January 2 - On this day in 1688, Raveneau de Lussan and a part of his followers, having come from the capture of Tehuantepec and returning from Acapulco to find themselves at Mapala, a port north of El Realejo, deliberated on the route they should take to reach the Antilles. It was agreed to march to Nueva Segovia, a town situated on the Coco River, which empties into the Atlantic. Of this expedition Voltaire said: The retreat of the ten thousand will always be more celebrated, but is not to be compared to it. Lussan formed four companies, of seventy men each, and made them swear to observe the severest discipline. After praying together, and sinking their boats for fear they might fall into the power of the Spaniards, they began their march, and in ten days, during which they were almost constantly engaged in fighting superior numbers, they reached Nueva Segovia. Also on this day in 1669, Morgan’s flagship Oxford blew herself up during a banquet off Ile-à-Vache, South of St. Domingue on the Southwest coast of Hispaniola. Morgans surgeon, Richard Browne, wrote in his journal I was eating my dinner with the rest when the mainmast blew out and fell upon Captains Aylett and Bigford and others and knocked them on the head. I saved myself by getting astride the mizzenmast. Those who sat on his side of the table, including Morgan and Collier, were thrown into the air and found themselves swimming amid shattered timbers and the broken and disjointed bodies of the crew. Browne splashed around until he managed to scramble on to part of the mizzen mast. Soon boats from the rest of the fleet were rowing through the wreckage. Apart from Morgan, Collier, Morris the elder, 2 semen and 4 cabin boys, everybody else, some 250 men in all, perished in this devastating blow. Much to the chagrin of many, Edward Collier lived through the destruction of the Oxford and resumed his piracies in a prize ship he had called Satisfaction and was present at Morgan’s plundering of the town of Rio de la Hacha one year later, still as his vice-admiral. Considered by most to be a very cruel man, he captured the fort and garrison and tortured the prisoners. He led the port wing in the attack on Panama City, in the rank of colonel, in January of 1671, where he chased after and slaughtered the fleeing crowd and killed a chaplain personally, after quarter had been given. He was accused to have cheated, with Morgan, the sailors of their share of the loot, deserting them, sailing off in ships with supplies and plunderage. Despite his infamous lifestyle, Collier lived to a ripe age in Jamaica, leading preparations for defenses against a possible enemy invasion.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:19:41 +0000
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