Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/211

Rh cabin, his ship was boarded by a boat's crew of twenty-eight men in charge of a Frenchman named Pierre, a native of Dieppe. So sudden and daring was the attack that the vice-admiral and a number of officials who sat at table with him found themselves prisoners before they had time to gain the deck. The captives were put on shore at Cape Tiburon, and a few weeks later Pierre entered the port of Dieppe with his prize, which contained a rich freight of treasure and merchandise. This adventurer is dignified in buccaneer history by the title of le Grand.

In 1682 Tampico was sacked by corsairs and thirty prisoners taken. During the same year a sea rover named Nicholas Van Horn captured two vessels off the coast of Honduras. Van Horn is described as a man of swarthy complexion and short stature, a thorough seaman and a capable and far-sighted commander. He began life as a common sailor, and remained in that position until he had saved money enough to purchase a small craft of his own. Collecting a crew of twenty-five or thirty men, he began his career as a pirate by capturing several Dutch vessels, which he sold, and with the proceeds sailed for Ostend and there purchased a ship of war. His further operations were successful, and in a few years he was in command of a small fleet, with which he swept the seas, taking many prizes, and requiring all but French vessels to lower their flag as they passed him. Finally he gave offence to the monarch of France, and a captain named D'Estrées, being ordered to arrest him, put to sea in a well armed frigate for that purpose. When the captain's vessel fell in with Van Horn, the latter, finding himself outsailed, and not wishing to fight, for he was aware that D'Estrées was acting under orders from the crown, boarded his ship in a small boat, and demanded his intention in thus pursuing him. "To conduct you to France," replied the captain. "But why?" exclaimed the pirate; "I have given no cause of offence to his Majesty, and have