_Steps taken towards reducing the =Buccaneers= and =Flibustiers=
under subordination to the regular Governments. War of the
Grand Alliance against =France=. The Neutrality of the =Island
Saint Christopher= broken._
Whilst these matters were passing in the _Pacific Ocean_, small progress
was made in the reform which had been begun in the _West Indies_. The
English Governors by a few examples of severity restrained the English
Buccaneers from undertaking any enterprise of magnitude. With the French,
the case was different. The number of the Flibustiers who absented
themselves from _Hispaniola_, to go to the _South Sea_, alarmed the French
Government for the safety of their colonies, and especially of their
settlements in _Hispaniola_, the security and defence of which against the
Spaniards they had almost wholly rested on its being the place of
residence and the home of those adventurers. To persist in a rigorous
police against their cruising, it was apprehended would make the rest of
them quit _Hispaniola_, for which reason it was judged prudent to relax in
the enforcement of the prohibitions; the Flibustiers accordingly continued
their courses as usual.
[Sidenote: 1686.] In 1686, Granmont and De Graaf prepared an armament
against _Campeachy_. M. de Cussy, who was Governor of _Tortuga_ and the
French part of _Hispaniola_, applied personally to them to relinquish
their design; but as the force was collected, and all preparation made,
neither the Flibustiers nor their Commanders would be dissuaded from the
undertaking, and De Cussy submitted. [Sidenote: Campeachy burnt.]
_Campeachy_ was plundered and burnt.
A measure was adopted by the French Government which certainly trenched on
the honour of the regular military establishments of _France_, but was
attended with success in bringing the Flibustiers more under control and
rendering them more manageable. This was, the taking into the King's
service some of the principal leaders of the Flibustiers, and giving them
commissions of advanced rank, either in the land service or in the French
marine. [Sidenote: Granmont.] A commission was made out for Granmont,
appointing him Commandant on the South coast of _Saint Domingo_, with the
rank of Lieutenant du Roy. But of Granmont as a Buccaneer, it might be
said in the language of sportsmen, that he was game to the last. Before
the commission arrived, he received information of the honour intended
him, and whilst yet in his state of liberty, was seized with the wish to
make one more cruise. He armed a ship, and, with a crew of 180 Flibustiers
in her, put to sea. This was near the end of the year 1686; and what
afterwards became of him and his followers is not known, for they were not
again seen or heard of.
[Sidenote: 1687.] In the beginning of 1687, a commission arrived from
_France_, appointing De Graaf Major in the King's army in the _West
Indies_. He was then with a crew of Flibustiers near _Carthagena_. In this
cruise, twenty-five of his men who landed in the _Gulf of Darien_, were
cut off by the Darien Indians. De Graaf on his return into port accepted
his commission, and when transformed to an officer in the King's army,
became, like Morgan, a great scourge to the Flibustiers and _Forbans_.
[Sidenote: Proclamation against Pirates.] In consequence of complaints
made by the Spaniards, a Proclamation was issued at this time, by the King
of _Great Britain_, James the IId, specified in the title to be 'for the
more effectual reducing and suppressing of Pirates and Privateers in
_America_, as well on the sea as on the land, who in great numbers have
committed frequent robberies, which hath occasioned great prejudice and
obstruction to Trade and Commerce.'
[Sidenote: 1688.] A twenty years truce had, in the year 1686, been agreed
upon between _France_ and _Spain_, but scarcely a twentieth part of that
time was suffered to elapse before it was broken in the _West Indies_.
[Sidenote: Danish Factory robbed by the Buccaneers.] The Flibustiers of
_Hispaniola_ did not content themselves with their customary practice: in
1688 they plundered the Danish Factory at the Island _St. Thomas_, which
is one of the small Islands called _the Virgins_, near the East end of
_Porto Rico_. This was an aggression beyond the limits which they had
professed to prescribe to their depredatory system, and it is not shewn
that they had received injury at the hands of the Danes. Nevertheless, the
French West-India histories say, 'Our Flibustiers (_nos Flibustiers_), in
1688, surprised the Danish Factory at _St. Thomas_. The pillage was
considerable, and would have been more if they had known that the chief
part of the cash was kept in a vault under the hall, which was known to
very few of the house. They forgot on this occasion their ordinary
practice, which is to put their prisoners to the torture to make them
declare where the money is. It is certain that if they had so done, the
hiding-place would have been revealed to them, in which it was believed
there was more than 500,000 livres.' Such remarks shew the strong
prepossession which existed in favour of the Buccaneers, and an eagerness
undistinguishing and determined after the extraordinary. Qualities the
most common to the whole of mankind were received as wonderful when
related of the Buccaneers. One of our Encyclopedias, under the article
Buccaneer, says, 'they were transported with an astonishing degree of
enthusiasm whenever they saw a sail.'
In this same year, 1688, war broke out in Europe between the French and
Spaniards, and in a short time the English joined against the French.
[Sidenote: 1689. July.] _England_ and _France_ had at no period since the
Norman conquest been longer without serious quarrel. On the accession of
William the IIId. to the crowns of _Great Britain_, it was generally
believed that a war with _France_ would ensue. [Sidenote: The English
driven from St. Christopher.] The French in the _West Indies_ did not wait
for its being declared, but attacked the English part of _St.
Christopher_, the Island on which by joint agreement had been made the
original and confederated first settlements of the two Nations in the
_West Indies_. [Sidenote: See p. 38.] The English inhabitants were driven
from their possessions and obliged to retire to the Island _Nevis_, which
terminated the longest preserved union which history can shew between the
English and French as subjects of different nations. In the commencement
it was strongly cemented by the mutual want of support against a powerful
enemy; that motive for their adherence to each other had ceased to exist:
yet in the reigns of Charles the IId. and James the IId. of _England_, an
agreement had been made between _England_ and _France_, that if war should
at any time break out between them, a neutrality should be observed by
their subjects in the _West Indies_.
This war continued nearly to the end of King William's reign, and during
that time the English and French Buccaneers were engaged on opposite
sides, as auxiliaries to the regular forces of their respective nations,
which completely separated them; and it never afterwards happened that
they again confederated in any buccaneer cause. They became more generally
distinguished by different appellations, not consonant to their present
situations and habits; for the French adventurers, who were frequently
occupied in hunting and at the _boucan_, were called the Flibustiers of
_St. Domingo_, and the English adventurers, who had nothing to do with
the _boucan_, were called the Buccaneers of _Jamaica_.
[Sidenote: 1690. July. The English retake St. Christopher.] The French had
not kept possession of _St. Christopher_ quite a year, when it was taken
from them by the English. This was an unfortunate year for the French, who
in it suffered a great defeat from the Spaniards in _Hispaniola_. Their
Governor De Cussy, and 500 Frenchmen, fell in battle, and the Town of
_Cape Francois_ was demolished.
The French Flibustiers at this time greatly annoyed _Jamaica_, making
descents, in which they carried off such a number of negroes, that in
derision they nicknamed _Jamaica 'Little Guinea_.' The principal
transactions in the _West Indies_, were, the attempts made by each party
on the possessions of the other. In the course of these services, De Graaf
was accused of misconduct, tried, and deprived of his commission in the
army; but though judged unfit for command in land service, out of respect
to his maritime experience he was appointed Captain of a Frigate.
No one among the Flibustiers was more distinguished for courage and
enterprise in this war than Jean Montauban, who commanded a ship of
between 30 and 40 guns. He sailed from the _West Indies_ to _Bourdeaux_ in
1694. In February of the year following, he departed from _Bourdeaux_ for
the coast of _Guinea_, where in battle with an English ship of force, both
the ships were blown up. Montauban and a few others escaped with their
lives. This affair is not to be ranked among buccaneer exploits, _Great
Britain_ and _France_ being at open War, and Montauban having a regular
commission.