Portal:Piracy/Selected article/September 2007

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Buccaneer is a term that was used in the later 17th century in the Caribbean Islands to refer to pirates who attacked Spanish shipping. The term "buccaneer" draws its lineage from the Arawak word buccan which became corrupted into the French word "boucanier"(referring to French settlers who practiced the smoking of meat). Boucaniers originally were French hunters who were poaching cattle and pigs on western on the islands that are now Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They would smoke the meat on wooden frames, boucans, so that it could be saved for a later time. The boucaniers were taught this technique by the local Arawak tribes from Santo Domingo, calling the method Barbicoa - which is where the word and method of Barbecue originated. The word was adopted in English as "buccaneer."

Conflict with Spanish forces from the east of Hispaniola drove many of the buccaneers from the mainland to the island of Tortuga. Here, they turned to piracy against Spanish shipping, generally using small craft to attack galleons in the vicinity of the Windward Passage. English settlers occupying Jamaica began to spread the name with the meaning of rebel pirates sailing in the Caribbean ports and seas. The name became universally adopted in 1684 when a book, The Buccaneers of America was written by Alexandre Exquemelin and translated from Dutch into English. (more...)