Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period. Various
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Our new erected Company of Voluntiers exercised this morneinge, att our new exerciseinge place, and all the Captaines dined with me: In the afternoone, I called a Counsell of warre, where orders wer sett downe and given to the Captaines of the Fortes about makeing of all shotts att the comeinge in of shypps: Witnesses wer also examined in the Court of Admiraltie[16] about the new come in Prize, and a preparation made to an Adjudication. I hearde, determined and appeased divers differences, which might have produced ill bloud.
27. Very early this morneinge, I found worcke ready for me to heare and decide divers complaincts between the Inhabitants. Some of the Counsell of Warre dined with me; presently after dinner I caused a Proclamation pro forma to be made by sound of the Drumme, concerninge the Bussinesse of our new gotten prize: viz, That if anyone could make a claime to any of the said Prize goods or saye anything why adjudication of her being lawfull Prize should not be granted; they should come in by such a daye and should be heard accordinge to Justice. This afternoone all our Prize Goodes being landed, I went to the Store-house to see equall divisions made; And the Lordes fiftes[17] wer first layde aside; and then my dues as Admirall, and Captaine Axe's as Vice Admirall; and then some shares wer delivered accordinge to every man's part, to the common marriner[s]; and all the Tobacco belonginge to them, was shared and delivered.
28. We wer all this daye busied att the Store-House in the shareinge of the dues to the Shyp-Company, out of the Prize Goods; and in proportioninge the Honorable Companye's Fiftes; and mine owne Admirall duties, and the Vice Admirall's, Captain Axe. …
[March] 2. The Commanders and merchants of the Dutch men of warre dined with me this daye: our new prize Frigate by the presumption of her master in takeinge awaye without leave an Anchor and a Cable from her, which he claimed to be his due, and which she rode by in the Harbour, was driven ashore; for which fact he was cited to an Admirall Court. …
4. I called a Court of Admiraltie this morneinge; and empannelled twelve seamen, to deliver their verdict, concerninge a misdeameanour committed by a master of a shyp, in takeinge awaye a Cable and an Anchor from a vessell rideinge in the Harbour; wherby the said vessell was driven on grounds and in perill to be lost: but thes Jurors proved themselves soe absurde and ignorant as sone made me finde the miserie of trialls in these dayes by such kinde of men: And it now produced an Order in a session of the Counsell of Warre in the afternoone, whereby all future crimes and commissions of this nature wer made punishable another waye. A new officer in the nature of a fiscall or Advocate[18] in our Court of Admiraltie was elected and sworne this daye.
5. The Prize Vessell that was driven aground was gotten off safe this morneinge, wherby the penalties inclifted[19] by the verdict in the Admiraltie Court in case it hadd perished, wer taken off.
[1] British Museum, Sloane MSS., 758; pp. 143–173 contain Gov. Nathaniel Butler's "Diary of my Present Employment", extracts from the earlier part of which are given here, exhibiting the dealings of a minor colonial governor with problems of privateering, and incidentally somewhat of his daily life. The whole journal runs from February 10, 1639, to May 3, 1640, and is largely occupied with an unsuccessful privateering voyage in the Caribbean which the governor undertook on his own account. England was not at war in February, 1639, but war had long existed between Spain and the Netherlands, and the depredations carried out from Providence were sure ultimately to provoke Spanish reprisals. It was moreover almost an accepted maxim that there was "No peace beyond the Line", i.e., west of the prime meridian and south of the Tropic of Cancer.
[2] The harbor, and the town of New Westminster, were on the northwest side of the island. There is a map in Newton, opp. p. 12.
[3] Lard.
[4] St. Christopher's was at this time occupied jointly by the English and the French.
[5] In the old sense of prey or plunder.
[6] Warwick Fort overlooked the harbor from its north side. Capt. Samuel Axe, mentioned below, a soldier of the Dutch wars, had made the fortifications of the island.
[7] Tierra Firma, the Spanish Main, or north coast of South America.
[8] Roncador means snorer; the cay is still called by that name. The story of this man's shipwreck and preservation figures in Increase Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (London, 1684), ch. II. The famous U.S.S. Kearsarge was wrecked on the Roncadores in 1894.
[9] Orange.
[10] Capt. Andrew Carter succeeded Butler, as deputy governor, and lost the island to the Spaniards.
[11] Rev. Hope Sherrard, one of the two ministers of the island, and a rigid Puritan, which Governor Butler was not.
[12] Apparently the party led, through remarkable adventures, by the other minister, Rev. Nicholas Leverton. See Calamy, Nonconformists' Memorial, I. 371.
[13] At the extreme north point of the island.
[14] The queen of Bohemia for whom the pinnace had been named was the princess Elizabeth, the ill-fated daughter of James I.
[15] Capt. Robert Hunt, governor 1636–1638, and an experienced soldier.
[16] The preceding document associates the council of war in the governor's exercise of admiralty jurisdiction.
[17] Dues to the proprietors, under their patent.
[18] Representative of the crown or proprietors.
[19] Inflicted.
LA GARCE.
3. Articles of Copartnership in New Netherland Privateering. December 4 (N.S.), 1646. [1]
Compareerde voor my Cornelis van Tienhoven Secretarius van wegen de Generale Geoctroyeerde Westindise Comp'e in nieu nederlandt geadmitteert den E. Heer Willem Kieft Directeur General van nieu nederlandt, synde inde voorschreven