In 1823 Captain David Porter, of Essex fame, took command of the force operating against the pirates. Farragut came with him, but not in command of a vessel. He added five twenty-oar barges to his fleet, and eight small schooners of three guns each, together with a small steam ferryboat from New York called the Sea-gull.
Captain Porter desired first of all to get the help of the local governments, and sailed to Porto Rico; and on March 3, 1823, sent the Greyhound, under Captain John Porter, in with a letter to the governor. Later the Fox, Captain W. H. Cocke, was sent in for an answer. As the Fox entered the port a fort opened fire on her and Cocke was killed. The port authorities explained the matter, on inquiry, by saying that the governor had gone away, leaving orders to fire on any suspicious craft entering the harbor, and the Fox looked suspicious in their eyes; but it was believed that the firing was intended to sink the Fox in revenge for the capture of the piratical Palmira.
A Ship-of-War’s Launch.
From the “Kedge Anchor.”
At Cape Cruz a pirate resort was discovered that fully sustains the most ghastly stories of the sensational novel writers. It was captured by crews of the Greyhound and Beagle, under Captains Lawrence Kearny and J. S. Newton, after a desperate resistance. The pirate commander had a wife, who fought by his side with a fierceness equal to his own, and it was with great difficulty that she was overcome. When the fight was over an exploration showed that a number of caves had been used by the pirates. Bales of merchandise in some, and quantities of human bones in others, told a horrible story.
In April of 1823 the twenty-oar barges Gallinipper, Lieutenant William H. Watson, and the Mosquito, Lieutenant William Inman, chased a pirate schooner and a barge into the bay where Allen had lost his life the year before, and there the pirates anchored with springs on their cables, and made a fight. There were over seventy of the pirates, and the Americans were short-handed, having only thirty-one, all told. But they raised the cry of “Remember Allen!” and made a dash that drove the pirates overboard helter-skelter. The blood of the Yankee sailors had grown hot at the cry, and without stopping to take the pirate vessels they rowed in among the swimming cutthroats, and plied right and left with pikes and cutlasses, so that few if any escaped either death or capture, and there were but five prisoners. These were given to the Spanish authorities, and executed. The schooner had been captured from the Spanish. The pirate leader was known as Diabolito—a word that means “little devil.” He was killed while swimming for the shore.
On the whole, the work of Porter’s fleet was rapidly clearing the waters of the pirate plague. Nevertheless, when he compelled a Porto Rico Alcalde to show a proper respect for an American officer, the United States Government drove him from the navy. The trouble began near the end of 1824. The storehouse of the American consul at St. Thomas had been robbed, and Lieutenant Charles T. Platt of the Beagle learned that the property was concealed at Foxardo, a port on the east side of Porto Rico. Going to Foxardo, Platt landed with Midshipman Robert Ritchie and made known the Beagle’s errand.
Unquestionably Platt made one mistake. He went ashore in the clothes of a common citizen instead of wearing his uniform. If there is anything that incenses an official of one of the little American states, it is to have an official of a big state omit any of the forms and ceremonies usual to official business. The Foxardo officials pretended to doubt that Platt was an American officer, and demanded his commission. When this was exhibited they declared it a forgery, and that Platt was a pirate. Then they imprisoned both Platt and the midshipman, and treated both with great indignity before allowing them to return to the Beagle.
When the matter was reported to Porter, he took the John Adams, the Beagle, and the Grampus to Foxardo, and sent a letter dated November 12, 1824, to the Alcalde, demanding an explanation. While he awaited a reply he saw the soldiers on shore preparing a battery to fire on the Americans, and a force was sent to spike the guns of this and another battery, a service that was performed without opposition. Finding that the Americans were in earnest, the Foxardo authorities apologized and expressed proper regrets for the treatment of Platt and the midshipman.