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 "pirate" 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 nation's 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 before-or since.