Francois l'Ollonais

From One Piece Encyclopedia

Jean-David Nau (c. 1635 - 1668), better known as François l'Ollonais, was a French pirate active in the Caribbean during the 1660s.

[edit] About

He was born amongst the lowest members of society and had ended up in Hispaniola after escaping being transported to the West Indies. He was a Tortuga buccaneer who joined the Brethren of of the Coast of Tortuga.

Like many pirates he was renowned for acts of cruelty. One source said to pull out the tongues of his prisoners and once cut out the heart of a still living man and eat it. He was renowned for many other such cruelties, some more foul then this one. His cruelty towards others was too much for even some of his tougher crews and many split away from him. He grew tired of plundering vessels and eventually struck at the Spanish Main. In 1667 he quit Tortuga and headed out, by now his reputation was well known. He and his partner Michal le Basque equipped a fleet of 700 from Tortuga (which due to his reputations had not been a problem for him).

[edit] Incidents

He captured a Spanish vessel on route to Maracaibo with his sloop, after finding out about a breakdown between France and Spain. The vessel was sent back to Tortuga to be striped of all goods and returned to him.
He captured another vessel while waiting for the vessel to return. Upon the return of his first prize he instantly made it his flagship.
They arrived at Maracaibo's bar (a stretch of land before a port), defeated the fortifications easily and moved onto the main port which had been abandoned.
After Maracaibo they moved onto Gibraltar. The town surrendered after 500 Spanish troops were killed. 40 buccaneers were reported killed and 30 wounded.
All dead bodies belonging to the Spanish killed were loaded into two vessels that were later sunk. The town was held for ransom.
He broke away from the Laguna, visited Jamaica and a month later returned to Tortuga to upon which he received a hero's welcome.
He sailed again with 300 men and the largest of the Spanish ships from Maracaibo. He was accompanied by 5 smaller vessels. He began seizing vessels for his next campaign.
Hoping to emulate previous efforts of sea-farers against Granda, his ship was denied the chance due to wind.

[edit] Death of L'Ollonais

Despite his successes, he began to lose luck. After a plight which left him only with his prized ship, which eventually ran ashore, forcing the crew to live on shore for a while while they rebuilt their forces. They constructed a longship out of remains of the ship.

He hoped to restart his career by stealing more boats, but he was defeated by Spanish efforts. Desperate to obtain more vessels, he entered the Gulf of Darien, where the local natives struck at his now small band. It had been reported by Alexander Exquemelin that L'Ollonais was torn into pieces while alive and roasted limb by limb.

[edit] One Piece

It has been confirmed that Roronoa Zoro is named after Francois l'Ollonais (due to Japanese pronunciation, "l'Ollonais" is pronounced "Roronoa"). At times, Zoro can also be somewhat cruel and like Francois l'Ollonais has a reputation to match. But unlike the real pirate, Zoro is a swordsman with honour and therefore has boundaries even he does not pass.

[edit] References

[edit] Books

Pirates Adventurers of the High Seas by David F. Marley. ISBN no. 1-95409-215-4. Pages: 39-42,44
Pirates an illustrated history of privateers, buccaneers and pirates from the the sixteenth century to the present. Consultant Editor David Corningly. ISBN no. 0-86101-872-9. Pages: 44-6.
The Pirate Wars by Peter Earle. ISBN no. 0-413-75900-8. Pages: 94, 106.