The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-15


 was half so precious as the island gems of the Spanish Main which. report says, John Bun purposes turn ing over to Uncle sam in liquidation of his huge war debt. Such move would make tho Spanish Main an all American sea for the first time sincs Columbus sailed f..
 It is n wonderful little empire that Great Britain owns down there in the purple and azure Caribbean Sea. Bit by bit her sons gathered it together for her while she sometimes looked on with approval. sometimes turned away in disdain. But whether ehese sons of old England bought the islands with their gold or with their blood. whether they captured them in fair fight with the Spanish they have made them more English in sentiment than the United King dom itself. while they have kept all tho 1tive and indigenous character istics of the individual islands unim- paired.
 Resonant of Romance.
 A list of the more important of these English possessions which may become the property of the United states rings warm and mellow with tho golden resonance of romance. Merely to hear the namcs-the Ba- hamas with their Great Bahama, Great Abaco. San Salvador and New Providence; Jamaica. the Leeward Islands. St. Eitts. Antigua. Anguilla, st. John. Nevis. the windward Is lands. with Grenada, St. Vincent. st. Lucia and the densely populated Bar bados. and, lastly, ToboEa and Trini- dad. lying far 10 the south--is to be thrilled, unless one has passed the age of thrills.
 Jamaica. captured from the Span Ssh with the aid of the Buccaneers in 1855, is fin point of size and com 7nercs the most important of all these islands and shares with St. Kitts and the little island of Tortuga, a Hay tan posse ssion. a high place in the sun and shadow of seventeenth cen- tury romance And there is little rock Eirt Tob0Ea. where the Buccaneers used to lie hid waiting for the Span ish treasure ships passing, loaded with gold and silver inGots from Panama and the coast cities of South America. Toboga is as beautiful to- day as 1t wns when the old free bOoter Sharp in 1880 described it as "an exceedirG Plcesant island. aboundinR in fruits. such as pine apples. oranges, lemons, pears. mann .nees. cocoanAs and others. with small but brave commodious river running in H." and the Anchorage also clear and good"
 The very names of this Spanish Main were charms to conjure adven- turing youth from the far corners of the earth in those old days when d eea voyaEe--was a venture in truth and a man fought for his life and his faith and his fortune with weapons 1uore deadly and effective than glib tongue and a facile fountain pen.
 Bloodstained Booty.
 To mention St. Kitts is to get a -viston of bloodstained pieces of eight. of big round Spanish doubIoons, or rare jewels goused form the eyes of sarrJd images stolen from Rome's richest churches in Panama ard luth America. of wonderful gar linen ts of the finest silks and velvets, with great collars of the rarest lacs fworn by tense eyed, bearded men tuore used to the tunic and short idrnvyers of the boucaniers, and whose louly collar had been a great cut of fresh meat through which their heads were thrust as they started to return from their hunt.
 nSitts that the later buccaneers had jtheir origin. The name comes from lthe Indian word boucan, which rneans dried meat, or the place for drying meat
 / From this was derived the term poucaniers. later spelled "buccaneers. " meant. Tn It's original sense. the Hunters of wild cattle and hogs, who D preserve the fruits of their chase tcut the meat into strips and dried il over a slow fire. Some of the old chroniclers of the buccaneering times divide the settlers of St. Christopher into three classes, the boucaniers, ol hunters. the habitans. or planters nnd the filfbustiers. or sea rovers. bu' this was a hair-splitting division. be- cause all olasses engaged at ono time or another in each of the 'in- dustrses'' of the Spanish Main and al came later to be called buccaneers.
 Called Pierre le Grnnd.
 The first of these to make q name for himself was one Pierre, a French. man, whose surname wns of so little conssquence that 1t was never known When hs won his fame as bolC robber on the high seas Pierre added sTs Grand" to his name and as Petel the Great of the Buccaneers he |: known to this day. He wns a doughty soul. and began his career of free booting by attacking a great Spanish gaf1eon. with eight companions arm cd only with pistols and swords. Hei ne boarded in the open sea after sink fnx his own boat to make sure nont of his company turned back. He found the captain with some of hi. officers playing cards in the biz cabin, overpowsred them and de. Inandsd that they give up the shir and all her treasure. He got all ht asked. made the captain do duty a: a common sailor on what had once been his own vessel, and sailed proudly back 10 France,
 Francois EOionnois, who gioriec fin the non de gusrre of Doiennois inc Crust. and who, with his com panion, Mihsi is Basque, made ar Immense fortune as a bussaHaeF, had n habit of first tortnring and then killing all his captiyes after he had made them prisoners, At ono time he killad an entire, ships crew O. ninsty men, pinseif acting az exsou'