The story of "buccaneer" begins on the coast of Brazil in the 16th century. Natives there cooked on a wooden grill called by a name that French explorers adopted as "boucan." In the 17th century, the word "boucan" surfaced again in the Caribbean. The French found Europeans, who had probably been mariners, living on the islands. They called the men "boucaniers" because they survived by using the native method of smoking meat over a "boucan." Some of these men later returned to the sea as pirates. The word "boucanier" continued to be applied to them in their new profession, and was borrowed into English as "buccaneer."