Pierre le Grand | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Jack_Avery,_Capturing_Ship_of_the_Great_Mogul,_from_the_Pirates_of_the_Spanish_Main_series_(N19)_for_Allen_%26_Ginter_Cigarettes_MET_DP835019.jpg) Peter the Great, pirate | |
| Born | |
| Died | Canada |
| Piratical career | |
| Type | Pirate |
| Years active | 17th century |
| Base of operations | Caribbean |
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Pierre le Grand (French: Peter the Great) was a French buccaneer supposedly active during the 17th century. He is known to history from only one source, Alexandre Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America, and thus his historical existence has been questioned. The accounts that Exquemelin gives of Le Grand and another buccaneer named Pierre Francois are also remarkably similar. It is possible that Exquemelin, who was not an eye-witness to these events, was confused. Pierre le Grand (Pierre the Great) could have been a nickname for Pierre Francois. However, there does seem to be at least one reference to Le Grand in historical records other than Exquemelin. C. H. Haring's well-researched 'The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century' (1910), note 1 on page 135, refers to a Spanish report that credited Pierre Legrand with leading a raid against Spanish settlements in Cuba and Havana in 1665. English records, however, credit Edward Mansfield with leading these attacks.