Villany on a Grand Scale When L'Olonnois landed on the disreputable shores of Tortuga, he was received by all circles of the vicious society of the island with loud acclamation.

He had not only taken a fine Spanish ship, he had not only bearded the Governor of Havana in his fortified den, but he had struck off ninety heads with his own hand.

Even people who did not care for him before reverenced him now.

In all the annals of piracy no hero had ever done such a deed as this, and the best records of human butchering had been broken.
Now grand and ambitious ideas began to swell the head of this champion slaughterer, and he conceived the plan of getting up a grand expedition to go forth and capture the important town of Maracaibo, in New Venezuela.

This was an enterprise far above the ordinary aims of a buccaneer, and it would require more than ordinary force to accomplish it.