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Very prominent
among the early regular buccaneers was a Frenchman who
came to be called Peter the Great. This man seems to
have been one of those adventurers who were not buccaneers
in the earlier sense of the word (by which I mean they
were not traders who touched at Spanish settlements
to procure cattle and hides, and who were prepared to
fight any Spaniards who might interfere with them),
but they were men who came from Europe on purpose, to
prey upon Spanish possessions, whether on land or sea.
Some of them made a rough sort of settlement on the
island of Tortuga, and then it was that Peter the Great
seems to have come into prominence. He gathered about
him a body of adherents, but although he had a great
reputation as an individual pirate, it seems to have
been a good while before he achieved any success as
a leader.
The fortunes of Peter and his men must have been at
a pretty low ebb when they found themselves cruising
in a large, canoe shaped boat not far from the island
of Hispaniola. There were twenty nine of them in all,
and they were not able to procure a vessel suitable
for their purpose. They had been a long time floating
about in an aimless way, hoping to see some Spanish
merchant-vessel which they might attack and possibly
capture, but no such vessel appeared. Their provisions
began to give out, the men were hungry, discontented,
and grumbling. In fact, they were in almost as bad a
condition as were the sailors of Columbus just before
they discovered signs of land, after their long and
weary voyage across the Atlantic.
When Peter and his men were almost on the point of despair,
they perceived, far away upon the still waters, a large
ship. With a great jump, hope sprang up in the breast
of every man. They seized the oars and pulled in the
direction of the distant craft. But when they were near
enough, they saw that the vessel was not a merchantman,
probably piled with gold and treasure, but a man of
war belonging to the Spanish fleet. In fact, it was
the vessel of the Vice Admiral. This was an astonishing
and disheartening state of things. It was very much
as if a lion, hearing the approach of probable prey,
had sprung from the thicket where he had been concealed,
and had beheld before him, not a fine, fat deer, but
an immense and scrawny elephant.
But the twenty nine buccaneers in the crew were very
hungry. They had not come out upon those waters to attack
men of war, but, more than that, they had not come out
to perish by hunger and thirst. There could be no doubt
that there was plenty to eat and to drink on that tall
Spanish vessel, and if they could not get food and water
they could not live more than a day or two longer.
Under the circumstances it was not long before Peter
the Great made up his mind that if his men would stand
by him, he would endeavour to capture that Spanish war
vessel; when he put the question to his crew they all
swore that they would follow him and obey his orders
as long as life was left in their bodies. To attack
a vessel armed with cannon, and manned by a crew very
much larger than their little party, seemed almost like
throwing themselves upon certain death. But still, there
was a chance that in some way they might get the better
of the Spaniards; whereas, if they rowed away again
into the solitudes of the ocean, they would give up
all chance of saving themselves from death by starvation.
Steadily, therefore, they pulled toward the Spanish
vessel, and slowly, for there was but little wind she
approached them.
The people in the man of war did not fail to perceive
the little boat far out on the ocean, and some of them
sent to the captain and reported the fact. The news,
however, did not interest him, for he was engaged in
playing cards in his cabin, and it was not until an
hour afterward that he consented to come on deck and
look out toward the boat which had been sighted, and
which was now much nearer.
Taking a good look at the boat, and perceiving that
it was nothing more than a canoe, the captain laughed
at the advice of some of his officers, who thought it
would be well to fire a few cannon shot and sink the
little craft. The captain thought it would be a useless
proceeding. He did not know anything about the people
in the boat, and he did not very much care, but he remarked
that if they should come near enough, it might be a
good thing to put out some tackle and haul them and
their boat on deck, after which they might be examined
and questioned whenever it should suit his convenience.
Then he went down to his cards.
If Peter the Great and his men could have been sure
that if they were to row alongside the Spanish vessel
they would have been quietly hauled on deck and examined,
they would have been delighted at the opportunity. With
cutlasses, pistols, and knives, they were more than
ready to demonstrate to the Spaniards what sort of fellows
they were, and the captain would have found hungry pirates
uncomfortable persons to question.
But it seemed to Peter and his crew a very difficult
thing indeed to get themselves on board the man of war,
so they curbed their ardour and enthusiasm, and waited
until nightfall before approaching nearer. As soon as
it became dark enough they slowly and quietly paddled
toward the great ship, which was now almost becalmed.
There were no lights in the boat, and the people on
the deck of the vessel saw and heard nothing on the
dark waters around them.
When they were very near the man of war, the captain
of the buccaneers, according to the ancient accounts
of this adventure, ordered his chirurgeon, or surgeon,
to bore a large hole in the bottom of their canoe. It
is probable that this officer, with his saws and other
surgical instruments, was expected to do carpenter work
when there were no duties for him to perform in the
regular line of his profession. At any rate, he went
to work, and noiselessly bored the hole.
This remarkable proceeding showed the desperate character
of these pirates. A great, almost impossible task was
before them, and nothing but absolute recklessness could
enable them to succeed. If his men should meet with
strong opposition from the Spaniards in the proposed
attack, and if any of them should become frightened
and try to retreat to the boat, Peter knew that all
would be lost, and consequently he determined to make
it impossible for any man to get away in that boat.
If they could not conquer the Spanish vessel they must
die on her decks.
When the half sunken canoe touched the sides of the
vessel, the pirates, seizing every rope or projection
on which they could lay their hands, climbed up the
sides of the man of war, as if they had been twenty
nine cats, and springing over the rail, dashed upon
the sailors who were on deck. These men were utterly
stupefied and astounded. They had seen nothing, they
had heard nothing, and all of a sudden they were confronted
with savage fellows with cutlasses and pistols.
Some of the crew looked over the sides to see where
these strange visitors had come from, but they saw nothing,
for the canoe had gone to the bottom. Then they were
filled with a superstitious horror, believing that the
wild visitors were devils who had dropped from the sky,
for there seemed no other place from which they could
come. Making no attempt to defend themselves, the sailors,
wild with terror, tumbled below and hid themselves,
without even giving an alarm.
The Spanish captain was still playing cards, and whether
he was winning or losing, the old historians do not
tell us, but very suddenly a newcomer took a hand in
the game. This was Peter the Great, and he played the
ace of trumps. With a great pistol in his hand, he called
upon the Spanish captain to surrender. That noble commander
glanced around. There was a savage pirate holding a
pistol at the head of each of the officers at the table.
He threw up his cards. The trick was won by Peter and
his men.
The rest of the game was easy enough. When the pirates
spread themselves over the vessel, the frightened crew
got out of sight as well as they could. Some, who attempted
to seize their arms in order to defend themselves, were
ruthlessly cut down or shot, and when the hatches had
been securely fastened upon the sailors who had fled
below, Peter the Great was captain and owner of that
tall Spanish man of war.
It is quite certain that the first thing these pirates
did to celebrate their victory was to eat a rousing
good supper, and then they took charge of the vessel,
and sailed her triumphantly over the waters on which,
not many hours before, they had feared that a little
boat would soon be floating, filled with their emaciated
bodies.
This most remarkable success of Peter the Great worked
a great change of course in the circumstances of himself
and his men. But it worked a greater change in the career,
and possibly in the character, of the captain. He was
now a very rich man, and all his followers had plenty
of money. The Spanish vessel was amply supplied with
provisions, and there was also on board a great quantity
of gold bullion, which was to be shipped to Spain. In
fact, Peter and his men had booty enough to satisfy
any sensible pirate. Now we all know that sensible pirates,
and people in any sphere of life who are satisfied when
they have enough, are very rare indeed, and therefore
it is not a little surprising that the bold buccaneer,
whose story we are now telling, should have proved that
he merited, in a certain way, the title his companions
had given him.
Sailing his prize to the shores of Hispaniola, Peter
put on shore all the Spaniards whose services he did
not desire. The rest of his prisoners he compelled to
help his men work the ship, and then, without delay,
he sailed away to France, and there he retired entirely
from the business of piracy, and set himself up as a
gentleman of wealth and leisure.
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