hey had never been declared outlaws, and they confined their attentions
to the Spaniards. They served under conditions which they themselves
imposed, or which they deigned to accept, and were always ready to turn
against the representatives of authority if they believed they had aught
of which to complain.[443]

The buccaneers almost invariably carried commissions from the governors
of French Hispaniola, but they did not scruple to alter the wording of
their papers, so that a permission to privateer for three months was
easily transformed into a licence to plunder for three years. These
papers, moreover, were passed about from one corsair to another, until
long after the occasion for their issue had ceased to exist. Thus in May
or June of 1680, de Grammont, on the strength of an old commission
granted him by de Pouancay before the treaty of Nimuegen, had made a
brilliant night assault upon La Guayra, the seaport of Caracas. Of his
180 followers only forty-seven took part in the actual seizure of the
town, which was amply protected by two forts and by cannon upon the
walls. On the following day, however, he received word that 2000 men
were approaching from Caracas, and as the enemy were also rallying in
force in the vicinity of the town he was compelled to retire to the
ships. This movement was executed with difficulty, and for two hours de
Grammont with a handful of his bravest companions covered the
embarkation from the assaults of the Spaniards. Although he himself was
dangerously wounded in the throat, he lost only eight or nine men in the
whole action. He carried away with him the Governor of La Guayra and
many other prisoners, but the booty was small. De Grammont retired to
the Isle d'Aves to nurse his wound, and after a long convalescence
returned to Petit Goave.[444]

In 1683, however, these filibusters of Hispaniola carried out a much
larger design upon the coasts of New Spain. In April of that year eight
buccaneer captains made a rendezvous in the Gulf of Honduras for the
purpose of attacking Vera Cruz. The leaders of the party were two
Dutchmen named Vanhorn and Laurens de Graff. Of the other six captains,
three were Dutch, one was French, and two were English. Vanhorn himself
had sailed from England in the autumn of 1681 in command of a merchant
ship called the "Mary and Martha," _alias_ the "St. Nicholas." He soon,
however, revealed the rogue he was by turning two of his merchants
ashore at Cadiz and steali