Jan Janszoon van Hoorn's expedition of 1633

Jan Janszoon van Hoorn's expedition of 1633 was a privateering voyage commissioned by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) against colonial Honduras and Yucatan in New Spain as part of the colonial theatre of the Eighty Years' War. It resulted in various casualties, the sacking of Campeachy, and the sacking and burning of Trujillo. Consequently, this villa was left defenceless for the rest of the 1630s.

Prelude
After the Dutch West India Company (WIC) used its naval superiority to capture the Spanish silver fleet in 1628, Admiral Piet Heyn advised the WIC's governing body to commission a raid of Trujillo, Honduras. On 4 June 1630, Jan Booneter and Adriaen Pater were instructed to surprise the silver fleet at port in Trujillo if they found this feasible. Said project proving abortive, the WIC instructed Galeyn von Stapels to chart the coast and waters of the Bay of Campeachy, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Bay of Honduras in 1632. On 2 November that year, the WIC instructed Jan van Hoorn to sail for the Bay of Honduras to sack Trujillo.

Departure
Van Hoorn set sail from Pernambuco (Dutch Brazil) on 26 April 1633, anchoring at Bridgetown, Barbados, on 20 May. The company watered there for seven days before sailing due west. On 18 June, they sighted the eastern tip of Puerto Rico. On 5 July, they dropped anchor off Little Cayman. Two days later, the fleet were joined by the Nachtegael and the Gijsselingh, which had been cruising for prizes off Cape Cruz, Cuba, since 29 June. The yachts brought the expedition's first prize, a small merchantman laden with hides, sugar and honey. They set off for the Bay of Honduras sometime during 710 July.

Honduras
The fleet sighted the Honduras mainland on 11 July. They spent the next three days charting the coastal waters, taking care to remain hidden from sentinels at the Santa Barbara Fortress. On 15 July, two hours past midday, the fleet's ships entered Trujillo's harbour. The fortress immediately engaged the ships, resulting in the expedition's first casualties – four deaths on the Zutphen. In the meantime, the fleet's yachts and sloops made their way west of the city, disembarking soldiers at the mouth of the Santo Antonio Creek. This column now marched east, and in short order reached the fortress, which they took after outgunning its men. With the fortress fallen, the city was theirs within two hours. The men rested in Trujillo that night, spending the next morning ransacking the city's residences. Total casualties have been stated as 7 among the Dutch and 14 or 15 vecinos among the Spanish.

In a 1644 account published by WIC director Joannes de Laet, the city was ransacked on 16 July and while the goods were being brought to the fortress, a fire started at the eastern edge of the city and quickly destroyed two-thirds of the buildings, which had been roofed in palm fronds. Some died of burns when the powder house caught fire. What was left of the goods were brought aboard the ships the following day.

On 19 July, van Hoorn agreed with Juan de Miranda, the governor of Truchillo, to a ransom of twenty pounds of silver for the rest of the city. De Miranda informed them that the Spanish had not known of their arrival until 14 July. The ransom was paid and the expedition departed on 21 July.

Campeachy
Van Hoorn's fleet had difficulty circumnavigating the Yucatan Peninsula, their nautical charts proving inaccurate. They sighted Cozumel on 25 July, and Cape Catoche on 1 August, where they resupplied with fresh water. Here, they surprised an unladen frigate, from whose crew they learnt of a naval squadron cruising for them, with instructions to transport them to Saint Martin (a Dutch salting station which, to their surprise, had been captured by the Spanish that year). They nonetheless proceeded, sighting Campeachy on the afternoon of 11 August. The ships anchored some 12 or east-northeast of the city.

According to Laet's Historie, about 400 men were put onto boats of various sizes and anchored in shallower water where they observed the city and organized themselves. On the morning of 13 August, the soldiers were brought ashore on a beach about 1.5 mi southwest of the city, landing in order. The soldiers immediately began marching on the city, covered by two boats which rowed alongside them and fired cannons when the enemy presented itself. The sloops Nachtegael and Gijsselingh also sailed along the coast and fired. Defending infantry and cavalry were forced to flee, and the attackers quickly captured three trenches and entered the city. The defenders had fortified themselves in the plaza, but the attackers stormed their barricades so swiftly that the defenders' cannons were only fired once.

The defenders had fought so fiercely that only twenty prisoners were taken among them. While loot was loaded onto captured boats, the expedition attempted to gain ransom from Governor Juan de Barros, who refused due to a royal decree prohibiting such. On 17 August, the expedition left with their prisoners, nine captured ships and anything else of value they could find. They left the city intact, as its buildings were stone and could not easily be destroyed, but burned the remaining ships and barges.

While transferring the captured goods onto the expedition's bigger ships, they were approached by Spaniards who bought back five of the captured ships and paid the ransom for the prisoners. The fleet then departed on the morning of 24 August.

Division and return
On 18 September, the fleet came 24 or due south of Pan de Matanzas (a hill near Matanzas, Cuba). At this point, some of the company wished to cruise for prizes. Consequently, the Otter and the sloops stayed behind, with the rest of the fleet proceeding to open ocean via the Old Bahama Channel.

Under command of Cornelis Jol, the Otter and the sloops Nachtegael and Gijsselingh were to set course for Cape San Antonio and cruise the southern coast of Cuba, heading for Tortuga, where the crew were to ascertain whether the Spanish had captured St. Martin, and thereafter undertake 'what is convenient in the service of the Company'.

According to Laet, on 24 September, the ships fired on a Spanish galleon near Cabo Corrientes. On 24 October they captured a barge loaded with 30 barrels of wine. During the first half of November, the Otter grounded broadside for maintenance and repairs, and learned from an Englishman that St. Martin had been captured by the Spanish. Returning to sea, on the night of 13–14 December, they sighted some 15 ships and followed. During the day they saw a single ship separated from the others and attacked, disabling its main sail, and boarded; finding that it carried only ballast, they let it go. Two days later, they sighted a fleet of 31 ships and followed at a distance. On 19 December they captured a frigate, but it also had no cargo. They pursued some other Spanish ships but were unable to intercept them. The division continued cruising and departed the Caribbean on 27 April 1634. On 6 June, it reached Texel, North Holland, where the main part of the expedition had returned on 11 November 1633. Jol's division had at least three prizes.

Aftermath
In the last quarter of 1633, the governor of colonial Yucatan requisitioned funds from local treasuries of the province's majority-Maya reduccion (forcibly relocated) or encomienda settlements, under pretext of the funds being surpluses, and diverted these towards bolstering Campeachy's defences. It has been suggested that the appropriation was prompted (at least partially) by the participation of two of the province's Maya residents in the city's sacking.

Fernando Centeno Maldonado, governor of colonial Campeachy, was stripped of his office in 1636, purportedly or partially due to van Hoorn's successful sacking.

The loss of the Santa Barbara Fortress's artillery, and especially of its ten cannons, left Trujillo precariously defenceless until the latter half of 1639, when the fortress was supplied with harquebuses.

Legacy
The expedition is deemed to have helped bring about the 'destruction of Spanish naval power' in the Caribbean. Van Hoorn's capture of Campeachy, in particular, has been described as 'one of the most courageous acts committed by so few people' to that time. Van Hoorn, however, is thought to have been disappointed for not contributing greatly to the WIC's treasury.

It has been suggested that van Hoorn's sacking of Campeachy was so traumatising to residents that it became local legend which was romanticised over generations. The event is prominently featured in El filibustero: Leyenda del siglo , an 18411842 serial novel by Justo Sierra O'Reilly, which narrates the tragic romance of Conchita (of Campeachy) and her father's killer, Diego el Mulato.

It has been suggested that the fleet's two Maya pilots participated in Campeachy's sacking voluntarily, which has been regarded as a precedent-setting example of 17th century opposition to Spanish temporal and spiritual hegemony by the province's Amerindian residents.