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BUCCANEERS
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BUCCANEERS , the name given to piratical adventurers of different nationalities See also:united in their opposition to See also:Spain, whomaintained themselves chiefly in the Caribbean See also:Sea during the 17th See also:century.
The See also:island of Santo Domingo was one of several in the See also:West Indies which had See also:early in the 16th century been almost depopulated by the oppressive colonial policy of Spain. Along its See also:coast there were several isolated establishments presided over by Spaniards, who were deprived of a convenient See also:market for the produce of the See also:soil by the monopolies imposed by the See also:mother See also:country. Accordingly See also:English, Dutch and See also:French vessels were welcomed and their cargoes readily bought. The island, thinned of its former inhabitants, had become the See also:home of immense herds of See also:wild See also:cattle; and it became the See also:habit of smugglers to See also:provision at Santo Domingo. The natives still See also:left were skilled in pre-serving flesh at their little establishments called boucans. The adventurers learned " boucanning " from the natives; and gradually Hispaniola became the See also:scene of an extensive and illicit See also:butcher See also:trade. See also:Spanish monopolies filled the See also:seamen who sailed the Caribbean with a natural hate of everything Spanish. The pleasures of a roving See also:life, enlivened by occasional skirmishes with forces organized and led by Spanish officials, gained upon them. Out of such conditions arose the buccaneer, alternately sailor and See also:hunter, even occasionally a planter—roving, bold, unscrupulous, often See also:savage, with an intense detestation of Spain. As the Spaniards would not recognize the right of other races to make settlements, or even to trade in the West Indies, the governments of See also:France, See also:England and See also: Each nation contributed a See also:band of colonists, who selected the island of St Kitts or St See also:Christopher, in the West Indies, where the settlers of both nations were simultaneously planted. The English andFrench were, however, not very friendly; and in 1629, after the retirement of several of the former to an adjoining island, the remaining colonists were surprised and partly dispersed by the arrival of a Spanish See also:fleet of See also:thirty-nine See also:sail. But on the departure of the fleet the scattered bands returned, and encouragement was given to their country-men in Santo Domingo. For buccaneering had now become a most profitable employment, operations were extended, and a storehouse secure from the attacks of the Spaniards was required. The small island of Tortuga (See also:north-west of Hispaniola) was seized for this purpose in 163o, converted into a See also:magazine for the goods of the rivals, and made their headquarters, Santo Domingo itself still continuing their See also:hunting ground. A purely English See also:settlement directed by a See also:company in See also:London was made at Old See also:Providence, an island in the Caribbean Sea, now belonging to See also:Colombia. It began a little before 163o, and was suppressed by the Spaniards in 1641. Spain was unable to take immediate See also:action. Eight years later, however, watching their opportunity when many buccaneers were absent in the larger island, the Spaniards attacked Tortuga, and massacred every settler they could seize. But the others returned; and the buccaneers, now in open hostility to the Spanish arms, began to receive recruits from every See also:European tradir g nation, and for three-quarters of a century became the. See also:scourge of the Spanish-See also:American trade and dominions. France, throughout all this, had not been idle. She had named the See also:governor of St Kitts " Governor-See also:General for the French West See also:India Islands," and in 1641 he took See also:possession of Tortuga, expelled all English from the island, and attempted the same with less success in Santo Domingo. England was absorbed in the See also:Civil See also:War, and the buccaneers had to maintain themselves as best they could,—now mainly on the sea. In 1654 the Spaniards regained Tortuga from the French, into whose hands it again, however, See also:fell after six years. But this See also:state of affairs was too insecure even for these rovers, and they would speedily have succumbed had not a See also:refuge been found for them by the fortunate See also:conquest of See also:Jamaica in 1655 by the See also:navy of the English See also:Commonwealth. These conquests were not made without the aid of the buccaneers themselves. The taking and re-taking of Tortuga by the French was always with the assistance of the roving community; and at the conquest of Jamaica the English navy had the same See also:influence in its favour. The buccaneers, in fact, constituted a See also:mercenary navy, ready for employment against the See also:power of Spain by any other nation, on See also:condition of sharing the See also:plunder; and they were noted for their daring, their See also:cruelty and their extraordinary skill in See also:seamanship. Their See also:history now divides itself into three epochs. The first of these extends from the See also:period of their rise to the See also:capture of See also:Panama by See also:Morgan in 1671, during which See also:time they were hampered neither by See also:government aid nor, till near its See also:close, by government restriction. The second, from 1671 to the time of their greatest power, 1685, when the scene of their operations was no longer merely the Caribbean, but principally the whole range of the Pacific from See also:California to See also:Chile. The third and last period extends from that See also:year onwards; it was a time of disunion and disintegration, when the See also:independence and See also:rude See also:honour of the previous periods had degenerated into unmitigated See also:vice and brutality. It is chiefly during the first period that those leaders flourished whose names and doings have been associated with all that was really influential in the exploits of the buccaneers—the most prominent being See also:Mansfield and Morgan. The floating See also:commerce of Spain had by the See also:middle of the 17th century become utterly insignificant. But Spanish settlements remained; and in 1654 the first See also:great expedition on See also:land made by the buccaneers, though attended by considerable difficulties, was completed by the capture and See also:sack of New See also:Segovia, on the mainland of See also:America. The Gulf of See also:Venezuela, with its towns of See also:Maracaibo and See also:Gibraltar, were attacked and plundered under the command of a Frenchman named L'011onois, who performed, it is said, the See also:office of executioner upon the whole See also:crew of a Spanish See also:vessel manned with ninety seamen. Such successes removed the buccaneers further and further from the See also:pale of civilized society, fed their revenge, and inspired them with an avarice almost equal to that of the See also:original settlers from Spain. Mansfield indeed, in 1664, conceived the See also:idea of a permanent settlement upon a small island of the See also:Bahamas, named New Providence, and See also: On the See also:morning of the tenth See also:day they commenced an engagement which ended in the rout of the defenders of the See also:town. It was taken, and, accidentally or not, it was burnt. The sack of Panama was accompanied by great barbarities. The Spaniards had, however, removed the treasure before the city was taken. When the See also:booty was divided, Morgan is accused of having defrauded his followers. It is certain that the See also:share per man was small, and that many of the buccaneers died of See also:starvation while trying to return to Jamaica. Modyford was recalled, and in 167 2 Morgan was called home and imprisoned in the See also:Tower. In 1674 he was allowed to come back to the island as See also:lieutenant-governor with See also:Lord See also:Vaughan. He had become so unpopular after the expedition of 1671 that he was followed in the streets and threatened by the relations of those who had perished. During his later years he was active in suppressing the buccaneers who had now inconvenient claims on him. From 1671 to 1685 is the time of the greatest daring, prosperity and power of. the buccaneers. The expedition against Panama had not been without its influence. Notwithstanding their many successes in the Caribbean and on land, including a second plunder of Porto Bello, their thoughts ran frequently on the great expedition across the isthmus, and they pictured the South Sea as a far wider and more lucrative See also: That officer, seeing the trade of the See also:colony cut off, supplies stopped, towns burned and raided, and property harassed by continual raids, resolved by vigorous means to put an end to it. But his aim was not easily accomplished. In this same year a Spanish fleet of fourteen sail met, but did not engage, ten buccaneer vessels which were found in the Bay of Panama. At this period the power of the buccaneers was at its height. But the See also:combination was too extensive for its See also:work, and the different See also:nationality of those who composed it was a source of growing discord. Nor was the See also:dream of equality ever realized for any length of time. The immense spoil obtained on the capture of wealthy cities was indeed divided equally. But in the gambling and debauchery which followed, nothing was more See also:common than that one-See also:half of the conquerors should find them-selves on the morrow in most pressing want; and while those who had retained or increased their share would willingly have gone home, the others clamoured for renewed attacks. The separation of the English and French buccaneers, who together presented a united front to the Spanish fleet in 1685, marks the beginning of the third and last See also:epoch in their history. The brilliant exploits begun by the sack of See also:Leon and Realejo by the English under Davis have, even in their variety and daring, a sameness which deprives them of See also:interest, and the wonderful confederacy is now seen to be falling gradually to pieces. The skill of Davis at sea was on one occasion displayed in a seven days' engagement with two large Spanish vessels, and the interest undoutedly centres in him. Townley and Swan had, however, by this time left him, and after cruising together for some time, they, too, parted. In 1688 Davis cleared Cape Horn and arrived in the West Indies, while Swan's See also:ship, the " Cygnet," was abandoned as unseaworthy, after sailing as far as See also:Madagascar. Townley had hardly joined the French buccaneers remaining in the South Sea ere he died, and the Frenchmen with their companions crossed New Spain to the West Indies. And thus the Pacific, ravaged so long by this powerful and mysterious band of corsairs, was at length at peace.
The West Indies had by this time become hot enough even for the banded pirates. They hung doggedly along the coasts of Jamaica and Santo Domingo, but their day was nearly over. Only once again—at the See also:siege of Carthagena—did they appear great; but even then the expedition was not of their making, and they were See also:mere auxiliaries of the French See also:regular forces. After the treachery of the French commander of this expedition a spirit of unity and despairing See also:energy seemed reawakened in them; but this could not avert and scarcely delayed the rapidly approaching extinction of the community.
The French and English buccaneers could not but take sides in the war which had arisen between their respective countries in 1689. Thus was broken the See also:bond of unity which had for three-quarters of a century kept the subjects of the two nations together in schemes of aggression upon a common foe. In the short peace of 1697–1700 England and France were using all their influence, both in the Old World and in the New, to ingratiate themselves into the favour of the See also: There was that in the very nature of the community which, from its See also:birth, marked it as liable to speedy decline. The principles which See also:bound the buccaneers together were, first the See also:desire for adventure and gain, and, in the second See also:place, hatred of the Spaniard. The first was hardly a sufficient bond of See also:union, among men of different nationalities, when booty could be had nearly always by private venture under the See also:colours of the See also:separate European•powers. Of greater validity was their second and great principle of union, namely, that they warred not with one another, nor with every one, but with a single and a common foe. For while the buccaneer forces included English, French and Dutch sailors, and were complemented occasionally by bands of native Indians, there are few instances during the time of their prosperity and growth of their falling upon one another, and treating their See also:fellows with the savagery which they exulted in displaying against the subjects of Spain. The exigencies, moreover, of their perilous career readily wasted their suddenly acquired gains. Settled labour, the See also:warrant of real See also:wealth, was unacceptable to those who lived by promoting its insecurity. Regular trade—though rendered attractive by smuggling—and See also:pearl gathering and similar operations which were spiced with risk, were open in vain to them, and in the See also:absence of any domestic life, a See also:hand-to-mouth See also:system of See also:supply and demand rooted out gradually the prudence which accompanies any mode of settled existence. In everything the policy of the buccaneers, from the beginning to the end of their career, was one of pure destruction, and was, therefore, ultimately suicidal. Their great importance in history lies in the fact that they opened the eyes of the world, and specially of the nations from whom these buccaneers had sprung, to the whole system of Spanish-American government and commerce—the former in its rottenness, and the latter in its possibilities in other hands. From this, then, along with other causes, dating primarily from the helplessness and presumption of Spain, there arose the West See also:Indian possessions of Holland, England and France. A work published at See also:Amsterdam in 1678, entitled De Americaensche Zee Roovers, from the See also:pen of a buccaneer named Exquemelin, was translated into several European See also:languages, receiving additions at the hands of the different translators. The French See also:translation by Frontignieres is named Histoire See also:des avanturiers qui se sont signalez dans See also:les lades; the English edition is entitled The Bucaniers of America. Other See also:works are See also:Raynal's History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the See also:East and West Indies, See also:book x., English translation 1782; See also:Dampier's Voyages; Geo. W. Thornbury's Monarchs of the See also:Main, &c. (1855); Lionel See also:Wafer's Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America (1699); and the Histoire de l'isle Espagnole, &c., and Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France of Pere
See also:Charlevoix. The statements in these works are to be received with caution. A really See also:authentic narrative, however, is Captain See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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