Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period. Various

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      [1] British Museum, Sloane MSS., 2752, fol. 29. This and the ensuing document, both by the same anonymous author, form one continued narrative, of dramatic and astonishing piratical adventure. For the second part, the adventures of these buccaneers in the Pacific Ocean, there are other, parallel narratives, some of them longer than ours; but with one exception they say almost nothing of this first adventure, the capture and sack of Portobello. Two or three pages (pp. 63–65 of part III.) are indeed devoted to it in the chapter on "Capt. Sharp's voyage", signed "W.D." [not William Dampier], which was appended to the second edition of the English translation of Exquemelin's Bucaniers of America (London, 1684), before Basil Ringrose's detailed account of the South Sea adventures was printed and issued (1685) as the second volume of that celebrated book; but the present account is fuller than "W.D."'s, and may apparently be regarded as the chief source now in print for the history of this second English capture of Portobello. It should be remembered that, by the signing of the various treaties of Nymwegen in 1678 and 1679, all hostilities between European powers had by autumn of the latter year been brought to an end. The privateers who had flourished during the preceding years of warfare now found their occupation gone—their lawful occupation at least. Many of them turned to piracy. The writer of these two narratives speaks of his companions as privateers, but in reality they had no legal status whatever. When the governor of Panama asked for their commission, Captain Sawkins replied that "we would … bring our Commissions on the muzzles of our Guns, at which time he should read them as plain as the flame of Gunpowder could make them." Ringrose, p. 38. Legible, no doubt, but not legal.

[2] Charles Howard, earl of Carlisle, was governor of Jamaica from 1678 to 1681. The names preceding are intended for Jamaica, Portobello, and Honduras. Portobello had been a rich town, lying at the northern end of the usual route across the isthmus from Panama. The annual "plate fleet" was loaded here with the silver of Peru and other produce of the Pacific coast. Henry Morgan and his buccaneers had captured and sacked Portobello in 1668, Panama in 1671.

[3] Capt. Bartholomew Sharp, who figures largely in this narrative and the next, as chief commander of the buccaneers during most of the periods of their adventures, was also the author (or source) of two histories of their expedition. The first, The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp and others in the South Sea (London, 1684), is mainly a reproduction of the captain's journal or log; the second, "Captain Sharp's Journal of his Expedition, written by Himself," published as part II. of Capt. William Hacke's A Collection of Original Voyages (London, 1699), is more literary in form. Neither describes the period covered by the present document; both begin, like document 45, with Apr. 5, 1680.

[4] Port Morant, near the southeastern point of Jamaica.

[5] The wind being on the larboard quarter.

[6] Fain.

[7] Hawsers.

[8] I.e., was compelled to sail before the wind.

[9] Isla de Pinos, on the north coast of the republic of Panama, some 130 miles east of Portobello. "Samblowes" is a corruption of San Blas (Islands), in the gulf of San Blas.

[10] Woolded, wound around with cables, "undergirded" like St. Paul's ship, Acts xxvii. 27.

[11] Cartagena. Forta is the present Isla Fuerte, southwestward from Cartagena along the coast of Colombia. The "Friends Islands" are the islands of San Bernardo, lying between the two.

[12] Sloops.

[13] Periaguas or pirogues, like large canoes but with a square stern.

[14] Isla de Pinos, just west of the gulf of Darien; see note 9, above.

[15] Isla de Oro and its companions, a few miles south of Isla de Pinos.

[16] 9° 4´, more nearly.

[17] A small galley, with both sails and oars.

[18] Darien.

[19] One of the San Blas Islands, perhaps Cayo Holandés. The buccaneers were proceeding westward.

[20] Sp. ladrones, robbers.

[21] For "forlorn hope," which is from the Dutch verloren hoop, lost troop.

[22] Puerto de Bastimentos is a harbor about twelve miles northeast of Portobello. Columbus in his fourth voyage (1502) gave the place its name, "Port of Provisions."

[23] Tissue.

[24] Panama.

[25] Barca longa, a large Spanish fishing-boat, with lug-sails.

[26] Shared.

[27] The Boca del Toro and Boca del Drago ("bull's mouth" and "dragon's mouth") are entrances on either side of the Isla de Colón, at the western extremity of the republic of Panama.

[28] On Isla Solarte, near the Boca del Toro.

[29] Westward, СКАЧАТЬ