BOLD BUCCANEERS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 9

BOLD BUCCANEERS

HOW THEY RUINED SPAIN

INFLUENCE OF PIRATES ON COLONIAL HISTORY

A dnviev in compiling a history of the buccaneers and the pirates isythat the subject is too alluring, and the average writer is liable at any moment to drift off into sheer romance. Captain James Burney, whose "History of the Buccaneers of America" was published in 1816, avoided the dancer, and his matter-of-fact record remains a standard work. Mr. John Masefield's record of the Spanish Main k well enough in its way. bjit Masefield. while pretending to discount the false glamour cast over the buccaneers, has proved inconsistent.; indeed, he ie more successful as romancer than a3 historion, and in his yams,

'•Captain aiargaret" and "Lost Endeavour," aud a series of short stories, has produced some of the finest work of the class since Stevenson. Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill has now compiled, after research of records and log; bookE, a history of exceptional interest, says the Melbourne "Arc." It runs Bumey's work closely; and this history is "The ideal Story of the Pirate.'' Mr. Verrill, if fascinated by romance, has kept faith with history. More, he has estimated the crippling effects of the ravages of the buccaneers on the paval power of ■Spain. He argues that the buccaneers broke this Dower, and changed the course- of colonial history. Had it not been for these picturesque sea rovers and the tine class of seamen they produced. England, he says, would scarcely have won and retained a hold on the New World, and America- might even now be under Spanish rule.

The book is of most value from its estimate oi' the effect of buccaneering on the Spanish rule of the seas. Mr. Verrill miuiit have carried his case further, and pointed out aX one result tho fact that Australia is a British, and not ;i Spanish, dominion. Even though, with the riches of Mexico and Peru at hand, this continent offeree! no allurement at the time of the Spanish supremacy, continuance of the supremacy would probably have meant the final absorption of .Australia in the Spanish empire. To Australians the work is disappointing in it? scant reference to tho voyage of the Cysnet—to Dampier's visit. Burnoy's treatment of the subject is more comprehensive. But the main story of the buccaneers is told -with a detail and a liveliness that render the book absorbing. All the notorious and iniquitous leader? of the buccaneers play their due part—l'Olla.nais and Sir Henry Morgan supremely, and the whole ship load of pirates—Capiain Kid.d, Blackboard, down to Lafitte. and the degenerate specimens of the early nineteenth century.

The buccaneers were not the true pirates: the pirates were their descendants. The buccaneers came into being through the overbearing; policy of Spain. The Spaniards acquired in the sixteenth century vast, territories jn the West Indies and .South and Central America. They pussed decrees declaring pirates and. outlaws all foreigners trading in Spanish waters. In 1629 a Spanish force attacked the settlers on the island of St. Christopher, and the French settlers set out for Hispaniolu, as a refuge. Finding- the country teeming with came and stock, they sent back word to their compatriots, who followed' in great numbers. To ensure supplies of food the .newcomers slaughtered the wild cattle and dried the meat over fires. The dried meat was known as "bucan" ; the Frenchmen, as a result, were called "Buccaneers." With the backing of France the buccaneers attacked and captured Spanish ships. A Spanish expedition descended on them, they slipped away.to Tortuga. To- Tortuga flocked the adventurers from the world over—slaves sold for debt in the British Isles., ne'er do wells from Eng.land and the Continent,, deserters, all manner of rogues. They were welded into a brotherhood—k.nown as the Brethren of the Main—through hate of Spain, and Just of gold. They ravished' land and sea for years. They were bound by rules and regulations. The articles under which they sailed pledged them to turn everything into the common fund, and they signed a common oath — often in blood—to conceal nothing. ■ Great captains arose amonc them The first notable was Francis l'OUanais a Frenchman, who had been sold as a slave in the Antilles, but had made his way to lortuga. His leadership was won by his dauntless and ruthless nature. In the sisteen-sixties he grew famous for his capture of Maracaibo and the immense foot taken, and iniquitous for his torture of captives. His fortunes wavered soon; he was defeated; he was shipwrecked, and he fell into the hands of the Kuna Indians, of Darien, who tore him to pieces alive, tossed him limb by limb into the fire, aud his ashes into the air so that no trace might remain of so infamous and inhuman a creature In the meantime. Henry Morgan rose to lortune. Morgan, a native of Wales ran away to sea as a boy and ■ shipped at Bristol for Barbadoes, where the captain sold aim to slavery. He escaped to Jamaica,- joinod the buccaneers, raided Campeche. aud returned with prizes.i Of course. Mr. VerrilJ giv es the palm to Morgan as Worst and greatest of the buccaneers He devotes pages to hia oxploito—his attack on Porto Bello and fcan Lorenzo, massacres, tortures of captives, defeats of Spanish ships, leadership of armies of buccaneers." the march across the Isthmus and the sack of lanania-, and Morgan's reward by Engiand m knighthood and appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica where he employed against the buccaneers the very methods he had learnt among them Kafael Sabatini employs Morgan's fortunes as th e basis o f his romance, Capin Wood Captain Kidd (1695 to 1(01) is described as a rank amateur He was placed on trial at Old Bailey in 1701, and was hanged. Mr. Ve.mll "discourtesthe legend of his hidden treasure By 1702 the buccaneers ' had degenerated into mere cut-throats. They had adopted the black flag with the'skull and cross-bones. Prominent among them was Edward Teach—Blackboard—the ideal pirate of fiction. He dressed the part, liis lone black hair was woven into pwtails. His black beard grew to his waif. He had yellow ianss, looseJippea mouth., and red-rimmed eyos He wore long-skirted coats of bright velvet or silk, aaudv'knee breeches, silk stockings and low shoes. He sported a perfect armory of .weapons. He died as a convemonal pnate should; in fact it is said that his head was nearly cut off, but that he held it on with one hand, while he plied his svrord with the other till-quite naturally—lie fell down and died.