Louis-Michel Aury (1788 – August 30, 1821) was a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
privateer operating in the
Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
during the early 19th century.
Early life
Louis Michel-Aury was born in Paris, France, around 1788.
French Navy
Louis Aury served in the
French Navy from 1802 or 1803 until 1811 as a sailor on a ship stationed in the French colonies of the
West Indies.
From 1802 he crewed on
privateer ships, and by 1810 he had accumulated enough
prize money to become the master of his own vessel. He participated in various privateering and filibuster efforts to overturn governments in
East Florida, Mexico,
Spanish Texas, the
Caribbean Sea, Central America, and South America.
Evacuation of Cartagena de Indias
Aury decided to support the Spanish colonies of South America in their
fight for independence from Spanish rule. In April 1813 he sailed from
North Carolina on his own privateer ship with
Venezuelan
Letters of Marque to attack Spanish ships. He was then commissioned as a commodore in the navy of
New Granada New Granada may refer to various former national denominations for the present-day country of Colombia.
*New Kingdom of Granada, from 1538 to 1717
*Viceroyalty of New Granada, from 1717 to 1810, re-established from 1816 to 1819
*United Provinces of ...
(now Colombia),
at considerable personal expense, in December 1815 ran the Spanish blockade and evacuated hundreds of people in his vessels from the besieged fortress city of
Cartagena de Indias
Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...
(Colombia) to
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
.
In spite of his success in this dangerous exploit he argued with
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
, leader of the Latin American revolutionaries, over payment for his services in organizing the unsuccessful naval expedition to
Los Cayos
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...
.
Governor of Galveston
Aury subsequently accepted an appointment as resident commissioner of
Galveston Island,
Texas, made by
José Manuel de Herrera
José Manuel de Herrera (27 March 1776 – 17 September 1831) was a Mexican Catholic priest, writer, politician and professor of New Spain. He joined the insurgents during the Mexican War of Independence. He directed the newspaper ''Correo Ame ...
, an envoy from the
fledgling Republic of Mexico, who had declared Galveston a port of the Republic.
Aury established a privateering base there
in September 1816.
One of Aury's privateers had captured a Spanish vessel from
Tampico, and letters found on board revealed that the port of
Soto La Marina on the
Soto La Marina River
The Soto La Marina River or Soto la Marina is a river of northeastern Mexico.
Geography
The headwaters of the Soto La Marina are in the Sierra Madre Oriental in pine-oak forests at an elevation of about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in the munici ...
(also called the Santander) in Mexico was undefended.
Learning this, Gen.
Francisco Mina and Col. Henry Perry resolved to make a descent upon the place, and Aury agreed to transport them.
They sailed from Galveston April 6, 1817, and the town was taken without a fight. The three commanders squabbled, and Aury left with his ships for Galveston. Mina, whose plan was to join the southern Mexican revolutionaries led by
Guadalupe Victoria, marched inland and was captured by royal Spanish troops and executed by firing squad on a hill close to the
Fuerte de los Remedios
El Fuerte (Spanish: "The Fort") may refer to:
* El Fuerte de Samaipata, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bolivia
* El Fuerte, Sinaloa, a city of Sinaloa, Mexico
* El Fuerte, a character in the ''Street Fighter'' video game series
Fuerte may also ...
.
Amelia Island affair
However, while Aury was away, the pirate
Jean Lafitte had taken control of the base at Galveston. On his return to Texas, Aury made an ill-fated attempt to establish another base at
Matagorda Bay
Matagorda Bay () is a large Gulf of Mexico bay on the Texas coast, lying in Calhoun and Matagorda counties and located approximately northeast of Corpus Christi, east-southeast of San Antonio, south-southwest of Houston, and south-southeast ...
. He finally left Texas in 1817 to assist the Scottish adventurer
Gregor MacGregor, who claimed to be commissioned by representatives of the revolting South American countries,
in attacking
Spanish Florida
Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...
from
Amelia Island. MacGregor left the island on September 4, and Aury sailed into the
port of Fernandina on September 17, 1817. Following negotiations with MacGregor's lieutenants, Ruggles Hubbard and
Jared Irwin
Jared Irwin (1750 – March 1, 1818) served twice as elected Governor of Georgia (1796–1798) and (1806–1809). He first was elected to office as a reformer based on public outrage about the Yazoo land scandal. He signed a bill that nullifi ...
, Amelia Island was dubiously annexed to the Republic of Mexico on September 21, 1817, and its flag raised over
Fort San Carlos.
Aury surrendered the island to American forces under the command of Commodore J.D. Henley and Major James Bankhead on December 23, 1817. Aury remained over two months as an unwelcome guest; Bankhead occupied Fernandina and President
James Monroe vowed to hold it "in trust for Spain". This episode in Florida's history became known as the
Amelia Island Affair.
Settlement in Old Providence and Saint Catherine islands
On 4 July 1818 Aury captured
Old Providence Island
Isla de Providencia, historically Old Providence, and generally known as Providencia, is a mountainous Caribbean island that is part of the Colombian department of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and the municipality ...
(Isla de Providencia) in the western Caribbean with the help of 400 men and 14 ships. He found the island populated by white English-speaking Protestants and their slaves. Aury,
Agostino Codazzi, and his team used the islands as his new base from which to pursue Central American independence and founded a settlement with a thriving economy based on captured Spanish cargo, while unsuccessfully trying to rebuild good relations with Bolívar. Under orders of Aury,
Agostino Codazzi established the Fort Libertad on Saint Catherine Island.
Project to conquer Panama for France
With the merchants of
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
,
Benoît Chassériau and Jean-Baptiste Pavageau and the privateer shipowner Jean-Baptiste de Novion, Aury had imagined in 1820 conquering
Panama, then the possession of Spain. This project aimed to give
France the means to strengthen and secure its trade in this region of the world. Unofficially, the Minister of the Navy and the Colonies,
Pierre-Barthélémy Portal, declined their bold offer.
Attempts to liberate Central America
In 1820
Guatemala City was still the capital of the
Captaincy General of Guatemala, so
Central America was seen as yet under the
sway
Sway may refer to:
Places
* Sway, Hampshire, a village and civil parish in the New Forest in England
** Sway railway station, serving the village
People
* Sway (British musician) (born 1983), British hip hop/grime singer
* Sway Calloway (born 1 ...
of
Spain, and thus was open to attack from its enemies. In an attempt to secure their independence, the
Gran Colombian insurgents and the Aury flotilla fitted a combined sea and land expedition to operate against the ports of
Omoa and
Trujillo, in Honduras.
On 21 April 1820, the watch-tower at Capiro in Trujillo Port announced the approach of a Colombian flotilla. The port's garrison, commanded by
Jose M. Palomar
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.
*Jose ben Abin
*Jose ben Akabya
* Jose the Galil ...
, at once made emergency preparations for the impending attack. At two o'clock in the afternoon the approaching flotilla hoisted a flag with two blue bars and a white one between them showing an
escutcheon
Escutcheon may refer to:
* Escutcheon (heraldry), a shield or shield-shaped emblem, displaying a coat of arms
* Escutcheon (furniture), a metal plate that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder on a door
* (in medicine) the distribution of pubic ha ...
in the center similar to the
Argentinian flag
The national flag of the Argentine Republic is a triband, composed of three equally wide horizontal bands coloured light blue and white. There are multiple interpretations on the reasons for those colors. The flag was created by Manuel Belgra ...
; Aury dispatched a boat to shore to demand the port's surrender within one hour. The town did not comply. The following day Commodore Aury moved the flotilla to the mouth of the Guaimoreto River and began bombardment. The attack started at 9 AM and lasted until 2 PM. The firing ceased when the flotilla was ordered out to sea and out of the reach of the port's cannons. A portion of the land force then attempted to enter the town by the rear, but was detected and driven out.
During the night of the 24th, the Aury vessels dropped out of sight. On the 25th the flotilla appeared off the port of Omoa and for several days attempted to land. Commodore Aury failed and left the area on the 6th of May.
Some historians, for example Miguel Ángel de Marco,
suggest that the flags of the
United Provinces of Central America and most of the states that composed it were inspired by the
Argentine Flag that privateer
Hippolyte Bouchard took with him. Others claim that the flag was modeled on the Argentine flag, but introduced by
Commodore Louis-Michel Aury.
File:Flag of Argentina.svg, Argentina
File:Flag_of_the_Federal_Republic_of_Central_America.svg, United Provinces of Central America
File:Flag_of_Nicaragua.svg, Nicaragua
File:Flag_of_Honduras.svg, Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
File:Flag_of_El_Salvador.svg, El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
File:Flag_of_Costa_Rica.svg, Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
Death
A document drawn up by the justice of the peace and chief of police of the isles of Santa Catalina and Old Providence
reported Aury's death on August 30, 1821, possibly from being thrown by a horse.
[Southwestern 1938, p. 116] On September 3 of the same year, the same official made an inventory of Aury's possessions, which he left to his sister Victoire Aury (Madame Dupuis). Although he is not officially recognized by any of the countries he served, Aury was perceived as a member of the
Great Colombia liberation fighters because of his affiliation with
Simon Bolivar.
Bibliography
* ''Une autre 'affaire de
Panama' ou le projet de conquête de quatre Français en 1820'' (Louis-Michel Aury,
Benoît Chassériau, Jean Pavageau and Jean-Baptiste de Novion), by Jean-Baptiste Nouvion,
Revue d'histoire diplomatique
''Revue d'histoire diplomatique'' (Journal of Diplomatic History) is a journal of the Société d'histoire diplomatique in France. It was established in 1887 and covers French and foreign diplomatic history and international relations.
Referenc ...
, Paris,
Éditions A. Pedone, no 2, 2019 pp. 159–174
* ''History of Central America'', by Hubert Howe Bancroft
* ''Rebel without a Cause : The adventure of Louis Aury'', by Robert C. Vogel, Laffite Society Chronicles, VIII, Fevrier 2002
* ''Vida de Luis Aury : corsario de Buenos Aires en las luchas por la independencia de Colombia y Centroamérica'', by Carlos A. Ferro, Tegucigalpa : Departamento de Relaciones Públicas de la Jefatura de Estado, 1973
* ''La Presencia de Luis Aury en Centro América'', by Héctor Humberto Samayoa Guevara, Guatemala, 1965
References
External links
Aury WebsiteLouis Michel Aury international very good multilanguage page
Louis Michel Aury (Spanish) very complete Spanish page
Louis Michel Aury (French) very complete French page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aury, Louis-Michel
1788 births
1821 deaths
18th-century French people
19th-century French people
19th-century pirates
Accidental deaths in Colombia
Deaths by horse-riding accident
French pirates
French privateers
People from Galveston, Texas
Military personnel from Paris
People of Mexican Texas
People of Spanish Florida
People of the Mexican War of Independence
People of the Spanish American wars of independence
People of the Venezuelan War of Independence