Encounters with pirates…
Chapter 12. The Atlantic Coast and its Caribbean pirates
Historical Center, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
“If you said that it happened twice, I guess it didn’t work.” I was just perfectly enthralled with the pirate story.
“I’ll show you,” he said, as he turned heading west. After maybe some fifteen minutes, the Pacific coast was dead ahead of us. There, as he pointed out to the Pacific Ocean, he continued the conversation…
“The forts did help contain the pirates living in the Caribbean Islands close to our coastline. The thing is that there’s always somebody sharp enough to find a way around problems. In this case it was a Frenchman by the name of Dampier.”
“He decided to get to Granada from the Pacific. That way he managed to avoid that long crossing and the forts. Do you see how quickly we flew here from Granada? He found a spot to anchor the boat. Leaving it anchored, he simply walked the thirty some kilometers to Granada; just a smooth, day walk through the coastal jungles. What do you think of the guy? He was something else!”
“Again at daybreak the invaders hit the streets and attacked. The locals tried to resist, but it was over quite fast. You could say that the raiders virtually clobbered them!” We turned around and headed back to Granada. Once back in the city, he pointed out a large blue church. It lay in the center of the town. That church was the Saint Francis Church, and together with maybe twenty of the most prominent houses in the city, the buildings were burnt down. It was a reprisal for fighting back at the pirates. When this happened, Granada’s population consisted of about three hundred inhabitants. One hundred were from Spain and the rest were mestizos, and those of mixed descent. After the assault, the greater part of the population fled the city, and as a result, the population was drastically reduced to scarcely thirty people. Imagine that, all of this city with only thirty persons dwelling in it!” Having had his say, we steered to the south, once more, as I turned inwards, to ponder this intriguing matter regarding pirates.
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