Benito de Soto Aboal was a Galicianpirate, and captain of the Burla Negra. Benito de Soto was the most notorious of the last generation of pirates to plunder shipping in the Atlantic, one of those arising from the ending of the Napoleonic Wars.
Turn to piracy
De Soto served on a Brazilian slave ship, the Defensor de Pedro. De Soto joined with the ship's mate and led a mutiny off the coast of Angola in 1827. When 18 of the crew declined to participate they were cast adrift off in an open boat. Having changed the name of the vessel from the Defensor de Pedro to the Burla Negra, de Soto crossed the Atlantic, where he sold stolen cargo of slaves in the Caribbean, and then sailed south, attacking English, American, Spanish and Portuguese ships along the South American coast. From 1830 the Burla Negra also ventured eastwards into the Atlantic to intercept vessels returning from India and the Far East.
Atrocities
He proved to be one of the most bloodthirsty pirates of any age, murdering crews who fell into his hands and sinking their ships. The most infamous episode in de Soto's career came on 19 February 1828, when the Burla Negra happened upon the Morning Staren route from Ceylon to England. After killing some of the passengers and crew with cannon fire, de Soto murdered the captain and took possession of the ship. Many of the captured crew were killed, while women passengers were raped before de Soto's men locked them in the hold with the rest of the survivors. When de Soto heard that the survivors had been locked away and not murdered, he was furious, turned them around to try to find the sinking Morning Star to finish the job. He did not want any evidence of his guilt in the attack to reach the ears of the court. However, de Soto could not find the drifting Morning Star. Meanwhile, the imprisoned survivors had managed to escape and prevent the Morning Star from sinking. A passing merchant vessel rescued them the following day. According to Burla Negracrew memberNicholas Fernandez, "A few days after the capture and destruction of the English ship , we fell in with a richly laden American ship bound from Calcutta to Boston, to the crew of which no more mercy was shewn than to that of the Morning Star - having laden our brig with a portion of the most valuable part of her cargo, the crew were all put to death, and the ship set on fire! and in a few days after, the captain and two of the three hands shared the fate of their companions! - we had now indeed from repeated instances, become so familiarized with the shedding of human blood, that the shrieks and groans of the devoted victims were about music to our ears! and the work of human butchery was performed as deliberately and with as much unconcern as the butcher would dispatch one of the brute animals of his flock!" By August of 1828 news spread in American papers about the murder of the Topaz crew. "The following is a list of the officers and crew of the ship Topaz of Boston, which vessel was taken by pirates, and destroyed, and the whole crew murdered. Martin Brewster, born in Kingston, Mass., aged 32, master, Arnold S. Manchester, Little Compton, R.I., aged 30, first mate; Edward Smith, Ipswich, Mass., 21, second mate; John Barber, New York, 28, steward; Samuel Gulliver New York, 36, cook; T. J. Yates, Boston, 27; William S. Burton, do. 40; Adam S. Huger, do. 18, Israel Smith, do 18; John Drew, Halifax N.S., 24; William Appley, Barnstable, 19; Edward Keyser, Philadelphia, 34; Albert Richmond, Dighton, 24; Henry Williams, New York, 23 - all seaman." De Soto then sailed for Corunna. On the way he encountered a small brig; he attacked and sank it, killing all the crew but one. De Soto forced the remaining sailor to steer the Burla Negra to Corunna; when they arrived at the port, de Soto blew the man's brains out.
Capture and death
De Soto's crimes caught up with him after the Burla Negra struck a reef and was wrecked off Cadiz. He and his men headed for Gibraltar, but they were recognized and taken for trial in Cadiz. De Soto was hanged with his remaining crew. When the hangman discovered that he had set the rope at the wrong height, De Soto calmly stood on his own coffin and obligingly placed his head inside the noose. 'Adeus todos' were his last words. His head was then stuck on a pike as a warning to others.
