Roc Brasiliano
Precious little is known of Roc, or Roche, Brasiliano. English language sources are almost non-existent. Those in Spanish are less than flattering, and are rather unreliable due to a prejudice not to be wondered at. The French sources are best, because he seems originally to have been a denizen of the most successful and long-running of piratical havens, the French Huguenot colony on the island of Tortuga, off the northwest coast of Hispaniola (Haïti).
On the map above, please note the island of Tortuga
(île de la Tortue-island of the tortoise) just to the north of
Port de Paix--the two were the earliest French colonies
in the West Indies.
He was very well-known to the bucaneers of his day, and probably enjoyed a higher reputation then than that which has since remained to him. Upon a time, Roc, or Roche (likely from the French
rocher, a rock) was one of the most feared men in Jamaica, walking the streets of Port Royale with a naked cutlass in his hand, dealing out blows for any slight, real or imagined.
Other than that he was Dutch, little is known of his origins or early life. One of the French sources states:
Dans ce même âge héroïque de la Tortue surgit un autre héros exemplaire, Roche Brasiliano, dit Le Roc. Identité exacte inconnue, mais à peu près certainement né à Groningue, Pays-Bas, de parents commerçants qui l'emmènent au Brésil où il vit jusqu'en 1654 . . .
In this same heroic age of Tortuga burst forth another exemplary hero, Roche Brasiliano, known as The Roc. His exact identity unknown, but very nearly certainly born at Groningen in the Low Countries, of a commercial trading family who took him to Brazil where he lived until 1654 . . .
His preferred
modus operndi was to cruise the waters off Campeche on the Yucatan penninsula. In the lower gulf of Mexico, the cities of Vera Cruz on the western shore, Villa Hermosa on the souther shore and Campeche on the eastern shore formed a triangle within which moved some of the fattest pickings then available. This was far from the central scene of the action in the Greater Antilles and on the Spanish Main, and meant that the targets were numerous and rich, but the protection of the
Costa Garda much more effective. His choice of an area in which to operate had two effects on the reputaton of Roc Brasiliano in his own day. The first was for his courage and resourcefulness, as few others would choose to operate in those waters, and fewer still to make it a regular haunt. The second was that he was fabulously successful and those who sailed with him were rewarded with wealth beyond that which they could expect in the service of any other corsair.
Roc secured the admiration and loyalty of the other pirates for two other good and sufficient reasons--he was truly a sailor, a fine navigator who could sail them through any tempest; he was a man of singular courage and quick discernment--boarding a potential prize, he unerringly moved from one opponent to the next, striking down the most courageous of the defenders, and quickly securing the surrender of the prize with the least casualties to his men.
Each year, the Spanish treasure fleet would assemble in the Gulf and on the western shores of the Spanish Main, and then sail for Havana, from whence the assembled fleet, seeking protection in numbers, sailed for Europe. Roc would pick off lone galleons in the Gulf, and when the Gulf fleet was assembled, follow them to pick off the stragglers, ignoring the
Costa Garda with an obvious contempt which must have infuriated them. A first class sailor, he would cut out his intended target, and wearing (as mentioned above, this means to turn the vessel quickly from one course to another, to throw off the enemy's aim--the nautical equivalent of bobbing and weaving), he would lay along side, board, remove the truly valuable items, and then put the crew in boats and burn the victim, a beacon to the
Costa Garda to find his most recent prey and no sign of Roc.
The Roc was sufficiently well-known and respected that he was enlisted by Henry Morgan for his expedition against Puerto Bello and Panama. It is said by one of the French sources:
. . . le Roc a l'air mâle et le corps robuste, le regard fier et toutefois riant. Aussi brave soldat que bon pilote, habile à toutes les armes, y compris celles des Indiens. (" . . . the Roc had a masculine air and a bobust body, and a proud and laughing expression, and [was] as brave a soldier and he was a good navigator, accustomed to all manner of arms, including those of the Indians.") Further, we are informed that he had "his true weakness and failings . . . which he always turned to his own advantage. Taken by the Spanish off Campeche, and speaking a fluent and faultless Spanish, he slipped his chains and mingled with the crew, finishing the voyage in Spain and being paid off with the others. He then returned to Tortuga, whence he began again his career . . . "
Roc Barsiliano disappeard from history, much as had Anne Bonny. One French source, but one only, says that he died penniless, of disease, a beggar in the streets of Port Royale. Most of the sources, however, recount contemporary speculation that his accumulated wealth allowed him to retire to a comfortable life, and one in which no man would challenge his peace and freedom.
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