New-York tribune., 1921-04-17

snah poyS, and their fathers before them, into
spasmodic dreams of emulation need not be
all fiction.
Few may realize it, but our own nearby
West Indies offers more genuine buccaneer-
ing history than perhaps any other single
portion of the world. These islands, so closely
bound to the voyages and history of Christie
pher Columbus, only trihe less famous
for their part in another though less known
history the basis of which has inspired virtu-
ally all our piracy stories of fiction with the
yellowed paper chart graspcd in the hand of
the pirate skeleton remaining to guard the
secret of the buried chest.
The very birth nest of Western Hemi-
sphere piracy is to be found in the Caribbean
to-day. On the small island of Tortuga actual
buried pirate treasure recently cropped out
in golden reality to revive the past This
island is a few miles off the northern coast of
Hayti and named ''Tortuga" by Columbus
because it so much resembled the shape of the
great sea tortoises plentiful in the tropic
vicinity.
A short time ago an old man from the tiny
seaport of st. Louis, on the Haytian coast
sailed his dory across the choppy channel to
Tortuga and anchored in the mouth of small
hills. He was seining for small fish bait
when glittering objects in the shallow water
IF the stream bed diverted his attention He
picked them up and they proved to be golden
"pieces- s-of-eight." Here was actual booty from
the Spanish Main, spoils cached in the coves
and hills of Tortuga by the buccaneers of the
seventeenth century.
The writer visited Tortuga in December, not
so much in search of pirate gold as to compare
the jungle matted little island of to-day with
the buccaneer rendezvous and stronghold of
some three centuries ago. Pirate history
lates circumstantally and convincingly that
here piracy started and grew until it terrorized
the coast lines and waters from the Atlantic
and Gulf to Cape}'Horn and even into the
Pacific. The boldest and worst of French,
Dutch and English buccaneers outfitted their
ships on TortAga and returned thence after
their raids to divide the plunder and outfit
their ships for further expeditions.
left the Haytian seaport of Port de Paix
early one morning to explore Tortuga. Cap
tain Howells, of the Haytian gendarmerie
commanding the port placed at my disposi-
ton a black corporal armed with .32-caliber
pistol of ancient design, to act as guide. My
own weapon was twelve gauge Winchester
SnOtguI, carried manly IOE Wllu plSeOIS-IHc
same big blue birds that disappeared so COM
pletely and mysteriousy from all North Amer
lea many years ago. They exist in numbers on
Tortuga.
The history of the place far overshadows the
modern scene. To lone white rambler OBJ
jects constantly show which recall to mind
such implements picks and shoves, such
documents as age yellowed> charts, all connect
ham nj,
the earth contained in a rusted iron-bound
chest There is, unmistakably, the big tree,
now towering high above Jungle grown mass
of hundred different species of tropic flora
To look sharply and inquisitively along the
four points of the compass from this tree is
invariably to find the big rock with what seem
tlne-worn crosses and pirate hieroglyphs on
it's surface. One may be hyperbolic without
censure All that appears necessary is the
dying buccaneers chart and, of course, the
digging implements, preferably employed at
night in the dim light of Pickering lanterns.
Poe and other writers of buried treasure have
prescribed it thus, and thus it must be in the
imagination.
The term "buccaneer" originated on the
island of Tortuga. 1t is derived from the
French word describing who cured meat
the flesh on green sticks
AS early as 1850 the island of Hispanioa,
which is to-day the island of Hayti, began to
find French, British and Dutch settlers arriv-
ing there, much against the will of the Span
iards, who controlled the territory to the an
nounced exclusion of all other nationals
The interlopers first tried their luck at plant
ing but eventually abandoned this vocation
to become "boucaniers," because of the great
prevalence of wild oxen, cattle and wild boar.
The vicisstudes of interloping however, were
such that many of the settlers fed to the island
OF Tortuga which separated from the
main island by strip of channel water seven
miles WIDE Tortuga offered less territory for
the "boucaniers," but more security. Perhaps
seven miles wide and twelve miles in length,
the island was virgin hunting ground.
Eventually came Pierre lie Grand to the
island Of Tortuga. Pierre lie Grand the
original pirate of the Western Hemisphere.
All the crimes of the Spanish Main, much of
the pirate lore and actual pirating which one
may read about in books revcrts directly on the
shoulders of this Frenchman from Dieppe who
,rto 1ut