of the fleet, the admiral had taken the precaution to send a
fire-ship and three buccaneering vessels several miles in advance of the
rest of the squadron. Unfortunately these scouts drew too little water
and passed over the reefs without touching them. A buccaneer was the
first to strike and fired three shots to warn the admiral, who at once
lighted fires and discharged cannon to keep off the rest of the ships.
The latter, however, mistaking the signals, crowded on sail, and soon
most of the fleet were on the reefs. Those of the left wing, warned in
time by a shallop from the flag-ship, succeeded in veering off. The
rescue of the crews was slow, for the seas were heavy and the boats
approached the doomed ships with difficulty. Many sailors and marines
were drowned, and seven men-of-war, besides several buccaneering ships,
were lost on the rocks. Count d'Estrees himself escaped, and sailed with
the remnant of his squadron to Petit Goave and Cap Francois in
Hispaniola, whence on 18th June he departed for France.[396]

The buccaneers were accused in the reports which reached Barbadoes of
deserting the admiral after the accident, and thus preventing the
reduction of Curacao, which d'Estrees would have undertaken in spite of
the shipwreck.[397] However this may be, one of the principal buccaneer
leaders, named de Grammont, was left by de Pouancay at the Isle d'Aves
to recover what he could from the wreck, and to repair some of the
privateering vessels.[398] When he had accomplished this, finding
himself short of provisions, he sailed with about 700 men to make a
descent on Maracaibo; and after spending six months in the lake, seizing
the shipping and plundering all the settlements in that region, he
re-embarked in the middle of December. The booty is said to have been
very small.[399] Early in the same year the Marquis de Maintenon,
commanding the frigate "La Sorciere," and aided by some French
filibusters from Tortuga, was on the coast of Caracas, where he ravaged
the islands of Margarita and Trinidad. He had arrived in the West Indies
from France in the latter part of 1676, and when he sailed from Tortuga
was at the head of 700 or 800 men. His squadron met with little success,
however, and soon scattered.[400] Other bands of filibusters pillaged
Campeache, Puerto Principe in Cuba, Santo Tomas on the Orinoco, and
Truxillo in the province of Honduras; and de Pouancay, to console the
buccaneers for their losses at the Isle d'