A Buccaneer Boom
The condition of affairs in the West Indies was becoming very serious in
the eyes of the Spanish rulers. They had discovered a new country, they
had taken possession of it, and they had found great wealth of various
kinds, of which they were very much in need. This wealth was being
carried to Spain as fast as it could be taken from the unfortunate
natives and gathered together for transportation, and everything would
have gone on very well indeed had it not been for the most culpable and
unwarranted interference of that lawless party of men, who might almost
be said to amount to a nationality, who were continually on the alert to
take from Spain everything she could take from America. The English,
French, and Dutch governments were generally at peace with Spain, but
they sat by quietly and saw their sailor subjects band themselves
together and make war upon Spanish commerce,--a very one-sided commerce,
it is true.
It was of no use for Spain to complain of the buccaneers to her sister
maritime nations. It is not certain that they could have done anything
to interfere with the operations of the sea-robbers who originally
sailed from their coasts, but it is certain they did not try to do
anything. Whatever was to be done, Spain must do herself. The pirates
were as slippery as they were savage, and although the Spaniards made a
regular naval war upon them, they seemed to increase rather than to
diminish. Every time that a Spanish merchantman was taken, and its gold
and silver and valuable goods carried off to Tortuga or Jamaica, and
divided among a lot of savage and rollicking fellows, the greater became
the enthusiasm among the Brethren of the Coast, and the wider spread the
buccaneering boom. More ships laden almost entirely with stalwart men,
well provided with arms, and very badly furnished with principles, came
from England and France, and the Spanish ships of war in the West Indies
found that they were confronted by what was, in many respects, a regular
naval force.
The buccaneers were afraid of nothing; they paid no attention to the
rules of war,--a little ship would attack a big one without the
slightest hesitation, and more than that, would generally take it,--and
in every way Spain was beginning to feel as if she were acting the part
of provider to the pirate seamen of every nation.
Finding that she could do nothing to diminish the number of the
buccaneering vessels, Spain determined that she would not have so many
richly laden ships of her own upon these dangerous seas; consequently, a
change was made in regard to the shipping of merchandise and the
valuable metals from America to her home ports. The cargoes were
concentrated, and what had previously been placed upon three ships was
crowded into the holds and between the decks of one great vessel, which
was so well armed and defended as to make it almost impossible for any
pirate ship to capture it. In some respects this plan worked very well,
although when the buccaneers did happen to pounce upon one of these
richly laden vessels, in such numbers and with such swift ferocity, that
they were able to capture it, they rejoiced over a prize far more
valuable than anything the pirate soul had ever dreamed of before. But
it was not often that one of these great ships was taken, and for a time
the results of Spanish robbery and cruelty were safely carried to Spain.
But it was very hard to get the better of the buccaneers; their lives
and their fortunes depended upon this boom, and if in one way they could
not get the gold out of the Spaniards, which the latter got out of the
natives, they would try another. When the miners in the gold fields find
they can no longer wash out with their pans a paying quantity of the
precious metal, they go to work on the rocks and break them into pieces
and crush them into dust; so, when the buccaneers found it did not pay
to devote themselves to capturing Spanish gold on its transit across the
ocean, many of them changed their methods of operation and boldly
planned to seize the treasures of their enemy before it was put upon the
ships.
Consequently, the buccaneers formed themselves into larger bodies
commanded by noted leaders, and made attacks upon the Spanish
settlements and towns. Many of these were found nearly defenceless, and
even those which boasted fortifications often fell before the reckless
charges of the buccaneers. The pillage, the burning, and the cruelty on
shore exceeded that which had hitherto been known on the sea. There is
generally a great deal more in a town than there is in a ship, and the
buccaneers proved themselves to be among the most outrageous, exacting,
and cruel conquerors ever known in the world. They were governed by no
laws of warfare; whatever they chose to do they did. They respected
nobody, not even themselves, and acted like wild beasts, without the
disposition which is generally shown by a wild beast, to lie down and go
to sleep when he has had enough.
There were times when it seemed as though it would be safer for a man
who had a regard for his life and comfort, to sail upon a pirate ship
instead of a Spanish galleon, or to take up his residence in one of the
uncivilized communities of Tortuga or Jamaica, instead of settling in a
well-ordered Spanish-American town with its mayor, its officials, and
its garrison.
It was a very strange nation of marine bandits which had thus sprung
into existence on these faraway waters; it was a nation of grown-up men,
who existed only for the purpose of carrying off that which other people
were taking away; it was a nation of second-hand robbers, who carried
their operations to such an extent that they threatened to do away
entirely with that series of primary robberies to which Spain had
devoted herself. I do not know that there were any companies formed in
those days for the prosecution of buccaneering, but I am quite sure that
if there had been, their shares would have gone up to a very high
figure.