On 28 August 1565, a fleet
of Spanish ships reached the coast of Florida.
Those on board celebrated the festival of Saint
Augustine, a philosopher and bishop who lived most of
his life in Algeria. Eleven days later, Admiral
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés stepped ashore in northeast
Florida near a Timucuan village, and dubbed the new colony
he founded San Augustín (Saint Augustine).
Spanish Galleon and Admiral Menéndez
Although taking possession of this part of the Spanish
Main for his king, this was not his only task. Menéndez was
a combat veteran and naval strategist. Together he and his
brother, Álvaro
Sánchez, developed the convoy system that brought the
treasures of the New World to Spain, and Pedro served as
captain general of the treasure fleet. He had also organized
groups of vessels who frequented Caribbean waters in search
of pirates. Now, he had a new duty – rid the territory of
interlopers and heretics.
The year before (1564) French
Huguenots established Fort
Caroline in present-day Jacksonville, territory
belonging to Spain since first claimed by Juan
Ponce
de León in 1513. On hearing this news, Felipe
II ordered Menéndez to take care of the problem. He
and his men arrived in late August 1565 at the same time as
reinforcements for the fort, under the leadership of Jean
de
Ribaud (also spelled Ribault), did. The Spaniards
tried to board the French ships, but having no success in
that venture, Menéndez sailed his vessels and men south to
where he founded St.
Augustine.
Rather than wait for the Spaniards to return, Ribaud decided
to attack them at their new colony. As the French ships
reached their destination, a hurricane hit. Shipwrecked down
the coast from San Augustín, Ribaud
and his men headed north. In the meantime, Menéndez took
advantage of Ribaud’s absence and attacked Fort Caroline.
That garrison was unable to put up much of a fight and soon
surrendered. Those Frenchmen still alive were slain, while
the women and children were sent to Puerto Rico. Menéndez
renamed Fort Caroline, Fort San Mateo, then headed south to
meet up with the survivors of the French shipwrecks who were
marching north to San Augustín.1
The Hugenots were exhausted and hungry, and Menéndez used
this advantage to persuade them to surrender the next day.
During the night, however, some of the Frenchmen had second
thoughts and fled. One hundred eleven men submitted
themselves the next morning, only to be slain. A mere
sixteen were spared the death sentence. On 11 October, the
remaining Huguenots, including Jean
de Ribaud, surrendered. As he had with the previous
shipwrecked victims, Menéndez never promised to keep them
alive. He merely said he would do what God commanded him to
do. Again he massacred 134 out of 150 men. Legend says they
had to die not because they were French, but because they
were Luteranos (Protestants), and Felipe
II was the defender of the true faith, Catholicism. The site
of the executions earned the name “Matanzas,”
which
means “slaughters.”
By the time Governor Juan Fernández de Olivera arrived to
take control of the government in 1610, San
Augustín had become a place for exiles –
rebellious officers and friars – and many soldiers had
records for indebtedness, petty thievery, vagrancy, or
rioting. The walls of the timber fort were so dry, it was
feared that firing a single cannon would ignite the logs.
Fifty years later the city was more respectable, with 700
inhabitants and seventy Franciscan friars. The garrison
boasted three hundred men on its payroll, including
soldiers, officers, sailors, a treasurer, surgeon, barber,
smith, amourer, locksmith, slave overseer, and chaplain.
Even in its early years, San Augustín attracted another
group of men to its shores because of its location. Situated
near the Bahama Channel, ships sailing to Europe had to pass
nearby. Hidden behind Anastasia Island, the inlet provided
an ideal place from which pirates could watch and wait for
cargo-laden vessels to pass. But the Spanish arrived first
and – knowing the pirates might target them – they built
watchtowers on Anastasia Island and posted sentries in them
to scan the ocean and send word of any impending danger.
Felipe III of
Spain (left) and Sir Francis Drake (right)
Two decades after the founding of San Augustín, Sir
Francis Drake set sail with a fleet of about
twenty-five ships and 2,300 men. He planned to attack
Spanish ports in the New World, thus interrupting the
deliveries of gold and silver to King
Felipe III’s coffers and weakening one of England’s
main foes. Drake’s forces sacked Santo
Domingo, then Cartagena,
before beginning their voyage home. Unable to successfully
attack Havana, Drake sailed north along Florida’s Atlantic
coast in search of possible targets.
As they neared San Augustín on 27 May 1586, lookouts spotted
the watchtower on Anastasia Island near the mouth of the
Matanzas River. William Biggs, one of Drake’s men, kept a
journal of what happened at San Augustín, which Master
Thomas Cates eventually published.
[E]arly in the
morning, we descried on the shore a place built like a
beacon, which was indeed a scaffold upon four long masts
raised on end for men to discover to the seaward, being
in the latitude of thirty degrees, or very near
thereunto. Our pinnaces manned and coming to the shore,
we marched up alongst the river-side to see what place
the enemy held there; for none amongst us had any
knowledge thereof at all.
Here the General
took occasion to march with the companies himself in
person . . . and,
going a mile up, or somewhat more, by the river-side, we
might discern on the other side of the river over
against us a fort which newly had been built by the
Spaniards; and some mile, or thereabout, above the fort
was a little town or village without walls, built of
wooden houses . . . . We forthwith prepared to have
ordnance for the battery; and one piece was a little
before the evening planted, and the first shot being
made by the Lieutenant-General himself at their ensign .
. . . One shot more was then made, which struck the foot
of the fort wall, which was all massive timber of great
trees like masts. The Lieutenant-General was determined
to pass the river this night with four companies, and
there to lodge himself entrenched as near the fort as
that he might play with his muskets and smallest shot
upon any that should appear, and so afterwards to bring
and plant the battery with him; but the help of mariners
for that sudden to make trenches could not be had, which
was the cause that this determination was remitted until
the next night.
In the night the
Lieutenant-General took a little rowing skiff and half a
dozen well armed, as Captain Morgan and Captain Sampson,
with some others, beside the rowers, and went to view
what guard the enemy kept, as also to take knowledge of
the ground. And albeit he went as covertly as might be,
yet the enemy, taking the alarm, grew fearful that the
whole force was approaching to the assault, and
therefore with all speed abandoned the place after the
shooting of some of their pieces.
About this time, the English heard music drifting over
the water. The fifer played “The Prince of Orange’s Song,”
and when he finally reached the English, they found him to
be Nicolas Borgoignon.2
This Frenchman had spent the past six years as a prisoner of
the Spanish. He told the English that the enemy had fled the
fort.3
Upon this
intelligence the General, the Lieutenant-General, with
some of the captains in one skiff and the Vice-Admiral
with some others in his skiff, and two or three pinnaces
furnished of soldiers with them, put presently over
towards the fort, giving order for the rest of the
pinnaces to follow. And in our approach some of the
enemy, bolder than the rest, having stayed behind their
company, shot off two pieces of ordnance at us; but on
shore we went, and entered the place without finding any
man there.
When the day
appeared, we found it built all of timber, the walls
being none other than whole masts or bodies of trees set
upright and close together in manner of a pale, without
any ditch as yet made, but wholly intended with some
more time. For they had not as yet finished all their
work, having begun the same some three or four months
before . . . .
The platform
whereon the ordnance lay was whole bodies of long
pine-trees, whereof there is great plenty, laid across
one on another and some little earth amongst. There were
in it thirteen or fourteen great pieces of brass
ordnance and a chest unbroken up, having in it the value
of some two thousand pounds sterling, by estimation, of
the king's treasure, to pay the soldiers of that place,
who were a hundred and fifty men.
Once the fort was secured, Drake’s pirates headed for San
Augustín. Snipers emerged from their hiding places, fired a
few shots, then returned from whence they came.
Sergeant-Major Anthony Powell commandeered a Spanish horse,
already saddled, and gave chase. His company followed, but
not before Powell was shot. After he toppled from his horse,
several soldiers came forward and stabbed him with their
swords and daggers before the English could come to Powell’s
aid.
Rather than risk any more men, Drake ordered his men to
gather any equipment the Roanoke colonists might find useful
and to seize twelve of the fourteen cannon, all of which
were taken back to the ships. They also sacked the town, but
found little of value since the citizens had taken their
valuables with them when they fled. His men set fire to the
fort and town before sailing north to Roanoke.
4 and 5
What Searle’s did after this is unknown, but on 19 August
1664, the Jamaican Council decided they had to appease King
Charles
II, who was upset with English raids against his ally,
Spain. They chose as their example Robert Searle.
On reading
the King’s letter of June 15 last, commanding
restitution of captured ships and goods to the
Spaniards: ordered that the ship and bark brought in by
Captain Searles of the Port Royal be seized and restored
to that nation, and also all specie that can be found;
that notice thereof be sent to the Governor of Havana;
that persons making any further attempts of violence and
depredation upon the Spaniard be looked upon as pirates
and rebels; and that Captain Searles’s commission be
taken from him, and his rudder and sails taken ashore
for security. (Marley, 352)
The following year the Second Anglo-Dutch War began, and
Searle joined Colonel Edward Morgan’s expedition to attack
Saint Eustatius and Saba, which belonged to the Dutch. They
sailed from Port Royal in April 1665. Governor Modyford
described Morgan’s forces as “chiefly reformed privateers,
scarce a planter amongst them, being resolute fellows and
well armed with fusils [muskets] and pistols.” (Marley, 352)
Soon after he landed, Morgan died from heat exhaustion, but
the rest of the English forces captured the island. With no
booty to share and frequent arguing over Morgan’s successor,
the privateers split up. Searle, a Captain Steadman, and
eighty men attacked Tobago, destroying whatever they
couldn’t take on their ship.
Three years later, Searle and his men sailed off the
coast of Cuba, where they captured a Spanish frigate bound
for Vera Cruz and a brigantine on her way to Havana. On
board the former was a French surgeon named Pedro Piques.
The Spanish governor of San Augustín had slapped Piques in
public, then sent him packing. Whether he divulged the
city’s vulnerabilities to the pirates can’t be documented,
but Searle and his cohorts decided the city would be their
next target. Piques might also have told them the treasury
contained bars of silver recovered from a shipwreck.
At the time, Searle already sailed in consort with
another pirate ship, but he saw the value of these two
Spanish vessels and all four sailed north. As they neared
San Augustín, the two pirate ships stayed out of sight,
while the frigate and brigantine came within hailing
distance of the fort on the morning of 28 May 1668. On the
two main decks the Spaniards went about their business as if
nothing was wrong, while the pirates hid. Unaware of the
danger, a launch approached with a harbor pilot, who
demanded to know where the ships were from and what cargo
they carried. He learned they had sailed from Mexico with
supplies for the city. Reassured these were legitimate
visitors, the pilot’s men fired two shots, a prearranged
signal to the soldiers manning the fort that all was well.
Those ashore returned to their normal activities, while the
pilot and his men boarded the Spanish vessels.
Normally, the pilot would have brought the ships directly
into the harbor, but the vessels remained where they
anchored. No one in the town or at the fort seemed
suspicious, perhaps assuming the pilot waited for a
favorable wind. When night came, everyone went to sleep.
Around midnight, Searle and the other pirates sailed past
the fort’s guns into the harbor. Their sneak attack would
have succeeded with perfection had Corporal Miguel de Monzón
not been out fishing. The darkness and the water carried the
sounds of the pirates’ oars as they rowed ashore. Realizing
an attack was imminent, the Spaniard paddled his boat toward
land. The pirates pursued him, firing their pistols and
wounding him twice, but the corporal reached the garrison
and woke his sleeping comrades.
The people of San Augustín had little warning and while
some eluded the pirates, others were slain or captured as
the rogues swarmed through the streets. They plundered
townhouses, government buildings, the church, and a
monastery. What they could not abscond with, they burned.
The buccaneers lost eleven men; another nineteen
sustained injuries. Although many citizens fled their homes
for the safety of the fort (which never capitulated) or the
surrounding forest, about sixty Spaniards – almost a quarter
of the population, died in the attack. Juan Menendez
Marques, an accountant, and Antonio, his brother, eluded the
pirates just before they breeched the Marques home and
captured the rest of the family. Estefania de Cigarroa, the
daughter of one of the fort’s officers, tried to flee with
her younger sister. A bullet killed the little girl while
another struck Estefania in the chest.
Governor Francisco de la Guerra de la Vega evaded the
invaders, while Father Francisco de Sotolongo opted to
become their prisoner so he could make certain no one
dishonored the captured women. In total Searle took seventy
children and adults as hostages, which he exchanged for
firewood and provisions.6
He did not, however, free any of the Indians, blacks, or
mestizos whom the buccaneers had taken, for Searle claimed
his letter of marque from the Jamaican governor permitted
him to sell anyone who was not a full-blooded Spaniard.
Another person he took with him was Henry Woodward. The
Spaniards had captured the doctor several months before, but
he was so well liked he was permitted to walk around the
city without guards. This allowed him to learn all about the
town, its residents, and the fort’s defenses. No record
details where Searle, Woodward, and the rest of the pirates
went after leaving San Augustín, but several years later
someone recorded that the doctor “was carried to the Leeward
Isles, where he shipped surgeon of a privateer, but was cast
away 17th August 1669 in a hurricane at Nevis.” (Marley,
355) He survived and eventually ended up in Charleston,
South Carolina.
Searle and his men absconded with 133 silver marks, 760
yards of canvas for sails, twenty-five pounds of candles,
all the ornaments from the convent church, and an untold
amount of valuable jewels and utensils.7
They occupied the city for twenty hours before they sailed
away.
The next time Searle was heard from was when he arrived
in Jamaica in 1670. On 18 March, Governor Modyford wrote:
There arrived
also at Port Morant the Cagway, Captain
Searle, with 70 stout men, who hearing that I was much
incensed against him for that action of St. Augustine,
went to Macarry Bay and there rides out of [my] command.
I will use the best ways to apprehend him, without
driving his men to despair. (Marley, 355)
Searle came ashore the following month and was promptly
arrested. That summer Manoel Rivero Pardal and
other Spaniards became such a nuisance that Henry Morgan was
chosen to lead a retaliatory strike against these corsairs.
Searle was released to help and participated in the attack
on Panama City, after which he became commander of a small
fleet of vessels that he used to ransack the islands
offshore. They discovered a large amount of wine on Taboga,
which the pirates consumed. For whatever reason, Searle
failed to post lookouts, so no one noticed when the 400-ton
Santísima Trinidad appeared. Alexander
Exquemelin later wrote of the ship that had departed Panama
before the pirates attacked:
. . . a
galleon, loaded with the King of Spain’s silver,
together with all the jewels and treasure of the
foremost merchants in Panama. There were also nuns on
board, taking their church ornaments and their silver
and gold. This ship was armed with only seven cannon and
a dozen muskets. Nor was it fully rigged even – it
lacked topsails, and was moreover short of water.
The rovers learned all these facts when they
captured a boat sent ashore from this galleon, with
seven men in it, to fetch water. According to these men,
the great ship could not possibly put to sea without
water. But the buccaneer captain had been more inclined
to sit drinking and sporting with a group of Spanish
women he had taken prisoner, than to go at once in
pursuit of the treasure ship.
Next day he did have the barque made ready to go
and hunt down the galleon, but without success, for she
had sailed away when the Spaniards aboard her found out
that the buccaneers were at sea and had captured their
ship’s boat. (Exquemelin, 198-99)
Searle’s attack on San Augustín proved devastating. The
pirates’ demand for provisions greatly depleted the town’s
available food supplies. They took with them any ship that
could navigate high seas, so it took six months before the
Spanish monarch learned of the attack via the government in
Havana. The ransomed captives had also seen the pirates
taking soundings of the harbor and river, which led them to
believe the thieves intended to attack again at a later
date. Another indicator seemed to confirm this belief: the
pirates did not set fire to San Augustín as Drake had done.
Such vulnerability convinced the regent, Queen Mariana, that
a stronger, more defensible fort was needed, and four years
later the stone fortification, which became known as the Castillo
de San Marcos, was started.
Three views of the
Castillo de San Marcos today
The pirates planned to go ashore near the Matanzas Inlet,
journey fifteen miles to attack the watchtower, and if that
proved successful, they intended to sail pirogues up the
Matanzas River to their real target. Once they sacked the
city, they would transfer their booty to larger vessels
before escaping.
Cabrera had no intention of allowing these rogues to walk
right in. Additional watchtowers were constructed, one above
San Augustín, the other twenty-one miles below Matanzas. In
spite of these preparations, the pirates succeeded in their
surprise attack on one watchtower as morning dawned on 30
March 1683. The five sentries had fallen asleep, and one was
forced to lead the pirates north on the Matanzas River to
their destination. Perhaps to make up for his earlier
mistake, the sentry led them up a small creek that fed the
river, which slowed their progress.
Any surprise the buccaneers hoped to achieve vanished before
they even arrived near the city. Having spotted the
invaders, another Spaniard was on his way to warn Cabrera.
Soldiers in the more distant watchtower had also seen them.
They abandoned their post for San Augustín. When they
encountered a man out horseback riding, he immediately rode
to town to inform the governor.
Cabrera sent soldiers to ambush the pirates, whom the
Spaniards thought numbered around forty. The buccaneers who
approached, however, numbered more than two hundred, but
they had no inkling the soldiers awaited them about a mile
southeast of the Castillo de San Marcos. The two sides
exchanged gunfire, and the Spaniards forced the pirates to
retreat. Before they did, they captured one soldier named
Francisco Ruiz. Although they tortured him for information
about the fortress’s weaknesses, he told them the Castillo
was being reinforced every hour and that his compatriots
would ambush the pirates again along Anastasia Island. Then
the pirates threatened to kill Avecilla, who was still in
their custody, because he had failed to tell them of the
southernmost watchtower. Ruiz told them the man couldn’t
have revealed that information because the tower had been
built after Avecilla left San Augustín.
Knowing they had lost the element of surprise, the
buccaneers returned to their ships. They debated for three
days as to what to do next. The majority wanted to sail into
the inlet opposite the fort and head north in search of
provisions, rather than attack San Augustín.
Governor Cabrera had no intention of allowing them to do as
they pleased. He sent thirty men in small boats after the
pirates to determine their intentions and to harass them
whenever possible. The soldiers only found several sacked
villages along St. Johns River and on Amelia
Island. The residents of San Augustín remained on alert,
while their governor urged everyone to assist in
strengthening the fort and erecting temporary defensive
posts.
The pirates eventually headed to what is known today as
Cumberland Island off Georgia, where they careened their
vessels and buried their dead before departing the area.
Although they released several prisoners, Ruiz remained in
their custody for two years and six months.
In the fall of 1684, the year after the failed pirate
attack, a man named Andrew Ranson ascended the gallows for
his execution. The residents of San Augustín, including the
Franciscans who lived in the nearby convent, watched the
executioner place the rope around Ranson’s neck.
Unlike England, Spain did not hang pirates. They garoted
them, using a technique similar to the buccaneers’ torture
technique of woodling, but with more devastating results.
John Swain, who wrote The Pleasures of the
Torture Chamber (1931), explained:
The word [garrote]
means “cudgel”, and the punishment gets its name from
the original form of execution, which was to tie a rope
or band around the neck of a criminal who was seated
against a post. A stick was then inserted between the
cord and the neck and twisted till strangulation ensued.
(25)
On the sixth turn of the stick, Ranson collapsed. The
executioner twisted the stick once more, but the rope
snapped. Ranson fell to the ground, and the friars gathered
around to pray for his soul. One of them discovered Ranson
still breathed. Claiming this to be a miracle, the
Franciscan in charge of the order interceded, threatening
the dumbfounded soldiers with God’s wrath if they interfered
as the other friars carried the pirate back to their convent
and gave him sanctuary.
Who was Andrew Ranson and why was he condemned to death? He
was one of the pirates who had attempted to raid San
Augustín the year before, but had the misfortune of getting
caught.
An Englishman born around 1650, Ranson first came to the
West Indies in his twenties. For whatever reason he ended up
in a Cuban prison, but the historical record doesn’t reveal
how he became a pirate. In 1684 he signed on with Captain
Thomas Jingle to raid Spanish Florida. Six ships joined this
venture, one of which had participated in the failed attempt
to sack San Augustín in 1683.
This buccaneer band captured the frigate Plantanera
off the Florida Keys. She was bound for Vera Cruz to pick up
the annual funds the Spanish government paid to its
officials and soldiers in Florida. By the time the pirates
sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, five more ships had joined
their undertaking. With this many men, the buccaneers felt
they could successfully sack San Augustín, so they set sail
for the east coast of Florida.
As they neared the city, a storm hit. When it abated, five
pirate ships had disappeared. The remaining buccaneers
headed north in search of supplies before they attacked San
Augustín. While the larger vessels remained offshore in deep
water, Ranson accompanied those sent ashore for food and
water. They captured a Spanish sentry, whom they
interrogated about the city’s defenses.
During this time, cattle ranchers discovered the pirates’
boat and to prevent their escape, chopped holes in it.
Somewhere along the line fifty soldiers surprised and
captured the buccaneers. In an attempt to lure their
comrades who had remained on the ships ashore, the Spaniards
returned the buccaneers to the beach and set an ambush.
Andrew Ranson had to stand on the shore and call to his
fellow brethren. Assuming all was well, they heeded his
request, but the nearer they came to the shore, the warier
they became. Suspecting the worst, they quickly returned to
their vessels before the soldiers could attack.
Disappointed, the Spaniards took Ranson and the other
previously captured pirates back to San Augustín, where they
tortured and interrogated them. At Ranson’s trial, a sailor
testified that Ranson had beaten him and threatened to
decapitate him in an attempt to gain information about the
various settlements in Spanish Florida and the treasures
they held. Plantanera seamen also testified
for the Crown. The pirates were sentenced to an undefined
period of hard labor, which was later reduced to ten years.
Ranson, whom the Spanish considered to be the man in charge,
was sentenced to die. Before his execution, Ranson sought
the help of the Franciscans, vowing he was innocent of the
charges.
This was why the friars came to Ranson’s aid after the rope
broke. Even though the governor demanded the pirate’s return
so the execution could be completed, the Franciscans
refused. The stalemate went on for several years, and the
head friar threatened to excommunicate the governor if he or
his soldiers attempted to invade the convent and take away
Ranson. Before Cabrera left Florida in 1687, he made certain
that those soldiers who had allowed the monks to abscond
with Ranson were punished. Some were discharged; others were
sent to remote or dangerous outposts.8
After the new governor arrived to assume his duties, he made
finishing the Castillo one of his top priorities. Ranson
heard of his request for men to assist in the work and sent
a message to the governor. Having training as both an
engineer and a carpenter, Ranson offered to help if the
death sentence was commuted. The Spaniards accepted his
offer, and Ranson moved into the Castillo.
Governor Moore of South
Carolina decided to attack San Augustín. For two months
they laid siege to the Castillo. Moore’s Spanish
counterpart offered freedom to all prisoners in exchange
for defending the fort. Ranson not only volunteered, but
also acted as interpreter during interrogations of English
prisoners. After the siege ended, the historical record
ceased to mention Andrew Ranson.
The final chapter in the pirate
history of San Augustín occurred in 1686 and involved a
successful Frenchman named Nicolas
Grammont (also known as “Chevalier” and Sieur de
Grammont). Often considered one of the greatest commanders
of the flibustiers, his early life is
steeped in myth. Was he born around 1650, or earlier? Was
his father an officer? Did Nicolas kill a man in a duel at
the age of fourteen, then run away to sea? Was his Christian
name François, Michel, or Nicolas?
Whatever the answers, he
eventually ended up at Saint-Domingue, where he joined the boucaniers (the original buccaneers), who
admired his courage, humor, and openhandedness. A
contemporary wrote of him, “He has a particular secret for
winning their hearts and insinuating himself into their
spirits.” (Marley, 154) He was of short stature, dark
complexion, and full of life. He fought primarily on land,
using ships to get to his military targets. He seemed
invincible in battle, and Spaniards unlucky enough to get
captured feared his cruelty.
After France declared war against Holland and Spain in the
1670s, Grammont led the corsair contingent from
Saint-Domingue for Vice-Admiral Comte d’Estree’s expedition
to attack Curaçao.9
This French flotilla left Martinique on 7 May 1678. Four
days later many of the royal warships went aground. While
D’Estree returned to Martinique with the few survivors,
Grammont and his 2,000 men, aboard nineteen vessels of
various sizes, opted to attack Maracaibo instead.
Although the Spaniards defended the fort guarding the
approach to the city, they eventually surrendered. The
residents fled, including the new, but sickly, Governor
Jorge Madureira Ferreira, which allowed the flibustiers
to occupy the city on 14 June. One Spaniard wrote of
Grammont: “this French enemy was so tyrannical that after
taking everything people had, he would torture them unto
death, something which not even a Turk nor a Moor would do.”
(Marley, 155)
After razing the city, the corsairs left Maracaibo on 28
June. They sacked Gibraltar, then marched to Trujillo, fifty
miles farther inland. Even though the fort there was manned
by 350 soldiers and had four cannon, the corsairs gained
access to the fortification on 1 September. Later, one
defender wrote that they did so “by some hills where it
seemed impossible to do so.” (Marley, 155) On their return
journey the flibustiers plundered Gibraltar
again, then set it afire. Not until 3 December 1678, did the
French set sail for Petit Goâve, their ships laden with
treasure and prisoners.
Grammont’s next venture took them to Caracas. During the
evening of 26 June 1680, he and forty-seven men infiltrated
the city while its residents slept. They took control of the
fort and imprisoned the garrison’s commander and 150
soldiers. When the people awoke, they found themselves at
the mercy of the corsairs. They freely plundered the homes
and offices, but eventually a new contingent of soldiers
arrived to relieve Caracas. Grammont and his men retreated
to the beach with their booty and hostages, but the flibustiers did not leave unscathed. Nine
buccaneers died and several others were wounded, including
Grammont, whose neck had been slashed by a machete. The
triumphant return to Petit Goâve was not repeated, however,
for most of the treasure and many prisoners died when a
hurricane shipwrecked the flibustiers'
ship.
Grammont blockaded Cuba in 1682, sacked Veracruz the
following year, and in 1685 raided Campeche. He and his men
finally arrived in the Atlantic off the Florida coast on 30
April 1686 with two Spanish prizes. While his flagship and
one captured sloop anchored out of sight of the Spaniards,
he sent the captured galliot, flying a Spanish flag, to
Matanzas to do reconnaissance.
After three days, the galliot still had not appeared, so
Grammont headed for Matanzas himself. Along the way, though,
they spotted what remained of the prize, which had sunk in
shallow water during a storm. At least some corsairs went
ashore, but Governor Juan Marquez Cabrera ordered Jose
Begambre and twenty-five soldiers to stop them. The two
forces fought hand-to-hand for four hours, then the French
returned to their ships. Along the way the local natives
attacked them, too, which resulted in many deaths.
Once the buccaneers were safely on their ships, Grammont
positioned his ship to blockade the inlet leading into San
Augustín. A Spanish boat managed to slip past the French and
sailed to Cuba for help. Once Grammont learned of this, he
and his men chose to sail away without sacking the city.
They went as far north as South Carolina. Once there, the
corsairs decided to set sail for West Africa. They seized a
Dutch ship off the Azores, but that was the last prize
Grammont took. Soon after, his flagship went down in a
storm. No one survived.
That failed attack was the last time pirates attempted to
sack San Augustín. Spain held the city from its founding
until the signing of the Treaty
of Paris in 1763, which ended the Seven
Years War. It then became a possession of the British,
who only held it until 1783. At that time Spain reclaimed
Florida, and retained it until 1821 when Florida became part
of the United States.
Notes:
1. Three years after the
massacre at Fort Caroline, French Huguenots returned. They
razed Fort San Mateo and hanged Spaniards who survived the
attack.
2. This popular tune honored William
Prince
of Orange, who had led Dutch Protestant insurgents.
He was assassinated in 1584.
3. The fort at the time of Drake’s
attack is where the Fountain
of
Youth Park is now located. The small, unwalled
settlement, consisting of wooden houses and shops, lay
just to the south of the fort.
4. Drake’s sacking of San Augustín
was his last successful raid in the Spanish Main.
5. The same year that Drake left with
his armada for the New World, Sir
Walter Raleigh sent out an expedition, under the
command of Sir Richard Grenville, to establish the Roanoke
Colony on the present-day island of Manteo in the Outer
Banks of North Carolina. They arrived in July of 1685, but
one ship ran aground, destroying most of the colony’s food
supply. The following month, Grenville returned to
England, leaving behind Ralph Lane and about 100 men. By
the time Drake arrived, relations with the local tribes
had deteriorated and food supplies had dwindled to such an
alarming rate that the surviving colonists opted to return
to England with Drake. It is the second group of settlers,
who came in 1587, who are better remembered. They became
known as the Lost
Colony, after the first English child, Virginia
Dare, was born in North America.
6. Father Sotolongo, the parish priest,
blamed Governor Guerra for Searle’s devastation because
the governor had been living in sin for three years in his
house. Government officials appointed by the monarch were
not permitted to marry local women. During this time Doña
Lorenza de Soto y Aspiolea gave birth to three children
while the pair remained unwed. Not until the next governor
arrived would Guerra finally marry the love of his life.
7. The Franciscans paid 2,066 pesos to
replace what the pirates stole from the church.
8. In 1692 the head Franciscan was
ordered back to Spain to account for his order’s
interference in Ranson’s execution and to prove that not
carrying out the death sentence was the proper thing to
do. The friar used the severed rope as evidence of a
divine miracle at death, but the authorities didn’t agree.
Two of the Franciscans were exiled from Florida as a
result.
9. The
Dutch seized the island from Spain in 1634, and Curaçao
became a major slave trading spot for the Caribbean. It
was the last major stronghold in this region occupied by
the Dutch.
For more information, I recommend these resources:
Pirates
and Privateers