Raid on Nassau
| Raid on Nassau | |
|---|---|
| Part of The Bahamas | |
| Result | Franco-Spanish victory, Nassau is briefly occupied, then destroyed. |
England Blas Moreno de Mondragón 
Claude Le Chesnaye300~400 men
100 prisoners
22 guns
The Raid on Nassau, on the
Raid
Leaders of the island colonies of Santiago de Cuba and Saint-Domingue viewed Nassau as a menace, and raised a joint expedition of Spanish soldiers and French boucaniers, sending them to Nassau in October 1703 aboard two frigates in the command of the officers Blas Moreno Mondragón and Claude Le Chesnaye.[1] They surprised 250 English inhabitants[verification needed] at the capital of New Providence slaughtering more than 100, taking 80-100 prisoners, seizing 22 guns, throwing down all the fortifications, and returning to Santiago de Cuba a few days later with the prisoners and 13 ships as prizes.[2] Among the prisoners was Governor Ellis Lightwood.[2][1]
Aftermath
The English inhabitants retired to the woods until the danger was over. Returning they found the island completely ruined and reduced to a desert, they found means to remove themselves to other settlements. England had taken to little concern in the affairs of New Providence, that they did not even know of the catastrophe which had happened. Edward Birch was appointed as new governor, but when he went to Nassau found it entirely abandoned; so he was obliged to return home without having opened his commission.[5] Another enemy raid in 1706 left only twenty-seven families still cringing inside makeshift huts on New Providence Island, and no more than 400 to 500 English residents scattered considerable distress from more descents during the remainder of this conflict, while their scant overseas trade dried up and no new governors or assistance came out from England. Birch saw the inhabitants without "a shift to cover their nakedness" that he did not bother to unroll his commission before taking ship back to England.[4][6] John Graves (who had come to the Bahamas with Thomas Bridges in 1686 and served for at time as colonial secretary) reported in 1706 that the few New Providence survivors "lived scatteringly in little hutts, ready upon any assault to secure themselves in the woods."[4]
References and notes
Bibliography
- Oldmixon, John (1966). The History of the Isle of Providence. Providence Press.[full citation needed]
- Albury, Paul (1976). The Story of the Bahamas. St. Martins Press. ISBN 0312762658.
- Marley, F. David (2005). "Bahamas". Historic Cities of the Americas: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Vol. 1: The Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 3–15. ISBN 1576070271. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
- Craton, Michael; Saunders, Gail (1999). Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People. Vol. 1: From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0820321222.
- Marley, F. David (1998). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0874368375.
- ]
Further reading
- Baker, P. (2001). Bahamas, Turks & Caicos. Lonely Planet Publishing. ISBN 1864501995.