Part 17 (1/2)

In 1699 an Act was pa.s.sed through Parliament of such severity as to drive many of the outlaws from American waters. It was largely a revival of the Act of 28, Henry VIII., was in force for seven years, and was twice renewed. The war of the Spanish Succession, moreover, gave many men of piratical inclinations an opportunity of sailing under lawful commissions as privateers against the French and Spaniards. In this long war, too, the French filibusters were especially numerous and active. In 1706 there were 1200 or 1300 who made their headquarters in Martinique alone.[533] While keeping the French islands supplied with provisions and merchandise captured in their prizes, they were a serious discouragement to English commerce in those regions, especially to the trade with the North American colonies. Occasionally they threatened the coasts of Virginia and New England, and some combined with their West Indian cruises a foray along the coasts of Guinea and into the Red Sea.

These corsairs were not all commissioned privateers, however, for some of them seized French s.h.i.+pping with as little compunction as English or Dutch. Especially after the Treaty of Utrecht there was a recrudescence of piracy both in the West Indies and in the East, and it was ten years or more thereafter before the freebooters were finally suppressed.

Footnotes:

[Footnote 424: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 501, 552. _Cf._ also Nos.

197, 227.]

[Footnote 425: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 364-366, 431, 668.]

[Footnote 426: Ibid., Nos. 476, 609, 668. Paine was sent from Jamaica under arrest to Governor de Cussy in 1684, and thence was s.h.i.+pped on a frigate to France. (Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 334.)]

[Footnote 427: Ibid., Nos. 668, 769, 963.]

[Footnote 428: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 769, 963, 993.]

[Footnote 429: Ibid., Nos. 1065, 1313.]

[Footnote 430: Ibid., No. 1313.]

[Footnote 431: Ibid., Nos. 1190, 1216.]

[Footnote 432: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1173.]

[Footnote 433: Ibid., Nos. 1168, 1190, 1223, 1344; _cf._ also Nos. 1381, 1464, 1803.

In June 1684 we learn that ”Hamlin, captain of La Trompeuse, got into a s.h.i.+p of thirty-six guns on the coast of the Main last month, with sixty of his old crew and as many new men. They call themselves pirates, and their s.h.i.+p La Nouvelle Trompeuse, and talk of their old station at Isle de Vaches.” (Ibid., No. 1759.)]

[Footnote 434: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 777, 1188, 1189, 1223, 1376, 1471-1474, 1504, 1535, 1537, 1731.]

[Footnote 435: Ibid., Nos. 1222, 1223, 1676, 1678, 1686, 1909; _cf._ also Nos. 1382, 1547, 1665.]

[Footnote 436: Ibid., Nos. 552, 599, 668, 712.

c.o.xon continued to vacillate between submission to the Governor of Jamaica and open rebellion. In October 1682 he was sent by Sir Thos.

Lynch with three vessels to the Gulf of Honduras to fetch away the English logwood-cutters. ”His men plotted to take the s.h.i.+p and go privateering, but he valiently resisted, killed one or two with his own hand, forced eleven overboard, and brought three here (Port Royal) who were condemned last Friday.” (Ibid., No. 769. Letter of Sir Thos. Lynch, 6th Nov. 1682.) A year later, in November 1683, he had again reverted to piracy (_ibid._, No. 1348), but in January 1686 surrendered to Lieut.-Governor Molesworth and was ordered to be arrested and tried at St. Jago de la Vega (_ibid._, 1685-88, No. 548). He probably in the meantime succeeded in escaping from the island, for in the following November he was reported to be cutting logwood in the Gulf of Campeache, and Molesworth was issuing a proclamation declaring him an outlaw (_ibid._, No. 965). He remained abroad until September 1688 when he again surrendered to the Governor of Jamaica (_ibid._, No. 1890), and again by some hook or crook obtained his freedom.]

[Footnote 437: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 660, 673.]

[Footnote 438: Ibid., Nos. 627, 769.]

[Footnote 439: He is not to be confused with the Peter Paine who brought ”La Trompeuse” to Port Royal. Thomas Pain, a few months before he arrived in the Bahamas, had come in and submitted to Sir Thomas Lynch, and had been sent out again by the governor to cruise after pirates.

(C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 769, 1707.)]

[Footnote 440: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 1509, 1540, 1590, 1924, 1926.]

[Footnote 441: Ibid., Nos. 1927, 1938.]

[Footnote 442: Ibid., Nos. 1540, 1833.]

[Footnote 443: Charlevoix, _op. cit._, liv. viii. p. 130. In 1684 there were between 2000 and 3000 filibusters who made their headquarters in French Hispaniola. They had seventeen vessels at sea with batteries ranging from four to fifty guns. (C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 668; Bibl.

Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 336.)]