The Buccaneers of America

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Pirate Reference
Review: I study pirates as a past time hobbie and almost all modern pirate histories use this as their source book. I have yet to find another book with actual accounts other then speculations.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Pirate Reference
Review: This book is a great read for those that are interested in pirates. It takes you through the days when the Bucaneers ruled the waters around Hispanola. The author goes into detail of life on the islands around Hispanola in the 16th century. He describes the plants, animals and landscape of the islands that were used by the Bucaneers. Some may find all the description hard to get through, but if you have an interest in how life was as a Bucaneer this is a must read. If you stick with it through the descriptions the second half of the book goes into the raids and atroscities of the Bucaneers. He gives a detailed account of some of the more famous Bucaneers and their horrible acts against those that lived in the towns that they raided. The book is easy to read and it will for the most part entertain you throughout. Well worth the time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Enthralling Tale of the Brutality of the Pirates.
Review: This first person account of life amoung the buccaneers stands as one of preeminate volumes on the Golden Age of Piracy. Exquemelin (sometimes spelled Esquemling) takes us aboard a pirate sloop as the pillaging, plundering and debauchery reaches ever-increasing levels of depravity. If you really want to experience what the brutal life of a pirate was truly like, then this book is a must read. Forget what you've seen in the movies. This book is a perfect introduction to historical piracy.

Rating:
Summary: Enthralling Tale of the Brutality of the Pirates.
Review: This first person account of life amoung the buccaneers stands as one of preeminate volumes on the Golden Age of Piracy. Exquemelin (sometimes spelled Esquemling) takes us aboard a pirate sloop as the pillaging, plundering and debauchery reaches ever-increasing levels of depravity. If you really want to experience what the brutal life of a pirate was truly like, then this book is a must read. Forget what you've seen in the movies. This book is a perfect introduction to historical piracy.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Early History of the Pirates of the Caribbean
Review: This work by the Dutchman Alexander Exquemelin (or Esquemeling) was first published in the Netherlands in 1678 as "De Americaensche Zeerovers" and later translated into English as "The Buccaneers of America" of which this book is a reprint. Exquemelin was himself a buccaneer and claimed to have collected these tales of piracy on the high seas as an eyewitness. It has proven to be one of the only accounts of the 17th century buccaneers of the Spanish Main. Here collected for the first time were the tales of such famous (and infamous) buccanneers like Pierre LeGrand, Francis L'Ollonais, and Henry Morgan.

The buccaneers started out fairly innocuously enough as hunters on the Spanish controlled island of Hispanola. But as they grew more numerous, they were ruthlessly persecuted by the Spanish authorities and driven onto the island of Tortuga. This treatment fuled an unparalled hatred for the Spanish and gave rise to some of the cruelest acts of violence in the history of piracy. Of the pirates discussed here, many, like the dread pirate L'Ollonais, were known for their almost unrivaled cruelty in the treatment of captives. L'Ollonais was said to have cut out the hearts of Spanish captives and eaten them to frighten the others into revealing information he wanted. Of all, Captain Henry Morgan is by far the most famous and remembered of the buccaneers. Morgan was known for his daring acts against the Spanish and for his capture and sack of Panama, then the rendezvous point for the Spanish gold fleet. Later, he went on to fame and fortune as the governor of Jamaica.

The buccaneers passed into history with the close of the 17th century. The Golden Age of piracy was to peak in the early 18th century, by which time the older buccaneers had faded away, and with them the days when the Spanish ruled the New World. But Exquemeling's work will forever capture the spirit and adventure of these days long gone. Highly recommended.