Nicolas Brigaut (1653–1686) was a French pirate and
buccaneer
Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from Stuart Restoration, the Restoration in 16 ...
active in the Caribbean. He was closely associated with fellow corsair
Michel de Grammont
Michel de Grammont (c. 1645 – 1686?) was a French privateer. He was born in Paris, Kingdom of France and was lost at sea in the north-east Caribbean, April 1686. His privateer career lasted from around 1670 to 1686 during which he commanded th ...
.
History
Brigaut first went to sea in 1679, surviving a shipwreck before joining the ''flibustier'' (French buccaneer) fleet of Sieur de Grammont. Over the next few years he was part of their expeditions attacking
Cumana,
Maracaibo
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, motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal")
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, and
Cartagena.
By 1683 he had risen to the position of
quartermaster
Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...
aboard the ship ''La Mutine'' commanded by
Michiel Andrieszoon
Michiel Andrieszoon ( fl. 1683–1684) was a Dutch buccaneer who served as lieutenant to Captain Laurens de Graaf. He commanded the ''le Tigre'', with a 300-man crew and between 30 and 36 guns. He is occasionally referred to in English as Michel o ...
.
Andrieszoon sailed up the American east coast to Boston to resupply in late 1684. While there Brigaut purchased a 40-ton
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
of his own.
Now in command of his own vessel, he and other buccaneers gathered off the coast of
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
for another raid which never materialized.
The pirates dispersed, and Brigaut left to find Grammont, with whom he sailed in a 1685 attack on
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
alongside
Laurens de Graaf
Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf (c. 1653 – 24 May 1704) was a Dutch pirate, mercenary, and naval officer in the service of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the late 17th and early 18th century.
De Graaf was also known as Laurencil ...
.
While there Brigaut transferred to command of a captured Spanish
galliot
A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas.
A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a flat- ...
. Afterwards he sailed for
Roatan, where he rendezvoused with Grammont's ship ''Le Hardi''.
Grammont and Brigaut conspired to attack the Spanish again at
Saint Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...
, possibly with help from English colonists in
Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
.
They arrived off Florida at the end of April 1686. Grammont sent Brigaut ahead to
Matanzas Inlet
Matanzas Inlet is a channel in Florida between two barrier islands and the mainland, connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the south end of the Matanzas River. It is south of St. Augustine, in the southern part of St. Johns County. The inlet is no ...
to capture guides and interpreters and gather intelligence on Saint Augustine. Brigaut's men captured several Indians and Spaniards but were attacked by a contingent of Spanish soldiers. Brigaut's forces retreated to their ship; during the night a storm forced his ship aground.
The Frenchmen tried to come ashore but met resistance, then failing to free the galliot, they returned to the beach and marched overland to await rescue by Grammont. The Governor of Florida sent additional soldiers who attacked Brigaut and his men, slaughtering over forty of them (including their Spanish prisoners) and leaving alive only Brigaut, a black sailor named Diego, and a young boy.
The Spanish Governor interrogated Brigaut and Diego, at first mistaking Brigaut for Spanish turncoat Alonso de Avesilla thanks to Brigaut having flown Spanish flags to disguise his ship.
Brigaut revealed their plan to attack Saint Augustine and confirmed the involvement of men from the Carolinas. He also confessed that
La Salle had established a French colony in Mississippi, which alarmed the Governor.
Brigaut and Diego were hanged at the end of May 1686. Grammont himself tried approaching the coast in ''Le Hardi'' but was run aground just as Brigaut had been; his ship was lost with all hands.
The
Lords Proprietors
A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary".
Origin
In the beginning of the European ...
wrote to Governor
James Colleton
James Colleton (d. c. 1706) was a governor of the English proprietary Province of Carolina from 1686 to 1690.
Biography
Son of Sir John Colleton, one of the colony's founders, he took over some of the family's landholdings in Barbados before ...
of South Carolina early the following year, warning him to restrain his colonists from dealing with pirates or attacking the Spanish.
They cautioned that:
…the people of Carolina have received the pirates who have unjustly burned and robbed the houses of the Spaniards. Could any rational man doubt that the Spaniards would seek revenge, and would be justified in seeking it, if this be true? We have also been informed that a design was on foot in Carolina to take St. Augustine, which our Government was ready to countenance, being persuaded that they were justified by our clause permitting invaders to be pursued beyond the bounds of our province. But that clause means only a pursuit in heat of victory, not a granting of commissions and a deliberate invasion of the King of Spain's dominions.
See also
*
John King - a boy of 9–12 years of age who sailed with pirate
Samuel Bellamy
Captain Samuel Bellamy ( c. 23 February, 1689 – 26 April 1717), later known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English sailor, turned pirate, who operated in the early 18th century. He is best known as the wealthiest pirate in recorded history, an ...
, and who is often cited as the youngest pirate of the
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...
. The boy captured with Brigaut may have been even younger.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brigaut, Nicolas
17th-century pirates
French pirates
People executed for piracy
1686 deaths
Caribbean pirates
1653 births