The Orinoco River and Angostura, Venezuela, in the Summer of 1819: The Narrative of a Maryland Naval Chaplain

Abstract

The distinction between privateering and piracy was blurring badly by the spring of 1819. The Spanish American revolutionaries, like their Anglo-American counterparts of four decades earlier, lacked a naval force able to challenge Spain's power while it was still en route to her vast American domains. Consequently it was only a question of time before the struggling republics hit upon the happy expedient of issuing letters of marque that authorized independent captains to war against Spain in their cause and under their auspices.