Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Days of Morgan Europe, vagabonds and rascals, indentured servants escaped from their masters in Ja- maica when Cromwell had added that island to England’s overseas possessions; run- away slaves, who had been sold for debt at Port Royal; outcasts from the settlements in Virginia and New England; idlers, ne’er-do-wells, thieves, pickpockets, mur- derers, escaped felons, jailbirds from the hulks in the Mediterranean or from New- gate, the very scum of society, they had drifted to the Caribbean as froth collects at the center of a boiling pot. Some among them were soldiers, veterans of the wars which had convulsed Europe for a genera- tion, whose campaigns had taught them only lessons of idleness and violence. Finding Hispaniola, Spain’s -first great possession in the New World, all but de- serted by the gold-mad adventurers who had pushed on to the Main in quest of vast- er wealth, deserted but for a few settlements on the coast, the native population exter- minated, and their places in the mines and on the plantations filled by negroes from the Guinea coast, and the whole island over- run by wild cattle and hogs, the progeny of domestic animals which had been brought over by those who had followed Columbus, these outcast derelicts had turned hunters of the wild bulls which they slew for their meat and hides. Going off into the deep forests, two to- gether, usually, for they hunted in couples, with their muskets and ammunition, and a pack of dogs to aid them in the chase, they would kill as many animals as sufficed for their needs, curing the meat after a fashion which had been learned from the Caribbee Indians. The beef, cut into long strips, was smoked or barbecued over a boucan, a grating of green sticks, so that the hunters became known as boucaniers, or, as the word was twisted by English tongues, buc- caneers. : Nancy, joining the mob around the fire, thought she had never seen before such evil- looking fellows. | Soon she and Barney, wedging in among them, secured a chunk of smoking meat for themselves, and a juicy joint for Three- legs, and withdrawing to the shade of a near-by palm, with a basin of water to wash down their meal, munched away with the greatest contentment. In this pleasant frame of mind Mistress Chillingworth, happening to look up, saw 2I approaching her the man she least wished to see, Monsieur d’Ogeron, the Governor himself, grandly attired for the festivities, and smiling with satisfaction at the huge success of his undertaking now so happily consummated in the arrival of the cargo of brides from France. “Hist!”? whispered Barney, nudging her. “Here comes the Major of the island. They pointed him out to me awhile ago. If you could get on the right side of him now, he could soon settle the question of going back to France.”’ “No, Barney, he will not help me,” she answered. ‘“‘He means me no good, I fear. My heart tells me to expect of him nought but ill. I have already craved of him the privilege of returning on the Baptiste, and it has been refused me.”’ D’Ogeron was now arrived at where they sat. Barney jumped to his feet, pulling his forelock and bowing. Nancy sat still and turned her face away. “T am come to offer you the hospitality of the island, Mademoiselle,” began the Governor. “Tortuga bids you welcome, and hopes that you will long abide with us here.”’ “You are kind, Monsieur,” she replied with a touch of bitterness in her voice, “‘but I fear I can never be happy in this place, torn, as I have been, from home and kin. I beseech you to permit me to return on the ship.” D’Ogeron shook his head and cast at her a look which made her blood turn hot with- in her. She arose abruptly, and when the Gov- ernor offered her his arm, she ran away, like an angry schoolgirl. Barney, with his fists doubled up and his brows scowling, and Three-legs, showing his white teeth over his curling lip, followed her, as if to serve notice that Mistress Nancy had two friends upon whom to count in an emer- gency. She did not see d’Ogeron, stamping his foot with vexation, call up from the crowd a slouching fellow, and, pointing out to him the figure of the girl, say something in a low tone, which the man agreed to, as the shakes of his head indicated. Nor did she observe that this fellow, following her, kept her within his sight thereafter. But if she had noted these things it is doubtful if they would have made her feel less quiet than she was. CoMmichoooks (©