of the fraternity, and had kept a journal from which the first edition was prepared and issued in 1684. The second part gives Lussan's Journal, followed by the Relation de Montauban, captain of freebooters, on the coast of Guinea in 1695.
Ringrose's account furnishes some particulars not found in other buccaneer narrators of the same expeditions. Though he disapproved of Sharp as a leader, his statements may be considered truthful as well as fuller than those of the other writers, all of whom corroborate Ringrose in the main points. His narrative is also published in the above mentioned work, The History of the Buccaneers of America, under the title of The Dangerous Voyage and Bold Attempts of Capt. Bartholomew Sharp and others in the South Sea. It contains numerous rude cuts of islands, points, capes, etc., on the western coast of America. Ringrose was killed with all his company near a small town 21 leagues from Compostela, in Jalisco, owing to the insubordination of his men. Dampier, Voy., i. 271-2, says: 'We had about 50 Men killed, and among the rest my Ingenious Friend Mr Ringrose was one.... He was at this time Cape-Merchant, or Super-Cargo of Capt. Swan's Ship. He had no mind to this Voyage, but was necessitated to engage in it or starve.' The most important other authorities for the history of this enterprise are Capt. Sharp's Journal of his Expedition, Written by Himself, published by William Hacke in A Collection of Original Voyages (London, 1699). Sharp omits all mention of the defection of the men whom Dampier accompanied across the Isthmus.
The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp. London, 1684. The author is anonymous, and was a strong partisan of Sharp, omitting much told against him in other accounts and frequently bestowing upon him fulsome praise. Many pages of the narrative are taken up by mere log-book entries of the ship's sailing and contain no other information. Dampier, A New Voyage round the World. London, 1697-1709, 3 vols. This writer touches in his introduction very briefly upon Sharp's expedition 'because the World has accounts of it already in the relations that Mr Ringrose and others have given' of it; but his account of his return across the Isthmus is interesting and minutely described. Wafer, A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, Giving an Account of the Author's Abode there. London, 1699, also only cursorily alludes to Sharp's voyage, but supplies a valuable description of the Isthmus at that time. Wafer, who accompanied Dampier on his return, had been compelled to stay behind on account of a severe wound caused by an explosion of gunpowder, and remained several months with the Indians on the Isthmus. His treatise is principally confined to a description of the physical features of the country, its flora and fauna, and the occupations and customs of the inhabitants. It contains several copper-plates in illustration of these latter, as well as a map of the Isthmus and charts of coast-lines.
A Collection of Original Voyages, by Captain Wm. Hacke, London, 1699, 12o, with some rude cuts and map, contains among other narratives Cowley's Voyage round the Globe, touching Central America, written by himself. As a sequel to these publications may be named Johnson's General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates; London, 1724, which was added as a fourth volume to the French Exquemelin collection of 1744 and later editions. Similar combinations, more or less complete and changed, exist in different languages, from the early Bucaniers of America, London, 1684, to the History of the Buccaniers of America, Boston, 1853, and later editions. The first thorough book on the subject, however, and one which enters into the causes of the filibuster movement, carrying on the narrative till its suppression in the beginning of the eighteenth century, is Admiral Burney's History of the Buccaneers, London, 1816, a special issue of a part of his Chronological History of Discovery.