Introduction
Dans les deux lettres qui suivent, le colonel Moleswoth, gouverneur de la Jamaïque, informe Robert Spencer comte de Sunderland des derniers exploits de flibustiers qui sont passés à la mer du Sud par le détroit de Magellan et aussi par l'Isthme de Panama l'année précédente. Cependant certains renseignements obtenus par Molesworth sont erronés. Il surestime notamment la force des flibustiers en mer du Sud qui ne furent jamais plus d'un millier pas plus qu'ils ne fortifièrent l'île Perico dans le golfe de Panama (voir l'interrogatoire de R. Arnold). La fin de la seconde lettre qui annonce le passage récent de quelques centaines de flibustiers à la mer du Sud par le Darien, contient aussi des inexactitudes qui doivent être corrigées par la lecture du journal de Ravenau.
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Lieutenant-Governor Molesworth to the Earl of Sunderland Jamaica, March 15, 1685 [25 mars 1685]. By letters from Panama I understand that eight or nine hundred piratical English have possessed themselves of an Island called Perico, a league and a half from Panama, where they have fortified themselves and maintained it against all the force that the Spaniards could make against it. At Panama the Spaniards were well provided for defence, and preparing to join with the supplies ordered from the galleons from Carthagena. Manta, near Lima, has been plundered by pirates, and much damage done. It is supposed that these ships are English, whereof Swan and Eaton are two; but we cannot hear whether they are in correspondence with those at Perico. Fifteen hundred men have been sent by land from Carthagena to Lima, and twelve hundred to Panama, to make an end to these pirates. The men at Perico are for the most part those who have long haunted these seas, and, finding themselves discouraged at their old trade, have joined together and have been conducted by the Darien Indians through the country till they got opportunity to seize the island. The design has been afoot a year, when the pirates began to make rendezvous at Golden Island, the Darien Indians being ever enemies to the Spaniard. The English are said to have made great booty by sending out parties from time to time. The Spaniards are much alarmed, and the galleons will be retarded, to the great disappointment of affairs in Spain. If these pirates are not at once overthrown, before they grow any stronger, the Spaniards will be compelled to come to terms with them or suffer great loss, for the pirates command some passes by which great part of the plate is sent to Porto Bello. Not only Spain but all Europe will be injured, and many men will be drawn away from this Island, despite all our efforts. Hdr. Molesworth. source: P.R.O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1685-1688: no 67. Lieutenant-Governor Molesworth to the Earl of Sunderland Jamaica, April 24, 1685 [4 mai 1685]. I give further particulars of the piratical English in the South Seas. The small Island of Perico, which they have taken, is well fortified by nature, wherein they have made a strong palisaded fort. Having taken at different times vast quantities of flour, they have doubled their palisades, and filled them up between with sacks of flour, which by rain and other means is so hardened that it will resist any shot that can be brought against it. So provident were they of their own security that they neglected to take a very considerable prize in order to seize twelve ships's guns, which they have mounted in the Island. It is now stated that they are indifferently strong at sea, that the President of Panama sent out five ships against them which were beaten back with loss of the commanding officer, and that the President agreed upon a truce, and during the truce sent a fireship among them, without success. They are said to intend to intercept the Lima fleet, and to be strong to do so. I heard yesterday of six privateers ships that had been burnt in the Bay of Darien, from which seven hundred men joined the rest, most of them French; also that two French privateers had landed two hundred and eighty more men, so the whole party must be two thounsand strong, the majority and governing part being English. Captain Michel, a French privateer, was recently beaten off by the Spaniards from Darien with loss of his prizes. The French continue to issue commissions against the Spaniard, on pretence of damage done them by piragues set out from Havana before the making of the recent truce in Europe. Hdr. Molesworth. source: P.R.O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1685-1688: no 148. |
| LES ARCHIVES DE LA FLIBUSTE |
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| Le Diable Volant |