ESQUEMELING'S STORY. 8 



About two years previously, the Spanish galleons, or plate fleet, had been cast away 

 in the Gulf of Florida, and several vessels from the Havaunah (Cuba) had been at work 

 with diving- apparatus to fish up the lost treasure. The Spaniards had recovered some 

 millions of dollars, and had carried it to the Havannah; but they had some 350,000 pieces 

 on the spot, and were daily taking out more. In the meantime, two ships and three sloops, 

 fitted out from Jamaica, Barbadoes, &c., under Captain Henry Jennings, sailed to the gulf, 

 and found the Spaniards then upon the wreck, the silver before mentioned being deposited 

 on shore in a storehouse, under a guard. The rovers surprised the place, landing 300 men, 

 and seized the treasure, which they carried off to Jamaica. On their way they fell in 

 with a richly-laden Spanish ship, bound for the Havannah, having on board bales of 

 cochineal, casks of indigo, 60,000 pieces of silver, and other valuable cargo, "which/' says 

 the chronicler, " their hand being in, they took/' and having rifled the vessel, let her go. 

 They went away to Jamaica with their booty, and were followed in view of the port by 

 the Spaniards, who, having seen them thither, went back to the Governor of the Havannah 

 with their complaints. He immediately sent a vessel to the Governor of Jamaica, making 

 representations as regards this robbery, and claiming the goods. As it was in a time of 

 peace, and contrary to all justice and right that this piracy had been committed, the 

 Governor of Jamaica could do nothing else but order their punishment. They, however, 

 escaped to sea again, but not until they had disposed of their cargo to good advantage ; 

 and being thus made desperate, they turned pirates, robbing not the Spaniards only, but the 

 vessels of any nation they met. They were joined by other desperadoes, notably by a gang 

 of logwood cutters from the Bays of Campechy and Honduras. The Spaniards had attacked 

 them and carried off the logwood, but had humanely given them three sloops to carry 

 them home. But the men thought they could do better in piracy, and joined the before- 

 mentioned rovers. 



And now to one of the historians, Joseph Esquemeling, whose record is incorporated 

 in the woi-k on which these pages are founded, and who was afterwards in company with 

 such noted pirates as Lolonois, Pierre le Grand, Roche Brasiliano, and others. He says : 



" Not to detain the reader any longer with these particulars, I shall proceed to 

 give an account of our voyage from Havre de Grace in France, from whence we set sail, 

 in a ship called Sf. John, May the 2nd, 1666. Our vessel was equipped with twenty-eight 

 guns, twenty marines, and two hundred and twenty passengers, including those whom 

 the Company sent as free passengers. Soon after we came to an anchor under the Cape 

 of Barfleur, there to join seven other ships of the same West India Company which 

 were to come from Dieppe, under convoy of a man-of-war, mounted with thirty-seven 

 guns and two hundred and fifty men. Of these ships two were bound for Senegal, 

 five for the Caribbee Islands, and ours for Tortuga. Here gathered to us about twenty 

 sail of other ships, bound for Newfoundland, with some Dutch vessels going for Nantz, 

 Rochelle, and St. Martin's, so that in all we made thirty sail. Here we put ourselves 

 in a posture of defence, having notice that four English frigates, of sixty guns each, 

 waited for us near Alderney. Our admiral, the Chevalier Sourdis, having given necessary 

 orders, we sailed thence with a favourable gale, and some mists arising, totally impeded the 

 English frigates from discovering our fleet. We steered our course as near as we could to the 



