Laurens de Graaf

Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf (c. 1653, Dordrecht, Dutch Republic – 24 May 1704,Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue) was a Dutch pirate, mercenary, and naval officer in the service of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the late 17th and early 18th century.

He was also known as Laurencillo or Lorencillo or simply El Griffe (Spanish), Sieur de Baldran or simply de Graff (French) and Gesel van de West (Dutch; "Scourge of the West"). Henry Morgan, the governor of Jamaica, characterized him as "a great and mischievous pirate". De Graaf was described as tall, blond, mustached and handsome. Some Spanish thought he was the Devil in person.

Many accounts of Laurens de Graaf are highly romanticized. Some historians speculate that he may have been a mulatto (El Griffe was a common nickname for those of mixed African and European ancestry). He was reportedly enslaved by Spanish slave traders when captured in what is now the Netherlands and transported to the Canary Islands to work on a plantation, prior to 1674.

During the early 1670s, de Graaf either escaped or was freed, and French historian Vassiere recorded that he married his first wife (Francois) Petronilla de Guzmán in 1674 in the Canary Islands before moving on to the Caribbean. The Spanish governor of St. Augustine, Florida attested to his marriage in a letter written to Charles II of Spain in 1682, by referring to de Graaf as a "stranger who was married in the Canaries".

De Graaf began his pirate career not long after marrying de Guzmán, though no records of his activity were made until 1682 when Sieur de Pouancay, the governor of Saint-Domingue, recorded that de Graaf had been sailing "on the account" since approximately 1675 or 1676 as the captain of a French privateer crew.

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