History of the Buccaneers of America. James Burney

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СКАЧАТЬ by the hunters, was cured to keep good for use, after a manner learnt from the Caribbe Indians, which was as follows: The meat was laid to be dried upon a wooden grate or hurdle (grille de bois) which the Indians called barbecu, placed at a good distance over a slow fire. The meat when cured was called boucan, and the same name was given to the place of their cookery. Père Labat describes Viande boucannée to be, Viande seché a petit feu et a la fumée. The Caribbes are said to have sometimes served their prisoners after this fashion, 'Ils les mangent après les avoir bien boucannée, c'est a dire, rotis bien sec5.' The boucan was a very favourite method of cooking among these Indians. A Caribbe has been known, on returning home from fishing, fatigued and pressed with hunger, to have had the patience to wait the roasting of a fish on a wooden grate fixed two feet above the ground, over a fire so small as sometimes to require the whole day to dress it6.

      The flesh of the cattle was in general dried in the smoke, without being salted. The Dictionnaire de Trevoux explains Boucaner to be 'faire sorer sans sel,' to dry red without salt. But the flesh of wild hogs, and also of the beeves when intended for keeping a length of time, was first salted. The same thing was practised among the Brasilians. It was remarked in one of the earliest visits of the Portuguese to Brasil, that the natives (who were cannibals) kept human flesh salted and smoked, hanging up in their houses7. The meat cured by the Buccaneers to sell to shipping for sea-store, it is probable was all salted. The process is thus described: 'The bones being taken out, the flesh was cut into convenient pieces and salted, and the next day was taken to the boucan.' Sometimes, to give a peculiar relish to the meat, the skin of the animal was cast into the fire under it. The meat thus cured was of a fine red colour, and of excellent flavour; but in six months after it was boucanned, it had little taste left, except of salt. The boucanned hog's flesh continued good a much longer time than the flesh of the beeves, if kept in dry places.

      From adopting the boucan of the Caribbes, the hunters in Hispaniola, the Spaniards excepted, came to be called Boucaniers, but afterwards, according to a pronunciation more in favour with the English, Buccaneers8. Many of the French hunters were natives of Normandy; whence it became proverbial in some of the sea-ports of Normandy to say of a smoky house, c'est un vrai Boucan.

      The name Flibustier. The French Buccaneers and Adventurers were also called Flibustiers, and more frequently by that than by any other name. The word Flibustier is merely the French mariner's mode of pronouncing the English word Freebooter, a name which long preceded that of Boucanier or Buccaneer, as the occupation of cruising against the Spaniards preceded that of hunting and curing meat. Some authors have given a derivation to the name Flibustier from the word Flyboat, because, say they, the French hunters in Hispaniola bought vessels of the Dutch, called Flyboats, to cruise upon the Spaniards. There are two objections to this derivation. First, the word flyboat, is only an English translation of the Dutch word fluyt, which is the proper denomination of the vessel intended by it. Secondly, it would not very readily occur to any one to purchase Dutch fluyts, or flyboats, for chasing vessels.

      Some have understood the Boucanier and Flibustier to be distinct both in person and character9. This was probably the case with a few, after the settlement of Tortuga; but before, and very generally afterwards, the occupations were joined, making one of amphibious character. Ships from all parts of the West Indies frequented Tortuga, and it continually happened that some among the crews quitted their ships to turn Buccaneers; whilst among the Buccaneers some would be desirous to quit their hunting employment, to go on a cruise, to make a voyage, or to return to Europe. The two occupations of hunting and cruising being so common to the same person, caused the names Flibustier and Buccaneer to be esteemed synonimous, signifying always and principally the being at war with the Spaniards. The Buccaneer and Flibustier therefore, as long as they continued in a state of independence, are to be considered as the same character, exercising sometimes one, sometimes the other employment; and either name was taken by them indifferently, whether they were employed on the sea or on the land. But a fanciful kind of inversion took place, through the different caprices of the French and English adventurers. The greater part of the first cattle hunters were French, and the greater number of the first cruisers against the Spaniards were English. The French adventurers, nevertheless, had a partiality for the name of Flibustier; whilst the English shewed a like preference for the name of Buccaneer, which, as will be seen, was assumed by many hundred seamen of their nation, who were never employed either in hunting or in the boucan.

      Customs attributed to the Buccaneers. A propensity to make things which are extraordinary appear more so, has caused many peculiar customs to be attributed to the Buccaneers, which, it is pretended, were observed as strictly as if they had been established laws. It is said that every Buccaneer had his chosen and declared comrade, between whom property was in common, and if one died, the survivor was inheritor of the whole. This was called by the French Matelotage. It is however acknowledged that the Matelotage was not a compulsatory regulation; and that the Buccaneers sometimes bequeathed by will. A general right of participation in some things, among which was meat for present consumption, was acknowledged among them; and it is said, that bolts, locks, and every species of fastening, were prohibited, it being held that the use of such securities would have impeached the honour of their vocation. Yet on commencing Buccaneer, it was customary with those who were of respectable lineage, to relinquish their family name, and assume some other, as a nom de guerre. Their dress, which was uniformly slovenly when engaged in the business of hunting or of the boucan, is mentioned as a prescribed costume, but which doubtless was prescribed only by their own negligence and indolence; in particular, that they wore an unwashed shirt and pantaloons dyed in the blood of the animals they had killed. Other distinctions, equally capricious, and to little purpose, are related, which have no connexion with their history. Some curious anecdotes are produced, to shew the great respect some among them entertained for religion and for morality. A certain Flibustier captain, named Daniel, shot one of his crew in the church, for behaving irreverently during the performance of mass. Raveneau de Lussan (whose adventures will be frequently mentioned) took the occupation of a Buccaneer, because he was in debt, and wished, as every honest man should do, to have wherewithal to satisfy his creditors.

      In their sea enterprises, they followed most of the customs which are generally observed in private ships of war; and sometimes were held together by a subscribed written agreement, by the English called Charter-party; by the French Chasse-partie, which might in this case be construed a Chasing agreement. Whenever it happened that Spain was at open and declared war with any of the maritime nations of Europe, the Buccaneers who were natives of the country at war with her, obtained commissions, which rendered the vessels in which they cruised, regular privateers.

      The English adventurers sometimes, as is seen in Dampier, called themselves Privateers, applying the term to persons in the same manner we now apply it to private ships of war. The Dutch, whose terms are generally faithful to the meaning intended, called the adventurers Zee Roovers; the word roover in the Dutch language comprising the joint sense of the two English words rover and robber.

      CHAPTER V

Treaty made by the Spaniards with Don Henriquez. Increase of English and French in the West Indies. Tortuga surprised by the Spaniards. Policy of the English and French Governments with respect to the Buccaneers. Mansvelt, his attempt to form an independent Buccaneer Establishment. French West-India Company. Morgan succeeds Mansvelt as Chief of the Buccaneers

      1630. The Spanish Government at length began to think it necessary to relax from their large pretensions, and in the year 1630 entered into treaties with other European nations, for mutual security of their West-India possessions. In a Treaty concluded that year with Great Britain, it was declared, that peace, amity, and friendship, should be observed between their respective subjects, СКАЧАТЬ