Chapter I: Front Matter

_Sir Henry Morgan, BUCCANEER_

_A Romance of the Spanish Main_

_BY_

_CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY_

_Author of "For Love of Country," "For the Freedom of the Sea," "The Southerners," "Hohenzollern," "The Quiberon Touch," "Woven with the Ship," "In the Wasp's Nest," Etc._

_Illustrations by J.N. MARCHAND and WILL CRAWFORD_

G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE PEARSON PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1903, IN GREAT BRITAIN

[_All rights reserved_]

_Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer_ _Issued October, 1903_

_TO MY ONLY BROTHER_

COLONEL JASPER EWING BRADY

_LATE U.S. ARMY_

"Woe to the realms which he coasted! for there
Was shedding of blood and rending of hair,
Rape of maiden and slaughter of priest,
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast;
When he hoisted his standard black,
Before him was battle, behind him wrack,
And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane,
To light his band to their barks again."

SCOTT: "Harold the Dauntless."

_PREFACE_

In literature there have been romantic pirates, gentlemanly pirates, kind-hearted pirates, even humorous pirates--in fact, all sorts and conditions of pirates. In life there was only one kind. In this book that kind appears. Several presentations--in the guise of novels--of pirates, the like of which never existed on land or sea, have recently appeared. A perusal of these interesting romances awoke in me a desire to write a story of a real pirate, a pirate of the genuine species.

Much research for historical essays, amid ancient records and moldy chronicles, put me in possession of a vast amount of information concerning the doings of the greatest of all pirates; a man unique among his nefarious brethren, in that he played the piratical game so successfully that he received the honor of knighthood from King Charles II. A belted knight of England, who was also a brutal, rapacious, lustful, murderous villain and robber--and undoubtedly a pirate, although he disguised his piracy under the name of buccaneering--is certainly a striking and unusual figure.

Therefore, when I imagined my pirate story I pitched upon Sir Henry Morgan as _the_ character of the romance. It will spare the critic to admit that the tale hereinafter related is a work of the imagination, and is not an historical romance. According to the latest accounts, Sir Henry Morgan, by a singular oversight of Fate, who must have been nodding at the time, died in his bed--not peacefully I trust--and was buried in consecrated ground. But I do him no injustice, I hasten to assure the reader, in the acts that I have attributed to him, for they are more than paralleled by the well authenticated deeds of this human monster. I did not even invent the blowing up of the English frigate in the action with the Spanish ships.

If I have assumed for the nonce the attributes of that unaccountably somnolent Fate, and brought him to a terrible end, I am sure abundant justification will be found in the recital of his mythical misdeeds, which, I repeat, were not a circumstance to his real transgressions. Indeed, one has to go back to the most cruel and degenerate of the Roman emperors to parallel the wickednesses of Morgan and his men. It is not possible to put upon printed pages explicit statements of what they did. The curious reader may find some account of these "Gentlemen of the Black Flag," so far as it can be translated into present-day books intended for popular reading, in my volume of "COLONIAL FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS."

The writing of this novel has been by no means an easy task. How to convey clearly the doings of the buccaneer so there could be no misapprehension on the part of the reader, and yet to write with due delicacy and restraint a book for the general public, has been a problem with which I have wrestled long and arduously. The whole book has been completely revised some six times. Each time I have deleted something, which, while it has refined, I trust has not impaired the strength of the tale. If the critic still find things to censure, let him pass over charitably in view of what might have been!

As to the other characters, I have done violence to the name and fame of no man, for all of those who played any prominent part among the buccaneers in the story were themselves men scarcely less criminal than Morgan. Be it known that I have simply appropriated names, not careers. They all had adventures of their own and were not associated with Morgan in life. Teach--I have a weakness for that bad young man--is known to history as "Blackbeard"--a much worse man than the roaring singer of these pages. The delectable Hornigold, the One-Eyed, with the "wild justice" of his revenge, was another real pirate. So was the faithful Black Dog, the maroon. So were Raveneau de Lussan, Rock Braziliano, L'Ollonois, Velsers, Sawkins, and the rest.

In addition to my desire to write a real story of a real pirate I was actuated by another intent. There are numberless tales of the brave days of the Spanish Main, from "Westward Ho!" down. In every one of them, without exception, the hero is a noble, gallant, high-souled, high-spirited, valiant descendant of the Anglo-Saxon race, while the villain--and such villains they are!--is always a proud and haughty Spaniard, who comes to grief dreadfully in the final trial which determines the issue. My sympathies, from a long course of reading of such romances, have gone out to the under Don. I determined to write a story with a Spanish gentleman for the hero, and a Spanish gentlewoman for the heroine, and let the position of villain be filled by one of our own race. Such things were, and here they are. I have dwelt with pleasure on the love affairs of the gallant Alvarado and the beautiful Mercedes.

But, after all, the story is preëminently the story of Morgan. I have striven to make it a character sketch of that remarkable personality. I wished to portray his ferocity and cruelty, his brutality and wantonness, his treachery and rapacity; to exhibit, without lightening, the dark shadows of his character, and to depict his inevitable and utter breakdown finally; yet at the same time to bring out his dauntless courage, his military ability, his fertility and resourcefulness, his mastery of his men, his capacity as a seaman, which are qualities worthy of admiration. Yet I have not intended to make him an admirable figure. To do that would be to falsify history and disregard the artistic canons. So I have tried to show him as he was; great and brave, small and mean, skilful and able, greedy and cruel; and lastly, in his crimes and punishment, a coward.

And if a mere romance may have a lesson, here in this tale is one of a just retribution, exhibited in the awful, if adequate, vengeance finally wreaked upon Morgan by those whom he had so fearfully and dreadfully wronged.

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

BROOKLYN, N.Y., _December, 1902_.

NOTE.--The date of the sack of Panama has been advanced to comply
with the demands of this romance.

_TABLE OF CONTENTS_

BOOK I.

HOW SIR HENRY MORGAN IN HIS OLD AGE RESOLVED TO GO A-BUCCANEERING
AGAIN.

CHAPTER PAGE

I.--Wherein Sir Henry Morgan made good use of the
ten minutes allowed him 25

II.--How Master Benjamin Hornigold, the One-Eyed,
agreed to go with his old Captain 45

III.--In which Sir Henry Morgan finds himself at the head
of a crew once more 65

IV.--Which tells how the _Mary Rose_, frigate, changed
masters and flags 81

BOOK II.

THE CRUISE OF THE BUCCANEERS AND WHAT BEFEL THEM ON THE SEAS.

CHAPTER PAGE

V.--How the _Mary Rose_ overhauled three Spanish treasure
ships 97

VI.--In which is related the strange expedient of the
Captain and how they took the great galleon 115

VII.--Wherein Bartholomew Sawkins mutinied against
his Captain and what befel him on that account 128

VIII.--How they strove to club-haul the galleon and failed
to save her on the coast of Caracas 145

BOOK III.

WHICH TREATS OF THE TANGLED LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE PEARL OF CARACAS.

CHAPTER PAGE

IX.--Discloses the hopeless passion between Donna Mercedes
de Lara and Captain Dominique Alvarado,
the Commandante of La Guayra 161

X.--How Donna Mercedes tempted her lover and how he
strove valiantly to resist her appeals 174

XI.--Wherein Captain Alvarado pledges his word to the
Viceroy of Venezuela, the Count Alvaro de Lara,
and to Don Felipe de Tobar, his friend 190

XII.--Shows how Donna Mercedes chose death rather than
give up Captain Alvarado, and what befel them on
the road over the mountains 200

XIII.--In which Captain Alvarado is forsworn and with
Donna Mercedes in his arms breaks his plighted
word 218

BOOK IV.

IN WHICH IS RELATED AN ACCOUNT OF THE TAKING OF LA GUAYRA BY THE
BUCCANEERS AND THE DREADFUL PERILS OF DONNA MERCEDES DE LARA AND
CAPTAIN ALVARADO IN THAT CITY.

CHAPTER PAGE

XIV.--Wherein the crew of the galleon intercepts the two
lovers by the way 231

XV.--Tells how Mercedes de Lara returned the unsought
caress of Sir Henry Morgan and the means by
which the buccaneers surmounted the walls 248

XVI.--In which Benjamin Hornigold recognizes a cross and
Captain Alvarado finds and loses a mother on the
strand 265

XVII.--Which describes an audience with Sir Henry Morgan
and the treachery by which Captain Alvarado
benefited 283