Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. MANNERS OF THE HUNTERS. Derivation of the words Buccaneer and Flibustier—The three classes—Dress of the hunters—West Indian scenery—Method of hunting—Wild dogs—Anecdotes —Wild oxen, wild boars, and wild horses—Buccaneer food—Cow killing—Spanish method—Amusements—Duels—Adventures with the Spanish militia —The hunters driven to sea—The engages, or apprentices—Hide curing—Hardships of the bush life —The planter's engages—Cruelties of planters—The matelotage—Huts—Food. The hunters of the wild cattle in the sa- ' vannahs of Hispaniola were known under the designation of Buccaneers as early as the year 1630. They derived this name from boucan, an Charlevoix's " Histoire de 1'Ile Espagnole," p. 6, vol. ii old Indian word which their luckless predecessors, the Caribs, gave to the hut in which they smoked the flesh of the oxen killed in hunting, or not unfrequently the limbs of their persecutors the Spaniards. They applied the same term, from the poverty of an undeveloped language, to the barbecue, or square wooden frame upon which the meat was dried. In course of time this hunters' food became known as viande boucanee, and the hunters themselves gradually assumed the name of Buccaneers. Their second title of Flibustiers was a mere corruption of the English word freebooters—a German term, imported into England during the Low Country wars of Elizabeth's reign. It has been erroneously traced to the Dutch word flyboat; but the Jesuit traveller, Charlevoix, asserts that, in fact, this species of craft derived its title from being first used by the Flibustiers, and not from its swiftness. This, however, is evidently a mistake, as Drayton and Hakluyt use the word; and it seems to be of even earlier standing in the French language. The derivation from the English ...