The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Monarchs of the Main, Volume III (of 3), by Walter Thornbury

Title: The Monarchs of the Main, Volume III (of 3)

Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers

Author: Walter Thornbury

Release Date: January 21, 2012 [eBook #38633]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME III (OF 3)***

E-text prepared by Adam Buchbinder, Rory OConor,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from scanned images of public domain material
generously made available by
the Google Books Library Project
(http://books.google.com/)

THE
MONARCHS OF THE MAIN;
OR,
ADVENTURES OF THE BUCCANEERS.

BY
GEORGE W. THORNBURY, ESQ.

"One foot on sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never."
Much Ado about Nothing.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1855.

LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

CHAPTER I.—RAVENAU DE LUSSAN.

As a young French Officer joins De Graff, at St. Domingo—Cruises round Carthagena—Crosses the Isthmus—Hardships—Joins the Buccaneer Fleet—Grogniet, the French Captain—Previous history of his Life—Fight with Greek mercenaries on the island—Take La Seppa—Engagement off Panama—Take Puebla Nueva—Separate from English—Capture Leon—Sack Chiriquita—Burn Granada—Storm Villia—Surprised by river ambuscade—Treachery of Greek spy—Capture vessels—Behead Spanish prisoners—Letter of Spanish President—Burning of the Savannahs—Quarrel between French and English—Attack on Quayaquilla—Love adventure of De Lussan—Retreat of French Buccaneers by land over the Isthmus of Darien—Passage from North to South Pacific—Great danger—Pass between the mountains—Daring stratagem of De Lussan—Escape—The river of the torrents—Rafts—Arrives at St. Domingo 1

CHAPTER II.—THE LAST OF THE BROTHERHOOD.

Sieur de Montauban—Cruises on the coast of Guinea—Captures English man-of-war—Escape from explosion—Life with the negro king—Laurence de Graff—His victories—Enters the French service—Treachery—Buccaneers join in French expedition and take Carthagena—Buccaneer marksmen—Robbed of spoil—Return and retake the city—Capture by English and Dutch fleets, 1698—Buccaneers wrecked with D'Estrees—Grammont takes Santiago—Captures Maracaibo, Gibraltar, and Torilla—Lands at Cumana—Enters the French service—Lost in a farewell cruise 105

CHAPTER III.—DESTRUCTION OF THE FLOATING EMPIRE.

Peace of Ryswick—Attempts to settle the Buccaneers as planters—They turn pirates—Blackbeard and Paul Jones—Last expedition to the Darien mines, 1702 157

CHAPTER IV.—THE PIRATES OF NEW PROVIDENCE AND THE KINGS OF MADAGASCAR.

Laws and dress—Government—Blackbeard—His enormities—Captain Avery and the great Mogul—Davis—Lowther—Low—Roberts—Major Bonnet—Captain Gow—The Guinea coast—Narratives of pirate prisoners—Sequel 163

List of Authorities.

Buccaneer Chiefs.

MONARCHS OF THE MAIN.

CHAPTER I.
RAVENAU DE LUSSAN.

Joins De Graff—Cruises round Carthagena—Crosses the Isthmus—Hardships—Joins Buccaneer fleet—Grogniet—Previous history of the vessels—Fight with Greek mercenaries—Take La Seppa—Engagement off Panama—Take Puebla Nueva—Separate from English—Take Leon—Take Chiriquita—Take Granada—Capture Villia—Surprised by ambuscade—Treachery of Greek spy—Capture vessels—Behead prisoners—Burn the savannahs—Quarrel between French and English—Take Guayaquil—Love adventure of De Lussan—Retreat by land from North to South Pacific—Daring stratagem of De Lussan—Escape—River and torrents—Rafts—Arrive at St. Domingo.

For the cruises of Grogniet we are indebted to the pages of Ravenau de Lussan, a young soldier, as brave and as sagacious as Xenophon.

On the 22nd of November, 1684, Ravenau de Lussan departed from Petit Guaves with a crew of 120 adventurers, on board of a prize lately taken near Carthagena by Captain Laurence de Graff. Their intention was to join themselves to a Buccaneer fleet then cruising near Havannah. They had hitherto acted as convoy to the Lieutenant-General and the Intendant of the French colonies, who were afraid of being attacked by the Spanish piraguas. Soon after descrying the mainland, they were hailed by a French tartane, who, not believing that they were of his own nation, or had a commission from the Count of Tholouse, the Lord High Admiral of France, gave them two guns and commanded them to strike. The Buccaneers, thinking they had met a Spaniard, knocked out the head of two barrels of powder, intending to burn themselves and blow up the vessel, rather than be cruelly tortured and hung at the yard-arm with their commissions round their necks. A signal, however, discovered the mistake, and they were soon after joined by the vessels they sought. One of these was the Mutinous, formerly the Peace, commanded by Captain Michael Landresson, and carried fifty guns. The