Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/381

 BUCCANEERS 375 ance to each other, and to wreak the utmost vengeance on their foes, especially the Span- iards. If one of them was killed by the enemy, he was to be signally avenged ; those who were maimed in battle were compensated for their wounds according to their severity, while those rendered helpless for life were provided for by the whole body. Plunder from the enemy was shared, but stealing from a fellow buc- caneer was summarily punished. The strong- hold of the buccaneers was formed about 1630 at the little island of Tortugas, where after driving out the Spaniards they erected forti- fications. They went forth in bands of 50 to 150, at first only in open row boats, attack- ing and boarding vessels with desperate fe- rocity. These boats, frequently so small that the crews had no room to lie down, were di- rected bows on to an enemy, while their marks- men would take aim at the ports of a vessel and pick off the gunners ; as soon as they came near enough they threw out grappling irons, and closing with the foe poured upon her decks. They lay in wait for vessels passing from America to Europe ; those coming from Europe they seldom molested, as they carried cargoes which they could not readily sell, but on the return voyages they were sure to find precious freights. The Spanish galleons in particular attracted their attention, as some- times the booty seized in them was enormous. Though the richly laden vessels usually sailed in fleets for protection, the buccaneers followed them as they emerged from the gulf of Bahama, and if one by accident became separated from the others, her doom was sealed. If her stores were such as to satisfy the rapacity of the pi- rates, she was permitted to proceed after be- ing plundered ; otherwise she was scuttled and her crew thrown overboard. The French buc- caneers established themselves in Santo Do- mingo, and the English in Jamaica. Spanish commerce visibly declined, and Spanish ships scarcely dared to venture to America. Alarm- ed for their own gains, the buccaneers changed their tactics, and from pillaging vessels at- tacked fortified towns. Many desperate char- acters made themselves conspicuous in these en- terprises. One was a Frenchman named Mont- bar, who had contracted a deadly hate of the Spaniards by reading an account of their Amer- ican conquests, and determined to join the buc- caneers for the purpose of executing his schemes of vengeance. On his passage to the West Indies he fell in with a Spanish ship, which was at once boarded and the crew put to the sword. On arriving at the coast of Santo Domingo he offered his services to the buc- caneers, and on the same day, falling in with a party of Spaniards, he attacked thorn with fury, and scarcely left one alive. He displayed the same spirit afterward on every occasion, and earned the title of the exterminator. The Spaniards now resolved to confine themselves within their settlements. This determination only stimulated the buccaneers to greater ef- forts, in which they were much aided by Fran- cois L'Olonnais, who had raised himself to he master of two boats and 22 men, with which he took a Spanish frigate on the coast of Cuba, and afterward at Port-au-Prince four more ves- sels, despatched to seize him. He then sailed for Tortugas, and there meeting with Miguel de Vasco, who had signalized himself by taking a Spanish galleon loaded with treasure under the very guns of Portobello, the two sailed in 1666 with 450 men to the bay of Venezuela, took a fort at its entrance, spiked the guns, and murdered the garrison, 250 in number. They then proceeded to Maracaibo, on the lake, and compelled it to capitulate. Disappointed in not finding treasure at Gibraltar, another town on the same shore, they fired it. An immense ransom was paid for Maracaibo, and the bucca- neers carried off also the church bells, crosses, and pictures, intending to build a chapel at Tortugas. The most noted of all these free- booters, and the one whose name is now most readily remembered, was Henry Morgan, a Welshman. While L'Olonnais and De Vasco were wasting their gains from Venezuela, he sailed from Jamaica in December, 1670, sur- prised and took Portobello, and then directed his operations against Panama. He at first went to the island of St. Catharine to procure guides, and here the governor of a strong for- tress, who might have beaten him off, concerted with him to surrender on easy terms. After keeping up for some time the farce of a can- nonade, the buccaneers entered the place, de- molished the fortifications, and carried off an immense quantity of ammunition. They then steered toward the Chagres river and took a fort at its entrance, after a gallant resistance from its commander, who was killed. Leaving some of his vessels, Morgan sailed with sloops up the river 33 miles to Cruces, and thence proceeded by land to Panama. He defeated some troops sent out to meet him, and then entered the city, where he found a prodigious booty, with which the buccaneers departed, after firing the place and carrying off a large number of prisoners. In 1683 an expedition was planned by Van Horn, a native of Ostend, who had long served among the French. He owned a frigate, and joining a number of others, with six vessels and 1,200 men, he sailed for Vera Cruz, landed under cover of darkness, sur- prised the fort and barracks, and surrounded the churches whither the citizens had fled for safety. The buccaneers then pillaged the city, and proposed to the citizens to ransom their lives for about $2,000,000. This proposal was accepted, and half of the money paid down forthwith, when the buccaneers became alarm- ed at the approach of troops as well as a fleet of 17 Spanish vessels, and made off, carrying with them 1,500 slaves, and sailing through the enemy's line unmolested. About a year later the buccaneers undertook to plunder Peru. Upward of 4,000 men joined in this movement, some sailing by way of the straits of Magellan,