t his early days Paulo was part of the Knights Templar, less because of his devotion than because of his war ambitions. His father was a blacksmith and he learned very soon in life how to use a sword. Twenty years he spent in the Knights Templar, mysterious years Paulo never talks about, but that had great influence in who he would become in life.
In the last years of the Order before it’s dissolution, when the Knights Templar had long misrepresented its early missions, Paulo and his pals looted Church lands and ships under the Order control and became pirates in the Caribbean Sea and the Indian Ocean.
A natural leadership inclination and rigorous conduct code lead Paulo, or the Black Jack - as he got known - to become in few years the captain and war strategist of the Templar Revenge, which would still be one of the most feared sea-rovers of their time.
Although he had many women, he felt for a 18
years-old girl committed to an English Navy officer, her name was Anne Bonny. He kidnaped her and made her fought under his command. Her courage made her respected, and after marrying Paulo she would persuade the crew to engage in even more slaughterous battles.
In the golden days Paulo had more than 80 thousand men and 15 hundred ships under his insignia, a red background jolly roger with two interlaced hourglasses under a human skull. Paulo always carried around his neck a golden Hourglass, which, legend says, is either a symbol to his enemies that their time is over and they should surrender or an amulet for eternal life.
When the Dutch Company of the East Indies was created three hundred years after the end of the Order, the Black Jack was still a myth hovering over the seven seas, and many times when corsairs ships were sunk, one could say there it was the silhouette of the Templar Revenge departing from the debris.