AMONG THE WEST INDIA PIRATES
A BREED OF COWARDLY CUTTHROATS LEGITIMATELY DESCENDED FROM THE
LICENSED PRIVATEERS AND NOURISHED UNDER THE PECULIAR CONDITIONS
OF CLIMATE, GEOGRAPHY, AND GOVERNMENTAL ANARCHY PREVAILING AROUND
AND IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA--COMMODORE PERRY LOSES HIS LIFE BECAUSE
OF THEM--WILLIAM HOWARD ALLEN KILLED--PIRATE CAVES WITH THE BONES
OF DEAD IN THEM--PORTO RICO TREACHERY--THE UNFORTUNATE FOXARDO
AFFAIR--MAKING THE COASTS OF SUMATRA AND AFRICA SAFE FOR AMERICAN
TRADERS.
A direct and necessary result of the licensing of privateers, which
prevailed throughout the wars between France and England, and England
and the United States up to the year 1815, was the development of a
horde of pirates in the West Indies. The lust of prize-money worked
on the minds of the baser sort of sailors who had been members of
the crews of privateers until the distinction between flags was
nothing--even the distinction between a lawful flag and a black one was
of no moment. From shedding the blood of non-combatants under license
in time of war it was but a short step to the murder of seamen and
passengers on common cargo-carriers in time of peace.
Moreover, the condition of governmental affairs in the West Indies and
along the Spanish main was near that of anarchy. The Spanish American
colonies were in a state of revolt against the crown, and yet they
cannot be said to have had a stable government anywhere. There was,
indeed, a form of government on the north coast of South America and
another at Buenos Ayres--mere military dictatorships at best--but
these, instead of serving the ends of peace and order, really promoted
robbery on the high seas; for they issued licenses to swift-sailing
vessels that went forth ostensibly to prey lawfully on the commerce of
Spain, but, when once at sea, did not hesitate to take any well-laden
merchantman they found, appropriate so much of the cargo as was of
value, and then sink her and her crew and passengers together.
Naturally other ships were fitted out, to prey on commerce, that had
not even the flag of a country like the South American republics. It
was not difficult to find capitalists to support such enterprises and
merchants who were literally “fences” for sea robbers. There were
spirits who did not need any capital beyond a sword, men who would
get a ship by taking it with a crew of their own kind. Nevertheless,
the curse of the criminal was upon them this far, that they never
dared venture so far from their hiding-places as to attack the packet
trade that crossed the Banks of Newfoundland _en route_ between Europe
and the northern ports of the United States. And this seems a little
curious, too, for rich prizes might have been had there.
The geographical conditions of the waters favored them, for the
Caribbean Sea was a sea of a thousand islands and ten thousand inlets
and bays, where the piratical craft might hide ship and plunder, and
fit out for further depredations. And it was a climate to delight the
lazy, while fruits and wild animals for food abounded, and the morals
of the inhabitants that were nominally law-biding were of a grade to
suit the pirates.
After the peace was made between the United States and England the
Yankee merchants hastened to retrieve the losses they had endured
during the prolonged trouble, by engaging once more in the West India
trade. It was a lucrative trade. A ship that hit the market just right
might clear the cost of her in a single voyage. But as time went by,
the number that sailed from port and never returned, although no
hurricane had been encountered, and the number that came in with tales
of races for life with vessels that swarmed with eager cutthroats,
increased until, in the year 1819, the Government of the United States
undertook the task of clearing the sea of the vicious horde.
It was not as easy a task as it would seem to one who in this day reads
of the matter. For the leaders of the states in South America were
striving under the most adverse circumstances to set up republican
forms of government. They were patriots in principle. The Monroe
doctrine had not yet taken form, but the people of the Anglo-Saxon
republic looked upon the efforts of the Latin-Americans with a kindly
eye, holding fast to the doctrine that “the cure for the evils of
liberty is more liberty.” It was necessary to destroy the pirates and
yet at the same time aid rather than injure the young nations of the
continent.
Accordingly Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of Lake Erie (he
was commodore by courtesy only, captain being the highest rank in
the navy), was detailed to the work. He had the _John Adams_ for a
flagship, and the _Constellation_, Captain Alexander Scammel Wadsworth,
and the _Nonsuch_, Captain Alexander Claxton, for his squadron.
[Illustration: United States Sloop-of-War _Albany_ Under Sail.
_From the “Kedge Anchor.”_]
That was an unfortunate assignment for Perry. He reached the mouth of
the Orinoco on July 15, 1819, shifted his flag to the _Nonsuch_, that
alone could cross the bar, and started up the river to Angostura,
then the capital of the country. It was a river trip of three hundred
miles. His journal tells a pitiful story of that journey--a story of
suffering from the dead, hot air; of the feverish thirst, of the fierce
onslaught of myriads of winged insects; of sitting in smudges to escape
the insects; of trying to sleep in the suffocating berths, “until
almost mad with the heat and pain.”
On July 26th Angostura was reached. Perry wanted a list of the vessels
licensed by the republic and compensation for an American vessel that
had been unlawfully condemned. President Bolivar was away, but the
Vice-president, Don Antonio Francisco Zea, promised to do all in his
power to make the matters right--“_mañana_,” to-morrow. Perry went to
live on shore. The yellow fever prevailed. Two foreigners in the house
with Perry died of it. The crew of the _Nonsuch_ became infected. The
natives did all they could to annoy the Americans, but on August 11th
a satisfactory official reply was received from the government. With
it came an invitation to a state banquet to be given in honor of the
Americans on the 14th. Perry felt obliged to accept.
On the 15th he sailed for the sea and arrived at the bar on the night
of the 17th, but the fever had clutched him. He awoke at 4 o’clock on
the morning of the 18th in a chill; the fever rapidly developed, and
just as the ship was entering the Port of Spain, Trinidad Island, he
died.
As it happened, a number of British officers were stationed here,
who had fought against Perry on Lake Erie. They had learned that he
was to visit the port and had made every preparation to give him a
hearty British welcome, and when they learned that he was dead, they
showed him every honor at his funeral. His body was afterward taken to
Newport, Rhode Island.
[Illustration: A Ship-of-War’s Cutter.
_From the “Kedge Anchor.”_]
Until 1821 nothing more of consequence appears to have been done to
suppress the pirates. In this year the famous sloop-of-war _Hornet_,
Captain Robert Henley; the famous brig _Enterprise_, Captain Lawrence
Kearny; the brig _Spark_ and the schooners _Porpoise_ and _Grampus_,
with three gun-boats, were sent down. It was as if eight policemen
had been assigned to enforce the laws and preserve order in the whole
of the Greater New York. However, the force went to work in earnest,
and soon proved that the pirates were cowards in the face of naval
authorities. On October 16, 1821, four pirate schooners and a sloop
were found plundering three American merchantmen near Cape Antonio.
Captain Kearny of the _Enterprise_ sent five row-boats with his men
after the pirates, who fired two of their schooners and tried to escape
in the other three vessels. The three vessels were taken, however,
with forty of the pirates, who were sent to Charleston. A month later
a pirate resort on shore was destroyed near the same point, and in
December another schooner was captured, although its crew escaped
ashore. On March 6, 1822, the _Enterprise_ captured four pirate barges
and three launches with one hundred and sixty men. The _Enterprise_ was
still a lucky ship. Meantime the _Hornet_ and the _Porpoise_ had done
almost as well.
In 1822 Commodore James Biddle came down in the _Macedonian_ with
a large addition to the fleet. The _Shark_, under Captain Matthew
Calbraith Perry, captured five pirate vessels and helped in the
capture of the _Bandara de Sangare_, a piratical vessel very well known
in that day, while the _Grampus_ took the _Pandrita_, a vessel of
superior force to herself, and as well known as the _Sangare_.
On October 16th the _Grampus_ captured a brigantine that was flying
Spanish colors, which proved to be the Porto Rico privateer _Palmira_.
But the _Palmira_ had recently plundered the American schooner
_Coquette_. She was one of the commissioned vessels that plundered
indiscriminately. Nevertheless the Porto Rico authorities took revenge
the next year, as will appear further on. The _Palmira_ carried a long
eighteen and eight short ones--she was a formidable craft of her kind.
[Illustration: Lashing up Hammocks.
_Front the “Kedge Anchor.”_]
Lieutenant William Howard Allen, who had had command of the _Argus_,
after her captain was killed in the fight with the _Pelican_, was at
this time in command of the _Alligator_. On November 8, 1822, he
went after a force of pirates three hundred strong that, with three
schooners, had five merchantmen in their possession, only forty-five
miles east of Matanzas, Cuba. He found them in shoal water and ordered
away the boats, himself taking the lead. The pirates, far outnumbering
Allen’s force, made something of a resistance. Allen was struck twice
and mortally wounded, but his men kept on and routed the pirates,
capturing one of their schooners and freeing the merchantmen. Fourteen
of the pirates were killed and an unknown number wounded.
In 1823 Captain David Porter, of _Essex_ fame, took command of the
force operating against the pirates. Farragut came with him, but not in
command of a vessel. He added five twenty-oar barges to his fleet, and
eight small schooners of three guns each, together with a small steam
ferryboat from New York called the _Sea-gull_.
Captain Porter desired first of all to get the help of the local
governments, and sailed to Porto Rico; and on March 3, 1823, sent
the _Greyhound_, under Captain John Porter, in with a letter to the
governor. Later the _Fox_, Captain W. H. Cocke, was sent in for an
answer. As the _Fox_ entered the port a fort opened fire on her and
Cocke was killed. The port authorities explained the matter, on
inquiry, by saying that the governor had gone away, leaving orders to
fire on any suspicious craft entering the harbor, and the _Fox_ looked
suspicious in their eyes; but it was believed that the firing was
intended to sink the _Fox_ in revenge for the capture of the piratical
_Palmira_.
[Illustration: A Ship-of-War’s Launch.
_From the “Kedge Anchor.”_]
At Cape Cruz a pirate resort was discovered that fully sustains the
most ghastly stories of the sensational novel writers. It was captured
by crews of the _Greyhound_ and _Beagle_, under Captains Lawrence
Kearny and J. S. Newton, after a desperate resistance. The pirate
commander had a wife, who fought by his side with a fierceness equal
to his own, and it was with great difficulty that she was overcome.
When the fight was over an exploration showed that a number of caves
had been used by the pirates. Bales of merchandise in some, and
quantities of human bones in others, told a horrible story.
In April of 1823 the twenty-oar barges _Gallinipper_, Lieutenant
William H. Watson, and the _Mosquito_, Lieutenant William Inman, chased
a pirate schooner and a barge into the bay where Allen had lost his
life the year before, and there the pirates anchored with springs on
their cables, and made a fight. There were over seventy of the pirates,
and the Americans were short-handed, having only thirty-one, all told.
But they raised the cry of “Remember Allen!” and made a dash that
drove the pirates overboard helter-skelter. The blood of the Yankee
sailors had grown hot at the cry, and without stopping to take the
pirate vessels they rowed in among the swimming cutthroats, and plied
right and left with pikes and cutlasses, so that few if any escaped
either death or capture, and there were but five prisoners. These were
given to the Spanish authorities, and executed. The schooner had been
captured from the Spanish. The pirate leader was known as Diabolito--a
word that means “little devil.” He was killed while swimming for the
shore.
On the whole, the work of Porter’s fleet was rapidly clearing the
waters of the pirate plague. Nevertheless, when he compelled a Porto
Rico Alcalde to show a proper respect for an American officer, the
United States Government drove him from the navy. The trouble began
near the end of 1824. The storehouse of the American consul at St.
Thomas had been robbed, and Lieutenant Charles T. Platt of the _Beagle_
learned that the property was concealed at Foxardo, a port on the east
side of Porto Rico. Going to Foxardo, Platt landed with Midshipman
Robert Ritchie and made known the _Beagle’s_ errand.
Unquestionably Platt made one mistake. He went ashore in the clothes of
a common citizen instead of wearing his uniform. If there is anything
that incenses an official of one of the little American states, it is
to have an official of a big state omit any of the forms and ceremonies
usual to official business. The Foxardo officials pretended to doubt
that Platt was an American officer, and demanded his commission. When
this was exhibited they declared it a forgery, and that Platt was
a pirate. Then they imprisoned both Platt and the midshipman, and
treated both with great indignity before allowing them to return to the
_Beagle_.
When the matter was reported to Porter, he took the _John Adams_,
the _Beagle_, and the _Grampus_ to Foxardo, and sent a letter dated
November 12, 1824, to the Alcalde, demanding an explanation. While he
awaited a reply he saw the soldiers on shore preparing a battery to
fire on the Americans, and a force was sent to spike the guns of this
and another battery, a service that was performed without opposition.
Finding that the Americans were in earnest, the Foxardo authorities
apologized and expressed proper regrets for the treatment of Platt and
the midshipman.
[Illustration: Sailor’s Mess-table.
_From the “Kedge Anchor.”_]
Porter reported the whole matter home, but instead of approval received
an order to return home and face a court-martial. After trial he was
sentenced to suffer suspension for six months, when he resigned his
commission.
It was a most unfortunate affair. It was a shameful thing to allow the
hero of the _Essex_ to leave the navy, but what was worse than that
was the fact that a precedent was established that rules to this day.
An American naval officer protects an American citizen--protects even
his own shipmates--from insult at the hands of a foreign official at
his peril. When an American naval officer raises his sword between
even the most contemptible of foreign officials and one who wears the
American uniform the shadow of “the Foxardo affair,” and of a long
train of similar affairs, comes upon him to relax his grasp.
Captain Lewis Warrington having succeeded Porter, he found the work
almost completed. Following in Porter’s policy of keeping the lighter
vessels actively employed, a number of actions similar to those already
described occurred, and thereafter, save for an occasional gathering
of the members of the old coast brotherhood, there was no outbreak of
piratical doings. The steamer _Sea-gull_ did not, so far as appears
by the record, accomplish anything of moment; and yet the continued
increase in the use of steam at sea did, after Porter broke up the
pirate nests in 1823 and 1824, make it impossible for the black flag to
float on the sea, even in sporadic cases.