The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century Part 20

_Public Record Office:_

State Papers. Foreign. Spain. Vols. 34-72. (Abbreviated in the footnotes as S.P. Spain.)

_British Museum:_

Additional MSS. Vols. 11,268; 11,410-11; 12,410; 12,423; 12,429-30; 13,964; 13,975; 13,977; 13,992; 18,273; 22,676; 36,314-53.

Egerton MSS. Vol. 2395.

Sloane MSS. Vols. 793 or 894; 2724; 2752; 4020.

Stowe MSS. Vols. 305f; 205b.

_Bodleian Library:_

Rawlinson MSS. Vols. a. 26, 31, 32, 175, 347.

Tanner MSS. Vols. xlvii.; li.

Ma.n.u.script Sources in France

_Archives du ministere des Colonies:_

Correspondance generale de Saint-Domingue. Vols. i.-ix.

Historique de Saint-Domingue. Vols. i.-iii.

Correspondance generale de Martinique. Vols. i.-xix.

_Archives du ministere des affaires etrangeres:_

Memoires et doc.u.ments. Fonds divers. Amerique. Vols. v., xiii., xlix., li.

Correspondance politique. Angleterre.

_Bibliotheque nationale:_

Ma.n.u.scrits, nouvelles acquisitions. Vols. 9325; 9334.

Renaudat MSS.

Printed Sources

Calendar of State Papers. Colonial series. America and the West Indies.

1574-1699. (Abbreviated in the footnotes as C.S.P. Colon.)

Calendar of State Papers. Venetian. 1603-1617. (Abbreviated in the footnotes as C.S.P. Ven.)

Dampier, William: Voyages. Edited by J. Masefield. 2 vols. London, 1906.

Gage, Thomas: The English American ... or a new survey of the West Indies, etc. London, 1648.

Historical Ma.n.u.scripts Commission: Reports. London, 1870 (in progress).

Margry, Pierre: Relations et memoires inedits pour servir a l'histoire de la France dans les pays d'outremer. Paris, 1867.

Pacheco, Cardenas, y Torres de Mendoza: Coleccion de doc.u.mentos relativos al describrimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones espanoles en America y Oceania. 42 vols. Madrid, 1864-83; _continued as_ Coleccion de doc.u.mentos ineditos ... de ultramar. 13 vols. Madrid, 1885-1900.

Pointis, Jean Bernard Desjeans, sieur de: Relation de l'expedition de Carthagene faite par les Francois en 1697. Amsterdam, 1698.

Present state of Jamaica ... to which is added an exact account of Sir Henry Morgan's voyage to ... Panama, etc. London, 1683.

Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, mandadas imprimir y publicar por rey Carlos II. 4 vols. Madrid, 1681.

Sharp, Bartholomew: The voyages and adventures of Captain B. Sharp ...

in the South Sea ... Also Captain Van Horn with his buccanieres surprising of la Vera Cruz, etc. London, 1684.

Thurloe, John. A collection of the State papers of, etc. Edited by Thomas Birch. 7 vols. London, 1742.

Venables, General. The narrative of, etc. Edited by C.H. Firth. London, 1900.

Wafer, Lionel: A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of America, etc. London, 1699.

Winwood, Sir Ralph. Memorials of affairs of State ... collected from the original papers of, etc. Edited by Edmund Sawyer. London, 1725.

Among the printed sources one of the earliest and most important is the well-known history of the buccaneers written by Alexander Olivier Exquemelin (corrupted by the English into Esquemeling, by the French into Oexmelin). Of the author himself very little is known. Though sometimes claimed as a native of France, he was probably a Fleming or a Hollander, for the first edition of his works was written in the Dutch language. He came to Tortuga in 1666 as an _engage_ of the French West India Company, and after serving three years under a cruel master was rescued by the governor, M. d'Ogeron, joined the filibusters, and remained with them till 1674, taking part in most of their exploits. He seems to have exercised among them the profession of barber-surgeon.

Returning to Europe in 1674, he published a narrative of the exploits in which he had taken part, or of which he at least had a first-hand knowledge. This "history" is the oldest and most elaborate chronicle we possess of the extraordinary deeds and customs of these freebooters who played so large a part in the history of the West Indies in the seventeenth century, and it forms the basis of all the popular modern accounts of Morgan and other buccaneer captains. Exquemelin, although he sadly confuses his dates, seems to be a perfectly honest witness, and his accounts of such transactions as fell within his own experience are closely corroborated by the official narratives.

(Biographies of Exquemelin are contained in the "Biographie Universelle"

of Michaud, vol. x.x.xi. p. 201, and in the "Nouvelle Biographie Generale"

of Hoefer, vol. x.x.xviii. p. 544. But both are very unsatisfactory and display a lamentable ignorance of the bibliography of his history of the buccaneers. According to the preface of a French edition of the work published at Lyons in 1774 and cited in the "Nouvelle Biographie,"

Exquemelin was born about 1645 and died after 1707.)

The first edition of the book, now very rare, is ent.i.tled:

De Americaensche Zee-Roovers. Behelsende eene pertinente en waerachtige Beschrijving van alle de voornaemste Roveryen en onmenschliycke wreend heden die Englese en France Rovers tegens de Spanjaerden in America gepleeght hebben; Verdeelt in drie deelen ... Beschreven door A.

O. Exquemelin ... t'Amsterdam, by Jan ten Hoorn, anno 1678, in 4.

(Brit. Mus., 1061. _Cf._ 20 (2). The date, 1674, of the first Dutch edition cited by Dampierre ("Essai sur les sources de l'histoire des Antilles Francaises," p. 151) is doubtless a misprint.)

(Both Dampierre (_op. cit._, p. 152) and Sabin ("Dict. of Books relating to America," vi. p. 310) cite, as the earliest separate account of the buccaneers, Claes G. Campaen's "Zee-Roover," Amsterdam, 1659. This little volume, however, does not deal with the buccaneers in the West Indies, but with privateering along the coasts of Europe and Africa.)

This book was reprinted several times and numerous translations were made, one on the top of the other. What appears to be a German translation of Exquemelin appeared in 1679 with the t.i.tle: