French buccaneer Daniel Montbars (1645 – disappeared 1707), better known as Montbars the Exterminator, earned his nickname and then some. One of the most feared pirates of his era, he became known as the Exterminator because of the sheer bloody mindedness and glee he displayed in killing Spaniards. Below are some fascinating facts about this most frightful of pirates.
From Gentleman to Fearsome Pirate
Most pirates came from humble backgrounds, but not Daniel Montbars. He was born into a wealthy family in Languedoc, France, and was raised and educated with all the privileges and amidst all the comforts of a French gentleman. In childhood, he developed a hatred of Spain and all things Spanish, based on what he read of the cruelties of the Conquistadors towards the New World natives. In 1667, he joined his uncle in the French Royal Navy, and accompanied him to the Caribbean.
Montbars first fought the Spanish in the War of Devolution (1667 – 1668), and his hatred of them grew exponentially when they sank his ship in a battle in which his uncle was killed. After his uncle’s demise, Montbars left the French Navy and headed to the pirate haven of Tortuga, an Island off Haiti’s coast. Between his professional expertise as a naval officer, and his burning hatred of the Spaniards, the buccaneers’ chief foes, he was welcomed with the open arms. Before long, he had risen to captain his own buccaneer ship.
Becoming “The Exterminator”
Montbars made a name for himself in an early action against a Spanish ship: “Montbars led the way to the decks of the enemy, where he carried injury and death; and when submission terminated the contest, his only pleasure seemed to be to contemplate, not the treasures of the vessel, but the number of dead and dying Spaniards, against whom he had vowed a deep and eternal hatred, which he maintained the whole of his life”. He went on a piratical rampage against the Spanish Main – Spain’s possessions in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coastal mainland from Florida to Venezuela.
Montbars raided Spanish settlements in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. On the Venezuelan coast, he sacked and burned the towns of Maricaibo, San Pedro, Porto Caballo, and Gibraltar, among numerous other settlements and forts. It was during this rampage that Montbars became known as “The Exterminator”. He gave no quarter, and tortured captured Spanish soldiers in fiendishly gruesome ways. He and his crew amassed a fortune, which they reportedly buried near Grand Saline, Texas. However, the Exterminator never came back to retrieve the buried treasure: he vanished in 1707, most likely lost at sea.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography – Montbars
Cordingly, David – Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (1997)
History Halls – Fighting Women: Fearsome French Buccaneer Anne Dieu-le-Veut
Marley, David – Pirates of the Americas (2010)
