Eyewitness images of buccaneers and their vessels

摘要

This article describes and discusses several eyewitness illustrations of buccaneers (flibustiers) created by cartographers who made maps and charts of French Caribbean ports during the 1680s. The illustrations are highly detailed and provide new information regarding the appearance and arms of these famous sea rovers, as well as of at least one of their vessels. The article also discusses the doubtful accuracy of other period illustrations of late seventeenth-century Caribbean sea rovers and their vessels, and compares a published period drawing of a sea roving 'Piraugue Espagnole' with that of one made by an eyewitness cartographer.