s
the town of Gibraltar. To attack these was a desperate enterprise; but
L'Olonnois stole past the forts, and frightened the townsfolk into the
woods. As a rule the Spaniards made the poorest resistance; there were
examples of courage, but none of conduct. With strong forts, heavy guns,
many men, provisions, and ammunition, they quailed before the desperate
valour of the pirates. The towns were sacked, the fugitives hunted out
in the woods, and the most abominable tortures were applied to make them
betray their friends and reveal their treasures. When they were silent,
or had no treasures to declare, they were hacked, twisted, burned, and
starved to death.

Such were the manners of L'Olonnois; and Captain Morgan, of Wales, was
even more ruthless.

Gibraltar was well fortified and strengthened after Maracaibo fell; new
batteries were raised, the way through the woods was barricaded, and no
fewer than eight hundred men were under arms to resist a small pirate
force, exhausted by debauch, and having its retreat cut off by the forts
at the mouth of the great salt-water loch. But L'Olonnois did not
blench: he told the men that audacity was their one hope, also that he
would pistol the first who gave ground. The men cheered
enthusiastically, and a party of three hundred and fifty landed. The
barricaded way they could not force, and in a newly cut path they met a
strong battery which fired grape. But L'Olonnois was invincible. He
tried that old trick which rarely fails, a sham retreat, and this lured
the Spaniards from their earthwork on the path. The pirates then turned,
sword in hand, slew two hundred of the enemy, and captured eight guns.
The town yielded, the people fled to the woods, and then began the wonted
sport of torturing the prisoners. Maracaibo they ransomed afresh,
obtained a pilot, passed the forts with ease, and returned after sacking
a small province. On a dividend being declared, they parted 260,000
pieces-of-eight among the band, and spent the pillage in a revel of three
weeks.

L'Olonnois "got great repute" by this conduct, but I rejoice to add that
in a raid on Nicaragua he "miserably perished," and met what Mr.
Esquemeling calls "his unfortunate death." For L'Olonnois was really an
ungentlemanly character. He would hack a Spaniard to pieces, tear out
his heart, and "gnaw it with his teeth like a ravenous wolf, saying to
the rest, 'I will serve you all alike if you show me not another way