Customer Reviews

Buccaneers of America

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This is a book about buccaneering written by one of the participants. Esquemeling was a Dutch physian who went to the Caribbean during the heyday of the Spanish Main. He was the surgeon to Henry Morgan's expedition against Panama City.

Like many educated men of his time, he tried to be a scientific observer of the New World. As a result, you'll see descriptions of flora and fauna of the Americas mixed in with anecdotes about the famous and near famous of the period. The phraseology can be stilted in places, but that is how people spoke at the time.

Is it worth reading? I certainly think so! It's valuable in the same way that Bernal Diaz's account of the conquest of Mexico is valuable, it gives a flavor for how the participants saw themselves. So, if you want real, this is it.

This is probably the original source for information of pirates. It contains such a vast compendium of information that it is difficult to select anyone in particular. The cruel reality of pirates is sometimes terrifying; however, in the context of their times this may not have been so shocking. Each reader will take away what they find most interesting. I find that the interaction between the pirates and the indigenous people of these island most intriguing.

Don't know why they don't list both authors, namely John Esquemeling and Basil Ringrose.

The first half by Esquemeling is stiff and boring. He lays it on pretty thick about the famous pirates like L'Ollonais and Morgan being totally vicious sadists. Esquemeling claims to have been an eye-witness but he uses the third person virtually throughout.

The second half is very fluid and engaging. Actually made me sad that Ringrose met his end so prematurely a few years later whilst on a plundering mission with William Dampier.

There's a fair amount of navigation details in the Ringrose portion, especially towards the end when they sail around the horn and don't sight land again until they reach Barbados! This is an effective technique for conveying the real tedium and totally lost, almost hopeless, feeling of such a protracted voyage. It also makes you realize how hampered navigation was before a reliable way of determining longitude was discovered a hundred years later.

Thank you for the book, my son loves it. And thanks for the quick shipping. Keep up the great work.