Lolonnois' stratagems--His cruelty--His partner, Michael le Basque--Takes Maracaibo--Tortures the citizens--Sacks the town--Takes Gibraltar--Attempt on Merida--Famine and pestilence--Retreat--Division of spoil--Ransom--Takes St. Pedro--Burns Veragua--Wrecked in the Gulf of Honduras--Attacked by Indians--Killed and eaten by the savages 188 CHAPTER VI.--ALEXANDRE BRAS DE FER, AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. Bras de Fer compared by French writers to Alexander the Great--His exploits and stratagems--Montbars--Anecdote of his childhood--Goes to sea--His first naval engagement--Joins the Buccaneers--Defeats the Spanish Fifties--His uncle killed--His revenge--Anecdote of the negro vessel--Adam and Anne le Roux plunder Santiago 267 PREFACE. I claim for this book, at least originality. But this originality, unfortunately, if it attaches interest to an author's labours, adds also to his responsibilities. The history of the Buccaneers has hitherto remained unwritten. Three or four forgotten volumes contain literally all that is recorded of the wars and conquests of these extraordinary men. Of these volumes two are French, one Dutch, and one in English. The majority of our readers, therefore, it is probable, know nothing more of the freebooters but their name, confound them with the mere pirates of two centuries later, and derive their knowledge of their manners from those dozen lines of the Abbé Reynal, that have been transferred from historian to historian, and from writer to writer, for the last two centuries. The chief records of Buccaneer adventurers are drawn literally from only three books. The first of these is _Oexmelin's Histoire des Aventuriers_. 12mo. Paris, 1688. Oexmelin was a Frenchman, who went out to St. Domingo as a planter's apprentice or _engagé_, and eventually became surgeon in the Buccaneer fleet--knew Lolonnois, and accompanied Sir Henry Morgan to Panama. The second is _Esquemeling's Zee Roovers_. Amsterdam. 4to. 1684.--A book constantly mistaken by booksellers and in catalogues for Oexmelin. Esquemeling was a Dutch _engagé_ at St. Domingo, and his book is an English translation from the Dutch. The writer appears of humbler birth than Oexmelin, but served also at Panama. The third is _Ringrose's History of the Cruises of Sharpe, &c._ This man, who served with Dampier, seems to have been an ignorant sailor, and a mere log-keeper. The fourth is _Ravenau de Lussan's Narrative_. De Lussan was a young French officer of fortune, who served in some of Ringrose's cruises. This is a book written by a vivacious and keen observer, but is less complete than Oexmelin's, but equally full of anecdote, and very amusing. For secondary authorities we come to the French Jesuit historians of the West Indian Islands, diffuse Rochefort, the gossiping _bon vivant_ Labat; Tertre, dry and prejudiced; Charlevoix, careful, condensed, and entertaining; and Raynal, polished, classical, second-hand, and declamatory.