. This book explodes the false belief that the early 19th-century pirate "José Gaspar" (also known as "Gasparilla") did not exist. The culmination of twenty years of extensive archival and archaeological research, this book reveals the true identity of "Gaspar" and provides a multidisciplinary history of "Gaspar" and his association with the pirates Jean and Pierre Laffite. This book also reveals the discoveries of several treasures that the Gaspar-Laffite pirates buried in southwest Florida as well as provides a cryptanalysis of their treasure maps and clues as to the locations of their other treasures that are highly likely still concealed in the swamps of the Peace River.