Spices, Silks and Slaves: The Allure of Piracy, Part I

           

            Unlike most fictitious portrayals of the early buccaneer exploits, these robbers seldom found great quantities of gold coins or jewel encrusted crucifixes amid Spanish shipping.  Cargoes of full silver and gold did occasionally pass through the Windward Passage, but usually on well guarded galleons within large treasure fleets.  Smaller vessels without armed guards, however, were an easier target, and they typically carried commodities and raw materials.  Though these inventories weren't gold per se, in many cases, were just as good as gold and could be traded easily. 

            As far as is known, the Buccaneers were not pirates in the strictest sense, for they generally steered clear of attacking ships that were not Spanish.  Imperial Spain was regarded as the common oppressor of all other nations in the Caribbean, and most of the New World’s wealth and lands were owned by Spain, making them the most rational target for piracy at the time.

            The variety of these goods was very broad indeed, for Spain’s empire was worldwide.  Its trade routes spread around the Southern tip of Africa, along India and up through the orient, through the Philippines and across the Pacific, back to Central America and up the Caribbean, then finally back to Spain.  Along the way, all sorts of exotic goods were accumulated and, on the last leg of their journey through the Windward Passage, the Buccaneers lay in wait, seizing some of the inventories of this worldwide journey. 

            Cocoa beans were one of the most common and valued of prizes a Buccaneer might find.  Cocoa beans were grown by the Spanish in the lands of Central America, introduced by the Maya, where it had originated as a favorite drink.  Back in Europe, cocoa drink was all the rage, and a shipment of it was as good as gold to the Buccaneers. By the 1650’s after the Buccaneers became more prominent, refined sugar was also a huge prize to be had.

            Right at the top of desired items was also tobacco, which was unknown to Europeans until the Spanish discovered the native Americans burning it in a clay pot they called a ‘tobag’.  They sucked out the smoke through small holes with straws and, needless to say, the unhealthy habit of filling one’s lungs with smoke caught on.  The Spanish dispensed with the large pot and fashioned a smaller pot at the end of a clay straw to hold the dried weed and thus the pipe was born.  By 1600 this rather calming narcotic had become so popular that the English King James I declared that he did not trust any man who would not engage in ‘a smoke of good cheer with his fellows’.  With endorsements like these from Europe’s monarchs, one can imagine how valuable bales of dried tobacco leaves might be.

            But there was one good that might be seized by Buccaneers that was more valuable than any other, pound for pound.  That cargo was human slaves.  Though it is a ghastly part of history, by the early 1500’s the Spanish discovered that white men and native Americans died easily under the grueling conditions of their silver mines and began importing Africans, who were not as susceptible to malaria and other tropical diseases.  Black slaves would quickly become the preferred labor force of plantations throughout the Caribbean.  However, labor was not the only reason that slaves were valued.  Both black and Indian girls---young women---commanded a good price on the auction block, especially if considered attractive (referred to as ‘good bed flesh’).  It’s no accident that there are so many mixed race people that inhabit the Americas.  By no measure saintly, the Buccaneers had no reservations when it came to selling slaves as they would any other commodity.  Sometimes, they might even press captured slaves into service on their vessels, forcing them to fight under pain of death.

Coming up: Spices, Silks, and Slaves: The Allure of Piracy, Part II

For much more on the subject, you can also read my historical novel, The Brethren Prince, available as an e-book at the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and other major e-book retailers.

‘Take What You Can’: Chase Parties and Their Plunder

            In the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola, Spanish ships were sometimes approached by small, single sail craft known as pinnace.  Scarcely able to stay afloat in rough seas, they would have appeared harmless to a naive onlooker aboard a sturdy Spanish galleon armed with cannon.  However, these small vessels were hardly humble when crowded with hungry predators conducting a raid.

            These raiders, or ‘chase parties’ as they were called, were initially formed by groups of volunteers among the Buccaneers.  A single hunting camp of Buccaneers could rarely supply the manpower necessary to capture large Spanish merchant vessel, so when the opportunity arose, they sent out runners to nearby camps to recruit allies and a vessel for the endeavor.  For larger prizes, the Buccaneers might even recruit more than one boat.

            Packed aboard their small pinnace, they selected a merchant vessel and attack before dawn or near dusk when the limited visibility was in their favor.  If they were lucky, they could sneak in close without being noticed---too close to be struck by Spanish cannon.  If recognized, a Buccaneer marksman, a superb shot from his experience hunting in the jungles, would seat himself at the bow of the pinnace and fire his musket at the Spanish steersmen, while the rest of the robbers fired away at anyone who looked out the portholes.  If there was more than one pinnace involved in the raid, the second boat might ram against the rudder of the Spanish vessel.

            With the Spanish ship unable to steer, the Buccaneers would swarm aboard and slash a path to the captain of the vessel.  Not only was defeating Spanish leadership an easy way to end a battle, but live Spanish officers might even be ransomed if other booty  was scarce.  Unless seasoned Spanish soldiers were aboard, Spanish sailors were scarcely a match for the Buccaneers who were hardened by their rugged life in the wilderness, where only the strongest had survived.  

            With this tactic, a pinnace carrying a chase party of a dozen or so men could capture a vessel many times their size.  Retaliation by the Spanish was often impossible since these small craft could maneuver across the patchwork of reefs surrounding the Windward Passage, through which bulkier Spanish warships could not follow. 

            These raids served as the early prototypes that defined the future of the Buccaneer’s highly effective tactics: close in swiftly, board, clash in hand to hand combat, take  the spoils, and then disappear into the hidden mountain harbors beyond the reefs.        

            The leader of the chase party was elected by the volunteers of the party.  His only job was to force the men to fight bravely and to the death, if necessary.  For this crucial duty their elected captain was given extra shares of the cache, which was otherwise divided equally.  Most of the time the chase parties captured small merchant ships, even fishing vessels and the inventory might be minor or very little, except whatever coins, trinkets, small arms, navigational equipment, gunpowder, etc, that might be found aboard.  Yet there were many things that the Spanish transported that suited the Buccaneers well enough, and they were ideally poised, for they lived on the coastlines near one of Spain’s greatest arteries of wealth.  The Windward Passage.

Next Week: Spices, Silks and Slaves: The Allure of Piracy, Part I

For much more on the subject, you can also read my historical novel, The Brethren Prince, available as an e-book at the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and other major e-book retailers.

The Lives and Struggles of the Early Buccaneers

            There is no official count, but by the 1620’s there was presumably between 7,000 and 20,000 Buccaneers.  Despite their abundance, many newcomers perished on the rugged coasts within their first years, succumbing to violent conflicts, tropical diseases like yellow fever, or quite simply an inability to adapt to the ruthless tropical conditions.  In effect, only the hardiest survived. 

            They lived in small groups and communities on the Northern coast of Hispaniola and Cuba, away from any sovereign law.  Isolated, their lifestyle was enabled by the French, Dutch, and English traders who were on their way to the Eastern islands of the Caribbean and needed supplies.  There was always a pressing demand for buccaneer goods: roasted meats and dried hides that were acquired by hunting, as well as fresh water from the spider web of pure streams and rivulets that drizzled down from the island mountains.  The merchants of various nationalities would skirt along the northern coast of Hispaniola and meet the Buccaneers in backwater coves to resupply their ships' stores after weary trips across the Atlantic.  This activity was clandestine, since it was conducted in Spanish territory beneath the nose of the Spanish Crown. 

            The Buccaneers got along relatively peacefully with what was left of the indigenous Indians and learned a good deal about the growing of native fruits of the coastal jungles (and there were many) as well as vegetables and the medicinal uses of certain plants.  The Buccaneers also learned how to make alcoholic beverages from such things as fermented bananas and even bread from grated cassava root.

            Eventually these villages, encampments and temporary residences bound together out of necessity into a patchwork civilization.  They kept in touch up and down the densely wooded, wild coasts via runners, horsemen, or small sailing vessels.  Since there was no governor or any kind of legal structure, there arose a kind of loose confederacy amongst them with no central authority, known informally as "The Brethren of the Coast."  It started with a written document between two men which was called simply “the Articles” which bound them together in a partnership.  Each man swore to protect the other with his life and they shared of all their possessions.  On the death of one, the other would inherit all his worldly goods.  The idea was extended and accepted throughout the north coasts of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba. 

            The Spanish realized that much of the northern coastlines of their big islands had been taken over by what they considered the scum of Europe: to them, nothing more than a conglomeration of lawless heathens.  It was late in the game for the Spanish however, for the Brethren of the Coast had already become a makeshift nation.  While the Spanish claimed the lands on which the Buccaneers lived, the Buccaneers knew the coastlines better than the Spanish themselves.  They knew how to navigate the treacherous reefs in their agile small craft and knew where to hide among the honeycombs of small harbors, hidden by mangrove jungles and steep hillsides.  The Spanish governors sent soldiers and lancers to rid the coasts of these remote encampments.  Buccaneer encampments and plantations were burned and many cattle and pigs slaughtered, and perhaps because of it a sense of outrage and revenge arose among the Buccaneers.  The Spanish found them to be more formidable than they had anticipated.  Many Spanish soldiers were killed in the process.

            Somewhere along the way, the Buccaneers began raiding Spanish shipping and the name ‘Buccaneer’ became synonymous with piracy across the Caribbean.  These raids became lucrative indeed, so lucrative that Buccaneers even purchased indentured men and slaves and forced them into piracy against their will.  If these men refused or didn’t fight well enough, they faced the prospect of execution.  When larger Spanish vessels were taken, the Spanish crewmen that were still alive and not killed in the struggle were very often given a choice:  The open sea in a cock boat without a sail, (which meant certain death by starvation) or join the ranks of the Buccaneers and fight with them.  Many Spaniards became Buccaneers in this way.  Once they had joined this lawless bunch they could never go back.  In time, many more people across the Caribbean would join the ranks of the Buccaneers.
Next week: ‘Take What You Can’: Chase Parties and Their Plunder

For much more on the subject, you can also read my historical novel, The Brethren Prince, available as an e-book at the Amazon Kindle store, Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and other major e-book retailers.