But the _ruse_ was not successful. Two of the buccaneer
chiefs, Michael de Basco and Brouage, receiving intelligence that a
cargo of great value had been shipped under the Dutch flag at
Carthagena, in two ships much larger than their own, boldly entered the
harbor, captured both, and plundered them of their treasure. The Dutch
captains, chagrined at being thus beaten by inferior vessels, said to
one of the pirate chiefs that had he been alone, he would not have dared
thus to attack them. The buccaneer haughtily challenged mynheer to fight
the battle over again--stipulating that his consort should stand aloof
from the engagement, and, that should the Dutchman conquer, both the
pirate vessels should be his. The challenge, however, was not accepted.
At another time, when Basco and two other chiefs, named Jonque and
Laurence Le Graff, were cruising before Carthagena with three
indifferent vessels, two Spanish men-of-war put out to attack them. The
result was the capture of both the latter by the pirates, who kept the
ships, but magnanimously sent the crews on shore--affecting, from the
ease with which they had been vanquished, to look upon them with utter
contempt.
There was yet another pirate chief, whose name stands out in bold
relief, for his infamous cruelties, even among the bloody records of the
buccaneers. He was a Dutchman by birth, who had settled in Brazil during
the occupancy of that country by the United Provinces. On the
restoration of the Portuguese to their Brazilian possessions this bloody
wretch retreated to Jamaica.
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