Part 22
Sailed from England in 1681 in command of the _Mary and Martha_, _alias_ the _St. Nicholas_, a merchant ship. Vanhorn soon showed his hand by putting two of his merchants ashore at Cadiz and stealing four Spanish guns. Next he sailed to the Canary Islands, and then to the Guinea coast, plundering ships and stealing negroes, until November, 1682, when he arrived at the city of San Domingo. In April, 1683, he picked up some 300 buccaneers at Petit Goave, and joined the filibuster Laurens in the Gulf of Honduras with six other buccaneer captains, who were planning an attack on the rich city of Vera Cruz. The fleet arrived off the city in May, and the pirates, hearing that the Spaniards were expecting the arrival of two ships from Caracas, they crowded a landing party of 800 men into two ships, and, displaying Spanish colours, stood in boldly for the city. The inhabitants, imagining these were the ships they were expecting, actually lit bonfires to pilot them into the harbour. Landing on May 17th two miles away, they soon found themselves masters of the town and forts, all the sentinels being asleep. For four days they plundered the churches, convents, and houses, and threatened to burn the cathedral, in which they had put all the prisoners, unless more booty was forthcoming. An Englishman found the Governor hiding in some hay in a loft, and he was ransomed for 70,000 pieces of eight. While this was taking place a Spanish fleet of fourteen ships had arrived from Cadiz, and anchored just outside the harbour, but would not venture to land nor to attack the buccaneer ships. The buccaneers, feeling it was time to depart, sailed right past the fleet without opposition to a cay not far off, and there divided the spoils; each of the 1,000 sailors getting 800 pieces of eight as his share, while Vanhorn's own share, was 24,000 pieces of eight. This division of the spoil did not take place without some bickering, and the two leaders, Vanhorn and Laurens, came to blows, and Vanhorn was wounded in the wrist. Although the wound was little more than a scratch, he died of gangrene a fortnight later.
It is significant that Vanhorn had originally been sent out by the Governor of Hispaniola to hunt for pirates, but once out of sight of land and away from authority the temptation to get rich quickly was too great to resist, so that he joined the pirates in the expedition to sack Vera Cruz.
VEALE, CAPTAIN.
On July 1st, 1685, he arrived at New London in a sloop, but was compelled to hurry away, being recognized as a pirate by one of the crew of a ship he had previously taken in Virginia.
VEALE, THOMAS.
One of four New England pirates who in the middle of the seventeenth century rowed up the Saugus river and landed at a place called Lynn Woods. The boat contained, besides the pirates, a quantity of plunder and a beautiful young woman. They built a hut on Dungeon Rock, dug a well, and lived there until the woman died. Three of the pirates were captured, and ended their days on the gallows in England.
Thomas Veale escaped and went to live in a cave, where he is supposed to have hidden his booty, but he continued to work as a cordwainer. In the earthquake of 1658 the cave was blocked up by pieces of rock, and Veale was never seen again.
VERPRE, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.
His ship _Le Postillion_ carried a crew of twenty-five men and was armed with two guns.
VIGERON, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.
Of San Domingo.
Commanded a bark, _La Louse_, thirty men and four guns.
VILLA RISE.
In the year 1621 this Moorish pirate commanded a small squadron of five vessels which took an English ship, the _George Bonaventure_ (Captain John Rawlins, Plymouth), in the Straits of Gibraltar. One of the finest deeds ever achieved by English sailors was the escape of Rawlins and some of his crew from the Moors at Alexandria in a stolen ship.
VAN VIN, MOSES. Buccaneer.
One of L'Ollonais's officers. After burning Puerto Cavallo and torturing and murdering the inhabitants, L'Ollonais marched away to attack the town of San Pedro with 300 of his crew, leaving van Vin as his lieutenant to govern the rest of his men during his absence.
VIRGIN, HENRY.
Of Bristol.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew of the _Royal James_. Hanged for piracy at White Point, Charleston, South Carolina, on November 8th, 1718, and buried in the marsh below low-water mark.
VIVON, CAPTAIN M. LA. French filibuster.
Commanded the _Cour Valant_ of La Rochelle. In December, 1668, his ship was seized by Captain Collier for having robbed an English ship of provisions.
WAFER, LIONEL. Surgeon, buccaneer, and author.
Believed to have been born about the year 1660.
He could speak Gaelic and also Erse, which languages he had learnt during his childhood, which was spent partly in the Highlands of Scotland and partly in Ireland.
In 1677 he sailed as mate to the surgeon of the _Great Ann_, of London (Captain Zachary Browne), bound for Java.
Two years later, he again sailed as surgeon's mate on a voyage to the West Indies. He deserted his ship at Jamaica and set himself up as a surgeon at Port Royal, but one day meeting with two noted buccaneers, Captain Linch and Captain Cook, he agreed to sail with them as ship's surgeon.
Wafer's subsequent adventures are recounted by Basil Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold Assaults of Captain Bartholomew Sharp and Others," and by William Dampier in his "New Voyage Round the World." After taking part in 1679 in the futile expedition of the buccaneers to Panama, Wafer joined the party of malcontents who left Captain Sharp and returned on foot across the Isthmus of Darien. Wafer was accidentally wounded in the knee by an explosion of gunpowder on May 5th, 1681, which he recounts in his narrative as follows: "I was sitting on the ground near one of our Men, who was drying of Gunpowder in a Silver Plate: But not managing it as he should, it blew up and scorch'd my knee to that degree, that the bone was left bare, the Flesh being torn away, and my Thigh burnt for a great way above it. I applied to it immediately such Remedies as I had in my knapsack: and being unwilling to be left behind by my companions, I made hard shift to jog on."
The whole story of these adventures is told by Wafer in a book he wrote, and which was published in London in 1699. It is called "A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America, giving an Account of the Author's Abode there," and is illustrated by some quaint copperplates.
Wafer and his companions suffered extreme hardships as they struggled through the dense tropical jungle during the wettest season of the year.
On one occasion when in danger of his life, Wafer was spared by the Indians owing to his skill as a phlebotomist, after he had been allowed to exhibit his skill to an Indian chief called Lacentra, when he bled one of his wives so successfully that the chief made Wafer his inseparable companion, to the no little discomfort of the buccaneer, who wished to reach the Atlantic and rejoin his companions who had left him behind.
Wafer described the birds, animals, fishes, and insects with considerable minuteness, although it is obvious that he had no special training in, or great gift for, natural history. Wafer eventually reached Philadelphia, where he availed himself of King James's general pardon to pirates.
WAKE, CAPTAIN THOMAS.
A notorious pirate, one of those particularly named in the Royal Warrant issued in 1695 to Captain Kidd, authorizing him to go in search of the American pirates.
WALDEN, JOHN, _alias_ "MISS NANNEY."
Born in Somersetshire.
Taken in the _Blessing_, of Lymington, by Roberts in Newfoundland, he joined the pirates, and was later on hanged at the age of 24 in West Africa. Walden was one of Captain Roberts's most active men. On taking Captain Traher's ship, Walden carried a pole-axe with which he wrenched open locked doors and boxes. He was a bold and daring man, of violent temper, and was known amongst his shipmates by the nickname of Miss Nanney. He lost a leg during the attack on the _Swallow_. After the pirates took the _King Solomon_, Walden had to get up the anchor, but he cut the cable, explaining to the captain that the weather was too hot to go straining and crying "Yo Hope," and he could easily buy another anchor when he got to London.
WANSLEY, THOMAS.
A negro steward on the brig _Vineyard_, he mutinied and assisted to murder the captain and mate, afterwards becoming one of Captain Charles Gibbs's crew. Hanged at New York in February, 1831.
WANT, CAPTAIN.
A Carolina pirate who was referred to at the trial of Captain Avery's crew at London in 1696.
WARD.
One of the first English pirates to establish himself on the Barbary coast in North Africa. By the year 1613 some thirty others had their headquarters at the mouth of the Sebu River.
WARD, CAPTAIN.
As a poor English sailor he went to Barbary, turned Mohammedan, offered his services to the Moors, and became captain of a galley. He grew to be very rich, and "lived like a Bashaw in Barbary."
WARREN, WILLIAM.
Joined Captain Pound's crew from Lovell's Island.
WATERS, JOHN.
Of Devonshire.
Quartermaster to Captain Charles Harris. Tried and hanged at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 19th, 1734. Aged 35.
WATKINS, JOHN.
An English soldier stationed at Fort Loyal, Falmouth, Maine. Deserted and sailed with the pirate Pound. Killed at Tarpaulin Cove in 1689.
WATLING, CAPTAIN JOHN. Buccaneer.
When Bartholomew Sharp's crew mutinied on New Year's Day in 1681 on the _Most Holy Trinity_, they clapped their captain in irons and put him down below on the ballast, and elected an old pirate and a "stout seaman," John Watling, in his place. One of the reasons for the revolt was said to be the ungodliness of Captain Sharp.
Watling bega