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Olivier Levasseur

French pirate captain, one of the three confederated commanders whose companies took ten English vessels at Sierra Leone in the spring of 1719, and the man later writers credit with a Bourbon prize the period accounts give to Taylor.

BornNot establishedDiedNot establishedAlso writtenLe Bouse a Frenchman (Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, first-hand); La Bouse (Johnson's General History, 1724, Davis chapter); la Bouche (Johnson's General History, 1724, England chapter); Oliver la Bouche (Johnson's list of the commanders at New Providence); Capt. Oliver de la Bouche (Captain Mackra's letter of 16 November 1720, printed by Johnson); La Buse (later usage only; not in the period sources read); Levasseur, also Le Vasseur (later usage only; not in the period sources read)

In the spring of 1719 three pirate companies lay at Sierra Leone, and William Snelgrave, who had just been robbed by one of them, set the Frenchman among their commanders down as "Le Bouse a Frenchman". The rest of him is a year on the Guinea coast out of Charles Johnson's General History of 1724: the meeting with Howell Davis, the fort, the galley, the market at Whydah, and then a wreck off Mayotta.1,2,3

The name

Snelgrave gave him no forename. Oliver comes from Johnson, twice: in the list of the commanders at New Providence, where he is "Oliver la Bouche", and in Captain Mackra's letter, where he is "Capt. Oliver de la Bouche". Olivier is the modern French form of it, and the name he goes by now.4

Snelgrave's own spelling is Le Bouse. The "Le BooSe" that turns up in the scanned text of him is a machine misreading, not a form of the name.5

Nassau, before Rogers

Johnson's list of the commanders in the island before the governor came is hedged in four words: "I think were these". It runs Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, Charles Vane, Edward England and Thomas Cocklyn, and among them Oliver la Bouche, who, he adds later, was afterwards cast away.6,7

Sierra Leone, 1719

Snelgrave came in on 1 April 1719 and found three pirate ships in company that had taken ten English vessels between them. His own was one of the ten, boarded by Cocklyn's crew. Snelgrave named the brigantine's commander "Le Bouse a Frenchman".8,9

Johnson tells the meeting with Davis as a comedy of flags. The Frenchman came down in chase, fired a gun and hoisted his black colours; Davis returned the salute and hoisted his; then both had their boats out and met under a flag of truce. Johnson gives the ship as fourteen guns and sixty four hands, "half French, half Negroes", and the captain as La Bouse. What he wanted was a better ship. Davis promised him the first fit one he took.10,11

The fort at Sierra Leone was taken with his ship. Davis and Cocklyn went up in La Bouse's brigantine to attack it, and the three companies held the place for near seven weeks afterwards. A galley that came into the road while they sat there was yielded to him, and he cut away her half deck and mounted twenty four guns in her.12,13

It did not hold. Drinking together aboard Davis's ship the three of them nearly fell out, and Davis ended the confederacy with a speech. He had put a rod into their hands to whip himself, he told Cocklyn and La Bouse, and could still deal with them both, "but since we met in Love, let us part in Love, for I find, that three of a Trade can never agree." They went aboard their own ships and each steered a different course.14

Whydah Road, and a wreck off Mayotta

He worked the coast alone after that. When Edward England came down to Whydah Road he found la Bouche there before him, arrived first and the trade already taken.15

The last place he stood was a beach, and the news came by canoe and letter. Captain Mackra wrote from Bombay on 16 November 1720 that at Juanna in July he had found fourteen pirates come over in their canoes from Mayotta. He wrote as a man freshly robbed himself, laying the loss of his own ship, the Cassandra, on the desertion of her consort the Greenwich. Their ship the Indian Queen, two hundred and fifty tons, twenty eight guns, ninety men, commanded by Capt. Oliver de la Bouche and bound from Guinea to the East Indies, had been bulged and lost. They said they had left their captain and forty of their men building a new vessel to go on with the business. That is the last of him: on Mayotta, building.16,17,18,19

The famous part

The prize that made the name is not his. Later writers give him the great Portuguese ship taken at Bourbon in April 1721, with the Viceroy of Goa aboard. Johnson gives her to Taylor, with England already marooned before it, and does not put la Bouche in the bay at all.20

Jameson's Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period was searched through for La Bouse, La Buse, Le Bouse, la Bouche and Levasseur and holds none of them, nor the Portuguese ship, nor the Viceroy, nor the Cassandra. What this record holds is a brigantine captain in a river in April 1719 and a name in another man's letter.21

What the evidence does not settle

Identity

  • The surname Levasseur beyond Johnson's forename and Snelgrave's French captain
  • Later tradition gives Calais and 1688, 1689 or 1690

The Bourbon prize

  • Whether Levasseur took part in the 1721 Goa prize

His end

  • Whether French colonial records show that he was hanged on Bourbon
  • Later tradition gives a hanging at Reunion on 7 July 1730

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. A French pirate known in the period print as Le Bouse, La Bouse and la Bouche was active on the Guinea coast in 1719; William Snelgrave, a first-hand witness, calls him "Le Bouse a Frenchman", and Charles Johnson's General History names him as La Bouse and la Bouche. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness narrative: A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade; A General History of the Pyrates
  2. Snelgrave's A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea (1734) is the only first-hand source read for this record that names the man, placing "Le Bouse a Frenchman" in the Sierra Leone confederacy on 1 April 1719. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness narrative: A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade
  3. Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates (1724) carries every other episode attached to the man, the New Providence list, the meeting with Howell Davis, the Sierra Leone fort and galley, the forestalling at Whydah, Captain Mackra's letter and the Indian Queen, and nothing read for this record corroborates any of it except the Sierra Leone confederacy, which Snelgrave attests. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates
  4. The forename rests on Johnson alone, who lists "Oliver la Bouche" among the commanders at New Providence and prints Captain Mackra's letter naming "Capt. Oliver de la Bouche"; Snelgrave gives only the surname-nickname. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates
  5. The Snelgrave text read for this record prints the name Le Bouse; the Internet Archive scan of the same passage corrupts the word to "Le BooSe", which is a scanning artefact and not a distinct form of the name. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness narrative: A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade
  6. Johnson lists "Oliver la Bouche" among the pirate commanders in the island of Providence before Woodes Rogers arrived in 1718, and says that he was afterwards cast away. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates
  7. Johnson's list of the commanders then in the island, which he prefaces "I think were these", places Oliver la Bouche among Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, Charles Vane, Edward England, Thomas Cocklyn and eight others. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Introduction
  8. Snelgrave arrived at Sierra Leone on 1 April 1719 and found three pirate ships in company that had taken ten English ships, naming "Le Bouse a Frenchman" as commander of the brigantine. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness narrative: A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade
  9. As one of the three confederated captains at Sierra Leone in about April 1719 he shared in the plunder of about ten English ships; Snelgrave's own ship was among them, taken by Cocklyn's crew rather than by his. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Eyewitness narrative: A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade; A General History of the Pyrates
  10. Johnson gives the French pirate ship that fell in with Howell Davis as of fourteen guns and sixty four hands, "half French, half Negroes", and her captain's name as La Bouse. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis and his Crew
  11. By Johnson's account the two ships met by mistake, La Bouse firing a gun and hoisting his black colours as he made to board, Davis returning the salute with his own, the captains then meeting by boat under a flag of truce and agreeing to sail down the coast together, Davis promising him the first fit ship he took. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis and his Crew
  12. Davis and Cocklyn went up in La Bouse's brigantine to attack the Sierra Leone fort, and the three companies held the place for near seven weeks afterwards. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis and his Crew
  13. A galley that came into the Sierra Leone road was yielded to him at Davis's insistence, and he cut away her half deck and mounted her with twenty four guns. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis and his Crew
  14. The confederacy broke up after a drunken quarrel aboard Davis's ship, Davis telling Cocklyn and La Bouse that he had put a rod into their hands to whip himself and that three of a trade can never agree, upon which the other two went aboard their own ships and parted, each steering a different course. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis and his Crew
  15. Operating independently after the confederacy broke up, la Bouche reached Whydah Road before Edward England and forestalled the market there, disappointing England's company. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. V, Of Capt. Edward England and his Crew
  16. He commanded the pirate ship Indian Queen, of two hundred and fifty tons, twenty eight guns and ninety men, on a passage from the Guinea coast toward the East Indies until she was bulged and lost near Mayotta in about 1720. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. V, Of Capt. Edward England and his Crew, printing the letter of Captain Mackra dated Bombay 16 November 1720
  17. Captain Mackra, writing from Bombay on 16 November 1720, reported that on putting in at Juanna in July he found fourteen pirates who had come in their canoes from Mayotta, where their ship the Indian Queen, commanded by Capt. Oliver de la Bouche, had been bulged and lost. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. V, Of Capt. Edward England and his Crew, printing the letter of Captain Mackra dated Bombay 16 November 1720
  18. The fourteen men who came off from Mayotta told Mackra that they had left their captain and forty of their men there building a new vessel in which to proceed on their design. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. V, Of Capt. Edward England and his Crew, printing the letter of Captain Mackra dated Bombay 16 November 1720
  19. Captain Mackra's letter, printed by Johnson, names his own lost ship the Cassandra and imputes her loss to the desertion of her consort the Greenwich. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, Chap. V, Of Capt. Edward England and his Crew, printing the letter of Captain Mackra dated Bombay 16 November 1720
  20. The taking of the great Portuguese ship at Bourbon in April 1721, with the Viceroy of Goa aboard, is attached to him by later writers only; Johnson, the period narrative read for this record, credits that prize to Taylor, England having been marooned before it, and does not name la Bouche at it. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates
  21. Jameson's Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period (1923) was searched in full and contains no mention of La Bouse, La Buse, Le Bouse, la Bouche or Levasseur, and nothing of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo, the Conde de Ericeira or the Cassandra episode. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Edited collection of primary documents (negative search): Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents