Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts | Page 4

possessed by any explorer of the present day. But when
he discovered some unknown lands, rich in treasure and outside of all
legal restrictions, the views and ideas of the great discoverer gradually
changed. Being now beyond the boundaries of civilization, he also
placed himself beyond the boundaries of civilized law. Robbery,
murder, and the destruction of property, by the commanders of naval
expeditions, who have no warrant or commission for their conduct, is
the same as piracy, and when Columbus ceased to be a legalized
explorer, and when, against the expressed wishes, and even the
prohibitions, of the royal personages who had sent him out on this
expedition, he began to devastate the countries he had discovered, and
to enslave and exterminate their peaceable natives, then he became a
master in piracy, from whom the buccaneers afterward learned many a
valuable lesson.
It is not necessary for us to enter very deeply into the consideration of
the policy of Columbus toward the people of the islands of the West
Indies. His second voyage was nothing more than an expedition for the
sake of plunder. He had discovered gold and other riches in the West
Indies and he had found that the people who inhabited the islands were
simple-hearted, inoffensive creatures, who did not know how to fight
and who did not want to fight. Therefore, it was so easy to sail his ships
into the harbors of defenceless islands, to subjugate the natives, and to
take away the products of their mines and soil, that he commenced a
veritable course of piracy.
The acquisition of gold and all sorts of plunder seemed to be the sole
object of this Spanish expedition; natives were enslaved, and subjected
to the greatest hardships, so that they died in great numbers. At one

time three hundred of them were sent as slaves to Spain. A pack of
bloodhounds, which Columbus had brought with him for the purpose,
was used to hunt down the poor Indians when they endeavored to
escape from the hands of the oppressors, and in every way the island of
Hayti, the principal scene of the actions of Columbus, was treated as if
its inhabitants had committed a dreadful crime by being in possession
of the wealth which the Spaniards desired for themselves.
Queen Isabella was greatly opposed to these cruel and unjust
proceedings. She sent back to their native land the slaves which
Columbus had shipped to Spain, and she gave positive orders that no
more of the inhabitants were to be enslaved, and that they were all to be
treated with moderation and kindness. But the Atlantic is a wide ocean,
and Columbus, far away from his royal patron, paid little attention to
her wishes and commands; without going further into the history of this
period, we will simply mention the fact that it was on account of his
alleged atrocities that Columbus was superseded in his command, and
sent back in chains to Spain.
There was another noted personage of the sixteenth century who played
the part of pirate in the new world, and thereby set a most shining
example to the buccaneers of those regions. This was no other than Sir
Francis Drake, one of England's greatest naval commanders.
It is probable that Drake, when he started out in life, was a man of very
law-abiding and orderly disposition, for he was appointed by Queen
Elizabeth a naval chaplain, and, it is said, though there is some doubt
about this, that he was subsequently vicar of a parish. But by nature he
was a sailor, and nothing else, and after having made several voyages
in which he showed himself a good fighter, as well as a good
commander, he undertook, in 1572, an expedition against the Spanish
settlements in the West Indies, for which he had no legal warrant
whatever.
Spain was not at war with England, and when Drake sailed with four
small ships into the port of the little town of Nombre de Dios in the
middle of the night, the inhabitants of the town were as much
astonished as the people of Perth Amboy would be if four armed

vessels were to steam into Raritan Bay, and endeavor to take
possession of the town. The peaceful Spanish townspeople were not at
war with any civilized nation, and they could not understand why bands
of armed men should invade their streets, enter the market-place, fire
their calivers, or muskets, into the air, and then sound a trumpet loud
enough to wake up everybody in the place. Just outside of the town the
invaders had left a portion of their men, and when these heard the
trumpet in the market-place, they also fired their guns; all this noise
and hubbub so frightened the good people of the