Augustin Blanco

Blanco was from Baracoa, Cuba, and had been operating in the Caribbean for some time: “an old robber among these Islands about 25 years.”[1] His crew was noted for being mixed-race,[2] including “English, Scots, Spaniards, Mulattoes, and Negroes.”[3] His co-Captain was an Englishman, Richard Hancock.

[1] He landed on Eleuthera where some of the sloop's crew escaped, but where Blanco looted an English settlement and took several prisoners.

[1] Bahamas Governor George Phenney armed two sloops with troops from his garrison and sent them after Blanco, but their search proved futile.

[1] Phenney sent letters of complaint to Governor of Havana Don Gregorio Guazo y Calderón, who responded that he had no authority over Baracoa or Santiago de Cuba.

Phenny further fortified Nassau but could not protect outlying islands where traders sailed to collect salt and logwood and requested the King send a warship to help secure the area from pirates.