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If you don’t like pirate stories, please, please, come back next week.
I just recovered one of my treasures, a priceless treasure.
These are real pirate stories.
Completely true – and these stories are reaching new heights.
So I’m going to spend at least my week on them – reading them again at night and seeing what we can do with them the next day.
You know – yes, you know all this – you know that piracy stories are a real mine for video games
and you surely remember that I can spend hours on my fake ships, with my black flag, throwing cannonballs at poor cargo galleons to plunder them without mercy or remorse.
I even want to see several e.sport tournaments on this theme. Between Ubisoft and Rare, I have plenty of great games to play with.
And as a result, I’m going to need some pirate stories on the Altair stage.
Tonight, the true story of women.
We are in 1665 – yes – on the island of Tortuga.
This island is not only the island of the pirates – the toughest den of the buccaneers – this island was France happily indulging the Spanish galleons.
This island was the place that had to be kept for some, razed for others.
France, in order to pretend to keep cordial relations with Spain, had given up sending official governors to Tortuga. The Frenchman who ruled there as an uncontested leader was, according to the papers, an administrator of the West India Company. His name was Bertrand d’Ogeron and … he was a former pirate – he knew the trade and the milieu.
Tortuga was at that time the place of rest – the place where ships were repaired – the place where one drank one’s gold, to the point of going mad.
They drank so much and so much, they were so little… civil and courteous, that the fights and deaths were uncountable.
D’Ogeron knew that the Spanish would do anything to retake Tortuga.
He knew that the pirates only came there out of necessity – but if they had to change islands, they would change.
Without thinking that Tortuga was a particularly good place for their business.
So this damned Frenchman decided to fix them to the island.
How to fix these men who lived only to fight, kill and die?
It is very easy.
You need women.
So he ordered two boats of women from France.
They had two guarantees: the trip was free – on arrival, each would have a home.
They thought they would marry nice settlers.
They found the pirates of Tortuga, who turned into hogs when they realized that the cargo of the boat that was coming was a cargo of women.
To find them, d’Ogeron’s men went to the prostitutes and women who were languishing in prison.
So they were not… especially sweet and tender either.
The boats were surrounded – on board, the men, not very well dressed, thought they were going crazy with desire.
On the decks, high up, the women.
And then… then a small miracle – but attested by many witnesses.
They did not board the ship.
They did not shout obscenities.
They didn’t do anything at all. They just stood there, as if struck by lightning, saying nothing and not moving.
After a long time, the bravest one dared to say “hello” and the women answered, and they laughed.
As they laughed, they were less afraid, these men who were not afraid of anything.
They asked if they had a good trip – if they liked the arrival, if the island seemed beautiful.
And they let them disembark, without saying anything else.
The women were taken to their own houses, and for 48 hours they could rest from the journey.
At the end of 48 hours – after all – it was necessary to proceed with the unions.
Then Mr. d’Ogeron took them to the main square of Tortuga.
All the guys were there.
They put bids – yes, bids that were so high that they were unbelievable.
And each couple paid for France (yes, also), & then went to get married – either at the administrator’s office or at the church.
Nobody pretended to laugh or make fun of these marriages bought at the foot of the boat: the bride and groom were not men who understood well the joke when it was about them that one made fun.
And the best part is that d’Ogeron’s trick worked. Now the guys had an excellent reason to come back to Tortuga.
A great reason to defend the island.
And that’s what they did.
As for the ladies… some of them became very formidable pirates.
Isn’t that a nice true story?
I think I’d like to see it retranslated into dance – mostly Capoeira – and some circus bits.
It would be amazing.
Featured Image : Ann Bonny
ALTAIR - Concepts 