History of the Buccaneers of America Part 1

History of the Buccaneers of America.

by James Burney.

CHAPTER I.

_Considerations on the Rights acquired by the Discovery of Unknown Lands, and on the Claims advanced by the =Spaniards=._

The accounts given by the Buccaneers who extended their enterprises to the _Pacific Ocean_, are the best authenticated of any which have been published by that cla.s.s of Adventurers. They are interspersed with nautical and geographical descriptions, corroborative of the events related, and more worth being preserved than the memory of what was performed. The materials for this portion of Buccaneer history, which it was necessary should be included in a History of South Sea Navigations, could not be collected without bringing other parts into view; whence it appeared, that with a moderate increase of labour, and without much enlarging the bulk of narrative, a regular history might be formed of their career, from their first rise, to their suppression; and that such a work would not be without its use.

No practice is more common in literature, than for an author to endeavour to clear the ground before him, by mowing down the labours of his predecessors on the same subject. To do this, where the labour they have bestowed is of good tendency, or even to treat with harshness the commission of error where no bad intention is manifest, is in no small degree illiberal. But all the Buccaneer histories that hitherto have appeared, and the number is not small, are boastful compositions, which have delighted in exaggeration: and, what is most mischievous, they have lavished commendation on acts which demanded reprobation, and have endeavoured to raise miscreants, notorious for their want of humanity, to the rank of heroes, lessening thereby the stain upon robbery, and the abhorrence naturally conceived against cruelty.

There is some excuse for the Buccaneer, who tells his own story. Vanity, and his prejudices, without any intention to deceive, lead him to magnify his own exploits; and the reader naturally makes allowances.

The men whose enterprises are to be related, were natives of different European nations, but chiefly of _Great Britain_ and _France_, and most of them seafaring people, who being disappointed, by accidents or the enmity of the Spaniards, in their more sober pursuits in the _West Indies_, and also instigated by thirst for plunder as much as by desire for vengeance, embodied themselves, under different leaders of their own choosing, to make predatory war upon the Spaniards. These men the Spaniards naturally treated as pirates; but some peculiar circ.u.mstances which provoked their first enterprises, and a general feeling of enmity against that nation on account of their American conquests, procured them the connivance of the rest of the maritime states of _Europe_, and to be distinguished first by the softened appellations of Freebooters and Adventurers, and afterwards by that of Buccaneers.

_Spain_, or, more strictly speaking, _Castile_, on the merit of a first discovery, claimed an exclusive right to the possession of the whole of _America_, with the exception of the _Brasils_, which were conceded to the Portuguese. These claims, and this division, the Pope sanctioned by an instrument, ent.i.tled a Bull of Donation, which was granted at a time when all the maritime powers of _Europe_ were under the spiritual dominion of the See of _Rome_. The Spaniards, however, did not flatter themselves that they should be left in the sole and undisputed enjoyment of so large a portion of the newly-discovered countries; but they were princ.i.p.ally anxious to preserve wholly to themselves the _West Indies_: and, such was the monopolising spirit of the Castilians, that during the life of the Queen Ysabel of _Castile_, who was regarded as the patroness of Columbus's discovery, it was difficult even for Spaniards, not subjects born of the crown of _Castile_, to gain access to this _New World_, prohibitions being repeatedly published against the admission of all other persons into the ships bound thither. Ferdinand, King of _Arragon_, the husband of Ysabel, had refused to contribute towards the outfit of Columbus's first voyage, having no opinion of the probability that it would produce him an adequate return; and the undertaking being at the expence of _Castile_, the countries discovered were considered as appendages to the crown of _Castile_.

If such jealousy was entertained by the Spaniards of each other, what must not have been their feelings respecting other European nations? 'Whoever,'

says Hakluyt, 'is conversant with the Portugal and Spanish writers, shall find that they account all other nations for pirates, rovers, and thieves, which visit any heathen coast that they have sailed by or looked on.'

_Spain_ considered the _New World_ as what in our law books is called Treasure-trove, of which she became lawfully and exclusively ent.i.tled to take possession, as fully as if it had been found without any owner or proprietor. _Spain_ has not been singular in her maxims respecting the rights of discoverers. Our books of Voyages abound in instances of the same disregard shewn to the rights of the native inhabitants, the only rightful proprietors, by the navigators of other European nations, who, with a solemnity due only to offices of a religious nature, have continually put in practice the form of taking possession of Countries which to them were new discoveries, their being inhabited or desert making no difference. Not unfrequently has the ceremony been performed in the presence, but not within the understanding, of the wondering natives; and on this formality is grounded a claim to usurp the actual possession, in preference to other Europeans.

Nothing can be more opposed to common sense, than that strangers should pretend to acquire by discovery, a t.i.tle to countries they find with inhabitants; as if in those very inhabitants the right of prior discovery was not inherent. On some occasions, however, Europeans have thought it expedient to acknowledge the rights of the natives, as when, in disputing each other's claims, a t.i.tle by gift from the natives has been pretended.

In uninhabited lands, a right of occupancy results from the discovery; but actual and _bona fide_ possession is requisite to perfect appropriation.

If real possession be not taken, or if taken shall not be retained, the right acquired by the mere discovery is not indefinite and a perpetual bar of exclusion to all others; for that would amount to discovery giving a right equivalent to annihilation. Moveable effects may be h.o.a.rded and kept out of use, or be destroyed, and it will not always be easy to prove whether with injury or benefit to mankind: but the necessities of human life will not admit, unless under the strong hand of power, that a right should be pretended to keep extensive and fertile countries waste and secluded from their use, without other reason than the will of a proprietor or claimant.

Particular local circ.u.mstances have created objections to the occupancy of territory: for instance, between the confines of the Russian and Chinese Empires, large tracts of country are left waste, it being held, that their being occupied by the subjects of either Empire would affect the security of the other. Several similar instances might be mentioned.

There is in many cases difficulty to settle what const.i.tutes occupancy. On a small Island, any first settlement is acknowledged an occupancy of the whole; and sometimes, the occupancy of a single Island of a group is supposed to comprehend an exclusive t.i.tle to the possession of the remainder of the group. In the _West Indies_, the Spaniards regarded their making settlements on a few Islands, to be an actual taking possession of the whole, as far as European pretensions were concerned.

The first discovery of Columbus set in activity the curiosity and speculative dispositions of all the European maritime Powers. King Henry the VIIth, of _England_, as soon as he was certified of the existence of countries in the Western hemisphere, sent ships thither, whereby _Newfoundland_, and parts of the continent of _North America_, were first discovered. _South America_ was also visited very early, both by the English and the French; 'which nations,' the Historian of _Brasil_ remarks, 'had neglected to ask a share of the undiscovered World, when Pope Alexander the VIth part.i.tioned it, who would as willingly have drawn two lines as one; and, because they derived no advantage from that part.i.tion, refused to admit its validity.' The _West Indies_, however, which doubtless was the part most coveted by all, seem to have been considered as more particularly the discovery and right of the Spaniards; and, either from respect to their pretensions, or from the opinion entertained of their force in those parts, they remained many years undisturbed by intruders in the _West Indian Seas_. But their homeward-bound ships, and also those of the Portuguese from the _East Indies_, did not escape being molested by pirates; sometimes by those of their own, as well as of other nations.

CHAP. II.

_Review of the Dominion of the =Spaniards= in =Hayti= or =Hispaniola=._

[Sidenote: 1492-3. Hayti, or Hispaniola, the first Settlement of the Spaniards in America.] The first settlement formed by the Castilians in their newly discovered world, was on the Island by the native inhabitants named _Hayti_; but to which the Spaniards gave the name of _Espanola_ or _Hispaniola_. And in process of time it came to pa.s.s, that this same Island became the great place of resort, and nursery, of the European adventurers, who have been so conspicuous under the denomination of the Buccaneers of _America_.

The native inhabitants found in _Hayti_, have been described a people of gentle, compa.s.sionate dispositions, of too frail a const.i.tution, both of body and mind, either to resist oppression, or to support themselves under its weight; and to the indolence, luxury, and avarice of the discoverers, their freedom and happiness in the first instance, and finally their existence, fell a sacrifice.

Queen Ysabel, the patroness of the discovery, believed it her duty, and was earnestly disposed, to be their protectress; but she wanted resolution to second her inclination. The Island abounded in gold mines. The natives were tasked to work them, heavier and heavier by degrees; and it was the great misfortune of Columbus, after achieving an enterprise, the glory of which was not exceeded by any action of his contemporaries, to make an ungrateful use of the success Heaven had favoured him with, and to be the foremost in the destruction of the nations his discovery first made known to _Europe_.

[Sidenote: Review of the Dominion of the Spaniards in Hispaniola.] The population of _Hayti_, according to the lowest estimation made, amounted to a million of souls. The first visit of Columbus was pa.s.sed in a continual reciprocation of kind offices between them and the Spaniards.

One of the Spanish ships was wrecked upon the coast, and the natives gave every a.s.sistance in their power towards saving the crew, and their effects to them. When Columbus departed to return to _Europe_, he left behind him thirty-eight Spaniards, with the consent of the Chief or Sovereign of the part of the Island where he had been so hospitably received. He had erected a fort for their security, and the declared purpose of their remaining was to protect the Chief against all his enemies. Several of the native Islanders voluntarily embarked in the ships to go to _Spain_, among whom was a relation of the _Hayti_ Chief; and with them were taken gold, and various samples of the productions of the _New World_.

Columbus, on his return, was received by the Court of _Spain_ with the honours due to his heroic achievement, indeed with honours little short of adoration: he was declared Admiral, Governor, and Viceroy of the Countries that he had discovered, and also of those which he should afterwards discover; he was ordered to a.s.sume the style and t.i.tle of n.o.bility; and was furnished with a larger fleet to prosecute farther the discovery, and to make conquest of the new lands. The Instructions for his second expedition contained the following direction: 'Forasmuch as you, Christopher Columbus, are going by our command, with our vessels and our men, to discover and subdue certain Islands and Continent, our will is, that you shall be our Admiral, Viceroy, and Governor in them.' This was the first step in the iniquitous usurpations which the more cultivated nations of the world have practised upon their weaker brethren, the natives of _America_.

[Sidenote: 1493. Government of Columbus.] Thus provided and instructed, Columbus sailed on his second voyage. On arriving at _Hayti_, the first news he learnt was, that the natives had demolished the fort which he had built, and destroyed the garrison, who, it appeared, had given great provocation, by their rapacity and licentious conduct. War did not immediately follow. Columbus accepted presents of gold from the Chief; he landed a number of colonists, and built a town on the North side of _Hayti_, which he named after the patroness, _Ysabel_, and fortified.

[Sidenote: 1494.] A second fort was soon built; new Spaniards arrived; and the natives began to understand that it was the intention of their visitors to stay, and be lords of the country. The Chiefs held meetings, to confer on the means to rid themselves of such unwelcome guests, and there was appearance of preparation making to that end. The Spaniards had as yet no farther a.s.serted dominion, than in taking land for their town and forts, and helping themselves to provisions when the natives neglected to bring supplies voluntarily. The histories of these transactions affect a tone of apprehension on account of the extreme danger in which the Spaniards were, from the mult.i.tude of the heathen inhabitants; but all the facts shew that they perfectly understood the helpless character of the natives. A Spanish officer, named Pedro Margarit, was blamed, not altogether reasonably, for disorderly conduct to the natives, which happened in the following manner. He was ordered, with a large body of troops, to make a progress through the Island in different parts, and was strictly enjoined to restrain his men from committing any violence against the natives, or from giving them any cause for complaint. But the troops were sent on their journey without provisions, and the natives were not disposed to furnish them. The troops recurred to violence, which they did not limit to the obtaining food. If Columbus could spare a detachment strong enough to make such a visitation through the land, he could have entertained no doubt of his ability to subdue it. But before he risked engaging in open war with the natives, he thought it prudent to weaken their means of resisting by what he called stratagem. _Hayti_ was divided into five provinces, or small kingdoms, under the separate dominion of as many Princes or Caciques. One of these, Coanabo, the Cacique of _Maguana_, Columbus believed to be more resolute, and more dangerous to his purpose, than any other of the chiefs. To Coanabo, therefore, he sent an Officer, to propose an accommodation on terms which appeared so reasonable, that the Indian Chief a.s.sented to them. Afterwards, relying on the good faith of the Spaniards, not, as some authors have meanly represented, through credulous and childish simplicity, but with the natural confidence which generally prevails, and which ought to prevail, among mankind in their mutual engagements, he gave opportunity for Columbus to get possession of his person, who caused him to be seized, and embarked in a ship then ready to sail for _Spain_. The ship foundered in the pa.s.sage. [Sidenote: 1495.]

The story of Coanabo, and the contempt with which he treated Columbus for his treachery, form one of the most striking circ.u.mstances in the history of the perfidious dealings of the Spaniards in _America_. [Sidenote: Dogs used in Battle against the Indians.] On the seizure of this Chief, the Islanders rose in arms. Columbus took the field with two hundred foot armed with musketry and cross-bows, with twenty troopers mounted on horses, and with twenty large dogs[1]!

It is not to be urged in exculpation of the Spaniards, that the natives were the aggressors, by their killing the garrison left at _Hayti_.

Columbus had terminated his first visit in friendship; and, without the knowledge that any breach had happened between the Spaniards left behind, and the natives, sentence of subjugation had been p.r.o.nounced against them. This was not to avenge injury, for the Spaniards knew not of any committed. Columbus was commissioned to execute this sentence, and for that end, besides a force of armed men, he took with him from _Spain_ a number of blood-hounds, to prosecute a most unrighteous purpose by the most inhuman means.

Many things are justifiable in defence, which in offensive war are regarded by the generality of mankind with detestation. All are agreed in the use of dogs, as faithful guards to our persons as well as to our dwellings; but to hunt men with dogs seems to have been till then unheard of, and is nothing less offensive to humanity than cannibalism or feasting on our enemies. Neither jagged shot, poisoned darts, springing of mines, nor any species of destruction, can be objected to, if this is allowed in honourable war, or admitted not to be a disgraceful practice in any war.

It was scarcely possible for the Indians, or indeed for any people naked and undisciplined, however numerous, to stand their ground against a force so calculated to excite dread. The Islanders were naturally a timid people, and they regarded fire-arms as engines of more than mortal contrivance. Don Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, who wrote a History of his father's actions, relates an instance, which happened before the war, of above 400 Indians running away from a single Spanish horseman.

[Sidenote: Ma.s.sacre of the Natives, and Subjugation of the Island.] So little was attack, or valiant opposition, apprehended from the natives, that Columbus divided his force into several squadrons, to charge them at different points. 'These faint-hearted creatures,' says Don Ferdinand, 'fled at the first onset; and our men, pursuing and killing them, made such havock, that in a short time they obtained a complete victory.' The policy adopted by Columbus was, to confirm the natives in their dread of European arms, by a terrible execution. The victors, both dogs and men, used their ascendancy like furies. The dogs flew at the throats of the Indians, and strangled or tore them in pieces; whilst the Spaniards, with the eagerness of hunters, pursued and mowed down the unresisting fugitives. Some thousands of the Islanders were slaughtered, and those taken prisoners were consigned to servitude. If the fact were not extant, it would not be conceivable that any one could be so blind to the infamy of such a proceeding, as to extol the courage of the Spaniards on this occasion, instead of execrating their cruelty. Three hundred of the natives were shipped for _Spain_ as slaves, and the whole Island, with the exception of a small part towards the Western coast, which has since been named the _Cul de Sac_, was subdued. [Sidenote: Tribute imposed.] Columbus made a leisurely progress through the Island, which occupied him nine or ten months, and imposed a tribute generally upon all the natives above the age of fourteen, requiring each of them to pay quarterly a certain quant.i.ty of gold, or 25 lbs. of cotton. Those natives who were discovered to have been active against the Spaniards, were taxed higher. To prevent evasion, rings or tokens, to be produced in the nature of receipts, were given to the Islanders on their paying the tribute, and any Islander found without such a mark in his possession, was deemed not to have paid, and proceeded against.

Queen Ysabel shewed her disapprobation of Columbus's proceedings, by liberating and sending back the captive Islanders to their own country; and she moreover added her positive commands, that none of the natives should be made slaves. This order was accompanied with others intended for their protection; but the Spanish Colonists, following the example of their Governor, contrived means to evade them.

In the mean time, the Islanders could not furnish the tribute, and Columbus was rigorous in the collection. It is said in palliation, that he was embarra.s.sed in consequence of the magnificent descriptions he had given to Ferdinand and Ysabel, of the riches of _Hispaniola_, by which he had taught them to expect much; and that the fear of disappointing them and losing their favour, prompted him to act more oppressively to the Indians than his disposition otherwise inclined him to do. Distresses of this kind press upon all men; but only in very ordinary minds do they outweigh solemn considerations. Setting aside the dictates of religion and moral duty, as doubtless was done, and looking only to worldly advantages, if Columbus had properly estimated his situation, he would have been resolute not to descend from the eminence he had attained. The dilemma in which he was placed, was simply, whether he would risk some diminution of the favour he was in at Court, by being the protector of these Islanders, who, by circ.u.mstances peculiarly calculated to engage his interest, were ent.i.tled in an especial manner to have been regarded as his clients; or, to preserve that favour, would oppress them to their destruction, and to the ruin of his own fame.

[Sidenote: Despair of the Natives.] The Islanders, finding their inability to oppose the invaders, took the desperate resolution to desist from the cultivation of their lands, to abandon their houses, and to withdraw themselves to the mountains; hoping thereby that want of subsistence would force their oppressors to quit the Island. The Spaniards had many resources; the sea-coast supplied them with fish, and their vessels brought provisions from other islands. As to the natives of _Hayti_, one third part of them, it is said, perished in the course of a few months, by famine and by suicide. The rest returned to their dwellings, and submitted. All these events took place within three years after the discovery; so active is rapacity.

Some among the Spaniards (authors of that time say, the enemies of Columbus, as if sentiments of humanity were not capable of such an effort) wrote Memorials to their Catholic Majesties, representing the disastrous condition to which the natives were reduced. [Sidenote: 1496.]

Commissioners were sent to examine into the fact, and Columbus found it necessary to go to _Spain_ to defend his administration.

So great was the veneration and respect entertained for him, that on his arrival at Court, accusation was not allowed to be produced against him: and, without inst.i.tuting enquiry, it was arranged, that he should return to his government with a large reinforcement of Spaniards, and with authority to grant lands to whomsoever he chose to think capable of cultivating them. Various accidents delayed his departure from _Spain_ on his third voyage, till 1498.

[Sidenote: City of Nueva Ysabel founded, 1496.] He had left two of his brothers to govern in _Hispaniola_ during his absence; the eldest, Bartolome, with the t.i.tle of Adelantado; in whose time (A. D. 1496) was traced, on the South side of the Island, the plan of a new town intended for the capital, the land in the neighbourhood of the town of _Ysabel_, before built, being poor and little productive. [Sidenote: Its name changed to Santo Domingo.] The name first given to the new town was _Nueva Ysabel_; this in a short time gave place to that of _Santo Domingo_, a name which was not imposed by authority, but adopted and became in time established by common usage, of which the original cause is not now known[2].

Under the Adelantado's government, the parts of the Island which till then had held out in their refusal to receive the Spanish yoke, were reduced to subjection; and the conqueror gratified his vanity with the public execution of one of the Hayti Kings.

Columbus whilst he was in _Spain_ received mortification in two instances, of neither of which he had any right to complain. In October 1496, three hundred natives of _Hayti_ (made prisoners by the Adelantado) were landed at _Cadiz_, being sent to _Spain_ as slaves. At this act of disobedience, the King and Queen strongly expressed their displeasure, and said, if the Islanders made war against the Castilians, they must have been constrained to do it by hard treatment. Columbus thought proper to blame, and to disavow what his brother had done. The other instance of his receiving mortification, was an act of kindness done him, and so intended; and it was the only shadow of any thing like reproof offered to him. In the instructions which he now received, it was earnestly recommended to him to prefer conciliation to severity on all occasions which would admit it without prejudice to justice or to his honour.

[Sidenote: 1498.] It was in the third voyage of Columbus that he first saw the Continent of _South America_, in August 1498, which he then took to be an Island, and named _Isla Santa_. He arrived on the 22d of the same month at the City of _San Domingo_.

The short remainder of Columbus's government in _Hayti_ was occupied with disputes among the Spaniards themselves. A strong party was in a state of revolt against the government of the Columbuses, and accommodation was kept at a distance, by neither party daring to place trust in the other.

[Sidenote: 1498-9.] Columbus would have had recourse to arms to recover his authority, but some of his troops deserted to the disaffected, and others refused to be employed against their countrymen. In this state, the parties engaged in a treaty on some points, and each sent Memorials to the Court. The Admiral in his dispatches represented, that necessity had made him consent to certain conditions, to avoid endangering the Colony; but that it would be highly prejudicial to the interests of their Majesties to ratify the treaty he had been forced to subscribe.

[Sidenote: Beginning of the Repartimientos.] The Admiral now made grants of lands to Spanish colonists, and accompanied them with requisitions to the neighbouring Caciques, to furnish the new proprietors with labourers to cultivate the soil. This was the beginning of the _Repartimientos_, or distributions of the Indians, which confirmed them slaves, and contributed, more than all former oppressions, to their extermination.

Notwithstanding the earnest and express order of the King and Queen to the contrary, the practice of transporting the natives of _Hayti_ to _Spain_ as slaves, was connived at and continued; and this being discovered, lost Columbus the confidence, but not wholly the support, of Queen Ysabel.

[Sidenote: 1500. Government of Bovadilla.] The dissensions in the Colony increased, as did the unpopularity of the Admiral; and in the year 1500, a new Governor General of the _Indies_, Francisco de Bovadilla, was sent from _Spain_, with a commission empowering him to examine into the accusations against the Admiral; and he was particularly enjoined by the Queen, to declare all the native inhabitants free, and to take measures to secure to them that they should be treated as a free people. How a man so grossly ignorant and intemperate as Bovadilla, should have been chosen to an office of such high trust, is not a little extraordinary. His first display of authority was to send the Columbuses home prisoners, with the indignity to their persons of confining them in chains. He courted popularity in his government by shewing favour to all who had been disaffected to the government or measures of the Admiral and his brothers, the natives excepted, for whose relief he had been especially appointed Governor. To encourage the Spaniards to work the mines, he reduced the duties payable to the Crown on the produce, and trusted to an increase in the quant.i.ty of gold extracted, for preserving the revenue from diminution. [Sidenote: All the Natives compelled to work the Mines.] This was to be effected by increasing the labour of the natives; and that these miserable people might not evade their servitude, he caused muster-rolls to be made of all the inhabitants, divided them into cla.s.ses, and made distribution of them according to the value of the mines, or to his desire to gratify particular persons. The Spanish Colonists believed that the same facilities to enrich themselves would not last long, and made all the haste in their power to profit by the present opportunity.

By these means, Bovadilla drew from the mines in a few months so great a quant.i.ty of gold, that one fleet which he sent home, carried a freight more than sufficient to reimburse _Spain_ all the expences which had been incurred in the discovery and conquest. The procuring these riches was attended with so great a mortality among the natives as to threaten their utter extinction.

Nothing could exceed the surprise and indignation of the Queen, on receiving information of these proceedings. The bad government of Bovadilla was a kind of palliation which had the effect of lessening the reproach upon the preceding government, and, joined to the disgraceful manner in which Columbus had been sent home, produced a revolution of sentiment in his favour. The good Queen Ysabel wished to compensate him for the hard treatment he had received, at the same time that she had the sincerity to make him understand she would not again commit the Indian natives to his care. All his other offices and dignities were restored to him.

[Sidenote: 1501-2. Nicolas Ovando, Governor.] For a successor to Bovadilla in the office of Governor General, Don Nicolas Ovando, a Cavalero of the Order of _Alcantara_, was chosen; a man esteemed capable and just, and who entered on his government with apparent mildness and consideration. But in a short time he proved the most execrable of all the tyrants, 'as if,'