CHAP. XXVII.
Second Plunder of Carthagena. Peace of Ryswick, in 1697. Entire Suppression of the Buccaneers and Flibustiers.
1697. May. The share which M. de Pointis had allotted of the plunder of Carthagena to the Buccaneers, fell so short of their calculations, and was felt as so great an aggravation of the contemptuous treatment they had before received, that their rage was excessive, and in their first transports they proposed to board the Sceptre, a ship of 84 guns, on board which M. de Pointis carried his flag. This was too desperate a scheme to be persevered in. After much deliberation, one among them exclaimed, 'It is useless to trouble ourselves any farther about such a villain as De Pointis; let him go with what he has got; he has left us our share at Carthagena, and thither we must return to seek it.' The proposition was received with general applause by these remorseless robbers, whose desire for vengeance on De Pointis was all at once obliterated by the mention of an object that awakened their greediness for plunder. They got their vessels under sail, and stood back to the devoted city, doomed by them to pay the forfeit for the dishonesty of their countryman.
The matter was consulted and determined upon without M. du Casse being present, and the ship in which he had embarked was left by the rest without company. When he perceived what they were bent upon, he sent orders to them to desist, which he accompanied with a promise to demand redress for them in France; but neither the doubtful prospect of distant redress held out, nor respect for his orders,
had any effect in restraining them. M. du Casse sent an officer to M. de Pointis, who had not yet sailed from the entrance of Carthagena Harbour, to inform him that the Buccaneers, in defiance of all order and in breach of the capitulation which had been granted to the city, were returning thither to plunder it again; but M. de Pointis in sending the Commissary's account had closed his intercourse with the Buccaneers and with the Colonists, at least for the remainder of his expedition. M. du Casse's officer was told that the General was so ill that he could not be spoken with. The Officer went to the next senior Captain in command of the fleet, who, on being informed of the matter, said, 'the Buccaneers were great rogues, and ought to be hanged;' but as no step could be taken to prevent the mischief, without delaying the sailing of the fleet, the chief commanders of which were impatient to see their booty in a place of greater security, none was taken, and June. on the 1st of June the King's fleet sailed for France, leaving Carthagena to the discretion of the Buccaneers. M. de Pointis claims being ignorant of what was transacting. 'On the 30th of May,' he says, 'I was taken so ill, that all I could do, before I fell into a condition that deprived me of my intellect, was to acquaint Captain Levi that I committed the care of the squadron to him.'
If M. de Pointis acted fairly by the people who came from France and returned with him, it must be supposed that in his sense of right and wrong he held the belief, that 'to rob a rogue is no breach of honesty.' But it was said of him, 'Il etoit capable de former un grand dessein, et de rien epargner pour le faire réussir;' the English phrase for which is, 'he would stick at nothing.'
On the 1st of June, M. du Casse also sailed from Carthagena to return to St. Domingo. Thus were the Flibustiers abandoned
to their own will by all the authorities whose duty it was to have restrained them.