Research trip, Part I: Buccaneers of America at the Boston Public Library

My quest to trace the evolving presentations of Alexander Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America took an exotic turn with the BPL's French-, Spanish-, and Dutch-language copies of this work. The French edition (Histoire des Aventuriers, des Boucaniers et de la Chambre des Comptes établie dans les Indes 1686) was from 1686 and the translator's note and preface were much more concerned with establishing the veracity of the account and explaining its utility both for voyagers to the West Indies and armchair travelers -- probably the influence of the early Enlightenment:

Car on peut dire en passant qu’il [Exquemelin] n’avance rien dont il ne rende raison bien éloigné de la manière de certains Autheurs, qui reduisent ceux qui les lisent à deviner ou du moins à les croire sur leur parole.
[Incidentally, we note that the author presents nothing that is not grounded in reason, as opposed to certain other authors who force their readers to guess or even just to take them at their word.]

The translator's brief mention of the buccaneers themselves makes clear their heroic virtues:

Il nous convainc encore par beaucoup d’exemples, de la valeur & de l’intrepidité de ces mesms Avanturiers, qui seulement avec des fusils, des sabres, & d’autres armes ordinaires, prennent des Navires, des Forts & des Villes, qu’on ne pourroit prendre qu’avec des Armées & des Sieges, qu’avec du Canon, des Mines, & d’autres moyens semblables qui sont d’un grand secours à la guerre …
[Using numerous examples, he (the author) convinces us further of the bravery and intrepedness of these adventurers, who took ships, forts, and towns with only rifles, swords, and other small arms when they ought to have needed armies and sieges, cannons, mines, and other such arms of war.]

The illustrations of this edition stuck to this theme; whereas English-language editions from the same time period depicted almost exclusively the pirates featured in Exquemelin's account and their more memorable atrocities (sacking cities, cutting out people's hearts), the 1686 French edition included only three illustrations: one of a sea turtle being stabbed, one of what I think was a manatee, and one of a buccaneer roasting meat over an open fire. This edition also contained a beautiful fold-out map the Caribbean with a detailed map of Tortuga:

I also read a Spanish-language edition from 1793 (Piratas de la America y luz a la defense de las costas de Indias Occidentales) which was notable chiefly for its (predictable) nationalist appeal to the strength of Spain. As noted in the title, its brief translator's note includes a description of how the work will help Spain continue to defend its North American territories as well as several verses (the latter presumably written by the translator himself) highlighting Spain's brave and warrior-like fight against pirates:

Nunca el Leon se muestra temeroso,
Aunque tenga ventaja el enemigo:
Siempre Espana al Pirata cauteloso,
Aun rugiendo da horrífero castigo.
[The Lion never shows fear
Even if the enemy has the advantage:
Spain is always on guard, roaring against pirates,
Even when it brings about horrific punishments.]

and

Tú, ó Alonso, mas doctor y verdadero,
Descbribes del América ingenioso
Lo que asalta el Pirata codicioso:
Lo que defiende el Espanol guerrero.
[O Alonso, truthfully and wisely
Describe the America
That the covetous pirate attacked
And the Spanish warrior defended.]

I also took a look at a 1931 Dutch-language edition of Buccaneers of America (De Americaensche Zeerovers). The introduction begins by noting the enduring popularity of the book, its many reprints and translations, and its influence on pirate and adventure stories, as well as the difficulty of tracking down the original:

Het boek, dat hier voor het eerst sinds 1709 herdrukt wordt, is de Hollandsche "oer-tekst" van het over de geheele wereld vermaarde werk, door Exquemelin over de bedrijven der vrijbuiters in de West-Indische wateren geschreven, een tot op heden nog veel gelezen, in de Fransche, Engelesche, Duitsche en Spaansche vertalingen nog steeds herdrukt avonturen-boek, dat in de latere jaren de stof heeft geleverd voor tallooze piraten- en avonturen-romans. De populariteit van dit boek maakte het des to opvallender, dat van de oorspronkelijke, door een Hollander in het Hollandsch geschreven uitgave, nog steeds geen nieuwe herdruk bestond, te meer waar die oorspronkelijke eerste uitgave vrijwel onvindbaar is geworden en slechts enkele bibliotheken ten onzent er een exemplaar van bezitten.
[This book, which is reprinted here for the first time since 1709, is the Dutch "ur-text" which is known throughout the whole world, written by Exquemelin about the buccaneers of the West Indies, most often read until now in the French, English, German, and Spanish translations, and that in later years provided the material for countless pirate and adventure stories. The popularity of this book, written originally by a Dutchman in Dutch, makes it all the more surprising that there have been no recent reprintings. The original first edition has become almost impossible to find and only a few libraries have a copy of it.]

The introduction goes on to attempt to figure out who Exquemelin really was and to document the history of the book's translations and reprintings. This edition included many illustrations, all done in a black-and-white cartoonish style that indicates that by 1931 in the Netherlands, pirates were well-established in the realm of children's stories and buffoonery (though it should be noted that the illustrations of Lolonois cutting out a man's heart and beheading captives aboard a ship remain thoroughly macabre):

Finally, we took a look at a 1914 English-language edition of Buccaneers of America intended for a young audience, as the George Alfred Williams, the author of the introduction notes:

In arranging this edition, the original English text only has been used, and but a few changes made by cutting out the long and tedious descriptions of plant and animal life in the West Indies, of which Esquemeling had only a smattering of truth. But, the history of Captain Morgan and his fellow Buccaneers is here printed almost identical with the original English translation, and we believe it is the first time this history has been published in a suitable form for the juvenile reader with no loss of interest to the adult.

As is so often the case in reprintings of Buccaneers of America, this edition too was at least partially motivated by current geopolitical events:

The world wide attention at this time in the Isthmus of Panama and the great canal connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean lends to this narrative an additional stimulus.

The most striking elements of this edition, however, were the wonderful illustrations by George Alfred Williams, which appear to be strongly influenced by those of Howard Pyle and help show where modern ideas of what a pirate looks like come from: