John S. C. Abbott
Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664574701
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. Origin of the Buccaneers.
CHAPTER II. William Kidd becomes a Pirate.
CHAPTER III. Piratic Adventures.
CHAPTER IV Arrest, Trial, and Condemnation of Kidd.
CHAPTER V. Kidd, and Stede Bonnet.
CHAPTER VI. The Adventures of Edward Teach, or Blackbeard.
CHAPTER VII. The Close of Stede Bonnet’s Career.
CHAPTER VIII. The Portuguese Barthelemy.
CHAPTER X. The Plunder; the Carousal; and the New Enterprise.
CHAPTER XI. The End of Lolonois’s Career.
CHAPTER XII. The Female Pirate, Mary Read.
CHAPTER XIII. Anne Bonny, the Female Pirate.
CHAPTER XV. The Capture of Puerto Velo, and its Results.
CHAPTER XVI. The Expedition to Maracaibo.
CHAPTER XVII. Adventures on the Shores of Lake Maracaibo.
CHAPTER XVIII. A New Expedition Planned.
CHAPTER XIX. Capture of St. Catherine and Chagres.
CHAPTER XX. The March from Chagres to Panama.
CHAPTER XXI. The Capture of Panama.
CHAPTER XXII. The Return from Panama.
CHAPTER XXIII. Montbar the Fanatic.
PREFACE.
There can scarcely anything be found in the literature of our language, more wild and wonderful, than the narrative contained in this volume. The extraordinary career of Captain Kidd, a New-York merchant, the demoniac feats of those fiends in human form, Bonnet, Barthelemy, and Lolonois; the romantic history of the innocent female pirate Mary Read, and of the termagant Anne Bonney; the amazing career of Sir Henry Morgan, and the fanaticism of Montbar, scarcely surpassed by that of Mohammed or Loyola, combine in creating a story, which the imagination of Dickens or Dumas could scarcely rival.
And yet these incidents seem to be well authenticated. The writer has drawn his facts from Esquemeling’s Zee Roovers, Amsterdam, 4to, 1684; Oexemelin’s Histoire des Aventuriers, 12mo, Paris, 1688; Johnson’s History of the Pirates, 2 vols., London, 1724; Thornbury’s Monarchs of the Main, 3 vols., London, 1855; History of the Buccaneers of America, 1 vol. 8vo, Boston, 1855; with many other pamphlets, encyclopædias, and secondary works.
In exploring this hitherto almost unknown field of research, the writer has been as much surprised at the awful scenes which have opened before him, as any of his readers can be. There are but few thinking men who will peruse this narrative, to whom the suggestion will not arise, “What a different world would this have been, and would it now be, were all its inhabitants conscientiously, prayerfully, with brotherly love striving to do right.” And this is the religion of Jesus. He has taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.”
John S. C. Abbott.
Fair Haven Conn
Captain Kidd.
CHAPTER I.
Origin of the Buccaneers.
Renown of Captain Kidd.—Wild Legends.—Demands of Spain.—Opposition of the Maritime Powers.—The Rise of the Buccaneers.—The Pirates’ Code.—Remonstrance of Spain.—Reply of France and England.—Confession of a Buccaneer.—Adventures of Peter the Great.
There are but few persons, in the United States, who have not heard the name of the renowned pirate, Captain Kidd. There are also but few to be found who have any intelligent conception of his wild and guilty career. The banks of the Hudson, the islands scattered through the Sound which skirts the southern New-England coast, and the wild rivers and craggy harbors which fringe the rugged shores of Maine, are all rich with legends of the exploits and hiding-places of this notorious buccaneer.
Thousands of fanatical people have employed themselves in digging among the rocks and sands, in search of treasure of gold and jewels supposed to have been buried, in iron-bound chests, by this chief of outlaws. It was well known that he had plundered many a rich Spanish galleon, laden with golden coin, bound to or from the colonies. Many a Spanish lady had been compelled to walk blindfolded the awful plank, until she was jostled into the sea, while her chests of golden ingots and diamonds fell into the hands of brutal assassins.
It was not always easy for the pirates to dispose of these treasures. They were sometimes pursued by men-of-war. Doubtless, as a measure of safety, they did at times bury their spoil, intending at a convenient hour to return and reclaim it. And it can hardly be questioned that, in some cases, pursued, harassed, cut up, they never did return. Therefore it may be that there is treasure still hidden in some secluded spot, which may remain, through all coming ages unless