Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-01

OeXmeln, acted as amateur war CORE
spondents and wrote vivid accounts of the
expedition, which were published years af-
terward in Holland and France. Some
copies of their books are still extant, al
though they are exceedingly rare.
From a careful study of Esquemeling s
book, 1t seems that the gold and silver
borne away to Jamaica, even although in
creased by the treasure in two or three
captured ships, did not amount to more
than about S7JO.GOO. There was also a con-
siderable treasure in jewelry and diamonds.
Morgan managed to get nearly all the lat
ter for his own private share and on that
account he had to face a mutiny on the
voyage back to Jamaica. 1t is practically
certain that the entire value of the loot did
not amount to a minion dollars, although
the pirate probably did damage to the
value of more than that sum while they
ruffied it like princes in the captured city.
Daring Adventures.
The richest individual prizes ever cap
tured by buccaneers at sea were those TAX
en- in the spacious days of great Eliza
BETH by Drake. Raleigh, Hawkins, Fro
bisher, Sir Richard Greville, Amyas Pres
ton and many another daring adventurer.
When he made his famous voyage around
the globe-the first to be made by an En-
glishma n-Francis Drake hoped to pay the
expenses of the expedition by capturing
the yearly plate ship from Lima and the
Manila SdHeOn. lie missed the former
through the coWardly deSartiGn of his cap
tains in the Straits of Magellan; but he
captured the latter and several other wall
liable prizes besides.
Contemporary chroniclers cannot restrain
their enthusiasm when they dwell upon the
wealth brought home by his ship the
Golden Hind They declare that it was
the richest argosy that had ever sailed up
the Ihames. Good Queen Bess received a
liberal share-enough to make her knight
a dpaf t,n
King of Spain's frantic demands that he
should be hanged. Yet the total value of
ms argosy seems to have been less than
100000, striking an average between the
conflicting computations made by the
chroniclers of the time.
John Rackham was one of the most Sic
cessful and dreaded of West Indian pirates
IN the seventeenth century. He was even
tually captured by British warship and
hanged in chains on a coral islet near Port
ROYAL, Jamaica, which still bears the name
OF Rackham Cay. The records of this trial
which are preserved in the admiralty court
OF Jamaica, show that he captured a brig
antine bound for Bristol with a cargo val
ued at over $4,000. The context shows that
this was regarded as his greatest prize and
a cargo of exceptional value.
A planter row living in Jamaica has in
his possession a letter written to one of his
ancestors by a West Indian merchant who
had ventured cargo of sugar and rum in
a Bristol bareue that was captured by
of the seventeenth century. Lamenting his
loss, the merchant wrote that the cargo
was worth to me. at last quotings from
Bristol, full Fl 500; and l warrant me she
is the richest prize these rascals have pick
ed up for many day"
Argosies of Today.
Let us compare some of these "rich"
prizes with the argosies of latter days.
Apart from the real treasure ships already
referred to-the liners that carry heavy
shipments of coin and bullion at intervals
between the United States and Europe, in
settlement of international financial bal
ances-there are hundreds of steamships to-
day carrying cargoes that exceed the wild
est imaginings of any pirate that ever lived.
1t is commonly agreed by steamship men
and iInr orters that the two great French
lines running to the Orient and the United
States are in the habit of carrying the most
valuable of all modern cargoes. While
other countries exceed France in the value
of their expectations, none sends abroad
more valuable goods in such small bulk.