DOGS. Legacy Saga II

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At the same time, since Spanish authorities did nothing about it, the main businessmen took action on their own. The convoys got larger, and ships would carry less goods to accommodate artillery. Some operators offered war brigantines to escort not only convoys, but those merchantmen that couldn't wait for a secure group to cross the Caribbean Sea.

And those who couldn't wait for a convoy and couldn't afford the protection, started praying when they set sail, and kept at it until they made port. Unless two or three black-flagged boats disturbed their prayers.

Politics added another grain of salt to spice the mix up. Spain being in peace with France and England, the King's diplomats wouldn't give a break to their peers in Paris and London, demanding that their monarchs did something about the situation in the Americas. Since freebooters answered only to the black flag, and they didn't tribute a share of their plunder, Tortuga and Port Royal Governors started to give in to the pressure from Europe. They tried to restrict filibuster and Jamaican freebooters as much as they could, but didn't achieve much. So they promoted the endowing of letters of marque, as a legal resource to have any kind of control over so many reckless scavengers berthing at their harbors.

However, both Bertrand D'Oregon in Tortuga and Sir Thomas Lynch in Jamaica didn't bother to follow the orders from the Old World down to the letter. Especially when those were to outlaw piracy and jail or execute any pirate that would show up at their shores. It was plain common sense. The economy of the colonies they ran was sustained mostly by the freebooters, who supplied stores and shops with their plunder. While corsairs and privateers filled the colonies' vaults.

The distinguished palace officers across the ocean decided they weren't so upset after all, and they could overlook the issue a while longer. Nothing like a chest full of pieces of eight and jewels, or a pretty pile of golden or silver bars to soothe their distress. After all, financing a Crown properly wasn't cheap. And everybody knew Spaniards always found something to whine about.

Anyway, D'Oregon and Lynch were wise men, and they started setting the foundations for the future of their colonies.

With the western part of La Hispaniola under his control, D'Oregon could offer good land to any filibuster who wanted to change their line of work and become honest landowners and farmers. A Brethren of the Coast himself before becoming governor, D'Oregon didn't even try to go against the matelotage, the traditional union between two sailors, who vowed to share danger, wealth and misfortune till death did them part. But he kept bringing women from France to help the entrepreneurs to settle down and raise a family, even if it had two husbands instead of one. He also supported those bold few who wanted to try the other side of La Hispaniola. The central part of the island was under the Spaniards' iron fist, with many cities and soldiers to defend it. But its northeastern end was hardly populated, and some French adventurers tried to settle around Samana Bay.

Only seven years after becoming Tortuga Governor, D'Oregon had introduced smooth, positive changes that would transform forever that libertarian men-only society, turning it into an organized, open community.

Something Lynch never got to do in Jamaica before being recalled to London in 1674. And that his successors failed to achieve, which would end up causing a bloody confrontation between men who had once called each other brother, while they sailed together under the same black flag.

In 1672, even if the Brethren of the Coast still had years of spotlight ahead, tides were turning for pirates in the Caribbean, after almost two centuries of bending the rules to their will. And like any period of change, it didn't lack a hint of chaos that some expected to exploit.

Meanwhile, Laventry had grown to like being the Admiral. A respectful nickname he'd earned not because of his resounding war actions, but thanks to his charisma as a leader. Opposite to other renown corsairs and privateers, men followed him because they trusted his good sense when it came to crucial decisions. They knew he would never swindle them, like Morgan, or push them to some dangerous quest that could mean the death of them all, like L'Olonnais. Unlike that sinister character, Laventry didn't act out on a deep hate for his former Spanish masters, nor had he betrayed them to save his life, like Laurens de Graaf.