History of the Buccaneers of America. James Burney

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СКАЧАТЬ was afterwards in a sea almost covered with ice; that thence she had sailed southward to Brasil, and, after various adventures, had found the way to Porto Rico. This same English ship, being provided with merchandise, went afterwards to Hispaniola, and anchored near the entrance of the port of San Domingo, where the Captain sent on shore to demand leave to sell their goods. The demand was forwarded to the Audiencia, or superior court in San Domingo; but the Castellana, or Governor of the Castle, Francisco de Tapia, could not endure with patience to see a ship of another nation in that part of the world, and, without waiting for the determination of the Audiencia, ordered the cannon of the fort to be fired against her; on which she took up her anchor and returned to Porto Rico, where she purchased provisions, paying for what she got with wrought iron, and afterwards departed for Europe3. When this visit of an English ship to the West Indies was known in Spain, it caused there great inquietude; and the Governor of the Castle of San Domingo, it is said, was much blamed, because he had not, instead of forcing the ship to depart by firing his cannon, contrived to seize her, so that no one might have returned to teach others of their nation the route to the Spanish Indies.

      The French and other Europeans resort to the West Indies; The English were not the only people of whom the Spaniards had cause to be jealous, nor those from whom the most mischief was to be apprehended. The French, as already noticed, had very early made expeditions to Brasil, and they now began to look at the West Indies; so that in a short time the sight of other European ships than those of Spain became no novelty there. Hakluyt mentions a Thomas Tyson, an Englishman, who went to the West Indies in 1526, as factor to some English merchants. Are regarded as Interlopers by the Spaniards. 1529. Regulation proposed by the Government in Hispaniola, for protection against Pirates. When the Spaniards met any of these intruders, if able to master them, they made prisoners of them, and many they treated as pirates. The new comers soon began to retaliate. In 1529, the Governor and Council at San Domingo drew up the plan of a regulation for the security of their ships against the increasing dangers from pirates in the West Indies. In this, they recommended, that a central port of commerce should be established in the West Indies, to which every ship from Spain should be obliged to go first, as to a general rendezvous, and thence be dispatched, as might suit circumstances, to her farther destination; also, that all their ships homeward bound, from whatsoever part of the West Indies, should first rendezvous at the same port; by which regulation their ships, both outward and homeward bound, would form escorts to each other, and have the benefit of mutual support; and they proposed that some port in Hispaniola should be appointed for the purpose, as most conveniently situated. This plan appears to have been approved by the Council of the Indies; but, from indolence, or some other cause, no farther measures were taken for its adoption.

      The attention of the Spaniards was at this time almost wholly engrossed by the conquest and plunder of the American Continent, which it might have been supposed would have sufficed them, according to the opinion of Francisco Preciado, a Spanish discoverer, who observed, that there was country enough to conquer for a thousand years. The continental pursuits caused much diminution in the importance of the West India Islands to the Spaniards. The mines of the Islands were not comparable in richness with those of the Continent, and, for want of labourers, many were left unworked. Hunting of Cattle in Hispaniola. The colonists in Hispaniola, however, had applied themselves to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and to manufacture sugar; also to hunting cattle, which was found a profitable employment, the skins and the suet turning to good account. Matadores. The Spaniards denominated their hunters Matadores, which in the Spanish language signifies killers or slaughterers.

      That the English, French, and Hollanders, in their early voyages to the West Indies, went in expectation of meeting hostility from the Spaniards, and with a determination therefore to commit hostility if they could with advantage, appears by an ingenious phrase of the French adventurers, who, if the first opportunity was in their favour, termed their profiting by it 'se dedomager par avance.'

      Much of Hispaniola had become desert. There were long ranges of coast, with good ports, that were unfrequented by any inhabitant whatever, and the land in every part abounded with cattle. These were such great conveniencies to the ships of the interlopers, that the Western coast, which was the most distant part from the Spanish capital, became a place of common resort to them when in want of provisions. Another great attraction to them was the encouragement they received from Spanish settlers along the coast; who, from the contracted and monopolizing spirit of their government in the management of their colonies, have at all times been eager to have communication with foreigners, that they might obtain supplies of European goods on terms less exorbitant than those which the royal regulations of Spain imposed. Guarda-Costas. The government at San Domingo employed armed ships to prevent clandestine trade, and to clear the coasts of Hispaniola of interlopers, which ships were called guarda costas; and it is said their commanders were instructed not to take prisoners. On the other hand, the intruders formed combinations, came in collected numbers, and made descents on different parts of the coast, ravaging the Spanish towns and settlements.

      In the customary course, such transactions would have come under the cognizance of the governments in Europe; but matters here took a different turn. The Spaniards, when they had the upper hand, did not fail to deal out their own pleasure for law; and in like manner, the English, French, and Dutch, when masters, determined their own measure of retaliation. The different European governments were glad to avoid being involved in the settlement of disorders they had no inclination to repress. In answer to representations made by Spain, they said, 'that the people complained against had acted entirely on their own authority, not as the subjects of any prince, and that the King of Spain was at liberty to proceed against them according to his own pleasure.' Queen Elizabeth of England, with more open asperity answered a complaint made by the Spanish ambassador, of Spanish ships being plundered by the English in the West Indies, 'That the Spaniards had drawn these inconveniencies upon themselves, by their severe and unjust dealings in their American commerce; for she did not understand why either her subjects, or those of any other European prince, should be debarred from traffic in the Indies. That as she did not acknowledge the Spaniards to have any title by the donation of the Bishop of Rome, so she knew no right they had to any places other than those they were in actual possession of; for that their having touched only here and there upon a coast, and given names to a few rivers or capes, were such insignificant things as could no ways entitle them to a propriety further than in the parts where they actually settled, and continued to inhabit4.' A warfare was thus established between Europeans in the West Indies, local and confined, which had no dependence upon transactions in Europe. Brethren of the Coast. All Europeans not Spaniards, whether it was war or peace between their nations in Europe, on their meeting in the West Indies, regarded each other as friends and allies, knowing then no other enemy than the Spaniards; and, as a kind of public avowal of this confederation, they called themselves Brethren of the Coast.

      The first European intruders upon the Spaniards in the West Indies were accordingly mariners, the greater number of whom, it is supposed, were French, and next to them the English. Their first hunting of cattle in Hayti, was for provisioning their ships. The time they began to form factories or establishments, to hunt cattle for the skins, and to cure the flesh as an article of traffic, is not certain; but it may be concluded that these occupations were began by the crews of wrecked vessels, or by seamen who had disagreed with their commander; and that the ease, plenty, and freedom from all command and subordination, enjoyed in such a life, soon drew others to quit their ships, and join in the same occupations. The ships that touched on the coast supplied the hunters with European commodities, for which they received in return hides, tallow, and cured meat. The appellation of Boucanier or Buccaneer was not invented, or at least not applied to these adventurers, till long after their first footing in Hayti. At the time of Oxnam's expedition across the Isthmus of America to the South Sea, A. D. 1575, it does not appear to have been known.

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