Benito de Soto

Who was Benito de Soto?

Benito Soto Aboal was a Galician pirate, and captain of the Burla Negra.

Benito de Soto was the most notorious of the last generation of pirates to plunder shipping in the Atlantic, one of those arising from the ending of the Napoleonic Wars.

De Soto served on an Argentinian slave ship before leading a mutiny off the coast of Angola in 1827. When 18 of the crew declined to participate they were cast adrift off in an open boat.

Having renamed the vessel the Burla Negra, de Soto crossed the Atlantic, where he sold stolen cargo of slaves in the Caribbean, and then sailed south, attacking English, American, Spanish and Portuguese ships along the South American coast. From 1830 the Burla Negra also ventured eastwards into the Atlantic to intercept vessels returning from India and the Far East.