19. The Exterminator’s Terrible Caribbean Rampage
Daniel Montbars made a name for himself in an early action against a Spanish vessel. As one account put it: “Montbars led the way to the decks of the enemy, where he carried injury and death; and when submission terminated the contest, his only pleasure seemed to be to contemplate, not the treasures of the vessel, but the number of dead and dying Spaniards, against whom he had vowed a deep and eternal hatred, which he maintained the whole of his life“. He went on a terrible piratical rampage against the Spanish Main – Spain’s possessions in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coastal mainland from Florida to Venezuela.
On the Venezuelan coast, Montbars sacked and burned the towns of Maricaibo, San Pedro, Porto Caballo, and Gibraltar, among numerous other settlements and forts. It was during this rampage that Montbars became known as the Exterminator. He gave no quarter and tortured captured Spanish soldiers in highly inventive – and shockingly gruesome – ways. Montbars and his crew amassed a fortune, which they reportedly buried near Grand Saline, Texas. However, the Exterminator never came back to retrieve it: he vanished in 1707, most likely lost at sea.
