e governor of Guarico sent a certain
Franquinay to Santiago with the evident intention of conquering the
place. Franquinay, who was a French corsair well-known among the
Brotherhood of the Coast landed with eight hundred men at Jaragua Grande
in the eastern part of the island. There he engaged a half-witted native
by the name of Juan Perdomo to act as guide and started with his forces
to march toward the city. It was a moonlit night and on arriving at a
point where the road branched into two, the pirate divided his forces,
each taking one of the roads. On meeting again at the place where the
two branches continued as the highroad, the idiot Perdomo began to shout
"Santiago, Spain!" The moon had set in the mean time and in the darkness
enveloping them, the pirates did not recognize their own forces and
thought this call a signal to the enemy lying in wait for them. They
began to fire upon their own forces, in the belief that they were
betrayed and surprised by the Spaniards, and killed a great number of
their own people, before they became aware of their mistake. In this way
was Franquinay's plan to take and ransack the city of Cuba frustrated by
a mentally deficient native, one who in the language of the Latin people
is called an "innocent." The corsair turned back to the shore with the
intention of re-embarking and left Perdomo behind. The half-wit,
although manacled, managed to reach Santiago and related his experience
to the great delight of the governor and the residents. This was the
last attempt of pirate forces upon the capital, the inhabitants of which
had been kept in a state of constant alarm for a century and a half. But
the smaller towns of the vicinity were for some time harassed by
Franquinay who, unable to accomplish his ambitious purpose, vented his
wrath upon their population by committing the most cruel outrages.

The expedition of buccaneers under the command of M. de Grammont in
February, 1679, was another event that justified the fears of the Cubans
and their steps to insure the safeguard of their ports. M. de Grammont
landed with a force of six hundred men at Guanaja and succeeded in
capturing Puerto del Principe. But the inhabitants valiantly organized
and armed themselves to fight the invader. With a scanty reenforcement
of soldiers from the garrison they managed to defeat the enemy's horde
and pursued them as far as the port of Guanaja. There M. de Grammont,
who was wounded in the course of the c