ould be treated in the same way, no matter where they might
be found and taken. Consequently, it was represented to the Governor
that his plan of vengeance would work most disastrously for the Spanish
settlers, for the buccaneers could do far more damage to them than he
could possibly do to these dreadful Brethren of the Coast, and that,
unless he wished to bring upon them troubles greater than those of
famine or pestilence, they begged that he would retract his oath.

When the high dignitary had cooled down a little, he saw that there was
a good deal of sense in what the representative of the people had said
to him, and he consequently felt obliged, in consideration of the public
safety, to take back what he had said, and to give up the purpose, which
would have rendered unsafe the lives of so many peaceable people.

L'Olonnois was now the possessor of a fine vessel which had not been in
the least injured during the battle in which it had been won. But his
little crew, some of whom had been killed and wounded, was insufficient
to work such a ship upon an important cruise on the high seas, and he
also discovered, much to his surprise, that there were very few
provisions on board, for when the vessel was sent from Havana it was
supposed she would make but a very short cruise. This savage swinger of
the cutlass thereupon concluded that he would not try to do any great
thing for the present, but, having obtained some booty and men from the
woe-begone town of de los Cayos, he sailed away, touching at several
other small ports for the purpose of pillage, and finally anchoring at
Tortuga.

Chapter XIV

Villany on a Grand Scale

When L'Olonnois landed on the disreputable shores of Tortuga, he was
received by all circles of the vicious society of the island with loud
acclamation. He had not only taken a fine Spanish ship, he had not only
bearded the Governor of Havana in his fortified den, but he had struck
off ninety heads with his own hand. Even people who did not care for him
before reverenced him now. In all the annals of piracy no hero had ever
done such a deed as this, and the best records of human butchering had
been broken.

Now grand and ambitious ideas began to swell the head of this champion
slaughterer, and he conceived the plan of getting up a grand expedition
to go forth and capture the important town of Maracaibo, in New
Venezuela. This was an enterprise far above the ordinary aims of a
buccaneer,