But it was very difficult to control the Englishmen. They would rob and
destroy a church as willingly as if it were the home of a peaceful
family, and although their conscientious commander did everything he
could to prevent their excesses, he did not always succeed. If he had
known what was likely to happen, his party would have consisted entirely
of Frenchmen.
Another thing which disappointed and annoyed the gentlemanly de Lussan
was the estimation in which the buccaneers were held by the ladies of
the country through which he was passing. He soon found that the women
in the Spanish settlements had the most horrible ideas regarding the
members of the famous "Brotherhood of the Coast." To be sure, all the
Spanish settlers, and a great part of the natives of the country, were
filled with horror and dismay whenever they heard that a company of
buccaneers was within a hundred miles of their homes, and it is not
surprising that this was the case, for the stories of the atrocities and
cruelties of these desperadoes had spread over the western world.
But the women of the settlements looked upon the buccaneers with greater
fear and abhorrence than the men could possibly feel, for the belief
was almost universal among them that buccaneers were terrible monsters
of cannibal habits who delighted in devouring human beings, especially
if they happened to be young and tender.
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