Introduction
En 1687, le capitaine John Beare, portant la commission du gouverneur général des Leeward Islands (voir les documents relatifs à son séjour à Nevis en 1686) pour donner la chasse aux pirates et aux Indiens Caraïbes devient lui-même forban, comme le rapporte ici le colonel Molesworth, alors gouverneur de la Jamaïque. Celui-ci se retrouve avec un adversaire beaucoup plus inquiétant que le pirate Bannister, qu'il est parvenu a éliminé après une chasse de plus de deux ans, en tout début d'année (voir sa lettre de février 1687). En effet, Beare a demandé et obtenu la protection de la puissante Espagne, en se mettant au service des autorités de La Havane (voir, la déposition d'un membre de sa compagnie faite en mai 1688), ce que Bannister, lui, n'avait pu obtenir du gouverneur français de Saint-Domingue (voir le mémoire du sieur de Cussy, du 13 août 1686). Outre l'affaire Beare, Molesworth annonce la capture de certains des hommes du capitaines Coxon (pour les activités antérieures de celui-ci, voir la lettre de Molesworth de novembre 1686), par le capitaine Thomas Spragg, commandant le H.M.S. Drake, l'une des deux petites frégates du roi d'Angleterre alors à la disposition du gouverneur de la Jamaïque.
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Lieutenant Governor Molesworth to William Blathwayt Jamaica, August 8, 1687 [18 août 1687]. We hear that one Captain Bear, who formerly held a commission from Sir William Stapleton, is turned pirate, and has robbed several of our fleet that sailed from thence. He took £1,000 from a New England man, besides what he took from the Londoners and other ships bound for Ireland, and has chosen his station so that no ships from hence can pass without discovery by him. Captain Spragge is returned from his voyage to Campeachy and Vera Cruz with seventy-one prisoners restored to him by the Spanish Governors. He also brought in six French pirates, who had robbed some of our vessels, and eleven of Coxon's men, who are all to be tired today. Spragge told me that he heard from Campeachy that Bear was married at Havanna, and gave himself out as a faithful subject of the King of Spain. I have therefore sent Captain Spragge to Havanna to demand him as a pirate and an English subject. He gave out that his wife was a noblewoman, who ran away with him, and they actually fired the guns of the Castle as a salute to her, while the Governor and most of the chief men of the town were present at the wedding. The nobleman's daughter is a strumpet that he used to carry with him in man's apparel, and is the daughter of a rum-punch-woman of Port Royal. I have hopes that he may be surrendered to me, or, at any rate, not allowed to take his ship to sea again. Eight of Coxon's men are condemned, the other three having turned informers. Of the French, three are condemned, one acquitted, one remanded. signed: Hder. Molesworth. |
| LES ARCHIVES DE LA FLIBUSTE |
| sommaire || summary |
| Le Diable Volant |