Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

CHAPTER VII

"THE BLOODY QUAKER"
D i O YOU recall the night when I was at your
house in Wilmington and you showed me that
fine collection of 'buccaneer' books which you had on your
shelves? Since then in pictures and in your writings I have
often been reminded of that golden vein-and now that I
look out on the Caribbean from my window in this Hacienda
I feel strongly the echoes of the old life which you have
made so real to the imagination.. 0.0.1" These lines written to Howard Pyle from Porto Rico, in 1907, by S. W.
Marvin, who had been for years a close friend through his
connection with Scribner's, tell in a few words almost the
whole story of the pirate pictures and tales. Howard Pyle's,
interest in buccaneers and marooners was a gradual growth;
it had in ilt something akin to the fascination which historical
research held for him, but it was animated by a more
romantic feeling, by an emotional impetus, as it were.
Pirates and their adventurous lives held a strange attraction
for him; he was never more content than when he had
found some half-forgotten account of a notorious buccaneer,
and- had plenty of time to spend in an examination of it.
For fifteen or sixteen years after his marriage a part of
nearly every summer was spent in Rehoboth, the little seaside town a few miles south of Cape Henlopen which has
been mentioned several times before. During the early
[ 132]1