![]() ![]() He was in the company of as many as two other corsario captains. However, Juan Miguel was a common name, therefore this is speculation.Īs a corsario Juan Miguel commanded an armed piragua, which often was nothing more than a very large dugout canoe, the largest of which could carry 125 men, with one or two masts and a short bowsprit, and armed with no more than two, or perhaps a few, wrought iron swivel guns known as patereroes (Sp. It’s entirely possible that Miguel had turned to el Corso in reprisal or revenge for attacks by pirates and consequent lost cargoes, just as some English merchant captains had turned to buccaneering after attacks by Spanish corsarios: he may be the Juan Miguel who, along with Captain Francisco de Ojeda, was plundered by English buccaneers in 1679 while sailing from Veracruz to Portobello. ![]() Cuban waters were clearly beyond his commission’s authority, but Juan Miguel had a purpose in mind: to cruise new waters for greater plunder. ![]() He arrived in Havana in late 1681 or early 1682 with a patente de corso - a privateering commission - dated 15 October 1681, from Juan de Arechaga, the governor of Yucatan, Mexico, to cruise along the coasts of Yucatan, Cozumel, and Tabasco for smugglers and pirates. I’ve already described the exploits of Italian corsario-in-Spanish-service Mateo Guarín, but those of the Corsican brothers Juan and Blas Miguel are equally epic, and the final fatal exploit of Blas Miguel was in the service of a blood vendetta. Far too little-known are the Spanish corsarios of the Caribbean - the Spanish privateers and pirates who attacked the English, French, and Dutch in the service of Spain and of their own material interests! - yet the exploits of some deserve a book, an honest film documentary, or even a Hollywood film. ![]()
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