DOCSLIB.ORG

Septiembre, 2018

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Septiembre, 2018 CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA ECONÓMICAS, A.C. EL PIRATA IMAGINARIO: CHARLES JOHNSON Y LA REPRESENTACIÓN HISTÓRICA DE LA PIRATERÍA TESIS QUE PARA OBTENER EL GRADO DE MAESTRO EN HISTORIA INTERNACIONAL PRESENTA ANDRÉS ULPIANO ALBA BAJATTA DIRECTOR DE TESIS: LIC. DAVID MIKLOS LANDESMANN CIUDAD DE MÉXICO SEPTIEMBRE, 2018 A mis padres, por siempre estar a mi lado. ÍNDICE Introducción: El pirata imaginario ..................................................................................... 1 Capítulo I: Piratas de leyenda .......................................................................................... 12 La cultura pirata. ............................................................................................................... 24 La ficción de ser pirata. ..................................................................................................... 29 Capítulo II: Historia General y la representación de la piratería .................................. 36 El canon pirata. ................................................................................................................. 46 Johnson y la representación del pirata: Ficciones y utopías. ............................................ 62 Johnson al patíbulo: Polémica de autoría.......................................................................... 76 Capítulo: III: Una tradición literaria ............................................................................... 86 Tránsito hacia la fantasía. ................................................................................................. 96 Conclusiones ...................................................................................................................... 108 Bibliografía ........................................................................................................................ 112 ÍNDICE DE IMÁGENES Figura 1: “Blackbeard the Pirate”, de Historia General de los Robos y 32 Asesinatos de los más famosos piratas, de Charles Johnson (1724). Grabado de Benjamin Cole. Figura 2: “Paul Jones the Pirate”. Grabado de A. Park (1826). The National 93 Archives and Records Administrarion en Washington D.C. Figura 3: “Who Shall be Captain?” por Howard Pyle (1921) y One More Step Mr. 106 Hands, ilustración de Treasure Island (1911) por N. C. Wyeth. INTRODUCCIÓN: EL PIRATA IMAGINARIO En mayo de 1724 se publicó en la ciudad de Londres un libro con el título A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates: un grueso volumen que contenía las biografías de trece capitanes piratas, cuyos famosos nombres habían sido recurrentes en la prensa de principios del siglo XVIII. El libro, escrito por un tal Capitán Charles Johnson, gozó de mucha popularidad, pues presentaba una versión completa y emocionante de los crímenes y hazañas de los criminales del mar que habían amenazado el comercio marítimo entre las potencias europeas, pero que también habían excitado la imaginación de una población urbana ávida de historias de aventuras. La obra de Johnson, a la que me referiré a partir de ahora como la Historia General,1 sentó las bases para la construcción de un personaje acabado e inconfundible, cuyos atributos y valores se han insertado en la imaginación popular. En términos generales y dejando a un lado los sentidos contemporáneos ligados al comercio y la informática, un pirata es una persona que se dedica a abordar y robar barcos en el mar. La definición es clara y directa, pero se queda corta frente a todas las ideas que se suman por asociación a la mítica figura del pirata. Los intertítulos de apertura en la película silente The Black Pirate (1926) presentan un buen ejemplo de aquello que viene a la mente cuando se piensa en piratas: “Esta historia es una relación de los bucaneros y el territorio español, de las banderas negras (Jolly Roger), los galeones cargados de oro, las 1Para esta investigación he utilizado principalmente la edición académica en inglés de A General History publicada en 1999 por el académico Manuel Schonhorn. También consulté en la Biblioteca Británica las versiones originales de la segunda y tercera edición del libro (1724 y 1725), sin embargo, he decidido usar como referencia bibliográfica la versión en español de Francisco Torres Olivier publicada por Valdemar en 1999, debido a que el estilo literario del siglo XVII en el que está escrito el original merece una traducción más precisa de la que yo pueda hacer, si bien me he asegurado de verificar todas las traducciones con la versión original para mantener un sentido fidedigno. De la misma manera, he decidido emplear la versión en español del título “Historia General” para referirme al libro de Johnson a lo largo de esta investigación, pues al ser la fuente principal de este trabajo, la repetición constante en un idioma diferente puede entorpecer la lectura. El resto de las obras citadas serán a partir de las versiones originales (en su mayoría en inglés) y las traducciones serán mías. Véase: Manuel Schonhorn, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (Nueva York: Dover Publications, 1999). Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (Londres: 1724) y Daniel Defoe, Historia General de los robos y asesinatod de los más famosos piratas (Madrid: Valdemar, 1999). 1 calaveras desnudas, los tesoros enterrados y la plancha. Dagas y alfanjes, barcos a la huida, abandonos y naufragios. Andanzas desesperadas, hombres desesperados y – hasta en este terreno oscuro - romance”.2 Porque los piratas no sólo son su actividad: son una acumulación de características, valores y atribuciones. Son personajes que representan tanto la libertad como el crimen, avatares de la ambición y la aventura. Su perfil cuenta, además, con atributos físicos reconocibles y emblemáticos: amplios chaquetones, botas altas, tricornios, pistolas al cinto y espada en mano. Tal vez parches en los ojos y patas de madera, animales al hombro y barbas desastrosas. Pero, ¿cómo hemos llegado a este acuerdo tácito de lo que implica ser un pirata? En gran parte se debe a los productos culturales que, a lo largo de los siglos, se han encargado de replicar una representación del pirata más o menos homogénea. Ya sea en obras de teatro, novelas, cuentos, películas, cómics, publicidad y programas de televisión, los piratas han sido personajes populares y recurrentes, dando cuenta de una fascinación persistente por ellos. Sin embargo, estas representaciones no son arbitrarias: en realidad, tienen sus orígenes en una tradición literaria que se remonta al tiempo mismo de la piratería y a una industria editorial que floreció entre los siglos XVII y XVIII. Esta investigación traza dicha tradición y hace evidente el desarrollo de la figura del pirata como un personaje que ha perdurado en la imaginación popular, así como las transformaciones que ha sufrido hasta consolidarse como un arquetipo plenamente identificable. Para ello, se plantea que la Historia General constituye la pieza central en la comprensión de la construcción de la idea sobre el pirata; primero, porque la obra, si bien no es la única ni la primera, cristaliza la suma de pensamientos, concepciones, valores y características que se tenían sobre los piratas en el siglo XVIII y, segundo, porque su papel fue indispensable para la difusión de estas ideas dado que el uso constante del libro a lo largo de los años lo convirtió en el referente absoluto para la concepción del pirata tanto en el terreno de la historia como de la literatura. La inclusión de ambos terrenos genera una tensión clara sobre cómo ha de entenderse al pirata (o por lo menos la idea del pirata): ¿se trata de un personaje histórico o un personaje literario? Parece claro que la mayor parte de los referentes que asociamos a la piratería tienen 2 The Black Pirate. Dirigida por Albert Parker. (EUA: Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, 1926). 2 su origen en una producción ficcional y vienen de representaciones tan evidentes como pueden ser La Isla del Tesoro de Robert Louis Stevenson o Peter Pan de J.M. Barry, no obstante, parte de la construcción del pirata imaginario depende de su relación con un pasado verdadero, en el cual los piratas fueron reales, hombres de carne y hueso que optaron por una vida de crimen y aventura en el mar en un periodo convulso de exploraciones y de guerras entre los imperios marítimos europeos. Hay que señalar que esta tensión no es nueva y ha sido enfrentada por académicos e historiadores, quienes por lo general han orientado sus investigaciones bajo la consigna de separar lo real de lo fantástico. Frases como “un relato creíble de lo que realmente pasó al rey de los piratas”3 o “al fin una oportunidad para entender lo que los piratas fueron realmente”4 se usan para publicitar la literatura en torno al tema. La prioridad, al parecer, es determinar si nuestro pirata imaginario es válido o no en términos de realidad histórica. Descubrir si era cierto que los piratas llevaban pericos de compañía o hacían caminar a sus enemigos por la plancha se convierte en asunto de primer orden; pero desprender el cuento fantástico de la verdad histórica se complica cuando ambas dimensiones se encuentran a tal punto imbricadas.5 Es justo en este ejercicio de separación donde los estudios sobre piratería dejan un gran vacío. El esfuerzo por mantener los aspectos factuales y ficcionales en cajas separadas representa un problema de análisis porque los piratas, entendidos como una idea, son un constructo cultural en el que las
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse 1
    The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse 1 The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Pirates' Who's Who Giving Particulars Of The Lives and Deaths Of The Pirates And Buccaneers Author: Philip Gosse Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19564] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATES' WHO'S WHO *** Produced by Suzanne Shell, Christine D. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's note. Many of the names in this book (even outside quoted passages) are inconsistently spelt. I have chosen to retain the original spelling treating these as author error rather than typographical carelessness. THE PIRATES' The Pirates' Who's Who, by Philip Gosse 2 WHO'S WHO Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths of the Pirates & Buccaneers BY PHILIP GOSSE ILLUSTRATED BURT FRANKLIN: RESEARCH & SOURCE WORKS SERIES 119 Essays in History, Economics & Social Science 51 BURT FRANKLIN NEW YORK Published by BURT FRANKLIN 235 East 44th St., New York 10017 Originally Published: 1924 Printed in the U.S.A. Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 68-56594 Burt Franklin: Research & Source Works Series 119 Essays in History, Economics & Social Science
    [Show full text]
  • A Buccaneer's Atlas Basil Ringrose's Atlas of the Pacific Coast of the Americas, 1681
    Journal of the International Map Collectors' Society SUMMER 1992 ISSUE No. 49 CONTENTS From the Chairman's Desk 4 IMCoS at Winchester 39 Cartographic Illustration of Marine Sur- Regional Meeting in October 41 veying & Navigational Instruments 5 Report of the AGM 41 A Buccaneer's Atlas 13 Purchase from the RSGS 47 J.B. Harley Research Fellowships 24 IMCoS Subscriptions 47 Twelfth Annual Symposium 26 Obituary- Clifford Stephenson 49 International Map Fair 28 Unexpected Find at Riga 51 Historic Greenwich 34 Book Reviews 51 International News and Events 36 Europe without Frontiers 53 Map Exhibition in Latvia 36 IMCoS List of Officers 55 Cover map: Detail from "Provincia Castellae cum confinii" from Joannis aMontecalerio' s Chorographia Descriptio ... Capucinorum, Milan, 1712 Courtesy Graham Franks Copy and other material for our next issue (Summer) should be submitted by 31 July 1992. All items for editorial use should be sent to The Editor, Susan Gole, 240B Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 1DD. Tel: 071-267 4346. FAX: 071-267 4356 Advertising copy, artwork, etc, should be sent to the Advertising Manager, Warwick Leadlay Gallery, 5 Nelson Rd, Greenwich, London SE10 9JB. Tel: 081-858 0317. FAX: 081-853 1773 Gen. Secretary: W.H.S. Pearce, 29 Mount Ephraim Road, Streatham, London SW16 1NQ. Tel: 081-769 5041. FAX: 081-677 5417 Treasurer: Dr Cyrus Ala'i, 1 Golders Park Close, West Heath Avenue, London NW11 7QR. Membership Secretary: Caroline Batchelor, 'Pikes', The Ridgeway, Oxshott, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 OLG. Tel: 0372-843 425. Publicity Officer: Yasha Beresiner, 43 Templars Crescent, London N3 3QR. Tel: 081-349 2207.
    [Show full text]
  • Piratería Marítima Y Gente De Mar: Más Allá De La Ficción CONSEJO EDITORIAL
    PIRATERÍA MARÍTIMA Y GENTE DE MAR: MÁS ALLÁ DE LA FICCIÓN CONSEJO EDITORIAL MIGUEL ÁNGEL COLLADO YURRITA JOAN EGEA FERNÁNDEZ JOSÉ IGNACIO GARCÍA NINET LUIS PRIETO SANCHÍS FRANCISCO RAMOS MÉNDEZ SIXTO SÁNCHEZ LORENZO JESÚS-MARÍA SILVA SÁNCHEZ JOAN MANUEL TRAYTER JIMÉNEZ ISABEL FERNÁNDEZ TORRES BELÉN NOGUERA DE LA MUELA RICARDO ROBLES PLANAS JUAN JOSÉ TRIGÁS RODRÍGUEZ Director de publicaciones PIRATERÍA MARÍTIMA Y GENTE DE MAR: MÁS ALLÁ DE LA FICCIÓN Olga Fotinopoulou Basurko (Directora) Xosé Manuel Carril Vázquez (Coordinador) AUTORES: Edorta Córcoles Olaitz Oscar Abalde Cantero Ana I. Pérez Machío Olga Fotinopoulou Basurko Xosé Manuel Carril Vázquez Colección: Atelier Laboral Directores: José Ignacio García Ninet Catedrático de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social Reservados todos los derechos. De conformidad con lo dispuesto en los arts. 270, 271 y 272 del Código Penal vigente, podrá ser castigado con pena de multa y privación de libertad quien reprodujere, plagiare, distribuyere o comunicare públicamente, en todo o en parte, una obra literaria, artística o científica, fijada en cualquier tipo de soporte, sin la autorización de los titulares de los correspondientes derechos de propiedad intelectual o de sus cesionarios. © 2020 Los autores © 2020 Atelier Santa Dorotea 8, 08004 Barcelona e-mail: [email protected] www.atelierlibros.es Tel. 93 295 45 60 I.S.B.N.: 978-84-18244-06-3 Depósito legal: B 12232-2020 Diseño y composición: Addenda, Pau Claris 92, 08010 Barcelona www.addenda.es Impresión: Winihard Gràfics, Avda. del Prat 7, 08180 Moià ÍNDICE PRÓLOGO. PIRATERÍA Y LITERATURA ............................. 11 Por Andrés Arias Castanyer INTRODUCCIÓN. PIRATERÍA MARÍTIMA Y GENTE DE MAR: MÁS ALLÁ DE LA FICCIÓN..............................................
    [Show full text]
  • Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy
    praise for life under the jolly roger In the golden age of piracy thousands plied the seas in egalitarian and com- munal alternatives to the piratical age of gold. The last gasps of the hundreds who were hanged and the blood-curdling cries of the thousands traded as slaves inflated the speculative financial bubbles of empire putting an end to these Robin Hood’s of the deep seas. In addition to history Gabriel Kuhn’s radical piratology brings philosophy, ethnography, and cultural studies to the stark question of the time: which were the criminals—bankers and brokers or sailors and slaves? By so doing he supplies us with another case where the history isn’t dead, it’s not even past! Onwards to health-care by eye-patch, peg-leg, and hook! Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged, co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra This vital book provides a crucial and hardheaded look at the history and mythology of pirates, neither the demonization of pirates as bloodthirsty thieves, nor their romanticization as radical communitarians, but rather a radical revisioning of who they were, and most importantly, what their stories mean for radical movements today. Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words and Endgame Stripping the veneers of reactionary denigration and revolutionary romanti- cism alike from the realities of “golden age” piracy, Gabriel Kuhn reveals the sociopolitical potentials bound up in the pirates’ legacy better than anyone who has dealt with the topic to date. Life Under the Jolly Roger is important reading for anyone already fascinated by the phenomena of pirates and piracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Pirate Articles and Their Society, 1660-1730
    ‘Piratical Schemes and Contracts’: Pirate Articles and their Society, 1660-1730 Submitted by Edward Theophilus Fox to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Maritime History In May 2013 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Abstract During the so-called ‘golden age’ of piracy that occurred in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, several thousands of men and a handful of women sailed aboard pirate ships. The narrative, operational techniques, and economic repercussions of the waves of piracy that threatened maritime trade during the ‘golden age’ have fascinated researchers, and so too has the social history of the people involved. Traditionally, the historiography of the social history of pirates has portrayed them as democratic and highly egalitarian bandits, divided their spoil fairly amongst their number, offered compensation for comrades injured in battle, and appointed their own officers by popular vote. They have been presented in contrast to the legitimate societies of Europe and America, and as revolutionaries, eschewing the unfair and harsh practices prevalent in legitimate maritime employment. This study, however, argues that the ‘revolutionary’ model of ‘golden age’ pirates is not an accurate reflection of reality.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America & by Lionel Wafer &
    "b^ ^°*» ^o« of »* v./ -•i^i.% ;• v. * 4a^Q-. * > L*^ .vV^ C^ «^q> ^A* ^ ^°«* <p l c0*.-j«i-.% >*oi&/*«. /.i^A >*•: ^0* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/newvoyagedescripOOwafe WAFER'S D ARIEN Of this edition, five hundred copies have been printed, and the type distributed. This is No. ^ SmWM'Q PQBZMQNS @F WE; -<r- Specially Engraved 190a by The Bvrrow/- Brothers (§>MPANy from Official Charts Qrrec ted to 1891. Sca.le A NEW VOYAGE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ISTHMUS OF AMERICA & BY LIONEL WAFER & Reprinted from the original edition of 1699 EDITED BY GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Two Copies Receiver" ^ rtn 24 1903 °*** CLASS XXc. No Copyright, 1903 BY The Burrows Brothers Company J M%. '-'. <&l)t imperial J&tejB? Cleveland CONTENTS Map of the Isthmus of Panama and Darien .... Frontispiece Introduction 7 Wafer's Darien 25 Title-page (facsimile) 27 Dedication 2 9 To the Reader 3i Mr. Wafer's Voyages; and Description of the Isthmus of America . -33 Mr. Wafer's Description of the Isth- mus of America . .69 Of the Trees, Fruits, &c. in the Isth- mus of America . -95 Of the Animals; and first of Beasts and Reptiles . .110 The Birds, and flying Insects . .118 Of the Fish 126 Of the Indian Inhabitants; their Manners, Customs, &c. .131 Mr. Wafer's Voyages, &c. 173 Index ....... 199 Map : Isthmus of Darien, & Bay of Panama, facing page 33. Illustrations : The Indians manner of Bloodletting, facing page 54; The Indians in their Robes in Councel, and Smoaking tobacco after their way, facing page 109; The Indians marching upon a Visit, or to Feast, facing page 137.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacobite Pirates?
    Jacobite Pirates? ARNE BIALUSCHEWSKI* The dramatic upsurge of Anglo-American piracy in the Caribbean after 1715 coincided with a major Jacobite uprising in the British Isles. In the following years, pirates used Jacobite symbols and rhetoric as a sign of defiance of royal auth- ority in the colonies and on the high seas. In 1719, several marauding gangs even cloaked their crimes as legitimate resistance to King George I and his regime. However, all references to the Jacobite cause were superficial and did not constitute active support for the cause of the exiled Stuarts. La spectaculaire recrudescence de la piraterie anglo-ame´ricaine dans les Caraı¨bes apre`s 1715 a coı¨ncide´ avec une importante re´volte jacobite dans lesˆ ıles britanniques. Dans les anne´es qui suivirent, les pirates utilise`rent les symboles et la rhe´torique jacobites pour de´fier l’autorite´ royale dans les colonies et en haute mer. En 1719, plusieurs bandes de maraudeurs perpe´tre`rent meˆme leurs crimes au nom d’une re´sistance le´gitime contre le roi George I et son re´gime. Toutefois, toutes les re´fe´- rences a` la cause jacobite e´taient superficielles et ne repre´sentaient en rien un soutien actif a` la cause des Stuarts en exil. ON JUNE 20, 1723 the American Weekly Mercury, the first newspaper in Philadelphia, published the following: On the 10th Instant about 30 Leagues from Sandyhook to the Eastward, Capt[ain] Morine and all his Passengers and Saylors heard Great Guns from eight in the Morning till Twelve at Noon, which gave us hopes our Man of War had Engaged the Pyrates, but hearing nothing from her some will have it the Pyrates were Celebrating the Pretenders Birth Day.1 No evidence records whether this report worried the reading public in the mid-Atlantic colonies, but it may have caused some concern among * Arne Bialuschewski is assistant professor in the Department of History at Trent University.
    [Show full text]
  • The Providence of Pirates: Defoe and the “True-Bred Merchant”
    21 The Providence of Pirates: Defoe and the “True-Bred Merchant” JOSHUA GRASSO IT IS strange that Daniel Defoe, for all his fascination with criminals, exploration, and commerce, never wrote the definitive pirate novel. Defoe’s chameleon-like ability to inhabit the clothes of men and women throughout society, particularly its lower classes, seemed tailor made for capturing the ambiguous morality that fueled the English pirate. He certainly lived at a time when models were ripe for the picking: Henry Avery, Edward Teach, Captain Kidd, and scores of others pirated during his lifetime and excited the interest of publishers throughout England. Not that Defoe avoided the subject completely, as his name has been linked to numerous pirate fictions, from the now accepted Captain Singleton (1720) to the more controversial King of Pirates (1719), An Account of the Conduct and Proceedings of the Late John Gow (1725) and the largely discredited A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (1724). The sense of ‘should have’ rings through many of these works, as Defoe should have been the one to write a comprehensive encyclopedia of English pirates and their effect on the economy, especially given his obsessive interest in trade and nationalism. Perhaps this fueled John Robert Moore’s famous 1939 work, Defoe in the Pillory, which argued for the inclusion of The General History and many other pirate fictions (theories cemented in his 1961 Checklist of the Writings of Daniel Defoe). For decades, this more or less settled the matter: Defoe was the great pirate novelist before Stevenson, though he never bequeathed us with a great pirate novel per se.
    [Show full text]
  • Huntington Front Matter
    MARK G . HANNA Well -B ehaved Pirates seldom make history : a r eevaluation of the Golden aGe of enGlish Piracy he literature on english-speaking pirates in the early modern world tends to present piracy as a static phenomenon. modern tfilmmakers, fiction writers, and historians alike offer a monolithic image of “the pirate” that neglects the fact that the vast changes in global circumstances from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries produced many varieties of piracy. in popular culture, pirates dress a particular way, walk a particular way, and of course, talk a particular way. 1 under - graduates taking my course the Golden age of Piracy often ask me what pirates were really like, as if expecting me either to indulge in the common tropes and myths or skeptically to dissolve them. many historie s of piracy have been penned explicitly to uncover the true nature of piracy. 2 Pirate studies has moved beyond the agenda of determining the facts behind the legends to other, more politicized concerns. Were pirates proto- ca pitalists or protoproletarian radicals? Were they attempting to maxi - mize profits in a market-driven world or challenging the oppression of burgeoning capitalism? 3 Was the pirate ship the ideal home for homo - sexual men hoping to escape a sexually restrictive world on land ?4 Were the few female pirates protofeminist ?5 Were pirates race-blind challengers of a burgeoning slave trade ?6 Were they early “republicans” who voi ced “democratic sentiments that would later drive the american revolution? ”7 in sum, the prevailing paradigm in pirate historiography suggests that pirates challenged everything modern society finds repulsive about the early modern world.
    [Show full text]
  • Uccaneer Ethnography: Nature, Culture, and Nation in the Journals of William Dampier
    UCCANEER ETHNOGRAPHY: NATURE, CULTURE, AND NATION IN THE JOURNALS OF WILLIAM DAMPIER Anna Neill It might seem odd to speak in the same breath of piracy and science; of the violent tales of buccaneer adventures and of the growth of enlightenment modes of knowledge; of lawless bands of criminals and of a circle of informed public men whose capacity for reason and reflection qualifies them as members of a civil community. How could pirates, as international outlaws, participate in any kind of civil discourse within their home states, much less at the level of the disinterested, supranational production of knowledge about places and people in the newly colonized parts of the globe? Yet, if in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries new forms of discur- sive authority are emerging in response to the proliferation of texts of discovery and exploration, it must be important to identify how these outlaws of the seas, histori- cally central to English colonization of the new world as well as to the growth of English maritime power, might have helped to reshape the language of imperialism. In order to understand how this occurred, we must recognize how "nation" and "em- pire" are doubly interrelated in this period: in the spirit of a newly invigorated impe- rium that is busy defining who does and does not belong within its jurisdiction; and in an imagined political community where the relationship between subject and state is constantly being negotiated, sometimes on colonial terrain.1 Part of what this essay will show is that the cultural transformation of the buccaneers from plundering pi- rates into ethnographic observers grows directly out of this connection between impe- rial administration and modern conceptions of political sovereignty.
    [Show full text]
  • And the South Sea
    CHAPTER XXIII. THE BUCCANEERS IN PANAMA BAY AND THE SOUTH SEA. "O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire and behold our home ! These are our realms, no limits to their sway Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey. Ours the wild life in tumult still to range From toil to rest, and joy in every change." l,ord Byron. I HE sack of Old Panama by Henry Morgan called the attention of the Buccaneers to the feasibility of crossing the Isthmus, and the opportunities for plunder on the Pacific coast. During Morgan's stay in Panama, he had great difficulty, as we know, in preventing some of his men from seizing a ship, and sailing away on their own account. The invasion of the Isthmus by Buccaneers, the fall of San Lor- enzo, and the capture of Portobello and Panama, showed how easy it was to open the "Gateway" of the New World. The king of Spain became alarmed, and ordered that Panama be rebuilt on a better site ; and that the forts at Portobello, and the castle at the mouth of the Chagre, be repaired and strengthened. In 1674, Don Alonso Mercado de Villacorta established the present city of Panama on a rocky peninsula at the foot of Ancon Hill, eight kilometers two hundred and sixty meters southwest of the old city. The new location was easier to defend, but not so advantageous commercially by reason of the reefs, which prevented vessels coming up to the city, except at high tide.
    [Show full text]
  • BATCHELORS DELIGHT for Web-1
    The College of William & Mary was founded on PIRATE LOOT – aaarrrgh! Buccaneers Davis, Wafer & Hingson, and the Ship Batchelors Delight By John Fitzhugh Millar, 2010, updated subsequently College Graduates Form a Plan In 1682, Charles II (reigned 1660-1685) was regarded by many at the time as the best king England ever had, the two ridiculous wars he waged against the Netherlands (1665-7 and 1672-4) not withstanding. For example, the charter he issued to Rhode Island in 1662 is a model of liberalism, and his Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 is not only a cornerstone of Western law but also completely his own idea. He fostered the advancement of science through founding the Royal Society (still the premier scientific body in the world), and he served as a committed patron of British art, music and architecture (Sir Christopher Wren and his teacher Elizabeth Lady Wilbraham being his leading architects). However, since Charles had no legitimate children and was nearing the end of his life, it was becoming obvious that his brother James would be the next king, and James had a good chance of becoming one of the worst kings England ever had (and he did not disappoint). Therefore, a group of about fifty men in their early twenties, mostly recent graduates of colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, decided to get out while the getting was good, and seek their fortunes elsewhere. They intended to go on a “privateering” voyage (a polite word for “pirating”) to the Caribbean, even though they knew little about sailing (the hired captain would know what to do).
    [Show full text]