Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers

by John S. C. Abbott

Every day he sent his boats ashore for food. The fruit of the region was soon all consumed, and they fed on the flesh of parrots and monkeys. Slowly working their way along the coast by the night breeze, they found the days generally calm. Casting anchor in the morning, they sought provisions in fishing and hunting. At length they rounded the extreme eastern point of Honduras, at Cape Gracios à Dios. Just beyond, a group of islands called the Pearl Islands, hove in sight.

The indomitable Lolonois was still determined to ravage a portion of the rich province of Nicaragua. It was his plan to anchor his vessels at the mouth of the river St. John, by which the great inland sea called Lake Nicaragua empties its waters into the ocean, and then to ascend the majestic stream in his armed boats. While sailing among the islands in an almost unknown sea, he ran his ship upon a sandbank. All his efforts to float the ship again were in vain. With infinite labor he took out the heavy guns and the iron; but the ship had sunk too deep in the sand to be moved.

Finding his ship thus hopelessly wrecked, he decided to break her to pieces, and with her planks and nails to construct a large and strong boat with which he could ascend the river. The crew all landed upon an island, built themselves huts in the Indian fashion, and, with a reckless disregard of misfortune, commenced building their boat. Expecting that it might be necessary to spend some time there, they dug gardens and planted peas and other vegetables.

The island upon which they were was large, and was inhabited by a very fierce tribe of Indians. But their clubs and lances armed with crocodiles’ teeth were but impotent weapons, when met by the muskets, the pistols, and the sabres of the pirates. The Indians had doubtless heard of the atrocities committed by these rovers over seas and land, for they fled precipitally at their approach, and taking to their canoes, actually abandoned the island.

The vegetables which the pirates sowed grew rapidly. It was six months before their large boat, or rather small vessel, was completed. In the mean time they raised quite large crops of beans, wheat, potatoes, and bananas. It is strange that this experience did not teach them that they could much more easily and happily gain a living by honest than by dishonest means. But still they clung to the misery of piracy, with its crime, its cruelty, and its wild revelry.

When the vessel was finished, Lolonois took one-half of his company, or about one hundred men, in this vessel and a ship which remained to him, and sailed for the mouth of St. John’s River. The other half were left behind. As nothing was said about the other smaller vessels of the fleet, it is probable that they all had been lost in the various casualties of their voyage, or had escaped with Vauclin. It was known that the Indians on the river had very large boats, formed by hollowing out the trunk of a gigantic tree. These boats, ingeniously made, and the result of almost incredible labor, would accommodate forty or fifty warriors. It was Lolonois’s intention to rob the Indians of some of their boats, send them back to the island for the pirates who were left behind, and then, with his whole party, to ascend the river in an invincible fleet.

Lolonois set sail, and in a short time reached the mouth of the St. John’s River. But the Indians, who had fled from the island, had spread the news, all along the coast, of the arrival of the terrible pirates. Spaniards and Indians were thus influenced to combine to meet them wherever they might land. Their progress in building their vessel had been carefully watched by spies, who effectually concealed themselves from sight.

As Lolonois and his party entered the river they expected to take the inhabitants by surprise, and had not the slightest idea of being surprised themselves. But their vessel had been watched as it approached. There was a pleasant sheltered cove surrounded by the luxuriant and magnificent growth of the tropics. It could not be doubted that this spot would be selected for their landing-place. Nature had decked it with the charms of Eden. Here a well-armed band of Spaniards and Indians posted themselves in ambuscade. Palm-trees and cocoanut-trees rose gracefully around them. Golden oranges and lemons hung profusely from orchards which God had planted and cultivated. Birds of every variety of brilliant plumage flitted from bough to bough. All the sights and sounds of nature seemed to say that God had made this for a happy world; that his children might live here in fraternal love, surrounded by abundance.

The pirates cast anchor in the lovely cove, where the glittering sand could be seen fathoms deep, beneath the water of crystal clearness. They had several small boats. All were impatient to reach the land. Scarcely had their boats touched the beach, and the men were clustered together in landing, when the Eden-like scene of peace and loveliness, was changed into an earth-like scene of noise and tumult and smoke and groans and blood.

There was a sudden discharge of musketry from the surrounding thickets within half gun-shot. The Spaniards had armed the Indians and taught them to take unerring aim. Both Spaniards and savages united in the most hideous yells to appal the pirates with an idea of their superior numbers. Rapidly the unseen foe continued the discharge of the murderous bullets. Scarcely a minute elapsed ere many were dead, weltering in their blood. Others were severely wounded. And still the pitiless storm of leaden hail swept through the group, crashing bones and tearing nerves, and still the yells of the invisible assailants resounded through the forest. There was not a breath of air. The sulphurous smoke settled down, half concealing the awful spectacle of blood and death.