|
MEXICO
-- Pirates!
Images of swashbucklers with gold teeth, black eye patches,
and peg legs come to mind. Or Johnny Depp. But in reality, many
of the pirates who navigated the waters just off Quintana Roo's
shores from as early as the 1600s were men with unlikely backgrounds
for the sport they took on. A handful were full-fledged gentlemen,
most had seafaring backgrounds. Many were sanctioned by queens
or governments. A few even ended up with titles, and some were
hailed as heroes.
The word "privateer" better describes these romantic
buccaneers. In an era when spices, slave trading, and territorial
expansion sparked the economics of the globe, the nations of
Europe ¦ England, France, Holland and Spain ¦ waged their wars
on the high seas. With Spain's recent discovery of the
New World and its riches, the only unity on the Atlantic was
the common goal of sacking all Spanish galleons.
Adventurers by nature, highwaymen by design, "pirate"
conjures familiar names from history such as Jean Lafitte, Sir
Henry Morgan, and Sir Francis Drake. However, lesser known names
such as Giovanni de Verrazno (The Frenchman) and Fermin Mundaca
have equally compelling stories.
ISLA MUJERES
While Morgan and Lafitte are said to have walked the shores
of Isla Mujeres (Quintana Roo) and buried treasure there, Isla's
most notorious resident was Fermin Mundaca, a slave trader who
transported African slaves to Antilles, prefering the more "respectable"
title of pirate. In 1860 when the British campaigned against
slavery, Mundaca took a powder on the white sand beaches of
Isla Mujeres. There he rented out his boats to the Yucatán Government
to capture rebel Mayans along this coast who were then sold
into slavery to large Cuban sugar plantations, which hardly
endeared him to the locals.
On Isla Mujeres, Mundaca used his wealth to build a large hacienda
named Vista Alegre which he filled with livestock, birds, and
exotic gardens, still viewable today. The entrance arch, El
Paso de La Triguena (The Brunette), was named for a beautiful
girl from the village, Martiniana Gomez Pantoja, with whom the
elderly pirate fell in love, after seeing her just once. He
nicknamed her the brunette. But the dark-haired beauty, 37 years
his junior, married her childhood sweetheart and Mundaca grew
isolated, lonely, and mad. He died at age 55 in Merida still
in love with the girl. To be near his lost love, he built a
tomb which remains empty and can supposedly be found in Isla
Mujeres' colorful, crowded cemetery, one street before North
Beach. Etched on the headstone are the symbols of the pirate--skull
and crossbonesçwith the words he carved as his epitaph, "As
you are, I was. As I am, you will be."
JEAN LAFITTE
Jean Lafitte, born in either Haiti or St. Malo, France, liberated
New Orleans first of high tariffs by supplying stolen goods
to customers without a middleman, and then liberated the city
of the British in the U.S. Battle of 1812. Targeted at first
by Andrew Jackson as a bandit and a rogue, he was later renamed
a genleman and a patriot, for without him, one of the war's
most decisive battles against Britain would have been lost.
Soon after, he was named Terrirotial Governor of Galveston,
(still Mexican soil at that time) but with changing times, he
was harassed by stricter U.S. policies which restricted his
maritime activities. As his farewell and parting shot, he torched
Galveston, then according to legend, sailed into the Caribbean.
Rumor has it he stopped on Isla Mujeres, then moved onto the
Gulf of Mexico. In the Yucatán, in the small pueblo Dzilam
de Bravo not far from Progreso, a CEDAM (Club de Exploraciones
y Deportes Acuaticos de Mexico) memorial plaque commemorates
him. In the town's cemetery, CEDAM workers found a weathered
tombstone with the epitaph," Jean Lafitte ReExhumed."
Could it really be the grave of Lafitte?
CHINCHORRO REEF
The Quintana Roo coast is rife with pirate stories. Xcalak
(100 miles south of Cancún) was a known haven for pirates, Bacalar
narrowly escaped their ruin, and Ascension Bay was one of the
great pirate harbors of the 17th century. Wild and isolated,
its treacherous mud flats must have sent countless vessels to
their doom, while pirate ships waited in hiding for the passage
of these Spanish galleons laden with gold, fighting against
trade winds on their way to Santiago de Cuba.
In the Museo de la Cultura Maya in Chetumal (Quintana Roo) one
display tells how pirates used Banco Chinchorro to their gain.
Chinchorro is a deadly circular string of rocks on a low lying
limestone shelf extending out from the sea, 30 miles long and
20 miles wide, just off the shores of Majahual.
Pirates put lanterns along the reef, signalling ships this
was clear passage. But actually, it lured them to their doom
onto the treacherous rocks. It is rumored that thousands of
ships had their downfall on Chinchorro Reef.
TRAVELER'S TIPS
For more pirate tales, stop by the excellent Subacuatico-CEDAM
Museum in Puerto Aventuras north of Tulum. Check out Museo de
la Cultura Maya in Chetumal, and Posada del Capitan Lafitte,
four kilometers north of Playa del Carmen, to see the white
sand beaches that may have attracted one pirate extaordinaire.
Locate a copy of CEDAM founder Pablo Bush Romero's Under the
Waters of Mexico. Venture over to Isla Mujeres‚ newly renovated
Hacienda Munadaca and see the pirate's gardens now made into
a small zoo. Walk through the cemetery there, or drive to Dzilam
de Bravo, Yucatán, to view Lafitte's commemorative plaque and
find the gravestone with his name on it. Ahoy, matie! There's
treasure to be found.
|
