There are persons, however, who doubt his
impartiality, because, as he liked the French, he always gave the
pirates of that nationality the credit for most of the bravery displayed
on their expeditions, and all of the magnanimity and courtesy, if there
happened to be any, while the surliness, brutality, and extraordinary
wickednesses were all ascribed to the English. But be this as it may,
Esquemeling's history was a great success. It was written in Dutch and
was afterwards translated into English, French, and Spanish. It
contained a great deal of information regarding buccaneering in general,
and most of the stories of pirates which we have already told, and many
of the surprising narrations which are to come, have been taken from the
book of this buccaneer historian.
Chapter X
The Story of Roc, the Brazilian
Having given the history of a very plain and quiet buccaneer, who was a
reporter and writer, and who, if he were now living, would be eligible
as a member of an Authors' Club, we will pass to the consideration of a
regular out-and-out pirate, one from whose mast-head would have floated
the black flag with its skull and cross-bones if that emblematic piece
of bunting had been in use by the pirates of the period.
This famous buccaneer was called Roc, because he had to have a name, and
his own was unknown, and "the Brazilian," because he was born in Brazil,
though of Dutch parents.
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