The pirates who terrorized ships sailing the Caribbean in the 18th century certainly came from many different European countries, including England, Holland, France, Spain, and Portugal. In the mid-17th century they started to engage in piracy, just like the freebooters, a term deriving from the Dutch word vrijbuiter, “a person who freely takes booty.” They lived off the meat of wild cattle, which they preserved using an indigenous smoking method called bouccan. Buccaneers were adventurers who settled in Hispaniola, the island today divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The terms “buccaneer” and “freebooter” arose in the 17th century. Drake was able to carry out his exploits because he was the bearer of an all-important letter of marque, issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1572, which gave him the right to raid Spanish ships.Ĭorsairs were typically privateers sailing along the Barbary Coast in northern Africa in the 16th century later, the word would be broadly applied to pirates in general. Some of these pirates, such as the explorer Sir Francis Drake, were often regarded as patriotic national heroes. Called “privateers,” these pirates had government commissions to seize the ships, both trading and naval, of an enemy. In the second half of the 16th century some of the most famous pirates were sponsored by European nations. Part of the romantic myth of piracy is the colorful terminology.
