Buccaneer

Buccaneer, title applied to English, Dutch, and French seafaring adventurers of the 17th century. In the previous century such daring fighters and seamen as the Englishmen Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Hawkins had obtained wealth in privateering operations against Spain, in the Caribbean Sea and off the coasts of North America. Inspired by the success of these men and the lure of riches, a group of wandering pirates called freebooters or buccaneers began to harass the Spanish colonies in the New World, particularly during the second half of the 17th century. The most famous buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan, was from England. Buccaneers are usually distinguished from privateers, who had official government commissions; buccaneers rarely had valid commissions. They are also distinguished from the pirates who attacked ships of all nations and were outlawed in the 18th century.

At first the headquarters of the buccaneers was on the little island of Tortuga (Île de la Tortue), off the northwestern coast of Hispaniola (now Haiti) in the main line of the Caribbean commerce. The term buccaneer was derived from their practice of raiding Hispaniola and taking the cattle from the Spanish plantations; they dried the meat on grills, known in French as boucan, and sold it to vessels that put in for provisions. The buccaneers later used Jamaica as a base of operations, and with Morgan as their leader they captured Panama in 1671. Buccaneering came to an end in the 18th century when the buccaneers were hired by their respective governments to fight as privateers in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). Several buccaneers wrote exciting tales of their adventures which, subsequently, inspired further exploration in the New World.