This book tells the story of Henry Morgan, who became the most famous and feared pirate among the eastern islands and coasts of the Americas in the mid-1600s. At least a��piratea�\x9d was the term his Spanish enemies used to describe him. As for Morgan, he felt totally offended at being called a pirate. He was no thief and murderer, he insisted. Rather, he saw himself as a proud English patriot. He preferred that people called him a privateer, someone who had the permission of his king to attack his nationa�TMs enemies. Indeed, claiming to have that royal backing, Morgan avidly assaulted Spanish ships and towns in the Americas. Based in English-controlled Jamaica and other islands, he and his crewmen became widely known for combining boldness, bravery, and bloody brutality in ways that had never been seen beforea�"or since.