12. The Piratical Rampage that Terrorized the Spanish Main
Montbars went on a piratical rampage against the Spanish Main – Spain’s possessions in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coastal mainland from Florida to Venezuela. He raided Spanish settlements in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba. On Venezuela’s coast, he sacked and burned the towns of San Pedro, Porto Caballo, Maracaibo, and Gibraltar, among numerous other settlements and forts. His cruelties during this rampage earned Montbars the “Exterminator” nickname. He gave no quarter, and tortured captured Spaniards. Among his more infamous tortures was opening a victim’s abdomen, pulling out a gut and nailing it to post, then forcing the victim to “dance to his death by beating his backside with a burning log“. He 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.
