The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-08
A BUooANEBR BOOM.
Brethren of the Coast Sacke Towns
When Gallons Eafled Them.

when Gali~ons Failed Fbem.
Frank B. Stockton is contributing to st
Nicholas a series of narrative sketches of
1.-THE buccaneers of Our Coast" In the
last number ne says
The buccaneers were afraid of nothing
They paid no attention to the rules of
war. A little ship would attack a big
one without the slightest hesitation, and.
more than that, would generally take it;
and in every way Spain was beginning to
feel as if she were acting the part of pro-
WIDER to the pirate seamen of every ma
ton.
Finding that she could do nothing to di-
minish the number of b-uccaneering yes
sells. Spain determined that she would
not rave so many richly laden ships of
her own upon these dangerous seas; con-
sequently a change was made in regard
to the shipping of merchandise and the.
valuable metals from America to her
home ports. The cargoes were concen-
trated, and what had previously been
placed upon three ships We're crowded into
the holds and between the decks of one
great vessel, which was so well armed
and defended as to make it almost i'm
possible for any pirate ship to capture 1t.
In some respects this plan worked very
vel, although when the buccaneers did
happen to pounce upon one of these rich
ly laden vessels in such numbers and
with such swift f~erocity hat they were
able to capture it, they reioiced over a
prize far more valuable than anything
the pirate soul had ever dreamed Of be-
fore. But it was not often that one of
these great ships was taken, and for a
time the results of Spanish robbery and
cruelty were safely carried to Spain.
But it was very hard to get the better
of the buccaneers; their lives and their
fortunes depended upon this boom, and if
in one way they could not get the gold
out of the Spaniards, which the latter
got out of the natives, they would try
another. When the miners in the gold
fields find they can no longer wash out
with their pans a paying quantity of the
precious metal. they go to work on the
rocks and break them into pieces and
crush them into dust; so, when the bue-
cancers found it did not pay to devote
themselves to capturing Spanish gold on
its transit across the ocean, many of
them changed their methods of operation
and boldly planned to seize the treasures
of their enemy before it was put upon
the ships. Consequently, the buccaneers
formed themselves into larger bodies,
commanded by noted leaders, and made
attacks upon the Spanish settlements and
towns. Many of these were found nearly
defenceless. and even those which boasted
Notifications often fell before the reck-
less charges of the buccaneers. The9pil-
lage, the burning and the crueltys on
shore exceeded that which had hitherto
been known on the sea. There is generally
a great deal more in a town than there
is in q ship, and the buccaneers proved
themselves to- be among the most out
rageous, exacting and cruel conquerors
ever known in this world. They We're
governed by nc laws of warfare; what
ever they chose to do they did. They
respected nobody, not even themselves,
and acted like wild beasts, without fine
disposition which is generally shown by a
when it has had enough.
There were times when it seemed as
though it would be safer for a nan who
had a regard for his life and comfort to
ish galleon, or to take up his residence
in one Of the uncivilized communities of
Tortuga or Jamaica, instead of settling
in a well ordered Spanish-American town
with its Mayor, its officials and its gar
risnn.
1t was a very strange nation of ma
rine bandits which had thus sprung INTO
existence on these far-away waters; it
was a nation of grown-up men. who ex-
listed only for the purpose OF carrying Off
that which other people were taking
away: it was a nation of secondhand
robbers, who carried their operations to
such an extent that they threatened to
do away entirely with that series of pri-
mary robberies to which Spain had de-
voted herself. do not know that there
for the prosecution of buccaneering, but
I am quite sure that if there had been
their stocks would have gone to a high
figure.