perstitious of Connecticut and Long
Island, it was owing to these bloody charms that honest money-diggers
have ever experienced so much difficulty in removing these buried
treasures. Often, indeed, have the lids of the iron chests rung beneath
the mattock of the stealthy midnight searcher for gold; but the flashes
of sulphurous fires, blue and red, and the saucer eyes and chattering
teeth of legions of demons have uniformly interposed to frighten the
delvers from their posts, and preserve the treasures from their greedy
clutches. But notwithstanding the harrowing sensations connected with
the name of Kidd, and his renown as a pirate, he was but one of the last
and most inconsiderable of that mighty race of sea robbers who, during a
long series of years in the seventeenth century, were the admiration of
the world for their prowess, and its terror for their crimes.

The community of buccaneers was first organized upon the small island of
Tortuga, situated on the north side of St. Domingo, at the distance of
about two leagues from the latter. It was upon this island that the
first European colony was planted in the New World, in the year and
month of its discovery. But although the colony became considerable, and
flourished so long as the natives remained in sufficient numbers to
cultivate the plantations of the Spaniards, yet it did not take vigorous
root. The numbers of the natives were greatly reduced by the arms of
their conquerors, and were afterward still more rapidly diminished by
oppression; and although an attempt was made to supply their places by a
forced importation of forty thousand Indians from the Bahamas, the
experiment was of little avail. In less than half a century, the
aboriginal race was extinct. The country was beautiful beyond
description: rich in its mines, and its soil of unexceeded fertility.
But the Spaniard, if not by nature indolent, is prone to luxury. The
earth producing by handfuls, the colonists saw little necessity of
laborious exertion. They accordingly degenerated from the spirit and
enterprise of their ancestors, and fell into habits of voluptuous
idleness. Agriculture was neglected, and the mines deserted. Contenting
themselves with a bare supply of the wants of nature, they sank into
such a state of indolence, that many of their slaves had no other
employment than to swing them in their hammocks the livelong day. No
colony could nourish composed of such a people. During the first half