From Lanzarote to Morocco: the career of a dutch renegade

              FROM LANZAROTE TO MOROCCO:
THE CAREER OF A DUTCH RENEGADE
Joos VERMEULEN
On 1 May 1618 a fleet of 38 Algerine vessels disembarked some
3000 soldiers and mariners on Lanzarote. The corsairs were commanded
by Mustafa Rays and Soliman Rays. The first was a Turk and he com-manded
the land-forces. The ships and their crews stood under the or-ders
of Soliman Rays, a Dutch renegade and former lieutenant of the
redoutable Simon de Danser or Danseker, and at that very moment
kapudan pasha, since he had been appointed admira1 of the seas by the
Ottoman sultan in September 1617.
THE ALGERINE «CAPTIVE»
During the raid the Algerines took 900 Christian captives l . Among
them was a Dutch skipper called Jan Jansz. from Haarlem. It is, how-ever,
quite possible that Jan Jansz. accompanied the privateers out of
his own free will, since Soliman Rays, or de Veenboer -«the Peat-digger))
as he was called by the Dutch, manned his ships mainly with
fellow-countrymen 2. Moreover the situation of Jan Jansz. on the Canaries
w2s 2t !ms? amhigwils, nr even peri!nm On Lanzarnte he pnsec! 2s a
Catholic 3, though he began his career by serving the States General of
the Dutch Republic as a privateer. His letter of marque allowed him to
attack the Dunkirkers. This was probably not what Jan Jansz. understood
to be easy money and he soon transgressed the modifications of his letter
of marque, whereafter he was obliged to take refuge in La Rochelle.
There he fitted m t a sma!! vesse! fm f r e ek~~t inwgh irh was wrerked
near Lanzarote 4. Thus the coming of the Algerines might well have
meant a solution for some nasty problems of the Dutch corsair. Any-
628 ~ o o sV ermeden
way, after severa1 weeks of plundering and looting -the corsairs even
kidnapped the statues of saints- the Algerine squadron split up and
sailed home. One convoy, consisting in 10 sails, was on 2 July sighted
off Gibraltar. The Spanish admira1 Miguel de Vidazábal who had 9 ships
under his command agreed with the Dutch commodore Lambrecht
Hendricxsz. -also called Moyen Lambert, i.e. Lambert the Handsome-who
was sailing in the Straits, to intercept the convoy. Lambrecht
Hendricxsz. was in command of 9 ships. After a fierce battle the Dutch-
Spanish fleet captured nine Algerines, the tenth was set ablaze during
the fight and sank that same night. The prizes were taken to Gibraltar
where the allies learnt that they were the advance guard of a larger
squadron which would sail through the Straits at any moment. In great
haste de Vidazábal fitted out six of the prize vessels with soldiers and
gunners. The next day the augmented Spanish fleet, accompanied by 4
Dutch vessels, set sail and managed to capture or sink severa1 Algerines
more. Finally only about 17 sails reached Algiers safely 5.
Apparently Jan Jansz. felt like a fish in water in the notorious and
occasionally anarchistic Algerine society. The very least one can say
about him is that he was a decided man, who had not the slightest prob-lem
of assimilation and who must have had the careennindedness of a
post-modem yuppie. As early as 20 November 1618 Wynant de Keyser
van Bollandt, consul of the United Provinces in Algiers, wrote to the
States General that he was convinced that «Soliman Rays would from
now on stay ashore and promote his steersman to captain~T. his steers-man,
of course, was «a certain Jan Janssen from Haerlem who has tumed
Turk». Whereas most Christian captives hesitated for years before con-verting
to Islam, -although they were often physically and morally
brutalized- it was a matter of days for Jan Jansz., who henceforth took
the name Murad Rays 6.
As a matter of fact the Dutch consul did not misjudge the situation.
Soliman Rays indeed stayed on shore for over a year, leaving the work
to be done to his new lieutenant, Meanwhile Soliman Rays tried to gain
a new respectability as a businessman, for he had long chenshed the ideal
of being a well-respected merchant trading with the United Provinces.
This Soliman Rays probably lived in Algiers since 1607 and even as a
privateer he had always made some efforts to be on good terms with
the States General. So it was common knowledge that the renegade never
hindered Dutch ships and even redeemed Dutch captives ', be it that his
cgndwt w2r very &en s!ightly amhigiiouc. It happenec! more than once
that if his squadron came upon a Dutch cargo, he kept his own ship
aloof while less scrupulous associates plundered the unfortunate Dutch-
From Lanzarore ro Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 629
man. Though unwilling to give a helping hand by cleaning out his fel-low-
countrymen, Soliman Rays nevertheless claimed his part of the
booty '. After a quarrel with Wynant de Keyser in July 1617 he even
dispatched a letter to the States General proposing to appoint him con-su1
since he was far better placed to help cour Dutch nation» on land
and on sea alike, whereas Wynant de Keyser merely had his private
profits in mind 9. In September 1617 a certain Joris van Cats who, ac-cording
to the rumours, was entrusted by the States General to negoti-ate
secretly with the renegade did indeed arrive lo. These negotiations
probably led nowhere and in 1618 war broke out between the United
Provinces and Algiers that lasted until 1622. Lambrecht Hendricxsz. was
sent to the Mediterranean ato seek the sea-rovers in unremitting cam-paigns,
to destroy them completely or to spread such fear among them
that they will abandon the seas» ". As we have seen, Lambert the Hand-some
was doing a good job indeed.
Perhaps due to the outbreak of this war Murad Rays proved in these
early years of his career to be a rather unusual type of corsair. Unlike
his patron and most other renegade privateers -and even pirates 12-
who often spared vessels sailing under the flag of their native country,
thereby hoping to be pardonned once they had chosen to retire, Murad
Rays considered every ship to be fair game. During the next few years
Jan Jansz. was quite often mentioned in the correspondence of Wynant
de Keyser, and his reputation consequently went from bad to worse. On
21 September 1619 the consul informed the States General that Captain
Jan had taken a «Hollander whom he had deprived of his guns, vict-uals,
sails and hawsersn. Moreover «he tortured a member of the crew
to death in order to get money and he was planning to se11 in Salé al1
valuables on which he could lay his hands)) 13.
In 1620 Murad Rays took, amongst others, severa1 Dutch prizes in
the Mediterranean as well as in the Atlantic, but from now on he treated
his fellow-countrymen better. He brought some of them to Algiers, while
releasing others immediately. Such was the case with the crew of a Dutch
ship !~x!eC!w ith riigz. Fle trrrnrferred the men onto a Flaneztir ship
he took shortly afterwards so that they could sail home. The German
skipper, Hans Plagge from Hamburg, was less lucky. Murad Rays sold
him in Salé while his crew eventually turned up on the slavemarket of
Algiers 1 4 .
Meanwhile his patron Soliman Rays, alias the Peatdigger, had re-
~ m m !t~ sea where he preved te be fzr !esv fegunute thm hiv lieuten-ant.
In November 1619 he was hunted down the Atlantic coast of Mo-rocco
by a Dutch-Spanish squadron. He barely escaped and lost 2 ships
630 ~ o o sV ermeden
in the operation. Almost a year later, in October 1620, he met a violent
death in a ferocious battle off the Spanish coast near Cartagena, fight-ing
with a squadron consisting of 2 English, 2 French and 1 Dutch
vessel. It almost seems to be the irony of fate that the freighters merely
carried fish 15.
Shortly after these events Jan Jansz. left the Mediterranean, prob-ably
once and for all, and settled in Salé on the Atlantic coast of Mo-rocco.
In this period the political situation in Morocco was rather con-fused.
After the death of the great sultan al-Mansur (1578-1603),
internecine strife for his succession broke out between his heirs. The
conflict deteriorated into a genuine civil war, that would last for half a
century bringing the country to the brink of ruin. Perhaps there is no
need to say that during this period, commonly known as thejtna, more
or less explicit independence movements appeared al1 over Morocco. This
was exactly what was happening in Salé when Jan Jansz. arrived there.
Though nominally subject to Mawlay Zaydan, the Saletians embarked
on their own course quite literally.
In the sixteenth century the city of Salé already had a modest repu-tation
of being a nest of corsairs, but during the first decade and a half
of the seventeenth century things changed rapidly. In this period of in-terna1
political disorder, the Moroccan Atlantic ports became a meeting
place for Mediterranean corsairs and European pirates -most of them
former privateers- while the towns got an influx of often vengeful refu-gees
who were expelled from their homes. The rnoriscos who settled in
Salé originated from Hornachos and had, while still in Spain, cultivated
a more than lifelong tradition of resistance against the authorities. They
stuck to this tradition and from at least 1617 Saletian corsair raiding was
a joint venture of renegades and rnoriscos 16.
On the 0 t h~-h and the UnitPd Prwlnces trkd to estahlish diplomatic
contacts with the Moroccan sultan. The overtures dated from the days
of al-Mansur when the Dutch tried to form an alliance with the sultan
against Spain. Things carne to a conclusion with the 1610 treaty between
the Dutch republic and Mawlay Zaydan (1603-1627). The treaty mainly
focused on trading problems -as the Twelve Years' Truce had been
cmc!i?drd hrtween the Unitd PT~vinces 2nd Spah in 1609 it u/2s safer
not to emphasize the military implications- but the Dutch were never-theless
hoping that Mawlay Zaydan could reconquer the Spanish pos-
From Lunzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 63 1
sessions on the coast (such as Larache and al-Mamura) and that they
would obtain a fortress themselves. Circa 1620 it had become quite clear
that the sultan would never succeed in restoring the territorial integrity
of his country nor hand over a harbour to the Dutch or even allow them
to construct one on his territory. Official Dutch expectations were re-duced
to more modest proportions: they hoped Mawlay Zaydan would
restore law and order, prevent the Moroccan corsairs from attacking
Dutch ships, or, if the worst came to worst, release privateered vessels,
goods and captives, more or less in this order. But even there the sultan's
authority often tumed out to be deficient ".
In the summer of 1621 -the year in which the Twelve Years' Tmce
expired- the States General received a letter from Mawlay Zaydan. He
requested help with his plans to construct a new harbour in the bay of
Aier, some 55 kilometres north of Safi, by that time the only port he
effectively held. After deliberations that lasted until autumn 1622 &he
United Provinces sent two ships, an engineer, some stonedressers and
experienced gunners. The mission was led by Albert Ruyl.
Meanwhile Jan Jansz. had become a man of importance in what was
often styled the «sea-rovers republic» of Salé. According to the testi-mony
of the Spanish renegade Juan Rodelgas, alias Mostafa, made be-fore
the Holy Office on 14 October 1622 in Las Palmas, Murad Rays
was one of the leading captains of the Saletian fleet. He was always ac-companied
by at least 8 «Flernish» renegades Is. Juan Rodelgas, who
served under Jan Jansz., told his interrogators how the Dutch renegade
captured a «Flemish» vessel loaded with cod off the Spanish coast. He
embargoed the freight, weapons and munition but -and this becomes a
quite classical statement concerning Murad Rays- he released the
crew 19. It seems rather obvious that Murad Rays attempted to lose his
awful reputation of ruthless pirate. Instead he posed as the defender and
protector of the Dutch sailors. This was the impression Albert Ruyl got
on his arrival in Salé in December 1622 anyway. According to his log
the Saletians were not very eager to set the Dutch captives free without
any pecuniary accomodation. since they did not hold the sultan and his
treaties in high esteem. When Murad Rays put into the harbour ten days
later, Albert Ruyl expressed the hope that he would be able to free «our
people with his help». The very next day a small ~aletianv essel indeed
accosted the Dutch. Aboard were «renegades who were al1 under the
command of Jan Jansz. who had promised to hand over our people ...
2nd Cap& Jan dib boaid nur qhip and yave us every Dutchman who
wanted to be free. So we got there 13 men and 2 boys, together with
some English, and many attest the aforesaid Jan Jansz. does a lot of good
632 ~ o o sve rmeukn
for the Dutchn 20. Murad Rays continued these policies. In a letter of a
member of the widely dispersed Pallache family, dated 13 April 1623,
he is mentioned as having obtained from the qaid the liberation of Dutch
sailors taken captive by Saletian corsairs raiding severa1 Dutchmen,
though the Scottish seamen remained in bondage 2'. On the other hand
Murad Rays barely paid any attention to the «free ship, free goods~
principie so dear to the Dutch authorities. In July 1623 the States Gen-eral
sent a request to the qaid of Salé for restoring «La Bonne Aventure»
to her legal owners. The ship was caught by wapitaine Jan Jansz. van
Haerlem, renegado soubz le commandement du roy de Marocos ... le
detenant pour bonne prinse et les Franchois pour esclaves, nonobstant
leur pasport quilz avoient du prince d'oranges ... » 22. m
In November 1623 this request unchained an authentic row among
the «noble, valiant and highly discreet gentlemem of the States Gen- S
eral. As a matter of fact a tempest obliged a «Turkish» ship from Salé O
a -
co sheiter in ti-ie harbour of Veere. Shortiy afterwarcis the Saietian saiied ó"
to Flushing where the ship had to be repaired before she could set on S
I
her long voyage home. Jan Jansz. landed no goods, «save some Chris- 2
1
tian slaves, French as well as English, who returned immediately to their %
countries». At first the States General decided the «Turk» had to be 5
Y helped since his sole intention was to liberate the slaves. Moreover they e- thought it wise not to provoke complaints of athose of Algiers and the m 1
king of Morocco» about infringements of the capitulations. Diplomatic O
protest of the French ambassador later that month caused some concern g
and the States General resolved that the ship should leave the port as a
E soon as possible. A Dutch squadron would protect the «Turk» from -
a
French or English attacks. But on 15 December 1623 the admiralty of
A a Zealand announced that 2 more rovers from Algiers had put in. Thus a
0
the States General asked the admiralty to guarantee that al1 «Turkish» 5
ships would disappear «in order to avoid scandal to the neighbouring O
princes». Furthermore the States General decided, inter alia, that, al-though
renegades ought to be punished severely, such a step would not
be expedient as most agents of Muslim rulers were renegades themselves.
Finally they did not think it appropriate that the «Turks» be escorted as
far as the «Spanish Sea». For one thing this whould stop the «Turks»
from privateering. On the other hand, potential French or English
agressors would hardly appreciate the presence of Dutch men-of-war. In
January 1624 the French tried to embargo one of the ships but the rov-ers
left Zealand just in time. Their home voyage stirred a not wholly
undeserved storm of protest from the French as the «Turks» took at least
15 French vessels during this lap. To make things even worse severa1
From Lanzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 633
Dutch skippers joined the Barbary corsairs. They enthusiastically helped
to clean out the French ships and, acting on their own initiative, sold
the crews as slaves to the corsairs. Thus it is quite understandable that
the Dutch authorities were not exactly straining at the leash to welcome
further visits from Barbary 23.
ADMIRAL OF THE SULTAN
These exploits certainly must have increased the prestige Jan Jansz.
already enjoyed among the Saletians. Shortly after his return he is men-tioned
as eamiral Morat RaiS», though it seems that his function had a
rather unofficial character at that time. This can be gathered from a let-ter
dated 30 May 1624. Murad Rays and the qaid placed an order for
an enormous amount of arms and ammunition in the United Provinces.
Tne orcier was carried out but provokea protests from the suitan's am-bassador.
According to the latter munitions could only be delivered at
the sultan's request. This seems to indicate that the position held by Jan
Jansz. was not recognised by Mawlay Zaydan and was at the best an
unofficial one 24.
In August the news of the renegade's new status was confirmed by
Moise Pallache, who sojourned at the court of the sultan. It is most likely
that Jan Jansz. had by now became enbroiled in high politics: «il est venu
an ceste court le capitaine Moraro A-raiS de Salé, nomé autrement Jan
Jansez., van Harlem, et Sa Royalle Magesté luy a acordé la generalité
de Salé pour la navigation. Et despuis, il m'a donné antendre le gran
tort que ceux de Salé fesoint au sujets de V.A., et qu'il vouloit avoir du
Roy letre patente en ces meins pour la liberté de tells afaires, a scavoir
afin que persone ne puisse pus tenir esclave ny prendre les sujets de VA.
ny les biens. Sour quoy il a donné a entendre a Sa Magesté fors raisons,
tellement que Sa Magesté, considran la afaire, et ausy la gran afection
qu'il porte aux afaires de V.A., luy a acordé a dit capitaine Morato AratS
una patente, laquelle est entre ses meins, alfin que persone nr puise pren-dre
ny faire esclave les biens ny sujets de V.A.. ir grandes crmandes; de
fason que je espere que, de ore en avant, il n'? curra quelque rnescon-tentement
antre les sujets de V.A. et les sujets cl~i Roy ir Sale. puisque
l'afaire es? recomandé audict Morciro RaiS, que. seloii qli'il nr'tr clict, il
a grand desir de doner en tour contenteinent ir V.A.» ' 5 . It seems obvi-ous
that Mawlay Zaydan was regularising an existing state of affairs.
Meanwhile the ill-fated mission of Albert Ruyl had left Morocco on
1 June. Ruyl had not been able to achieve anything dile to numerous
634 ~ o o sV ermeukn
misunderstandings, sabotage by the Pallache family and the untimely ac-tions
of some Dutch corsairs in Moroccan waters. The main objective, the
building of a new port and castle on the bay of Aier proved to be unat-tainable.
Nevertheless Mawlay Zaydan remained convinced that he needed
an operating base on the Atlantic which could serve as a home port for
an official Moroccan navy. During his stay at the sultan's court Jan Jansz.
pointed out that it was equally possible to create a new harbour at
Azemmour, just by constructing a mole. His proposal was opposed by
Antoine de Sallettes, sieur de Saint-Mandrier. This Provencal gentleman-adventurer
had lived in Morocco since 1614 and being ccextremement
addroit en toute sorte d'exercice militaire et tres-scavant au sciences
mathematiques», he became a favourite of Mawlay Zaydan. Jan Jansz.
roundly accused Saint-Mandrier of being an Spanish agent. If this was
mere guess-work, it was rather good, for the Spaniards, alarmed by the
plans of the renegade, had indeed made contact with the Provencal. Saint-
Mandrier had often expressed his desire iv retüiii io Frx~cete cxüsc «cette
demeure dans les terres infidelles ne luy agréoit pas». But as he was
wanted for murder in his home country, Philip 111 engaged himself to
acquire a pardon from the French king for Saint-Mandrier, and the resti-tution
of his properties. Saint-Mandrier succeeded in convincing the sul-tan
that the renegade's plans were unworkable. Nevertheless Mawlay
Zaydan had lost his faith in his favounte and after Saint-Mandrier had tried
to escape on a French vessel in 1625, the sultan had him imprisoned. He
was beheaded on the orders of Mawlay Zaydan on 14 April 1626 26.
Though Bookin-Weiners statement as if «Mawlay Zaydan lost what-ever
residual control he may have had over the corsairs)) when he named
Murad Rays admira1 of the fleet, might be a slight exaggeration, he is
certainly on the mark when saying that on Salé became «a more active
corsair center». The favourite hunting grounds of the privateers now even
included the banks of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The situation of
the Newfoundland fleet, «being about two hundred and fiftye sayle of
shippes and barques of noe defence haveing some fower or five thou-sand
men», was so much endangered -as the mayor of Poole wrote on
8 August 1625 to the Privy Council- that if no measures were taken
one should not be surprised if the fleet of Salé «will not leave his most
excellent Majesty saylors to man his fleets. The mayor of Plymouth
complained on 12 August 1625 there were «general fears for the ships
from Virginia and Newfoundland. The Turkish pirates had taken in ten
dayes ships and 200 persons)).
Moreover the corsairs cruised in the Channel, used Torbay as a ref-uge,
ambushed near the Scilly Islands and the coast of Cornwall, while
From Lanzarote lo Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 635
others ventured into the Irish Sea. In 1626 they were prominently present
on the Welsh coast where they caught severa1 ships. The only counter-action
the British authorities took was their decision to extinguish the
Lizard light because «it guided the pirates» *'. The French also noticed
that more than ever vessels and seamen were taken by Saletians. The
Spanish coasts and ships were quasi permanently endangered and even
the carrera de las lndias suffered losses.
Murad Rays, on the other hand, remained loyal to the stipulations
of the treaty concluded between Mawlay Zaydan and the United Prov-inces.
Dutch vessels experienced hardly any hinder from the Saletians
and if any Dutchman was brought in, Jan Jansz. took appropiate steps,
though some episodes remain far from clear. In September 1624 the
States General wrote to Mawlay Zaydan requesting him to intervene on
behalf of the shipowners of the «Vliegende Hert» which was abandoned
in Salé by her skipper after he had fraudulently sold the cargo. In the
siimmer of 1625 ?he m!tíin ~mweredt hlt the q ~ i def SC'é ha(! rr,ain-tained
the ship for a while. Finally he confined her to the admiral. Jan
Jansz. had the ship repaired and provisioned and put out to sea in her.
But not without leaving a quite detailed bill of the expenses he had
incurred. The owners could recover their ship if they would be so kind
as to settle the costs. This idea must have been unbearable to the mer-chants
-they thought the expense claim utterly unacceptable and re-quested
a commission of reprisal, which was not granted them 2s.
Yet Murad Rays did his best to take the Republic's interests to heart.
When the ambassador Cornelis Pijnacker was sent to the Regencies in
1625 it was part of his assignement to insist on the liberation of the
French sailors who were taken after the visit of the Barbary corsairs
during the winter of 1623-1624. These captives were held partly in
Algiers, partly in Salé. As the negotiations -or rather the bartering-in
Algiers was sufficiently difficult, Pijnacker contacted a certain Regeb
Rays, a renegade captain born in The Hague, who had sent a messen-ger
to Murad Rays, where-upon the French captives in Salé were
promptly released 29.
Cariy in ió20 Jan Jansz. was in riie Repubiic again. As fne infor-mation
about this visit is scarce -as always- and ultimately contra-dictory,
it is very difficult to reconstruct the actual state of affairs. In
any case, in February two «Turkish» corsairs reached Rotterdam by
sailing down the Maas. On their trip to the United Provinces they had
plundered a French freighter loaded with tobacco. In the Channel they
had been attacked by a Dunkifker who had severely damaged one of
\he ships, which may have been the reason the corsairs put into the «be-
636 ~ o o s~ e rmeu/ en
friended» harbour. ~ e c a l l i nth~ei r experiences in the winter of 1623-1624
the States General were quite upset by the news. Obviously panic-stricken
they ordered the admiralty of Rotterdam to take off al1 ren-egades,
free the slaves, make the corsairs leave the harbour as soon as
posible and accompany them to the open sea. Meanwhile the French
envoy firmly protested and tried to embargo the tobacco. The corsair to
whom the tobacco now belonged, Haggy Mamy Rays -formerly known
as Pieter Janssen, bom in Ackersloot and at that time stationed in Algiers,
was not in the least impressed by the Dutch authorities. The plea that
the Ottoman sultan had prohibited raiding English and French vessels
even provoked menaces: Mamy Rays would bomb the town if anyone
dared to touch his tobacco. The States General were unable to reinforce
their orders. Finally they decided that the French envoy should be in- "2
0"
demnified by a third party, so that he would waive his claim. Yet the E
States General were deeply concerned that this third party had no de- O
mmst,ub!e re!atims te them 2s they did mt want the French envoy to n -
-
m
find out that they were settling the bill. At any rate the corsairs even O
E
succeeded in selling one of their ships. They left Dutch waters unharmed SE
at the end of April 1626. Haggy Mamy Rays must have accompanied - E
Jan Jansz. to Salé, which he henceforth used as his home port. The
colourful career of this wenié flamand, habitué a Salé» ended in July 3
1636 when he was overtaken by a French squadron 30.
- -
0
m
Apart from his corsairing activities, Jan Jansz. earned quite a living E
by acting as the agent and protector of the pirate Claes Gemtz. Compaen. O
He was a genuine Hollander, born in Oostzaan in 1587. He started his 6
n
career as a merchant-venturer to the Guineacoast, albeit not very -E
succesfully. Later he got involved in the often semi-official cat-and- a
2 mouse games between Spaniards, Dunkirkers, Ostenders and the spiri- n
tual heirs of the Sea-Beggars. By 1624 he finally obtained a letter of n
marque from the States General. But he had barely left the port of Hoorn 3
when he took his first prize: a herring boat from Egmond. During the
O
summer of 1624 Claes Compaen established a solid reputation as an
unfindable and invincible pirate. Many years later, when he lived qui-etiy
in Zaanaam, he ciaimed to have caugni in íiiose Iiiore iui-buieiit Uays
more than 350 ships. Claes Compaen mainly cruised between southem
Ireland, where he enjoyed the friendship of the earl of Strafford, and
his favourite Moroccan ports of call, Safi and Salé. As early as Novem-ber
1624 the States General begged the sultan to have Compaen arrested
if he turned up in any Moroccan harbour. But Mawlay Zaydan did not
make a move. According to some he caiieci the pirate «friend» and even
honoured him with the rather pompous title «Lord of the Sea», of which
From Lanzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 637
Compaen was extremely proud. The States General, being at a complete
loss, in the end decided to offer the pirate a pardon. But as the pirate.
remained at sea, they had to prolong the period during which Compaen
could take advantage of the offer. The news of the prolongation was
brought to Salé by Hein Aertz., half-brother of Compaen. Hein Aertsz.
stayed at the house of Jan Jansz. for quite a while. When Claes Compaen
finally turned up in March 1627, he courteously refused a pardon granted
to him by the English crown, decided to accept the Dutch offer and sailed
home 3 ' .
THE RAID ON ICELAND: AN ALGERINE VENTURE
This same year 1627 was startled by what has been called «the bold-est
venture» of the Barbary corsairs: their raid on Iceland and the so-called
ack of Reykjavik. Mnst hist~riíins whe hrve ph!isheY m the
Barbary corsairs, or even on piracy in general, have ascribed the «sack
of Reykjavik» to a Saletian squadron under the command of Jan Jansz. 32
From Icelandic accounts of the attack a entirely different emerges. The
raid started on 20 June 1627, the last corsair sailed off on 16 July
-after firing nine salutes and enriching the Icelandic liturgy with a
prayer for protection against «the cunning of the Pope and the terror of
the Turk»- and on 17 August the corsairs gained Algiers. The Icelanders
identified the sea-rovers with certainly as Algerines -al1 of the severa1
hundreds of captives landed anyway on the bedesten of Algiers- and
the leader of the expedition seems indeed to have been a Murad Rays,
who was variously described as a German or a Dutch renegade. There
is no need to rete11 here the adventures of the Barbary corsairs in Ice-land,
although one fact should be noted: the «sack of Reykjavik» never
occured. This popular canard originates in some confused and incom-plete
details on the Iceland raid given by some minor Dutch historiog-raphers
and chroniclers. On the basis of these particulars L.C. Vrijman,
and with him the most influential historian on piracy, Ph. Gosse, iden-
LL. c~- IIGU.L LI.I- ~ SxI Vn ~ U 3I ~n~U y d,.- ~> JTa. .n JT.a nsz. and ihe BaiDary corsairs cherefore
as Saletians.
Nevertheless, for long though the only well-known source for the
raid was a short remark in the work of P. Dan. In his Histoire de
Barbarie et de ses corsaires, printed in Paris in 1637 he relates how
«en 1627 trois vaisseaux d'Alger, conduits par un Renegat Allemand,
nonimé Come Murat, furent si hardis que S'aiier jusques'en Dannemarc,
ou prenant terre en l'lsle d'lsland, ils enleverent plusieurs mesnages
638 ~ o o s~ ermeulen
escartes E'un de l'autre, & firent esclaves quatre cens personnes qu'ils
emmenerent». In the Dutch translation of his work the commander was
characterized as «High German renegade, called Kure Morat» and in the
next pages P. Dan states quite rightly «Kure Morat, that means, Morat
the Cross-eyed» 33. These details make it possible to identify the com-mander
of the Iceland-raid as an Algerine corsair captain who roamed
the seas in this period. The above-rnentioned Cornelis Pijnacker com-piled
a list of the most valiant and therefore most feared Algerine pri-vateers
during his stay in the Regency. Among the captains cited by
Pijnacker -they truly constitute a pick of renegades- figures a «Murat
the Cross-eyed from Hamburg». And Pijnacker adds «as he is cross-eyed,
he is called this both by the Turks and the Dut ch~34 .
",
AN ADMIRAL FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 8
D -
In the meantime the relations between de Saletians and Mawlay 0"
Zaydan perceptibly deteriorated. When the Saletians, and more in par- fÍ?
ticular the Hornacheros who lived in the qasbah, ousted the Spanish
renegade qaid of the sultan in the spring of 1627, the last formal ties e!
between the rnoriscos and the sultan were broken. Mawlay Zaydan died 5
B
shortly afterwards and from then on the Saletíans established an inde- O=
pendent government which lasted until 1641. This period of the town's 6
history is characterized by interna1 strife between its different popula- 8
tion groups: the Hornacheros in the qasbah, the moriscos who settled D6
afterwards in what is currently called Rabat (Sla al-Djedid or New Salé)
and the original inhabitants of the city who mainly lived in Salé proper c
(Sla al-Bali or Old Salé). In these years of discordance the various fac- 2
D
D
tions did not hesitate to take up arms one against the other for political D
e! and economic preponderance 35. 5
In this turmoil Jan Jansz. managed in one way or another to main-tain
his position, though he must have been anxious about the future
since on 12 August 1627 he wrote to the States General that as long as
he remained in charge, he would take care that dhe treaty and alliance
concluded between the States General and his Roya1 Highness Mole
Sydan would not be violateds and that he himself would favour his fa-therland
until his death. «But 1 can not do more than 1 have done, be-cause
these people here rose up against the King. What will be the end,
u!me knp,vsii 36.
Though the renegade's fears may have had good grounds, he still
must have been held in high regard by the Saletians. During the next
From Lanzarote to Moroccoi The career of a Dutch renegade 639
few years he played an important role on the political scene and in 1626
he had already become close friends with the experienced English en-voy
in Morocco. This John Harríson called Jan Jansz. «Captain John»
and styled him «a great frend to our nation». John Harrison, who had
tried to form an alliance between the Moroccan moriscos and Charles 1,
may have had good reasons to do so since on his home voyage he had
escaped from being chased by three Spanish men-of-war, thanks to the
protection and intervention of Jan Jansz. Yet it seems that Jan Jansz.
for some time acted - o n his own account- as a defender of the En-glish.
In previous years he had freed severa1 English captives. Harrison
relates how on this same trip he had indeed «taken two Hamburgers
comming from Mallaga and fyve of our English merchants in them
homeward bound, whom he releassed and gave freelie to me, as he hath O
ever donn Englishmen, never doing hurt to any, but good to maine (sic)». N
E
On the other hand it is not unlikely that at that moment Jan Jansz. was O
mainly concerned with creating an atmosphere of goodwill since the -n-envoy
was supposed to deliver arms and ammunition in return for the m
O
E liberation of the English captives in Salé 37. E
2 In 1629 and 1630 Jan Jansz. -Murad Rays took part in the nego- E
tiations between the French admira1 Isaac de Razilly and the Saletian
-
divan. In 1629 de Razilly was instructed to obtain the release of al1 3
French captives. When he learned that the Saletian divan claimed a - -
0
present of 100 guns and 1.000.000 livres, de Razilly proved to be an m
E
ardent supporter of what has been called gunboat diplomacy. The French O
squadron promptly blockaded the harbour and on 6 August shots were
fired between the French and «EJadmiral de Sallé, du port de trois cens n
E thonneaun; armé de vingt pieces de canon et esquipé de cent quatre- -
a
vingtz hommes, avecq son vis-admira1 presque aussy grandn. This ad- 2
n
miral has not been positively identified yet, but he might well have been n
n
Jan Jansz. Anyway, the a's-admira1 de Sallé ... autant qu'il estoit fort 3
bon voillier ... gaigna a la mer» whereupon the five French men-of-war O
attacked the admiral of Salé: «le vaisseau ennemy aperceust notre ad-miral
a portée de canon de luy, perdit courage, qui le fit s'eschouer a
fnrrn,, et se j&te,rmt tcus h la mg e p l t v se xww, ahavidmvianf Ier4.r
navire, ou tous nos vaisseaux recommencerent a tirer force canonnades
qui en tuerent grand nombre, et force autres qui furent noyez, et, des le
soir, on mist le feu dedans et feust du tout bruslé, sans qu'il en feust
rien sauvé» 38.
If the admiral was Jan Jansz., he nevertheless survived this unfortu-iiaie
encoüíiteí. For when on 23 Apri! 1630 ?he Dutch r n v q .!a!!
Wendelsz. entreated the divan to release «the poor Dutch captives, if
640 ~ o o sV ermeulen
there were any» they ~answered and declared that they had no Dutch-men,
and if any were brought in, and they declared to be Dutchmen
before their admiral Morato Reys, they were released immediately~39 .
The interference of de Razilly in 1629 had caused serious troubles
between the different factions in Salé. In the spring of 1630 this led to
a new paroxysm of violence. The English envoy John Harrison made
an attempt to arrange a settlement but «the cyvill dissencions~ lasted until
«amived Captaine John from Tunys, Admirall of Salley, bringing with
him an other Sainct, the Sainct of Shelley, nere adjoyning to Sallye, who
had ben at Mecha in pilgrimage to visite Mahomets tombe, and divers
other Mores with hirn, by whose mediacion, after his new amvall and
so seasonablie, upon their Pasqua of Romedan, presentlie a preace was
concluded» 40. m
In the summer of the same year Jan Jansz. had more peaceful con- S
tacts with de Razilly who came to Salé in order to renew the treaty he O
had concluded on 2 October 1629. On 2 August 1630 «Morat Rays, a -
admira1 de leurs vaisseaux, & plusieurs capitaines de la ville, ayans óS"
obtenu toutes les asseurances qu'ils demanderent pour venir saluer I
2
monsieur le commandeur de Razilly, se firent porter dans nos vaisseaux,
% 1
ou ils furent receus honnorablement. Apres les compliments receus de 5
par? & d'autre, ils protesterent au nom de leurs gouverneurs qu'ils Y
n'avoient pus de plus grand desir que de rendre des tesmoignages e-d'affection
a Sa Majesté Tres-Chrestienne, avec laquelle ils seroient tres- m 1
aises de vivre en bonne paix & amitié ... Apres ces protestations, Morat O
Rays supplia monsieur de Razilly de luy expedier un passeport pour faire g
a sortir en mer un de ses vaisseaux, qu'il ne feroit aucunes courses sur -E
les Francois & n'attaqueroit leurs vaisseaux, ny mesmes ceux des alliés a
de la Couronne a dix lieues pris des costes de Frunce, ains plustost les 2
a
protegeroit contre tous pirates turcs ou autres, indifferemment & sans O
exception; ce qui lui fust octroyé soubs ses conditions» 4 ' . 5
The continuous violence and civil strife must have provoked a great O
deal of uncertainty among the Saletians. In that same year 1630 John
Harrison, never at a loss for a good plan, even proposed that Charles 1
shnii!d d r r w. .. S U ! ! ~.P.. under Your Mujrstirs geve:nmer.?:: as the
Saletians «having taken Your Majesty alreadie for their chieffe protec-tor
». According to the envoy, parts of the local population would cer-tainly
support such a project and, Harrison continued, «Captayn John,
Admirall of Sallie, a Flemish renegade but a great frend to our nation,
said to me that he hoped in the end it should so come to passe, both he
und manie others, esi;ecia!!ie :hese ?;loriscoes, j~ilgiiig sure io be üfidei
Christian government againe». At that very moment Jan Jansz. must have
From Lanzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 64 1
got really tired of his new fatherland and compatriots since he asked
Harrison «to give him advertisement beforehand if Your Majesty pur-posed
to doe any thing on that coast, he would adventure his lyfe in
Your Majesties service; yf not, to procure him leave from Your Maj-esty
to come for England, which he purposeth with the first opportunitie,
yf he can get out to sea agayne and light of a good prize, Spaniard or
Portuguez, for he professeth himself still a Christian in heart, howso-ever
in his younger years of infinnitie forced to turne at Argier, taken
at Lanserot, being a prkoner there with the Spaniards, and of a pris-oner
made a slave by the Turks when they tooke that iland, and after
worse, a Turke» 42.
The daring proposals of the English envoy were never carried out and
this may explain why Jan Jansz. stayed on «the high coasts of Barbary~
for the rest of his life. But he certainly left Salé in 1631. He is mentioned
for the last time residing in the still autonomous city-state end of Sep-
L- ..,. . 4 4 45 Lerrioer los^ . As ai-Ayyashi besieged [he Eornacheros in the qasbah
from July onwards and with his guns controlling the harbour, the posi-tion
of the privateers soon became untenable. The siege, though it ended
without yielding any important results, lasted for almost a year. An im-rnediate
consequence of these rnilitary actions was however the decline
of the Saletian corsairing activities during this period. So it is quite ob-vious
rnost privateers left Salé and swarmed out to less turbulent ports.
MEDITERRANEAN MISUNDERSTANDINGS
- -
Until now it has been generally assumed that Jan Jansz. about 1630-
1631 transferred his activities to the Mediterranean again 44. This con-clusion
was mainly founded on two statements made by P. Dan in his
Histoire de Barbarie et de ses corsaires. P. Dan relates how in 1631 a
certain «Morat Rays, a Flernish renegade» -whorn L. C. Vrijman iden-tified
as J. Jansz.- «sailed to England and henceworth to Ireland. At
Batinor -Baltimore- sorne 200 Barbary corsairs descended on the
peaceful village and caught 237 men, women and children +ven those
in the cradle- who were sold in Algiers. It was a smarting event to
see them being sold as men were separated from their spouses, and the
infants from their fathers ... » 45. This raid indeed occurred on 31 June 1631
but, though his information is as always quite exact, the good Father
Dan could not resist. the temptation of filling in the picture with melo-drama
and sentirnentality. In fact Morat Rays brought in 20 men and
89 women and children, while the peaceful fishing village Baltirnore
642 ~ o o sve rmeden
«crowned by the ruins of The O'Driscoll's Cas t le~e njoyed the reputa-tion
of being one of the principal Irish pirate bases 4h. It is furthermore
important to notice that no mention whatsoever is made of the presence
of Irish captives originating from Baltimore in Salé during the follow-ing
years. The squadron despatched to Salé under William Rainborow
in 1627 released 339 «men, woemen and hoyes», and among them the
Irish abound, but no former inhabitants of Baltimore are mentioned in
the list of athe names of al1 those captives both English and others that
were redeemed from Salley». So one might conclude that this raid was
an Algerine venture as we11 47.
In al1 probability it was the same «Morat, a Dutchman or Fleming
and one of the most feared pirates ever in the Mediterranean* who was
made prisoner by the Hospitallers in 1634. P. Dan states how «bis ruses m
D
could not prevenr him from being caught, shortly after he had moved E
from Algiers to Tripoli, the town where 1 stayed when the news of his O -
capture got out. 1 there saw some hundred women paying a cal1 of con- -
=m
dolence to the renegade pirate's wife. There was no lack for moaning O
E
and mouming; tears, feigned or honest, were bountiful shed, as they are E
2
used to on such sudden and ill-fated events» j8. The naval engagement E
=
between the Knights and the Tripolitan corsairs took place on 19 July 3
1634. Morat Rays, accompanied by two other Tripolitan privateers, had -
overpowered two French vessels, sailing home from Smyrna. Near Tri- -
0m
poli they were attacked by six Maltese galleys under the command of E
Carlo Valdina. The Knights took two corsairs, reconquered their prizes O
and sailed with 338 muslim slaves -the former privateers with Morat -
among rhem- back to Malta 49. -E
a It is quite difficult to identify positively the protagonist of these l
accounts. It was not Jan Jansz., as well be shown below, and it is un- - 0 likely that this Morat was Kor Murad as P. Dan knew his nickname and
does not mention ir here. Moreover he described Kor Murad as a Ger- O3
man, and here he says explicitly that Morat was a Fleming or a Dutch-man.
Therefore it is plausible that this Morat was «Murato Flamenco,
L-- A -A--.-- .-.La C-..--- +l.- ,.I..-,,A.. ,.:+o4 l:..+
w~iiil i AiiLweip, ir;iicgade» wiiu iiguica iíi riic aiir;auj Li lLu iiaI uf <O;-
sairs drawn up by C. Pijnacker in 1625-1626 at Algiers, though it must
be admitted that this identification must for now remain a guess 50.
QUIET YEARS
As for Jan Jansz. alias Murad Rays, he never moved to the Medi-terranean
but stayed in Morocco throughout these years. This is suggested
From Lanzarore to Morocco: The career oj a Dutch renegade 643
anyway by a travel account written by an Englishman -probably a
merchant- who met «Morat Ariaz, an Alcaid elsh» in 1638 in al-
Walidiyya or «Welladee, tenn leagues to the north of Saffee». There is
no doubt that Jan Jansz. and «Morat Ariaz,> are one and the same per-son
since «he is a Fleming borne: his Christian name was John Barber
and had been a marchant in Lancecott (sic), and was there made slave
by the Argeir men that tooke the island about twenty and five years
since; soone after his captivity, by renouncing his faith he obtained free-dom
and came to Sally, where, being entertained by those of the towne,
he in shoa time grew in great esteeme among them by the many pnzes
he tooke, that in tyme they made him Admira11 of their fleet, which
charge he held a long tyme to their inriching and great detriment of
Christian marchantw. The Englishman relates how Jan Jansz. had moved
from Salé to Safi seven years before 4 . e . in 1631- during the reign
cf UM~!PT ,nXn lIm r > > "I. My\1,11yy u!-Wa!id (1 63 1- 1636). e~t&!i&y:! J '""'"J
in Safi, Jan Jansz. «was between request and commaund induced to serve
him. The King honoured him with one of his women in marriage and
bestowed on him a cast of Berbers to governe neere to Welladee~. Al-
Walidiyya was a newly created town -it took its name from the reign-ing
sultan- in the bay of Aier, roughly situated on the spot Mawlay
7L.-.,a,.- ayuaii iLi-aAu -L ---- ~iiust;iii 0 CüliSirÜCi ¿iii ew hal'jüüí iii ihe eaiiy iweniies.
Though the Dutch engineers of the Ruyl-mission in 1623 found this
anchorage ground unfit to construct a port of cal1 for a regular Moroc-can
navy, Jan Jansz. ctooke speciall notice of this haven ... during his
residence there ... and ... understanding it a place probably advantagious
to the King, perswaded him to fortify it, who accordingly built there a
castle and pact therin Morat to commaund a garrison of souldiers, and
thus hee continueth in the service and favour of Muley Mahamet Shecb
for whom he commanded a small fleet of vessels that formed the sultan's
navy 51.
Jan Jansz. is -as far as 1 know- mentioned for the last time by
the artist Adriaen Matham who accompanied the Dutch ambassador
Antonis de Liedekercke to the sultan of Morocco. This mission left the
United Provinces on 1 September 1640. Among the travelers where
Lijsbeth Jansz. and her brother-in-law Jacob Aertsen (or Jacob Ariss.).
The ~Gelderlandn reached Salé on 11 December and Safi on Christmas
Eve 1640. On 28 December a barque brought two letters from «Jans
Jansz. van Haerlem, who was living at Muladie, six or seven miles from
Safi». The first letter was addressed to the ambassador, the latter to his
daughter, in which he invited her very warmly to visit him. He also
wamed his daughter that «it was a very hazardous journey inland, espe-
644 ~ o o sV ermeden
cially for the feminine sex» and thus it was decided that Lijsbeth would
remain on board while Jacob Aertsen travelled to al-Walidiyya, «accom-panied
by the six or seven Moors his father-in-law had sent to protect
his relatives during the tripn. On 30 December «Jacob Ariss. and his
father-in-law Jan Jansz. van Haerlem came, accompanied by 18 servants»,
on board of the Gelderland. «In the barque he was seated lordly on a
carpet and satin cushions, his servants gathered around him. He was
brought to the ambassador's saloon, where his daughter was, and when
she saw her father and he his daughter, they both began to weep». The
next day Jacob Aertsen and Lijsbeth Jansz. went ashore to visit the ren-egade,
who also paid for the victuals the Dutch arnbassador had ordered,
and «some sailors maintained they had noticed that Lijsbeth Jans already
had her's fill of the people and the country and that she wished to be
back on board again». Nevertheless, she stayed in Safi and the very next
day, on 1 January 1641, she left with her father for al-Walidiyya. On
22 August 1641, shortly before the mission ieft Morocco, Aíiriaen
Matham was told by Jacob Aertsen who had retumed that day from al-
Walidiyya that Lijsbeth had decided to stay with her father 52. And this
is -apart from a not wholly thrustworthy remark of a certain ~School-master
from Oost-Zanen» who wrested in 1659 a biography of Claes
Compaen, as if his end was bitter- the last we hear of Jan Jansz. 53.
E
CONCLUSION O
6
n
It may be obvious that the reconstruction of the careers of individu- a-E als as Jan Jansz. -Murad Rays, John Ward- Yusuf Rays, Simon de l
Danser -Deli Rays, de Veenboer- Soliman Rays and so many others n
n
who moved in the twilight zone of history is both a time -consuming
as gratifying pursuit. Time-consuming since facts and features have to 3
O
be gathered from the most diverse sources written in the most various
languages. Gratifying as a reconstruction enables us to fínish with some
persistent myths surrounding certain characters, that appeal to everyone's
imagination. In one way or another they even could be styled as cprimi-tive
rebels» or «social banditsw, who have populated so much essays and
studies in the seventies and the eighties. '
Though the tmth may be less spectacular than the myth -e.g. no
sack of Reykjavik for Jan Jansz. and his Saletians while other horror
stnries should be taken with a pinch of salt- it certainly is far more
complicated than assumed until now. Thus the career of Jan Jansz. shows
clearly that adopting a new faith was for most renegades not an irre-
From Lanzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 645
versible decision. Furthermore it is plain that quite a lot of these «cul-tural
tumcoats~re mained loyal to their former country because they kept
on looking after their former countries' and compatriots' interests. This
casts at least some doubts on the representation of the vengeful and cruel
renegade, whose most wanted victims were his fellow-countrymen.
Just as they played in those days an active role on the intemational
political scene, the northem renegades acted as well as cultural inter-mediaries
between the East and the West by familiarizing the Muslims
with new techniques in matters of navigation, warfare and harbour con-stmction.
Therefore -though this may sound as an exaggeration since
other developments have to be taken into account- their appearance
helped to secure the territorial integrity and independence of the North-
African states until the nineteenth century.
Joos Vermeulen
NOTES
1. The most complete account on the 1618 Lanzarote raid is A. RUMEL: DE .AR\I \x.
Canarias y el Atlántico. Piraterías y ataques navales. Madrid, 1947, 111. pp. 44-41. \'LY!
important are further L. A. ÁNAYAH ERNÁNDE«ZR, epercusiones dei corso 'oei.bri.iwi c.11
Canarias durante el siglo XVII. Cautivos y renegados canarios>, in V Coloyuio de Hi.\~i~ri~i
Canario-Americana. Las Palmas, 1985, 11, pp. 125-177 and id. *La invasión de 16 1 S
en Lanzarote y sus repercusiones socio-económicas» in VI Coioyiiio de Historici Cunurii~-
Americana. Las Palmas, 1987, pp. 193-223.
2. K. HEERINGA (ed.) Bronnen tot de geschiedenis vnil den levantschen handel.
Den Haag, 1910-1917, 1, p. 736.
3. F. DE SKAYB ~RCHC,a raiog~ieo f u coiiecrion of originai manuscriprs formerix
belonging to the Holy Office of the Inyiiisirioii ir1 rhe Canary slands and now in the
possession of the Marquess of Bufe. Edinburgh and London' 1903, p. 461.
4. L. C. VRIJMANK,a apvaart en Zeeroverij. Uir de geschiedenis der vrije nering
in de Lage Landen. Amsterdam, 1938, p. 2 1 1 ; K. HEERINCAo.. (.., l . p. 789.
5. G. HILLS, Rock of Contention. A History of Gibrnltrir. London. 1974. p. 120;
R. E. J. WEBERD, e heveiliging van de zee fegen Europeesche en Bo1'/1unij.ir7rr. -eerovers
1609-1621. Amsterdam, 1936, pp. 124-127; A. RUMEUD E ARMASo. . ~ .1.1 1. p. 54. There
has always been a great deal of uncertainty about the exact number of ships lost by the
Algerines, Moyen Lambert estimated their loss at 11 or 12 sails; according to the Span-iards
19 ships were seized while 3 were destroyed.
6. K. HEERINGAo,. c., 1, p. 789.
7. Id., Ü.c., 1, pp. 721 and 746ff.
8. Id., o.c.. 1, pp. 749 and 765.
9. id., ü.e., 1, pp. 746-74i.
10. R.E. J . WE B E R , ~ .p~. .1, 2 9.
11. Id.,o.c., p. 123.
12. E.g. the English pirate Henry Mainwaring reigned supreme in al-Mamura till
1614 but «it was part of [his] plan of campaign to do al1 in his power for the welfare
of his own country, and his reverence for the English flag is shown in al1 his actions.
While at Mamora ... there were some thirty sail of pirate vessels using the port, but be-
Cm-- l.- -1l-...-d --.. -C +LA- +- --:l +h. h-A C:-.-+ +- -I,.A-- +ha:- ..,--A --+ +- --la-+
i u i c i i c aiiuwcu a i i y v i r i i ~ i i ir v aaii, riir;y iiau i i i r~w ~y i c u p L I I C . ~ wwu NNVL LU I I IWIGOL
English shipping*. G. E. MANWARINTGh, e Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring.
London, 1920, 1, p. 12. Mainwairing received the royal pardon in 1616. Pirates who
behaved worse could always receive their pardon from other princes. E.g. Peter Easton
From Lanzarote to Morocco: The career of a Dutch renegade 647
whose home port was al-Mamura form 1607 until 1613. He received his pardon from
the duke of Savoia and died as a marquis. Cfr. C. M. SENIORA, nation of pirates. En-glish
piracy in its heyday. London, 1976, pp. 68-72.
13. K. Heeringa, o.c., 1, p. 814.
14. Id. o.c.,I, pp. 824-827.
15. R. E. J. WEBER, o.c., pp. 179-1 80; D. P. DE VRIES, Korte Historiael ende
Journaels Aenteyckeninge van verscheyden voyagiens in &? vier deelen des Werelts-ronde,
als Europa, Africa, Asia, ende Amerika gedaen, H. T. Colenbrander (ed.), 'S-Gravenhage,
1911, pp. 28-30.
16. On the European pirates who descended on the Morocan coast there is a
colourful account in C. M. SENIORo, .c., pp. 48-77; information on the Honacheros
abounds in Henry DE CASTRIESS, ources inédites sur l'histoire du Maroc. Paris, 1896-.
(S.I.H.M.). Further particulars may be found in A. SÁNCHEZP ÉREZ,« Los Moriscos de
Hornachos, corsarios de Salé*, Revista de Estudios Extremeños, 20 (1964, 1), pp. 93-149,
and A. GONZÁLEZR ODR~GUEHZo,r nachos. enclave morisco. Peculiaridades de una
población distinta, Mérida, 1990.
17. An exhaustive study on Dutch-Morrocan diplomatic relations has not been
published yet. The relationship during the first half of the 17th century is treated in
K. HEERINGA«, Een bondgenootschap tusschen Nederland en Marokko 1612», Onze
Trouw, 111 (1907). pp. 81ff.; M. WOLFF, «De eerste Nederlandsche gezant naar en het
eerste handelsverdrag met Marokko». Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 3 1 (19 16), pp. 27 1 -
287; J. CAILLÉ, ~Ambassadeurs, chargés de missions et consuls hollandais au Maroc ti
I'époque des sultans saadiens». Hespéris-Tamuda, 11 (1970), pp. 171-207; G. S. VAN
KRIEKEN«,N ederlanders in Marokko (1638-1651), Spiegel Historiael, 17 (1982). pp. 203-
21 1 and F. ENGELEN«,T he influence of Dutch Military Technology on the Marocco of
Mawlay Zaydan (1603-1627)n in Le Maroc et la Hollande. Actes de la deuxieme recontre
universitaire, Rabat, 1990, pp. 2 1-28.
18. B. BENNASSAaRnd L. BENNASSALRe,s chrétiens d'Allah. L'histoire extraordi-naire
des renégats. xv~e-xv/ /sei ecles. Paris, 1989, pp. 27-39.
19. In the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century the terrn «Fleming» is almost
exclusively used to designate the inhabitants of the -from the Spanish point of view-rebellious
provinces in the Netherlands.
20. Cfr. K. HEERINGAo,.c ., 1, p. 109. The log of Albert Ruyl is printed in S.I.H.M.
Pays-Bas, 111, pp. 265-362. 396-473; 506-557. Information on the politics of Salé may
be found in various volumes of the S.I.H.M. and in R. COINDREAULe.s corsaires de
Salé. Paris, 1948. An intruiging and daring analysis gives J. B. BOOKIN-WEINE«RT.h e
Moroccan corsairs of Rabat-Salé» in A. KADDOUR(eId .). Le Maroc et I'Atlantique. Rabat,
1992, pp. 163-191.
21. S.I.H.M.P.B., II1,pp. 244-246.
22. S.I.H.M.P.B., 111, pp. 363-364.
23. K. Heeringa, o.c., 1, pp. 905-906 and 915-917; Resolurien der Staten-Generaal
1623-1624. J. Roelevink (ed.) n." 2274, 2313; 2315; 2340; 2396; 2433; 2708; 2724; 2785;
2859. A more or less romanticised account may be found in S. DE VRIES. Handelingen
en geschiedenissen voorgevallen tusschen den Staet der Vereenigde Nederlanden en dien
van de ieerovers in Barbaryen. Amsterdam, 1684, pp. 57-59.
24. S.I.H.M.P.B., 111, pp. 503-505.
25. O.C., IV, pp. 10-11.
26. H. DE CASTRES, Agenfs et voyageurs frangais au Maroc, 1530-1660. Paris,
19 1 1, pp. XXXIX-XLVII.
648 ~ o o sV ermeden
27. J. BOOKIN-WEINE«Ro.,c .», p. 169; D. W. PROWSEA. History of Newfoundland.
New York, 1895, p. 146; R. COINDREAUo.,c ., pp. 121-123.
28. S.I.H.M.P.B., IV, pp. 30-37.
29. K. HEERINGAo.,c ., 1, pp. 905-906 and 975.
30. K. HEERINGAO, .C., 1, pp. 979-980; L. C. VRIJMANO,. C., pp. 227-228; S. DE
VRIES, o.c., pp. 64-66; S.I.H.M. Frunce, 111, pp. 529-532 and 537.
31. L. C. VRIIMANo.. c., 236-254; H. DUNLOPH. ollandsche zeerovers in de 17e
eeuw. Zutphen, 1938 is almost completely devoted to this intruiging pirate. A short ac-count
of his career may be found in S.I.H.M.P.B., 111, 513-514.
32. E.g. L. C. VRIJMANo..c ., pp. 230-231; R. COINDREAoU.c.. , p. 122; ~ hG:O SSE.
Geschiedenis van de Zeeroverij. 'S-Gravenhage, 1952, 1, pp. 72-77; D. MITCHELL.
Piraten. Amsterdam, 1977, pp. 144-149; S. CLISSOLDD. e Barbarijse slaven. Haarlem,
1979, p. 85; etc. B. LEWIS. «Corsairs in Iceland». Revue de l'occident Musulman et de
la Méditerranée, 15-16 (1973) pp. 139-144 based his account on Icelandic sources.
33. P. DAN. Historie van Barbaryen en deszelfs zeeroovers. Amsterdam, 1684,
p. 305 and 340.
34. C. PUNACKER. Historysch verhael vatz den steden Tkmes, Algiers ende andere
steden M2 Barbarien gelegen. G. S. Van Krieken (ed.). 'S-Gravenhage, 1975, p. 87.
35. Cfr. e.g. R. COINDREAoU.c, ., pp. 39-47. A more detailed account is given by
J. B. BOOKIN-WEINE«Ro,. c.», pp. 170-18 4.
36. S.I.H.M.P.B. IV, pp. 169-170.
37. P. C. ROGERSA. HisIory of Anglo-Moroccan Relations to 1900. London, s.d.,
pp. 22-30; S.I.H.M. Angleterre, 111, pp. 33-34.
38. S.I.H.M.F. 111, pp. 219-221; different versions of the battle on p. 258 and 270.
39. K. HEERINGAo.,c ., 1, p. 1018; S.IH.M.P.B. IV, p. 268.
40. S.I.H.M.A. 111, p. 107.
41. S.I.H.M.F. 111, pp. 289-291, 309-310. 313-314 and 339-340.
42. S.I.H.M.A. 111, pp. 127-128. The version given by Jan Jansz. of his earlier adven-tures
might be slightly romanticised and embellished to please westem ears, since renegades
who had renounced God and their native country were not exactly welcome in Europe.
43. S.I.H.M.A. 111, p. 159.
44. R. COINDREAoU.c,. , pp. 68-69.
45. P. DAN.o .c., p. 305 (Dutch edition); R. L. PLAYFAIRT.h e scourge of Christen-dom.
London, '1884, pp. 52-53.
46. G. FISHERB. arbary Legend. War, trade and piracy in North Africa 1415-1830.
Oxford, 1957, p. 205 is quothed quite literally.
47. 1. DUNTONA. truejournall of the SallyJeel. London, 1637. Cfr. M. BELHAMISSI.
Histoire de la marine algerienne (1516-1830). Algiers, 1986, p. 147 but has the date wrong.
48. P. DAN. o.c., pp. 246-247 (Dutch edition).
49. E. Rossi. Sroria di Tripuii e úeiiu Ti-ipoliiüiiiü düllü C~ n q ü k t aA mba al ??!l.
Rome, 1968, p. 181 and gives further referentes.
50. C. PIJNACKEoR.,c ., p. 87.
51. S.I.H.M.A. 111, pp. 485-486. Muley Mahamet Sheck is Mawlay Muhammad al-
Asghar who reigned from 1636 till 1654.
52. Voyage d'Adrien Matham au Maroc (1640-1641). F. DE HELLWAL(Ded .). Den
Haag, 1866, pp. 50-53 and 82.
53. TlLi l e Lvi:-v-g--i-ahp.,i iy 0,F r-. PLvriiiimyu-r~ii nn ~ U hSpp n u_.... ,n...i ihlirhprl nniitp rprpnrlv in nor J
Untergang der Batavia und andere Schrffsjournale und originalberichte aus der groj3en
Zeit der niederlündischen Seefahrt im 17. und 18. Jahrhunder. M. R. C. Fuhnnann-Plemp
van Duiveland (ed.). Tübingen and Basel, 1976, pp. 157-253. The remark is on p. 183.