The Caribbean Sea ranks first in the number of countries located on its shores. Looking at the map, it seems that this sea, like the Aegean, “can be crossed on foot, jumping from island to island” (Gabriel García Márquez).
When we pronounce the names of these islands aloud, it seems that we hear reggae and the sound of waves, and the taste of sea salt remains on our lips: Martinique, Barbados, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Tortuga … Paradise islands, which the first settlers sometimes seemed like hell.
In the 16th century, European colonists, who practically exterminated the local Indians, themselves were the object of constant attacks by pirates, who also really liked the Caribbean islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles). The Spanish governor of the Rio de la Achi wrote in 1568:
“For every two ships that come here from Spain, there are twenty corsairs. For this reason, no city on this coast is safe, for they take over and plunder settlements on a whim. They have become insolent to such an extent that they call themselves the rulers of the land and the sea."
In the middle of the 17th century, filibusters felt so at ease in the Caribbean that at times they completely interrupted Spain's relations with Cuba, Mexico and South America. And they could not report the death of the Spanish King Philip IV to the New World for a whole 7 months - only after this period one of the caravans managed to break through to the shores of America.
The appearance of buccaneers on the island of Hispaniola
The second largest island of Antilles, Hispaniola (now Haiti), also got a hit, especially on its western and northern coasts.
However, there were people who, on the contrary, were glad to "guests of the sea", therefore, in order to put an end to "criminal deals with smugglers", in 1605 the island's authorities ordered to resettle all residents of the northern and western coasts of Hispaniola to the southern coast. Some of the smugglers then left Hispaniola, moving some to Cuba, some to Tortuga.
As is often the case, it only got worse. The regions abandoned by all turned out to be very convenient for people who turned out to be "superfluous" and "unnecessary" in their countries. These were ruined and lost peasants, artisans, petty traders, fugitive criminals, deserters, sailors who had lagged behind their ships (or, for some offense, expelled from the crew), even former slaves. It was they who began to be called boucanier, often using this word as a synonym for the name of filibusters. So, in the English-language literature, the term buccaneer means exactly the pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, the first buccaneers were not pirates: they were hunters of feral bulls and pigs (abandoned by the evicted colonists), whose meat they smoked according to a method borrowed from the Indians, selling it profitably to real filibusters.
Most of the buccaneers were French.
Corsairs of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
But the filibusters were corsairs: the name of these sea robbers has a purely geographical meaning - these are pirates operating in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.
Where did the word "filibuster" come from? There are two versions: Dutch and English. According to the first, the source was the Dutch word vrijbuiter ("free getter"), and according to the second - the English phrase "free boater" ("free shipbuilder"). In the corresponding article of the encyclopedia, Voltaire wrote about filibusters as follows:
“The previous generation just told us about the miracles that these filibusters performed, and we talk about them all the time, they touch us … If they could (do) a policy equal to their indomitable courage, they would have founded a great empire in America … Not the Romans and no other bandit nation has ever achieved such amazing conquests."
The most common name for filibuster ships is "Revenge" (in different variations), which is a direct allusion to the circumstances of the fate of their captains.
And the notorious black flag with the image of a skull and two bones appeared only in the 18th century, it was first used by the French corsair Emmanuel Wynn in 1700. Initially, such flags were an element of camouflage: the fact is that the black cloth was usually raised on ships where there were patients with leprosy … Naturally, the ships "uninteresting" to the pirates did not have a great desire to approach ships with such a flag. Later, a variety of "funny pictures" began to be drawn on a black background (who had enough imagination and the ability to draw at least something invented), which were supposed to frighten the crew of the enemy ship, especially if it was the flag of a ship of a very famous and "authoritative" pirate … Such flags were raised when the final decision was made to attack a merchant ship.
As for the notorious "Jolly Roger", this is not the name of some regular ship kavean operator, and not a euphemism meaning skeleton or skull, no, in fact, this is the French phrase Joyex Rouge - "jolly red". The fact is that red flags in France at that time were a symbol of martial law. English pirates changed this name - Jolly Roger (Jolly means "very"). In Byron's poem "Corsair" you can read:
"The blood-red flag tells us that this brig is our pirate ship."
As for the privateers, they raised the flag of the country in whose name they carried out their "almost legal" activities.
Friendship Line
As you know, on June 7, 1494, through the mediation of Pope Alexander VI, the Tordesillas Treaty "On the Division of the World" was concluded between the kings of Spain and Portugal, according to which the Cape Verde Islands were drawn a "line of friendship": all the lands of the New World west of this line were declared in advance as property Spain, to the east - Portugal retreated. Other European countries, of course, did not recognize this treaty.
French corsairs in the West Indies
France was the first to enter the confrontation with Spain in the Caribbean. In the first half of the 16th century, this country fought with Spain for lands in Italy. The captains of many ships were issued letters of marque, some of these privateers went south, carrying out a series of attacks on Spanish ships in the West Indies. Historians carried out calculations, according to which it turned out that from 1536 to 1568. 152 Spanish ships were captured by French privateers in the Caribbean, and 37 more between the coast of Spain, the Canaries and the Azores.
The French corsairs did not limit themselves to this, having performed in 1536-1538. attacks on the Spanish harbors of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Honduras. In 1539 Havana was devastated, in 1541-1546. - the cities of Maracaibo, Cubagua, Santa Marta, Cartagena in South America, a pearl farm (rancheria) in Rio de la Ace (now - Riohacha, Colombia) was robbed. In 1553 the squadron of the famous corsair François Leclerc, who was known to many under the nickname "Wooden Leg" (10 ships) plundered the coasts of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and the Canary Islands. In 1554 the privateer Jacques de Sor burned the city of Santiago de Cuba, in 1555 - Havana.
For the Spaniards, this was an extremely unpleasant surprise: they had to spend a lot of money on the construction of forts, to increase the garrisons of coastal fortresses. In 1526, the captains of Spanish ships were forbidden to cross the Atlantic alone. Since 1537, such caravans began to be patrolled by warships, and in 1564.two "silver fleets" were created: the fleet of New Spain, which sailed to Mexico, and the "galleons of Tierra Firme" ("continental"), sent to Cartagena and the Isthmus of Panama.
The hunt for Spanish ships and convoys unexpectedly took on a certain religious connotation: among the French corsairs there were many Huguenots, and then - English Protestants. Then the ethnic composition of the Caribbean pirates expanded significantly.
"Sea Dogs" by Elizabeth Tudor
In 1559, a peace treaty was concluded between Spain and France, French privateers left the West Indies (corsairs remained), but English sea dogs came here. This was the time of Elizabeth Tudor and the famous pirates who "earned" at least "12 million pounds" for their queen. The most famous among them are John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Amias Preston, Christopher Newport, William Parker, Anthony Shirley.
"Gentlemen of Fortune" from the Netherlands
And at the end of the 16th century, the corsairs of the Republic of the United Provinces (Netherlands) happily joined the plunder of Spanish ships and the Caribbean coasts. They developed especially in 1621-1648, when the Netherlands West India Company began to issue letters of marque to them. Tireless (and incorrigible) "toilers of the sea", among whom such "heroes" as Peter Schouten, Baudeven Hendrikszoon, Peter Pieterszoon Hoyne, Cornelis Corneliszoon Iol, Peter Iga, Jan Janszoon van Hoorn and Adrian Paterla21 to 1636 captured 547 Spanish and Portuguese ships, "earning" about 30 million guilders.
But the "golden age" of the Caribbean corsairs was still ahead, they would become truly "great and terrible" after uniting with the buccaneers. Johann Wilhelm von Archengolz, a German historian of the 19th century, wrote in the book "The History of the Freebooters" (in some translations - "The History of the Sea Robbers"):
"They (the buccaneers) united with their friends, filibusters, who were already beginning to be glorified, but whose name became truly terrible only after joining with the buccaneers."
How and why buccaneers became pirates will be discussed in the next article. For now, let's return to the earlier pages of that story.
Contemporaries' stories about buccaneers
So, let's continue our story about buccaneers. It is known that among them there was a specialization: some hunted only bulls, others - on feral pigs.
The anonymous author of Voyage Taken on the African Coast to Brazil and then to the West Indies with Captain Charles Fleury (1618-1620) reports the following about bull hunters:
“These people have no other occupation than hunting bulls, which is why they are called masteurs, that is, slaughters, and for this purpose they make long sticks, a kind of half-pike, which they call“lanas”. An iron tip made in the form of a cross is mounted on one end of it … When they go hunting, they bring with them many large dogs, which, having found a bull, amuse themselves, trying to bite him, and constantly revolve around him until the killer approaches with his Lanoy … Having dumped a sufficient number of bulls, they peel off their skins, and this is done with such dexterity that, it seems to me, even a pigeon cannot be plucked faster. Then they spread the hide to dry it in the sun … The Spaniards often load ships with these hides, which are expensive."
Alexander Olivier Exquemelin, in his famous book "Pirates of America" (practically "an encyclopedia of filibusters"), published in Amsterdam in 1678, writes about another group of buccaneers:
“There are buccaneers who only hunt wild pigs. They salt their meat and sell them to planters. And their way of life is in everything the same as that of the hides of the hides. These hunters lead a sedentary lifestyle, not leaving the place for three or four months, sometimes even for a year … After the hunt, the buccaneers strip the skin from the pigs, chop off the meat from the bones and cut it into pieces an elbow length, sometimes a little more pieces, sometimes a bit less. Then the meat is sprinkled with ground salt and kept in a special place for three or four hours, after which the pork is brought into the hut, the door is tightly closed and the meat is hung on sticks and frames, smoked until it becomes dry and hard. Then it is considered ready, and it can already be packaged. Having cooked two or three thousand pounds of meat, the hunters assign one of the buccaneers to deliver the prepared meat to the planters. It is customary for these buccaneers to go after the hunt - and they usually finish it in the afternoon - to shoot the horses. From horse meat they melt fat, salt it and prepare lard for wicks."
Detailed information about the buccaneers is also contained in the book of the Dominican Abbot Jean-Baptiste du Tertre, published in 1654:
“Buccaneers, were named so from the Indian word bukan, is a kind of wooden lattice made of several poles and mounted on four spears; on them buccaneers roast their pigs several times and eat them without bread. In those days, they were an unorganized rabble of people from different countries, who became dexterous and courageous due to their occupations associated with hunting bulls for the sake of hides and due to the persecution of them by the Spaniards, who never spared them. Since they do not tolerate any bosses, they are reputed to be undisciplined people, who mostly took refuge in order to avoid punishment for crimes committed in Europe … They do not have any housing or permanent home, but there are only meeting places where their bukans are located, yes several huts on stilts, which are sheds, covered with leaves, to protect them from the rain and store the skins of the bulls they killed - until some ships come to exchange them for wine, vodka, linen, weapons, gunpowder, bullets and some other tools that they need and which make up all the property of buccaneers … Spending all their days on the hunt, they wear nothing but pants and one shirt, wrapping their legs up to the knees with pigskin tied at the top and back of the leg with laces made of that the same skins, and encircling a bag around the waist, into which they climb to shelter from countless mosquitoes … When they return from hunting in Bukan, you would say that they look more disgusting, h We eat the butcher's servants who spent eight days in the slaughterhouse without washing.
Johann Wilhelm von Archengoltz writes in his book that:
“Anyone who joined the buccaneer society had to forget all the habits and customs of a well-organized society and even give up his family name. To designate a comrade, everyone was given a joking or serious nickname."
History knows such nicknames of some buccaneers: for example, Charles Bull, Pierre Long.
Continuing with von Archengoltz's quote:
"It was only during the marriage ceremony that their real name was announced: from this came the proverb still preserved in the Antilles that people are recognized only when they get married."
Marriage fundamentally changed the way of life of the buccaneer: he left his community, becoming a "habitant" (habitant) and taking on the responsibility of submission to local authorities. Prior to this, according to the French Jesuit Charlevoix, "the buccaneers did not recognize any other laws than their own."
Buccaneers lived in groups of four to six people in similar huts made of stakes covered with ox skins. The buccaneers themselves called these small communities “matlotazhs”, and themselves “matlots” (sailors). All the property of a small community was considered common, the only exception was weapons. The aggregate of such communities was called the "coastal brotherhood".
The main consumers of the buccaneer's products, as you might guess, were filibusters and planters. Some buccaneers made constant contacts with merchants from France and Holland.
The British called buccaneers cow-killers. A certain Henry Colt, who visited the Antilles in 1631, wrote that ship captains often threatened undisciplined sailors to leave them ashore among the co-killers. John Hilton, the scorer from the island of Nevis, writes about this. Henry Whistler, who was in Admiral William Penn's squadron (which attacked Hispaniola in 1655), left an even more derogatory comment:
“The kind of villains who were rescued from the gallows … they call them co-killers, for they live by killing cattle for their skins and fat. It was they who caused us all the evil, and together with them - negros and mulattoes, their slaves …"
The inhabitants of Hispaniola and Tortuga of those years were divided into four categories: the buccaneers themselves, filibusters who come to their favorite bases for the sale of production and recreation, landowning planters, slaves and servants of buccaneers and planters. In the service of the planters were also the so-called "temporary recruits": poor immigrants from Europe, who pledged to work three years for a "ticket" to the Caribbean. Such was also Alexander Olivier Exquemelin, the author of the already mentioned book "Pirates of America".
In 1666 Exquemelin (either Dutch, or Fleming, or French - in 1684 the English publisher William Crook could not answer this question), a doctor by profession, went to Tortuga, where, in fact, fell into slavery. Here is what he wrote about the situation of "temporary recruits" in his book:
“Once a servant, who really wanted to rest on Sunday, told his master that God had given people a week of seven days and ordered them to work six days and rest on the seventh. The master did not even listen to him and, grabbing a stick, beat off the servant, saying at the same time: "You know, boy, here is my order: six days you must collect the skins, and on the seventh you will deliver them to the shore" … They say that three years is better to be in the galleys than to serve with the buccaneer."
And here is what he writes about the planters of Hispaniola and Tortuga:
“There is, in general, the same human trafficking going on here as in Turkey, because servants are sold and bought like horses in Europe. There are people who make good money on such a trade: they go to France, recruit people - townspeople and peasants, promise them all sorts of benefits, but they instantly sell them on the islands, and these people work for their owners like draft horses. These slaves get more than the blacks. The planters say that blacks should be treated better, because they work all their lives, and whites are bought only for a certain period of time. The gentlemen treat their servants with no less cruelty than the buccaneers, and do not feel the slightest pity for them … They soon fall ill, and their condition does not cause pity in anyone, and no one helps them. Moreover, they are usually made to work even harder. They often fall to the ground and die immediately. The owners say in such cases: "Rogue is ready to die, just not to work."
But even against this background, the English planters stood out:
“The British treat their servants no better, and perhaps even worse, for they enslave them for seven whole years. And even if you have worked for six years already, then your position does not improve at all, and you must pray to your master not to sell you to another owner, for in this case you will never be able to go free. Servants resold by their masters are again enslaved for seven years, or at best three years. I have seen such people who remained in the position of slaves for fifteen, twenty and even twenty-eight years … The British living on the island adhere to very strict rules: anyone who owes twenty-five shillings is sold into slavery for a period of a year or six months. …
And here is the result of three years of work by Exquemelin:
“Having found freedom, I was naked like Adam. I had nothing, and so I stayed among the pirates until 1672. I made various trips with them, which I am going to talk about here."
So, having worked the prescribed time, Exquemelin¸ seems to have not even earned one eight (one eighth of a peso) and was only able to get a job on a pirate ship. He also served with the notorious Henry Morgan, who, according to this author, himself ended up in the Caribbean as a "temporary recruited", and moved to Jamaica after the expiration of the contract. However, Morgan himself denied this fact. I think that the information of Exquemelin deserves more confidence: it can be assumed that the former pirate, who achieved great success, did not like to remember the humiliation of the first years of his life and clearly wanted to "refine" his biography a little.
In 1674, Exquemelin returned to Europe, where he wrote his book, but in 1697 he again went to the Antilles, was a doctor on a French pirate ship that went on a campaign to Cartagena (now the capital of the Bolivar province in Colombia).
