Bartolomeu Português (1623–1670) was a Portuguese

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailors, and pirates particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 u ...

who attacked

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

shipping in the late 1660s. Português was responsible for the creation of the first " Pirate's Code".

Piratical career

Arriving in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

sometime in the early 1660s, as did many others during the decade, Português operated off

Campeche Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, make up the Administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the sta ...

from 1666 to 1669. He later captured a larger Spanish ship with his ship of four guns and a crew of thirty, off

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, after two assaults with over half his crew killed or wounded. With a total of 70,000

pieces of eight The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content fine silver. It wa ...

and a cargo of 120,000 pounds of

cocoa bean The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao tree ...

s, Português attempted to sail towards

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

; however, due to strong winds, they were unable to return to

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

- instead sailing for western Cuba. As the ship reached Cape San Antonio, they were captured by three Spanish warships who seized their cargo. After a violent storm, Português was forced to sail towards Campeche where he was later recognized and captured by authorities. Held prisoner on a Spanish ship, he attempted to escape by stabbing the sentry with a stolen knife, and because he supposedly could not swim, he used wine jars as floaters to swim to shore. Traveling through over 120 miles of jungle, Português arrived at El Golfo Triste in eastern Yucatan and found a ship to take him back to Port Royal. Returning to Campeche with 20 men, Português captured the ship in which he had been held prisoner and sailed off with the same amount of cargo. The ship soon ran aground near Isle of Pines off the southern coast of Cuba, losing the entire cargo. With his remaining crew, Português returned to Port Royal before setting out once again. However, nothing more is recorded of Português after this, as

Alexander Exquemelin Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin (also spelled ''Esquemeling'', ''Exquemeling'', or ''Oexmelin'') (c. 1645–1707) was a French, Dutch, or Flemish writer best known as the author of one of the most important sourcebooks of 17th-century piracy, first p ...

wrote in '' Buccaneers of America'', he “made many violent attacks on the Spaniards without gaining much profit from marauding, for I saw him dying in the greatest wretchedness in the world.”

References

External links

Pirates Info: Pirate Strongholds & Hideouts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portugues, Bartolomeu Portuguese pirates 17th-century Portuguese people 17th-century births 1669 deaths Maritime folklore