TORTUGA--1655-1664
When the Chevalier de Fontenay was driven from Tortuga in January 1654,
the Spaniards left a small garrison to occupy the fort and prevent
further settlements of French and English buccaneers. These troops
possessed the island for about eighteen months, but on the approach of
the expedition under Penn and Venables were ordered by the Conde de
Penalva, President of S. Domingo, to demolish the fort, bury the
artillery and other arms, and retire to his aid in Hispaniola.[189] Some
six months later an Englishman, Elias Watts,[190] with his family and
ten or twelve others, came from Jamaica in a shallop, re-settled the
island, and raised a battery of four guns upon the ruins of the larger
fort previously erected by the French. Watts received a commission for
the island from General Brayne, who was then governor of Jamaica, and in
a short time gathered about him a colony of about 150, both English and
French. Among these new-comers was a "poor distressed gentleman" by the
name of James Arundell, formerly a colonel in the Royalist army and now
banished from England, who eventually married Watts' daughter and became
the head of the colony.
It was while Watts was governor of Tortuga, if we are to believe the
Jesuit, Dutertre, that the buccaneers determined to avenge the treachery
of the Spaniards to a French vessel in that neighbourhood by plundering
the city of St. Jago in Hispaniola. According to this historian, who
from the style of the narrative seems to be reporting the words of an
eye-witness, the buccaneers, including doubtless both hunters and
corsairs, formed a party of 400 men under the leadership of four
captains and obtained a commission for the enterprise from the English
governor, who was very likely looking forward to a share of the booty.
Compelling the captain of a frigate which had just arrived from Nantes
to lend his ship, they embarked in it and in two or three other boats
found on the coast for Puerta de Plata, where they landed on Palm Sunday
of 1659.[191] St. Jago, which lay in a pleasant, fertile plain some
fifteen or twenty leagues in the interior of Hispaniola, they approached
through the woods on the night of Holy Wednesday, entered before
daybreak, and surprised the governor in his bed. The buccaneers told him
to prepare to die, whereupon he fell on his knees and prayed to such
effect that they finally offered him his life for a ransom of 60,000
pieces of eight. They pillaged for twenty-four hours, taking even the
bells, ornaments and sacred vessels of the churches, and after
refreshing themselves with food and drink, retreated with their plunder
and prisoners, including the governor and chief inhabitants. Meanwhile
the alarm had been given for ten or twelve leagues round about. Men came
in from all directions, and rallying with the inhabitants of the town
till they amounted to about 1000 men, marched through the woods by a
by-route, got ahead of the buccaneers and attacked them from ambush. The
English and French stood their ground in spite of inferior numbers, for
they were all good marksmen and every shot told. As the Spaniards
persisted, however, they finally threatened to stab the governor and all
the other prisoners, whereupon the Spaniards took counsel and retired to
their homes. The invaders lost only ten killed and five or six wounded.
They tarried on the coast several days waiting for the rest of the
promised ransom, but as it failed to arrive they liberated the prisoners
and returned to Tortuga, each adventurer receiving 300 crowns as his
share of the pillage.[192]
In the latter part of 1659 a French gentleman, Jérémie Deschamps,
seigneur du Rausset, who had been one of the first inhabitants of
Tortuga under Levasseur and de Fontenay, repaired to England and had
sufficient influence there to obtain an order from the Council of State
to Colonel Doyley to give him a commission as governor of Tortuga, with
such instructions as Doyley might think requisite.[193] This same du
Rausset, it seems, had received a French commission from Louis XIV. as
early as November 1656.[194] At any rate, he came to Jamaica in 1660 and
obtained his commission from Doyley on condition that he held Tortuga in
the English interest.[195] Watts, it seems, had meanwhile learnt that he
was to be superseded by a Frenchman, whereupon he embarked with his
family and all his goods and sought refuge in New England. About two
months later, according to one story, Doyley heard that Deschamps had
given a commission to a privateer and committed insolences for which
Doyley feared to be called to account. He sent to remonstrate with him,
but Deschamps answered that he possessed a French commission and that he
had better interest with the powers in England than had the governor of
Jamaica. As there were more French than English on the island, Deschamps
then proclaimed the King of France and set up the French colours.[196]
Doyley as yet had received no authority from the newly-restored king,
Charles II., and hesitated to use any force; but he did give permission
to Arundell, Watts' son-in-law, to surprise Deschamps and carry him to
Jamaica for trial. Deschamps was absent at the time at Santa Cruz, but
Arundell, relying upon the friendship and esteem which the inhabitants
had felt for his father-in-law, surprised the governor's nephew and
deputy, the Sieur de la Place, and possessed himself of the island. By
some mischance or neglect, however, he was disarmed by the French and
sent back to Jamaica.[197] This was not the end of his misfortunes. On
the way to Jamaica he and his company were surprised by Spaniards in the
bay of Matanzas in Cuba, and carried to Puerto Principe. There, after a
month's imprisonment, Arundell and Barth. Cock, his shipmaster, were
taken out by negroes into the bush and murdered, and their heads brought
into the town.[198] Deschamps later returned to France because of
ill-health, leaving la Place to govern the island in his stead, and when
the property of the French Antilles was vested in the new French West
India Company in 1664 he was arrested and sent to the Bastille. The
cause of his arrest is obscure, but it seems that he had been in
correspondence with the English government, to whom he had offered to
restore Tortuga on condition of being reimbursed with £6000 sterling. A
few days in the Bastille made him think better of his resolution. He
ceded his rights to the company for 15,000 livres, and was released from
confinement in November.[199]
The fiasco of Arundell's attempt was not the only effort of the English
to recover the island. In answer to a memorial presented by Lord Windsor
before his departure for Jamaica, an Order in Council was delivered to
him in February 1662, empowering him to use his utmost endeavours to
reduce Tortuga and its governor to obedience.[200] The matter was taken
up by the Jamaican Council in September, shortly after Windsor's
arrival;[201] and on 16th December an order was issued by
deputy-governor Lyttleton to Captain Robert Munden of the "Charles"
frigate for the transportation of Colonel Samuel Barry and Captain
Langford to Tortuga, where Munden was to receive orders for reducing the
island.[202] The design miscarried again, however, probably because of
ill-blood between Barry and Munden. Clement de Plenneville, who
accompanied Barry, writes that "the expedition failed through
treachery";[203] and Beeston says in his Journal that Barry, approaching
Tortuga on 30th January, found the French armed and ready to oppose him,
whereupon he ordered Captain Munden to fire. Munden however refused,
sailed away to Corydon in Hispaniola, where he put Barry and his men on
shore, and then "went away about his merchandize."[204] Barry made his
way in a sloop to Jamaica where he arrived on 1st March. Langford,
however, was sent to Petit-Goave, an island about the size of Tortuga in
the _cul-de-sac_ at the western end of Hispaniola, where he was chosen
governor by the inhabitants and raised the first English standard.
Petit-Goave had been frequented by buccaneers since 1659, and after
d'Ogeron succeeded du Rausset as governor for the French in those
regions, it became with Tortuga one of their chief resorts. In the
latter part of 1664 we find Langford in England petitioning the king for
a commission as governor of Tortuga and the coast of Hispaniola, and for
two ships to go and seize the smaller island.[205] Such a design,
however, with the direct sanction and aid of the English government,
might have endangered a rupture with France. Charles preferred to leave
such irregular warfare to his governor in Jamaica, whom he could support
or disown as best suited the exigencies of the moment. Langford,
moreover, seems not to have made a brilliant success of his short stay
at Petit-Goave, and was probably distrusted by the authorities both in
England and in the West Indies. When Modyford came as governor to
Jamaica, the possibility of recovering Tortuga was still discussed, but
no effort to effect it was ever made again.
Footnotes:
[Footnote 189: Dutertre, t. iii. p. 126; Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499.
On 26th February 1656 there arrived at Jamaica a small vessel the master
of which, touching at Tortuga, had found upon the deserted island two
papers, one in Spanish, the other in "sorrie English" (Thurloe Papers,
IV. p. 601). These papers were copies of a proclamation forbidding
settlement on the island, and the English paper (Rawl. MSS., A. 29, f.
500) is printed in Firth's "Venables" as follows:--
"The Captane and Sarginge Mager Don Baltearsor Calderon and Spenoso,
Nopte to the President that is now in the sity of Santo-domingo, and
Captane of the gones of the sitye, and Governor and Lord Mare of this
Island, and stranch of this Lland of Tortogo, and Chefe Comander of all
for the Khinge of Spaine.
"Yoo moust understand that all pepell what soever that shall com to this
Iland of the Khinge of Spaine Catholok wich is name is Don Pilep the
Ostere the forth of this name, that with his harmes he hath put of
Feleminge and French men and Englesh with lefee heare from the yeare of
1630 tell the yeare of thurty fouer and tell the yeare of fifte fouer in
wich the Kinge of Spane uesenge all curtyse and given good quartell to
all that was upon this Iland, after that came and with oute Recepet upon
this Iland knowinge that the Kinge of Spane had planted upon it and
fortified in the name of the Kinge came the forth time the 15th of
Augost the last yeare French and Fleminges to govern this Iland the same
Governeore that was heare befor his name was Themeleon hot man De
founttana gentleman of the ourder of Guresalem for to take this Iland
put if fources by se and land and forsed us to beate him oute of this
place with a greate dale of shame, and be caues yoo shall take notes
that wee have puelld doune the Casill and carid all the gonenes and have
puelld doune all the houes and have lefte no thinge, the same Captane
and Sargint-mager in the name of the Kinge wich God blesh hath given yoo
notis that what souer nason souer that shall com to live upon this Iland
that thare shall not a man mother or children cape of the sorde, thare
fore I give notiss to all pepell that they shall have a care with out
anye more notis for this is the order of the Kinge and with out fall you
will not want yooer Pamente and this is the furst and second and thorde
time, and this whe leave heare for them that comes hear to take notis,
that when wee com upon you, you shall not pleate that you dod not know
is riten the 25 of August 1656."
Baltesar Calderon y Espinosa
Por Mandado de Senor Gou^{or}.
Pedro Fran^{co} de riva deney xasuss.
]
[Footnote 190: In Dutertre's account the name is Eliazouard (Elias
Ward).]
[Footnote 191: According to a Spanish account of the expedition the date
was 1661. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,992, f. 499.]
[Footnote 192: Dutertre, tom. iii. pp. 130-34.]
[Footnote 193: Rawl. MSS., A. 347, ff. 31 and 36; S.P. Spain, vol.
47:--Deposition of Sir Charles Lyttleton; Margry, _op. cit._, p. 281.]
[Footnote 194: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. vii. p. 36; Vaissière, _op.
cit._, p. 10.]
[Footnote 195: According to Dutertre, Deschamps' commission extended
only to the French inhabitants upon Tortuga, the French and English
living thereafter under separate governments as at St. Kitts. Dutertre,
t. iii. p. 135.]
[Footnote 196: Rawl. MSS., A. 347, f. 36.
According to Dutertre's version, Watts had scarcely forsaken the island
when Deschamps arrived in the Road, and found that the French
inhabitants had already made themselves masters of the colony and had
substituted the French for the English standard. Dutertre, t. iii. p.
136.]
[Footnote 197: Rawl. MSS., A. 347, f. 36.]
[Footnote 198: C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 648.]
[Footnote 199: Dutertre, t. iii. p. 138; Vaissière, _op. cit._, p. 11,
note 2.]
[Footnote 200: C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 233.]
[Footnote 201: Ibid., No. 364.]
[Footnote 202: Ibid., No. 390; _cf._ also No. 474 (1).]
[Footnote 203: Ibid., No. 475.]
[Footnote 204: Beeston's Journal, 1st March 1663.
According to Dutertre, some inhabitants of Tortuga ran away to Jamaica
and persuaded the governor that they could no longer endure French
domination, and that if an armed force was sent, it would find no
obstacle in restoring the English king's authority. Accordingly Col.
Barry was despatched to receive their allegiance, with orders to use no
violence but only to accept their voluntary submission. When Barry
landed on Tortuga, however, with no other support than a proclamation
and a harangue, the French inhabitants laughed in his face, and he
returned to Jamaica in shame and confusion. Dutertre, t. iii. pp.
137-38.]
[Footnote 205: C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 817-21.]