Buccaneer

an order of men, not quite pirates, yet with decidedly piratical tendencies, who for nearly 200 years infested the Spanish main and the adjacent regions. A bull of Pope Alexander VI., i ued in 1493, having granted to Spain all lands which might be discovered W. of the Azores, the Spaniards thought that they po e ed a monopoly of all countries in the New World, and that they had a right to seize, and even put to death, all interlopers into their wide domain. The a ociation of buccaneers began about 1524, and continued till after the English revolution of 1688, when the French attacked the English in the West Indies, and the buccaneers of the two countries, who had hitherto been friends, took different sides, and were separated forever. Thus weakened, they began to be suppre ed between 1697 and 1701, and soon afterward ceased to exist, pirates of the normal type, to a certain extent, taking their place. The buccaneers were also called “ fil i bustiers,” ” —term which was revived in connection with the adventures of “‘ General ” Walker, who sought to establish himself as a ruler in Central America.