Buccaneers and Pirates


light." Instead, Captain Yanky, who had once sailed with
Captain Dampier and had taken 50,000 pieces of eight off
one Spanish ship, went and helped the Fleming Van Horn
in 1683 to seize and plunder Vera Cruz with 1200 men and
where the booty amounted to sixty million pieces of eight.
 Nicolas Van Horn was small in stature, with a face burnt
brown by the sun. His bravery was such that in action he in-
spected his ship and if he came across a man with any sign
of weakening he was so irritated that he shot him on the spot.
But he was extraordinarily generous and compensated brav-
ery with open hand. He used to wear a string of pearls of
extraordinary size and value, with a ruby of astonishing beau-
ty. In 1683 he assembled the different buccaneer captains
and their fleets in Ruatan and Belize. Never had these waters
seen happier men. They were full of the joy of anticipation
and were amply compensated on taking Vera Cruz. Laurent
Graff helped Van Horn at Vera Cruz, and the exploits of the
"big trampoose" were long remembered in the Bay. Van
Horn died from neglecting a slight wound on the hand he
received in a duel with Laurent Graff, and left a huge for-
tune to his widow in Ostende. They buried him at the Log-
gerhead Cayes near Cape Contoy. The Sieur de Grammont's
men went to Jamaica, others went to Saint Domingue, all had
a wild fortnight. They landed with bags of money on their
shoulders, bundles of silverware on their heads, piles of silk
in their arms. In that festive week many a tempestuous hussy
found the pretext for changing her lord. In 1685 Laurent
Graff and the Sieur de Grammont who was called Senor
Ramon in Campeche, the former mainly with Englishmen
and the latter mainly with Frenchmen, took Campeche, and
Padre Lara lists this as one of the five piratical invasions
which resulted in the plunder of this town and caused that
then flourishing centre to begin building a strong wall the
following year. Because of the terror he inspired Laurent
Graff was included in the prayers of many Spanish coastal