Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-12-24

other spot in the Antilles. For 80 years
after the buccaneers were driven from
st. Kits it was such stronghold for
tile brethren of the sea-" that even
the mighty king of Spain, with all his
ships and men, could not break it up.
Tortuga the Headquarters.
In Its prime, when it was the head
quarters of the buccaneers, this sink
Of the West Indies was spoken Of as
"the common refuge of all sorts Of
wickedness and the seminary, as it
were, of pirates and thieves" though
it was admitted that the outlaws them
selves lived together in orderly fash
ion, without bolts or bars on their
doors.
The reason for the choice of Tor
tuga as resort lay in the fact that
its harbor was easily defended, and
that it gave an easy access to the
Mona and Windward passages, the
usual routes followed by the ships Of
Spain in their voyages to and from
Cartagena, Porto Bello and Vera Cruz
Here the freebooter had a home; on
the beach he careened his ships and
divided his pieces-of-eight, and in
the town of Cayona he set up such
lares and penates as he had rested
from his labors, and cursed or swag
gered over his luck. In the later days
Of piracy it became the seat of opera
tons of the French cOrsairs, the Eng
lish repairing to Jamaica.
1t was in Tortuga that the men who
thought it their right to prey upon
the commerce of Spain acquired the
name Of buccaneers. One of the chief
reasons for the choice of Tortuga as
a pirate colony was its nearness to
Haiti and the bucans, or cattle from
which they could obtain their meat
supply. The meat was cut into strips
and hung from frames over a slow fire
to smoke.
The Indians, who taught the settlers
the process, called both the place
where the curing was done and the
dried meat itself bucan, and as the
cattle-hunters usually presented a
bloody and forbidding appearance, they
were termed buccaneers.
In the latter half Of the Seventeenth
century Jamaica was the stronghold OF
the English buccaneers. Morgan, the
greatest and most sagacious of the pi-
rates, planned most Of his expeditions
in Port Royal, which had the reputa-
ton of being the richest and wicked
est spot on earth. And proud the city
was of it's notoriety.
Cartagena and Panama.
The destination of most Of the
ships which sailed from Spain to
America was Cartagena, a town on
the northern coast of Colombia. Its
massive stone walls survive to
speak their strength in the early
days. The wealth of the western
coast Of South America was gath
cred first at Panama, then hauled by
mules across the isthmus and deposit
ed ut Porto Bello. near the mouth Of
the Cascajal river, until 1t could be
shipped to Cartagena; thence it was
taken out, through the Caribbean sea,
across the Azores and home.
Every year there was gathered in
Old Panama the riches of the Incas-
silver bullion, silver plate and pre-
cious stones-gold from the mines at
Cana, the richest in America at that
time, and pearls from the Pearl river
in the Gulf of Panama, just to the
west of the Gulf of San Miguel. Old
Panama, founded in 1913, was the me-
trOpolis of the ISthmus then as New
Panama is today. 1t was probably the
richest place in all America, since it
was the market for the whole of the
west coast, as we'll as for the spices
and silks Of the Orient, and it kept in
touch with the towns along the east
coast through the ChagIes river.
1t was able to hold it's own against
all enemy expeditions until it was de-
stroyed, in 1871, by Henry Morgan.
Panama City was founded few miles
farther west.
Where desolate ruins are now, once
there fiourished city reputed to have
a population of 10000. Its 200 houses
of European elegance and 5000 Of
the common kind, its mint, its hos
pital, it's hundreds of warehouses, its
cathedral, its eight converts and the
kings stable, made 1t the equal or
the superior of anything to be found
on the two continents. Portions OF
the old Gold road. along which the
tiny bells of the heavily laden mules
used to tinkle, can still be followed for
miles toward Porto Bello, though In
many places it becomes an almost I'M
recognizable trail through the forest.