This man was John Esquemeling, supposed by some to be a Dutchman, and by
others a native of France. He sailed to the West Indies in the year
1666, in the service of the French West India Company. He went out as a
peaceable merchant clerk, and had no more idea of becoming a pirate
than he had of going into literature, although he finally did both.
At that time the French West India Company had a colonial establishment
on the island of Tortuga, which was principally inhabited, as we have
seen before, by buccaneers in all their various grades and stages, from
beef-driers to pirates. The French authorities undertook to supply these
erratic people with the goods and provisions which they needed, and
built storehouses with everything necessary for carrying on the trade.
There were plenty of purchasers, for the buccaneers were willing to buy
everything which could be brought from Europe. They were fond of good
wine, good groceries, good firearms, and ammunition, fine cutlasses, and
very often good clothes, in which they could disport themselves when on
shore. But they had peculiar customs and manners, and although they were
willing to buy as much as the French traders had to sell, they could not
be prevailed upon to pay their bills. A pirate is not the sort of a man
who generally cares to pay his bills.
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