Public-domain ebook
Language: en3,374 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Pirates, Buccaneers, Corsairs, etc.·History - European·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #19139.
The work is a scholarly study of seventeenth‑century English and French buccaneers in the Caribbean, written as a thesis for the Oxford Board of Modern History in 1909. Its opening frames the subject by noting how familiar the basic exploits are from sources such as Exquemelin, the Jesuit chroniclers, and the narratives of Dampier and Wafer, then argues that those accounts have never been weighed against a broader set of documents. The author promises a narrative drawn from the “most authentic, available sources” while also tracing the policies of the English and French governments toward the sea‑rovers, a perspective that sets this book apart from the many popular romances that have followed the same traditional material.
The prose reflects early‑twentieth‑century academic style: formal, densely detailed, and heavily footnoted, with a tone that balances critical analysis and descriptive narrative. Readers who enjoy rigorous colonial history, the legal and diplomatic dimensions of piracy, or the historiography of the Caribbean will find it rewarding, as will scholars interested in the interplay between imperial policy and the privateering phenomenon.
The opening · free to read
The principal facts about the exploits of the English and French buccaneers of the seventeenth century in the West Indies are sufficiently well known to modern readers. The French Jesuit historians of the Antilles have left us many interesting details of their mode of life, and Exquemelin's history of the freebooters has been reprinted numerous times both in France and in England. Based upon these old, contemporary narratives, modern accounts are issued from the press with astonishing regularity, some of them purporting to be serious history, others appearing in the more popular and entertaining guise of romances. All, however, are alike in confining themselves for their information to what may almost be called the traditional sources--Exquemelin, the Jesuits, and perhaps a few narratives like those of Dampier and Wafer. To write another history of these privateers or pirates, for they have, unfortunately, more than once deserved that name, may seem a rather fruitless undertaking. It is justified only by the fact that there exist numerous other documents bearing upon the subject, documents which till now have been entirely neglected. Exquemelin has been reprinted, the story of the buccaneers has been re-told, yet no writer, whether editor or historian, has attempted to estimate the trustworthiness of the old tales by comparing them with these other sources, or to show the connection between the buccaneers and the history of the English colonies in the West Indies. The object of this volume, therefore, is not only to give a narrative, according to the most authentic, available sources, of the more brilliant exploits of these sea-rovers, but, what is of greater interest and importance, to trace the policy pursued toward them by the English and French Governments.
The "Buccaneers in the West Indies" was presented as a thesis to the Board of Modern History of Oxford University in May 1909 to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Letters. It was written under the supervision of C.H. Firth, Regius Professor of Modern History in Oxford, and to him the writer owes a lasting debt of gratitude for his unfailing aid and sympathy during the course of preparation.
C.H.H.
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