owed himself.

[Footnote 9: Similar pacts of comradeship are made among merchant
sailors to this day.]

When a number of buccaneers grew tired of plucking weeds[10] from the
tobacco ground, and felt the allurement of the sea, and longed to go
a-cruising, they used to send an Indian, or a negro slave, to their
fellows up the coast, inviting them to come to drink a dram with them. A
day was named for the rendezvous, and a store was cleared, or a tobacco
drying-house prepared, or perhaps a tent of sails was pitched, for the
place of meeting. Early on the morning fixed for the council, a barrel
of brandy was rolled up for the refreshment of the guests, while the
black slaves put some sweet potatoes in a net to boil for the
gentlemen's breakfasts. Presently a canoa or periagua would come round
the headland from the sea, under a single sail--the topgallant-sail of
some sunk Spanish ship. In her would be some ten or a dozen men, of all
countries, anxious for a cruise upon the Main. Some would be Englishmen
from the tobacco fields on Sixteen-Mile Walk. One or two of them were
broken Royalists, of gentle birth, with a memory in their hearts of
English country houses. Others were Irishmen from Montserrat, the
wretched Kernes deported after the storm of Tredah. Some were French
hunters from the Hispaniola woods, with the tan upon their cheeks, and a
habit of silence due to many lonely marches on the trail. The new-comers
brought their arms with them: muskets with long single barrels, heavy
pistols, machetes, or sword-like knives, and a cask or two of powder and
ball. During the morning other parties drifted in. Hunters, and
planters, and old, grizzled seamen came swaggering down the trackways to
the place of meeting. Most of them were dressed in the dirty shirts and
blood-stained drawers of the profession, but some there were who wore a
scarlet cloak or a purple serape which had been stitched for a Spaniard
on the Main. Among the party were generally some Indians from
Campeachy--tall fellows of a blackish copper colour, with javelins in
their hands for the spearing of fish. All of this company would gather
in the council chamber, where a rich planter sat at a table with some
paper scrolls in front of him.

[Footnote 10: Exquemeling gives many curious details of the life of
these strange people. See the French edition of "Histoire des
Avanturiers."]

As soon as sufficient men had come to muster, the planter[11] would
begin pro