History of the Buccaneers of America

Marine Productions found on Mountains. In latitude 26° S, wanting fresh water, they made search for the River Copiapo. They landed and ascended the hills in hopes of discovering it. According to Wafer's computation they went eight miles within the coast, ascending mountain beyond mountain till they were a full mile in perpendicular height above the level of the sea. They found the ground there covered with sand and sea-shells, 'which,' says Wafer, 'I the more wondered at, because there were no shell-fish, nor could I ever find any shells, on any part of the sea-coast hereabouts, though I have looked for them in many places.' They did not discover the river they were in search of; but shortly afterwards, they landed at Arica, which they plundered; and at the River Ylo, where they took in fresh water. At Arica was a house full of Jesuits' bark. Vermejo. Wafer relates, 'We also put ashore at Vermejo, in 10° S latitude. I was one of those who landed to see for water. We marched about four miles up a sandy bay, which we found covered with the bodies of men, women, and children. These bodies to appearance, seemed as if they had not been above a week dead; but if touched, they proved dry and light as a sponge or piece of cork. We were told by an old Spanish Indian whom we met, that in his father's time, the soil there, which now yielded nothing, was well cultivated and fruitful: that the city of Wormia had been so numerously inhabited with Indians, that they could have handed a fish from hand to hand until it had come to the Inca's hand. But that when the Spaniards came and laid siege to their city, the Indians, rather than yield to their mercy, dug holes in the sand and buried themselves alive. The men as they now lie, have by them their broken bows; and the women their spinning-wheels and distaffs with cotton yarn upon them. Of these dead bodies I brought on board a boy of about ten years of age with an intent to bring him to England; but was frustrated of my purpose by the sailors, who had a foolish conceit that the compass would not traverse right whilst there was a dead body on board, so they threw him overboard to my great vexation58.'

April. Near this part of the coast of Peru, in April 1687, Davis had a severe action with a Spanish frigate, named the Katalina, in which the drunkenness of his crew gave opportunity to the Spanish Commander, who had made a stout defence, to run his ship ashore upon the coast. They fell in with many other Spanish vessels, which, after plundering, they dismissed.

Shortly after the engagement with the Spanish frigate Katalina, Davis made a descent at Payta, to seek refreshments for his wounded men, and surprised there a courier with dispatches from the Spanish Commander at Guayaquil to the Viceroy at Lima, by which he learnt that a large body of English and French Buccaneers had attacked, and were then in possession of, the town of Guayaquil. May. The Governor had been taken prisoner by the Buccaneers, and the Deputy or next in authority, made pressing instances for speedy succour, in his letter to the Viceroy, which, according to Lussan, contained the following passage: 'The time has expired some days which was appointed for the ransom of our prisoners. I amuse the enemy with the hopes of some thousands of pieces of eight, and they have sent me the heads of four of our prisoners: but if they send me fifty, I should esteem it less prejudicial than our suffering these ruffians to live. If your Excellency will hasten the armament to our assistance, here will be a fair opportunity to rid ourselves of them.'

Davis joins other Buccaneers at Guayaquil. Upon this news, and the farther intelligence that Spanish ships of war had been dispatched from Callao to the relief of Guayaquil, Davis sailed for that place, and, on May the 14th, arrived in the Bay of Guayaquil, where he found many of his old confederates; for these were the French Buccaneers who had separated from him under Grogniet, and the English who had gone with Townley. Those two leaders had been overtaken by the perils of their vocation, and were no more. But whilst in their mortal career, and after their separation from Davis, though they had at one time been adverse almost to hostility against each other, they had met, been reconciled, and had associated together. Townley died first, of a wound he received in battle, and was succeeded in the command of the English by a Buccaneer named George Hout or Hutt. At the attack of Guayaquil, Grogniet was mortally wounded; and Le Picard was chosen by the French to succeed him in the command. Guayaquil was taken on the 20th of April; the plunder and a number of prisoners had been conveyed by the Buccaneers to their ships, which were at anchor by the Island Puna, when their unwearied good fortune brought Davis to join them.

The taking of Guayaquil by the Buccaneers under Grogniet and Hutt will be more circumstantially noticed in the sequel, with other proceedings of the same crews. When Davis joined them, they were waiting with hopes, nearly worn out, of obtaining a large ransom which had been promised them for the town of Guayaquil, and for their prisoners.

Near the Island Puna. The information Davis had received made him deem it prudent, instead of going to anchor at Puna, to remain with his ship on the look-out in the offing; he therefore sent a prize-vessel into the road to acquaint the Buccaneers there of his being near at hand, and that the Spaniards were to be expected shortly.

The captors of Guayaquil continued many days after this to wait for ransom. They had some hundreds of prisoners, for whose sakes the Spaniards sent daily to the Buccaneers large supplies of provisions, of which the prisoners could expect to receive only the surplus after the Buccaneers should be satisfied. At length, the Spaniards sent 42,000 pieces of eight, the most part in gold, and eighty packages of flour. The sum was far short of the first agreement, and the Buccaneers at Puna, to make suitable return, released only a part of the prisoners, reserving for a subsequent settlement those of the most consideration.

26th. Meeting between Spanish Ships of War and the Buccaneers. On the 26th, they quitted the road of Puna, and joined Davis. In the evening of the same day, two large Spanish ships came in sight. Davis's ship mounted 36 guns; and her crew, which had been much diminished by different engagements, was immediately reinforced with 80 men from Le Picard's party. Besides Davis's ship, the Buccaneers had only a small ship and a barca-longa fit to come into action. Their prize vessels which could do no service, were sent for security into shallow water.

A Sea Engagement of seven days. On the morning of the 27th, the Buccaneers and Spaniards were both without the Island Sta Clara. The Spaniards were the farthest out at sea, and had the sea-breeze first, with which they bore down till about noon, when being just within the reach of cannon-shot, they hauled upon a wind, and began a distant cannonade, which was continued till evening: the two parties then drew off to about a league asunder, and anchored for the night. On the morning of the 28th, they took up their anchors, and the day was spent in distant firing, and in endeavours to gain or to keep the wind of each other. The same kind of manœuvring and distant firing was put in practice on each succeeding day, till the evening of the 2d of June, which completed the seventh day of this obstinate engagement. The Spanish Commander, being then satisfied that he had fought long enough, and hopeless of prevailing on the enemy to yield, withdrew in the night. June. The Spaniards retire. On the morning of the 3d, the Buccaneers were surprised, and not displeased, at finding no enemy in sight.

During all this fighting, the Buccaneers indulged their vanity by keeping the Governor of Guayaquil, and other prisoners of distinction, upon deck, to witness the superiority of their management over that of the Spaniards. It was not indeed a post of much danger, for in the whole seven days battle, not one Buccaneer was killed, and only two or three were wounded.

It may be some apology for the Spanish Commander, that in consequence of Davis's junction with the captors of Guayaquil, he found a much greater force to contend with than he had been taught to expect. Fortune had been peculiarly unfavourable to the Spaniards on this occasion. Three ships of force had been equipped and sent in company against the Buccaneers at Guayaquil. One of them, the Katalina, by accident was separated from the others, and fell in with Davis, by whom she was driven on the coast, where she stranded. The Spanish armament thus weakened one-third, on arriving in the Bay of Guayaquil, found the buccaneer force there increased, by this same Davis, in a proportion greater than their own had been diminished. At the Island De la Plata. Davis and Le Picard left the choice of distance to the Spaniards in this meeting, not considering it their business to come to serious battle unless forced. They had reason to be satisfied with having defended themselves and their plunder; and after the enemy disappeared, finding the coast clear, they sailed to the Island De la Plata, where they stopped to repair damages, and to hold council.

They all now inclined homewards. The booty they had made, if it fell short of the expectations of some, was sufficient to make them eager to be where they could use or expend it; but they were not alike provided with the means of returning to the North Sea. Davis had a stout ship, and he proposed to go the Southern passage by the Strait of Magalhanes, or round Cape Horne. No other of the vessels in the possession of the Buccaneers was strong enough for such a voyage. All the French therefore, and many of the English Buccaneers, bent their thoughts on returning overland, an undertaking that would inevitably be attended with much difficulty, encumbered as they were with their plunder, and the Darien Indians having become hostile to them.

Almost all the Frenchmen in Davis's ship, left her to join their countrymen, and many of the English from their party embarked with Davis. All thoughts of farther negociation with the Spaniards for the ransom of prisoners, were relinquished. Le Picard had given notice on quitting the Bay of Guayaquil, that payment would be expected for the release of the remaining prisoners, and that the Buccaneers would wait for it at Cape Santa Elena; but they had passed that Cape, and it was apprehended that if they returned thither, instead of receiving ransom, they might find the Spanish ships of war, come to renew the attack on them under other Commanders. On the 10th, they landed their prisoners on the Continent.

Division of Plunder. The next day they shared the plunder taken at Guayaquil. The jewels and ornaments could not well be divided, nor could their value be estimated to general satisfaction: neither could they agree upon a standard proportion between the value of gold and silver. Every man was desirous to receive for his share such parts of the spoil as were most portable, and this was more especially of importance to those who intended to march overland. The value of gold was so much enhanced that an ounce of gold was received in lieu of eighty dollars, and a Spanish pistole went for fifteen dollars; but these instances probably took place in settling their gaming accounts. In the division of the plunder these difficulties were obviated by a very ingenious and unobjectionable mode of distribution. The silver was first divided: the other articles were then put up to auction, and bid for in pieces of eight; and when all were so disposed of, a second division was made of the silver produced by the sale.

Davis and his company were not present at the taking of Guayaquil, but the services they had rendered, had saved both the plunder and the plunderers, and gave them a fair claim to share. Neither Wafer nor Lussan speak to this point, from which it may be inferred that every thing relating to the division was settled among them amicably, and that Davis and his men had no reason to be dissatisfied. Lussan gives a loose statement of the sum total and of the single shares. 'Notwithstanding that these things were sold so dearly, we shared for the taking of Guayaquil only 400 pieces of eight to each man, which would make in the whole about fifteen hundred thousand livres.' The number of Buccaneers with Grogniet and Hutt immediately previous to the attack of Guayaquil, was 304. Davis's crew at the time he separated from Knight, consisted of eighty men. He had afterwards lost men in several encounters, and it is probable the whole number present at the sharing of the plunder of Guayaquil was short of three hundred and fifty. Allowing the extra shares to officers to have been 150, making the whole number of shares 500, the amount of the plunder will fall short of Lussan's estimate.

They separate to return home by different Routes. On the 12th, the two parties finally took leave of each other and separated, bound by different routes for the Atlantic.

CHAPTER XVII

Edward Davis; his Third visit to the Galapagos. One of those Islands, named Santa Maria de l'Aguada by the Spaniards, a Careening Place of the Buccaneers. Sailing thence Southward they discover Land. Question, whether Edward Davis's Discovery is the Land which was afterwards named Easter Island? Davis and his Crew arrive in the West Indies

1687. Davis sails to the Galapagos Islands. Davis again sailed to the Galapagos Islands, to victual and refit his ship. Lionel Wafer was still with him, and appears to have been one of those to whom fortune had been most unpropitious. Wafer does not mention either the joining company with the French Buccaneers, or the plunder of Guayaquil; and particularises few of his adventures. He says, 'I shall not pursue all my coasting along the shore of Peru with Captain Davis. We continued rambling about to little purpose, sometimes at sea, sometimes ashore, till having spent much time and visited many places, we were got again to the Galapagos; from whence we were determined to make the best of our way out of these seas.'

At the Galapagos they again careened; and there they victualled the ship, taking on board a large supply of flour, curing fish, salting flesh of the land turtle for sea store; and they saved as much of the oil of the land turtle as filled sixty jars (of eight gallons each) which proved excellent, and was thought not inferior to fresh butter.

King James's Island. Captain Colnet was at the Galapagos Isles in the years 1793 and 1794, and found traces, still fresh, which marked the haunts of the Buccaneers. He says, 'At every place where we landed on the Western side of King James's Isle, we might have walked for miles through long grass and beneath groves of trees. It only wanted a stream to compose a very charming landscape. This Isle appears to have been a favourite resort of the Buccaneers, as we found seats made by them of earth and stone, and a considerable number of broken jars scattered about, and some whole, in which the Peruvian wine and liquors of the country are preserved. We also found daggers, nails, and other implements. The watering-place of the Buccaneers was at this time (the latter part of April or beginning of May) entirely dried up, and there was only found a small rivulet between two hills running into the sea; the Northernmost of which hills forms the South point of Fresh Water Bay. There is plenty of wood, but that near the shore is not large enough for other use than fire-wood. In the mountains the trees may be larger, as they grow to the summits. I do not think the watering-place we saw is the only one on the Island, and I have no doubt, if wells were dug any where beneath the hills, and not near the lagoon behind the sandy beach, that fresh water would be found in great plenty59.'

Since Captain Colnet's Voyage, Captain David Porter of the American United States' frigate Essex, has seen and given descriptions of the Galapagos Islands. He relates an anecdote which accords with Captain Colnet's opinion of there being fresh water at King James's Island. He landed, on its West side, four goats (one male and three female) and some sheep, to graze. As they were tame and of their own accord kept near the landing-place, they were left every night without a keeper, and water was carried to them in the morning. 'But one morning, after they had been on the Island several days and nights, the person who attended them went on shore as usual to give them water, but no goats were to be found: they had all as with one accord disappeared. Several persons were sent to search after them for two or three days, but without success.' Captain Porter concluded that they had found fresh water in the interior of the Island, and chose to remain near it. 'One fact,' he says, 'was noticed by myself and many others, the day preceding their departure, which must lead us to believe that something more than chance directed their movements, which is, that they all drank an unusual quantity of water on that day, as though they had determined to provide themselves with a supply to enable them to reach the mountains60.'

Davis and his men had leisure for search and to make every kind of experiment; but no one of his party has given any description or account of what was transacted at the Galapagos in this his third visit. Light, however, has been derived from late voyages.

The Island Sta Maria de l'Aguada, a Careening Place of the Buccaneers. It has been generally believed, but not till lately ascertained, that Davis passed most of the time he was amongst the Galapagos, at an Island which the Spaniards have designated by the name of Sta Maria de l'Aguada, concerning the situation of which the Spaniards as well as geographers of other countries have disagreed. A Spanish pilot reported to Captain Woodes Rogers that Sta Maria de l'Aguada lay by itself, (i. e. was not one of a groupe of Islands) in latitude 1° 20′ or 1° 30′ S, was a pleasant Island, well stocked with wood, and with plenty of fresh water61. Moll, DeVaugondy, and others, combining the accounts given by Dampier and Woodes Rogers, have placed a Sta Maria de l'Aguada several degrees to the Westward of the whole of Cowley's groupe. Don Antonio de Ulloa, on the contrary, has laid it down as one of the Galapagos Isles, but among the most South-eastern of the whole groupe. More consonant with recent information, Pascoe Thomas, who sailed round the world with Commodore Anson, has given from a Spanish manuscript the situations of different Islands of the Galapagos, and among them that of Sta Maria de l'Aguada. The most Western in the Spanish list published by Thomas is named Sta Margarita, and is the same with the Albemarle Island in Cowley's chart. The Sta Maria de l'Aguada is set down in the same Spanish list in latitude 1° 10′ S, and 19 minutes in longitude more East than the longitude given of Sta Margarita, which situation is due South of Cowley's King James's Island.

Captain Colnet saw land due South of King James's Island, which he did not anchor at or examine, and appears to have mistaken for the King Charles's Island of Cowley's chart. On comparing Captain Colnet's chart with Cowley's, it is evident that Captain Colnet has given the name of Lord Chatham's Isle to Cowley's King Charles's Island, the bearings and distance from the South end of Albemarle Island being the same in both, i. e. due East about 20 leagues. It follows that the Charles Island of Colnet's chart was not seen by Cowley, and that it is the Sta Maria de l'Aguada of the Spaniards. It has lately been frequented by English and by American vessels employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery, who have found a good harbour on its North side, with wood and fresh water; and marks are yet discoverable that it was formerly a careening place of the buccaneers. Mr. Arrowsmith has added this harbour to Captain Colnet's chart, on the authority of information communicated by the master of a South Sea whaler.

From Captain David Porter's Journal, it appears that the watering-place at Sta Maria de l'Aguada is three miles distant from any part of the sea-shore; and that the supply it yields is not constant. On arriving a second time at the Galapagos, in the latter part of August, Captain Porter sent a boat on shore to this Island. Captain Porter relates, 'I gave directions that our former watering-places there should be examined, but was informed that they were entirely dried up.'

Gallapagos Islands, Described by Ambrose Cowley in 1684.

Larger.

Cowley's chart, being original, a buccaneer performance, and not wholly out of use, is annexed to this account; with the insertion, in unshaded outline, of the Sta Maria de l'Aguada, according to its situation with respect to Albemarle Island, as laid down in the last edition of Captain Colnet's chart, published by Mr. Arrowsmith. This unavoidably makes a difference in the latitude equal to the difference between Cowley's and Captain Colnet's latitude of the South end of Albemarle Island. In Captain Colnet's chart, the North end of Sta Maria de l'Aguada is laid down in 1° 15′ S.

The voyage of the Essex gives reasonable expectation of an improved chart of the Galapagos Isles, the Rev. Mr. Adams, who sailed as Chaplain in that expedition, having employed himself actively in surveying them.

1687. Davis sails from the Galapagos to the Southward. When the season approached for making the passage round Cape Horne, Davis and his company quitted their retreat. The date of their sailing is not given. Wafer relates, 'From the Galapagos Islands we went again for the Southward, intending to touch no where till we came to the Island Juan Fernandez. In our way thither, being in the latitude of 12° 30′ S, and about 150 leagues from the main of America, about four o'clock in the morning, our ship felt a terrible shock, so sudden and violent that we took it for granted she had struck upon a rock. When the amazement was a little over, we cast the lead and sounded, but found no ground, so we concluded it must certainly be some earthquake. The sea, which ordinarily looks green, seemed then of a whitish colour; and the water which we took up in the buckets for the ship's use, we found to be a little mixed with sand. Some time after, we heard that at that very time, there was an earthquake at Callao, which did mischief both there and at Lima.'

Island discovered by Edw. Davis. 'Having recovered our fright, we kept on to the Southward. We steered SbE ½ Easterly, until we came to the latitude of 27° 20′ S, when about two hours before day, we fell in with a small low sandy Island, and heard a great roaring noise, like that of the sea beating upon the shore, right ahead of the ship. Whereupon, fearing to fall foul upon the shore before day, the ship was put about. So we plied off till day, and then stood in again with the land, which proved to be a small flat Island, without the guard of any rocks. We stood in within a quarter of a mile of the shore, and could see it plainly, for it was a clear morning. To the Westward, about twelve leagues by judgement, we saw a range of high land, which we took to be Islands, for there were several partitions in the prospect. This land seemed to reach about 14 or 16 leagues in a range, and there came thence great flocks of fowls. I, and many of our men would have made this land, and have gone ashore at it, but the Captain would not permit us. The small Island bears from Copiapo almost due East [West was intended] 500 leagues, and from the Galapagos under the line is distant 600 leagues62.'

Dampier was not present at this discovery; but he met his old Commander afterwards, and relates information he received concerning it in the following words. 'Captain Davis told me lately, that after his departing from us at Ria Lexa, he went, after several traverses, to the Galapagos, and that standing thence Southward for wind to bring him about the Tierra del Fuego, in the latitude of 27° S, about 500 leagues from Copayapo on the coast of Chili, he saw a small sandy Island just by him; and that they saw to the Westward of it a long tract of pretty high land, tending away toward the NW out of sight63.'