Who was Alexander Exquemelin? 

Alexander Exquemelin was thought to be a Frenchman who enlisted with the buccaneers for a time period.

Before he joined the buccaneers, Exquemelin was a bound servant that was sold to the French West India Company by the subjects of the island of Tortuga. He and many other servants were sold to the company when the subjects of Tortuga were meant to pay anything they could to the company, because nobody was paying their credit to the company. He was sold to a master, who was the deputy governor of the island of Tortuga. His master announced that if payed a fee he would be set free. Exquemelin was not able to pay the fee and was continued to be treated extremely poorly until he became severely ill. He was then sold to a surgeon who treated him fairly better. The surgeon set Exquemelin free after a year and allowed him to pay his freedom after he earned enough money. In total he served three years as a bonded servant from. When free Alexander Exquemelin had nothing except the clothes on his back when he joined the buccaneers. He served in a buccaneer crew under the caption of Henry Morgan. Under Morgan’s crew he served as a barber-surgeon until 1674. Exquemelin then returned to Europe presumedly Holland. He there published the first version of the book. The book was translated into many different languages including Spanish and English.