THE BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES IN THE XVII CENTURY
WITH TEN MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON
First Published
THE BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES IN THE XVII CENTURY
WITH TEN MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON
First Published in 1910
The principal facts about the exploits of the English and French buccaneers of the seventeenth century in the West Indies are sufficiently well known to modern readers. The French Jesuit historians of the Antilles have left us many interesting details of their mode of life, and Exquemelin's history of the freebooters has been reprinted numerous times both in France and in England. Based upon these old, contemporary narratives, modern accounts are issued from the press with astonishing regularity, some of them purporting to be serious history, others appearing in the more popular and entertaining guise of romances. All, however, are alike in confining themselves for their information to what may almost be called the traditional sources—Exquemelin, the Jesuits, and perhaps a few narratives like those of Dampier and Wafer. To write another history of these privateers or pirates, for they have, unfortunately, more than once deserved that name, may seem a rather fruitless undertaking. It is justified only by the fact that there exist numerous other documents bearing upon the subject, documents which till now have been entirely neglected. Exquemelin has been reprinted, the story of the buccaneers has been re-told, yet no writer, whether editor or historian, has attempted to estimate the trustworthiness of the old tales by comparing them with these other sources, or to show the connection between the buccaneers and the history of the English colonies in the West Indies. The object of this volume, therefore, is not only to give a narrative, according to the most authentic, available sources, of the more brilliant exploits of these sea-rovers, but, what is of greater interest and importance, to trace the policy pursued toward them by the English and French Governments.
The "Buccaneers in the West Indies" was presented as a thesis to the Board of Modern History of Oxford University in May 1909 to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Letters. It was written under the supervision of C.H. Firth, Regius Professor of Modern History in Oxford, and to him the writer owes a lasting debt of gratitude for his unfailing aid and sympathy during the course of preparation.
I. Introductory— Part I.—The Spanish Colonial System 1 Part II.—The Freebooters of the Sixteenth Century 28 II. The Beginnings of the Buccaneers 57 III. The Conquest of Jamaica 85 IV. Tortuga, 1655-1664 113 V. Porto Bello and Panama 120 VI. The Government Suppresses the Buccaneers 200 VII. The Buccaneers Turn Pirate 232 Appendices 273-74 Bibliography 275 Index 289
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of the West Indies Frontispiece From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Domingue.
Spanish Periagua 1
From Exquemelin's Histoire des Aventuriers Trevoux, 1744.
Buccaneer Vessels 76
From Exquemelin's Histoire des Aventuriers Trevoux, 1744.
A Correct Map of Jamaica 85
From the Royal Magazine, 1760.
Map of San Domingo 86
From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Domingue.
Plan of the Bay and Town of Portobelo 154
From Prevost d'Exiles' Voyages.
The Isthmus of Darien 164
From Exquelmelin's Bucaniers, 1684-5.
'The Battel between the Spaniards and the pyrats or Buccaniers before the Citty of Panama' 166
From Exquemelin's Bucaniers of America, 1684-5.
Plan of Vera-Cruz 242
From Charlevoix' Histoire de S. Domingue, 1730.
Plan of the Town and Roadstead of Cartegena and of the Forts 264
From Baron de Pontis' Relation de ce qui c'est fait la prise de Carthagene, Bruxelles, 1698.
THE BUCCANEERS IN THE WEST INDIES IN THE XVII CENTURY
I.—THE SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM
At the time of the discovery of America the Spaniards, as M. Leroy-Beaulieu has remarked, were perhaps less fitted than any other nation of western Europe for the task of American colonization. Whatever may have been the political role thrust upon them in the sixteenth century by the Hapsburg marriages, whatever certain historians may say of the grandeur and nobility of the Spanish national character, Spain was then neither rich nor populous, nor industrious. For centuries she had been called upon to wage a continuous warfare with the Moors, and during this time had not only found little leisure to cultivate the arts of peace, but had acquired a disdain for manual work which helped to mould her colonial administration and influenced all her subsequent history. And when the termination of the last of these wars left her mistress of a united Spain, and the exploitation of her own resources seemed to require all the energies she could muster, an entire new hemisphere was suddenly thrown open to her, and given into her hands by a papal decree to possess and populate. Already weakened by the exile of the most sober and industrious of her population, the Jews; drawn into a foreign policy for which she had ne