The Monarchs of the Main; Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers. Volume 1 (of 3)Thornbury, Walter
History
The Monarchs of the Main; Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers. Volume 1 (of 3)
Thornbury, Walter
Buccaneers; Pirates; Spanish Main
To the Spaniards Roc was always very barbarous and cruel, out of an
inveterate hatred to that nation. He seldom gave them quarter, and
treated them with untiring ferocity. He taxed his invention for new
modes of torture, revenging upon them by a rather indirect mode of
retaliation the wrongs inflicted upon his parents by the Portuguese. He
is said to have even roasted alive some of his prisoners on wooden
spits, like boucaned boars, because they refused to disclose the
hog-yards where he might victual his ships. By the Spaniards he was
reported to be really an apostate outlaw of their own nation, this being
the only way in which they could account for his needless and useless
cruelties.
On one occasion, as he was cruising on the coast of Campeachy, a dismal
tempest, says the chronicler, "surprised him so violently" that his ship
was wrecked, himself and his crew only escaping with their muskets, a
little powder, and a few bullets, much more useful, however, than gold
on such a coast. They reached shore not far from Golpho Triste, the
scene of Barthelemy's escape. Roc was not the man to be cast down by an
accident no more regarded by true adventurers than the upsetting of a
coach by an ordinary traveller. Getting ashore in a canoe, he determined
to march quickly along the coast, and repair to the gulf, a well-known
haunt of the members of their craft. Roc bade his men be of good heart,
and he would bring them safe out of every danger, and, giving them hope,
the promise was already half accomplished. Getting on the main road,
they proceeded on their march through a hostile country, with the air of
men who had conquered the whole Indies. They had already reached a
desert track, and were grown fatigued, hungry, and thirsty, when some
Indians gave the alarm, and the Spaniards were soon down upon them, to
the number of one hundred well-armed and well-mounted horsemen, while
the Buccaneers were but thirty men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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