The appreciative Esquemeling, who might
be called the Boswell of the buccaneers, could never have met his hero
Roc, when that bushy-bearded pirate was running "amuck" in the streets,
but if he had, it is not probable that his book would have been written.
He assures us that when Roc was not drunk he was esteemed, but at the
same time feared; but there are various ways of gaining esteem, and
Roc's method certainly succeeded very well in the case of his literary
associate.
As we have seen, the hatred of the Spaniards by the buccaneers began
very early in the settlement of the West Indies, and in fact, it is very
likely that if there had been no Spaniards there would never have been
any buccaneers; but in all the instances of ferocious enmity toward the
Spaniards there has been nothing to equal the feelings of Roc, the
Brazilian, upon that subject. His dislike to everything Spanish arose,
he declared, from cruelties which had been practised upon his parents by
people of that nation, and his main principle of action throughout all
his piratical career seems to have been that there was nothing too bad
for a Spaniard. The object of his life was to wage bitter war against
Spanish ships and Spanish settlements. He seldom gave any quarter to his
prisoners, and would often subject them to horrible tortures in order to
make them tell where he could find the things he wanted.
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