their commander," began
to settle on the coast in little fellowships.[4] They set on foot a
regular traffic with the ships which anchored there. They killed great
quantities of meat, which they exchanged (to the ships' captains) for
strong waters, muskets, powder and ball, woven stuffs, and iron-ware.
After a time, they began to preserve the hides, "by pegging them out
very tite on the Ground,"--a commodity of value, by which they made much
money. The bones they did not seem to have utilised after they had split
them for their marrow. The tallow and suet were sold to the ships--the
one to grease the ships' bottoms when careened, the other as an article
for export to the European countries. It was a wild life, full of
merriment and danger. The Spaniards killed a number of them, both
French and English, but the casualties on the Spanish side were probably
a good deal the heavier. The huntsmen became more numerous. For all that
the Spaniards could do, their settlements and factories grew larger. The
life attracted people, in spite of all its perils, just as tunny fishing
attracted the young gallant in Cervantes. A day of hunting in the woods,
a night of jollity, with songs, over a cup of drink, among adventurous
companions--_que cosa tan bonita!_ We cannot wonder that it had a
fascination. If a few poor fellows in their leather coats lay out on the
savannahs with Spanish bullets in their skulls, the rum went none the
less merrily about the camp fires of those who got away.

[Footnote 4: See Exquemeling, Burney, and the Abbe Raynal.]

In 1586, on New Year's Day to be exact, Sir Francis Drake arrived off
Hispaniola with his fleet. He had a Greek pilot with him, who helped him
up the roads to within gunshot of St Domingo. The old Spanish city was
not prepared for battle, and the Governor made of it "a New Year's gift"
to the valorous raiders. The town was sacked, and the squadron sailed
away to pillage Cartagena and St Augustine. Drake's raid was so
successful that privateers came swarming in his steps to plunder the
weakened Spanish towns. They settled on the west and north-west coasts
of Hispaniola, compelling any Spanish settlers whom they found to retire
to the east and south. The French and English had now a firm foothold in
the Indies. Without assistance from their respective Governments they
had won the right to live there, "maugre the King of Spain's beard." In
a few years' time, they had become so prosperous that the