He had not only taken a fine Spanish ship, he had not only
bearded the Governor of Havana in his fortified den, but he had struck
off ninety heads with his own hand. Even people who did not care for him
before reverenced him now. In all the annals of piracy no hero had ever
done such a deed as this, and the best records of human butchering had
been broken.
Now grand and ambitious ideas began to swell the head of this champion
slaughterer, and he conceived the plan of getting up a grand expedition
to go forth and capture the important town of Maracaibo, in New
Venezuela. This was an enterprise far above the ordinary aims of a
buccaneer, and it would require more than ordinary force to accomplish
it. He therefore set himself to work to enlist a large number of men and
to equip a fleet of vessels, of which he was to be chief commander or
admiral. There were a great many unemployed pirates in Tortuga at that
time, and many a brawny rascal volunteered to sail under the flag of the
daring butcher of the seas.
But in order to equip a fleet, money was necessary as well as men,
and therefore L'Olonnois thought himself very lucky when he succeeded
in interesting the principal piratical capitalist of Tortuga in his
undertaking. This was an old and seasoned buccaneer by the name of
Michael de Basco, who had made money enough by his piratical exploits
to retire from business and live on his income.
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