Introduction
En 1684, la vieille colonie anglaise des Bermudes, naguère propriété par patentes royales de certains personnages importants, revient sous l'autorité directe du roi d'Angleterre. Le colonel Cony en est le premier gouverneur nommé pour le roi. Il ne tarde pas à entrer en conflit avec ses administrés, notamment au sujet de l'accueil que ceux-ci réservent à des flibustiers, ce dont Cony parle dans l'extrait de l'une de ses lettres reproduit ci-dessous. Mais Cony n'en a pas fini avec les Bermudiens et, avant la fin de l'année 1685, il se verra contraint d'utiliser lui-même les services d'un flibustier pour venir à bout des plus turbulents d'entre eux (voir divers documents relatifs à la présence du capitaine Sharpe aux Bermudes). Pour la suite des aventures des flibustiers Henley (alias Woolerley) et Goffe, qui sont mentionnés ici par Cony, voir la lettre du pasteur Bridges, de septembre 1687.
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Governor Cony to the Earl of Sunderland [extrait] June 4, 1685 [Bermudes, 14 juin 1685]. (...) Captain Henley, a privateer, lately arrived here in a Dutch ship, and, as it reported, landed 3,000l. or 4,000l. worth of Dutch goods. He was piloted in by one Zachariah Burrows, but the country would not permit his ship to come under my command. I laid hold of Henley, however, and imprisoned him; but the country forced me to set him at liberty. My very Council and captains of militia, though all protesting that they would bring him under my command, yet would not, nor would the sheriff lay his broad arrow on the goods he landed that account might be given to the King, in case the Dutch should redemand them. Since Henley is proclaimed pirate in Jamaica, and one Goff, his companion, in New England. Henley had his commission from Governor Lilburne, of Providence: copy enclosed. It is the intention of the people to make this island a pirates' refuge. I expect two more pirates, by what Henley said, and daily dread the capture or plunder of the country. (...) (...) Bribes I never took, though Henley and the people offered me some hundred of pounds. Richard Cony. source: P.R.O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1685-1688: no 210. Attestation of Christopher Smith Somers Islands, May 28, 1685 [Bermudes, 7 juin 1685]. That it was commonly reported at the Bahamas Islands in April that Thomas Henley and Christopher Goff had been proclaimed pirates at Jamaica. source: P.R.O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1685-1688: no 207. Commission from Robert Lilburne, Governor of Bahamas, to Thomas Handley, Captain of the frigate Resolution [résumé] March 19, 1684 [29 mars 1684]. For defence of the Bahamas Islands. source: P.R.O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681-1685: no 1599. |
| LES ARCHIVES DE LA FLIBUSTE |
| sommaire || summary |
| Le Diable Volant |