Undoubtedly, the stories associated with corsairs, pirates, buccaneers or filibusters and their lavish treasures take precedence in the narration of those who live on the Isle of Youth, located in southwestern Cuba.
According to the popular voice on nights with a full moon, it is best to see La Barca emerge from the deep waters and next to its mast the stout figure of the Mallorquin, the executioner who harassed the English fleet, which maneuvered in the insular Caribbean area .
They say he is still seen wandering the dusty streets that line the second largest town in the special municipality.
It is as if the ghostly image still cared for the residents of Santa Fe, the place where he lived and protected the theft carried out by alligators and Jamaicans, who accessed the site through the Las Nuevas, Las Casas and Santa Fe rivers, to provide themselves with whatever was within your reach.
José Rives, was born in Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and dedicated to seamanship since he was a child. It is not known how and when he arrived in this part of Cuban geography, it is only known that in the 1920s XIX was already greatly feared in the area.
As this was an obligatory route for the fleets that filled their warehouses with the wealth seized from the peoples of America and transported it to the old continent, the bandits of the sea not infrequently intercepted the booties after fighting fierce fighting.
In response to the damage caused to these ships in December 1822, the English decided to beat the pirates during an attack in the Santa Fe river delta, where despite the superiority in troops and weapons they were defeated by the Mallorquin.
They say that the following year the fearsome pirate would sustain his last combat, withstood the attacks of the enemy and shot his blunderbuss so many times that it burst into his hands, fatally wounded he reached the daughter of the Mayor of the Sea Juan Vinajeras, Rosa and died in his arms.
Today many wonder where Pepe el Mallorquín will be buried, in the cayo del monte where he lived with Rosa Vinajeras or in some other enigmatic place next to his lavish booties ?.
The truth is that the ghost of La Barca still roams the coastline of the then Isle of Pines, which, according to the popular voice, emerges from the waters to indicate the exact point where it was sunk by the English while keeping well the secret of the site where the treasures of the Mallorquin lie.
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