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Captain William Kidd
and Others of the
Buccaneers

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Captain William Kidd
and Others of the
Buccaneers

By

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT

New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
Publishers

Copyright 1874,
BY
DODD & MEAD.

Copyright 1902,
BY
LAURA ABBOTT BUCK.

There can scarcely anything be found in the literature of our language,more wild and wonderful, than the narrative contained in this volume.The extraordinary career of Captain Kidd, a New-York merchant, thedemoniac feats of those fiends in human form, Bonnet, Barthelemy, andLolonois; the romantic history of the innocent female pirate Mary Read,and of the termagant Anne Bonney; the amazing career of Sir HenryMorgan, and the fanaticism of Montbar, scarcely surpassed by that ofMohammed or Loyola, combine in creating a story, which the imaginationof Dickens or Dumas could scarcely rival.

And yet these incidents seem to be well authenticated. The writer hasdrawn his facts from Esquemeling’s Zee Roovers, Amsterdam, 4to, 1684;Oexemelin’s Histoire des Aventuriers, 12mo, Paris,iv 1688; Johnson’sHistory of the Pirates, 2 vols., London, 1724; Thornbury’s Monarchsof the Main, 3 vols., London, 1855; History of the Buccaneersof America, 1 vol. 8vo, Boston, 1855; with many other pamphlets,encyclopædias, and secondary works.

In exploring this hitherto almost unknown field of research, the writerhas been as much surprised at the awful scenes which have opened beforehim, as any of his readers can be. There are but few thinking men whowill peruse this narrative, to whom the suggestion will not arise,“What a different world would this have been, and would it now be, wereall its inhabitants conscientiously, prayerfully, with brotherly lovestriving to do right.” And this is the religion of Jesus. He has taughtus to pray “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.”