Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
The new generation of European pirates in the Caribbean came in many disguises and under different names: buccaneers, corsairs, privateers. Sometimes, from the Dutch word, they were called free-booters or filibusterers. The ‘buccaneers’ came ashore in search of bacon. The Cuban Indians had learnt (from the natives of Haiti) a process of preserving meat by drying it and then smoking it over a fire of green leaves and branches. The Indians called the rack on which the meat was laid out a boucan or buccan [bacon], while those who prepared and sold the meat were referred to as boucaniers or buccaneers.
Pigs had been brought to Cuba from Europe by the first Spanish settlers. The early litters had been allowed to roam freely over the island, becoming a vital source of food, not just for the settlers but also for the pirates who arrived in forgotten coves to replenish their and their stores. They learnt to appreciate the pig meat dried on the boucan, and the word became associated with the pirates themselves, the men who brought home the bacon.
Gott, Richard. Cuba: A New History. Yale University Press, 2005.
