Sailing on the high seas, raiding, pillaging, killing, fueling the black market, hiding and dodging capture were all elements of the life of the notorious pirates that were the first European settlers in Belize. Captain Yallahs was one of these whose story captures some of the typical characteristics of the legendary pirate life. Yallahs was a Dutchman, who sailed for years as a pirate with the other British buccaneers. However in 1672 he accepted a large sum of money to switch his allegiance to the Spanish, and for many years he was employed by the Spanish to raid British ships and steal their valuable cargo of logwood and mahogany on its way back to Europe. He was a very successful pirate and captured at least a dozen different British ships for the Spanish. In fact, he was so good at his job that the British hired Captain John Wilgres to hunt him down. However Wilgres soon joined the buccaneers in their pirate ways and never went after Yallahs (www.historyhuntersinternational.org).
So what does all of this have to do with environmental history? Well, Yallahs was part of the pirate culture, in a specific time in history, and so represents a specific mindset and way of life that had direct impact on the environment of that time. The three elements of looking at him in regards to environmental history are the natural history of the environment the pirates were found in, the human modes of production being utilized, and their perceptions of the world around them (Worster, 289-307).
The natural environment of these pirates was the coast of Belize. Belize’s coastline is made up of a limestone shelf, which is very porous. This allows the water from the ocean and land to travel and remain underground and thus not flood the land (Sutherland, 1-2). This landscape also means that the coastline is made up of lagoons, mangroves and intricate mazes of rivers between these things. In fact mangroves are found in Belize up to thirty miles inland (Sutherland, 3). These bays, lagoons, and river channels provided an excellent hideout for the pirates ambushing other ships of running from them. These rivers and lagoons were lined by thick forests, which were the source of the valuable logwood and mahogany being exported to Europe.
These forests, as the source for the timber being exported, play right into the modes of production that surrounded the pirates during this time. The primary structure for production and money making was the logwood industry between Britain and Honduras. Though the triangle trade was certainly a part of this system of trade, the logwood industry, “unlike the triangle trade…sailed directly back and forth across the Atlantic” (Finamore, 40). And this back and forth trade was the main means of production that the pirates were part of. However, though this legitimate business was the foundation of the pirates work, they then took this already established mode of production and used it to engage in trade on the black market. They did this by raiding ships already full of valuable cargo, and selling the cargo they found on the black market, often in Jamaica. So they were engaged in the illegal mode of production that was a branch off of the logwood industry.
All of this then adds up to give the perception of value that the pirates had for the natural world. I think that the primary characteristic of Yallahs', and other pirates, perception of the natural world would be selfishness. Their entire view of nature was from a place of selfishness. Nothing was valued for its beauty, but purely for how it could help them get rich. Their drive was simply to gain money however possible. This is seen so clearly in the fact that Yallahs had no loyalty to any one nation, but just worked wherever he could make the most money. Thus, nature was something to be used and taken advantage. The forest was only worth anything because it was the source of logs that they could then sell for money. The lagoons, mangroves and rivers were not valuable watersheds that contributed to the bigger ecosystem, but were simply good places to hide or transport goods. So pirates in general had a very anthropocentric view of the environment. Thus they did not really care about protecting it, or using it in moderation. Yallahs, and most pirates, operated in a mentality that was about using whatever you could to benefit oneself in the moment. So, these wild-sea-faring pirates were very much a part of environmental history, as are all peoples and cultures and civilizations. All of us are in some way or another connected to the environment and dependant on it.
A Belizean lagoon, a possible hiding place for pirates like Yallahs.
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A typical buccaneer (pirate).
Pirates engaging in raiding another boat.
Finamore, Daniel. Pirate Water, Sailing to Belize in the mahogany trade.The Boydell Press in association with the National Maritime Museum
Sutherland, Anne. The Making of Belize Globalization in the Margins. Westport: An Imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998. 1-150
Worster, Donald. Doing Environmental History. 289-307
www.historyhuntersinternational.org
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