Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-06-24
Pirates, PeStiIenCe and Storm
Have Scared Vera Cruz.
Buccaneers of the Spanish Main Have
PIundered and Burned and Com
mitted other Atrocities Re-
peatedly in Ancient Port.

New Orleans-Bloodshed is not new
in Vera Cruz. In fact, no city on the
continent has witnessed such devlllsh
cruelty, such plundering, burning and
ravishing, as has this place of the
True Cross" Since Cortez landed,
in 1918, there has been succession
of strife and pestilence which can be
paralleled in few cities in the world.
Bepistoled buccaneers, in all their aW-
full glory, have raided the port time
and again; it has been point or
vantage which has called forth the
lustiest fighting in the many civil wars
that have swept Mexico and 1t has
always been selected as the landing
point for foreign foes, writes Paul
Norton in the New Orleans Times
Democrat-Picayune.
Whenever any of the numerous pi-
rates who preyed on the rich shipping
of the Spanish main wanted to "singe
the beard of the king of Spain" they
would attack Vera Cruz. Lorencillo,
a famous pirate of the early days,
with 500 of his cutthroats, slipped by
the sleeping cannoneers at the fort,
surprised the town, killed thousands,
outraged its women and stripped the
city of its valuables. Hundreds OF
persons were driven into the cathe-
dral, men, women and children, black
and white, and held prisoners. When
the doors were opened four days later
most of the inmates were dead from
suffocation.
AS the gateway through which all
the commerce with Spain was con-
Quoted. there always were great stores
of valuable property on hand. This
was true particularly just before the
sailing of the galleons, which usually
travelled in fleets owing to the men
ace of pirates. By learning of the
schedule of the galleons the bucca-
neers generally dropped in when the
supply of treasure was great. Nicolas
de Agriamonte another highwayman
of the deep, pillaged the town some
years after the visit of Lorencillo.
He enriched himself with $7,000,000
in silver awaiting transportation to
Spain. By way of appreciation he
took prisoners 800 of the citizens of
the town and marooned them on the
Sacrifice islands, patches of sand not
far from the coast, where they died of
starvation. The anniversary of this
calamity is observed by memorial
services to this day.
While the blood of thousands has
flowed through the streets of this i'll
fated port. the toll of war and violence
is Insignificant in comparison with
the deaths that have come from pesti-
lence
Until 1850 the city was surrounded
by a mighty wall. This great bulwark
may have saved the city on few oc-
casions from attack, but cutting out
the healthful sea breeze made it a
pest hole compared to which Guaya-
gull is a health resort. Yellow jack
in all its terrors was never absent.
Smallpox, bubonic plague and the 9TH
er offspring of the dirt and squalor
of the middle ages were always pres
ent. 1t was only in recent years that
modern sewer and drainage systems
were installed, which, with other sani-
tary precautions, has changed the
place from death-dealing focus to
health resort
The harbor at Vera Cruz has little
natural protection. Before the build
ing of the present breakwaters the
northers which characterize the Mos
quito coast dealt the struggling city
almost as severe blows as. did the
pirates and the diseases. Modern en-
cheering now protects the city and
gives limited area in which the ships
can anchor behind the seawall.
Due to the hatred of the Spaniards,
Vera Cruz once was ground to pow
der At the close of Mexico's war for
independence, in 1921, the Spaniards
still held the fort of San Juan dc