Welsh buccaneer, the scourge of Spanish settlements and shipping in the Caribbean between the 1660s and 1680s. Although he had semi-official employment as a privateer, he was little more than a pirate. Among his exploits were the capture and ransom of Porto Bello (1668), the sacking of Maracaibo (1669), and the taking of Chagres and Panama (1670–71). Although knighted and appointed lieutenant-governor of Jamaica in 1674, he continued to encourage piracy and lawlessness. He was disgraced in 1683 but restored just before his death.