CHAPTER XXVI.

BUCCANEERS AND BUCCANEERING RAIDS.

1518-1664.

BUCCANEERS AT SANTO DOMINGO—TORTUGA THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE PIRATES—THEIR MODES OF LIFE—FRANÇOIS L'OLONNOIS THE FILIBUSTER—HIS VESSEL CAST ON THE SHORE OF CAMPECHE—HE ESCAPES TO TORTUGA—AND REAPPEARS IN THE BAY OF HONDURAS—HE CAPTURES SAN PEDRO—HE PLANS A RAID ON GUATEMALA—HIS COMRADES DESERT HIM—HIS VESSEL WRECKED OFF CAPE GRACIAS Á DIOS—HIS EXPEDITION TO DESAGUADERO—AND TO COSTA RICA—HE IS HACKED TO PIECES—MANSVELT CAPTURES THE ISLAND OF SANTA CATARINA—AND ATTACKS CARTAGO—SANTA CATARINA RETAKEN BY THE SPANIARDS.

About the year 1518 an English trading ship touching at Santo Domingo was fired upon by order of the governor, and thence setting sail for Porto Rico bartered wrought iron for provisions.[XXVI‑1] A few years later the passage to the Indies became known among the nations of western Europe, and foreign vessels were often seen in the waters of the North Sea. In 1529 _guarda costas_ were procured by the governor of Santo Domingo, and their captains commissioned to seize all craft which sailed under any flag but that of Spain, and to enslave their crews. But in that island are many excellent harbors, and the Spaniards seemed not averse to obtain at smaller cost from foreigners goods such as those on which the merchants of Seville made enormous profits; and vessels from several countries, more especially from England, France, and Holland, continued to make voyages to the New World, their captains combining for mutual protection, and not unfrequently making raids on the Spanish settlements.

In 1531 French corsairs were seen off the coast of Tierra Firme; and in 1537 Bishop Marroquin, when about to depart for Spain, was dissuaded as we have observed from making the journey by his friends in Mexico,[XXVI‑2] for even at that date the North Sea was infested by pirates. Santo Domingo was the favorite calling-place of foreign marauders; for wild cattle abounded in every part of the island, and there the pirates could revictual their ships without expense.

At the close of the sixteenth century the island on which the great discoverer founded his first settlement had been thinned of its inhabitants. Moreover the mines had become exhausted and the vast wealth of Mexico and Peru had drawn away all the most enterprising of the Spaniards, and the few that remained dwelt for the most part in small villages, where they cured at their _boucans_, or drying establishments, the flesh of cattle and hogs, giving to the cured meat the same name as to the place where it was prepared.[XXVI‑3] Hence also the origin of the word _bucaniers_, or buccaneers, the latter term being used by Dampier,[XXVI‑4] whose raids will be described later.

[Sidenote: THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRACY.]

English, French, and Dutch adventurers found in Santo Domingo places where they could lead an idle roving life, the monotony of which was relieved by an occasional fight with the Spaniards, the French being termed _flibustiers_,[XXVI‑5] or as we shall call them filibusters, though this word was not used till the seventeenth century, and the Dutch styling themselves _zee roovers_.

In 1623 James I. of England granted to one Thomas Warner the island of San Cristóbal, though by what authority is not recorded by the chroniclers of the period. Warner associated with him fourteen others, who were to share the profits of the expedition, and sailed in charge of a band of adventurers for the Indies. His vessel arrived off San Cristóbal in 1625, and during that year a party of Frenchmen landed on the island, which was then inhabited by Caribs. The Spaniards had never formed a settlement there, and the English and French divided the territory between them. Fearing that the Caribs might be incited to rise against them by the crews of Spanish vessels, which frequently called there to obtain provisions, these licensed marauders attacked the savages by night, massacred the chiefs, and drove the rest from the island. Warner soon afterward returned to England, and for this gallant exploit was knighted by his learned Majesty, thus justifying the title which James I. has gained in the page of history as the greatest fool in christendom. A powerful armament was despatched to San Cristóbal by order of the court of Spain, and the intruders were dispersed; those who escaped the swords of the Spaniards taking refuge in the adjacent islands, and returning a year or two later.

Trading companies were now organized, and licenses granted to establish colonies. The islet of Tortuga, lying to the north-west of Santo Domingo, was captured almost without resistance. There storehouses were built, and there for a time were the head-quarters of the pirates. Tortuga was recaptured by the Spaniards in 1638, and the freebooters received no quarter; a few of them escaped to the woods; others were away on piratical or other expeditions; and though some of them fell into the hands of the Spaniards and were massacred, the latter soon abandoned the island, and in the following year the freebooters at Tortuga mustered three hundred men. For the first time the pirates now elected a leader, and their numbers were soon recruited by French, English, and Dutch volunteers.

Though they were regarded by the Spaniards as foes, they were esteemed by other European nations as allies and champions, and so rapid was the growth of their settlements that in 1641 we find governors appointed, and at San Cristóbal a governor-general named De Poincy, in charge of the French filibusters, in the Indies. During that year Tortuga was garrisoned by French troops, and the English were driven out, both from that islet and from Santo Domingo, securing harborage elsewhere in the islands. Nevertheless, corsairs of both nations often made common cause; and in 1654 a large party of buccaneers and filibusters, ascending a river a little to the south of Cape Gracias á Dios, plundered the settlement of Nueva Segovia. In the same year Tortuga was again recaptured by the Spaniards, but in 1660 fell once more into the hands of the French; and in their conquest of Jamaica in 1655 the British troops were reënforced by a large party of buccaneers.

[Sidenote: CUSTOMS OF CORSAIRS.]

The monarchs, both of England and France, but especially the former, connived at, and even encouraged the freebooters, whose services could be obtained in time of war, and whose actions could be disavowed in time of peace. Thus buccaneer, filibuster, and sea-rover were for the most part at leisure to hunt wild cattle, and to pillage and massacre the Spaniards wherever they found an opportunity. When not on some marauding expedition they followed the chase, and one day's employment was like that of another. Setting forth at daybreak, accompanied by their dogs and servants, they continued their search until as many head of bullocks were slain as there were members in the party. Hides were thus provided sufficient to fill contracts with the captain of a trading vessel which usually lay stationed in some neighboring bay, and were carried down to the sea-shore by bondsmen, who under the name of apprentices had been inveigled into a contract to serve for a term of years. For them there was no seventh or other day of rest. One of these unfortunates ventured on a certain occasion to expostulate with his master, quoting the divine injunction with the preamble: "I say unto thee, etc." And "I say unto thee," returned the buccaneer, "six days shalt thou kill bullocks, and strip them of their skins, and on the seventh day thou shalt carry their hides to the sea-shore."

The dress of the buccaneers consisted of a shirt dipped in the blood of a slaughtered animal, pantaloons of leather, if possible filthier than the shirt, shoes of rawhide, and a hat without rim. All goods, other than articles of virtu, were held in common; and as life was precarious, half of them at least being sure to die in the Indies, each chose a comrade with whom property of every description was shared. Though without laws or religion they had few disputes, and those were readily adjusted. They were governed by a rough code, established by themselves, and there were not wanting among them those who displayed, though usually in a brutal fashion, the possibilities of a better nature. Of Ravenau de Lussan, who figures in the history of the buccaneers, and whose operations will be mentioned in their place, it is related that he joined them only because he was in debt, and in order to obtain the means of satisfying his creditors. Of Montbar, a Frenchman of Languedoc, the chroniclers relate that on reading the story of the atrocities committed by the Spaniards on the hapless natives, he conceived such a hatred against them that he also joined the corsairs, and by his deeds of vengeance won the sobriquet of the Exterminator. Of a French captain of filibusters named Daniel, it is recorded that he shot one of his own crew in church for some indecorous act committed during the performance of mass. Until 1665 there were few women among these rapscallions. In that year a governor sent out to take charge of the French settlements in Santo Domingo, brought with him a few females of lax morality, whom the buccaneers took to wife in this fashion: "Your past is nothing to me, for then I did not know, and you did not then belong to me. I acquit you of all evil; but you must pledge me your word for the future." The foul troth was thus plighted, when striking his hand on the barrel of his gun the husband exclaimed: "This will avenge me should you prove false."[XXVI‑6]

The deeds of Pierre Le Grande and Bartolomé Portuguez, who figure in the stories of buccaneering raids about the time of Montbar's exploits—the middle of the seventeenth century—require no record in these pages. The name that stands preëminent among all the cut-throats, who at this period infested the North Sea and the shores of the main, is that of a personage called François L'Olonnois, a native of France, but one whose natural ferocity almost forbids us to class him with the human race. Montbar, though his hate amounted to frenzy, was impelled only by indignation against the oppressors and sympathy for the sufferings of the oppressed, and would accept no share in the proceeds of his raids.[XXVI‑7] But no such half-human feeling, no shadow of honest intent, ever prompted the monster L'Olonnois. Montbar was an undiscerning fiend; L'Olonnois an arch-fiend, with no faculty impaired. Transported in youth to the West Indies, ere long he exchanged convict life for the more genial pursuits of a filibuster, and his first position among those rovers on sea and land was that of a common mariner. In that capacity he made several voyages, and so distinguished himself by his brute strength and fearlessness that the governor of Tortuga[XXVI‑8] supplied him with a ship and armament wherewith to reap a harvest of gold.

The success which he achieved was great, and his operations attracted the attention of congenial cut-throats, who eagerly manned his decks, and at the same time stamped his name in crimson letters on the hearts of the race which he regarded as his prey. Even the elements attempted to arrest his destroying hand, and in one of his cruises cast his vessel on the shore of Campeche, where nearly all his comrades were killed by the Spaniards.

But the devil did not abandon his high-priest. L'Olonnois, though severely wounded, and regarding himself and his party as lost, smeared himself with blood without being perceived, and fell apparently lifeless among the slain.[XXVI‑9] Stripping off the dress of a dead Spaniard when the enemy had departed, he crawled over the ghastly forms of his late comrades and hid in the woods; then he boldly entered a neighboring town, and by promise of freedom induced some slaves to go with him. Stealing a large canoe, in due time they reached the isle of Tortuga.

[Sidenote: GLORIOUS BUTCHERY.]

Terrible as he was before this disaster, the future deeds of L'Olonnois were still more atrocious. "I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever," he writes to the governor of Cuba, after having beheaded, with his own hand, all save one of the survivors on board a captured ship which had been sent against him. And he was as good as his word. He hacked to pieces captive after captive, quenching his thirst with the blood that dripped from his heated cutlass. He tore out men's hearts and chewed them, and watched prisoners slowly die of hunger and thirst. If under the most agonizing torture the information wrung from a Spaniard was not satisfactory, the hapless wretch's tongue was wrenched out by the roots. Verily the cruelties of the conquerors were visited upon their descendants.

The reputation of L'Olonnois as a successful leader became so great that the most reckless and determined were ever ready to join in any enterprise projected by him. Between 1660 and 1665 he planned an expedition against the north coast of Central America and soon was in command of six ships and seven hundred men. Directing his course to Cape Gracias á Dios, he was driven by stress of weather into the bay of Honduras, where, distressed for want of provisions, his party ascended the Jagua River[XXVI‑10] in their canoes, sacking and destroying the Indian villages on the banks, and murdering the inhabitants. The pirates then cruised along the coast committing similar depredations. At Puerto de Caballos, after taking a Spanish ship of twenty-four guns and sixteen swivels, they landed and sacked two large store-houses. These with the town they burned, and having captured a number of the inhabitants inflicted upon them the most inhuman cruelties. L'Olonnois at the head of three hundred men next proceeded to San Pedro, about twelve leagues distant, and on his march thither fell in with three strong bodies of Spaniards who lay in ambush for him. These he successively routed, but not without the loss of many of his men. His treatment of prisoners and wounded captives was marked by his customary atrocities.

[Sidenote: A MOST VALIANT SOLDIER.]

On arriving at San Pedro he found the town strongly fortified at the main entrance, the other parts being surrounded by impenetrable thickets of thorny shrub and cactus, and his only plan was to assault the barricades. The Spaniards, however, defended themselves with desperation, and the pirates were compelled to withdraw from their first attack. Their second attempt caused such mortality among the defenders that they hoisted a flag of truce and agreed to surrender the town on condition that quarter be given the inhabitants for two hours. These terms were agreed to, and, strange though it may appear, were faithfully kept by the pirates. The inhabitants gathered up their effects and fled, but no sooner had the two hours expired than L'Olonnois gave orders for pursuit. The freebooters were disappointed, for the men of San Pedro had secreted the greater part of their valuables and merchandise, and the pirates found only some indigo to recompense them for their toil and danger.[XXVI‑11]

The star of the great Frenchman was now on the wane, and with the exception of capturing a Spanish ship of forty-two[XXVI‑12] guns after a desperate engagement his operations off the Central American coast were unimportant. But even this prize, for which the freebooters had long waited in hope of great booty, they found discharged of her valuable cargo, and a few unimportant articles of merchandise was all they obtained. The companions of L'Olonnois were becoming discontented with his want of success, and though he recklessly proposed to make a raid on the city of Guatemala, to many this seemed too desperate an enterprise, and the greater portion of his followers deserted him and turned their vessels homeward.[XXVI‑13] Misfortune now followed him relentlessly. While working his poorly manned ship along the coast, she struck a sand-bank near the isle of Pearls off Cape Gracias á Dios. The crew were already half famished and there was no hope of saving the vessel. So they broke the craft in pieces and built a long-boat, occupying five or six months in this work. But when finished it would only hold half their number. Then it was decided that the half to go should be selected by casting lots. They would embark for the Desaguadero in Nicaragua,[XXVI‑14] in the expectation of seizing vessels and returning for their comrades. L'Olonnois took command of the expedition, but was unsuccessful in his attempt on the Desaguadero. Spaniards and Indians assailed him in such overwhelming numbers that he was compelled to retreat with heavy loss. But determined not to return for his companions on the isle of Pearls without a vessel in which to take them back to Tortuga, he sailed for Costa Rica, and being obliged to land for provisions near the gulf of Darien he and all his men, save one who escaped by flight, were cut to pieces by the Indians and roasted.[XXVI‑15] Thus with a fitting retribution ended the career of François L'Olonnois, who might give lessons in greatness to the leaders of armies and in savagism to the Indians who slew him.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MANSVELT AND MORGAN.]

About the year 1664 a noted buccaneer named Mansvelt formed the design of attacking the town of Natá, by making a descent upon it overland from the North Sea. For this purpose he sailed from Jamaica with a fleet of fifteen vessels and five hundred men.[XXVI‑16] To obtain guides he assaulted and captured the island of Santa Catarina, or Old Providence.[XXVI‑17] There he established a buccaneer settlement, leaving one hundred men under command of a Frenchman named St Simon. Then he proceeded against Natá, but found such preparations had been made by the president of Panamá that he was forced to abandon the attempt. A Spanish prisoner, however, offered to lead him to Cartago, the capital of Costa Rica, which he represented as a rich and unfortified city. This proposal met with general approval, and the fleet sailed back along the coast as far as Port Matina,[XXVI‑18] where they disembarked.

At first their way was not difficult, and from the settlements on the road they obtained abundance of provisions; but in a few days they reached the cordillera, where provisions could no longer be procured in sufficient quantity. Mansvelt's crew was composed of Englishmen and Frenchmen, and whatever amity might exist under favorable circumstances between them was now destroyed by hardship and hunger. No fair distribution was made of such food as could be obtained. Fierce brawls ensued. Mansvelt and the afterward famous Morgan, the second in command, in vain attempted to allay the discord, which was so violent that the two factions were almost as ready to fall upon each other as on the Spaniards. Meantime the governor of Cartago had raised all the forces he could muster,[XXVI‑19] and had taken up a strong position on a hill commanding the town of Turialba,[XXVI‑20] which the pirates had entered. At daybreak, before the invaders were yet under arms, the Spaniards unexpectedly opened fire upon them from the eminence. In the absence of mutual confidence the pirates were thrown into confusion, and their leaders deemed it best to return to the fleet. The Spaniards followed for a short distance, and having seized a few stragglers returned triumphant to Cartago.

But to the victors was not all the glory. The precipitate flight of so large a band of desperadoes could only have been accomplished by divine power; and, indeed, the Spaniards learned from their captives[XXVI‑21] that when the invaders' quarters were broken up they saw on the height a host of warriors commanded by a radiant female form,[XXVI‑22] who were none others than the holy virgin and an army of saints who had come to the succor of the chosen of God; so the grateful people of Cartago chose her as their patron, and instituted an annual procession to her shrine at Ujarraz,[XXVI‑23] which ceremony continued to the time of Juarros.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE CHIEF.]

When Mansvelt arrived at the bay of Matina he reëmbarked and set sail for Santa Catarina. There he found his pirate colony thriving. The fortifications had been put in the best repair, portions of the island cultivated, and other measures taken for a permanent residence thereon. He therefore decided to request aid for carrying out his project from the governor of Jamaica; but that official, though inclined to connive at the doings of the buccaneers, did not dare place his position in jeopardy by such an open act of hostility against Spain, with which nation England was then at peace. Mansvelt made an equally unsuccessful appeal to the governor of Tortuga, and dying ere long, the robbers at Santa Catarina were left to their own resources. Not long afterward the president of Panamá, sent a force to recover the island, and St Simon, finding that the promised reënforcements did not arrive, and considering it impossible to defend the place with the company under his command, surrendered after a slight show of resistance.[XXVI‑24]