Evening star., 1924-11-04

up TO the time OF Blood's first coming
| to Tortuga This and the Tannatt
| collection OF state trials are the chief
though not the only-sources Of my
| history so far.
Pitt lays great stress upon the fact
| that it was the circumstances upon
which ! have dwelt, and these alone,
| that drove Peter Blood to seek an
| anchorage at Tortuga He insists
at considerable length, and with a
vehemence which in itself makes 1t
plain that an opposite opinion was
held in some quarters, that 1t was
| no part of the design Of Blood or any
| of his companions in misfortune to
| join hands with the buccaneers who,
under a semi official French protec-
ton. made of Tortuga a lair whence
| they could sally out to drive their
merciless piratical trade chiefly at
the expense of Spain.
1t was. Pitt tells us, Blooa's orig
inal intention to make his way to
France or Holland. But in the long
weeks of waiting for a ship to con-
vey him to one or the other of these
countries, his resources dwindled and
finally vanished. Also. his chronicler
| thinks that he detected signs Of some
secret trouble in his friend, and he
attributes to this the abuses of the
potent West Indian spirit OF which
Blood became guilty in those days
of inaction. thereby sinking to the
| level of the wild adventurers with
whom ashore he associated.
I do not think that Pitt is guilty
| in this merely of special pleading
! that he is putting forward excuses
| for his hero. I think that in those
days there was a good deal to op-
press Peter Blood. There was the
thought of Arabella Bishop-and that
! this thought loomed large in his
mind we are not permitted to doubt
He was maddened by the tormenting
lure OF the unattainable. He desired
| reach irrevocably and for all time
Also, whilst he may have desired to
go to France or Holland, he had no
clear purpose to accomplish when
he reach ed one or the other Of these
countries. He was. when all is said
| an escaped slave. an outlaw in his
own land and q homeless outcast in
any other. There remained the sea,
which is free to all, and particularly
alluring to those who feel themselves
at war with humanity. And so, con-
sidering the adventurous spirit that
once already had sent him a-roving
for the sheer love Of il. considering
| that this spirit was heightened now
by a recklessness begotten of his
outlawry, that his training and skill
in militant seamanship clamorousiy
supported the temptations that were
put before him, can you wonder, or
| dare you blame him. that in the end
he succumbed? And remember that
these temptations proceeded not only
from adventurous buccaneering ac-
quaintances in the taverns of that
evil haven Of Tortuga- but even from
| NJ. dOgeron. the governor Of the is
| land, who levied as his harbour dues
a percentage OF one-tenth OF all spoils
! brought into the bay. and who profit
ed further by commissions upon
| money which he was desired to con-
vert into bills of exchange upon
France.
A trade that might have worn a
repellent aspect when urged by
greasy. half-drunken adventurers,
boucan- hunters, lumbermen, beach
combers. English. French. and Dutch,
became a dignif1ed. almost official.
| form OF privateering when advocated
| by the courtly, middle-aged gentle
| man who in representing the French
West India Company seemed to rep
resent France herself.
Moreover, to a man-not excluding
| Jeremy Pitt himself in whose blood
the call of the sea was insistent and
! imperative-those who had escaped
with Peter BlOOQ from the BarDaQoS
| plantations. and who, consequently.
| like himself, knew not whittier to
/ turn, were all resolved upon joining
the grest Brotherhood Of the Coast,
| as those rovers called themselves.
And they united theirs to the other
| voices that were persuadinE Blood,
demanding that he should continue
| now in the leadership which he had
! enjoyed since they had left Barbados.
and swearing to follow him loyalty
| whithersoever he should lead them
| And so, to condense all that Jeremy
has recorded in the matter, Blood
ended by yielding to external and in
| ternal pressure, abandoned himself to
the stream Of Destiny. "Fata viam
invenerunt," is his own expression
of 1t.
II he resisted SO long, it was. I
think. the thought Of Arabella Bishop
| that restrained him. That they
should be destined never to meet
again did not weigh at first or, in
| deed, ever. He conceived the scorn
with which she would come to hear
of his having turned pirate, and the
scorn. though as yet no more than
| imagined, hurt him as If it were al
ready a reality. And even when he
| conquered this, still the thought of
her was ever present He compro-
missed with the conscience that her
| L>>k - At~nA~nAv<fo~I~a an-