minority of Louis XV., and Cardinal Alberoni, the minister of Felipe V. On the 19th of May 1719 the garrison of Pensacola surrendered to the French, and the colonists and missionaries of Florida and Texas were compelled to take refuge in Coahuila. But the French could not maintain their foothold in the country. When the news of their invasion reached Mexico, Valero quickly despatched against them a force of five hundred men under command of the marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo, governor of Texas and Coahuila. The French retired from Texas; the missions were reëstablished; and the peace which was concluded in 1721 put an end to further aggressions.[1]
Mention has already been made of the buccaneer settlements in Yucatan, where, as we have seen, the freebooters, when not engaged in making raids on the Spanish settlements or cruising in quest of Spanish treasure ships, occupied themselves with cutting dyewoods and mahogany.[2] A favorite rendezvous of these adventurers was the Isla Triste, or as it is now known the Isla del Cármen, at the entrance of the bay of Términos. During the war of the Spanish succession they frequently attacked Spanish vessels trading between Campeche and Vera Cruz. In 1708 Fernando Meneses Bravo de Saravia, when on his way accompanied by his family to the province of Yucatan, of which he had been appointed governor, was taken from his vessel in the bay of Campeche by the pirate Barbillas. Saravia was set on shore and
- ↑ On the 31st of March in the same year, the Sacra Familia, a vessel of 300 tons, with 6 guns and 70 men, was captured by Captain Shelvocke in the port of Sonsonate (the modern Acajutla) at the mouth of the river of the same name. The prize contained only small arms, hand grenades, and ammunition, and, as the captain remarks, was hardly worth the risk and trouble of capture. Voy. de Shelvocke, in Beranger, Coll. Voy., iii. 3-4, 89-125; and Kerr's Coll. Voy., x. 500-1. In the latter a detailed account of the voyage is given, compiled from the narratives of Shelvocke and Captain William Betagh, the commander of the marines. They sailed from Plymouth on board the Speedwell on the 13th of February 1719, bound on a privateering expedition on the coasts of Chile, Peru, and New Spain, but met with little success.
- ↑ Hist. Cent. Amer., ii. 623 et seq., this series.
