Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire

by Jon Latimer • 2009

In 1666, John Esqemeling arrived in the Caribbean island of Tortuga as an indentured servant of the French West India Company. After gaining his freedom, Esqemeling joined the pirates who had made Tortuga their hideout, and sailed with the pirates Pierre la Grande, Francis Lolonois, and Captain Henry Morgan as a surgeon. This is Esqemeling's firsthand account, published in Holland in 1678, of his travels with the American Buccaneers. With ten pages of original engraved illustrations.