He made the acquaintance of some of the French colonial
officers in the West Indies, and obtaining from them letters of
introduction to the Treasurer-General of France, he went home as a
gentleman who had acquired a fortune by successful enterprises in the
new world.
The pirate who not only possesses a sense of propriety and a sensitive
mind, but is also gifted with an ability to write a book in which he
describes his own actions and adventures, is to be credited with unusual
advantages, and as Raveneau de Lussan possessed these advantages, he has
come down to posterity as a high-minded pirate.
Chapter XXI
Exit Buccaneer; Enter Pirate
The buccaneers of the West Indies and South America had grown to be a
most formidable body of reckless freebooters. From merely capturing
Spanish ships, laden with the treasures taken from the natives of the
new world, they had grown strong enough to attack Spanish towns and
cities. But when they became soldiers and marched in little armies, the
patience of the civilized world began to weaken: Panama, for instance,
was an important Spanish city; England was at peace with Spain;
therefore, when a military force composed mainly of Englishmen, and led
by a British subject, captured and sacked the said Spanish city, England
was placed in an awkward position; if she did not interfere with her
buccaneers, she would have a quarrel to settle with Spain.
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