| Chapter I. | BUCCANEERS AND MAROONERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN |
| Chapter II. | THE GHOST OF CAPTAIN BRAND |
| Chapter III. | WITH THE BUCCANEERS |
| Chapter IV. | TOM CHIST AND THE TREASURE BOX |
| Chapter V. | JACK BALLISTER'S FORTUNES |
| Chapter VI. | BLUESKIN THE PIRATE |
| Chapter VII. | CAPTAIN SCARFIELD |
PIRATES, Buccaneers, Marooners, those cruel but picturesque sea wolveswho once infested the Spanish Main, all live in present-day conceptionsin great degree as drawn by the pen and pencil of Howard Pyle.
Pyle, artist-author, living in the latter half of the nineteenthcentury and the first decade of the twentieth, had the fine faculty oftransposing himself into any chosen period of history and makingits people flesh and blood again—not just historical puppets. Hischaracters were sketched with both words and picture; with both wordsand picture he ranks as a master, with a rich personality which makeshis work individual and attractive in either medium.
He was one of the founders of present-day American illustration, and hispupils and grand-pupils pervade that field to-day. While he bore nosuch important part in the world of letters, his stories are modern intreatment, and yet widely read. His range included historical treatisesconcerning his favorite Pirates (Quaker though he was); fiction, withthe same Pirates as principals; Americanized version of Old World fairytales; boy stories of the Middle Ages, still best sellers to growinglads; stories of the occult, such as In Tenebras and To the Soil of theEarth, which, if newly published, would be hailed as contributions toour latest cult.
In all these fields Pyle's work may be equaled, surpassed, save in one.It is improbable that anyone else will ever bring his combination ofinterest and talent to the depiction of these old-time Pirates, any morethan there could be a second Remington to paint the now extinct Indiansand gun-fighters of the Great West.
Important and interesting to the student of history, theadventure-lover, and the artist, as they are, these Pirate stories andpictures have been scattered through many magazines and books. Here, inthis volume, they are gathered together for the first time, perhapsnot just as Mr. Pyle would have done, but with a completeness andappreciation of the real value of the material which the author'smodesty might not have permitted. MERLE JOHNSON.