The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century Part 15

[Footnote 377: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76; Nos. 860, 913.]

[Footnote 378: Statutes at Large, vol. ii. (Lond. 1786), pp. 210, 247.]

[Footnote 379: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76; Nos. 993-995, 1001.]

[Footnote 380: Ibid., No. 1093.]

[Footnote 381: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 500, 508.]

[Footnote 382: Ibid., 1675-76, No. 916.]

[Footnote 383: Ibid., No. 1126.]

[Footnote 384: Ibid., Nos. 998, 1006.]

[Footnote 385: Ibid., No. 1129.]

[Footnote 386: Ibid., No. 1129 (vii., viii.); _cf._ also No. 657.]

[Footnote 387: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, No. 1129 (xiv., xvii.).]

[Footnote 388: C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Nos. 656, 741.]

[Footnote 389: Ibid., 1677-80, No. 313; _cf._ also Nos. 478, 486.]

[Footnote 390: Ibid., No. 368. A similar proclamation was issued in May 1681; _cf._ Ibid., 1681-85, No. 102.]

[Footnote 391: Ibid., No. 375.]

[Footnote 392: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 243, 365, 383; Egerton MSS., 2395, f. 591.]

[Footnote 393: In a memoir to Mme. de Montespan, dated 8th July 1677, the population of French San Domingo is given as between four and five thousand, white and black. The colony embraced a strip of coast 80 leagues in length and 9 or 10 miles wide, and it produced 2,000,000 lbs.

of tobacco annually. (Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 258).]

[Footnote 394: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 347, 375, 383, 1497; S.P.

Spain, vol. 65, f. 102.]

[Footnote 395: A small island east of Curacao, in lat.i.tude 12 north, longitude 67 41' west.]

[Footnote 396: Saint Yves, G. Les campagnes de Jean d'Estrees dans la mer des Antilles, 1676-78; _cf._ also C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 604, 642, 665, 687-90, 718, 741 (xiv., xv.), 1646-47.

According to one story, the Dutch governor of Curacao sent out three privateers with orders to attend the French fleet, but to run no risk of capture. The French, discovering them, gave chase, but being unacquainted with those waters were decoyed among the reefs.]

[Footnote 397: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1646-47.]

[Footnote 398: Dampier says of this occasion: "The privateers ... told me that if they had gone to Jamaica with 30 a man in their Pockets, they could not have enjoyed themselves more. For they kept in a Gang by themselves, and watched when the s.h.i.+ps broke, to get the Goods that came from them; and though much was staved against the Rocks, yet abundance of Wine and Brandy floated over the Riff, where the Privateers waited to take it up. They lived here about three Weeks, waiting an Opportunity to transport themselves back again to Hispaniola; in all which Time they were never without two or three Hogsheads of Wine and Brandy in their Tents, and Barrels of Beef and Pork."--Dampier, _ed._ 1906, i. p. 81.]

[Footnote 399: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. p. 120.]

[Footnote 400: Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 260; Charlevoix, _op.

cit._, liv. viii. p. 122.]

[Footnote 401: Ibid., p. 119; C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 815, 869; Beeston's Journal, 18th October 1678.]

[Footnote 402: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 569, 575, 618.]

[Footnote 403: Ibid., No. 770.]

[Footnote 404: Ibid., Nos. 622, 646.]

[Footnote 405: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 770, 815, 1516: Beeston's Journal, 18th October 1678.]

[Footnote 406: The Spanish amba.s.sador, Don Pedro Ronquillo, in his complaint to Charles II. in September 1680, placed the number at 1000.

(C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, No. 1498.)]

[Footnote 407: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1150, 1188, 1199, 1516; Beeston's Journal, 29th September and 6th October 1678. Lord Carlisle, in answer to the complaints of the Spanish amba.s.sador, pretended ignorance of the source of the indigo thus admitted through the customs, and maintained that it was brought into Port Royal "in lawful s.h.i.+ps by lawful men."]

[Footnote 408: Sloane MSS., 2752, f. 29; S.P. Spain, vol. 65, f. 121.

According to the latter account, which seems to be derived from a Spanish source, the loss suffered by the city amounted to about 100,000 pieces of eight, over half of which was plunder carried away by the freebooters. Thirteen of the inhabitants were killed and four wounded, and of the buccaneers thirty were killed.

Dampier writes concerning this first irruption of the buccaneers into the Pacific:--"Before my first going over into the South Seas with Captain Sharp ... I being then on Board Captain c.o.xon, in company with 3 or 4 more Privateers, about 4 leagues to the East of Portobel, we took the Pacquets bound thither from Cartagena. We open'd a great quant.i.ty of the Merchants Letters, and found ... the Merchants of several parts of Old Spain thereby informing their Correspondents of Panama and elsewhere of a certain Prophecy that went about Spain that year, the Tenour of which was, That there would be English Privateers that Year in the West Indies, who would ... open a Door into the South Seas; which they supposed was fastest shut: and the Letters were accordingly full of Cautions to their Friends to be very watchful and careful of their Coasts.

"This Door they spake of we all concluded must be the Pa.s.sage over Land through the Country of the Indians of Darien, who were a little before this become our Friends, and had lately fallen out with the Spaniards, ... and upon calling to mind the frequent Invitations we had from these Indians a little before this time, to pa.s.s through their Country, and fall upon the Spaniards in the South Seas, we from henceforward began to entertain such thoughts in earnest, and soon came to a Resolution to make those Attempts which we afterwards did, ... so that the taking these Letters gave the first life to those bold undertakings: and we took the advantage of the fears the Spaniards were in from that Prophecy ... for we sealed up most of the Letters again, and sent them ash.o.r.e to Portobel."--_Ed._ 1906, I. pp. 200-201.]

[Footnote 410: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, No. 1199.]

[Footnote 411: Ibid., No. 1188.]

[Footnote 412: Sloane MSS., 2572, f. 29.]

[Footnote 413: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1344, 1370.]

[Footnote 414: Ibid., No. 1516.]

[Footnote 415: _Cf._ Archives Coloniales--Correspondance generale de St Domingue, vol. i.; Martinique, vol. iv.]

[Footnote 416: C.S.P. Colon., 1677-80, Nos. 1420, 1425; Sloane MSS., 2724, f. 3.]

[Footnote 417: Sloane MSS., 2724, f. 198.

c.o.xon probably did not submit, for Dampier tells us that at the end of May 1681, c.o.xon was lying with seven or eight other privateers at the Samballas, islands on the coast of Darien, with a s.h.i.+p of ten guns and 100 men.--_Ed._ 1906, i. p. 57.]

[Footnote 418: Ibid., f. 200; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 16, 51, 144, 431. Everson was not shot and killed in the water, as Morgan's account implies, for he flourished for many years afterwards as one of the most notorious of the buccaneer captains.]

[Footnote 419: Ringrose's Journal. _Cf._ also S.P. Spain, vol. 67, f.

169; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 872.]

[Footnote 420: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 431, 632, 713; Hist. MSS.