This small island is known to both adults and children all over the world. It owes its popularity to the novels of R. Sabatini, but mainly, of course, to the multi-part Hollywood film saga Pirates of the Caribbean. Its French name is Tortu, Spanish is Tortuga. And the French buccaneers also called it the Isle of Pigs.
Tortuga Island: history and geography
Tortuga is located east of Cuba, north of Haiti, with an area of only 188 square kilometers, and the current population is about 30,000 people. Tortuga is separated from Hispaniola (Haiti) by a strait about 8 miles wide. The climate of the island is tropical, it usually rains in April-May and October-January, in other months it hardly happens. The northern coast of Tortuga ("Iron Coast") Alexander Exquemelin in his book "Pirates of America" called "very inhospitable", there is only a small bay Trezor, where only boats can stick, and even then only in calm weather. There are two harbors on the south coast. The larger one, where the town of Basseterre is located, in the described time bore the loud name of Puerto del Rey (Royal Port). Kayonskoy baie is located about two kilometers west of it, and only small vessels can enter here.
This island was discovered in 1499 by a member of the Columbus expedition Alonso de Ojeda, but due to its small size it did not attract attention and until 1570 was not even mapped.
According to popular legend, this island got its name Isla Tortug because of its shape resembling a turtle. There is even a legend that Columbus said after seeing him:
"This is the place for the turtle on which the world rests."
But it is unlikely that both Columbus and Alonso de Ojeda would waste time studying the outlines of the shores of a small and uninteresting island. Therefore, it is more likely that the island was named so because of the abundance of sea turtles that live in its waters.
Population of the island of Tortuga
There is evidence that Indians lived on Tortuga, who were exterminated or captured in slavery in the first quarter of the 16th century.
For more than a hundred years, this island remained deserted. On Tortuga, French smugglers often took refuge from the Spaniards. So, in 1582, the crew of the French ship "Lyon" ended up here, its sailors stayed here for several weeks. In 1583, having interrupted the guards of the galley, on which they were rowers, more than 20 French prisoners fled to Tortuga. But these were only "guests" of the island. Only at the beginning of the 17th century, Spanish fishermen settled on it, and in 1605, as we remember from the previous article (Filibusters and Buccaneers), some residents of the northern and western coasts of Hispaniola came here, dissatisfied with the order of the authorities to resettle to the southern coast.
Both the smugglers and the buccaneers did not break their ties with the "mainland" (as they called Hispaniola). Buccaneers often went there to hunt.
After 1610 French, English and Dutch merchants began to visit the island, who bought red ("Brazilian") wood here. Corsairs also came to Tortuga - mostly French, but sometimes English.
The French Jesuit Charlevoix, already mentioned by us in previous articles, in the middle of the 17th century, estimated the total number of buccaneers in Tortuga and the western part of Hispaniola at three thousand people.
A few Spaniards were soon forced by buccaneers and smugglers to leave Tortuga. This happened in the 20s of the 17th century. A small rocky island, on which, moreover, there are few springs and streams, was still of little interest to anyone, nevertheless, the Spanish authorities in 1629 tried to knock out foreigners out of it. Spanish ships fired at a small village in the only bay convenient for large ships in the south of Tortuga, then soldiers landed, but the buccaneers by that time had already disappeared into the interior of the island.
The appearance of the British on Tortuga
In the same 1629, the Spaniards dealt a brutal blow to the British-owned island of Nevis.
All settlements were burned, plantations were devastated, and the governor of the island, Anthony Hilton, having gathered the remaining settlers (about 150 people), went to look for a place for a new colony. In 1630 they arrived at Tortuga. This caused serious concern among the Spanish authorities, who in 1631 organized a new expedition, during which the English settlement was destroyed, 15 British were hanged. This time, the Spaniards even left a small garrison of 29 soldiers on Tortuga, but the angry British, in alliance with the equally outraged Hispaniola buccaneers, soon killed them. Realizing that the forces to resist were not enough, the colonists turned to the newly formed Providence Island Company for help, promising to pay it "a remuneration of 5% of the products produced annually." At the same time, Hilton established contacts with privateers, pirates and smugglers, offering them the harbors of the southern part of Tortuga as a food base and a place of sale for production. The first hospitality of the Hilton was taken by the English pirate Thomas Newman, whose ship successfully robbed passing ships off the coast of Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The economy of Tortuga was now based not on the sale of products produced by buccaneers and colonists, but on the proceeds from sea robbery.
At the same time, about 80 immigrants from Normandy also settled on Tortuga. Relations between them and the English settlers were very strained, as a result of which the French even tried to sell the rights to Tortuga to the Dutch West India Company.
Pierre Legrand's sensational victory
In 1635, an event took place that for a long time determined the fate of Hispaniola, Tortuga, filibusters and buccaneers. That year, the French corsair (native of Dieppe) Pierre Legrand, captain of a pitiful four-gun Luger, with only 28 crew, managed to capture the Spanish 54-gun flagship galleon.
Of course, the main reason for such an unheard-of victory was the incredible carelessness of the Spaniards, who simply did not believe that such a small and frivolous ship could attack their powerful ship. The lightning attack was a complete surprise to the captain, officers and sailors of the galleon who were in the siesta.
Threatening to blow up the galleon's powder magazine, Legrand forced the Spaniards to surrender. The crew of the ship was landed on the island of Hispaniola, the galleon was brought to Dieppe and sold there along with the cargo. After this victory, Leclerc received the nickname Pierre the Great, thus becoming the "namesake" of the Russian emperor. The resonance both in Europe and in the New World was truly grandiose. And it's not just the enormous cost of both the galleon and the colonial goods that it transported. The blow to the reputation of Spain and its fleet was truly terrible, and therefore it was decided to brutally take revenge on all the filibusters of the Antilles.
A story about how and why buccaneers became filibusters
Pirates are not easy to find, and the desire to receive awards and titles, having reported on a successful operation, was very high. And therefore, the first blow was dealt to the peaceful buccaneers of Hispaniola. Because of their demonstratively independent way of life and "asocial" behavior, the Spaniards have always treated them with great prejudice and mistrust, and took advantage of the excuse to crack down on them with great pleasure. Several hundred buccaneers who did not expect the attack were killed by Spanish soldiers. The survivors went into the forest and began to hunt for the Spaniards, who now suffered huge losses from the well-aimed fire of an invisible enemy.
Exquemelin wrote this about the sniper skills of buccaneers:
“Sometimes they have a marksmanship competition. An orange tree is usually chosen as a target, at which you need to shoot, trying to shoot down as many oranges as possible without hitting the branches. And it turns out they do it dashingly - I myself was a witness to it."
Another author, Johann Wilhelm von Archengoltz, reports:
“From that time on, the buccaneers breathed only revenge. The blood flowed in streams; they did not understand either age or gender, and the horror of their name began to spread more and more."
Many Spanish villages of Hispaniola were burned, the surviving colonists fled in fear from their homes, the Spanish troops could not do anything with the elusive partisans. And then it was decided to destroy wild bulls and pigs on the island - in two years the Spaniards killed them all, turning the island into a desert. Most of the buccaneers were forced to move to Tortuga. And now they simply had no choice: having lost their only source of income, they joined the crews of filibuster ships. It was since then that the words "freebiestier" and "bouconier" have been perceived by many as synonyms. Since that time, the buccaneer term "Coastal Brotherhood" has spread to filibusters.
Let's "listen" to Archengolts again:
"They united with their friends, filibusters, who were already beginning to be glorified, but whose name became truly terrible only after connecting with the buccaneers."
That is, the effect of the operation of the Spaniards was the opposite of expectations: it was after the buccaneers joined the filibusters that the "golden age" of pirates in the Caribbean began. Buccaneers were, for example, on the ships of Christopher Mings, who attacked Santiago de Cuba and Campeche, and in the flotilla of filibuster Edward Mansfelt. About 200 French bookies took part in Henry Morgan's campaign to Panama, and, according to Exquemelin, "they had the best guns and they all had a reputation for excellent marksmen."
Buccaneers did not forget their former specialty: before a pirate ship went to sea, they slaughtered captured or purchased cattle and prepared meat. And, if there was an opportunity, then they hunted wild bulls and pigs.
The island of discord: the struggle for Tortuga between the Spaniards, the French and the British
Meanwhile, the Spaniards, at the cost of high losses, having survived most of the buccaneers from Hispaniola, did not achieve any success in the fight against filibusters, and realized that little Tortuga was much more important for real pirates. Anthony Hilton had already died by this time, his successor Christopher Wormley cared not so much about fortifying the harbor as about his pocket, and even the cannons at the decisive moment turned out to be unusable. Therefore, the Spaniards easily captured Tortuga, destroying houses, ravaging plantations and leaving their soldiers on the island again.
At the beginning of 1639, as a result of a surprise attack, in which about a hundred Englishmen took part, the Spaniards were expelled from Tortuga. French filibusters and buccaneers quickly returned to the hospitable island. At the same time, it turned out that all this time, some buccaneers and settlers, who happily greeted old friends, continued to live on Tortuga, hiding from the Spaniards in the interior of the island. However, the commander of the British Willis began to oppress the French, at the slightest disobedience, taking away their property, and themselves, sending them to the northern coast of Hispaniola.
François Le Vasseur, first French governor of Tortuga
At this time, the French Huguenot François Le Vasseur, a talented engineer assigned to supervise the construction of coastal fortifications, was on the island of Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts). His problem was that he was a Huguenot surrounded by Catholics. Le Vasseur's bosses disliked, he himself was looking for an excuse to get some kind of independent position in order to be less dependent on enemies. In 1640, he proposed to the Governor-General of the French Antilles, Philippe de Poinsy, to organize an expedition to expel the English from Tortuga. Tortuga had already attracted the attention of the great powers, so every possible assistance was rendered to him - despite the fact that France made peace with Britain. As a reward, Le Vasseur asked for a place of governor and, being, as we remember, a Huguenot, freedom of religion. The case was again decided by a sudden strike by 50 Le Vasseur's "paratroopers" (all of them were Huguenots).
After that, Le Vasseur decided that he would live well without bosses, refusing to obey both Governor Philippe de Poinsy and his "investors" from the Company of the Isles of America. He ignored the invitation to visit Saint-Christopher to "get reinforcements there" for the establishment of a large colony on Saint-Domengue (western part of Haiti). To the proposal of the directors of the company of the islands of America to send additional soldiers to Tortuga (October 1642), he arrogantly replied that
"He strengthened himself greatly, supplied with guns, weapons and ammunition, which the Lord himself gave to this island, and, apparently, no longer needs people to preserve it."
Le Vasseur built a fort La Roche ("The Rock") on the walls of which cannons were installed at the Bay of Basseter, on an elevation 750 meters from the coast. Alexander Exquemelin wrote about him like this:
“This fort was impregnable, because on the path leading to it, two people could hardly part. On the side of the mountain there was a cave, which was used as a warehouse for weapons, and at the top there was a convenient platform for a battery. The governor ordered to build a house next to it and install two cannons there, erecting a portable ladder to climb the fort, which could be removed if necessary. A well was dug on the territory of the fort, and there would be enough water for a thousand people. The water came from the spring, and thus the well was completely inaccessible from the outside."
In 1643, this defenders of the fortress successfully repulsed an attack by a Spanish squadron of 10 ships.
After the victory, Le Vasseur's authority rose so much that he began to issue letters of marque to the filibusters of Tortuga on his own behalf. According to contemporaries, he ruled the island "more like a king than a governor." In addition, he began to oppress Catholics, turning his island into "little Geneva". Already in 1643, the leadership of the company of the islands of America turned to de Poinsy with a request to "capture Levasseur on the island of Tortuga." But it was not at all easy to do it.
Meanwhile, the importance of Tortuga as a strategic base for filibusters grew. After the destruction of the corsair base on Providence Island, British ships began to enter here. Jean-Baptiste du Tertre wrote that the pirates, "seizing rich prizes from the Spaniards, were able to quickly enrich both the inhabitants (of Tortuga) and the governor."
It should be clarified that many of those whom both Exquemelin, and du Tertre, and Charlevoix (and some others) are called pirates, in fact, were privateers. But these authors do not see much difference between them, constantly alternating in their texts the words "pirate" and privateer ", and using them as synonyms. A striking example is Henry Morgan, who has always been a privateer, but his subordinate Alexander Exquemelin in his book stubbornly calls him a pirate (always with a letter of marque - but still a pirate). And even his work, which tells more about privateers, Exquemelin called "Pirates of America".
It must also be said that not all marque certificates were recognized as legal. Thus, letters of marque issued by other governors of Tortuga, which they issued on their own behalf, can be safely called “filkin”.
The French authorities were able to make an attempt to restore power over the island only in 1652. According to some contemporaries, the last straw was the insult that Le Vasseur inflicted on the Governor-General Philippe de Poissy. The dictator of Tortuga bought a silver statue of the Virgin Mary from the captain of one of the corsair ships on the cheap. Having learned about this, the governor decided that this relic was quite suitable for his personal chapel, and turned to Le Vasseur with a request to give him a sculpture, referring to the fact that Protestants, in fact, are not supposed to use Catholic relics. Le Vasseur sent him a wooden copy of the statue, writing in a letter that Catholics, as spiritual people, do not attach importance to material values, but he is a Huguenot and a heretic, and therefore prefers despicable metals.
The governor, who did not appreciate the joke, sent a certain Chevalier Timoleon Ogman de Fontenay, a knight of the Order of Malta, to Tortuga to remove the usurper. But François Le Vasseur, who received the nickname Kanyuk (bird of prey from the hawk family) from local residents, was killed by his deputies (lieutenants) in 1653. According to one version, the cause of the quarrel was the mistress of one of the lieutenants, whom Le Vasseur either kidnapped or insulted. But, perhaps, the circumstances of Le Vasseur's death were less romantic, some argue that the woman had nothing to do with it, and this adventurer received the fatal blow in a drunken brawl.
There is a legend that Le Vasseur hid his treasures on the island, and wore an encrypted map with the location of the treasure on his chest. Nobody succeeded in decrypting this card.
Chevalier de Fontenay. Knight of Malta at the head of the island
Chevalier de Fontenay was late, having learned about the death of Le Vasseur already off the coast of Hispaniola. He occupied the fort of La Roche (he later built 2 more bastions in it) and declared himself "the royal governor of Tortuga and the Coast of Saint-Domengo". Le Vasseur's deputies yielded to him in exchange for oblivion of the unfortunate incident with the former governor and the preservation of all property. The knight of Malta showed great interest in cooperation with corsairs of all stripes, immediately issuing certificates of marque to two English captains, two Flemish, two French and a certain Cuban mulatto named Diego. This was just the beginning, soon the number of de Fontenay's clients increased to 23, according to Charlevoix, "Tortuga became the seat of all the corsairs, and the number of these sea lovers grew every day." Not content with a percentage "from sales" of the loot, de Fontenay sent his own 22-gun frigate (under the command of his deputy) to the corsair raids.
As a result, in the shortest time, the filibusters of Tortuga won a number of impressive victories. Initially, 2 Spanish galleons were captured, heading from Puerto Bello to Havana. Then, abeam Puerto Plata, the corsairs from Tortuga attacked the Silver Fleet, capturing three galleons and sinking a fourth. Two French privateers robbed a galleon between Cartagena and Puerto Bello (curiously, the crews of these ships consisted of blacks, commanded by "whites"). One of the troops of Tortuga devastated the small town of La Vega on the northern coast of Hispaniola, another captured all the goods on the market in Barranquilla near Cartagena, and the third attacked Puerto de Gracias. In August 1652, French corsairs captured the Cuban city of San Juan de los Remedios, robbing the local church's treasury and taking hostages, which they took to Tortuga for ransom. And Robert Martin's filibusters attacked the Indian villages of the coast of Campeche Bay (Mexico), capturing their inhabitants into slavery. In general, this Maltese, Chevalier de Fontenay, was a very “good” governor of Tortuga.
But the outraged Spaniards drove the overly enterprising knight from Tortuga, and again left a garrison of 150 soldiers on the island. However, a year later, the new Spanish governor of Santo Domingo ordered to leave Tortuga, destroying all structures and sank several old ships loaded with stone in the main harbor of the island. This was immediately taken advantage of by the British: the military governor of Jamaica, William Brain, upon learning of the "no manhood" of Tortuga, ordered to send 12 soldiers there under the command of Elias Watts. In addition, some 200 former settlers have returned to the island. In early 1657, Watts was named governor of Tortuga. In 1659, the inhabitants of the island, having bought a letter of marque from him (amazing and commendable "law-abidingness"!), Organized an attack on the Hispaniol city of Santiago de los Caballeros - this was revenge for the murder of 12 peaceful Frenchmen of Tortuga, captured on a Flemish ship, heading for the Windward Islands.
Jérémie Deschamps, Sierre de Monsac and du Rosset and Frederic Deschan de la Place
In 1660, Elias Watts was deposed by the French adventurer Jérémie Deschamps, Sier de Monsac and du Rosset, who contrived through his friends in London to obtain an award for Tortuga. Then everything went according to a familiar scenario: Deschamps immediately began to issue letters of marque to everyone in a row, and to an indignant letter from the governor of Jamaica replied that Tortuga is now a French colony, and he no longer obeys the British authorities. This adventurer, having fallen ill with tropical fever, was forced to leave for Europe, leaving his nephew, Frederic Deschamp de la Place, as governor, who restored Fort La Roche.
Corsair "international brigades" of the West Indies
"Gentlemen of Fortune" did not care about these disagreements of the official authorities. English sailor Edward Coxer recalled:
“I served the Spaniards against the French, then the Dutch against the British; then I was taken away from the Dunkirk by the British; and then I served the British against the Dutch … Then, I acted on a warship against the Spaniards, until finally the Spaniards captured me."
The crews of their ships were often real international brigades. Particularly impressive is the list of crew members of the filibuster ship "La Trompeuse" that has come down to our time. In total, 198 people served on this ship, among whom were the French, Scots, Dutch, British, Spaniards, Portuguese, Negroes, mulattoes, Swedes, Irish, natives of the Isle of Jersey and immigrants from New England (North America), as well as Indians.
Yes, filibusters often had the most friendly relations with the Indians. They actively bought food from them and, if possible, tried to include some of them in their teams. William Dampier explained it this way:
“They (the Indians) have extremely keen eyes, and they notice the sail in the sea before we do. Because of these qualities, they are appreciated and they try to take all the privates with them … When they are among the privatizers, they learn how to use guns, and they turn out to be very well-aimed shooters. They behave boldly in battle and never retreat or lag behind."
In addition, the Indians were excellent at catching fish, turtles and manatees. It was said that one Indian skilled in this respect could provide food for an entire ship.
Until the middle of the 17th century, filibusters rarely united in squadrons. Now, real pirate fleets have entered the historical stage of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, posing a serious threat to any enemy. In Jamaica, the bulk of the crews of the filibuster ships were former soldiers of the Cromwell army, who had previously participated in the conquest of this island. In total, about 1,500 corsairs were based on this island. The total number of corsairs of the Antilles is estimated by various researchers at about 10 thousand people (some researchers increase their number to 20 or even 30 thousand, but this, nevertheless, seems unlikely).
Joint campaign of the British and the corsairs of the islands of Jamaica and Tortuga to Santiago de Cuba
It was at this time that the fruitful cooperation of the British authorities of Jamaica, the pirates of this island and the corsairs of Tortuga began, who in 1662 attacked the city of Santiago de Cuba with a squadron of 11 ships.
The general command was carried out by Christopher Mings, captain of the royal frigate "Centurion", his deputies were Captain Thomas Morgan (some historians confused him with the pirate Henry Morgan), who led the volunteers, and the Dutchman Adrian van Diemen, under whose command were the filibusters of Jamaica and Tortuga. The Admiralty Court of Jamaica, chaired by William Michell, recognized the ships and other property seized from the Spaniards as "legitimate prizes", part of the booty was sent to London. In response to a Spanish note of protest, King Charles II Stuart said that he was "extremely unhappy with the filibusters' raid on Santiago de Cuba," but did not give up his share of the loot.
The last attempt of the British to take possession of Tortuga
At the beginning of 1663, the British once again tried to establish control over Tortuga, but found that the island was well fortified, and "the inhabitants are very strong and … determined to sell their lives at the highest price." Leading the expedition, Colonel Barry had ordered the captain of the frigate "Charles" Manden to begin shelling the fort, but he resolutely refused. After disembarking Barry and his subordinates at the nearest port, he went to hunt the Spanish ships, which seemed to him easier prey than Fort La Roche on the island of Tortuga.
In 1664, the power in Jamaica changed, the new governor temporarily banned privatization (the same as privateering), after which many filibuster ships left for Tortuga.
Alarmed by this state of affairs, Lt. Col. Thomas Lynch wrote to Secretary of State Henry Bennett that year:
“The revocation of privatizers, meanwhile, will not be a quick and risky means and may turn out to be completely ineffective … There may be more than 1,500 of them on about 12 ships, which, if they need English letters of marque, will be able to obtain French and Portuguese documents, and if they grab anything with them, then they will certainly get a good reception in the New Netherlands and on Tortuga … We live in Jamaica meek, sit quietly and watch the French get rich on prizes, and the Dutch on the trade in the West Indies.
French West India Company
In the same year, the French West India Company bought the rights to Tortuga and Saint-Domengue from du Rosset, and the governor of Martinique Robert le Fichot de Frichet de Claudore made a recommendation to appoint his friend as governor of Tortuga - a man “well acquainted with the life of local colonists and one who enjoys authority among them. " It was Bertrand d'Ogeron, a native of Anjou, a former captain of the royal troops. In 1665 he arrived at Tortuga and ruled the island until 1675. This period became the "golden" time of Tortuga.
In the next articles we will continue the story about the corsairs of the West Indies. After all, many of the heroes of this Era are still behind the scenes, but are already ready to enter the big stage of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The curtain will rise soon.
