forts, and made themselves masters of the place with the loss of only four men.[1]
Lorencillo had recommended that a party be sent to surprise the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, and if his advice had been taken, the pirates might have remained masters of Vera Cruz long enough to obtain an immense ransom. But this was deemed too hazardous, and they resolved to plunder the. town and make good their retreat as speedily as possible. The doors of the houses were battered in and the panic-stricken inhabitants dragged forth without regard to age, sex, or condition, into the public square, and soon afterward lodged in the principal churches, where, by nine o'clock in the morning, over six thousand persons were confined, most of them being placed in the parish church.[2] For three days and nights they were kept without food or drink, while the buccaneers plundered the city, and when at length water and a small dole of food were given to them, many died from drinking
- ↑ Three of these were killed by their own comrades, who mistook them in the darkness for Spaniards. Sharp's Voyages, 117. There is considerable discrepancy among the authorities as to the particulars of the capture of Vera Cruz. In Sharp's Voy., it is stated that the buccaneers landed 774 men, who by break of day had made themselves masters of the town and forts on the mainland, and that after stationing guards at the streets 'they sent parties to break open the houses, where they found everybody as quiet as in their graves.' Villarroel's version is that on the 18th of May the pirates landed 600 men, who reached the city at 4 o'clock in the morning and charged through the streets firing their muskets and crying 'Long live the king of France!' The garrison, he says, rushed to arms, but were shot down or captured as soon as they appeared, while all the citizens who attempted to leave their houses met with a similar fate. Villarroel, Invasion Vera Cruz, in Lerdo de Tejada, Apunt. Hist., 274-5, 285. Esquemelin, Hist. Flib., i. 271, states that the inhabitants remained quietly in their beds, 'jusqu'à ce que I'heure de se lever fût venue; mais alors ils furent bien surpris d'apprendre que les Flibustiers étoient maȋtres de leur ville.' Esquemelin's account seems to be the more probable on this point, for the pirates, having possession of the forts which commanded the city, had nothing to gain by rousing up the inhabitants by night, and thus giving them a chance to escape during the darkness. The stratagem by which the buccaneers contrived to make their landing undiscovered is related in Burney's Hist. Bucc., 127, and is apparently taken from Esquemelin, and the author of Sharp's Voyages, though neither mention that the buccaneer fleet appeared in chase of the two vessels. Such a ruse was, however, very likely to have been adopted.
- ↑ Villarroel, Invasion Vera Cruz, in Lerdo de Tejada, Apunt. Hist., 274-5. In Sharp's Voy.,118, the number is given at 5,700, all of whom were confined in the parish church; but it is not probable that the building would contain so many.
