The Story: A Moorish pirate, "El Moro," commanded a galley rowed by slaves & based in Cuba. He raided ships for not only jewels & gold, but also for beautiful women, whom he kept in his harem. He imprisoned them with golden chains & kept them docile with will-robbing narcotics. Sated with his dark-skinned beauties, he longed for a golden-haired, creamy-skinned maiden. He boarded a ship bearing a Spanish Hidalgo & his Danish sweetheart & quietly kidnapped them, taking them to his waiting galley. He had the girl dressed in finery & her hands manacled with golden chains between the bracelets. In an unguarded moment, the spirited girl strangled "El Moro" with his own chains; then she & her lover set the boat afire and escaped to freedom.

(Note: On a cover sheet clipped to the cut-out story pages [of Emma-Lindsay's file copy of this tale], E-L had captioned this one: "Fiction story laid in Cuba, shortly after the Spanish conquest, of a Moorish pirate who captured a spirited Danish girl. She & her lover managed to outwit the pirate & bring about his destruction." However, Good Housekeeping boldly proclaimed it as "Another true story of the Spanish Main." How anyone could mistake this as anything but fiction, I've no idea.)

-- Aileen Block

To Next Pirate Plunder