Book of Pirates
By Howard Pyle
JUST above the northwestern shore of the old island of Hispaniola—the Santo Domingo of our day—and separated from it only by a narrow channel of some five or six miles in width, lies a queer little hunch of an island, known, because of a distant resemblance to that animal, as the Tortuga de Mar, or sea turtle. It is not more than twenty miles in length by perhaps seven or eight in breadth; it is only a little spot of land, and as you look at it upon the map a pin’s head would almost cover it; yet from that spot, as from a center of inflammation, a burning fire of human wickedness and ruthlessness and lust overran the world, and spread terror and death throughout the Spanish West Indies, from St. Augustine to the island of Trinidad, and from Panama to the coasts of Peru.
About the middle of the seventeenth century, certain French adventurers set out from the fortified island of St. Christopher in longboats and hoys, directing their course westward, there to discover new islands. Sighting Hispaniola “with an abundance of joy,” they landed and went into the country, where they found great quantities of wild cattle, horses, and swine.
Now vessels on the return voyage to Europe from the West Indies needed victualing, and food, especially flesh, was at a premium in the islands of the Spanish Main; wherefore a great profit was to be turned in preserving beef and pork and selling the flesh to homeward-bound vessels.
The northwestern shore of Hispaniola, lying as it does at the eastern outlet of the old Bahama Channel, running between the island of Cuba and the great Bahama Banks, lay almost in the very mainstream of travel. The pioneer Frenchmen were not slow to discover the double advantage to be reaped from the wild cattle that cost them nothing to procure, and a market for the flesh ready found for them. So down upon Hispaniola, they came by boatloads and shiploads, gathering like a swarm of mosquitoes, and overrunning the whole western end of the island.
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Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator, painter, and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.
In 1894, he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry (now Drexel University). Among his students there were Violet Oakley, Maxfield Parrish, and Jessie Willcox Smith. After 1900, he founded his school of art and illustration named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. Scholar Henry C. Pitz later used the term Brandywine School for the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region, several of whom had studied with Pyle. He had a lasting influence on several artists who became notable in their own right; N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Thornton Oakley, Allen Tupper True, Stanley Arthurs, and numerous others who studied under him.
His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print, and his other books frequently have medieval European settings, including a four-volume set on King Arthur. He is also well known for his illustrations of pirates and is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. He published his first novel Otto of the Silver Hand in 1888. He also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper’s Magazine and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was adapted as the movie The Black Shield of Falworth (1954).
Pyle traveled to Florence, Italy in 1910 to study mural painting. He died there in 1911 of a sudden kidney infection (Bright’s disease).
Bibliography
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883)
Within the Capes (1885)
Pepper and Salt (1886)
The Rose of Paradise (1888)
The Wonder Clock (1888), with his sister Katharine Pyle
Otto of the Silver Hand (1888)
A Modern Aladdin (1892)
Men of Iron (1892)
Twilight Land (1895)
The Story of Jack Ballister’s Fortunes (1895)
The Garden Behind the Moon (1895)
The Ghost of Captain Brand (1896)
Washington (Text by Woodrow Wilson, then a history professor; published in 1897)
Story of the Revolution (Text by Henry Cabot Lodge; published in 1898)
The Price of Blood (1899)
History of the American People (Text by Woodrow Wilson; published in 1902)
Rejected of Men (1903)
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)
The Story of the Champions of the Round Table (1905)
The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions (1907)
The Story of the Grail and the Passing of King Arthur (1910)
Stolen Treasure (1907)
The Ruby of Kishmoor (1908)
Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates (A collection of previously published material, assembled in 1921)
Howard Pyle
