John Barnes
Barnes (unknown – December 1717) was a ship captain and a member of the Templar Order, active in the West Indies during the early 18th century.
Biography
In June 1716, Barnes' ship was attacked by the pirate La Buse looking for new recruits. Having lost his crew in the attack, Barnes revealed that he had two prisonners aboard, a french deserter, Alonzo Batilla and an escaped slave, Jumao. La Buse freed the prisonners, taking them on his board, an sank Barnes ship, but the Templar managed to survive.
In January 1717, Batilla, now a pirate unknowingly working with the Assassins, was told by Sam Bellamy that the slaver Laurens Prins carried a treasure of great value and that only one merchant knew the route that Prins' ship was going to take. Heading for Havana, Batilla met Barnes again, whom under threats gave him the map on which figured the itinerary of Whydah. Later, when La Buse and Batilla captured the slaver ship with Bellamy, they discovered that treasure was in fact a Piece of Eden.
Some month later, when the Templars heard that Bellamy had entrusted La Buse with the artifact, they put Barnes in charge of a Spanish fleet whith the task of finding La Buse and recover their stolen artifact. And soon the rumor spread that La Buse died, having sank with his ship, Le Postillon, near the island of La Boca del Diablo. Seeking retribution, Batilla attacked the slaver fort in which the templars were hidding and capturing Barnes learn that Levasseur was not dead and had in fact used the artifact against the templars, killing most of his assaillant and taking one of their ship for an unknown location. Having heard the story of Levasseur survival and gained La Buse' journal, Batilla decided to spare Barnes telling him that their next encounter will be the last.
In December, when Barnes reunited in Mayaguana with two of his fellow templars, Condent and Hornigold, his associates shot him for his failures and because they deemed him to be a loose end. But Batilla, arriving soon after Condent shot Barnes, made the pirates flee and recovered an severely injured Barnes, who told him in his dying breath about what he think was the next destination of Levasseur.