An Unwelcome Visit from Pirates!

 

Defense and Cassandra with tender attack Fort Lijdzaamheid on Rio Delagoa (Southeast Africa) circa 30 April 1722

 

 

Occupation of Fort Lijdzaamheid (Fort Agility) & Debauchery of the Pirates: 22 April - 30 June, 1722:

Narrative of Jacob de Bucquoy in his "Zestien Jaarige Reize Naar de Indien," published in 1757, 27-36, concerning the attack and two-month stay of pirates Richard Taylor in 72-gun Defense (formerly Portuguese Viceroy of Goa's vessel, Nossa Senhora do Cabo) and Olivier LeVasseur (La Buse) in 44-gun Cassandra (former East India Company vessel of Capt. James Macrae) and their crews at the newly-built Dutch fort on Rio De La Goa or modern Maputo Bay on southeast shore of Africa.

Narrative broken up for easier reading...

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We lived in the Fort, apart from sickness among our new recruits, and death, in a moderate rest, and feared no foreign enemies: but then often the danger is near, as will appear in the following.

It was on the 11th April [22 April by Gregorian calendar], (a year after we arrived here) that the natives informed us that there were three ships in the Bay, but they had not raised the flags: at once an order was given to ship to the corner [bend] of the River constantly setting out posts to learn what kind of Ships they might be: 

Every day the Natives came to our Fort, with pieces of Indian Lynwaet [lijnwaet; "linen"] for the body, which they said they had bartered from other Ships; What they had left they used for flags and pennants on their canoes and tubes. 

It lasted until the 19th of April [G: 30 April] when the said ships, bearing an English King's flag and pennant, approached the mouth of the River; we could not imagine what this might mean. English King's ships to be seen here in an unknown region, where there was no War, seemed strange, and on Sea Rovers no suspicion [English pirates were usually welcome]; but the outcome soon showed us; what people they behold. 

We prepared our pieces [canon], and enabled us to resist, if they should be against us: to this end we took a crowd of Blacks in the Fort, and led the Hoeker there, to defend us like a Watercastle, meanwhile the approaching ships; as two large ones, one of 72 [Defense], and the other of 44 cannon [Cassandra], plus a Brigantin up to the Lodge [entry building before Fort?]; they were crammed with people, who blew on the Kampanje [trumpets] lustily; then the largest ship dropped anchor and fired a shot in front of the Hoeker and our Fort, and then gave the whole broadside, likewise the other. We did not owe it to the shore, and gave them in the same language [returned fire], but in such a way that with the first volley the largest Pieces shook in the sand, for we had no fixed batteries yet, but loose planks deposited on the sand. We recovered as much as we could, when we saw with amazement that the Hoeker had already lowered the flag, and prepared as a prize. 

 

Jacob de Bucquoy, Plattegrond van Fort Lijdzaamheid on Rio de Lagoa, 1721.

They were still firing steadily with their 12-pounders, loaded with bullets and scrap; all the Blacks rushed over the patisfaden [palisade?], and fled into the woods. We saw that 78 men who were still alive at the Fort, and many of them sick, could not stand this crowd: but it seemed reasonable with the Commande while I was busy getting the Pieces ready to fire. 

As I acted for Opperkonstapel [Chief], I was told that someone had lowered the flag in the hole; This dropping of the flag communicated to the ships that we had surrendered: at once boats full of people came to the shore. Our Chief, Monsr. [Jean] Michel exclaimed "par Dieu wat dat ly wat dat! What that, I said, they have cut the flag in the hole, and we are taken." 

Under this message of Monsieur the people came ashore, four of whom emerged from the heap with pistol in one hand and saber in the other as far as the Lodge [entrance battery?]; Each of them looked with astonishment that so few men had such boldness; while one asked in a gruff voice, Where is the Chief? who answered here, asking them at the same time what kind of people they were? They answer that they were Kings of the Sea and of the World. 

Each was silent and looked at the other, and did not know what the further consequence would be, which we learned shortly. He immediately commanded the people to lay down their rifles, and at once ordered the Chief [acting-Chief Jean Michel] to sail aboard the great ship [Defense]: against which he long protested, [to no avail.] I [Bucquoy] accompanied him, and meanwhile they made sure of their accommodation. 

Round about, and seeing it necessary, they set up sentries, and divided the defenders (whom they immediately disarmed) here and there: while more and more people came ashore for their reinforcements. We left the second, one Jan van de Capelle, ashore, and sailed with the barge from the shore to board the great ship, where the Sea-robbers' flags were waving from the top of the stern and aft. 

When we were on the side of the ship, the Captain [Richard Taylor] stood with a saber in hand, aboard, waiting for us. Monsr. Michel, seeing a Negro approaching from his sight, Did not want him to climb over first; I said that to him [the Chief] that honor belonged, that otherwise I wished to be the first, as he then bid me: so I climbed by a rope, so that there was no stairway, and came over. Monsr. Michel was joined by 6 to 7 men; 

On his behalf we were ordered to follow the Captain who entered a room, and we with him: there we found the whole Assembly in order, with a box of punch in the middle, accompanied by an agreement of Muzyk, according to the English style, immediately wares we sat, or the punch box went round, and then, after the occasion of the country, and our condition, we were asked very accurately, by articles; whereupon Mr. Michel replied. Furthermore, they asked about Victuals [food provisions] for their ships, Water, etc. were available here. 

After we seemed to have satisfied them with a few things, they declared that upon their last visit that they had found a Dutch Comptoir [trading post] here [surprised at the presence of a fort]. They needed a place in these Indian regions, but if they had known this, they would have called upon another; but the matter now being so, it was their custom to lay down the anchors with little effort; Money, Tobacco, and Liquor, were Contrabands, and they were in need of them. 

Then our Victuals and Ammunition came, miraculously, and what more they thought could be of service. For the rest we must console ourselves with fate, and be at peace. 

Here people played merrily and drank about clearly. After an hour or two, my curiosity caught my eye to go downstairs to go between decks; and there to consider their lives; it seemed like a complete Robber's Fair; all the guests sat about their bowls, and drank profusely. Here I found all sorts of nations among each other, even black Negroes. 

Jeder spoke to me, Brother! 

Before and after: so the night ended with us: but it had not gone like this normally; for when they are drunk they live boldly with their captives; the Konstaple [leader; in this case, Richard Taylor] had a heart in the Arm [love of arms?], and the others had dutifully queried [parried] with the Sabers: a steady alarm, frightening the peasantry, and in fear for their lives, that the Second [Chief?], with twenty-one men more, would take flight in secret; chests and treasuries were opened with crowbars, and the well demolished;

In the morning the People [pirates] were divided on the shore and on the ships; and I was utilized to trade Vee [cattle] and Victuals for them. I was quite pleased with this; for whole bales of Lynwaat [lijnwaet; "linen"] were but cut up, and exchanged in pieces, for trifles, of Hoenders [Afrikaans: "chicken"], Fruits, etc.; the barrels of Corals and trifles, like Nuremburg Kramery [haberdashery; British: small items used in sewing, such as buttons, zippers, and thread (see thimble below)], which we had for Negotie [negotiating] at the Comptoir [trading post], everything was now in common. This was riotous and rude. I'm glad to have read the Hellish Fair, but it was one hell of a job. Offending women, drinking publicly drunk, and then inflicting violence on the native, was the same work; 

Briefly they [pirates] were at war with them [natives]; day and night they shot sharply across the plains: the natives grew so bitter, that is to observe the Ships and Vessels and then throw in with their Assegayen [a slender, iron-tipped, hardwood spear used chiefly by southern African peoples], wherewith several [pirates] have already been killed. 

Thimble | German, probably Nuremberg - Metropolitan Museum of Art

A curious case occurred on the birthday of King George the Second [must be the First, b. May 28; Second was b. 11 November and was not yet king (1727)], weekday, when they usually spend boozing and like a Sea-robbers Joyful feast.

Captain Tailor and Captain Labous, beside some officers, sat separately with a Punch bowl, drinking together. Tailor, looking before the Fort about Botree, a Native, standing somewhat to the side of the others, standing near the wood, and looking elsewhere, little thinking that death was so near to him, his Snape [Snaphaan; snaphaunce, or flintlock pistol], which sat beside him, and said to his company: Would you see that Karel [derogatory reference to a native] make a cabriolet [type of one-horse carriage]? they, according to their degenerate natures, said yes: Indeed he aims and shoots him, that he fell to the ground and gave up the ghost after a little thrashing; Having done this, he set the Snaphaan [Flintlock pistol or Snaphaunce] aside again, continued his conversation with the same composure as if nothing had happened, and I never heard him speak of it again.

I am ashamed to inform the reader of the liberality which I saw that day, as much about malking [associating with an untidy woman] as the violent treatment of women in public practice, so as not to introduce vexatious ideas of it into anyone's imagination or memory.

This lasted until the 26th June, when they had their ships ready and clean: As for my interest, I changed my clothes daily; the one took everything from me, and the other gave me a skirt again, or vest: in short I had changed fashion all day long; long, short, wide, and narrow, all was my pass; that which I gained in exchange, I again venerated to those who had not, 'Never have I looked better at the world and life, and learned to know its intemperance and futility; now I had it by experience.

Finally being supplied with Victuals, and being there their time of departing again, they shot a lap, and waved the Black Flag to Pitsjaaren [signal].* By this it was well thought to take the Hoeker as foresailer: but so their great ship [Defense] went 22 feet deep [draught], and in the bay was but 18 feet of water by common cyn [average, measurement?], and knowing that I had drawn the map of the bay [see map above], they beseeched me that I might cast them out in the open sea; that in return they would give 5 bales of Lynwaet [lijnwaet; "linen"] to the people, to sustain life; and the Hoeker, after they had removed the masts in advance, before leaving in the Comptoir [trading post] to us for storage. 

Though I had little inclination to go with them, as they cannot take much on their word, but we were in need. I suggested this to the Chief [Michel], who advised me to do it: but being like a Frenchman, not trusting much with him, I told him that if he were so to me as Chief, and for that I recognized him, to command my self, I was then ready to obey his commands; which he then did in the presence of the rural folk, and the master of Hoeker, a Frans van Haften; thereupon I beg of them 2 or 3 helmsmen to go with my self, to lay the weights and bearings of the deep with barrels, and to mark as marks of course, for their and my assurance; which they approved. We were here for eight days. On the 30th June (J: 11 July) we lifted our anchors, and after the cannon's praise, we bid farewell to Rio de la Goa.

* Pitsjaaren - To make a sign on ship board for giving notice to the other Commanders that a Council of war is to be kept, or something like to be done. [A Compleat Dictionary, English and Dutch, to which is Added a Grammar, for Both Languages, Volume 2 (Amsterdam: K. de Veer, 1766), 639]

La Gazette Pirate References - 1720

p. 45-46:

From London, January 18, 1720

We heard from Harwich that on the 15th & 16th, two Transport Vessels, on which eight hundred Dutchmen had embarked, had sailed, and that the preceding days, six hundred others had left on other vessels, en route to The Netherlands. Two ships of thirty guns order to go against the Corsairs [Pirates], who continue to disturb trade in the Colonies of America & the Coast of Guinea, where they appear in greater numbers than ever. They burned several takes they made, & we learn from letters from Barbados, that they looted or burned forty English Vessels of this Colony & other neighbors, & twenty on the coast of Guinea, from different Nations . According to the latest advice from this country, Captain Maxwel, who passed from old Calabar to Virginia, having on board a hundred Negros, had been taken near Isle of Cariscoe [Corisco] by three of these Pirates [almost certainly Olivier LeVasseur, Jeremiah Cocklyn, and Richard Taylor]; that they had taken him to serve as their Pilot; and having learned that two ships from London and one from Bristol had gone to the neighboring coasts to buy Negroes, they had sailed from this coast, and had taken them, as well as another vessel from Glascow. They have since made their way to the Gold Coast, & according to the report of Captain Maxwel who fled at night in a Rowboat, their intention was to go cruising towards the Cape of Good Hope, to await the Vessels returning there from East Indies. In the last sessions of the Justices of the Peace, it was ordered to the Connestables or Commissars of the districts, to have the Loix enforced against those who have seditious libels, or who sing insolent songs in the streets.

p. 214:

From London, April 25, 1720

The Duke of Shandois & others, Bought, the Patent of the Company of Africa, for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. We learn from Virginia that the Pirates started their races again, and that they had taken two Bristol Ships.

p. 227:

From London, May 2, 1720

The letters from America and the costes of Africa are known that the Pirates continue to make great disorders there, ransoming or plundering almost all the merchant ships they meet, & even attacking some of them under the cannon of the Forts. Several highway robbers have been executed to death here and in the Provinces, but thefts are very frequent.

p. 370-371:

From London, July 25, 1720

[excellent context:]
The Directors of the African Company wishing to restore their trade which was considerably diminished by the losses which the Pirates caused him to suffer there, made equip ten ships, to send there, besides the two warships of fifty piece of cannon that the Lords Justiciers granted them. The purpose of the Company is to fortify the ports where it has trading posts, & to put them out of insult, because their buildings were not there in rage, & to make a new establishment in the river of Gambia, ten leagues or so from its mouth, hoping by this means to attract the principal trade in elephant teeth, gold dust, and other merchants of the country, with the Cafres [of Southeast African origin] on the continent. She sent for this purpose a large number of all strong laborers, and quantity of materials, in addition to two hundred soldiers divide into four Companies each commanded by a Lieutenant, who will enter in garrison in the Fort which it is intended to build there . The Lords Justiciers having examined the project sent from Ireland, to establish in Dublin a Bank similar to that of England, had approved it: but on the admonitions which were made to them of the prejudice that this one could suffer from it, they have suspended the execution of the project until further notice. Some ships have arrived from Virginia, and others are expected to load tobacco and other country goods. We learn that the Pirates are causing disorder every day, & that the Spaniards have recently taken an English Vessel, because the suspicion of all hostilities, was not yet published in this country. The East India Company has made the sale of the goods which are loaded with the last Vessels which make them arrive, and it has been about seven hundred thousand pounds sterling, instead that above it was much stronger. We attributed this decrease to
little debit that the painted canvases and other manufactures of the Indies had, which the Merchants had obliged to give at low price, because of the Acts of the last Parliament. Notwithstanding the penalties imposed by the last Act of Parliament, highway robbers continue to cause a great deal of disorder: some of their leaders have been arrested, they have declared their accomplices, who are being researched. The Actions on the South Sea Company are today a thousand miles away.

p. 382:

From London, July 29, 1720

... The Directors of the Africa Company having resolved to establish a new dwelling in the Gambia river, ten leagues or approximately from its mouth, must send workers there incessantly, to build a fort there which can put the costes under cover from pirates who take a lot of it, we have even learned recently that they had taken three English Vessels, of which the Officers and the Sailors had been made slaves. On the assurance that the Resident of the Czar in this Court gave the Merchants that they could send their Vessels to the ports of Estats du Roy his Maistre, & traffic freely there, they sent several of them to Russia, & they ship goods every day for these countries.

p. 406-407:

From London there on August 15, 1720.

... The Merchants learned that the Pirates had kidnapped several of their Vessels in the Gambia river, which caused them great losses. They hope that the warships that the Government has granted to the different Companies, for the safety of their Trade, will deliver these Costes from all these Pirates. We write from Plymouth, that there had passed three Vessels from the Mediterranean Sea Wing, and we await the rest of this fleet. It is believed that that which was intended for this Sea, and which was to be commanded by Admiral Wager, will be disarmed, and we have already sent orders to two of the Vessels which compose it, to set sail, to go to the Costes of Guinea, & to assure there the Trade of the Company of Africa, which must make leave at the same time its Vessels. We continue to transport a lot of gold & silver for France, & for Holland.

p. 418-419:

From London, August 22, 1720.

The Lords Justiciers who had referred to the ordinary Judges the decision of the concertation which is between My lord Craven & My lord Londondery, for the property of the Isles of Bahama in America, examined this affair for a third time, in the Council which was held on the 20th of this month, & it was ordered that the Attorney General would draw up an Act to annul the Charter which was granted to My Lord Craven under the reign of Charles II & to reunite these Isles to the Crown. This judgment did not, however, prevent the Company formed by My lord Londo [n] dery in favor of a Patente which was given to him by the Roy [king], to continue his projects to make an establishment in these Isles & she must send there immediately any strong of workers, on the Vessels which leave at the end of the month for the Isle of Providence. The Duke of Grafton, Viceroy of Ireland, to whom the Lords Justiciers had referred the examination of a Request, to establish in Dublin a Insurance Company for fire, having made a very favorable report to this establishment, the interestez hope more than ever to obtain a Charter which authorizes it, & they have chosen a Governor & Directors of this Company, whose project is to establish Insurance Offices in London, Dublin, & in all Trade cities of the Kingdom of Ireland. The South Sea Company Books have been opened to receive new Subscriptions, but the eagerness has not been so great for a few days, which causes them to close them until next week. The East India Company & that of Africa, always continue to engage Officers, soldiers & workers, to send in their establishments, and work to build new there. They become more and more everyday necessary, all the news of these countries containing only the various catches made by the Pirates who make them become so powerful on these coasts, that the Merchant Vessels no longer dare to go to sea without escort.

p. 575-576:

From London, November 21, 1720

... The Attorney General has handed over to the Court of Bench of Roy [king] the information he has given by order of the Lords Justiciers against Mr. Lowther Governor of Barbados who is to be tried at the next term. For the past few days, there have been several proceedings against the commitments made between individuals on the Shares of the Compagnie de la Mer du Sud, but it appears that the Judges will decide nothing on these strong cases only when they will be informed of the intentions of Parliament on these commitments. Interested in the latest Subscriptions, await the Assembly of Parliament with great impatience; & they still hope it will do them justice. There are a very large number of Briefs which must be presented on this case, and particularly against Directors who hope to glue them to justify themselves of what is imputed to them on the discredit of Actions, the price of which has been further reduced since the news come from the considerable bankruptcies that take place in Holland. Six large Vessels & six others a little smaller which belong to the Company of Africa made sail of the Dunes last week, under the escort of two Vessels of war, & there are still in the Thames two large vessels which must incessantly put sailing. This Company has embarked on these Vessels a large number of soldiers and workers, to build new Forts in their establishments. The warships escorting these vessels are ordered to hunt down the Pirates & destroy them entirely, so the Company, whose trade has been much smaller for some time, hopes to make it much more profitable, and to build up Your credit, Don Hyacinthe Pereyra de Castro Envoy Extraordinary of the King [king] of Portugal in this Court, died here on the 20th of this month. Four thousand three hundred and thirteen ounces of gold were sent to Douanne this week for Holland, and two hundred ounces for being transported to France. The shares of the Compagnie de la Mer du Sud are now two hundred and ten.

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Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World

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La Gazette Pirate References - 1722

p. 10:

From London on December 25, 1721

... The vessel La Marguerite arrived from Cadiz on the 15th, with twelve tons of piastres for the part which goes to the merchants of this city of the interests which they had in the last flotilla of Spain. We have received notice that the Hamilton Vessel returning from Jamaica to Bristol, under the command of Captain Smith, had been taken in its route by a Spanish vessel, without any reason being angry; but that both of them having been attacked then by a Pirate, had been burned after a few hours of combat. We have just learned that the Rebecca destined for Petersburg had perished in the Baltic Sea near the Isle of Bornholm.

p. 46:

From London, January 15, 1722

... We have received notice that the Onslow vessel commanded by Captain Gée had it taken by the Pirates on the coast of Guinea: that the Rebecca coming from Bilbao, was lost at the entrance of the English Channel: that the Thomas & Hannah from Maryland had broken in the rocks of the Cape of Virginia: that the Charlotte from Jamaica had failed on the coast of France, & that the Robynson had been taken by the Pirates.

p. 69-70:

From London, January 29, 1722.

... Vice-Admiral Wager received orders to return to the Ports, the warships which were to compose the squadron intended against Portugal, and we received advice from Lisbon that the Sieur Windfîels Negocient Anglois & le Sieur Robert, his partner, had been sentenced to death on the 8th of this month by the Court of Justice, which had been instructed to hear their trial, but that on the 9th the Roy [king] of Portugal had sent them their pardon by the Count of Prado his first Gentleman of the House, & that on the 10th they had been released & in possession of all the effects that had been saved

... We equip a warship to escort the ship which must transport the Duke incessantly of Portland to his Government of Jamaica. The Merchants of this City received notice that the Morning Star vessel belonging to the City of Bristol & which was going from Costes from Guinea to Carolina, had been taken recently by the Pirates, as well as another ship which was heading for New Yorck. The large number of vessels which these Corsairs have taken for some time has compelled the merchants of this Kingdom to submit a request to His Majesty, to beg her to send a greater number of warships to sea, so that the Trade is not interrupted by the races of these Pirates.

p. 127:

From London, February 26, 1722

... We have received notice that the Cassandre vessel belonging to the East India Company, which had been taken some time ago by the Pirates, had just been taken over by the Falkland warship commanded by Captain [Barrows] Harris, after a a very obstinate combat, in which the Pirates had lost more than three hundred men of their crew, & the English one hundred men or about [Is this a false report? The pirate Cassandra is still in the Indian Ocean at this time - possibly a diff. pirate vessel here]. We learned from letters arrived this week from various Ports of this Kingdom, that the Weymouth warship of fifty pieces of cannon, had been taken on the Coast of Guinea by two Pirates, one of forty, & the other of thirty-eight guns: that they had also removed another ship which returned from the slave trade, &. which was destined for Jamaica; & that three vessels loaded with Tobacco, returning from Virginia, were lost in the Rocks, in the West of Ireland.

p. 138:

From London on March 5, 1722

... According to the language of the English vessels that the Pirates have taken, burn or sink to the bottom for five years, both on the African coast, and in America, it seems that England has lost one hundred and thirty-six during this time ; This is what commits his Majesty to arm six warships to chase the pirates, & to restore in these seas the security of commerce interrupted by their races. The East India Company launched the three new Vessels it had built last year. On the 17th of last month, twenty-five Lords, Members of the House of Peers, protested against the decision of the House to admit the Bill which had just been presented there, to enhance the freedom of Elections for Members of a new Parliament; but on the 2nd of this month, their protests having been heard and examined, it was resolved to the plurality of fifty-five votes to twenty-two, that they would strike the registers off, and that there would be no regard for them. The Shares of the South Sea Company today make "ninety-eight."

p. 169:

From London on April 1, 1722.

... On the 19th, the bishop of Salisbury accompanied by several other prelates of this Kingdom, put in the name of Roy [king] the first stone of the Church of Saint Martin des Champs which was rebuilt. We put the same day in commission six warships of the fourth rank, two of which are intended to raise those who serve in the Mediterranean, three to cross on pirates along the coast of Guinea, & the sixth to reinforce the escort vessels that go to the cod fishery.

p. 225-226:

From London, April 23, 1722

... The Merchants of this City have received notice that the Mercy, one of their vessels, had been taken recently by the Pirates, on the Coste de Guinée: that the Pencel had escaped their rot, & that the Neptune loaded for Venice, was lost near Avero (?), The Company of the South Sea, currently makes load the Prince Royal of all strong of goods, whose first purchase amounts to nearly three hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling.

p. 250:

From London, 7 May 1722

... The Comte de Clancarty, who was exiled outside the Kingdom for the cause of rebellion, obtained his pardon from the King and should arrive here in a few days. Le Guillaume & Elisabeth, arrived at the Dunes of Saint Christophe, having been looted by the Pirates a few days after I left.

p. 256-257:

From Lisbon, April 16, 1722.

From Lisbon -

An Order must be published immediately against those who defraud the rights of the Roy [king], & nineteen traders of this city accuse & convinced of having made further declarations of their goods, were condemned these days proceed to be transported to India , & they have embarked on the ship that left for Goa, from where they will no longer have the freedom to return.
... We have received notice - by a courier of Don Louis d'Acunha Minister of Roy [king] from there Majeste Trés-Chrestienne, that Don Louis L'ouis de Meneses Comte d'Ericeyra, above Viceroy des Indes Orientales, quoting from Goa to return to this Kingdom, embarked on a Portuguese vessel which had the misfortune of being attacked & taken by the Forbans [Pirates], at the height of the Isle of Saint Laurent or of Madagascar: that these Pirates, after having taken all its effects & plundered the Vessel, had put it ashore at the Isle of Bourbon: that it had embarked there a few days later on a Vessel of the Compagnie des Indes from France, & that he had happily arrived at the Port d'Orient in Brittany.

p. 347:

From London, July 2, 1722

... We received advice from Barbados, that the Hyrondelle, warship commanded by Captain Ogle, had surprised on the Coste de Guinee three Forbans [Pirates], one of thirty-eight guns commanded by the famous Robert[;] the Comte de Toulouze, French ship of thirty guns, which a few years ago captured by these Pirates, and a third of lesser consequence, and that he had led them to Cape-Coast, with two hundred crew members who were locked up in the Chasteau [Castle].

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Capture of Le Victorieux or Victory by pirate Jeremiah Cocklyn!

From the French deposition of the captain of the ship that was chased, captured, and taken by pirates Jeremiah Cocklyn, Olivier LeVassuer, and Richard Taylor off the west coast of Africa before they rounded the Cape of Good Hope for Madagascar!

ACCIM f°169-177(f° 169) Juillet 1720, Prise et abandonnement du vaisseau le Victorieux, capitaine Hais de Nantes. N°22

This is the first half of a long and detailed deposition given by the captain of Le Victorieux, or Victory, used by pirates to take the East Indian Merchant vessel Cassandra just north of Madagascar in 1720. This unfortunate ship was earlier confused by Nathaniel Mist, writing as "Capt. Charles Johnson," with the Petersborough of Bristol. This record has been edited by the author for readability.

**************

Of the fifth of July, seven thousand and twenty (5/7/1720), the Sir Interested on the body, faction, armament and victualling of the vessel Le Victorieux commanded by the Captain Guillaume Hais of Nantes, who declared that the said ship would have left the the bottom of the river of the said city [Nantes] on 30 December one thousand seven hundred eighteen (30/12/1718) for the coast of Guinea to make the trade of the blacks [slaves], that two days after said departure, he suffered an impetuous and contrary wind to his navigation, which demasted his little mast and his parrot, and after repairs, he made his way and sailed until the twenty-fourth of February, seventeen hundred and nineteen (24/2/1719) that they moored at Mesura [Cape Mesurade], on the Coste de Guinea to make wood and water and rice which they thought they needed. They stayed six days without finding in this place the rice and the water which they needed, from whence they traveled to Jonck to find rice there - they found none; And thence made their way for the same needs to Petit Sestre (Little Seashore), where they anchored and sent their canoe ashore to make proposals for the ordinary trade with the King.

That the negroes of this place came aboard the boat to get what they wanted, that the officer who was on board the boat told [to them] that they came there to trade for rice, that on this answer the said negroes asked a crewman to go with them to make the request to the King, and as is the custom, the officer gave them a man named Pierre Meunier of La Rochelle, but hardly was this sailor ashore, the negro seized him and fired the weapons with which they were armed at the boat and wounded in the thigh a sailor named Jean Moisson de Quiberon, forcing the officer of the said boat to return to the ship to advise his captain, who in the plan of re-acquainting his sailor, took the party of to conceal the insult [to save face?], and sent his canoe and his armed boat, to shoot [at] the negroes. He commanded the crew to keep safe, and fire only for the purpose to impose respect, but the negroes fired on the boat, and as soon as the crew saw them within range of their arms, the crew of the said boats and canoes retired on board, because their number was too few to make shore, the negroes being too numerous, and the landing too difficult because of the "big land."

They set sail and anchored at Grand Sestre seven leagues away where they spent three days making water and rice. The negroes of this place told them that what they had experienced happened because the fact that the English went there every day under the French flag, to make incursions on their coast and take them off under the pretext of trade. Capt. Hais assured them that they would not be harmed by his sailor [Pierre Meunier], that they would withdraw him from their neighbors [at Petit Sestre] to return him to the first French ship [which should arrive], for which the said captain offered them at present some goods in the hope of having his sailor back. But having no appearance of having it, he left only a note for the King of the said Sestre, begging all the French ships to withdraw the said sailor with a promise to repay what had been paid for him. From there [Hais] traveled [sailed] to Judah, the place of their destination, where they arrived on the twenty-second of March following (22/3/1719).

That on the twenty-third of the said month, the said captain went ashore to establish his trade in the ordinary, which they were tranquil in the said ship until the twenty-second of June (22/6/1719), at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, when three rogue ships [LeVasseur in Duke of Ormond and Cocklyn in Speedwell/Windham/Bird (former vessel of William Snelgrave) and Richard Taylor in Comrade] entered the said port under the English flag, and distinguished themselves only when they were near the said vessel Le Victorieux, where the Sieur Edouard Hais [first mate] commanded on board, having recognized them, their being seen firing cannons and flying the black flag, cut two cables on the bitts and set sail, that [First mate Hais] had barely thirty men on board, of which half were sick, and that while fleeing he saw five ships, three of which were Portuguese, one English [Heroine, former master Richard Blincko] and one French from La Rochelle, and that he had only been followed for half an hour by two of the said pirates, and having borne his planks far off, he stood far off and anchored the fifth day after his escape.

[First mate Edourd Hais] had gone twenty-eight leagues west of Judah, whence he wrote to his brother captain [Guillaume Hais] of the said ship, who had been left in Judah [Whydah], to inform him where he was; and that he received a reply from the captain on the tenth of July (10/7/1719) ordering him to return to Judah [since the pirates had moved off], where he went to anchor on the eleventh of that month. For thirty days they could not make shore, the bar being impassable, which caused them considerable trouble and caused sickness to the people who had remained ashore. Of the boat [of Le Victorieux?] which the rogues seized upon, the boat wherein seventy iron bars were and several casks full of water, which said boat was delivered by a sailor named Jacques Carré [James Cary] Irishman who took sides with the said pirates; and that the said pirates were forty, thirty-two, and eight cannon.

And that on the twenty-eighth of the month of July there appeared two ships [LeVasseur in Duke of Ormond and Cocklyn in Speedwell/Windham/Bird], which were still believed to be pirates, information they had learned from the crews that had been ransomed by the above-mentioned pirates, that [the two pirates] went to fetch the said ship Le Victorieux, and when they did not find her, they came back to take [Le Victorieux] in the harbor, which obliged [Capt. Guillaume Hais] to cut a third new cable, and to sail. He fought the sea for five days, at the end of which he returned with the said ship, after having learned by a Portuguese boat that there was nothing to fear for him to enter. [But, the captain lamented] the pitiful condition of his ship and crew, which was fatigued by work, of the little food and heavy weather which they had suffered, and which he believed not that he was in a position to maneuver the said vessel, his people are wracked by fever and scurvy. That on the frequent notices and representations of all the officers, majors, and marines, the said captain determined in concert with the said officers to pass to the island of Sao Tomé, with the captives of two Portuguese ships taken by the pirates and return on the coast of this Harbor of Judah, more in relation to the absolute need of the crew of the two Portuguese ships than of the cargo of their slaves, and also by the hope that the sailors of his boat, which he had long time on land and those of his tent and his store, all of whom were sick, would recover by the air of the sea, and that the others who were on board, attacked by fever and scurvy, could be restored to the place of Saint Thomé by the refreshments that the captains of the said Portuguese were obliged to provide them on land and on board in the hopes the said crews would be restored, to follow the course of their journey, and that they left Judah 15 Sep one thousand seven hundred and nineteen (15/9/1719) with three hundred and sixty negroes, having lost ninety of the number of four hundred and fifty that said Captain Hays had treated before the arrival and departure of the pirates, they did their best to reach Saint Thomé, but the winds having always been contrary, as well as the tides, they were obliged to anchor at Prince's [Isle de Principe] Island.

From the eleventh of September (11/9/1719) they stayed there until the fourth of October. And that during their stay at Isle de Principe, two of these sailors, who had needed to see the [fresh water] ponds to resupply the ship, and who had come down to work in the road [prob. stream], were suddenly smothered by the steam of the waters which were infected. The one named Charles Mandier, and the other Roger, and that six of their comrades remained unconscious and without knowledge, and would have perished if they had not been rescued in the moment, which the said captain and all his officers and the pitiful state where they were, the sick captain, the great number of the dead crew, almost the whole scorbutic or attacked with fevers, and convinced of the sad experience they had just made, that the plague was in their brink; being without cables and anchors, only one left to them. Finally, seeing themselves out of state, they could not continue their voyage without food which the Portuguese masters of the place offered to give them, provided that the said captain would sell them his ship with his captives [slaves] to carry to Brazil, offering in this case to provide him with a crew to make up for the weakness of his own who were not in a state to sail his ship. [Hais] was obliged to accept in the opinion of all his officers majors and mariners because he had to pay in Brazil fifty pounds of gold for the value of the ship, and one hundred and fifty pounds of gold for the value of the slaves. Said Captain Hais running the risks of the ship and the Portuguese of the mortality of the blacks until they made the locality of Brazil, all was contracted in the presence of said officers majors and mariners who signed them. And left this place of the Isle de Principe last October 4 (4/10/1719).

That the ninth of that month [October], thirty leagues windward of said Isle de Principe in the company of a Portuguese ship which had followed them from Judah, They were chased by a pirate ship [Cocklyn in Speedwell/Windham/Bird/Defiance? These pirates seemed to change names often, though Defiance may have been a newer ship], but the night came and they lost sight of it as well as the said Portuguese [consort] vessel, and continued their journey till the following day, four o'clock in the afternoon, that the look-out warned that another ship was taking the opposite course. They thought at first that it was the Portuguese, but seeing him back in their waters they feared he was a pirate. And indeed, at seven o'clock in the evening he approached them, fired a cannon and hoisted the black flag on the mainmast, with command to hove to. they recognized that he was a pirate of thirty-four guns, with two hundred men Captain Carrot [Cocklyn], not being able to resist and fearing the misfortunes that follow a useless resistance with the pirates, Capt. Hais hove to and the pirates seized this ship Le Victorieux, and having sent their boat, twenty five armed men, came on board, together. Said Captain Hais and the first mate his brother [Edourd], were detained on board with five others of their crew, and that two days later the barbarians made them understand that they were leading them to Anabon to give the ship Le Victorieux to another pirate named Labuse [LeVasseur].

On the way to the said Anabon they met an English ship [Petersborough, Capt. William Owen?] from Bristol loaded with two hundred blacks, which to the said pirates they surrendered. And they [carried aboard the Bristol ship] all the Portuguese who were in Le Victorieux, and all the English crew in number of sixteen. [Leaving with] the said pirates, two of the sailors of the said ship Le Victorieux named Jean Detern and (?), and Etienne Bond with a servant named Provost.

[The pirates] having missed Anabon, they made the road to Angola, or in the hunt they gave to English ships, their bowsprit broke, which made them look for a convenient port for the purpose of replacing their bowsprit with that of Le Victorieux [this did not happen]. They could only make Cape Lopez, where the same pirate Labuze was found, who was there to change his ship with the Indian Queen of London, Captain [Thomas] Hill, whom they had taken on the coast of Angola, on which place the said pirates had several disputes, some to give Captain Hais one of their ships in exchange for the ship Le Victorieux, the others to degrade said Hais and his crew. At this place the strongest voice prevailed, which was to give a ship to Captain Hais. During the debates they sent ashore four to five hundred Negroes, those whom they had taken on the said vessels, which were at once picked up and removed by the negroes of the country, and gave to Captain Hill one hundred and forty, a cargo of negroes, negresses, and negroes, with the captain's [Hill's] ship [Indian Queen] which Labuze had exchanged for his own, and to give to Capt. Hais the pirate ship Heroine [taken from Capt. Richard Blinko 22 June 1719 ay Whydah], because all the masts were worth nothing. After beating all the guns and stripping it of all that is useful for navigation, with ninety blacks who were still aboard Le Victorieux from his trade.

That during the overthrow of the buccaneers from one ship to another, Joseph Pascal, sailor of Le Victorieux, voluntarily partook with the said pirates.

That the pirates having left for their voyage [to Madagascar], said Hais made his best with the little rope they had left him, he did spice (sic) [splice?] to firm the masts.

That they were on land making water and finding there some exhausted and moribund negroes, whom the negroes of the country had abandoned; remains of those whom the pirates had left ashore.




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