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ABSTRACT
In November 1682 the Dutch pirate Nicholas Van Hoorn entered the port of Santo Domingo. He left behind a path of robberies in Spain and attacks on ships of every nationality in West Africa for which English and Dutch authorities sought to prosecute him. The events that transpired during Van Hoorn's visit to Hispaniola reveal that European diplomatic alliances meant little in places where local groups had co-opted the Spanish bureaucracy under their own control and patronage. Local interests used their political influence to maneuver the Spanish administration and to serve their own goals, thus upending Spanish (and by extension, European) diplomatic arrangements. The sack of Veracruz in 1683 was in part the consequence of these actions, showing a worst-case scenario of the impact that events in the Spanish Caribbean borderlands had on the functioning of imperial systems. This article thus seeks to encourage a reevaluation of the relevance of Spanish Caribbean in the functioning of the Spanish colonial system beyond their traditional categorization as marginal enclaves.
Acknowledgements
This paper greatly benefited from the feedback of Texas A&M’s Caribbean and Atlantic studies group. I am very thankful to Evan Haefeli for inviting me. Many thanks to Carrie Gibson, as always, for her careful reading and suggestions, and to David Wheat and Ida Altman for counting on me for this special issue and making this essay considerably better with their thoughtful advice. My most sincere thanks to the anonymous readers of this journal for their comments, as well as to Dana Leibsohn for her very helpful feedback.
Notes
1 In the sources, Van Hoorn’s last name is spelled in many ways, such as Vanoren, VanHoorn, or Van Horn. I have decided to use Hoorn because his last name seems to refer to the city in northern Holland where the Dutch captain could have been born.
2 The ship was called Mary and Martha, but Van Hoorn would later rename it St. Nicholas, undoubtedly after himself. Thomas Lynch mentioned the English ownership of the ship in two different letters: Archivo General de Indias, Escribanía de Cámara, 25A, f. 34r (henceforth, AGI, Escribanía), a copy in Spanish of a letter of the governor of Jamaica. It does not have a date or name of the governor. It must have been procured by Pedro Ronquillo, Spanish ambassador in London at the time, in the diplomatic aftermath that followed the fall of Veracruz. The second letter is from 20 September 1683, Thomas Lynch to captain James Risby. The National Archives, UK (henceforth, TNA), Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681–1685: no. 1261, p. 502.
3 Asientos were contracts granted by the Crown to certain individuals, most famously to introduce slaves into the Spanish colonies. Until the Portuguese rebellion of 1640, most seventeenth-century slaving asientos were given to Portuguese merchants. After 1640, the slave trade to Spanish America went through a period of deep uncertainty in which no asientos were granted and contraband became the main avenue by which to acquire enslaved Africans. Starting in 1662, Curaçao became a major destination for new asiento slaving ships from Africa, thus becoming at the same time one of the main transit ports in the inter-American slave trade; see Klein Citation1986; Vila Vilar Citation2001; Klooster and Oostindie Citation2018. On social connections between Curaçao and Cartagena de Indias via the Spanish slaving asiento, see Oren Okhovat 2023.
4 Depositions of James Nicholas, gunner, John Otto, coxswain, Peter Cornelius, sailmaker, George Martyn, sailor, late of the ship Mary and Martha alias St. Nicholas, 400 tons, 40 guns, 28 May 1683. TNA, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681–1685: no. 963, pp. 396–97. Testimony of Cofi. AGI, Escribanía, 25A, pieza 1, f. 34r, AGI, Escribanía, 25A, pieza 2, AGI, Santo Domingo 3, N. 66.
5 On Havana and Cartagena de Indias, see for example Fuente Citation2008; Wheat Citation2016; Block Citation2012; von Germeten Citation2013; Gómez Citation2017; García Citation2015.
6 This became a common occurrence in 1680s Hispaniola between Spanish and French neighbors, who used the pretense of a temporary peace between their respective monarchies to establish strong commercial bonds that would last until the end of the eighteenth century. For more on the birth and development of these connections, see Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 223–62.
7 Some examples of this are Jarvis Citation2012; Nesvig Citation2018; Murphy Citation2021.
8 My argument here complements the work by David Freeman on seventeenth-century Rio de la Plata. Freeman emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial governors in deciding what commercial behaviors were deemed legal or illegal (Citation2020, 7). Certainly, the desires and aspirations of these colonial bureaucrats are crucial in my work too, but I am instead focusing on the role of local actors and their ability to influence governors and other imperial officials.
9 For a recent work on the slave trade during these years, see García-Montón Citation2019; Klooster Citation2016, 174–75.
10 For more information on the Dutch participation in this and other asientos from Curaçao, see Goslinga Citation1971, 360–63; Rupert Citation2012, 59–60, 78–80.
11 Source: AGI, Escribanía 25A, Pieza 5, f. 77r. The table only includes the ships that the oficiales reales (the royal officials in charge of the treasury) reported as arriving in the port of Santo Domingo. Very possibly many other ships entered the port illegally, and their entry was not registered by the royal officials. There are also testimonies of many other ships stopping in bays and ports such as Ocoa Bay (southwest of the capital) or the river Macorís (on the southeast of the island), away from the eyes of the authorities. In addition to these ships, in most cases, the oficiales reales themselves listed the nationality of the ships. In a very few cases, when the nationality was not listed, I determined it on the basis of the description of the ship, the captain’s name, their described route, and occupation. If there was no way to clearly ascertain the nationality of the ship, I listed it as unknown.
12 See also Eagle Citation2023.
13 ‘Pide este trato la ciudad […]. Sobre el digo Señor que cada día entiendo menos a esta gente. Lo que tengo por ciertísimo es que el holandés se ha llevado la plata y oro de esta isla, y que si puede esta gente lograr la ocasión no la pierde. El enero pasado quedó una noche una balandra holandesa en el río, y es notorio que vendió 6,000 pesos de mercaduría.’ AGI, Santo Domingo 93, R. 5, 230. Fray Domingo de Navarrete to the Council of the Indies, 4 April 1679. The second letter, dated 6 November 1680, where he refers to his trouble with the governor, is in AGI, Santo Domingo 94, R. 5, 151, f. 39v.
14 See Pestana Citation2017. For the Spanish-speaking perspective on the failed English attack on Santo Domingo, see Vega Citation2013.
15 ‘ … el general y los cabos de los piratas que había cuatro días eran llegados de vuelta de Panamá […] arrojaron los bastones y las espadas bramando como fieras.’ AGI, Santo Domingo (henceforth, S.D.) 62, R. 5, N. 31.
16 Letter of president/governor Ignacio Zayas Bazán to the Council of the Indies, 27 January 1672. AGI, S.D. 62, R. 5, N. 31.
17 Anonymous letter to the Council of the Indies, 1 June 1679. AGI, S.D. 94, R. 4, N. 144E. The anonymous nature of this letter points to the fierce competition among Hispaniola’s local elites and their willingness to denounce the malpractices of their rivals, while participating in the same deals when the opportunity presented itself.
18 A situado was an annual or biannual remission of silver from Cartagena, Veracruz, or Panama to port cities such as Santo Domingo, San Juan, or Saint Augustine, to pay for defensive and administrative expenses.
19 Governor Ignacio de Zayas Bazán to the Council of the Indies, 28 April 1675. AGI, S.D. 63, R. 1, N. 7; Lieutenant governor Henry Morgan to the governor of Santo Domingo, 22 April 1678. AGI, S.D. 64, R. 1, N. 10.
20 Governor Ignacio Zayas Bazán to the Council of the Indies, 18 July 1673. AGI, S.D. 62, R. 5, N. 31, document 3.
21 The term ‘depopulation’ makes reference to the Spanish Crown’s destruction of the towns and villages of the northern and western shores of Hispaniola in 1605–1606, as well as the forceful relocation of its population to the environs of Santo Domingo. After twenty years of unsuccessful attempts to curb the very active contraband trade taking place in the northern and western shores of Hispaniola, the Crown decided to take these drastic measures to eradicate smuggling from the island. For a full account of these events, see Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 98–133.
22 The manipulation of public auctions became a common practice in Santo Domingo during the late seventeenth century. Governors and their supporters benefitted mutually from these arrangements. See, for instance, Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 195, 210.
23 Governor Ignacio Zayas Bazán to the Council of the Indies, 27 January 1672. AGI, S.D. 62, R. 5, N. 33; Zayas Bazán to the Council of the Indies, 20 May 1674. AGI, S.D. 62, R. 7, N. 62.
24 The information is currently held in AGI, Escribanía, 25A, 25B, and 25C.
25 By the early 1680s, Pimentel was already about 72 years old, and he was the most influential smuggler on the island, well-known throughout the Spanish Caribbean and possibly beyond. An extremely wealthy man, at this point in his life (he would die the following year, in 1683), Pimentel had accumulated a personal fortune of more than 300,000 pesos. For a detailed study of Pimentel’s political life and influence, see Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 172–222.
26 Testimony of Antonio de Ledos, resident of Havana, to governor of Havana José Fernández de Córdoba Ponce de León, 31 May 1683. AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 23r. Ledos was in the city of Santo Domingo soon after these events took place and heard them from different residents.
27 For more information about the abusive behavior of the governor, and his illegal appropriation of the situado, see the letters contained in AGI, Escribanía 25B, R 11.
28 AGI, Escribanía, 25A, f. 255v, Testimony of Lázaro de León; AGI, Escribanía, 25C, Ramo 13, Testimonio de Antonio Tiberto.
29 AGI, Escribanía, 25A, ff. 213r, 246v.
30 Letter from Nicolaas Van Liebergen to Francisco de Segura, 26 November 1682. AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 106r.
31 ‘ … es cosa que no lo permiten las leyes de estos reinos si no es con particular orden de mi Rey en que expresamente me lo mande, porque los delincuentes de otros reinos no se les puede negar el Patrocinio Real.’ Undated letter from Segura to Van Liebergen. AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 108r.
32 ‘Hago esta breve suplicando a Vuestra Señoría sea servido no largar dicho sujeto y sin dilación juntaré mi Consejo y dentro de tres a cuatro días enviaré una balandra a este puerto dando noticia a VS de lo que hay tocante a este particular y juntamente enviaré carta que recibí del general de la Mina, y por ella podrá ver Vuestra Señoría los delitos que el dicho Nicolas Van Horen ha cometido.’ AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 110r, letter from Van Liebergen to Segura, 9 December 1682. The fortress of São Jorge da Mina the letter refers to was a Dutch garrison and slaving station taken from the Portuguese in 1637 on West Africa’s Gold Coast (present-day Ghana).
33 AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 114r. Letter of Francisco de Segura to Thomas Lynch, 15 December 1682. Thomas Lynch refers to Cpt. Jansen as Johnson. A group of sailors from Van Hoorn’s ship testified that the pirate captain saw Van Hoorn but was never allowed by the president to talk to him. Sir Thomas Lynch to William Blathwayt, 22 February 1683. TNA, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681–1685: no. 963, p. 392; TNA, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681–1685: no. 963I, p. 397.
34 We do know that at least 22 of them managed to escape, but were recaptured. Testimony of Antonio de Ledos, resident of Havana, to José Fernández de Córdoba Ponce de León, governor of Havana, 31 May 1683. AGI, Escribanía, 25A, f. 23r. As mentioned earlier, Cofi is the only African captive for whom we have any specific information because he testified in the proceedings against the governor. Van Hoorn gave him to Lope de Morla, Pimentel’s nephew, in payment for his hospitality. Testimony of Cofi. AGI, Escribanía, 25A, pieza 2.
35 Testimony of Jacinto Vázquez, November 1684. AGI, Escribanía, 25A. See also Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 208, 209, 224.
36 ‘Dio el dicho capitán don Nicolás Van Horen unas grandes palmadas encima de la mesa diciéndole al dicho don Rodrigo Pimentel que por el perdía su dinero.’ ‘El presidente […] parecía loco, que le quería quitar su hacienda y meterla en las reales cajas, y que él no debía nada, que era su hacienda.’ Testimony of Domingo Mauricio, formerly enslaved to Juan de Morla. AGI, Escribanía 25A, f. 119v. Domingo Mauricio was impressed by Van Hoorn’s tone with Pimentel, because everyone feared Pimentel (‘todos temían tanto al dicho don Rodrigo’).
37 According to Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva, the pirates kidnapped almost 1,500 people of African descent in Veracruz, many of whom were free, to then transport them and sell them in Saint-Domingue, the Carolinas, and Jamaica (Sierra Silva Citation2020). A few of those re-enslaved Afrodescendants in Saint-Domingue managed to escape and flee to the Spanish side of the island; see Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 246–47.
38 Spanish Ambassador Pedro de Ronquillo to the Council of the Indies, 15 November 1683. AGI, Escribanía, 25A, f. 31r. Van Hoorn did not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of his actions. A couple of weeks after the sack of Veracruz, he and de Graaf had a violent argument in which Van Hoorn was injured. His wound was superficial, but it became infected and two weeks later the Dutch pirate died. As for Governor Francisco de Segura, he was found guilty and sentenced to ‘death by knife’ and loss of all properties. He appealed his sentence and spent the next nine years confined within the walls of the Santo Domingo fortress. In a strange turn of events, in 1691 Francisco de Segura was placed in charge of the attack on the French possessions in the northwest of Hispaniola. He died soon afterward of natural causes. For the events surrounding Segura’s leadership in the attack against the French in Hispaniola, see Ponce Vázquez Citation2020, 255–57.
39 For more on the characteristics of the Spanish imperial state and a critique of more traditional views on the topic, see Cañeque Citation2013.
40 For other works highlighting the importance of contraband in the shaping of colonial Caribbean societies, see Rupert Citation2012 and Cromwell Citation2018.
41 Scholars of eighteenth-century Spanish America have pointed out the importance of intercolonial and trans-imperial networks for the Spanish American colonies. For example, see Prado Citation2015. This also was true for many Spanish American territories in the seventeenth century; see Schmitt Citation2015.
42 TNA, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 1681–1685: no. 668. Letter of Thomas Lynch to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, Jamaica, 29 August 1682. The emphasis is mine.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Juan José Ponce Vázquez
Juan José Ponce Vázquez is an Associate Professor of History at The University of Alabama. He is the author of Islanders and empire: smuggling and political defiance in Hispaniola, 1580–1690 (2020), which won the 2021 Alfred B. Thomas Book Award by the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS). His new book project is provisionally titled ‘Afrodescendants in the Spanish Caribbean borderlands, 1580–1700.’ He is also working on an English edition of the travel narrative of Gregorio de Robles, a Spanish farmer who crisscrossed the Caribbean and southern Atlantic in the late seventeenth century.