whom they found hid near Zihó, and placed on board one of their vessels. Such an act committed against the representatives of the faith, say the chroniclers, provoked the wrath of heaven, and as a due chastisement all the vessels foundered, that bearing the friars only after the holy men had been placed ashore on the coast of Florida.[1]
But this incident made little impression on the buccaneers, who continued their depredations on both the eastern and western coasts of the peninsula. In April 1648 they captured a frigate with more than a hundred thousand pesos on board, and a few weeks later boldly attacked a vessel in the very port of Campeche. At about the same time another band, commanded by the pirate Abraham, captured Salamanca.[2] During the second half of the seventeenth century their raids became more frequent. In 1659 and 1678 Campeche was again taken and sacked by English and French freebooters. They were aided on this occasion by logwood-cutters, who since that time had begun to establish themselves on the peninsula; and, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of the Spaniards to expel them, successfully maintained their positions,[3] till in 1680 they were driven from the bay of Términos by forces sent against them from Mexico and Yucatan.[4]
Alburquerque bore the reputation of a just, vigilant, and capable ruler, one who strictly carried out the duties of his office, regardless of censure. Hearing that one of the contadores mayores had challenged the other, he ordered both under arrest, and sentenced to fines of three thousand and fifteen hundred
- ↑ Cogolludo gives an interesting account of the miraculous powers which our lady of Champoton and the 11,000 virgins exhibited on this occasion. Id., 683-4.
- ↑ He repeated the sack of the same town in 1652.
- ↑ For a detailed account of the origin of the logwood establishments, from which the settlement of Belize emanated, I refer to the Hist. Cent. Am., ii. 623 et seq., this series.
- ↑ Robles, Diario, 303-9, gives a pretty detailed account of the trophies obtained on this victorious expedition.
