Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Illigen, Andre

​ILLIGEN. Andre (eel-le-zahn'), French buccaneer, b. in Ixelles. near Brussels, in 1638 ; d. in Panama in 1670. He served as a petty officer on a Dutch merchant-vessel, which was captured in Jamaica waters by a Spanish man-of-war in 1664. and was sentenced to death as a rebel, but was delivered by the buccaneer Montbars. Illigen then enlisted under Montbars, and soon became famous among the buccaneers for his courage. He was elected a chief in 1665. pillaged and sacked the cities of Puerto Cabello, San Antonio de Gibraltar, and others in 1665-'7, and otherwise caused the Spaniards such losses that the government offered a reward of 3.000 piastres for his head. Illigen now swore to be revenged, and. having joined Sir Henry Morgan the same year, took Aux Cayes and devastated ​the southern coasts of Cuba. Sailing thence for Puerto del Principe in 1667 with twelve ships car- rying only 1,700 men, they defeated an army of 4,000 Spanish, and for six days pillaged and burned the city. The booty amounted to over 400,000 pi- astres. In the following year Illigen, with Michel Le Basque, besieged Maracaibo, and imposed a ran- som of 700,000 piastres. Morgan united his forces in 1669 with those of Illigen, and together they at- tacked Maracaibo again with 900 men. The city, defended by a garrison of 3,000 men and protected by three forts, resisted for one month and then surrendered. The victors imposed an enormous contribution, and Illigen remained to collect it, while Morgan ransacked San Antonio de Gibraltar. They left Maracaibo two months later, and, on sailing, destroyed the fleet of Admiral Espinosa, which blockaded the bay. In December of the same year, Illigen joined Morgan again at Cape Tiburon, Santo Domingo, and, heading the first division of the fleet, landed on the isthmus and es- tablished himself in Fort San Lorenzo on the river Chagres, after defeating a Spanish army of 2,000 men ; but he died there of a fever a few days later.