E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, David Yingling, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 17188-h.htm or 17188-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/1/8/17188/17188-h/17188-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/1/8/17188/17188-h.zip) BUCCANEERS AND PIRATES OF OUR COASTS by FRANK R. STOCKTON Illustrated [Illustration: "The pirates climbed up the sides of the man-of-war as if they had been twenty-nine cats."--Frontispiece.] [Illustration] Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers New York by arrangement with The Macmillan Company Copyright, 1897-1898, By the Century Co. Copyright, 1898, 1926, By the MacMillan Company. All rights reserved--no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper. Set up and electrotyped July, 1898. Reprinted November, 1898; September, 1905; May, 1906; April, October, 1908; October, 1910; March, 1913; September, 1914; January, 1915; October, 1917. Printed in the United States of America FOREWORD Tempting boys to be what they should be--giving them in wholesome form what they want--that is the purpose and power of Scouting. To help parents and leaders of youth secure _books boys like best_ that are also best for boys, the Boy Scouts of America organized EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY. The books included, formerly sold at prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.00 but, by special arrangement with the several publishers interested, are now sold in the EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY Edition at $1.00 per volume. The books of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY were selected by the Library Commission of the Boy Scouts of America, consisting of George F. Bowerman, Librarian, Public Library of the District of Columbia; Harrison W. Craver, Director, Engineering Societies Library, New York City; Claude G. Leland, Superintendent, Bureau of Libraries, Board of Education, New York City; Edward F. Stevens, Librarian, Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Franklin K. Mathiews, Chief Scout Librarian. Only such books were chosen by the Commission as proved to be, by _a nation wide canvas_, most in demand by the boys themselves. Their popularity is further attested by the fact that in the EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY Edition, more than a million and a quarter copies of these books have already been sold.