Captain Willis 61
with the guard ship and pilots co-operating. But the pirate
Lafitte had his own entrance to the Mississippi river and
bayous. He needed no such mark. Anything like a buoy or
beacon in the roadstead of the then unlawful settlement of
Willis and his successors would be the very negation of the
reason why the retreat came into being and was continued.
With all respect for Squier's valuable work we have to say
that his assumption in this instance shows insufficient re-
search, lack of knowledge of the buccaneer manner of living,
and the early logwood cutters' instincts of self-preservation.
Any such mark was to betray them to their pursuers. They
themselves needed no artificial mark which a renegade could
use or remove. They were men not insensitive to ridicule.
No buccaneer and no captain of a logwood vessel in the early
days trusted a buoy in the day time or a light at night. The
revolving and alternately flashing lights were precisely put
up to insure that the fixed lights were not pirate decoys. The
beacon on the Seranilla Bank was erected in 1835, more than
200 years after the four Spanish galleons were wrecked there.
Many houses built of teak in the olden days on the outer
cayes in the Bay or the Cayman Islands were often the result
of deceiving pirate lights that wrecked the ships. One of the
oldest professions in Belize, one with a high amount of trust
and founded by Captain Willis, is that of the pilot who brings
in and takes out foreign vessels.
 The Escuadro de Barloviento consisting of six or seven sail
of stout ships from 20 to 50 guns visited all the Spanish sea-
port towns once every year, chiefly to hinder foreigners from
trading and to suppress privateers. From Cartagena Indias
to Vera Cruz, Havana, Hispaniola, Panama they ranged. The
privateers kept out of their way, having always intelligence
where they were. They had chased English vessels right up
to Caye Bokel. Often did the Honduras flotilla come to the
area between Glovers Reef or Arecife Largo and Southern
Four Cayes or Los Cuatro Cayos. Always did the early log-
wood cutters know through their lookouts who were often
hidden in the sea grape trees. On the islet west of Pauchgut