path they met a strong battery which fired grape. But L'Olonnois
was invincible. He tried that old trick which rarely fails, a sham
retreat, and this lured the Spaniards from their earthwork on the
path. The pirates then turned, sword in hand, slew two hundred of
the enemy, and captured eight guns. The town yielded, the people
fled to the woods, and then began the wonted sport of torturing the
prisoners. Maracaibo they ransomed afresh, obtained a pilot, passed
the forts with ease, and returned after sacking a small province.
On a dividend being declared, they parted 260,000 pieces-of-eight
among the band, and spent the pillage in a revel of three weeks.

L'Olonnois "got great repute" by this conduct, but I rejoice to add
that in a raid on Nicaragua he "miserably perished," and met what
Mr. Esquemeling calls "his unfortunate death." For L'Olonnois was
really an ungentlemanly character. He would hack a Spaniard to
pieces, tear out his heart, and "gnaw it with his teeth like a
ravenous wolf, saying to the rest, 'I will serve you all alike if
you show me not another way'" (to a town which he designed
attacking). In Nicaragua he was taken by the Indians, who, being
entirely on the Spanish side, tore him to pieces and burned him.
Thus we really must not be deluded by the professions of Mr.
Kingsley's sentimental buccaneer, with his pity for "the Indian folk
of old."

Except Denis Scott, a worthy bandit in his day, Captain Henry Morgan
is the first renowned British buccaneer. He was a young Welshman,
who, after having been sold as a slave in Barbadoes, became a sailor
of fortune. With about four hundred men he assailed Puerto Bello.
"If our number is small," he said, "our hearts are great," and so he
assailed the third city and place of arms which Spain then possessed