By Bob Davidsson
For a period of two years in 1627-28, fleets of Dutch warships used the Jupiter and Indian River inlets as a staging area and source of provisions for raids on Spanish treasure fleets entering the Florida Straits.
Although Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Havana considered these Dutch interlopers as pirates, the squadrons of warships lurking in Florida coastal waters were not the typical freebooting buccaneers of the 17th century.
In 1621 the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) received a charter to establish colonies and promote trade in the Caribbean and Brazil. To finance their operations, the Dutch merchant-adventurers targeted Spanish and Portuguese shipping with the goal of eliminating their competition.
By the year 1627, the new United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish Hapsburg empire were engaged in the 59th year of the bloody Dutch War of Independence, a conflict commonly called the "80 Years' War (1568 - 1648)."
The West Indies Company expanded the war to the New World by licensing privateers to prey on merchant shipping flying the flag of the unified Kingdom of Spain and Portugal (1580 - 1640). The crews of the Dutch privateers were the descendants of the "Sea Beggars," fishermen turned nautical freedom fighters defending the flooded estuaries and canals of Holland and Zeeland from Spanish invaders in the 16th century.
Most of the privateers were Calvinists, adding a religious element to the conflict. The Dutch sailors held a special hatred for their Spanish Catholic opponents - a feeling shared by their adversaries in this pitiless war at sea.
The Dutch Fleet Arrives in Florida
The directors of the West Indies Company were aware of the routes used by Spanish silver fleets from Mexico known as the "Flota," and convoys carrying the gold mined in South America annually and transported in the "Galleones" along the east coast of Florida.
In the year 1598, Dutch historian John Huigehen Van Linschoten reported, "Gold and silver wherewith the Indians trafficke, they had it out of ships which fall on ground upon the Cape of Florida (Canaveral), because most of the ships lost here are lost on this said coast..."
In anticipation of future raids by Dutch or English pirates, Florida Governor Luis De Rojas y Borja (1624-29) wisely recommended the establishment of a fortified sentinel station at Jupiter Inlet in his Feb. 13, 1627 "Letter from the Governor of Florida to his Majesty."
"I should warn and advise your Majesty to build a fort at the bar (Jupiter Inlet)," he wrote, "at a place they call Jega (Jeaga), it being a place where vessels all come to cast anchor when they want to take on water, wood and wait for the merchant ships they wish to capture."
"A fort at this place would act as an sentinel and guard against their landing and helping themselves," the concerned governor reported. "It would also be well to have it in case of vessels being wrecked upon this coast, as so many are, to be able to rescue and save the crews and passengers, who so often perish at the hands of pirates and cruel Indians..."
This sage advice was ignored, at great cost and loss to the Kingdom of Spain.
In the spring of 1627, Spanish Captain-General Thomas Larraspuru sighted a fleet of 13 Dutch warships in the Florida Straits while escorting a convoy of ships to Havana. He reported the Dutch withdrew as he prepared for battle near Coximer, Cuba.
In fact, the Dutch privateers, under the command of Piet Heyn (1577-1629), remained in Cuban waters until July, charting Spanish trade routes and capturing prizes. Larraspuru stated 55 vessels were boarded or sunk by Dutch "pirates" in 1627.
On their return voyage to Holland, the Dutch ships anchored offshore of the Indian River inlet, near the main village of the Ais Indians called "Jece". As the Dutch landed, the Indians fled their village until enticed to return by gifts offered by the privateers.
The Dutch remained at the village, gathering wood and barrels of water for the long journey home. A few of the Ais villagers, loyal to the Spanish, traveled to St. Augustine to request help from Governor Rojas.
It so happened that the presence of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Florida prevented the Spanish from sending the "Situado" or annual royal subsidy to St. Augustine. The subsidy supported the garrison and administration of the Florida outpost and was main source of hard currency in he colony.
Governor Rojas dispatched a small frigate, also known as a "presidio boat," to Havana to inquire on the Situado's delay. The Spanish frigate discovered the 13 Dutch warships at anchor and fled north to report their presence to the governor.
The report by the excited crew confirmed the story told by the friendly Ais Indians. Governor Rojas mustered a force of 150 Spaniards and 300 Indians and marched south to confront the Dutch interlopers. He was too late. The Ais told the governor that the Dutch fleet had already set sail.
In his 1628 report, Governor Rojas wrote, "And they (the Indians) have come to give me the news that there were enemy on the coast. And on two occasions when they landed to obtain water, they abandoned their places and withdrew into the woods, and others came to give the report and to ask for help."
Piet Heyn and the Spanish Silver Fleet
Encouraged by profits made in the 1627 expedition to the Florida Straits, the West Indies Company dispatched four squadrons of warships to the Caribbean in 1628. They were led by Captains Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita, Witte de With, Joost Benckert (known as the Scourge of the Portuguese), and the return of Piet Heyn.
Captain Ita was the first to appear off the coast of Cuba in May 1628. The privateer captured two great galleons bound for Cuba from Honduras with 12 barges and several smaller vessels under their escort.
The Spanish galleon "Nossa Senhora de Remedios" was boarded as a prize and sailed with the Dutch privateers to the southeast coast of Florida. Following the example of the 1627 fleet, Ita provisioned his ships for the voyage back to Holland.
The captured "Remedios" was unfit for further sailing, so its cargo was transferred to the Dutch warships. Captain Ita scuttled the "Remedios" one mile off the Treasure Coast of Florida and set sail for home.
The privateer captain arrived in Holland in September 1628. His captured cargo was valued at 1.2 million guilders.
With the departure of the Dutch squadron, the governor of Cuba assumed it was safe for the annual silver fleet to make the voyage from Mexico to Spain. It was a fatal decision.
On July 27, 1628, Piet Heyn gathered 31 Dutch warships near Hispaniola, including the squadrons of Witte de With and Joost Benckert, and sailed for the Florida Straits and the northern coast of Cuba. Joining the Dutch fleet was the buccaneer Moses Cohen Henriques, an exiled Portuguese Sephardic Jew wanted by the Spanish Inquisition for piracy but never caught during his 30-year illicit career at sea.
Their unexpected arrival caught the Cadiz-bound silver fleet at anchor in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sept. 9. Captain-General Juan de Benevides fled to the mainland and his fleet surrendered after just token resistance.
For Piet Heyn the victory was especially sweet. It was the same Captain Benevides who was the sailing master of a ship where Heyn rowed as a captive galley slave between the years 1598 and 1602. For his cowardice and loss of the silver fleet, Benevides was imprisoned in Cuba.
The 17 ships captured in Matanzas Bay yielded a silver haul valued at 11.9 million guilders. It marked the first and only time an entire Mexican silver Flota was captured intact.
Piet Heyn's fleet was sighted by curious Ais and Jeaga Indians on Sept. 30 as it assembled for one last time off Florida's Treasure Coast for the voyage home. The privateers followed the Gulf Stream to Europe, arriving in Holland on Jan. 9, 1629. The Dutch fleets never returned to Florida.
Ironically, Piet Heyn was allotted little time to bask in the glory of his victory. After a promotion to vice admiral, he was killed a few months later in a naval battle against his Flemish co-religionists in the service of Spain.
The capture of the Spanish silver fleet financed the beginning of Holland's golden age of commerce and world colonization. However, the Dutch were never able to repeat their total victory at Matanzas Bay. Spain upgraded the quality and number of warships escorting future Flota treasure convoys to Spain.
With the loss of the silver fleet, King Phillip IV could not pay his armies and many creditors in 1629-30. The Kingdom of Spain was bankrupt.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Friday, August 10, 2018
The British Expedition to the 'Hobe River': April 1772
By Bob Davidsson
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
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