JOHN RHOADE, PILOT OF THE DUTCH PIRATES ON THE COAST OF MAINE
In the summer of 1674, while the Dutch were yet in control of New
York, the privateer frigate “Flying Horse,” came sailing into the
harbor. Her commander, Capt. Jurriaen Aernouts, had been commissioned
by the governor of Curacao, “to take, plunder, spoil and possess any
of the ships, persons or estates” of the enemies of the great States
of Holland, which meant the English and the French at the time the
commission was issued. But when the Dutch captain reached New York
he was much surprised to learn of the treaty of peace, signed nearly
six months before, which made it illegal for him to prey on English
shipping. The war was still on with France, however, so he decided to
sail northward for the fishing banks and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
While the “Flying Horse” was recruiting and preparing for sea, Captain
Aernouts accidentally made the acquaintance of a coasting pilot from
Boston, Capt. John Rhoade, an adventurous character who told the
captain that he was well acquainted with the coast along the French
colonies at the north; that their forts and defences were weak and
if taken by surprise it would be easy conquest for him of a rich fur
country. Rhoade said that he had recently been at Pentagoet (now
Castine, Maine) and had exact information as to the strength of the
French garrison there. The Dutch captain submitted the project to his
officers and crew and it was unanimously favored. Captain Rhoade then
enlisted, took the oath of allegiance to the Prince of Orange, and was
made the chief pilot of the “Flying Horse.”
The Dutchmen landed at Pentagoet on Aug. 1, 1674, and as the fort was
garrisoned by only thirty men it soon surrendered. The commander of
the fort, M. de Chambly, was also the Governor of Acadie and for him a
ransom of one thousand beavers was demanded, an amount he was unable to
furnish. With the Governor on board, the “Flying Horse” sailed eastward
and every French fort and trading post as far as the St. John river
was captured. Captain Aernouts proclaimed all this territory a Dutch
conquest, naming it New Holland, and at every point where he landed he
buried a bottle containing a copy of his commission and a statement
of his conquest. Laden with the plunder of Acadie, the “Flying Horse”
reached Boston the last of September and the Dutch captain applied to
Governor Leverett for leave to remain in the harbor in order to repair
his ship and dispose of his plunder. This was granted and soon the
frigate lay at anchor before the town. The Colony gladly purchased the
cannon that had been taken from the French forts and the Boston traders
bought the rest of the spoil.
The Massachusetts fur traders now applied to Captain Aernouts for leave
to trade in the newly conquered territory, a privilege they had always
paid well for in the past. But they were disappointed, for the Dutch
officers claimed that this conquest had been made by the sword and
that the fur trade was of great value to the States of Holland, so all
requests for leave or license were refused. The owners of two Boston
vessels, however, disregarded the warnings of the Dutch officers and
set sail, and probably others followed.
When Captain Aernouts was ready to depart, which was about the first of
November, he left in Boston two of his officers, Capt. Peter Roderigo,
a “Flanderkin,” and Capt. Cornelius Andreson, a Dutchman, and also
Captain Rhoade and a Cornishman, John Williams, and gave these men
and their associates, authority to return to New Holland and there to
trade and keep possession until further instructions were received.
They induced four or five others to join them and before the month had
gone they had purchased a small vessel, the “Edward and Thomas,” Thomas
Mitchell of Malden, part-owner, who shipped with the company, which
was commanded by Roderigo, and hired another, the “Penobscot Shallop,”
commanded by Andreson, and after arming them as well as they could,
they sailed down the harbor with the flag of the Prince of Orange at
each topmast. At Pentagoet, they found that Englishmen from Pemaquid
had recently been there and carried away iron and other materials found
in the ruins of the fort. Farther eastward, Edward Hilliard of Salem
was found in a small vessel, and when ordered to come on board he
immediately submitted and said he was ignorant that he was trespassing
on their authority and further complained of the bad voyage he had
made thus far. He was dismissed with a warning and his vessel and
peltry returned to him. Not long after they came upon a Boston vessel,
commanded by William Waldron, who had been refused a permit to trade.
He was recognized at once and his vessel made a prize but after a time
returned to him. His peltry, however, was seized.
Among the men who had applied for a permit to trade and been refused
was George Manning, who commanded a shallop called the “Philip,” owned
by John Feake, a Boston merchant. Nevertheless he had sailed and on
December 4th Captain Roderigo came upon him at anchor in “Adowoke Bay
to ye Estward of Mount deZart.” The shallop was boarded, the hatches
opened and all the peltry taken away. Captain Manning had in his cabin
a loaded pistol and planned to shoot Captain Roderigo but a boy on
board warned him to look out for himself and drawing a cutlass the
“Flanderkin” laid about him. There was some firing of guns but no one
was killed. Manning was confined on board the Dutch boat and the next
day it was proposed to burn his shallop and set him adrift in his boat.
Rhoade told him he deserved to be turned ashore on an island and there
be compelled to eat the roots of trees. Manning had received a flesh
wound in one hand and was cut about the head. There is much confusion
in the testimony bearing on the encounter and doubtless some lying,
but it is plain that Manning continued in command of his shallop and
accompanied the Dutchmen in their later operations.[35]
A small barque owned by Major Shapleigh of Piscataqua in New Hampshire
was taken shortly and found to have traded for peltry and also to have
brought provisions from Port Royal to the French at Gamshake on the
St. John river. The peltry and provisions were seized and the barque
dismissed. The Dutchmen, when on trial in Boston, claimed that this
barque had transported French from Port Royal to the St. John river and
supplied them with ammunition so that when Captain Roderigo arrived
that winter they were able to defend themselves and he was obliged to
return to Machias in Maine, where he had established a trading post.
The Dutch carried on a prosperous trade with the Indians that winter at
Machias and there was always the hope that the tri-colored flag of the
United Provinces might appear over a fleet coming to their assistance.
On March 10th, 1675, a vessel flying an English flag appeared off
shore. It was commanded by Thomas Cole of Nantasket. A boatload of
men, well armed, came ashore and finding only four men at the trading
post these were soon overpowered. The Dutch flag was pulled down, the
men taken prisoners and the winter’s store of peltry and trading goods
carried off. The Dutch afterwards testified in court that Cole ordered
Randall Judson’s[36] arms bound behind him and then put him ashore
where he remained for four days and nights without shelter or food, and
this was early in March on the eastern Maine coast.
It was to be expected that sooner or later the news of the capture
of the trading vessels would reach Boston. The shallop commanded by
George Manning was owned by John Feake, a Boston merchant, and Feb.
15, 1675, he appeared before Governor Leverett and the Magistrates
and made his complaint, that property had been piratically seized
and his vessel detained. He named Captain Rhoade as the principal
offender. William Waldron and others had already presented a protest.
Mr. Feake proposed that Capt. Samuel Mosely, afterwards the famous
Indian fighter, be instructed to organize an expedition to proceed to
the eastern parts and seize Rhoade and his company, and the Council at
once assented and ordered that no shipping in the harbor bound eastward
should be permitted to sail until after Captain Mosely and his company
had departed. Captain Mosely had recently been in command of an armed
vessel that had cruised about the island of Nantucket to protect Boston
interests against suspected attacks by the Dutch, and he was ready for
any new adventure. He received his instructions on Feb. 15, 1675 and
soon after sailed for the eastward. Before reaching the Dutchmen he
fell in with a French vessel which he induced to join his enterprise.
He provided her with men and ammunition and when these vessels bore
down on Captain Roderigo’s little fleet, Manning, who had gone into the
Dutch service at a wage of £7 per month, at once joined the new-comers
and without taking the trouble to haul down the tri-colored flag flying
from his topmast, opened fire on the Dutch vessels. Taken by surprise
and attacked by three vessels carrying English, French and Dutch
colors, resistance was soon over. The prisoners were closely confined,
their vessels were plundered of the peltry obtained during the winter’s
barter and their remaining trading stock was turned over to Boston
men who had accompanied the expedition and these traders were left
to continue the barter with the Indians while the victorious Captain
Mosely sailed back to Boston where he arrived on April 2d. Again, had
commercial greed brought about military attack. The Dutch, at war with
France, had seized French territory which previously had been exploited
by colonial traders, who, deprived of their rich opportunity for gain,
now seized the Dutch outpost.
The Court of Assistants met at Cambridge on April 7th and ordered
the pirates, as the prisoners were styled, confined in the prison at
Cambridge. The Dutch vessels and their fittings were appraised and left
in the hands of John Feake who had made the complaint of the alleged
piracy. At the examination of the prisoners, the day they reached
Boston, they frankly declared what had been done by them and justified
in writing their supposed authority. A special Court of Admiralty was
then summoned to meet on May 17th, but before the day arrived John
Feake, the complainant, was dead and buried. On May 4th, he had gone
on board a ship in the harbor, just arrived from Virginia, and while
in the great cabin with Captain Scarlett, one of the appraisers of
the Dutch vessels, in conference with the supercargo of the ship and
others, there was a great explosion resulting in the death of Feake,
Scarlett and the supercargo, and the wounding of nine others. The great
Increase Mather preached a sermon “Occasioned by this awful Providence.”
The Court of Admiralty sat on the day appointed and shortly declared
the Dutch vessels and their cargoes lawful prizes to be delivered to
the heirs of Feake as satisfaction for the injury done to the shallop
commanded by Manning. The Court then adjourned. A week later it
reassembled and Peter Roderigo and Cornelius Andreson were placed on
trial, charged with piratically seizing several small English vessels
and making prize of their goods, etc.[37] A verdict of guilty was
declared against Roderigo and he was sentenced to be hanged. Not long
after he petitioned the Great and General Court for his life and on May
12th “the Court judged it meete to grant the petitioner a full & free
pardon, according to his desire in his petition.” Roderigo found his
way again to the eastward and in June of the next year served in the
company of Capt. Joshua Scottow in Indian fighting about Black Point,
near Scarborough, Maine. On the other hand Andreson, who owned during
his examination that he had taken two English vessels, Waldron’s and
Hilliard’s, was not found guilty of piracy and the Court sent the jury
out again with instruction to “find what they could against him.” The
jury obediently brought in a verdict of guilty of “theft and robbery,”
based on the seizure of the peltry. He, too, was sentenced but later
pardoned.
It is a curious circumstance that this Cornelius Andreson should
shortly join the independent military company organized by Captain
Mosely to fight Indians in King Philip’s War which broke out soon
after the trials were concluded. Andreson also appears in Capt.
Thomas Wheeler’s company and fought bravely and with renown in the
attacks about Brookfield. At one time he was sent out as “Captain of a
forlorne” hope[38] and afterwards marched to Groton. On Oct. 13, 1675
he was about leaving the country and nothing is known of his later
history. Undoubtedly he was the “buccaneer,” mentioned by New England
historians as going with Captain Mosely against Philip near the end of
June. After the trial of Andreson, the Court again adjourned and on
June 17th the other prisoners were brought to trial. Capt. John Rhoade,
when asked why he fought against the King’s colors, replied that the
attacking vessels had fought under French, Dutch and English colors and
he thought that his company would be given no quarter, and therefore he
fought. Richard Tulford acknowledged that he had acted in company with
the others and had gone ashore at Casco Bay and brought off sheep said
to belong to Mr. Mountjoy, and that Thomas Mitchell had sent him. The
testimony of Peter Grant and Randall Judson was similar. John Thomas
said that he had sailed from Boston with Captain Roderigo and was
present at the taking of the vessels and when asked if he didn’t kill
a Frenchman he denied but confessed “that hee did shoote at him, but
knew not that hee hit him.”[39] John Williams told under examination
that he was a Cornishman and had sailed out of Jamaica with Captain
Morrice, but was captured by the Dutch and taken into Curacao, where
he had joined Captain Aernout’s privateering voyage and on reaching
Boston had remained and gone to the eastward with Captain Roderigo. He
had been ashore at Machias when the rest were captured. Thomas Mitchell
testified that he lived near Malden, Massachusetts, and that he had
come last from Pemaquid. He claimed that the English vessels had been
taken against his will, but he had eaten of the stolen mutton and also
had piloted his vessel from the St. John river to Twelve Penny harbor
where they had plundered one Lantrimong and killed his cattle. Edward
Uran of Boston, a former fisherman of the Isles of Shoals, had gone on
the expedition in Mitchell’s shallop and offered similar testimony.
The Court of Assistants presided over by Governor Leverett, found
Rhoade, Fulford, Grant and Judson each guilty of piracy and sentence
was pronounced directing that they be hanged “presently after the
lecture.” Thomas and Williams were acquitted and discharged. Mitchell
was ordered to pay treble satisfaction to Mr. George Mountjoy, i. e.,
£9.12.0 for the four stolen sheep, and Uran was to be “whipt with
twenty stripes.”
A week before the time set for the executions, King Philip went on
the warpath and all else, for the time, was forgotten in the fearful
danger of the emergency. The executions were postponed again and again.
Fulford before long was released without conditions[40] and Rhoade,
Grant and Judson were banished from the Colony after paying prison
charges and furnishing sureties, and there the affair ended so far as
they were concerned. As for the conquest of French Acadia in behalf
of the United Provinces, when the Amsterdam authorities learned of
what had taken place they at once recognized the services of John
Rhoade of Boston, the pilot of the Dutch cruiser, and authorized him
to hold possession of Acadia and to carry on unlimited trade with the
natives. This was on Sept. 11, 1676, and over a year after he had
been sentenced to death for piracy while carrying out the very policy
now laid down by the nation that had subjugated the territory. He had
acted clearly within his rights and any exceptions that might have been
taken were questions between the United Provinces and England, then at
peace for some time, and so the matter was then regarded outside the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
When the news of the trial and condemnation of the Dutch officers
and their associates reached the States-General, their ambassador
to England was immediately instructed to demand the release of the
prisoners, the restoration of the territory and the punishment of the
offending authorities, and after much procrastination the Council
addressed an order to “The Bostoners in New England,”[41] requiring
a speedy answer to the complaint. Governor Leverett’s answer calmly
recited what had been done by the Colony and stated that there had not
been any violation of the peace between the two nations. Meanwhile,
Captain Rhoade’s commission had reached him and he undertook to use the
authority conferred upon him and got into trouble in consequence, for
he sailed into the river St. George and undertook to trade there and
was taken prisoner and with his vessel and goods sent to New York. The
Dutch West India Company of course protested and demand was made for
the release and indemnification of Captain Rhoade. This was on May 21,
1679. The complaint was renewed and much correspondence followed but
nothing very definite appears as a result. The main issue was lost in a
maze of diplomatic correspondence and evasive reports, and so ended the
conquest of Acadia by the Dutch and the charges and counter-charges of
piracy on the Maine coast.
FOOTNOTES
[35] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. LXI, leaves 117, 118.
[36] He was one of the colonists who had joined Captain Roderigo in
Boston.
[37] _Records of the Court of Assistants_, Vol. I, p. 35.
[38] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. LXVIII, leaf 7.
[39] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. LXI, leaf 72.
[40] He belonged in Muscongus, Maine, and had married a daughter of
Richard Pearce.
[41] _Massachusetts Historical Society Colls._ 4th Ser., Vol. II, p.
286.