LA BUSE WRITES A LETTER
After the profitable raid, La Buse and Taylor’s crews returned to Madagascar where they spent ten months on St Mary’s island refitting the Portuguese ship. During this time, a contemporary reported, ‘they spent a great deal, paying in money and diamonds at least twenty times the value of the goods they needed to purchase.’ Furthermore, without opportunities to sell the rich cargo of the Nossa, the goods were valueless. Spices, drugs, the ruins of several ships and their cargoes were seen piled up in great heaps on the shore, rotting away.
The wealth of La Buse was already disappearing rapidly, and over the next few months, with shipwrecks, disputes, and other misadventures dispersing loot and pirates alike, by late 1723, La Buse and the survivors of his pirate crew were hoping to benefit from an amnesty deal, and retire to Bourbon. In March 1724 La Buse wrote a letter to the authorities on the island explaining his circumstances:
When I came to Madagascar it was to secure some prospects for myself upon which I could retire to Bourbon. But the ship on which we proposed to come in, having been wrecked on the coast, I spent the money that I had to establish myself here according to the local customs, that is in guns, powder, lead, cattle, lodgings, and provisions. Thus, Sir I cannot come in without bringing the slaves that I need to recover my losses, as I cannot accept having insufficient means to maintain myself in the manner befitting a former Corsair Captain. I am therefore obliged to refuse the thousand opportunities that may present themselves until I have enough slaves to bring with me. I request that you take into consideration what is written above, and remain, Sir, your humble and obedient servant. Olivier La Buse
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The cipher that has been sprouting the fantasies of many people in all its aspects for 90 years.
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The life and work of the most famous French pirate of the 18th century.
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