are not related; and Robert Drury, who was shipwrecked at Madagascar in the year 1702, relates, 'King Samuel's messenger then desired to know what they demanded for me? To which, Deaan Crindo sent word that they required two buccaneer guns.'
At the time of the Peace of Ryswick, the Darien Indians, having quarrelled with the Spaniards, had become reconciled to the Flibustiers, and several of the old Flibustiers afterwards settled on the Isthmus and married Darien women.
Providence Island. One of the Lucayas, or Bahama Islands, had been settled by the English, under the name of Providence Island. It afforded good anchorage, and the strength of the settlement was small, which were conveniencies to pirates that induced them to frequent it; and, according to the proverbial effect of evil communication, the inhabitants were tempted to partake of their plunder, and assist in their robberies, by purchasing their prize goods, and supplying them with all kinds of stores and necessaries. This was for several years so gainful a business to the Settlement, as to cause it to be proverbial in the West Indies; that 'Shipwrecks and Pirates were the only hopes of the Island Providence.'
1700-1. Accession of Philip Vth. to the Throne of Spain. In three years after the Peace of Ryswick, Charles the IId of Spain died, and a Prince of the House of Bourbon mounted the Spanish Throne, which produced a close union of interests between France and Spain. The ports of Spanish America, both in the West Indies and in the South Sea, were laid open to the merchants of France. The Noticia de las Expediciones al Magalhanes notices the great resort of the French to the Pacific Ocean, 'who in an extraordinary manner enriched themselves during the war of the Spanish succession.' In the French Settlements in the West Indies the name of Flibustier, because it implied enmity to the Spaniards, was no longer tolerated.
On the breaking out of the war between Great Britain and
France which followed the Spanish succession, the English drove the French out of St. Christopher, and it has since remained wholly to Great Britain. M. le Comte de Gennes, a Commander in the French Navy, who a few years before had made an unsuccessful voyage to the Strait of Magalhanes, was the Governor of the French part of the Island at the time of the surrender[90].
During this war, the Governors of Providence exercised their authority in granting commissions, or letters of reprisal; and created Admiralty Courts, for the condemnation of captured vessels: for under some of the Governors no vessels brought to the adjudication of the Court escaped that sentence. These were indirect acts of piracy.
The last achievement related of the Flibustiers, happened in 1702, when a party of Englishmen, having commission from the Governor of Jamaica, landed on the Isthmus near the Samballas Isles, where they were joined by some of the old Flibustiers who lived among the Darien Indians, and also by 300 of the Indians. They marched to some mines from which they drove the Spaniards, and took 70 negroes. They kept the negroes at work in the mines twenty-one days; but in all this exploit they obtained no more than about eighty pounds weight of gold.
Here then terminates the History of the Buccaneers of America. Their distinctive mark, which they undeviatingly
preserved nearly two centuries, was, their waging constant war against the Spaniards, and against them only. Many peculiarities have been attributed to the Buccaneers in other respects, some of which can apply only to their situation as hunters of cattle, and some existed rather in the writer's fancy than in reality. Mariners are generally credited for being more eccentric in their caprices than other men; which, if true, is to be accounted for by the circumstances of their profession; and it happens that they are most subjected to observation at the times when they are fresh in the possession of liberty and money, earned by long confinement and labour.