THE LAST OF THE BUCCANEERS.
Sieur de Montauban--Wonderful escape from an explosion--Life in
Africa--Laurence de Graff--His victories--Enters French
service--Treachery--Buccaneers join in French expedition and take
Carthagena--Buccaneer sharpshooters--Treachery of French--Buccaneers
return and retake the city--Captured in return by English and Dutch
fleets--1698--Buccaneers wrecked with French--Grammont takes
Santiago--Sacks Maracaibo, Gibraltar, and Torilla--Lands at
Cumana--Enters French service--Lost in his last cruise.
Of all the motley characters of Buccaneer history, Montauban appears one
of the most extraordinary. His friends describe him to have been as
prudent as he was brave, blunt and sincere, relating his own adventures
with a free and generous air that convinced the hearer of their truth,
and at last consenting to write his story, not from ostentation, but
from the simple desire of giving a French minister of state a narrative
of his campaigns. He is interesting to us as the latest known Buccaneer,
and in strict parlance he can scarcely be classed as a Buccaneer at all,
attacking the English as he did more than the Spanish, and not confining
his cruises to the Spanish main.
He begins his book with great _naivete_ thus: "Since I have so often
felt the malignant influence of those stars that preside over the seas,
and by an adverse fortune lost all that wealth which with so much care
and trouble I had amassed together, I should take no manner of pleasure
in this place to call to mind the misfortunes that befel me before the
conclusion of the last campaign, had not a desire of serving still both
the public and particular persons, as well as to let his majesty know
the affection and weddedness I have always had for his service, made me
take pen in hand to give Mons. de Phelipeaux an account of such
observations as I have made; wherein he may also find with what
eagerness I have penetrated to the remotest colonies of our enemies, in
order to destroy them and ruin their trade. I was not willing to swell
up this relation with an account of all the voyages I have made, and all
the particular adventures that have befallen me on the coasts of New
Spain, Carthagena, Mexico, Florida, and Cape Verd, which last place I
had been at twenty years ago, having begun to use the seas at the age of
sixteen." He goes on to say that he will not stop to relate how, in
1691, in a ship called the _Machine_, he ravaged the coasts of New
Guinea, and, entering the great Serelion, took a fort from the English
and split twenty-four pieces of cannon, but will confine himself simply
to his last voyage; "Some information," he says, "having been given
thereof, by the noise made in France and elsewhere of the burning my
ship, and the terrible crack it made in the air."
In the year 1694, having ravaged the coast of Caracca, he went towards
St. Croix, to watch for some merchant ships and a fleet expected from
Barbadoes and Nevis, bound for England. Sailing towards the Bermudas,
expecting good booty, he saw them coming towards him without any
apprehension of danger. He at once attacked the convoy (_The Wolf_), and
took her and two merchant ships laden with sugar, the rest escaping
during the fight. Returning with his prizes to France, he captured an
English ship of sixteen guns from Spain and bound for England, which
surrendered after a short fight. This last vessel he took to Rochelle
and sold it, the Admiralty declaring it good prize; the last he took to
Bordeaux and sold to the merchants. Here abandoning themselves to
pleasure after a long abstinence, many of his men deserted him, and he
supplied their place with youths from the town, who soon became as
expert as veterans. "I made it," he says, "my continual care and
business to teach my men to shoot, and my so frequent exercising of them
rendered them in a short time as capable of shooting and handling their
arms as the oldest sea freebooters, or the best fowlers by land."
Re-victualling his ship, that carried only thirty-four guns, he left
Bordeaux in February, 1695, to cruise on the coast of Guinea. From the
Azores he passed the Canary Islands, and sailed for fourteen days in
sight of Teneriffe, in hopes of meeting some Dutch vessels, that after
all escaped him, and at the Cape de Verd Islands he pursued two English
interlopers of thirty guns each, who left behind in the roads their
anchors and shallops. He then went in search of a Dutch guard-ship, of
thirty-four guns, along the neighbouring coast. Decoying the foe by
showing Dutch colours, he waited till he got within cannon shot,
hoisting the French flag, gave her a signal to strike, and then
exchanged broadsides. They fought from early morning till four in the
afternoon, without Montauban being able to get the weather-gauge, or
approach near enough to use his chief arms--his fusils. Taking advantage
of a favourable wind, the Dutchman then anchored under the fort of the
Cape of Three-points, where two other Dutch men-of-war lay, one of
fourteen and the other of twenty-eight guns. Thinking the three vessels
had leagued to fight him, Montauban anchored within a league of the
shore, hoping to provoke them out by continued insults, but the
guard-ship, already much mauled, would not move. This vessel, he found
afterwards, had driven away a French flute. At Cape St. John he took
with little difficulty an English ship of twenty guns, carrying 350
negroes, and much wax and elephants' teeth. The English captain had
killed some of his blacks in a mutiny, and others had escaped in the
shallop, which they stole. At Prince's Isle he took a small Bradenburg
caper (a pirate), mounted with eight pieces of cannon, and carrying
sixty men. He then put into port to careen, and sent his prize to St.
Domingo to be condemned and sold, putting the Sieur de Nave and a crew
on board, but the ship was taken by some English men-of-war before
Little Goara. To keep his men employed during the careening, Montauban
fitted up the caper, and with ninety men cruised for six weeks without
success, and, then putting into the Isle of St. Thomas, trucked the
prize for provisions, and started for the coasts of Angola, hearing
that three English men-of-war and a fire-ship were fitting out against
him at Guinea. On his way he chased a Dutch interloper, laden with 150
pounds of gold dust, but she ran ashore on the Isle of St. Omer and fell
to pieces.
When approaching the coasts of Angola, and not far from the port of
Cabinda, he saw an English vessel of fifty-four guns bearing down upon
him. To decoy her Montauban hung out Dutch colours, while the English
fired guns, as a signal of friendship. The Frenchman, pretending to
wait, sailed slow, as if heavy laden or encumbered for want of sails and
men. "We kept in this manner," writes the privateersman, "from break of
day till ten in the forenoon. He gave me a gun from time to time without
ball, to assure me of what he was, but finding at last I did not answer
him on my part in the same manner, he gave me one again with ball, which
made me presently put up French colours, and answer him with another.
Hereupon the English captain, without any more ado, gave me two
broadsides, which I received without returning him one again, though he
had killed me seven men; for I was in hopes, if I could have got
something nearer to him, to put him out of condition ever to get away
from me. I endeavoured to come within a fusil shot of him and was
desirous to give him an opportunity to show his courage in boarding me,
since I could not so well do the same by him, as being to the leeward.
At last being come by degrees nearer, and finding him within the reach
of my fusils, which for that end I kept concealed upon the deck from his
sight, they were discharged upon him, and my men continued to make so
great a fire with them, that the enemy on their part began quickly to
flag. In the mean time, as their ship's crew consisted of above 300 men
and that they saw their cannon could not do their work for them, they
resolved to board us, which they did with a great shout and terrible
threatenings of giving no quarter, if we did not surrender. Their
grappling-irons failing to catch the stern of my ship, made theirs run
in such a manner, that their stern ran upon my boltsprit and broke it.
Having observed my enemy thus encumbered, my men plied them briskly with
their small shot, and made so terrible a fire upon them for an hour and
a-half, that being unable to resist any longer, and having lost a great
many men, they left the sport and ran down between decks, and I saw them
presently after make signals with their hats of crying out for quarter.
I caused my men therefore to give over their firing, and commanded the
English to embark in their shallops and come on board of me, while I
made some of my crew at the same time leap into the enemy's ship and
seize her, and so prevent any surprise from them. I already rejoiced
within myself for the taking of such a considerable prize, and so much
the more in that I hoped that after having taken this vessel, that was
the guard-ship of Angola, and the largest the English had in those seas,
I should find myself in a condition still to take better prizes, and
attack any man-of-war I should meet with. My ship's crew were also as
joyful as myself, and did the work they were engaged in with a great
deal of pleasure; but the enemy's powder suddenly taking fire, by the
means of a match the captain had left burning on purpose, as hoping he
might escape with his two shallops, blew both the ships into the air,
_and made the most horrible crack that was ever heard_. It is impossible
to set forth this horrid spectacle to the life; the spectators
themselves were the actors of this bloody scene, _not knowing whether
they saw it or not_, and not being able to judge of that which
themselves felt. Wherefore leaving the reader to imagine the horror
which the blowing up of two ships above 200 fathoms into the air must
work in us, where there was formed as it were a mountain of water, fire,
wreck of the ships, cordages, cannon, men, and a most horrible clap
made, what with the cannon that went off in the air, and the waves of
the sea that were tossed up thither, to which we may add the cracking of
masts and boards, the rending of the sails and ropes, the cries of men,
and the breaking of bones--I say, leaving these things to the
imagination of the reader, I shall only take notice of what befell
myself, and by what good fortune it was that I escaped.
"When the fire first began I was upon the fore-deck of my own ship,
where I gave the necessary orders. Now I was carried up on part of the
said deck so high, that I fancy it was the height alone prevented my
being involved in the wreck of the ships, where I must infallibly have
perished, and been cut into a thousand pieces. I fell back into the sea
(_you may be sure giddy-headed enough_), and continued a long time under
water, without being able to get up to the surface of it. At last
falling into a debate with the water, as a person who was afraid of
being drowned, I got upon the face of it, and laid hold of a broken
piece of a mast that I found near. I called to some of my men whom I saw
swimming round about me, and exhorted them to take courage, hoping we
might yet save our lives, if we could light upon any one of our
shallops. But what afflicted me more than my very misfortune, was to see
two half bodies, who had still somewhat of life remaining in them, from
time to time mount up to the face of the water, and leave the place
where they remained all dyed with blood. It was also much the same thing
to see round about a vast number of members and scattered parts of men's
bodies, and most of them spitted upon splinters of wood. At last one of
my men, having met with a whole shallop among all the wreck, that swam
up and down upon the water, came to tell me that we must endeavour to
stop some holes therein, and to take out the canoe that lay on board
her.
"We got, to the number of fifteen or sixteen of us who had escaped, near
unto this shallop, every man upon his piece of wood, and took the pains
to loosen our canoe, which at length we effected. We went all on board
her, and after we had got in saved our chief gunner, who in the fight
had had his leg broke. We took up three or four oars, or pieces of
board, which served us to that purpose, and when we had done that we
sought out for somewhat to make a sail and a little mast, and, having
fitted up all things as well as we possibly could, committed ourselves
to the Divine Providence, who alone could give us life and deliverance.
As soon as I had done working I found myself all over besmeared with
blood, that ran from a wound I had received on my head at the time of my
fall. We made some lint out of my handkerchief, and a fillet to bind it
withal out of my shirt, after I had first washed the wound with urine.
The same thing was done to the rest that had been wounded, and our
shallop in the meanwhile sailed along without our knowing where we were
going, and, what was still more sad, without victuals, and we had
already spent three days without either eating or drinking. One of our
men, being greatly afflicted with hunger and thirst at the same time,
drank so much salt water that he died of it." Most of the men vomited
continually, Montauban's body swelled, and he was finally cured of his
dropsy by a quartan-ague. All his hair and one side of his face and body
were burnt with powder, and he bled as "bombardiers do at sea," at the
nose, ears, and mouth.
But this was no time, he says manfully, for a consultation of
physicians, while they were dying of hunger, so leaving the English,
they forced their way over the bar of Carthersna, an adverse wind
preventing their landing at the port of Cabinda. Here they found some
oysters sticking to the trees that grew round a pond, and opening them
with their clasp knives, which they lent, Montauban says, "charitably
and readily to each other," they made a lusty meal.
Having spent two days there, they divided into three small companies,
and went up the country, but could find no houses, and see nothing but
herds of buffaloes that fled from them. On reaching Cape Corsa they
found negroes assembled to furnish ships with wood and water in exchange
for brandy, knives, and hatchets.
Montauban, who had often traded in these parts, knew several of the
natives, and tried to make them believe he was the man he represented;
but disfigured as he was by his late misfortune, they considered him an
impostor. In their own language he told them he was dying of famine,
but could get nothing but a few bananas to eat.
He then desired them to carry him and his men to Prince Thomas, the son
to the king of that country, upon whom he had conferred many favours.
But the Prince refused to recognize him, till he showed him the scar of
a wound in his thigh which he had once seen when they bathed together.
On seeing this the Prince rose and embraced him; commanded victuals to
be given to his men; expressed his sorrow for their misfortunes; and
quartered them among his negro lords. Montauban he kept at his own
expense, and made him eat at his own table. In a few days he took him
some leagues up the country in a canoe, to see the king his father, who
ruled over a village of 300 huts among the marshes. The high priest was
just dead, and during the funeral ceremonies, lasting for seven days,
Montauban was regaled with elephant's flesh. The king he found
surrounded by women, and guarded by negroes armed with lances and
fusils. Flags, trumpets, and drums preceded this monarch of a realm of
hunters, who was himself clothed in a robe of white and blue striped
cotton. The black prince shook the French captain by the hand, being the
first man whose hand he had ever thus honoured. He asked many questions
about his brother of France, and when he heard that he sometimes waged
war with England and Holland singlehanded, and sometimes with Germany
and Spain, the king expressed himself pleased, and, calling for palm
wine, said he would drink the French king's health, and as he drank the
drums and trumpets sounded, just as they do in Hamlet, and the negro
guard discharged their pieces. Prince Thomas then asked the name of the
French king who was so powerful, and being told it was Louis le Grand,
declared he would give that name to his son, who was about to be
baptised, and that Montauban should be godfather. He also expressed his
hope that at some future voyage Montauban would carry the child to
France, and present him to the brother monarch, and have him brought up
in that country. "Assure him," said the same prince, "that I am his
friend, and that if he has occasion for my service, I will go myself
into France, with all the lances and fusils belonging to the king my
father." The king said, if need were he would go himself in person. At
this generous promise the guard discharged their muskets frantically,
and the men and women shouted their admiration. The drums and trumpets
went to it again, and the spearmen ran from one side to the other,
uttering horrible cries, sounding like pain, but expressive of joy. Then
the glasses went round faster, and the ceremony concluded by the negro
king presenting Montauban with two cakes of wax. The white men now rose
in public estimation. Whenever they stirred out, they were followed by
crowds of negroes bringing presents of fruits and buffalo flesh, never
having seen a white face before, and generally supposing the devil to be
of that colour. Sable philosophers begged to be allowed to scrape their
skin with knives, till the king issued an edict forbidding any one,
under pain, scraping or rubbing the strangers.
The baptism passed off with great _eclat_. There being no priest in the
town who knew how to baptize, or remembered the words of the service, a
priest was procured from a Portuguese ship lying at the Cape. The
freebooter speaks with much unction of his sponsorship. "I did it with
so much the more pleasure," quoth he, "in that I was helping to make a
Christian and sanctify a soul."
A few days after this ceremony, which afforded so much satisfaction to
Montauban's tender conscience, he determined to embark on board an
English ship lying at the Cape; but the black king would not have him
trust himself into the hands of his enemies, and soon after he set sail
in a Portuguese vessel that arrived to barter iron, arms, and brandy,
for ivory, wax, and negroes. Two of his men, who had strayed up the
country, he left behind. The Portuguese captain turned out to be an old
friend, and took him at once to St. Thomas's, and here he stayed a
month, the governor of the island showing him a thousand civilities. He
then embarked on board an English vessel, with whose captain he
contracted an intimate friendship, in spite of the governor's warnings.
He gave up his own cabin to Montauban, to use our adventurer's own
words, "with all the pleasure and diversion he could think of, for the
solacing of my spirits under the afflictions I had from time to time
endured."
A tedious sail of three months brought them to Barbadoes. During this
time, his provisions running short, the English captain began to regret
having taken up his French passengers, and reduced their daily allowance
by three-fourths. On arriving at the port, Colonel Russel blamed the
captain for having brought such visitors, and forbade him under pain of
death to land; but some Jewish physicians declaring that he must die if
he did not, the governor consented, keeping a strict watch upon the sick
man, and telling him to understand that he and his fellows were
prisoners of war. Montauban replied that he had only embarked on the
faith of the English captain, on whose friendship he relied. He
promised, if liberty were granted, them, he would be ever mindful of
the favour, and would either pay the colonel a ransom, or restore at a
future time any prisoners belonging to the island.
"No," replied the governor, "I will have neither your ransom nor your
prisoners, and you are too brave a man for me to have no compassion upon
your many misfortunes. I desire, on the contrary, that you will accept
of these forty pistoles, which I present you with to supply your present
occasions." A vessel soon after arrived from Martinique, and Montauban
went on board with two of his men, all that could be collected. The
English governor, when he thanked him at parting, prayed him to be kind
to any English that fell into his hands, and lamented the war
regulations that compelled him to severity.
On arriving at Port Royal, at Martinique, Mons. de Blenac, the governor,
who was then dying, made him stay at his house, and relate every day his
adventure with the English vessel. In the same breath, Montauban praises
De Blenac's wisdom, justice, integrity, and knowledge of all the coasts
and heights of land in America. In a few days the freebooter embarked in
the _Virgin_ for Bordeaux, and we lose sight of his stalwart figure and
scarred face among the bustling eager crowds that fill the streets of
that busy seaport. We have a shrewd suspicion that Sieur de Montauban
did not die in a bed, but with his face to the foe and his back on a
bloody plank. There is something delightfully sincere and _naive_ in the
sort of out-loud thinking with which he concludes his simple "yarn."
"I do not know whether I have bid the sea adieu, so much has my last
misfortune terrified me, or whether I shall go out again to be revenged
on the English, who have done me so much mischief, or go and traverse
the seas with a design to get me a little wealth, or rest quiet and eat
up what my relations have left me. _There is a strange inclination in
men to undertake voyages_, as there is to gaming; whatever misfortunes
befall them, they do not believe they will be always unhappy, and
therefore will play on. Thus it is as to the sea, whatever accidents
befall us, we are in hopes to find a favourable opportunity to make us
amends for all our losses. I believe, whoever reads this account will
find it a hard task to give me counsel thereupon, or to take the same
himself."
LAURENCE DE GRAFF, our next hero, was a Dutchman by birth, and served
first in the service of Spain as a sailor and a gunner. He soon became
remarkable as a good shot, and renowned for his address and bravery, his
bearing being equally attractive and commanding. Going to America, he
carried these talents to the best market, and, being taken prisoner by
the corsairs, became a Buccaneer, and soon rose to independent command.
His name grew so terrible to the Spaniards, that the monks used to pray
God in their prayers to deliver them from "Lorencillo," and the whole
brotherhood used his name as a war-cry to strike terror. Vessels struck
their flag when they heard that shout, and the horsemen fled before it
through the savannah. Knowing that the Spaniards would not forgive him
the injuries he had inflicted on them, De Graff never fought without
strewing powder on the deck, or having a gunner with a lighted match
ready to blow up the powder magazine at the first signal. On one
occasion the people of Carthagena, knowing that he was sailing near the
port in a single small vessel, despatched two frigates to bring him
bound to land. Lorencillo, believing himself lost, had already given
orders to blow up the vessel, when, making a last desperate effort, he
captured both of his enemies. These men were never so formidable as when
surrounded by an overwhelming force. On another occasion the admiral and
vice-admiral of the galleon fleet had orders to take him at all risks,
which they should easily have done, as each of their vessels carried
sixty guns. Finding it impossible to escape, Laurence animated his crew,
and told them that in victory lay their only hope of life. The gunner
was placed as usual ready beside the magazine, and then running boldly
between the two vessels, De Graff poured in a volley of musketry and
killed forty-eight Spaniards. The action still continued, when a French
shot carried away the mainmast of the largest galleon, and her consort,
afraid to board, left Lorencillo the conqueror. The report of this
victory produced a great sensation both at Paris and Madrid. The French
sent the conqueror letters of naturalization and a pardon for the death
of Van Horn, and the court of Spain issued orders to cut off the head of
their recreant admiral.
At another time Laurence was cruising near Carthagena, in company with
the French captains, Michel Jonque, Le Sage, and Breac. The Spaniards,
thinking to catch him alone, sent out two thirty-six gun ships and a
small craft of six guns, which overtook him in a bay to leeward of the
city. Surprised to see him well guarded, they endeavoured to escape, but
Laurence attacked them, and after an eight hours' action, having killed
400 Spaniards, took the admiral's ship, Jonque's capturing its
companion. Laurence's prize, however, was soon after driven ashore, and
the prisoners escaped.
Captain Laurence is at this time described as a tall, fair man, with
light hair and moustachios. He was fond of music, and kept a band of
violins and trumpets on board his ship. On one occasion landing in
Jamaica, the French levelled the three intrenchments, spiked the cannon,
burnt a town, and retreated to their ships--carrying off 3000 negroes,
and much indigo and merchandise. The island was saved by the fact of the
inhabitants of one corner having fortified all their houses, and turned
each into an inaccessible and unscalable fort. In the attack of one of
these alone Captain Le Sage and fifty men were killed. The English say
that there were 7000 fugitive negroes in the mountains, anxious to join
the French, and to escape to St. Domingo, but the French, taking them
for enemies, fled at their approach.
Afraid of retaliation, Hispaniola now prepared for defence. Le Sieur de
Graff commanded at Cape Francois, and was to lay ambuscades and throw up
intrenchments, and dispute every inch with the Spaniards or the English.
If the enemy was too strong he was ordered to spike his cannon, blow up
his powder, and fall back to Port de Paix. In 1695 the Spaniards and
English landed with 6000 men. Contrary to all expectation, De Graff,
perhaps too old for service, wasted eight days in reconnoitring, and
abandoned post after post. His men lost all courage when they saw his
irresolution. His lieutenant, Le Chevalier de Leon, also deserted his
guns without a blow, De Graff merely remarking that it was only
twenty-eight cannon lost. A succession of disasters followed, and
nothing but climate and the quarrels of the allies saved the desolated
colony.
In 1686, De Graff was made major in the French army, and henceforward
fought with more or less fidelity for the country that had ennobled him.
Not long after this event, the termination of all his glory, being a
widower, he married Anne Dieu le Veut, a French lady of indomitable
spirit. She was one of those French women brought over by the governor,
M. D'Ogeron, to marry to the hunters of Hispaniola. "They grew," says
Charlevoix, "perfect Atalantas, and joined in the chase, using the
musket and sabre with the best." From such Amazonian mould came some of
the Buccaneer chiefs. One day before her marriage, this heroine having
received some insult from her husband, drew out a pistol and forced him
to unsay what he had uttered. Full of admiration at her courage, and
thinking such an Amazon worthy of a hero's bed, he married her. Both she
and her children were taken prisoners by the English, and not released
for a long time after the peace. De Graff's first wife was Petroline de
Guzman, a Spanish lady.
At the time De Graff's brevet arrived, he was on a reef near Carthagena,
having been wrecked while pursuing a bark in a vessel of forty-eight
guns and 400 men. With his canoe the wrecked men took the ship, and
landing in Darien, lost twenty-five adventurers in an Indian ambuscade.
His two prizes he sent to St. Domingo, but his crew obliged him to
continue privateering till the letters from De Cussy recalled him. One
of the chief reasons why this honour had been bestowed on him was, that,
by his great credit with the adventurers, he might draw them to settle
on land.
About this time, the Spaniards surprised Petit Guaves, and war
commenced. Only the year before, the same nation had seized Breac, the
Flibustier captain, and hung him, with nine or ten of his men. Soon
after this, a Spanish officer, whom De Graff, now commandant at the Isle
a la Vache, had delivered from some English corsairs, informed him that
a Spanish galleon full of treasure was lying wrecked at the Seranillas
Islands, but this prize he was obliged to relinquish to the English.
De Graff now became remarkable for his firmness and justice. He
encouraged colonization, settled differences between English and French
Buccaneers, and prohibited all privateering. His name was still so
terrible, that on one occasion 2000 Spaniards attacking Hispaniola
retreated when they heard that the old chief commanded the militia of
the island.
The Flibustiers were found bad colonists: the French could manage to
keep them at a fortified post when a Spanish invasion was expected, but
the instant the enemy retreated, the sea grew dark with Buccaneer
vessels, eager for prizes. Indocile and desperate, they seduced all the
youth of Hispaniola from their plantations. At one time the French
governor seems to have resolved on their total destruction, but their
usefulness as light troops saved them. The descents on Jamaica in search
of slaves by the French Buccaneers grew soon so numerous, that the
English island became known as "little Guinea."
In 1692, a French adventurer named Daviot, with 290 men, landed and
pillaged the north of Jamaica. His vessel being driven out to sea by a
storm, his men were compelled to remain fifteen days exposed to
incessant attacks from their enemies. While waiting for the vessel's
return, the dreadful earthquake happened that swallowed 11,000 souls,
and destroyed Port Royal. The Flibustiers, alarmed at the rocking of the
earth, embarked 115 sailors and forty prisoners in canoes, but the sea
was as convulsed as the land, and they lost all but sixty men, and were
driven again on shore. Attacked when he again put out to sea by two
English vessels, Daviot beat them off with a loss of seventy-six men,
only two of his own being killed. Boarded by the English a second time,
his vessel blew up, and he surrendered with twenty-one of his crew. Soon
after this, three French vessels, manned with Buccaneers, took an
English guarda costa of forty guns, killing eighteen men.
In 1694, De Graff commanded in a Buccaneer invasion of Jamaica, sailing
to that island with fourteen vessels and 550 men. He forced the English
intrenchments in spite of 1400 musketeers and twelve guns, slew 360 of
the defenders, and captured nine ships, losing himself only twenty-two
men. He then drove off 260 troopers from Spanish Town, after two hours'
combat. The next day De Graff despatched troops to carry off cattle.
In 1696, a process was instituted against De Graff, whom M. Du Casse
suspected of intrigues with Spain. The evidence, M. Charlevoix thinks,
showed only his extreme fear of falling into the hands of the enemy. It
is certain that the Spanish had offered to make him a vice-admiral, but
he would not trust their sincerity. The English despised him for this
supposed treachery, and when he proposed to the governor of Jamaica to
retreat to that island, if he could give him employment, the governor
replied, that he had already betrayed three nations, and would not stick
at betraying a fourth.
The Spaniards regarded him with fear till his death, and never forgave
him the injury he had done them. "During the next war between France and
Spain," says Charlevoix, "the Marquis of Coelogon arriving at Havannah
with a French squadron that he commanded in the Mexican Gulf, having De
Graff on board, all the town ran to the shore at the news, to see the
famous Lorencillo that had so long been the terror of the West Indies,
but the Marquis would not let him land for fear of danger."
Deprived of his command, De Graff was appointed captain of a light
frigate. This situation suited him better than land service, for which
he showed no genius, and he was frequently employed on board the French
squadrons, no man knowing better the navigation of the North Pacific.
Of his death we know nothing, but it is supposed he lived to a good age.
One of the most important enterprises ever attempted by the French
Buccaneers, in conjunction with the French government, was the capture
of Carthagena in 1697. The fleet of M. de Poincy consisted of eighteen
vessels, besides ten Flibustier craft, carrying 700 adventurers, in
addition to his own 4658 men and two companies of negroes. The Buccaneer
captains were Montjoy, Godefroy, Blanc, Galet, Pierre, Pays, Sales,
Macary, and Colong. Their vessels were named _Le Pontchartrain_, _La
Ville de Glamma_, _La Serpente_, _La Gracieuse_, _La Pembrock_, _Le Cerf
Volant_, _La Mutine_, _Le Brigantin_, _Le Jerse_, and _L'Anglais_. The
whole force mustered 6500 men. The adventurers at first refused to
embark till a fit share of the booty was promised to them, being
accustomed to be deprived of their rights by the French officers.
Enraged at not being treated as equals, and finding one of their men
imprisoned at Petit Guaves, they invested the fort, and were only
appeased by ready concessions. The first scheme of the expedition was
to seek the galleons; but this was abandoned, though it appeared
afterwards that at that very time they were lying at Porto Bello richer
than they had been for fifty years, and laden with 50,000,000 crowns.
The second plan was to attack Vera Cruz, and the last to sail to
Carthagena.
That most graphic and vigorous of writers, Michael Scott, describes
Carthagena as situated on a group of sandy islands, surrounded by
shallow water. A little behind the town, on a gentle acclivity, is the
citadel of Fort St. Felipe, and on the ship-like hill beyond it the
convent of the Popa, projecting like a poop-lantern in the high stern of
a ship.
Arrived at that city, the French galliot bombarded the whole night; and
as this was the first bomb ship ever seen in the West Indies, the
splintering of shells produced a great terror in the citizens. Two days
after the fleet anchored before Bocca Chica. This fort contained
thirty-three guns; had four bastions, and was defended by a dry fosse
cut in the rocks. The ramparts were bomb proof and the walls shot
proof. Under the fire of the _St. Louis_, the galliot, and two bomb
vessels, the troops landed and advanced without opposition within a
quarter of a league of the fort. By the advice of the Buccaneers,
accustomed to such marches, 3000 men crossed through a wood by a path so
difficult that only one man could pass at a time, and, unobserved, took
possession of the road leading from Carthagena to the fort, fortifying
themselves on both sides, and cutting off the communication between the
fort and the city, taking some negroes prisoners, and losing a few men
from the shots of the enemy.
The next morning, at daybreak, the adventurers, finding some boats on
the beach, pursued and captured a Spanish piragua containing several
monks of high rank. One of the priests in vain was sent with a flag of
truce and a drummer and trumpeter to summon the governor to surrender.
The negroes clearing the road, a battery of guns and mortars opened upon
the fort, and the Buccaneer sharp-shooters shot down the enemy's
gunners, driving back some half galleys that attempted to bring
reinforcements. The Buccaneers, pursuing the boats, found shelter under
the covered way, and killed every man who showed himself on the
batteries of the fort. The governor, who saw the adventurers rushing, as
he thought, madly to destruction, began to lament that he had employed
such people. Warned that if left alone "the brothers" would give a good
account of the place, he scornfully laughed and ordered up
reinforcements. Thinking the Flibustiers had only run under the covered
way for shelter, he pursued a few who really did turn tail with his
cane, and attempted in vain to drive them to the assault. By this time
the freebooters had won the drawbridge, and, displaying their colours on
the edge of the ditch, demanded means for the escalade. Thirty ladders
were placed, and the assault had already commenced, when the Spaniards
hung out the white flag, and, shouting "_Viva el rey!_" flung their arms
and hats into the ditch. The gate being opened, 100 of the garrison were
confined in the chapel; 200 others were found wounded. The governor,
handing the keys of the fortress to M. de Poincy, said: "I deliver into
your hands the keys of all the Spanish Indies." About forty adventurers
were killed, and as many wounded, in this attack.
The next day the fleet entered the harbour, and the Spaniards burned all
their vessels to prevent capture. The governor still refusing to
surrender, saying he wanted neither men, arms, nor courage, the
adventurers embarked to attack the convent of Nuestra Senhora de la
Popa, and to occupy the heights. M. du Casse being wounded in the thigh,
the Flibustiers refused to march under the command of M. Galifet, to
whom they had a dislike; and on his striking one of them, the man took
him by the cravat. The mutineer was instantly tied to a tree and
sentenced to be shot, but pardoned at M. Galifet's intercession. M. de
Poincy, going on board Captain Pierre's ship, seized him and ordered him
to execution, and the revolt then ceased, De Poincy threatening to
decimate them on the next outbreak.
The convent stood on a mountain shaped like the poop of a ship, about a
gunshot from Carthagena. It had been abandoned by the monks, who had
stripped it of every valuable.
The army then marched by sunset to the fort Santa Cruz, suffering much
from thirst. The fort mounted sixty guns, was surrounded by a wet ditch,
and on the land side accessible only through a morass, but it
surrendered without firing a shot. The adventurers then pushed on to
within a gunshot of Fort St. Lazarus, which commanded the suburbs on the
other side of the city. The French defiled round the fort, while some of
their grenadiers carried on a pretended conference with the fort. The
next day roads were cut through a hill, and the army were placed within
pistol shot of the walls, concealed by an eminence that covered them
from the enemy's fire. The Spaniards, losing their commander, abandoned
the place in disorder, and their fort, St. Lazarus, being within musket
shot of Gezemanie (the suburbs), they opened a fire of ten guns upon the
captured batteries, the Buccaneer musketry clearing the streets. Thirty
men were killed in trying to turn a chapel into a redoubt, and the camp
removed behind St. Lazarus, De Poincy having been wounded in the breast.
The three next days several breaching batteries were completed, and the
galliot and mortars bombarded the city all night. In three days more,
the breach was pronounced practicable, and the storming commenced. M. du
Casse, although wounded, led the grenadiers, and M. Macharais the
adventurers, who set the army an example of daring. Planks were laid
over the broken drawbridge, and the troops passed over, under a
tremendous fire from the bastion of St. Catherine, one man only being
able to cross at a time. The breach and batteries were lined with
Spanish lancers, who flung their spears, nine feet long, a distance of
twelve or fifteen yards. The French had 250 men killed and wounded, and
many officers fell. Vice-admiral the Count de Coetlogon was mortally
hurt; the commander-in-chief's nephew, le Chevalier de Poincy, a young
midshipman, had his knee broken, and many were wounded in pursuing the
Spaniards to the city.
The French gave no quarter, putting to the sword 200 Spaniards who had
thrown themselves into a church. The governor, who had ordered his
servants to carry him in his easy chair to the breach to animate his
men, fled into Carthagena. The army now advanced to the bridge which led
from Gezemanie to the city, and repulsed two sorties of the enemy.
The French threw up intrenchments and erected batteries to breach the
walls. Two days were spent in these preparations and in dressing the
wounded. There were still great difficulties to encounter. Armies of
Indians were approaching. The Spanish garrison had six months' provision
and eighty guns mounted on their ramparts. The next day, Carthagena,
terrified at the fate of Gezemanie, surrendered. The conditions were,
that the churches should not be plundered, that those who chose might
leave the city unmolested, and that the inhabitants should surrender
half their money on pain of losing all. The governor and troops were to
depart with the honours of war. The merchants were to surrender their
account books to the French commander. The adventurers instantly
occupied the bastions and gate, and the other troops seized the
ramparts. The governor, having marched out with 700 men, M. de Poincy
proceeded to the cathedral to hear the _Te Deum_, and then repaired to
his lodgings at the house where the royal treasure was deposited.
At first the soldiers and sailors were forbidden to enter any house on
pain of death, and the admiral's carpenter being caught plundering, and
confessing his guilt, had his head cut off on the spot. But a change
soon took place. The governor, assembling the heads of religious houses,
informed them that the treaty did not spare any convent that had money.
Many days were spent in receiving and weighing the crowns. De Poincy
declared, that before his arrival the monks had fled with 120 mules
laden with gold, and he had obtained barely nine million pieces. Other
accounts say he obtained forty million livres, _i.e._, twenty millions
without including merchandise. Every officer had 100,000 crowns, besides
his general share of the spoil, before he allowed his soldiers to enter
a house. Charlevoix confesses, that the honour the French won by their
bravery they lost by their cruelty. The capitulation was broken,
churches were profaned, church plate stolen, images broken, virgins
violated on the very altars, the monks tortured, and the sick in the
hospitals left to starve, or resort to the horrors of cannibalism.
Notwithstanding the inhabitants brought in their money, some to the
amount of 400,000 dollars, a general search was made throughout the
town, and much gold found. A few of the inhabitants hired guards of
adventurers, but, in general, these men also turned plunderers, the
officers only attempting to keep up appearances.
Anxious to get the adventurers out of the way while he collected the
spoil, De Poincy spread a report that 10,000 Indians were approaching,
and sent the Flibustiers to drive them back. After plundering the
country for four leagues, they returned with fifty prisoners, a drove of
cattle, and 4000 crowns. During the siege, they had been employed in
skirmishing, cutting off supplies, and foraging, and were accustomed to
laugh at the sailors, who dragged the guns and called them "white
negroes."
Disease breaking out, and carrying off 800 men in six weeks, De Poincy
embarked his plunder, and prepared to sail. Eighty-six guns he carried
off, and destroyed St. Lazarus and Bocca Chica. The Buccaneers, calling
out loudly for their share, received only 40,000 crowns. The men
instantly shouted--"Brothers, we do wrong to take anything of this dog,
our share is left at Carthagena." This proposal was received with a
ferocious gaiety, and they all swore never to return to St. Domingo.
They derided M. du Casse's promises to get them justice from the French
king, and fired at those vessels that would not follow them. The people
of Carthagena shuddered to see them return. Shutting up all the men in
the cathedral, they promised to depart on receiving five millions as a
ransom. In one day a million crowns were brought, but, this being still
inadequate, they broke open the very tombs, and goaded the citizens to
the torture, firing off guns, and pretending to put men to death in the
neighbouring rooms. Two men, guilty of cruelty, their leaders hanged.
Each man received about 1,000 crowns; and having spent four days in
collecting and dividing the gold and silver, they appointed the Isle a
la Vache as a rendezvous to divide the slaves and merchandise.
The retribution was at hand. They had not sailed thirty leagues when
they fell in with the combined English and Dutch fleets. _Le Christ_,
with 250 men, and more than a million crowns, was taken by the Dutch,
_Le Cerf Volant_ by the English, a third was driven on shore and burnt
near St. Domingo, a fourth, running on land near Carthagena, was taken,
and her crew employed in rebuilding the fortifications they had
destroyed. Of De Poincy's plunder, 120,000 livres were carried off by
an English foray on Petit Guaves. Admiral Neville, who failed to
overtake the French deep-laden and weakly manned fleet, died of a broken
heart at Virginia.
Du Casse was rewarded with the cross of St. Louis for his services, and
orders arrived from France to distribute 1,400,000 of De Poincy's spoil
among the freebooters, very little of which, however, reached them. A
curse, says Charlevoix, rested on the whole enterprise.
In 1698, a French fleet, under the command of Count d'Estrees, on its
way to attack the Dutch island of Curacoa, was lost on the Aves Islands,
a small cluster of rocks surrounded by breakers. Attracted by the
distress-guns fired by the first ship that ran aground, its companions,
believing that it had been attacked by the enemy, hurried pell-mell to
its assistance, and, blinded by the fog, ran one by one on destruction.
Eighteen of them were lost. Of this disaster, Dampier, who visited the
island about a year afterwards, gives a very interesting account. The
Buccaneer part of the crew (for the Buccaneers took an active part in
these wars), quite accustomed to such chances, scrambled to shore, and
proceeded to save all they could from the wreck; but a few of them,
breaking into the stores of a stranded vessel, floated with her out to
sea, drinking and cursing on the poop, and holding up their flasks,
shouting and laughing to the drowning men around them. Every soul of
them perished.
Several Flibustier vessels were lost at the same time, about 800
Buccaneers having joined the expedition at Tortuga. About 300 of these
perished with the wrecks. Dampier describes the islands as strewn with
shreds of sail, broken spars, masts, and rigging. For some years, in
consequence, the Aves became the resort of Buccaneer captains, who
careened and refitted here, employing their crews in diving for plate,
and in attempts to recover guns and anchors.
To console themselves for this failure, M. de Poincy led 800 Buccaneers
to attack Santiago, first touching at Tortuga for reinforcements. They
landed unseen, taking advantage of a bright moonlight night. The
vanguard wound their way round the base of a mountain that barred their
approach to the town, and, instead of advancing, worked round till they
met their rearguard, whom they mistook for the enemy, and furiously
attacked. They discovered their mistake at last by their mutual cries of
"Tue, tue." But it was now late; all hopes of surprise were over; the
Spaniards, alarmed, put themselves on their defence, and at daybreak
drove back the freebooters to their ships with an irresistible force of
4000 men. Another party, more successful, plundered Port au Prince, St.
Thomas's, and Truxillo on the mainland.
Grammont, during this time, had been left behind on the Aves Islands, to
collect all that was valuable from the wreck, and to careen the
surviving vessels. Having completed this, and finding himself short of
provisions, and the season being favourable for an excursion to the Gulf
of Venezuela, Grammont decided upon a visit to Maracaibo. Arriving at
the fort of the bar, mounted with twelve guns and garrisoned by seventy
men, he commenced an attack. The French had opened a trench, had already
pushed it within cannon shot, and were preparing the ladders to scale,
when the governor surrendered on condition of obtaining the honours of
war. Passing on to the town, Grammont found it abandoned. Gibraltar also
made little resistance. From the lake he carried off three vessels, and
also took a prize of value, cannonading it with his guns, and at the
same time boarding it with a swarm of canoes. Being now master of the
whole lake, he visited all the places where his prisoners told him he
was likely to find gold hidden, defeating the Spaniards wherever he met
them.
Then, collecting all his scattered plunderers, Grammont prepared to
attack Torilla, making a detour of forty-five leagues in order to take
it by surprise. Arriving near the town, the Buccaneers came to the banks
of a rapid river, with only one ford, which they had the good fortune to
find, crossing over under shelter of a hot fire that the rearguard kept
up upon the Spaniards, who lay intrenched upon the opposite bank. The
moment they had crossed, their enemies fled, and Torilla was their own.
The prize, however, proved not worth the winning, for the town was
abandoned, and the treasure hid. The Buccaneer rule, indeed, was that no
place was worth sacking which was taken without a blow, as the Spaniards
always fought best when they had most to fight for. The Buccaneers
departed with little booty; their 700 men having taken three towns, and
conquered a province, with the loss of only seventy men, and these
chiefly by illness.
In 1680 Grammont made another expedition to the coast of Cumana. Having
collected twenty-five piraguas, he ascertained from some prisoners that
there were three armed vessels anchored under the forts of Gonaire, and
these he determined to cut out. He embarked all his 180 men in a single
bark, and left orders for the others to sail up to Gonaire at a given
signal. He landed with a few men at night, and surprised four watchmen,
who, however, had still time left to fire, and alarm the town, before
they could be overpowered. Gonaire leaped instantly from its sleep. The
bells rang backward; the guns fired; the musketeers hurried to the
market-place; doors were barred; and the women and children fled in
tears to the altars. Grammont, doubling his speed, arrived at the east
gate, his drums beating, trumpets sounding, and colours flying. Although
it was defended by twelve guns, he took it with the hot fierceness of a
Caesar, pushed on at once to a fort about a hundred yards distant, and
commenced a vigorous attack. At the head of his crew he entered the
embrasures, killing twenty-six out of its thirty-eight defenders.
Planting his colours on the wall, the men shouted "_Vive le Roi!_" with
such unanimity and fierceness that at the very sound the whole garrison
of the neighbouring fort at once surrendered, and forty-two men
instantly laid down their arms. These successes were obtained with only
forty-seven men--a mere handful being able to keep up in the rapid and
headlong charge. Grammont, rallying his men, then placed garrisons in
the forts, razed the embrasures, spiked the cannon, and then proceeded
to intrench himself in a strong position. The next day he entered the
town, making several vigorous sorties on the enemy, who now began to
gather in round him on all sides. Being informed that 2000 men were
advancing to meet him from Caragua, he gave orders for embarkation, the
Buccaneers seldom fighting when no booty was to be obtained. Remaining
last upon the shore to cover the retreat of his men, withstanding for
nearly twenty-four hours the onslaught of 300 Spaniards, he was at last
dangerously wounded in the throat, and one of his officers had his
shoulder broken.
Grammont took with him the Governor of Gonaire, and 150 other prisoners,
the usual resource of the Buccaneers when a town either furnished no
booty, or gave them no time to collect it. This daring enterprise was
achieved with the loss of only eight men. On his way home to be cured of
a wound which his vexation and impatience had rendered dangerous, he
was wrecked near Petit Guaves, and his own vessel and his prize both
lost.
About the next adventure of this chivalrous corsair some doubts are
thrown, although it is related boastingly by Charlevoix, who says: "He
then took an English vessel of thirty guns, which had defied the
Governor of Tortuga, and beaten off a Buccaneer bark. This ship, armed
with fifty guns, and navigated by a crew of 300 men, Grammont is
reported to have boarded, killing every Englishman on board but the
captain, whom he reserved to carry in triumph to shore."
Grammont was born in Paris of a good family. His mother being left a
widow, her daughter was courted by an officer who treated Grammont, then
a student, as a rude boy. They fought, and the lover received three
mortal stabs. Obtaining the dying man's pardon, the young duellist
entered the marines, eventually commanded a privateer frigate, and took,
near Martinique, a Dutch flute, containing 400,000 livres. Having spent
all this in gaiety at St. Domingo, the young captain turned Buccaneer.
Charlevoix notices his manners and address, which were as fascinating as
those of De Graff. The writer describes "Sa bonne grace, ses manieres
honnetes, et je ne scais quoi d'aimable qui gagnoit les coeurs."
We have described already his surprise of Maracaibo, and his expedition
to Vera Cruz. His expedition to Campeachy was against the wish of the
French Governor of St. Domingo. On their way home he quarrelled and
separated from De Graff. "With all the talent that can raise man to
command, he had," says Charlevoix, "all the vices of a corsair. He drank
hard, and abandoned himself to debauchery, with a total disregard of
religion."
In 1686 Grammont, at the recommendation of M. de Cussy, Governor of St.
Domingo, was made Lieutenant de Roi, Cussy intending to make him
Protector of the south coast. But Grammont, elated at his new title, and
anxious to show that he deserved it, armed a ship, manned by 180
Buccaneers, to make a last cruise against the Spaniards, and was heard
of no more.