Digging for Guatemala's Pirate History

[Korisios]

This topic is a spin off of this thread...

My idea is to have a log here, in wich I will write down all my discoverings about Guatemala's Pirating history, that I can find.

(mostly just putting their URLs here)

And offcourse to discusse them with you people...

To start with a little story I found on the internet:

http://www.bc-alter....esen/pirate.htm

cheers!

Edited March 11, 2010 by Korisios

[Korisios]

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.

Edited March 21, 2010 by Korisios

[Korisios]

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!"

[Korisios]

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...

Edited April 15, 2010 by Korisios

[Korisios]

The book cover

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

Cheers!

[Daniel]

Is Exquemelin's book rare in Dutch? You can find The Buccaneers of America in English translation in any college library in America.

[Mission]

Since Exquemelin lived in Amsterdam after his adventures with the privateers, I doubt it would be all that difficult to find the book in Dutch.

Although I have wondered if the material that Morgan sued to have removed from the book was returned to later English editions and, if not, how it reads in the Dutch editions. (Not enough to do any actual research, but still, I've wondered. )

[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??

Edited April 16, 2010 by Korisios

[Mission]

Reading what I found on the text on-line (here), if you go back a few pages, you'll discover that they were near Puerto Cabello in a town called San Pedro when all this took place. (The text says San Pedro is 12 Leagues - which I believe is about 36 miles) from Puerto Cabello.) Based on that, I'd guess that what was then called the Guatemala River was in Venezuela near Puerto Cabello. But this is not in Chapter 10, it is in Chapter 2 in this book.

One thing I've learned from reading period texts is that the names of places changed. In fact, the Spanish often called a place one thing and the English called it another.

[Mission]

Hey, this is sort of neat. Although what it apparently says on page 93 is, "After capturing this ship, l'Olonnais held council with his whole fleet, proposing to go on to Guatemala. Some voted in favour, others could not agree."

So that isn't actually talking about them being there, but thinking about going.

[Korisios]

Thanks Mission for the input and the links,

First the chapters in my book don't mach with the english bucaneers book so let's not worry about that.

My qlue for situating this Lolonois story near Guatemala is the mentioning of the Gulf of Hunduras...

Wich is in my opinion not near to Venezuela ...

Then the story indeed mentioned San Pedro and I just found thanks to your link a San Pedro in honduras not far from the Guatemala border.

and also near a river of wich i can't find the name...

Indeed they did not actualy go to Guatemala but only thought about going...

Now if i only could find the Xagua river

[Jas. Hook]

...Indeed they did not actualy go to Guatemala but only thought about going...

Now if i only could find the Xagua river

Korisios -

Here's a tidbit for ye...

...Hernandez had done so, and had sent this party under de Garro on purpose to open a communication from Nicaragua with the north coast, by which to receive supplies from old Spain. When all this was explained to Sandoval, he sent Captain Luis Marin to communicate the intelligence to Cortes, in expectation that he would support the views of Hernandez. I was sent along with Marin on this occasion, our whole force consisting of ten men. Our journey was exceedingly laborious, having to cross many rivers which were much swollen by the rains, and we had at times to make our way through hostile Indians armed with large heavy lances, by which two of our soldiers were wounded. We had sometimes three difficult rivers to cross in one day; and one river, named Xagua, ten leagues from Triumpho de la Cruz, detained us for two days. By the side of that river we found the skeletons of seven horses, which had belonged to the troops of de Oli, and had died from eating poisonous herbs. Several of the rivers and inlets on our journey were much infested by alligators...

General History and Collection of Voyages and Travel Volume 4 eBook

www.bookrags/ebooks/12314/227/html

Jas. Hook

</I>

Edited April 17, 2010 by Jas. Hook

[Korisios]

Thanks Jas. Hook, I just went looking for the word leagues and it moslty descibed as a 1 hour walk also considering the circumstanses, so the river Xegua is a 10 hour walk throu difficult terain towards Triumpho de la Cruz...

Now I actualy found Xegua and Triumpho de la Cruz on a map that PoD showed me...

Il see if i can manage to show it here somewhere and show some more points of interrest on this map...

[Korisios]

Here is a pease of a French map from 1656 from PoD.

It shows:

First circle (left) San Pedro

Middle circle (oval) Triumpfo de la Cruz

Right hand circle the river Xagua.

Lower dubble lined word that reads Guatimala

upper dubble lined word Vera Pax (this part of Guatamala they still call Vera Pax)

Single lined word reads Rio Dulce...

Isn't it cool?

Edited April 17, 2010 by Korisios

[Korisios]

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.

The last three weeks i have been in Guatemala (again) and visited the Lago Izabal and Rio Dolce area. So I can now ad some my own pictures here...

The above building was the formerly store that is beliefed the "warehouse" that the english pirates plunderd recularly...

I think is was build somewhere around 1800 so it's not exactly GAoP... but it's stil old.

and above the castillo as it is now... unfortunatly I havend been able to enter the buidling but that would be something for the next time...

This is a vacation park at the Lago Izabal conviniently called El Paraiso, because that's simply what it is...

and then the amazing scenery, I don't know about you all, but when I reenact I would like to get a feel of the landscape in wich the history took place. For me this is it, to start with...

cheers for more pictures, see my Gallery here on Pyracy.com or on my facebook page (where it's a lot easier to upload pictures.

More on clothing is also coming soon...

Edited December 7, 2010 by Korisios

[jendobyns]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing those! Can't wait until you actually get into the fort

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.

The last three weeks i have been in Guatemala (again) and visited the Lago Izabal and Rio Dolce area. So I can now ad some my own pictures here...

The above building was the formerly store that is beliefed the "warehouse" that the english pirates plunderd recularly...

I think is was build somewhere around 1800 so it's not exactly GAoP... but it's stil old.

and above the castillo as it is now... unfortunatly I havend been able to enter the buidling but that would be something for the next time...

This is a vacation park at the Lago Izabal conviniently called El Paraiso, because that's simply what it is...

and then the amazing scenery, I don't know about you all, but when I reenact I would like to get a feel of the landscape in wich the history took place. For me this is it, to start with...

cheers for more pictures, see my Gallery here on Pyracy.com or on my facebook page (where it's a lot easier to upload pictures.

More on clothing is also coming soon...