Capitan de Navio Louis Aury, Procer

Luis Aury (1781-1821)

Paris, France c. 1781 – Providence of Santa Catalina (Colombia) 31.08.1821

Corsair, buccaneer- loyal to the Spanish American Patriots in the Caribbean and Central America. Son of Luis Aury and Isabel Maignet. He grew up and went to school at Mont Rouge in Paris, not a well-off neighborhood. He joined as a petty cadet officer in the French Navy, being one of the crew aboard a war-class frigate that in 1803 makes the voyage from La Havre to New York. There as a young man he made a life as a seaman, and his tenure as a sailor raising later on to become a buccaneer commander was swift. With his associate Lominet during the course of 8 years he traveled the Eastern Coast of the US, Gulf of Mexico, North-Caribbean Islands and Central America. When he was accused by the US of breaking neutrality agreements, he was forced out of that shipping route. Don Pedro Gual invited him at around this time to join the South American Colonies' cause for Independence, and in June 1813, they both head for Cartagena, where Aury receives from the United Provinces of New Granada his first assignment as a Lieutenant-Captain of a sea-faring vessel. Eventually he is the Commander of a flotilla of vessels that becomes a headache for the Spaniards. One of his most memorable sprints was the break-through the Siege imposed on Cartagena Bay by Pablo Morillo and Pascual Enrile in 1815. He was able to squeeze through the tightly-packed defense barrier of the Spanish, six (6) schooners that were carrying most of the top-brass defending the city until the end of the Siege (the night of December 5th, 1815 from the Bocachica Peninsula south of San Felipe Castle). Aboard these vessels were Grals. Jose Francisco Bermudez, Antonio Jose de Sucre, Carlos Soublette and other high profile Venezuelan patriots that would later redeem the freedom and independence of many countries including their own. They fled to Jamaica and then went on to Haiti, were they met up with the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, to organize the Cayos Expedition that would soon invade the Venezuelan mainland on new year's day 1817. He became a staunch opponent of Bolivar, and refused to have him as Chief of the Cayos Expedition. He was more of the idea of creating a «junta» for managing command of such fleet. He wanted to hoist the Mexican flag as part of the said Expeditionary Force, as an auxiliary unit. This proposition was met with great resistance by both Simon Bolivar and Alexander Petion, President of Haiti, who did not approve. Aury was left behind in Los Cayos (Aux Cayes) after the expedition set sail at the end of May 1816. He preferred basking for a time in the safety that these islands afforded him. In the meantime, he organized his own force to liberate Mexico and New Orleans. He became part of the failed expedition that accompanied Francisco Javier Mina to invade Mexico. He then taxied through Galveston finally reaching the coasts of North Carolina, where he took over Mac Gregor from the Amelia Islands' command. In these islands he established a temporary government under the leadership of Don Pedro Gual and Vicente Pazos, but was forced out when President Jackson's Republican Army took over Florida a few months later. At that time, Aury had «illusions of grandeur», conferring upon himself all sorts of made-up honorary titles. Despite these, he did receive from Jose Cortes de Madariaga official letters that entrusted him as a recognized sea-going authority, acting on behalf of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. On July 4th, 1818, he claimed Santa Catalina Islands, Old Providence, San Andres and Mangles, under Argentinian protectorate, establishing here a real-government. From there, he ventured into uncharted territory, trying out luck on the coasts of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama, eventually setting a siege and attacking Omoa. His principle collaborators in Santa Catalina were Agustin Codazzi, a Venezuelan Colonel and geographer, Constante Ferrari, Severo Courtois and Luis Peru de LaCroix. In less than a year he set up an unbreachable stronghold at Santa Catalina and Old Providence Islands. He made all sort of official requests and dispatches so that these islands would become part of Gran Colombia. He even personally went to Bogota to offer his services. But his old grudge with Admiral Brion and his being treasoned by his Lieutenant Peru de LaCroix, (who unveiled Aury's and his accomplice Gral. Jose de San Martin's secret plans for an Invasion of Panama to the Liberator), made him an object of abhorrence by Simon Bolivar. The latter terminally ordered Aury, in a letter dated January 18th, 1821 to set sail immediately with his ships from Colombian waters. Aury went back to Santa Catalina, where he succumbed to death. He was buried at Independencia Fortress on that Island. He was succeeded by his Second-In-Command, Severo Courtois (a Haitian by birth). On July 23rd, 1822, less than a year after his death, Santa Catalina, Old Providence, San Andres and Mangles Archipelagos were absorbed under Colombian protectorate- just as the Guayaquil conference between San Martin and Bolivar was taking place. At that time, monarchy as a system of government still loomed in the air, and it is uncertain to what degree the idea might have been driving in the minds of these two men. Bolivar publicly claimed it was absurd, but his personal letters to friends and casual conversations disprove this attitude. Of San Martin, it is well known he was all in favor of it. After the ill-fated fiasco of Maximilian I in Mexico, the great statesmen and warlords might have decided to go back to their old drawing-boards. By this time, however, their prime time had passed for making these godly decisions, and most of the young South American (old-Spanish) Colonies were now baby Republics, for better or for worse, with control of their own fates.

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text by Pedro Baldo August 14th, 2019