Buccaneer was a name derived from the Carib boucan, a place for smoking meat, first given to European settlers in Haiti or Hispaniola, whose business was to hunt wild cattle and swine and smoke their flesh. In an extended sense the name was applied to English and French adventurers, mostly seafaring people, who, combining for mutual defence against the arrogant pretensions of the Spaniards to the dominion of the whole of America, frequented the West Indies in the 17th century, acquired predatory and lawless habits, and became ultimately, in many cases, little better than pirates.
The earliest association of these adventurers began about 1625, but they afterwards became much more formidable, and continued to be a terror until the opening of the 18th century, inflicting heavy losses upon the shipping trade of Spain, and even attacking large towns. Among their chief leaders were Montbars (Il exterminador), Peter the Great of Dieppe, L'Olonnas, de Busco, Van Horn, and the WelshmanHenry Morgan, who, in 1670, marched across the isthmus, plundered Panama, and after being knighted by Charles II, became deputy-governor of Jamaica. The last great exploit of the buccaneers was the capture of Carthagena in 1697, after which they are lost sight of in the annals of vulgar piracy. Research Buccaneer
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Research Buccaneer