haring in the gains of some buccaneers at the same time that he
punished others, and after the death of Charles II. he was sent to
England and imprisoned, but what eventually became of him we do not
know. If he succeeded in ill-using and defrauding his Satanic Majesty,
there is no record of the fact.

Chapter XX

The Story of a High-Minded Pirate

After having considered the extraordinary performances of so many of
those execrable wretches, the buccaneers, it is refreshing and
satisfactory to find that there were exceptions even to the rules which
governed the conduct and general make-up of the ordinary pirate of the
period, and we are therefore glad enough to tell the story of a man,
who, although he was an out-and-out buccaneer, possessed some peculiar
characteristics which give him a place of his own in the history of
piracy.

In the early part of these sketches we have alluded to a gentleman of
France, who, having become deeply involved in debt, could see no way of
putting himself in a condition to pay his creditors but to go into
business of some kind. He had no mercantile education, he had not
learned any profession, and it was therefore necessary for him to do
something for which a previous preparation was not absolutely essential.

After having carefully considered all the methods of making money which
were open to him under the circumstances, he finally concluded to take
up piracy and literature. Even at the present day it is considered by
many persons that one of these branches of industry is a field of action
especially adapted to those who have not had the opportunity of giving
the time and study necessary in any other method of making a living.

The French gentleman whose adventures we are about to relate was a very
different man from John Esquemeling, who was a literary pirate and
nothing more. Being of a clerkly disposition, the gentle John did not
pretend to use the sabre or the pistol. His part in life was simply to
watch his companions fight, burn, and steal, while his only weapon was
his pen, with which he set down their exploits and thereby murdered
their reputations.

But Monsieur Raveneau de Lussan was both buccaneer and author, and when
he had finished his piratical career he wrote a book in which he gave a
full account of it, thus showing that although he had not been brought
up to a business life, he had very good ideas about money-making.

More than that, he had very good ideas