European Exploration, Trade and Scientific Studies

Just after three frigates under his command had captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Encarnacion (which he renamed Bachelor), British privateer Woodes Rogers arrived at Guam on 11 March 1710, asking that Governor Juan Antonio Pimentel enable him to replenish his ships – otherwise he would bombard the island.

William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, chronicler (he kept a detailed journal of his travels), and scientific observer in the 17th century. Considered by his contemporaries to be an erudite sea tactician and well-read writer — a Renaissance man of the high seas — Dampier’s early career, however, involved piracy; the 28-year-old was a product of nationalist sentiment.

William “Bully” Hayes was a blackbirder (slave trader) and criminal who in the 19th century terrorized the inhabitants of Micronesia for many years. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio sometime around 1829 and died in the Marshall Islands in 1877.

John Eaton and William Ambrosia Cowley, English pirates, visited Guam in March 1685. Jesuit Father Juan Tilpe wrote in a letter that the ship was first thought to be a Spanish ship from Manila with supplies for the Spanish garrison on Guam. It was then believed to be a French warship since its captain communicated in French.

Although the word “pirate” is used in early documents, secondary literature on Guam’s history has also referred to these pirates as “adventurers,” “buccaneers” and “privateers,” all of which refer to the same profession of, among other things, preying upon and stealing from ships, with the primary objective being Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver.

John Clipperton, a British pirate who was made captain of one of the Spanish ships taken by William Dampier in 1704, came to the Marianas on his second voyage. He led a mutiny against Dampier on his first voyage and was later taken captive by the Spanish nobleman Marquis de Villa Roche in Panama for four years.