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Francois l'Olonnais

French buccaneer of Tortuga, handed his first ship by the governor of the island, who stormed the fort at the bar of Maracaibo and sacked the city and Gibraltar on the same lake.

BornunknownDiednot establishedAlso writtenFrancis Lolonois (Exquemelin's spelling); Lolonois (Exquemelin, throughout the chapters); Francis Lolonois (1695 English printing of the History of the Bucaniers of America)

Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, barber-surgeon to the buccaneers, put Francois l'Olonnais into his Buccaneers of America. Nobody else put him anywhere.1

The name

Exquemelin spells him "Lolonois" throughout and takes the byname from his country: he was, he writes, "a native of that territory in France which is called Les Sables d'Olone, or The Sands of Olone". The English printing of the History of the Bucaniers of America calls him Francis Lolonois, of the same territory. Francois l'Olonnais is the modern English head form; the French spelling puts a cedilla under the c of Francois.2

The naming stops short of a surname. Jean-David Nau, printed everywhere now, has nothing behind it: there is a forename, a byname and no more. Neither is there a year. Exquemelin keeps time by season, "about the end of April", "the last of July", and never by the calendar, so the familiar dates, born about 1630, Maracaibo in 1667, dead about 1669, were fixed on him afterwards by other hands.3,4

How he came by a ship

He began as a servant. Carried young to the Caribbee islands "in quality of servant, or slave", in Exquemelin's phrase, then to Hispaniola and the hunters there, then two or three voyages as a common mariner, in which he pleased the governor of Tortuga, Monsieur de la Place, well enough to be handed a ship of his own. Everything after that begins with the gift.5

Maracaibo and Gibraltar

He made two expeditions, and the first is the fuller told. He stormed the fort de la barra, sixteen guns, and took the city of Maracaibo, then Gibraltar on the same lake, where the defence is put at about eight hundred men and the Spanish loss is heavy. The buccaneers marched in good order into a town whose people had already gone into the woods and away towards Gibraltar with their wives and children.6

The sums are round, and they are Exquemelin's alone. Ten thousand pieces of eight to spare Gibraltar from burning; twenty thousand and five hundred cows for Maracaibo; a dividend of two hundred and sixty thousand pieces of eight; above five hundred Spaniards dead at Gibraltar. The great church of Maracaibo was stripped of its images, its pictures and its bells.7

The cruelty

The governor of Havana sent a ship of ten guns and ninety men against him. Exquemelin has him take her in the river Estera and behead the crew one by one, including the black man appointed their hangman, who pleaded and was killed anyway, and spare one man to carry a message ashore: "I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever."8

Maracaibo prisoners racked, and one hacked to pieces in front of the rest to loosen their tongues. At Gibraltar above a hundred and fifty prisoners left without provisions while the buccaneers ate the flesh and the flour. At Puerto Cavallo, cutting men with his hanger and pulling out their tongues, as his custom was. And on the road to San Pedro the worst of it, a prisoner's breast cut open, the heart pulled out and bitten and gnawed "like a ravenous wolf" to frighten the others into showing him another way through.9

He was never tried, and none of it was ever charged against him in a court.10

Exquemelin writes that Spaniards "would choose rather to die, or sink fighting, than surrender" to him, and his chapters close by calling him "that infernal wretch Lolonois". By the time the book reaches a later captain the name has become a unit of measurement, a man who "may deservedly be called the second Lolonois".11

The last voyage

The second expedition went towards Nicaragua and Honduras. The Indian inhabitants of the river Xagua are destroyed in a single clause. Inland from Puerto Cavallo the company marched on San Pedro, where he granted the townspeople two hours and then, the term being out, sent men after them to rob them and take them prisoner.12

He was beaten off at the river of Nicaragua and taken, further along the coast, by the Indians of Darien. The English printing has his body thrown limb by limb into the fire and his ashes into the air, so that no trace or memory of him should be left. That ending comes through one man. "One of his companions gave me an exact account of this tragedy," Exquemelin writes, an unnamed survivor who said he had narrowly escaped the same death.13

Exquemelin himself reached Tortuga in 1666 in the employ of the French West India Company, served the buccaneers as a barber-surgeon after his indenture until 1672, and says he was present at all their exploits. His book appeared in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1678 and in English in 1684, and Henry Morgan brought a libel action over it in an English court in 1685.14,15

What is missing is nearly everything a record office would hold. No baptism, no surname, no year of birth or death, no Spanish account of Maracaibo or Gibraltar, no colonial letter that mentions him, no trial. This page is the shape of one man's book, checked against a second English printing of that same book, which is not the same thing as corroboration.

What the evidence does not settle

Name

  • Evidence for the birth name Jean-David NauSpeculative

Chronology

  • Calendar years for the Maracaibo raid and his deathConfirmed

Death account

  • Independent evidence for the unnamed informant's account of his death

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Everything the Archive can state about the French buccaneer Exquemelin calls Francis Lolonois comes from one narrative, Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America, no independent colonial record naming him having been reached. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII, and the editorial Introduction), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  2. Exquemelin spells the name Lolonois throughout and calls him a native of that territory in France which is called Les Sables d'Olone, or The Sands of Olone, from which the byname derives, and the 1695 English printing of the History of the Bucaniers of America opens its chapter on him in the same terms. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII, and the editorial Introduction), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, first Lolonois chapter
  3. The birth name Jean-David Nau, conventionally given by modern writers, is carried by no source read for this record, Exquemelin supplying only the forename Francis and the byname Lolonois and no surname at all. Speculative An inference, not a finding. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  4. Exquemelin supplies no calendar year anywhere in the l'Olonnais narrative, timing it only by season with phrases such as about the end of April and the last of July, so that the familiar birth about 1630, the Maracaibo raid of 1667 and the death about 1669 are later conventions the source does not carry. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  5. Exquemelin's account of his beginnings takes him young to the Caribbee islands in quality of servant, or slave, then to Hispaniola and the hunters there, then through two or three voyages as a common mariner in which he gained the favour of the governor of Tortuga, Monsieur de la Place, who gave him a ship. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  6. The narrative divides into two expeditions, the first of which storms the fort de la barra of sixteen guns and sacks the city of Maracaibo and then the town of Gibraltar on the same lake, the 1695 English printing describing the buccaneers marching in good order into a town whose inhabitants had already retired into the woods and towards Gibraltar with their families. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, the Maracaibo chapter
  7. The figures of the raid are Exquemelin's own round numbers, giving a ransom of ten thousand pieces of eight at Gibraltar, twenty thousand pieces of eight and five hundred cows at Maracaibo, a dividend of two hundred and sixty thousand pieces of eight, above five hundred Spaniards dead at Gibraltar, and the stripping of the great church of Maracaibo of its images, pictures and bells. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  8. Exquemelin has him take a Havana relief ship of ten guns and ninety men in the river Estera and behead her crew one by one, killing the black man appointed to be their hangman despite his plea and sparing one man to carry ashore a written message to the governor of Havana that he would never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  9. The cruelties Exquemelin lays to him run from the racking of Maracaibo prisoners and the hacking of one to pieces before the rest, through above a hundred and fifty prisoners left without provisions at Gibraltar and the cutting of prisoners with his hanger and pulling out of their tongues at Puerto Cavallo, to the cutting open of a prisoner's breast on the road to San Pedro and the biting and gnawing of his heart like a ravenous wolf, a scene the 1695 English printing carries in the same terms. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, the march on San Pedro
  10. l'Olonnais was never tried and no court record touching him has been read, so every act laid to him is alleged in a narrative rather than adjudicated and the word proven attaches to none of them. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  11. Cruelty is the defining element of the source portrait: Exquemelin writes that Spaniards would choose rather to die, or sink fighting, than surrender to him, closes the chapters by calling him that infernal wretch Lolonois, and later uses the name as a measure of savagery by saying of another pirate that he may deservedly be called the second Lolonois. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  12. Exquemelin's second expedition ran towards Nicaragua and Honduras, destroying the Indian inhabitants of the river Xagua in a single clause and marching inland from Puerto Cavallo to the town of San Pedro, where a two-hour quarter granted to the inhabitants was broken once the term was out and they were followed, robbed and made prisoners. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, the second expedition
  13. Exquemelin ends the story with a repulse at the river of Nicaragua and the seizure of l'Olonnais by the Indians of Darien, the 1695 English printing having his body thrown limb by limb into the fire and his ashes into the air so that no trace or memory of him should remain, the whole resting on one unnamed companion who gave the author an exact account of the tragedy and claimed to have escaped the same death. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the l'Olonnais chapters VI to VIII), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, the death among the Indians of Darien
  14. Exquemelin was a participant, the edition's Introduction placing his arrival at Tortuga in 1666 in the employ of the French West India Company and his service to the buccaneers as a barber-surgeon, after a period of servitude, until 1672, present at all their exploits. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the editorial Introduction), Gutenberg ebook 26690
  15. Exquemelin's book was first published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1678 and first printed in English in 1684, the l'Olonnais chapters standing also in the English printing of 1695, and its standing as a witness was contested in law when Henry Morgan brought a libel action over its English text in 1685. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Exquemelin, The Pirates of Panama, or The Buccaneers of America (the editorial Introduction), Gutenberg ebook 26690; Exquemelin, The History of the Bucaniers of America, English printing of 1695, Part II, first Lolonois chapter