This is a book of
short stories, as delightful and amusing as the times they speak of were barbarous and exciting.
There are six
short stories -- episodes in the life of the bloody and notorious Captain Blood -- a noble, honorable, generous, and beautiful man, outlawed for helping an injured enemy of the Crown. As a young man he then went to the Caribbean, and made a reputation that made the Spaniards sweat and swear in their beds at night, if they even suspected he might be around -- and the worse if they were thieves or dishonorable men themselves. His trickery and deceit are immensely funny and all in good causes, although these include
enriching himself as well, when that is possible honorably or by deceiving the deceiver in turn. Yet he does not hesitate to risk his own life to save a young hidalgo who was attacked and later carried off by a miserable scoundrel of a man, bent only on his own enrichment, regardless of the cost to others.