The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century Part 14

The recrudescence of piratical activity between the years 1679 and 1682 had, through its evil effects, been strongly felt in Jamaica; and public opinion was now gradually changing from one of encouragement and welcome to the privateers and of secret or open opposition to the efforts of the governors who tried to suppress them, to one of distinct hostility to the old freebooters. The inhabitants were beginning to realize that in the encouragement of planting, and not of buccaneering, lay the permanent welfare of the island. Planting and buccaneering, side by side, were inconsistent and incompatible, and the colonists chose the better course of the two. In spite of the frequent trials and executions at Port Royal, the marauders seemed to be as numerous as ever, and even more troublesome. Private trade with the Spaniards was hindered; runaway servants, debtors and other men of unfortunate or desperate condition were still, by every new success of the buccaneers, drawn from the island to swell their ranks; and most of all, men who were now outlawed in Jamaica, driven to desperation turned pirate altogether, and began to wage war indiscriminately on the s.h.i.+ps of all nationalities, including those of the English. Morgan repeatedly wrote home urging the dispatch of small frigates of light draught to coast round the island and surprise the freebooters, and he begged for orders for himself to go on board and command them, for "then I shall not much question," he concludes, "to reduce them or in some time to leave them s.h.i.+pless."[421]

"The governor," wrote the Council of Jamaica to the Lords of Trade and Plantations in May 1680, "can do little from want of s.h.i.+ps to reduce the privateers, and of plain laws to punish them"; and they urged the ratification of the Act pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly two years before, making it felony for any British subject in the West Indies to serve under a foreign prince without leave from the governor.[422] This Act, and another for the more effectual punishment of pirates, had been under consideration in the Privy Council in February 1678, and both were returned to Jamaica with certain slight amendments. They were again pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly as one Act in 1681, and were finally incorporated into the Jamaica Act of 1683 "for the restraining and punis.h.i.+ng of privateers and pirates."[423]

Footnotes:

[Footnote 332: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 367.]

[Footnote 333: Ibid., Nos. 604, 608, 729; Beeston's Journal.]

[Footnote 334: Ibid., Nos. 552, 602.]

[Footnote 335: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 608, 633.]

[Footnote 336: Ibid., No. 604.]

[Footnote 337: Ibid., Nos. 638, 640, 663, 697. This may be the Diego Grillo to whom Duro (_op. cit._, V. p. 180) refers--a native of Havana commanding a vessel of fifteen guns. He defeated successively in the Bahama Channel three armed s.h.i.+ps sent out to take him, and in all of them he ma.s.sacred without exception the Spaniards of European birth. He was captured in 1673 and suffered the fate he had meted out to his victims.]

[Footnote 338: Ibid., Nos. 697, 709, 742, 883, 944.]

[Footnote 339: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 796.]

[Footnote 340: Ibid., No. 729.]

[Footnote 341: Ibid., Nos. 742, 777, 785, 789, 794, 796.]

[Footnote 342: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 742, 945, 1042.]

[Footnote 343: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 779, 796, 820, 1022.]

[Footnote 344: Ibid., Nos. 650, 663, 697. Seventeen months later, after the outbreak of the Dutch war, the Jamaicans had a similar scare over an expected invasion of the Dutch and Spaniards, but this, too, was dissolved by time into thin air. (C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 887, 1047, 1055, 1062). In this connection, _cf._ Egerton MSS., 2375, f.

491:--Letter written by the Governor of c.u.mana to the Duke of Veragua, 1673, seeking his influence with the Council of the Indies to have the Governor of Margarita send against Jamaica 1500 or 2000 Indians, "guay quies," as they are valient bowmen, seamen and divers.]

[Footnote 345: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 697, 789, 794, 900, 911; Beeston's Journal.]

[Footnote 346: Ibid., Nos. 697, 789.]

[Footnote 347: Ibid., Nos. 1212, 1251-5.]

[Footnote 348: Ibid., No. 1259, _cf._ also 1374, 1385, 1394.]

[Footnote 349: Ibid., No. 1379.]

[Footnote 350: Ibid., 1675-76, Nos. 458, 467, 484, 521, 525, 566.]

[Footnote 351: S.P. Spain, vol. 63, f. 56.]

[Footnote 352: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 1389; _ibid._ 1675-76, No.

564; Add. MSS., 36,330, No. 28.]

[Footnote 353: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 888, 940.]

[Footnote 354: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 1178, 1180, 1226; _ibid._, 1675-76, No. 579.]

[Footnote 355: Ibid., 1669-74, No. 1423; _ibid._, 1675-76, No. 707.]

[Footnote 356: Ibid., 1675-76, No. 520.]

[Footnote 357: Ibid.]

[Footnote 358: Ibid., 1669-74, Nos. 1335, 1351, 1424; S.P. Spain, vols.

60, 62, 63.]

[Footnote 359: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 643.]

[Footnote 360: Ibid., Nos. 639-643.]

[Footnote 361: Ibid., Nos. 633-635, 729.]

[Footnote 362: Ibid., Nos. 693, 719, 720.]

[Footnote 363: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 310, 704, iv. It was a very profitable business for the wood then sold at 25 or 30 a ton. For a description of the life of the logwood-cutters _cf._ Dampier, Voyages, _ed._ 1906, ii. pp. 155-56. 178-79, 181 _ff._]

[Footnote 364: Ibid., No. 580.]

[Footnote 365: Ibid., Nos. 587, 638.]

[Footnote 366: Ibid., Nos. 777, 786.]

[Footnote 367: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74. No. 825.]

[Footnote 368: Ibid., Nos. 819, 943.]

[Footnote 369: Ibid., Nos. 954, 1389. Fernandez Duro (t.v., p. 181) mentions a Spanish ordinance of 22nd February 1674, which authorized Spanish corsairs to go out in the pursuit and punishment of pirates.

Periaguas, or large flat-bottomed canoes, were to be constructed for use in shoal waters. They were to be 90 feet long and from 16 to 18 feet wide, with a draught of only 4 or 5 feet, and were to be provided with a long gun in the bow and four smaller pieces in the stern. They were to be propelled by both oars and sails, and were to carry 120 men.]

[Footnote 370: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 950, 1094; Beeston's Journal, Aug. 1679.]

[Footnote 371: Ibid., 1675-76, No. 566.]

[Footnote 372: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 673.]

[Footnote 373: Ibid., No. 526. In significant contrast to Lord Vaughan's praise of Lynch, Sir Henry Morgan, who could have little love for the man who had s.h.i.+pped him and Modyford as prisoners to England, filled the ears of Secretary Williamson with veiled accusations against Lynch of having tampered with the revenues and neglected the defences of the island. (Ibid., No. 521.)]

[Footnote 374: Ibid., No. 912. In testimony of Lord Vaughan's straightforward policy toward buccaneering, _cf._ Beeston's Journal, June 1676.]

[Footnote 375: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 988.]

[Footnote 376: Leeds MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm., XI. pt. 7, p.

13)--Depositions in which Sir Henry Morgan is represented as endeavouring to hush up the matter, saying "the privateers were poore, honest fellows," to which the plundered captain replied "that he had not found them soe."]