PIRACY--ORIGIN OF THE BUCCANEERS--THEIR MANNER OF LIFE--DRESS--OCCUPATION--THE ISLAND OF TORTUGA THEIR HEAD-QUARTERS--THEIR RELIGIOUS SCRUPLES--MANNER OF DIVIDING SPOILS--THE EXTERMINATOR--THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH--EXPLOITS OF HENRY MORGAN--IMPOTENCE OF THE SPANIARDS--CAREER OF WILLIAM DAMPIER--HIS FIRST PIRATICAL CRUISE--ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA--DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANTAIN-TREE--LINGERING DEATHS BY POISON--REPROACHES OF CONSCIENCE--THE NEW-HOLLANDERS--DAMPIER'S DANGEROUS VOYAGE IN AN OPEN BOAT--PIRACY UPON THE AMERICAN COAST--WILLIAM KIDD SENT AGAINST THE PIRATES--HE TURNS PIRATE HIMSELF--HIS EXPLOITS, DETECTION, AND EXECUTION--HIS BURIED TREASURES--WRECK OF THE WHIDAH PIRATE-SHIP. It is necessary to pause at this period in our review of the grand maritime expeditions which successively left the various seaports of the world, in order to refer to a practice which was now rendering commerce hazardous and the whole highway of the seas insecure,--piracy. Besides the numerous isolated adventurers who preyed upon the vessels of any and every nation which fell in their way, a powerful association or league of robbers, who infested particularly the West India Islands and the Caribbean Sea, and who bore the name of Buccaneers, became, during the century of which we are now speaking, the peculiar dread of Spanish ships. We shall describe this fraternity in some detail. The term buccaneer is a corruption of the French word boucanier, which in its turn was made from the Caribbean noun _boucan_, being the flesh of cattle dried and preserved in a peculiar manner. The French also called them flibustiers, this word being a corruption of the English word freebooters; and this French word has been still further tortured into "Filibusters,"--a term now applied to such Americans as desire violently to extend the area of freedom.