Pyrates...

I just finished my three week intense course on pirates so I’ve been reading A LOT about pirates. I never thought I would care much for Latin American history but when pirates are involved… we read a couple of books for the class “Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750” by Kris E Lane and “The Buccaneers of America” by Alexander O. Exquemelin. Pillaging the Empire was a really enjoyable text that synthesized all the different epochs of American Piracy. Exquemelin was a contemporary of the late Buccaneers, so his narrative is very interesting with anecdotes like 70 foot long cayman and Buccaneers who ate the hearts of their victims.

A couple sections I liked:
“Now we called each other nothing but brothers – but then, when we were short of food, if we passed within half a dozen yards were in each other’s way.” (pg.224 –Dover Edition)

“She found it hard to believe he had violent intentions, as it ill became a leader who wielded real power to make such demands on one whose life was in his hands.” (pg. 202)

“Then L’Olonnais being possessed of a devil’s fury, ripped open one of the prisoners with his cutlass, tore the living heart out of his body, gnawed at it, and then hurled it in the face of one of the others, saying, ‘Show me another way, or I will do the same to you.’” (pg. 107)

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest –
Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest –
Yp ho ho, and a bottle of rum!