Roche Braziliano: The Groningen-Born Pirate Hanged in Curaçao

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Roche Braziliano was likely born Gerrit Gerritszoon around 1630 in Groningen, in the Netherlands. His family moved to Dutch Brazil, where he spent much of his youth amid the Dutch and Portuguese struggle, and the alias he took, Rock the Brazilian, came from those years. Much of what is known about him comes from Alexandre Exquemelin's 1678 book The Buccaneers of America; Exquemelin sailed with buccaneers as a surgeon and knew only the alias. Braziliano began as a privateer operating out of Bahia under a letter of marque. In 1654 in Port Royal, Jamaica, he led a mutiny, took the ship, and on his first outlaw cruise captured a valuable Spanish ship and brought it back to Jamaica.

The Spanish caught him and shipped him to Spain in chains, but his crew threatened bloody revenge on Spanish towns and shipping and he was released. Back in the Caribbean he bought a ship from Francois l'Olonnais and sailed alongside Henry Morgan and Joseph Bradley. Accounts describe heavy drinking in Port Royal, where he threatened to shoot people who would not drink with him, and extreme cruelty to Spanish prisoners. In 1681, according to a 1683 account by the governor of St. Thomas, he arrived in Curaçao carrying French papers. Spanish residents recognized him and demanded his extradition; the Dutch governor refused and hanged him there instead.

• Spanish mothers used his name to frighten children into obedience.
• He had two Spanish farmers roasted alive on wooden spits after they refused to hand over their pigs.
• His first mate, Jelles de Lecat, called Yellows, became a captain and joined him and Morgan on raids.
• Anthony Quinn played him in the 1952 film Against All Flags.
• He appears in Sid Meier's Pirates, Tropico 2 and the board game Tortuga 1667, and is thought to inspire Rocks D. Xebec in One Piece.