History of the Buccaneers of America Part 20

Here then terminates the History of the Buccaneers of _America_. Their distinctive mark, which they undeviatingly preserved nearly two centuries, was, their waging constant war against the Spaniards, and against them only. Many peculiarities have been attributed to the Buccaneers in other respects, some of which can apply only to their situation as hunters of cattle, and some existed rather in the writer's fancy than in reality. Mariners are generally credited for being more eccentric in their caprices than other men; which, if true, is to be accounted for by the circ.u.mstances of their profession; and it happens that they are most subjected to observation at the times when they are fresh in the possession of liberty and money, earned by long confinement and labour.

It may be said of the Buccaneers that they were, in general, courageous according to the character of their leader; often rash, alternately negligent and vigilant, and always addicted to pleasure and idleness. It will help to ill.u.s.trate the manners and qualifications of the Buccaneers in the _South Sea_, to give an extract from the concluding part of Dampier's ma.n.u.script journal of his Voyage round the World with the Buccaneers, and will also establish a fact which has been mentioned before only as a matter surmised[91]. Dampier says,

[Sidenote: Extract from Dampier.] 'September the 20th, 1691, arrived in the _Downs_ to my great joy and satisfaction, having in my voyage ran clear round the Globe.--I might have been master of the ship we first sailed in if I would have accepted it, for it was known to most men on board that I kept a Journal, and all that knew me did ever judge my accounts were kept as correct as any man's. Besides, that most, if not all others who kept journals in the voyage, lost them before they got to _Europe_, whereas I preserved my writing. Yet I see that some men are not so well pleased with my account as if it came from any of the Commanders that were in the _South Sea_, though most of them, I think all but Captain Swan, were incapable of keeping a sea journal, and took no account of any action, neither did they make any observations. But I am only to answer for myself, and if I have not given satisfaction to my friends in what I have written, the fault is in the meanness of my information, and not in me who have been faithful as to what came to my knowledge.'

Countenanced as the Buccaneers were, it is not in the least surprising that they became so numerous. With the same degree of encouragement at the present time, the Seas would be filled with such adventurers. It was fortunate for the Spaniards, and perhaps for the other maritime Nations of _Europe_, that the Buccaneers did not make conquest and settlement so much their object as they did plunder; and that they took no step towards making themselves independent, whilst it was in their power. Among their Chiefs were some of good capacity; but only two of them, Mansvelt and Morgan, appear to have contemplated any scheme of regular settlement independent of the European Governments, and the time was then gone by.

Before _Tortuga_ was taken possession of for the Crown of _France_, such a project might have been undertaken with great advantage. The English and French Buccaneers were then united; _England_ was deeply engaged and fully occupied by a civil war; and the jealousy which the Spaniards entertained of the encroachments of the French in the _West Indies_, kept at a distance all probability of their coalescing to suppress the Buccaneers.

If they had chosen at that time to have formed for themselves any regular mode of government, it appears not very improbable that they might have become a powerful independent State.

In the history of so much robbery and outrage, the rapacity shewn in some instances by the European Governments in their West-India transactions, and by Governors of their appointment, appears in a worse light than that of the Buccaneers, from whom, they being professed ruffians, nothing better was expected. The superior attainments of Europeans, though they have done much towards their own civilization, chiefly in humanising their inst.i.tutions, have, in their dealings with the inhabitants of the rest of the globe, with few exceptions, been made the instruments of usurpation and extortion.

After the suppression of the Buccaneers, and partly from their relicks, arose a race of pirates of a more desperate cast, so rendered by the increased danger of their occupation, who for a number of years preyed upon the commerce of all nations, till they were hunted down, and, it may be said, exterminated. Of one crew of pirates who were brought before a Court of Justice, fifty-two men were condemned and executed at one time, in the year 1722.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Lebreles de pressa._

[2] The name _Saint Domingo_ was afterwards applied to the whole Island by the French, who, whilst they contested the possession with the Spaniards, were desirous to supersede the use of the name _Espanola_ or _Hispaniola_.

[3] _Historia General de las Indias_, por _Gonc. Hernandez de Oviedo_, lib. 19. cap. 13. Also _Hakluyt_, vol. iii. p. 499, edit. 1600.

[4] _Camden's Elizabeth_, A. D. 1680.

[5] _Hist. des Antilles, par P. du Tertre._ Paris, 1667. Tome I. p. 415.

[6] _La Rochefort, sur le Repas des Carribes._

[7] _History of Brasil, by Robert Southey_, p. 17.

[8] In some of the English accounts the name is written _Bucanier_; but uniformity in spelling was not much attended to at that time. Dampier wrote _Buccaneer_, which agrees with the present manner of p.r.o.nouncing the word, and is to be esteemed the best authority.

[9] The French account says, that after taking possession of _Tortuga_, the Adventurers divided into three cla.s.ses: that those who occupied themselves in the chase, took the name of Boucaniers; those who went on cruises, the name of Flibustiers; and a third cla.s.s, who cultivated the soil, called themselves _Habitans_ (Inhabitants.) See _Histoire des Avanturiers qui se sont signalez dans les Indes. Par. Alex. Ol. Oexmelin_.

Paris 1688, vol. i. p. 22.

[10] The Governor or Admiral, who granted the commission, claimed one tenth of all prizes made under its authority.

[11] It is proper to mention, that an erroneously printed date, in the English edition of the _Buccaneers of America_, occasioned a mistake to be made in the account given of Narbrough's Voyage, respecting the time the Buccaneers kept possession of _Panama_. See Vol. III. of _Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea_, p. 374.

[12] _Theatro Naval Hydrographico._ Cap. xi. See also of Peche, in Vol.

III. of _South Sea Voyages and Discoveries_, p. 392.

[13] _Not. de las Exp. Magal._ p. 268, of _Ult. Viage al Estrecho_.

[14] _Buccaneers of America_, Part III. Ch. xi.

[15] 'They never forfeit their word. The King has his commission from the Governor of _Jamaica_, and at every new Governor's arrival, they come over to know his pleasure. The King of the Mosquitos was received by his Grace the Duke of Portland (Governor of _Jamaica_, A. D. 1722-3) with that courtesy which was natural to him, and with more ceremony than seemed to be due to a Monarch who held his sovereignty by commission.'--'The Mosquito Indians had a victory over the Spanish Indians about 30 years ago, and cut off a number; but gave a Negro who was with them, his life purely on account of his speaking English.' _History of Jamaica._ London 1774. Book i. Ch, 12. And _British Empire in America_, Vol. II. pp. 367 & 371.

[16] _Case of His Majesty's Subjects upon the Mosquito Sh.o.r.e, most humbly submitted_, &c. London, 1789.

[17] _Narrative by Basil Ringrose_, p. 5.

[18] _De Rochfort_ describes this animal under the name _Javaris_. _Hist.

Nat. des Isles Antilles_, p. 138, edit. 1665. It is also described by _Pennant_, in his _Synopsis of Quadrupeds_, Art. _Mexican Wild Hog_.

[19] _Ringrose._ _Buccaneers of America_, Part IV. p. 10. The early morning drum has, in our time, been called the _Reveiller_. Either that or _a travailler_ seems applicable; for according to _Boyer_, _travailler_ signifies to trouble, or disturb, as well as to work; and it is probable, from the age of the authority above cited, that the original term was _a travailler_.

[20] _Narrative by Basil Ringrose_, p. 3.

[21] _Ringrose_, p. 11.

[22] _Ringrose_, Chap. ix.

[23] No. 48 in the same collection is a ma.n.u.script copy of Ringrose's Journal, but varied in the same manner from the Original as the printed Narrative.

[24] _Ringrose_, p. 44.

[25] _Ringrose_ and _Sharp_.

[26] _Sharp's Journal_, p. 72.

[27] _Buccaneers of America_, Part III, p. 80.

[28] Nos. 239. and 44. in the _Sloane Collection of Ma.n.u.scripts_ in the _British Museum_, are probably the charts and translation spoken of above.

No. 239. is a book of Spanish charts of the sea-coast of _New Spain_, _Peru_, and _Chili_, each chart containing a small portion of coast, on which is drawn a rude likeness of the appearance of the land, making it at the same time both landscape and chart. They are generally without compa.s.s, lat.i.tude, or divisions of any kind by lines, and with no appearance of correctness, but apparently with knowledge of the coast.--No. 44. is a copy of the same, or of similar Spanish charts of the same coast, and is dedicated to King Charles II. by Bartholomew Sharp.

[29] _Sharp's Ma.n.u.script Journal. Brit. Mus._

[30] Morgan continued in office at _Jamaica_ during the remainder of the reign of King Charles the IId.; but was suspected by the Spaniards of connivance with the Buccaneers, and in the next reign, the Court of _Spain_ had influence to procure his being sent home prisoner from the _West Indies_. He was kept three years in prison; but without charge being brought forward against him.

[31] _British Empire in America_, Vol. II. p. 319.

[32] _Dampier_, Vol. I, p. 73.

[33] In the Sloane Collection, _Brit. Mus._

[34] _Cowley's MS. Journal. Sloane Collection_, No. 54.

[35] See also _Pernety's Journal_, p. 179, English translation.

[36] _Dampier's Ma.n.u.script Journal_, No. 3236, _Sloane Collection, British Museum_.

[37] The writer of Commodore Anson's Voyage informs us that Juan Fernandez resided some time on the Island, and afterwards abandoned it.