Captain Benito de Soto

He was a Portuguese slave trader who later turned to piracy. In 1827, de Soto sailed to Africa from Brazil aboard the ship Defense de Pedro. Almost as soon as he left port he began plotting with some of the crew to takeover the ship and become a pirate. After picking up a consignment of slaves off the Africa coast, de Soto waited for the ship to reach the deep ocean and then led his co-conspirators in a bloody mutiny. The ship's captain and those loyal to him were all killed or thrown overboard and left to die. De Soto then took the ship to the West Indies were they sold their cargo of slaves. He then renamed his ship the Black Joke and began to terrorize the waters of the Caribbean. His actions on the high seas were always quite brutal, rarely offering his opponents quarter or the option to join his crew. In fact he became so notorious that ships sailing from South America at this time often refused to sail alone. They would try to form convoys around St. Helena in order to attempt safe passage.

In 1830, while enroute to Europe, he overtook a small East Indian traders brig named the Morning Star. He plundered her of all its cargo and tortured most of the crew, abused the women aboard as well. When the pirates were ready to sail on, this ship was set on fire and left to burn. Fortunately the survivors aboard were able to extinguish the fires and were later picked up by a passing ship the next day. He continued to pillage and plunder like this on his way back toward Spain.

After arriving in Spain and disposing of much of their booty, the pirates set sail for Cadiz. Bad weather forced the ship upon the coastal rocks near Cadiz and the crew had to abandoned the ship. Intending to sell what they could salvage from their ship in Cadiz, the authorities began to suspect the nature of the men in their midst, and the pirates were forced to flee. Six were arrested, de Soto and one other pirate fled to Gibralter. De Soto was later arrested in Gibralter and tried for his crimes and executed. All of the others except one were eventually arrested, tried and executed as well.

Unfortunately for de Soto, he arrived in Gibraltar about the same time that the plundered Morning Star survivors arrived in port. He was quickly recognized by one of the passengers from that ship, and his fate was then sealed. It is said that de Soto proved himself to be just as defiant in facing death as he was in his acts of piracy. Rather than allow somebody to hang him, he calmly reached for the gallows rope at the last minute and adjusted the noose around his neck. He smiled to the gathered crowd and exclaimed "Adios Todos!" (roughly, so long everybody") as he jumped to his slow painful death.







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