n even to this day accounts
reach us, through the Press, of piratical enterprises; but never again
will the black, rakish-looking craft of the pirate, with the Jolly Roger
flying, be liable to pounce down upon the unsuspecting and harmless
merchantman.

The books devoted to the lives and exploits of buccaneers and pirates are
few. Indeed, but two stand out prominently, both masterpieces of their
kind. One, "The Bucaniers of America, or a True Account of the Most
Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years upon the Coasts of the West
Indies," etc., was written by a sea-surgeon to the buccaneers, A.O.
Exquemelin, a Dutchman, and was published at Amsterdam in 1679.

Many translations were made, the first one in English being published in
1684 by William Crooke, at the Green Dragon, without Temple Bar, in
London. The publication of this book was the cause of a libel action
brought by Sir Henry Morgan against the publisher; the buccaneer commander
won his case and was granted L200 damages and a public apology. In this
book Morgan was held up as a perfect monster for his cruel treatment to
his prisoners, but although Morgan resented this very much, the statement
that annoyed him much more was that which told the reader that Morgan came
of very humble stock and was sold by his parents when a boy, to serve as a
labourer in Barbadoes.

The greatest work on pirates was written in 1726 by Captain Charles
Johnson. The original edition, now exceedingly rare, is called "A General
History of the Pyrates, from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island
of Providence, to the Present Time," and is illustrated by interesting
engravings.

Another edition, in 1734, is a handsome folio called "A General History of
the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen," etc., "To which
is added a Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the Most
Notorious Pyrates," and contains many full-page copperplates by J. Basire
and others. The pirates are given only a share in the pages of this book,
but it has some very fine engravings of such famous pirates as Avery,
Roberts, Low, Lowther, and "Blackbeard."

The third edition of the "History of Pirates," of 1725, has a quaint
frontispiece, showing the two women pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, in
action with their swords drawn, upon the deck of a ship. While the fourth
edition, published in 1726, in two volumes, contains the stories of the
less well-known South-Sea Rovers.

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