Indies, where the settlers of both nations were simul taneously planted. The English and French were, however, not over-friendly; and in 1629, after the retirement of several of the former to an adjoining island, the remaining colonists were surprised and partly dispersed by the arrival of a Spanish fleet of thirty-nine sail. Many were carried off, and threats were freely used as to the future settlement of the island. But on the departure of the fleet the scattered bands returned, and encouragement was given to their countrymen in St Domingo. For buccaneering had now become a most profitable employment, operations were extended, and a storehouse secure from the attacks of the Spaniards was required. The small island of Tortuga lying to the N.W. of Hispaniola was seized for this purpose in 1630, converted into a magazine for the goods of the rivals, and made their headquarters, St Domingo itself
still continuing their lucrative hunting ground.Spain was not indifferent to this proceeding, though she could not prudently take immediate action. Eight years, however, had not gone, ere, watching her oppor tunity when many Buccaneers were absent in the larger island on their ordinary pursuit, she attacked Tortuga, and massacred every settler she could seize. But the hunters to the number of 300 returned ; and the Buccaneers, now distinctly seen to be in open hos tility to the Spanish arms, began to receive recruits from every European trading nation, and for three-quarters of a century became the acknowledged scourge of the Spanish American trade and dominions.
France, throughout all this, had not been idle in watching over her own interests. She had named the Governor of St Christopher "Governor-General for the French West India Islands," and in 1641 he took posses sion of Tortuga for the Crown of France, expelled all English from the island, and attempted the same with less success in St Domingo. England had at home something vastly more important to attend to, and the Buccaneers had to maintain themselves as best they could, now mainly on the sea.
In 1654 the Spaniards regained Tortuga from the French, into whose hands it again, however, fell after a period of six years. But this state of matters was, as may be readily conceived, too insecure even for these rovers, and they would speedily have succumbed to the perils of their mode of life, had not a refuge been found for them by the fortunate conquest of Jamaica in 1655 by the navy of Cromwell, o:-i behalf of the English Commonwealth. These conquests were not made without the aid of the Buccaneers themselves. The taking and retaking of Tor tuga by the French was always with the assistance of the roving community ; and at the conquest of Jamaica the English navy had the same influence in its favour. The Buccaneers, in fact, by this time constituted a mer cenary navy, ready for employment against the power of Spain by any other nation, on condition of sharing the plunder to be obtained ; and they were noted for their daring, their cruelty, and their extraordinary skill in seamanship.
Their history now conveniently divides itself into three distinct epochs. The first of these extends from the period of their rise to the capture of Panama by Morgan in 1671, during which time their characteristic peculiarity as robbers was that they were hampered neither by Govern ment aid nor, till near its close, by Government restriction. The second, from 1671 to the time of their greatest union and power, 1685, when the scene of their operations was no longer merely the Caribbean, but principally the whole range of the Pacific, from California to Chili. The third and last period extends from that year onwards ; it was a time of disunion and disintegration, when the inde pendence and rude honour of the previous periods had degenerated into unmitigated vice and brutality.
It is chiefly during the first period that those leaders flourished whose names and doings have been associated with all that was really influential in the exploits of the Buccaneers, the most prominent being Mansvelt and Morgan. The commerce of Spain, which had been rradu ally dwindling since the wreck of the Invincible Armada and the death of Philip II., had by the middle of the 17th century become utterly insignificant. The Buccaneers were thus deprived of the plunder of the Spanish mercantile marine. But Spanish settlements remained; and in 1654 the first great expedition on land, attended by con siderable difficulties, was completed by the capture and sack of New Segovia in Honduras, on the mainland of America. The Gulf of Venezuela, with its towns of Mara- caibo and Gibraltar, were attacked and plundered under the command of a Frenchman named L Ollonois, who per formed, it is said, the office of executioner for the whole crew of a Spanish vessel manned with ninety seamen. Such successes removed the Buccaneers further and further from the pale of ordinary civilized society, fed their revenge, and inspired them with an avarice almost equal to that of the original settlers from Spain. Mansvelt, in deed, in 1664, popular among all the Buccaneers, conceived the idea of their permanently settling as a body of regular colonists upon a small island of the Bahamas, named Providence, and Henry Morgan, a Welshman, intrepid and unscrupulous, joined him in some preliminary cruises. But the untimely death of Mansvelt nipped in the bud the only rational scheme of permanent settlement which seems at any time to have animated the members of this wild community; and Morgan, now elected commander, swept the whole Caribbean, and from his headquarters in Jamaica led triumphant expeditions to Cuba and the mainland. He was leader of the expedition wherein Porto Bello, one of the chief and best fortified ports in the West Indies, was surprised, taken, and plundered.
But this was too much for even the adverse European powers; and in 1670 a treaty was concluded between England and Spain, proclaiming universal peace and friend ship among the subjects of the two sovereigns in the New World, formally renouncing hostilities of every kind, with drawing commissions granted to privateers, and agreeing to forget the past and for the future to punish all offenders. Great Britain was to hold all her possessions in the New World as her own property (a remarkable concession on the part of Spain), and consented, on behalf of her subjects, to forbear trading with any Spanish port without licence obtained. On the proclamation of the treaty in Jamaica, the Buccaneers rose to a man, ready for the most daring exploit which it had yet been in their power to achieve ; they resolved to carry the terror of their name to the shores of the Pacific.
board a fleet of thirty-nine ships, sailed for a convenient port in the Caribbean, and crossed the Isthmus to lay siege to Panama. After a difficult journey, on foot and in canoes, they found themselves nearing the shores of the South Sea and in view of the turrets of the fated city. On the morning of the tenth day they commenced an engagement which, ere the close of the evening, ended in the rout of the defenders of the town. It was taken, and, accidentally or not, it was burnt. Neither sex nor condition was spared in the barbarities which ensued; and the conquerors returned laden with spoil. Morgan was not even true to his own men in the division of the booty ; he returned to Jamaica, became respectable under Govern ment, was after a little made deputy -governor of the
island, and took advantage of his position to punish his
