. There was a steady demand for smoked meat and hides,
and France was only too ready to get these from a Spanish colony without
payment of any dues thereon.

"At the beginning of the seventeenth century the buccaneers--at that
time only hunters--settled in small groups on the island of Hispaniola.
Such a policy was dangerous. Time after time parties of Spanish soldiery
raided the settlements, killing most of the hunters and putting the
prisoners to the torture. In desperation, the buccaneers decided to
abandon Hispaniola. They united their forces and sailed to the island of
St. Kitts, nominally in the hands of Spain, but then inhabited only by
Caribs.

"The French government at once extended its protection to St. Kitts,
thus practically seizing it from Spain and claimed it as a possession.
Great Britain agreed to support France in this illegal seizure and thus
the little colony of St. Kitts was held safe under both French and
English governments, which actually supported the hunting ventures of
the buccaneers, and winked at the piratic raids which generally formed a
part of the buccaneering expeditions.

"But it was not to be expected that the Spanish would keep still under
the continual pillage of these plundering hunters. The Dons undertook
to destroy the small vessels in which the buccaneers sailed and, before
three years had passed, fully one-half of the buccaneers sailing from
St. Kitts had been savagely slaughtered. These outrages prompted
reprisals from the English and the French and thus the privateers came
into the field."

"What's a privateer?" queried Stuart.

"I was just about to tell you," answered Cecil. "A privateer on the
Caribbean and the Spanish Main, in those days, was a man who had
sufficient money or sufficient reputation to secure a ship and a crew
with which to wage war against the enemies of his country. As his own
government had given nothing but permission to his venture, it gained
nothing but glory from it. The privateer had the right to all the booty
and plunder he could secure by capturing an enemy's ship, or raiding an
enemy's settlement. The plunder was divided among the crew. Thus, a
lucky voyage, in which, for example, a Spanish treasure-ship was
captured, would make every member of the crew rich. Some of these
privateers, after one or so prosperous voyages, settled down and became
wealthy planters. The great Sir Francis Drake, on several of his
voyages, went as a privateer."

"A