"Farewell, brother," he said; "when you land tomorrow I shall be on my way to the Grand Fond; I shall, therefore, not see you again till we meet there; but do not be alarmed--you shall find everything in order when you arrive. Ah! By the way, shall I take my body of buccaneers with me?" "Certainly; they will be of the greatest use to you in watching the enemy; but hide them carefully." "All right," he said. At this moment Michael the Basque rushed suddenly into the cabin, with his features distorted by passion. "What is the matter, messmate? Come, recover yourself," Montbarts said coolly to him. "A great misfortune has happened to us," Michael exclaimed, as he passionately pulled out a handful of hair. "What is it? Come, speak like a man, messmate." "That villain, Antonio de la Ronda--" "Well?" Montbarts interrupted, with a nervous tremor. "He has escaped!" "Malediction!" "Ten men have set out in pursuit." "Stuff! It is all up now; they will not catch him. What is to be done?" "What has happened?" Lepoletais asked. "Our guide has escaped." "Is it only that? I promise to find you another." "Yes, but this one is probably the cleverest spy the Spaniards possess; he knows enough of our secrets to make our expedition fail." "Heaven preserve us from it! Stuff!" the buccaneer added, carelessly--"Think no more about it, brother; what is done is done--let us go ahead all the same." And he left the cabin, apparently quite unaffected by the news. CHAPTER XXV. FRAY ARSENIO. Let us now tell the reader who these buccaneers were of whom we have several times spoken, and what was the origin of the name given them, and which they gave themselves. The red Caribs of the Antilles were accustomed, when they made prisoners in the obstinate contests they waged with each other, or which they carried on against the whites, to cut their prisoners into small pieces, and lay them upon a species of small hurdles, under which they lit a fire. These hurdles were called _barbacoas_, the spot where they were set up _boucans_, and the operation _boucaning_, to signify at the same time roasting and smoking. It was from this that the French boucaniers (anglicised into buccaneers) derived their name, with this difference, that they did to animals what the others did to men. The first buccaneers were Spanish settlers on the Caribbean islands, who lived on intimate terms with the Indians; hence when they turned their attention to the chase, they accustomed themselves without reflection to employ these Indian terms, which were certainly characteristic, and for which it would have been difficult to substitute any others. The buccaneers carried on no other trade but hunting; they were divided into two classes, the first only hunting oxen to get their hides, the second killing boars, whose flesh they salted and sold to the planters. These two varieties of buccaneers were accoutred nearly in the same way, and had the same mode of life.