The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-01-31
Seleft Stnrp.
OLD HAUNT OF PIRATES.
Venezuela the Rendezvous of Buc-
cancers.

Venezuela, the country on which the
eyes of the world are now turned, occupies
a position in the family of nations similar
to that held by faded arstocrat with re
gard to the rest of his fellow men. From
1000 to 1859 the operations of the buc
cancers along the very coasts that are now
menaced by the guns of the English and
German warships furnished news and gos-
sip for the entire civilized world, since
which time Venezuela Little Venice) has
remained as inconsequential and obscure as
many of the Central African States. 1t
is only now emerging from under the cloud
of oblivion which for two centuries or more
has shut this region off from the view of
the outer world.
Those who have read the histories Of
the buccaneers, written by Esquemeling
(hinself pirate, Won Archenholtz, and
Burney, feel doubtless that they are re-
newing old acquaintances when they read
in the headlines of the daily press of the
operations of the English, and German
fleets before Puerto Cabello, Maracaibo,
Merida La Gnaira, Sc. for it was here
that two o the most remarkable raids ever
undertaken by handful Of men were en-
acted under the leadership of the two
greatest freebooters the world ever pro-
duced- Francis L'Ollonnois and Henry
Morgan.
Readers of the history of the buccaneers
many years ago, who have since forgotten
many of the details of these enterprises,
will doubtless be at loss to know whether
the Puerto Cabello bombarded by the Eng
lish and German fleets recently is the old
town sacked in 1866 by Morgan, and
word of correction may here prove Of value
The Venezuelan Puerto Cabello is the place
where L Ollonnois and Morgan both rem
| dezvoused to attack, first Maracaibo,
another Venezuelan town about 100 miles
to the west of Puerto Cabello and the sec
ond for the expedition that ended in the
sack of Panama.
From the year 1900 to 1859 England
and France were engaged in almost con-
tinuous warfare with Spain. At that time
! England and France owned and held as
colonies only few of the smaller West
India Islands, and it was there that all the
adventurous spirits in Europe focked, to
engage in privateering enterprises against
the Spaniards, as subjects and soldiers
either of England, Holland, Portugal and
France, countries that were then at war
with Spain. They were the buccaneers,
| and although from the very outset the
French and English governors of these col
| onies realized that from moral standpoint
these men were little better than pirates,
| they encouraged them in their enterprises
for the reason that it all hel ped toward the
one great end of breaking the back of the
Spanish power at home.
AIDED THE BUCCANEERS.
Thus Burney in his history states that
| while the French and English governors of
such places as Martinique and Jamaica
were interested in encouraging the cultiva-
tion of sugar and coffee, their greatest con-
cern lay in promoting the buccaneering in
dustry. A Frenchman who was great
sticklsr for morals, regardless of any ques-
tion of advantage, stated on his return
home from one of the French West Indies
that the officials in question encourage
these adventures because it is always pos
sble for them to disavow and repudiate
their misdeeds, while on the other hand
their successes 60 to swell the list of vic
tories for the French crown, and as such
are quite useful. y
| d
date about fifty years before the destruc-
ton of the Spanish armada, until, by 1866,
they literally swarmed in the West Indian
ports. Before the loss of the armada,
Spain had plenty of ships, and although
the taking Of Spanish treasure ship en-
route from Porto Bello (spelled also Puerto
Velo and Porto Cabello) to Spain was well
worth the trouble, it was to be accomplished
only by the hardest fighting, in which the
buccaneers stood ten chances to one of be-
ing whipped.
After the destruction of the Spanish
armada all this was changed. Spain's en-
tire navy went down in that fight, and
consequently all the vessels stationed in
the colonial waters, and which were used
in transporting and conveying the products
of the Puruvian gold mines, the Mexican
silver lodes, and the Bolivian emerald work.
ings, were called home to defend the coasts
of the mother country from the inroads Of
the English, who, flushed with victory,
were preparing for all manner of enter
prises against Spain.
| THIS left the South American and West
Indian coasts without ships or other defense
| than the forts along shore. When thi,
> happened the buccaneers realized that thei,
occupation had vanished when it came to ,
matter Of raiding the Spanish treasure
ships, yet for that they hailed the change
with delight for the reason that it gave
them carte blanche to raid and plunder the
, defenseless cities and towns of the Spanish