FALL OF THE FLOATING EMPIRE.
Peace of Ryswick--Attempts to settle--Buccaneers turn pirates--Last
expedition to the Darien mines, 1702.
The English were the first to attempt to put down Buccaneering, but the
last to succeed in doing it. When the freebooters had served their
purpose, the English government would have thrown them by as a soldier
would his broken sword. In 1655, after Morgan returned from Panama, Lord
John Vaughan, the new governor of Jamaica, had strict orders to enforce
the treaty concluded with Spain in the previous year, but to proclaim
pardon, indemnity, and grants of land to all Buccaneers who would turn
planters. By royal proclamation, all cruising against Spain was
forbidden under severe penalties. To avoid this irksome imprisonment to
a plot of sugar canes, many of the English freebooters joined their
brethren at Tortuga, or turned cow-killers and logwood cutters in the
Bay of Campeachy. In the next year the war broke out between England and
Holland, and many fitted out privateers.
The unwise restrictions of France, and home interference with colonial
administration, once more fostered "the people of the coast." Annoying
prohibitions and vexatious monopolies drove the planters to sea.
In 1690 a royal proclamation granted pardon to all English Buccaneers
who should surrender themselves. The French Flibustiers continued to
flourish during the war which followed the accession of William III. to
the throne of England.
In 1698 the knell of the brotherhood was finally rung by the joy bells
that announced the peace of Ryswick. The English and Dutch made great
complaints to the Governor of St. Domingo of the French Flibustiers,
and demanded compensation, which was granted. A colony was established
at the Isle a la Vache in hopes of carrying on a trade with New Spain,
by orders of the French king the church plate brought from Carthagena
was returned, and Buccaneering prohibited.
The government advised that force should be resorted to to induce those
Flibustiers to turn planters who were not willing to avail themselves of
the amnesty. Those who had settled in Jamaica, seeing in 1702 a new war
likely to break out between England and France, and determined not to
take arms against their own country, passed over to the mainland, and
settled in Bocca Toro. As soon as the war broke out, however, a great
many French Buccaneers, persecuted at St. Domingo, joined the English
under Benbow. In 1704, M. Auger, a new governor, coming to St. Domingo,
and seeing the false step his predecessors had taken, recalled the
Flibustiers, and made peace with the Bocca Toro Indians. M. d'Herville
led 1500 of them to the Havannah, and died there. He held the Buccaneers
of Hispaniola far beyond those of Martinique, and, had he lived, would
have united them all under his flag.
In 1707 Le Comte de Choiseul Beaupre, the new governor, attempted to
revive Buccaneering as the only hope of saving French commerce in the
Indies, the English privateers carrying off every merchant ship that
approached the shores of St. Domingo. The French government approved of
all his plans, and gave him unlimited power to carry them out. He issued
an amnesty to all Flibustiers who had settled among the Indians of
Sambres and Bocca Toro. The greater part of those who had joined the
English returned; and those who had joined in the last expedition
against Carthagena received their pay. The Brothers were restored to all
their ancient privileges. The Count intended to guard the coast with
frigates while his smaller vessels harassed Jamaica, but in the midst of
these immature projects he was killed, in 1710, in a sea engagement.
The Buccaneers, gathered from every part, now turned planters. Thus,
says Charlevoix, ended the "Flibuste de Saint Domingue," which only
required discipline and leaders of ambition to have conquered both
North and South America. Undisciplined and tumultuous as it has been,
without order, plan, forethought, or subordination, it has still been
the astonishment of the whole world, and has done deeds which posterity
will not believe.
Attachment to old habits and difficulty in finding employment made many
turn pirates. Proscribed now by all nations, with no excuse for plunder,
and with no safe place of refuge, they sailed over the world, enemies to
all they met. Many frequented the Guinea coast, others cruised off the
coast of India, and New Providence island, one of the Bahama group, was
now the only sanctuary. Here the memorable Blackbeard, Martel, and his
associates, were at last hunted down, about 1717.
The last achievement related of the Flibustiers is in 1702, when a party
of Englishmen having a commission from the Governor of Jamaica, landed
on the Isthmus of Darien, near the Samballas isles, and were joined by
some old Flibustiers who had settled there, and 300 friendly Indians.
With these allies they marched to the mines, drove out the Spaniards
according to Dampier's plan, and took seventy negroes. They kept these
slaves at work twenty-one days, but obtained, after all, only eighty
pounds' weight of gold.