. It was
his custom in the daytime to walk about, carrying a drawn cutlass,
resting easily upon his arm, edge up, very much as a fine gentleman
carries his high silk hat, and any one who should impertinently stare or
endeavor to quell his high spirits in any other way, would probably have
felt the edge of that cutlass descending rapidly through his physical
organism.

He was a man who insisted upon being obeyed, and if any one of his crew
behaved improperly, or was even found idle, this strict and inexorable
master would cut him down where he stood. But although he was so strict
and exacting during the business sessions of his piratical year, by
which I mean when he was cruising around after prizes, he was very much
more disagreeable when he was taking a vacation. On his return to
Jamaica after one of his expeditions it was his habit to give himself
some relaxation after the hardships and dangers through which he had
passed, and on such occasions it was a great comfort to Roc to get
himself thoroughly drunk. With his cutlass waving high in the air, he
would rush out into the street and take a whack at every one whom he
met. As far as was possible the citizens allowed him to have the street
to himself, and it was not at all likely that his visits to Jamaica were
looked forward to with any eager anticipations.

Roc, it may be said, was not only a bloody pirate, but a blooded one; he
was thoroughbred. From the time he had been able to assert his
individuality he had been a pirate, and there was no reason to suppose
that he would ever reform himself into anything else. There were no
extenuating circumstances in his case; in his nature there was no alloy,
nor moderation, nor forbearance. The appreciative Esquemeling, who might
be called the Boswell of the buccaneers, could never have met his hero
Roc, when that bushy-bearded pirate was running "amuck" in the streets,
but if he had, it is not probable that his book would have been written.
He assures us that when Roc was not drunk he was esteemed, but at the
same time feared; but there are various ways of gaining esteem, and
Roc's method certainly succeeded very well in the case of his literary
associate.

As we have seen, the hatred of the Spaniards by the buccaneers began
very early in the settlement of the West Indies, and in fact, it is very
likely that if there had been no Spaniards there would never have been
any buccaneers; but in all the instances of ferocious enmi