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Capture of Tortuga
Part of the Franco-Spanish War
A c. 1650 illustration of Tortuga
Date 21–23 January 1635 (1635-01-21 – 1635-01-23) Location Tortuga Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	England  France
Commanders and leaders
Francisco Turrillo de Yebra Ruy Fernández de Fuenmayor Gonçalo de Frías	Christopher Wormeley
Strength
150 cavalry 50 infantry 50 sailors 4 ships	150‍–‍600 male settlers
Casualties and losses
2 killed 4 wounded	196 killed 39 captured 2 ships destroyed 1 ship captured

The capture of Tortuga was a Spanish expedition to the island of Tortuga in January 1635 intended to remove French and English settlers from the island during the Franco-Spanish War. During the early 17th century, English and French colonists settled on Tortuga, engaging in logwood harvesting and piracy. In 1630, 150 English settlers from Saint Kitts established a settlement linked to the Providence Island colony, which appointed Christopher Wormeley as governor in 1634.

The Spanish, alerted to Tortuga's weak defences by Irish defectors, set a 250-strong expedition in late January 1635 which captured and destroyed all French and English settlements on the island, forcing their survivors to flee. Spanish forces summarily executed hundreds of captives during the engagement. Wormeley was later banished for his failure, and Tortuga evolved into a pirate stronghold after the departure of the Providence Island's plantation-oriented oversight.

Background

English, French and Dutch colonists, many of whom were buccaneers, gradually began settling Tortuga and the northern coast of Hispaniola in the early 17th century. They engaged in the harvesting of logwood and piracy, and in 1630 were joined by approximately 150 English settlers from Saint Kitts led by Anthony Hilton. These settlers quickly formalised their colony by associating with the English Providence Island colony. On 21 July 1631, the Providence Island colony established the dependency of "Association" on Tortuga for Hilton's colonists, providing for their defence and labour needs and confirming Hilton as the dependency's governor. After Hilton's death in 1634, this position passed onto his associate, Christopher Wormeley.

Among the indentured servants or engagés which Providence provided Tortuga were John Murphy and his cousin, Irish Catholics. Upon Wormeley's inauguration as governor, these and many others were required to take oaths of allegiance, whereupon Murphy and his cousin protested, leading to the latter's death and the former's defection to Cartagena (first) and Santo Domingo (later).

Upon reaching Santo Domingo in 1634, Murphy informed local authorities that‍–‍

—Santo Domingo, 4 January 1635, royal officers to Spanish Crown.

Hereupon, Alonso de Cereceda, acting governor, convened a council of war, which resolved to 'dislodge the enemy from the said Island and punish their audacity before their greater expansion and fortification and because of the great interest in the brazilwood and tobacco that they harvest and trade and because it is close to the route of the frigates and ships which come and go from this Island to that of Cuba Cartaxena and other parts to steal from these vessels.'

Capture

Turrillo and 50 infantry-men set off from Santo Domingo on 4 January 1635, with four baxeles in tow, to meet Fuenmayor and his 150 lancers at their rendezvous, Port Bayaha. The officers coordinated their attack while watering here, and shortly thereafter sailed due northwest, coasting the northern shore of Hispaniola. On 21 January 1635, under cover of night, Fuenmayor lead his armadilla or fleet across the Tortuga Channel, towards the island's southern port. The pilot, however, ran the ships aground, causing a ruckus which alerted four merchantmen to their presence. A loud and confused skirmish followed, as sailors rushed to man the fort and sound the alarm, while Spaniards simultaneously prepared their attack, with most taking to the ships' cannons, while a small contingent slipped away in canoes towards the beach. The kerfuffle resulted in the campaign's first casualties, for both sides.

Startled awake by the fort's bugles, the settlement was likewise a scene of frenzied chaos as French and English residents collected their valuables to make a hurried escape. At the Governor's residence, Wormeley likewise set upon retreat, managing to scurry away before Fuenmayor arrived. At this point, Fuenmayor, Turrillo, and Frías, with a unit of 24 men, disembarked near the settlement, at once marching towards the Governor's house. An unidentified resident (presumed to be the 'Governor' by Fuenmayor) put up a fight, but was quickly despatched with two well-aimed spear-throws. The 'Governor' now slain, Fuenmayor set about methodically sacking and burning the settlement, killing all whom they encountered. Meanwhile, the armadilla eventually took the fort, and thereby the port, forcing the merchant vessels to retreat.

By daybreak (on 22 January 1635), most or some of the settlers had made their escape, reportedly aboard rickety canoes towards Hispaniola. Fuenmayor's men now ventured further into Tortuga, under instructions 'that all the fields and houses be put to fire.' The campaign's last engagement came on 23 January 1635. Some 190 of the island's residents had resolved to oppose the Spanish, rather than flee. Consequently, they had determined to march towards Fuenmayor's camp on this day. The Spanish general, however, discovered their plot, and met the musket-armed settlers halfway into their march. The engagement was reportedly quick and bitter, with the Spaniards exacting a substantial toll, themselves suffering only minimal casualties.

Aftermath

On 27‍–‍28 January 1635, the Spanish ships finally entered the port. Fuenmayor spent the following three or four days combing Tortuga before departing, with the rest of his men (and prisoners) following not long thereafter. The 39 prisoners were condemned to hard labour, building fortifications in Santo Domingo. On 10 April 1635, proprietors of the Providence Island colony deprived Wormeley of his office and banished him from the Tortuga, 'by reason of his cowardice and negligence in losing the island.' He is thought to have relocated to York County, Virginia, where he served in various public offices.

It has been suggested that settlers who hid were 'hunted down' during Fuenmayor's sweep of the island, though a 'handful managed to conceal themselves in out-of-the-way recesses until the Spaniards sailed back to San Domingo.' In any case, as no garrison remained in Tortuga, the island is thought to have been resettled within a few months of Fuenmayor's departure, in mid- or late 1635. The capture was deemed 'a complete success.' Men who distinguished themselves were honoured with mercedes, and Fuenmayor was promoted to the governorship of Venezuela. It has been further suggested that this success encouraged campaigns against Dutch-held Curaçao and English-held Providence Island.

Wormeley, on the other hand, is said to have 'displayed the utmost cowardice.' It has been suggested that Fuenmayor's campaign contributed to Tortuga's transition from a quasi-plantation, quasi-pirate settlement to 'a true pirate stronghold,' as the campaign resulted in the removal of Providence Island's plantation-oriented oversight, and the eventual desertion of tobacco farmers, leaving mainly pirates and buccaneers.

See also

Tortuga (Haiti) for more on the aftermath.

Notes

1. This event is sometimes misdated to 1634 (eg Haring 1910, pp. 60–61, Schmitt 2017, p. 588). Spanish sources, however, reliably date the event to 1635 (eg Rodríguez de la Torre 2018, para. 2, anon. 1942c, pp. 392–398). Consequently, this date is used in this article. (Newton 1914, p. 192, footnote no. 11, who follows the Spanish dating of 1635, further notes that "Du Tertre... dates by error in 1638. Labat and Charlevoix, and others copy Du Tertre, while Esquemeling in his History of the Buccaneers with his usual untrustworthiness confuses names and dates bady. In one place he dates the capture in 1630, and in another in 1664 when D'Ogeron was governor.")
2. In 1605, all Spanish settlements on the northern coast of Hispaniola were forcibly relocated near Santo Domingo by Governor Antonio Osorio due to "the Vecinos trade with non-Spanish foreigners without licence from His Majesty and without paying / the royal dues".anon. 1942a, pp. 34–35, 44–45, Lane 2016, p. xviii. Sometime prior to 20 June 1607, a group of marooned Spaniards encountered 70 white, black, and mestizo non-Spaniards on Tortuga, these reportedly living off feral game and logging (Moreau 2012, cap. 4 sec. 'La isla de Tortuga' para. 3). Buccaneers' settlement in Tortuga and northern Hispaniola is dated late 1620s by Lane 2016, p. 90.
3. It has been suggested that a late 1630 or early 1631 attack from Santo Domingo may have prompted the new Tortuga settlers to associate with Providence (Galvin 1991, pp. 196–197, Haring 1910, p. 58, Lane 2016, p. xix). Hilton and company were refugees of the 1629 Battle of St. Kitts (Galvin 1991, p. 198, Moreau 2012, cap. 4 sec. 'La isla de Tortuga' para. 4).
4. travesaron de noche para no ser sentidos y no pudiendo tomar el Puerto , donde avia tres urcas y un patache sin prebension y descuydo, al echar en tierra la gente en la parte que tomaron encallo la Almiranta y los barcos y con la confusion, oscuridad de la noche ruido y voces que causa echarse la gente al agua y aogarse algunos y entre ellos el Alferes del Capitan Camacho Po. de Vargas .hey crossed at night so as not to be noticed and not being able to take the port , where three urcas and a patache were anchored, unaware and unprepared , when they disembarked the men in the part where they sought to land, the flagship and the rest of the ships ran aground, and given this confusion, darkness of the night, noise and voices caused by the people throwing themselves into the water some drowned, among them the ensign of Captain Camacho Po de Vargas .

   —Santo Domingo, 16 February 1635, Tajagrano and Nuñez de Peralta to Crown (anon. 1942c, p. 393).

5. Murphy purportedly led the Spanish charge on the Anglo-French fort with a shout 'for Santiago,' Castille's warrior patron saint (Block & Shaw 2011, p. 45). The Spanish pilot purportedly lead the four bajeles into a reef off the harbour (Latimer 2009, p. 84).
6. It has been suggested that English refugees subsequently made their way to Providence Island (Lane 2016, p. 102, Schmitt 2017, p. 589).
7. Though some arriving merchantmen, unaware of the campaign, engaged Fuenmayor's armadilla at port on 24 January (cf previous citations).
8. Some of the prisoners may have subsequently won their freedom. On 14 May 1636, 'the wife of Grimes, the late gunner of Association ' petitioned the proprietors of Providence for 'her husband's release of Slavery at Santo Domingo,' whereupon the proprietors ordered that 'if any man of qualities be hereafter taken by the English notice shall be sent to the Governor of Domingo that he shall not be discharged without Grimes' release' (Schmitt 2017, p. 589).
9. Additionally, Bell was instructed, should Wormeley have arrived at Providence Island, that 'a very strict eye is to be kept upon him, and he is to be sent home for having "given us some cause for distaste"' (Sainsbury 1860, sec. 'April 1635' item 'April 20').
10. Providence Island appointed Nicholas Reskeimmer (or Riskinner) governor of Tortuga in April 1635. He and some 80 former settlers, with 150 slaves, arrived aboard the Expectation in late 1635 (or prior to February 1636). In 1636, Cereceda instructed Juan de Bargas (or Vargas) to capture the recent settlers' slaves. Bargas apprehended 59, who were later sold, purportedly to help pay for the Fuenmayor campaign, which had cost Santo Domingo 37,300 reales de plata. By 20 January 1637, Reskeimmer's settlers had deserted Tortuga, leaving the island with a French majority. These were again attacked in 1638, this time by Carlos Ibarra, who 'put to the sword those who resisted him and destroyed the houses they had built,' and again in 1650. 'owever, the punishments being few and far between, as soon as warships slipped under the horizon, the brethren of the coast returned to occupy the same sites ' (anon. 1941, pp. 245–246, anon. 1942c, pp. 393, 395, Galvin 1991, pp. 202–203, Newton 1914, pp. 211–212, Haring 1910, pp. 62–63, Moreau 2012, cap. 4 sec. 'La isla de Tortuga' para. 6, Fernández Duro 1899, p. 34). (The Bargas slave capture is attributed to Fuenmayor by Latimer 2009, p. 84. The Ibarra campaign is dated 1639 by Latimer 2009, p. 77.)
11. The honoured soldiers were Pedro Pérez, Juan Marin, Antonio de Espinar, Juan de Collantes, Juan de Sanlucar Baltasar de la Plaça, Bartolomé de Espinosa, and Juan Bazquez. They were granted mercedes on 22 August 1636. Fuenmayor was appointed governor and captain-general on 26 November 1636 (cf previous citations).
12. Similarly, an (unsuccessful) July 1635 Spanish campaign against Providence Island itself, which may have been encouraged by Fuenmayor's success in Tortuga, prompted the colony's proprietors to issue letters of marque for reprisals. Such privateering soon made Providence Island, like Tortuga, 'he greatest fear that possessed the Spanish a den of thieves and pirates threatening the Galleons, and the King's yearly and mighty treasure' (Latimer 2009, pp. 85–86).

Footnotes

1. Crouse 1940, p. 81.
2. ^ Galvin 1991, pp. 279–280, note no. 18.
3. Galvin 1991, pp. 190, 198–200.
4. Haring 1910, pp. 59–60.
5. Moreau 2012, cap. 4 sec. 'La isla de Tortuga' para. 4.
6. Latimer 2009, p. 76.
7. Sainsbury 1860, sec. 'July 1631' items 'July 6' and 'July 21'.
8. Block & Shaw 2011, pp. 44–45.
9. ^ anon. 1942c, p. 396.
10. anon. 1942c, p. 393.
11. anon. 1942c, pp. 393–394.
12. anon. 1942c, p. 394.
13. ^ Crouse 1940, p. 83.
14. Galvin 1991, pp. 201–202.
15. anon. 1942c, pp. 394, 397 misprinted as 497.
16. Schmitt 2017, pp. 588–589.
17. anon. 1942c, p. 395.
18. ^ Schmitt 2017, p. 589.
19. anon. 1928, p. 98.
20. ^ Riches 1999, pp. 18–19.
21. Sainsbury 1860, sec. 'April 1635' item 'April 10'.
22. Rodríguez de la Torre 2018, para. 2.
23. anon. 1941, p. 244, item no. 181.
24. anon. 1942a, pp. 102–103, footnote no. 1.
25. anon. 1942c, p. 397 misprinted as 497.
26. Newton 1914, p. 193.

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• 1630s in the Caribbean
• 1635 in New Spain
• Conflicts in 1635
• Massacres committed by Spain
• Naval battles of the Thirty Years' War involving Spain
• Naval battles of the Thirty Years' War involving England
• Naval battles of the Thirty Years' War involving France
• Tortuga (Haiti)