professing allegiance to the king of France. The waters of the Caribbean sea swarmed with pirates who defied the Spanish cruisers and the armada de Barlovento. All the efforts of the Spanish authorities to rid the seas of this scourge were of little avail. Orders were given that whenever a pirate craft was captured the captain and officers should be shot and the crew sent to work at the galleys in Spain. Nevertheless it seldom happened that a vessel arrived in Vera Cruz without bringing news of further depredations.
At the very time when Van Horn and his gang were sharing the spoils of this city at the island of Sacrificios, a large force of French corsairs captured the city of Guayana with its governor and garrison, and took possession of Margarita and other small islands in the West Indies. Maracaibo was also threatened, and the audiencia of Santa Fé petitioned the viceroy to allow the armada de Barlovento to proceed to New Granada. On the 2d of May 1684 news arrived in Mexico that Tampico had again been sacked by a large force of pirates, and a number of the inhabitants carried off as captives. Two days later the Barlovento fleet sailed in pursuit of them and captured three of their ships.[1] On July 6th of the same year Lorencillo appeared once more in the North Sea, this time off the port of Campeche, which he captured after a five days' siege, and thence marched on Mérida, but was driven back with heavy loss. On his return voyage he encountered the armada under command of Ochoa, and one of his frigates mounting twenty-seven guns was captured by Spaniards. Lorencillo escaped with his own vessel[2] and henceforth appears no more in connection with piratical expeditions on the mainland.
- ↑ Rivera mentions that, during this year, a pirate vessel was captured near Tampico with 104 men on board. The prize was taken to Vera Cruz and 5 of the corsairs were hanged. The rest would have met with the same fate but for a recent order requiring that all freebooters taken captive should be sent to Spain. Gob. Mex., i. 263.
- ↑ Id., 426, 428, 435-7. Ochoa died about this time; but whether he was killed in action is not recorded.
