The Buccaneers of America

Captain Jack Sparrow would shiver his timbers when faced with Sir Henry Morgan and his savage band of buccaneers. Sacking Porto Bellow, burning Panama, and even taking on the Spanish armada, Morgan stopped at nothing to acquire his precious lucre in the years 1666 to 1672. This vivid account, as told by one of Morgan's own men and illustrated with engravings from the period, puts the lie to the idea of the "romantic swashbuckler." This is a brutal, unforgiving, and essential slice of seafaring history. Thought to be of Dutch origin, JOHN ESQUEMELING (1645-1707) was a merchant clerk for the French West India Company before impoverished circumstances forced him to join "the wicked order of pirates" in 1666.