They paused not to calculate chances. Their
invariable practice was to carry their prizes by boarding. Their boats
were propelled with the swiftness of an arrow. As certain as they
grappled with a vessel, she was sure to be taken; for their onslaughts
were desperately furious and irresistible. The Spanish Government
complained bitterly, both to England and France, of the outrages upon
her commerce by the pirates, a large majority of whom were the born
subjects of those nations. The answers, however, of both were the same:
that those piratical acts were not committed by the buccaneers as their
subjects; and the Spanish ambassador was informed that his master might
proceed against them as he saw fit. In consequence of the transactions
of the buccaneers with the people of Jamaica, England went farther, and
actually removed the governor of that colony. But, whether with the
connivance of the civil authorities or not, the intercourse between the
pirates and the people continued without serious interruption. Some of
the buccaneers, however, pretended to hold commissions both from the
French and the Dutch; but it was mere pretext. Their authority was in
truth nothing more than what the sailors are wont jocosely to call 'a
commission from the Pope.' Yet they affected to consider themselves in
lawful war against Spain, for the reason that the Spaniards had debarred
them from the privileges of hunting in the forests and fishing in the
waters of St.
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