One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew of the Royal James. Hanged for piracy at White Point, Charleston, South Carolina, on November 8th, 1718, and buried in the marsh below low-water mark.
VIVON, Captain M. La. French filibuster.
Commanded the Cour Valant of La Rochelle. In December, 1668, his ship was seized by Captain Collier for having robbed an English ship of provisions.
WAFER, Lionel. Surgeon, buccaneer, and author.
Believed to have been born about the year 1660.
He could speak Gaelic and also Erse, which languages he had learnt during his childhood, which was spent partly in the Highlands of Scotland and partly in Ireland.
In 1677 he sailed as mate to the surgeon of the Great Ann, of London (Captain Zachary Browne), bound for Java.
Two years later, he again sailed as surgeon's mate on a voyage to the West Indies. He deserted his ship at Jamaica and set himself up as a surgeon at Port Royal, but one day meeting with two noted buccaneers, Captain Linch and Captain Cook, he agreed to sail with them as ship's surgeon.
Wafer's subsequent adventures are recounted by Basil Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold Assaults of Captain Bartholomew Sharp and Others," and by William Dampier in his "New Voyage Round the World." After taking part in 1679 in the futile expedition of the buccaneers to Panama, Wafer joined the party of malcontents who left Captain Sharp and returned on foot across the Isthmus of Darien. Wafer was accidentally wounded in the knee by an explosion of gunpowder on May 5th, 1681, which he recounts in his narrative as follows: "I was sitting on the ground near one of our Men, who was drying of Gunpowder in a Silver Plate: But not managing it as he should, it blew up and scorch'd my knee to that degree, that the bone was left bare, the Flesh being torn away, and my Thigh burnt for a great way above it. I applied to it immediately such Remedies as I had in my knapsack: and being unwilling to be left behind by my companions, I made hard shift to jog on."
The whole story of these adventures is told by Wafer in a book he wrote, and which was published in London in 1699. It is called "A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, giving an Account of the Author's Abode there," and is illustrated by some quaint copperplates.