Chapter VII: The Buccaneers Turn Pirate (2)

Cartagena, situated at the eastward end of a large double lagoon, was perhaps the strongest fortress in the Indies, and the Spaniards within opposed a courageous defence.[525] After a fortnight of fighting and bombardment, however, on the last day of April the outworks were carried by a brilliant assault, and on 6th May the small Spanish garrison, followed by the _Cabildo_ or municipal corporation, and by many of the citizens of the town, in all about 2800 persons, marched out with the honours of war. Although the Spaniards had been warned of the coming of the French, and before their arrival had succeeded in withdrawing the women and some of their riches to Mompos in the interior, the treasure which fell into the hands of the invaders was enormous, and has been variously estimated at from six million crowns to twenty millions sterling. Trouble soon broke out between de Pointis and the buccaneers, for the latter wanted the whole of the plunder to be divided equally among the men, as had always been their custom, and they expected, according to this arrangement, says de Pointis in his narrative, about a quarter of all the booty. De Pointis, however, insisted upon the order which he had published before the expedition sailed from Petit Goave, that the buccaneers should be subject to the same rule in the division of the spoil as the sailors in the fleet, i.e., they should receive one-tenth of the first million and one-thirtieth of the rest. Moreover, fearing that the buccaneers would take matters into their own hands, he had excluded them from the city while his officers gathered the plunder and carried it to the ships. On the repeated remonstrances of Ducasse, de Pointis finally announced that the share allotted to the men from Hispaniola was 40,000 crowns. The buccaneers, finding themselves so miserably cheated, broke out into open mutiny, but were restrained by the influence of their leader and the presence of the king's frigates. De Pointis, meanwhile, seeing his own men decimated by sickness, put all the captured guns on board the fleet and made haste to get under sail for France. South of Jamaica he fell in with the squadron of Admiral Nevill, to which in the meantime had been joined some eight Dutch men-of-war; but de Pointis, although inferior in numbers, outsailed the English ships and lost but one or two of his smaller vessels. He then man[oe]uvred past Cape S. Antonio, round the north of Cuba and through the Bahama Channel to Newfoundland, where he stopped for fresh wood and water, and after a brush with a small English squadron under Commodore Norris, sailed into the harbour of Brest on 19th August 1697.[526]

The buccaneers, even before de Pointis sailed for France, had turned their ships back toward Cartagena to reimburse themselves by again plundering the city. De Pointis, indeed, was then very ill, and his officers were in no condition to oppose them. After the fleet had departed the freebooters re-entered Cartagena, and for four days put it to the sack, extorting from the unfortunate citizens, and from the churches and monasteries, several million more in gold and silver. Embarking for the Isle la Vache, they had covered but thirty leagues when they met with the same allied fleet which had pursued de Pointis. Of the nine buccaneer vessels, the two which carried most of the booty were captured, two more were driven ashore, and the rest succeeded in escaping to Hispaniola. Ducasse, who had returned to Petit Goave when de Pointis sailed for France, sent one of his lieutenants on a mission to the French Court to complain of the ill-treatment he had received from de Pointis, and to demand his own recall; but the king pacified him by making him a Chevalier of St. Louis, and allotting 1,400,000 francs to the French colonists who had aided in the expedition. The money, however, was slow in reaching the hands of those to whom it was due, and much was lost through the malversations of the men charged with its distribution.[527]

* * * * *

With the capture of Cartagena in 1697 the history of the buccaneers may be said to end. More and more during the previous twenty years they had degenerated into mere pirates, or had left their libertine life for more civilised pursuits. Since 1671 the English government had been consistent in its policy of suppressing the freebooters, and with few exceptions the governors sent to Jamaica had done their best to uphold and enforce the will of the councils at home. Ten years or more had to elapse before the French Court saw the situation in a similar light, and even then the exigencies of war and defence in French Hispaniola prevented the governors from taking any effective measures toward suppression. The problem, indeed, had not been an easy one. The buccaneers, whatever their origin, were intrepid men, not without a sense of honour among themselves, wedded to a life of constant danger which they met and overcame with surprising hardiness. When an expedition was projected against their traditional foes, the Spaniards, they calculated the chances of profit, and taking little account of the perils to be run, or indeed of the flag under which they sailed, English, French and Dutch alike became brothers under a chief whose courage they perfectly recognised and whom they servilely obeyed. They lived at a time when they were in no danger of being overhauled by ubiquitous cruisers with rifled guns, and so long as they confined themselves to His Catholic Majesty's ships and settlements, they had trusted in the immunity arising from the traditional hostility existing between the English and the Spaniards of that era. And for the Spaniards the record of the buccaneers had been a terrible one. Between the years 1655 and 1671 alone, the corsairs had sacked eighteen cities, four towns and more than thirty-five villages--Cumana once, Cumanagote twice, Maracaibo and Gibraltar twice, Rio de la Hacha five times, Santa Marta three times, Tolu eight times, Porto Bello once, Chagre twice, Panama once, Santa Catalina twice, Granada in Nicaragua twice, Campeache three times, St. Jago de Cuba once, and other towns and villages in Cuba and Hispaniola for thirty leagues inland innumerable times. And this fearful tale of robbery and outrage does not embrace the various expeditions against Porto Bello, Campeache, Cartagena and other Spanish ports made after 1670. The Marquis de Barinas in 1685 estimated the losses of the Spaniards at the hands of the buccaneers since the accession of Charles II. to be sixty million crowns; and these figures covered merely the destruction of towns and treasure, without including the loss of more than 250 merchant ships and frigates.[528] If the losses and suffering of the Spaniards had been terrible, the advantages accruing to the invaders, or to the colonies which received and supported them, scarcely compensated for the effort it cost them. Buccaneering had denuded Jamaica of its bravest men, lowered the moral tone of the island, and retarded the development of its natural resources. It was estimated that there were lost to the island between 1668 and 1671, in the designs against Tobago, Curaçao, Porto Bello, Granada and Panama, about 2600 men,[529] which was a large number for a new and very weak colony surrounded by powerful foes. Says the same writer later on: "People have not married, built or settled as they would in time of peace--some for fear of being destroyed, others have got much suddenly by privateers bargains and are gone. War carries away all freemen, labourers and planters of provisions, which makes work and victuals dear and scarce. Privateering encourages all manner of disorder and dissoluteness; and if it succeed, does but enrich the worst sort of people and provoke and alarm the Spaniards."[530]

The privateers, moreover, really injured English trade as much as they injured Spanish navigation; and if the English in the second half of the seventeenth century had given the Spaniards as little cause for enmity in the West Indies as the Dutch had done, they perhaps rather than the Dutch would have been the convoys and sharers in the rich Flotas. The Spaniards, moreover, if not in the court at home, at least in the colonies, would have readily lent themselves to a trade, illicit though it be, with the English islands, a trade, moreover, which it was the constant aim of English diplomacy to encourage and maintain, had they been able to assure themselves that their English neighbours were their friends. But when outrage succeeded upon outrage, and the English Governors seemed, in spite of their protestations of innocence, to make no progress toward stopping them, the Spaniards naturally concluded that the English government was the best of liars and the worst of friends. From another point of view, too, the activity of the buccaneers was directly opposed to the commercial interests of Great Britain. Of all the nations of Europe the Spaniards were those who profited least from their American possessions. It was the English, the French and the Dutch who carried their merchandize to Cadiz and freighted the Spanish-American fleets, and who at the return of these fleets from Porto Bello and Vera Cruz appropriated the greater part of the gold, silver and precious stuffs which composed their cargoes. And when the buccaneers cut off a Spanish galleon, or wrecked the Spanish cities on the Main, it was not so much the Spaniards who suffered as the foreign merchants interested in the trade between Spain and her colonies. If the policy of the English and French Governments toward the buccaneers gradually changed from one of connivance or encouragement to one of hostility and suppression, it was because they came to realise that it was easier and more profitable to absorb the trade and riches of Spanish America through the peaceful agencies of treaty and concession, than by endeavouring to enforce a trade in the old-fashioned way inaugurated by Drake and his Elizabethan contemporaries.

The pirate successors of the buccaneers were distinguished from their predecessors mainly by the fact that they preyed on the commerce of all flags indiscriminately, and were outlawed and hunted down by all nations alike. They, moreover, widely extended their field of operations. No longer content with the West Indies and the shores of the Caribbean Sea, they sailed east to the coast of Guinea and around Africa to the Indian Ocean. They haunted the shores of Madagascar, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and ventured even as far as the Malabar Coast, intercepting the rich trade with the East, the great ships from Bengal and the Islands of Spice. And not only did the outlaws of all nations from America and the West Indies flock to these regions, but sailors from England were fired by reports of the rich spoils obtained to imitate their example. One of the most remarkable instances was that of Captain Henry Avery, _alias_ Bridgman. In May 1694 Avery was on an English merchantman, the "Charles II.," lying near Corunna. He persuaded the crew to mutiny, set the captain on shore, re-christened the ship the "Fancy," and sailed to the East Indies. Among other prizes he captured, in September 1695, a large vessel called the "Gunsway," belonging to the Great Mogul--an exploit which led to reprisals and the seizure of the English factories in India. On application of the East India Company, proclamations were issued on 17th July, 10th and 21st August 1696, by the Lords Justices of England, declaring Avery and his crew pirates and offering a reward for their apprehension.[531] Five of the crew were seized on their return to England in the autumn of the same year, were tried at the Old Bailey and hanged, and several of their companions were arrested later.[532]

In the North American colonies these new pirates still continued to find encouragement and protection. Carolina had long had an evil reputation as a hot-bed of piracy, and deservedly so. The proprietors had removed one governor after another for harbouring the freebooters, but with little result. In the Bahamas, which belonged to the same proprietors, the evil was even more flagrant. Governor Markham of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania allowed the pirates to dispose of their goods and to refit upon the banks of the Delaware, and William Penn, the proprietor, showed little disposition to reprimand or remove him. Governor Fletcher of New York was in open alliance with the outlaws, accepted their gifts and allowed them to parade the streets in broad daylight. The merchants of New York, as well as those of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, who were prevented by the Navigation Laws from engaging in legitimate trade with other nations, welcomed the appearance of the pirate ships laden with goods from the East, provided a ready market for their cargoes, and encouraged them to repeat their voyages.

In 1699 an Act was passed through Parliament of such severity as to drive many of the outlaws from American waters. It was largely a revival of the Act of 28, Henry VIII., was in force for seven years, and was twice renewed. The war of the Spanish Succession, moreover, gave many men of piratical inclinations an opportunity of sailing under lawful commissions as privateers against the French and Spaniards. In this long war, too, the French filibusters were especially numerous and active. In 1706 there were 1200 or 1300 who made their headquarters in Martinique alone.[533] While keeping the French islands supplied with provisions and merchandise captured in their prizes, they were a serious discouragement to English commerce in those regions, especially to the trade with the North American colonies. Occasionally they threatened the coasts of Virginia and New England, and some combined with their West Indian cruises a foray along the coasts of Guinea and into the Red Sea. These corsairs were not all commissioned privateers, however, for some of them seized French shipping with as little compunction as English or Dutch. Especially after the Treaty of Utrecht there was a recrudescence of piracy both in the West Indies and in the East, and it was ten years or more thereafter before the freebooters were finally suppressed.

Footnotes:

[Footnote 424: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 501, 552. _Cf._ also Nos. 197, 227.]

[Footnote 425: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 364-366, 431, 668.]

[Footnote 426: Ibid., Nos. 476, 609, 668. Paine was sent from Jamaica under arrest to Governor de Cussy in 1684, and thence was shipped on a frigate to France. (Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 334.)]

[Footnote 427: Ibid., Nos. 668, 769, 963.]

[Footnote 428: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 769, 963, 993.]

[Footnote 429: Ibid., Nos. 1065, 1313.]

[Footnote 430: Ibid., No. 1313.]

[Footnote 431: Ibid., Nos. 1190, 1216.]

[Footnote 432: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1173.]

[Footnote 433: Ibid., Nos. 1168, 1190, 1223, 1344; _cf._ also Nos. 1381, 1464, 1803.

In June 1684 we learn that "Hamlin, captain of La Trompeuse, got into a ship of thirty-six guns on the coast of the Main last month, with sixty of his old crew and as many new men. They call themselves pirates, and their ship La Nouvelle Trompeuse, and talk of their old station at Isle de Vaches." (Ibid., No. 1759.)]

[Footnote 434: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 777, 1188, 1189, 1223, 1376, 1471-1474, 1504, 1535, 1537, 1731.]

[Footnote 435: Ibid., Nos. 1222, 1223, 1676, 1678, 1686, 1909; _cf._ also Nos. 1382, 1547, 1665.]

[Footnote 436: Ibid., Nos. 552, 599, 668, 712.

Coxon continued to vacillate between submission to the Governor of Jamaica and open rebellion. In October 1682 he was sent by Sir Thos. Lynch with three vessels to the Gulf of Honduras to fetch away the English logwood-cutters. "His men plotted to take the ship and go privateering, but he valiently resisted, killed one or two with his own hand, forced eleven overboard, and brought three here (Port Royal) who were condemned last Friday." (Ibid., No. 769. Letter of Sir Thos. Lynch, 6th Nov. 1682.) A year later, in November 1683, he had again reverted to piracy (_ibid._, No. 1348), but in January 1686 surrendered to Lieut.-Governor Molesworth and was ordered to be arrested and tried at St. Jago de la Vega (_ibid._, 1685-88, No. 548). He probably in the meantime succeeded in escaping from the island, for in the following November he was reported to be cutting logwood in the Gulf of Campeache, and Molesworth was issuing a proclamation declaring him an outlaw (_ibid._, No. 965). He remained abroad until September 1688 when he again surrendered to the Governor of Jamaica (_ibid._, No. 1890), and again by some hook or crook obtained his freedom.]

[Footnote 437: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 660, 673.]

[Footnote 438: Ibid., Nos. 627, 769.]

[Footnote 439: He is not to be confused with the Peter Paine who brought "La Trompeuse" to Port Royal. Thomas Pain, a few months before he arrived in the Bahamas, had come in and submitted to Sir Thomas Lynch, and had been sent out again by the governor to cruise after pirates. (C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 769, 1707.)]

[Footnote 440: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1509, 1540, 1590, 1924, 1926.]

[Footnote 441: Ibid., Nos. 1927, 1938.]

[Footnote 442: Ibid., Nos. 1540, 1833.]

[Footnote 443: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. p. 130. In 1684 there were between 2000 and 3000 filibusters who made their headquarters in French Hispaniola. They had seventeen vessels at sea with batteries ranging from four to fifty guns. (C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 668; Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 336.)]

[Footnote 444: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. pp. 128-30.]

[Footnote 445: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 963, 998, 1065.]

[Footnote 446: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 709, 712.]

[Footnote 447: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1163; Charlevoix, liv. viii. p. 133; Narrative contained in "The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Barth, Sharpe and others in the South Sea." Lon. 1684.

Governor Lynch wrote in July 1683: "All the governors in America have known of this very design for four or five months." Duro, quoting from a Spanish MS. in the Coleccion Navarrete, t. x. No. 33, says that the booty at Vera Cruz amounted to more than three million reales de plata in jewels and merchandise, for which the invaders demanded a ransom of 150,000 pieces of eight. They also carried away, according to the account, 1300 slaves. (_Op. cit._, v. p. 271.) A real de plata was one-eighth of a peso or piece of eight.]

[Footnote 448: S.P. Spain, vol. 69, f. 339.]

[Footnote 449: Ibid., vol. 70, f. 57; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1633.]

[Footnote 450: During de Franquesnay's short tenure of authority, Laurens, driven from Hispaniola by the stern measures of the governor against privateers, made it understood that he desired to enter the service of the Governor of Jamaica. The Privy Council empowered Lynch to treat with him, offering pardon and permission to settle on the island on giving security for his future good behaviour. But de Cussy arrived in the meantime, reversed the policy of de Franquesnay, received Laurens with all the honour due to a military hero, and endeavoured to engage him in the services of the government (Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. pp. 141, 202; C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1210, 1249, 1424, 1461, 1649, 1718 and 1839).]

[Footnote 451: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. pp. 139-145; C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 378.]

[Footnote 452: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. ix. pp. 197-99; Duro., _op. cit._, v. pp. 273-74; C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 193, 339, 378, 778.]

[Footnote 453: According to Charlevoix, de Grammont was a native of Paris, entered the Royal Marine, and distinguished himself in several naval engagements. Finally he appeared in the West Indies as the commander of a frigate armed for privateering, and captured near Martinique a Dutch vessel worth 400,000 livres. He carried his prize to Hispaniola, where he lost at the gaming table and consumed in debauchery the whole value of his capture; and not daring to return to France he joined the buccaneers.]

[Footnote 454: "Laurens-Cornille Baldran, sieur de Graff, lieutenant du roi en l'isle de Saint Domingue, capitaine de frégate légère, chevalier de Saint Louis"--so he was styled after entering the service of the French king (Vaissière, _op cit._, p. 70, note). According to Charlevoix he was a native of Holland, became a gunner in the Spanish navy, and for his skill and bravery was advanced to the post of commander of a vessel. He was sent to American waters, captured by the buccaneers, and joined their ranks. Such was the terror inspired by his name throughout all the Spanish coasts that in the public prayers in the churches Heaven was invoked to shield the inhabitants from his fury. Divorced from his first wife, whom he had married at Teneriffe in 1674, he was married again in March 1693 to a Norman or Breton woman named Marie-Anne Dieu-le-veult, the widow of one of the first inhabitants of Tortuga (_ibid._). The story goes that Marie-Anne, thinking one day that she had been grievously insulted by Laurens, went in search of the buccaneer, pistol in hand, to demand an apology for the outrage. De Graff, judging this Amazon to be worthy of him, turned about and married her (Ducéré, _op. cit._, p. 113, note). In October 1698 Laurens de Graff, in company with Iberville, sailed from Rochefort with two ships, and in Mobile and at the mouths of the Mississippi laid the foundations of Louisiana (Duro, _op. cit._, v. p. 306). De Graff died in May 1704. _Cf._ also Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325 f. 311.]

[Footnote 455: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1958, 1962, 1964, 1991, 2000.

Dampier writes (1685) that "it hath been usual for many years past for the Governor of Petit Guaves to send blank Commissions to Sea by many of his Captains, with orders to dispose of them to whom they saw convenient.... I never read any of these French Commissions ... but I have learnt since that the Tenor of them is to give a Liberty to Fish, Fowl and Hunt. The Occasion of this is, that ... in time of Peace these Commissions are given as a Warrant to those of each side (i.e., French and Spanish in Hispaniola) to protect them from the adverse Party: But in effect the French do not restrain them to Hispaniola, but make them a pretence for a general ravage in any part of America, by Sea or Land."--Edition 1906, I. pp. 212-13.]

[Footnote 456: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 668, 769, 942, 948, 1281, 1562, 1759; _ibid._, 1685-88, No. 558.

In a memoir of MM. de St. Laurent and Begon to the French King in February 1684, they report that in the previous year some French filibusters discovered in a patache captured from the Spaniards a letter from the Governor of Jamaica exhorting the Spaniards to make war on the French in Hispaniola, and promising them vessels and other means for entirely destroying the colony. This letter caused a furious outburst of resentment among the French settlers against the English (_cf._ also C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1348). Shortly after, according to the memoir, an English ship of 30 guns appeared for several days cruising in the channel between Tortuga and Port de Paix. The sieur de Franquesnay, on sending to ask for an explanation of this conduct, received a curt reply to the effect that the sea was free to everyone. The French governor thereupon sent a barque with 30 filibusters to attack the Englishman, but the filibusters returned well beaten. In despair de Franquesnay asked Captain de Grammont, who had just returned from a cruise in a ship of 50 guns, to go out against the intruder. With 300 of the corsairs at his back de Grammont attacked the English frigate. The reception accorded by the latter was as vigorous as before, but the result was different, for de Grammont at once grappled with his antagonist, boarded her and put all the English except the captain to the sword.--Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325 f. 332.

No reference to this incident is found in the English colonial records.]

[Footnote 457: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 963.]

[Footnote 458: Ibid., Nos. 1844, 1852.]

[Footnote 459: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1246, 1249, 1250, 1294, 1295, 1302, 1311, 1348, 1489, 1502, 1503, 1510, 1562, 1563, 1565.]

[Footnote 460: Ibid., No. 1938; _ibid._, 1685-88, Nos. 33, 53, 57, 68, 128, 129, 157.]

[Footnote 461: Ibid., 1681-85, Nos. 668, 769; _ibid._, 1685-88, No. 986.]

[Footnote 462: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1163, 1198; Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 332.]

[Footnote 463: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1796, 1854, 1855, 1943; _ibid._, 1685-88, Nos. 218, 269, 569, 591, 609, 706, 739.]

[Footnote 464: Ibid., 1681-85, Nos. 1163, 1198, 1249, 1630.]

[Footnote 465: Ibid., Nos. 963, 992, 1938, 1949, 2025, 2067.]

[Footnote 466: Ibid., Nos. 963, 992, 1759.]

[Footnote 467: Ibid., Nos. 1259, 1563.]

[Footnote 468: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1845, 1851, 1862, 2042.

His ship is called in these letters "La Trompeuse." Unless this is a confusion with Hamlin's vessel, there must have been more than one "La Trompeuse" in the West Indies. Very likely the fame or ill-fame of the original "La Trompeuse" led other pirate captains to flatter themselves by adopting the same name. Breha was captured in 1686 by the Armada de Barlovento and hung with nine or ten of his companions (Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. ix. p. 207).]

[Footnote 469: Ibid., Nos. 1299, 1862.]

[Footnote 470: Ibid., No. 1249.]

[Footnote 471: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1560, 1561.]

[Footnote 472: Ibid., Nos. 1605, 1862.]

[Footnote 473: Ibid., Nos. 1634, 1845, 1851, 1862.]

[Footnote 474: Ibid., 1685-88, Nos. 363, 364, 639, 1164.]

[Footnote 475: Ibid., Nos. 1029, 1161; Hughson: Carolina Pirates, p. 24.]

[Footnote 476: Ibid., 1681-85, No. 1165.]

[Footnote 477: Hughson, _op. cit._, p. 22.]

[Footnote 478: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 1277, 1278.]

[Footnote 479: Ibid., No. 1411.]

[Footnote 480: Ibid., No. 1463.]

[Footnote 481: Ibid., No. 1602; _cf._ also _ibid._, 1693-96, No. 2243.]

[Footnote 482: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 116, 269, 805.]

[Footnote 483: Ibid., Nos. 1066, 1212.]

[Footnote 484: Ibid., Nos. 965, 1066, 1128.]

[Footnote 485: Ibid., 1681-85, Nos. 1759, 1852, 2067; _ibid._, 1685-88, No. 1127 and _cf._ Index.

For the careers of John Williams (_alias_ Yankey) and Jacob Everson (_alias_ Jacobs) during these years _cf._ C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 259, 348, 897, 1449, 1476-7, 1624, 1705, 1877; Hist. MSS. Comm., xi. pt. 5, p. 136 (Earl of Dartmouth's MSS.).]

[Footnote 486: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 1406, 1656, 1670, 1705, 1723, 1733; _ibid._, 1689-92, Nos. 52, 515; Hist. MSS. Commiss., xi. pt. 5, p. 136.]

[Footnote 487: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 1959.]

[Footnote 488: Ibid., No. 433.]

[Footnote 489: Ibid., Nos. 706, 1026.]

[Footnote 490: Ibid., No. 1567.]

[Footnote 491: Ibid., Nos. 758, 920, 927, 930, 1001, 1187, 1210.]

[Footnote 492: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, Nos. 1567, 1646, 1655, 1656, 1659, 1663, 1721, 1838, 1858.]

[Footnote 493: Dict. of Nat. Biog.]

[Footnote 494: C.S.P. Colon., 1685-88, No. 1941; _cf._ also 1906.]

[Footnote 495: Ibid., No. 1940.]

[Footnote 496: Ibid., 1689-92, Nos. 6, 29, 292.]

[Footnote 497: Ibid., No. 299.]

[Footnote 498: Ibid., No. 493.]

[Footnote 499: Ibid., Nos. 7, 50, 52, 54, 85, 120, 176-178, 293, 296-299, 514, 515, 874, 880, 980, 1041.]

[Footnote 500: C.S.P. Colon., 1689-92, Nos. 293, 467; Ibid., 1693-96, Nos. 1931, vii., 1934.]

[Footnote 501: Ibid., 1689-92, Nos. 515, 616, 635, 769.]

[Footnote 502: C.S.P. Colon., 1689-92, Nos. 873, 980, 1021, 1041.]

[Footnote 503: Ibid., No. 714.]

[Footnote 504: Ibid., Nos. 2034, 2043, 2269, 2496, 2498, 2641, 2643.]

[Footnote 505: Ibid., Nos. 72-76, 2034.]

[Footnote 506: Ibid., Nos. 2034, 2044, 2047, 2052, 2103.]

[Footnote 507: Ibid., Nos. 2278, 2398, 2416, 2500.]

[Footnote 508: Ibid., 1693-96, Nos. 634, 635, 1009, 1236.]

[Footnote 509: C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 778, 876; Archives Coloniales, Corresp. Gen. de St. Dom. III. Letter of Ducasse, 30 March 1694.]

[Footnote 510: C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1109, 1236 (i.).]

[Footnote 511: Ibid., Nos. 1074, 1083, 1106, 1109, 1114, 1121, 1131, 1194, 1236; Charlevoix, I. x. p. 256 _ff._; Stowe MSS., 305 f., 205 b; Ducéré: Les corsaires sous l'ancien regime, p. 142.]

[Footnote 512: The number of white men on the island at this time was variously estimated from 2000 to 2400 men. (C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1109 and 1258.)]

[Footnote 513: C.S.P. Colon, 1693-96, No. 1516.]

[Footnote 514: Ibid., Nos. 207, 876, 1004.]

[Footnote 515: C.S.P. Colon., 1693-96, Nos. 1946, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1983, 2022. According to Charlevoix, it was the dalliance and cowardice of Laurens de Graff, who was in command at Cap François, and feared falling into the hands of his old enemies the English and Spaniards, which had much to do with the success of the invasion. After the departure of the allies Laurens was deprived of his post and made captain of a light corvette. (Charlevoix, I. x. p. 266 _ff._)]

[Footnote 516: Ducéré, _op. cit._ p. 148.]

[Footnote 517: Narrative of de Pointis.]

[Footnote 518: Narrative of de Pointis; C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, No. 824.]

[Footnote 519: Narrative of de Pointis; C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, No. 868.]

[Footnote 520: Narrative of de Pointis.]

[Footnote 521: C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, Nos. 373-376, 413, 661, 769.]

[Footnote 522: Ibid., Nos. 715, 868.]

[Footnote 523: C.S.P. Colon., 1696-97, Nos. 375, 453.]

[Footnote 524: Ibid., 944. 978.]

[Footnote 525: The mouth of the harbour, called Boca Chica, was defended by a fort with 4 bastions and 33 guns; but the guns were badly mounted on flimsy carriages of cedar, and were manned by only 15 soldiers. Inside the harbour was another fort called Santa Cruz, well-built with 4 bastions and a moat, but provided with only a few iron guns and without a garrison. Two other forts formed part of the exterior works of the town, but they had neither garrison nor guns. The city itself was surrounded by solid walls of stone, with 12 bastions and 84 brass cannon, to man which there was a company of 40 soldiers. Such was the war footing on which the Spanish Government maintained the "Key of the Indies." (Duro, _op. cit._, v. p. 287.)]

[Footnote 526: Narrative of de Pointis. _Cf._ Charlevoix, _op cit._, liv. xi., for the best account of the whole expedition.]

[Footnote 527: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. xi. p. 352.

In one of the articles of capitulation which the Governor of Cartagena obtained from de Pointis, the latter promised to leave untouched the plate, jewels and other treasure of the churches and convents. This article was not observed by the French. On the return of the expedition to France, however, Louis XIV. ordered the ecclesiastical plate to be sequestered, and after the conclusion of the Peace of Ryswick sent it back to San Domingo to be delivered to the governor and clergy of the Spanish part of the island. (Duro, _op. cit._, v. pp. 291, 296-97).]

[Footnote 528: Duro, _op. cit._, v. p. 310.]

[Footnote 529: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 697.]

[Footnote 530: Ibid.; _cf._ C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 138: "The number of tippling houses is now doubly increased, so that there is not now resident upon the place ten men to every house that selleth strong liquors. There are more than 100 licensed houses, besides sugar and rum works that sell without licence."]

[Footnote 531: Crawford: Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Handlist of Proclamations.]

[Footnote 532: Firth: Naval Songs and Ballads, pp. l.-lii.; _cf._ also Archives Coloniales, Corresp. Gén. de St Dom., vols. iii.-ix.; Ibid., Martinique, vols. viii.-xix.]

[Footnote 533: Archives Coloniales, Corresp. Gén. de Martinique, vol. xvi.]