1. A Terrifying Pirate’s Terrifying End
En route to Maracaibo, L’Olonnais captured a Spanish treasure ship, which yielded 260,000 Spanish dollars, plus gemstones and cocoa beans. Maracaibo’s citizens had fled by the time L’Olonnais arrived. So he tracked them down in the nearby jungles, and tortured them until they revealed where they had hidden their valuables. He and his men then indulged in a two-month-orgy of assault, pillage, and murder. They finally torched the town and tore down its fortifications before they left. A year later, L’Olonnais led an even bigger pirate expedition against Central America, only for his men to get ambushed and massacred in Honduras. He was one of the few survivors who managed to escape back to a ship, but it ran aground off the coast of Panama. L’Olonnais disembarked and led his men inland in search of food, only to get captured, killed, and eaten by an indigenous tribe.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography – Montbars
Baer, Joel H. – Pirates of the British Isles (2005)
Cordingly, David – Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (1997)
Encyclopedia Britannica – John Avery
Eskify – 10 Greatest French Pirates of All Time
History Collection – These Vicious Crimes Will Make You See the Medieval Era in a New Light
History Hit – Black Bart, the Most Successful Pirate of Them All
Marley, David – Pirates of the Americas (2010)
Pendered, Norman C. – Blackbeard, the Fiercest Pirate of All (1975)
Pirates and Privateers – The History of Maritime Piracy: Flail of the Spaniards
Queen Anne’s Revenge Project – Blackbeard: History of the Dreaded Pirate
