Tortuga had been discovered by Columbus and given its name because its
humped shape resembles a turtle. It had a good harbor and
commanded the shipping lanes through the Windward Passage. The buccaneers could lie in wait for passing ships and push
out in their canoes and take them by boarding. At first they seized
Spanish fishing boats, and these in turn were used to capture larger
vessels. Eventually they had full-sized ships and began to raid
Spanish shipping in earnest. In this way they were
able to acquire ships and cannons, and soon built a formidable
force. Tortuga became a base for piratical attacks on passing
merchant ships and Spanish galleons heading home with treasure from Mexico
and Peru. Eighty percent of all Spanish shipping passed through the
Windward and Leeward Passages, so Tortuga was well located to serve as a
pirate base.
At first there was little organization among the buccaneers,
but they soon developed a loose confederation which became known as the
Brethren of the Coast. It became one of history's few true
democracies.
By 1640 they had ceased to make jerky altogether, because piracy was
becoming big business. Their ranks were swollen by English, Dutch,
French, and other nationalities, and were largely criminals, escaped
indentured servants, and out-of-work sailors, but with an occasional
gentlemen adventurer.
One of
the first buccaneer chiefs on Tortuga was Jean le Vasseur, a French
Huguenot refugee who had been a military engineer. He built a fort
on the rocky outcrop above the harbor and armed it with 24 guns from a
sunken ship. For
several years Fort de Rocher successfully defended the buccaneer
stronghold from Spanish attempts to take the island.
From 1640 to 1665, the buccaneers slowly grew in power and boldness.
This was the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy. The Brethren of
the Coast were not very effective on a large scale until the rise of Henry
Morgan.
Henry Morgan was never a pirate. He wasn't even a good sailor or
naval tactician. All of his captures were made with letters of
marque and all of his brilliance resided in land battles. Morgan
commanded a fleet of ships filled with buccaneers who would land near a
Spanish town and sack it as an army would. His greatest exploit was
sacking the city of Panama, on the Pacific coast in 1671. He led 36
ships and 2000 men to the Atlantic coast of the isthmus, and marched the
men nine days across to plunder the richest Spanish city in the New World.
The greatest accomplishment of the Brethren of the Coast was not the
sacking of Panama, but the brotherhood they established. They were
outcasts from society and the most famous outlaws of their time, but they
formed a strong brotherhood with their own rules, and the rest of the
world became the outsiders. They were loyal to each other to a man.
Even crews of different ships on different raids wouldn't cheat each
other. Brethren captains had the least power of any pirate captains
in the world. They were often voted out and a new captain voted in,
if the crew felt they were incompetent, or too power-hungry. Any
deals with any other pirate crew had to be voted on by the majority.
The captain's word was not law, except in battle.
No Brother of the Coast stole from another Brother. No Brother
cheated another at gambling, sold something at an outrageous price, hid
knowledge of treasure, or otherwise tried to get the better of any other
Brother. The bonds they had grew out of adversity. The
earliest Brethren of the Coast were hunted viciously by the Spanish and
later by all nations. The bond of shared hardships was a strong one
and it wasn't until the 1680's that the Brotherhood broke up. This
was largely due to war between England and France - the Brethren were
almost evenly divided between each nationality.
At that time, piracy was attracting different people, too. Word
of how easy it was to become rich drew the dregs of Europe to the
Caribbean. The old Brethren of the Coast were dying off or retiring
and pirates could no longer trust each other. There was sill some
camaraderie among pirates, but not the complete trust of the 1640-1680
period. The buccaneers gradually gave way to a new breed of pirate,
which included rogues, cutthroats, and the worse scum of humanity.
