Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Part 75

_176. Deposition of Benjamin Munro and William Kipp. April 23, 1746._[1]

[Footnote 1: Rhode Island Archives, volume lettered "Admiralty Papers, 1746-1750", p. 45. Capt. Simeon Potter of Bristol (a town in Ma.s.sachusetts till January, 1747, in Rhode Island after that date) was one of the most noted and successful of the privateers of his time.

His raid on French Guiana in November, 1744, though not enormously profitable nor of much military importance, makes a very picturesque story, chiefly because of the vivid account we have of it from one of its victims, Father Elzear Fauque, an intelligent Jesuit, who was serving the mission at Oyapoc, and was carried away as a prisoner by Potter when he sacked and destroyed that settlement. Father Fauque's narrative, a letter to an officer of his society, dated from Cayenne, Dec. 22, 1744, is in the _Lettres edifiantes et Curieuses_, XXVII.

172-250 (Paris 1749), VIII. 387-454 (ed. 1781), IV. 493-533 (ed.

1819), II. 34-50 (ed. 1838). There is an English translation in Bishop W.I. Kip's _Historical Scenes from the Old Jesuit Missions_ (N.Y., 1875), pp. 153-205, reprinted in Professor W.H. Munro's _Tales of an Old Sea Port_ (Princeton, 1917), pp. 48-93, in which Potter's life is also told. The admiralty case arose from questions respecting disposal of the booty. Prince Charles of Lorraine was brother-in-law of Maria Theresa, and commanded her army against Frederick the Great. According to Father Fauque, the privateer so named carried 10 cannon, 12 swivel-guns and 61 men. _Lettres edifiantes_ (ed. 1819), IV. 494.]

Benjamin Munro and William Kipp of Lawfull Age Testifieth and Saith that the said Munro was Master of the Sloope _Prince Charles of Lorain_ whereof Simeon Potter was Commander as a Private Man of Warr and that We took and Plundred a Small Place near Cyan[2] called Yopock[3] and then Proceeded to Cyan where said Potters Lieutenant and Thirty Two men Landed took and Plundred a Place called Muekell yeau.[4] We Landed on Cyan with Ten men where We were taken by One hundred and Thirty Soldiers where Three of Our Men were Killed and Four wounded and then We were carried to Cyan Fort where Capt. Potter sent a flagg of Truce on Sh.o.a.r with a Fryar[5] and some Soldiers that were taken at Yopock whereupon the Governour of Cyan[6] Immediately gave us Our Barge againe to go on board and half an Ox for fresh Provisions and then We went to go on board of Our Vessel but missed of her in the Night and so We Proceeded to Surranam[7] where We were all Put into the Fort and keept untill the Masters of the English Vessels there Pet.i.tioned for us to Come out and in a few Dayes after Capt.

Potter arrived in the River with his Priveteer and Came up to Surranam to the Governour[8] to Desire Liberty of him to Wood and Water but they gave no Liberty in Ten or Twelve Dayes and then Ordered that the English Men should bring Wood and Water on Board but the Thing was Attended with so much Dificulty that We were Obliged to Sell some small Plunder on board of Our Own Vessell to Defray our Charges and also that while We were at Surranam Three of Our Slaves Ran away from Us and that the Governour keept and Detained them from us then we Sailed for Barbadoes in Order to Carreen and Refitt Our Vessell and that when We came to Sea we found Five Men and no more on Board who talked Dutch and were dressed in Sailors Apparel who did their Duty as Such and Said that they belonged to Dutch Vessells in Surranam and when we arrived at Barbadoes We Landed our Prize Goods and Slaves where they were Condemned and Sold at a Publick Vendue.

BEN MUNRO.

WM. KIPP.

Bristol ss: BRISTOL Apr. 23d 1746.

[Footnote 2: Cayenne the chief town of French Guiana. For the p.r.o.nunciation, see doc. no. 63, note 20.]

[Footnote 3: Oyapoc, on a river of the same name, lies some 80 miles to the southeast of Cayenne, toward the Brazilian boundary.]

[Footnote 4: Macouria, a lady's plantation a little northwest of Cayenne. Father Fauque, _ubi sup._, pp. 519-520.]

[Footnote 5: Father Fauque was not a friar, but a Jesuit.]

[Footnote 6: M. d'Orvilliers, father of the celebrated admiral of that name. La Condamine, returning by way of the Amazon and of Oyapoc from his celebrated geodetic expedition to Peru, had spent five months with him at Cayenne earlier in this year. _Relation Abregee_, pp. 209-214.]

[Footnote 7: The Dutch then possessed both what is now Dutch and what is now British Guiana. In 1744 their possessions const.i.tuted three colonies, Surinam, Berbice, and Essequebo, of which Surinam, the present Dutch Guiana, was the most important. The fort spoken of was at the capital, Paramaribo.]

[Footnote 8: Jan Jacob Mauricius, governor of Surinam 1742-1751; see account of him in Harris and de Villiers, _Storm van 's Gravesande_, II. 538-539.]

Personally appeared the above named Benj'n Munro and Will'm Kipp, (being bound to Sea), and made Oath to the truth of the above written evidence: taken in Perpetuam Rei Memoriam before us two of his Majs.

Justices of the peace in and for the County of Bristol:[9] Quorum Unus,

JONA: WOODBURY.

JOSEPH RUSSELL.

[Footnote 9: At this date a county of Ma.s.sachusetts. With this narrative we can compare Captain Potter's own brief account of the affair, as given in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of Feb. 19, 1745, being an extract from a letter written by him to his owners, sent to that journal from Newport: "We came to an Anchor at Y'opoch River, took a Craft by which we had an Account of a considerable French Settlement up that River, with a Fort of six Carriage Guns and 50 Soldiers, excluding Officers: We went with the Prisoners we took into the Craft (bound) before us as our Guides: At one o'clock in the Morning we landed a small Distance from the Fort, gave three Huzza's and entred the same Sword in Hand, took it without the loss of one Man, kept Possession thereof 8 Days, took in Plunder 9 Indians, 2 Negroes, a Mulatto Wench, 50 Small-Arms, 5 Casks of Powder, and a small Quant.i.ty of Plate, and took 10 Prisoners. We then steered for Surinam and sent up for Liberty to refit, but were refused by the Governor thereof: How far this is consistent with the Treaties between England and Holland, I for my part must leave to others to determine."]

_177. Deposition of Daniel Vaughan. September 1, 1746._[1]

[Footnote 1: Rhode Island Archives, volume lettered "Admiralty Papers, 1746-1750", following doc. no. 176.]

Daniel Vaughan, late Lieutenant the Sloop _Prince Charles of Lorain_, Capt. Simeon Potter, on a Cruising Voiage Anno 1744, on oath declared that an Indian man Named Jeffery Potter was one of the Hands of said Sloop during her Cruize; that on said Cruize the Sloops Company made an Attack on a French Settlement called Yapoke and took out of said Settlement Seven Indians, three Negroes, twenty large Spoons or Ladles, nine Large Ladles, one Gold and one Silver hilted Sword, one Gold and one Silver Watch, two Bags of Money the Quanty uncertain, a number of Chest and Trunks of Goods and Merchandize and waring apparell, a Number of Gold Rings, b.u.t.tons and Buckles, a Number of Silver Candlesticks and Church Plate both Gold and Silver,[2] a Number of Swords, about Sixty small arms for Cannon, Shot of all Sorts, about Fifty halfe Barrals of Powder, a Quant.i.ty of Beafe, Flower and other Provisions and Sundry other things wch. this Deponent cannot enumerate; that after the taking of said Goods etc. from Yapoke sd.

Sloop and Company sail'd for Surrinam where Capt. Potter put a Quant.i.ty of sd. Merchandize up at Vendue on board a Vessel in the Harbour and purchased the most of them himself and ship't them to Rhode Island on his own account; then said Sloop Sailed for Barbadoes on wch. pa.s.sage the men demanded that Capt. Potter would Share the Money taken, according to the Articles, to which Capt. Potter answered that he would share none until his Return for all the Men were indebted to the Owners more than that amounted to and Swore at and d.a.m.n'd them threatning them with his drawn sword at their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which Treatment Obliged the Men to hold their Peace and when said Sloop arrived at Barbadoes Capt. Potter without consulting the Men put part of the afore mentioned Effects into the Hands of Mr. Charles Bolton and kept the other part in his own Hands and Supply'd the Men only with Rum and Sugar for their own drinking, and further this Deponent saith that Capt. Potter refusing to let the men have their Shares and his Ill Treatment of them by beating them occasioned about twenty-four to leave the Vessel whose Shares Capt. Potter retained in his Hands and further this Deponent saith not. DANIEL VAGHN. Sworn to this 1 Day of September A.D. 1746, Capt. Potter not notified living out of the Government, befor EBEN'R RICHARDSON Just: apece.[3]

[Footnote 2: Father Fauque greatly laments the loss of these.

Professor Munro, _History of Bristol_, p. 180, says that some of the silver which Captain Potter brought home from Oyapoc is still in the possession of descendants of his family.]

[Footnote 3: Bristol had not yet become a part of Rhode Island.

Ebenezer Richardson was a justice of the peace in Newport; _R.I. Col.

Recs._, V. 335. Thomas Ward was elected secretary of the colony of Rhode Island in May, 1747 (_ibid._, V. 215).]

A true Copy as one file in the Case Patd. agst. Potter examd.

by THO. WARD, Clk.

THE _ELIZABETH_.

_178. Deposition of William Dunbar. May 7, 1747._[1]

[Footnote 1: Rhode Island Archives, same volume as the preceding, p.

15. This deposition follows in that volume the libel of John Sweet of Newport, commander of the privateer _Defiance_, against Paas's sloop, captured by him.]

Novemb'r 26th 1746 Being at the Island Orcheilla[2] in Company with Captn. Rous in the _Trelawney Galley_ of Jamaica, Saw a Sloop coming from the Eastward, at 9 P.M. took her, they Informed us it was the Sloop _Elizabeth_, John Paas Mastr. from Martinico, were Bound and belonged to Curacoa, Cargoe Sugar and Coffea. when John Paas came on board the Privateer all the Papers he Could produce was a Sea Brief[3]

and a Paper containing an accot. of the Cargoe he then had on Board, we Inquired for the rest of his Papers, he answered he had left them in Martinico, we told him such mistakes were not at all likely, and therefore must Send him into Port. he made Use of many horrid Imprecations, and many times offered to Swear, his Vessell and Cargoe was a Dutch Property and that neither french nor Spaniards were anyway Concerned in either. when we Told him he must go in his Sloop for Rhode Island, his answer Generally was, what Signifies my going with the Sloop without my papers, do but first lett me go to Curacoa and furnish myself w'th papers and then I will follow my Sloop. and his Sloop being Leaky we Concluded to heave her down and stop her leaks before we Sent her homeward. after we had Cleaned her and got the Cargoe on Board, found Concealed in the under part of the Boats Chock,[4] a Sett of french Papers Expressing who the Cargoe belonged to. John Paas Imediately retracted what he had formerly Said, Acknowledged that Vessell and Cargoe did belong to the french. Some time afterwards we had Some discourse Concerning the Illicit Trade that is Carried on by the Inhabitants of Curacoa. John Paas Told me a Sure way of knowing a real dutch Vessell and Cargoe from a Counterfeit one, which is by a paper Carried by all Dutch Vessells (but wanted where french or Spainards are Concerned) expressing the Owners and Master Name, where bound to, a Particular account of all the Cargoe on Board.[5] this Paper is Sworn to by the Owners, afterwards Signed by the Governour and other Officers, with the Island Seal affixed to it.

WILL. DUNBAR.

[Footnote 2: Orchilla, a small island in the Caribbean, north of Venezuela and 200 miles east of Curacao.]

[Footnote 3: See doc. no. 129.]

[Footnote 4: Blocks of wood, shaped to the under side of a boat, on which a boat rested when on the deck of a ship.]

[Footnote 5: See doc. no. 128, note 12.]

The above Eviden[ce] was sworn to in Court the 7th Day of May 1747.

_179. Pet.i.tion of Edward Winter. May, 1749._[1]

[Footnote 1: Ma.s.s. Archives, vol. 64, pp. 333-335.]

Province of the } To his Excellency William Shirley Ma.s.sachusetts Bay } Esqr. Govr: and Commander in chief in and over sd. Province[2] the Hon'ble the Council and House of Rep'ves in General Court a.s.sembled May ---- 1749.

[Footnote 2: Shirley was governor of Ma.s.sachusetts from 1741 to 1756.

His correspondence, edited by Charles H. Lincoln, has been published in two volumes by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.]

The Pet.i.tion of Edward Winter of Boston Blacksmith Humbly Sheweth,

That in the Year 1744 there were nine persons committed to the County Goal[3] in Boston, being charged with committing divers acts of Piracy, Hostility etc. on the high Seas and soon after they were put into Goal, they attempted to get off their Irons and make their Escape but being discovered were prevented, and thereupon your Petr: was ordered to Search and Examine their Irons several times in a week, which he accordingly did from the 12th day of January 1744 to the 23d of July 1746, 253 times, and charged the Province for the same the small price of one shilling a time, amounting in the whole to 12. 13.

0 bills of the last tenor,[4] and put in his Bill to the Committee appointed by the special Court of Admiralty who try'd said Prisoners, to Examine the Acco'ts of Charges that had arisen on said Prisoners, but the same was not allowed by them, they apprehending the Pet'rs Bill sho'd be paid by the County (tho' all other charges upon 'em the Province paid) and said Committee accordingly recommended it to the Court of Sessions to pay the same, to whom your Petr. has since appl'd but they absolutely refused paying it, so that your Petr. unless that he is relieved by this Hon: Court is like to suffer greatly.