Chapter Page

I. The Bold Buccaneers 1

II.  Some Masters in Piracy 7

III.  Pupils in Piracy 16

IV.  Peter the Great 23

V. The Story of a Pearl Pirate 31

VI.  The Surprising Adventures of Bartholemy Portuguez 39

VII.  The Pirate who could not Swim 49

VIII.  How Bartholemy rested Himself 59

IX.  A Pirate Author 65

X. The Story of Roc, the Brazilian 72

XI.  A Buccaneer Boom 89

XII.  The Story of L’Olonnois the Cruel 94

XIII.  A Resurrected Pirate 100

XIV.  Villany on a Grand Scale 109

XV.  A Just Reward 119

XVI.  A Pirate Potentate 132

XVII.  How Morgan was helped by Some Religious People 145

XVIII.  A Piratical Aftermath 153

XIX.  A Tight Place for Morgan 159

XX.  The Story of a High-Minded Pirate 171

XXI.  Exit Buccaneer; Enter Pirate 192

XXII.  The Great Blackbeard comes upon the Stage 200

XXIII.  A True-Hearted Sailor draws his Sword 210

XXIV.  A Greenhorn under the Black Flag 217

XXV.  Bonnet again to the Front 224

XXVI.  The Battle of the Sand Bars 233

XXVII.  A Six Weeks’ Pirate 243

XXVIII.  The Story of Two Women Pirates 253

XXIX.  A Pirate from Boyhood 263

XXX.  A Pirate of the Gulf 277

XXXI.  The Pirate of the Buried Treasure 291

XXXII.  The Real Captain Kidd 309

[Illustration:  The Haunts of “The Brethren of the Coast”]

Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts

Chapter I

The Bold Buccaneers

When I was a boy I strongly desired to be a pirate, and the reason for this was the absolute independence of that sort of life.  Restrictions of all sorts had become onerous to me, and in my reading of the adventures of the bold sea-rovers of the main, I had unconsciously selected those portions of a pirate’s life which were attractive to me, and had totally disregarded all the rest.