{"id":"01KG8AKRW3SJTZFM1FM5C95EDX","cid":"bafkreicogfecwfjmceclsclxnsq7tokuzdhcd57zyd5y6d3g5yggscjy2m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6714,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.027Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":6649,"text":"SKETCH SIXTH.\r\nBARRINGTON ISLE AND THE BUCCANEERS.\r\n\r\n“Let us all servile base subjection scorn,\r\nAnd as we be sons of the earth so wide,\r\nLet us our father’s heritage divide,\r\nAnd challenge to ourselves our portions dew\r\nOf all the patrimony, which a few\r\nhold on hugger-mugger in their hand.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“Lords of the world, and so will wander free,\r\nWhereso us listeth, uncontroll’d of any.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“How bravely now we live, how jocund, how near the\r\nfirst inheritance, without fear, how free from little troubles!”\r\n\r\n\r\nNear two centuries ago Barrington Isle was the resort of that famous\r\nwing of the West Indian Buccaneers, which, upon their repulse from the\r\nCuban waters, crossing the Isthmus of Darien, ravaged the Pacific side\r\nof the Spanish colonies, and, with the regularity and timing of a\r\nmodern mail, waylaid the royal treasure-ships plying between Manilla\r\nand Acapulco. After the toils of piratic war, here they came to say\r\ntheir prayers, enjoy their free-and-easies, count their crackers from\r\nthe cask, their doubloons from the keg, and measure their silks of Asia\r\nwith long Toledos for their yard-sticks.\r\n\r\nAs a secure retreat, an undiscoverable hiding-place, no spot in those\r\ndays could have been better fitted. In the centre of a vast and silent\r\nsea, but very little traversed—surrounded by islands, whose\r\ninhospitable aspect might well drive away the chance navigator—and yet\r\nwithin a few days’ sail of the opulent countries which they made their\r\nprey—the unmolested Buccaneers found here that tranquillity which they\r\nfiercely denied to every civilized harbor in that part of the world.\r\nHere, after stress of weather, or a temporary drubbing at the hands of\r\ntheir vindictive foes, or in swift flight with golden booty, those old\r\nmarauders came, and lay snugly out of all harm’s reach. But not only\r\nwas the place a harbor of safety, and a bower of ease, but for utility\r\nin other things it was most admirable.\r\n\r\nBarrington Isle is, in many respects, singularly adapted to careening,\r\nrefitting, refreshing, and other seamen’s purposes. Not only has it\r\ngood water, and good anchorage, well sheltered from all winds by the\r\nhigh land of Albemarle, but it is the least unproductive isle of the\r\ngroup. Tortoises good for food, trees good for fuel, and long grass\r\ngood for bedding, abound here, and there are pretty natural walks, and\r\nseveral landscapes to be seen. Indeed, though in its locality belonging\r\nto the Enchanted group, Barrington Isle is so unlike most of its\r\nneighbors, that it would hardly seem of kin to them.\r\n\r\n“I once landed on its western side,” says a sentimental voyager long\r\nago, “where it faces the black buttress of Albemarle. I walked beneath\r\ngroves of trees—not very lofty, and not palm trees, or orange trees, or\r\npeach trees, to be sure—but, for all that, after long sea-faring, very\r\nbeautiful to walk under, even though they supplied no fruit. And here,\r\nin calm spaces at the heads of glades, and on the shaded tops of slopes\r\ncommanding the most quiet scenery—what do you think I saw? Seats which\r\nmight have served Brahmins and presidents of peace societies. Fine old\r\nruins of what had once been symmetric lounges of stone and turf, they\r\nbore every mark both of artificialness and age, and were, undoubtedly,\r\nmade by the Buccaneers. One had been a long sofa, with back and arms,\r\njust such a sofa as the poet Gray might have loved to throw himself\r\nupon, his Crebillon in hand.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJKV9F0TYBV7859MZSR9Z","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSEAHPPV3122H2RZ834M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.235Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.821Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}