If admonished in regard to their reckless waste of
money, their reply was that their lives were not like those of other
men. Though alive to-day, they might be dead to-morrow, and hence it was
folly for them to hoard their treasure. 'Live to-day,' was their maxim,
'to-morrow may take care of itself.' Those, therefore, who were worth
millions to-day, robbed by courtezans and stripped at the gaming table,
were often penniless in a week--destitute of clothes and even the
necessaries of life. They had therefore no recourse but to return to the
sea, and levy new contributions, to be dissipated as before.
But the commerce of Spain with her colonies was ruined. Failing in her
exertions to conquer the buccaneers, and finding them to be so firmly
established as to defy any force which she could send against them, and
wearied in making so many consignments, as it were, directly into their
hands, Spain dismantled her commercial marine and closed her South
American ports, in the hope--a vain one, as it proved--that when the
resources of the pirates upon the high seas were cut off, their
establishments would be necessarily broken up, and the freebooters
themselves disperse. But far different was the event. No sooner had
these rapacious and savage men ascertained that there were no more
galleons of her bullion to be taken, than they concentrated their
forces, with a determination to strike nearer the mines themselves.
Powerful expeditions were therefore openly organized at Jamaica and
elsewhere, for the purpose of making descents upon the cities and towns
of the Spanish main.
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