Korisios

Ok, ok I actualy don't know if the book is that rare, I was just a bit excited about my find. After all i'm just a newbee to this period, I am used to Iron age reenacting and not to reenacting a time frame in wich books got printed... So excuse me for being to enthausiastic then... Then now let's get back to my question and the topic of this thread, sinds everybody has this book on his or hear shelf, somebody might allready have figured out where all these adventures actualy took place??

The book cover ...and the book from 1700 of wich it is a translated (from old Dutch to Modern Dutch) reprint of... Cheers!

I think I hid a jackpott with buying this book "de americaensche zee-rovers" Maybe not because it tells me lot's of things about Guatemala (altough Guatemala river get's mentioned but about that later) But it looks to me a rather rear find. It's a 1971 translated and reprinted version a book written by "a.o. exquemelin" written and first printed in 1700... It descibes the adventeurs undertaken by: Pierre le Grand, Francois Lolonois, Henri Morgan and some others. It also has some first hand discriptions of the Carebeean Illes and coastal areas. The book and the printers have even been Critizised by Henri Morgan himself because he feld being wrongly portrayed... In English the book has been publiced under the following names: Bucaniers of America and The histrory of the bucaniers. Now back to the Guatemala river: In chapter 10 about Lolonois, the story tells, that his ships ended up in the Gulf of Hunduras, there they waited for a Spanish ship that would show up in the river Guatemala and later on the Name Guatemala is mentioned as a place to go to. Most likely a place more land inwards where the spanish started to call the area Guatemala after the mexican word Quauthlemallan wich means "Land of many trees"... Today theres no river anymore that's named Guatemala so what is this river named now???? Is there anyone on this forum that has or knows a detailed map from around 1700 that shows names of rivers on the this side of the carabeean??? If you ask me there are to options 1 Would be the river Rio Dulce, but then again this river is flanked by to (small) towns at it's mouth and more stream upwards theres the "Castillo San Felipe" that's mentioned earlyer on this thread. 2 would be that the Rio Dulce river whas back then named Xagua this is the river Lolonois also sailed into and where he plundered two wharehouses. These wharehouses could have been part of "el estor"also earlyer mentioned in this thread... and then the river Guatemala offcourse woulkd be somewhere else... So in short: Please someone show me an old 17th or 18th century map of Guatemala with river names...

Yes I have seen Pirat Joe, the cut (and maybe collor) of his uniform will moost likely be my inspiration. together with some pictures I found and posted here allready. this guy apears to be a Spanish marine http://www.islaperdida.com/paginasejercito/275Galeras.htm Galeras means Galley. But most of all I like this purple fellow http://www.islaperdida.com/paginasejercito/22terciosevilla.htm... But then again he's from europe and moost likey as a soldier he would not have ended up in the Carribean... unless he's on vacation... or maybe he's retiered, started doing some overseas duties and kept his purple coat just because he's a show of...

Thanks to both of you...

Another question recarding uniforms; Am I right that the normal most basic uniforms where handed out to the soldiers wilst the officers mostly ordered their clothes to be tailor made and made of finer fabrics? Then, when the unit collors where let's say white waistcotes with a green liner and cufs. Would then the officers (for example leutenants) also use these collors. But then of silk or finner wool or kotton with maybe some brocate here and there???

Yeah Your right!! I did notise the lapels dow... Do you know any good place to get info on GAoP Spanish (colonial) uniforms?

I resently boyed two little books with Spanish more ore less colonial uniforms. The period is the American Revolution around 1780. Now I understood that the GAoP is something like 1650 - 1750 (right?) My question is: how much differens would ther be in a uniform from around the GAoP and 1780?? To me it looks pretty much the same, but hey I am no expert (jet)...

It's amazing what you can find, only by using the internet. My link THE LAKE AND THE CASTLE As the river is about to enter Lake Izabal it is spanned by one of the biggest bridges in Central America. On one side of the bridge is the town of Fronteras, the local centre of commerce for the area. On the other side is Rellenos. Fronteras is where Indians come in from the countryside in wooden canoes. Most of these boats are powered with outboard motors but many come to market day paddling them. The bridge has been adapted so that vessels can sail through into the lake.At the very entrance of the lake is the “Castillo San Felipe de Lara” built by the Spanish when this part of Central America was an important transshipping staging point. In the early Sixteenth Century, trade was established between the inland colonies and Spain via the river. Constant attacks by pirate and privateer incursions into Guatemala through the Rio Dulce made it necessary to defend the entrance to Lake Izabal where warehouses had been set up for goods entering from or leaving for Spain. Thus the first tower was built. After several attacks it was destroyed and rebuilt into a fort and then destroyed again until 1651 judge Lara y Mogrovejo rebuilt the fort a second time, calling it San Felipe de Lara Castle in honour of the king (and himself). For two hundred years the fort was a defense against pirates with colourful names such as Diego the Mulatto, Lieutenant of "Pegleg" Anthony Shirly, a pirate of aristocratic birth, called the "Adventurous Gentleman"; Careful and William Jackson who had their base of operations on the islands of Guanaja and Roatan; and William Parker, known as the plunderer of Santo Domingo and Puerto Bello....AND FROM THE CROWSNEST THE LOOKOUT CRIED "LAND!"

I knew this fort must have been related to piracy somehow.. My link ...Fort of San Felipe de Lara (El Castillo) The fort of San Felipe de Lara is locally referred to as El Castillo or The Castillo. The Castillo is about 1 km upstream from the bridge at Fronteras at a point where the Rio Dulce constricts just before the river ends and widens into Lake Izabal. The fort was placed there by the Spanish to prevent English pirates from raiding the villages and caravans along the shores of Lake Izabal. It is located on a rocky point that gives it a good field of fire but was only partly successful at stopping the audacious pirates. Pirates repeatedly destroyed the The Castillo and in 1686 they captured and burned it to the ground. Each time it was rebuilt by a different engineer and made stronger than before. The version that stands today has tremendously thick walls. At one point the Spanish went so far as to string a chain across the river in an attempt to deny access to the pirates. By the end of the 1700s there were no more pirates so the fortress was pressed into service as a prison. Today it has been nicely restored and is surrounded by a park which is perfect for picnics. A dock is provided for lanchas to unload passengers. Anchoring directly in front of the Castillo is not permitted. El Estor El Estor gets its name from the days of the days of the English pirates who used to sail up the Rio Dulce to buy or steal supplies from "The Store". Not far from El Estor is the town of Panzós where one of the landmark events of the recently ended Guatemalan civil war occurred in 1978 when over one hundred men, women and children were gunned down by the Guatemalan Army. Today, El Estor is a little gem of a town because of the municipal improvements made by the Nickel Company of Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the nickel company constructed a nickel mine and refinery about a kilometer from El Estor. In exchange for permission to operate, the nickel company agreed to invest in improving the town of El Estor. El Estor is now paved with wide and clean streets, the electrical grid is new as is the telephone system. The nickel mine was unsuccessful and the plant is now closed. Today, El Estor is a clean and beautiful albeit quiet town where nothing much ever happens. Strolling the streets of El Estor is enjoyable. If you visit El Estor, be sure to visit the modern central park where there is a large fenced aquarium containing 3 or 4 full sized alligators.

Thanks Jack, no offence taken, your forgiven. Discusions are good!

Answering my own qustion...http://www.islaperdida.com/paginasejercito/principalejercito.htm

I was just about to ask for Spanisch uniforms of that time, when i found this guy... Now my questions are how would people recognise him as being Spanisch does he have anything peticular like the cocked had with the yellow ribbon?? And are there other Spanisch colonial uniforms to be be looked at on this forum or on the internet...?

As a mather of fact, you people allready supprised me by the ammount of knowledge and strife to authencity. I was told , when I asked someone about "pirate reenactors and their clothing" that I would be dissapointed because you guys wouldn't mind authenticity. That most of you would go for the Hollywood look and the party side. But this site proved him wrong by far!! Going throu all the threads here and aspecialy the ones with the The Buccaneer Project and the You in yar garb. thread and many others kept me tied to computer for hours! And I have seen some realy good looking impressions and groups as a whole. I am no expered, but I think i do have a feel for what looks to be right... And there some pretty knowedgable people here! So I hope you guys don't mind ill keep pikking your brains for a little longer...

I am doing reenactment fore years now (iron age and Roman) and everywhere it's the same disusion. Wich infact is good because it keeps us sharp. Alltough my opinion is that it's not about correct or incorrect or even about authentity, it's just another approache to the hobby. Even if your strifing for compleet autenticitiy only based on actual finds or from what is written, you will neet to fill in some blanks by using common sense. (At least if your doing 300 BC like me.) On the other side using common sence, by saying that a felt hat is not practical in a warm and hummid climate, keeps the mind and your sensability going and might prefent from copying some wrong things every now and then. On the other side what is common sense now anno 2010, might not be so in let's say the GAoP... And then yes fashion makes people now and then do strange unpractical things. (ask your wife who's where's these high healed shoes all night that hurt like hell...) All together the climat and our idea of warm and cold weather and how to prevent from beying to cold or to hot, has in my opinion changed dramaticaly sinse we life in our comfy houses with central heating and air conditioning...

Yeah thanks guys, I am also learming a lot here.

A while ago I asked: Would every Pirate/Bucaneer/Sailor/Marine have had a sword of some sort? You might think that the most sailors would do with a big nife or some sort of machetee and bording axe... then Quartermaster James answered: Would every sailor have a sword? No. And probably not a large knife either. Rigging knife, yes. Boarding axes and non-officer's swords were ship's property. Buccaneers? Aye, knives and machetes are documented. Pyrates? Well now, should we move this over to Twill? So I moved it over... To start the diverense between Pirates and Bucaneers is still a bit blur for me... Bucaneers do still life most of the time on land in the Caribbean and do their thing more or less under the protection of some authority , while Pirates are the real outlaws and do simply life from steeling, plundering, entering and such? And therefore Pirates down obay any rule and so carry any kind of weapon they could lay there hands on? Am I close?

So much for my theory... Thanks! 1 - 0 How freely could a Pirate or Bucaneer move about in thowns like Port Royal Jamaica?

Hm... ...diverend opinions After years at see or living in the buss of the Caribiën I can imagien that people would run out of material like felt and other familiar europian textiles, and then start to use other materials, like the straw that the locals use for their hats. put them in warm water, bend the rim upwarts stich the rim to the bowl and walla there you go with a fashionable cocked hat... (more or less) or am i putting things to simple? Any howe the question of how easy it was in the GAoP in the Caribien area to get europien textiles and other stuff is a interresting one and determines how they looked out there back then... Any thoughts??

My question is, I do see 3 kinds of material: My quess would be: that felt is the normal material used. Leather is more something for the adventurer mountainmen hunter kind of person??? And straw would be something for the poor... (locals)??? Am I close? after all every normal hat whathever material, can be turned into a tricorn... (somehowe) right?

"Pyrates? Well now, should we move this over to Twill?" I quess this is a more complicated answer? It's ok by me to start a thread on Twill for it...