Buccaneers

About 1630, French interlopers were driven away from the island of Hispaniola and fled to nearby Tortuga . French buccaneers were established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, but lived at first mostly as hunters rather than robbers; their transition to full-time piracy was gradual and motivated in part by Spanish efforts to wipe out both the buccaneers and the prey animals on which they depended. The buccaneers' migration from Hispaniola's mainland to the more defensible offshore island of Tortuga limited their resources and accelerated their piratical raids. According to Alexandre Exquemelin , the Tortuga buccaneer Pierre Le Grand pioneered the settlers' attacks on galleons making the return voyage to Spain.

The Spaniards also tried to drive them out of Tortuga, but the buccaneers were joined by many more French, Dutch , and English adventurers who turned to piracy. They set their eyes on Spanish shipping, generally using small craft to attack galleons in the vicinity of the Windward Passage . With the support and encouragement of rival European powers, they became strong enough to sail for the mainland of Spanish America , known as the Spanish Main , and sacked cities. Perhaps what distinguished the buccaneers from earlier Caribbean sailors was their use of permanent bases in the West Indies.

During the mid 17th century, the Bahama Islands attracted many lawless people who had taken over New Providence . Encouraged by its large harbour, they were joined by several pirates who made their living by raiding the Spanish on the coast of Cuba. They called this activity buccaneering. Their principal station was Tortuga, but from time to time they seized other strongholds, like Providence, and they were welcomed with their booty in ports like Port Royal in Jamaica .

At first they were international. In 1663 it was estimated that there were fifteen of their ships with nearly a thousand men, English, French, and Dutch, belonging to Jamaica and Tortuga. As time went on and the European governments asserted their authority, the buccaneers first became separated by nationalities and then in time were suppressed altogether, leaving behind only dispersed bands of pirates. The French buccaneers and settlers from Paris established a settlement which has now occupied Martinique , the French word for buccaneer was "boucanier," which directly relates to the island as the term originates from the Caribbean Arawak word "buccan," especially for the French pirates like Étienne de Montauban and Mathurin Desmarestz .

English settlers occupying Jamaica began to spread the name buccaneers with the meaning of pirates. The name became universally adopted later in 1684 when the first English translation of Alexandre Exquemelin 's book The Buccaneers of America was published. Viewed from London , buccaneering was a budget way to wage war on England's rival, Spain. The English crown licensed buccaneers with letters of marque , legalising their operations in return for a share of their profits.

The buccaneers were invited by Jamaica's Governor Thomas Modyford to base ships at Port Royal. The buccaneers robbed Spanish shipping and colonies, and returned to Port Royal with their plunder, making the city the most prosperous in the Caribbean. There were even Royal Navy officers sent to lead the buccaneers, such as Christopher Myngs . Their activities went on irrespective of whether England happened to be at war with Spain or France.

Among the leaders of the buccaneers were two Frenchmen, Jean-David Nau, better known as François l'Ollonais , and Daniel Montbars , who destroyed so many Spanish ships and killed so many Spaniards that he was called "the Exterminator". Another noted leader was Welshman Henry Morgan , who sacked Maracaibo , Portobello , and Panama City , stealing a huge amount from the Spanish. Morgan became rich and went back to England, where he was knighted by Charles II . While the buccaneers were powerful it was not only hostility to Spain, but also lack of authority, that prevented the other states from ending the old state of affairs in which, even when they were at peace with Spain and Portugal in Europe, there was 'no peace beyond the Line '.

The West Indies were beyond the range of the European international system. Sometimes this was for their advantage but on the whole, with the intermingled possessions, trade rivalries, and disputes about territorial rights, the local conditions led to conflicts. The West Indies continued to be one of the centres of international strife throughout the eighteenth century although by that time it was regulated in the same way as in Europe, and had become inseparable from the European wars. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, de Ruyter attacked Barbados with a strong squadron, and the English had no choice but to base their defence on the buccaneers whom the governor of Jamaica had previously been trying to suppress.

They were unmanageable and destroyed where they conquered, but they mastered the Dutch colonies of St. Eustatius and Tobago . In 1666, however, when the French joined the Dutch in the war, the weakness of this policy was proved. The English hoped to capture the French plantations of St.

Kitts , where there were new settlers of both nations, and so they declined to make a new agreement for neutrality. They made what was intended to be a surprise attack, but was an ignominious failure, and the English settlers in the island had to surrender unconditionally. More than 8,000 of them were shipped away, and their property was seized by the French. Lord Willoughby , the able governor of Barbados, got together an expedition for a counter-stroke, but his fleet was broken up by a hurricane in which he perished.

The French captured one island after another. In 1667 naval ships from England regained the command of the sea and made various conquests, but the Peace of Breda re-established the status quo in March of that year.