ried a gun of a peculiar make, with a
barrel four and a half feet long and a spade-shaped stock. The long
barrel made the gun carry very true. For ramrods they carried three or
four straight sticks of lance wood--a wood almost as hard as iron, and
much more easily replaced. The balls used, weighed from one to two
ounces apiece. The powder was of the very best make known. It was
exported specially from Normandy--a country which sent out many
buccaneers, whose phrases still linger in the Norman patois. For powder
flask they used a hollow gourd, which was first dried in the sun. When
it had dried to a fitting hardness it was covered with cuir-bouilli, or
boiled leather, which made it watertight. A pointed stopper secured the
mouth, and made a sort of handle to the whole, by which it could be
secured to the strap which the hunter slung across his shoulders. Each
hunter carried a light tent, made of linen or thin canvas. The tents
rolled up into a narrow compass, like a bandolier, so that they could be
carried without trouble. The woods were so thick that the leggings of
the huntsmen had to be of special strength. They were made of bull or
boar hide, the hair worn outwards.[6] Moccasins, or shoes for hunting,
were made of dressed bull's hide. The clothes worn at sea or while out
hunting were "uniformly slovenly." A big heavy hat, wide in the brim and
running up into a peak, protected the wearer from sunstroke. A dirty
linen shirt, which custom decreed should not be washed, was the usual
wear. It tucked into a dirty pair of linen drawers or knickerbockers,
which garments were always dyed a dull red in the blood of the beasts
killed. A sailor's belt went round the waist, with a long machete or
sheath-knife secured to it at the back. Such was the attire of a master
hunter, buccaneer, or Brother of the Coast. Many of them had valets or
servants sent out to them from France for a term of three years. These
valets were treated with abominable cruelty, and put to all manner of
bitter labour. A valet who had served his time was presented with a gun
and powder, two shirts and a hat--an equipment which enabled him to
enter business on his own account. Every hunting party was arranged on
the system of share and share alike. The parties usually made their
plans at the Tortuga taverns. They agreed with the sugar and tobacco
planters to supply the plantations with meat in exchange for tobacco.
They then loaded up their valets with hunters'