Roc, it may be said, was not only a bloody pirate, but a blooded one; he was thoroughbred.  From the time he had been able to assert his individuality he had been a pirate, and there was no reason to suppose that he would ever reform himself into anything else.  There were no extenuating circumstances in his case; in his nature there was no alloy, nor moderation, nor forbearance.  The appreciative Esquemeling, who might be called the Boswell of the buccaneers, could never have met his hero Roc, when that bushy-bearded pirate was running “amuck” in the streets, but if he had, it is not probable that his book would have been written.  He assures us that when Roc was not drunk he was esteemed, but at the same time feared; but there are various ways of gaining esteem, and Roc’s method certainly succeeded very well in the case of his literary associate.

As we have seen, the hatred of the Spaniards by the buccaneers began very early in the settlement of the West Indies, and in fact, it is very likely that if there had been no Spaniards there would never have been any buccaneers; but in all the instances of ferocious enmity toward the Spaniards there has been nothing to equal the feelings of Roc, the Brazilian, upon that subject.  His dislike to everything Spanish arose, he declared, from cruelties which had been practised upon his parents by people of that nation, and his main principle of action throughout all his piratical career seems to have been that there was nothing too bad for a Spaniard.  The object of his life was to wage bitter war against Spanish ships and Spanish settlements.  He seldom gave any quarter to his prisoners, and would often subject them to horrible tortures in order to make them tell where he could find the things he wanted.  There is nothing horrible that has ever been written or told about the buccaneer life, which could not have been told about Roc, the Brazilian.  He was a typical pirate.

[Illustration:  “In a small boat filled with some of his trusty men, he rowed quietly into the port.”—­p. 77.]

Roc was very successful, in his enterprises, and took a great deal of valuable merchandise to Jamaica, but although he and his crew were always rich men when they went on shore, they did not remain in that condition very long.  The buccaneers of that day were all very extravagant, and, moreover, they were great gamblers, and it was not uncommon for them to lose everything they possessed before they had been on shore a week.  Then there was nothing for them to do but to go on board their vessels and put out to sea in search of some fresh prize.  So far Roc’s career had been very much like that of many other Companions of the Coast, differing from them only in respect to intensity and force, but he was a clever man with ideas, and was able to adapt himself to circumstances.