Buccaneers of America

Buccaneers of America by John Esquemeling; Illustrated by George Alfred Williams, 1914. First person account of many of the terrible exploits of the pirates of the Caribbean, with particular attention to the life of Henry Morgan. Written by a barber-surgeon who accompanied the pirates on several of their adventures. This book was originally written in Dutch by John Esquemeling, and first published in Amsterdam in 1678 under the title of De Americaeneche Zee Roovers. It immediately became very popular and this first hand history of the Buccaneers of America was soon translated into the principal European languages. The first English edition was printed in 1684. Of the author, John Esquemeling, very little is known although it is generally conceded that he was in all probability a Fleming or Hollander, a quite natural supposition as his first works were written in the Dutch language. He came to the island of Tortuga in 1666 in the employ of the French West-India Company.