Tu, O Alonso! mas docto y verdadoro,
Descrives del America ingenioso
Lo que assalta el Pirata codicioso:
Lo que defiende el Español Guerrero.
The French translation is entitled Les Avanturiers qui se sont signalez dans les Indes, and contains actions of the French Flibustiers which are not in Exquemelin. The like has been done in the English translation, which has for title The Bucaniers of America. The English translator, speaking of the sacking of Panama, has expressed himself with a strange mixture of boasting and compunctious feeling. This account, he says, contains the unparalleled and bold exploits of Sir Henry
Morgan, written by one of the Buccaneers who was present at those tragedies.
It has been remarked, that the treaty of America furnishes an apology for the enterprises of the Buccaneers previous to its notification; it being so worded as to admit an inference that the English and Spaniards were antecedently engaged in a continual war in America.
1671. The new Governor of Jamaica was authorized and instructed to proclaim a general pardon, and indemnity from prosecution, for all piratical offences committed to that time; and to grant 35 acres of land to every Buccaneer who should claim the benefit of the proclamation, and would promise to apply himself to planting; a measure from which the most beneficial effects might have been expected, not to the British colonists only, but to all around, in turning a number of able men from destructive occupations to useful and productive pursuits, if it had not been made subservient to sordid views. The author of the History of Jamaica says, 'This offer was intended as a lure to engage the Buccaneers to come into port with their effects, that the Governor might, and which he was directed to do, take from them the tenths and fifteenths of their booty as the dues of the Crown [and of the Colonial Government] for granting them commissions.' Those who had neglected to obtain commissions would of course have to make their peace by an increased composition. In consequence of this scandalous procedure, the Jamaica Buccaneers, to avoid being so taxed, kept aloof from Jamaica, and were provoked to continue their old occupations. Most of them joined the French Flibustiers at Tortuga. Some were afterwards apprehended at Jamaica, where they were brought to trial, condemned as pirates, and executed.
1672. A war which was entered into by Great Britain and France
against Holland, furnished for a time employment for the Buccaneers and Flibustiers, and procured the Spaniards a short respite.
1673. Flibustiers shipwrecked at Porto Rico; In 1673, the French made an attempt to take the Island of Curaçao from the Dutch, and failed. M. d'Ogeron, the Governor of Tortuga, intended to have joined in this expedition, for which purpose he sailed in a ship named l'Ecueil, manned with 300 Flibustiers; but in the night of the 25th of February, she ran aground among some small islands and rocks, near the North side of the Island Porto Rico. The people got safe to land, but were made close prisoners by the Spaniards. After some months imprisonment, M. d'Ogeron, with three others, made their escape in a canoe, and got back to Tortuga. The Governor General over the French West-India Islands at that time, was a M. de Baas, who sent to Porto Rico to demand the deliverance of the French detained there prisoners. The Spanish Governor of Porto Rico required 3000 pieces of eight to be paid for expences incurred. De Baas was unwilling to comply with the demand, and sent an agent to negociate for an abatement in the sum; but they came to no agreement. M. d'Ogeron in the mean time collected five hundred men in Tortuga and Hispaniola, with whom he embarked in a number of small vessels to pass over to Porto Rico, to endeavour the release of his shipwrecked companions; but by repeated tempests, several of his flotilla were forced back, and he reached Porto Rico with only three hundred men.
And put to death by the Spaniards. On their landing, the Spanish Governor put to death all his French prisoners, except seventeen of the officers. Afterwards in an engagement with the Spaniards, D'Ogeron lost seventeen men, and found his strength not sufficient to force the Spaniards to terms; upon which he withdrew from Porto Rico, and returned to Tortuga. The seventeen French officers that were spared in
the massacre of the prisoners, the Governor of Porto Rico put on board a vessel bound for the Tierra Firma, with the intention of transporting them to Peru; but from that fate they were delivered by meeting at sea with an English Buccaneer cruiser. Thus, by the French Governor General disputing about a trifling balance, three hundred of the French Buccaneers, whilst employed for the French king's service under one of his officers, were sacrificed.