Dampier returned to England in 1691.
CHAP. XXIII.
French Buccaneers under François Grogniet and Le Picard, to the Death of Grogniet.
The French Buccaneers, from July 1685. Having accompanied the Cygnet to her end, the History must again be taken back to the breaking up of the general confederacy of Buccaneers which took place at the Island Quibo, to give a connected narrative of the proceedings of the French adventurers from that period to their quitting the South Sea.
Under Grogniet. Three hundred and forty-one French Buccaneers (or to give them their due, privateers, war then existing between France and Spain) separated from Edward Davis in July 1685, choosing for their leader Captain François Grogniet.
They had a small ship, two small barks, and some large canoes, which were insufficient to prevent their being incommoded for want of room, and the ship was so ill provided with sails as to be disqualified for cruising at sea. They were likewise scantily furnished with provisions, and necessity for a long time confined their enterprises to the places on the coast of New Spain in the neighbourhood of Quibo. The towns of Pueblo Nuevo, Ria Lexa, Nicoya, and others, were plundered by them, some more than once, by which they obtained provisions, and little of other plunder, except prisoners, from whom they extorted ransom either in provisions or money.
November. In November, they attacked the town of Ria Lexa. Whilst in the port, a Spanish Officer delivered to them a letter from the Vicar-General of the province of Costa Rica, written to inform them that a truce for twenty years had been concluded
between France and Spain. The Vicar-General therefore required of them to forbear committing farther hostility, and offered to give them safe conduct over land to the North Sea, and a passage to Europe in the galeons of his Catholic Majesty to as many as should desire it. This offer not according with the inclinations of the adventurers, they declined accepting it, and, without entering into enquiry, professed to disbelieve the intelligence.