SKETCH OF THE BUCCANEERS OF BARRITARIA—SCENE IN JAMAICA—
A NIGHT EXPEDITION.

About one-fifth of the brief term of years to
which Divine Wisdom has limited the life of man
we have suffered to roll unrecorded down the tide
of time.

Our tale now opens in a new theatre, with
scenes of fresher and more exciting interest, before
which characters move and act who have borne no
inconsiderable part in the great drama of the second,
and last war of independence, between the
United States of the North and Great Britain.

A few years before the commencement of this
memorable and decisive war, a daring band of privateers-men,
inured to every hardship to be

[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]

encountered in storms of battle, or of the elements, and as free
as the winds which filled their flowing sheets, had
obtained commissions from the new government of
Carthagena, then first struggling for independence,
to cruise against the royalists, or vessels sailing under
the flag of Spain. By the authority of these
commissions, they not only made numerous captures
on the great highway of nations, but blockaded
many ports of the royalists in the Mexican
and West India seas.

Giving a latitude to their commissions which the
government from which they received them did not
recognize or foresee, they embraced in them, besides
the ships of the royalists, such other vessels as
they might fall in with, which, on trial, proved unable
to withstand their superior force. From privateers-men,
sailing under the flag of a South American
state, emboldened by success and power, they
became rovers of the wide blue sea, independent of
every flag but their own bright-red banner, and acknowledging
no commission but that written upon
the edge of their gleaming sabres. The flags of
every nation struck to their own, and the broad waters
of the Mexican sea became at the same time
their empire, their battle-field, and their home.

The prizes, their lawless mode of translating
special commissions, and that delusion of the visual
organs which led them to see in every flag, the
gorgeous blazonry of his Majesty of Spain, against
whom they had declared open war, enabled
them to seize, were taken into the secret bayous and
creeks adjacent to the mouth of the Mississippi,
where they were effectually concealed and safe from
capture or pursuit.

The most important passes made use of by these
buccaneers, and with which the scenes of our tale
are more immediately connected, lie about twenty
leagues to the west of the delta of the Mississippi,

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

and about forty miles south-west of the city of
New-Orleans. Here, an arm of the Mexican gulf
extends four or five leagues inland, terminating in
the mouths of several bayous or creeks, which, by
many devious and intricate windings, known only
to the smugglers, reached to within a few miles of
New-Orleans. They were navigable only for
boats, which here were accustomed to discharge
their unlawful freights taken from captured vessels,
from whence, through other and more commercial
hands, it obtained a rapid and secret conveyance to
the city.

This arm of the gulf is termed the bay of Barritaria,
so called, from that system of naval barratry
which characterized the class of men which
usually frequented it. The mouth of this bay, or
lake, as it is more generally denominated, from being
nearly encircled by the land, is defended by a
small island about two leagues in length and three
miles in breadth, which lies in a direction east and
west, and nearly parallel with the line of the coast,
leaving two narrow passes or entrances to the lake
from the gulf.

That, on the east, at the period with which we
are to identify our tale, was exceedingly shallow,
allowing only the passage of boats of light draught;
the western and main pass only admitted vessels
drawing nine and ten feet of water. This
island, which is called indiscriminately, Grande Terre
and Barritaria, is not an unbroken level, like the
surrounding low lands, or prairies, constituting the
southern section of Louisiana, but, with a striking
geological feature in reference to the aspect of this
region, it rises abruptly from the sea, with bold and
precipitous sides, sometimes swelling into slight eminences
several feet in height, covered with dense
forests of trees, among which, superior to all, towers
the live-oak in its iron strength. It also abounds in

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

a great variety of game; and an abundance of excellently-flavoured
fish are taken in its waters. Each
extremity of this island, at the time of which we
speak, was strongly fortified and bristly with cannon,
completely commanding both entrances to the
inner bay or lake.

Close within the western and deeper inlet to the
right, and effectually concealed by the intervening
islands from the open sea, from which it was about
three leagues distant, was a safe and commodious
anchorage; the only secure harbour for many
leagues along that dangerous coast.

This island, with its anchorage, was the principal
resort of the Carthagenian smugglers. From
their little territory, which in the face of the government
of the North United States, they had boldly
usurped, the fame of their extraordiuary deeds
went abroad over sea and land, till the name of
Barrataria was associated in the minds of men,
with crimes and deeds of outlawry, unparalleled in
the history of banned and out-cast men.

For better security, and more efficient operations,
these men, at first sailing singly, each upon his
own desperate enterprise, ultimately associated
themselves into one body, conferring the command
of their squadron on an individual of their number,
whose distinguished qualifications as a commander
over such a fleet, and such men, manifested on
many a bloody deck and many a desperate fight,
marked him singularly as their leader.

Besides this rendevous of the buccaneers of Barritaria,
in Louisiana, there were two others of less
importance; one of which was situated in an uninhabited
part of the coast, in the neighbourhood
of Carthagena, and the other in the West India
seas, on the west coast of the island of St. Domingo.
In these seas, and ultimately in this last-mentioned
spot, are laid the scenes of our second book.

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

In one of the romantic bays, with which the
southern shore of the island of Jamaica is indented,
and on one of the rich autumn evenings peculiar
to the Indian seas, about fifteen years subsequent
to the period embraced by the last book, a long,
low, black schooner, very taunt and sharp in the
bows, with all light sail drawing freely, and a red
and blue signal fluttering aloft, might have been
seen bowling gallantly over the miniature waves
of the bay, which glittered in the sun-light as
though overlaid with golden mail.

On the deck of the little vessel, which was heavily
armed and full of men, stood one of commanding
person, whose features, as he leaned over the quarter-railing,
were partially concealed by the drooping
front of his broad palmetto hat; that portion of his
face, however, which could be discerned, displayed a
black silken mustacho, curving like cupid's bow,
over a fine mouth, whose general expression was resolution.
Now, however, a yellow segar severed his
lips, which languidly embraced it, while an occasional
cloud of blue smoke emitted from beneath
his overshadowing hat, curled above his head, and
floating to leeward, blended with the evening
haze.

Listlessly, like one familiar with the scenery, he
gazed upon the glorious prospect spread out before
and around him, rising from the shores of the bay
and retreating backward and higher, till the distant
clouds bounded the view—a scene of gorgeous
sublimity. Precipice on precipice, avalanche on
avalanche rose, piled one upon the other—a theatre
of magnificent desolation; while the soaring
ridges of the Blue Mountains, half mantled in
clouds, and the lofty peak of St. Catharine, elevating
her summit several thousand feet above the
sea, towered proudly above all.

Immediately on his left, rose, to a lesser height, a

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

chaos of inaccessible cliffs, abrupt rocks, shooting
upward like towers and craggy peaks, exhibiting
the stern aspect of some great convulsion which
had laid nature in ruins. As the schooner shot
farther into the bay, these wild features were concealed
by intervening wooded hills, which, with
round green summits, swelled from the shore; and
as she still lessened her distance from the land, numerous
verdurous spots sprinkled along the precipitous
side of the mountains, or laid, like green carpets,
upon the rocks, and among the trees, softened
and relieved the harsher character of the scenery;
while the traces of human ingenuity, taste and labour,
were discerned on every hand. Majestic forests,
groves of palmetto, and pastures like the softest
lawns, now lining the shore and overhanging the
water, were rapidly passed; and vast savannas, covered
with variegated cane, as far as the eye could
distinguish, displayed, in their changing tints, the
verdure of spring, blended with the exuberance of
autumn.

As the rover sailed farther into the bay, his eye,
as he glanced with momentary animation along the
land, rested upon the cots and hamlets of the negroes,
the walls of a distant military post, and the
white villas of the planters, dispersed picturesquely
on the precipices, and in every green nook along the
sides of the receding hills. The schooner, after
running about a league into the land, suddenly altered
her course, and stood for the entrance of a
little harbour or recess of the bay; and now, under
her mainsail and jib alone, coasted along a bold
shore, dotted here and there with a magnificent
pimento—groves of which clothed the distant eminences.
The summits of the cliffs, beneath which
it sailed, were verdant with trees of thickest foliage,
while, from their over-hanging brows, tiny cataracts,
like slender threads of silver, leaped down into the

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

sea, ringing musically as they fell, or struck upon
the deck of the vessel, sprinkling a cool shower
upon the seamen.

The inlet towards which she was rapidly advancing,
was nearly enclosed by a chain of isolated
rocks, towering like gigantic pinnacles; and a
craggy promontory overhanging the basin, half encircled
it on the west. Between the termination of
this promontory, and the chain of rocks, was visible
a narrow passage, by which craft of small size only
could pass, one at the time, into the dark, circular
pool, sleeping calm and deep within its rocky
sides, which, frowning terrifically over it, cast beneath
a black shadow, even whilst the sun hung high in
the heavens. Now the shadows were deepened in
the approaching twilight, and a mysterious gloom
gathered over the spot as the day receded, presenting
to the imagination dark caverns and horrid ravines
on every side.

Into this secret nook the little vessel rapidly shot,
under the guidance of a skilful hand, and running
into its farthest extremity, towards the main
land, came to anchor under a projecting rock,
which, cleft to its base, admitted a footway from
the water to the highland plantations in the interior.
In a few minutes the white sails disappeared,
and the tall, black masts of the vessel relieved
against the sky, alone betrayed her presence; for
the dark hull itself was invisible in the deep shadow
of the cliff. Not a sound was heard from her
deck after she entered, save an occasional order
given in a suppressed voice, and the rubbing of the
cable as the anchor sunk noiselessly into the water.
The trees were motionless, and not a breath
ruffled the limpid surface of the basin.

“List!” said a low, deep voice, from the stern of
the vessel; and the distant wail of a bugle fell,

[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]

with a melancholy cadence, upon the ears of the
listening seamen.

Again it rose and fell, low and plaintive; and
hardly had the sound died in the air when three
sharp blasts were blown in rapid succession.

“That's the signal! Valasquez is as true as
steel to his own avarice!” exclaimed the commander
of the schooner, whom we have just introduced
to the reader.

“Be ready all! Ten of you go with me. See
to your pistols, and let every other man take a dark
lantern and a cutlass, and have two oars slung for
a barrow. The rest of you be still as the grave,
and on the alert to obey my signals. Three pistols,
Ricardo,” he continued, addressing one of his
officers, “fired in succession will be our signal for
a reinforcement, should the old Don be too hard
for us. Now ashore, my men, all,” he added with
rapidity and energy.

Accompanied by a handsome youth, and a deformed
slave, and followed by ten of his men, in red
woollen caps and shirts, and without jackets, he
sprung on to a projecting point of rock, heavily
armed, and the next moment stood in the mouth of
the cleft or defile, terminating at the top of the
cliff.

“Madre de Dios!” exclaimed one, in a suppressed
whisper, to his comrade by his side, casting his
eyes up the narrow and precipitous pass, which
they were slowly ascending, “this must be the upstairs
to purgatory.”

“Rather, Mister Spaniard,” drawled his companion—
a tall, light-haired, ungainly seaman—
through his generous nasal organ, “rather, it may
be another guess sort of a road.”

“And what may that be?” inquired a Spanish
sailor, gruffly, who toiled on just before him.

“The road to the good place, I guess, Senyore.”

[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]

“Gif proof o' dat!” said a lank Frenchman, by
trade a frissieur, but who had now taken to cutting
men's throats instead of their beards. “Gif
proof o' dat, by Gar, Monsieur Yenkee!”

“Why, Mister Parley-voo, you see,” articulated
the other slowly, in reply, “I can prove it to a demonstration
from scriptur, if ye happen to know
what that are is. Don't it say, `strait is the gate
and narrow is the way that goes up to heaven?' ”
and the scriptural quoter cleared his throat emphatically,
and wiped his loose lips upon his red woollen
sleeve, with an air of self-complacency.

“Give preacher Sol a quid o' tobacco for that
sarmont,” said one; “blast my eyes if he haint arnt
it;” and a low suppressed laugh was heard from
two or three of his comrades.

“Silence there,” said their leader, in a low, distinct
voice; and the rest of their way up the defile
was effected, only occasionally interrupted by the
splash of a loose fragment, which, agitated by
their feet, fell into the water, or the whispered execration
of some one, as a false step had nearly sent
him headlong down upon his companions, and into
the dark gulf beneath.

“Now, my brave fellows,” said the leader of this
night-party, as he stood at the head of the defile,
upon the summit of the cliff, whilst his men filed
past him, and gathered in a group, beneath the dark
shadow of a cluster of palm, cocoa-nut and bamboocane
trees, which crowned the heights. “Now, my
good men, we are on an expedition, which, if successful,
and its success depends on your own wills,
and sharp cutlasses, will redeem all our past losses,
which tempted the crew to mutiny. These wars
have made all craft, but those who show their teeth,
full timid enough in venturing on our legitimate
empire; but this henceforward shall be no cause of

[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]

complaint. I have yielded to your wishes on this
occasion, not, you well know, because I feared to
withstand them, although it is against my own feelings
to rob an old man of his hoarded ingots.
The free flag, a flowing sheet, and open sea
for me. But be ready. I will lead you on this
adventure. Ho, Cudjoe!” he said to his slave,
“give the answering signal to Velasquez—clearly
and well, now, for your boar's head may pay the
forfeiture for bungling;” and the clear, wild and
discordant cry of the galena, when alarmed, suddenly
broke the stillness of the night, now prolonged
and low, now sharp and loud—then suddenly
ceased.

“Well done, my Guinea-bird,” said his master;
“your beldam mother, Cudjoe, must have fed you
on guinea-eggs.”

“Hark! it is answered;” and a similar cry came
from the depths of the wood. In a few moments
afterwards it was repeated nearer, and then ceased.

The silence which succeeded, was interrupted
by a screech and rustling on the left, in the direction
of a patch of coarse grass, terminated by
clumps of aloes, torch-thistle, and palmetto, which
formed the boundary of the cultivated portion
of the estate. Every eye turned instantly
in that direction, and every man's hand was laid
upon the butt of his pistol.

“Ho! Léon, my fine creature, but you are a
welcome pioneer!” exclaimed the chief, as a noble
dog, of majestic size, bounded into their midst, and
sprung fawningly against his master's breast. “But
down, sir, down, you hug like a Greenland bear!
What news bring you from my trusty spy?”

The sagacious animal, as if the careless question
of his master had been intelligible, looked into the
face of the querist, and strove to draw his attention

[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]

by raising his fore-paw to his neck and striking
once or twice forcibly the broad, studded collar encircling
it.

“Ha! it is so? Théodore, open your lantern,”
said the chief to the youth; “cautiously, though:”
and the pirate bent over the collar and examined
it, while the dog stood wagging his huge tail with
a motion expressive of much satisfaction.

“Nay, Léon, you are a cheat, sir!” said his master,
angrily, after a close examination of the collar,
which on other occasions had served him for the
transmission of billets relating to both love and battle.
“Go, sir!” but the noble animal crouched at
his feet, forced his paw under the collar, and struggled
to break it from his neck.

“The key! the key, Cudjoe!” he cried; and
the slave thrust his huge hand into a kind of Pandora's
box made in his lower garments, from which,
among a heterogeneous display of broken pipes,
chicken breast-bones, beads, ebony hearts, broken
dirk-knobs, charmed relicks, and spells against
obeahs, fetahs, and melay men, he produced the
key to the collar.

His master unlocked it, and stepping aside with
his back to his men, he secretly slid aside the smooth
plate which constituted its inner surface, and displayed
an opening nearly the whole length and
breath of the collar. From this concealed repository,
which he thought known only to himself and
a fair inamorata, then in a distant land, he took a
folded scrap of paper.

“Curse this prying knave Velasquez!” he muttered;
“how in the devil's name could he have
learned this secret? But how or when, he has
made good use of it,” he cast his eyes over the note
upon which the rays of the lamp fell brightly through
a carefully opened crevice in the sides of the lantern.

“Well, men,” he said, turning to his party, “I

[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]

find Léon has been a trusty messenger; Velasquez
has written upon his collar what chances await
us at the old villa. There are but two old slaves,
the old man and his daughter, besides his trusty
nephew and secretary, Hebérto Velasquez! Onward.
Lead, my trusty Léon!”

“How I do hate such treacherous tools,” he said
mentally, as, preceded by his dog and followed by
his men, he threaded the forest; “open villany
were virtue to such secret machinations. And
against an uncle too! who has been but too indulgent—
that he may a little earlier have his heaps
of gold to squander upon his debaucheries. Holy
father! if I did not fear a general mutiny throughout
my squadron, by reason of our late scanty harvest
on the seas, I would not lift a finger to help this
roué to his wishes. But fate, fate! I am the football
of circumstances! How often have I been led by
my destiny to do deeds at which my soul revolted!
Oh, God! oh, God! that I could be at peace with
my own heart! Peace! there remains no peace for
me! I have bathed my hand in blood, and there is
no retracing my footsteps. My first mad crime has
been the prolific parent of all my subsequent ones.
If my arm had been staid at that fatal period by
some good angel, I should have been an honourable—
perhaps, a good man! That deed ruled my
after destinies. My hand is now red—red! and
nothing but my own blood can ever wash out the
stains which crimson it. And is there a future, too,
where men must give account of their earthly deeds?
Is there a day of retribution for the murderer? Do
the innocent and the guilty go alike to one destiny—
to one reward or punishment? Oh, God! No,
no!—There was one pure spirit released by this same
bloody hand from the snowy bosom which confined
it, panting to be free—and shall our destiny—mine
and hers—be the same in the coming world? Oh,

[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]

no! Oh, no! she must be glorious and happy there!
and I—there is surely a hell for thee, Lafitte!”
he exclaimed bitterly. The wretched and guilty
man pressed his temples for a moment, and turned
to cheer his followers, striving in the action of the
time to forget his own miserable thoughts.

The party had now issued from the dark recesses
of the wood, the vivid green of whose foliage was
was just tinged with silver from the rising moon,
and after passing with a swift tread around a hedge,
or border of bamboo and orange trees, came at once
in front of a large, old mansion, situated on the side
of a gentle eminence facing the bay.

From the point where they first beheld the house,
several avenues, overgrown with rank and luxuriant
grass, diverged in various directions. One of
these paths immediately in front of them was broader,
and by the light of the newly-risen moon, which
glanced along its whole length, seemed some worn
by recent use. This avenue, which afforded to
the freebooters a glimpse of the house containing
their prey, was bordered by the rich-leaved oleander,
numerous beautiful trees bearing roses of every dye;
with the jessamine, and grenadilla, yielding to the
caprice of nature, entwining its luxuriant vines into
gracefully-formed alcoves. At a gateway, obscured
by the shade of many large trees standing around
it, the party made a halt.

“Now listen to my instructions, each man of you,”
said their leader, as they paused here, awaiting their
guide. “There is to be no violence; the persons
of the old man and his family shall be held sacred.
It is his wealth, not his life you seek. Let no man
pull a trigger, if he love his life, this night. If we
are attacked by the patrol, then, and only in the last
emergency, use your fire-arms; for one report of a
pistol, would bring the neighbouring garrison down
upon us in force; and our little Gertrude, lying so

[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]

snugly in the Devil's Bowl below, would be intercepted
by a king's cruiser before she could gain the
open sea. Be cool and discreet, and we succeed,”
he added, as the men were about to murmur their
assent; “be imprudent, and it will be a short grace
from the red coats, and a swing from the nearest
tree.”

“Hist! here comes our guide. What, ho, there,
the word!”

Creeping on his hands and knees, as he spoke,
appeared from beneath a clump of bushes growing
by the gate, a low, square figure, naked to the
waist, from which, to his bony knees descended a
garment equally participating in the honours of the
petticoat and small-clothes. As he emerged from
the shadow of the hedge into the moonlight, his
black glossy hide glistened like a polished boot.

Gathering himself up to his full height, which
was perhaps a little exceeding three feet eleven
inches, he replied, with rapid, nervous articulation,
while his teeth, and the white of his eye glittered in
the moonlight,

“De word, mass' buckra? de word, mass' 'berto
tell me say be, `de collar.' ”

“You are my man,” he exclaimed; “lead on to
your young master. Where does he await us?”

“Close by de big tam'rind tree, mass'! 'hind de
soute wing ob de house.”

“On, my beauty!” said he, gaily; the momentary
depression having passed away; “lead on, we follow.”

The guide darted again under the hedge, where
the ground had been burrowed, leaving room for a
full sized man to draw himself under with ease,
by putting aside the lower branches of the armed
hedge, encircling the grounds. Through this opening,
each man, after getting upon his knees, passed
through into the garden, followed by their leader,

[figure description] Page 065.[end figure description]

who hewed with his cutlass a broad passage, through
which to retreat. Here, forming his men into a line,
he placed himself at their head, and with rapid and
noiseless footsteps the whole party followed their
sable guide through many dark and devious labyrinths,
towards the rear of the villa.

Previous section

Next section