these freebooters who
played so large a part in the history of the West Indies in the
seventeenth century, and it forms the basis of all the popular modern
accounts of Morgan and other buccaneer captains. Exquemelin, although he
sadly confuses his dates, seems to be a perfectly honest witness, and
his accounts of such transactions as fell within his own experience are
closely corroborated by the official narratives.

(Biographies of Exquemelin are contained in the "Biographie Universelle"
of Michaud, vol. xxxi. p. 201, and in the "Nouvelle Biographie Generale"
of Hoefer, vol. xxxviii. p. 544. But both are very unsatisfactory and
display a lamentable ignorance of the bibliography of his history of the
buccaneers. According to the preface of a French edition of the work
published at Lyons in 1774 and cited in the "Nouvelle Biographie,"
Exquemelin was born about 1645 and died after 1707.)

The first edition of the book, now very rare, is entitled:

De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Behelsende eene pertinente
en waerachtige Beschrijving van alle de voornaemste
Roveryen en onmenschliycke wreend heden die Englese en
France Rovers tegens de Spanjaerden in America gepleeght
hebben; Verdeelt in drie deelen ... Beschreven door A.
O. Exquemelin ... t'Amsterdam, by Jan ten Hoorn, anno
1678, in 4