30 Απρ 2010

The Pirate Island of Milos


After the occupation of Constantinople by the Francs, the Venetians took over the Aegean Islands. First came Mark Sanoudo who founded a dukedom of the Aegean Sea in 1207, centred in Naxos. This dynasty was in power until 1361. In 1268, the Miloans again showed their love of freedom when they rebelled against the Venetians, seizing Castro, in the hope that the Byzantine fleet would come to their aid. This, unfortunately, never happened and the rebellion was quashed with much spilling of blood by William I.

The Sanoudo dynasty was succeeded by the Krispon dynasty, and in 1566, Piali Pasha managed to complete Turkish control of the whole Cyclades area. The Sultan appointed a cunning Jew, Joseph Nazis, as the last Duke of the islands and he was authorised to collect a tribute of 14,000 ducats a year. His rule lasted until 1579 and he was represented by the lawyer Francisco Koronelo.

After the death of Nazis in 1580, the islands came under the direct rule of Sultan Mourat III with several political privileges. The islands were semi-autonomous with the obligation to pay «haratsi» (tax per head) to the Pasha Kapoutan, the Sultan’s delegate. It is worth mentioning that during all the years of Turkish rule, Milos was never occupied by the Turks but only visited by travellers and persons who came to inspect how the islanders lived.
Besides the Admiral, Pasha Kapoutan, a lawyer called Kadis came to settle the more serious differences between the islanders, often staying for long periods of time. The taxes were collected by the island committee and handed over to Pasha Kapoutan every two or three years.

Throughout these years of Turkish rule, there was frequent destruction and pillaging by the Venetians, the Turks and pirates. If the pirates did not rob the islanders, they stayed for long periods, to sell their booty.

A local pirate, John or George Kapsis, an experienced navigator with anti-Turkish persuasions, put himself in charge of a social rebellion and was named King by Kamili, the Catholic bishop of Milos. He reigned from 1675 to 1678 and he had such a great influence on his countrymen, that the Turks were obliged to sail to Milos and arrest him by fraudulent means. He was taken to Constantinople where he was hanged.

In the winter of 1771, Milos and the nearby islands were conquered by the Russians of Orlof. This continued until 1774 when the Turkish dominion was re-established.

During the same period, Hora, today’s Zefiria, was destroyed. The town which had grown from the Middle Ages, reached its zenith in the 16th and 17th centuries. However, in the middle of the 18th century the environment became increasingly inhospitable. Earthquakes, noxious gases escaping from the ground, floods and malaria, were the reasons that, by 1767, the towns-folk had fled and resettled in Castro and outside the castle walls in the area which is today’s Plaka. So it was that the beautiful, rich town with a population of 5,000 described in 1700 for us by the Frenchman, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, was destroyed. In its place is today’s Zefiria, with just a handful of villagers.

27 Απρ 2010

Captain William Parker


Parker was a member of the lesser gentry near Plymouth. In 1587 he sailed in consort with Sir Francis Drake during Drake's raid on Cadiz, Spain.
In the 1590's Parker sailed the West Indies taking several prizes. He also plundered Puerto Caballos in Honduras in 1594 & 1595.
After 1596, as owner of his own vessel, he partnered with Sir Anthony Sherley, but this relationship ended when after a time no prizes were taken. Leaving Sherley behind, Parker attacked Campeche, Mexico. Parker was wounded in the attack but survived & succeeded in capturing a frigate carrying silver which was en route to San Juan De Ulua.
Parker next captured Portobelo in February 1601. Portobelo was a very important port being the departure point from which Peruvian treasure left for Spain. Parker then sailed to Panama & plundered Saint Vincent in the Cape Verdes. He also captured & held for ransom the Cubagua pearl-boats & captured a Portuguese slave ship. His successes secured for him a prominent position in Plymouth, where he was looked upon as a hero of sorts & he became a founding member of the Virginia Company in 1606.
Parker was made Vice-Admiral & left on an expedition to the East Indies, but died at Java in 1617. 
William Parker, of Tortuga was able to take Porto Bello in 1602, less than one year after all of the fortifications were built. With a combined force of two ships, two pinnace, and two small shallops with 378 men. They entered Panama waters near the Gulf of Aclé and tried sailing west along the coast, but encountered strong winds, the kept driving him back. Leaving the bigger ships at Aclé, he continued with the pinnaces and shallops and 150 men. At the Island of Bastimientos, they captured some booty and took some Spanish prisoners along six Negroes as guides.
They entered the mouth of Porto Bello River on the 7th of February at about 2:00 AM with a full moon. He proceeded into the harbor in one of the shallops hoping to sneak past the defenses without being seen. The boat was spotted by the sentry at Fort San Felipe, and they shouted a challenge to the ship. Parker was prepared for this, and ordered one of the Spanish prisoners, while many guns were aimed at him, to answer back in Spanish, that they were a merchant ship from Cartagena. The sleepy guards, not being able to see well in the darkness, believed him and gave them instructions on were to drop anchor in the harbor near the town. As he approached the town, he was again challenged by the smaller Fort San Jago and ordered to stop. They dropped anchor, and the pirates disembarked, going to the suburbs, in a area known as Triana. Here he set all of the buildings on fire and marched into Porto Bello, to the king's Treasure House and attacked it.
With the guards at San Felipe distracted by the happenings in Porto Bello, Captains Fugars and Lawriman were able to sail past the fort in the pinnaces with an additional 120 men. The governor of Porto Bello, Don Pedro Melendez, organized his forces and marched to do battle with the intruders. The governor was wounded in the first volley, along with the English Captain Giles and Lieutenant Barnet. The Spanish were forced to retreat to the Royal Treasure House, and kept the pirates at bay, until morning. The governor was wounded in 12 places, and the Spanish eventually were forced to surrender.
Due to the bravery exhibited by the governor, Parker directed that the he be attended by the English physician and released. The pirates were able to capture 10,000 ducats at the Royal Treasure House, missing 120,000 ducats that were shipped out, a couple days before. 
On February 8th, the pirates posted barricades at the road coming from Panama. They were being harassed by contingents of soldiers from the forts, and those that had manage to escape during the battle. The pirates were always able to repulse the attacks, but were fearful of re-enforcements from Panamá. Other then sacking the town, the pirates did not burn it down, Parker being impressed with their valor in the face of battle, particularly the governor. That night, they boarded their ships, and sailed out of the port, with guns blazing. San Felipe was able to fire 28 cannon shots at the escaping in pirates, but none hit the mark. All of the fortress on both sides of the bay were firing but all missed. The only casualty during the run to sea, was Captain Parker, who was hit by a musket ball, fired from the western bank. The ball when in at the elbow, and exited at the wrist. This raid was considered by some to be the most  profitable raid, considering that there were so few casualties and each member of the expedition, earned a hefty sum.

26 Απρ 2010

Interview With a Captain of U.T.B.F


Ahoy Capitana Red Hand

Please, spare some time and share with our fine and dear U.T.B.F. Brotherhood, some treasure from yer life, so as the Pirate Universe know ye better
 

What is yer real name, mylady?

Capitana Red-Hand is Andrea Jones

 What are yer other, everyday activities, except from sailing, plundering and dreaming?

I’m a wordsmith. I write stories about — what else? — pirates. My first book, “Hook & Jill,” was released last August. It’s the myth of Peter Pan, re-envisioned for grown-ups, (ages 17 and up, but best to be over 40), and the first in a series of Neverland novels for adults. I’m proud to say that within “Hook & Jill,” Captain Hook comes into his full power. You can find reviews, awards, and my author appearances at www.HookandJill.com.

 Describe yerself in 5-10 words.

Fierce, friendly, fiery, firm, and fervent. In short, a Pirate. (And that was exactly 10 words).
 Since when ye got interested about Pirates?

It all started with pirate figurines on a birthday cake. My life-long intrigue with piracy triumphed as I wrote “Hook & Jill.” Captain Hook invaded my dreams and inspired my story, and I now understand why he is the iconic pirate of Western literature — truly, the Pirate King. Many thanks to Sir James Barrie, who conjured him up for the world’s appreciation.

 What is this specific thing ye really like about Pirates most?

Their independence and their defiance of the rules. Pirates, like me, have been forced to make their own way, create their own families, and obey only their own code of ethics.
 How ye decided to become a member of U.T.B.F. and what is that whispering in yer heart?
Once I found the crew of Under The Black Flag on Facebook, I had to join up. Shortly thereafter, I was honored with the opportunity to become a Capitana. It is a privilege indeed to serve with my fellow UTBF captains.
  
Why ye accepted to be a U.T.B.F. Captain?

Brethren recognize brethren. Our hearts are linked.

What is yer favorite pirate weapon?

In “Hook & Jill,” Red-Handed Jill brandishes a whip in her blood-stained right hand. She uses it “to bring down any boy who tries to tame her.”
 What is yer favorite pirate ship?

The Roger, on which Captain Hook came to fame. In the second book of my Neverland series, “Other Oceans,” we’ll learn how Hook happened upon her, and how he took her for his own.

What is yer favorite pirate drink?

Pirate’s Choice Rum. See chapter 23 for creative imbibing techniques. And bring a lover.

 What is yer favorite pirate song?

“The Lowlands of Holland,” as recorded by Steeleye Span. It reflects the spirit of defiance, and a woman holding steadfast to her love of a lost seaman.

 What is yer favorite pirate word or phrase?

“Take what ye can; give nothing back.”

 What is yer favorite item in your pirate wardrobe?
The jewels!

 Ye feel rather a blessed or a cursed pirate figure?

I relish the blessings of my brotherhood, and revel in the curses of those who fear Red-Handed Jill.
 Do ye believe that the pirates’ life is really fer ye?

Oh, aye! I’ve never fit into ordinariness. I'd have had to narrow my life, hacking at it to fit into the conventional world. Be damned to it!

Gramerci Captain fer yer time and thinking on this short interview. Now, feel free to add anything you believe our noble Brotherhood would like to hear from you. Strong Sails!

Brothers and sisters of Under the Black Flag -- be true to your dream. Let nothing and no one stand in your way; equally, embrace those things that Fate sends your way. Be it good or ill, it’s all part of your experience.

~ Capitana Red-Hand


Catalina de Erauso Lieutenant Nun

Catalina de Erauso, also known as La Monja Alférez (English, The Nun Lieutenant) (1592, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain—1650, Cuetlaxtla, New Spain), was a semi-legendary personality of Spain and Spanish America in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Catalina de Erauso was daughter and sister of soldiers from the city of San Sebastian in the Basque Country. She was expected to become a nun but abandoned the nunnery after a beating at the age of fifteen, just before she was to take her vows. She had not ever seen a street, having entered the convent at the age of four.
She dressed as a man, calling herself "Francisco de Loyola", and left on a long journey from San Sebastian to Valladolid. From there she visited Bilbao, where she signed up on a ship with the assistance of other Basques. She reached Spanish America and enlisted as a soldier under the name Alonso Díaz Ramírez de Guzmán. She served under several captains, supposedly including her own brother, who never recognized her.
After one fight in which she killed a man and was wounded apparently fatally, she revealed her gender in a deathbed confession. She however survived after four months of convalescence and left for Guamanga.
To escape yet another incident, she confessed her sex to the bishop, Fray Agustín de Carvajal. Induced by him she entered a convent and her story spread across the ocean. In 1620, the archbishop of Lima called her. In 1624, she arrived in Spain, having changed ship after another fight.
She went to Rome and toured Italy, where she eventually achieved such a level of fame that she was granted a special dispensation by Pope Urban VIII to wear men's clothing.
Her portrait by Francesco Crescenzio is lost. Back in Spain, Francisco Pacheco (Velázquez's father-in-law) painted her in 1630.
She again left Spain in 1645, this time for New Spain in the fleet of Pedro de Ursua, where she became a mule driver on the road from Veracruz. In New Spain she used the name Antonio de Erauso.
She died in Cuetlaxtla, New Spain in 1650.

Pedro del Valle described her in a 1626 letter sent from Rome to Mario Schipano as fond of conversation, tall and strong with masculine looks and childlike breasts after the application of an Italian remedy. Her face is not ugly but worn by age, looking more like a eunuch than a woman.
She dressed as a Spanish man, with a sword, more as a soldier than a courtier.

Petition of Catalina de Erauso to the Spanish Crown, 1625
 
  Sir: The Ensign Doña Catalina de Erauso, resident and native of the town of San Sebastián, in the province of Guipúzcoa, says that of the last 19 years she has spent 15 in the service of Your Majesty in the wars of the kingdom of Chile and the Indians of Peru, having traveled to those parts in men's garbs owing to her particular inclination to take up arms in defense of the Catholic faith and in the service of Your Majesty without being known in the aforesaid kingdom of Chile during the entire time she spent there as other than a man. Only some years later, in the lands of Peru, was it discovered under circumstances unfitting to mention here that she was a woman. And, being under the command in the kingdom of Chile of the Ensign Miguel de Erauso, her legitimate brother, she never revealed herself to him, though she knew that he was her brother: she denied their blood ties to avoid being recognized. In all the time she served with him, as well as under the command of the Field Master Don Diego Bravo de Sarabia, she withstood the discomforts of military service like the strongest man, known only as such in every battle. Her deeds earned her the right to carry Your Majesty's flag, serving as she did as Ensign of the infantry company of Captain Gonzalo Rodríguez under the assumed name of Alonso Díaz Ramírez de Guzmán. In that period, she distinguished herself with great courage and valor, suffering wounds, particularly in the battle of Peru. The troops having been reorganized, she moved to the company of Captain Guillén de Casanova, governor of the castle of Arauco, and was chosen as a valiant and fine soldier to go out and do battle with the enemy. All of the above, and more, is recorded in the certificates and testimonies of Don Luis de Céspedes, Governor and Captain General of Paraguay, formerly of the infantry of Chile; of Don Juan Cortés de Monroy, Governor and Captain General of Veraguas, also of the infantry in Chile; and of Don Francisco Pérez de Navarrete; all three of whom, as well as others who were her superiors and field masters, are presently at court and know her very well, having seen her serve Your Majesty and knowing that she served as Captain in the aforesaid kingdoms of Chile and Peru...
  She begs that Your Majesty be pleased to order that her services and long wanderings and valiant deeds be rewarded, thereby showing his greatness; [rewarding her] for the worthiness of her deeds and for the singularity and prodigiousness of her life, mindful that she is the daughter of noble and illustrious parents who are principal citizens in the town of San Sebastián; and for the rectitude and rare purity in which she has lived and lives, to which many have borne testimony; for which she would be honored to receive a yearly stipend of seventy pesos apportioned in 22 quilates per month in the city of Cartagena de las Indias, and funds to travel there, rewards that she hopes Your Majesty in his greatness will provide.  
  Translated by Stephanie Merrim from the document in José Toribio Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Chilena, 1523-1817. Vol. 1 (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1965, reprint).

23 Απρ 2010

Interview With a Captain of U.T.B.F

Ahoy Captain Gabriel Black

Please, spare some time and share with our fine and dear U.T.B.F. Brotherhood, some treasure from yer life, so as the Pirate Universe know ye better…


 What is yer real name, mylord?

Eric Williams

 What are yer other, everyday activities, except from sailing, plundering and dreaming?

I'm the CEO of a marketing company named Williams Wickersham Cannon

I'm the executive producer of Barataria Faire

Lead Singer of Capt'n. Black's Sea Dogs


I was employed by the U.S. Army in my younger years. Started 11Bravo went to 82nd Airbourne then to 2nd Mnt. Bat. SF.

 Describe yerself in 5-10 words.

I bow deeply to the universe and it bows back.

 Since when ye got interested about Pirates?

I've like pirates me whole life but seriously in the last 5 years

What is this specific thing ye really like about Pirates most?

They were the rock stars of the age! In a time when very few even traveled more than 5 miles they traveled the world. So to sum it up in one word. FREEDOM!!

 How ye decided to become a member of U.T.B.F. and what is that whispering in yer heart?

The U.T.B.F. were like minded mates so I joined them.
 

 Why ye accepted to be a U.T.B.F. Captain?

I was honored to be asked and it would have been dishonorable to say no.

What is yer favorite pirate weapon?

Rapier

 What is yer favorite pirate ship?

The Golden Hind

 What is yer favorite pirate drink?

Rum...or really well made grog

 What is yer favorite pirate song?

Spell...by Capt'n. Black's Sea Dogs hehe....No as far as ol pirate tunes most likely 100 years ago.


 What is yer favorite pirate word or phrase?

Booty!!

 What is yer favorite item in your pirate wardrobe?

Me badge from the mid western Sea Dogs Guild


 Ye feel rather a blessed or a cursed pirate figure?

I'm blessed to have such good mates and public notoriety.

 Do ye believe that the pirates’ life is really fer ye?

No other life mates!! To The Brotherhood and Fer The BLACK FLAG!! 

Gramerci Captain fer yer time on this short interview. Strong Sails!

22 Απρ 2010

Captain John Oxenham

John Oxenham was the first English captain to sail the Pacific.

In 1572, Oxenham took part on the raid in Panama which was headed by Sir Francis Drake. In 1573 Oxenham was second in command, still under Sir Francis Drake, during the march to Panama. According to reports, Drake climbed a tree and saw the Pacific Ocean whereby he vowed: "besought Almightie God of his goodnesse to give him life and leave to sayle once in an English ship on that sea" At which Oxenham seconded: "protested that unlesse our Captaine did beate him from his company he would follow him by Gods grace".
During the raid, Drake and Oxenham split forces and tried two different approaches to Panama. Oxenham returned before Drake and set sail with two ships and 57 men, including John Butler.
Oxenham made his way to the Atlantic coast to prey on shipping. He spent the winters of 1576-1577 inland. In February 1577, Oxenham (in a pinnace which his men and some escaped African slaves, the Cimarrσnes built) via a river entered the Gulf of Panama. They looted the Pearl Islands where they tortured a Franciscan friar. From there they plundered two ships laden with gold and silver headed for Panama.
Leaving the Pacific, they were headed towards the Atlantic when they were attcked by the Spanish. Many of Oxenham's men were killed and the treasure was recaptured. Oxenham and some of his men escaped but were hunted down, captured and taken to Panama in April 1578. A total of 18 Englishmen plus 40 Africans. 14 of the Englishmen were hanged, the Africans were returned to slavery and Oxenham, Butler and Thomas Sherwell (all of whom were officers) were taken to Lima, Peru and executed late 1580.

21 Απρ 2010

Captain John Nutt

John Nutt was born in Lympstone, England. He acted as a brigand and a pirate in Newfoundland waters from 1620 to 1623. John Nutt and his family came to Newfoundland in 1620 when he was serving as a gunner on Dartmouth ship.
His family were settled Torbay, Newfoundland, when John Nutt and others seized control of a french fishing vessel and became pirates. Soon they had commendeered two other French vessels.
After three years of piracy, Nutt requested a pardon from John Eliot, the Vice Admiral of Devon. This pardon was granted in return of a 500 pound ranson. On his return to England, Eliot betrayed Nutt and imprisoned him.
Nutt was tried as a pirate and about to be hanged when George Calvert, (a.k.a Lord Baltimore) England's Secretary of State, intervened on his behalf. The reason for this intervention is that Nutt and Calvert were associated, having probably met in association with the Colony of Avalon, Ferryland, Newfoundland when George Calvert lived there.
Nutt received 100 pounds compensation and Eliot was imprisoned.

18 Απρ 2010

Captain Edward Collier

In 1668 Edward Collier was in command of one of the ships taking part in Sir Henry Morgan's raid on Portobello. Around the end of the year Collier was given command of the 34-gun Oxford, with orders to hunt down pirates. Collier captured Captain la Veven as well as his ship, the Satisfaction.
Collier rejoined Morgan for a raid on Maracaibo and Gibraltar, Venezuela. Disaster struck the Oxford when several drunken pirates accidently blew her up. Collier now disillusioned took the Satisfaction and left. During the next 18 months, Collier cruised the Mexican shores.
In September 1670, Collier, again joined Morgan who was organizing his raid on Panama. Collier was named vice-admiral of the expedition. While the pirates were gathering their forces, Collier was instructed to tke 6 ships to Venezuela in order to stock up on provisions and aquire information.
Collier's first stop was Rio de la Hacha. There he captured the fort and garrison. Known to be more ruthless than the average pirate, Collier tortured the Spanish prisoners severly to obtain their treasure to no avail and most of the prisoners died without devulging their secret and the 200,000 pesos was not found.
After extorting provisions from the populace, Collier rejoined Morgans fleet in early December. By January 1671, with Collier in command of the left wing of the assault. The victorious pirates took over the town. Collier killed one of the Spanish chaplains, a Franciscan friar. The raid on Panama led to the arrest of Morgan (who was released). Collier profited greatly which he used to maintain his 1,000 acre plantation in Jamaica, which had been given to him in 1668. Until his death, he spent his time preparing defenses against a possible foreign invasion upon Jamaica.

12 Απρ 2010

Smuggler's Song

If you wake at Midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
Running round the woodlump, if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brushwood back again - and they'll be gone next day!
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
If you see the stable door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm - don't you ask no more!
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you "pretty maid", and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been!
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!
If you do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance,
You'll be given a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of pretty lace, and a velvet hood -
A present from the Gentlemen, along o' being good!
Five and twenty ponies
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson.
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

7 Απρ 2010

The Goverment Supresses The Buccaneers by C.H. Harring

The new Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Lynch, brought with him instructions to publish and carefully observe the articles of 1670 with Spain, and at the same time to revoke all commissions issued by his predecessor "to the prejudice of the King of Spain or any of his subjects." When he proclaimed the peace he was likewise to publish a general pardon to privateers who came in and submitted within a reasonable time, of all offences committed since June 1660, assuring to them the possession of their prize-goods (except the tenths and the fifteenths which were always reserved to the crown as a condition of granting commissions), and offering them inducements to take up planting, trade, or service in the royal navy. But he was not to insist positively on the payment of the tenths and fifteenths if it discouraged their submission; and if this course failed to bring in the rovers, he was to use every means in his power "by force or persuasion" to make them submit.332 Lynch immediately set about to secure the good-will of his Spanish neighbours and to win back the privateers to more peaceful pursuits. Major Beeston was sent to Cartagena with the articles of peace, where he was given every satisfaction and secured the release of thirty-two English prisoners.333 On the 15th August the proclamation of pardon to privateers was issued at Port Royal;334 and those {201} who had railed against their commanders for cheating them at Panama, were given an opportunity of resorting to the law-courts.335 Similar proclamations were sent by the governor "to all their haunts," intimating that he had written to Bermuda, the Caribbees, New England, New York and Virginia for their apprehension, had sent notices to all Spanish ports declaring them pirates, and intended to send to Tortuga to prevent their reception there.336 However, although the governor wrote home in the latter part of the month that the privateers were entirely suppressed, he soon found that the task was by no means a simple one. Two buccaneers with a commission from Modyford, an Englishman named Thurston and a mulatto named Diego, flouted his offer of pardon, continued to prey upon Spanish shipping, and carried their prizes to Tortuga.337 A Dutchman named Captain Yallahs (or Yellowes) fled to Campeache, sold his frigate for 7000 pieces of eight to the Spanish governor, and entered into Spanish service to cruise against the English logwood-cutters. The Governor of Jamaica sent Captain Wilgress in pursuit, but Wilgress devoted his time to chasing a Spanish vessel ashore, stealing logwood and burning Spanish houses on the coast.338 A party of buccaneers, English and French, landed upon the north side of Cuba and burnt two towns, carrying away women and inflicting many cruelties on the inhabitants; and when the governors of Havana and St. Jago complained to Lynch, the latter could only disavow the English in the marauding party as rebels and pirates, and {202} bid the Spanish governors hang all who fell into their power.339 The governor, in fact, was having his hands full, and wrote in January 1672 that "this cursed trade has been so long followed, and there is so many of it, that like weeds or hydras, they spring up as fast as we can cut them down."340
Some of the recalcitrant freebooters, however, were captured and brought to justice. Major Beeston, sent by the governor in January 1672, with a frigate and four smaller vessels, to seize and burn some pirate ships careening on the south cays of Cuba, fell in instead with two other vessels, one English and one French, which had taken part in the raids upon Cuba, and carried them to Jamaica. The French captain was offered to the Governor of St. Jago, but the latter refused to punish him for fear of his comrades in Tortuga and Hispaniola. Both captains were therefore tried and condemned to death at Port Royal. As the Spaniards, however, had refused to punish them, and as there was no reason why the Jamaicans should be the executioners, the captains of the port and some of the council begged for a reprieve, and the English prisoner, Francis Witherborn, was sent to England.341 Captain Johnson, one of the pirates after whom Beeston had originally been sent, was later in the year shipwrecked by a hurricane upon the coast of Jamaica. Johnson, immediately after the publication of the peace by Sir Thomas Lynch, had fled from Port Royal with about ten followers, and falling in with a Spanish ship of eighteen guns, had seized it and killed the captain and twelve or fourteen of the crew. Then gathering about him a party of a hundred or more, English and French, he had robbed Spanish vessels round Havana and the Cuban coast. {203} Finally, however, he grew weary of his French companions, and sailed for Jamaica to make terms with the governor, when on coming to anchor in Morant Bay he was blown ashore by the hurricane. The governor had him arrested, and gave a commission to Colonel Modyford, the son of Sir Thomas, to assemble the justices and proceed to trial and immediate execution. He adjured him, moreover, to see to it that the pirate was not acquitted. Colonel Modyford, nevertheless, sharing perhaps his father's sympathy with the sea-rovers, deferred the trial, acquainted none of the justices with his orders, and although Johnson and two of his men "confessed enough to hang a hundred honester persons," told the jury they could not find against the prisoner. Half an hour after the dismissal of the court, Johnson "came to drink with his judges." The baffled governor thereupon placed Johnson a second time under arrest, called a meeting of the council, from which he dismissed Colonel Modyford, and "finding material errors," reversed the judgment. The pirate was again tried—Lynch himself this time presiding over the court—and upon making a full confession, was condemned and executed, though "as much regretted," writes Lynch, "as if he had been as pious and as innocent as one of the primitive martyrs." The second trial was contrary to the fundamental principles of English law, howsoever guilty the culprit may have been, and the king sent a letter to Lynch reproving him for his rashness. He commanded the governor to try all pirates thereafter by maritime law, and if a disagreement arose to remit the case to the king for re-judgment. Nevertheless he ordered Lynch to suspend from all public employments in the island, whether civil or military, both Colonel Modyford and all others guilty with him of designedly acquitting Johnson.342
The Spaniards in the West Indies, notwithstanding the {204} endeavours of Sir Thomas Lynch to clear their coasts of pirates, made little effort to co-operate with him. The governors of Cartagena and St. Jago de Cuba, pretending that they feared being punished for allowing trade, had forbidden English frigates to come into their ports, and refused them provisions and water; and the Governor of Campeache had detained money, plate and negroes taken out of an English trading-vessel, to the value of 12,000 pieces of eight. When Lynch sent to demand satisfaction, the governor referred him to Madrid for justice, "which to me that have been there," writes Lynch, "seems worse than the taking it away."343 The news also of the imposing armament, which the Spanish grandees made signs of preparing to send to the Indies on learning of the capture of Panama, was in November 1671 just beginning to filter into Jamaica; and the governor and council, fearing that the fleet was directed against them, made vigorous efforts, by repairing the forts, collecting stores and marshalling the militia, to put the island in a state of defence. The Spanish fleet never appeared, however, and life on the island soon subsided into its customary channels.344 Sir Thomas Lynch, meanwhile, was all the more careful to observe the peace with Spain and yet refrain from alienating the more troublesome elements of the population. It had been decided in England that Morgan, too, like Modyford, was to be sacrificed, formally at least, to the remonstrances of the Spanish Government; yet Lynch, because Morgan himself was ill, and fearing perhaps that two such {205} arrests might create a disturbance among the friends of the culprits, or at least deter the buccaneers from coming in under the declaration of amnesty, did not send the admiral to England until the following spring. On 6th April 1672 Morgan sailed from Jamaica a prisoner in the frigate "Welcome."345 He sailed, however, with the universal respect and sympathy of all parties in the colony. Lynch himself calls him "an honest, brave fellow," and Major James Banister in a letter to the Secretary of State recommends him to the esteem of Arlington as "a very well deserving person, and one of great courage and conduct, who may, with his Majesty's pleasure, perform good service at home, and be very advantageous to the island if war should break forth with the Spaniard."346
Indeed Morgan, the buccaneer, was soon in high favour at the dissolute court of Charles II., and when in January 1674 the Earl of Carlisle was chosen Governor of Jamaica, Morgan was selected as his deputy347—an act which must have entirely neutralized in Spanish Councils the effect of his arrest a year and a half earlier. Lord Carlisle, however, did not go out to Jamaica until 1678, and meanwhile in April a commission to be governor was issued to Lord Vaughan,348 and several months later another to Morgan as lieutenant-governor.349 Vaughan arrived in Jamaica in the middle of March 1675; but Morgan, whom the king in the meantime had knighted, sailed ahead of Vaughan, apparently in defiance of the governor's orders, and although shipwrecked on the Isle la Vache, reached Jamaica a week before his superior.350 It seems that Sir Thomas Modyford {206} sailed for Jamaica with Morgan, and the return of these two arch-offenders to the West Indies filled the Spanish Court with new alarms. The Spanish ambassador in London presented a memorial of protest to the English king,351 and in Spain the Council of War blossomed into fresh activity to secure the defence of the West Indies and the coasts of the South Sea.352 Ever since 1672, indeed, the Spaniards moved by some strange infatuation, had persisted in a course of active hostility to the English in the West Indies. Could the Spanish Government have realized the inherent weakness of its American possessions, could it have been informed of the scantiness of the population in proportion to the large extent of territory and coast-line to be defended, could it have known how in the midst of such rich, unpeopled countries abounding with cattle, hogs and other provisions, the buccaneers could be extirpated only by co-operation with its English and French neighbours, it would have soon fallen back upon a policy of peace and good understanding with England. But the news of the sack of Panama, following so close upon the conclusion of the treaty of 1670, and the continued depredations of the buccaneers of Tortuga and the declared pirates of Jamaica, had shattered irrevocably the reliance of the Spaniards upon the good faith of the English Government. And when Morgan was knighted and sent back to Jamaica as lieutenant-governor, their suspicions seemed to be confirmed. A ketch, sent to Cartagena in 1672 by Sir Thomas Lynch to trade in negroes, was seized by the general of the galleons, the goods burnt in the market-place, and the negroes sold for the Spanish King's account.353 An Irish papist, named Philip Fitzgerald, commanding {207} a Spanish man-of-war of twelve guns belonging to Havana, and a Spaniard called Don Francisco with a commission from the Governor of Campeache, roamed the West Indian seas and captured English vessels sailing from Jamaica to London, Virginia and the Windward Islands, barbarously ill-treating and sometimes massacring the English mariners who fell into their hands.354 The Spanish governors, in spite of the treaty and doubtless in conformity with orders from home,355 did nothing to restrain the cruelties of these privateers. At one time eight English sailors who had been captured in a barque off Port Royal and carried to Havana, on attempting to escape from the city were pursued by a party of soldiers, and all of them murdered, the head of the master being set on a pole before the governor's door.356 At another time Fitzgerald sailed into the harbour of Havana with five Englishmen tied ready to hang, two at the main-yard arms, two at the fore-yard arms, and one at the mizzen peak, and as he approached the castle he had the wretches swung off, while he and his men shot at the dangling corpses from the decks of the vessel.357 The repeated complaints and demands for reparation made to the Spanish ambassador in London, and by Sir William Godolphin to the Spanish Court, were answered by counter-complaints of outrages committed by buccaneers who, though long ago disavowed and declared pirates by the Governor of Jamaica, were still charged by the Spaniards to the account of the English.358 Each return of the fleet from Porto Bello or Vera Cruz brought with it English prisoners from Cartagena and other Spanish fortresses, who were lodged in the dungeons of Seville and often condemned to the galleys or to the {208} quicksilver mines. The English ambassador sometimes secured their release, but his efforts to obtain redress for the loss of ships and goods received no satisfaction. The Spanish Government, believing that Parliament was solicitous of Spanish trade and would not supply Charles II. with the necessary funds for a war,359 would disburse nothing in damages. It merely granted to the injured parties despatches directed to the Governor of Havana, which ordered him to restore the property in dispute unless it was contraband goods. Godolphin realized that these delays and excuses were only the prelude to an ultimate denial of any reparation whatever, and wrote home to the Secretary of State that "England ought rather to provide against future injuries than to depend on satisfaction here, till they have taught the Spaniards their own interest in the West Indies by more efficient means than friendship."360 The aggrieved merchants and shipowners, often only too well acquainted with the dilatory Spanish forms of procedure, saw that redress at Havana was hopeless, and petitioned Charles II. for letters of reprisal.361 Sir Leoline Jenkins, Judge of the Admiralty, however, in a report to the king gave his opinion that although he saw little hope of real reparation, the granting of reprisals was not justified by law until the cases had been prosecuted at Havana according to the queen-regent's orders.362 This apparently was never done, and some of the cases dragged on for years without the petitioners ever receiving satisfaction.
The excuse of the Spaniards for most of these seizures was that the vessels contained logwood, a dyewood found upon the coasts of Campeache, Honduras and Yucatan, the cutting and removal of which was forbidden to any but Spanish subjects. The occupation of cutting logwood had sprung up among the English about ten years after {209} the seizure of Jamaica. In 1670 Modyford writes that a dozen vessels belonging to Port Royal were concerned in this trade alone, and six months later he furnished a list of thirty-two ships employed in logwood cutting, equipped with seventy-four guns and 424 men.363 The men engaged in the business had most of them been privateers, and as the regions in which they sought the precious wood were entirely uninhabited by Spaniards, Modyford suggested that the trade be encouraged as an outlet for the energies of the buccaneers. By such means, he thought, these "soldiery men" might be kept within peaceable bounds, and yet be always ready to serve His Majesty in event of any new rupture. When Sir Thomas Lynch replaced Modyford, he realized that this logwood-cutting would be resented by the Spaniards and might neutralize all his efforts to effect a peace. He begged repeatedly for directions from the council in England. "For God's sake," he writes, "give your commands about the logwood."364 In the meantime, after consulting with Modyford, he decided to connive at the business, but he compelled all who brought the wood into Port Royal to swear that they had not stolen it or done any violence to the Spaniards.365 Secretary Arlington wrote to the governor, in November 1671, to hold the matter over until he obtained the opinion of the English ambassador at Madrid, especially as some colour was lent to the pretensions of the logwood cutters by the article of the peace of 1670 which confirmed the English King in the possession and sovereignty of all territory in America occupied by his subjects at that date.366 In May 1672 Ambassador Godolphin returned his answer. "The wood," he writes, "is brought from {210} Yucatan, a large province of New Spain, about 100 leagues in length, sufficiently peopled, having several great towns, as Merida, Valladolid, San Francisco de Campeache, etc., and the government one of the most considerable next to Peru and Mexico.... So that Spain has as well too much right as advantage not to assert the propriety of these woods, for though not all inhabited, these people may as justly pretend to make use of our rivers, mountains and commons, as we can to enjoy any benefit to those woods." So much for the strict justice of the matter. But when the ambassador came to give his own opinion on the trade, he advised that if the English confined themselves to cutting wood alone, and in places remote from Spanish settlements, the king might connive at, although not authorize, their so doing.367 Here was the kernel of the whole matter. Spain was too weak and impotent to take any serious revenge. So let us rob her quietly but decently, keeping the theft out of her sight and so sparing her feelings as much as possible. It was the same piratical motive which animated Drake and Hawkins, which impelled Morgan to sack Maracaibo and Panama, and which, transferred to the dignified council chambers of England, took on a more humane but less romantic guise. On 8th October 1672, the Council for the Plantations dispatched to Governor Lynch their approval of his connivance at the business, but they urged him to observe every care and prudence, to countenance the cutting only in desolate and uninhabited places, and to use every endeavour to prevent any just complaints by the Spaniards of violence and depredation.368
The Spaniards nevertheless did, as we have seen, engage in active reprisal, especially as they knew the cutting of logwood to be but the preliminary step to the {211} growth of English settlements upon the coasts of Yucatan and Honduras, settlements, indeed, which later crystallized into a British colony. The Queen-Regent of Spain sent orders and instructions to her governors in the West Indies to encourage privateers to take and punish as pirates all English and French who robbed and carried away wood within their jurisdictions; and three small frigates from Biscay were sent to clear out the intruders.369 The buccaneer Yallahs, we have seen, was employed by the Governor of Campeache to seize the logwood-cutters; and although he surprised twelve or more vessels, the Governor of Jamaica, not daring openly to avow the business, could enter no complaint. On 3rd November 1672, however, he was compelled to issue a proclamation ordering all vessels sailing from Port Royal for the purpose of cutting dye-wood to go in fleets of at least four as security against surprise and capture. Under the governorship of Lord Vaughan, and after him of Lord Carlisle, matters continued in this same uncertain course, the English settlements in Honduras gradually increasing in numbers and vitality, and the Spaniards maintaining their right to take all ships they found at sea laden with logwood, and indeed, all English and French ships found upon their coasts. Each of the English governors in turn had urged that some equitable adjustment of the trade be made with the Spanish Crown, if peace was to be preserved in the Indies and the buccaneers finally suppressed; but the Spaniards would agree to no accommodation, and in {212} March 1679 the king wrote to Lord Carlisle bidding him discourage, as far as possible, the logwood-cutting in Campeache or any other of the Spanish dominions, and to try and induce the buccaneers to apply themselves to planting instead.370
The reprisals of the Spaniards on the score of logwood-cutting were not the only difficulties with which Lord Vaughan as governor had to contend. From the day of his landing in Jamaica he seems to have conceived a violent dislike of his lieutenant, Sir Henry Morgan, and this antagonism was embittered by Morgan's open or secret sympathy with the privateers, a race with whom Vaughan had nothing in common. The ship on which Morgan had sailed from England, and which was cast away upon the Isle la Vache, had contained the military stores for Jamaica, most of which were lost in the wreck. Morgan, contrary to Lord Vaughan's positive and written orders, had sailed before him, and assumed the authority in Jamaica a week before the arrival of the governor at Port Royal. This the governor seems to have been unable to forgive. He openly blamed Morgan for the wreck and the loss of the stores; and only two months after his coming to Jamaica, in May 1675, he wrote to England that for the good of His Majesty's service he thought Morgan ought to be removed, and the charge of so useless an officer saved.371 In September he wrote that he was "every day more convinced of (Morgan's) imprudence and unfitness to have anything to do in the Civil Government, and of what hazards the island may run by so dangerous a succession." Sir Henry, he continued, had made himself and his authority so cheap at the Port, drinking and gaming in the taverns, that the governor intended to remove thither speedily himself for the reputation {213} of the island and the security of the place.372 He recommended that his predecessor, Sir Thomas Lynch, whom he praises for "his prudent government and conduct of affairs," be appointed his deputy instead of Morgan in the event of the governor's death or absence.373 Lord Vaughan's chief grievance, however, was the lieutenant-governor's secret encouragement of the buccaneers. "What I most resent," he writes again, "is ... that I find Sir Henry, contrary to his duty and trust, endeavours to set up privateering, and has obstructed all my designs and purposes for the reducing of those that do use this course of life."374 When he had issued proclamations, the governor continued, declaring as pirates all the buccaneers who refused to submit, Sir Henry had encouraged the English freebooters to take French commissions, had himself fitted them out for sea, and had received authority from the French Governor of Tortuga to collect the tenths on prize goods brought into Jamaica under cover of these commissions. The quarrel came to a head over the arrest and trial of a buccaneer named John Deane, commander of the ship "St. David." Deane was accused of having stopped a ship called the "John Adventure," taken out several pipes of wine and a cable worth £100, and forcibly carried the vessel to Jamaica. He was also reported to be wearing Dutch, French and Spanish colours without commission.375 When the "John Adventure" entered Port Royal it was seized by the governor for landing goods without entry, contrary {214} to the Acts of Navigation, and on complaint of the master of the vessel that he had been robbed by Deane and other privateers, Sir Henry Morgan was ordered to imprison the offenders. The lieutenant-governor, however, seems rather to have encouraged them to escape,376 until Deane made so bold as to accuse the governor of illegal seizure. Deane was in consequence arrested by the governor, and on 27th April 1676, in a Court of Admiralty presided over by Lord Vaughan as vice-admiral, was tried and condemned to suffer death as a pirate.377 The proceedings, however, were not warranted by legal practice, for according to statutes of the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth years of Henry VIII., pirates might not be tried in an Admiralty Court, but only under the Common Law of England by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer under the great seal.378 After obtaining an opinion to this effect from the Judge of the Admiralty, the English Council wrote to Lord Vaughan staying the execution of Deane, and ordering a new trial to be held under a proper commission about to be forwarded to him.379 The Governor of Jamaica, however, upon receiving a confession from Deane and frequent petitions for pardon, had reprieved the pirate a month before the letter from the council reached him.380 The incident had good effect in persuading the freebooters to come in, and that result assured, the governor could afford to bend to popular clamour in favour of the culprit. In the latter part of 1677 a standing commission of Oyer and Terminer for the {215} trial of pirates in Jamaica was prepared by the attorney-general and sent to the colony.381
After the trial of Deane, the lieutenant-governor, according to Lord Vaughan, had openly expressed himself, both in the taverns and in his own house, in vindication of the condemned man and in disparagement of Vaughan himself.382 The quarrel hung fire, however, until on 24th July when the governor, in obedience to orders from England,383 cited Morgan and his brother-in-law, Colonel Byndloss, to appear before the council. Against Morgan he brought formal charges of using the governor's name and authority without his orders in letters written to the captains of the privateers, and Byndloss he accused of unlawfully holding a commission from a foreign governor to collect the tenths on condemned prize goods.384 Morgan in his defence to Secretary Coventry flatly denied the charges, and denounced the letters written to the privateers as forgeries; and Byndloss declared his readiness "to go in this frigate with a tender of six or eight guns and so to deal with the privateers at sea, and in their holes (sic) bring in the chief of them to His Majesty's obedience or bring in their heads and destroy their ships."385 There seems to be little doubt that letters were written by Morgan to certain privateers soon after his arrival in Jamaica, offering them, in the name of the governor, favour and protection in Port Royal. Copies of these letters, indeed, still exist;386 but whether they were actually used is not so certain. Charles Barre, secretary to Sir Henry Morgan, confessed that such letters had been written, but with the understanding that the governor lent them his approval, and that when this was denied Sir Henry {216} refused to send them.387 It is natural to suppose that Morgan should feel a bond of sympathy with his old companions in the buccaneer trade, and it is probable that in 1675, in the first enthusiasm of his return to Jamaica, having behind him the openly-expressed approbation of the English Court for what he had done in the past, and feeling uncertain, perhaps, as to Lord Vaughan's real attitude toward the sea-rovers, Morgan should have done some things inconsistent with the policy of stern suppression pursued by the government. It is even likely that he was indiscreet in some of his expressions regarding the governor and his actions. His bluff, unconventional, easygoing manners, natural to men brought up in new countries and intensified by his early association with the buccaneers, may have been distasteful to a courtier accustomed to the urbanities of Whitehall. It is also clear, however, that Lord Vaughan from the first conceived a violent prejudice against his lieutenant, and allowed this prejudice to colour the interpretation he put upon all of Sir Henry's actions. And it is rather significant that although the particulars of the dispute and of the examination before the Council of Jamaica were sent to the Privy Council in England, the latter body did not see fit to remove Morgan from his post until six years later.
As in the case of Modyford and Lynch, so with Lord Vaughan, the thorn in his side was the French colony on Hispaniola and Tortuga. The English buccaneers who would not come in under the proclamation of pardon published at Port Royal, still continued to range the seas with French commissions, and carried their prizes into French ports. The governor protested to M. d'Ogeron and to his successor, M. de Pouançay, declaring that any English vessels or subjects caught with commissions against the Spaniards would be treated as pirates and {217} rebels; and in December 1675, in compliance with the king's orders of the previous August, he issued a public proclamation to that effect.388 In April 1677 an act was passed by the assembly, declaring it felony for any English subject belonging to the island to serve under a foreign prince or state without licence under the hand and seal of the governor;389 and in the following July the council ordered another proclamation to be issued, offering ample pardon to all men in foreign service who should come in within twelve months to claim the benefit of the act.390 These measures seem to have been fairly successful, for on 1st August Peter Beckford, Clerk of the Council in Jamaica, wrote to Secretary Williamson that since the passing of the law at least 300 privateers had come in and submitted, and that few men would now venture their lives to serve the French.391
Even with the success of this act, however, the path of the governor was not all roses. Buccaneering had always been so much a part of the life of the colony that it was difficult to stamp it out entirely. Runaway servants and others from the island frequently recruited the ranks of the freebooters; members of the assembly, and even of the council, were interested in privateering ventures; and as the governor was without a sufficient naval force to deal with the offenders independently of the council and assembly, he often found his efforts fruitless. In the early part of 1677 a Scotchman, named James Browne, with a commission from M. d'Ogeron and a mixed crew of English, Dutch and French, seized a Dutch ship trading in negroes off the coast of Cartagena, killed the Dutch captain and several of his men, and landed the negroes, {218} about 150 in number, in a remote bay of Jamaica. Lord Vaughan sent a frigate which seized about 100 of the negroes, and when Browne and his crew fell into the governor's hands he had them all tried and condemned for piracy. Browne was ordered to be executed, but his men, eight in number, were pardoned. The captain petitioned the assembly to have the benefit of the Act of Privateers, and the House twice sent a committee to the governor to endeavour to obtain a reprieve. Lord Vaughan, however, refused to listen and gave orders for immediate execution. Half an hour after the hanging, the provost-marshal appeared with an order signed by the speaker to observe the Chief-Justice's writ of Habeas Corpus, whereupon Vaughan, resenting the action, immediately dissolved the Assembly.392
The French colony on Hispaniola was an object of concern to the Jamaicans, not only because it served as a refuge for privateers from Port Royal, but also because it threatened soon to overwhelm the old Spanish colony and absorb the whole island. Under the conciliatory, opportunist regime of M. d'Ogeron, the French settlements in the west of the island had grown steadily in number and size;393 while the old Spanish towns seemed every year to become weaker and more open to attack. D'Ogeron, who died in France in 1675, had kept always before him the project of capturing the Spanish capital, San Domingo; but he was too weak to accomplish so great a design without aid from home, and this was never vouchsafed him. His policy, however, was continued by his nephew {219} and successor, M. de Pouançay, and every defection from Jamaica seemed so much assistance to the French to accomplish their ambition. Yet it was manifestly to the English interest in the West Indies not to permit the French to obtain a pre-eminence there. The Spanish colonies were large in area, thinly populated, and ill-supported by the home government, so that they were not likely to be a serious menace to the English islands. With their great wealth and resources, moreover, they had few manufactures and offered a tempting field for exploitation by English merchants. The French colonies, on the other hand, were easily supplied with merchandise from France, and in event of a war would prove more dangerous as neighbours than the Spaniards. To allow the French to become lords of San Domingo would have been to give them an undisputed predominance in the West Indies and make them masters of the neighbouring seas.
In the second war of conquest waged by Louis XIV. against Holland, the French in the West Indies found the buccaneers to be useful allies, but as usually happened at such times, the Spaniards paid the bill. In the spring of 1677 five or six English privateers surprised the town of Santa Marta on the Spanish Main. According to the reports brought to Jamaica, the governor and the bishop, in order to save the town from being burnt, agreed with the marauders for a ransom; but the Governor of Cartagena, instead of contributing with pieces of eight, despatched a force of 500 men by land and three vessels by sea to drive out the invaders. The Spanish troops, however, were easily defeated, and the ships, seeing the French colours waving over the fort and the town, sailed back to Cartagena. The privateers carried away the governor and the bishop and came to Jamaica in July. The plunder amounted to only £20 per man. The English in the party, about 100 in number and led by Captains Barnes {220} and Coxon, submitted at Port Royal under the terms of the Act against Privateers, and delivered up the Bishop of Santa Marta to Lord Vaughan. Vaughan took care to lodge the bishop well, and hired a vessel to send him to Cartagena, at which "the good old man was exceedingly pleased." He also endeavoured to obtain the custody of the Spanish governor and other prisoners, but without success, "the French being obstinate and damnably enraged the English had left them" and submitted to Lord Vaughan.394
In the beginning of the following year, 1678, Count d'Estrées, Vice-Admiral of the French fleet in the West Indies, was preparing a powerful armament to go against the Dutch on Curaçao, and sent two frigates to Hispaniola with an order from the king to M. de Pouançay to join him with 1200 buccaneers. De Pouançay assembled the men at Cap François, and embarking on the frigates and on some filibustering ships in the road, sailed for St. Kitts. There he was joined by a squadron of fifteen or more men-of-war from Martinique under command of Count d'Estrées. The united fleet of over thirty vessels sailed for Curaçao on 7th May, but on the fourth day following, at about eight o'clock in the evening, was wrecked upon some coral reefs near the Isle d'Aves.395 As the French pilots had been at odds among themselves as to the exact position of the fleet, the admiral had taken the precaution to send a fire-ship and three buccaneering vessels several miles in advance of the rest of the squadron. Unfortunately these scouts drew too little water and passed over the reefs without touching them. A buccaneer was the first to strike and fired three shots to warn the admiral, who at {221} once lighted fires and discharged cannon to keep off the rest of the ships. The latter, however, mistaking the signals, crowded on sail, and soon most of the fleet were on the reefs. Those of the left wing, warned in time by a shallop from the flag-ship, succeeded in veering off. The rescue of the crews was slow, for the seas were heavy and the boats approached the doomed ships with difficulty. Many sailors and marines were drowned, and seven men-of-war, besides several buccaneering ships, were lost on the rocks. Count d'Estrées himself escaped, and sailed with the remnant of his squadron to Petit Goave and Cap François in Hispaniola, whence on 18th June he departed for France.396
The buccaneers were accused in the reports which reached Barbadoes of deserting the admiral after the accident, and thus preventing the reduction of Curaçao, which d'Estrées would have undertaken in spite of the shipwreck.397 However this may be, one of the principal buccaneer leaders, named de Grammont, was left by de Pouançay at the Isle d'Aves to recover what he could from the wreck, and to repair some of the privateering vessels.398 {222} When he had accomplished this, finding himself short of provisions, he sailed with about 700 men to make a descent on Maracaibo; and after spending six months in the lake, seizing the shipping and plundering all the settlements in that region, he re-embarked in the middle of December. The booty is said to have been very small.399 Early in the same year the Marquis de Maintenon, commanding the frigate "La Sorcière," and aided by some French filibusters from Tortuga, was on the coast of Caracas, where he ravaged the islands of Margarita and Trinidad. He had arrived in the West Indies from France in the latter part of 1676, and when he sailed from Tortuga was at the head of 700 or 800 men. His squadron met with little success, however, and soon scattered.400 Other bands of filibusters pillaged Campeache, Puerto Principe in Cuba, Santo Tomas on the Orinoco, and Truxillo in the province of Honduras; and de Pouançay, to console the buccaneers for their losses at the Isle d'Aves, sent 800 men under the Sieur de Franquesnay to make a descent upon St. Jago de Cuba, but the expedition seems to have been a failure.401
On 1st March 1678 a commission was again issued to the Earl of Carlisle, appointing him governor of Jamaica.402 Carlisle arrived in his new government on 18th July,403 but Lord Vaughan, apparently because of ill-health, had already sailed for England at the end of March, leaving Sir Henry Morgan, who retained his place under the new governor, deputy in his absence.404 Lord Carlisle, immediately upon his arrival, invited the privateers to come in and encouraged them to stay, hoping, according to his own {223} account, to be able to wean them from their familiar courses, and perhaps to use them in the threatened war with France, for the island then had "not above 4000 whites able to bear arms, a secret not fit to be made public."405 If the governor was sincere in his intentions, the results must have been a bitter disappointment. Some of the buccaneers came in, others persevered in the old trade, and even those who returned abused the pardon they had received. In the autumn of 1679, several privateering vessels under command of Captains Coxon, Sharp and others who had come back to Jamaica, made a raid in the Gulf of Honduras, plundered the royal storehouses there, carried off 500 chests of indigo,406 besides cocoa, cochineal, tortoiseshell, money and plate, and returned with their plunder to Jamaica. Not knowing what their reception might be, one of the vessels landed her cargo of indigo in an unfrequented spot on the coast, and the rest sent word that unless they were allowed to bring their booty to Port Royal and pay the customs duty, they would sail to Rhode Island or to one of the Dutch plantations. The governor had taken security for good behaviour from some of the captains before they sailed from Jamaica; yet in spite of this they were permitted to enter the indigo at the custom house and divide it in broad daylight; and the frigate "Success" was ordered to coast round Jamaica in search of other privateers who failed to come in and pay duty on their plunder at Port Royal. The glut of indigo in Jamaica disturbed trade considerably, and for a time the imported product took the place of native sugar and indigo as a medium of exchange. Manufacture on the island was {224} hindered, prices were lowered, and only the king's customs received any actual benefit.407
These same privateers, however, were soon out upon a much larger design. Six captains, Sharp, Coxon, Essex, Allison, Row, and Maggott, in four barques and two sloops, met at Point Morant in December 1679, and on 7th January set sail for Porto Bello. They were scattered by a terrible storm, but all eventually reached their rendezvous in safety. There they picked up another barque commanded by Captain Cooke, who had sailed from Jamaica on the same design, and likewise a French privateering vessel commanded by Captain Lessone. They set out for Porto Bello in canoes with over 300 men, and landing twenty leagues from the town, marched for four days along the seaside toward the city. Coming to an Indian village about three miles from Porto Bello, they were discovered by the natives, and one of the Indians ran to the city, crying, "Ladrones! ladrones!" The buccaneers, although "many of them were weak, being three days without any food, and their feet cut with the rocks for want of shoes," made all speed for the town, which they entered without difficulty on 17th February 1680. Most of the inhabitants sought refuge in the castle, whence they made a counter-attack without success upon the invaders. On the evening of the following day, the buccaneers retreated with their prisoners and booty down to a cay or small island about three and a half leagues from Porto Bello, where they were joined by their ships. They had just left in time to avoid a force of some 700 Spanish troops who were sent from Panama and arrived the day after the buccaneers departed. After capturing two {225} Spanish vessels bound for Porto Bello with provisions from Cartagena, they divided the plunder, of which each man received 100 pieces of eight, and departed for Boca del Toro some fifty leagues to the north. There they careened and provisioned, and being joined by two other Jamaican privateers commanded by Sawkins and Harris, sailed for Golden Island, whence on 5th April 1680, with 334 men, they began their march across the Isthmus of Darien to the coasts of Panama and the South Seas.408
Lord Carlisle cannot escape the charge of culpable negligence for having permitted these vessels in the first place to leave Jamaica. All the leaders in the expedition were notorious privateers, men who had repeatedly been {226} concerned in piratical outrages against the Dutch and Spaniards. Coxon and Harris had both come in after taking part in the expedition against Santa Marta; Sawkins had been caught with his vessel by the frigate "Success" and sent to Port Royal, where on 1st December 1679 he seems to have been in prison awaiting trial;410 while Essex had been brought in by another frigate, the "Hunter," in November, and tried with twenty of his crew for plundering on the Jamaican coast, two of his men being sentenced to death.411 The buccaneers themselves declared that they had sailed with permission from Lord Carlisle to cut logwood.412 This was very likely true; yet after the exactly similar ruse of these men when they went to Honduras, the governor could not have failed to suspect their real intentions.
At the end of May 1680 Lord Carlisle suddenly departed for England in the frigate "Hunter," leaving Morgan again in charge as lieutenant-governor.413 On his passage home the governor met with Captain Coxon, who, having quarrelled with his companions in the Pacific, had returned across Darien to the West Indies and was again hanging about the shores of Jamaica. The "Hunter" gave chase for twenty-four hours, but being outsailed was content to take two small vessels in the company of Coxon which had been deserted by their crews.414 In England Samuel Long, whom the governor had suspended from the council and dismissed from his post as chief justice of the colony for his opposition to the new Constitution, accused the governor before the Privy Council of collusion with pirates and encouraging them to bring their plunder to Jamaica. The charges were doubtless conceived in a spirit of revenge; nevertheless the two years during {227} which Carlisle was in Jamaica were marked by an increased activity among the freebooters, and by a lukewarmness and negligence on the part of the government, for which Carlisle alone must be held responsible. To accuse him of deliberately supporting and encouraging the buccaneers, however, may be going too far. Sir Henry Morgan, during his tenure of the chief command of the island, showed himself very zealous in the pursuit of the pirates, and sincerely anxious to bring them to justice; and as Carlisle and Morgan always worked together in perfect harmony, we may be justified in believing that Carlisle's mistakes were those of negligence rather than of connivance. The freebooters who brought goods into Jamaica increased the revenues of the island, and a governor whose income was small and tastes extravagant, was not apt to be too inquisitive about the source of the articles which entered through the customs. There is evidence, moreover, that French privateers, being unable to obtain from the merchants on the coast of San Domingo the cables, anchors, tar and other naval stores necessary for their armaments, were compelled to resort to other islands to buy them, and that Jamaica came in for a share of this trade. Provisions, too, were more plentiful at Port Royal than in the cul-de-sac of Hispaniola, and the French governors complained to the king that the filibusters carried most of their money to foreign plantations to exchange for these commodities. Such French vessels if they came to Jamaica were not strictly within the scope of the laws against piracy which had been passed by the assembly, and their visits were the more welcome as they paid for their goods promptly and liberally in good Spanish doubloons.415
A general warrant for the apprehension of Coxon, {228} Sharp and the other men who had plundered Porto Bello had been issued by Lord Carlisle in May 1680, just before his departure for England. On 1st July a similar warrant was issued by Morgan, and five days later a proclamation was published against all persons who should hold any correspondence whatever with the outlawed crews.416 Three men who had taken part in the expedition were captured and clapped into prison until the next meeting of the court. The friends of Coxon, however, including, it seems, almost all the members of the council, offered to give £2000 security, if he was allowed to come to Port Royal, that he would never take another commission except from the King of England; and Morgan wrote to Carlisle seeking his approbation.417 At the end of the following January Morgan received word that a notorious Dutch privateer, named Jacob Everson, commanding an armed sloop, was anchored on the coast with a brigantine which he had lately captured. The lieutenant-governor manned a small vessel with fifty picked men and sent it secretly at midnight to seize the pirate. Everson's sloop was boarded and captured with twenty-six prisoners, but Everson himself and several others escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore. The prisoners, most of whom were English, were tried six weeks later, convicted of piracy and sentenced to death; but the lieutenant-governor suspended the execution and wrote to the king for instructions. On 16th June 1681, the king in council ordered the execution of the condemned men.418
{229} The buccaneers who, after plundering Porto Bello, crossed the Isthmus of Darien to the South Seas, had a remarkable history. For eighteen months they cruised up and down the Pacific coast of South America, burning and plundering Spanish towns, giving and taking hard blows with equal courage, keeping the Spanish provinces of Equador, Peru and Chili in a fever of apprehension, finally sailing the difficult passage round Cape Horn, and returning to the Windward Islands in January of 1682. Touching at the island of Barbadoes, they learned that the English frigate "Richmond" was lying in the road, and fearing seizure they sailed on to Antigua. There the governor, Colonel Codrington, refused to give them leave to enter the harbour. So the party, impatient of their dangerous situation, determined to separate, some landing on Antigua, and Sharp and sixteen others going to Nevis where they obtained passage to England. On their arrival in England several, including Sharp, were arrested at the instance of the Spanish ambassador, and tried for committing piracy in the South Seas; but from the defectiveness of the evidence produced they escaped conviction.419 Four of the party came to Jamaica, where they were apprehended, tried and condemned. One of the four, who had given himself up voluntarily, turned State's evidence; two were represented by the judges as fit objects of the king's mercy; and the other, "a bloody and notorious villein," was recommended to be executed as an example to the rest.420
The recrudescence of piratical activity between the years 1679 and 1682 had, through its evil effects, been strongly felt in Jamaica; and public opinion was now {230} gradually changing from one of encouragement and welcome to the privateers and of secret or open opposition to the efforts of the governors who tried to suppress them, to one of distinct hostility to the old freebooters. The inhabitants were beginning to realize that in the encouragement of planting, and not of buccaneering, lay the permanent welfare of the island. Planting and buccaneering, side by side, were inconsistent and incompatible, and the colonists chose the better course of the two. In spite of the frequent trials and executions at Port Royal, the marauders seemed to be as numerous as ever, and even more troublesome. Private trade with the Spaniards was hindered; runaway servants, debtors and other men of unfortunate or desperate condition were still, by every new success of the buccaneers, drawn from the island to swell their ranks; and most of all, men who were now outlawed in Jamaica, driven to desperation turned pirate altogether, and began to wage war indiscriminately on the ships of all nationalities, including those of the English. Morgan repeatedly wrote home urging the dispatch of small frigates of light draught to coast round the island and surprise the freebooters, and he begged for orders for himself to go on board and command them, for "then I shall not much question," he concludes, "to reduce them or in some time to leave them shipless."421 "The governor," wrote the Council of Jamaica to the Lords of Trade and Plantations in May 1680, "can do little from want of ships to reduce the privateers, and of plain laws to punish them"; and they urged the ratification of the Act passed by the assembly two years before, making it felony for any British subject in the West Indies to serve under a foreign prince without leave from the governor.422 This Act, and another for the more effectual punishment of pirates, had been under consideration in the {231} Privy Council in February 1678, and both were returned to Jamaica with certain slight amendments. They were again passed by the assembly as one Act in 1681, and were finally incorporated into the Jamaica Act of 1683 "for the restraining and punishing of privateers and pirates."423