Pirates of the Pacific 1575-1742

Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.: University of Nebeska Press - Bison, 1990. First Bison Book . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5 1/4" x 8. 274 Pages Indexed. Originally published in 1960 by the Arthur H. Clark Company as Pirates on the West Coast of New Spain 1575-1742. Some minor cover edge wear otherwise tight book with marks or stamps and flawless interior. Gerhard's sparkling account of swashbuckling pirates on the West Coast of Mexico illuminates a vital but often forgotten chapter in the history of international rivalry in the New World. Covering almost two centuries of intrusions by English, Dutch, and French buccaneers on Spain's prized Mexican possessions, this well documented narrative also describes how the Spanish dealt with these raids. (John Jay TePaske, Duke University.) By 1540, piracy, with some encouragement from the English and French governments, was thriving in the Caribbean. Much has been written about the pirates who infested that bubbling cauldron, but very little about the hardiest of them all: the ones who crossed the jungles of Central America and sailed through the perilous Straits of Magellan or around Cape Horn to sack the ports of New Spain and capture the Spanish galleons loaded with riches. At least twenty-five expeditions of foreigners reached the Pacific shores of Central America or Mexico during the period covered by this book, from 1575, when John Oxenham left England for those waters, to 1742, when Commodore George Anson sailed against the Spanish fleet in the War of Jenkins' Ear. Pirates of the Pacific brings to life Francis Drake and less civilized English privateers and smugglers, sea-roving Dutchmen like Black Anthony, buccaneers like Henry Morgan, and unnamed but no less vigorous pirates who suffered all manner of hardship for riches and generally died young and poor. PLEASE NOTE: This book was NOT authored by Arthur Clark but rather was released by Clark's publishing company in 1960 and subsequently authorized this Bison Book reprint in 1990.