Evening star., 1898-05-21

SPAIN nelu lHdt II was herS by rlght OF
discovery, and she purpcsed to hold it by
might of ships and men; but, some thirty
years after San Salvador was first sighted,
she found the French corsairs becoming
very annoying. They stealthily entered the
Caribbean and pIeyed upon the fat old
g;tlleons coming UP from the isthmus with
their rich cargoes of silver and gold. In
the year 1J23, or thlrty-Seven years after
the discovery, French squadron, even,
had penetrated the sacred connnes, ard
the spanish were thrown into Consideration
by an English vessel arriving at Santo Do
mingo. In the year 1888 bloody and des-
perate sea hsnt took place between a
French corsair and Spanish warsnip, while
three years later the French and English
combined inflicted heavy losses upon the
galleons, though the West Indies, even that
early, had begun to decline and the MeXI-
can and Peruvian mines were falling off.
The efforts of other nations to deprive
Spain of her hard-earned conQuests, now
ever. We're only desultory, until along to-
ward the end or the sixteenth century, and
it not until 1872 that Sir Fra lcis
Drake, that pirate of high degree, came
here bent on business. The OLD cathedral
of Santo Domingo City yet shows a rusty
cannon ball embedded In its roof, which
was thrown from the flagship of brakes
command, when he sacked the city ana car
ried off rich store of booty. For the next
twenty years and more, until he died and
was buried at sea OIL the enezuelan coast,
Drake harried the DonS ana enriched his
nation with untold wealth, obtained from
their coast towns, cities and treasure ships.
GrenYiiIe and Raleigh.
More reputable and peaceful mariners
next heave into view in the Caribbean,
notable among them one Sir Richard Gren-
vile, who, with seven sail of ship cruiSed
from Dominica TO Puerto Rico, and thence
went straight for the Island of Roanoke,
where he left the nucleus of a colony, the
remains which the gallant Drake took
home the foioWlng year, he returned
from victorious voyage along the Spanish
main.
One 4tl1 of July, 1887, Capt. White, with
three vessels 100 men, touched at the
coast of Haiti; on the 10th he reached Vir-
gina, and on The I'D landed at "Haterack'
tHatteras), where the first American child
was born, Virginia Dare.
BY the close OF the century following
the discovery of America, SPANS hold
here was weakening, and she could no
Longer keep the hated English from the
Caribbean In 1886. Sir Waiter Raleigh,
who had been so vitally interested in
those American colonies, arrived at the
Island oil Trinidad, gave the Spaniards a
thrashing, and then ascended the Orinoco
in quest OF Eldorado-tne golden country
which he never found. 1t was either at
that time, or on subsequent voyage, that
ne gave utterance to that terSe eXplana-
ton of his reason for not making u more
extended exploration, 'inasmuch as to do
SO would have savoured OF the Asse" :.
However, he dio one thing, at the end of
his next voyage hither, ten years later
that somewhat savored of the animal ne
mentlons-he returned and gave himself
up 10 Imprisonment in the tower and
eventually lost his head thereby.
AS most OF the sailing at that time was
performed by dead reckoning" the En-
gliSh mariners rarely departed from the
then established routes OF voyaging Thus
1t follows that all the early colonists of
America came here by the West Indian
route-as We have seen. In 16U7 three
great men came over in company: Capt.
John Smith, Sir Christopher Newport and
bartholomew Gosnold-and no native of
Virginia need be told what they did when
they eventually reached our coast, where
they founded the first permanent colony
on the James. They first sighted Martl-
nique, then Dominica, and landed at
Guadeloupe, where their log states they
found a spring. the water of which was so
hot that our admiral Capt. Newport,
caused a piece of pork to be put in it,
which boiled it so in the space of half an
nour as no fire could mend it,
FreebOoters In Self-Defense.
The English and French colonists who
had attempted to settle in the West In
dies were so harried by the Spaniards that
they eventually turned freebooters in self
defense. A Hourishing colony was start
ed on the Island of st. Kits. but Span
ism adm1rai, Don frederlc IOiedO descend
ed upon them with a fleet and drove them
away. and the most desperate of them
joined some Dutch adventurers and be-
came buccaneers In real earnest. They
seized and held for a long time the Island
of Tortuga, off the coast of Haiti, whence
they made many foray resulting in death
and pecuniary loss to their hated Spanish
enemies. Their first great leader, styled
Peter the Great. boarded the ship Of
Spanish vice admiral, killing him in his
own cabin and taking the big ship through
the pluck and bravado of his few associ-
ates Then there was Van Horn, grad
uate of Tortuga, who plundered Vera
Cruz of more than $4,000. 900, with which
he made off right in sight of Spanish
squadron. The Spaniards were well worth
plucking, those days. as one Morgan could
tell, If he were now altve-that same old
pirate who captured Panama sacked Car
tagena, murdered hundreds of people, and
was at last knighted by Britain and died
the honored governor of jamaica
But piracy became precarious after the
simple-minded buccaneers had extended
their operations to robbing English and
French vessels. and they were compelled
to disband and seek more reputable means
e livelihood. Many of them becama plant.