Pirates are sea robbers, bandits with boats. They raid other ships and steal the cargo. Or sometimes the whole ship.
Pirating is old, as old as seafaring itself. But its heyday began in the 16th century. Ships laden with goods sailed between Europe, Africa, and America. Pirates hid away in caves and on deserted islands to wait for a ship to come by. The they sent their own ship after it. They sold the stolen goods, or kept them for their own use.
And what about the treasure? There probably wasn't any buried treasure. Or hardly any. Those stories came later. The famous book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson wasn't written until 1883. Long John Silver, one of the main characters, was a one-legged pirate with a parrot on his shoulder. Since then, we imagine pirates looking like him. And buried treasure goes with it.
What Dog Knows, P64-65
Sylvia Vanden Heede, illustrated by Marije Tolman
ISBN 978-1-776570-37-9
No comments :
Post a Comment