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| Piracy on Lake Nicaragua | |||||||
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| Part of theGolden Age of Piracy andPiracy in the Caribbean | |||||||
.jpg) "Henry Morgan Recruiting for the Attack", byHoward Pyle. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Spain Nicaragua Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala | West Indies Pirates American Filibusters | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Fernando Francisco de EscobedoRafaela HerreraFruto ChamorroLaureano PinedaJosé María Cañas | Henry Morgan William Dampier William Walker Charles Henningsen | ||||||
Part ofa series on the |
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| History ofNicaragua |
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Between 1665 and 1857, Caribbeanpirates andfilibusters operated inLake Nicaragua and the surrounding shores. The Spanish city ofGranada, located on the lake, was an important trading centre for much of its early history so it was a prime target for pirates such as WelshmanHenry Morgan and freebooters likeWilliam Walker.[1]
Lake Nicaragua, then called the Sweet Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in Central America and is connected to the Caribbean Sea by theSan Juan River. Due to the destruction ofLeón in 1610, by avolcano, the port of Granada became a main centre of commercial activity and was considered the "jewel" of Spanishcolonies in theNew World.[citation needed] By 1650 theGolden Age of Piracy had begun in whichbuccaneers from diverse backgrounds and nations prowled theWest Indies. The lake is known to have been controlled by pirates as early as 1665 when Henry Morgan led six shallow draftcanoes up the San Juan for an attack on Granada. The canoes were twelve metres long and acquired during an attack onVillahermosa, Mexico, after which Morgan's sailing ships were captured by the Spanish. In June Morgan led his band up the river by night while hiding in the day and when they reached the lake the pirates stealthily crossed it and landed outside town. A general assault was then made on Granada and the Spanish were found completely off guard. After the hostilities had ceased Morgan went after the city's treasury of silver and his men set fire to the buildings and sank all of the Spanish boats found in port.[citation needed]
The pirates escaped with an estimated 500,000 sterling silver pounds before sailing up theCoco River where Morgan allied himself with theMiskitonative Americans who participated in the sacking of several Spanish settlements in the area. Pirates also founded their own towns at the same time, among themPueblo Viejo andBluefields, the latter named after the Dutch pirateAbraham Blauvelt. Soon after Morgan left, the pirateCaptainGallardito began operating on Lake Nicaragua and in 1670 he successfully overwhelmed thegarrison of Granada. Following that incident the Spanish resorted tofortifying their territory. At one area southeast of Granada the Spanish ArmyCaptainFernando Francisco de Escobedo began building theFortress of the Immaculate Conception in 1673 next to a rapid in the San Juan River. The structure, made of stone, was completed in 1675 and it eventually became an important asset in keeping pirates out of the lake, even though it failed in its first test in 1685 when the English buccaneerWilliam Dampier bypassed the fort by landing on Nicaragua's Pacific coast. Dampier then went on to attack Granada after marching overland and he burnt the colony down again on 8 September. Soon after, the city of Leon, was attacked and destroyed by Dampier as well.[2]
Since the establishment ofBritish colonies in the West Indies, most notablyJamaica, the constant conflict between Britain and Spain created a haven for pirates who also served asprivateers in war time. Pirates andMiskito Sambu filibusters attacked the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception repeatedly during the 18th century. Perhaps the most famousbattle occurred in 1762 during theSeven Years' War. In the 1740s, the British had allied themselves with the Miskito Sambus, who were an ethnic group who were descended from escaped African slaves from Spanish settlements who intermarried with Native Americans; when war broke out in 1762 with Spain, the British and the Miskito began attacking Spanish settlements throughoutCentral America. Eventually a force of 2,000 Britons and Sambus sailed up the San Juan in more than fifty boats and canoes where they laid siege to about 100 Spaniards in the fortress on 26 July. The garrison commander had died only recently leaving his daughter, the nineteen-year-oldRafaela Herrera and alieutenant, to lead the defense. Herrera shot the British commander herself on the first day of the battle and for six days afterward the two sides duelled withcannons. Occasionally the British and Sambus would charge forward for a close quarters engagement though they were beaten back every time with heavy losses. A secondBritish expedition was launched in 1780 and it successfully captured the fort.[3]
Filibustering became popular in the 19th century, primarily inLatin America (the term originated from the Spanish wordfilibustero which meant pirate or buccaneer). Perhaps the most famous filibustering expedition was William Walker'sConquest of Nicaragua in 1855, by which time the country was independent from Spanish rule. A civil war had broken out in 1854 between liberal and conservative forces; the conservatives, or Legitimists, held Granada while the liberals held Leon. Initially Walker had been commissioned by the liberal government of President GeneralFrancisco Castellón to bring 300 men to aid in the war against the Legitimists, but his real intentions were to take over the country, as he had inBaja California andSonora, Mexico. Walker sailed fromSan Francisco in May 1855 with sixty men and when he arrived in Nicaragua his small army of filibusters was increased by about 300 Americans and locals, including the pirateCharles Frederick Henningsen. After a series ofbattles against both the Legitimists and the liberals, Walker established himself as the ruler of Nicaragua and even received recognition from the American PresidentFranklin Pierce. Recognition didn't last long though, when Walker seized property belonging toCornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company, the United States government withdrew their support.[4]
Soon after that the filibusters engaged in acampaign which ended when 4,000Salvadoran andGuatemalan troops besieged Granada. Charles Frederick Henningsen was in command of the city at the time and he only had a few hundred men so there was no choice but to retreat to Lake Nicaragua after burning Granada for a final time. When the city was in flames, Henningsen began his retreat on 14 December 1856, leaving behind a message on alance which read "Here was Granada". William Walker surrendered to the United States Navy commanderCharles Henry Davis in thesloop-of-warUSS St. Mary's on 1 May 1857 and he was later executed for piracy by the government ofHonduras.[4]
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