Buccaneering Era > Chepo Expedition
Chepo Expedition
Background
Chepo - William Dampier (1699)
The Chepo Expedition was a famous buccaneer voyage led by Bartolomé Charpes and also included Juan Guartem, Eduardo Blomar which targeted the Spanish Main in 1679. The expedition was preceded by the Pacific Adventure in the same year and provided the inspiration for the buccaneers raid. They first began by sailing up the Mandingua River and then crossed the Isthmus of Darien and onto the Pacific Coast. Here they raided shipping lanes for several months before burning the town of Chepo in Panama in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish would send out military forces to attempt to stop the buccaneers but they managed to escape in the jungle.
Following their escape the Viceroy tried the buccaneers in absentia and sentenced them to death. The buccaneers were hung in effigy in the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1680. However, while on the run the buccaneers continue to snub the Spanish and raided both coasts of the Spanish Main and were never caught by the Spanish authorities. Decades after the incident in 1743 the Governor of Panama named Don Dionicio recalled the Chepo Expedition in an official communication with the Spanish authorities saying;
"This passage was effected in the year 1679 by the arch pirates Juan Guartem, Eduardo Blomar and Bartolomé Charpes. These freebooters were tried for their crimes by audience of the viceroyalty, and as they could not be in person to suffer the just punishment, they were burned in effigy at Santa Fé (de Bogota), while they were yet ravaging the settlement on both sides the Isthmus".
Buccaneer Raids
- Sack of Santiago de Cuba (1662)
- Sack of Campeche (1663)
- Sack of Puerto Principe (1667)
- Sack of Panama (1670)
- Chepo Expedition (1679)
- Pacific Adventure (1680)
- Blockade of Cartagena (1683)
- Sack of Veracruz (1683)
- Sack of Cartagena (1697)
