The Story of a Pearl Pirate
The ordinary story of the pirate, or the wicked man in general, no
matter how successful he may have been in his criminal career, nearly
always ends disastrously, and in that way points a moral which doubtless
has a good effect on a large class of people, who would be very glad to
do wrong, provided no harm was likely to come to them in consequence.
But the story of Peter the Great, which we have just told, contains no
such moral. In fact, its influence upon the adventurers of that period
was most unwholesome.
When the wonderful success of Peter the Great became known, the
buccaneering community at Tortuga was wildly excited. Every
bushy-bearded fellow who could get possession of a small boat, and
induce a score of other bushy-bearded fellows to follow him, wanted to
start out and capture a rich Spanish galleon, as the great ships, used
alike for war and commerce, were then called.
But not only were the French and English sailors and traders who had
become buccaneers excited and stimulated by the remarkable good fortune
of their companion, but many people of adventurous mind, who had never
thought of leaving England for purposes of piracy, now became firmly
convinced that there was no business which promised better than that of
a buccaneer, and some of them crossed the ocean for the express purpose
of getting rich by capturing Spanish vessels homeward bound.
As there were not enough suitable vessels in Tortuga for the demands of
the recently stimulated industry, the buccaneer settlers went to other
parts of the West Indies to obtain suitable craft, and it is related
that in about a month after the great victory of Peter the Great, two
large Spanish vessels, loaded with silver bullion, and two other heavily
laden merchantmen were brought into Tortuga by the buccaneers.
One of the adventurers who set out about this time on a cruise after
gold-laden vessels, was a Frenchman who was known to his countrymen as
Pierre François, and to the English as Peter Francis. He was a good
sailor, and ready for any sort of a sea-fight, but for a long time he
cruised about without seeing anything which it was worth while to
attempt to capture. At last, when his provisions began to give out, and
his men became somewhat discontented, Pierre made up his mind that
rather than return to Tortuga empty-handed, he would make a bold and
novel stroke for fortune.
At the mouth of one of the large rivers of the mainland the Spaniards
had established a pearl fishery,--for there was no kind of wealth or
treasure, on the land, under ground, or at the bottom of the sea, that
the Spaniards did not get if it were possible for them to do so.
Every year, at the proper season, a dozen or more vessels came to this
pearl-bank, attended by a man-of-war to protect them from molestation.
Pierre knew all about this, and as he could not find any Spanish
merchantmen to rob, he thought he would go down and see what he could do
with the pearl-fishers. This was something the buccaneers had not yet
attempted, but no one knows what he can do until he tries, and it was
very necessary that this buccaneer captain should try something
immediately.
When he reached the coast near the mouth of the river, he took the masts
out of his little vessel, and rowed quietly toward the pearl-fishing
fleet, as if he had intended to join them on some entirely peaceable
errand; and, in fact, there was no reason whatever why the Spaniards
should suppose that a boat full of buccaneers should be rowing along
that part of the coast.
The pearl-fishing vessels were all at anchor, and the people on board
were quietly attending to their business. Out at sea, some distance
from the mouth of the river, the man-of-war was lying becalmed. The
native divers who went down to the bottom of the sea to bring up the
shellfish which contained the pearls, plunged into the water, and came
up wet and shining in the sun, with no fear whatever of any sharks which
might be swimming about in search of a dinner, and the people on the
vessels opened the oysters and carefully searched for pearls, feeling as
safe from harm as if they were picking olives in their native groves.
But something worse than a shark was quietly making its way over those
tranquil waters, and no banditti who ever descended from Spanish
mountains upon the quiet peasants of a village, equalled in ferocity the
savage fellows who were crouching in the little boat belonging to Pierre
of Tortuga.
This innocent-looking craft, which the pearl-fishers probably thought
was loaded with fruit or vegetables which somebody from the mainland
desired to sell, was permitted, without being challenged or interfered
with, to row up alongside the largest vessel of the fleet, on which
there were some armed men and a few cannon.
As soon as Pierre's boat touched the Spanish vessel, the buccaneers
sprang on board with their pistols and cutlasses, and a savage fight
began. The Spaniards were surprised, but there were a great many more
of them than there were pirates, and they fought hard. However, the man
who makes the attack, and who is at the same time desperate and hungry,
has a great advantage, and it was not long before the buccaneers were
masters of the vessel. Those of the Spaniards who were not killed, were
forced into the service of their captors, and Pierre found himself in
command of a very good vessel.
Now it so happened that the man-of-war was so far away that she knew
nothing of this fight on board one of the fleet which she was there to
watch, and if she had known of it, she would not have been able to give
any assistance, for there was no wind by which she could sail to the
mouth of the river. Therefore, so far as she was concerned, Pierre
considered himself safe.
But although he had captured a Spanish ship, he was not so foolish as to
haul down her flag, and run up his own in her place. He had had very
good success so far, but he was not satisfied. It was quite probable
that there was a rich store of pearls on board the vessel he had taken,
but on the other vessels of the fleet there were many more pearls, and
these he wanted if he could get them. In fact, he conceived the grand
idea of capturing the whole fleet.
But it would be impossible for Pierre to attempt anything on such a
magnificent scale until he had first disposed of the man-of-war, and as
he had now a good strong ship, with a much larger crew than that with
which he had set out,--for the Spanish prisoners would be obliged to man
the guns and help in every way to fight their countrymen,--Pierre
determined to attack the man-of-war.
A land wind began to blow, which enabled him to make very fair headway
out to sea. The Spanish colors were flying from his topmast, and he
hoped to be able, without being suspected of any evil designs, to get so
near to the man-of-war that he might run alongside and boldly board her.
But something now happened which Pierre could not have expected. When
the commander of the war-vessel perceived that one of the fleet under
his charge was leaving her companions and putting out to sea, he could
imagine no reason for such extraordinary conduct, except that she was
taking advantage of the fact that the wind had not yet reached his
vessel, and was trying to run away with the pearls she had on board.
From these ready suspicions we may imagine that, at that time, the
robbers who robbed robbers were not all buccaneers.
Soon after the Spanish captain perceived that one of his fleet was
making his way out of the river, the wind reached his vessel, and he
immediately set all sail and started in pursuit of the rascals, whom he
supposed to be his dishonest countrymen.
The breeze freshened rapidly, and when Pierre and his men saw that the
man-of-war was coming toward them at a good rate of speed, showing
plainly that she had suspicions of them, they gave up all hope of
running alongside of her and boarding her, and concluded that the best
thing they could do would be to give up their plan of capturing the
pearl-fishing fleet, and get away with the ship they had taken, and
whatever it had on board. So they set all sail, and there was a fine
sea-chase.
The now frightened buccaneers were too anxious to get away. They not
only put on all the sail which the vessel could carry, but they put on
more. The wind blew harder, and suddenly down came the mainmast with a
crash. This stopped the chase, and the next act in the performance would
have to be a sea-fight. Pierre and his buccaneers were good at that sort
of thing, and when the man-of-war came up, there was a terrible time on
board those two vessels. But the Spaniards were the stronger, and the
buccaneers were defeated.
There must have been something in the daring courage of this Frenchman
and his little band of followers, which gave him favor in the eyes of
the Spanish captain, for there was no other reason for the good
treatment which the buccaneers received.
They were not put to the sword nor thrown overboard, not sent on shore
and made to work as slaves,--three very common methods of treating
prisoners in those days. But they were all set free, and put on land,
where they might go where they pleased.
This unfortunate result of the bold enterprise undertaken by Pierre
François was deeply deplored, not only at Tortuga, but in England and in
France. If this bold buccaneer had captured the pearl fleet, it would
have been a victory that would have made a hero of him on each side of
the Atlantic, but had he even been able to get away with the one vessel
he had seized, he would have been a rich man, and might have retired to
a life of ease and affluence; the vessel he had captured proved to be
one of the richest laden of the whole fleet, and not only in the heart
of Pierre and his men, but among his sympathizers in Europe and America,
there was great disappointment at the loss of that mainmast, which,
until it cracked, was carrying him forward to fame and fortune.