The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SAILING WITH MORGAN, guiled him by fair promises that were never meant to be kept. Spain in those days held that no promise made to a heretic was binding. No ill-usage was too severe, no cruel- ties cruel enough, and by consequence she found that in this settlement on her flank she had a constant source of trouble. Most of the men were bona fide hunters in Hispaniola, and when the Spaniards by gross cruelties drove them from their hunting grounds they retired to Tortuga, where the Spaniards dared not follow them, and being gathered in force they promptly began to devise plans for raids along the coast by way of revenge. The first raids showed how easy and profitable a matter it was. The Spaniards plundered, killed and _ tor- tured them when the buccaneers fell into their hands, and now turn about was fair play. So it kept up for years. The community into which we were now thrown was a peculiar one, There was little law but one’s own will. Though there was no nominal chief or magistrate, yet we soon learned that in case of a dispute all matters were brought to a common council. ‘The land in the neighborhood of the roadstead where the shipping lay was covered with huts—huts of canvas, huts of logs, huts of brush. Magazines were dug in the earth and banked up with earth and logs. Storehouses stood further back among the trees, and the most peculiar feature of the place was that there was not to be found a lock nor a bar in the entire settlement, it being held incom- patible with the calling of the freeboot- er to lock up his possessions. All was free—arms, clothing, food, and money were to be had for the asking or for gambling for them. There were few women, and most of those few were Indian girls. Most of the men lived as the French termed it, im matelotage—that is, two men became comrades, hunted together, fought and raided together, and in case of the death 858 of one the other ‘aaediaieh: inherited his goods. Loose as it seems, this plan worked out better than it might be imagined, and the reason whereof is simple. While it appears that the place was law- less, and while it is quite true that there was no actual chief, yet they lived to- gether by groups and they were grouped by crews. li there were twenty men who always sailed on the Santa Caterina, then those twenty men consorted together, and, being accustomed to obey orders from their officers when at sea, quite naturally ‘fell into the same habit ashore. It was really a loosely united system in which the governing was by families or groups. It was to the crew of the Black Prince that we had come while they were hunting in the woods, and it was very easy to see that great happenings | were afoot. Nine vessels lay in the roadstead, and every day boats plied between the maga- zines and the ships, towing out water- barrels and storing food and powder aboard. “ Where do we go?”’ I asked of Jen- kins one night as we sat before the cabin looking at the groups gathered by the fires. He winked in answer. “ T'o-mor- row,” he said; “you can draw a gun from the storehouse and a brace of pistols. You have a sword. And two days from now we will see what we will see.” CHAPTER V. THE BRETHREN OF THE COAST.” Tux Black Prince was bark-rigged, nearly as big as a third-rate, and was pierced for fourteen guns on her main deck; she was the largest, of the fleet that the buccaneers had been able to obtain with the sole exception of the vessel on which Morgan later flew his own flag, for he went to sea w ith all the pomp of an admiral. ~ EOPMIGLOOKS (E@)