Competition for Empire
Pirates and Privateers
During the centuries of Spanish exploration and colonization, “treasure fleets” made regular trips to the Americas to deliver merchandise and collect treasures and precious metals. As these cargos increased in size and value, so did the risk of capture and theft. Foreign navies, privateers (commissioned agents sent out against the enemies of states), and pirates threatened, attacked, and plundered the ships of the treasure fleets.
Sailing Directions
“Descripción de las costas yslas y vajos desde Sn. Martin una de las Yslas de Barlovento hasta la Havana” [Description of the coasts, islands, and lowlands from St. Martin . . . to Havana], 1777.
Manuscript atlas.
Pen-and-ink, watercolor, and pencil.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (120)
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Sailing Directions
This manuscript pilot-guide details the hazards of navigation between the island of St. Martin and the ports of Havana, San Juan, and Santo Domingo, through the Windward Passage between Hispaniola and Cuba and on to Veracruz in Mexico. A short section covers the route from Veracruz through the Straits of Florida to Cadiz in Spain. Its depictions of currents, distances, landmarks, coastal elevations, and plans of harbors were used by the Spanish treasure fleets. These pages show profiles of coastal elevations from Maisi along the north coast of Cuba and plans of Baracoa and Nipe bays.
Map Depicting Treasure Fleets
Emanuel Bowen (1673–1767).
A New and Accurate Chart of the West Indies with the Adjacent Coasts of North and South America. Drawn from the best Authorities, assisted by the most approved modern maps & Charts. . . . By Eman.
Bowen, Geographer to His Majesty. [London: ca. 1720].
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (119)
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Map Depicting Treasure Fleets
Emanuel Bowen, a London engraver and print and map seller, frequently embellished his maps with nautical and historical commentary. This map of the West Indies includes notes identifying the 1492 Columbus landing site in the New World and routes of the Spanish treasure fleets, the convoys of armed galleons and merchant ships that transported European goods to the Spanish colonies in America. The treasure fleets returned with colonial products, especially gold and silver, which made Spain the richest country in Europe. The convoys sailed annually from the mid-sixteenth century to late-eighteenth century.
Items from a Spanish Treasure Ship
During the centuries of Spanish exploration and colonization, treasure fleets made regular trips to the Americas to deliver merchandise and collect treasures and precious metals. In late summer merchant ships would join their protectors, the war galleons, in Havana to form the treasure fleet for the return to Spain. Often, however, ships were scattered because of bad weather, poor seamanship, or piracy. In early September 1622, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a galleon carrying tons of Spanish treasure, was wrecked on the Florida coral reefs near the Dry Tortugas, leaving only five survivors. These items were recovered from the site of the wreck.
Item from a Spanish Treasure Ship
Silver fork from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha wreck, 1622.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (118 A)
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Item from a Spanish Treasure Ship
Spoon from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha wreck, 1622.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (118 B)
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Item from a Spanish Treasure Ship
Plate from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha wreck, 1622.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (118 C)
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Item from a Spanish Treasure Ship
Gold bullion from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha wreck, 1622.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (118 D)
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Florida Pirate
The Florida Pirate, or, An account of a cruise on the schooner Esparanza.
New York: [William Borradaile], 1823.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (125)
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Florida Pirate
Decades before the Civil War, both slavery and piracy became important subjects in the United States and England. In a little more than a decade, and at a time when few texts were reprinted in multiple editions, this fictional account of an escaped slave turned pirate was released in nine editions on both sides of the Atlantic.
British Attempt to Suppress Pirates
James II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1633–1701).
By the King, A Proclamation for the More Effectual Reducing and Supressing of Pirates and Privateers in America.
London: Charles Bill, Henry Hills, and Thomas Newcomb, [1688].
Double-leaf broadside.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (123)
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British Attempt to Suppress Pirates
Attacks by pirates and privateers were a major problem in the Americas between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Privateers were licensed by a government to raid the ships of declared enemies and shared their gains with the licensor. Pirates were not loyal to any country and attacked indiscriminately for their own gain. Governments with American colonies attempted to suppress privateering and piracy, as in this broadside issued by King James II (reigned 1685–1688).
Buccaneers of America
A.O. [Alexandre Olivier] Exquemelin.
De Americaensche Zee-Roovers [The Buccaneers of America].
Amsterdam: Jan ten Hoorn, Boeckverkoper, 1678.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (121)
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Buccaneers of America
This is the first edition, in Dutch, of one of the most important books about pirates ever written. Alexandre Exquemelin, a native of Hafleur, went to the Caribbean in 1666 with the French West Indies Company. He served as surgeon for nearly ten years with various buccaneers and gives an eyewitness account of the adventures of Henry Morgan, François Lolonois, Pierre le Grand, and Bartholomew Portugues. Exquemelin’s vivid writing style narrates a story with color, drama, vitality, and authenticity. His descriptions are filled with vivid scenes of violence in exotic locations, and this edition is enhanced with full-page engravings of the buccaneers and their exploits.
Spain's “La Florida”
La Florida included the vast territory claimed by Spain on the basis of the explorations by Juan Ponce de León (1460–1521) in 1513 and 1521. Encompassing lands from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the Chesapeake Bay, Spanish Florida existed from 1565 to 1763, when Florida (by then reduced in size to today’s Florida and parts of Alabama and Georgia) came under British control. Spain regained possession of Florida from 1784 until 1821 when the territory became part of the United States.
Early Illustrations of Florida
Theodor de Bry.
Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae [Brief narrative concerning Florida of America].
Frankfurt: Ioan[n]is Wecheli, sumtibus vero Theodori de Bry, venales reperiu[n]tur in officina S. Feirabe[n]dii, 1591.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (109)
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La Florida Map
Abraham Ortelius.
“La Florida/Guastecan from Peruuiae avriferæ regionis typus. . . .”
Antwerp: Christophorum Plantinum, 1584.
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (110.1)
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La Florida Map
This is one of three separate areas printed on a single sheet for Abraham Ortelius’ s Theatrum OrbisTerrarum (the other areas are Peru and the gold-producing areas, and Guatemala). The map includes a vast area from present-day Virginia to New Mexico and is the first separate printed map of Florida. It was created for Ortelius by Geronimo Chiaves and was based, in part, on information derived from Hernando De Soto’s 1539–1543 exploration of the region. It was widely imitated or copied by mapmakers for many decades.
The Spanish Concept of Florida
Cornelis van Wytfliet.
Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum . . . [Decsriptions of Ptolemy Increased . . . ].
Louvain: Tijpis Gerardi: Riuij. 1598.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (110)
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The Spanish Concept of Florida
Secretary to the Council of Brabant (Flanders), Cornelis van Wytfliet was also much interested in geography. His Descriptionis, considered to be the first atlas devoted to the Americas, includes nineteen maps of the region. His map designating “Florida” and “Apalache” is based on an earlier map by Jernimo de Chaves and reflects the Spanish concept of Florida as an extensive portion of southern North America rather than being merely an appendage or peninsula.
The First Description of Florida Indians
René Goulaine de Laudonnière (c. 1529–1574).
L’histoire notable de la Floride [The Noteworthy History of Florida].
Paris: Guillaume Auuray, 1586.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (108)
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The First Description of Florida Indians
This sixteenth-century history of Florida, in its original binding, includes the first description of Florida Indians. It also describes the 1564 Spanish attack on a Huguenot (Protestant) colony in which most of the French Huguenots were massacred and affixed with this inscription, “Not as Frenchmen, but as heretics.” The author of this work escaped the attack and returned to France. He wrote this book describing the voyage of Captain Dominque de Gourges to Florida in 1576 to avenge the murder of his countrymen. De Gourges and his men captured two Spanish forts and hanged eight of the Spanish Catholic prisoners, marked with the inscription, “Not as Spanish, but as assassins.”
Spaniards Enslaved by Indians
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (ca. 1490–ca. 1557).
Relación y comentarios del Governador Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca [Account and commentaries of Govenor Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca].
[Valladolid: Francisco Fernández de Cordova, 1555].
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (107)
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Spaniards Enslaved by Indians
This account tells how four men of the 600-member Narváez expedition to Florida—Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, two other Spaniards, and an African slave, Esteban—survived a seven-year trek on foot from Florida through Texas to Mexico City. The four survivors arrived in Mexico in 1536, having survived hardships, privation, Indian attacks, and even enslavement.
Colonial Florida
The territory of Spanish Florida once encompassed much of what is now the southeastern United States but decreased with the arrival of English and French settlements. The British controlled Florida between 1763 and 1783, when Florida reverted to Spanish hands. On February 22, 1821, the United States and Spain concluded a treaty that gave Florida and other Spain-held areas to the U.S.
Ill-fated Roanoke Colony
Theodor de Bry (1528–1598).
Admiranda narratio, fida tamen: de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae.
Frankfurt: Ioannis Wecheli, sumptibus vero Theodori de Bry, venales reperiuntur in officina Sigismundi Feierabendii, 1590.
Latin translation by Charles de L’Écluse of Thomas Hariot’s Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (113)
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Ill-fated Roanoke Colony
For his volume on Virginia, Theodor de Bry, the famous engraver, chose drawings by Captain John White and a narrative written by Thomas Hariot. White was part of the ill-fated Roanoke colony that Sir Walter Raleigh had outfitted to claim Virginia for the English. Fortunately, White survived the colony, and De Bry’s engravings made his images known across Europe. White’s Indians, as interpreted by De Bry, are notable for their careful and studied poses.
The De Soto Expedition
“Gentlemen of Elvas.” Virginia richly valued by the description of the maine land of Florida.
Translated from Portugese by Richard Hakluyt.
London: Felix Kyngston for Matthew Lownes, 1609.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (106)
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The De Soto Expedition
This English translation of an earlier Portuguese book is by the “Gentleman of Elvas,” whose identity is unknown although traditionally the work has been attributed to the explorer Hernando De Soto (1496–1542). This work is the primary source for information concerning the De Soto expedition (1539–1543), which began as a search for gold and resulted in a long journey that crossed the southeast region of the United States and extended perhaps as far as the present Oklahoma-Arkansas border. De Soto died on the return journey and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi River.
English Military Report about St. Augustine
English military report on St. Augustine, with plans and views of St. Augustine Castle, the Spanish watchtower on Anastasia Island, and Matance’s fort, 1743.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (128)
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English Military Report about St. Augustine
This unusual manuscript is a military report on the town and fortifications of St. Augustine, Florida. It was compiled by an Englishman only three years after British Governor James Oglethorpe failed in his attempt to capture St. Augustine’s main fort. The detailed descriptions of the fortress and approaches to the harbor could only have been written by someone who saw the subjects firsthand. This detail adds mystery to the piece because Englishmen were not free to visit Spanish Florida.
Expedition Against St. Augustine
James Killpatrick.
An Impartial Account of the Late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe. . . .
London: J. Huggonson, 1742.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (126)
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Expedition Against St. Augustine
The War of Jenkins Ear (1739–1748) took its name from Robert Jenkins, captain of an English ship, who claimed Spanish coast guards had cut off his ear in 1731. The story so aroused public opinion that England declared war on its commercial rival, Spain. During the conflict, Georgia Governor James Oglethorpe invaded Florida in 1743, and, with the help of Indian allies, captured several forts and marched “to the gates of St. Augustine” where his Indian allies captured and killed forty Spaniards under the very walls of the fort.
Spanish Attack on Georgia Colony
The Report of the Committee . . . Appointed to Enquire into the Causes of the Dissappointment [sic] of Success, in the Late Expedition Against St. Augustine, Under the Command of General Oglethorpe.
Charlestown [Charleston], South Carolina: Peter Timothy, 1742.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (127)
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Spanish Attack on Georgia Colony
In July of 1742, Spanish troops stationed in St. Augustine, Florida, landed on the shores of Georgia in an unsuccessful attempt to invade James Oglethorpe’s newly established British colony there. After a skirmish and a bloody battle, the Spaniards retreated to St. Augustine, never to attack Britain’s East Coast American colonies again.
Atlas of Florida and the Caribbean
Thomas Jefferys (d. 1771).
The West India Atlas: or a Compendious Description of the West Indies: Illustrated with Forty Correct Charts and Maps Taken from Actual Surveys. Together with an Historical Account of the Several Countries and Islands which Compose that Part of the World.
London: Robert Sayer and John Bennett, 1780.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (129)
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Atlas of Florida and the Caribbean
This volume was the first comprehensive British atlas of Florida and the Caribbean. It includes the first large, detailed printed maps of a number of Caribbean islands, such as Antigua, St. Christopher, and Barbados. On many of these individual maps, the topography is rendered with particular skill. The maps provide unprecedented detail documenting the sugar industry, slave life, roads, trade routes, and even individual homes and estates. The atlas exemplifies the qualities that ushered in a period of dominance for British chartmaking related to the Americas.
The United States: An Emerging Empire
Horatio Nelson
Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758–1805).
“An account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson of His Majesty’s ship Boreas, relative to the illegal trade carried on between the Americans and the British West India Islands,” ca. 1787.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (133)
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Horatio Nelson
In 1784, Captain Horatio Nelson was given command of the Boreas, a twenty-eight-gun frigate, with orders to enforce the British Navigation Act, which restricted trade in the British colonies to British ships. The act had become a major problem after the American Revolution because American vessels dominated trade between the West Indies and the former colonies. When Nelson seized four American ships that had violated the Navigation Act, the captains sued him for illegal seizure. Nelson spent eight months sequestered on his ship, waiting for the decision of the local court. The eventual decision was in favor of the British Navy.
French Possessions
Thomas Jefferys (d. 1771).
The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America.
London: Thomas Jefferys, 1760.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (130)
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French Possessions
Issued during the French and Indian War, this publication maps and describes many of the French possessions that were to become British colonies at the wars conclusion in 1763. Jefferys supplied information of major importance to the British, given their ongoing animosities with France, about the sugar industry in the Antilles and the beaver trade in North America.
The Spanish Seizure of Pensacola, Florida
Bernardo de Galvez.
“Diario de las operaciones de la expedicion contra la Plaza de Panzacola.”
[Havana: 1781].
Dated and signed Bernardo de Gálvez, Panzacola 12 de mayo de 1781.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (132)
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The Spanish Seizure of Pensacola, Florida
In 1776 Spain sent Bernardo de Gálvez to serve as colonel of the Louisiana Regiment. Gálvez did much to aid the American patriots. He secured the port of New Orleans so that only American, Spanish, and French ships supplying the American forces could travel the Mississippi River. When Spain formally declared war against Great Britain, Gálvez conducted a campaign against the British along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. Here Galvez’s poem celebrates his seizure of Pensacola, Florida, from the British. Many scholars believe this victory broke the British hold on Florida and was pivotal in ensuring that Spain would gain Florida in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
Jefferson on Independence for South America
Thomas Jefferson.
Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Monticello, Virginia, November 30, 1813.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (134)
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Jefferson on Independence for South America
In this letter Thomas Jefferson writes to the Marquis de Lafayette expressing his hopes and misgivings about emancipation for South America. “I join you, sincerely, my friend in wishes for the emancipation of South America. That they will be liberated from foreign subjugation I have little doubt. But the result of my enquiries does not authorize me to hope they are capable of maintaining a free government. . . . they may have some capable leaders yet nothing but intelligence in the people themselves can keep these faithful to their charge. . . . A republic of kings is impossible.”
George Washington Diary
George Washington, 1732–1799.
Diary written in the leaves of the 1762 Virginia Almanack, 1762.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (135.1)
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George Washington Diary
Both a manuscript and a printed book, George Washington’s 1762 almanac documents the activities at his Mount Vernon plantation. He describes mainly planting tobacco and raising cattle and sheep, although financial matters and slaves are also mentioned. Washington kept a diary from 1747, when he was a teenaged surveyor, until his death in 1799, with the notable exception of the period during most of the Revolutionary War. With the addition of this 1762 record, the Library of Congress now holds thirty-seven of the forty-one known original Washington diaries.
Sir Frances Drake’s Voyage Maps
Italian artist Baptista Boazio (fl. 1588–1606). created these handsome hand-colored engravings to accompany A Summarie and True Discourse of Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage, published in London by Biggs and Croftes in 1588–1589. The maps are illustrated in fascinating detail with the fleet of twenty-three ships, as well as land battle plans of the English attacks on Spanish harbor forts. Animals, flags, crests, and compasses decorate the cartography. These Boazio maps are historically important not only for understanding Sir Francis Drake’s (1540?–1598) activities, but also because the four city plans represent the first printed view of each locality.
The lead “voyage map,” charting the round trip from England, is captioned in English, while the accompanying four bird’s-eye views of ports are captioned in Latin. Drake sailed directly west from Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa. The first port Drake reached in the West Indies was Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic. This image shows the English fleet in the bay and the infantry battalions attacking the town. The view of Cartagena, situated on the South American coast of Colombia, depicts the English infantry marching on the city. The view of St. Augustine is the earliest engraving of any locality in the United States. It shows the English fleet at anchor as its infantry troops attack the Spanish settlement.
Route of Drake’s Voyage
Baptista Boazio
Map and views created to illustrate Bigges’ and Croftes’ Summarie and true discourse of Sir Frances Drake’s West Indian voyage . . . With geographicall mappes exactly describing each of the townes . . . made by Baptista Boazio
London: Richard Field, 1589. Hand colored
Jay I. Kislak Collection
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (114)
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St. Augustine, Florida
Baptista Boazio
Map and views created to illustrate Bigges’ and Croftes’ Summarie and true discourse of Sir Frances Drake’s West Indian voyage . . . With geographicall mappes exactly describing each of the townes . . . made by Baptista Boazio
London: Richard Field, 1589. Hand colored
Jay I. Kislak Collection
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (112)
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Santo Domingo, Hispaniola
Baptista Boazio
Map and views created to illustrate Bigges’ and Croftes’ Summarie and true discourse of Sir Frances Drake’s West Indian voyage . . . With geographicall mappes exactly describing each of the townes . . . made by Baptista Boazio
London: Richard Field, 1589. Hand colored
Jay I. Kislak Collection
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (116)
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Santiago, Cape Verde
Baptista Boazio
Map and views created to illustrate Bigges’ and Croftes’ Summarie and true discourse of Sir Frances Drake’s West Indian voyage . . . With geographicall mappes exactly describing each of the townes . . . made by Baptista Boazio
London: Richard Field, 1589. Hand colored
Jay I. Kislak Collection
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (115)
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Cartagena, Colombia
Baptista Boazio
Map and views created to illustrate Bigges’ and Croftes’ Summarie and true discourse of Sir Frances Drake’s West Indian voyage . . . With geographicall mappes exactly describing each of the townes . . . made by Baptista Boazio
London: Richard Field, 1589. Hand colored
Jay I. Kislak Collection
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (117)
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