CHAPTER II
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BUCCANEERS
In the second half of the
sixteenth and the early part of the
seventeenth centuries, strangers who
visited the great Spanish islands of
Hispaniola, Jamaica or Porto Rico,
usually remarked the extraordinary
number of wild cattle and boars
found roaming upon them. These herds
were in every case sprung from
domestic animals originally brought
from Spain. For as the aborigines in
the Greater Antilles decreased in
numbers under the heavy yoke of
their conquerors, and as the
Spaniards themselves turned their
backs upon the Antilles for the
richer allurements of the continent,
less and less land was left under
cultivation; and cattle, hogs,
horses and even dogs ran wild,
increased at a rapid rate, and soon
filled the broad savannas and deep
woods which covered the greater part
of these islands. The northern shore
of Hispaniola the Spaniards had
never settled, and thither, probably
from an early period, interloping
ships were accustomed to resort when
in want of victuals. With a long
range of uninhabited coast, good
anchorage and abundance of
provisions, this northern shore
could not fail to induce some to
remain. In time we find there
scattered groups of hunters, mostly
French and English, who gained a
rude livelihood by killing wild
cattle for their skins, and curing
the flesh to supply the needs of
passing vessels. The origin of these
men we do not know. They may have
been deserters from ships, crews of
wrecked vessels, or even chance
marooners. In any case the charm of
their half-savage, independent mode
of life must soon have attracted
others, and a fairly regular traffic
sprang up between them and the
ubiquitous Dutch traders, whom they
supplied with hides, tallow and
cured meat in return for the few
crude necessities and luxuries they
required. Their numbers were
recruited in 1629 by colonists from
St. Kitts who had fled before Don
Federico de Toledo. Making common
lot with the hunters, the refugees
found sustenance so easy and the
natural bounty of the island so rich
and varied, that many remained and
settled.
To the north-west of Hispaniola
lies a small, rocky island about
eight leagues in length and two in
breadth, separated by a narrow
channel from its larger neighbour.
From the shore of Hispaniola the
island appears in form like a
monster sea-turtle floating upon the
waves, and hence was named by the
Spaniards "Tortuga." So mountainous
and inaccessible on the northern
side as to be called the
Côte-de-Fer, and with only one
harbour upon the south, it offered a
convenient refuge to the French and
English hunters should the Spaniards
become troublesome. These hunters
probably ventured across to Tortuga
before 1630, for there are
indications that a Spanish
expedition was sent against the
island from Hispaniola in 1630 or
1631, and a division of the spoil
made in the city of San Domingo
after its return.83
It was then, apparently, that the
Spaniards left upon Tortuga an
officer and twenty-eight men, the
small garrison which, says
Charlevoix, was found there when the
hunters returned. The Spanish
soldiers were already tired of their
exile upon this lonely, inhospitable
rock, and evacuated with the same
satisfaction with which the French
and English resumed their occupancy.
From the testimony of some documents
in the English colonial
archives we may gather that the
English from the first were in
predominance in the new colony, and
exercised almost sole authority. In
the minutes of the Providence
Company, under date of 19th May
1631, we find that a committee was
"appointed to treat with the agents
for a colony of about 150 persons,
settled upon Tortuga";84
and a few weeks later that "the
planters upon the island of Tortuga
desired the company to take them
under their protection, and to be at
the charge of their fortification,
in consideration of a twentieth part
of the commodities raised there
yearly."85
At the same time the Earl of
Holland, governor of the company,
and his associates petitioned the
king for an enlargement of their
grant "only of 3 or 4 degrees of
northerly latitude, to avoid all
doubts as to whether one of the
islands (Tortuga) was contained in
their former grant."86
Although there were several islands
named Tortuga in the region of the
West Indies, all the evidence points
to the identity of the island
concerned in this petition with the
Tortuga near the north coast of
Hispaniola.87
The Providence Company accepted
the offer of the settlers upon
Tortuga, and sent a ship to
reinforce the little colony with six
pieces of ordnance, a supply of
ammunition and provisions, and a
number of apprentices or engagés.
A Captain Hilton was appointed
governor, with Captain Christopher
Wormeley to succeed him in case of
the governor's death or absence, and
the name of the island was changed
from Tortuga to Association.88
Although consisting for the most
part of high land covered with tall
cedar woods, the island contained in
the south and west broad savannas
which soon attracted planters as
well as cattle-hunters. Some of the
inhabitants of St. Kitts, wearied of
the dissensions between the French
and English there, and allured by
reports of quiet and plenty in
Tortuga, deserted St. Kitts for the
new colony. The settlement, however,
was probably always very poor and
struggling, for in January 1634 the
Providence Company received advice
that Captain Hilton intended to
desert the island and draw most of
the inhabitants after him; and a
declaration was sent out from
England to the planters, assuring
them special privileges of trade and
domicile, and dissuading them from
"changing certain ways of profit
already discovered for uncertain
hopes suggested by fancy or
persuasion."89
The question of remaining or
departing, indeed, was soon decided
for the colonists without their
volition, for in December 1634 a
Spanish force from Hispaniola
invaded the island and drove out all
the English and French they found
there. It seems that an Irishman
named "Don Juan Morf" (John
Murphy?),90
who had been "sargento-mayor" in
Tortuga, became discontented with
the régime there and fled to
Cartagena. The Spanish governor of
Cartagena sent him to Don Gabriel de
Gaves, President of the Audiencia in
San Domingo, thinking that with the
information the renegade was able to
supply the Spaniards of Hispaniola
might drive out the foreigners. The
President of San Domingo, however,
died three months later without
bestirring himself, and it was left
to his successor to carry out the
project. With the information given by
Murphy, added to that obtained from
prisoners, he sent a force of 250
foot under command of Rui Fernandez
de Fuemayor to take the island.91
At this time, according to the
Spaniards' account, there were in
Tortuga 600 men bearing arms,
besides slaves, women and children.
The harbour was commanded by a
platform of six cannon. The
Spaniards approached the island just
before dawn, but through the
ignorance of the pilot the whole
armadilla was cast upon some reefs
near the shore. Rui Fernandez with
about thirty of his men succeeded in
reaching land in canoes, seized the
fort without any difficulty, and
although his followers were so few
managed to disperse a body of the
enemy who were approaching, with the
English governor at their head, to
recover it. In the mêlée the
governor was one of the first to be
killed—stabbed, say the Spaniards,
by the Irishman, who took active
part in the expedition and fought by
the side of Rui Fernandez. Meanwhile
some of the inhabitants, thinking
that they could not hold the island,
had regained the fort, spiked the
guns and transferred the stores to
several ships in the harbour, which
sailed away leaving only two
dismantled boats and a patache to
fall into the hands of the
Spaniards. Rui Fernandez, reinforced
by some 200 of his men who had
succeeded in escaping from the
stranded armadilla, now turned his
attention to the settlement. He
found his way barred by another body
of several hundred English, but
dispersed them too, and took seventy
prisoners. The houses were then
sacked and the tobacco plantations
burned by the soldiers, and the
Spaniards returned to San Domingo
with four captured banners, the six
pieces of artillery and 180 muskets.92
The Spanish occupation apparently
did not last very long, for in the
following April the Providence
Company appointed Captain Nicholas
Riskinner to be governor of Tortuga
in place of Wormeley, and in
February 1636 it learned that
Riskinner was in possession of the
island.93
Two planters just returned from the
colony, moreover, informed the
company that there were then some 80
English in the settlement, besides
150 negroes. It is evident that the
colonists were mostly
cattle-hunters, for they assured the
company that they could supply
Tortuga with 200 beasts a month from
Hispaniola, and would deliver calves
there at twenty shillings apiece.94
Yet at a later meeting of the
Adventurers on 20th January 1637, a
project for sending more men and
ammunition to the island was
suddenly dropped "upon intelligence
that the inhabitants had quitted it
and removed to Hispaniola."95
For three years thereafter the
Providence records are silent
concerning Tortuga. A few Frenchmen
must have remained on the island,
however, for Charlevoix informs us
that in 1638 the general of the
galleons swooped down upon the
colony, put to the sword all who
failed to escape to the hills and
woods, and again destroyed all the
habitations.96
Persuaded that the hunters would not
expose themselves to a repetition of
such treatment, the Spaniards
neglected to leave a garrison, and a
few scattered Frenchmen gradually
filtered back to their ruined homes.
It was about this time, it seems,
that the President of San Domingo
formed a body of 500 armed lancers in
an effort to drive the intruders
from the larger island of
Hispaniola. These lancers, half of
whom were always kept in the field,
were divided into companies of fifty
each, whence they were called by the
French, "cinquantaines." Ranging the
woods and savannas this Spanish
constabulary attacked isolated
hunters wherever they found them,
and they formed an important element
in the constant warfare between the
French and Spanish colonists
throughout the rest of the century.97
Meanwhile an English adventurer,
some time after the Spanish descent
of 1638, gathered a body of 300 of
his compatriots in the island of
Nevis near St. Kitts, and sailing
for Tortuga dispossessed the few
Frenchmen living there of the
island. According to French accounts
he was received amicably by the
inhabitants and lived with them for
four months, when he turned upon his
hosts, disarmed them and marooned
them upon the opposite shore of
Hispaniola. A few made their way to
St. Kitts and complained to M. de
Poincy, the governor-general of the
French islands, who seized the
opportunity to establish a French
governor in Tortuga. Living at that
time in St. Kitts was a Huguenot
gentleman named Levasseur, who had
been a companion-in-arms of
d'Esnambuc when the latter settled
St. Kitts in 1625, and after a short
visit to France had returned and
made his fortune in trade. He was a
man of courage and command as well
as a skilful engineer, and soon rose
high in the councils of de Poincy.
Being a Calvinist, however, he had
drawn upon the governor the
reproaches of the authorities at
home; and de Poincy proposed to get
rid of his presence, now become
inconvenient, by sending him to
subdue Tortuga. Levasseur received
his commission from de Poincy in May
1640, assembled forty or fifty
followers, all Calvinists, and
sailed in a barque to Hispaniola. He
established himself at Port Margot,
about five leagues from Tortuga, and
entered into friendly relations with
his English neighbours. He was but
biding his time, however, and on the
last day of August 1640, on the plea
that the English had ill-used some
of his followers and had seized a
vessel sent by de Poincy to obtain
provisions, he made a sudden descent
upon the island with only 49 men and
captured the governor. The
inhabitants retired to Hispaniola,
but a few days later returned and
besieged Levasseur for ten days.
Finding that they could not dislodge
him, they sailed away with all their
people to the island of Providence.98
Levasseur, fearing perhaps
another descent of the Spaniards,
lost no time in putting the
settlement in a state of defence.
Although the port of Tortuga was
little more than a roadstead, it
offered a good anchorage on a bottom
of fine sand, the approaches to
which were easily defended by a hill
or promontory overlooking the
harbour. The top of this hill,
situated 500 or 600 paces from the
shore, was a level platform, and
upon it rose a steep rock some 30
feet high. Nine or ten paces from
the base of the rock gushed forth a
perennial fountain of fresh water.
The new governor quickly made the
most of these natural advantages.
The platform he shaped into
terraces, with means for
accommodating several hundred men.
On the top of the rock he built a
house for himself, as well as a
magazine, and mounted a battery of
two guns. The only access to the rock was by a narrow
approach, up half of which steps
were cut in the stone, the rest of
the ascent being by means of an iron
ladder which could easily be raised
and lowered.99
This little fortress, in which the
governor could repose with a feeling
of entire security, he
euphuistically called his
"dove-cote." The dove-cote was not
finished any too soon, for the
Spaniards of San Domingo in 1643
determined to destroy this rising
power in their neighbourhood, and
sent against Levasseur a force of
500 or 600 men. When they tried to
land within a half gunshot of the
shore, however, they were greeted
with a discharge of artillery from
the fort, which sank one of the
vessels and forced the rest to
retire. The Spaniards withdrew to a
place two leagues to leeward, where
they succeeded in disembarking, but
fell into an ambush laid by
Levasseur, lost, according to the
French accounts, between 100 and 200
men, and fled to their ships and
back to Hispaniola. With this
victory the reputation of Levasseur
spread far and wide throughout the
islands, and for ten years the
Spaniards made no further attempt to
dislodge the French settlement.100
Planters, hunters and corsairs
now came in greater numbers to
Tortuga. The hunters, using the
smaller island merely as a
headquarters for supplies and a
retreat in time of danger,
penetrated more boldly than ever
into the interior of Hispaniola,
plundering the Spanish plantations
in their path, and establishing
settlements on the north shore at
Port Margot and Port de Paix.
Corsairs, after cruising and robbing
along the Spanish coasts, retired to
Tortuga to refit and find a market
for their spoils. Plantations of
tobacco and sugar were cultivated,
and although the soil never yielded
such rich returns as upon the other
islands, Dutch and French trading
ships frequently resorted there for
these commodities, and especially
for the skins prepared by the
hunters, bringing in exchange brandy, guns, powder and
cloth. Indeed, under the active,
positive administration of
Levasseur, Tortuga enjoyed a degree
of prosperity which almost rivalled
that of the French settlements in
the Leeward Islands.
The term "buccaneer," though
usually applied to the corsairs who
in the seventeenth century ravaged
the Spanish possessions in the West
Indies and the South Seas, should
really be restricted to these
cattle-hunters of west and
north-west Hispaniola. The flesh of
the wild-cattle was cured by the
hunters after a fashion learnt from
the Caribbee Indians. The meat was
cut into long strips, laid upon a
grate or hurdle constructed of green
sticks, and dried over a slow wood
fire fed with bones and the
trimmings of the hide of the animal.
By this means an excellent flavour
was imparted to the meat and a fine
red colour. The place where the
flesh was smoked was called by the
Indians a "boucan," and the same
term, from the poverty of an
undeveloped language, was applied to
the frame or grating on which the
flesh was dried. In course of time
the dried meat became known as
"viande boucannée," and the hunters
themselves as "boucaniers" or
"buccaneers." When later
circumstances led the hunters to
combine their trade in flesh and
hides with that of piracy, the name
gradually lost its original
significance and acquired, in the
English language at least, its
modern and better-known meaning of
corsair or freebooter. The French
adventurers, however, seem always to
have restricted the word "boucanier"
to its proper signification, that of
a hunter and curer of meat; and when
they developed into corsairs, by a
curious contrast they adopted an
English name and called themselves
"filibustiers," which is merely the
French sailor's way of pronouncing
the English word "freebooter."101
The buccaneers or West Indian
corsairs owed their origin as well
as their name to the cattle and
hog-hunters of Hispaniola and
Tortuga. Doubtless many of the
wilder, more restless spirits in the
smaller islands of the Windward and
Leeward groups found their way into
the ranks of this piratical
fraternity, or were willing at least
to lend a hand in an occasional
foray against their Spanish
neighbours. We know that Jackson, in
1642, had no difficulty in gathering
700 or 800 men from Barbadoes and
St. Kitts for his ill-starred dash
upon the Spanish Main. And when the
French in later years made their
periodical descents upon the Dutch
stations on Tobago, Curaçao and St.
Eustatius, they always found in
their island colonies of Martinique
and Guadeloupe buccaneers enough and
more, eager to fill their ships. It
seems to be generally agreed,
however, among the Jesuit historians
of the West Indies—and upon these
writers we are almost entirely
dependent for our knowledge of the
origins of buccaneering—that the
corsairs had their source and
nucleus in the hunters who infested
the coasts of Hispaniola. Between
the hunter and the pirate at first
no impassable line was drawn. The
same person combined in himself the
occupations of cow-killing and
cruising, varying the monotony of
the one by occasionally trying his
hand at the other. In either case he
lived at constant enmity with the
Spaniards. With the passing of time
the sea attracted more and more away
from their former pursuits. Even the
planters who were beginning to
filter into the new settlements
found the attractions of coursing
against the Spaniards to be
irresistible. Great extremes of
fortune, such as those to which the
buccaneers were subject, have always
exercised an attraction over minds
of an adventurous stamp. It was the
same allurement which drew the
"forty-niners" to California, and in
1897 the gold-seekers to the
Canadian Klondyke. If the suffering
endured was often great, the prize to be
gained was worth it. Fortune, if
fickle one day, might the next bring
incredible bounty, and the
buccaneers who sweltered in a
tropical sea, with starvation
staring them in the face, dreamed of
rolling in the oriental wealth of a
Spanish argosy. Especially to the
cattle-hunter must this temptation
have been great, for his mode of
life was the very rudest. He roamed
the woods by day with his dog and
apprentices, and at night slept in
the open air or in a rude shed
hastily constructed of leaves and
skins, which served as a house, and
which he called after the Indian
name, "ajoupa" or "barbacoa." His
dress was of the simplest—coarse
cloth trousers, and a shirt which
hung loosely over them, both pieces
so black and saturated with the
blood and grease of slain animals
that they looked as if they had been
tarred ("de toile gaudronnée").102
A belt of undressed bull's hide
bound the shirt, and supported on
one side three or four large knives,
on the other a pouch for powder and
shot. A cap with a short pointed
brim extending over the eyes, rude
shoes of cowhide or pigskin made all
of one piece bound over the foot,
and a short, large-bore musket,
completed the hunter's grotesque
outfit. Often he carried wound about
his waist a sack of netting into
which he crawled at night to keep
off the pestiferous mosquitoes. With
creditable regularity he and his
apprentices arose early in the
morning and started on foot for the
hunt, eating no food until they had
killed and skinned as many wild
cattle or swine as there were
persons in the company. After having
skinned the last animal, the
master-hunter broke its softest
bones and made a meal for himself
and his followers on the marrow.
Then each took up a hide and
returned to the boucan, where they
dined on the flesh they had killed.103
In this fashion the hunter lived
for the space of six months or a
year. Then he made a division of the
skins and dried meat, and repaired
to Tortuga or one of the French
settlements on the coast of
Hispaniola to recoup his stock of
ammunition and spend the rest of his
gains in a wild carouse of
drunkenness and debauchery. His
money gone, he returned again to the
hunt. The cow-killers, as they had
neither wife nor children, commonly
associated in pairs with the right
of inheriting from each other, a
custom which was called
"matelotage." These private
associations, however, did not
prevent the property of all from
being in a measure common. Their
mode of settling quarrels was the
most primitive—the duel. In other
things they governed themselves by a
certain "coutumier," a medley of
bizarre laws which they had
originated among themselves. At any
attempt to bring them under
civilised rules, the reply always
was, "telle étoit la coutume de la
côte"; and that definitely closed
the matter. They based their rights
thus to live upon the fact, they
said, of having passed the Tropic,
where, borrowing from the sailor's
well-known superstition, they
pretended to have drowned all their
former obligations.104
Even their family names they
discarded, and the saying was in
those days that one knew a man in
the Isles only when he was married.
From a life of this sort, cruising
against Spanish ships, if not an
unmixed good, was at least always a
desirable recreation. Every Spanish
prize brought into Tortuga,
moreover, was an incitement to fresh
adventure against the common foe.
The "gens de la côte," as they
called themselves, ordinarily
associated a score or more together,
and having taken or built themselves
a canoe, put to sea with intent to
seize a Spanish barque or some other
coasting vessel. With silent
paddles, under cover of darkness,
they approached the unsuspecting prey, killed the
frightened sailors or drove them
overboard, and carried the prize to
Tortuga. There the raiders either
dispersed to their former
occupations, or gathered a larger
crew of congenial spirits and sailed
away for bigger game.
All the Jesuit historians of the
West Indies, Dutertre, Labat and
Charlevoix, have left us accounts of
the manners and customs of the
buccaneers. The Dutch physician,
Exquemelin, who lived with the
buccaneers for several years, from
1668 to 1674, and wrote a
picturesque narrative from materials
at his disposal, has also been a
source for the ideas of most later
writers on the subject. It may not
be out of place to quote his
description of the men whose deeds
he recorded.
"Before the Pirates go out to
sea," he writes, "they give notice
to every one who goes upon the
voyage of the day on which they
ought precisely to embark,
intimating also to them their
obligation of bringing each man in
particular so many pounds of powder
and bullets as they think necessary
for that expedition. Being all come
on board, they join together in
council, concerning what place they
ought first to go wherein to get
provisions—especially of flesh,
seeing they scarce eat anything
else. And of this the most common
sort among them is pork. The next
food is tortoises, which they are
accustomed to salt a little.
Sometimes they resolve to rob such
or such hog-yards, wherein the
Spaniards often have a thousand
heads of swine together. They come
to these places in the dark of
night, and having beset the keeper's
lodge, they force him to rise, and
give them as many heads as they
desire, threatening withal to kill
him in case he disobeys their
command or makes any noise. Yea,
these menaces are oftentimes put in
execution, without giving any
quarter to the miserable
swine-keepers, or any other person
that endeavours to hinder their
robberies.
"Having got provisions of flesh
sufficient for their voyage, they
return to their ship. Here their
allowance, twice a day to every one,
is as much as he can eat, without
either weight or measure. Neither
does the steward of the vessel give
any greater proportion of flesh or
anything else to the captain than to
the meanest mariner. The ship being
well victualled, they call another
council, to deliberate towards what
place they shall go, to seek their
desperate fortunes. In this council,
likewise, they agree upon certain
Articles, which are put in writing,
by way of bond or obligation, which
everyone is bound to observe, and
all of them, or the chief, set their
hands to it. Herein they specify,
and set down very distinctly, what
sums of money each particular person
ought to have for that voyage, the
fund of all the payments being the
common stock of what is gotten by
the whole expedition; for otherwise
it is the same law, among these
people, as with other Pirates, 'No
prey, no pay.' In the first place,
therefore, they mention how much the
Captain ought to have for his ship.
Next the salary of the carpenter, or
shipwright, who careened, mended and
rigged the vessel. This commonly
amounts to 100 or 150 pieces of
eight, being, according to the
agreement, more or less. Afterwards
for provisions and victualling they
draw out of the same common stock
about 200 pieces of eight. Also a
competent salary for the surgeon and
his chest of medicaments, which is
usually rated at 200 or 250 pieces
of eight. Lastly they stipulate in
writing what recompense or reward
each one ought to have, that is
either wounded or maimed in his
body, suffering the loss of any
limb, by that voyage. Thus they
order for the loss of a right arm
600 pieces of eight, or six slaves;
for the loss of a left arm 500
pieces of eight, or five slaves; for
a right leg 500 pieces of eight, or
five slaves; for the left leg 400
pieces of eight, or four slaves; for
an eye 100 pieces of eight or one
slave; for a finger of the hand the
same reward as for the eye. All
which sums of money, as I have said
before, are taken out of the capital
sum or common stock of what is got
by their piracy. For a very exact
and equal dividend is made of the
remainder among them all. Yet herein
they have also regard to qualities
and places. Thus the Captain, or
chief Commander, is allotted five or
six portions to what the ordinary
seamen have; the Master's Mate only
two; and other Officers
proportionate to their employment.
After whom they draw equal parts
from the highest even to the lowest
mariner, the boys not being omitted.
For even these draw half a share, by
reason that, when they happen to
take a better vessel than their own,
it is the duty of the boys to set
fire to the ship or boat wherein
they are, and then retire to the
prize which they have taken.
"They observe among themselves
very good orders. For in the prizes
they take it is severely prohibited
to everyone to usurp anything in
particular to themselves. Hence all
they take is equally divided,
according to what has been said
before. Yea, they make a solemn oath
to each other not to abscond or
conceal the least thing they find
amongst the prey. If afterwards
anyone is found unfaithful, who has
contravened the said oath,
immediately he is separated and
turned out of the society. Among
themselves they are very civil and
charitable to each other. Insomuch
that if any wants what another has,
with great liberality they give it
one to another. As soon as these
pirates have taken any prize of ship
or boat, the first thing they
endeavour is to set on shore the
prisoners, detaining only some few
for their own help and service, to
whom also they give their liberty
after the space of two or three
years. They put in very frequently
for refreshment at one island or
another; but more especially into those which lie on the
southern side of the Isle of Cuba.
Here they careen their vessels, and
in the meanwhile some of them go to
hunt, others to cruise upon the seas
in canoes, seeking their fortune.
Many times they take the poor
fishermen of tortoises, and carrying
them to their habitations they make
them work so long as the pirates are
pleased."
The articles which fixed the
conditions under which the
buccaneers sailed were commonly
called the "chasse-partie."105
In the earlier days of buccaneering,
before the period of great leaders
like Mansfield, Morgan and Grammont,
the captain was usually chosen from
among their own number. Although
faithfully obeyed he was removable
at will, and had scarcely more
prerogative than the ordinary
sailor. After 1655 the buccaneers
generally sailed under commissions
from the governors of Jamaica or
Tortuga, and then they always set
aside one tenth of the profits for
the governor. But when their prizes
were unauthorised they often
withdrew to some secluded coast to
make a partition of the booty, and
on their return to port eased the
governor's conscience with politic
gifts; and as the governor generally
had little control over these
difficult people he found himself
all the more obliged to dissimulate.
Although the buccaneers were called
by the Spaniards "ladrones" and
"demonios," names which they richly
deserved, they often gave part of
their spoil to churches in the ports
which they frequented, especially if
among the booty they found any
ecclesiastical ornaments or the
stuffs for making them—articles
which not infrequently formed an
important part of the cargo of
Spanish treasure ships. In March
1694 the Jesuit writer, Labat, took
part in a Mass at Martinique which
was performed for some
French buccaneers in pursuance of a
vow made when they were taking two
English vessels near Barbadoes. The
French vessel and its two prizes
were anchored near the church, and
fired salutes of all their cannon at
the beginning of the Mass, at the
Elevation of the Host, at the
Benediction, and again at the end of
the Te Deum sung after the Mass.106
Labat, who, although a priest, is
particularly lenient towards the
crimes of the buccaneers, and who we
suspect must have been the recipient
of numerous "favours" from them out
of their store of booty, relates a
curious tale of the buccaneer,
Captain Daniel, a tale which has
often been used by other writers,
but which may bear repetition.
Daniel, in need of provisions,
anchored one night off one of the
"Saintes," small islands near
Dominica, and landing without
opposition, took possession of the
house of the curé and of some other
inhabitants of the neighbourhood. He
carried the curé and his people on
board his ship without offering them
the least violence, and told them
that he merely wished to buy some
wine, brandy and fowls. While these
were being gathered, Daniel
requested the curé to celebrate
Mass, which the poor priest dared
not refuse. So the necessary sacred
vessels were sent for and an altar
improvised on the deck for the
service, which they chanted to the
best of their ability. As at
Martinique, the Mass was begun by a
discharge of artillery, and after
the Exaudiat and prayer for the King
was closed by a loud "Vive le Roi!"
from the throats of the buccaneers.
A single incident, however, somewhat
disturbed the devotions. One of the
buccaneers, remaining in an indecent
attitude during the Elevation, was
rebuked by the captain, and instead
of heeding the correction, replied
with an impertinence and a fearful
oath. Quick as a flash Daniel
whipped out his pistol and shot the
buccaneer through the head, adjuring God that he
would do as much to the first who
failed in his respect to the Holy
Sacrifice. The shot was fired close
by the priest, who, as we can
readily imagine, was considerably
agitated. "Do not be troubled, my
father," said Daniel; "he is a
rascal lacking in his duty and I
have punished him to teach him
better." A very efficacious means,
remarks Labat, of preventing his
falling into another like mistake.
After the Mass the body of the dead
man was thrown into the sea, and the
curé was recompensed for his pains
by some goods out of their stock and
the present of a negro slave.107
The buccaneers preferred to sail
in barques, vessels of one mast and
rigged with triangular sails. This
type of boat, they found, could be
more easily manœuvred, was faster
and sailed closer to the wind. The
boats were built of cedar, and the
best were reputed to come from
Bermuda. They carried very few guns,
generally from six to twelve or
fourteen, the corsairs believing
that four muskets did more execution
than one cannon.108
The buccaneers sometimes used
brigantines, vessels with two masts,
the fore or mizzenmast being
square-rigged with two sails and the
mainmast rigged like that of a
barque. The corsair at Martinique of
whom Labat speaks was captain of a
corvette, a boat like a brigantine,
except that all the sails were
square-rigged. At the beginning of a
voyage the freebooters were
generally so crowded in their small
vessels that they suffered much from
lack of room. Moreover, they had
little protection from sun and rain,
and with but a small stock of
provisions often faced starvation.
It was this as much as anything
which frequently inspired them to
attack without reflection any
possible prize, great or small, and
to make themselves masters of it or
perish in the attempt. Their first
object was to come to close
quarters; and although a single
broadside would have sunk their small craft,
they manœuvred so skilfully as to
keep their bow always presented to
the enemy, while their musketeers
cleared the enemy's decks until the
time when the captain judged it
proper to board. The buccaneers
rarely attacked Spanish ships on the
outward voyage from Europe to
America, for such ships were loaded
with wines, cloths, grains and other
commodities for which they had
little use, and which they could
less readily turn into available
wealth. Outgoing vessels also
carried large crews and a
considerable number of passengers.
It was the homeward-bound ships,
rather, which attracted their
avarice, for in such vessels the
crews were smaller and the cargo
consisted of precious metals,
dye-woods and jewels, articles which
the freebooters could easily dispose
of to the merchants and
tavern-keepers of the ports they
frequented.
The Gulf of Honduras and the
Mosquito Coast, dotted with numerous
small islands and protecting reefs,
was a favourite retreat for the
buccaneers. As the clumsy Spanish
war-vessels of the period found it
ticklish work threading these
tortuous channels, where a sudden
adverse wind usually meant disaster,
the buccaneers there felt secure
from interference; and in the
creeks, lagoons and river-mouths
densely shrouded by tropical
foliage, they were able to careen
and refit their vessels, divide
their booty, and enjoy a respite
from their sea-forays. Thence, too,
they preyed upon the Spanish ships
which sailed from the coast of
Cartagena to Porto Bello, Nicaragua,
Mexico, and the larger Antilles, and
were a constant menace to the great
treasure galleons of the Terra-Firma
fleet. The English settlement on the
island of Providence, lying as it
did off the Nicaragua coast and in
the very track of Spanish commerce
in those regions, was, until
captured in 1641, a source of great
fear to Spanish mariners; and when
in 1642 some English occupied the
island of Roatan, near Truxillo, the governor
of Cuba and the Presidents of the
Audiencias at Gautemala and San
Domingo jointly equipped an
expedition of four vessels under D.
Francisco de Villalba y Toledo,
which drove out the intruders.109
Closer to the buccaneering
headquarters in Tortuga (and later
in Jamaica) were the straits
separating the great West Indian
islands:—the Yucatan Channel at the
western end of Cuba, the passage
between Cuba and Hispaniola in the
east, and the Mona Passage between
Hispaniola and Porto Rico. In these
regions the corsairs waited to pick
up stray Spanish merchantmen, and
watched for the coming of the
galleons or the Flota.110
When the buccaneers returned from
their cruises they generally
squandered in a few days, in the
taverns of the towns which they
frequented, the wealth which had
cost them such peril and labour.
Some of these outlaws, says
Exquemelin, would spend 2000 or 3000
pieces of eight111
in one night, not leaving themselves
a good shirt to wear on their backs
in the morning. "My own master," he
continues, "would buy, on like
occasions, a whole pipe of wine, and
placing it in the street would force
every one that passed by to drink
with him; threatening also to pistol
them in case they would not do it.
At other times he would do the same
with barrels of ale or beer. And,
very often, with both in his hands,
he would throw these liquors about
the streets, and wet the clothes of
such as walked by, without regarding
whether he spoiled their apparel or
not, were they men or women." The
taverns and ale-houses always
welcomed the arrival of these
dissolute corsairs; and although
they extended long credits, they also at times sold as
indentured servants those who had
run too deeply into debt, as
happened in Jamaica to this same
patron or master of whom Exquemelin
wrote.
Until 1640 buccaneering in the
West Indies was more or less
accidental, occasional, in
character. In the second half of the
century, however, the numbers of the
freebooters greatly increased, and
men entirely deserted their former
occupations for the excitement and
big profits of the "course." There
were several reasons for this
increase in the popularity of
buccaneering. The English
adventurers in Hispaniola had lost
their profession of hunting very
early, for with the coming of
Levasseur the French had gradually
elbowed them out of the island, and
compelled them either to retire to
the Lesser Antilles or to prey upon
their Spanish neighbours. But the
French themselves were within the
next twenty years driven to the same
expedient. The Spanish colonists on
Hispaniola, unable to keep the
French from the island, at last
foolishly resolved, according to
Charlevoix's account, to remove the
principal attraction by destroying
all the wild cattle. If the trade
with French vessels and the barter
of hides for brandy could be
arrested, the hunters would be
driven from the woods by starvation.
This policy, together with the
wasteful methods pursued by the
hunters, caused a rapid decrease in
the number of cattle. The Spaniards,
however, did not dream of the
consequences of their action. Many
of the French, forced to seek
another occupation, naturally fell
into the way of buccaneering. The
hunters of cattle became hunters of
Spaniards, and the sea became the
savanna on which they sought their
game. Exquemelin tells us that when
he arrived at the island there were
scarcely three hundred engaged in
hunting, and even these found their
livelihood precarious. It was from
this time forward to the end of the
century that the buccaneers
played so important a rôle on
the stage of West Indian history.
Another source of recruits for
the freebooters were the indentured
servants or engagés. We hear
a great deal of the barbarity with
which West Indian planters and
hunters in the seventeenth century
treated their servants, and we may
well believe that many of the
latter, finding their situation
unendurable, ran away from their
plantations or ajoupas to join the
crew of a chance corsair hovering in
the neighbourhood. The hunters'
life, as we have seen, was not one
of revelry and ease. On the one side
were all the insidious dangers
lurking in a wild, tropical forest;
on the other, the relentless
hostility of the Spaniards. The
environment of the hunters made them
rough and cruel, and for many an
engagé his three years of
servitude must have been a veritable
purgatory. The servants of the
planters were in no better position.
Decoyed from Norman and Breton towns
and villages by the loud-sounding
promises of sea-captains and West
Indian agents, they came to seek an
El Dorado, and often found only
despair and death. The want of
sufficient negroes led men to resort
to any artifice in order to obtain
assistance in cultivating the
sugar-cane and tobacco. The
apprentices sent from Europe were
generally bound out in the French
Antilles for eighteen months or
three years, among the English for
seven years. They were often resold
in the interim, and sometimes served
ten or twelve years before they
regained their freedom. They were
veritable convicts, often more
ill-treated than the slaves with
whom they worked side by side, for
their lives, after the expiration of
their term of service, were of no
consequence to their masters. Many
of these apprentices, of good birth
and tender education, were unable to
endure the debilitating climate and
hard labour, let alone the cruelty
of their employers. Exquemelin,
himself originally an engagé, gives
a most piteous description of their
sufferings. He was sold to the
Lieutenant-Governor of Tortuga, who
treated him with great severity and
refused to take less than 300 pieces
of eight for his freedom. Falling
ill through vexation and despair, he
passed into the hands of a surgeon,
who proved kind to him and finally
gave him his liberty for 100 pieces
of eight, to be paid after his first
buccaneering voyage.112
We left Levasseur governor in
Tortuga after the abortive Spanish
attack of 1643. Finding his personal
ascendancy so complete over the rude
natures about him, Levasseur, like
many a greater man in similar
circumstances, lost his sense of the
rights of others. His character
changed, he became suspicious and
intolerant, and the settlers
complained bitterly of his cruelty
and overbearing temper. Having come
as the leader of a band of
Huguenots, he forbade the Roman
Catholics to hold services on the
island, burnt their chapel and
turned out their priest. He placed
heavy imposts on trade, and soon
amassed a considerable fortune.113
In his eyrie upon the rock fortress,
he is said to have kept for his
enemies a cage of iron, in which the
prisoner could neither stand nor lie
down, and which Levasseur, with grim
humour, called his "little hell." A
dungeon in his castle he termed in
like fashion his "purgatory." All
these stories, however, are reported
by the Jesuits, his natural foes,
and must be taken with a grain of
salt. De Poincy, who himself ruled
with despotic authority and was
guilty of similar cruelties, would
have turned a deaf ear to the
denunciations against his
lieutenant, had not his jealousy
been aroused by the suspicion that
Levasseur intended to declare
himself an independent prince.114
So the governor-general, already in bad odour at court for
having given Levasseur means of
establishing a little Geneva in
Tortuga, began to disavow him to the
authorities at home. He also sent
his nephew, M. de Lonvilliers, to
Tortuga, on the pretext of
complimenting Levasseur on his
victory over the Spaniards, but
really to endeavour to entice him
back to St. Kitts. Levasseur, subtle
and penetrating, skilfully avoided
the trap, and Lonvilliers returned
to St. Kitts alone.
Charlevoix relates an amusing
instance of the governor's stubborn
resistance to de Poincy's authority.
A silver statue of the Virgin,
captured by some buccaneer from a
Spanish ship, had been appropriated
by Levasseur, and de Poincy,
desiring to decorate his chapel with
it, wrote to him demanding the
statue, and observing that a
Protestant had no use for such an
object. Levasseur, however, replied
that the Protestants had a great
adoration for silver virgins, and
that Catholics being "trop
spirituels pour tenir à la matière,"
he was sending him, instead, a
madonna of painted wood.
After a tenure of power for
twelve years, Levasseur came to the
end of his tether. While de Poincy
was resolving upon an expedition to
oust him from authority, two
adventurers named Martin and
Thibault, whom Levasseur had adopted
as his heirs, and with whom, it is
said, he had quarrelled over a
mistress, shot him as he was
descending from the fort to the
shore, and completed the murder by a
poniard's thrust. They then seized
the government without any
opposition from the inhabitants.115
Meanwhile there had arrived at St.
Kitts the Chevalier de Fontenay, a
soldier of fortune who had
distinguished himself against the
Turks and was attracted by the gleam
of Spanish gold. He it was whom de
Poincy chose as the man to succeed
Levasseur. The opportunity for
action was eagerly accepted by de
Fontenay, but the project was kept secret, for if
Levasseur had got wind of it all the
forces in St. Kitts could not have
dislodged him. Volunteers were
raised on the pretext of a
privateering expedition to the
coasts of Cartagena, and to complete
the deception de Fontenay actually
sailed for the Main and captured
several prizes. The rendezvous was
on the coast of Hispaniola, where de
Fontenay was eventually joined by de
Poincy's nephew, M. de Treval, with
another frigate and materials for a
siege. Learning of the murder of
Levasseur, the invaders at once
sailed for Tortuga and landed
several hundred men at the spot
where the Spaniards had formerly
been repulsed. The two assassins,
finding the inhabitants indisposed
to support them, capitulated to de
Fontenay on receiving pardon for
their crime and the peaceful
possession of their property.
Catholicism was restored, commerce
was patronized and buccaneers
encouraged to use the port. Two
stone bastions were raised on the
platform and more guns were mounted.116
De Fontenay himself was the first to
bear the official title of "Governor
for the King of Tortuga and the
Coast of S. Domingo."
The new governor was not fated to
enjoy his success for any length of
time. The President of S. Domingo,
Don Juan Francisco de Montemayor,
with orders from the King of Spain,
was preparing for another effort to
get rid of his troublesome neighbour,
and in November 1653 sent an
expedition of five vessels and 400
infantry against the French, under
command of Don Gabriel Roxas de
Valle-Figueroa. The ships were
separated by a storm, two ran aground and a
third was lost, so that only the "Capitana"
and "Almirante" reached Tortuga on
10th January. Being greeted with a
rough fire from the platform and
fort as they approached the harbour,
they dropped anchor a league to
leeward and landed with little
opposition. After nine days of
fighting and siege of the fort, de
Fontenay capitulated with the
honours of war.117
According to the French account, the
Spaniards, lashing their cannon to
rough frames of wood, dragged a
battery of eight or ten guns to the
top of some hills commanding the
fort, and began a furious
bombardment. Several sorties of the
besieged to capture the battery were
unsuccessful. The inhabitants began
to tire of fighting, and de Fontenay,
discovering some secret negotiations
with the enemy, was compelled to sue
for terms. With incredible
exertions, two half-scuttled ships
in the harbour were fitted up and
provisioned within three days, and
upon them the French sailed for Port
Margot.118
The Spaniards claimed that the booty
would have been considerable but for
some Dutch trading-ships in the
harbour which conveyed all the
valuables from the island. They
burned the settlements, however,
carried away with them some guns,
munitions of war and slaves, and
this time taking the precaution to
leave behind a garrison of 150 men,
sailed for Hispaniola. Fearing that
the French might join forces with
the buccaneers and attack their
small squadron on the way back, they
retained de Fontenay's brother as a
hostage until they reached the city
of San Domingo. De Fontenay, indeed,
after his brother's release, did
determine to try and recover the
island. Only 130 of his men stood by him, the rest
deserting to join the buccaneers in
western Hispaniola. While he was
careening his ship at Port Margot,
however, a Dutch trader arrived with
commodities for Tortuga, and
learning of the disaster, offered
him aid with men and supplies. A
descent was made upon the smaller
island, and the Spaniards were
besieged for twenty days, but after
several encounters they compelled
the French to withdraw. De Fontenay,
with only thirty companions, sailed
for Europe, was wrecked among the
Azores, and eventually reached
France, only to die a short time
afterwards. |
