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2

er, 1903

TO MY ONLY BROTHER

COLONEL JASPER EWING BRADY

LATE U.S. ARMY

"Woe to the realms which he coasted! for there Was shedding of blood and rending of hair, Rape of maiden and slaughter of priest, Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast; When he hoisted his standard black, Before him was battle, behind him wrack, And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane, To light his band to their barks again."

SCOTT: "Harold the Dauntless."

PREFACE

In literature there have been romantic pirates, gentlemanly pirates, kind-hearted pirates, even humorous pirates--in fact, all sorts and conditions of pirates. In life there was only one kind. In this book that kind appears. Several presentations--in the guise of novels--of pirates, the like of which never existed on land or sea, have recently appeared. A perusal of these interesting romances awoke in me a desire to write a story of a real pirate, a pirate of the genuine species.

Much research for historical essays, amid ancient records and moldy chronicles, put me in possession of a vast amount of information concerning the doings of the greatest of all pirates; a man unique among his nefarious brethren, in that he played the piratical game so successfully that he received the honor of knighthood from King Charles II. A belted knight of England, who was also a brutal, rapacious, lustful, murderous villain and robber--and undoubtedly a pirate, although he disguised his piracy under the name of buccaneering--is certainly a striking and unusual figure.

Therefore, when I imagined my pirate story I pitched upon Sir Henry Morgan as the character of the romance. It will spare the critic to admit that the tale hereinafter related is a work of the imagination, and is not an historical romance. According to the latest accounts, Sir Henry Morgan, by a singular oversight of Fate, who must have been nodding at the time, died in his bed--not peacefully I trust--and was buried in

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