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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3),
+by Walter Thornbury
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3)
+       Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers
+
+
+Author: Walter Thornbury
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 21, 2012  [eBook #38632]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME
+II (OF 3)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Adam Buchbinder, Rory OConor, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of
+public domain material generously made available by the Google Books
+Library Project (http://books.google.com/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work.
+      Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38631
+      Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38633
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      http://books.google.com/books?vid=ASYCAAAAYAAJ&id
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN;
+
+Or,
+
+Adventures of the Buccaneers.
+
+by
+
+GEORGE W. THORNBURY, ESQ.
+
+"One foot on sea and one on shore,
+To one thing constant never."
+                MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
+
+In Three Volumes.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Hurst and Blackett, Publishers,
+Successors to Henry Colburn,
+13, Great Marlborough Street.
+1855.
+
+London: Sercombe and Jack, 16 Great Windmill Street.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--SIR HENRY MORGAN.
+
+Son of a Welsh farmer--Runs to sea--Turns Buccaneer--Joins Mansvelt and
+takes the Island of St. Catherine--Mansvelt dies--St. Catherine re-taken
+by the Spaniards--Morgan takes Port au Prince--Quarrel of French and
+English adventurers about a marrow-bone--Takes Porto Bello--Captures _Le
+Cerf Volant_, a French vessel--It blows up--Takes Maracaibo---City
+deserted--Tortures an Idiot beggar--Le Picard, his guide--Takes
+Gibraltar--Also deserted--Tortures the citizens--With a Fire-ship
+destroys the Spanish fleet and repasses the bar--Escapes the fort by a
+stratagem--The Rancheria expedition--Sails for Panama--Captain Bradley
+takes the Castle of Chagres--Anecdote of a wounded Buccaneer          1
+
+CHAPTER II.--CONQUEST OF PANAMA.
+
+March from Chagres over the Isthmus--Famine--Ambuscades of Indians--Wild
+bulls driven down upon them--Victory in the Savannah--Battle of the
+Forts--Takes the city--Burns part of it--Cruelties--Revels--Virtue of
+the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings--Retreats with
+prisoners--Ransom--Divisions of booty--Treason of Morgan--Escapes by
+night to Jamaica--Dispersion of his fleet--Morgan's subsequent fate 125
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.
+
+Oexmelin's interview with the old Buccaneer--Adventure with
+Indians--Esquemeling's escapes--D'Ogeron's escape from the
+Spaniards--Buccaneers' fight in Tobago against the Dutch--Captain Cook
+captures a Spanish vessel--Captains Coxen and Sharp begin their cruise
+                                                                    189
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.
+
+The South sea now visited--Buccaneers land at Darien--March
+overland--Take Santa Maria--Sail to Panama--Ringrose is wrecked--Failure
+of Expedition--Driven off by Spanish fleet--Partial victory--Coxen
+accused of cowardice--Sharp elected commander, deposed--Plunder Hillo
+and take La Serena--Take Arica--Sharp re-elected--Retreat with
+difficulty--Conspiracy of the prisoners--Land at Antigua--Return to
+England--Sharp's trial for piracy--Seizes a French ship in the
+Downs--Returns to Jamaica                                           215
+
+CHAPTER V.--DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.
+
+Dampier leaves Captain Sharp--Land march over the Isthmus--Joins Captain
+Wright--Wreck of D'Estrèes and the French fleet--Returns to
+England--Second voyage--With Captain Cook--Guinea coast--Visits Juan
+Fernandez--Takes Ampalla--Plunders Paita--Scheme for working the Spanish
+mines--Attacks Manilla Galleon--Captain Swan--Dampier's death
+unknown--Van Horn, a Dutch sailor--Entraps the Galleons--Takes Vera
+Cruz--Killed in a duel with De Graff--His Dress                     277
+
+
+
+
+MONARCHS OF THE MAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SIR HENRY MORGAN.
+
+    Son of a farmer--Runs to sea--Turns Buccaneer--Joins Mansvelt, and
+    takes the Island of St. Catherine--Mansvelt dies--St. Catherine
+    retaken by the Spaniards--Takes Port-au-Prince--Quarrel of French
+    and English Buccaneers about a marrow-bone--Takes Porto
+    Bello--Captures _Le Cerf Volant_, a French vessel--It blows
+    up--Takes Maracaibo--City deserted--Tortures an Idiot--Le
+    Picard--Storms Gibraltar--Also deserted--Tortures the Citizens--With
+    a Fire-ship destroys Spanish fleet, and repasses the Bar--Escapes by
+    stratagem--Rancheria expedition--Sails for Panama--Captain Bradley
+    takes the Castle of Chagres--Anecdote of wounded Buccaneer.
+
+
+Morgan's campaigns furnish one of the amplest chapters of Buccaneer
+history. Equally daring, but less cruel than Lolonnois, less fanatical
+than Montbars, and less generous and honest than De Lussan or Sharp, he
+appears to have been the only freebooting leader who obtained any formal
+recognition from the English government. From an old pamphlet, we find,
+that the expedition to Panama was undertaken under the commission and
+with the full approbation of the English governor of Jamaica.
+
+Sir Henry Morgan was the son of a Welsh farmer, of easy circumstances,
+"as most who bear that name in Wales are known to be," says Esquemeling,
+his Dutch historian. Taking an early dislike to the monotonous,
+unadventurous life of his father's house, he ran away from home, and,
+coming to the coast, turned sailor, and went to sea.
+
+Embarking on board a vessel bound for Barbadoes, that lay with several
+others in the port, he engaged himself in the usual way to a planter's
+agent, who resold him for three years immediately on his arrival in the
+West Indies. Having served his time and obtained his hard-earned
+liberty, he repaired to Jamaica, a place of which wild stories were
+told all over the Main. He resolved to seek his fortune at that El
+Dorado, and arriving there, saw two Buccaneer vessels just fitting out
+for an expedition. Being now in search of employment, and finding this
+suit his daring and restless spirit, he determined to embrace the life
+of a Flibustier. The gentlemen of fortune were successful, and had not
+been long at sea before they took a valuable prize.
+
+This early success was as fatal to Morgan as good luck is to a young
+gambler on his first visit to a hell. It roused his ambition, heightened
+his hope, and encouraged him to continue a career so auspiciously begun.
+He followed the Buccaneer chiefs, and learnt their manners of living. In
+the course of only three or four voyages, he signalized himself so much
+as to acquire the reputation of a good soldier, remarkable for his
+valour and success. He was a good shot, and renowned for his
+intrepidity, coolness, and determination. He seemed to foresee all
+contingencies, and set about his schemes with a firm confidence that
+insured their success.
+
+Having already laid by much money, and being fortunate both in his
+voyages and in gambling, Morgan agreed with a few rich comerades to join
+stock, and to buy a vessel, of which he was unanimously appointed
+commander. Such was the usual beginning of an adventurer's career.
+Setting out from Jamaica, he soon became remarkable for the number of
+prizes which he took, his well known stations being round the coast of
+Campeachy. With these prizes he returned triumphantly to Jamaica, his
+name established as a terror to the Spaniard, and a war-cry to the
+English. Finding Mansvelt, an old Buccaneer, lying in harbour, about to
+start on a grand expedition to the mainland, he joined him, and was at
+once elected as vice-admiral of a small fleet of fifteen vessels and 600
+men, part English and part French.
+
+They sailed first to the island of St. Catherine, near the continent of
+Costa Rica, and distant about thirty-five degrees from the river of
+Chagres. Here they made their first descent, and found the Spaniards
+well entrenched in forts, strongly built of hewn stone, but landing most
+of their men they soon forced the garrisons to surrender. Morgan
+distinguished himself remarkably in this expedition, forcing even his
+very enemies to laud his skill and valour. He now proceeded to demolish
+all the castles but one, in which he placed 100 men, and the slaves and
+prisoners, and proceeded to attack a small neighbouring island. In a few
+days they threw over a bridge to join it to St. Catherine's, and
+conveyed over it all the larger ordnance which they had taken, laying
+waste their first conquest with fire and sword. They then set sail
+again, having first set their prisoners ashore near Portobello,
+intending to cruise along Costa Rica, as far as the river Colla, and
+burn and pillage all the towns up to Nata. They had, in fact, only taken
+the island in order to procure a guide who could lead them on their way
+to Nata, knowing that the Spaniards used St. Catherine's as a depôt for
+their prisoners of all nations. The first step towards a Buccaneer
+expedition was to procure a guide. They found, to their delight, a
+mulatto who knew Nata, and who undertook to lead them to the destruction
+of a people whom he hated. It is probable, too, that Mansvelt had
+already projected founding a colony at St. Catherine's, which might be
+neither dependent on the French nor the English. But their schemes were
+frustrated, for the governor of Panama, hearing of their approach, and
+of their past success, advanced to meet them with a body of men, and
+compelled them to retreat suddenly, for the whole country was now
+alarmed and their plans all known.
+
+Morgan, however, seeing St. Catherine's to be a well-fortified island,
+easily defended, and important as to situation, because its harbour was
+good and near the Spanish settlements, resolved to hold it, appointing
+as governor Le Sieur Simon, a Frenchman, whom he left behind, with a
+garrison of 100 men. St. Simon had behaved well in his absence, and put
+the island in a good posture of defence, had strengthened the four large
+forts, and turned the smaller island into a citadel, guarding carefully
+the three accessible spots, planting vegetables and clearing plantations
+in the smaller island, where abundance of fresh water could be procured,
+providing victual enough for the fleet for two voyages.
+
+The two commanders now determined to return to Jamaica, promising to
+send recruits to Simon, for fear of an invasion, and themselves to bring
+speedy succours, intending to make the island a sanctuary and refuge for
+the brotherhood of both nations. The governor of Jamaica refused to
+accede to Mansvelt's requests for soldiers, afraid to weaken the forces
+of the island without permission from England. Mansvelt, worn out with
+delay, hastened to Tortuga, and died while collecting volunteers, his
+plans being still in embryo. Had his scheme succeeded, and been pushed
+with energy, the Buccaneers might have founded a republic, and have
+eventually driven the Spaniards out of the Indies.
+
+While Simon was impatiently expecting succour from Jamaica, and
+astonished at Mansvelt's really unavoidable silence, the Spaniards were
+preparing to smoke out the wasps' nest that lay so dangerously near
+their orchard. A new governor of Costa Rica threw unusual decision into
+their plans. Fearing they should lose the Indies piecemeal, they
+resolved to crush the evil ere it grew indestructible. Don Juan Perez de
+Guzman equipped a fleet of four vessels with fifty or sixty men each,
+commanded by Don Joseph Sancho Ximenes, major-general of the garrison of
+Porto Bello. Don Juan, in a letter to Simon, promised him a reward if he
+would surrender the island to his Catholic Majesty, and threatened him
+with punishment if he resisted. Simon, seeing the impossibility and
+uselessness of resistance, surrendered it after a few shots, on the same
+condition with which Morgan had obtained it from the enemy.
+
+The Spaniards made much of their victory, publishing "a true relation
+and particular account of the victory obtained by the arms of his
+Catholic Majesty, against the English pirates, by the direction and
+valour of Don Juan Perez de Guzman, knight of the order of St. James,
+governor and captain-general of Terra Firma, and the province of
+Veraguas."
+
+The account goes on to describe the arrival of fourteen English vessels
+on the coast, 1665, their arrival at Puerto de Naos, and the capture of
+St. Catherine's from the governor, Don Estevan del Campo, the enemy
+landing unperceived. Upon this the valorous Don Juan called a council of
+war, wherein he declared the great progress the said pirates had made in
+the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, and propounded, "that it was
+absolutely necessary to send some forces to the isle of St. Catherine,
+sufficient to retake it from the pirates, the honour and interest of his
+Majesty of Spain being very narrowly concerned herein, otherwise the
+pirates, by such conquests, might _easily_, in course of time, possess
+themselves of 'all the countries thereabout.'" The less vapouring, or
+more pacific, ingeniously proposed to leave the pirates alone till they
+perished for want of provisions, but Don Juan, overruling their
+timidity, sent stores to the militia of Porto Bello, and conveyed
+himself there, with no small danger of his life. At this port he found
+the _St. Vincent_, a good ship, belonging to the Negro Company, which he
+equipped with a crew of 270 soldiers, thirty-seven prisoners, thirty-two
+of the Spanish garrison, twenty-nine mulattos of Panama, twelve Indian
+archers, seven gunners, two lieutenants, two pilots, a surgeon, and a
+Franciscan chaplain. Before they set sail, Don Juan (_who did not go
+with them_) encouraged them to fight against the enemies of their
+country and their religion, "those inhuman pirates who had committed so
+many horrid cruelties upon the subjects of his Catholic Majesty,"
+promising liberal rewards to all who behaved themselves well in the
+service of their king and country. At Carthagena, they received a
+reinforcement of one frigate, one galleon, a boat, and 127 men.
+
+On arriving at the island, the pirates discharged three guns, refused to
+surrender, and declared they preferred to lose their lives. The next day
+three negro deserters, swimming to the admiral, told him there were only
+seventy-two men on the island, and two days after the day of the
+Assumption the Spaniards landed and commenced the affray. The _St.
+Vincent_ attacked the Conception battery, the _St. Peter_ the St.
+James's forts, the pirates driving off many of the enemy by loading
+their guns with part of the pipes of a church organ, threescore pipes at
+a time. The pirates lost six men before surrendering, the Spaniards one.
+They found in the island 800 lbs. of powder, and 250 lbs. of bullets.
+Two Spanish deserters, discovered amongst the prisoners, were "shot to
+death" the next day. The prisoners were transported to Puerto Velo, all
+but three, who, by order of the governor, were kept as a trophy, like
+chained Samsons, to work in the castle of St. Jerome at Panama, a
+fortress building by the governor at his own expense.
+
+A day or two after this unavoidable surrender, a vessel arrived at St.
+Catherine, bringing reinforcements and provisions from the governor of
+Jamaica, who had repented of his rejection of Mansvelt's proposal, but
+had not even yet the courage to be boldly dishonest. The Spaniards,
+hoisting an English flag, persuaded Simon to welcome it, and betray it
+into their hands. There were fourteen men on board and two women, all of
+whom were made prisoners.
+
+On the death of Mansvelt, Morgan became without opposition the leader of
+all the adventurers of Jamaica. He at once published far and wide his
+intention of setting out on a grand expedition, and named Cuba as a
+rendezvous, St. Catherine's not being far distant. Morgan had been no
+less anxious than Mansvelt to make this island a fortress and a
+storehouse. He had written to the merchants of Virginia and New England,
+to contract with them for ammunition and provisions; but this hope being
+ended by the Spanish conquest, he felt himself free to embark on a wider
+and more ambitious field. His plans were for a moment defeated, but his
+courage and ambition were not a whit humbled.
+
+Two months spent in the southern ports of Cuba sufficed him to collect a
+fleet of twelve sail, with 700 fighting men, part English, part French,
+resolved to follow him to the death. To prevent the disunion so frequent
+between the two nations, Morgan had a clause inserted in the
+charter-party, empowering him to condemn to instant death any adventurer
+who killed or wounded another. A council was then called to decide on
+what place they should first fall. Some proposed Santiago, which had
+been before sacked, others a swoop on the tobacco of the Havannah, or
+the dye-woods of Campeachy. Many voices were strong for a night assault
+on the Havannah, which, they said, could be taken before the castle
+could be ready to defend itself. The very ransom of the clergy they
+might carry off, would be worth more than the pillage of a smaller town.
+But some Buccaneers, who had been prisoners there, said nothing could be
+done with less than 1500 men, and the proposal was abandoned, when they
+proved that they must first go to the island de los Pinos, and land in
+small boats at Matamana, fourteen leagues from the city.
+
+At last some one proposed a visit to Port-au-Prince, a town of Cuba,
+very rich from its traffic in hides, and which, being far inland and
+built on a plain, could be very easily surprised. The speaker knew the
+city well, and was sure that it never had been sacked. Despairing of
+collecting forces enough to attempt the Havannah, they pursued the
+Spaniard's plan. Morgan at once acceded to this scheme, and, giving the
+captain the signal of weighing anchor, steered for Port St. Mary, the
+nearest harbour to Port-au-Prince. The night of their arrival in the bay
+a Spanish prisoner threw himself into the sea, and swimming on shore
+went to inform the governor of the Buccaneers' plans, having, with a
+scanty knowledge of English, gathered a full insight, deeper than
+history tells us, of Morgan's intentions.
+
+The governor instantly sent to the neighbouring town for succour, and
+collected, in a few hours, a force of 800 armed freemen and slaves,
+occupying a pass which the Buccaneers must traverse. He cut down the
+trees, barricaded the approaches, and planned eight ambuscades,
+strengthened by cannon to play upon them on their march. He then marched
+out into a savannah, where he might see the Buccaneers at a long
+distance.
+
+The townsmen, in the meanwhile, prepared for the worst with the usual
+timidity of the rich, hiding their riches and carrying away their
+movables. The adventurers, on entering the place, found the paths almost
+impassable with trees, but, supposing themselves discovered, took to the
+woods, and thus fortunately escaped the ambuscade.
+
+The governor, seeing the enemy, to his astonishment, emerge from the
+trees into the plain, instantly ordered his cavalry to surround them as
+he would have done a troop of wolves, intending to disperse them first
+with his horse and then pursue them with his main body. The Buccaneers,
+nothing daunted by the flashing of the spears or the tramp of the
+horsemen, advanced boldly, with drums beating and colours displayed.
+They drew up in a semicircle to receive the charge, and advanced swiftly
+towards the enemy, not waiting to be attacked. The Spaniards charged
+them hotly for a while, but, finding their enemies dexterous at their
+arms, moving their feet forward rather than backward; and seeing their
+governor and many of their companions dead at their feet, fled headlong
+to the town; those who escaped towards the wood were killed before they
+could reach it. The Buccaneers with few men either killed or wounded,
+advancing still in their phalanx, killed without mercy all they met, for
+the space of the four hours that the fight lasted. The fugitives of the
+town barred themselves in their houses and kept up a fire from the
+windows and loopholes. The shots from the roofs and balconies still
+continuing, though the town was taken, the Buccaneers threatened, if the
+firing did not cease, to set the town in a flame, and cut the women and
+children in pieces before the eyes of the survivors.
+
+Having thus silenced all resistance, Morgan drove all his prisoners,
+men, women, children, and slaves, into the cathedral, where he placed a
+guard. He then gave the town over to pillage, for the benefit of his
+joint-stock company, finding much that was valuable, but little money,
+so skilful had the Spaniards grown in hiding. Parties were next sent
+out, as usual, to plunder the suburbs, and bring in provisions and
+prisoners for the torture.
+
+The revelry then began, while the prisoners were allowed to starve in
+the churches; old women and children were daily tortured to make them
+disclose where their money was hidden.
+
+The monks had been the first to fly from the English heretics, but bands
+of them were frequently captured in the woods, and thrown, half dead
+with fear, to confess the dying in the prisons. When pillage and
+provisions grew scanty, and they themselves began to feel the privations
+they had inflicted on others, the Buccaneers resolved to depart, after
+fifteen days' residence, a favourite time with the brotherhood.
+
+They now demanded a double ransom of their chief prisoners; first, for
+themselves, under pain of being transported to Jamaica; and secondly,
+for the town, or it would be burned to the ground. Four merchants were
+chosen to collect the contributions, and some Spaniards were first
+tortured in their presence, to increase the zeal of their applications.
+After a few days, they returned empty-handed, and demanded a respite of
+fifteen days, which Morgan granted. They had searched all the woods,
+they said, and found none of their countrymen. Delay now grew
+dangerous--a party of foragers had captured a negro, with letters from
+the governor of Santiago, telling the citizens not to make too much
+haste to pay the ransom, but to put off the pirates with excuses till he
+could come to their aid. Enraged at what he deemed treachery, Morgan
+swore he would have no more delay, and would burn the town the next day
+if the ransom was not paid down, but not alluding to the detected
+letter, and betraying no apprehension. Still unable to obtain money,
+Morgan consented to take 500 oxen, which he insisted on the Spaniards
+placing on board his ships at Port-au-Prince, together with salt enough
+to "powder" them, needing the flesh to re-victual for a fresh and more
+profitable expedition.
+
+The same day Morgan left the city, taking with him six of the principal
+citizens as hostages. The next day came the cattle, but he now required
+the Spaniards to assist him in killing and salting them. This was done
+in a great hurry, Morgan expecting every moment the Santiago vessels
+would appear in sight. As soon as the butchering was completed he
+released his hostages and set sail, unwilling to fight when nothing
+could be gained by victory.
+
+At this juncture, the smouldering jealousy of the two nations that
+formed his crews broke into a flame. The grudges of the last voyage had
+been perpetuated, and had grown into a deep and lasting feud, producing
+ultimately a disunion fatal to all increase of the power of the
+brotherhood of the coast.
+
+While the prisoners were toiling at salting the beeves, the sailors
+employed themselves in drinking and rejoicing at their success, cooking
+the richest morsels while they were still fresh, and all hands intent on
+securing the hot marrow bones, the favourite delicacy of the hunters of
+Hispaniola. A Frenchman, employed as one of the butchers, had drawn out
+the dainty and placed it by his side, as a _bonne bouche_ when his work
+was over. An English Buccaneer, more hungry than polite, passing by,
+and knowing no reservation of property in such a republic, snatched up
+the reeking bone and carried it off. The Frenchman, pursuing him with
+angry vociferations, challenged him to fight for it, but before they
+could reach the place of combat, the aggressor stabbed his adversary in
+the back, and laid him dead on the spot. The Frenchmen, rising in arms,
+made it a national quarrel, and demanded redress. Morgan, just and
+impartial by nature and from policy, arrested the murderer and condemned
+him to be instantly shot, declaring that he had a right to challenge his
+adversary, but not to stab him treacherously. Oexmelin says, the man was
+sent in chains to Jamaica (and there tried and hung), Morgan promising
+to see justice done upon him. The French, however, remained
+discontented, lamented the fate of their comrade, and vowed revenge.
+
+Morgan, not waiting for the governor of Jamaica to share his spoil,
+sailed to a small island, at some distance, to make the dividend. To the
+general grief and disgust, they found the whole amounted to only 60,000
+crowns, not enough to pay their debts at Jamaica: this did not include
+the silk stuffs and other merchandise, which gave a poor pittance of 80
+crowns to each man, as the return for so much danger and privation.
+
+Morgan, as unwilling as the rest to revisit Port Royal empty-handed,
+proposed a new expedition, in search of a greater prize. But the French,
+not able to agree with the English, left the fleet, in spite of all
+their commander's persuasions, but still with every external mark of
+friendship, entreating to the last to have justice done to the
+"_infame_."
+
+Morgan, who had always placed great reliance on the courage of the
+French adventurers, was not going to relinquish his new expedition on
+account of their desertion. He had inspired his men with courage and the
+hope of acquiring riches, and they all resolved to follow him to the
+attack of the place, whose name he would not yet disclose, exciting them
+by a mystery, which prevented the possibility of treachery.
+
+He put forth to sea with eight small vessels, but was soon joined by an
+adventurer of Jamaica, just returning from Campeachy; with this new
+ally, he had now a force of nine vessels and 470 men, many French being
+still among them, and arrived at Costa Rica with all his fleet safe.
+
+As soon as they sighted land, he disclosed his design to his captains,
+and soon after to all his seamen. He intended to storm Porto Bello by
+night, and to put the whole city to the sack: he was confident of
+success, because no one knew of his secret; although some of his men
+thought their force too small for such an enterprise. To these Morgan
+replied, that if their number was small, their courage was great, and
+the fewer they were the more booty for each, with the greater prospect
+of union and secresy; and upon this, all agreed unanimously to the
+design.
+
+By good fortune, or by preconcerted arrangement, one of Morgan's crew
+turned out to be an Englishman who, only a short time before, had been a
+prisoner at Porto Bello, and his past sufferings now proved to have been
+the foundation of his future good fortune. Having escaped from that
+place, he knew every inch of the coast, which had been so painfully
+impressed on his mind, and Morgan submitted, with perfect confidence, to
+his guidance. By his advice, they steered straight for the bay of Santa
+Maria, arriving there purposely about dusk, and reached a spot about
+twelve leagues from the city, without meeting any vessel. They then
+sailed up the river to Puerto Pontin, four leagues distant, taking
+advantage of the land wind that sprang up, cool and fresh, at night.
+
+They here anchored, and embarked in boats, leaving a few men to bring on
+the ships. Rowing softly, they reached about midnight a place called
+Estera de Longa lemos, where they all landed, and marched upon the
+outposts of the city.
+
+Michael Scott describes Porto Bello as built in a miserable, dirty, damp
+hole, surrounded by high forest-clad hills, wreathed in mist, and
+reeking with dirt and fever. Everlasting vapours obscure the sun, and
+mingle with the exhalation of the steaming marshes of the
+lead-coloured, land-locked cove that forms the harbour.
+
+They were now within reach of the strongest city in the Spanish West
+Indies, except Havannah and Carthagena, the port of Panama, and the
+great mart for silver and negroes. Leaving as usual a party to guard the
+boats, and preceded by their guide, they began halfway to the town to
+prepare their arms. Upon approaching the first sentinel, Morgan sent
+forward the guide and three or four others to surprise him. They did it
+cunningly, before he could fire his musket, and brought him with his
+hands bound to Morgan, who, threatening him with death, asked him how
+things in the city went, and what forces they had, making a "thousand
+menaces to kill him if he did not speak the truth." The terrified
+Spaniard informed them that the town was well garrisoned, but that there
+were very few inhabitants; the merchants only residing in the town while
+the galleons are loading, and that he would be able to take the place in
+spite of all the fortresses and the 300 soldiers. Morgan then pushed on
+to the fort, carrying the man bound before them, and after a quarter of
+a league reached the castle, where the man's company was stationed,
+closely surrounding it, so that no one could get in or go out. The
+prisoner had in vain attempted to avoid this redoubt, to which he had
+served as picket, encouraged by Morgan's promises of reward, and avowal
+that he would not give him up to his countrymen.
+
+The Spaniards, finding the sentinel gone, had already spread the alarm
+of the Buccaneers' approach. From beneath the walls Morgan commanded the
+sentinel to summon the garrison to surrender at once to his discretion,
+or they should be cut in pieces without quarter. Not regarding these
+threats, the Spaniards began instantly to discharge their guns and
+muskets to alarm the town and obtain succour. But though they made a
+good resistance they were soon overpowered, and the Buccaneers, driving
+them into one room, set fire to the powder which lay about on the floor,
+and blew the tower and its defenders together into the air; all the
+survivors they put to the sword, in order to strike terror in the city.
+
+At daybreak they fell upon the city, and found the inhabitants, some
+still asleep and others scared and alarmed; many had thought of nothing
+but hiding their treasure, and only the professional soldier prepared
+for resistance. The governor, unable to rally the citizens, fled into
+the citadel, and fired upon the town as well as the enemy. The
+frightened herd, stupid with fear, were throwing their money and jewels
+into wells and cisterns, or burying their treasure in their courtyards,
+cellars, gardens, and chapels. The adventurers, abstaining from pillage,
+sent a chosen party to the convents to make prisoners of the religious,
+male and female; while another division prepared ladders to escalade the
+fort, not relaxing for a moment either in attack or defence. They
+attempted in vain to burn down a castle-gate which proved to be of iron,
+and baffled their efforts, and kept up a warm fire at the embrasures,
+aiming with such dexterity at the mouths of the guns as to kill a
+gunner or two every time the pieces were either run out or loaded.
+
+The firing continued from daybreak till noon, and even then the result
+seemed doubtful, for when the adventurers approached the walls with
+their grenades to burn the doors the defenders threw down upon them
+earthen pots full of powder, and lighted by a fusee, together with
+showers of stones and other missiles. Morgan himself began to despair of
+success, and did not know how to escape from that strait, when the
+English flag arose above the smaller fort, and a troop of men ran forth
+to proclaim victory with shouts of joy. The remaining castle, however,
+was the _pièce de resistance_, being the storehouse of the church plate,
+and the wealth of the richer citizens now with the garrison. A stratagem
+was suggested, appealing strongly to Spanish superstition, and, as it
+happened, successfully. Ten or twelve ladders were made so broad and
+strong that three or four men might mount them abreast. To all threats
+the governor replied he would never surrender alive, although the
+religious should themselves plant the ladders. The monks and nuns were
+then dragged to the heads of the companies, and forced to plant the
+ladders, in spite of the hot rain of fire and shot; the governor "using
+his utmost endeavours to destroy all who came near the walls, firing on
+the servants of God, although his kinsmen, and prisoners, and forced to
+the service. Delicate women and aged men were goaded at the sword's
+point to this hateful labour, derided by the English, and unpitied by
+their countrymen."
+
+All this time the Buccaneers maintained an unceasing fire along the
+whole line of grey battlements at every aperture where a pike head
+glittered or a lighted match smouldered; suffering much in return,
+unarmed as they were, guarded neither by steel-cap nor cuirass, and
+unsheltered by palisade or earthwork. In spite of the cries of the
+religious as they reared the ladders, their prayers to the saints, and
+their entreaties to the garrison to remember their common blood and
+nation, many of the priests were shot before the walls could be scaled.
+The more superstitious of the Spaniards were unnerved at hearing the
+dying curse of the consecrated servants of God, rising shrill above the
+roar of the battle. The ladders were at last planted, amid a shower of
+fire-pots that killed almost as many of the Spaniards as the English,
+and the Buccaneers sprang up with all the agility of sailors and the
+determination of Berserkers; their best marksmen shooting down the few
+Spaniards who awaited their arrival at the summit. Their falling bodies
+struck a few Buccaneers from their ladders. Every man that went up
+carried hand grenades, pistols, and sabre, but the musket was now laid
+aside, for it had done its work, and was a mere encumbrance in the
+grapple of closer combat. The English swarmed up in great numbers, and
+reaching the top kindled their fusees and threw down their fire-pots
+upon the crowded ranks of the enemy, with destructive effect. Before
+they could recover their dismay, sabre in hand, as if they were
+boarding, they leaped down upon the garrison, who drove them off with
+pikes and clubbed muskets, and, closing with them, hurled many from the
+ramparts, or, stabbing them, fell clenched with the foe in their
+despair. When their cannon was taken, the Spaniards threw down their
+arms and begged for quarter, except the governor and a few officers, who
+determined to die fighting against the robbers and heretics, the enemies
+of God and Spain.
+
+The Buccaneers, seeing the red flag flying from the first fort, which
+was the strongest, and built on an eminence which commanded the towers
+below, advanced with confidence to the attack of the remaining one,
+hitherto thought impregnable, which defended the port, and prevented the
+entrance of their vessels, which they wished to secure safe in the
+harbour, as the number of their wounded would require their long stay in
+the place they had captured. The governor, proud and brave, still
+refused to surrender, and fired upon them with his cannon, which were
+soon silenced by the superior fire of the newly-taken fort, which
+flanked his position. Out of this last stronghold, the weary and
+despairing defenders were quickly driven.
+
+Major Castellon, the stout-hearted governor, disdaining to ask quarter
+of a pack of heretic seamen, killed several of his own men who would not
+stand to their arms and called on him to save their lives, and struck
+down many of the hunters who tried to take him alive, not from a
+generous compassion, for pity seldom entered a Buccaneer's heart, but in
+order to obtain his ransom. A still more cruel trial of his courage, and
+duty to his king, awaited him: his wife and children fell at his knees,
+and, with cries and tears, begged him to lay down his arms and save both
+their lives. But he obstinately and sternly refused, replying, "Better
+this than a scaffold," preferring to die as a valiant soldier at his
+post, than to be hanged as a coward for deserting it. He died the death
+of a brave man, fighting desperately, and was found buried under the
+bodies of his dead enemies. If unpitied by his ferocious foes, he has
+left a name to be honoured by all brave men, as one worthy of a more
+chivalrous age, and a better cause.
+
+It now being nearly sunset, and the city their own, the adventurers
+enclosed all their prisoners in the citadel, separating the wounded,
+and, although heedless of their sufferings, employing the female slaves
+to wait upon them. It now being nearly night, they gave way to all the
+excesses of soldiers in a town taken by storm, exasperated by the
+recollection of past danger, and the death of friends, and maddened by
+both the certainty of present pleasure and the power of indulging in
+every success. Oexmelin says, fifty brave Spaniards might have put all
+the revellers to death, and recovered the place. We do not, however,
+hear that a single Spanish Jael was found to revenge herself on these
+modern Siseras.
+
+The following morning Morgan summoned his vessels into the harbour, and
+collecting all the loose wealth of the town, had it brought into the
+fort. Directing the repairs of the ramparts, scorched and shattered, he
+remounted the guns, in order to be ready to repel any attack from
+Panama. He collected a few of the prisoners who had been persuaded to
+say they were the richest merchants in Porto Bello, and put all who
+would not confess to the torture. He maimed some and killed others, who
+remained silent because they were in reality poor, and had concealed no
+treasure. Having spent fifteen days in these alternate cruelties and
+debaucheries, Morgan resolved to retreat. No Buccaneer general had ever
+taken a city which could not be stripped clean in fourteen days. Famine
+and disease began ungratefully to take the part of the Spaniard against
+the nation that had fed them with so many victims. Wild waste compelled
+them already to devour their mules and horses, rather than die of
+hunger, or turn cannibals. Parties of hunters were sent into the suburbs
+to hunt the cattle, whose flesh they then devoured, saving the mules for
+the prisoners, who, between their wounds and their hunger, were reduced
+to dreadful extremities.
+
+A death more terrible than that of a blow in battle now appeared in
+their midst. Many had already died victims of excess, and even the most
+prudent perished. The bad food, the sudden transition from excess to
+want, and the impurity of the tainted air, produced a pestilence. The
+climate of Porto Bello, always unhealthy, as Hosier's squadron
+afterwards experienced, was poisoned by the putrefaction of the dead
+bodies, hastily buried, and scarcely covered by earth. The wounded
+nearly all sickened, and the intemperate were the first to die.
+
+The prisoners, crowded together, and already weakened mentally by
+despondency, and physically by famine, soon caught the fever, and died
+with dreadful rapidity. Rich merchants, accustomed to every luxury, and
+to the most varied and seasoned food, pined under a diet of half-putrid
+mule's flesh, and bad, unfiltered water. Everything warned Morgan that
+it was time to weigh anchor, for the president of Panama was already on
+his march towards the city at the head of 1500 men. Informed of their
+approach from a slave captured by a hunting party, Morgan held a
+council, at which it was agreed not to retreat until they had obtained a
+ransom for the town greater than the spoil at present collected; and, in
+order to prevent a surprise, he placed a body of 100 well-armed men in a
+narrow defile, where but a few men could go abreast, and through which
+the president must pass. They found that that general had fewer troops
+with him than was reported, and these took flight at the first
+encounter, and did not attempt again to force a passage, but waited for
+reinforcements. The president, with the usual gasconade of a Spaniard,
+sent word to Morgan, that if he did not at once leave Porto Bello he
+should receive no quarter when he should take him and his companions, as
+he hoped soon to do.
+
+To this, Morgan, knowing he had a sure means of escape, said he should
+not leave till he had received 180,000 pieces of eight as a ransom for
+the city, and if he could not get this he should kill all his prisoners,
+blow up the castle, and burn the town, and two men were sent by him to
+the president to procure the money.
+
+The president, seeing that nothing could either deceive or intimidate
+Morgan, gave up Porto Bello to its fate, not caring to erect a silver
+bridge for a flying enemy. In vain he sent to Carthagena for a fleet to
+block up the ships in the river; in vain he kept the citizens in
+suspense as to the money, in hopes of gaining time. He was deaf and
+obdurate to all the entreaties of the citizens, who sent to inform him
+that the pirates were not men but devils, and that they fought with such
+fury that the Spanish officers had stabbed themselves, in very despair,
+at seeing a supposed impregnable fortress taken by a handful of people,
+when it should have held out against twice the number.
+
+Don Juan Perez de Guzman, the president, a man of "great parts," and who
+had attained high rank in the war in Flanders, expressed himself, with
+candour, as astonished at the exploits of 400 men (not regular soldiers)
+who, with no other arms but their muskets, had taken a city which any
+general in Europe would have found necessary to have blockaded in due
+form. He gave the people of Porto Bello, at the same time, leave to
+compound for their safety, but offered them no aid to insure it.
+
+To Morgan himself he could not refrain from expressing astonishment. He
+admired his success, with no ordnance for batteries, and against the
+citizens of a place who bore the reputation of being good soldiers,
+never wanting courage in their own defence. He begged, at the same time,
+that he would send him some small pattern of the arms wherewith he had,
+with such vigour, taken so great a city. Morgan received the messenger
+with great kindness and civility, flattered by the compliment from an
+enemy, and glad of an opportunity of expressing contempt of any
+assailants. He took a hunter's musket from one of his men, and sent it,
+together with a handful of Buccaneer bullets, to the president, begging
+him to accept it as a small pattern of the arms wherewith he had taken
+Porto Bello, hoping he would keep it a twelvemonth or two, at which time
+he hoped to visit Panama and fetch it away. The Spaniard, astonished at
+the wit and civility of the captain, whom he had deemed a mere brutal
+sea thief, sent a messenger to return the present, as he did not need
+the loan of weapons, but thanking Morgan and praising his courage,
+remarking at the same time that it was a pity that such a man should
+not be employed in a just war, and in the service of a great and good
+prince, and hoping, in conclusion, that he would not give himself the
+trouble of coming to see him at Panama, as he would not fare there so
+well as he had done at Porto Bello. Having delivered this message, so
+chivalrous in its tone, the messenger presented Morgan with a beautiful
+gold ring, set with a costly emerald, as a remembrance of his master Don
+Guzman, who had already supplied the English chief with fresh
+provisions.
+
+Having now provided himself with all necessaries, and stripped the
+unfortunate city of almost everything but its tiles and its paving
+stones, carried off half of the castle guns and spiked the rest, he then
+set sail, taking on board the ransom, which was punctually paid in the
+shape of silver bars. Corn seldom grew where his foot had once been, and
+he left behind him famine, pestilence, poverty, and death. Orphans and
+widows, mutilated men and violated women leaped for joy as his fleet
+melted into the distance.
+
+Setting sail, with great speed, he arrived in eight days at Cuba, where
+the spoil was divided.
+
+They found that they had in gold and silver, whether in coin or bar, and
+in jewels, which from haste and ignorance were seldom estimated at
+one-fourth part of their value, to the value of 260,000 pieces of eight.
+This did not include the silks and merchandise, of which they paid
+little heed, only valuing coin or bullion, and regarding the richest
+prize without coin as scarce worth the taking. This division
+accomplished, to the general satisfaction of all but the people of Porto
+Bello, who were now poor enough to defy all thieves, they returned at
+once to Jamaica, where they were magnificently received, Oexmelin says,
+"_surtout des cabaretiers_." Every door was open to them, and for a
+whole week all loudly praised their generosity and their courage; at the
+end of a month, every door was shut in their faces, all but one--the
+prison for debts, and that closed behind their backs. "They spent in a
+short time," says one of their historians, "with boundless prodigality,
+what they had gained with boundless danger and unremitting toil." The
+people of Tortuga considered them as mere slaves, who dived to get their
+pearls, and cared not whether they perished by the wave or by the shark,
+so the pearls which they had gathered could be first secured.
+
+"Not long after their arrival in Jamaica," says Esquemeling, "being that
+short time needed to lavish away all their riches, they concluded on
+another enterprise to seek new fortunes:" a sailor spends his money
+quickly, and so does a highwayman--in them both trades were combined.
+Morgan remained at rest as long as most Buccaneers did, that is to say,
+till he had drunk out half his money, strung the jewels of Spanish
+matrons around the necks of the fairest courtesans in Jamaica, and
+stripped himself at the gambling-table to-day in the hope of recovering
+the losses of yesterday. As his purse grew thin his heart grew stout,
+as his hunger grew greater his thirst for blood began also to increase.
+At last he looked seaward, turned his back on the lotus-land and the
+sirens, and prepared for sea.
+
+His rendezvous this time was fixed in a small island on the south side
+of Hispaniola, in order to invite both the French hunters and the
+sailors of Tortuga. By this sign of confidence Morgan hoped to remove
+all rankling prejudice between the French and English adventurers, and
+to obtain recruits from both nations. He resolved this time upon an
+expedition which would enable him and his men to retire from the sea
+life for ever, or at least to hold a longer revel.
+
+The Buccaneers of the coast seeing him always successful, and never
+returning without booty, less cruel and less rash than Lolonnois, and
+not only very brave but very fortunate, flocked to his flag almost
+without a summons. Every one furbished up his musket, cast bullets,
+bought powder, or fitted up a canoe. Parties were at once despatched to
+hunt in the savannahs, and to prepare salted meat sufficient for the
+voyage. Great numbers of French and English crowded to Cow Island.
+
+A powerful ally appeared at this crisis, in the shape of a French
+vessel, _Le Cerf Volant_, of St. Malo, which had come out to the Indies,
+virtuously intending to trade with the Spaniards, but, finding this
+difficult or unprofitable, had less virtuously determined to live by
+plundering them, and was now manned by French adventurers from Tortuga,
+no friends to Morgan, but anxious to share his booty. The vessel, which
+had also a long-boat towing at its stern, had a short time before
+attacked a Genoese ship, trading with negroes, but which, mounting
+forty-eight cannon, had driven it off, and compelled the captain to
+return home and refit. The crew seemed unwilling to trust the English,
+and would not listen to any terms. Morgan, who had just been joined by a
+ship from New England with thirty-six cannon, longed to add the
+twenty-four iron guns and the twelve brass ones of _Le Cerf Volant_ to
+his collection. In spite of his wish to unite the two nations, and
+close the green and still rankling wound, the temptation was rather too
+strong for him. His guardian angel slept for a moment, and when she
+awoke the English flag floated at the Frenchman's peak.
+
+The change happened thus: the French captain having refused to join
+Morgan's expedition, unless he drew up a peculiar charter party opposed
+to all Buccaneer law, and quarrelling about this, he swore _ventre St.
+Gris_, he would return to Tortuga, reload his cargo, and return to
+France.
+
+The blow was to be struck now or never. The English part of the St. Malo
+crew had already deserted to Morgan. Some of these men furnished him
+with an opportunity of revenge. The merchant captain, unaccustomed to
+the looseness of Buccaneer discipline, had treated them as sailors, and
+not as _matelots_ and brothers. They told Morgan, that being short of
+victual, he had lately stopped an English vessel, and taken provisions
+by force, paying the commander only with bills of exchange, cashable at
+Jamaica, and that he carried secretly a Spanish commission, empowering
+him to plunder the English. These charges, though full of malice, had a
+specious appearance of truth. The captain had indeed stopped an English
+vessel, but had paid for all he had taken with honest bills. He did also
+carry a Spanish commission, having been driven to anchor at the port of
+Baracoa, on the north-east side of Cuba, where he had obtained letters
+of marque from the governor, in order to conceal his real errand. Morgan
+considered this a sufficient pretext, and sounded his crew to ascertain
+how far they would help him at the moment of need. It was at this very
+moment of indecision that the New England vessel joined the fleet, and
+enabled him to bear down any opposition. This ship, which Oexmelin calls
+the _Haktswort_ (Oxford?) carried a crew of 300 men. It was said to
+belong to the king of England (Charles II.), and to have been lent by
+him to the present captain.
+
+[A strange, improbable story, unless the English government had really
+determined to encourage the Buccaneer movement. The _Haktswort_ was
+really sent by the governor of Jamaica to join the expedition.]
+
+With this timely succour Morgan's mind was instantly made up. He asked
+the St. Malo captain and all his officers to dinner, on board the
+newly-arrived vessel, and there made them prisoners, without any
+resistance, away from their crew, and with their ship exposed to an
+overwhelming fire. He then affected the anger of indignant justice,
+declared they were robbers, who plundered the English under a commission
+from the enemy, and came there as mere spies and traitors. Fortunately
+for him, the English vessel that had been stopped by the St. Malo crew
+arrived at the very moment to repeat and exaggerate the charge. The ship
+was now his own, and only God could take it from him. And "God did so,"
+says Esquemeling, who sees a judgment in all misfortunes that befal an
+enemy, but none in those that befal his friends.
+
+Morgan, victorious and exulting, called a council of war, and summoned
+all his captains to attend him on board his large prize. They praised
+the vessel, laughed at the tricked Frenchmen, and discussed their plans.
+They calculated what provisions they had in store, and of what their
+force was capable. The island of Savona was agreed upon as a rendezvous,
+as at that east corner of Hispaniola they might lurk and cut off
+stragglers from the armed Spanish flota, now daily expected. Having
+completed their arrangements they gave way to pleasure, the real
+occupation and business of a Buccaneer's life, his toil being only
+expended to procure the means for pleasure, and time to enjoy it. They
+began to feast and drink healths, the officers below and the sailors on
+deck. Prayers for a successful voyage were blended with drunken songs,
+and unintelligible blasphemies. The captain and the cook were both
+drunk, the very gunners who discharged a broadside when the toasts were
+drained, fell senseless beside their smoking guns. Those who could not
+move slept, those who could walk drank on. By some accident, a spark
+from a smoking match caught the powder, and in an instant the vessel
+blew up. In perfect equality all ranks were lifted up towards heaven,
+in a column of flame, only to fall back again to perish, burnt and
+helpless, in the sea. More than 350 of the 400 men that formed the crew
+were drowned. By a singular coincidence, the officers nearly all
+escaped. The English having their powder stored in the fore part of the
+vessel, and not in the stern like the French, the sailors only perished;
+the officers and the St. Malo prisoners who were drinking with them were
+merely blown, much bruised, into the water. The English adventurers,
+declaring that the French had set fire to the powder, would have killed
+them on the spot, but Morgan, not apparently the least chapfallen by the
+disappointment, sent them all as prisoners to Jamaica. The thirty men,
+seated in the great cabin at some distance from the main force of the
+powder, escaped, and many more would have been saved had they been
+sober.
+
+The French prisoners in vain endeavoured to obtain justice in Jamaica,
+were long detained in confinement, and threatened with death when they
+demanded a trial. Had Morgan returned unsuccessful they might have
+perhaps been listened to.
+
+Eight days after this loss Morgan commanded his men to collect the
+floating bodies now putrifying, not to give them Christian burial, but
+to save the clothes, and to remove the heavy gold rings which the
+English Buccaneers wore upon their forefingers, abandoning their
+unsaleable bodies to the birds and to the sharks.
+
+Undaunted by this accident, Morgan found he had still a force of fifteen
+vessels, and 860 men, but his gun ship, the largest of all, only carried
+fourteen small guns. They now made way to Savona, where all were to
+repair and careen, and the swift to wait for the slow. Letters were soon
+placed in bottles, and buried at a spot indicated by a mark agreed on.
+Coasting Hispaniola, they were detained by contrary winds, and attempted
+for three weeks in vain to double Cape Lobos. Their provisions ran
+short, but they were relieved by an English vessel, bound to Jamaica,
+which had a superfluity for sale.
+
+Always seeking for pleasure, though in emergencies capable of the
+severest self-denials, six or seven of the fleet remained clustering
+round this vessel to purchase brandy, as eager and thoughtless as
+stragglers round a vivandière. The more thoughtful and earnest pressed
+on with Morgan, and, reaching the bay of Ocoa, waited for them there,
+the men spending their time usefully, as they had agreed before, in
+hunting, and foraging for water and provisions, killing some oxen and a
+few horses. Detained here by continued bad weather, Morgan maintained
+strict discipline, compelling every captain to send, daily, on shore
+eight men from each ship, making a total force of sixty-four. He also
+instituted a convoy, or a body of armed men, who attended the hunters as
+a guard, for they were now near St. Domingo, which was full of Greek
+soldiers and Spanish matadors. The Spaniards, few in number, did not
+attack them, but, adopting a Fabian policy, which suited their pride and
+phlegm, sent for 300 or 400 men to kill all the cattle round the bay.
+Another party drove all the herds far into the interior, wishing to
+starve the foe out of the island, knowing that a Buccaneer, pressed by
+hunger, did not care whether he ate horse, mule, or ass, falling back
+upon monkeys and parrots, and resorting to sharks' flesh or his own
+shoes as a last resource. But when the Buccaneers spread further inland,
+a body of soldiers was despatched to the coast, to practise a stratagem,
+and to form an ambuscade.
+
+The following was their plan, which completely succeeded, but
+nevertheless ended in the Spaniards' total rout. A band of fifty
+Buccaneers having resolved to venture further than usual into the woods,
+a party of Spanish muleteers were ordered to drive the bait, a small
+herd of cattle, past the shore, where they had landed, pretending to fly
+when they caught sight of their enemies. When they approached the
+ambuscade two Spaniards were sent out, carrying a white flag of truce.
+The Buccaneers, ceasing the pursuit, pushed forward two men to parley.
+
+The treacherous Spaniards beseeched them plaintively not to kill their
+cows, offering to sell them cattle, or furnish them with food. The
+Buccaneers, with all the good faith of seamen, replied that they would
+give a crown and a-half for each ox, and that the seller could make his
+own profit besides on the hide and the tallow. During this time, which
+was planned to give time for the operation, the Spanish troops were
+turning the flank of the enemy, and had now surrounded the small band on
+all sides. They interrupted the conversation by breaking out of the
+wood, with shots and cries of "_Mata, mata_"--"kill, kill," imagining
+they could cut to pieces so small a force without a struggle. The
+Buccaneers, differing from them in opinion, faced about with good heart,
+threw themselves into a square, and beat a slow retreat to the forest,
+keeping up a rolling fire from all four sides of their brave phalanx.
+
+The Spaniards, considering the retreat a sure proof of despair and fear,
+attacked them with great courage, but great loss. The Buccaneers losing
+no men, while the Spaniards fell thick and fast, cried out, in imprudent
+bravado, that they were only trying to frighten them, and put no balls
+in their muskets. This jest cost them dear, for the Spaniards had been
+only aiming high, wishing to kill them on the spot and to make no
+prisoners. They now tried to maim as well as kill, and soon wounded so
+many in the legs that the Buccaneers were obliged to retreat to a clump
+of trees, where they stood at bay, and from whence the Spaniards did not
+dare to beat them. They then began to prepare to carry off their dead
+and wounded to the vessels, but seeing a small party of Spaniards
+piercing one of the bodies with their swords, they fired upon them,
+charged them, and drove them off, tracking their way by their dead, and
+then retreated, killing the cattle and bearing them off in sorrowful
+triumph to their vessels. The very next day, at the first light, Morgan,
+furious to revenge this treachery of the Spaniards, landed himself at
+the head of 200 men, and entered the woods, visiting the scene of the
+last night's skirmish. But the Spaniards had long since fled,
+discovering that in driving cattle towards the shore as a lure for the
+Buccaneer, they only brought destruction upon themselves, and a
+dangerous enemy nearer to their homes and treasures. Morgan, finding his
+search useless, returned to his ship, having first burned down all the
+deserted huts he could find: "Returning," says Esquemeling, "somewhat
+more satisfied in his mind for having done considerable damage to the
+enemy, which was always his ardent desire."
+
+The day after, deciding not to venture an attack upon Bourg d'Asso,
+Morgan, impatient at the delay of his vessels, resolved to sail without
+them, and visit Savona, hoping there to meet his lingering companions.
+Alarming the people of St. Domingo, he coasted round Hispaniola. He
+determined to wait eight days at Savona, and, weary of rest, still
+wanting provisions, he sent some boats and 150 men to plunder the towns
+round St. Domingo, but they, finding the Spaniards vigilant and
+desperate, gave up the enterprise as hopeless, and returned empty-handed
+to endure the curses and sneers of their commander. Morgan now held a
+council of war, for provisions were very scanty and time was going. The
+eight ships did not arrive, and all agreed, with their seven small
+vessels and their 300 men, some place of importance might still be
+taken. Morgan had hitherto resolved to cruise about the Caraccas and
+plunder the towns and villages, mere hen-roost robbing and footpad work,
+compared with the enterprise proposed by one of his French captains amid
+great applause.
+
+This captain was Pierre le Picard, the _matelot_ of the famous Lolonnois
+when he took Maracaibo: he it was who had steered the vessels over the
+bar, and had served both as pilot at sea and guide on land; he reefed
+and fought, and could handle a rope as well as a musket. He now proposed
+a second attack upon the same place, and, with all the rude eloquence of
+sincerity, proved the facility of the attempt, and the riches that lay
+within their reach. As he spoke good English that could be understood by
+all, and was, moreover, much esteemed by Morgan, the scheme for a new
+campaign was at once rapturously approved. He disclosed in the council
+all the entries, passages, forces, and means. A charter-party was drawn
+up, containing a clause, that if the rest of the fleet joined them
+before they had taken a fortress, they should be allowed to share like
+the rest.
+
+Having left a letter at Savona, buried in the usual way, the Buccaneers
+set sail for Curaçoa, stopping after some days' sail at the island of
+Omba, to take in water and provisions. This place was distant some
+twelve leagues from Maracaibo. Here they stayed twenty-four hours,
+buying goats of the natives for hanks of thread and linen. Sheep, lambs,
+and kids were the only products of the island, which abounded with
+spiders whose bite produced madness, unless the sufferer was tied hands
+and feet, and left without food for a night and a day. The fleet set
+sail in the night, to prevent the islanders discovering the object of
+their voyage.
+
+The next morning they sighted the small islands that lie at the entrance
+of the lake of Maracaibo, anchoring out of sight of the Vigilia, in
+hopes to escape notice, but were observed by the sentries, whose signal
+gave the Spaniards ample time for defence. The fleet remained becalmed,
+unable to reach the bar till four o'clock in the afternoon. The canoes
+were instantly manned, in order to take the Bar Fort, rebuilt since
+Picard's last visit. Its guns played upon the boats as they pulled to
+land. Morgan exhorted his men to be brave and not to give way--for he
+expected the Spaniards would defend themselves desperately, seeing their
+fire was so rolling and incessant that the fort seemed like the crater
+of a small volcano, and they could now see that the huts round the wall
+had been burnt and removed, to leave them no protection or shelter. "The
+dispute continued very hot, being managed with great courage from
+morning till dark night."
+
+That latterly the fighting died away to occasional shots is evident,
+for, at six o'clock when it grew dusk, Morgan reconnoitred the fort, and
+found it deserted. The cessation of the fire had already roused their
+suspicions. Suspecting treachery, Morgan searched the place to see if
+any lighted fuses had been placed near the powder, and a division was
+employed to enter the place before the main body. There was no lack of
+volunteers for this experimental and cat's-paw work. Morgan himself
+clambered up first. As they expected, they found a lighted match, and a
+dark train of powder communicating with the magazine. A little later and
+the whole band had perished together. Morgan himself snatched up the
+match. This fort was a redoubt of five toises high, six long, and three
+round. In the magazine they found 3,000 pounds of gunpowder that would
+have been wasted had the place been blown up; fourteen pieces of cannon,
+of eight, twelve, and fourteen pounds calibre, and abundance of
+fire-pots, hand-grenades, and carcases; twenty-four muskets and thirty
+pikes and bandoliers had been left by the runaways. The fort was only
+accessible by an iron ladder, which could be drawn up into the
+guard-room. But courage requires no ladder, and, like love, can always
+find out a way. When they had once examined the place, the Buccaneers
+broke down the parapet, spiked the cannon, threw them over the walls,
+and burnt the gun-carriages.
+
+The Spaniards waited in vain for the roar of their bursting mine. Their
+own city was rocking beneath their feet; a more dreadful visitation than
+the earthquake or the hurricane was at their doors. At daybreak the
+fleet sailed up the lake, the ruined fort smoking behind them. Making
+great haste, they arrived at Maracaibo the next day, having first
+divided among themselves the arms and ammunition of the fort. The water
+being very low and the shoals numerous, they disembarked into their
+boats, with a few small cannon. From some cavaliers whom they could see
+on the walls they believed that the Spaniards were fortifying
+themselves. The Buccaneers therefore landed at some distance from the
+town, anchoring and disembarking amid discharges of their own cannon,
+intending to clear the thickets on the shore. Their men they divided
+into two divisions, in order to embarrass the enemy by a double attack.
+
+But these precautions were useless. The timid people had already fled
+into the woods; only the beggars, who feared no plunderers, and the
+sick, who were praying for death, remained in Maracaibo. The brave fled
+with the coward, the monk with the sinner, the thief from the thieves,
+the soldiers from the seamen, the Catholic from the dreaded Protestant,
+and the Spaniard from the enemies of his name and race. The sick were
+expecting death, and cared not if it came by the hand of the doctor or
+the Buccaneer; the beggar hoped to benefit by those who could not covet,
+and might pity, their rags. "A few miserable folk, who had nothing to
+lose," says Esquemeling, "alone remained." Crippled slaves, not worth
+removing, lay in the streets; the dying groaned untended in the
+hospital. Children fled from parents, and parents from children; rich
+old age was left to die in spite of all the inducements of avarice. The
+prostitute fled to escape dishonour, and the murderer to avoid
+bloodshed.
+
+The houses were empty, the doors open, the chambers stripped of every
+movable, costly or precious. The first care of the invaders was to
+search every corner for prisoners, the next to secure, each party as
+they arrived, the richest palaces for their barracks. The palaces were
+their dens, the churches their prisons; everything they defiled and
+polluted, the loathsome things they made still more horrible, the holy
+they in some degree contaminated. At sea they were brave, obedient,
+self-denying, religious in formula (half the world goes no further),
+determined, and irresistible; on land cruel, bloody, rebellious, and
+ferocious. At sea they exceeded most men in the practice of the sterner
+virtues, on land they were demons of wrath, devils of drunkenness and
+lust, mercenaries and outlaws in their bearing and their actions. The
+three former days of terror had sapped the courage of the bravest, and
+alarm and fear had, by a common panic, induced the inhabitants to hide
+the merchandise in the woods. The men who fled had had fathers and
+children killed and tortured in the first expedition. Friends, still
+maimed by the rack, increased their fears by their narrations. The
+Buccaneers seemed a judgment from God, irresistible and unavertable. The
+desire to defend riches seems to be a weaker principle in the human mind
+than the desire to obtain them. Great conquerors have generally been
+poorer than the nations they have conquered.
+
+Scarcely any provisions remained in the town. There was no vessel or
+boat in the port, all had been removed into the wide lake beyond. The
+small demilune fort, with its four cannon, that was intended to guard
+the harbour, was also deserted. The richer the man, the further he had
+escaped inland; the needy were in the woods, the drunken beggars
+revelled alone in the town, rejoicing in an event that at least made
+them rich: "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good."
+
+The very same day the Buccaneers despatched a body of 100 men to search
+the woods for refugees, any attempt to secrete treasure being a heavy
+offence in the eyes of Morgan. These men returned the next evening with
+thirty prisoners, fifty mules, and several horses laden with baggage and
+rich merchandise. Both the male and female prisoners seemed poor and
+worthless. They were immediately tortured, in order to induce them to
+disclose where their richer and more virtuous fellow citizens were
+hidden. Morgan, finding none to resist him, quartered his men in the
+richest houses, selecting the church as their central guard-house and
+rallying point, their store-room for plunder, their court of justice
+(blind and with false weights), and their torture-chamber.
+
+Some of the prisoners offered to act as guides to places where they knew
+money and jewels were hidden. As several places were named, two parties
+went out the same night upon this exciting search. The one party
+returned on the morrow with much booty, the other did not wander in for
+two days, having been misled by a prisoner, who, in the hopes of finding
+means to escape through his knowledge of the country, had led them into
+such dangerous and uninhabited places that they had had a thousand
+difficulties in avoiding. Furious at finding themselves mocked by their
+guide, they hung him on a tree without any parley. In returning they
+came, however, suddenly upon some slaves who were seeking for food by
+night, having been hiding in the woods all day. Torture was at once
+resorted to, to find out where the masters lay, for slaves could not be
+there alone. The braver of the two suffered the most horrible pain
+without disclosing a syllable, and was eventually cut to pieces without
+confessing; the weaker, and perhaps younger negro, endured his
+sufferings at first with equal fortitude, although he was offered
+liberty and reward if he would speak. But when the seamen drew their
+sabres, still red with the blood of his companion, and began to hew and
+gash his brother's limbs that still lay palpitating on the ground, his
+courage fell, and he offered to lead them to his master. The Spaniard
+was soon taken with 30,000 crowns' worth of plate.
+
+For eight days the men practised unheard-of cruelties upon the wretched
+townsmen, already starved and beggared, wretches whose only crime had
+been their yielding to the natural impulse of self-preservation. They
+hung them up by their beards and by the hair of their heads, by an arm
+or a leg; they stretched their limbs tight with cords, and then beat
+with rattans upon the rigid flesh; they placed burning matches between
+their fingers; they twisted cords about their heads, tightening the
+strain by the leverage of their pistol stocks, till the eyes sprang from
+the sockets. The deathblow was never given from pity, but as the climax
+and consummation of suffering, and when the executioners were weary of
+their cruelty. In vain the tortured Spaniards screamed that the treasure
+was all removed to Gibraltar, and that they were not the rich citizens
+but very poor men, monks and servants of Jesus, God help them! Many died
+before the rack could be loosened.
+
+Captain Picard, exulting in the success of his expedition, was now very
+urgent in pressing Morgan to advance on Gibraltar before succours could
+arrive there from Merida, believing that it would surrender as it had
+done to Lolonnois. Morgan having in his custody about 100 of the chief
+families of Maracaibo, and all the accessible booty, embarked eight
+days after his landing, and proceeded to Gibraltar, hoping to rival
+Lolonnois in every virtue. His prisoners and plunder went with him, and
+he determined to hazard a battle. Expecting an obstinate defence, every
+Buccaneer made his will, consoling himself by the thought of revelry at
+Jamaica if he was one of those lucky enough to escape. "Death," says
+Oexmelin, "was never much mixed up in their thoughts, especially when
+there was booty in view, for if there were only some hopes of plunder
+they would fight like lions." Before the fleet started, two prisoners
+had been sent to Gibraltar to warn the governor that Captain Morgan
+would give him no quarter if he did not surrender.
+
+Picard, who remembered the former dangerous spots, made his men land
+about a quarter of a league from the town, and march through the woods
+in hopes of taking the Spaniards in the rear, in case they should be
+again entrenched. The enemy received them with quick discharges of
+cannon, but the men cheered each other, saying, "We must make a
+breakfast of these bitter things ere we sup on the sweetmeats of
+Gibraltar." They landed early in the morning, and found no more
+difficulty than at Maracaibo. The Spaniards, deceived by a stratagem,
+had expected their approach by the road, and not by the woods. They had
+no time to throw up entrenchments, and only a few barricades, planted
+with cannon, protected their flight. They remembered Lolonnois; their
+hearts became as water, and they fled as the Buccaneers took peaceable
+possession of the town. The Spaniards took with them their riches, and
+all their ammunition, to use at some more convenient period. Morgan,
+rejoicing in the easy victory, posted his men at the strong points of
+the town, while 100 men, under Picard, went out to pursue and bring in
+prisoners. They found the guns spiked, and every house sacked by its
+owner, much spoiled, much carried off, and the heavy and the worthless
+alone left.
+
+The only inhabitant remaining in the town was a poor half-witted
+Spaniard, who had not clearly ascertained what he ought to do. He was
+so well dressed that they at first took him, much to his delight, for a
+man of rank, and asked him what had become of all the people of
+Gibraltar. He replied, "they had been gone a day, but he did not know
+where; he had not asked, but he dare say they would soon be back, and
+for his part he, Pepé, did not care." When they inquired where the
+sugar-mills were, he replied that he had never seen any in his life. The
+church money, he knew, was hid in the sacristy of the great church.
+Taking them there he showed them a large coffer, where he pretended to
+have seen it hid. They opened it and found it empty. To all other
+inquiries he now answered, "I know nothing, I know nothing." Some of the
+Buccaneers, angry at the disappointment, and vexed at the subtlety of
+the Spaniards, declared the fellow was more knave than fool, and dragged
+him to torture. They gave him first the strapado, till he began to wish
+the people were returned; they then hung him up for two hours with heavy
+stones tied to his feet, till his arms were dislocated. At last he cried
+out, "Do not plague me any more, but come with me and I will show you
+my goods and my riches." He then led them to a miserable hovel,
+containing only a few earthen pots and three pieces of eight, wrapped in
+faded finery, buried under the hearth. He then said his name was Don
+Sebastian Sanchez, brother of the governor of Maracaibo, that he was
+worth more than 50,000 crowns, and that he would write for it and give
+it up if they would cease to hang and plague him so. They then tortured
+him again, thinking he was a grandee in disguise, till he offered, if he
+was released, to show them a refinery. They had not got a musket-shot
+from the hut before he fell on his knees and gave himself up as a
+criminal. "Jesu Maria!" he cried, "what will you do with me, Englishmen?
+I am a poor man who live on alms, and sleep in the hospital." They then
+lit palm-leaves and scorched him, and would have burnt off all his
+clothes had he not been released by one of the Buccaneers who now saw he
+was an idiot. The poor fellow died in great torment in about
+half-an-hour, and before he grew cold was dragged into the woods and
+buried.
+
+The following day Picard brought in an old peasant and his two
+daughters; the old man, his crippled limbs having been tortured, offered
+to serve as guide, and lead them to some houses in the suburbs. Half
+blind and frightened, he mistook his way, and the Buccaneers, thinking
+the error intentional, made a slave, who declared he had intentionally
+misled them, hang him on a tree by the road side.
+
+Slavery here brought its own retribution, for this same slave, burning
+to avenge some ill treatment he had received, offered, on being made
+free, to lead them to many of the Spanish places of refuge. Before
+evening ten or twelve families, with all their wealth, were brought into
+Gibraltar. It had now become difficult to track the fugitives, as
+fathers refused even to trust their children; no one slept twice in the
+same spot, for fear that some one who knew of the retreat would be
+captured, and then, under torture, betray the spot, generally huts in
+the darkest recesses of the woods, where their goods were stored from
+the weather. These exiles were, however, obliged to steal at night to
+their country houses to obtain food, and then they were intercepted.
+From some of these merchants Morgan heard that a vessel of 100 tons, and
+three barges laden with silver and merchandise belonging to Maracaibo,
+now lay in the river; about six leagues distant, and 100 men were
+despatched to secure the prize.
+
+In scouring the woods again with a body of 200 human bloodhounds, Morgan
+surprised a large body of Spaniards. Some of these he forced the negro
+guide to kill before the eyes of the others, in order to implicate him
+in the eyes of the survivors. After eight days' search the band returned
+with 250 prisoners, and a long train of baggage mules, bound for Merida.
+The prisoners were each separately examined as to where the treasure was
+hid. Those who would not confess, and even those who had nothing to
+confess, were tortured to death--burnt, maimed, or had their life slowly
+crushed out of them.
+
+Amongst the greatest sufferers in this purgatory on earth was an old
+Portuguese of venerable appearance, perhaps either a miser or purposely
+disguised. This man the blood-thirsty negro, now high in favour with the
+Buccaneers, and trying to rival them in cruelty, declared was very rich.
+The poor old man, tearing his thin grey hair, swore by the Virgin and
+all the saints that he had but 100 pieces of eight in the whole world,
+and these had been stolen from him a few days before, during the general
+chaos, by a runaway slave. This he vowed on his knees with tears and
+prayers, doubly vehement when coming from one already on the grave's
+brink. The cruel slave still looked sneeringly on, and swore he was
+known to be the richest merchant in all Gibraltar. The Buccaneers then
+stretched the Portuguese with cords till both his arms broke at the
+shoulder, and then bound him by the hands and feet to the four corners
+of a room, placing upon his loins a stone, weighing five cwt., while
+four men, laughing at his cries, kept the cords that tied him in
+perpetual motion. This inhuman punishment they called "swimming on
+land." As he still refused to speak, they held fire under him as he
+swung groaning, burnt off his beard and moustaches, and then left him
+hanging while they strapadoed another. The next man they threw into a
+ditch, after having pierced him with many sword thrusts, for they seem
+to have been as insatiable for variety of cruelty as they were for
+cruelty itself. They left him for dead, but he crawled home, and
+eventually recovered, although several sword blades had passed
+completely through his body.
+
+As for the old Portuguese, his sufferings were far from ended; putting
+him on a mule they brought him into Gibraltar, and imprisoned him in the
+church, binding him to a pillar apart from the rest, supplying him with
+food barely sufficient to enable him to endure his tortures. Four or
+five days having passed, he entreated that a certain fellow prisoner,
+whom he named, might be brought to him. This request being complied
+with, as the first step to obtaining a ransom while he still remained
+alive, he offered them, through this agent, a sum of 500 pieces of
+eight. But the Buccaneers laughed at so small a sum, and fell upon him
+with clubs, crying "500,000, old hunx, and not 500, or you shall not
+live." After several more days of continued suffering, during which he
+incessantly protested that he was a poor man and kept a small tavern,
+the miser confessed that he had a store of 2000 pieces of eight, buried
+in an earthen jar, and all these, bruised and mutilated as he was and
+much as he loved money, he gave for his liberty, and a few days more of
+life.
+
+Upon the other prisoners, without regard to age, sex, or rank, they
+inflicted tortures too disgusting and shocking to mention. Fear, hatred,
+and avarice generated crimes, till the prisoners grew as vile as their
+persecutors.
+
+A slave, who had been cruelly treated by his master, persuaded the
+Buccaneers to torture him on the plea that he was very rich, although he
+was in reality a man of no wealth. The other prisoners, roused from the
+selfishness of self-preservation by a thrill of involuntary compassion,
+told Morgan that the Spaniard was a poor man, and that the slave had
+perjured himself to obtain revenge. Morgan released the Spaniard
+directly, but he had been already tortured. The slave was given up to
+his master to be punished by any sort of death he chose to inflict.
+Handed over to the Buccaneers, he was chopped to pieces in his master's
+presence, still exulting in his revenge. "This," says Oexmelin, with a
+cold _naïveté_, "satisfait l'Espagnol, quoyqu'il fust fort mal traité,
+et en danger d'estre estropié" (this satisfied the Spaniard, though he
+had been very badly treated, and almost lamed for life). Some of the
+prisoners were crucified, others were burnt with matches tied between
+their toes or fingers, many had their feet forced into the fires till
+they dropped from the leg black and charred. All that the Indians had
+suffered was now retaliated on the Spaniards. The Buccaneers themselves
+considered the punishment a vengeance of Providence. The only mercy ever
+shown to a Spaniard was to end his sufferings by death. The _coup de
+grace_ was a kindness when it ended the misery of a groaning wretch,
+bruised and burnt, lying in the hot sun, half mortified, or with his
+body already paralyzed four or five days since. The masters being all
+tortured, the slaves next received the strapado. These men, weaker in
+their moral nature and with no motive for concealment but fear, told
+everything. Many of the hiding-places were, however, not known to them.
+One of them, during the fever of his wound, declared he knew where the
+governor of the town was secreted, with many of the ladies of Gibraltar,
+and a large portion of the treasure. Threats of death revealed the rest,
+and he confessed that a ship and four boats, laden with Maracaibo
+wealth, lay in a river of the lake. The Buccaneers were instantly on
+their feet. Morgan, with 200 men and the slave guide, set out to capture
+the governor; and 100 others, in two large _settees_ (boats), sallied
+out to capture the treasure and the ships. The governor was not easily
+caught, for it needed a battalion of balloons to surprise him. His first
+retreat was a fort thrown up in the centre of a small island in the
+river, two days' march distant. Hearing that Morgan was coming in
+force, he retreated to the top of an adjoining mountain, into which
+there was but one ascent, so straight, narrow, and perilous, that it
+could only be mounted in single file.
+
+The expedition altogether broke down, the rock proved inaccessible to
+any but eagles; a "huge rain" wetted their baggage and ammunition; in
+fording a river swollen by this "huge rain," many of their female
+prisoners were lost, and, what they valued more, several mules laden
+with plate were whirled down the torrents. Many of the women and
+children sank under the fatigue, and some escaped. Involved in a marshy
+country, up to their middles in water, the Buccaneers had to toil on for
+miles. A few lost their lives, others their arms (the means of
+preserving them). A body of fifty determined men, the Buccaneer
+historian himself says, could have destroyed the whole body. But the
+Spaniards were already so paralyzed by fear that they fled at the very
+rustle of a leaf. Twelve days were spent in this dangerous and useless
+expedition. Two days after them arrived their comrades, who had been
+somewhat more successful. The Spaniards had unloaded the vessels, and
+were beginning to burn them when they arrived, but many bales were left
+in the haste of flight, and the boats, full of plunder, were brought
+away in tow.
+
+Morgan had now been lord in Gibraltar for five whole weeks, practising
+all insolences that a conqueror ever inflicts on the conquered;
+revenging on them the sufferings of the conquest, and trampling them
+under foot for the very pleasure of destruction. Provisions now failing,
+he resolved to depart; the provisions of Gibraltar, except the fruits,
+coming entirely from Maracaibo, were delayed and intercepted. He first
+sent some prisoners into the woods to collect a ransom from the
+fugitives, under pain of again burning down their newly rebuilt city. He
+demanded 5,000 pieces of eight. They promised to pay it in eight days,
+and gave four of their richest citizens as hostages. The governor, safe
+from all danger himself, had, however, forbidden them to pay any
+ransom, and they prayed Morgan to have patience.
+
+Setting sail with his hostages he arrived in three days at Maracaibo,
+afraid that, during his long absence, the Spaniards had fortified
+themselves, and he should have to fight his way through the passes.
+Before his departure he released all his prisoners who had paid ransom,
+but detained the slaves. He refused particularly to give up the
+treacherous negro, because he knew they would burn him alive.
+
+The only inmate of all the rich palaces and wide squares of Maracaibo,
+was a poor sick man, who informed him (Morgan), to his astonishment,
+that three Spanish men-of-war had arrived at the bar, and had repaired
+and garrisoned the fort. Their commander was Don Alonso del Campo
+d'Espinosa, the vice-admiral of the Indian fleet, who had been
+despatched to those seas to protect the Spanish colonists, and put to
+the sword every adventurer he could meet. This news did not alarm those
+who every day "set their lives upon the hazard of a die," but it enraged
+men who thought themselves secure of their plunder, and which they now
+might have to throw off to lighten them in their retreat. Morgan
+instantly despatched his swiftest vessel to reconnoitre the bar. The men
+returned next day, assuring him that the story was too true, and they
+were in very imminent danger. They had approached so near as to be in
+peril of the shot, the biggest ship mounted forty guns, the next thirty,
+and the smallest twenty, while Morgan's flag-ship had only fourteen.
+They had seen the flag of Castile waving on the redoubt. There was no
+means of escape by sea or land, and all were in despair at such enemies
+so placed.
+
+Morgan, undaunted and roused to new courage by the extremity, grew more
+full of audacity than ever. He at once sent a flag of truce to the
+_Magdalene_, the Spanish admiral's vessel, demanding 20,000 pieces of
+eight, or he should set Maracaibo in flames. The admiral, amused and
+astonished at such temerity, wrote back to say, that hearing that they
+had committed hostilities in the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, his
+sovereign lord and master, he had come to dispute their passage out of
+the lake, from that castle, which they had taken out of the hands of a
+parcel of cowards, and he intended to follow and pursue them everywhere,
+as was his duty. The letter continued: "Notwithstanding if you be
+contented to surrender with humility all you have taken, together with
+the slaves and other prisoners, I will let you pass freely without
+trouble or molestation, on condition that you retire home presently to
+your own country. But if you make any resistance or opposition to what I
+offer you, I assure you I will command boats to come from the Caraccas,
+wherein I will put my troops, and, coming to Maracaibo, will put you
+every man to the sword. This is my last and absolute resolution; be
+prudent, therefore, and do not abuse my bounty with ingratitude. I have
+with me very good soldiers, who desire nothing more ardently than to
+revenge on you and your people all the cruelties and base infamous
+actions you have committed upon the Spanish nation in America."
+
+This vapouring letter Morgan read aloud to his men in the broad
+market-place at Maracaibo, first in French and then in English, begging
+their advice on the whole matter--asking them whether they would
+surrender everything for liberty, or fight for both liberty and hard-won
+treasure. They all answered unanimously, they did not care for the
+Spanish brag, and they would rather fight to the last drop of their
+blood than surrender booty got with such peril. One of the men, stepping
+forward, cried, "You take care of the rest, I'll build a _brûlot_, and
+with twelve men will burn the biggest of the three Spaniards."
+
+The scheme was adopted, but resolved once more to try negotiation, now
+that he was prepared for the worst, Morgan wrote again to Don Alonso,
+offering to leave Maracaibo uninjured, surrender all the prisoners, half
+the slaves, and to give up the hostages. The Don, trusting in his
+superior strength, and believing Morgan fairly intimidated or at least
+entirely in his mercy, refused to listen to any terms but those he had
+proposed, adding, that in two days he should come and force him to
+yield. Morgan resolved upon this to fight his way out and surrender
+nothing, his men, though discouraged, being still brave and desperate.
+All things were put in order to fight. The Englishman of Morgan's crew
+proceeded as fast as possible with his _brûlot_, or fire-ship. He took
+the small vessel captured in the Rivière des Espines, and filled it full
+of palm-leaves dipped in tar, and a mixture of brimstone and gunpowder.
+He put several pounds of powder under each of the ten sham guns, which
+were formed of negro drums. The partitions of the cabins were then
+broken down, so that the flame might spread unimpeded. The crew were
+wooden posts, dressed up with swords, muskets, bandoliers, and hats or
+montero caps. This fire-ship bore the English colours, so that it might
+pass for Morgan's vessel; and in eight days, by all hands working upon
+it, it was ready. During the preparation an extra guard was kept upon
+the prisoners, for one escaping would have destroyed all their hopes of
+safety. The male prisoners were kept in one boat, and the females,
+slaves, plate, and jewels in another. In others, guarded by twelve men
+each, came the merchandise. The _brûlot_ was to go first and grapple
+with the admiral's ship.
+
+All things being now completed, Morgan, with a heart as gay as if he
+fought for God and the right, made his men take the usual Buccaneer
+oath, employed on all occasions of pressing danger, when mutual
+confidence was peculiarly necessary. They vowed to fight till death, and
+neither to give nor take quarter. He promised a reward to all who
+distinguished themselves, exciting all the strongest feelings of their
+nature--revenge, avarice, and self-preservation.
+
+With these desperate resolves, full of hope, for they were accustomed to
+consider his promises of victory as certain prophecies, they set sail on
+the 30th day of April, 1669, to seek the Spaniards.
+
+They found the Spanish fleet riding at anchor in the middle of the entry
+of the lake, like gaolers of their spacious prison. It being late and
+almost dark, Morgan gave orders to anchor within range of the enemy,
+determined to resist if attacked, but to wait for light. They kept a
+strict watch, and at daybreak lifted anchor and set sail, bearing down
+straight upon the Spaniards, who, seeing them move, advanced to meet
+them.
+
+Poor fishing boats the Buccaneers' barks seemed beneath those proud
+floating castles; "but the race is not always to the swift, nor the
+battle to the strong." The _brûlot_ sailed first, pushing on to the
+admiral's vessel, which lay stately between its two companions, and was
+suffered to approach within cannon shot. The Spaniards believing that it
+was Morgan's vessel, and intended to board them, waited till it came
+closer to crush it with a broadside. They little thought that they were
+fighting with the elements. The fire-ship fell upon the Spaniard and
+clung to its sides, like a wild cat on an elephant. Too late the
+Spaniard attempted to push her off, but the flames had already leaped
+from their lurking places; first the sails were swathed in fire, then
+the tackling shrivelled up, and soon the solid timbers burst into a
+blaze. The stern was first consumed, and the fore part sank hissing
+into the sea. The wretched crew, flying from one element to the other,
+perished, some by fire, some by water; the half-drowning clung to the
+burning planks and withered in the glare; the burning sailors were
+sucked down by the vortex of the sinking wreck. Don Alonso, seeing the
+danger, called out to them in vain to cut down the masts, and, throwing
+himself with difficulty into his sloop, escaped to land. The sailors,
+refusing quarter, were allowed to perish by the Buccaneers' boats'
+crews, who at first offered to save them. Perhaps the recollection of
+their oath lessened their exertions.
+
+The boats were pulling round the burning vessel in hopes of saving
+plunder, and not of saving lives. The second vessel was boarded by the
+Buccaneers and taken, in the confusion, almost without resistance. The
+third ship, cutting its cables, drifted towards the fort, and there ran
+ashore, the crew setting fire to her to prevent capture. The Buccaneers,
+proud of their victory, determined to push it to extremities by landing
+and attempting to storm the fort at the bar, without ladders, and
+relying only on their hand grenades, but their artillery was too small
+to make any practicable breach. The fort they found well supplied with
+men, cannon, and ammunition. The garrison had not suffered personally by
+the loss of a fleet manned by strangers, and they repulsed all attacks.
+Unwilling to retire, Morgan spent the whole of the day till dusk in
+firing muskets at any defenders who showed themselves above the walls,
+and at dusk lit them up with a shower of fireballs, but the Spaniards
+desperately resisted, and shot so furiously at them as to drive them
+back to the ships, with the loss of thirty killed and as many
+wounded--more loss than they had suffered in the capture of Maracaibo
+and Gibraltar, while the fleet had been destroyed without the loss of a
+single man. The garrison, expecting a fresh attack at daybreak, laboured
+all night to strengthen their works, levelling the ground towards the
+sea, and throwing up entrenchments from spots that commanded the
+castle.
+
+The next day Morgan, not intending to renew the attack, employed himself
+in saving the Spanish sailors who were still floating on charred pieces
+of the wreck; not rescuing them from mercy, but in order to make them
+help in recovering part of the sunk treasure. They acknowledged that Don
+Alonso had compelled them before the engagement, after they had
+confessed to the chaplain, to come and take an oath to give the enemy no
+quarter, which was the reason many had refused to be saved. The
+admiral's vessel, the _Magdalene_, had carried thirty-eight guns and
+twelve small brass pieces, and was manned by 350 sailors; the second,
+the _St. Louis_, had thirty-four guns and 200 men; and the third, the
+_Marquise_, twenty-two guns and 150 men. The _Marquise_ derived its name
+from the Marquis de Coquin, who had fitted it out as a privateer. The
+_Concepcion_ and _Nostra Signora de la Soledad_, two larger vessels, had
+been sent back to Spain from Carthagena; a fourth, _Nostra Signora del
+Carmen_ (for the Spaniards generally drew the names of their war vessels
+from the lady of love and peace), had sunk near Campeachy.
+
+The pilot of the smaller vessel being saved, and promised his life,
+disclosed all Don Alonso's plans. He had been sent, upon the tidings of
+the loss of Porto Bello, by direction of the supreme council of state,
+with orders to root out the English pirates in those parts, and to
+destroy as many as he could, for dismal lamentations had been made to
+the court of Spain, to the Catholic king, to whom belonged the care and
+preservation of the New World, of the damages and hostilities committed
+by the English, and he had resolved to punish these proceedings and
+avenge his subjects. The king of England being complained to, constantly
+replied that he never gave any letters-patent to such men or such ships.
+Sending home his more cumbrous ships, the Don had heard at St. Domingo
+of the fleet sailing from Jamaica, and a prisoner, taken at Alta Grecia,
+disclosed Morgan's plan on the Caraccas. On arriving there the wild fire
+had already broken out at Maracaibo a second time, and hither he came to
+extinguish it. A negro slave had indeed informed the admiral of the
+fire-ship, but with short-sighted pride he derided the idea, saying that
+the English had had neither wit, tools, nor time to build it.
+
+The pilot who made these disclosures was rewarded by Morgan, and,
+yielding to his promises, entered into his service. He informed him,
+with the usual zeal of a deserter, that there was plate to the value of
+40,000 pieces of eight in the sunken ship, for he had seen it brought on
+board in boats. The divers eventually recovered 2000 pounds' worth of
+it, some "in plate" and others in piastres, that had melted into large
+lumps, together with many silver hilts of swords and other valuables.
+
+Leaving a vessel to superintend this profitable fishery, Morgan hurried
+back to Maracaibo, and, fitting up his largest prize for himself, gave
+his own ship to a companion. He also sent to the governor, now somewhat
+crest-fallen, to re-demand the ransom, threatening more violently than
+before to burn down the city in eight days if it was not brought in. He
+also demanded, in addition, 500 cows as victual for his fleet. These
+were brought in in the short space of two days, with part of the money,
+and eleven more days were spent in salting the meat and preparing for
+sea. Then returning to the mouth of the lake, he sent to Don Alonso to
+demand a free passage, offering to send all the prisoners on shore as
+soon as he had once passed out, but otherwise to tie the prisoners to
+the rigging, exposing them to the shot of the fort, and then to kill and
+throw overboard those who were not struck. The prisoners also sent a
+petition, praying the governor to spare their lives. But the Don, quite
+undaunted, sternly answered to the hostages, who besought him on their
+knees to save them from the sword and rope, "If you had been as loyal to
+your king in hindering the entry of these pirates as I shall be in
+hindering their going out, you had never caused these troubles, either
+to yourselves or to our whole nation, which hath suffered so much
+through your pusillanimity. I shall not grant your request, but shall
+endeavour to maintain that respect which is due to my king, according to
+my duty."
+
+When the terrified messengers returned and told Morgan, he replied, "If
+Alonso will not let me pass, I will find out a way without him,"
+resolving to use either force or stratagem, and perhaps both.
+
+Fearing that a storm might separate his fleet, or that some might not
+succeed in escaping, Morgan divided the booty before he attempted to
+pass the bar. Having all taken the usual oath, he found they had
+collected 250,000 pieces of eight, including money and jewels, and in
+addition a vast bulk of merchandise and many slaves. Eight days were
+spent in this division, which took place within sight of the exasperated
+garrison in the fort.
+
+The following stratagem was then resorted to. Knowing that the Spaniards
+were expecting a final and desperate attack on the day before their
+departure, the Buccaneers made great show of preparing to land and
+attack the fort. Part of each ship's crew embarked with their colours
+in their canoes, which were instantly rowed to shore. Here the men,
+concealed by the boughs on the banks, lay down flat in their boats, and
+were rowed back again to their vessels by only two or three sailors.
+This feigned landing they repeated several times in the day. The
+Spaniards, certain of an escalade, at night brought down the great
+eighteen pound ship guns of the fort to the side of the island looking
+towards the land, and left the sea-shore almost defenceless. When night
+came Morgan weighed anchor, and, by moonlight setting sail, at the
+commencement of the ebb tide, dropped gently down the river, till the
+vessels were almost alongside of the castle. Then spreading sails, quick
+as magic, he drove past, firmly but warily. Every precaution was taken.
+The crew were couched flat on the poop, and some placed below to plug
+the shot-holes as they came. The Spaniards, astonished at their daring,
+and enraged at their escape, ran with all speed and shifted their
+battery, firing hastily, furiously, and with little certainty; but by
+this time, a favourable wind springing up, the Buccaneers were almost
+out of reach, few men were killed, and little damage done.
+
+In this manner escaped Morgan from the clutches of Don Alonso, who had
+thought himself sure of his prey. The baffled rage of the Spaniards and
+the wild joy of the Buccaneers, their clamorous approval of Morgan's
+skill, the exultation of their triumph, and the prisoners' dismay, may
+be easily imagined. Generous in success, Morgan, once out of range of
+the guns that thundered in pursuit, sent a canoe on shore with his
+prisoners from Maracaibo, but those of Gibraltar he carried off, as they
+had not yet paid their ransom. The joy of one and the grief of the
+other, their parting and the tears, were painful to witness. As he set
+sail, and the fort was still looming to the right, Morgan discharged a
+farewell salute of eight guns, to which the chapfallen Spaniards had not
+the heart to return even a single musket shot.
+
+But out of Scylla into Charybdis was a Buccaneer's fate: one danger was
+succeeded by another, hope by hope, despair by despair. The very day of
+their escape the judgment of Heaven seemed to overtake the sea rovers,
+as if to warn them that no stratagems could defeat God. The fleet was
+surprised by such a tempest that they were compelled to anchor in five
+or six fathom water. The storm increased, they were obliged to weigh
+again, and at any risk keep off the land. Their only choice seemed to be
+death by the Spaniard, the Indian, or the wave--all equally hostile and
+deaf to mercy.
+
+Oexmelin says he was on board the least seaworthy vessel of the whole
+fleet, that, having lost anchors and mainsail, they had great difficulty
+in keeping afloat, and were obliged to bale as well as work night and
+day at the pumps, amid deafening thunder and mountainous seas that
+threatened to drown them even while the vessel still floated. The ship,
+but for the ropes that held it together, would have instantly sunk. The
+lightning and the wave disputed for their prey, but the rude arbiter,
+the wind, came in and snatched them from these destroyers. "Indeed,"
+says Oexmelin, "though worn out with fatigue and toil, we could not make
+up our minds to close our eyes on that blessed light which we might so
+soon lose sight of for ever, for no hope of safety now remained. The
+storm had lasted four days, and there was no probability of its
+termination. On one side we saw rocks on which our vessel threatened
+every instant to drive, on the other were Indians who would no more have
+spared us than the Spaniards who were behind us; and by some evil
+fortune the wind drove us ceaselessly towards the rocks and the Indians,
+and away from the place whither we desired to go."
+
+In the midst of these distresses, six armed vessels gave them chase
+through the storm when they were near the bay of Venezuela. They turned
+out to be vessels of the Count d'Estreés, the French admiral, who
+generously rendered them aid, and the wind abating enabled them to reach
+the shore. Morgan and some others made for Jamaica, and the French for
+St. Domingo,--the Spaniards at the fort probably believing they had
+perished in the gale.
+
+The laggers of Morgan's fleet, who had never joined him, were less
+fortunate than the admiral they deserted. 400 in number, they landed at
+Savona, but could not find the buried letter. They determined to attack
+the town of Comana, on the Caraccas, choosing Captain Hansel, who had
+distinguished himself at Porto Bello, as their commander. This town was
+distant sixty leagues from Trinidad. On landing they killed a few
+Indians who awaited them on the beach, but the Spaniards, disputing
+briskly the entry of the town, drove them back at last to their ships
+with great loss and confusion. On returning to Jamaica they were jeered
+at by Morgan's men, who used to say, "Let us see what sort of money you
+brought from Comana, and if it be as good as that which we won at
+Maracaibo."
+
+Morgan, encouraged by success, soon determined on fresh enterprises. On
+arriving at Jamaica, "he found many of his officers and soldiers already
+reduced to their former indigency by their vices and debaucheries. Hence
+they perpetually importuned him for new exploits, thereby to get
+something to expend still in wine and strumpets, as they had already
+done what they got before. Captain Morgan, willing to follow fortune's
+call, stopped the mouths of many inhabitants of Jamaica who were
+creditors to his men for large sums, with the hopes and promises of
+greater achievements than ever in a new expedition. This done, he could
+easily levy men for any enterprise, his name being so famous through all
+these islands, as that alone would readily bring him in more men than he
+could well employ."
+
+Affecting a mystery, attractive in itself, and necessary where Spanish
+spies might be present, Morgan appointed a rendezvous at Port Couillon,
+on the south side of Hispaniola, and made known his intentions to the
+English and French adventurers, whether in Tortuga or St. Domingo. He
+wrote letters to all the planters and old Buccaneers in Hispaniola, and
+desired their attendance at a common council. At many a hunting fire
+this announcement was read, and many an _engagé's_ heart beat high at
+the news, for Morgan was now the champion and hero of the Buccaneers of
+America. Great numbers flocked to the port in ships and canoes, others
+traversed the woods and arrived there by land, through a thousand
+dangers. Such crowds came that it soon became difficult to obtain a
+place in the crews. Vessels and provisions were now all that was wanted.
+Plunder was certain, and they had but to choose on what rich coast they
+should land. The French adventurers, ever gay and ready, were first in
+the field. Morgan himself, punctual and prompt, followed in the _Flying
+Stag_, the St. Malo vessel we have before mentioned, carrying forty-two
+guns. The vessel had been lately confiscated and sold by the governor of
+Jamaica, the unfortunate captain escaping with his life, happy in being
+free although penniless.
+
+At the rendezvous on the 24th day of October, 1670, 1600 men were
+present, and twenty-four vessels assembled at the muster, amid shouting,
+gun firing, flag waving, and great joy and hope. Morgan's proposition
+was to attack some rich place which was well defended--the more danger
+the more booty, for it was only rich places that the Spaniards cared to
+defend. Several previous expeditions had failed from want of provisions,
+and the necessity of attacking small places to obtain food gave the
+alarm to the Spaniards and frustrated their plans. They therefore
+resolved to visit La Rancheria, a small place on the banks of the River
+de la Hache, on the mainland, with four vessels and 400 men. This was a
+place where corn and maize were brought by the farmers for the supply of
+the neighbouring city of Carthagena, and they hoped to capture in the
+port some pearl vessels from that place.
+
+In the meanwhile, Morgan, not caring for lesser prey, employed his men
+in careening, cleaning, rigging, and pitching their vessels ready for
+sea, that all might be ready to weigh anchor the moment the expedition
+of foragers returned. It augured terribly to the Spaniard that it was
+necessary to sack a town or two before the Buccaneer fleet could even
+set sail.
+
+Part of the men were in the woods boar-hunting, and others salting the
+flesh for the voyage. Each crew had a certain part of the woods allotted
+it for its own district, so perfect was Morgan's discipline. Each party
+prepared the salt pork for its own use, while the cauldrons of pitch
+were smoking on the beach, and the clank of the shipwrights' hammers
+could be heard all night by the hunters. The English, who were not so
+expert in hunting as their Gallic brethren (so says a French writer),
+generally took a French hunter with them, to whom they gave 150 or 200
+piastres. Some of these men had trained packs of dogs that would kill
+enough boars in a day to load twenty or thirty men.
+
+The Rancheria expedition arrived in six days within sight of the river,
+and was unfortunately becalmed for some time within a gunshot of land.
+This gave the Spaniards time to prepare for their defence, and either to
+bury their goods or throw up entrenchments, for these repeated visits of
+the Buccaneers had rendered them quick on such occasions. A land-wind at
+last springing up, gave a corn vessel from Carthagena, lying in the
+river, an opportunity to sally out and attempt its escape, but being a
+bad sailer it was soon captured, much to the Englishmen's delight, for
+corn was the object of their visit. By a singular coincidence, it turned
+out to be that very cocoa vessel which Lolonnois sold to the governor of
+Tortuga, who, on its return from France, had sold it to Captain
+Champaigne, a French adventurer, who in his turn sold it to the same
+merchant captain who then commanded it. He told the Buccaneers that it
+made the twelfth vessel taken from him by the brotherhood of the coast
+in five years only, and yet that with all these losses he had contrived
+to make a fortune of 500,000 crowns. "On peut juger par là," says
+Oexmelin, with a shrug, "s'il y a des gens riches dans l'Amérique."
+
+Landing at daybreak, in spite of the mowing fire from a battery, and
+under protection of their own cannon, they drove the Spaniards back to
+their strongly fortified village, which they at once attacked. Here the
+enemy rallied and fought desperately, hand-to-hand, sword blow and push
+of pike, from ten in the morning till night, when they fled, having
+suffered great loss, into secret places in the woods. The Buccaneers,
+who had suffered scarcely less loss, pushed on at once headlong to the
+town, which they found deserted; and next day pursuing the Spaniards
+took many prisoners, and proceeded to torture them, inflicting on fear
+and innocence all the horrors of the Madrid inquisition. In fifteen days
+they captured many prisoners and much booty, and with the usual threats
+of destroying the town, they obtained 4000 hanegs, or bushels of maize,
+sufficient for the whole of the fleet. They preferred this to money, and
+in three days, the whole quantity being brought in by the people, eager
+for their departure, they at once sailed.
+
+Morgan, alarmed at their five weeks' absence, had begun to despair of
+their return, thinking Rancheria must have been relieved from Carthagena
+or Santa Maria. He also thought that they might have had good fortune,
+and deserted him to return to Jamaica. His joy was great to see them
+arrive laden with corn, and more in number than when they departed. A
+council of war was actually holding to plan a new expedition, when
+Captain Bradley and his six vessels hove in sight. The maize was divided
+among the fleet, but the plunder was awarded to the captain who had
+risked his life for the general good.
+
+The captured ship arrived very opportunely, and it was instantly awarded
+by general consent to Le Gascon, a French adventurer who had lately lost
+his vessel. Morgan having divided the meat and corn, and personally
+inspected every bark, set sail for Cape Tiburon, at the west end of
+Hispaniola, a spot convenient for laying in stores of wood and water.
+Here he was joined by several ships from New England, refitted at
+Jamaica. Morgan now found himself suzerain of a fleet of thirty-seven
+vessels, large and small, carrying sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, even
+down to four pound guns. To man these there were 2200 sailors, well
+armed and ready for flight and plunder. The fleet was divided into two
+squadrons, under his vice-admiral and subordinate officers. To the
+captains he gave letters-patent, guaranteeing them from all the effects
+of Spanish hostility, from "the open and declared enemies of the King
+his master," (Charles II.)
+
+The charter-party which we give elsewhere was then signed, the
+rewards were higher than usual, and many modifications introduced.
+In the private council three places were proposed as rich and
+accessible--Panama, Carthagena, and Vera Cruz. In these consultations
+the only thing considered was whether a town was rich or poor, not
+whether it was well or ill defended.
+
+"The lot fell" on Panama, as the richest of the three, though the least
+known to them, being further from the North Pacific than any Buccaneer
+had yet gone. Panama was the galleon-port and the El Dorado of the
+adventurer's yarns. Being so unknown a place they determined to first
+recapture St. Catherine's, where in the prisons they might obtain many
+guides, who had seen both the North and South Pacifics, for outlaws
+made, they found, the best guides for outlaws; and they agreed before
+sailing that, if they took a Spanish vessel, the first captain who
+boarded it should have for his reward a tenth part of her cargo.
+
+They had begun by sacking a town to victual their fleet, they now
+proposed to storm a fort to obtain a guide--St. Catherine's batteries,
+if resolutely manned, being able to beat off three such fleets.
+
+The admiral, it was agreed, should have a share for every hundred men,
+and every captain eight shares if the vessel they took was large. The
+crews then one by one took the oath of fidelity. On the 18th December,
+1670, the fleet set sail for St. Catherine's, whose prisoners would
+rejoice at their arrival.
+
+The one squadron carried the royal English and the other a white flag.
+The admiral's division bore a red banner with a white cross, "le
+pavillon du parlement," and at the bow-sprit one of three colours, blue,
+white, and red. Those of the other divisions carried a white and red
+flag. Morgan also appointed peculiar signals for all emergencies.
+
+On their way to St. Catherine's they chased two Dutch vessels from
+Cuba, which escaped by aid of contrary winds that baffled their
+pursuers. In four days the fleet arrived at St. Catherine's, and Morgan
+despatched two small vessels to guard the port.
+
+This island was renowned for its vast flocks of migratory pigeons, and
+is watered by four streams, two of which are dry in summer. The land,
+though fertile, was not cultivated.
+
+The next day, before sunrise, they anchored in the bay of Aguada Grande,
+where the Spaniards had erected a four-gun battery. Morgan, at the head
+of 100 men, landed and made his way through the woods, having no guides
+but some old Buccaneers who had been there before with Mansvelt. On
+arriving that night at the governor's house and the Platform Battery
+they found the Spaniards had retreated by a bridge into the smaller and
+almost impregnable island, which they had made strong enough to beat off
+10,000 men. Being driven back at first by a tremendous fire, Morgan was
+obliged to encamp that night in the woods or open country--no hardship
+to hunters or sailors in fine weather. There still remained a whole
+league of dense brush between them and their enemies, at once their
+protection and destruction. A chilling torrent of rain began to beat
+upon them, and instead of ceasing, as they had hoped, lasted till noon
+of the next day. They pulled down two or three thatched huts, and made
+small damp fires, that scorched a few but warmed none. They could not
+shelter themselves, and, what was worse, could not keep their arms and
+powder dry. But more than this, they suffered from hunger, having had no
+food for a whole day. The men for the greater part being dressed with no
+clothes but a seaman's shirt and trowsers, and without shoes or
+stockings, suffered dreadfully after the burning of a tropic noon from
+this freezing cold and rain. One hundred men, says Esquemeling, even
+indifferently well armed, might have cut them all to pieces. At daybreak
+they were roused from their shivering sleep by the Spanish drums beating
+the _Diane_, or _reveillé_. The rain had now ceased, and their courage
+rose as high as ever. But they could not answer this challenge, for
+their own drums were loose and soaked with wet, and they had now to
+employ themselves in quickly drying their arms. Scarcely had they done
+this, when it began to cloud over and rain with increased fury, as if
+the "sky were melting into waters," which blinded them and prevented
+them again from advancing to the attack. Many of them grew
+faint-hearted, and talked of returning. The men were now feeble for want
+of sleep, and faint with cold and hunger. The eager foragers found in a
+field "an old horse, lean, and full of scabs and blotches, with galled
+back and sides." This was instantly killed and flayed, and divided in
+small pieces among as many as could get any, and eagerly eaten without
+salt or bread by the few lucky epicures--"eaten," says the historian,
+"more like ravenous wolves eat than men."
+
+The rain still gushing down, and the men, worn out in mind and body,
+growing angry, discontented, and clamorous, it became necessary for
+Morgan to act with promptitude. About noon, to his great joy, the rain
+ceased and the sun broke out. Taking advantage of this lull--for the
+rain had barred even their retreat--Morgan ordered a canoe to be rigged
+out in great haste, and dispatched four men with a white flag to the
+Spanish governor, declaring that if they did not all surrender he would
+put them to the sword without quarter. His audacity was luckily crowned
+with success. Opposed armies are often men mutually afraid, trying to
+frighten each other. The governor was intimidated. He demanded two hours
+to confer with his officers. At the end of this time, on Morgan giving
+hostages, two soldiers with white flags were sent to arrange terms. The
+governor had decided in full conference that he could not defend the
+island against such an armada, but he proposed a certain (Dalgetty-like)
+stratagem of war to save his own head, and preserve the reputation of
+his officers at home and abroad.
+
+Morgan was to come at night and assault the fort of St. Jerome, which
+stood near the bridge that joined the two islands, and at the same
+moment his fleet was to attack the castle of Santa Teresa by sea, and
+land troops near the battery of St. Matthew. These men were to
+intercept and take prisoner the governor as he made his way to the St.
+Jerome batteries. He would then at once lead them to the castle, as if
+they were his own men. On both sides there was to be continual firing,
+but only with powder, and no bullets. The forts thus taken, the island
+would of course surrender.
+
+This well-arranged performance took place with great _éclat_. Morgan, in
+acceding to the terms, had insisted on their strict performance of every
+item, and gave notice, for fear of ambush, that every straggling
+Spaniard would be shot. Afraid of a stratagem, some Buccaneers loaded
+their muskets with ball, and held themselves ready for any danger. With
+much smoke and great consumption of powder, the unsuspecting Spaniards
+were driven like sheep into the church, the island surrendered, and by
+this bloodless artifice Spanish pride remained unhurt.
+
+But a cruel massacre now commenced. The Buccaneers had eaten nothing for
+nearly two days. They made war upon all the poultry and cattle--the
+oldest cow was slain, the toughest rooster strangled. For several days
+the island was lit up with huge fires, round which the men roasted their
+meat, and revelled and caroused. When wood grew scarce they pulled down
+cottages to light their fires, and having no wine very wisely made use
+of water.
+
+The day after the surrender they numbered their prisoners, and found
+they had collected 450 souls--seventy of the garrison, forty-three
+children, and thirty-one slaves. The men were all carefully disarmed,
+and sent to the plantations to bring in provisions; the women were left
+in the church to pray and weep. They next inspected all the ten
+batteries, wondering in their strength and exulting in their victory.
+The fort St. Jerome contained eight great guns and sixty muskets; the
+St. Matthew three guns; the Santa Teresa twenty guns and 120 muskets.
+The castle was very strong, and moated; impregnable on the sea side, and
+on the land side ascended by a narrow mountain path, while the guns on
+its summit commanded the port. The St. Augustine fort mounted three
+guns; the Platform two; the St. Salvador and another also two; the Santa
+Cruz three; and the St. Joseph six and twelve muskets. In the magazine
+they found 30,000 pounds of powder, which they at once shipped, with all
+the other ammunition. In the St. Jerome battery Morgan left a guard, but
+in all the other forts the guns were spiked and the gun-carriages burnt.
+
+The object of his visit was still to seek. Examining the prisoners, who
+were now crowded in with merchants and grandees, he inquired for
+banditti from Panama, and three slaves stepped forward who knew every
+path and avenue to the city. These men he chose as guides, promising
+them a full Buccaneer's share of the spoil if they brought him by a
+secure way to the city, and, in addition, their liberty when they
+reached Jamaica. These volunteers consisted of two Indians and a
+mulatto. The former denied all knowledge of the place; the latter--a
+"rogue, thief, and assassin, who had deserved breaking on the wheel
+rather than mere garrison service"--readily accepted Morgan's
+propositions, and promised to serve him faithfully. He had a great
+ascendancy over the two Indians, and domineered over them as he pleased,
+without their daring to disobey a half-blood already on the point of
+preferment.
+
+The next step to Panama was to capture Chagres and its castle, and
+Morgan at once dispatched five vessels, well equipped, with 400 men on
+board, to undertake this expedition, remaining himself at St.
+Catherine's, lest the people of Panama should be alarmed. He was to
+follow his van-guard in eight days, guided by the Indians, who knew
+Chagres. This time he and his men prudently spent in pulling manioc
+roots for cassava, and digging potatoes for the voyage.
+
+The Chagres expedition was led by the same Captain Bradley who commanded
+at Rancheria. He had been with Mansvelt formerly, and had rendered
+himself famous by his exploits both among the Buccaneers and the
+Spaniards. He arrived in three days at Chagres, opposite Fort St.
+Lawrence, which was built on a mountain commanding the entrance of the
+river. As soon as the Spaniards saw the red flag spreading from his
+vessels, they displayed the royal colours of Spain, and saluted him with
+a volley too hasty and angry to be very destructive. The Buccaneers,
+according to their usual stratagem, landed at Narangui, a place a
+quarter of a league distant from the castle, their guide leading them
+through thick woods, through which they had to cut a path with their
+sabres. It was early morning when they landed, and requiring half a day
+to perform the short distance, they did not reach a hill commanding the
+castle till two o'clock. The mire and dirt of the road combined, with
+the darkness of the way, to lengthen their march. The guides served them
+well, but brought them at one spot so near to the castle, and in so open
+and bare a place, that they lost many men by the shot. In other parts
+the wood was so thick that they could only tell that they were near the
+castle by the discharge of the cannon. The hill they had now reached was
+not within musket range, and they were thus deprived of the use of
+their favourite weapon. Could they have dragged cannon so far they might
+have taken the place without losing a man.
+
+The castle of Chagres was built on a high mountain at the entry of a
+river, and surrounded by strong wooden palisadoes banked with earth. The
+top of the mountain was divided into two parts, between which ran a
+ditch thirty feet deep; the tower had but one entrance by a drawbridge,
+towards the land it had four bastions, and towards the sea two more. The
+south wall was inaccessible crag, the north was moated by the broad
+river. At the foot of the hill lay a strong fort with eight guns, which
+commanded the river's mouth; a little lower down were two other
+batteries, each of six guns, all pointing the same way. At another side
+were two great store-houses, full of goods, brought from the inland, and
+near these a flight of steps, cut in the rock, led to the castle of the
+summit. On the west side was a small port not more than seven or eight
+fathoms deep, with good anchorage for small vessels, and before the
+hill a great rock rose from the waves, which almost covered it at low
+water.
+
+The place appeared such a perfect volcano of fire, and so threatening
+and dangerous, that the Buccaneers, but for fear of Morgan's rage and
+contempt, would have at once turned back. After many disputes and much
+doubt and perplexity, they resolved to hazard the assault and risk their
+lives. When they descended from their hill into the plain, they had to
+throw themselves on their faces to escape the desolating shower of
+balls; but their marksmen, quite uncovered and without defence, shot at
+the Spanish gunners through the loops of the palisading, and killed all
+who showed themselves. This skirmishing continued till the evening, when
+the Buccaneers, who had lost many men, their commander having his leg
+broken with a cannon shot, began to waver and to think of retiring,
+having in vain tried to burn down the place with their fireballs, and
+charged up to the very walls, which they tried in vain to climb, sword
+in hand. When the Spaniards saw them drawing back through the dusk, in
+some disorder, carrying their wounded men and gnashing their teeth in
+rage at the dark lines of defence, they shouted out "Come on, you dogs
+of heretics; come on, you English devils: you shan't get to Panama this
+bout, for we'll serve your comerades as we have served you." The
+Buccaneers, astonished at their cries, now for the first time learnt
+that Morgan's expedition had been heard of at Panama.
+
+Night had already begun, and the rain of bullets, shot, and Indian
+arrows (more deadly almost than the bullets), harassing and well-aimed,
+continued as grievous as by day. Taking advantage of the gloom, another
+party advanced to the palisadoes; the light of their burning fuses
+directed the aim of the Spaniards.
+
+A singular accident of war gave the place, so briskly defended, into the
+hands of the assailants. A party of the French musketeers were talking
+together, devising a plan of advance, when a swift Indian arrow fell
+among them and pierced one of the speakers in the shoulder (Esquemeling
+says in the back and right through the body, another writer says in the
+eye). A thought struck the wounded man, for the wound had spurred his
+imagination: coolly drawing the point from his shoulder, he said to
+those near him, "Attendez, mes frères, je m'en vais faire périr tous les
+Espagnols--tous--avec cette sacré flèche" (wait a bit, my mates, I'll
+kill all the Spaniards--all--with this d---- arrow); so saying he drew
+from his pocket a handful of wild cotton, which the Buccaneers kept as
+lint to staunch their wounds, and wound it round the dart; then putting
+it in his loaded musket, from which he extracted the ball, he fired it
+back at the castle roof. It alighted on some dry thatch, which in a
+moment began to smoke, and in another second broke into a bright flame,
+more visible for the darkness. The Buccaneers shouted and pushed on to
+the attack, and the wounded men forgot their wounds. Some of the men,
+seeing the result of the experiment, gathered up the Indian arrows that
+lay thick around them, and fired them at the roofs. Many houses were
+soon in flames. The Spaniards, busy with the defence, did not see the
+fire until it had gained some head, and reaching a parcel of powder
+blown it up and caused ruin and consternation within the fort. If they
+left the walls the Buccaneers gained ground, if they left the fire the
+flames spread more terribly than before; the want of sufficient water
+increased the confusion, and while they tried to quench the
+conflagration, the Buccaneers set fire to the palisadoes.
+
+Oexmelin, who was present as a surgeon at this attack of Chagres, relates
+an anecdote of courage which he himself witnessed, to show the
+indomitable fury of the assailants. One of his own friends was pierced
+in the eye by an Indian arrow, and came to him to beg him to pull it
+out, the pain was so intense and unbearable. Although a surgeon, Oexmelin
+had not the nerve to inflict such torture, however momentary, on a
+friend, and turned away in pity, upon which the hardy seaman tore out
+the arrow with a curse, and, binding up the wound, rushed forward to the
+wall. The few Buccaneers who had retreated, seeing the flames, now
+hurried back to the attack. The Spaniards could no longer see the enemy
+at whom they fired, the night was so dark and starless, while the
+Buccaneers shot down with the unerring aim of hunters the Spaniards,
+whose bodies stood out dark and well-defined against the bright
+background of flame. All this time, before the fire of the roofs could
+be extinguished, the Buccaneers had swarmed through the fosse, and,
+mounting upon each other's shoulders, burnt down part of the palisadoes,
+as we have before described, in spite of the hand grenades that were
+thrown from above, and which burst among them. The fire ran along the
+wall, leaping like a winged thing, and devoured wherever it clung,
+spreading with dreadful rapidity.
+
+The fight continued all night, and when the calm daylight broke on the
+worn soldiers, the Buccaneers saw with sparkling eyes that the gabions
+had smouldered through, and that the earth had fallen down in large
+heaps into the fosse. The breaches in many places were practicable. The
+armour had fallen piece-meal from their giant adversary, and he now
+stood before them bare, wounded, and defenceless. The Buccaneers,
+creeping within musket shot of the walls, shot down the gunners in the
+breaches to which the cannon had been dragged by the governor's orders
+during the night. Divided into two bands, one party kept up a constant
+fire on the guns, and the other watched the motions of the enemy. About
+noon they advanced to a spot which the governor himself defended, belted
+round with twenty-five brave Spaniards, armed with pikes, halberds,
+swords, and muskets. They advanced under a dreadful hail of fire and
+lead, the defenders casting down flaming pots full of combustible matter
+and "_odious smells_," which destroyed many of the English. But we do
+not know how smells could drive back men who would have marched through
+hell if it had been the shortest way to Panama.
+
+Nothing could equal the unflinching courage of the Spaniards--they
+disputed every inch of ground--they yielded slowly like wounded lions
+when the hunters narrow their circles. They showered stones and all
+available missiles on their assailants, only wishing to kill a
+Buccaneer, but feeling that resistance was hopeless; some, rather than
+yield, threw themselves from the cliffs into the sea, and few survived
+the fall. As the Buccaneers won their way to the castle the Spaniards
+retreated to the _garde du corps_, where they entrenched themselves with
+two cannon; to the last the governor refused quarter, and at last fell
+shot through the brain. The few who remained surrendered when the guns
+were taken and would have been turned against them.
+
+Only fourteen men were found unhurt in the fort and about nine or ten
+wounded, who had hid themselves among the dead. They told Morgan that
+they were all that were left of a garrison of 314 soldiers. The
+governor, seeing that he was lost, had despatched the survivors to
+Panama to alarm the city, and remained behind to die. No officer was
+left alive; they had been the first to set their men the example of a
+glorious death. It appeared that a Buccaneer deserter, an Irishman,
+whom Morgan had not even informed of his design, had come to the port,
+and assured them of the attack on La Rancheria, and the contemplated
+movement on Panama. The governor of that place had instantly sent to
+Chagres a reinforcement of 164 men, with ammunition and provisions, and
+had placed ambuscades along the river. He was at that very moment, they
+said, awaiting them in the savannah with 3600 men: of these 2000 were
+infantry, 400 cavalry, and 600 Indians. He had also employed 200
+muleteers and hunters to collect a drove of 1000 wild cattle to drive
+down upon the invaders.
+
+"The taking of this castle," says Esquemeling, "cost the pirates
+excessively dear, in comparison to what they were wont to lose, and
+their toil and labour was greater than at the conquest of the Isle of
+St. Catherine." On numbering their thinned ranks, many voices were
+silent at the roll call. More than 100 men were found to be dead, and
+more than seventy grievously wounded. There were sixty who could not
+rise, and many in the ranks wore on their arms strips of the Spanish
+colours, or had their heads bound round with bloody cloths. The
+prisoners they compelled to drag their own dead to the edge of the
+cliffs and cast them among the shattered bodies on the beach, and then
+to bury them where the sea could not wash them out of their graves, or
+the birds devour them. The castle chapel they turned into an hospital
+for the wounded, and the female slaves were employed to tend them, for
+the surgeons in the heat of battle had only had time to amputate a limb
+or bind an artery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CONQUEST OF PANAMA.
+
+   March from Chagres--Famine--Ambuscade of Indians--Wild bulls driven
+   down upon them--Victory--Battle of the Forts--Takes the City--Burns
+   part of it--Cruelties--Debauchery--Retreat with prisoners--Virtue of
+   the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings--Ransom--Division of
+   booty--Treason of Morgan--Escapes by night to Jamaica--Dispersion of
+   the Fleet--Morgan's subsequent fate.
+
+
+The bodies of their comerades, who had died that they who survived might
+conquer, were buried, not without some tears even from these rude men,
+in large (plague pit) graves, dug by the prisoners. The women were
+violated in the first fury of the sack. During their plunder they found
+a great quantity of provisions and ammunitions stored up for the use of
+the fleet. Their next act was to repair the fort and render it tenable.
+
+Morgan, instantly informed of the fall of Chagres, did not remain long
+behind. Having first collected all the Indian wheat and cassava he could
+carry, he embarked his prisoners and provisions, taking with him Don
+Joseph Ramirez de Leiba, the governor, and the chief officers. The
+cannon he spiked or threw into the sea, in places where he might recover
+them, intending to return and fortify the place, as a stronghold if his
+design on Panama failed. The forts, and church, and house he fired, with
+the exception of the castle of Santa Teresa.
+
+In sailing to Chagres a storm arose and dispersed his vessels, keeping
+them many days at sea. The admiral, always watchful in danger, suffered
+himself for a moment to sleep in the hour of prosperity. When he
+approached the river mouth and saw the English flag floating from the
+blackened walls, he could not restrain the heedless joy of his crew--not
+waiting for the pilot canoe that was putting out to warn them of their
+danger, he drove on the sunken rock at the foot of the castle hill. His
+own and three other vessels sank, yet the crews and cargoes were all
+saved, and but for a strong "norther" the ships themselves would have
+been preserved.
+
+Brought into the castle with acclamations and hearty congratulations at
+his escape, Morgan employed the Spanish prisoners from St. Catherine's
+in repairing the palisading of the fort, carefully destroying all
+thatched sheds for fear of fire. He then chose a garrison by lot, and
+divided the stores. He heard with delight the details of the victory,
+and lamented the absent dead and the many brave men that had shared so
+often his own hopes and fears. His next movement was to seize some
+_chatten_, or small Spanish vessels that were still in the river. They
+were small craft that went to and fro between Chagres and Porto Bello,
+or Nicaragua, or plied with merchandise up and down the river. They
+mounted six guns, two iron, and four small brass, and were navigated by
+six men. He also took four small frigates of fourteen and eight guns,
+and all the canoes he could lay hands on, requiring them for the
+expedition. He left behind him 100 men, under command of Captain Le
+Maurice, and 150 men to guard the ships.
+
+For Panama, Morgan took with him 1300 of the best armed and the most
+robust of his band, five boats with artillery, and thirty-two canoes. He
+imprudently carried little provisions, expecting to obtain plenty from
+the Spaniards they should kill in the ambuscades. In spite of the recent
+victory, and of Morgan's certainty of conquest, many of the Buccaneers
+were less sanguine than on former expeditions. The Spanish prisoners had
+succeeded in alarming them by rumours of the dangers and intricacy of
+the road, and the ambuscades that had been two months in preparation.
+Some, more superstitious than the rest, thought the wreck of Morgan's
+ship, and the severe loss at Chagres, bad omens for their success at
+Panama. But these were mocked at by the rest, as white-livered, and
+Morgan having divided the provisions between the garrison and the St.
+Catherine prisoners, reviewed his men, and examined himself their arms
+and ammunition. He quieted their fears and spoke of victory as already
+obtained. He exhorted them to show more than usual courage, in order to
+return as soon as possible rich and glorious to Jamaica. With a shout of
+"Long live the King of England, and long live Henry Morgan," they began
+their march towards the doomed city on the 18th of January, 1670.
+
+The first day they advanced only six leagues to Rio de los Braços, where
+they got out of their canoes to sleep on shore, being crippled with
+overcrowding in the boats. They could have brought no provisions, for
+few had any food that day, but a pipe of tobacco "to stop the orifice of
+the stomach." They could find nothing in the deserted plantations, where
+even the unripe fruits had been plucked and the roots pulled up before
+their arrival. The men longed to fight, in order that they might eat. By
+noon of the next day they reached Cruz de Juan Gallego, where they were
+obliged to leave their canoes; the river was very dry and shallow from
+want of rain, and much impeded with fallen trees, but their hopes were
+excited by the guide's intelligence, that about two leagues further the
+roads grew better. Here they left their boats with 160 men to guard
+them, as a resource in case of defeat, giving them strict injunctions
+not to land for fear of ambuscades in the neighbouring woods, which were
+so thick as to seem impenetrable. Finding the forest almost impassable,
+Morgan ordered a few of the canoes to be rowed, though with immense
+labour, to a place called Cedro Bueno, further up the river, taking half
+the men at a time and returning for the rest, so by nightfall all the
+men were once more united. From discovering no ambuscades, in spite of
+all the wishes of these hungry soldiers, it was supposed that the
+Spanish spies, willing to avoid a fight, had frightened their officers
+by exaggerating the number of the adventurers. On the third day Morgan
+sent forward some guides, who could find no road, the country being
+flat, inundated, and marshy. The men, who had scarcely eaten anything
+since their departure, grew faint and hungry, and a few of them
+gathered the leaves from the forest trees. It being night before they
+could pass the river, they slept on the bank, exposed, half-clothed as
+they were, to the tropical damps and cold.
+
+The fourth day's march they advanced in divisions; the largest went by
+land, the smaller in canoes. The guides were always kept two musket
+shots in advance, to give notice of ambuscades, and in hopes of
+capturing stragglers who might furnish intelligence. But the Spaniards
+had also scouts, very wary, and very "dexterous" in giving notice of all
+accidents, frequently bringing the Panama men intelligence of the
+Buccaneers' approach six hours before the enemy arrived. About noon the
+army reached a post named Torna Cavallos, so called probably from the
+roughness of the road, and at this spot the guide of the canoes cried
+out that he saw an ambuscade. With infinite joy, the hungry men,
+thirsting for blood, flew to arms, knowing that the Spaniards always
+went luxuriously provided with food, and knowing that a dead Spaniard
+could want no more provender. As soon as they came within sight of the
+entrenchment, which was shaped like a half-moon, and the palisading
+formed of entire trees, they uttered a dreadful shout, and, driven on by
+rage and hunger, began to race like starved wolves, seeing which could
+first cross swords with the enemy, whom they believed to be about 400
+strong. But their hearts fell within them when they found the place a
+mere deserted rampart, and all the provisions, but a few crumbs which
+lay scattered about, either burnt or carried off. Some leather bags lay
+here and there, as if left in a hasty retreat. Enraged at this, they at
+once pulled down the Spanish huts, and cutting the leather bags, tore
+them up for food. Quarrels then arose for the largest messes, but before
+they could well finish this unsavoury banquet, the drum sounded for the
+march. About 500 Spaniards seem to have held these entrenchments, and
+many of the men threatened to devour the first fugitive they could meet
+with. About night they reached another deserted ambuscade, called Torna
+Munni, equally bare of food, and the remainder of the bags were now
+devoured. Those fortunate enough to obtain a strip first soaked slices
+of it in water, next beat it between two stones, then scraped off the
+hair with their hunters' knives, and, roasting it in the fire, ate it
+leisurely in small pieces. "I can assure the reader," says Oexmelin,
+"that a man can live on this fare, but he can hardly get _very fat_."
+Frequent draughts of water (which, by good fortune, they had at hand)
+seasoned this not very palatable food of men accustomed to revel on
+venison and brandy. "Some who were never out of their mothers'
+kitchens," says Esquemeling, "may ask how these pirates could eat and
+digest those pieces of leather, so hard and dry, whom I answer, that
+could they once experience what hunger, or rather famine, is, they would
+find the way as the pirates did."
+
+The fifth day at noon they arrived at a place called Barbacoa, where
+there were more deserted barricades, and the adjacent plantations were
+equally bare of either man, animal, or plant. Searching with all the
+zeal and perseverance of hungry men, they found at last, buried in the
+floor of a cave lately hewn out of the rock, two sacks of flour, two
+jars of wine, and some plantains, and Morgan generously divided these
+among the most exhausted of his troops, some being now nearly dead with
+famine. The flour they mixed with water, and, wrapping the dough in
+banana leaves, baked it in the fire. Somewhat refreshed, they renewed
+their march with increased skill and vigour. The lagging men they placed
+in the canoes, till they reached at night some deserted plantations
+known as the Tabernillas, where they slept.
+
+On the sixth day they marched slowly, after resting a time from real
+weakness, some of the strongest being sent into the woods to pluck
+berries and pull roots, many even eating leaves and grass. The same day
+at noon they arrived at a plantation. Eagerly foraging here, but not
+expecting to find anything, they turned a little from the road, and came
+upon a barn full of maize in the husk. Beating down the door, they fell
+upon it and devoured it as rapaciously as a herd of swine, till they
+fell off satiated. A distribution was then made of it to each man, for
+hunger does not care for cooking. Loaded with this grain they continued
+their march in high spirits for about two hours, when they came suddenly
+on about 200 Indians, and soon after passed a deserted ambuscade. Those
+who had maize still left threw it away, thinking that the Spaniards and
+better food were at hand. These archers were on the opposite side of the
+river. The Buccaneers, firing, killed a few, and pursued the others as
+far as Santa Cruz. The nimblest escaped by swimming, and two or three
+adventurers, who waded after them, were pierced with arrows at the ford.
+The Indians, as they fled, hooted--"Ah perros Ingleses, à la savanah, à
+la savanah:" "_English dogs, English dogs, come to the savannah._"
+Passing the river they were now compelled to begin their march on the
+opposite side. There was little sleep that night, but great dejection,
+and murmurs arose against Captain Morgan and his conduct. He was blamed
+for not having brought provisions, and for not having yet met the
+Spaniards; condemned for irreconcilable errors, and reviled for even his
+past successes. Some declared they would return home, others would
+willingly have done so, yet were afraid to retreat; but a large party
+declared they would rather die than go back a step. One of the guides,
+perhaps bribed by Morgan, promised that it should not be long before
+they met with people from whom they should derive no small advantage,
+and this comforted them. A tinge of superstition would have soon
+converted this into one of those prophecies by which Cromwell and Cortes
+both consoled their desponding troopers.
+
+On the seventh morning, expecting enemies, the men all cleaned their
+arms, and every one discharged his musket and pistols without ball to
+let the Spaniards hear they were coming, and that their ammunition was
+not damaged. Leaving Santa Cruz, where they had rested, they crossed the
+river in their canoes, and arrived at the town of Cruz.
+
+At some distance from Cruz they had beheld to their great joy a great
+smoke rising above the roofs, which they thought arose from kitchen
+chimneys, and quickening their pace they began to laugh, and shout, and
+leap,--joking at the Spanish waste of fuel, and saying, "the Spanish
+cooks are roasting meat for our dinner when we have mastered their
+masters;" but as the smoke grew thicker, they began to think that the
+enemy were burning some houses that interfered with the fire of the
+entrenchments.
+
+Two hours after, on arriving panting and hot at Cruz, they found the
+place deserted and stripped, and no meat, but many fires, for every
+Spaniard had burnt his own house, and only the royal store-house and
+stables were left standing. A few crackling ruins were all that remained
+of the great halfway house between Chagres and Panama, for here the
+Chagres merchandise was always landed and transported to Panama on the
+backs of mules, being distant only twenty-six Spanish leagues from the
+river of Chagres, and eight from Panama. The disappointed Buccaneers
+spent the remainder of the day at Cruz in seeking food and resting.
+Every cat and dog was soon killed and eaten, for the cattle had been all
+driven off. Morgan, growing now more strict in discipline, gave orders
+that no party of less than 100 men should leave the town. Five or six
+Englishmen who disobeyed the order were killed by the Indians. In the
+king's stables fifteen or sixteen jars of Peruvian wine were found, and
+a leather sack full of biscuit. Morgan, afraid that his men would fall
+into excesses, spread a report that the Spaniards had poisoned the
+wine--a report confirmed by the violent sickness of all who drank of it;
+although half-starved men, fed for a week on vegetable refuse, would
+have been injured by any excess. It was, however, eagerly drunk, and
+would have been had there been death in every cup. This sickness
+detained them a day at Cruz. The canoes, being now useless, were sent
+back, guarded by sixty men, to join the other boats, one alone being hid
+in a thicket for fear of any emergency or any necessity arising, and to
+transmit intelligence to the vessels. He feared that, if left at Cruz,
+they might be captured, and would at least require an extra guard.
+
+On the eighth day at morning Morgan reviewed his troop, and found he had
+1100 able and resolute men still at his back. He persuaded them that
+their comerade who was carried off by the Indians had returned, having
+only lost his way in the woods, fearing they might be discouraged at his
+disappearance. He then chose a band of the best marksmen as a forlorn
+hope, and a "hundred of these men," says Oexmelin, "are worth six hundred
+of any other nation." He divided the remainder into a van and wings,
+knowing that he should have to pass many places where not more than two
+men could pass abreast.
+
+After ten hours' march they arrived at a place called _Quebrada
+Obscura_, a dark wooded gorge where the sunlight rarely entered. Here,
+on a sudden, a shower of 300 or 400 arrows poured down upon them,
+killing eight or nine men, and wounding ten. These arrows came from an
+Indian ambuscade hid on a wooded and rocky mountain, perforated by a
+natural arch, through which only one laden beast could pass. The
+Buccaneers, though they could see nothing but rocks and trees, instantly
+returned the fire, and two Indians rolled down into the path. One of
+these, who appeared to be a chief, for he wore a coronet of variegated
+feathers, attempted to stab an English adventurer with his javelin, but
+a companion, parrying the thrust with his sabre, slew the Indian. This
+brave man was, it is supposed, the leader of the ambuscade, for the
+savages seeing him fall took at once to flight, and never discharged
+another shaft. As they entered a wood the rest of the Indians fled to
+seize the next height, from whence they might observe them and harass
+their march. The Buccaneers found them too swift to capture, and pursued
+them in vain: but two or three of the wounded fugitives were found dead
+in the road. A few armed and disciplined men could have made this pass
+good against a hundred, but these Indians were now scattered and without
+a leader, and they had only fired at random, and in haste, through
+trees and thickets that intercepted their arrows. On leaving this defile
+the Buccaneers entered a broad prairie, where they rested while the
+wounded were tended. At a long distance before them they could see the
+Indians on a rocky eminence, commanding the road where they must pass.
+Fifty active men were dispatched to take them in the rear in the hopes
+of obtaining some prisoners, but all in vain, for the Indians were not
+only more agile but knew all the passes. Two hours after they were seen
+at about two gunshots' distance, on the same eminence from which they
+had been just driven, while the Buccaneers were now on an opposite
+height, and between them lay a wood. The Buccaneers supposed that a
+Spanish ambuscade was hid here, for whenever they came near enough the
+Indians cried out "À la savanah, à la savanah, cornudos perros
+Ingleses:" "To the savannah, to the savannah, you cuckold English dogs."
+Morgan sent 100 men to search this wood, and upon this the Spaniards and
+Indians came down from the mountain as if to attack them, but appeared
+no more.
+
+About night, a great rain falling, the Buccaneers marched faster, in
+order to prevent their arms getting wet, but they could find no houses
+to barrack in, for the Indians had burnt them all and driven away the
+cattle, hoping to starve out the men whom they could not drive out. They
+left the main road after diligent search, and found a few shepherds'
+huts, but too few to shelter all their company; they therefore piled
+their arms, and chose a small number from each company to guard them.
+Those who slept in the open air endured much hardship, the rain not
+ceasing all night. They made temporary sheds, which they covered with
+boughs, in order to sleep under a shelter, however imperfect; and
+sentinels were placed, Morgan being afraid of the Indians, who chose wet
+nights for their onslaughts, when fire-arms were often useless.
+
+Next morning very early, being the ninth of their tedious journey, they
+recommenced their march, Morgan bidding them all discharge their guns
+and then reload them, for fear of the wet having damped the powder. The
+fresh air of the morning, clear after the storm, was still about them,
+and the clouds had not yet yielded to the tropical sun as they pushed on
+over a path more difficult than before. In about two hours' time a band
+of twenty Spaniards began to appear in the distance, and the Indians
+were also visible, but Morgan could obtain no prisoners, though he
+offered a reward of 300 crowns for every Spaniard brought in. When
+pursued the enemy hid themselves in caves and eluded all search.
+
+At last, toiling slowly up a high mountain, the adventurers unexpectedly
+beheld from the top the South Sea glittering in the distance. This
+caused them as great joy as the sight of "Thalatta" did to the soldiers
+of Xenophon. They thought their expedition now completed, for to them
+victory was a certainty. They could discern upon the sea, never before
+beheld, a large ship and six small boats setting forth from Panama to
+the islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla, which were only six leagues
+distant. Fortune smiled upon them to-day, for, descending this
+mountain, they came into a grassy prairie valley, full of all sorts of
+cattle, which were being pursued by mounted Spaniards, who fled at the
+sight of the Buccaneers. Upon these animals Morgan's men rushed with the
+avidity of half-starved hunters, the eagerness of sailors to obtain
+fresh meat, and all the haste that brave men exhibit to get at an enemy.
+One shot a horse, another felled a cow, but the greater part slaughtered
+the mules, which were the most numerous. Some kindled fires, others
+collected wood, and the strongest hunted the cattle, while the invalids
+slew, and skinned, and flayed. The whole plain was soon alight with a
+hundred fires. The hungry men cut off lumps of flesh, carbonadoed them
+in the flame, and ate them half raw with incredible haste and ferocity.
+"They resembled," Esquemeling says, "rather cannibals than Christians,
+the blood running down their beards to the middle of their bodies." But
+no hunger, no fear, no passion threw Morgan off his guard. Hungry and
+weary himself, and sympathising with his men's hunger, he saw the
+danger of this reckless gluttony, which produced a reaction of inertness
+as dangerous as intoxication. Dreading surprise, for he was surrounded
+by enemies, he beat a false alarm, and seizing their arms, his men,
+ashamed of their excess, renewed their march. The remainder of the meat,
+half-roasted or quite raw, they strung to their bandoliers. "The very
+look of these men," says Esquemeling, "was enough to have terrified the
+boldest, for we know that in love as well as war, the eyes are the
+soonest conquered." Morgan, anxious at not having yet obtained a
+prisoner as guide, again despatched a vanguard of fifty men, who about
+evening saw in the distance 500 Spaniards, who shouted to them they knew
+not what.
+
+Soon after, almost at dusk, mounting a small eminence, they saw a better
+sight than even the South Sea--the highest steeples of Panama, bright in
+the sunset; upon this, like the German soldiers at the sight of the
+Rhine, the Buccaneers gave three cheers, to show their extreme joy,
+leaping and shouting, and throwing their hats into the air as if they
+had already won the victory. At the same time the drums beat stormily
+and proudly, and each man shot off his piece, while the red flag was
+displayed and waved in defiance of the Spaniard, and high above all the
+trumpet sounded.
+
+The camp was pitched for the night by the men, who waited impatiently
+for the morning when the battle should join; with equal pride and
+courage 200 mounted Spaniards shouted in return as they dashed up within
+musket shot, "To-morrow, to-morrow, ye dogs, we shall meet in the
+savannah;" and as they ended, their trumpet sounded clearer than even
+that of Morgan's. These horsemen were soon joined by several companies
+of infantry and several squadrons of cavalry, who wheeled round them
+within cannon shot. These troops had been despatched when the sounds of
+the Buccaneers' approach reached the gates of the city. There were still
+two hours of light, but Morgan determined not to fight till early in the
+morning, when he might be able to move freely in the unknown country,
+and when there would be a whole clear, bright day for the battle. As
+night drew on all the Spaniards retired to the city, excepting seven or
+eight troopers, who hovered about to watch the enemy's motions and give
+the alarm, if a night attack was contemplated. On his side Morgan placed
+double sentinels, and every now and then ordered false alarms to be beat
+to keep his men on the alert. Those who had any meat left ate it raw, as
+they had often done when hunters. No fires were allowed to be kindled,
+and the men lying, ready armed, on the grass, waited eagerly for the
+daylight. 120 cavaliers again joined the Spanish scouts, and affected to
+maintain a strict blockade, and the city all night played with its
+biggest guns upon the camp, but being at so great a distance did little
+harm to the Buccaneers.
+
+At daybreak of the tenth day of their march the Spaniards beat the
+_Diane_, and Morgan, replying heartily, began with great eagerness to
+push forward to the city, the Spaniards wheeling cautiously around his
+wings. One of the guides warned Morgan against the high road, which he
+knew would be blocked up and crowded with ambuscades, and the army
+defiled into a wood to the right, where the passage was so difficult
+that none but Buccaneers could have forced a way, "very irksome indeed,"
+says Esquemeling. The Spaniards, completely baffled and astonished by
+this diversion, left their batteries in a hurry, and, without any
+distinct plan of attack, crowded out into the plain. After two hours'
+march the Buccaneers reached the top of a small hill. From this eminence
+they could now see their goal, and Panama, with all the roofs that hid
+its treasure, lay before them. Below, on the plain, they might also
+discern the Spanish army drawn up in battalia, awaiting their descent.
+Even Esquemeling admits that the forces seemed numerous. "There were two
+squadrons of cavalry, four regiments of foot, and a still more terrible
+enemy, a huge number of wild bulls, roaring and tossing their horns,
+driven by a great number of Indians, and a few negroes and mounted
+matadors." The historian, more truthful in his confessions than his
+boasts, says, "They were surprised with fear, much doubting the fortune
+of the day; yea, few or none there were but wished themselves at home,
+or at least free from the obligation of that engagement, it so nearly
+concerning their lives. Having been for some time wavering in their
+minds, they at last reflected on the strait they had brought themselves
+into, and that now they must either fight resolutely or die, for no
+quarter could be expected from an enemy on whom they had committed so
+many cruelties. Hereupon they encouraged one another, resolving to
+conquer or spend the last drop of their blood."
+
+They then divided themselves into three battalions, sending before 200
+Buccaneers, very dexterous at their guns, who descended the hill,
+marching directly upon the Spaniards, and the battle closed. The Spanish
+cavalry uttered cries of joy, as if they were going to a bull-fight. The
+infantry shouted "Viva el rey!" and the vari-coloured silks of their
+doublets glistened in the sun. The Buccaneers, giving three cheers,
+charged upon the enemy. The forlorn hope Morgan despatched against the
+cavalry and the bulls. The cavalry galloped forward to meet them, but,
+the ground being marshy, they could not advance with speed, and sank one
+by one before the unceasing dropping fire of 200 Buccaneers, who fell on
+one knee and poured in a full volley of shot, the foot and horse in vain
+trying to break through this hot line of flame and death. The bulls
+proved as fatal to those who employed them, as the elephants to Porus.
+Driven on the rear of the Buccaneers, they took fright at the noise of
+the battle, a few only broke through the English companies, and trampled
+the red colours under foot, but these were soon shot by the old hunters;
+a few fled to the savannah, and the rest tore back and carried havoc
+through the Spanish ranks.
+
+The firing lasted for two hours; at the end of that time the cavalry and
+infantry had separated, and the troopers had fled, only about fifty of
+their number succeeding in escaping. The infantry, discouraged at their
+defeat, and despairing of success, fired off one more volley, and then
+threw down their arms; the victory was won. Morgan, having no cavalry,
+could not pursue, and a mountain soon hid the fugitives from the
+Buccaneers' sight, who would not follow, expecting the flight was a mere
+decoy to lure them into an ambuscade. The Buccaneers, weary and faint,
+threw themselves down to rest. A few Spaniards, found hiding in the
+bushes by the sea-shore, were at once slain, and several cordeliers
+belonging to the army, being dragged before Morgan, were pistolled in
+spite of all their cries and entreaties. A Spanish captain of cavalry
+was taken prisoner by the English musketeers, who had hitherto given no
+quarter, and confessed that the governor of Panama had led out that
+morning 2000 men, 200 bulls, 1450 horse, and twenty-four companies of
+foot, 100 men in each, sixty Indians, and some negroes. In the city, he
+said, were many trenches and batteries, and at the entrance a fort with
+fifty men and eight brass guns. The women and wealth had all been sent
+to Tavoga, and 600 men with twenty-eight pieces of cannon were inside
+the town, defended by ramparts of flour sacks. The ambuscade had been
+waiting fifteen days in the savannah, expecting Morgan.
+
+On reviewing their men, the English found a much greater number of
+killed and wounded than they had expected, so Esquemeling confesses, but
+does not give the number. Oexmelin puts the loss at only two killed and
+two wounded, an incredible statement, trustworthy as he generally is.
+The Spaniards lost 600 men.
+
+"The pirates, nothing discouraged," says the former historian, "seeing
+their number so diminished, but rather filled with greater pride,
+perceiving what huge advantage they had obtained against their enemies,
+having rested some time, prepared to march courageously towards the
+city, plighting their oaths one to another, that they would fight till
+not a man was left alive. With this courage they recommenced their
+march, either to conquer or be conquered, carrying with them all the
+prisoners."
+
+They avoided the high road from Vera Cruz, on which the Spaniards had
+placed a battery of eight pieces of cannon, and selecting that from
+Porto Bello, they advanced to the town before the people could rally,
+and while the exaggerated rumours of the defeat were still
+uncontradicted. Trembling fugitives filled the streets, and terror was
+in every face.
+
+The Spaniards fought desperately, but without hope. In spite of Morgan's
+endeavour to maintain strict discipline, his men began to undervalue the
+enemy, and to advance straggling and reckless. The Spaniards, observing
+this, fired a broadside, killing twenty-five or thirty of the vanguard
+at the first discharge, and wounding nearly as many, but before they
+could reload were overpowered and slain at their guns, the Buccaneers
+stabbing all whom they met.
+
+Of this attack, Esquemeling gives the following graphic but rambling
+account: "They found much difficulty in their approach to the city, for
+within the town the Spaniards had placed many great guns at several
+quarters, some charged with small pieces of iron, and others with musket
+bullets. With all these they saluted the pirates at their approaching,
+and gave them full and frequent broadsides, firing at them incessantly,
+so that unavoidably they shot at every step great numbers of men. But
+neither these manifest dangers of their lives, nor the sight of so many
+as dropped continually at their sides, could deter them from advancing,
+and gaining ground every moment on the enemy; and though the Spaniards
+never ceased to fire and act the best they could for their defence, yet
+they were forced to yield after three hours' combat, and the pirates
+having possessed themselves, killed and destroyed all that attempted in
+the least to oppose them."
+
+Morgan was now master of Panama, as he had been of St. Catherine's, la
+Rancheria, Maracaibo, and Gibraltar, but his vigilance did not yet
+relax. As soon as the first fury of their entrance was over, he
+assembled his men, and commanded them, under great penalties, not to
+drink or taste any wine, as he had been informed by a prisoner that it
+had been poisoned by the Spaniards. Though much wealth had been hidden,
+great warehouses of merchandise, they rejoiced to find, were still well
+stocked with silks, cloths, and linens. Morgan's only fear now was, that
+with so small a body of men as remained to him, the Spaniards might
+rally, or his men, grown intoxicated by success and intent on plunder,
+be cut off without resistance. Having placed guards at all the important
+points of defence within and without the city, he ordered twenty-five
+men to seize a boat laden with merchandise, that owing to the low water
+in the harbour could not put out to sea. The command of this vessel he
+gave to an English captain.
+
+The houses of Panama were built chiefly of cedar, and a few of stone.
+
+Fortunately, Michael Scott sketches for us nearly the whole scenery of
+Morgan's march. One side of the harbour of Chagres is formed, he says,
+by a small promontory that runs 500 yards into the sea. This bright
+little bay looks upon an opposite shore, long and muddy, and covered
+with mangroves to the water's brink. On the uttermost bluff is a narrow
+hill, with a fort erected on its apex. The rock is precipitous on three
+sides. The river of Chagres is about 100 yards across, and very deep. It
+rolls sluggishly along, through a low, swampy country. It is covered
+down to the water with thick sedges and underwood, and where the water
+is stagnating, generates mosquitoes and fevers. The gigantic trees grow
+close to the water, and are laced together by black, snake-like withes.
+Here and there, black, slimy banks of mud slope out near the shore, and
+on these, monstrous alligators roll or sleep, like logs of rotting
+drift-wood. For some miles below Cruz, where the river ceases to be
+navigable by canoes, oars are laid aside, and long poles used to propel
+the boats, like punts, over the shoals. Panama is distant about seven
+leagues from Cruz. The roads are only passable for mules: in some places
+it has been hewn out of the rock, and zig-zags along the face of hills,
+in parts scarcely passable for two persons meeting.
+
+"The scenery on each side is very beautiful, as the road winds for the
+most part amongst steeps, overshadowed by magnificent trees, among
+which birds of all sizes, and of the most gorgeous plumage, are
+perpetually glancing, while a monkey every here and there sits grimacing
+and chattering overhead. The small, open savannahs gradually grow
+larger, and the clear spaces widen, until the forest you have been
+travelling under breaks into beautiful clumps of trees, like those of a
+gentleman's park, and every here and there are placed clear pieces of
+water, spreading out full of pond-turtle, and short grass, that sparkles
+in the dew."
+
+As you approach the town, the open spaces become more frequent, until at
+length you gain a rising ground, about three miles from Panama, where
+the view is enchanting. Below lies the city, and the broad Pacific,
+dotted with ships, lies broad and glassy beyond.
+
+Basil Hall, an accurate but less poetical observer, sketches the bay of
+Panama, its beach fringed with plantations shaded by groves of oranges,
+figs, and limes, the tamarinds surmounting all but the feathery tops of
+the cocoa-nut trees; the ground hidden with foliage, among which peep
+cane-built huts and canoes pulling to shore. Tavoga he describes as a
+tangle of trees and flowers. "The houses of the city, very curious and
+magnificent," says Esquemeling, "and richly adorned with paintings and
+hangings, of which a part only had been removed." The buildings were all
+stately, and the streets broad and well arranged. There were within the
+walls eight monasteries, a cathedral, and an hospital, attended by the
+religious. The churches and monasteries were richly adorned with
+paintings, and in the subsequent fire may have perished some of the
+masterpieces of Titian, Murillo, or Velasquez. The gold plate and
+fittings of these buildings the priests had concealed. The number of
+rich houses was computed at 2000, and the smaller shops, &c., at 5000
+additional. The grandest buildings in the town were the Genoese
+warehouses connected with the slave trade; there were also long rows of
+stables, where the horses and mules were kept that were used to convey
+the royal plate from the South to the North Pacific Ocean. Before the
+city, like offerings spread before a throne, lay rich plantations and
+pleasant gardens.
+
+Panama was the city to which all the treasures of Peru were annually
+brought. The plate fleet, laden with bars of gold and silver, arrived
+here at certain periods brimming with the crown wealth, as well as that
+of private merchants. It returned laden with the merchandise of Panama
+and the Spanish main, to be sold in Peru and Chili, and still oftener
+with droves of negro slaves that the Genoese imported from the coast of
+Guinea to toil and die in the Peruvian mines. So wealthy was this golden
+city that more than 2,000 mules were employed in the transport of the
+gold and silver from thence to Porto Bello, where the galleons were
+loaded. The merchants of Panama were proverbially the richest in the
+whole Spanish West Indies. The Governor of Panama was the suzerain of
+Porto Bello, of Nata, Cruz, Veragua, &c., and the Bishop of Panama was
+primate of the Terra Firma, and suffragan to the Archbishop of Peru. The
+district of Panama was the most fertile and healthy of all the Spanish
+colonies, rich in mines, and so well wooded that its ship-timber
+peopled with vessels both the northern and the southern seas; its land
+yielded full crops, and its broad savannahs pastured innumerable herds
+of wild cattle.
+
+The Buccaneers found the booty in the half-devastated town ample beyond
+their expectations, in spite of all that had been destroyed, buried, or
+removed. The stores were still full of wealth, which not even a month of
+alarm had given the merchants time to remove to their overcharged
+vessels. Some rooms were choked with corn, and others piled high with
+iron, tools, plough-shares, &c., for Peru. In many was found "metal more
+attractive," in the shape of wine, olive oil, and spices, while silks,
+cloths, and linen lay around in costly heaps.
+
+Morgan, still afraid of surprise, resorted to a reckless scheme to avert
+the danger. The very night he entered Panama he set fire to a few of the
+chief buildings, and before morning the greater part of the city was in
+a flame, although the first blaze had been detected in the suburbs. No
+one knew his motive, and few that the enemy had not done it. He
+carefully spread a report, both among the prisoners and his own people,
+that the Spaniards themselves were the authors of the fire. The citizens
+and even the English strove to extinguish the flames, by blowing up some
+houses with gunpowder and pulling down others, but being of wood, the
+fire spread rapidly from roof to roof. In less than half an hour a whole
+street was consumed. The Genoese warehouses and many of the slaves were
+burnt, and only one church was left standing; 200 store buildings were
+destroyed. Oexmelin seems to lament chiefly the slaves and merchandise,
+and scarcely even affects a regret for the stately city. The ruins
+continued to smoke and smoulder for a month, and at daybreak of the
+morning after their arrival, little of the great city they had lately
+seen glorious in the sunset remained but the president's house, where
+Morgan and his staff lodged, a small clump of muleteers' cottages, and
+two convents, that of St. Joseph and that of the Brothers of the
+Redemption. Still fearful of surprise, the adventurers encamped outside
+the walls in the fields, from a wish to avoid the confusion, and in
+order to keep together in case of an attack by a superior force. The
+wounded were put into the only church that had escaped the fire.
+
+The next day Morgan despatched 160 men to Chagres to announce his
+victory, and to see that his garrison wanted for nothing. They met whole
+troops of Spaniards running to and fro in the savannah, but, in spite of
+their expectations, they never rallied. In the afternoon the Buccaneers
+re-entered the city, and selected houses of the few left to barrack in.
+They then dragged all the available cannon they could find and placed
+them round the church of the Fathers of the Trinity, which they
+entrenched. In this they placed in separate places the wounded and the
+prisoners. The evening they spent in searching the ruins for gold,
+melted or hidden, and found much spoil, especially in wells and
+cisterns.
+
+A few hours after, Morgan's vessels returned with three prizes, laden
+with plate and other booty, taken in the South Sea. The day they
+sailed, arriving at one of the small islands of refuge near Panama, they
+took a sloop with its crew of seven men, belonging to a royal Spanish
+vessel of 400 tons, laden with church plate and jewels, removed by the
+richest merchants in Panama; there were also on board all the religious
+women of the nunnery, with the valuable ornaments of their church, and
+she was so deeply laden as not to require ballast. It carried only seven
+guns and a dozen muskets, had no more sails than the "uppermost of the
+mizen," was short of ammunition and food, and even of water. The
+Buccaneers received this intelligence from some Indians who had spoken
+to the seamen of the galleon when they came ashore in a cock-boat for
+water. Had they given chase they might have easily captured it, but
+Captain Clark let the golden opportunity slip through his hands.
+Thinking himself sure of his prize as he had got her sloop, his men
+spent the night in drinking the rich wines they found in the sloop, and
+reposing in the arms of their Spanish mistresses, the more beautiful for
+their tears and despair. During these debaucheries the galleon slipped
+by and was no more seen, and so they lost a prize of greater value than
+all the treasure found in Panama. In the morning, weary of the revel,
+they crowded all sail and despatched a well-armed boat to pursue the
+cripple, ascertaining that the Spanish ship was in bad sailing order and
+incapable of making any resistance. In the islands of Tavoga and
+Tavogilla they captured several boats laden with merchandise. Informed
+by a prisoner of the probable moorings of the galleon, Morgan, enraged
+at her escape, sent every boat in Panama in pursuit of her, bidding them
+seek till they found her. They were eight days cruising from port to
+creek. Returning to the isles, they found here a large ship newly come
+from Payta, laden with cloth, soap, sugar, biscuit, and 20,000 pieces of
+eight; another small boat near was also taken and laden with the divided
+merchandise. With these glimpses of wealth the boats returned to Panama
+somewhat consoled for the loss of their larger prize. The Buccaneers'
+vessels now began to excite the astonishment of the Spaniards, they
+being the first Englishmen, since Drake, who had appeared as enemies on
+those seas.
+
+During this expedition Morgan had employed the rest of his men in
+scouring the country in daily companies of 200, one party relieving
+another, and perpetually bringing in flocks of pale and bleeding
+prisoners, or mules laden with treasure. Some tortured the captives,
+others explored the mines, and the rest burnt glittering heaps of gold
+and silver stuffs, merely to obtain the metal, expecting to have to
+fight their way back to their ships at Chagres, and not wishing to be
+encumbered with unwieldy bundles on that toilsome and dangerous march.
+Morgan, complaining much of the fruitless labours of his foragers, at
+last placed himself at the head of 350 men, and sallied into the country
+to torture every wealthy Spaniard he could meet.
+
+The following anecdote presents us with such a complete picture of the
+demoralisation of a panic, that it reminds us of Thucydides' description
+of Athens during the plague, or Boccaccio's of Florence during the
+raging of the pest. On one occasion Morgan's men met with a poor
+Spaniard, who, during the general confusion, had strolled into a rich
+man's house and dressed himself in the costume of a merchant of rank. He
+had just stripped off his rags, and, first luxuriating in a change of
+costly Dutch linen, had slipped on a pair of breeches of fine red
+taffety, and picking up the silver key of some coffer, had tied it to
+one of his points. Esquemeling represents the man as a poor retainer of
+the house. He was still wondering childishly at his unwonted finery,
+when the Buccaneers broke into the house and seized him as a prize.
+Finding him richly dressed and in a fine house, they believed him at
+once to be the master. His story they treated as a subtle invention. In
+vain he pointed to the black rags he had thrown off--in vain he
+protested, by all the saints, that he lived on charity, and had wandered
+in there and put on the clothes by the merest chance, and without a
+motive but of venial theft. Spying the little key at his girdle they
+became sure that he lied, and they demanded where he had hid his
+cabinet. They had at first laughed at his ingenious story--they now grew
+angry at his denials of wealth. They stretched him on the rack and
+disjointed his arms, they twisted a cord round his wrinkled forehead
+"till his eyes appeared as big as eggs, and were ready to fall out," and
+as he still refused to answer, they hung him up and loaded him with
+stripes. They then cut off his nose and ears, singing his face with
+burning straw till he could not even groan or scream, and at last,
+despairing of obtaining a confession, gave him over to their attendant
+band of negroes to put him to death with their lances. "The common sport
+and recreation of the pirates," says Esquemeling, "being such
+cruelties."
+
+They spared no sex, age, or condition; priest or nun, peasant or noble,
+old man, maiden, and child were all stretched on the same bed of
+torture. They granted no quarter to any who could not pay a ransom, or
+who would not pay it speedily. The most beautiful of the prisoners
+became their mistresses, and the virtuous were treated with rigour and
+cruelty. Captain Morgan himself seduced the fairest by alternate
+presents and threats. There were women found base enough to forsake
+their religion and their homes to become the harlots of a pirate and a
+murderer. But to his iron heart love found a way, and enervated the mind
+of the man whom nothing before could soften.
+
+After ten days spent in the country beyond the walls, Morgan returned to
+Panama, and found a shipload of Spanish prisoners newly arrived. Amongst
+these was a woman of exquisite beauty, the wife of a Spanish merchant,
+then absent on business in Peru. He had left her in the care of some
+relations, with whom she was captured. Esquemeling says: "Her years were
+few, and her beauty so great, as, peradventure, I may doubt whether in
+all Christendom any could be found to surpass her perfections, either of
+comeliness or honesty." Oexmelin, a more skilful observer, and who saw
+her, being a sharer in the expedition, describes her hair as ink black,
+and her complexion of dazzling purity. Her eyes were piercing, and the
+Spanish pride, usually so cold and repulsive, served in her only as a
+foil to her surpassing beauty, and to attract respect. The roughest
+sailors and rudest hunters grew eloquent when they praised her. The
+common men would willingly have drawn swords for such a prize. But their
+commander was already the slave of her whom he had captured. His
+demeanour changed: he was no longer brutal and truculent: he became
+sociable in manner, and more attentive to the richness of his dress, for
+lovers grow either more careless or more regardful of their attire.
+
+The Buccaneer's aspect was changed. He separated the lady from the other
+prisoners, and treated her with marked respect. An old negress, who
+waited on her, served at once as an attendant and a spy. She was told to
+assure her mistress, that the Buccaneers were gentlemen and no thieves,
+and men who knew what politeness and gallantry were as well as any. The
+lady wept and entreated to be placed with the other prisoners, for she
+had heard that her relations were afraid of some plot against her good
+fame.
+
+The lady, like other Spanish women, had been told by their priests and
+husbands, that the Buccaneers had the shape of beasts and not of men.
+The more intelligent reported they were robbers, murderers, and
+heretics; men who forswore the Holy Trinity, and did not believe in
+Jesus Christ. "The _oaths_ of _Morgan_," says Esquemeling, with most
+commendable gravity, "_soon convinced her that he had heard of a God_."
+It was said, that a woman of Panama who had long desired to see a
+pirate, on their first entrance into the city cried out, "Jesu Maria,
+the thieves are men, like the Spaniards, after all;" and some
+volunteers, when they went out to meet Morgan's army, had promised to
+bring home a pirate's head as a curiosity.
+
+Morgan, refusing to restore the beauty to her friends, treated her with
+more flattering care than before. Tapestries, robes, jewels, and
+perfumes, lay at her disposal. Such kindness, after all, was cheap
+generosity, and part of this treasure may even have been her husband's.
+In her innocence, she began to think better of the Buccaneers. They
+might be thieves, but they were not, she found, atheists, nor very
+cruel, for Captain Morgan sent her dishes from his own table. She at
+first received his visits with gratitude and pleasure, surprised at the
+rough, frank kindness of the seaman, and loudly denounced his
+slanderers, that had so cruelly attempted to poison her mind against
+him, her guardian and protector. The snares were well set, and the bird
+was fluttering in. But Heaven preserved her, and she passed through the
+furnace unhurt. Morgan soon threw off his disguise, and offered her all
+the treasures of the Indies if she would become his mistress. She
+refused his presents of gold and pearl, and resisted all his artifices.
+In vain he tried alternately kindness and severity. He threatened her
+with a thousand cruelties, and she replied, that her life was in his
+hands, but that her body should remain pure, though her soul was torn
+from it. On his advancing nearer, and threatening violence, she drew out
+a poignard, and would have slain him or herself, had he not left her
+uninjured. Enraged at her pride, as he miscalled her virtue, he
+determined to break her spirit by suffering. She was stripped of her
+richest apparel, and thrown into a dark cellar, with scarcely enough
+food allowed her to support life, and the chief demanded 30,000 piastres
+as her ransom, to prevent her being sold as a slave in Jamaica. Under
+this hardship the lady prayed like a second Una daily to God, for
+constancy and patience. Morgan, now convinced of her purity, and afraid
+of his men, who already began to express openly their sympathy with her
+sufferings, to account for his cruelty, accused her to his council of
+having abused his kindness by corresponding with the Spaniards, and
+declared that he had intercepted a letter written in her own hand. "I
+myself," says Esquemeling, "was an eye-witness of the lady's sufferings,
+and could never have judged such constancy and chastity to be found in
+the world, if my own eyes and ears had not assured me thereof." Amid the
+blood, and dust, and vapour of smoke, the virtue of this incomparable
+lady shines out like a pale evening star, visible above all the murky
+crimson of an autumn sunset.
+
+A new danger now arose to Morgan from this adventure, for the seamen
+began to murmur, saying that the love of this beautiful Spaniard kept
+them lingering at Panama, and gave the Spaniards time to collect their
+forces, and surprise them on their return. But Morgan, having now stayed
+three weeks, and nothing more being left to plunder, gave orders to
+collect enough mules to carry the spoil to Cruz, where it could be
+shipped for Chagres, and so sent homeward.
+
+There can be no doubt that various causes had for some time been
+undermining the long subsisting attachment between Morgan and his men.
+He had shown himself a slave to the passions which enchained their own
+minds, and their riches perhaps made them independent, and therefore
+mutinous. It was while the mules were collecting that he became aware of
+the loaded mine over which he stood. A plot was discovered, in which
+there were 100 conspirators. They had resolved to seize the two vessels
+they had captured in the South Sea, and with these to take possession of
+an island, which they could fortify for a stronghold. They would then
+fit out the first large Spanish vessel they could obtain, and with a
+good pilot and a bold captain start privateering on their own account,
+and work home by the straits of Magellan. As the spoil had not yet been
+divided, it is probable that all these men had broken the Buccaneer
+oath, and had secreted part of the plunder. They had already hidden in
+private places, cannons, muskets, provisions, and ammunition. They were
+on the very point of raising the anchor, when one of them betrayed the
+scheme, and Morgan at once ordered the vessel to be dismasted and the
+rigging burnt. The vessels he would also have destroyed, but these he
+spared at the intercession of the friend he had appointed their captain.
+From this time all confidence seems to have ceased between Morgan and
+his men. Many a king has been made a tyrant by the detection of a
+conspiracy. The men dreaded his vengeance, and he their treachery. From
+this hour he appears to have resolved to enrich himself and his
+immediate friends at any risk, leaving the French to shift for
+themselves. It is not improbable but that the old French and English
+feud may have had something to do with this quarrel. In war it ceased,
+but rankled out again in peace. The French seem to have been his
+greatest enemies, and the English friendly or indifferent. This
+distinction is visible even in the historians, for Esquemeling speaks of
+him with mere distrust, and Oexmelin with bitter hatred.
+
+In a few days the mules were ready, and the gold packed in convenient
+bales, for Spanish or English gold it was all one to the mules. The
+costly church plate was beaten up into heavy shapeless lumps, and the
+heavier spoil was left behind or destroyed. Better burn it, they
+thought, than leave it to the accursed Spaniard, for we always hate
+those whom we have injured. The artillery of the town being carefully
+spiked, and all ready to depart, Morgan informed his prisoners that he
+was about to march, and that he should take with him all those who were
+either unable or unwilling at once to bring in their ransom. The sight
+was heart-rending, and the panic general. At his words, says the
+historian, there was not one but trembled, not one but hurried to write
+to his father, his brother, or his friends, praying for instant
+deliverance or it would be too late. The slaves were also priced, and
+hostages were sent to collect the money. While this was taking place, a
+party of 150 men were sent to Chagres to bring up the boats and to look
+out for ambuscades, it being reported that Don Juan Perez de Guzman, the
+fugitive president of Panama, had entrenched himself strongly at Cruz,
+and intended to dispute the passage. Some prisoners confessed that the
+president had indeed so intended, but could get no soldiers willing to
+fight, though he had sent for men as far as Carthagena; for the
+scattered troopers fled at the sight of even their own friends in the
+distance.
+
+Having waited four days impatiently for the ransom, Morgan at last set
+out on his return on the 24th of February, 1671. He took with him a
+large amount of baggage, 175 beasts of burden laden with gold, silver,
+and jewels, and about 600 prisoners, men, women, children, and slaves,
+having first spiked all the cannon and burnt the gun-carriages. He
+marched in good order for fear of attack, with a van and rear-guard, and
+the prisoners guarded between the two divisions.
+
+The departure was an affecting sight, as even the two historians, who
+were Buccaneers themselves and eye-witnesses, admit. Lamentations,
+cries, shrieks, and doleful sighs of women and children filled the air.
+The men wept silently, or muttered threats between their teeth, to avoid
+the blows of their unpitying drivers. Thirst and hunger added to their
+sufferings. Many of the women threw themselves on their knees at
+Morgan's feet and begged that he would permit them to return to Panama,
+there to live with their dear husbands and children in huts till the
+city could be rebuilt. But his fierce answer was, that he did not come
+there to hear lamentations, but to seek money, and that if that was not
+found, wherever it was hid, they should assuredly follow him to Jamaica.
+All the selfishness and all the goodness of each nature now came to the
+surface. The selfish fell into torpid and isolated despair--the good
+forgot their own sufferings in trying to relieve those of others.
+
+Some gazed at each other silently and hopelessly; others wailed and
+wept, a few cursed and raged. Here stood one mourning for a
+brother--there another lamenting a wife. Many believed that they should
+never see each other again; but would be sold as slaves in Jamaica. The
+first evening the army encamped in the middle of a green savannah on the
+banks of a cool and pleasant river. This was a great relief to the
+wretched prisoners, who had been dragged all day through the heat of a
+South American noon by men themselves insensible to climate--urged
+forward by the barrels of muskets and blows from the butts of pikes.
+Some of the women were here seen begging the Buccaneers, with tears in
+their eyes, for a drop of water, that they might moisten a little flour
+for their children, who hung crying at their parched and dried-up
+breasts. The next day, when they resumed the march, the shrieks and
+lamentations were more terrible than before. "They would have caused
+compassion in the hardest heart," says Esquemeling; "but Captain Morgan,
+as a man little given to mercy, was not moved in the least." The lagging
+Spaniards were driven on faster with blows, till some of the women
+swooned with the intense heat, and were left as dead by the road-side.
+Those who had husbands gave them the children to carry. The young and
+the beautiful fared best. The fair Spaniard was led between two
+Buccaneers, still apart from the rest. She wept as she walked along,
+crying that she had entrusted two priests in whom she relied to procure
+her ransom money, 30,000 piastres, from a certain hidden place, and that
+they had employed it in ransoming their friends. A slave had brought a
+letter to the lady and disclosed the treachery. Her complaint being told
+to Morgan he inquired into it, and found it to be true. The religious
+men confessed their crime, but declared they had only borrowed the
+money, intending to repay it in a week or so. He therefore at once
+released the lady, and detained the monks in her place, taking them on
+to Chagres and despatching two men to obtain their ransom.
+
+On arriving at Cruz the mules were unloaded, preparatory to embarkation.
+The Buccaneers encamped round the king's warehouse, where it was stored.
+Three days were given to collect the ransom. The Spaniards, tardy or
+unwilling in the collection, brought in the money the day after. Vast
+quantities of corn, rice, and maize were collected here for victualling
+the ships. Morgan embarked 150 slaves, and a few poor and obstinate
+Spaniards who had not yet paid their ransom. The monks were redeemed,
+and escaped happy enough. A part of the Buccaneers marched by land. Many
+tears of joy and sorrow were shed when the prisoners and those who were
+liberated took farewell.
+
+On reaching Barbacoa the division of the spoil began. Mustering his men,
+Morgan compelled them all to swear they had concealed nothing, even of
+the smallest value, and, what was more unusual, he ordered them all to
+be individually searched from top to toe, down even to the very soles of
+their shoes. This search was suspicious and insulting. The Frenchmen,
+hot-blooded and mutinous, would have openly resisted had they not been
+in the minority. Morgan allowed himself to be first searched to lessen
+the general discontent, and one man in every company was employed as
+searcher. No precautions were neglected that could be suggested by long
+experience of plundering.
+
+This unusual vigilance was a mere cloak for Morgan's own dishonesty.
+Every man was now compelled to discharge his musket before the
+searchers, that they might be sure no precious stones were hidden in the
+barrel. These searchers were generally the lieutenants of each crew, and
+had all taken an additional oath to perform their duty with fidelity.
+The murmurs against Morgan had now reached such a height, and were so
+hourly increasing, that many Frenchmen threatened to take his life
+before they reached Jamaica. The more temperate controlled the younger
+and the more impetuous, and the band reached Chagres without any revolt.
+They found the garrison short of provisions and glad to be relieved, but
+the wounded had nearly all died of their wounds.
+
+From Chagres Morgan sent a great boat to Porto Bello with all the St.
+Catherine's prisoners, and demanded a ransom for sparing the castle of
+Chagres. The people of Porto Bello replied they would not give one
+farthing, and he might burn it as he chose.
+
+The day after their arrival, Morgan divided the booty. It amounted to
+only 443,000 pounds, estimating at ten piastres the pound. The jewels
+were sold unfairly, the admiral and his cabal buying the greater part
+very cheap, having already, it was believed, retained all the best of
+the spoil. Every one had expected at least 1000 pieces each, and was
+disappointed and indignant at receiving only about 200. There was an end
+now to all co-operation between English and French adventurers, and the
+hopes of a Buccaneer republic were at an end for ever. The murmurs
+again rose incontrollably high, and some proposed to seize Morgan and
+force him to a fair division.
+
+The suspected admiral, trying in vain to pacify them, and finding he
+could obtain no price for Chagres, divided the provisions of the fort
+among the vessels, removed the cannon and ammunition, then demolished
+the fortifications, and burnt the buildings. Suddenly taking alarm, or
+more probably following a preconcerted plan, Morgan sailed out of the
+harbour without any signal or notice, and hurried to Jamaica, followed
+by four English vessels, whose captains had been his confidants.
+
+In the first paroxysm of their rage, the French adventurers would have
+pursued Morgan, and attacked his vessel, but he escaped while they were
+still hesitating. We shall find him finally settled in Jamaica, and
+married to the daughter of the chief person of the island, a sure proof,
+says the indignant and philosophical Oexmelin, that any one is esteemed
+in this world provided he has money.
+
+The same vivacious writer gives a lively picture of the rage of the
+crews at the treacherous flight of Morgan. They shouted, swore, stamped,
+clenched their fists, gnashed their teeth, and tore their hair, fired
+off their pistols in the air, and brandished their arms, with
+imprecations loud and deep. They longed for the plunder they had lost,
+and longed still more eagerly for revenge. They never now mentioned the
+Welsh name but with an execration. Strange anomaly of the human mind,
+that men who lived by robbery, should be astonished at a small theft
+committed by a comrade! In the first bitterness of their vexation, they
+drew their sabres, and hewed and thrust at their imaginary enemy. They
+bared their arms, and pointed out to each other the cicatrices of their
+half-healed wounds.
+
+Confirmations of the admiral's treachery reached them from every side.
+
+They remembered that Morgan had been latterly unusually reserved and
+unsociable, closeting himself with a few English confidants, to whom he
+had been seen whispering even during public conferences. He had, it was
+now recollected, grown silent during all discussions, and more
+particularly when the booty was mentioned.
+
+Oexmelin (a surgeon) also mentions, that on one occasion, as he was
+visiting a wounded Buccaneer, Morgan came up to the hammock, and said in
+English, thinking he could not be overheard, "Courage, get soon well,
+you have helped me to conquer, and you must help me to profit by the
+conquest." Another day, as Oexmelin was searching by the river for a
+medical herb, he turned round suddenly, and saw Morgan secreting
+something in the corner of a canoe, and looking frequently over his
+shoulder to see if he was observed. When he observed Oexmelin, he looked
+troubled, and, coming up, asked him what he was doing there, to which
+the surgeon made no answer, but, stooping down, picked the plant he was
+in search of, and began to tell him its properties. Morgan turned off
+the subject, beginning to converse on indifferent topics, and, although
+the proudest of men, insisted on accompanying him home. Oexmelin took
+care to find an opportunity afterwards to rummage the canoe, but found
+nothing; but this same canoe he always observed Morgan took great care
+of, and never permitted to row out of his sight. But these stories none
+had dared to utter, for since the victory of Panama, the admiral, always
+proud, sensual, and cruel, had grown every day more stern, and had
+rendered himself dreaded by his severities.
+
+The adventurers sought for a long time some means of avenging themselves
+on Morgan for his successful treachery. They at last heard that he had
+resolved to take possession of St. Catherine's island, being
+apprehensive of the governor of Jamaica. In this spot he had determined
+to fortify himself, renew his Buccaneering, and defy both open enemies
+and treacherous friends. The Buccaneers agreed to waylay him on his
+passage, and carry him off, with his wife, children, and ill-gotten
+treasure. They then planned either to kill him, or compel him to render
+an account of the spoil of Panama. But an unexpected accident saved
+Morgan, and defeated their scheme of vengeance. At the very crisis, a
+new governor, Lord G. Vaughan, arrived at Port Royal, and brought a
+royal order for Morgan to be sent to England to answer the complaints of
+the King of Spain and his subjects. Of his trial we hear nothing, but we
+soon after see the culprit knighted by Charles II., and appointed
+Commissioner of Admiralty for Jamaica. The king, who frolicked with
+Rochester, and smiled at the daring villany of Blood, had no scruples in
+disgracing knighthood by such an addition.
+
+In the autumn of 1680, the Earl of Carlisle, then governor of Jamaica,
+finding his constitution undermined by the climate, returned to England,
+leaving Morgan as his deputy.
+
+His opportunity of revenge had now come, and he remembered his old
+dangers of ruin and assassination. Many of the Buccaneers were hung by
+his authority, and some of them were delivered up to the governor of
+Carthagena. A new governor arrived, and terminated his cruelties, and
+the justice inspired by a personal hatred. He still remained
+commissioner. In the next reign he was thrown into prison, where he
+remained three years. Of his final fate we know nothing certain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.
+
+    Dispersion of the fleet--Oexmelin's interview with the old
+    Buccaneer--Adventure with Indians--Esquemeling's Escapes--1673.
+    D'Ogeron's Escape from the Spaniards--1676. Buccaneers' Fight at
+    Tobago against the Dutch--1678. Captain Cook captures a Spanish
+    vessel--1679. Captains Coxen and Sharp begin their cruise.
+
+
+On the departure of Morgan, the Buccaneers, without food, and without
+leaders, underwent many sufferings, and remained uncertain what to do.
+
+Oexmelin and a few of his French friends being informed by a female slave
+that an old Buccaneer lived in the neighbourhood, determined to go to
+him and barter goods, as they were told that, although a Spaniard, such
+was his custom. Following the slave with great expectation, they reached
+the veteran's fort after about six hours' march. The Buccaneers' "peel"
+towers were scattered all over the West Indies, and Waterton mentions
+seeing the ruins of one near Demerara. This fort was defended by a fosse
+of immense depth, and by massy walls of an extraordinary thickness,
+flanked at each corner by a bastion well supplied with cannon. The
+Frenchmen displayed their colours and beat their drums as a greeting,
+yet no one appeared, and no one answered; but, at the end of a quarter
+of an hour, they saw a light in one of the bastions, and perceived a man
+about to discharge a cannon. Throwing themselves on their faces with
+professional dexterity, the shot flew over their heads, and they then
+rose and retreated out of range. Believing at once that they had been
+betrayed, for many dangers had made them suspicious, they were about to
+cut their guide to pieces, when, running from them, she cried to the
+gunner, "Why is your master false to his word? did he not promise to
+receive these gentlemen?" "It is true," cried the soldier, "but he has
+changed his mind; and if you and your people do not go off, I will blow
+out your brains." The Buccaneers, enraged at the insolence of this
+threat, and the capricious change of intention, were about to attempt to
+storm the place, when four Spaniards advanced and demanded a truce, in
+the name of their master. "We had," they explained, "been alarmed at
+your numbers, and feared foul play or treachery." The old adventurer was
+now willing to receive them, if they would send four of their band as
+ambassadors and hostages. Oexmelin was one of the four chosen. They found
+the old man, grey and venerable, seated between two others. He was so
+old and feeble that he could not speak audibly, but he smiled and moved
+his lips, and stroked his long white beard, as they entered, and they
+could observe that he was pleased to see once more the well-remembered
+dress of the Buccaneer seamen. His majestic bearing was impressive.
+Though he could not rise to welcome them, he bent his head in answer to
+their greetings, and beckoned to one of his attendants to speak for him.
+By his orders they were at once taken to his store-rooms, where they
+bartered their goods, and obtained all that they required. They first
+eagerly selected some brandy, and Oexmelin is never tired of repeating
+"ses gens l'aiment avec passion." On their way back to the ships with
+the guide, delighted at their success, the Spaniards who carried the
+goods they had bought told them their master's history. He was, it
+appeared, properly speaking, neither an adventurer nor a Castilian, but
+a Portuguese, who had lived long both with adventurers and with
+Spaniards. A Spanish ship had picked him up in a drifted canoe when
+quite a boy, and he had been employed among the slaves in a cocoa
+plantation, where he soon became a successful steward, and much beloved
+by his master. His patron sent every year a vessel to his plantation to
+be loaded with cocoa. One day, as the steward was on board
+superintending the lading, a sudden squall came on, snapped the cable,
+and drove them out to sea. He being a good pilot, and accustomed to
+navigation, attempted to put back to land as soon as the storm abated,
+but the slaves, with one voice, declared that they would not return, and
+that he should not take them, for they knew that their master would
+suspect, and would cruelly punish them. At that time the slightest
+offence of a slave was punished with death. The steward remonstrated
+with them; but the slaves resolved to be free, although they knew not
+where to steer. At this crisis the bark was pursued by a Buccaneer
+vessel, from which a storm for a short time released them, but they were
+eventually overtaken and captured.
+
+The Buccaneer captain brought these prisoners to the fortress they had
+just visited. Here he became again a faithful steward, and finally
+inherited the place at his master's death, and continued to trade with
+the Buccaneers, as his predecessor had done. The fortress had been
+originally built to repel the Spaniards, who had been several times
+beaten off with loss.
+
+It is very seldom that we can follow the Buccaneer to the last scene of
+all: he flashes across our scene from darkness to darkness, and we hear
+of him no more. In the present instance, Oexmelin enables us to fill up
+the vacuum and tell out the tale. In a subsequent voyage he returned to
+the old spot, the scene of an oft told story. Devastation had fallen
+upon the devastator, the fortress was completely demolished and no
+dwelling remained. He ascertained from the Spaniards that the old man
+had died and left his riches to his two sons, who, impatient of a
+slothful wealth, and with imaginations excited from their youth by the
+recital of Buccaneer adventures, had at last turned Flibustiers. Before
+their father's death they had often expressed a wish to conquer the
+country of the ferocious Bravo Indians, but he had always discouraged
+them from the dangerous and unprofitable expedition, being afraid of
+attacks from the Spaniards in their absence. They were never heard of
+again, but report was current that, having been shipwrecked, the two
+Buccaneers had been taken by the Indians, and killed and eaten.
+
+Leaving the Boca del Toro, about thirty leagues distant from Chagres,
+Oexmelin and his companions arrived at the country of the very dreaded
+Bravo Indians. These people were known to be warlike cannibals, cruel
+and very treacherous. They were expert archers, and could discharge
+their arrows, like the Parthians, even when in full retreat. They had
+axes and spears, and wore metal ornaments, the clash of which animated
+them to the charge. They carried tortoise-shells for shields, which
+covered their whole bodies, and were most to be dreaded when few in
+number and quite overpowered, for they would then throw themselves like
+wild-cats on the foe, and think only of destroying their enemy's life,
+regardless of their own. Morgan, who seems to have made every
+preparation for an extensive Buccaneer empire, had often sworn to
+totally destroy this nation which had slain so many shipwrecked men, and
+so frequently frustrated his plans. No Buccaneer historian ever seems
+to have reflected that these savages, rude as they were, fought as
+patriots defending their country. We sing of Tell and rave of Wallace,
+but we have no interest in a hero without breeches!
+
+These Indians had at first been friendly to the Buccaneers, who had sold
+them iron in exchange for food, but on one fatal occasion, at a
+Buccaneer debauch, a quarrel had arisen, and some Indians had been
+killed and their wives carried off. From this time irreconcilable hatred
+existed between the two people, and to be wrecked on the Bravo shore was
+equivalent to certain death. On reaching Cape Diego (so called, like
+many other points of land, from an old adventurer), Oexmelin was
+compelled by hunger to feed on crocodile eggs, which were found buried
+in the sand. Meeting here with some French adventurers, they all removed
+to an adjacent spot, where they caught turtle and salted it for the
+voyage.
+
+Ascending a river to obtain provisions, they surprised and killed two
+Indians, of whom one had a beard-case of tortoise-shell and another of
+beaten gold: the latter they took for a chief. Putting off from here,
+and meeting with contrary winds that drove them from Jamaica, they
+returned again to Chagres, and were pursued by a ship of Spanish build,
+which they feared had been sent from Carthagena to rebuild the fort.
+
+They attempted in vain to escape, and were clearing the decks, preparing
+to fight to the last, when the enemy hoisted the red flag, and proved to
+be one of their companions' vessels driven back by the _bise_, or
+north-east wind. They lost two days' sail by this accident, more than
+they could regain in a fortnight, and returned to the Boca del Toro to
+get provisions and kill sea-cows, and then passed on to the Boca del
+Drago. The islands here they knew to be inhabited, for the fragrance of
+the fruits was wafted on the sea wind. One day a fishing party gave
+chase to two Indians in a canoe, which they instantly drew ashore and
+carried with them into the woods. This boat, weighing above 2,000 lbs.
+and requiring 11 men afterwards to launch it, was made of wild cedar,
+roughly hewn; being nimble the savages both escaped the Buccaneers. A
+pilot who had been often in those parts, told them that a few years
+before, a Buccaneer squadron arriving in that place, the men went in
+canoes to catch the humming birds that swarmed round the flowering trees
+of the coast. They were observed by some Indians who had hid themselves
+in the trees, who, leaping down into the sea, carried off the boats and
+men before their companions could arrive to their aid. The admiral
+instantly landed 800 men to rescue the prisoners, but so many Indians
+collected that they found it necessary to retreat in haste to their
+ships.
+
+The next day the Buccaneers arrived at Rio de Zuera, but the Spaniards
+were all fled, leaving no provisions; they therefore filled their boats
+with plantains, coasting for a fortnight along the shore to find a
+convenient place to careen, for the vessel had now grown so leaky that
+slaves and men were obliged to work night and day at the pumps. Arriving
+at a port, called the Bay of Blevelt, from a Buccaneer who used to
+resort there, half the crew were employed to unload and careen the bark
+on the shore, and half to hunt in the woods--still much afraid of the
+Indians, though they had as yet seen none.
+
+The huntsmen shot several porcupines of great size, and many monkeys and
+pheasants. The men took great pleasure in the midst of their danger in
+this pursuit. They laughed to see the females carrying their little ones
+on their backs, just like the negro women, and they admired the love and
+fidelity which some showed when their friends were wounded, and were
+delighted when they pelted their pursuers with fruit and dead boughs.
+The men were obliged to shoot fifteen or sixteen to secure three or
+four, as even when dead they remained clinging to the trees, and
+remained so for several days, hanging by their fore-paws or their tails.
+When one was wounded the rest came chattering round him, and would lay
+their paws on the wound to stop the flow of blood, and others would
+gather moss from the tress to bandage the place, or, gathering certain
+healing herbs, chew them and apply them as a poultice. If a mother was
+killed the young ones would not leave the body till they were torn away.
+
+But these amusements were soon to come to an end. The Indians were upon
+their track. They had been now eight days hunting. It was the daybreak
+of the ninth day, and the fishermen and hunters were preparing their
+nets and guns to start for the sea and for the woods. The slaves were on
+the beach burning shells to make lime, which served instead of pitch for
+the vessels, and the women were drawing water at the wells which had
+been dug in the shore. A few of them were washing dishes, and others
+sewing, for they had risen earlier than usual. While the rest went to
+the wells, one of them lingered behind to pick some fruit that grew near
+the beach. Seeing suddenly some Indians running from the spot where she
+had left her companions, she ran to the tents, crying, "Indians,
+Indians, Christians, the Indians are come." The Buccaneers, running to
+arms, discovered that three of their female slaves were lying dead in
+the wood, pierced with fourteen or fifteen flint-headed arrows. These
+darts were about eight feet long, and as thick as a man's thumb; at one
+end was a wooden hook, tied on with a string, at the other, a case
+containing a few small stones. Searching the woods, no traces of
+Indians, or any canoes, were to be found, and the Buccaneers, fearing
+they should be surrounded and overpowered, re-embarked all their goods,
+and sailed in great haste and fear.
+
+They soon arrived at Cape Gracias à Dios, and rejoiced to find
+themselves once more among friendly Indians; and at a port where
+Buccaneer vessels often resorted, the rudest sailors giving thanks to
+God for having delivered them out of so many dangers, and brought them
+to a place of refuge. The Indians provided them with every necessary,
+and treated them with friendship. For an old knife or hatchet the men
+each bought an Indian woman, who supplied them with food. These people
+often went to sea with the Buccaneers, and, remaining several years,
+returned home with a good knowledge of French and English. They were
+used as fishermen, and for striking tortoises and manitees, one Indian
+being able to victual a vessel of 100 men. Oexmelin's crew having on
+board two sailors who could speak the Indian tongue, they were unusually
+well received.
+
+This nation was not more than 1700 in number, including a few negro
+slaves, who had swum ashore from a wreck, having murdered the Spanish
+crew, and, in their ignorance of navigation, stranded the vessel. Some
+of them cultivated the ground, and others wandered about hunting and
+fishing. They wore little clothes but a palm leaf hat, and a short
+apron, made of the bark of some tree. Their arms were spears, pointed
+with crocodile's teeth. They believed in a Supreme Being, and, as
+Esquemeling quaintly says, "believe not in nor serve the devil, as many
+other nations of America do, and hereby they are not so much tormented
+by him as other nations are." Their food was chiefly fruit and fish.
+They prepared pleasant and intoxicating liquors from the plantain, and
+from the seed of the palm, and at their banquets every guest was
+expected to empty a four-quart calabash full of achioc, as the palm
+drink was called, merely a whet to the feast to follow. Their achioc was
+as thick as gruel. When they were in love, they pierced themselves with
+arrows to prove their sincerity. When a youth wished to marry a maiden,
+the first question of the bride's father to the lover was, whether he
+could make arrows, or spin the thread with which they bound them. If he
+answered in the affirmative, the father called for a calabash of achioc,
+and he himself, the bride, and the bridegroom, all tasted of the
+beverage. When one of these hardy women was delivered, she rose, went to
+the nearest brook, washed and swathed the child, and went about her
+ordinary labour. When a husband died, the wife buried him, with all his
+spears, aprons, and ear jewels, and for fifteen moons after (a year)
+brought meat and drink daily to the grave. Some writers contend that the
+devil visited the graves, and carried away these offerings to the manes;
+but Esquemeling says, he knows to the contrary, having often taken away
+the food, which was always of the choicest and best sort. At the end of
+the year, an extraordinary custom prevailed. The widow had then to open
+the grave, and take out all the bones; she scraped, washed, and dried
+them in the sun; then placed them in a satchel, and for a whole year was
+obliged to carry them upon her back by day, and sleep upon them by
+night. At the end of the year, she hung up the bag at her door-post, or,
+if she was not mistress of her house, at the door of her nearest
+relation. A widow could not marry again till this painful ceremony was
+completed, and if an Indian woman married a pirate, the same custom
+prevailed. The negroes maintained the habits of their own countries.
+
+After refreshing themselves in this friendly region, the Buccaneers
+steered for the island de los Pinos, and, arriving in fifteen days,
+refitted their vessel, now become dangerously leaky. Half the crew were
+employed in careening, and half in fishing, and by the help of some of
+the Cape Gracias Indians who accompanied them they killed and salted a
+sufficient number of wild cattle and turtle to revictual the ship. In
+six hours they could capture fish sufficient for a thousand persons.
+"This abundance of provision," says Esquemeling, "made us forget the
+miseries we had lately endured, and we began to call one another again
+by the name of _brother_, which was customary among us, but had been
+disused in our miseries." They feasted here plentifully, and without
+fear of enemies, for the few Spaniards who were on the island were
+friendly, and past dangers grew mere dreams in the distance. Their only
+anxiety now was about the crocodiles, which swarmed in the island, and,
+when hungry, would devour men.
+
+On one occasion a Buccaneer and his negro slave, while hunting in the
+wood, were attacked by one of these monsters. With incredible agility it
+fastened upon the Englishman's leg, and brought him to the ground. The
+negro fled. The hunter, a robust and courageous man, drawing his knife,
+stabbed the crocodile to the heart, after a desperate fight, and then,
+tired with the combat and weak with loss of blood, fell senseless by its
+side. The negro, returning, from curiosity rather than compassion, to
+see how the duel had ended, lifted his master on his back and brought
+him to the sea-shore, a whole league distant, where he placed him in a
+canoe and rowed him aboard. After this, no Buccaneer dared to go into
+the woods alone, but the next day, sallying out in troops, they killed
+all the monsters they could meet. These animals would come every night
+to the sides of the vessel and attempt to climb up, attracted probably
+by the smell of food. One of these, when seized with an iron hook,
+instead of diving or swimming, began to mount the ladder of the ship,
+till they killed him with blows of pikes and axes. After remaining some
+time here they sailed for Jamaica, and arrived there in a few days after
+a prosperous voyage, being the first adventurers who had arrived there
+from Panama since Morgan.
+
+In 1673, when the war between the French and Hollanders (Dutch) was
+still raging, the inhabitants of the French West Indian colonies
+equipped a fleet to attack the Dutch settlements at Curaçoa, engaging
+all the Buccaneers that could be induced to join the white flag, either
+from hopes of plunder or from hatred to the Dutch. M. D'Ogeron, the
+Governor of Tortuga, the planner of this invasion, headed the fleet in a
+large vessel named after himself, built by himself, and manned by 500
+picked adventurers. His unlucky star led them to misfortune. The new
+frigate ran upon the rocks near the Guadanillas Islands, and broke into
+a thousand pieces, during a storm near Porto Rico. Being at the time
+very near to land, the governor and all his men swam safe to shore. The
+next day, discovered by the Spaniards, they were attacked by a large
+force, who supposed they had come purposely to plunder the islands as
+the Buccaneers had done before. The whole country, alarmed, rose in
+arms. The shipwrecked men were surrounded by an overpowering army, who,
+finding them almost without arms, refused to give them quarter, slew the
+greater part without mercy, and made the remainder prisoners. Binding
+them with cords, two by two, they drove them through the woods into the
+open champaign. To all inquiries as to the fate of their commander,
+whom they could not distinguish from the rest, they replied that he had
+sunk with the wreck. D'Ogeron, following up this deception with French
+sagacity, behaved himself as a mere half-witted suttler, diverting the
+Spanish soldiers by his tricks and mimicry, and was the only Buccaneer
+whom they allowed to go at liberty. The troopers at their camp fires
+gave him scraps from their meals and rewarded him with more food than
+his companions.
+
+Among the prisoners there was also a French surgeon who had on former
+occasions done some service to the Spaniards, and him they also allowed
+to go at large. D'Ogeron agreed with him to attempt an escape at all
+risks, and after mature deliberation, they both agreed upon a plan, and
+succeeded in escaping safely into the woods, and in making their way to
+the sea-side. They determined to attempt to build a canoe, although
+unsupplied with any tool except a hatchet. By the evening they reached
+the sea-shore, to their great joy, and caught some shell fish on the
+beach from a shoal that ran in upon the sands in pursuit of their prey.
+Fire to roast them they obtained by rubbing two sticks together in the
+Indian fashion. The next morning early they began to cut down and
+prepare timber to build the canoe in which to escape to Vera Cruz. While
+they were toiling at their work they observed in the distance a large
+boat, which they supposed to contain an enemy, steering directly towards
+them. Retreating to the woods, they discovered as soon as it touched
+land that it held only two poor fishermen. These unsuspecting men they
+determined if possible to overpower, and to capture the boat. As the
+mulatto came on shore alone, with a string of calabashes on his back to
+draw water, they killed him with a blow of their axe, and then slew the
+Spaniard, who, alarmed at the sound of voices, was attempting in vain to
+push from the shore. Having filled the dead man's calabashes they set
+sail, using the precaution of taking the dead bodies with them out into
+the deep sea, in order to conceal their death from the Spaniards.
+
+They steered at once for Porto Rico, and passed on to Hispaniola. A
+fair wind soon brought them to Samana, where they found a party of their
+people. Leaving the surgeon to collect men at Samana, D'Ogeron sailed to
+Tortuga to collect vessels and crews to return and deliver his
+companions, and revenge his late disaster. He sailed eventually with 300
+men, and took great precautions to prevent the Spaniards being aware of
+his coming, using only his lower sails in order that his masts should
+not rise above the horizon. In spite of this the Spaniards, informed of
+his approach, had placed troops of horse upon the shore at various
+assailable points.
+
+D'Ogeron landed his men under favour of a discharge from his great guns,
+which drove the horsemen into the woods, where, as he little suspected,
+the infantry lay in ambush. Eagerly pursuing, his men, who thought the
+victory their own, found themselves hemmed in on every side. Few escaped
+even to the ships. The Spaniards, cruel from the reaction of fear, cut
+off the limbs of the dead and carried them home as trophies. They
+lighted bonfires on the shore as tokens of defiance to the retreating
+fleet.
+
+The first prisoners were now treated worse than ever. Some of them were
+sent to Havannah and employed on the fortifications all day, and chained
+up like wild beasts at night to prevent their desperate attempts at
+escape. Many were sent to Cadiz, and from thence escaped over the
+Pyrenees into France, and, assembling together, like sworn members of a
+common brotherhood, returned by the first ship to Tortuga.
+
+These very men some time after equipped a small fleet, under command of
+Le Sieur Maubenon, which sacked Trinidad, and put the island to a ransom
+of 10,000 pieces of eight, and from thence proceeded to the Caraccas.
+
+The Buccaneers fought against the Dutch, in 1676, and helped the French
+to recover Cayenne, that had been taken by Vice-Admiral Binkes. After
+this conquest, M. D'Estrees attacked Tobago, but was repulsed with the
+loss of 150 killed, and 200 wounded. His ship, the _Glorieux_, of
+seventy guns, was blown up, and two others stranded; several of the
+Dutch vessels were, however, burnt.
+
+D'Estrees, returning to Brest, was ordered back to Tobago, with twenty
+sail of vessels of war, besides a great number of small craft. 1500 men
+were landed, and, approaching a fortified place called Le Cort, summoned
+Heer Binkes to surrender. The French began their attack by throwing
+fire-balls into the castle; the third grenade fell upon some loose
+powder in the path leading to the magazine, and blew it up. Heer Binkes
+and all his officers but one were killed. 500 French instantly stormed
+the works, killing all but 300 men, who were sent prisoners to France.
+D'Estrees then destroyed every fort and house in the island, and sailed
+away.
+
+It was in 1678 that the same Comte D'Estrees collected 1200 Buccaneers
+from Hispaniola, and twenty vessels of war, besides fire-ships, to
+capture Curaçoa, which could have been taken with 300 Buccaneers and
+three vessels. This fleet was, however, lost on the Isles d'Aves, as we
+shall describe in Dampier's voyage.
+
+In the year 1678, Captain Cook loaded his vessel with logwood, at
+Campeachy, and, while anchoring at the island of Rubia, on his way to
+Tobago, was captured by three Spanish men-of-war, who left his crew upon
+the shore, and carried off his ship and cargo. They had not lain there
+long before a Spanish sloop of sixteen men arrived, laden with cocoa and
+plate, and gave them opportunity for escape and for revenge. Borrowing
+muskets of the Dutch governor, they employed six of their men in seizing
+the sloop's boat as it came to land, and then embarked and took the
+larger vessel, leaving their prisoners bound upon the beach, to watch
+the combat that would decide their fate. Two men navigated, two more
+loaded the guns, and two others fired into the enemy as fast as they
+could pour their shot into the stern-ports. The Spaniards resisted
+stoutly for some time, but, seeing their priest and captain shot dead,
+threw their arms overboard, and cried for quarter. The Buccaneers gave
+the Dutch governor a handsome reward, with a recompence for the arms,
+and divided among themselves about £4,000 worth of plate. On arriving
+at Jamaica they burnt the prize, and embarked their goods for England.
+
+In the year of our Lord 1679, a Buccaneer fleet of five sail, commanded
+by Captains Coxen, Essex, Alliston, Rose, and Sharp, set sail from
+Port-Royal, and steered for the island of Pines, losing two vessels in
+their passage, at the Zamballos islands. They met a French ship, whose
+commission was only for three months, and showed its captain, with great
+exultation, their forged commission for three years, purchased for only
+ten pieces of eight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.
+
+    Land at Darien--March Overland--Take Santa Maria--Sail to
+    Panama--Ringrose is wrecked--Failure of Expedition--Driven off by
+    Spanish Fleet--Coxen accused of cowardice--Sharp elected
+    Commander--Plunder Hillo and take La Serena--Take Aries--Saved with
+    difficulty--Conspiracy of slaves--Land at Antigua--Return to
+    England--Sharp's trial--Seizes a French ship in the Downs, and
+    returns to Jamaica.
+
+
+The cruises of Sawkins and Sharp are recorded in the travels of
+Ringrose, who was present at all their exploits. At this time the
+Buccaneers widened their field of operations, and passed from the South
+into the North Pacific. The whole coast of South America, on either
+side, met the fate of the West Indian islands. The gold mines of Peru
+were the next object of their speculation.
+
+A fleet which took Porto Bello a second time rendezvoused at Boca del
+Toro. A new expedition was then formed to follow Captain Bournano, a
+French commander, who had lately attacked Chepo, to Tocamora, a great
+and very rich place, whither the Darien Indians had offered to conduct
+him, in spite of a late treaty with the Spaniards.
+
+The vessels first dispersed into coves and creeks to careen and salt
+turtle, and then reunited at the Water key. The fleet consisted of nine
+vessels, with a total of 22 guns and 458 men, in the following
+order:--Captain Coxen, a ship of 80 tons, with 8 guns, and 197 men;
+Captain Harris, 150 tons, 5 guns, and 107 men; Captain Bournano, 90
+tons, 6 guns, and 86 men; Captain Sawkins, 16 tons, 1 gun, and 35 men;
+Captain Sharp, 25 tons, 2 guns, and 40 men; Captain Cook, 35 tons, and
+43 men; Captain Alleston, 18 tons, and 24 men; Captain Row, 20 tons,
+and 25 men; Captain Macket, 14 tons, and 20 men.
+
+The expedition sailed March 26, 1679. The first place to touch at was
+the Zemblas Islands, where they traded with the friendly Indians, who
+brought fruits and venison in exchange for beads, needles, knives, and
+hatchets. These Indians were quite naked, but richly decorated with gold
+and silver plates of a crescent form, and gold rings worn in the nose,
+which they had to lift up when they drank. They were generally painted
+with streaks of black and red, but were a handsome race, and frequently
+as fair as Europeans. The sailors believed that they could see better by
+night than by day.
+
+The Indians dissuaded the captains from the march upon Tocamora, and
+agreed to guide them to the vicinity of Panama. The way to Tocamora,
+they declared, was mountainous and uninhabited, and ran through wild
+places, where no provisions could be obtained. In this change of plan,
+Row and Bournano, whose crews were all French, separated, being
+unwilling to risk a long march by land, and remained at the Zemblas,
+while Andræas, an Indian chief, guided the remaining vessels to the
+Golden Island, a little to the westward of the mouth of the great river
+of Darien. There the seven remaining vessels rendezvoused April 3, 1680.
+
+They here agreed to follow the Indians' advice, and attack the town of
+Santa Maria, situated on the river of the same name, which runs into the
+South Sea by the gulf of St. Miguel. It was garrisoned by 400 soldiers,
+and from hence the gold gathered in the neighbouring mountains was
+carried to Panama, on which they could march if they could not find
+enough at Santa Maria.
+
+On the 5th of April they landed 331 men, leaving Captains Alleston and
+Macket to guard the ships in their absence. Each man carried with him
+three or four "dough-boys" (cakes), trusting to the rivers for drink.
+Captain Sharp, who went at their head, was still faint from a late
+sickness. His company carried a red flag and a bunch of white and green
+ribbons. The second division, led by Captain Richard Sawkins, had a red
+flag, striped with yellow. Captain Peter Harris, with the third and
+fourth divisions, had two green flags; Captain John Coxen, two red
+flags; while Captain Edmund Cook bore red colours, striped with yellow,
+with a hand and sword for the device. All the men carried fusees,
+pistols, and hangers.
+
+The Indian guides led them through a wood and over a bay two leagues up
+a woody valley, along a good path, with here and there old plantations.
+At a river, then nearly dry, they built huts to rest in. Another Indian
+chief, a man "of great parts," and called Captain Antonio, now promised
+to be their leader, as soon as his child, who was then sick, had died,
+which he expected would be next day. This Indian warned them against
+lying in the grass, which was full of large snakes.
+
+The men, breaking some of the stones washed down from the mountains,
+found them glitter like gold; but, in spite of this, several grew tired
+and returned to the ships, leaving only 327 sailors and six Indian
+guides.
+
+The next day they ascended a very steep hill, and found at the foot of
+it a river, on which Andræas told them Santa Maria was built. About
+noon they ascended another and higher mountain, by so perpendicular and
+narrow a path that only one man could pass at a time. Having marched
+eighteen miles, they halted that night on the banks of the same river,
+much rain falling during both nights. The next day they crossed the
+river, after wading sometimes up to the knee, sometimes to the middle,
+in a steep current. At noon they reached the Indian village, near which
+the king of Darien resided. The houses were neatly built of
+cabbage-tree, with the roofs of wild canes, thatched with palmito royal,
+and were surrounded by plantain walks; they had no upper storeys. The
+king, queen, and family, came to visit them in royal robes. Like most
+savages, he was all ornament and nakedness, gold and dirt. His crown was
+made with woven white reeds, lined with red silk. In the middle was a
+thin plate of gold, some beads, and several ostrich feathers; in each
+ear a gold ring; and in his nose a half-moon of the same metal. His robe
+was of thin white cotton, and in his hand he held a long bright lance,
+sharp as a knife. The queen wore several red blankets, and her two
+marriageable daughters and young child were loaded with coloured beads,
+and covered with strips of rag. The women seemed "free, easy, and
+brisk," but modest and afraid of their husbands. The king gave the
+sailors each three plantains and some sugar-canes to suck, but, after
+that regal munificence, did not disdain to sell his stores like his
+subjects, who proved very cunning dealers in their purchases of knives,
+pins, and needles. Resting here a day, Captain Sawkins was appointed to
+lead the forlorn hope of eighty men. Their march still lay along the
+river, and here and there they found a house. The Indians, standing at
+the doors, would present each with a ripe plantain or cassave root, or
+count them by dropping a grain of millet for each one that passed. They
+rested at night at some native houses.
+
+The next day Sharp, Coxen, and Cook, and ninety men, embarked in
+fourteen canoes to try how far the stream was navigable, Captain
+Andræas being with them, and two Indians in each canoe serving as
+guides. But the water proved more tedious than the land; for at the
+distance of every stone's-cast, they were constrained to get out of the
+boats and haul them over sands, rocks, or fallen trees, and sometimes
+over spits of land. That night they built huts on the bank, being worn
+out with fatigue.
+
+The next day proved a repetition of the past; at night a tiger came near
+them, but they dared not fire for fear of alarming the Spaniards. The
+following day was worse than before, and their men grew mutinous and
+suspicious of the Indians, who, they thought, had divided the troop in
+order to betray them. The fourth day, resting on "a beachy point of
+land," where another arm joined the river, they were joined by their
+companions, whom they had sent their Indians to seek, and who had grown
+alarmed at their continued absence. That night they prepared their arms
+for action. On the morrow they re-embarked, in all sixty-eight canoes
+and 327 Englishmen, with fifty Indian guides. They made themselves
+paddles, threw away the Indian poles, and rowed with all speed, meeting
+several boats laden with plantains. About midnight they arrived within
+half-a-mile of Santa Maria, and landed. The mud was so deep that they
+had to lay down their paddles and lift themselves up by the boughs of
+the trees; then cutting a way through the woods, they took up their
+lodging there for the night, hoping to surprise the Spaniards.
+
+At daybreak, to their disappointment, they were awoke by the discharge
+of a musket and the beating of a drum. The Spaniards had already
+prepared some lead for their reception, and had sent away their gold to
+Panama. Directly they emerged into the plain, the enemy ran into a large
+palisaded fort, twelve feet high, and began to fire quick and close. The
+vanguard, running up, pulled down part of the stockade and broke in and
+took them prisoners, the whole 280 men. A few English were wounded, not
+one being killed of the fifty men who led the attack. 200 other
+Spaniards were in the mines conveying away the gold, the mines there
+being the richest of the western world. Twenty-six Spaniards were
+killed in the fort and sixteen wounded, but the governor, priest, and
+chief men all escaped by flight. The town proved to be merely a few cane
+houses, built to check the Indians, who frequently rebelled. Some days
+before, three cwt. of gold had been sent in a bark to Panama, the same
+quantity being despatched twice or thrice a-year.
+
+During the fight the Indians, frightened at the whistling of the
+bullets, had hid themselves in a hollow; when all was over they entered
+the place, with great courage stabbing the prisoners with their lances,
+and putting about twenty to death in the woods, till the Buccaneers
+interfered. In the town the Indians found the eldest daughter of the
+Darien king, whom one of the garrison had carried off, and who was then
+with child by him. Rather than be left to the mercy of the Indians, this
+man offered to lead them to Panama, where they hoped to capture all the
+riches of Potosi and Peru. Sawkins in a canoe attempted in vain to
+overtake the governor and his officers, and rather than return
+empty-handed, resolved to go to Panama, to satisfy what Ringrose calls
+"their hungry appetite of gold and riches."
+
+Captain Coxen was chosen commander, and the booty and prisoners sent
+back to the ships under a guard of twelve men. The Indians, being
+rewarded with presents of needles and beads, also returned, all but the
+king. Captain Andræas, Captain Antonio, and the king's son, King Golden
+Cap (bonete d'oro), as the Spaniards called him, resolved to go on,
+desiring to see Panama sacked, and offering to aid them with a large
+body of men. The Spanish guide declared he would not only lead them into
+the town, but even to the very door of the governor of Panama's
+bed-chamber, and that they should take him by the hand, and seize him
+and the whole city, before they should be discovered by the Spaniards.
+
+After remaining two days at Santa Maria, they departed April 17th, 1680,
+for Panama.
+
+They embarked in thirty-five canoes and a piragua which they had found
+lying at anchor, rowing down the river to the gulf of Belona, where
+they would enter the South Sea and work round to Panama. At the request
+of the Indian king the fort, church, and town were all burnt. The
+Spanish prisoners, afraid of being put to death by the savages if left
+behind, collected some bark logs and leaky canoes, although the
+Buccaneers could scarcely find boats for themselves, and went with them.
+
+Ringrose and four other men were put in the heaviest and slowest canoe,
+and, getting entangled between a shoal two miles long, and obliged to
+wait for high water, the boat being too heavy to row against tide, were
+soon left behind. At night, it being again low water, they stuck up an
+oar in the river, and, in spite of a weltering rain, slept all night by
+turns in the canoe. The next morning, rowing two leagues, they overtook
+their companions filling water at an Indian hut, there being no more for
+six days' journey. Hurrying to a pond a quarter of a mile distant with
+their calabashes, they returned to their boats and found the rest again
+gone and out of sight. "Such," moralises Ringrose, "is the procedure of
+these wild men, that they care not in the least whom they lose of their
+company or leave behind. We were now more troubled in our minds than
+before, fearing lest we should fall into the same misfortune we had so
+lately overcome."
+
+They rowed after them as fast as possible, but in vain, and lost their
+way among the innumerable islands of the river's mouth; but at last,
+with much trouble and toil, hit the Bocca Chica, the desired passage.
+But though they saw the door, they could not pass through, the "young
+flood" running violently against them--although it was only a
+stone's-cast off, and not a league broad. Here, then, in despair they
+put ashore, fastening the rope to a tree, almost covered by a tide that
+flowed four fathoms deep.
+
+As soon as the tide turned, they rowed to an island about a
+league-and-a-half from the river's mouth, in the gulf of St. Miguel, in
+much danger from the waves, their boat being twenty feet long, but not
+quite a foot-and-a-half broad. Here they rested for the night, wet
+through with the continual and impetuous rain, without water to drink,
+and unable to light a fire, "for the loss of our company, and the
+dangers we were in," says Ringrose, "made it the sorrowfullest night
+that, until then, I ever experimented." None slept that tedious night,
+for a vast sea surrounded them on one side, and the mighty power of the
+Spaniards on the other. They were all without shoes, and their clothes
+were drenched through. They could see nothing but sea, mountain, and
+rock.
+
+At break of day they rowed past several islands to the Point St.
+Laurence, one man incessantly employed in baling. As they passed one of
+these islands, a huge sea overturned their boat, but they gained the
+beach, swimming for life, and the canoe came tumbling beside them. The
+arms fast lashed at the bottom of the boat, the locks cased and waxed
+down like the cartouche boxes, and powder horns, escaped uninjured, but
+the bread and fresh water were either spoiled or lost. While carefully
+wiping and cleaning their arms, for a Buccaneer's musket was as his wife
+and child to him, they saw another canoe tossed to shore, a little to
+leeward. This proved to be six of the Spanish prisoners, who had escaped
+in an old piragua which was split to pieces, the English boat, formed of
+wood, six inches thick, having escaped unhurt. A common misfortune makes
+all men friends, and the English and Spaniards sat down together and
+broiled their meat amicably at the same fire. They then held a council,
+discussing for two or three hours what course to take, and all the men
+but Ringrose were for returning and living with the Indians, if they
+could not reach the ships lying in the northern sea. With much ado,
+Ringrose prevailed on them to persist for one day longer, and, just as
+they were concluding their debate, the man on the look-out cried that he
+saw Indians. Pursued into the woods by two Buccaneers, they found that
+he was one of the expedition, and had arrived with seven others in a
+great canoe. They were glad to see them, and declared, to their joy,
+that, all in one canoe, they could overtake the boats in the course of a
+day. On seeing the Spaniards (Wankers they called them), they would
+have put them to death but for Ringrose's interposition, for his men
+stood by indifferent. They then insisted on keeping one as a slave.
+Ringrose, still fearing for their lives, gave the five Spaniards his own
+canoe, and bade them shift for their lives. Now in a large canoe, with a
+good sail, and a fresh and strong gale, they made brave way, with
+infinite joy and comfort of heart, the smooth and easy passage, and the
+pleasant, fresh ripple of the sea, filling them with hope and gladness;
+but that very evening it grew very dark, and rained heavily. Suddenly
+two fires were seen to blaze up from the opposite shore of the
+continent, and the Indians, thinking they must indicate the encampment
+of their people, shouted, "Captain Antonio, Captain Andræas," and made
+for the shore as fast as they could pull. The canoe, however, had hardly
+got amongst the breakers, before sixty Spaniards, armed with clubs,
+leaped from the woods; and, drawing the boat on land, made all the crew
+their prisoners. Ringrose seized his gun, and prepared for resistance,
+but was pulled down by four or five of the enemy. The Indians, leaping
+overboard, escaped nimbly into the woods. Ringrose spoke to his captors
+in French and English, without obtaining any answer. On addressing the
+strangers in Latin, he discovered that they were the Spanish prisoners
+from Santa Maria, who had been liberated, for fear they might escape
+when nearer Panama, and inform the city of the Buccaneers' approach. The
+Englishmen were presently taken with shouts of joy into a hut made of
+boughs, and examined by the Spanish captain, who meditated retaliating
+upon them the injuries inflicted on the town. At this critical juncture,
+the Spaniards whom Ringrose had liberated came in, and explained how
+they had been delivered from the Indians. On hearing this, the Spanish
+captain rose, and, embracing Ringrose, said, "The English were good
+people, and very friendly enemies, but the Indians very rogues, and a
+treacherous nation." He then made him sit down and eat with him, and
+consented, for the kindness he had shown his countrymen, to give him and
+all his men, and even the Indians, if they could find them, their lives
+and liberties, which otherwise would have been forfeited. Finally,
+giving them a canoe, the noble-hearted enemy bade them go in God's name,
+praying that they might be as fortunate as they had been generous. All
+that night they skirted a dangerous and iron coast, without daring to
+land.
+
+The next morning, after sailing, paddling, and rowing for a few hours,
+they saw a canoe suddenly making towards them. It was one of the English
+boats, which had mistaken them for a Spanish piragua. They at once
+conducted them to a deep bay, sheltered by rocks, where the rest lay at
+anchor. They were all delighted to see Ringrose and his men, having
+given them up as lost. They then made their way with all speed to a
+hilly island, about seven leagues distant, and surprised an old man, who
+was stationed there to watch. The road up to the hut was very steep, and
+the Buccaneers surrounded the old man, who did not see them till they
+had already entered his plantain walk. They were much encouraged by his
+declaration, that no tidings of their arrival had yet reached Panama.
+About dusk, two of their boats surprised a small bark that came and
+anchored outside the island. The crew had been absent eight days from
+the city, landing soldiers on the adjacent shore, to curb and drive back
+the Indians. The crews of the smaller canoes now crowded into this
+vessel to the number of 137 men, together with Captain Cook and Captain
+Sharp, the latter of whom Ringrose calls "a sea artist, and valiant
+commander."
+
+Next morning, rowing all day over shallow water, they chased a bark,
+which Captain Harris took after a sharp dispute, putting on board a
+prize crew of thirty men. During this pursuit the vessels scattered, and
+did not reunite till next day at the island of Chepillo, a preconcerted
+rendezvous. They again chased a bark, but with less success, and Captain
+Coxen's canoe missed the prize, owing to a breeze springing up, having
+one man killed and another wounded, and, what was worst of all, the
+vessel not only escaped, but spread the alarm at Panama. At Chepillo
+they took fourteen negro and mulatto prisoners, and secured two fat
+hogs, plenty of plantains, and some good water. Believing it useless now
+to attack Panama, the Buccaneers resolved to hurry on to the town to at
+least surprise some of the shipping. Their boats had the addition of
+another piragua, which they found lying at Chepillo. Before starting,
+the captains cruelly decided, for reasons which Ringrose could not
+fathom, to allow the Indians to murder all the Spanish prisoners before
+their eyes, the savages having long thirsted for their blood. But by a
+singular coincidence the prisoners, though without arms, forced their
+way by a sudden rush through all the Indian spears and arrows, and
+escaped unhurt into the woods, to the chagrin of both white and black
+savages.
+
+Staying only a few hours at Chepillo, the boats started at four o'clock
+in the evening, intending to reach Panama, which was only seven leagues
+distant, before the next morning. The next day (St. George's day),
+before sunrise they arrived at Panama, "a city," says Ringrose, "which
+has a very pleasant prospect seaward." They could see all the ships of
+the city lying at anchor at the island of Perico, two leagues distant,
+where storehouses had been built. There now rode at anchor five great
+ships and three smaller armadillas, (little men-of-war). This fleet,
+which had been hastily manned to defend the city, as soon as they saw
+the Buccaneers, weighed anchor, got under sail, and bore down at once
+upon them, directly before the wind, and with such velocity as to
+threaten to run them down. The Spanish admiral's vessel was manned by
+ninety Biscayans, agile seamen and stout soldiers. They were all
+volunteers, and had come out to show their valour under the command of
+Don Jacinto de Barahona, high-admiral of those seas. In the second were
+seventy-seven negroes, led by a brave old Andalusian, Don Francisco de
+Peralta. In the third, making 228 men in all, were sixty-five mulattoes,
+under Don Diego de Carabaxal. The Spaniards had strict orders given them
+to grant no quarter.
+
+To add to the disparity of numbers, only a few of the Buccaneers' boats
+were able to arrive in time. The first five canoes that came up, leaving
+the heavy piraguas still lagging behind, contained only thirty-seven
+men, and these were tired with rowing in the wind's eye, and trying to
+get close to the windward of the enemy. The lesser piragua coming up
+with thirty-two more men, made a total force of sixty Buccaneers,
+including the king of Darien, engaged in this daring resistance to an
+overwhelming force.
+
+Carabaxal's vessel, passing between Sawkins's and Ringrose's canoes,
+fired at both, wounding four men in the former and one in the latter,
+but being slow in tacking, the Spaniard paid dear for his passage, the
+first return volley killing several men upon his decks. Almost before
+they had time to reload, the admiral passed, but the Buccaneers' second
+volley quite disabled their giant antagonist, killing the man at the
+helm; and the ship ran into the wind and her sails lay aback. She fell
+now like a lamed elephant at the mercy of the hunters; the canoes,
+pulling under her stern, fired continually upon the deck, killing all
+who dared to touch the helm, and cutting asunder the mainsheet and
+mainbrace. Sawkins, whose canoe was disabled, went next into the piragua
+to meet Peralta, leaving the four canoes to harass the admiral. Between
+Sawkins and Peralta, lying alongside of each other, the fight was
+desperate, each crew trying to board, and firing as quick as they could
+load. In the mean time the first vessel tacked about and came to relieve
+the admiral, but the canoes, seeing the danger of being beaten from the
+admiral's stern and allowing him to rally, sent two of their number
+(Springer and Ringrose) to meet Peralta. The admiral stood upon his
+quarter-deck, waving his handkerchief as a signal for his captains to
+come at once to his help. The canoes pursued Peralta, and would have
+boarded him had he not given them the helm and made away.
+
+Giving a loud shout, the remaining boats wedged up the admiral's rudder
+and poured in a blinding volley, that killed the admiral and chief
+pilot. Two-thirds of the Spaniards being now killed, many wounded, and
+all disheartened at the bloody massacre of the Buccaneers' shot, cried
+for quarter, which they had been already several times offered, and at
+once surrendered. Captain Coxen then boarded the prize, taking with him
+Captain Harris, who had been shot through both legs as he was heading a
+boarding party. They put all their other wounded men on board, and,
+manning two canoes, hurried off to aid Sawkins, who had already been
+three times beaten off by Peralta.
+
+Coming close under his side and giving him a full volley, they were
+expecting a return, when suddenly a volcano of fire spouted up from the
+deck, and all the Spaniards abaft the mast were blown into the air or
+sea. While the brave captain, leaping overboard, was helping the
+drowning men in spite of the rain of shot and the pain of his own burns,
+another jar of powder blew up in the forecastle. Under cover of the
+smoke and confusion, Sawkins boarded and took the ship, or at least all
+that was left of it. Ringrose says it was a miserable sight, not a man
+but was either killed or desperately wounded, blind, or horribly burnt
+with the powder. In some cases the white wounds where the flesh had
+peeled to the bone, showed through the blackening of the powder. The
+admiral had but twenty-five men left out of eighty-six, and of these
+twenty-five only eight were now able to bear arms.
+
+The blood ran down the deck in streams, and every rope and plank was
+smeared with gore.
+
+Peralta, as prudent as he was brave, attempted by every possible
+argument, forgetful of his own wounds and the death of his men, to
+induce the Buccaneers not to attack the remaining vessels in the
+harbour. In the biggest alone he said there were 350 men, and the rest
+were well defended. But a dying sailor, lifting up his head from the
+deck, contradicted him, and said that they had not a man on board, all
+their crews being placed in the armadillas. Trusting to dying treason
+rather than living fidelity, the Buccaneers instantly proceeded to the
+island, and found the ships deserted. The largest, _La Santissima
+Trinidada_, had been set on fire, the crew, loosing her foresail, having
+pierced her bottom. The captains soon quenched the fire, and stopping
+the leak turned their prize into a floating hospital-ship. They found
+they had eighteen men killed and twenty-two wounded (only two of whom
+died) in this desperate sea battle, which began an hour after sunrise
+and ended at noon. The third vessel, it appeared, while running away had
+met with two others, but even with this reinforcement refused to fight.
+
+Their brave prisoner, Peralta, now that all was over, broke out into
+repeated praises of their courage, which was so congenial to his own. He
+said: "You Englishmen are the valiantest men in the whole world, always
+desiring to fight open, while all other nations invent all the ways
+imaginable to barricade themselves, and fight as close as possible."
+"Notwithstanding all this," adds Ringrose, "we killed more of our
+enemies than they of us." Two days after the battle the Buccaneers
+buried Captain Harris, a brave Englishman of the county of Kent, whose
+death was much lamented by the fleet.
+
+The new city of Panama, built four miles more easterly than that which
+Morgan burnt, had been three times destroyed by fire since that event. A
+few people still lived round the cathedral in the old town. The new city
+was bigger than the old one, and built chiefly of brick and stone, and
+was defended by a garrison of 300 soldiers and 1,000 militiamen. They
+afterwards learnt that the troops were then absent, and that if they had
+landed instead of attacking the fleet, they might have taken the place,
+all the best shots being on board the admiral's vessel.
+
+In the five vessels taken at Perico there was much spoil. The
+_Trinidada_ (400 tons) was laden with wine, sugar, sweetmeats, skins,
+and soap. The second, of 300 tons, partly laden with bars of iron, one
+of the richest commodities brought into the South Sea, was burnt by the
+Buccaneers, because the Spaniards would not redeem it. The third, of 180
+tons, laden with sugar, was given to Captain Cook; the fourth, an old
+vessel (60 tons), laden with meal, was burnt as useless, with all her
+cargo. The fifth, of 50 tons, with a piragua, fell to the lot of Captain
+Coxen. The two armadillas, the rigging and sails being saved, and a bark
+laden with poultry, were also burnt.
+
+Captain Coxen, indignant at charges made against him of cowardice in the
+late action, determined to rejoin the ships in the northern seas,
+together with seventy men who had assisted in his election. The Indian
+king, Don Andræas, and Don Antonio, returned with him. The king left his
+son and nephew in the care of Captain Sawkins, who was now
+commander-in-chief, and desired him not to spare the Spaniards. A few
+days after Captain Sharp returned from the King's islands, having taken
+a Spanish vessel and burnt his own. Captain Harris's crew had also taken
+a vessel, and, dismasting their own, turned their prisoners adrift in
+the hulk, and soon after taking a poultry vessel, the meanest of the
+Spaniards were treated in the same way.
+
+Having remained now ten days at Panama, the fleet steered to the island
+of Tavoga, where they found a village of 100 houses quite deserted, and
+many of these were burnt by the carelessness of a drunken sailor. The
+Panama merchants came here to sell the Buccaneers commodities and to
+purchase the plunder from their own vessels, giving 200 pieces of eight
+for every negro. Staying eight days, they captured a vessel from
+Truxillo laden with money to pay the garrison of Panama, while in the
+hold were 2,000 jars of wine and fifty jars of gunpowder. A flour vessel
+from the same place informed them that a ship was coming in a few days
+laden with 100,000 more pieces of eight.
+
+To a message from the President, who sent by some merchants to ask why
+they came into those parts, Captain Sawkins replied, that he came to
+assist the King of Darien, the true lord of the country, and he required
+a ransom of 500 pieces of eight for each sailor, and 1,000 for the
+commander. He must also promise not to molest the Indians, who were the
+natural owners of the soil. Hearing from the messengers that a certain
+priest, now bishop of Panama, formerly of Santa Martha, lay in the
+city, Sawkins, remembering that he had been his prisoner when he took
+that city five years before, sent him two loaves of sugar as a present.
+The next day the bishop replied by forwarding him a gold ring. The
+President, at the same time, sent another letter, desiring to see his
+commission, that he might know to what power to complain. Sawkins
+replied, that as yet all his men were not come together, but when they
+had met, they would come up to Panama, and bring their commissions on
+the muzzles of their guns, at which time he should read them as plain as
+the flame of gunpowder would let him.
+
+The men growing now mutinous for fresh meat, Sawkins was compelled to
+give up his hopes of capturing the rich vessel from Peru, and to sail to
+the island of Otoque, to buy fowls and hogs, losing two barks, one with
+seven, and the other with fifteen men. While lying off the pearl fishery
+of Cayboa, Sawkins and Sharp made an unfortunate attack with sixty men
+on the town of Puebla Nueva. They were piloted up the river in canoes
+by a negro prisoner. A mile below the town, great trees had been laid
+to block up the stream, and before the town three strong breastworks
+were thrown up. Sawkins, running furiously up the sloping ramparts, was
+shot dead, and his men driven back to their boats, two men being killed,
+and three wounded, in the retreat, which was made in pretty good order.
+They soon after, however, captured a vessel laden with indigo, and burnt
+two others. This Captain Sawkins, Ringrose says, was as valiant and
+courageous as any, and, next to Captain Sharp, the best beloved. His
+death was much lamented, and occasioned another overland expedition.
+Sharp, surrendering his last prize to Captain Cook, took his vessel and
+gave it to the sixty-three men who wished to return home. They led with
+them all the Indians to serve as guides overland.
+
+Before they started, Sharp, in full council on board the _Trinidada_,
+offered to insure to all who would carry out Sawkins's scheme, and go
+home by the Straits of Magellan, a £1000 profit, but none would stay.
+Ringrose himself acknowledges he should have left with them, but was
+afraid of the Indians, and the long and dangerous journey in the rainy
+season.
+
+At Cayboa, the men took in water and cut wood, killing alligators, and
+salting deer and turtle. Here two "remarkable events" happened to
+Ringrose. In the first place, he ate an oyster so large that he found it
+necessary to cut it into four large mouthfuls: secondly, as he was
+washing himself in a pond, some drops fell on him from a mançanilla
+tree, and these drops broke out into a red eruption that lasted a week.
+Here Sharp burnt one of his prizes for the sake of the iron work, and
+received Captain Cook, whose men had revolted, on board his own ship,
+making John Cox, a New Englander, commander in his stead.
+
+Sharp now determined to careen at the island of Gorgona, and then to
+proceed to Guayaquil, where Captain Juan, the captain of the Tavoga
+money ship, assured them they might throw away their silver and lade
+with gold. They selected Gorgona, because, on account of the perpetual
+rain, the Spaniards seldom touched there. The sailors, who had lost
+their money at gambling, were impatient of these delays, and declared
+that the Spaniards would now gain time, and the whole coast be alarmed,
+and on the defensive. But the richer men, wanting rest, decided for
+Gorgona.
+
+In this island, they fished their mainmast, shot at whales, killed
+monkeys, snakes, and turtle for food, being short of provision, caught a
+large sloth, and killed a serpent, fourteen inches thick, and twelve
+feet long. While moored here, Joseph Gabriel, the Chilian, who stole the
+Indian king's daughter, died of a malignant calenture. He had been very
+faithful, and discovered many plots and conspiracies among the prisoners
+of intended escapes and murders.
+
+Sharp now abandoned the design on Guayaquil, and resolved to attack
+Arica, the dépôt of all the Potosi plate. An old man who had served much
+with the Spaniards, promised them £2000 a-man.
+
+After a fortnight's sail they arrived at the island of Plate, so called
+from Drake dividing his plunder there among his men. The Spaniards had a
+tradition, that he took twelve score tons of plate in the galleon
+armada, and that each of his forty-five men had sixteen bowls full of
+coined money--his ships being so full that they were obliged to throw
+much of it overboard. In the adjoining bay of Manta, in Cromwell's time,
+a Lima vessel, laden with thirty millions of dollars, on its way as a
+present to Charles I., was lost by keeping too near the shore. While
+catching goats on this island, on which the cross of the first Spanish
+discoverer still stood, they were joined by Captain Cox, whom they had
+lost a fortnight before, as they feared, irrecoverably. They killed and
+salted on this island 100 goats in a day, and one man alone, in a few
+hours, in one small bay turned seventeen turtle. Peralta congratulated
+them on getting as far to windward in two weeks as the Spanish captains
+did in three months, from their keeping boldly so far from the shore.
+
+While passing Guayaquil, they espied a Spanish vessel and gave chase.
+Being hailed in Spanish by an Indian prisoner, to lower their topsails,
+the enemy replied they would pull down the Englishman's first, and
+answered with their arquebuses to the Buccaneers' muskets, till, one
+bullet killing the man at the helm and another cutting their maintop
+halliards, they cried out for quarter. There were thirty-five men on
+board, including twenty-four Spaniards and several persons of quality.
+The captain's brother, since the death of Don Jacinto de Barahona at
+Panama, was admiral of the armada. The Buccaneers' rigging was much cut
+during the fight, and two men were wounded, besides a sailor who was
+shot by an accident. The captain, it appears, had in a bravado sworn to
+attack their fleet if he could meet it. The Spaniard, a very "civil and
+meek gentleman," informed them that the governor of Lima, hearing of
+their visit to Panama, had collected five ships and 750 sailors; while
+two other vessels and 400 soldiers, furnished by the viceroy, were
+preparing to start. A patache with twenty-four guns was also lying at
+Callao, ready to remove the king's plate from Arica. At Guayaquil they
+had built two forts, and mustered 850 men of all colours. The same day
+the English unrigged their new prize and sank her.
+
+Reckoning up the pillage, they found they had now 3,276 pieces of eight,
+which were at once divided. The same day they punished a Spanish friar,
+who was chaplain in the last prize, and, shooting him on the deck, flung
+him overboard before he was dead. "Such cruelties," says Ringrose,
+"though I abhorred very much in my heart, yet here I was forced to hold
+my tongue and not contradict them, as having no authority to oversway
+them." The prisoners now confessed they had killed a boat full of the
+Buccaneers' men, lost near Cayboa, and had discovered from the only
+survivor the plan on Guayaquil.
+
+Captain Cox's vessel being so slow as to require towing, they sank it,
+so there were now 140 men and boys and fifty-five prisoners in one and
+the same bottom. While to the leeward of Tumbes, Peralta told them a
+legend of a priest having once landed there in the face of 10,000
+Indians, who stared at his uplifted cross. As he stepped out of his boat
+on the shore, before the water could efface his footprints, two lions
+and two tigers came out of the woods to meet him, but when he gently
+laid the cross on their backs, they fell down and worshipped it, upon
+which all the Indians came forward and were baptised.
+
+The night they passed Paita they espied a sail and gave chase, following
+it by the lights which it showed through negligence. Scantiness of
+provisions made them more eager in the pursuit, and coming up the
+Spaniard instantly lowered all her sails and surrendered. The Buccaneers
+casting dice as to who should first board, the lot fell to the larboard
+watch. The vessel contained fifty packs of cocoa, and a great deal of
+raw silk and India cloth, besides many bales of thread stockings. The
+prize being plundered and dismasted, the prisoners were turned adrift in
+it, supplied with only a foresail, some water, and a little flour. The
+chief prisoners, as Don Thomas de Argandona, commander of the Guayaquil
+vessel, and his friends Don Christoval and Don Baltazar, gentlemen of
+quality, Captain Peralta, Moreno, a pilot, and twelve slaves, to do the
+drudgery, were still kept. The next day the sailor wounded in taking the
+Guayaquil vessel, died, and was buried with ceremony, three French
+volleys being fired as the body was let down into the deep.
+
+Their next expedition was to attack Arica with 112 men, first sending
+five boats to capture some fishermen at the river of Juan Diaz, whom
+they might employ as spies.
+
+To their great chagrin they found the landing impracticable, and the
+whole coast in arms. Troops of horse covered the low hills round the
+bay, and close beneath six ships rode at anchor. Abandoning this
+project, these indefatigable marauders (more pirates than real
+Buccaneers) despatched four canoes and fifty men, to plunder the town of
+Hillo. On the shore the English were met by some horsemen, who fled
+after a few volleys. Marching to the town, they forced their way through
+a small breastwork of clay and sandbags, and took the town. Keeping good
+watch for fear of surprise, a dying Indian, wounded in the skirmish,
+told them that the townspeople had heard from Lima nine days before, and
+expected their coming. In the town they found pitch, wine, oil, and
+flour, and sixty of the ablest men were sent up the adjoining valley to
+reconnoitre. They found it beautifully planted with fig, lemon, lime,
+olive, and orange trees, and four miles up came to a sugar-mill, the
+greater part of the sugar having been removed. The Spaniards, watching
+them from the hills, rolled stones upon them, but hid themselves when a
+musket-shot was fired in retaliation. Captain Cox and a Dutch
+interpreter being despatched with a flag of truce to the Spaniards, they
+agreed to give eighty beeves as a ransom for the mill, and a message was
+despatched to Captain Sharp not to injure the drivers of the oxen when
+they came. Hearing that sixteen beeves had already arrived at the port,
+the men, contrary to Ringrose's opinion, returned to the ships laden
+with sugar, and found the whole story of the oxen's arrival a mere _ruse
+de guerre_. The Spaniards being appealed to promised the cattle should
+arrive that night, but at last declared the wind was so high they could
+not drive the herds. Enraged at this delay, the Buccaneers, who had now
+taken in water, marched 100 men up the valley, and burned the house, the
+mill, and the canes, carried off the sugar, broke the oil jars, and
+cracked the copper wheels. Near the shore they were charged by a body of
+300 horsemen, who took them by surprise, but not before they had thrown
+down the sugar and taken up their arms.
+
+Ringrose shall tell the rest: "We being in good rank and order," he
+says, "fairly proffered them battle upon the bay; but as we advanced to
+meet them, they retired and rid towards the mountains, to surround us,
+and take the rocks from us, if possibly they could. Hereupon, perceiving
+their intentions, we returned back and possessed ourselves of the said
+rocks, and also of the lower town, as the Spaniards themselves did of
+the upper town (at the distance of half-a-mile from the lower), the
+hills and the woods adjoining thereunto. The horsemen being now in
+possession of those quarters, we could perceive as far as we could see,
+more and more men resort unto them, so that their forces increased
+hourly to considerable numbers. We fired at one another as long as we
+could see, and the day would permit. But in the mean time we observed
+that several of them rid to the watch hill and looked out often to the
+seaward. This gave us occasion to fear that they had more strength and
+forces coming that way, which they expected every minute. Hereupon, lest
+we should speed worse than we had done before, we resolved to embark
+silently in the dark of the night." They carried off a great chest of
+sugar (seven pounds and a-half to each man), thirty jars of oil, and
+much fruit, wild and cultivated. From appearances next morning they
+believed the enemy had also fled in the night, as only fifty men could
+be seen. The prisoners, seeing a comet at dusk, told the Englishmen that
+many such appearances had preceded the arrival of the Buccaneers in the
+South Sea. Their brave prisoner, Captain Peralta, began at this time to
+show signs of insanity, his mind being shaken by continued hardship and
+despair at his long imprisonment.
+
+The Buccaneers next landed 100 men, hoping to take by surprise the city
+of La Serena. Here, too, they found the Spaniards vigilant, and had to
+break through 100 horsemen to reach the town, killing three officers and
+wounding four men. The town contained seven great churches and many rich
+merchants' houses surrounded by gardens. The inhabitants had fled, and
+either carried away or buried all their treasures, and a Chilian
+prisoner said the Spaniards had killed most of their negro and even
+their Chilian slaves, for fear of their revolting and joining the
+Buccaneers. A party of forty men, with a Chilian guide, searched the
+woods in vain to secure prisoners for guides. The Spaniards, sending a
+flag of truce, agreed to pay 95,000 pieces of eight as ransom for the
+town; but, not bringing it in, the place was set on fire. Taking
+advantage of an earthquake, the Spaniards opened the sluices and
+inundated the streets. Every house, Ringrose says, was separately fired
+to render the conflagration complete. Two parties were then despatched
+laden with booty to the ships, who on their way beat up an ambuscade of
+250 Spanish horse. During their absence, a daring attempt was made to
+burn their ship. The enemy hired a man who floated under the stern of
+the ship on a horse's hide, blown out like a bladder. He then stuffed
+oakum and brimstone between the keel and the stern-post, and set the
+rudder on fire. The men, alarmed at the smoke, ran up and down, not
+knowing where the fire could be, and believing the prisoners had done it
+in order to escape. The source of the evil was at last discovered, and
+the flames extinguished. The Buccaneers, before sailing, released all
+their prisoners, not knowing what to do with them, and fearing that they
+would revolt or perhaps try to burn the ship.
+
+On reaching the island of Juan Fernandez, they solemnized the festival
+of Christmas by discharging three volleys of shot, and killing sixty
+goats in one day. The shore was covered so thick with seals that they
+were obliged to shoot a few in order to land. They then filled 200
+water-jars, and were nearly lost in a place called "False Wild Harbour,"
+where they killed several sea-lions. Their beds they made of fern. It
+was on this island, their pilot told them, a deserted sailor (Alexander
+Selkirk) had lived five years.
+
+The men now in the midst of storms and dangers, were all in a mutiny.
+Some were for going back to England or the plantations, and returning by
+the straits of Magellan; others for continuing longer in those seas. All
+agreed to depose Captain Sharp and elect John Watling, an old privateer,
+"and a stout seaman." The next Sunday was the first, says Ringrose, that
+had been kept by common consent since the death of Sawkins, who would
+throw the dice overboard if he found any in use on that day.
+
+Juan Fernandez abounded in cabbage palms and building timber. The fish
+swarmed in such quantities that they could be caught with the bare hook,
+one sailor in a few hours capturing enough for the whole crew. Shoals a
+mile long were seen in the bay. While busily employed in catching fish,
+shooting goats, and cutting timber, the hunters suddenly gave the alarm
+of three Spanish men-of-war approaching the island, and, slipping their
+cables, the Buccaneers put out hurriedly to sea. In the confusion,
+William, a Mosquito Indian, who could not be found at the time, was left
+behind to endure the hardships that a few days before he may have heard
+the pilot relate as experienced by the celebrated Alexander Selkirk (the
+prototype of Robinson Crusoe).
+
+The three Spanish vessels proved to be the _El Santo Christo_, of 800
+tons, carrying twelve guns; the _San Francisco_, of 600 tons, with ten
+guns; and a third of 350 tons. As soon as they came in sight, they hung
+out "bloody flags;" and the Buccaneers, nothing daunted, did the same.
+The English, keeping close under the wind, were very unwilling to fight,
+as the Spaniards held together, and their new commander, Watling, showed
+a faint heart. The trio eventually sheered off, glad to escape
+uninjured.
+
+Determining to pay a second visit to Arica, twenty-five men and two
+canoes were despatched to obtain guides from the island of Yqueque. On
+the shore of the mainland they found a hut built of whales' bones, a
+cross, and some broken jars.
+
+They brought away from the island, which they could not at first
+discover, two old white men and two Indians. The people of Arica, they
+found, came to this place to buy clay, and the natives were obliged to
+fetch all the water they used from the mainland. The Indians wore no
+clothes, and chewed leaves which dyed their teeth green. One of the old
+prisoners being examined was shot to death by order of the commander,
+who believed him to be lying, although, as it afterwards appeared, he
+told nothing but the truth. Sharp was troubled and dissatisfied at this
+cruel and rash order, and, taking water and washing his hands, he said,
+"Gentlemen, I am clear of the blood of this old man, and will warrant
+you a hot day for this piece of cruelty whenever we come to fight at
+Arica." The other prisoner said that he was the superintendent of fifty
+slaves belonging to the governor of the town. These slaves caught fish
+and sold them when dried in the inland towns. There were then three
+Chilian ships and a bark in the harbour, and a fortification of twelve
+guns in the town. The people had already, he said, heard from Coquimbo
+of their arrival, and removed and buried their treasure. There were
+also, they heard, breast-works round the town, and barricades in every
+street.
+
+Disregarding these warnings, the Buccaneers embarked next day in a
+launch and four canoes, rowing and sailing all night, in hopes of
+surprising Arica. At daybreak they hid themselves under the cliffs for
+fear of being seen, and at night began again to row. On Sunday (Jan.
+30), 1680--"sacred to the memory of King Charles the Martyr"--they
+landed among some rocks four miles to the south of the town, ninety-two
+men going on shore, the rest staying to defend the boats. The signal
+agreed on was, that at one smoke, they should come up to the harbour in
+one canoe; but if there were two smokes, they should "bring all away,
+leaving only fifteen men with the boats." Mounting a steep hill, they
+could see no Spaniards, and hoped that the surprise was complete; but as
+they were descending the other side, three horsemen on the look-out hill
+rode down at full speed and alarmed the city. The forty men who attacked
+the fort with hand grenades, seeing their companions overpowered, ran
+down into the valley to join them. "Here the battle was very desperate,
+and they killed and wounded two more of our men from their outworks
+before we could gain upon them. But our rage increasing with our wounds,
+we still advanced, and at last beat the enemy out of all, and filled
+every street in the city with dead bodies. The enemy made several
+retreats from one breast-work to another, but, we had not a sufficient
+number of men to man all places taken. Insomuch, that we had no sooner
+beat them out of one place but they came another way, and manned it
+again with new forces and fresh men." So says Ringrose.
+
+Imprudently overburdening themselves with prisoners, they found there
+were in the place 400 soldiers from Lima, 200 armed townsmen, and 300
+men garrisoning the fort. Being now nearly masters of the place, the
+English sent to demand the surrender of the fort, and, receiving no
+answer, advanced to the attack. Several times repulsed, the Buccaneers
+at last mounted the top of a neighbouring house and fired down into the
+castle; but, being again surrounded by the enemy, they were obliged to
+desist. The number and vigour of the enemy increased hourly, and, almost
+overpowered, the English were compelled to retreat to the hospital where
+the surgeons were tending the wounded. Captain Watling and both
+quartermasters were killed, and many were disabled. We will let Ringrose
+tell the rest:--
+
+"So that now, the enemy rallying against us, and beating us from place
+to place, we were in a very distracted condition, and in more likelihood
+to perish, every man, than escape the bloodshed of that day. Now we
+found the words of Captain Sharp true, being all very sensible that we
+had a day too hot for us, after that cruel heat in killing and
+murdering in cold blood the old Mestizo Indian.
+
+"Being surrounded with difficulties on all sides, and in great disorder,
+having nobody to give orders, what was to be done? We were glad to have
+our eyes upon our good old commander, Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and beg
+of him very earnestly to commiserate our condition, and carry us off. It
+was a great while before he would take any notice of our request, so
+much was he displeased with the former mutiny of our people against him,
+all which had been occasioned by the instigation of Mr. Cook.
+
+"But Mr. Sharp is a man of an undaunted courage, and excellent conduct,
+not fearing in the least to look an insulting enemy in the face, and a
+person that knows both the theory and practice of navigation as well as
+most do. Hereupon, at our earnest request and petition, he took upon him
+the command in chief again, and began to distribute his orders for our
+safety. He would have brought off our surgeons, but they, having been
+drinking while we assaulted the fort, would not come with us when they
+were called. They killed and took of our number twenty-eight men,
+besides eighteen that we brought off, who were desperately wounded. At
+that time we were all extremely faint for want of water and victuals,
+whereof we had none all that day. We were likewise almost choked with
+the dust of the town, being so much raised by the work that their guns
+had made, that we could scarce see each other. They beat us out of the
+town, then followed us into the savannahs, still charging as fast as
+they could. But when they saw that we rallied, again resolving to die
+one by another, they ran from us into the town, and sheltered themselves
+under their breast-works. Thus we retreated in as good order as we
+possibly could observe in that confusion. But their horsemen followed us
+as we retired, and fired at us all the way, though they would not come
+within reach of our guns, for theirs reached further than ours, and
+outshot us above one-third. We took the sea-side for our greater
+security, which when the enemy saw, they betook themselves to the
+hills, rolling down great stones and whole rocks to destroy us.
+Meanwhile, those of the town examined our surgeons, and other men whom
+they had made prisoners. These gave them our signs that we had left to
+our boats that were behind us, so that they immediately blew up two
+fires, which were perceived by the canoes. This was the greatest of our
+dangers; for had we not come at that instant that we did to the
+sea-side, our boats had been gone, they being already under sail, and we
+had inevitably perished every man. Thus we put off from the shore, and
+got on board about ten at night, having been involved in a bloody fight
+with the enemy all the day."
+
+The Buccaneers, thus cruelly baffled, plied for some time outside the
+port, hoping to be revenged on the three ships, but they did not venture
+out. Arica Ringrose describes as a square place, with the castle at one
+corner. The houses were only eleven feet high, and built of earth. It
+was the place of embarkation for all minerals sent to Lima. Of the
+English prisoners, only ten survived. The Spaniards lost more than
+seventy men, three times as many being wounded, and of forty-five allies
+from Hillo only two returned alive.
+
+On dividing the plate, they found only thirty-seven pieces of eight fell
+to each man. Landing at Guasco, they took in 500 jars of water, and
+carried off 120 sheep, 80 goats, and 200 bushels of flour. At Hillo they
+surprised the townsmen asleep, and heard a false report that 5000
+Englishmen had taken Panama. They carried off eighteen jars of wine and
+some new figs, and, ascending to the sugar-work they had before visited,
+laded seven mules with molasses and sugar. The townsmen told them, that
+the owner of the mill had brought an action against them for having done
+him more injury than the Buccaneers.
+
+A few days after this another mutiny broke out, and forty-seven men,
+refusing to serve any longer under Captain Sharp, landed near the island
+of Plate, with five Indian slaves to serve as guides. Near the island
+of Chica they captured two Spanish vessels, one of them the very ship
+they had captured before at Panama. They heard here that some of their
+overland parties had taken a good ship at Porto Bello. Capturing some
+Spanish shipwrights at this place, they employed them for a fortnight in
+altering their vessel, and then set them at liberty, with some others of
+their prisoners, giving them one of their prizes, and manning the other
+with six men and two slaves.
+
+They now agreed in council to bear up for Golfo Dolce, there to careen
+their vessels, and then to cruise about under the equinoctial. They
+landed in Golfo Dolce, and, treating kindly some Indians whom they took
+prisoners, bought honey and plantains of them. Here they learned that
+the Spaniards, having treacherously captured forty Darien chiefs, had
+forced the natives into a peace. Having careened here, they soon after
+captured a rich prize, the _San Pedro_, bound from Truxillo to Panama,
+deeply laden with 37,000 pieces of eight, in chest and bags, besides
+plate. This was the same vessel they had taken the year before, and it
+was now their prize a second time in fourteen months. The crew consisted
+of forty men, besides friars and merchants. Taking out part of her
+lading of cocoa, they cut down her masts and turned her adrift with all
+the old slaves, as "_a reward for good service_," taking new ones from
+the prize. Francisco, a negro, who had attempted to escape by swimming
+on shore in the Golfo Dolce, they retained as a prisoner, as a
+punishment for his insubordination. From this prize each Buccaneer
+received 234 pieces of eight, much being left for a future division.
+They learnt from this vessel that a new Viceroy of Peru, arrived at
+Panama, had not dared to venture to Lima in his ship of twenty-five
+guns, but had waited for the armada as a convoy. A few days later, they
+captured the packet that ran between Lima and Panama. A friar and five
+negroes escaped on shore, but two white women were captured. Rummaging
+the boat, they found nothing of value but a letter announcing the
+departure of the viceroy with four ships. The prisoners and the boat
+were then released. "That week," says Ringrose, "we stood out to sea
+all night long, most of our men being fuddled."
+
+The next day they captured a Spanish vessel that had at first frightened
+them by its size. The volleys of the Buccaneers soon drove the Spaniards
+into the hold and made them cry for quarter, having killed the captain
+at the first fire, and wounded the boatswain. Captain Sharp and twelve
+others were the first to board. She proved to be _El Santo Rosario_,
+commanded by Don Diego Lopez, bound from Callao to Panama. The crew were
+forty in number. She was deeply laden with plate and coined money, and
+carried 620 jars of wine and brandy. At Cape Passao Sharp sank the bark
+taken at Nicoya, preserving her rigging, and disabling the last prize
+set the prisoners adrift in it, keeping only the one man, named
+Francisco, who had described himself as the best pilot in those seas.
+They then divided the booty, which came to ninety-four pieces of eight a
+man. From these prisoners they learned that their men taken at Arica had
+been kindly treated at Callao. Of the last party that one had been
+captured, and the rest had had to fight their way overland through
+Indians and Spaniards. Ten Buccaneers were also announced as about to
+enter the South Sea. In August they landed again to kill goats on the
+island of Plate, where Ringrose and James Chappel, a quartermaster,
+fought a duel on shore, with what result we do not know. The same
+evening a conspiracy of the slaves was detected, in which they had
+plotted to slay all their masters when in drink, not sparing any. The
+ringleader, San Jago, a prisoner from Yqueque, leaped overboard when the
+plot was discovered, and was shot by the captain. The rest, being
+terrified at his death, were forgiven, and the same night the usual
+debauch took place in spite of the danger. From their pilot they heard
+that a Lima vessel bound for Guayaquil had run ashore lately on Santa
+Clara, losing 100,000 pieces of eight, that would have been their prize.
+They heard also that the Viceroy of Peru had beheaded the great Admiral
+Ponce for not destroying the Buccaneer fleet while at Gorgona.
+
+They next made a descent on Paita, but found the place garrisoned by
+three companies horse and foot, well armed, from Puira, twelve leagues
+up the country. 150 musketeers and 400 lancers occupied a hill and a
+breast-work, and fired upon the canoes. Had they suffered them to land
+they might have killed them to a man. Finding the whole coast now
+alarmed, they bore at once away for the Straits of Magellan. Touching at
+some unknown islands, they were almost inclined to winter there. Here
+they shot geese, made broth of limpets, and one of the boats captured an
+Indian and shot another dead. The prisoner was clad in a seal's skin,
+and carried a net to catch penguins. He was so strong as to be able to
+open mussels with his fingers, and they kept him as a slave, and called
+him Orson. They then proceeded to divide eight chests of money still
+unallotted, and each man received 322 pieces of eight. On December 7th
+Captain Sharp received intelligence of a conspiracy to shoot him during
+the ensuing festivities of Christmas-day. The only precaution he took
+was at once to divide all the wine in store, believing that no sober man
+would attempt so dastardly an act. Each mess received three jars. The
+cold grew now so intense that several of the negro slaves had their feet
+mortify, and some died. Christmas-day was celebrated by killing a fat
+sow, this being the first flesh the men had eaten since they left the
+island of Plata. By January 16th the days grew very hot again, and the
+nights cool and dewy. The men, weary of the voyage, offered a piece of
+eight "each man" to him who first discovered land. The sight of birds
+soon indicated this, and January 28th the look-out spied Barbadoes; but
+hearing of peace they dared not put in for fear of being seized, and
+therefore steered for Antigua, much afraid of frigates, and shunning
+even a Bristol interloper that lay in the offing. Ringrose says: "Here I
+cannot easily express the infinite joy we were possessed with all this
+day, to see our own countrymen again." They then freed a negro
+shoemaker, whom they had kept as a prisoner, and who had been very
+serviceable during the voyage. To Captain Sharp the men gave a mulatto
+boy as slave, for a token of the respect of his whole company to him for
+having led them safely through so many dangerous adventures. They then
+divided the last parcels of money, and received twenty-four pieces of
+eight a man. A little Spanish shock dog, taken from a prize, was also
+sold at the mast by public outcry, for forty pieces of eight, the owner
+promising all he gained should be devoted to a general feast. Captain
+Sharp bought the dog, saying he would eat it if they did not soon get
+leave to land. 100 pieces of eight was also added to the store, the
+boatswain, carpenter, and quartermaster having quarrelled about the last
+dividend.
+
+On reaching Antigua Sharp sent a canoe ashore to buy tobacco and other
+necessaries, and to ask leave of the governor to land. The conclusion of
+Ringrose's book tells the rest: "The gentry of the place and common
+people were very willing and desirous to receive us, but on Wednesday,
+February 1st, the governor flatly refused us entry, at which all the
+gentry were much troubled, showing themselves very kind to us; hereupon
+we agreed among ourselves to give the ship to those of our company who
+had no money left them of all their purchase in this voyage, having lost
+it at play, and then put ourselves on board two ships bound for England.
+So I myself and thirteen more of our company went on board Captain
+Robert Porteen's ship called the _Lisbon Merchant_, set sail from La
+Antigua February 11th, and landed in England March 26th, anno 1682."
+
+On his arrival in England Captain Sharp was tried for piracy and
+acquitted. He at once resolved to return to the West Indies, but all the
+merchant ships refused to carry him, afraid he would tempt their men to
+revolt against their master, and run away with the ship for a privateer,
+as he had done before. No promises or entreaties could avail, and he
+seemed doomed to remain a prisoner in an island for which he entertained
+no filial affection.
+
+He therefore hit upon a desperate scheme, worthy of such a man.
+Collecting a little money he bought an old, half-rotten boat, lying near
+London-bridge, for £20, and embarked with sixteen desperadoes equally
+fearless as himself, carrying a supply of butter and cheese, and two
+dozen pieces of salt beef. He sailed down the river and reached the
+Downs, and there he boarded and captured a French vessel and sank his
+boat. By a foray on Romney Marsh he supplied himself with cattle, and
+sailed away like a bold Buccaneer as he was, to die no one knows where.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.
+
+    Leaves Captain Sharp--Land march over the Isthmus--Joins Captain
+    Wright--Wreck of the French fleet--Returns to England--Second voyage
+    with Captain Cook--Guinea coast--Juan Fernandez--Takes
+    Ampalla--Takes Paita--Dampier's scheme of seizing the mines--Attacks
+    Manilla galleon--Captain Swan--Death unknown. Van Horn--Captures
+    galleons--Takes Vera Cruz--Killed in a duel by Le Graff.
+
+
+Dampier, one of the wisest and best of English travellers, was himself a
+Buccaneer. Son of a Somersetshire farmer, he went early to sea, and
+became a freebooter without much compunction, just at the time when the
+brothers of the coast were sinking into mere pirates. "No peace beyond
+the line" was their early motto; "Friends to God and enemies to all
+mankind," was the later. The flag, once reddened by the Spaniards'
+blood, grew now black with the shadows of death and of the grave.
+
+Dampier was among those who left Captain Sharp after the dreadful
+repulse from Arica. His party consisted of forty-four Englishmen and two
+Mosquito Indians, who determined to re-cross the Isthmus of Darien, and
+return to the North Pacific Ocean. They carried with them a large
+quantity of flour and chocolate mixed with sugar, and took a mutual and
+terrible oath, that if any of their number sank from fatigue, he should
+be shot by his comrades, rather than allow him to fall into the hands of
+the Spaniards, who would not only torture him horribly, but compel him
+to betray his companions.
+
+In a fortnight after leaving the vessels they landed at the mouth of a
+river in the Bay of St. Michael, where unloading their provisions and
+arms they sank their boats; and while preparing for the inland journey,
+the Indians caught fish, and built huts for them to sleep in. The next
+day they struck into an Indian path and reached a village, but found,
+to their alarm, that the Spaniards had placed armed ships at the mouths
+of all the navigable rivers to intercept them on their return. Hiring an
+Indian guide, they reached the day after a native house, but the savage
+would neither give them food nor information. At any other time the
+Buccaneers would have at once put him on the rack, or hung him at his
+own door, but they felt this was no place to be angry, for their lives
+lay in the enemy's hands. Neither dollars, hatchets, nor knives, would
+move this stubborn man, till a sailor pulled a sky blue petticoat from
+his bag and threw it over the head of the Indian's wife. Delighted with
+the gift, she coaxed her husband till he gave them information and found
+a guide. It had rained hard for two days, the country was difficult and
+fatiguing, and there was no path that even an Indian eye could discover.
+They guided themselves by day by the rivers, and at night by the stars.
+They had frequently to ford the rivers twenty or thirty times in twelve
+hours. Rain, cold, fatigue, and hunger made them forget even the
+Spaniards.
+
+In a few days they reached the house of a young Spanish Indian, who had
+lived with the bishop of Panama, and who received them kindly. Here,
+while resting to dry their arms and powder, their surgeon, Mr. Wafer,
+had his knee burnt by an accidental explosion. After dragging himself
+along with pain for another day, he determined to remain behind with two
+or three more. He stayed five months with the Indians, and the published
+account of his experiences still exists.
+
+The rainy season that frightened Mr. Ringrose had now set in, and the
+thunder and lightning was frequent and violent. The valleys and river
+banks were overflowed, and the Buccaneers had to sleep in trees or under
+their shade, instead of building warm and sheltering huts. In the very
+height of their misery, the slaves fled and carried away all they could.
+Dampier, whose only anxiety was to preserve his journal, placed it in a
+bamboo, closed at both ends with wax. In fording one of the rivers, a
+Buccaneer, who carried 300 dollars on his back, was swept down the
+stream and drowned, but the survivors were too hopeless and weary to
+look for either body or gold.
+
+In eighteen days the English reached the river Concepcion, and,
+obtaining Indian canoes, rowed to Le Sound's Key, one of the Samballas
+islands, where Buccaneers rendezvoused. Here they embarked on board a
+French privateer, commanded by Captain Tristian, dismissing their Indian
+guides with presents of money, beads, and hatchets. At Springer's Key,
+Tristian joined them with other vessels, and would have attacked Panama
+had not Dampier and his men deterred them. For a week the council
+deliberated about the available towns worth plundering from Trinidad to
+Vera Cruz. The French and English could not agree, but at last all
+sailed for Carpenter's River, touching at the isle of St. Andreas. The
+ships separated in a gale; and Dampier taking a dislike to his French
+commander, induced Captain Wright, an Englishman, to fit out a small
+vessel and cruise for provisions along the coast. While the sailors
+shot pecary, deer, parrots, pigeons, monkeys, and cuvassow birds, their
+Mosquito Indians struck turtle for their use.
+
+On returning to Le Sound's Key they were joined by Mr. Wafer, who had
+escaped from the Darien Indians, but he was so painted and bedizened
+that it was some time before they could recognize him. An Indian chief
+had offered him his daughter in marriage, and he had only got away by
+pretending to go in search of English dogs for hunting. Passing
+Carthagena, they cast wistful eyes at the convent dedicated to the
+Virgin, situated on a steep hill behind the town. There was immense
+wealth hoarded in this place, rich offerings being frequently made to
+it, and many miracles worked by our Lady. Any misfortune that befel the
+Buccaneer was attributed to this Lady's doing, and the Spaniards
+reported that she was abroad that night the _Oxford_ man-of-war blew up
+at the isle of Vaca, and that she came home all wet, and with clothes
+soiled and torn.
+
+Captain Wright's company pillaged several small places about the Rio de
+la Hache and the Rancherias pearl fisheries, and captured, after a
+smart engagement, an armed ship of twelve guns and forty men, laden with
+sugar, tobacco, and marmalade, bound to Carthagena from Santiago, in
+Cuba. The Dutch governor of Curaçoa, having much trade with the
+Spaniards, would not openly buy the cargo, but offered, if it was sent
+among the Danes of St. Thomas, to purchase it through his agents. The
+rovers, declining this, sold it at another Dutch colony, and then sailed
+for the isle of Aves, so called from the quantity of boobies and
+men-of-war birds. On a coral reef, near this island, Count d'Estrees had
+shortly before lost the whole French fleet. He himself had first run
+ashore, and firing guns to warn the rest of the danger, they hurried on
+to the same shoal, thinking, in the darkness, that he had been attacked
+by the enemy. The ships held together till the next day, and many men
+were saved. The ordinary seamen died of hunger and fatigue, but the
+Buccaneers, hardier, and accustomed to frequent wrecks, made the escape
+an excuse for revel and debauchery. As Dampier says, they, "being used
+to such accidents, lived merrily, and if they had gone to Jamaica with
+£30 in their pockets, could not have enjoyed themselves more; for they
+kept a gang by themselves and watched when the ships broke up, to get
+the goods that came out of them, and, though much was staved against the
+rocks, yet abundance of wine and brandy floated over the reef where they
+waited to take it up." * * "There were about forty Frenchmen on board
+one of the ships, in which was good store of liquor, till the after part
+of her broke, and floated over the reef and was carried away to sea,
+with all the men drinking and singing, who, being in drink, did not mind
+the danger, but were never heard of afterwards."
+
+This wreck having left the Bird Island a storehouse of masts and spars,
+the Buccaneer vessels had begun to repair thither to careen and refit.
+Among others, a Captain Pan, a Frenchman, had been there. A Dutch vessel
+of twenty guns, despatched from Curaçoa to fish up the sunken cannon,
+observing the privateer, resolved to capture him before he began his
+diving. Pan, afraid of the Dutchman's superior force, abandoned his
+vessel, and, landing his guns, prepared to throw up a redoubt. While
+thus engaged, a Dutch sloop entered the road, and at night anchored at
+the opposite end of the island. In the night, Pan, with two canoes,
+boarded the ship, and made off, leaving his empty hulk for the Dutch
+man-of-war.
+
+At this island, Dampier's men careened their largest vessel, scrubbed
+the sugar prize, and recovered two guns from the wreck. At the island of
+Rocas, a Knight of Malta, captain of a French thirty-six gun ship,
+bought ten tons of their sugar. Failing to sell any more sugar at Petit
+Guaves, they sailed for Blanco, an uninhabited island, full of
+lignum-vitæ trees, and teeming with iguanas, that were to be found in
+the swamps, among the bushes, or in the trees. Their eggs were eaten by
+the Buccaneers, who made soup of the flesh for their sick.
+
+While cruising on the Caraccas coast, they landed in some of the bays,
+and took seven or eight tons of cocoa, and three barks laden with
+hides, brandy, earthenware, and European goods. Returning to the Rocas,
+they divided the spoil, and Dampier and nineteen others embarking in one
+of the prizes, reached Virginia July 1682.
+
+Dampier's next voyage was with a Creole, named Cook, who arrived at
+Virginia with a French vessel he had captured by a trick at Petit
+Guaves. He had been quartermaster, or second in command, under a French
+Flibustier named Gandy. By the usual Buccaneer law, he had been made
+captain of a large Spanish prize. The French commanders in the same
+fleet, jealous of this promotion, seized the ship, plundered the English
+prize crew, and sent them ashore. Tristan, another French captain, took
+ten of them with him to Petit Guaves. Cook and his nine companions,
+taking advantage of a day when Tristan and many of his men were absent,
+overpowered the rest of the crew, sent them ashore, and sailed to the
+Isle à la Vache. Here he picked up a crew of English Buccaneers, and
+steered for Virginia, taking two prizes by the way, one of which was a
+French vessel, laden with wines. He then sold his wine and two of the
+ships, and equipped the largest, the _Revenge_, with eighteen guns.
+Amongst the crew were Dampier, Wafer, and Cowley, all of whom have
+written narratives of their voyages. They sailed from the Chesapeak on
+the 23rd of August 1683, and captured a Dutch vessel, laden with wine
+and provisions. At the Cape de Verd islands they encountered a dreadful
+storm, that lasted a week. While the ship scudded before wind and sea
+under bare poles, she was suddenly broached to by order of the master,
+and would have foundered but for Dampier and another man who, going
+aloft and spreading out the flaps of their coats, righted the ship. At
+the isle of Sal, the sailors feasted on flamingo tongues. These birds
+stood in ranks round the feeding ponds, so as to resemble a new brick
+wall. They purchased here some ambergris, which Dampier says he had in a
+lump of 100 lbs. weight. Its origin was at that time unknown; it is now
+believed to be a secretion of the whale. The governor and his court at
+this island rejoiced in rags, their revenues being small, and drawn
+principally from the salt ponds, from which the island derives its name.
+Having dug wells, watered, and careened, they went to Mayo to obtain
+provisions, but were not allowed to land, as only about a week before
+Captain Bond, a pirate of Bristol, had carried off the governor and some
+of his people.
+
+Steering to the Straits of Magellan, they were driven to the Guinea
+coast, and there captured a Danish ship by a stratagem. Captain Cook,
+concealing his men under deck, approached the Dane like a weak, unarmed
+merchant vessel. When quite close, he commanded in a loud voice the helm
+to be put one way, while by a preconcerted plan the steersman shifted
+into another, and fell on board the Dane, which was captured with the
+loss of only five men. She was double their size, carried thirty-six
+guns, and was equipped and victualled for a long voyage.
+
+This vessel they called _The Bachelor's Delight_, and they at once
+burned the _Revenge_, that she might "tell no tales."
+
+During frequent tornadoes near the straits, being short of fresh meat,
+the sailors caught sharks during the calms, and boiling their flesh,
+stewed it with pepper and vinegar. When they reached the Falkland, or
+Sebald de Weist islands, as they were then called, Dampier proposed to
+the captain to reach Juan Fernandez by Cape Horn, avoiding the straits.
+Their men being privateers, wilful, and not much in command, he feared
+would not give sufficient attention in a passage so difficult, and,
+though he owns they were more than usually obedient, he says he could
+not expect to find them at an instant's call in critical moments. At
+these islands they found the sea for a mile round red with shoals of
+small, scarlet-shelled lobsters. Dampier's advice was not taken, but on
+entering the South Sea they met the _Nicholas_, of London, a vessel
+fitted out ostensibly as a trader, but being in reality a Buccaneer. The
+captain came on board, related his adventures, and gave them a supply of
+bread and beef. They reached Juan Fernandez together, and heard from the
+_Nicholas_ of a vessel from London, called the _Cygnet_, commanded by
+Captain Swan, which was sailing in those latitudes. It was a trader,
+holding a licence from the Duke of York, then High Admiral of England.
+
+The crews discovered on the island the Mosquito Indian left behind by
+Captain Watling, in Lussan's expedition, because he was hunting goats
+when the vessel sailed. He was warmly greeted by Dampier, a
+fellow-countryman named Robin, and some old messmates. Robin, running up
+to him, fell flat on his face at his feet, and then rose and embraced
+him. They found he had killed three goats, and prepared some cabbage
+palms, to feast his visitors. The interview, writes Dampier, was tender,
+solemn, and affecting. When abandoned, William had nothing with him but
+his gun and a knife, some powder, and some shot. By notching his knife
+into a saw, he cut his gun barrel into pieces. These he hammered in the
+fire, and ground them into lances, harpoons, hooks, and knives. He
+hunted goats, fished, and killed seals. His clothes he made of skins,
+and with these also he had lined his hut; and he had contrived to elude
+the search of the Spaniards. Wild goats, originally brought by the
+Spaniard, abounded on the hills and in the grassy valleys. There was
+abundance of water and good timber, and the bays abounded with seals and
+sea-lions, that covered the sea for a mile.
+
+Remaining here sixteen days, for the sake of the sick and those ill with
+the scurvy, and getting in water and provision, Cook then steered for
+the American coast, standing out fourteen or fifteen leagues to escape
+the notice of the Spaniard. The ridges were blue and mountainous. They
+soon captured a timber ship from Guayaquil laden with timber for Lima,
+from whose crew they heard that their arrival was known. They anchored
+next at the sandy islet of Lobos de la Mar, and scrubbed their ships.
+Captain Eaton, of the _Nicholas_, proposing to march with them in their
+descents, and the two vessels mustering 108 able men, Cook soon took
+another prize, and Eaton two more, which he pursued. They were laden
+with flour from Lima for Panama, and in one of them was eight tons of
+quince marmalade. The prisoners informed them that, on the rumour of
+their approach, 800,000 pieces of eight had been landed at an
+intermediate port. They sailed next to the Galapagos islands, abandoning
+a design on Truxillo, which they heard had been lately fortified. On
+these rocky, barren shores they feasted on turtle, pigeons, fish, and
+the leaves of the mammee tree. Off Cape Blanco, Captain Cook died, and
+was buried on land.
+
+Capturing some Spanish Indians who had been sent as spies by the
+Governor of Panama, they used them as guides, and landed on the coast in
+search of cattle. Here a few of the men were surprised by fifty armed
+Spaniards, and their boat burned. The sailors thus imperilled waded out
+neck deep to an insulated rock near the shore, and remained there for
+seven hours exposed to the Spanish bullets, till they were taken off by
+a boat from their ship just as the tide was rising to devour them. The
+Spanish, lurking in ambush, made no attempt to resist the rescue.
+
+The quartermaster, Edward Davis, was now elected commander; and after
+cutting lancewood for the handles of their oars, they bore away for Ria
+Lexa, steering for a high volcano that rises above the town and the
+island that forms the harbour. But here, too, the Spaniards had thrown
+up breast-works and placed sentinels, and the Buccaneers sailed for the
+Gulf of Ampalla and the island of Mangera. Davis captured the padre of a
+village and two Indian boys, and, proceeding to Ampalla, informed the
+people that he commanded a Biscay ship, sent by the King of Spain to
+clear those seas of pirates, and that he had come there to careen. The
+sailors were well received, and entertained with feasts and music, and
+they all repaired together to celebrate a festival by torchlight in the
+church. Here Davis hoped to cage them till he could dictate a ransom,
+but the impatience of one of his men frustrated the plan. Pushing in a
+lingering Indian, the man spread an alarm, the people all fled, and the
+Buccaneers, firing, killed one of their chiefs. They remained, however,
+good friends, and these very Indians soon after helped to store the
+ship with cattle belonging to a nunnery, situated on an island in the
+gulf. On leaving, Davis gave them one of his prize ships, and a quantity
+of flour, and released the priest who had helped him in his first
+stratagem.
+
+The crews now quarrelled, and Davis, who claimed the largest share of
+the common plunder, left them, taking Dampier with him. Eaton touched at
+Cocos island, purchased a store of flour, and took in water and cocoa
+nuts. Davis landed at Manta, a village near Cape St. Lorenzo, and
+captured two old women, in order to obtain information. They learnt that
+many Buccaneers had lately crossed the isthmus, and were coming along
+the coast in canoes and piraguas. The viceroy had left no means untried
+to check them; the goats on the uninhabited islands had been destroyed,
+provisions were removed from the shore, and ships even burnt to save
+them from the enemy. At La Plata, Davis was joined by Captain Swan in
+the _Cygnet_, who had turned freebooter in self-defence. He had been
+joined by Peter Harris, who commanded a small bark, and was nephew of
+the Buccaneer commander killed in a sea-fight at Panama three years
+before. They now sent for Eaton, but found from a letter at the
+rendezvous at Lobos, that he had already sailed for the East Indies.
+While the ships were refitting at La Plata, a small bark taken by Davis,
+after the Spaniards had set it on fire, captured a Spaniard of 400 tons,
+laden with timber, and brought word that the viceroy was fitting out ten
+frigates to sweep them from the seas. Captain Swan, at this crisis,
+turned wholly freebooter, and cleared his ship of goods by selling them
+to every Buccaneer on credit. The bulky bales he threw overboard, the
+silks and muslins he kept, and retained the iron bars for ballast. In
+compensation for these sacrifices, the Buccaneers agreed to set aside
+ten shares of all booty for Captain Swan's owners.
+
+Having cleaned the vessels and fitted up a fire-ship, the squadron
+landed at Paita, but found it deserted. Anchoring off the place, they
+demanded as ransom 300 pecks of flour, 3000 pounds of sugar,
+twenty-five jars of wine, and 1000 of water, and having coasted six days
+and obtained nothing, they burnt the town in revenge, and sailed away.
+They found afterwards that Eaton had been there not long before, landed
+his prisoners, and burnt a ship in the road. Burning Harris's vessel,
+which proved unseaworthy, the squadron steered for the island of Lobos
+del Tierra, and, being short of food, took in a supply of seals,
+penguins, and boobies, their Mosquito men supplying them with turtle,
+while the ships were cleaned and provided with firewood, preparatory to
+a descent upon Guayaquil. Embarking in their canoes, they captured in
+the bay a small ship laden with Quito cloth and two vessels full of
+negroes. One of these they dismasted, and a few only of the slaves they
+took with them. From disagreement between the two crews, the expedition
+failed. Having lain in the woods all night, and cut a road with great
+difficulty, they abandoned the scheme without firing a shot, when almost
+within a mile of the town, which they believed was alarmed, and on the
+watch.
+
+Dampier now proposed a scheme as feasible and grand as any of
+Raleigh's. He declared that they never had a greater opportunity of
+enriching themselves. His bold plan was, with the 1000 negroes lying in
+the three prizes, to go and work the gold mines of St. Martha. The
+Indians would at once join them from their hatred of the Spaniards. For
+provision they had 200 tons of flour laid up in the Galapagos islands;
+the North Sea would be open to them; thousands of Buccaneers would join
+them from all parts of the West Indies; united they would be a match for
+all the forces of Peru, and might be at once masters of the west coast
+as high as Quito. This golden cloud melted into mere fog. The Buccaneers
+returned to La Plata, divided the Quito cloth, and turned the Guayaquil
+vessel into a tender for the _Swan_. The old Buccaneers of Davis now
+quarrelled with the new recruits in the _Swan_, accused them of
+cowardice and of having baulked the attempt on Guayaquil, and complained
+of having to supply them with flour and turtle, for they had neither
+provisions nor Indian fishermen. Unable to divorce, the ill-assorted
+pair proceeded to attack together Lavelia, in the Bay of Panama. From
+charts found in the prizes they checked the deceptions and errors of the
+Spanish and Indian prisoners whom they employed as pilots. Their object
+was now to search for canoes in rivers unvisited by the Spaniards, where
+their schemes might remain still undiscovered.
+
+Such rivers abounded from the equinoctial line to the Gulf of St.
+Michael. When five days out from La Plata they made a sudden swoop on
+the village of Tomaco, and captured a vessel laden with timber, with a
+Spanish knight, eight sailors, and a canoe containing twelve jars of old
+wine. A boat party that rowed up the St. Jago river visited a house
+belonging to a lady of Lima, whose servants traded with the Indians for
+gold, several ounces of which were found left by them in their
+calabashes when they fled.
+
+The twin vessels next sailed for the island of Gallo, capturing by the
+way a packet boat from Lima, fishing up the letters, which the Spaniards
+had thrown overboard attached to a buoy. From these they learnt that the
+governor of Panama was hastening the departure of the triennial plate
+fleet from Callo to Panama, where it would be carried on mules across
+the isthmus. To intercept this fleet and to grow millionaires in a day
+was now their only dream. They proceeded at once to careen their ships
+at the Pearl islands in the bay of Panama. Their force consisted of two
+ships, three barks, a fire-ship, and two small tenders. Near the
+uninhabited island of Gorgona they captured a flour ship, and landing
+most of their prisoners at Gorgona, they proceeded to the bay, captured
+a small provision boat, and continued their watch, cruising round the
+city.
+
+Having cut off all communication between Panama and the islands in the
+bay, Davis proposed an exchange of prisoners, surrendering forty monks,
+whom he was glad to get rid of, for one of Harris's band and a sailor
+who had been surprised while hunting on an island. The Lima fleet still
+delaying, the Buccaneers anchored at Tavoga, an island abounding in
+cocoa and mammee trees, and beautiful water. About this time they were
+nearly ensnared by a Spanish ship, sent to the island at midnight under
+pretence of clandestine traffic. This scheme originated in Captain Bond,
+an English pirate who had deserted to the enemy. The squadron, which had
+scattered in alarm, to avoid the fire-ship, were just re-uniting and
+looking for their abandoned anchors, when a cry rose that a fleet of
+armed canoes were steering direct towards them through the island
+channel. This was the French Flibustiers of which we have given an
+account in the adventures of Ravenau de Lussan. After joining in the
+sea-fight off Panama, and the descent upon Leon and Ria Lexa, the
+Buccaneers again split into small parties. Dampier joined Swan and
+Townley, who determined to cruise along the shores of the mine country
+of Mexico, and then, sailing as high as the south-west point of
+California, cross the Pacific, and return to England by India. At
+Guatalico, famous for its blowing rock, they landed their sick for a few
+days, and obtained provisions, and, in a descent near Acapulco, stopped
+a string of sixty laden mules and killed eighteen beeves, carrying off
+all the cattle safely to their ships.
+
+To obtain provisions, Swan sacked the town of St. Pecaque, on the coast
+of New Gallicia, where large stores were kept for the use of the slaves
+of the neighbouring mines. A great many of these he carried off the
+first day on horseback and on the shoulders of his men. These visits
+were repeated--a party of Buccaneers keeping the town till the Spaniards
+had collected a force. Of this Captain Swan gave his men due warning,
+exhorting them, on their way to their canoes with the burdens of maize,
+to keep together in a compact body, but they chose to follow their own
+course, every man straggling singly while leading his horse, or carrying
+a load on his shoulder. They accordingly fell into the ambush the
+Spaniards had laid for them, and to the amount of fifty were surprised
+and mercilessly butchered. The Spaniards, seizing their arms and loaded
+horses, fled, before Swan, who heard the distant firing, could come to
+the assistance of his men. Fifty-four Englishmen and nine blacks fell in
+this affair, which was the most severe the Buccaneers had encountered
+in the South Sea. Dampier relates that Captain Swan had been warned of
+this disaster by an astrologer he had consulted before he sailed from
+England. Many of the men, too, had foreboded the misfortune; and the
+previous night, while lying in the church of St. Pecaque, had been
+disturbed by frequent groanings which kept them from sleeping.
+
+This disaster drove Swan from the coast to careen at Cape St. Lucas, the
+south point of California--in revenge for his loss leaving his pilot and
+prisoners on an uninhabited island. While lying here, Dampier was cured
+of dropsy by being buried all but his head in hot sand. The whole 150
+men were now living on short allowances of maize, and the fish the
+Indians struck salted for store. One meal a-day was now the rule, and
+the victuals were served out by the quartermaster with the exactness of
+gold. Yet, even in this distress, two dogs and two cats received their
+daily shares. They now started for their cruise among the Philippines.
+In a long run of 7,302 miles they saw no living thing--neither bird,
+fish, nor insect, except one solitary flight of boobies. At the end of
+the voyage the men were almost in mutiny at the want of food, and had
+secretly resolved to kill and eat their captain (Swan), and afterwards,
+in regular order, all who had promoted the voyage. At the island of
+Gualan, where there was a Spanish fort and a garrison of thirty men, the
+Buccaneers traded with the natives, who took them for Spaniards from
+Acapulco.
+
+Captain Eaton, who had visited the island before them on his way to
+India, had, at the instigation of the Spaniards, plundered and killed
+many of the natives, and driven the rest to emigration. While trading
+here the Acapulco vessel arrived, and, being signalled by the governor,
+took to flight; but in her hurry to escape ran upon a shoal, from which
+she was with difficulty extricated. Swan, who now grew anxious for quiet
+commerce, discouraged the pursuit, and proceeded quietly on his voyage.
+At Mindanao, Captain Swan and thirty-six men were left behind by his
+crew, who were only anxious for plunder, and soon after captured a
+Spanish vessel bound for Manilla. Captain Swan was eventually drowned
+while attempting to escape to a Dutch vessel lying in the river. Weary
+of the mean robberies of the crew, who now turned mere pirates, Dampier
+left them at the Nicobar islands, and, embarking in canoes, reached
+Sumatra, and eventually sailed for England.
+
+The Buccaneers left behind in the South Sea prospered, and made many
+successful descents. At Lavelia Townley captured the treasure and
+merchandise landed from the Lima ship in the former year, for which Swan
+had watched so long in vain, and for which the Buccaneers had fought in
+the Bay of Panama. Townley died of his wounds. Harris followed Swan
+across the Pacific; and Knight, another English Buccaneer, satiated with
+plunder, returned home laden with Spanish gold; and off Cape Corrientes
+they lay in wait in vain for the Manilla ship, the great prize aimed at
+by all adventurers. Soon after, a malignant fever breaking out among the
+crews, many left the squadron and returned towards Panama, carrying
+back the Darien Indians, but leaving the Mosquito Indians in the
+_Cygnet_.
+
+Davis sailed from Guayaquil to careen at the Galapagos islands, which
+were in the South Pacific what Tortuga was in the North, the harbour and
+sanctuary of the Buccaneers. In returning by Cape Horn, Davis discovered
+Easter island, and left five of his men and five negro slaves on Juan
+Fernandez. These men had been stripped at the gambling-table, and were
+unwilling to return empty-handed. The _Bachelor's Delight_ eventually
+doubled Cape Horn, and he reached the West Indies just in time to avail
+himself of a pardon offered by royal proclamation.
+
+Dampier reached England in 1691, and having published his travels, was
+sent out in 1691 by William III. on a voyage of discovery to New
+Holland, and was wrecked near Ascension. In Queen Anne's reign, during
+the war of the succession, he commanded two privateers, and cruised
+against the Spaniards in the South Sea. His objects were to capture the
+Spanish plate vessels sailing from Buenos Ayres, to lie in wait for the
+gold ship from Boldivia to Lima, and to seize the Manilla galleon. Off
+Juan Fernandez he fought a French Buccaneer vessel for seven hours, but
+parted without effecting a capture. So strong were his old Flibustier
+habits upon him, that he confesses it with reluctance he attacked any
+vessel not a Spaniard. Before they reached the proper latitude the
+Boldivia vessel had sailed.
+
+Captain Stradling, the commander of his companion ship, parted company.
+A surprise of Santa Maria, in the bay of Panama, failed, but Dampier
+made a few small prizes. While lying in the gulf of Nicoya, his chief
+mate, John Clipperton, mutinied, and, seizing his tender, with its
+ammunition and stores, put out to sea. A worse disappointment awaited
+the commander--off the Fort de Narida he came suddenly upon the Manilla
+galleon, and gave her several broadsides before she could clear for
+action. But even at this disadvantage the Spaniards' twenty-four
+pounders soon silenced Dampier's five pounders, drove in the rotten
+planks of his vessel, the _St. George_, and compelled him to sheer
+off--the galleon's crew quadrupling that of the English.
+
+The men growing despondent and weary of the voyage, Dampier put
+thirty-four of them into a prize brigantine of seventy tons, and
+appointed one named Funnel as their commander. Allowing them to sail for
+India, he with twenty-nine men returned to Peru and plundered the town
+of Puna. The vessel being no longer fit for sea, they abandoned her at
+Lobos de la Mar, and embarking in a Spanish brigantine crossed the
+Pacific. In India, Dampier, having had his commission stolen by some of
+his deserters, was imprisoned by the Dutch. When he reached England at
+last, he found that Funnel had returned and published his voyage to the
+West Indies. A few of his men who had lost their money in gambling
+remained in the _Bachelor's Delight_ with Davis.
+
+It is supposed he now fell into very extreme poverty, for in 1708 we
+find him acting as pilot to the two Bristol privateers that
+circumnavigated the globe, and were as successful as he had been
+unfortunate. At Juan Fernandez the commander, Woodes Rogers, brought off
+the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, who had been abandoned here four years
+before, by Dampier's mutinous consort, Captain Stradling, and, by the
+traveller's advice, the poor outcast was made second mate of the _Duke_.
+At Guayaquil, where Dampier commanded the artillery, they obtained
+plunder to the value of £21,000, besides 27,000 dollars, as ransom for
+the town. Off Cape Lucas they captured a rich Manilla ship, laden with
+merchandise, and containing £12,000 in gold and silver. They also
+encountered the great Manilla galleon, but were beaten off after a
+severe engagement with a loss of twenty-five men. After a run of two
+months they reached Gualan, and obtained provisions by anchoring under
+Spanish colours. Visiting Batavia, they waited a long time at the Cape
+for a home-bound fleet, and in July, 1711, entered the Texel
+five-and-twenty sail, Dutch and English; and in October sailed up the
+Thames with booty valued at £150,000. Of the great Dampier we hear no
+more, and his very burial place is unknown.
+
+VAN HORN was originally a common Dutch sailor, who, having, by dint of
+the prudence of his nation, saved 200 dollars, entered into partnership
+with a messmate who had laid by the same sum, and, going to France,
+obtained a privateer's commission, and fitted up a fishing-boat with a
+crew of thirty men. Cruising first as Dutch, he then purchased a large
+vessel at Ostend, and, hoisting the French flag, made war on all
+nations. The French court ordered M. d'Estrees to detain this Flying
+Dutchman, whose commission had now expired, and a ship was sent for the
+purpose; but as the commander had no orders to proceed to extremities,
+and Van Horn was determined not to go alive, he was suffered to escape.
+Quite undaunted he proceeded to Puerto Rico, entered the bay, sounding
+his trumpets, and, sending on shore, told the governor that he had come
+to offer his services to escort the galleons which were then ready to
+sail. The governor accepted the offer, and Van Horn sailed off with
+them; but being soon joined by some Buccaneer companions, he turned on
+the prey, seized the richest, sank some others, and pursued the rest.
+Such was the commencement of this adventurer's career. His after life
+was worthy of such a beginning.
+
+Van Horn was immensely rich. He usually wore a string of pearls of
+extraordinary size, and a large ruby of great beauty. His widow lived
+afterwards at Ostend.
+
+In 1683, Van Horn, who had all his life fought under French colours,
+though not very scrupulous about what nation a vessel was, so it were
+rich, having gone to St. Domingo to sell negroes, had his ship
+confiscated by the Spanish governor. The Buccaneer's ungovernable
+passions could no more brook such an insult than a knight would have
+borne a blow. Buccaneer pride desired revenge; Buccaneer cupidity
+desired redress. Resolved on vengeance, the angry Dutchman hastened to
+Petit Guaves, and took out a commission from the governor of Tortuga,
+and at once enrolled 300 of the bravest Buccaneers, with a determination
+of attacking Vera Cruz. Among his crew were enrolled several of the
+leading Buccaneer chiefs. Grammont, who had lately lost his ship at the
+Isles des Aves, lately a commander, was now a mere volunteer. Such were
+the vicissitudes of Buccaneer life. Laurence de Graff was also there. He
+was a Dutchman like Van Horn, but one came from Ostend and the other
+from Dort. Among the less celebrated were Godefroy and Jonqué. Their
+numbers soon swelled to 1,200 picked men, in six vessels, under the
+command of Van Horn and De Graff, who had each a frigate of fifty guns,
+while the rest had simple barks. Their common aim was Vera Cruz, the
+emporium of all the riches of New Spain, and they needed no other
+incitement to urge them to speed and unity.
+
+From some Spanish prisoners they heard that two large vessels laden with
+cocoa were hourly expected at Vera Cruz from the Caraccas. The
+Buccaneer leaders instantly fitted up two of their largest ships in the
+Spanish fashion, and, hoisting the Spanish flag, sent them boldly into
+the harbour, as if just returning as peaceful but armed traders from a
+long and successful voyage. It was the eve of the Assumption, crowds of
+sailors and townsmen lined the quays, and the expectant populace cheered
+the rich merchantmen as they steered with a stately sweep into the
+haven. The keener eyes, however, soon observed that the Caraccas vessels
+advanced very slowly, although the wind was good, and their suspicions
+became excited almost before the Buccaneers could work into port. Some
+even ran to tell the governor that all was not right, but Don Luis de
+Cordova told them that their fears were foolish, the two vessels he knew
+by unmistakable signs to be the two vessels he expected; and he returned
+the same answer to the commander of the fort at St. Jean d'Ulloa, who
+also sent to bid him be upon his guard.
+
+About midnight the French, under cover of the dark, landed at the old
+town, about three leagues to the west of the more modern city. They
+obtained easy access to the place, and surprised the governor in his
+bed. The drowsy sentinels once overpowered, the small fortress with its
+twelve guns was in the possession of their men. At every corner pickets
+were placed. The surprise was so complete, that when the tocsin rang at
+daybreak, the watchmen being alarmed at some musket shots they heard,
+they found the town already bound hand and foot. At the first clang of
+the bell, the garrison rushed out of their barracks, and ranged
+themselves under their colours, but saw the French already in arms at
+the head of all the principal streets. They were surrounded and
+helpless. When the day broke, nobody dare show themselves, for all those
+who ran out armed were instantly struck down. Sentinels were placed at
+every door in the principal streets, a barrel of powder with the lid off
+by their sides, ready to fire the train that connected one with the
+other at the least signal of danger. We believe it was on this occasion
+that Van Horn forced a monk into the cathedral, who preached to the
+people on the vanity of worldly riches, and the necessity of abandoning
+them to the spoiler. The Buccaneers then drove all the Spaniards into
+their houses, and forced the women and children into the churches. Here
+they remained, crowded together, weeping and hungry, for three days,
+while their enemies collected the booty. The Buccaneers, now safe,
+abandoned themselves, as usual, to debauchery and gluttony--some dying
+from immoderate gluttony. Fortunately for this wretched people, the
+bishop of the town, happening to be near Vera Cruz at the time, began to
+treat for their ransom. It was fixed at two million piastres, of which a
+part was paid the very same day--the Buccaneers only dispensing with the
+remaining million, as the Vice-Royal was already approaching the town at
+the head of a large force. Dangers were now hemming in the Dutchman and
+his band. About eleven o'clock in the morning, the look-out on the tower
+of St. Catherine's reported that a fleet of fourteen sail was
+approaching the city.
+
+The Buccaneers, alarmed, sprang to arms. Aghast at this intelligence,
+the French, dreading to be shut in between two fires, decided upon an
+immediate retreat. The townspeople, terrified at the prospect of being
+massacred by their infuriated and despairing enemies, were as
+apprehensive of danger as the Buccaneers themselves. Van Horn embarked
+with speed all the plate and cochineal, and the more valuable and
+portable of the spoil, and waited eagerly for the ransom which was now
+almost in sight. It, however, never arrived, for the drivers of the
+mules, hearing the firing, halted till the fleet came within sight. The
+Buccaneers had no time to lose, and compensated themselves by carrying
+off 1,500 slaves to their vessels, which lay moored at some leagues'
+distance, at Grijaluc, a place of safety.
+
+They spent the night in great disorder, in continual apprehension of
+being attacked by the Spanish fleet, which was, at the same time,
+congratulating itself on reaching Vera Cruz unharmed. The danger of the
+Buccaneers was indeed not yet removed, for they had neither water nor
+sufficient provisions, and some 1,500 prisoners were on board. About
+these hostages the leaders differed in opinion, and words ran high. The
+two chiefs fought, and Van Horn received a sword thrust in the arm from
+De Graff. The several crews took up their captains' quarrels, and would
+have come to blows, had not De Graff divided the prey, and at once set
+sail. Van Horn followed, but died on the passage, a gangrene having
+formed upon a wound at first very slight. He was devotedly beloved by
+his men, says Charlevoix, though he was in the habit of cutting down any
+sailor whom he saw flinch at his guns. He left his frigate with his
+dying breath to Grammont, who reached St. Domingo, after dreadful
+sufferings, having lost three-fourths of his prisoners by famine--his
+patache being cast away and taken by the Spaniards. De Graff's vessel
+was also wrecked, but the crew made their way one by one to St. Domingo,
+where, in spite of the ill reception of the governor, they were welcomed
+by the hospitality of the inhabitants, who longed to share the treasure
+of Vera Cruz. The governor, M. de Franquesnoy, without fortress or
+garrison, and exposed to the inroads of the Spaniards, could make no
+resistance to these wild refugees, who, on one occasion, hearing that he
+intended to seize upon part of the Vera Cruz booty, surrounded his house
+to the number of 120 men, and threatened his life. At this time, a
+general outbreak of the French was expected.
+
+It was in the very next year that the governor of Carthagena, hearing
+that Michael le Basque and Jonqué were cruising near his port, sent two
+vessels against them, one of 48 guns and 300 men, and the other of 40
+guns and 250 men, with a small bark as a decoy. The Buccaneer chiefs
+each commanded a vessel of 30 guns and 200 men. They both grappled the
+Spaniards, held them for an hour and a-half, swept their decks with
+musketry, tortured them with hand grenades and missiles, and eventually
+bore them off in triumph. All the Spaniards who were not killed were put
+on shore with a note to the governor, thanking him for having sent them
+two such good vessels, as their own had long been unfit for service.
+They, moreover, promised to wait fifteen days off Carthagena for any
+other vessel he might wish to get rid of, provided he would send money
+in them, of which they were in great need.
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET.
+
+
+
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3),
+by Walter Thornbury</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3)</p>
+<p>       Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers</p>
+<p>Author: Walter Thornbury</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 21, 2012  [eBook #38632]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME II (OF 3)***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Adam Buchbinder, Rory OConor,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from scanned images of public domain material<br />
+    generously made available by<br />
+    the Google Books Library Project<br />
+    (<a href="http://books.google.com/">http://books.google.com/</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work.<br />
+      <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38631/38631-h/38631-h.htm">Volume I</a>: see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38631/38631-h/38631-h.htm<br />
+      <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38633/38633-h/38633-h.htm">Volume III</a>: see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38633/38633-h/38633-h.htm<br />
+      <br />
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      <a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ASYCAAAAYAAJ&amp;id">
+      http://books.google.com/books?vid=ASYCAAAAYAAJ&amp;id</a>
+   </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">i</a></span></p>
+
+<h1><small>THE</small><br />
+
+MONARCHS OF THE MAIN;<br />
+
+<small>OR,</small><br />
+
+ADVENTURES OF THE BUCCANEERS.</h1>
+
+<h3><small>BY</small><br />
+
+GEORGE W. THORNBURY, ESQ.</h3>
+
+
+<p class="center">"One foot on sea and one on shore,<br />
+To one thing constant never."<br />
+          <span class="smcap">Much Ado about Nothing.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">IN THREE VOLUMES.</p>
+
+<h1><small>VOL. II.</small></h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">LONDON:<br />
+HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,<br />
+SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,<br />
+13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.<br />
+1855.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">ii</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center p6">LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET.
+</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_II" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_II"></a>CONTENTS OF VOL. II.</h2>
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.&mdash;SIR HENRY MORGAN.</a></p>
+
+<p>Son of a Welsh farmer&mdash;Runs to sea&mdash;Turns Buccaneer&mdash;Joins
+Mansvelt and takes the Island of St. Catherine&mdash;Mansvelt
+dies&mdash;St. Catherine re-taken by the
+Spaniards&mdash;Morgan takes Port au Prince&mdash;Quarrel of
+French and English adventurers about a marrow-bone&mdash;Takes
+Porto Bello&mdash;Captures <i>Le Cerf Volant</i>, a French
+vessel&mdash;It blows up&mdash;Takes Maracaibo&mdash;-City deserted&mdash;Tortures
+an Idiot beggar&mdash;Le Picard, his guide&mdash;Takes
+Gibraltar&mdash;Also deserted&mdash;Tortures the citizens&mdash;With a
+Fire-ship destroys the Spanish fleet and repasses the bar&mdash;Escapes
+the fort by a stratagem&mdash;The Rancheria expedition&mdash;Sails
+for Panama&mdash;Captain Bradley takes the
+Castle of Chagres&mdash;Anecdote of a wounded Buccaneer      <span class="tocnum">1</span></p>
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.&mdash;CONQUEST OF PANAMA.</a></p>
+
+<p>March from Chagres over the Isthmus&mdash;Famine&mdash;Ambuscades
+of Indians&mdash;Wild bulls driven down upon
+them&mdash;Victory in the Savannah&mdash;Battle of the Forts&mdash;Takes
+the city&mdash;Burns part of it&mdash;Cruelties&mdash;Revels&mdash;Virtue
+of the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings&mdash;Retreats
+with prisoners&mdash;Ransom&mdash;Divisions of booty&mdash;Treason
+of Morgan&mdash;Escapes by night to Jamaica&mdash;Dispersion
+of his fleet&mdash;Morgan's subsequent fate      <span class="tocnum">125</span></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">iv</a></span></p>
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.</a></p>
+
+<p>&#338;xmelin's interview with the old Buccaneer&mdash;Adventure
+with Indians&mdash;Esquemeling's escapes&mdash;D'Ogeron's
+escape from the Spaniards&mdash;Buccaneers' fight in
+Tobago against the Dutch&mdash;Captain Cook captures a
+Spanish vessel&mdash;Captains Coxen and Sharp begin their
+cruise                                          <span class="tocnum">189</span></p>
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.&mdash;THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.</a></p>
+
+<p>The South sea now visited&mdash;Buccaneers land at
+Darien&mdash;March overland&mdash;Take Santa Maria&mdash;Sail to
+Panama&mdash;Ringrose is wrecked&mdash;Failure of Expedition&mdash;Driven
+off by Spanish fleet&mdash;Partial victory&mdash;Coxen
+accused of cowardice&mdash;Sharp elected commander, deposed&mdash;Plunder
+Hillo and take La Serena&mdash;Take Arica&mdash;Sharp
+re-elected&mdash;Retreat with difficulty&mdash;Conspiracy
+of the prisoners&mdash;Land at Antigua&mdash;Return to
+England&mdash;Sharp's trial for piracy&mdash;Seizes a French
+ship in the Downs&mdash;Returns to Jamaica          <span class="tocnum">215</span></p>
+
+<p><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.&mdash;DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.</a></p>
+
+<p>Dampier leaves Captain Sharp&mdash;Land march over
+the Isthmus&mdash;Joins Captain Wright&mdash;Wreck of D'Estrèes
+and the French fleet&mdash;Returns to England&mdash;Second
+voyage&mdash;With Captain Cook&mdash;Guinea coast&mdash;Visits
+Juan Fernandez&mdash;Takes Ampalla&mdash;Plunders Paita&mdash;Scheme
+for working the Spanish mines&mdash;Attacks Manilla
+Galleon&mdash;Captain Swan&mdash;Dampier's death unknown&mdash;Van
+Horn, a Dutch sailor&mdash;Entraps the Galleons&mdash;Takes
+Vera Cruz&mdash;Killed in a duel with De Graff&mdash;His
+Dress                                         <span class="tocnum">277</span></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="MONARCHS_OF_THE_MAIN" id="MONARCHS_OF_THE_MAIN"></a>MONARCHS OF THE MAIN.</h2>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+
+<small>SIR HENRY MORGAN.</small></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Son of a farmer&mdash;Runs to sea&mdash;Turns Buccaneer&mdash;Joins
+Mansvelt, and takes the Island of St. Catherine&mdash;Mansvelt
+dies&mdash;St. Catherine retaken by the Spaniards&mdash;Takes
+Port-au-Prince&mdash;Quarrel of French and
+English Buccaneers about a marrow-bone&mdash;Takes
+Porto Bello&mdash;Captures <i>Le Cerf Volant</i>, a French vessel&mdash;It
+blows up&mdash;Takes Maracaibo&mdash;City deserted&mdash;Tortures
+an Idiot&mdash;Le Picard&mdash;Storms Gibraltar&mdash;Also
+deserted&mdash;Tortures the Citizens&mdash;With a Fire-ship
+destroys Spanish fleet, and repasses the Bar&mdash;Escapes
+by stratagem&mdash;Rancheria expedition&mdash;Sails for Panama&mdash;Captain
+Bradley takes the Castle of Chagres&mdash;Anecdote
+of wounded Buccaneer.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Morgan's campaigns furnish one of the amplest
+chapters of Buccaneer history. Equally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span>
+daring, but less cruel than Lolonnois, less
+fanatical than Montbars, and less generous
+and honest than De Lussan or Sharp, he
+appears to have been the only freebooting
+leader who obtained any formal recognition
+from the English government. From an old
+pamphlet, we find, that the expedition to
+Panama was undertaken under the commission
+and with the full approbation of the
+English governor of Jamaica.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Henry Morgan was the son of a Welsh
+farmer, of easy circumstances, "as most who
+bear that name in Wales are known to be,"
+says Esquemeling, his Dutch historian. Taking
+an early dislike to the monotonous, unadventurous
+life of his father's house, he ran
+away from home, and, coming to the coast,
+turned sailor, and went to sea.</p>
+
+<p>Embarking on board a vessel bound for
+Barbadoes, that lay with several others in
+the port, he engaged himself in the usual
+way to a planter's agent, who resold him for
+three years immediately on his arrival in the
+West Indies. Having served his time and
+obtained his hard-earned liberty, he repaired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span>
+to Jamaica, a place of which wild stories
+were told all over the Main. He resolved to
+seek his fortune at that El Dorado, and
+arriving there, saw two Buccaneer vessels
+just fitting out for an expedition. Being
+now in search of employment, and finding
+this suit his daring and restless spirit, he
+determined to embrace the life of a Flibustier.
+The gentlemen of fortune were successful,
+and had not been long at sea before they
+took a valuable prize.</p>
+
+<p>This early success was as fatal to Morgan
+as good luck is to a young gambler on his
+first visit to a hell. It roused his ambition,
+heightened his hope, and encouraged him
+to continue a career so auspiciously begun.
+He followed the Buccaneer chiefs, and learnt
+their manners of living. In the course of
+only three or four voyages, he signalized
+himself so much as to acquire the reputation
+of a good soldier, remarkable for his valour
+and success. He was a good shot, and renowned
+for his intrepidity, coolness, and
+determination. He seemed to foresee all
+contingencies, and set about his schemes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span>
+with a firm confidence that insured their
+success.</p>
+
+<p>Having already laid by much money, and
+being fortunate both in his voyages and in gambling,
+Morgan agreed with a few rich comerades
+to join stock, and to buy a vessel, of which
+he was unanimously appointed commander.
+Such was the usual beginning of an adventurer's
+career. Setting out from Jamaica, he
+soon became remarkable for the number of
+prizes which he took, his well known stations
+being round the coast of Campeachy. With
+these prizes he returned triumphantly to
+Jamaica, his name established as a terror to
+the Spaniard, and a war-cry to the English.
+Finding Mansvelt, an old Buccaneer, lying
+in harbour, about to start on a grand expedition
+to the mainland, he joined him, and was
+at once elected as vice-admiral of a small
+fleet of fifteen vessels and 600 men, part
+English and part French.</p>
+
+<p>They sailed first to the island of St.
+Catherine, near the continent of Costa Rica,
+and distant about thirty-five degrees from
+the river of Chagres. Here they made their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span>
+first descent, and found the Spaniards well
+entrenched in forts, strongly built of hewn
+stone, but landing most of their men they
+soon forced the garrisons to surrender. Morgan
+distinguished himself remarkably in this
+expedition, forcing even his very enemies to
+laud his skill and valour. He now proceeded
+to demolish all the castles but one, in which
+he placed 100 men, and the slaves and
+prisoners, and proceeded to attack a small
+neighbouring island. In a few days they
+threw over a bridge to join it to St.
+Catherine's, and conveyed over it all the larger
+ordnance which they had taken, laying waste
+their first conquest with fire and sword.
+They then set sail again, having first set their
+prisoners ashore near Portobello, intending to
+cruise along Costa Rica, as far as the river
+Colla, and burn and pillage all the towns up
+to Nata. They had, in fact, only taken the
+island in order to procure a guide who could
+lead them on their way to Nata, knowing
+that the Spaniards used St. Catherine's as a
+depôt for their prisoners of all nations. The
+first step towards a Buccaneer expedition was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span>
+to procure a guide. They found, to their
+delight, a mulatto who knew Nata, and who
+undertook to lead them to the destruction of
+a people whom he hated. It is probable, too,
+that Mansvelt had already projected founding
+a colony at St. Catherine's, which might be
+neither dependent on the French nor the English.
+But their schemes were frustrated, for
+the governor of Panama, hearing of their
+approach, and of their past success, advanced
+to meet them with a body of men, and compelled
+them to retreat suddenly, for the whole
+country was now alarmed and their plans all
+known.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, however, seeing St. Catherine's to
+be a well-fortified island, easily defended, and
+important as to situation, because its harbour
+was good and near the Spanish settlements,
+resolved to hold it, appointing as governor
+Le Sieur Simon, a Frenchman, whom he left
+behind, with a garrison of 100 men. St.
+Simon had behaved well in his absence, and
+put the island in a good posture of defence,
+had strengthened the four large forts, and
+turned the smaller island into a citadel,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span>
+guarding carefully the three accessible spots,
+planting vegetables and clearing plantations
+in the smaller island, where abundance of
+fresh water could be procured, providing
+victual enough for the fleet for two voyages.</p>
+
+<p>The two commanders now determined to
+return to Jamaica, promising to send recruits
+to Simon, for fear of an invasion, and themselves
+to bring speedy succours, intending to
+make the island a sanctuary and refuge for
+the brotherhood of both nations. The governor
+of Jamaica refused to accede to Mansvelt's
+requests for soldiers, afraid to weaken the
+forces of the island without permission from
+England. Mansvelt, worn out with delay,
+hastened to Tortuga, and died while collecting
+volunteers, his plans being still in embryo.
+Had his scheme succeeded, and been
+pushed with energy, the Buccaneers might
+have founded a republic, and have eventually
+driven the Spaniards out of the
+Indies.</p>
+
+<p>While Simon was impatiently expecting
+succour from Jamaica, and astonished at
+Mansvelt's really unavoidable silence, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span>
+Spaniards were preparing to smoke out the
+wasps' nest that lay so dangerously near their
+orchard. A new governor of Costa Rica
+threw unusual decision into their plans.
+Fearing they should lose the Indies piecemeal,
+they resolved to crush the evil ere it grew
+indestructible. Don Juan Perez de Guzman
+equipped a fleet of four vessels with fifty or
+sixty men each, commanded by Don Joseph
+Sancho Ximenes, major-general of the garrison
+of Porto Bello. Don Juan, in a letter to Simon,
+promised him a reward if he would surrender
+the island to his Catholic Majesty, and threatened
+him with punishment if he resisted.
+Simon, seeing the impossibility and uselessness
+of resistance, surrendered it after a few
+shots, on the same condition with which
+Morgan had obtained it from the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards made much of their victory,
+publishing "a true relation and particular
+account of the victory obtained by the arms
+of his Catholic Majesty, against the English
+pirates, by the direction and valour of Don
+Juan Perez de Guzman, knight of the order
+of St. James, governor and captain-general of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span>
+Terra Firma, and the province of Veraguas."</p>
+
+<p>The account goes on to describe the arrival
+of fourteen English vessels on the coast,
+1665, their arrival at Puerto de Naos, and the
+capture of St. Catherine's from the governor,
+Don Estevan del Campo, the enemy landing
+unperceived. Upon this the valorous Don
+Juan called a council of war, wherein he declared
+the great progress the said pirates had
+made in the dominions of his Catholic Majesty,
+and propounded, "that it was absolutely
+necessary to send some forces to the
+isle of St. Catherine, sufficient to retake it
+from the pirates, the honour and interest of
+his Majesty of Spain being very narrowly
+concerned herein, otherwise the pirates, by
+such conquests, might <i>easily</i>, in course of
+time, possess themselves of 'all the countries
+thereabout.'" The less vapouring, or more
+pacific, ingeniously proposed to leave the
+pirates alone till they perished for want of
+provisions, but Don Juan, overruling their
+timidity, sent stores to the militia of Porto
+Bello, and conveyed himself there, with no
+small danger of his life. At this port he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>
+found the <i>St. Vincent</i>, a good ship, belonging
+to the Negro Company, which he equipped
+with a crew of 270 soldiers, thirty-seven
+prisoners, thirty-two of the Spanish garrison,
+twenty-nine mulattos of Panama, twelve
+Indian archers, seven gunners, two lieutenants,
+two pilots, a surgeon, and a Franciscan
+chaplain. Before they set sail, Don
+Juan (<i>who did not go with them</i>) encouraged
+them to fight against the enemies of their
+country and their religion, "those inhuman
+pirates who had committed so many horrid
+cruelties upon the subjects of his Catholic
+Majesty," promising liberal rewards to all
+who behaved themselves well in the service
+of their king and country. At Carthagena,
+they received a reinforcement of one frigate,
+one galleon, a boat, and 127 men.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the island, the pirates discharged
+three guns, refused to surrender,
+and declared they preferred to lose their
+lives. The next day three negro deserters,
+swimming to the admiral, told him there
+were only seventy-two men on the island,
+and two days after the day of the Assumption<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>
+the Spaniards landed and commenced
+the affray. The <i>St. Vincent</i> attacked the
+Conception battery, the <i>St. Peter</i> the St.
+James's forts, the pirates driving off many of
+the enemy by loading their guns with part
+of the pipes of a church organ, threescore
+pipes at a time. The pirates lost six men before
+surrendering, the Spaniards one. They
+found in the island 800 lbs. of powder, and
+250 lbs. of bullets. Two Spanish deserters,
+discovered amongst the prisoners, were "shot
+to death" the next day. The prisoners were
+transported to Puerto Velo, all but three,
+who, by order of the governor, were kept as
+a trophy, like chained Samsons, to work in
+the castle of St. Jerome at Panama, a fortress
+building by the governor at his own expense.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two after this unavoidable surrender,
+a vessel arrived at St. Catherine,
+bringing reinforcements and provisions from
+the governor of Jamaica, who had repented
+of his rejection of Mansvelt's proposal, but
+had not even yet the courage to be boldly
+dishonest. The Spaniards, hoisting an English
+flag, persuaded Simon to welcome it, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>
+betray it into their hands. There were fourteen
+men on board and two women, all of
+whom were made prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>On the death of Mansvelt, Morgan became
+without opposition the leader of all the adventurers
+of Jamaica. He at once published
+far and wide his intention of setting out on
+a grand expedition, and named Cuba as a
+rendezvous, St. Catherine's not being far distant.
+Morgan had been no less anxious than
+Mansvelt to make this island a fortress and
+a storehouse. He had written to the merchants
+of Virginia and New England, to contract
+with them for ammunition and provisions;
+but this hope being ended by the Spanish
+conquest, he felt himself free to embark on
+a wider and more ambitious field. His plans
+were for a moment defeated, but his courage
+and ambition were not a whit humbled.</p>
+
+<p>Two months spent in the southern ports of
+Cuba sufficed him to collect a fleet of twelve
+sail, with 700 fighting men, part English,
+part French, resolved to follow him to the
+death. To prevent the disunion so frequent
+between the two nations, Morgan had a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>
+clause inserted in the charter-party, empowering
+him to condemn to instant death
+any adventurer who killed or wounded another.
+A council was then called to decide
+on what place they should first fall. Some
+proposed Santiago, which had been before
+sacked, others a swoop on the tobacco of the
+Havannah, or the dye-woods of Campeachy.
+Many voices were strong for a night assault
+on the Havannah, which, they said, could be
+taken before the castle could be ready to
+defend itself. The very ransom of the
+clergy they might carry off, would be worth
+more than the pillage of a smaller town.
+But some Buccaneers, who had been prisoners
+there, said nothing could be done with
+less than 1500 men, and the proposal was
+abandoned, when they proved that they must
+first go to the island de los Pinos, and land
+in small boats at Matamana, fourteen leagues
+from the city.</p>
+
+<p>At last some one proposed a visit to Port-au-Prince,
+a town of Cuba, very rich from its
+traffic in hides, and which, being far inland
+and built on a plain, could be very easily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>
+surprised. The speaker knew the city well,
+and was sure that it never had been sacked.
+Despairing of collecting forces enough to
+attempt the Havannah, they pursued the
+Spaniard's plan. Morgan at once acceded to
+this scheme, and, giving the captain the signal
+of weighing anchor, steered for Port St.
+Mary, the nearest harbour to Port-au-Prince.
+The night of their arrival in the bay a
+Spanish prisoner threw himself into the sea,
+and swimming on shore went to inform the
+governor of the Buccaneers' plans, having,
+with a scanty knowledge of English, gathered
+a full insight, deeper than history tells us, of
+Morgan's intentions.</p>
+
+<p>The governor instantly sent to the neighbouring
+town for succour, and collected, in a
+few hours, a force of 800 armed freemen and
+slaves, occupying a pass which the Buccaneers
+must traverse. He cut down the trees,
+barricaded the approaches, and planned eight
+ambuscades, strengthened by cannon to play
+upon them on their march. He then marched
+out into a savannah, where he might see the
+Buccaneers at a long distance.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The townsmen, in the meanwhile, prepared
+for the worst with the usual timidity of the
+rich, hiding their riches and carrying away
+their movables. The adventurers, on entering
+the place, found the paths almost impassable
+with trees, but, supposing themselves
+discovered, took to the woods, and thus
+fortunately escaped the ambuscade.</p>
+
+<p>The governor, seeing the enemy, to his
+astonishment, emerge from the trees into the
+plain, instantly ordered his cavalry to surround
+them as he would have done a troop of
+wolves, intending to disperse them first with
+his horse and then pursue them with his
+main body. The Buccaneers, nothing daunted
+by the flashing of the spears or the tramp of
+the horsemen, advanced boldly, with drums
+beating and colours displayed. They drew
+up in a semicircle to receive the charge, and
+advanced swiftly towards the enemy, not
+waiting to be attacked. The Spaniards
+charged them hotly for a while, but, finding
+their enemies dexterous at their arms,
+moving their feet forward rather than backward;
+and seeing their governor and many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span>
+of their companions dead at their feet, fled
+headlong to the town; those who escaped
+towards the wood were killed before they
+could reach it. The Buccaneers with few men
+either killed or wounded, advancing still in
+their phalanx, killed without mercy all they
+met, for the space of the four hours that the
+fight lasted. The fugitives of the town
+barred themselves in their houses and kept
+up a fire from the windows and loopholes.
+The shots from the roofs and balconies still
+continuing, though the town was taken, the
+Buccaneers threatened, if the firing did not
+cease, to set the town in a flame, and cut the
+women and children in pieces before the
+eyes of the survivors.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus silenced all resistance, Morgan
+drove all his prisoners, men, women,
+children, and slaves, into the cathedral, where
+he placed a guard. He then gave the
+town over to pillage, for the benefit of his
+joint-stock company, finding much that was
+valuable, but little money, so skilful had the
+Spaniards grown in hiding. Parties were
+next sent out, as usual, to plunder the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>
+suburbs, and bring in provisions and prisoners
+for the torture.</p>
+
+<p>The revelry then began, while the prisoners
+were allowed to starve in the churches; old
+women and children were daily tortured to
+make them disclose where their money was
+hidden.</p>
+
+<p>The monks had been the first to fly from
+the English heretics, but bands of them were
+frequently captured in the woods, and thrown,
+half dead with fear, to confess the dying in
+the prisons. When pillage and provisions
+grew scanty, and they themselves began to
+feel the privations they had inflicted on others,
+the Buccaneers resolved to depart, after fifteen
+days' residence, a favourite time with the
+brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p>They now demanded a double ransom of
+their chief prisoners; first, for themselves,
+under pain of being transported to Jamaica;
+and secondly, for the town, or it would be
+burned to the ground. Four merchants were
+chosen to collect the contributions, and some
+Spaniards were first tortured in their presence,
+to increase the zeal of their applications.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>
+After a few days, they returned empty-handed,
+and demanded a respite of fifteen
+days, which Morgan granted. They had
+searched all the woods, they said, and found
+none of their countrymen. Delay now grew
+dangerous&mdash;a party of foragers had captured
+a negro, with letters from the governor of
+Santiago, telling the citizens not to make too
+much haste to pay the ransom, but to put off
+the pirates with excuses till he could come
+to their aid. Enraged at what he deemed
+treachery, Morgan swore he would have no
+more delay, and would burn the town the
+next day if the ransom was not paid down,
+but not alluding to the detected letter, and
+betraying no apprehension. Still unable to
+obtain money, Morgan consented to take 500
+oxen, which he insisted on the Spaniards
+placing on board his ships at Port-au-Prince,
+together with salt enough to "powder" them,
+needing the flesh to re-victual for a fresh and
+more profitable expedition.</p>
+
+<p>The same day Morgan left the city, taking
+with him six of the principal citizens as
+hostages. The next day came the cattle, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>
+he now required the Spaniards to assist him
+in killing and salting them. This was done
+in a great hurry, Morgan expecting every
+moment the Santiago vessels would appear in
+sight. As soon as the butchering was completed
+he released his hostages and set sail,
+unwilling to fight when nothing could be
+gained by victory.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture, the smouldering jealousy
+of the two nations that formed his crews
+broke into a flame. The grudges of the last
+voyage had been perpetuated, and had grown
+into a deep and lasting feud, producing ultimately
+a disunion fatal to all increase of the
+power of the brotherhood of the coast.</p>
+
+<p>While the prisoners were toiling at salting
+the beeves, the sailors employed themselves
+in drinking and rejoicing at their success,
+cooking the richest morsels while they were
+still fresh, and all hands intent on securing
+the hot marrow bones, the favourite delicacy
+of the hunters of Hispaniola. A Frenchman,
+employed as one of the butchers, had drawn
+out the dainty and placed it by his side, as a
+<i>bonne bouche</i> when his work was over. An<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span>
+English Buccaneer, more hungry than polite,
+passing by, and knowing no reservation of
+property in such a republic, snatched up the
+reeking bone and carried it off. The Frenchman,
+pursuing him with angry vociferations,
+challenged him to fight for it, but before
+they could reach the place of combat, the
+aggressor stabbed his adversary in the back,
+and laid him dead on the spot. The Frenchmen,
+rising in arms, made it a national
+quarrel, and demanded redress. Morgan,
+just and impartial by nature and from policy,
+arrested the murderer and condemned him to
+be instantly shot, declaring that he had a right
+to challenge his adversary, but not to stab him
+treacherously. &#338;xmelin says, the man was
+sent in chains to Jamaica (and there tried
+and hung), Morgan promising to see justice
+done upon him. The French, however,
+remained discontented, lamented the fate of
+their comrade, and vowed revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, not waiting for the governor of
+Jamaica to share his spoil, sailed to a small
+island, at some distance, to make the dividend.
+To the general grief and disgust, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span>
+found the whole amounted to only 60,000
+crowns, not enough to pay their debts at
+Jamaica: this did not include the silk stuffs
+and other merchandise, which gave a poor
+pittance of 80 crowns to each man, as the
+return for so much danger and privation.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, as unwilling as the rest to revisit
+Port Royal empty-handed, proposed a new
+expedition, in search of a greater prize. But
+the French, not able to agree with the
+English, left the fleet, in spite of all their
+commander's persuasions, but still with every
+external mark of friendship, entreating to the
+last to have justice done to the "<i>infame</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, who had always placed great
+reliance on the courage of the French adventurers,
+was not going to relinquish his new
+expedition on account of their desertion. He
+had inspired his men with courage and the hope
+of acquiring riches, and they all resolved to
+follow him to the attack of the place, whose
+name he would not yet disclose, exciting them
+by a mystery, which prevented the possibility
+of treachery.</p>
+
+<p>He put forth to sea with eight small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>
+vessels, but was soon joined by an adventurer
+of Jamaica, just returning from Campeachy;
+with this new ally, he had now a force of
+nine vessels and 470 men, many French
+being still among them, and arrived at Costa
+Rica with all his fleet safe.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they sighted land, he disclosed
+his design to his captains, and soon after to
+all his seamen. He intended to storm Porto
+Bello by night, and to put the whole city to
+the sack: he was confident of success, because
+no one knew of his secret; although some of
+his men thought their force too small for such
+an enterprise. To these Morgan replied, that
+if their number was small, their courage was
+great, and the fewer they were the more
+booty for each, with the greater prospect of
+union and secresy; and upon this, all agreed
+unanimously to the design.</p>
+
+<p>By good fortune, or by preconcerted arrangement,
+one of Morgan's crew turned out
+to be an Englishman who, only a short
+time before, had been a prisoner at Porto
+Bello, and his past sufferings now proved
+to have been the foundation of his future<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>
+good fortune. Having escaped from that
+place, he knew every inch of the coast,
+which had been so painfully impressed on
+his mind, and Morgan submitted, with perfect
+confidence, to his guidance. By his
+advice, they steered straight for the bay of
+Santa Maria, arriving there purposely about
+dusk, and reached a spot about twelve
+leagues from the city, without meeting any
+vessel. They then sailed up the river to
+Puerto Pontin, four leagues distant, taking
+advantage of the land wind that sprang up,
+cool and fresh, at night.</p>
+
+<p>They here anchored, and embarked in
+boats, leaving a few men to bring on the
+ships. Rowing softly, they reached about
+midnight a place called Estera de Longa
+lemos, where they all landed, and marched
+upon the outposts of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Scott describes Porto Bello as
+built in a miserable, dirty, damp hole, surrounded
+by high forest-clad hills, wreathed
+in mist, and reeking with dirt and fever.
+Everlasting vapours obscure the sun, and
+mingle with the exhalation of the steaming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>
+marshes of the lead-coloured, land-locked cove
+that forms the harbour.</p>
+
+<p>They were now within reach of the
+strongest city in the Spanish West Indies,
+except Havannah and Carthagena, the port
+of Panama, and the great mart for silver and
+negroes. Leaving as usual a party to guard
+the boats, and preceded by their guide, they
+began halfway to the town to prepare their
+arms. Upon approaching the first sentinel,
+Morgan sent forward the guide and three
+or four others to surprise him. They did it
+cunningly, before he could fire his musket,
+and brought him with his hands bound to
+Morgan, who, threatening him with death,
+asked him how things in the city went, and
+what forces they had, making a "thousand
+menaces to kill him if he did not speak the
+truth." The terrified Spaniard informed
+them that the town was well garrisoned, but
+that there were very few inhabitants; the
+merchants only residing in the town while
+the galleons are loading, and that he would
+be able to take the place in spite of all the
+fortresses and the 300 soldiers. Morgan then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span>
+pushed on to the fort, carrying the man
+bound before them, and after a quarter of a
+league reached the castle, where the man's
+company was stationed, closely surrounding
+it, so that no one could get in or go out. The
+prisoner had in vain attempted to avoid this
+redoubt, to which he had served as picket,
+encouraged by Morgan's promises of reward,
+and avowal that he would not give him up to
+his countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards, finding the sentinel gone,
+had already spread the alarm of the Buccaneers'
+approach. From beneath the walls
+Morgan commanded the sentinel to summon
+the garrison to surrender at once to his discretion,
+or they should be cut in pieces
+without quarter. Not regarding these threats,
+the Spaniards began instantly to discharge
+their guns and muskets to alarm the town
+and obtain succour. But though they made
+a good resistance they were soon overpowered,
+and the Buccaneers, driving them into one
+room, set fire to the powder which lay about
+on the floor, and blew the tower and its
+defenders together into the air; all the survivors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>
+they put to the sword, in order to
+strike terror in the city.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak they fell upon the city, and
+found the inhabitants, some still asleep and
+others scared and alarmed; many had thought
+of nothing but hiding their treasure, and only
+the professional soldier prepared for resistance.
+The governor, unable to rally the
+citizens, fled into the citadel, and fired upon
+the town as well as the enemy. The
+frightened herd, stupid with fear, were
+throwing their money and jewels into wells
+and cisterns, or burying their treasure
+in their courtyards, cellars, gardens, and
+chapels. The adventurers, abstaining from
+pillage, sent a chosen party to the convents
+to make prisoners of the religious, male and
+female; while another division prepared
+ladders to escalade the fort, not relaxing for
+a moment either in attack or defence. They
+attempted in vain to burn down a castle-gate
+which proved to be of iron, and baffled
+their efforts, and kept up a warm fire at the
+embrasures, aiming with such dexterity at
+the mouths of the guns as to kill a gunner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>
+or two every time the pieces were either
+run out or loaded.</p>
+
+<p>The firing continued from daybreak till
+noon, and even then the result seemed doubtful,
+for when the adventurers approached the
+walls with their grenades to burn the doors
+the defenders threw down upon them earthen
+pots full of powder, and lighted by a fusee,
+together with showers of stones and other
+missiles. Morgan himself began to despair
+of success, and did not know how to escape
+from that strait, when the English flag arose
+above the smaller fort, and a troop of men
+ran forth to proclaim victory with shouts of
+joy. The remaining castle, however, was
+the <i>pièce de resistance</i>, being the storehouse
+of the church plate, and the wealth of the
+richer citizens now with the garrison. A
+stratagem was suggested, appealing strongly
+to Spanish superstition, and, as it happened,
+successfully. Ten or twelve ladders were made
+so broad and strong that three or four men
+might mount them abreast. To all threats
+the governor replied he would never surrender
+alive, although the religious should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span>
+themselves plant the ladders. The monks
+and nuns were then dragged to the heads of
+the companies, and forced to plant the ladders,
+in spite of the hot rain of fire and shot;
+the governor "using his utmost endeavours
+to destroy all who came near the walls, firing
+on the servants of God, although his kinsmen,
+and prisoners, and forced to the service.
+Delicate women and aged men were goaded
+at the sword's point to this hateful labour,
+derided by the English, and unpitied by their
+countrymen."</p>
+
+<p>All this time the Buccaneers maintained
+an unceasing fire along the whole line of grey
+battlements at every aperture where a pike
+head glittered or a lighted match smouldered;
+suffering much in return, unarmed as they
+were, guarded neither by steel-cap nor cuirass,
+and unsheltered by palisade or earthwork.
+In spite of the cries of the religious as they
+reared the ladders, their prayers to the saints,
+and their entreaties to the garrison to remember
+their common blood and nation,
+many of the priests were shot before the
+walls could be scaled. The more superstitious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>
+of the Spaniards were unnerved at
+hearing the dying curse of the consecrated
+servants of God, rising shrill above the roar
+of the battle. The ladders were at last
+planted, amid a shower of fire-pots that killed
+almost as many of the Spaniards as the English,
+and the Buccaneers sprang up with all the
+agility of sailors and the determination of Berserkers;
+their best marksmen shooting down
+the few Spaniards who awaited their arrival
+at the summit. Their falling bodies struck
+a few Buccaneers from their ladders. Every
+man that went up carried hand grenades,
+pistols, and sabre, but the musket was now
+laid aside, for it had done its work, and was
+a mere encumbrance in the grapple of closer
+combat. The English swarmed up in great
+numbers, and reaching the top kindled their
+fusees and threw down their fire-pots upon the
+crowded ranks of the enemy, with destructive
+effect. Before they could recover their dismay,
+sabre in hand, as if they were boarding,
+they leaped down upon the garrison, who
+drove them off with pikes and clubbed
+muskets, and, closing with them, hurled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>
+many from the ramparts, or, stabbing them,
+fell clenched with the foe in their despair.
+When their cannon was taken, the Spaniards
+threw down their arms and begged for quarter,
+except the governor and a few officers, who
+determined to die fighting against the robbers
+and heretics, the enemies of God and Spain.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers, seeing the red flag flying
+from the first fort, which was the strongest,
+and built on an eminence which commanded
+the towers below, advanced with confidence
+to the attack of the remaining one, hitherto
+thought impregnable, which defended the
+port, and prevented the entrance of their
+vessels, which they wished to secure safe in
+the harbour, as the number of their wounded
+would require their long stay in the place
+they had captured. The governor, proud
+and brave, still refused to surrender, and
+fired upon them with his cannon, which were
+soon silenced by the superior fire of the
+newly-taken fort, which flanked his position.
+Out of this last stronghold, the weary and
+despairing defenders were quickly driven.</p>
+
+<p>Major Castellon, the stout-hearted governor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>
+disdaining to ask quarter of a pack of
+heretic seamen, killed several of his own men
+who would not stand to their arms and called
+on him to save their lives, and struck down
+many of the hunters who tried to take him
+alive, not from a generous compassion, for
+pity seldom entered a Buccaneer's heart,
+but in order to obtain his ransom. A
+still more cruel trial of his courage, and
+duty to his king, awaited him: his wife and
+children fell at his knees, and, with cries
+and tears, begged him to lay down his arms
+and save both their lives. But he obstinately
+and sternly refused, replying, "Better this
+than a scaffold," preferring to die as a
+valiant soldier at his post, than to be hanged
+as a coward for deserting it. He died the
+death of a brave man, fighting desperately,
+and was found buried under the bodies of
+his dead enemies. If unpitied by his ferocious
+foes, he has left a name to be honoured
+by all brave men, as one worthy of a more
+chivalrous age, and a better cause.</p>
+
+<p>It now being nearly sunset, and the city
+their own, the adventurers enclosed all their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span>
+prisoners in the citadel, separating the
+wounded, and, although heedless of their
+sufferings, employing the female slaves to
+wait upon them. It now being nearly night,
+they gave way to all the excesses of soldiers
+in a town taken by storm, exasperated by
+the recollection of past danger, and the
+death of friends, and maddened by both the
+certainty of present pleasure and the power
+of indulging in every success. &#338;xmelin
+says, fifty brave Spaniards might have put
+all the revellers to death, and recovered the
+place. We do not, however, hear that a
+single Spanish Jael was found to revenge
+herself on these modern Siseras.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning Morgan summoned
+his vessels into the harbour, and collecting
+all the loose wealth of the town, had it
+brought into the fort. Directing the repairs
+of the ramparts, scorched and shattered, he
+remounted the guns, in order to be ready
+to repel any attack from Panama. He collected
+a few of the prisoners who had been
+persuaded to say they were the richest merchants
+in Porto Bello, and put all who would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>
+not confess to the torture. He maimed some
+and killed others, who remained silent because
+they were in reality poor, and had concealed
+no treasure. Having spent fifteen
+days in these alternate cruelties and debaucheries,
+Morgan resolved to retreat. No Buccaneer
+general had ever taken a city which
+could not be stripped clean in fourteen days.
+Famine and disease began ungratefully to
+take the part of the Spaniard against the
+nation that had fed them with so many victims.
+Wild waste compelled them already
+to devour their mules and horses, rather than
+die of hunger, or turn cannibals. Parties of
+hunters were sent into the suburbs to hunt
+the cattle, whose flesh they then devoured,
+saving the mules for the prisoners, who,
+between their wounds and their hunger, were
+reduced to dreadful extremities.</p>
+
+<p>A death more terrible than that of a blow
+in battle now appeared in their midst. Many
+had already died victims of excess, and even
+the most prudent perished. The bad food,
+the sudden transition from excess to want,
+and the impurity of the tainted air, produced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>
+a pestilence. The climate of Porto Bello,
+always unhealthy, as Hosier's squadron afterwards
+experienced, was poisoned by the putrefaction
+of the dead bodies, hastily buried,
+and scarcely covered by earth. The wounded
+nearly all sickened, and the intemperate were
+the first to die.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners, crowded together, and already
+weakened mentally by despondency, and
+physically by famine, soon caught the fever,
+and died with dreadful rapidity. Rich merchants,
+accustomed to every luxury, and to the
+most varied and seasoned food, pined under a
+diet of half-putrid mule's flesh, and bad, unfiltered
+water. Everything warned Morgan that
+it was time to weigh anchor, for the president
+of Panama was already on his march towards
+the city at the head of 1500 men. Informed
+of their approach from a slave captured
+by a hunting party, Morgan held a
+council, at which it was agreed not to retreat
+until they had obtained a ransom for the town
+greater than the spoil at present collected;
+and, in order to prevent a surprise, he placed
+a body of 100 well-armed men in a narrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span>
+defile, where but a few men could go abreast,
+and through which the president must pass.
+They found that that general had fewer
+troops with him than was reported, and these
+took flight at the first encounter, and did not
+attempt again to force a passage, but waited
+for reinforcements. The president, with the
+usual gasconade of a Spaniard, sent word to
+Morgan, that if he did not at once leave
+Porto Bello he should receive no quarter
+when he should take him and his companions,
+as he hoped soon to do.</p>
+
+<p>To this, Morgan, knowing he had a sure
+means of escape, said he should not leave
+till he had received 180,000 pieces of eight
+as a ransom for the city, and if he could not
+get this he should kill all his prisoners, blow
+up the castle, and burn the town, and two
+men were sent by him to the president to
+procure the money.</p>
+
+<p>The president, seeing that nothing could
+either deceive or intimidate Morgan, gave up
+Porto Bello to its fate, not caring to erect a
+silver bridge for a flying enemy. In vain he
+sent to Carthagena for a fleet to block up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>
+ships in the river; in vain he kept the citizens
+in suspense as to the money, in hopes of
+gaining time. He was deaf and obdurate to
+all the entreaties of the citizens, who sent to
+inform him that the pirates were not men
+but devils, and that they fought with such
+fury that the Spanish officers had stabbed
+themselves, in very despair, at seeing a supposed
+impregnable fortress taken by a handful
+of people, when it should have held out
+against twice the number.</p>
+
+<p>Don Juan Perez de Guzman, the president,
+a man of "great parts," and who had attained
+high rank in the war in Flanders,
+expressed himself, with candour, as astonished
+at the exploits of 400 men (not regular soldiers)
+who, with no other arms but their
+muskets, had taken a city which any general
+in Europe would have found necessary to
+have blockaded in due form. He gave the
+people of Porto Bello, at the same time, leave
+to compound for their safety, but offered
+them no aid to insure it.</p>
+
+<p>To Morgan himself he could not refrain
+from expressing astonishment. He admired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>
+his success, with no ordnance for batteries,
+and against the citizens of a place who bore
+the reputation of being good soldiers, never
+wanting courage in their own defence. He
+begged, at the same time, that he would send
+him some small pattern of the arms wherewith
+he had, with such vigour, taken so great
+a city. Morgan received the messenger with
+great kindness and civility, flattered by the
+compliment from an enemy, and glad of an
+opportunity of expressing contempt of any
+assailants. He took a hunter's musket from
+one of his men, and sent it, together with a
+handful of Buccaneer bullets, to the president,
+begging him to accept it as a small
+pattern of the arms wherewith he had taken
+Porto Bello, hoping he would keep it a
+twelvemonth or two, at which time he hoped
+to visit Panama and fetch it away. The
+Spaniard, astonished at the wit and civility of
+the captain, whom he had deemed a mere
+brutal sea thief, sent a messenger to return the
+present, as he did not need the loan of weapons,
+but thanking Morgan and praising his
+courage, remarking at the same time that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>
+was a pity that such a man should not be
+employed in a just war, and in the service of
+a great and good prince, and hoping, in conclusion,
+that he would not give himself the
+trouble of coming to see him at Panama, as
+he would not fare there so well as he had
+done at Porto Bello. Having delivered this
+message, so chivalrous in its tone, the messenger
+presented Morgan with a beautiful
+gold ring, set with a costly emerald, as a remembrance
+of his master Don Guzman, who
+had already supplied the English chief with
+fresh provisions.</p>
+
+<p>Having now provided himself with all
+necessaries, and stripped the unfortunate
+city of almost everything but its tiles and
+its paving stones, carried off half of the
+castle guns and spiked the rest, he then
+set sail, taking on board the ransom, which
+was punctually paid in the shape of silver
+bars. Corn seldom grew where his foot had
+once been, and he left behind him famine,
+pestilence, poverty, and death. Orphans
+and widows, mutilated men and violated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>
+women leaped for joy as his fleet melted into
+the distance.</p>
+
+<p>Setting sail, with great speed, he arrived
+in eight days at Cuba, where the spoil was
+divided.</p>
+
+<p>They found that they had in gold and
+silver, whether in coin or bar, and in
+jewels, which from haste and ignorance were
+seldom estimated at one-fourth part of their
+value, to the value of 260,000 pieces of
+eight. This did not include the silks and
+merchandise, of which they paid little heed,
+only valuing coin or bullion, and regarding
+the richest prize without coin as scarce
+worth the taking. This division accomplished,
+to the general satisfaction of all
+but the people of Porto Bello, who were
+now poor enough to defy all thieves,
+they returned at once to Jamaica, where
+they were magnificently received, &#338;xmelin
+says, "<i>surtout des cabaretiers</i>." Every door
+was open to them, and for a whole week
+all loudly praised their generosity and their
+courage; at the end of a month, every door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span>
+was shut in their faces, all but one&mdash;the
+prison for debts, and that closed behind their
+backs. "They spent in a short time," says
+one of their historians, "with boundless prodigality,
+what they had gained with boundless
+danger and unremitting toil." The people
+of Tortuga considered them as mere slaves,
+who dived to get their pearls, and cared not
+whether they perished by the wave or by the
+shark, so the pearls which they had gathered
+could be first secured.</p>
+
+<p>"Not long after their arrival in Jamaica,"
+says Esquemeling, "being that short time
+needed to lavish away all their riches, they
+concluded on another enterprise to seek new
+fortunes:" a sailor spends his money quickly,
+and so does a highwayman&mdash;in them both
+trades were combined. Morgan remained
+at rest as long as most Buccaneers did, that
+is to say, till he had drunk out half his
+money, strung the jewels of Spanish matrons
+around the necks of the fairest courtesans in
+Jamaica, and stripped himself at the gambling-table
+to-day in the hope of recovering
+the losses of yesterday. As his purse grew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span>
+thin his heart grew stout, as his hunger
+grew greater his thirst for blood began also
+to increase. At last he looked seaward,
+turned his back on the lotus-land and the
+sirens, and prepared for sea.</p>
+
+<p>His rendezvous this time was fixed in a
+small island on the south side of Hispaniola,
+in order to invite both the French hunters
+and the sailors of Tortuga. By this sign of
+confidence Morgan hoped to remove all
+rankling prejudice between the French and
+English adventurers, and to obtain recruits
+from both nations. He resolved this time
+upon an expedition which would enable him
+and his men to retire from the sea life for
+ever, or at least to hold a longer revel.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers of the coast seeing him
+always successful, and never returning without
+booty, less cruel and less rash than Lolonnois,
+and not only very brave but very
+fortunate, flocked to his flag almost without
+a summons. Every one furbished up his
+musket, cast bullets, bought powder, or
+fitted up a canoe. Parties were at once
+despatched to hunt in the savannahs, and to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>
+prepare salted meat sufficient for the voyage.
+Great numbers of French and English
+crowded to Cow Island.</p>
+
+<p>A powerful ally appeared at this crisis, in
+the shape of a French vessel, <i>Le Cerf Volant</i>,
+of St. Malo, which had come out to the
+Indies, virtuously intending to trade with
+the Spaniards, but, finding this difficult or
+unprofitable, had less virtuously determined
+to live by plundering them, and was now
+manned by French adventurers from Tortuga,
+no friends to Morgan, but anxious to share
+his booty. The vessel, which had also a
+long-boat towing at its stern, had a short
+time before attacked a Genoese ship, trading
+with negroes, but which, mounting forty-eight
+cannon, had driven it off, and compelled the
+captain to return home and refit. The crew
+seemed unwilling to trust the English, and
+would not listen to any terms. Morgan, who
+had just been joined by a ship from New
+England with thirty-six cannon, longed to
+add the twenty-four iron guns and the twelve
+brass ones of <i>Le Cerf Volant</i> to his collection.
+In spite of his wish to unite the two nations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>
+and close the green and still rankling wound,
+the temptation was rather too strong for him.
+His guardian angel slept for a moment, and
+when she awoke the English flag floated at
+the Frenchman's peak.</p>
+
+<p>The change happened thus: the French
+captain having refused to join Morgan's expedition,
+unless he drew up a peculiar charter
+party opposed to all Buccaneer law, and
+quarrelling about this, he swore <i>ventre St.
+Gris</i>, he would return to Tortuga, reload his
+cargo, and return to France.</p>
+
+<p>The blow was to be struck now or never.
+The English part of the St. Malo crew had
+already deserted to Morgan. Some of these
+men furnished him with an opportunity of
+revenge. The merchant captain, unaccustomed
+to the looseness of Buccaneer discipline,
+had treated them as sailors, and not as
+<i>matelots</i> and brothers. They told Morgan,
+that being short of victual, he had lately
+stopped an English vessel, and taken provisions
+by force, paying the commander only
+with bills of exchange, cashable at Jamaica,
+and that he carried secretly a Spanish commission,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>
+empowering him to plunder the
+English. These charges, though full of malice,
+had a specious appearance of truth.
+The captain had indeed stopped an English
+vessel, but had paid for all he had taken with
+honest bills. He did also carry a Spanish
+commission, having been driven to anchor at
+the port of Baracoa, on the north-east side
+of Cuba, where he had obtained letters of
+marque from the governor, in order to conceal
+his real errand. Morgan considered this a
+sufficient pretext, and sounded his crew to
+ascertain how far they would help him at the
+moment of need. It was at this very moment
+of indecision that the New England
+vessel joined the fleet, and enabled him to
+bear down any opposition. This ship, which
+&#338;xmelin calls the <i>Haktswort</i> (Oxford?)
+carried a crew of 300 men. It was said to
+belong to the king of England (Charles
+II.), and to have been lent by him to the
+present captain.</p>
+
+<p>[A strange, improbable story, unless the
+English government had really determined to
+encourage the Buccaneer movement. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>
+<i>Haktswort</i> was really sent by the governor
+of Jamaica to join the expedition.]</p>
+
+<p>With this timely succour Morgan's mind
+was instantly made up. He asked the St.
+Malo captain and all his officers to dinner, on
+board the newly-arrived vessel, and there
+made them prisoners, without any resistance,
+away from their crew, and with their ship exposed
+to an overwhelming fire. He then affected
+the anger of indignant justice, declared
+they were robbers, who plundered the English
+under a commission from the enemy,
+and came there as mere spies and traitors.
+Fortunately for him, the English vessel that
+had been stopped by the St. Malo crew arrived
+at the very moment to repeat and exaggerate
+the charge. The ship was now his
+own, and only God could take it from him.
+And "God did so," says Esquemeling, who
+sees a judgment in all misfortunes that befal
+an enemy, but none in those that befal his
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, victorious and exulting, called a
+council of war, and summoned all his captains
+to attend him on board his large prize. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>
+praised the vessel, laughed at the tricked
+Frenchmen, and discussed their plans. They
+calculated what provisions they had in store,
+and of what their force was capable. The
+island of Savona was agreed upon as a rendezvous,
+as at that east corner of Hispaniola
+they might lurk and cut off stragglers from
+the armed Spanish flota, now daily expected.
+Having completed their arrangements they
+gave way to pleasure, the real occupation
+and business of a Buccaneer's life, his toil
+being only expended to procure the means
+for pleasure, and time to enjoy it. They
+began to feast and drink healths, the officers
+below and the sailors on deck. Prayers for
+a successful voyage were blended with drunken
+songs, and unintelligible blasphemies. The
+captain and the cook were both drunk, the
+very gunners who discharged a broadside
+when the toasts were drained, fell senseless
+beside their smoking guns. Those who could
+not move slept, those who could walk drank
+on. By some accident, a spark from a smoking
+match caught the powder, and in an instant
+the vessel blew up. In perfect equality<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>
+all ranks were lifted up towards heaven, in
+a column of flame, only to fall back again to
+perish, burnt and helpless, in the sea. More
+than 350 of the 400 men that formed the
+crew were drowned. By a singular coincidence,
+the officers nearly all escaped. The
+English having their powder stored in the
+fore part of the vessel, and not in the stern
+like the French, the sailors only perished;
+the officers and the St. Malo prisoners who
+were drinking with them were merely blown,
+much bruised, into the water. The English
+adventurers, declaring that the French had
+set fire to the powder, would have killed
+them on the spot, but Morgan, not apparently
+the least chapfallen by the disappointment,
+sent them all as prisoners to Jamaica. The
+thirty men, seated in the great cabin at
+some distance from the main force of the
+powder, escaped, and many more would have
+been saved had they been sober.</p>
+
+<p>The French prisoners in vain endeavoured
+to obtain justice in Jamaica, were long detained
+in confinement, and threatened with
+death when they demanded a trial. Had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>
+Morgan returned unsuccessful they might
+have perhaps been listened to.</p>
+
+<p>Eight days after this loss Morgan commanded
+his men to collect the floating bodies
+now putrifying, not to give them Christian
+burial, but to save the clothes, and to remove
+the heavy gold rings which the English Buccaneers
+wore upon their forefingers, abandoning
+their unsaleable bodies to the birds and
+to the sharks.</p>
+
+<p>Undaunted by this accident, Morgan
+found he had still a force of fifteen vessels,
+and 860 men, but his gun ship, the largest of
+all, only carried fourteen small guns. They
+now made way to Savona, where all were to
+repair and careen, and the swift to wait for
+the slow. Letters were soon placed in
+bottles, and buried at a spot indicated by a
+mark agreed on. Coasting Hispaniola, they
+were detained by contrary winds, and attempted
+for three weeks in vain to double
+Cape Lobos. Their provisions ran short, but
+they were relieved by an English vessel,
+bound to Jamaica, which had a superfluity
+for sale.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Always seeking for pleasure, though in
+emergencies capable of the severest self-denials,
+six or seven of the fleet remained
+clustering round this vessel to purchase
+brandy, as eager and thoughtless as stragglers
+round a vivandière. The more thoughtful
+and earnest pressed on with Morgan, and,
+reaching the bay of Ocoa, waited for them
+there, the men spending their time usefully,
+as they had agreed before, in hunting, and
+foraging for water and provisions, killing some
+oxen and a few horses. Detained here by
+continued bad weather, Morgan maintained
+strict discipline, compelling every captain to
+send, daily, on shore eight men from each
+ship, making a total force of sixty-four. He
+also instituted a convoy, or a body of armed
+men, who attended the hunters as a guard,
+for they were now near St. Domingo, which
+was full of Greek soldiers and Spanish matadors.
+The Spaniards, few in number, did
+not attack them, but, adopting a Fabian
+policy, which suited their pride and phlegm,
+sent for 300 or 400 men to kill all the cattle
+round the bay. Another party drove all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>
+herds far into the interior, wishing to starve
+the foe out of the island, knowing that a
+Buccaneer, pressed by hunger, did not care
+whether he ate horse, mule, or ass, falling
+back upon monkeys and parrots, and resorting
+to sharks' flesh or his own shoes as a
+last resource. But when the Buccaneers
+spread further inland, a body of soldiers was
+despatched to the coast, to practise a stratagem,
+and to form an ambuscade.</p>
+
+<p>The following was their plan, which completely
+succeeded, but nevertheless ended in
+the Spaniards' total rout. A band of fifty
+Buccaneers having resolved to venture further
+than usual into the woods, a party of
+Spanish muleteers were ordered to drive the
+bait, a small herd of cattle, past the shore,
+where they had landed, pretending to fly
+when they caught sight of their enemies.
+When they approached the ambuscade two
+Spaniards were sent out, carrying a white
+flag of truce. The Buccaneers, ceasing the
+pursuit, pushed forward two men to parley.</p>
+
+<p>The treacherous Spaniards beseeched them
+plaintively not to kill their cows, offering to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>
+sell them cattle, or furnish them with food.
+The Buccaneers, with all the good faith of
+seamen, replied that they would give a
+crown and a-half for each ox, and that the
+seller could make his own profit besides
+on the hide and the tallow. During this
+time, which was planned to give time for the
+operation, the Spanish troops were turning
+the flank of the enemy, and had now surrounded
+the small band on all sides. They
+interrupted the conversation by breaking out
+of the wood, with shots and cries of "<i>Mata,
+mata</i>"&mdash;"kill, kill," imagining they could cut
+to pieces so small a force without a struggle.
+The Buccaneers, differing from them in
+opinion, faced about with good heart, threw
+themselves into a square, and beat a slow
+retreat to the forest, keeping up a rolling fire
+from all four sides of their brave phalanx.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards, considering the retreat a
+sure proof of despair and fear, attacked them
+with great courage, but great loss. The
+Buccaneers losing no men, while the Spaniards
+fell thick and fast, cried out, in imprudent
+bravado, that they were only trying to frighten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>
+them, and put no balls in their muskets.
+This jest cost them dear, for the Spaniards
+had been only aiming high, wishing to kill
+them on the spot and to make no prisoners.
+They now tried to maim as well as kill, and
+soon wounded so many in the legs that the
+Buccaneers were obliged to retreat to a
+clump of trees, where they stood at bay, and
+from whence the Spaniards did not dare to beat
+them. They then began to prepare to carry off
+their dead and wounded to the vessels, but
+seeing a small party of Spaniards piercing
+one of the bodies with their swords, they
+fired upon them, charged them, and drove
+them off, tracking their way by their dead,
+and then retreated, killing the cattle and
+bearing them off in sorrowful triumph to their
+vessels. The very next day, at the first
+light, Morgan, furious to revenge this
+treachery of the Spaniards, landed himself at
+the head of 200 men, and entered the woods,
+visiting the scene of the last night's skirmish.
+But the Spaniards had long since fled, discovering
+that in driving cattle towards the
+shore as a lure for the Buccaneer, they only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>
+brought destruction upon themselves, and a
+dangerous enemy nearer to their homes and
+treasures. Morgan, finding his search useless,
+returned to his ship, having first burned
+down all the deserted huts he could find:
+"Returning," says Esquemeling, "somewhat
+more satisfied in his mind for having done
+considerable damage to the enemy, which
+was always his ardent desire."</p>
+
+<p>The day after, deciding not to venture an
+attack upon Bourg d'Asso, Morgan, impatient
+at the delay of his vessels, resolved
+to sail without them, and visit Savona,
+hoping there to meet his lingering companions.
+Alarming the people of St. Domingo,
+he coasted round Hispaniola. He
+determined to wait eight days at Savona, and,
+weary of rest, still wanting provisions, he
+sent some boats and 150 men to plunder the
+towns round St. Domingo, but they, finding
+the Spaniards vigilant and desperate, gave
+up the enterprise as hopeless, and returned
+empty-handed to endure the curses and sneers
+of their commander. Morgan now held a
+council of war, for provisions were very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>
+scanty and time was going. The eight ships
+did not arrive, and all agreed, with their
+seven small vessels and their 300 men, some
+place of importance might still be taken.
+Morgan had hitherto resolved to cruise about
+the Caraccas and plunder the towns and
+villages, mere hen-roost robbing and footpad
+work, compared with the enterprise proposed
+by one of his French captains amid great
+applause.</p>
+
+<p>This captain was Pierre le Picard, the
+<i>matelot</i> of the famous Lolonnois when he took
+Maracaibo: he it was who had steered the
+vessels over the bar, and had served both as
+pilot at sea and guide on land; he reefed
+and fought, and could handle a rope as well
+as a musket. He now proposed a second
+attack upon the same place, and, with all the
+rude eloquence of sincerity, proved the facility
+of the attempt, and the riches that lay within
+their reach. As he spoke good English that
+could be understood by all, and was, moreover,
+much esteemed by Morgan, the scheme
+for a new campaign was at once rapturously
+approved. He disclosed in the council all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>
+the entries, passages, forces, and means. A
+charter-party was drawn up, containing a
+clause, that if the rest of the fleet joined
+them before they had taken a fortress, they
+should be allowed to share like the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Having left a letter at Savona, buried in
+the usual way, the Buccaneers set sail for
+Curaçoa, stopping after some days' sail at
+the island of Omba, to take in water and
+provisions. This place was distant some
+twelve leagues from Maracaibo. Here they
+stayed twenty-four hours, buying goats of
+the natives for hanks of thread and linen.
+Sheep, lambs, and kids were the only products
+of the island, which abounded with
+spiders whose bite produced madness, unless
+the sufferer was tied hands and feet, and left
+without food for a night and a day. The
+fleet set sail in the night, to prevent the
+islanders discovering the object of their voyage.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning they sighted the small
+islands that lie at the entrance of the lake of
+Maracaibo, anchoring out of sight of the
+Vigilia, in hopes to escape notice, but were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span>
+observed by the sentries, whose signal gave
+the Spaniards ample time for defence. The
+fleet remained becalmed, unable to reach the
+bar till four o'clock in the afternoon. The
+canoes were instantly manned, in order to
+take the Bar Fort, rebuilt since Picard's last
+visit. Its guns played upon the boats as
+they pulled to land. Morgan exhorted his
+men to be brave and not to give way&mdash;for he
+expected the Spaniards would defend themselves
+desperately, seeing their fire was so
+rolling and incessant that the fort seemed
+like the crater of a small volcano, and
+they could now see that the huts round the
+wall had been burnt and removed, to leave
+them no protection or shelter. "The dispute
+continued very hot, being managed with
+great courage from morning till dark night."</p>
+
+<p>That latterly the fighting died away to occasional
+shots is evident, for, at six o'clock when
+it grew dusk, Morgan reconnoitred the fort, and
+found it deserted. The cessation of the fire had
+already roused their suspicions. Suspecting
+treachery, Morgan searched the place to see if
+any lighted fuses had been placed near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>
+powder, and a division was employed to enter
+the place before the main body. There was
+no lack of volunteers for this experimental
+and cat's-paw work. Morgan himself clambered
+up first. As they expected, they found
+a lighted match, and a dark train of powder
+communicating with the magazine. A little
+later and the whole band had perished together.
+Morgan himself snatched up the
+match. This fort was a redoubt of five toises
+high, six long, and three round. In the
+magazine they found 3,000 pounds of gunpowder
+that would have been wasted had the
+place been blown up; fourteen pieces of
+cannon, of eight, twelve, and fourteen pounds
+calibre, and abundance of fire-pots, hand-grenades,
+and carcases; twenty-four muskets
+and thirty pikes and bandoliers had been left
+by the runaways. The fort was only accessible
+by an iron ladder, which could be drawn
+up into the guard-room. But courage requires
+no ladder, and, like love, can always
+find out a way. When they had once
+examined the place, the Buccaneers broke
+down the parapet, spiked the cannon,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>
+threw them over the walls, and burnt the
+gun-carriages.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards waited in vain for the roar
+of their bursting mine. Their own city was
+rocking beneath their feet; a more dreadful
+visitation than the earthquake or the hurricane
+was at their doors. At daybreak the
+fleet sailed up the lake, the ruined fort
+smoking behind them. Making great haste,
+they arrived at Maracaibo the next day,
+having first divided among themselves the
+arms and ammunition of the fort. The water
+being very low and the shoals numerous, they
+disembarked into their boats, with a few
+small cannon. From some cavaliers whom
+they could see on the walls they believed
+that the Spaniards were fortifying themselves.
+The Buccaneers therefore landed at some
+distance from the town, anchoring and disembarking
+amid discharges of their own
+cannon, intending to clear the thickets on
+the shore. Their men they divided into two
+divisions, in order to embarrass the enemy
+by a double attack.</p>
+
+<p>But these precautions were useless. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>
+timid people had already fled into the woods;
+only the beggars, who feared no plunderers,
+and the sick, who were praying for death,
+remained in Maracaibo. The brave fled with
+the coward, the monk with the sinner, the
+thief from the thieves, the soldiers from
+the seamen, the Catholic from the dreaded
+Protestant, and the Spaniard from the enemies
+of his name and race. The sick were
+expecting death, and cared not if it came by
+the hand of the doctor or the Buccaneer;
+the beggar hoped to benefit by those who
+could not covet, and might pity, their rags.
+"A few miserable folk, who had nothing to
+lose," says Esquemeling, "alone remained."
+Crippled slaves, not worth removing, lay in
+the streets; the dying groaned untended in
+the hospital. Children fled from parents, and
+parents from children; rich old age was left
+to die in spite of all the inducements of
+avarice. The prostitute fled to escape dishonour,
+and the murderer to avoid bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>The houses were empty, the doors open,
+the chambers stripped of every movable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>
+costly or precious. The first care of the
+invaders was to search every corner for
+prisoners, the next to secure, each party as
+they arrived, the richest palaces for their
+barracks. The palaces were their dens, the
+churches their prisons; everything they defiled
+and polluted, the loathsome things they
+made still more horrible, the holy they in
+some degree contaminated. At sea they
+were brave, obedient, self-denying, religious
+in formula (half the world goes no further),
+determined, and irresistible; on land cruel,
+bloody, rebellious, and ferocious. At sea
+they exceeded most men in the practice of
+the sterner virtues, on land they were demons
+of wrath, devils of drunkenness and lust,
+mercenaries and outlaws in their bearing and
+their actions. The three former days of
+terror had sapped the courage of the bravest,
+and alarm and fear had, by a common panic,
+induced the inhabitants to hide the merchandise
+in the woods. The men who fled
+had had fathers and children killed and tortured
+in the first expedition. Friends, still
+maimed by the rack, increased their fears by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>
+their narrations. The Buccaneers seemed a
+judgment from God, irresistible and unavertable.
+The desire to defend riches seems to
+be a weaker principle in the human mind
+than the desire to obtain them. Great conquerors
+have generally been poorer than the
+nations they have conquered.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely any provisions remained in the
+town. There was no vessel or boat in the
+port, all had been removed into the wide lake
+beyond. The small demilune fort, with its
+four cannon, that was intended to guard the
+harbour, was also deserted. The richer the
+man, the further he had escaped inland; the
+needy were in the woods, the drunken beggars
+revelled alone in the town, rejoicing in an
+event that at least made them rich: "It is an
+ill wind that blows nobody good."</p>
+
+<p>The very same day the Buccaneers despatched
+a body of 100 men to search the woods
+for refugees, any attempt to secrete treasure
+being a heavy offence in the eyes of Morgan.
+These men returned the next evening
+with thirty prisoners, fifty mules, and several
+horses laden with baggage and rich merchandise.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span>
+Both the male and female prisoners
+seemed poor and worthless. They were immediately
+tortured, in order to induce them
+to disclose where their richer and more
+virtuous fellow citizens were hidden. Morgan,
+finding none to resist him, quartered his
+men in the richest houses, selecting the
+church as their central guard-house and
+rallying point, their store-room for plunder,
+their court of justice (blind and with false
+weights), and their torture-chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the prisoners offered to act as
+guides to places where they knew money and
+jewels were hidden. As several places were
+named, two parties went out the same night
+upon this exciting search. The one party
+returned on the morrow with much booty,
+the other did not wander in for two days,
+having been misled by a prisoner, who, in
+the hopes of finding means to escape through
+his knowledge of the country, had led them
+into such dangerous and uninhabited places
+that they had had a thousand difficulties in
+avoiding. Furious at finding themselves
+mocked by their guide, they hung him on a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>
+tree without any parley. In returning they
+came, however, suddenly upon some slaves
+who were seeking for food by night, having
+been hiding in the woods all day. Torture
+was at once resorted to, to find out where
+the masters lay, for slaves could not be there
+alone. The braver of the two suffered the
+most horrible pain without disclosing a syllable,
+and was eventually cut to pieces without
+confessing; the weaker, and perhaps
+younger negro, endured his sufferings at first
+with equal fortitude, although he was offered
+liberty and reward if he would speak. But
+when the seamen drew their sabres, still red
+with the blood of his companion, and began
+to hew and gash his brother's limbs that
+still lay palpitating on the ground, his
+courage fell, and he offered to lead them to
+his master. The Spaniard was soon taken
+with 30,000 crowns' worth of plate.</p>
+
+<p>For eight days the men practised unheard-of
+cruelties upon the wretched townsmen,
+already starved and beggared, wretches whose
+only crime had been their yielding to the
+natural impulse of self-preservation. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>
+hung them up by their beards and by the
+hair of their heads, by an arm or a leg; they
+stretched their limbs tight with cords, and
+then beat with rattans upon the rigid flesh;
+they placed burning matches between their
+fingers; they twisted cords about their heads,
+tightening the strain by the leverage of their
+pistol stocks, till the eyes sprang from the
+sockets. The deathblow was never given
+from pity, but as the climax and consummation
+of suffering, and when the executioners
+were weary of their cruelty. In vain the
+tortured Spaniards screamed that the treasure
+was all removed to Gibraltar, and that they
+were not the rich citizens but very poor men,
+monks and servants of Jesus, God help them!
+Many died before the rack could be loosened.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Picard, exulting in the success of
+his expedition, was now very urgent in
+pressing Morgan to advance on Gibraltar
+before succours could arrive there from Merida,
+believing that it would surrender as it
+had done to Lolonnois. Morgan having in
+his custody about 100 of the chief families of
+Maracaibo, and all the accessible booty, embarked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>
+eight days after his landing, and
+proceeded to Gibraltar, hoping to rival Lolonnois
+in every virtue. His prisoners and
+plunder went with him, and he determined
+to hazard a battle. Expecting an obstinate
+defence, every Buccaneer made his will, consoling
+himself by the thought of revelry at
+Jamaica if he was one of those lucky enough
+to escape. "Death," says &#338;xmelin, "was
+never much mixed up in their thoughts,
+especially when there was booty in view, for
+if there were only some hopes of plunder they
+would fight like lions." Before the fleet
+started, two prisoners had been sent to
+Gibraltar to warn the governor that Captain
+Morgan would give him no quarter if he did
+not surrender.</p>
+
+<p>Picard, who remembered the former dangerous
+spots, made his men land about a
+quarter of a league from the town, and march
+through the woods in hopes of taking the
+Spaniards in the rear, in case they should be
+again entrenched. The enemy received them
+with quick discharges of cannon, but the
+men cheered each other, saying, "We must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>
+make a breakfast of these bitter things ere
+we sup on the sweetmeats of Gibraltar."
+They landed early in the morning, and
+found no more difficulty than at Maracaibo.
+The Spaniards, deceived by a stratagem, had
+expected their approach by the road, and not
+by the woods. They had no time to throw
+up entrenchments, and only a few barricades,
+planted with cannon, protected their flight.
+They remembered Lolonnois; their hearts
+became as water, and they fled as the Buccaneers
+took peaceable possession of the town.
+The Spaniards took with them their riches,
+and all their ammunition, to use at some more
+convenient period. Morgan, rejoicing in
+the easy victory, posted his men at the
+strong points of the town, while 100 men,
+under Picard, went out to pursue and bring
+in prisoners. They found the guns spiked,
+and every house sacked by its owner, much
+spoiled, much carried off, and the heavy and
+the worthless alone left.</p>
+
+<p>The only inhabitant remaining in the
+town was a poor half-witted Spaniard, who
+had not clearly ascertained what he ought to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>
+do. He was so well dressed that they at
+first took him, much to his delight, for a man
+of rank, and asked him what had become of
+all the people of Gibraltar. He replied, "they
+had been gone a day, but he did not know
+where; he had not asked, but he dare say
+they would soon be back, and for his part
+he, Pepé, did not care." When they inquired
+where the sugar-mills were, he replied
+that he had never seen any in his life. The
+church money, he knew, was hid in the
+sacristy of the great church. Taking them
+there he showed them a large coffer, where he
+pretended to have seen it hid. They opened
+it and found it empty. To all other inquiries
+he now answered, "I know nothing, I know
+nothing." Some of the Buccaneers, angry
+at the disappointment, and vexed at the
+subtlety of the Spaniards, declared the fellow
+was more knave than fool, and dragged him to
+torture. They gave him first the strapado, till
+he began to wish the people were returned;
+they then hung him up for two hours with
+heavy stones tied to his feet, till his arms
+were dislocated. At last he cried out, "Do not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span>
+plague me any more, but come with me and
+I will show you my goods and my riches."
+He then led them to a miserable hovel, containing
+only a few earthen pots and three
+pieces of eight, wrapped in faded finery,
+buried under the hearth. He then said his
+name was Don Sebastian Sanchez, brother of
+the governor of Maracaibo, that he was
+worth more than 50,000 crowns, and that he
+would write for it and give it up if they
+would cease to hang and plague him so.
+They then tortured him again, thinking he
+was a grandee in disguise, till he offered, if
+he was released, to show them a refinery.
+They had not got a musket-shot from the hut
+before he fell on his knees and gave himself
+up as a criminal. "Jesu Maria!" he cried,
+"what will you do with me, Englishmen? I
+am a poor man who live on alms, and sleep in
+the hospital." They then lit palm-leaves
+and scorched him, and would have burnt off
+all his clothes had he not been released by
+one of the Buccaneers who now saw he was
+an idiot. The poor fellow died in great
+torment in about half-an-hour, and before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>
+grew cold was dragged into the woods and
+buried.</p>
+
+<p>The following day Picard brought in an
+old peasant and his two daughters; the old
+man, his crippled limbs having been tortured,
+offered to serve as guide, and lead them to
+some houses in the suburbs. Half blind and
+frightened, he mistook his way, and the Buccaneers,
+thinking the error intentional, made
+a slave, who declared he had intentionally
+misled them, hang him on a tree by the
+road side.</p>
+
+<p>Slavery here brought its own retribution,
+for this same slave, burning to avenge some
+ill treatment he had received, offered, on
+being made free, to lead them to many of the
+Spanish places of refuge. Before evening ten
+or twelve families, with all their wealth, were
+brought into Gibraltar. It had now become
+difficult to track the fugitives, as fathers
+refused even to trust their children; no one
+slept twice in the same spot, for fear that
+some one who knew of the retreat would be
+captured, and then, under torture, betray the
+spot, generally huts in the darkest recesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>
+of the woods, where their goods were stored
+from the weather. These exiles were, however,
+obliged to steal at night to their country houses
+to obtain food, and then they were intercepted.
+From some of these merchants Morgan
+heard that a vessel of 100 tons, and three
+barges laden with silver and merchandise
+belonging to Maracaibo, now lay in the river;
+about six leagues distant, and 100 men were
+despatched to secure the prize.</p>
+
+<p>In scouring the woods again with a body
+of 200 human bloodhounds, Morgan surprised
+a large body of Spaniards. Some of these he
+forced the negro guide to kill before the eyes
+of the others, in order to implicate him in
+the eyes of the survivors. After eight days'
+search the band returned with 250 prisoners,
+and a long train of baggage mules, bound for
+Merida. The prisoners were each separately
+examined as to where the treasure was hid.
+Those who would not confess, and even those
+who had nothing to confess, were tortured to
+death&mdash;burnt, maimed, or had their life
+slowly crushed out of them.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the greatest sufferers in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span>
+purgatory on earth was an old Portuguese of
+venerable appearance, perhaps either a miser
+or purposely disguised. This man the blood-thirsty
+negro, now high in favour with the
+Buccaneers, and trying to rival them in
+cruelty, declared was very rich. The poor
+old man, tearing his thin grey hair, swore by
+the Virgin and all the saints that he had but
+100 pieces of eight in the whole world, and
+these had been stolen from him a few days
+before, during the general chaos, by a runaway
+slave. This he vowed on his knees
+with tears and prayers, doubly vehement
+when coming from one already on the grave's
+brink. The cruel slave still looked sneeringly
+on, and swore he was known to be the richest
+merchant in all Gibraltar. The Buccaneers
+then stretched the Portuguese with cords till
+both his arms broke at the shoulder, and
+then bound him by the hands and feet to the
+four corners of a room, placing upon his loins
+a stone, weighing five cwt., while four men,
+laughing at his cries, kept the cords that
+tied him in perpetual motion. This inhuman
+punishment they called "swimming on land."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>
+As he still refused to speak, they held fire
+under him as he swung groaning, burnt
+off his beard and moustaches, and then left
+him hanging while they strapadoed another.
+The next man they threw into a ditch, after
+having pierced him with many sword thrusts,
+for they seem to have been as insatiable for
+variety of cruelty as they were for cruelty
+itself. They left him for dead, but he
+crawled home, and eventually recovered,
+although several sword blades had passed
+completely through his body.</p>
+
+<p>As for the old Portuguese, his sufferings were
+far from ended; putting him on a mule they
+brought him into Gibraltar, and imprisoned
+him in the church, binding him to a pillar
+apart from the rest, supplying him with food
+barely sufficient to enable him to endure his
+tortures. Four or five days having passed, he
+entreated that a certain fellow prisoner, whom
+he named, might be brought to him. This
+request being complied with, as the first
+step to obtaining a ransom while he still
+remained alive, he offered them, through
+this agent, a sum of 500 pieces of eight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>
+But the Buccaneers laughed at so small a
+sum, and fell upon him with clubs, crying
+"500,000, old hunx, and not 500, or you
+shall not live." After several more days of
+continued suffering, during which he incessantly
+protested that he was a poor man and
+kept a small tavern, the miser confessed that
+he had a store of 2000 pieces of eight, buried
+in an earthen jar, and all these, bruised and
+mutilated as he was and much as he loved
+money, he gave for his liberty, and a few
+days more of life.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the other prisoners, without regard
+to age, sex, or rank, they inflicted tortures
+too disgusting and shocking to mention. Fear,
+hatred, and avarice generated crimes, till the
+prisoners grew as vile as their persecutors.</p>
+
+<p>A slave, who had been cruelly treated by
+his master, persuaded the Buccaneers to
+torture him on the plea that he was very
+rich, although he was in reality a man of no
+wealth. The other prisoners, roused from
+the selfishness of self-preservation by a thrill
+of involuntary compassion, told Morgan that
+the Spaniard was a poor man, and that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>
+slave had perjured himself to obtain revenge.
+Morgan released the Spaniard directly, but
+he had been already tortured. The slave
+was given up to his master to be punished
+by any sort of death he chose to inflict.
+Handed over to the Buccaneers, he was
+chopped to pieces in his master's presence,
+still exulting in his revenge. "This," says
+&#338;xmelin, with a cold <i>naïveté</i>, "satisfait
+l'Espagnol, quoyqu'il fust fort mal traité, et
+en danger d'estre estropié" (this satisfied the
+Spaniard, though he had been very badly
+treated, and almost lamed for life). Some of
+the prisoners were crucified, others were burnt
+with matches tied between their toes or
+fingers, many had their feet forced into the
+fires till they dropped from the leg black and
+charred. All that the Indians had suffered
+was now retaliated on the Spaniards. The
+Buccaneers themselves considered the punishment
+a vengeance of Providence. The only
+mercy ever shown to a Spaniard was to end
+his sufferings by death. The <i>coup de grace</i>
+was a kindness when it ended the misery of
+a groaning wretch, bruised and burnt, lying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>
+in the hot sun, half mortified, or with his
+body already paralyzed four or five days since.
+The masters being all tortured, the slaves
+next received the strapado. These men,
+weaker in their moral nature and with no
+motive for concealment but fear, told everything.
+Many of the hiding-places were, however,
+not known to them. One of them,
+during the fever of his wound, declared he
+knew where the governor of the town was
+secreted, with many of the ladies of Gibraltar,
+and a large portion of the treasure.
+Threats of death revealed the rest, and he
+confessed that a ship and four boats, laden
+with Maracaibo wealth, lay in a river of the
+lake. The Buccaneers were instantly on
+their feet. Morgan, with 200 men and the
+slave guide, set out to capture the governor;
+and 100 others, in two large <i>settees</i> (boats),
+sallied out to capture the treasure and the
+ships. The governor was not easily caught,
+for it needed a battalion of balloons to surprise
+him. His first retreat was a fort thrown
+up in the centre of a small island in the river,
+two days' march distant. Hearing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span>
+Morgan was coming in force, he retreated to
+the top of an adjoining mountain, into which
+there was but one ascent, so straight, narrow,
+and perilous, that it could only be mounted
+in single file.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition altogether broke down,
+the rock proved inaccessible to any but
+eagles; a "huge rain" wetted their baggage
+and ammunition; in fording a river
+swollen by this "huge rain," many of their
+female prisoners were lost, and, what they
+valued more, several mules laden with plate
+were whirled down the torrents. Many of
+the women and children sank under the
+fatigue, and some escaped. Involved in a
+marshy country, up to their middles in water,
+the Buccaneers had to toil on for miles. A
+few lost their lives, others their arms (the
+means of preserving them). A body of fifty
+determined men, the Buccaneer historian
+himself says, could have destroyed the whole
+body. But the Spaniards were already so
+paralyzed by fear that they fled at the very
+rustle of a leaf. Twelve days were spent in
+this dangerous and useless expedition. Two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>
+days after them arrived their comrades, who
+had been somewhat more successful. The
+Spaniards had unloaded the vessels, and were
+beginning to burn them when they arrived,
+but many bales were left in the haste of
+flight, and the boats, full of plunder, were
+brought away in tow.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan had now been lord in Gibraltar
+for five whole weeks, practising all insolences
+that a conqueror ever inflicts on the conquered;
+revenging on them the sufferings of
+the conquest, and trampling them under foot
+for the very pleasure of destruction. Provisions
+now failing, he resolved to depart; the
+provisions of Gibraltar, except the fruits,
+coming entirely from Maracaibo, were delayed
+and intercepted. He first sent some
+prisoners into the woods to collect a ransom
+from the fugitives, under pain of again burning
+down their newly rebuilt city. He
+demanded 5,000 pieces of eight. They promised
+to pay it in eight days, and gave four
+of their richest citizens as hostages. The
+governor, safe from all danger himself, had,
+however, forbidden them to pay any ransom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span>
+and they prayed Morgan to have patience.</p>
+
+<p>Setting sail with his hostages he arrived
+in three days at Maracaibo, afraid that, during
+his long absence, the Spaniards had fortified
+themselves, and he should have to fight his
+way through the passes. Before his departure
+he released all his prisoners who had
+paid ransom, but detained the slaves. He
+refused particularly to give up the treacherous
+negro, because he knew they would
+burn him alive.</p>
+
+<p>The only inmate of all the rich palaces
+and wide squares of Maracaibo, was a poor
+sick man, who informed him (Morgan), to his
+astonishment, that three Spanish men-of-war
+had arrived at the bar, and had repaired and
+garrisoned the fort. Their commander was
+Don Alonso del Campo d'Espinosa, the vice-admiral
+of the Indian fleet, who had been
+despatched to those seas to protect the
+Spanish colonists, and put to the sword
+every adventurer he could meet. This news
+did not alarm those who every day "set their
+lives upon the hazard of a die," but it
+enraged men who thought themselves secure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>
+of their plunder, and which they now might
+have to throw off to lighten them in their
+retreat. Morgan instantly despatched his
+swiftest vessel to reconnoitre the bar. The
+men returned next day, assuring him that the
+story was too true, and they were in very
+imminent danger. They had approached so
+near as to be in peril of the shot, the
+biggest ship mounted forty guns, the next
+thirty, and the smallest twenty, while Morgan's
+flag-ship had only fourteen. They had
+seen the flag of Castile waving on the redoubt.
+There was no means of escape by
+sea or land, and all were in despair at such
+enemies so placed.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, undaunted and roused to new
+courage by the extremity, grew more full of
+audacity than ever. He at once sent a flag
+of truce to the <i>Magdalene</i>, the Spanish admiral's
+vessel, demanding 20,000 pieces of eight,
+or he should set Maracaibo in flames. The
+admiral, amused and astonished at such
+temerity, wrote back to say, that hearing
+that they had committed hostilities in the
+dominions of his Catholic Majesty, his sovereign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span>
+lord and master, he had come to
+dispute their passage out of the lake, from
+that castle, which they had taken out of the
+hands of a parcel of cowards, and he intended
+to follow and pursue them everywhere, as
+was his duty. The letter continued: "Notwithstanding
+if you be contented to surrender
+with humility all you have taken, together
+with the slaves and other prisoners, I will let
+you pass freely without trouble or molestation,
+on condition that you retire home presently
+to your own country. But if you make any
+resistance or opposition to what I offer you, I
+assure you I will command boats to come from
+the Caraccas, wherein I will put my troops,
+and, coming to Maracaibo, will put you every
+man to the sword. This is my last and
+absolute resolution; be prudent, therefore,
+and do not abuse my bounty with ingratitude.
+I have with me very good soldiers, who
+desire nothing more ardently than to revenge
+on you and your people all the cruelties and
+base infamous actions you have committed
+upon the Spanish nation in America."</p>
+
+<p>This vapouring letter Morgan read aloud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span>
+to his men in the broad market-place at
+Maracaibo, first in French and then in English,
+begging their advice on the whole
+matter&mdash;asking them whether they would
+surrender everything for liberty, or fight for
+both liberty and hard-won treasure. They all
+answered unanimously, they did not care for
+the Spanish brag, and they would rather fight
+to the last drop of their blood than surrender
+booty got with such peril. One of the men,
+stepping forward, cried, "You take care of
+the rest, I'll build a <i>brûlot</i>, and with twelve
+men will burn the biggest of the three
+Spaniards."</p>
+
+<p>The scheme was adopted, but resolved
+once more to try negotiation, now that he
+was prepared for the worst, Morgan wrote
+again to Don Alonso, offering to leave Maracaibo
+uninjured, surrender all the prisoners,
+half the slaves, and to give up the hostages.
+The Don, trusting in his superior strength,
+and believing Morgan fairly intimidated or
+at least entirely in his mercy, refused to
+listen to any terms but those he had proposed,
+adding, that in two days he should come and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span>
+force him to yield. Morgan resolved upon
+this to fight his way out and surrender
+nothing, his men, though discouraged, being
+still brave and desperate. All things were
+put in order to fight. The Englishman of
+Morgan's crew proceeded as fast as possible
+with his <i>brûlot</i>, or fire-ship. He took the
+small vessel captured in the Rivière des
+Espines, and filled it full of palm-leaves dipped
+in tar, and a mixture of brimstone and gunpowder.
+He put several pounds of powder
+under each of the ten sham guns, which
+were formed of negro drums. The partitions
+of the cabins were then broken down, so that
+the flame might spread unimpeded. The
+crew were wooden posts, dressed up with
+swords, muskets, bandoliers, and hats or
+montero caps. This fire-ship bore the English
+colours, so that it might pass for Morgan's
+vessel; and in eight days, by all hands
+working upon it, it was ready. During the
+preparation an extra guard was kept upon
+the prisoners, for one escaping would have
+destroyed all their hopes of safety. The
+male prisoners were kept in one boat, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span>
+the females, slaves, plate, and jewels in another.
+In others, guarded by twelve men
+each, came the merchandise. The <i>brûlot</i> was
+to go first and grapple with the admiral's
+ship.</p>
+
+<p>All things being now completed, Morgan,
+with a heart as gay as if he fought for God and
+the right, made his men take the usual Buccaneer
+oath, employed on all occasions of
+pressing danger, when mutual confidence
+was peculiarly necessary. They vowed to
+fight till death, and neither to give nor take
+quarter. He promised a reward to all who
+distinguished themselves, exciting all the
+strongest feelings of their nature&mdash;revenge,
+avarice, and self-preservation.</p>
+
+<p>With these desperate resolves, full of hope,
+for they were accustomed to consider his
+promises of victory as certain prophecies,
+they set sail on the 30th day of April, 1669,
+to seek the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>They found the Spanish fleet riding at
+anchor in the middle of the entry of the
+lake, like gaolers of their spacious prison. It
+being late and almost dark, Morgan gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span>
+orders to anchor within range of the enemy,
+determined to resist if attacked, but to wait
+for light. They kept a strict watch, and at
+daybreak lifted anchor and set sail, bearing
+down straight upon the Spaniards, who,
+seeing them move, advanced to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>Poor fishing boats the Buccaneers' barks
+seemed beneath those proud floating castles;
+"but the race is not always to the swift, nor
+the battle to the strong." The <i>brûlot</i> sailed
+first, pushing on to the admiral's vessel,
+which lay stately between its two companions,
+and was suffered to approach within cannon
+shot. The Spaniards believing that it was
+Morgan's vessel, and intended to board them,
+waited till it came closer to crush it with a
+broadside. They little thought that they
+were fighting with the elements. The fire-ship
+fell upon the Spaniard and clung to its
+sides, like a wild cat on an elephant. Too
+late the Spaniard attempted to push her off,
+but the flames had already leaped from their
+lurking places; first the sails were swathed
+in fire, then the tackling shrivelled up, and
+soon the solid timbers burst into a blaze.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span>
+The stern was first consumed, and the fore
+part sank hissing into the sea. The wretched
+crew, flying from one element to the other,
+perished, some by fire, some by water; the
+half-drowning clung to the burning planks
+and withered in the glare; the burning
+sailors were sucked down by the vortex of
+the sinking wreck. Don Alonso, seeing the
+danger, called out to them in vain to cut down
+the masts, and, throwing himself with difficulty
+into his sloop, escaped to land. The sailors,
+refusing quarter, were allowed to perish by
+the Buccaneers' boats' crews, who at first
+offered to save them. Perhaps the recollection
+of their oath lessened their exertions.</p>
+
+<p>The boats were pulling round the burning
+vessel in hopes of saving plunder, and not of
+saving lives. The second vessel was boarded
+by the Buccaneers and taken, in the confusion,
+almost without resistance. The third ship,
+cutting its cables, drifted towards the fort,
+and there ran ashore, the crew setting fire to
+her to prevent capture. The Buccaneers,
+proud of their victory, determined to push it
+to extremities by landing and attempting to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>
+storm the fort at the bar, without ladders,
+and relying only on their hand grenades, but
+their artillery was too small to make any
+practicable breach. The fort they found well
+supplied with men, cannon, and ammunition.
+The garrison had not suffered personally by
+the loss of a fleet manned by strangers,
+and they repulsed all attacks. Unwilling to
+retire, Morgan spent the whole of the day till
+dusk in firing muskets at any defenders who
+showed themselves above the walls, and at
+dusk lit them up with a shower of fireballs,
+but the Spaniards desperately resisted, and
+shot so furiously at them as to drive them
+back to the ships, with the loss of thirty
+killed and as many wounded&mdash;more loss than
+they had suffered in the capture of Maracaibo
+and Gibraltar, while the fleet had been
+destroyed without the loss of a single
+man. The garrison, expecting a fresh
+attack at daybreak, laboured all night
+to strengthen their works, levelling the
+ground towards the sea, and throwing up
+entrenchments from spots that commanded
+the castle.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next day Morgan, not intending to
+renew the attack, employed himself in saving
+the Spanish sailors who were still floating on
+charred pieces of the wreck; not rescuing
+them from mercy, but in order to make them
+help in recovering part of the sunk treasure.
+They acknowledged that Don Alonso had
+compelled them before the engagement, after
+they had confessed to the chaplain, to come
+and take an oath to give the enemy no
+quarter, which was the reason many had
+refused to be saved. The admiral's vessel,
+the <i>Magdalene</i>, had carried thirty-eight guns
+and twelve small brass pieces, and was
+manned by 350 sailors; the second, the <i>St.
+Louis</i>, had thirty-four guns and 200 men; and
+the third, the <i>Marquise</i>, twenty-two guns
+and 150 men. The <i>Marquise</i> derived its
+name from the Marquis de Coquin, who had
+fitted it out as a privateer. The <i>Concepcion</i>
+and <i>Nostra Signora de la Soledad</i>, two larger
+vessels, had been sent back to Spain from
+Carthagena; a fourth, <i>Nostra Signora del
+Carmen</i> (for the Spaniards generally drew
+the names of their war vessels from the lady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>
+of love and peace), had sunk near Campeachy.</p>
+
+<p>The pilot of the smaller vessel being saved,
+and promised his life, disclosed all Don
+Alonso's plans. He had been sent, upon the
+tidings of the loss of Porto Bello, by direction
+of the supreme council of state, with orders
+to root out the English pirates in those parts,
+and to destroy as many as he could, for dismal
+lamentations had been made to the court of
+Spain, to the Catholic king, to whom belonged
+the care and preservation of the New
+World, of the damages and hostilities committed
+by the English, and he had resolved
+to punish these proceedings and avenge his
+subjects. The king of England being complained
+to, constantly replied that he never
+gave any letters-patent to such men or such
+ships. Sending home his more cumbrous
+ships, the Don had heard at St. Domingo of
+the fleet sailing from Jamaica, and a prisoner,
+taken at Alta Grecia, disclosed Morgan's plan
+on the Caraccas. On arriving there the wild
+fire had already broken out at Maracaibo a
+second time, and hither he came to extinguish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>
+it. A negro slave had indeed
+informed the admiral of the fire-ship, but
+with short-sighted pride he derided the idea,
+saying that the English had had neither wit,
+tools, nor time to build it.</p>
+
+<p>The pilot who made these disclosures was
+rewarded by Morgan, and, yielding to his
+promises, entered into his service. He informed
+him, with the usual zeal of a deserter,
+that there was plate to the value of 40,000
+pieces of eight in the sunken ship, for he
+had seen it brought on board in boats. The
+divers eventually recovered 2000 pounds'
+worth of it, some "in plate" and others in
+piastres, that had melted into large lumps,
+together with many silver hilts of swords and
+other valuables.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving a vessel to superintend this profitable
+fishery, Morgan hurried back to Maracaibo,
+and, fitting up his largest prize for
+himself, gave his own ship to a companion.
+He also sent to the governor, now somewhat
+crest-fallen, to re-demand the ransom, threatening
+more violently than before to burn
+down the city in eight days if it was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>
+brought in. He also demanded, in addition,
+500 cows as victual for his fleet. These were
+brought in in the short space of two days,
+with part of the money, and eleven more days
+were spent in salting the meat and preparing
+for sea. Then returning to the mouth of
+the lake, he sent to Don Alonso to demand
+a free passage, offering to send all
+the prisoners on shore as soon as he had
+once passed out, but otherwise to tie the
+prisoners to the rigging, exposing them to
+the shot of the fort, and then to kill and
+throw overboard those who were not struck.
+The prisoners also sent a petition, praying
+the governor to spare their lives. But the
+Don, quite undaunted, sternly answered to
+the hostages, who besought him on their
+knees to save them from the sword and rope,
+"If you had been as loyal to your king
+in hindering the entry of these pirates as I
+shall be in hindering their going out, you
+had never caused these troubles, either to
+yourselves or to our whole nation, which
+hath suffered so much through your pusillanimity.
+I shall not grant your request, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>
+shall endeavour to maintain that respect
+which is due to my king, according to my
+duty."</p>
+
+<p>When the terrified messengers returned
+and told Morgan, he replied, "If Alonso will
+not let me pass, I will find out a way without
+him," resolving to use either force or
+stratagem, and perhaps both.</p>
+
+<p>Fearing that a storm might separate his fleet,
+or that some might not succeed in escaping,
+Morgan divided the booty before he attempted
+to pass the bar. Having all taken
+the usual oath, he found they had collected
+250,000 pieces of eight, including money
+and jewels, and in addition a vast bulk of
+merchandise and many slaves. Eight days
+were spent in this division, which took place
+within sight of the exasperated garrison in
+the fort.</p>
+
+<p>The following stratagem was then resorted
+to. Knowing that the Spaniards were expecting
+a final and desperate attack on the day
+before their departure, the Buccaneers made
+great show of preparing to land and attack
+the fort. Part of each ship's crew embarked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>
+with their colours in their canoes,
+which were instantly rowed to shore. Here
+the men, concealed by the boughs on the
+banks, lay down flat in their boats, and were
+rowed back again to their vessels by only
+two or three sailors. This feigned landing
+they repeated several times in the day. The
+Spaniards, certain of an escalade, at night
+brought down the great eighteen pound ship
+guns of the fort to the side of the island
+looking towards the land, and left the sea-shore
+almost defenceless. When night came
+Morgan weighed anchor, and, by moonlight
+setting sail, at the commencement of the ebb
+tide, dropped gently down the river, till the
+vessels were almost alongside of the castle.
+Then spreading sails, quick as magic, he
+drove past, firmly but warily. Every precaution
+was taken. The crew were couched
+flat on the poop, and some placed below to
+plug the shot-holes as they came. The
+Spaniards, astonished at their daring, and
+enraged at their escape, ran with all speed
+and shifted their battery, firing hastily,
+furiously, and with little certainty; but by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>
+this time, a favourable wind springing up,
+the Buccaneers were almost out of reach, few
+men were killed, and little damage done.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner escaped Morgan from the
+clutches of Don Alonso, who had thought himself
+sure of his prey. The baffled rage of the
+Spaniards and the wild joy of the Buccaneers,
+their clamorous approval of Morgan's skill,
+the exultation of their triumph, and the
+prisoners' dismay, may be easily imagined.
+Generous in success, Morgan, once out of
+range of the guns that thundered in pursuit,
+sent a canoe on shore with his prisoners from
+Maracaibo, but those of Gibraltar he carried off,
+as they had not yet paid their ransom. The
+joy of one and the grief of the other, their
+parting and the tears, were painful to witness.
+As he set sail, and the fort was still looming
+to the right, Morgan discharged a farewell
+salute of eight guns, to which the chapfallen
+Spaniards had not the heart to return even a
+single musket shot.</p>
+
+<p>But out of Scylla into Charybdis was a
+Buccaneer's fate: one danger was succeeded
+by another, hope by hope, despair by despair.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>
+The very day of their escape the judgment
+of Heaven seemed to overtake the sea rovers,
+as if to warn them that no stratagems could
+defeat God. The fleet was surprised by such
+a tempest that they were compelled to anchor
+in five or six fathom water. The storm
+increased, they were obliged to weigh
+again, and at any risk keep off the land.
+Their only choice seemed to be death by the
+Spaniard, the Indian, or the wave&mdash;all equally
+hostile and deaf to mercy.</p>
+
+<p>&#338;xmelin says he was on board the least
+seaworthy vessel of the whole fleet, that,
+having lost anchors and mainsail, they had
+great difficulty in keeping afloat, and were
+obliged to bale as well as work night and
+day at the pumps, amid deafening thunder
+and mountainous seas that threatened to
+drown them even while the vessel still floated.
+The ship, but for the ropes that held it together,
+would have instantly sunk. The
+lightning and the wave disputed for their
+prey, but the rude arbiter, the wind, came
+in and snatched them from these destroyers.
+"Indeed," says &#338;xmelin, "though worn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span>
+out with fatigue and toil, we could not make
+up our minds to close our eyes on that blessed
+light which we might so soon lose sight of
+for ever, for no hope of safety now remained.
+The storm had lasted four days, and there
+was no probability of its termination. On
+one side we saw rocks on which our vessel
+threatened every instant to drive, on the
+other were Indians who would no more
+have spared us than the Spaniards who were
+behind us; and by some evil fortune the
+wind drove us ceaselessly towards the rocks
+and the Indians, and away from the place
+whither we desired to go."</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these distresses, six armed
+vessels gave them chase through the storm
+when they were near the bay of Venezuela.
+They turned out to be vessels of the Count
+d'Estreés, the French admiral, who generously
+rendered them aid, and the wind
+abating enabled them to reach the shore.
+Morgan and some others made for Jamaica,
+and the French for St. Domingo,&mdash;the
+Spaniards at the fort probably believing
+they had perished in the gale.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The laggers of Morgan's fleet, who had
+never joined him, were less fortunate than
+the admiral they deserted. 400 in number,
+they landed at Savona, but could not find
+the buried letter. They determined to attack
+the town of Comana, on the Caraccas,
+choosing Captain Hansel, who had distinguished
+himself at Porto Bello, as their
+commander. This town was distant sixty
+leagues from Trinidad. On landing they
+killed a few Indians who awaited them on
+the beach, but the Spaniards, disputing
+briskly the entry of the town, drove them
+back at last to their ships with great loss
+and confusion. On returning to Jamaica
+they were jeered at by Morgan's men, who
+used to say, "Let us see what sort of money
+you brought from Comana, and if it be as
+good as that which we won at Maracaibo."</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, encouraged by success, soon determined
+on fresh enterprises. On arriving
+at Jamaica, "he found many of his officers
+and soldiers already reduced to their former
+indigency by their vices and debaucheries.
+Hence they perpetually importuned him for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span>
+new exploits, thereby to get something to
+expend still in wine and strumpets, as they
+had already done what they got before.
+Captain Morgan, willing to follow fortune's
+call, stopped the mouths of many inhabitants
+of Jamaica who were creditors to his men
+for large sums, with the hopes and promises
+of greater achievements than ever in a new
+expedition. This done, he could easily levy
+men for any enterprise, his name being so
+famous through all these islands, as that
+alone would readily bring him in more men
+than he could well employ."</p>
+
+<p>Affecting a mystery, attractive in itself,
+and necessary where Spanish spies might be
+present, Morgan appointed a rendezvous at
+Port Couillon, on the south side of Hispaniola,
+and made known his intentions to the English
+and French adventurers, whether in
+Tortuga or St. Domingo. He wrote letters
+to all the planters and old Buccaneers in
+Hispaniola, and desired their attendance at
+a common council. At many a hunting
+fire this announcement was read, and many
+an <i>engagé's</i> heart beat high at the news, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>
+Morgan was now the champion and hero of
+the Buccaneers of America. Great numbers
+flocked to the port in ships and canoes,
+others traversed the woods and arrived there
+by land, through a thousand dangers. Such
+crowds came that it soon became difficult
+to obtain a place in the crews. Vessels and
+provisions were now all that was wanted.
+Plunder was certain, and they had but to
+choose on what rich coast they should land.
+The French adventurers, ever gay and ready,
+were first in the field. Morgan himself,
+punctual and prompt, followed in the <i>Flying
+Stag</i>, the St. Malo vessel we have before
+mentioned, carrying forty-two guns. The
+vessel had been lately confiscated and sold by
+the governor of Jamaica, the unfortunate
+captain escaping with his life, happy in being
+free although penniless.</p>
+
+<p>At the rendezvous on the 24th day of
+October, 1670, 1600 men were present, and
+twenty-four vessels assembled at the muster,
+amid shouting, gun firing, flag waving,
+and great joy and hope. Morgan's proposition
+was to attack some rich place which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>
+well defended&mdash;the more danger the more
+booty, for it was only rich places that the
+Spaniards cared to defend. Several previous
+expeditions had failed from want of provisions,
+and the necessity of attacking small places to
+obtain food gave the alarm to the Spaniards
+and frustrated their plans. They therefore
+resolved to visit La Rancheria, a small place on
+the banks of the River de la Hache, on the
+mainland, with four vessels and 400 men.
+This was a place where corn and maize were
+brought by the farmers for the supply of the
+neighbouring city of Carthagena, and they
+hoped to capture in the port some pearl
+vessels from that place.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, Morgan, not caring for
+lesser prey, employed his men in careening,
+cleaning, rigging, and pitching their vessels
+ready for sea, that all might be ready to
+weigh anchor the moment the expedition of
+foragers returned. It augured terribly to
+the Spaniard that it was necessary to sack a
+town or two before the Buccaneer fleet could
+even set sail.</p>
+
+<p>Part of the men were in the woods boar-hunting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>
+and others salting the flesh for the
+voyage. Each crew had a certain part of the
+woods allotted it for its own district, so
+perfect was Morgan's discipline. Each party
+prepared the salt pork for its own use, while
+the cauldrons of pitch were smoking on the
+beach, and the clank of the shipwrights'
+hammers could be heard all night by the
+hunters. The English, who were not so
+expert in hunting as their Gallic brethren
+(so says a French writer), generally took a
+French hunter with them, to whom they
+gave 150 or 200 piastres. Some of these
+men had trained packs of dogs that would kill
+enough boars in a day to load twenty or
+thirty men.</p>
+
+<p>The Rancheria expedition arrived in six
+days within sight of the river, and was
+unfortunately becalmed for some time within
+a gunshot of land. This gave the Spaniards
+time to prepare for their defence, and either
+to bury their goods or throw up entrenchments,
+for these repeated visits of the Buccaneers
+had rendered them quick on such
+occasions. A land-wind at last springing up,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>
+gave a corn vessel from Carthagena, lying in
+the river, an opportunity to sally out and
+attempt its escape, but being a bad sailer it
+was soon captured, much to the Englishmen's
+delight, for corn was the object of their visit.
+By a singular coincidence, it turned out to
+be that very cocoa vessel which Lolonnois
+sold to the governor of Tortuga, who, on its
+return from France, had sold it to Captain
+Champaigne, a French adventurer, who in
+his turn sold it to the same merchant captain
+who then commanded it. He told the Buccaneers
+that it made the twelfth vessel taken
+from him by the brotherhood of the coast in
+five years only, and yet that with all these
+losses he had contrived to make a fortune of
+500,000 crowns. "On peut juger par là,"
+says &#338;xmelin, with a shrug, "s'il y a des
+gens riches dans l'Amérique."</p>
+
+<p>Landing at daybreak, in spite of the
+mowing fire from a battery, and under protection
+of their own cannon, they drove the
+Spaniards back to their strongly fortified
+village, which they at once attacked. Here
+the enemy rallied and fought desperately,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span>
+hand-to-hand, sword blow and push of pike,
+from ten in the morning till night, when
+they fled, having suffered great loss, into
+secret places in the woods. The Buccaneers,
+who had suffered scarcely less loss, pushed
+on at once headlong to the town, which they
+found deserted; and next day pursuing the
+Spaniards took many prisoners, and proceeded
+to torture them, inflicting on fear and innocence
+all the horrors of the Madrid inquisition.
+In fifteen days they captured many prisoners
+and much booty, and with the usual threats
+of destroying the town, they obtained 4000
+hanegs, or bushels of maize, sufficient for the
+whole of the fleet. They preferred this to
+money, and in three days, the whole quantity
+being brought in by the people, eager for
+their departure, they at once sailed.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, alarmed at their five weeks' absence,
+had begun to despair of their return,
+thinking Rancheria must have been relieved
+from Carthagena or Santa Maria. He also
+thought that they might have had good
+fortune, and deserted him to return to Jamaica.
+His joy was great to see them arrive laden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>
+with corn, and more in number than when
+they departed. A council of war was actually
+holding to plan a new expedition, when
+Captain Bradley and his six vessels hove in
+sight. The maize was divided among the
+fleet, but the plunder was awarded to the
+captain who had risked his life for the general
+good.</p>
+
+<p>The captured ship arrived very opportunely,
+and it was instantly awarded by
+general consent to Le Gascon, a French
+adventurer who had lately lost his vessel.
+Morgan having divided the meat and corn,
+and personally inspected every bark, set sail
+for Cape Tiburon, at the west end of Hispaniola,
+a spot convenient for laying in stores
+of wood and water. Here he was joined by
+several ships from New England, refitted at
+Jamaica. Morgan now found himself suzerain
+of a fleet of thirty-seven vessels, large
+and small, carrying sixteen, fourteen, twelve,
+ten, even down to four pound guns. To
+man these there were 2200 sailors, well
+armed and ready for flight and plunder. The
+fleet was divided into two squadrons, under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>
+his vice-admiral and subordinate officers.
+To the captains he gave letters-patent,
+guaranteeing them from all the effects of
+Spanish hostility, from "the open and declared
+enemies of the King his master," (Charles II.)</p>
+
+<p>The charter-party which we give elsewhere
+was then signed, the rewards were
+higher than usual, and many modifications
+introduced. In the private council three places
+were proposed as rich and accessible&mdash;Panama,
+Carthagena, and Vera Cruz. In these
+consultations the only thing considered was
+whether a town was rich or poor, not whether
+it was well or ill defended.</p>
+
+<p>"The lot fell" on Panama, as the richest
+of the three, though the least known to them,
+being further from the North Pacific than
+any Buccaneer had yet gone. Panama was
+the galleon-port and the El Dorado of the
+adventurer's yarns. Being so unknown a
+place they determined to first recapture St.
+Catherine's, where in the prisons they might
+obtain many guides, who had seen both the
+North and South Pacifics, for outlaws made,
+they found, the best guides for outlaws; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>
+they agreed before sailing that, if they took
+a Spanish vessel, the first captain who
+boarded it should have for his reward a tenth
+part of her cargo.</p>
+
+<p>They had begun by sacking a town to
+victual their fleet, they now proposed to
+storm a fort to obtain a guide&mdash;St. Catherine's
+batteries, if resolutely manned, being able to
+beat off three such fleets.</p>
+
+<p>The admiral, it was agreed, should have a
+share for every hundred men, and every
+captain eight shares if the vessel they took
+was large. The crews then one by one took
+the oath of fidelity. On the 18th December,
+1670, the fleet set sail for St. Catherine's,
+whose prisoners would rejoice at their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>The one squadron carried the royal English
+and the other a white flag. The admiral's
+division bore a red banner with a white cross,
+"le pavillon du parlement," and at the bow-sprit
+one of three colours, blue, white, and
+red. Those of the other divisions carried a
+white and red flag. Morgan also appointed
+peculiar signals for all emergencies.</p>
+
+<p>On their way to St. Catherine's they chased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>
+two Dutch vessels from Cuba, which escaped
+by aid of contrary winds that baffled their
+pursuers. In four days the fleet arrived at
+St. Catherine's, and Morgan despatched two
+small vessels to guard the port.</p>
+
+<p>This island was renowned for its vast flocks
+of migratory pigeons, and is watered by four
+streams, two of which are dry in summer.
+The land, though fertile, was not cultivated.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, before sunrise, they anchored
+in the bay of Aguada Grande, where
+the Spaniards had erected a four-gun battery.
+Morgan, at the head of 100 men, landed and
+made his way through the woods, having no
+guides but some old Buccaneers who had
+been there before with Mansvelt. On arriving
+that night at the governor's house and
+the Platform Battery they found the Spaniards
+had retreated by a bridge into the smaller
+and almost impregnable island, which they
+had made strong enough to beat off 10,000
+men. Being driven back at first by a tremendous
+fire, Morgan was obliged to encamp
+that night in the woods or open country&mdash;no
+hardship to hunters or sailors in fine weather.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>
+There still remained a whole league of dense
+brush between them and their enemies, at once
+their protection and destruction. A chilling
+torrent of rain began to beat upon them, and
+instead of ceasing, as they had hoped, lasted
+till noon of the next day. They pulled
+down two or three thatched huts, and made
+small damp fires, that scorched a few but
+warmed none. They could not shelter
+themselves, and, what was worse, could not
+keep their arms and powder dry. But more
+than this, they suffered from hunger, having
+had no food for a whole day. The men for
+the greater part being dressed with no clothes
+but a seaman's shirt and trowsers, and without
+shoes or stockings, suffered dreadfully
+after the burning of a tropic noon from this
+freezing cold and rain. One hundred men,
+says Esquemeling, even indifferently well
+armed, might have cut them all to pieces.
+At daybreak they were roused from their
+shivering sleep by the Spanish drums beating
+the <i>Diane</i>, or <i>reveillé</i>. The rain had now
+ceased, and their courage rose as high as
+ever. But they could not answer this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>
+challenge, for their own drums were loose
+and soaked with wet, and they had now to
+employ themselves in quickly drying their
+arms. Scarcely had they done this, when it
+began to cloud over and rain with increased
+fury, as if the "sky were melting into
+waters," which blinded them and prevented
+them again from advancing to the attack.
+Many of them grew faint-hearted, and talked
+of returning. The men were now feeble for
+want of sleep, and faint with cold and hunger.
+The eager foragers found in a field "an old
+horse, lean, and full of scabs and blotches, with
+galled back and sides." This was instantly
+killed and flayed, and divided in small pieces
+among as many as could get any, and eagerly
+eaten without salt or bread by the few lucky
+epicures&mdash;"eaten," says the historian, "more
+like ravenous wolves eat than men."</p>
+
+<p>The rain still gushing down, and the men,
+worn out in mind and body, growing angry, discontented,
+and clamorous, it became necessary
+for Morgan to act with promptitude. About
+noon, to his great joy, the rain ceased and
+the sun broke out. Taking advantage of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>
+this lull&mdash;for the rain had barred even their
+retreat&mdash;Morgan ordered a canoe to be rigged
+out in great haste, and dispatched four men
+with a white flag to the Spanish governor,
+declaring that if they did not all surrender
+he would put them to the sword without
+quarter. His audacity was luckily crowned
+with success. Opposed armies are often men
+mutually afraid, trying to frighten each other.
+The governor was intimidated. He demanded
+two hours to confer with his officers. At
+the end of this time, on Morgan giving
+hostages, two soldiers with white flags were
+sent to arrange terms. The governor had
+decided in full conference that he could not
+defend the island against such an armada, but
+he proposed a certain (Dalgetty-like) stratagem
+of war to save his own head, and preserve
+the reputation of his officers at home
+and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan was to come at night and assault
+the fort of St. Jerome, which stood near the
+bridge that joined the two islands, and at the
+same moment his fleet was to attack the castle
+of Santa Teresa by sea, and land troops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span>
+near the battery of St. Matthew. These
+men were to intercept and take prisoner
+the governor as he made his way to the St.
+Jerome batteries. He would then at once
+lead them to the castle, as if they were his
+own men. On both sides there was to be
+continual firing, but only with powder, and
+no bullets. The forts thus taken, the island
+would of course surrender.</p>
+
+<p>This well-arranged performance took place
+with great <i>éclat</i>. Morgan, in acceding to the
+terms, had insisted on their strict performance
+of every item, and gave notice, for fear
+of ambush, that every straggling Spaniard
+would be shot. Afraid of a stratagem, some
+Buccaneers loaded their muskets with ball,
+and held themselves ready for any danger.
+With much smoke and great consumption of
+powder, the unsuspecting Spaniards were
+driven like sheep into the church, the island
+surrendered, and by this bloodless artifice
+Spanish pride remained unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>But a cruel massacre now commenced.
+The Buccaneers had eaten nothing for nearly
+two days. They made war upon all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span>
+poultry and cattle&mdash;the oldest cow was slain,
+the toughest rooster strangled. For several
+days the island was lit up with huge fires,
+round which the men roasted their meat, and
+revelled and caroused. When wood grew
+scarce they pulled down cottages to light
+their fires, and having no wine very wisely
+made use of water.</p>
+
+<p>The day after the surrender they numbered
+their prisoners, and found they had
+collected 450 souls&mdash;seventy of the garrison,
+forty-three children, and thirty-one slaves.
+The men were all carefully disarmed, and
+sent to the plantations to bring in provisions;
+the women were left in the church to pray
+and weep. They next inspected all the ten
+batteries, wondering in their strength and
+exulting in their victory. The fort St.
+Jerome contained eight great guns and sixty
+muskets; the St. Matthew three guns; the
+Santa Teresa twenty guns and 120 muskets.
+The castle was very strong, and moated;
+impregnable on the sea side, and on the land
+side ascended by a narrow mountain path,
+while the guns on its summit commanded the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span>
+port. The St. Augustine fort mounted three
+guns; the Platform two; the St. Salvador
+and another also two; the Santa Cruz three;
+and the St. Joseph six and twelve muskets.
+In the magazine they found 30,000 pounds
+of powder, which they at once shipped, with
+all the other ammunition. In the St. Jerome
+battery Morgan left a guard, but in all the
+other forts the guns were spiked and the gun-carriages
+burnt.</p>
+
+<p>The object of his visit was still to seek.
+Examining the prisoners, who were now
+crowded in with merchants and grandees, he
+inquired for banditti from Panama, and three
+slaves stepped forward who knew every path
+and avenue to the city. These men he chose as
+guides, promising them a full Buccaneer's share
+of the spoil if they brought him by a secure
+way to the city, and, in addition, their liberty
+when they reached Jamaica. These volunteers
+consisted of two Indians and a mulatto.
+The former denied all knowledge of the place;
+the latter&mdash;a "rogue, thief, and assassin, who
+had deserved breaking on the wheel rather
+than mere garrison service"&mdash;readily accepted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>
+Morgan's propositions, and promised to serve
+him faithfully. He had a great ascendancy
+over the two Indians, and domineered over
+them as he pleased, without their daring to
+disobey a half-blood already on the point
+of preferment.</p>
+
+<p>The next step to Panama was to capture
+Chagres and its castle, and Morgan at once
+dispatched five vessels, well equipped, with
+400 men on board, to undertake this expedition,
+remaining himself at St. Catherine's, lest
+the people of Panama should be alarmed. He
+was to follow his van-guard in eight days,
+guided by the Indians, who knew Chagres.
+This time he and his men prudently spent
+in pulling manioc roots for cassava, and
+digging potatoes for the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>The Chagres expedition was led by the
+same Captain Bradley who commanded at
+Rancheria. He had been with Mansvelt
+formerly, and had rendered himself famous
+by his exploits both among the Buccaneers
+and the Spaniards. He arrived in three
+days at Chagres, opposite Fort St. Lawrence,
+which was built on a mountain commanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>
+the entrance of the river. As soon as the
+Spaniards saw the red flag spreading from his
+vessels, they displayed the royal colours of
+Spain, and saluted him with a volley too
+hasty and angry to be very destructive. The
+Buccaneers, according to their usual stratagem,
+landed at Narangui, a place a quarter
+of a league distant from the castle, their
+guide leading them through thick woods,
+through which they had to cut a path with
+their sabres. It was early morning when they
+landed, and requiring half a day to perform
+the short distance, they did not reach a hill
+commanding the castle till two o'clock. The
+mire and dirt of the road combined, with the
+darkness of the way, to lengthen their march.
+The guides served them well, but brought
+them at one spot so near to the castle, and
+in so open and bare a place, that they lost
+many men by the shot. In other parts the
+wood was so thick that they could only tell
+that they were near the castle by the discharge
+of the cannon. The hill they had now
+reached was not within musket range, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>
+they were thus deprived of the use of their
+favourite weapon. Could they have dragged
+cannon so far they might have taken the place
+without losing a man.</p>
+
+<p>The castle of Chagres was built on a high
+mountain at the entry of a river, and surrounded
+by strong wooden palisadoes banked
+with earth. The top of the mountain was
+divided into two parts, between which ran a
+ditch thirty feet deep; the tower had but one
+entrance by a drawbridge, towards the land
+it had four bastions, and towards the sea two
+more. The south wall was inaccessible crag,
+the north was moated by the broad river.
+At the foot of the hill lay a strong fort with
+eight guns, which commanded the river's
+mouth; a little lower down were two other
+batteries, each of six guns, all pointing the
+same way. At another side were two great
+store-houses, full of goods, brought from the
+inland, and near these a flight of steps, cut
+in the rock, led to the castle of the summit.
+On the west side was a small port not more
+than seven or eight fathoms deep, with good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span>
+anchorage for small vessels, and before the
+hill a great rock rose from the waves, which
+almost covered it at low water.</p>
+
+<p>The place appeared such a perfect volcano
+of fire, and so threatening and dangerous,
+that the Buccaneers, but for fear of Morgan's
+rage and contempt, would have at once turned
+back. After many disputes and much doubt
+and perplexity, they resolved to hazard the
+assault and risk their lives. When they
+descended from their hill into the plain, they
+had to throw themselves on their faces to
+escape the desolating shower of balls; but
+their marksmen, quite uncovered and without
+defence, shot at the Spanish gunners through
+the loops of the palisading, and killed all
+who showed themselves. This skirmishing
+continued till the evening, when the
+Buccaneers, who had lost many men, their
+commander having his leg broken with a
+cannon shot, began to waver and to think of
+retiring, having in vain tried to burn down
+the place with their fireballs, and charged up
+to the very walls, which they tried in vain to
+climb, sword in hand. When the Spaniards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span>
+saw them drawing back through the dusk, in
+some disorder, carrying their wounded men
+and gnashing their teeth in rage at the dark
+lines of defence, they shouted out "Come on,
+you dogs of heretics; come on, you English
+devils: you shan't get to Panama this bout,
+for we'll serve your comerades as we have
+served you." The Buccaneers, astonished at
+their cries, now for the first time learnt that
+Morgan's expedition had been heard of at
+Panama.</p>
+
+<p>Night had already begun, and the rain of
+bullets, shot, and Indian arrows (more deadly
+almost than the bullets), harassing and well-aimed,
+continued as grievous as by day.
+Taking advantage of the gloom, another
+party advanced to the palisadoes; the light of
+their burning fuses directed the aim of the
+Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>A singular accident of war gave the place,
+so briskly defended, into the hands of the
+assailants. A party of the French musketeers
+were talking together, devising a plan
+of advance, when a swift Indian arrow fell
+among them and pierced one of the speakers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>
+in the shoulder (Esquemeling says in the
+back and right through the body, another
+writer says in the eye). A thought struck the
+wounded man, for the wound had spurred his
+imagination: coolly drawing the point from
+his shoulder, he said to those near him,
+"Attendez, mes frères, je m'en vais faire périr
+tous les Espagnols&mdash;tous&mdash;avec cette sacré
+flèche" (wait a bit, my mates, I'll kill all the
+Spaniards&mdash;all&mdash;with this d&mdash;&mdash; arrow); so
+saying he drew from his pocket a handful of
+wild cotton, which the Buccaneers kept as
+lint to staunch their wounds, and wound it
+round the dart; then putting it in his loaded
+musket, from which he extracted the ball, he
+fired it back at the castle roof. It alighted on
+some dry thatch, which in a moment began
+to smoke, and in another second broke into a
+bright flame, more visible for the darkness.
+The Buccaneers shouted and pushed on to the
+attack, and the wounded men forgot their
+wounds. Some of the men, seeing the result
+of the experiment, gathered up the Indian
+arrows that lay thick around them, and fired
+them at the roofs. Many houses were soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>
+in flames. The Spaniards, busy with the
+defence, did not see the fire until it had
+gained some head, and reaching a parcel of
+powder blown it up and caused ruin and consternation
+within the fort. If they left the
+walls the Buccaneers gained ground, if they
+left the fire the flames spread more terribly
+than before; the want of sufficient water
+increased the confusion, and while they tried
+to quench the conflagration, the Buccaneers
+set fire to the palisadoes.</p>
+
+<p>&#338;xmelin, who was present as a surgeon at
+this attack of Chagres, relates an anecdote
+of courage which he himself witnessed, to
+show the indomitable fury of the assailants.
+One of his own friends was pierced in the eye
+by an Indian arrow, and came to him to beg
+him to pull it out, the pain was so intense
+and unbearable. Although a surgeon, &#338;xmelin
+had not the nerve to inflict such
+torture, however momentary, on a friend,
+and turned away in pity, upon which the
+hardy seaman tore out the arrow with a
+curse, and, binding up the wound, rushed
+forward to the wall. The few Buccaneers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span>
+who had retreated, seeing the flames, now
+hurried back to the attack. The Spaniards
+could no longer see the enemy at whom they
+fired, the night was so dark and starless,
+while the Buccaneers shot down with the
+unerring aim of hunters the Spaniards, whose
+bodies stood out dark and well-defined against
+the bright background of flame. All this
+time, before the fire of the roofs could be
+extinguished, the Buccaneers had swarmed
+through the fosse, and, mounting upon each
+other's shoulders, burnt down part of the
+palisadoes, as we have before described, in
+spite of the hand grenades that were thrown
+from above, and which burst among them.
+The fire ran along the wall, leaping like a
+winged thing, and devoured wherever it
+clung, spreading with dreadful rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>The fight continued all night, and when
+the calm daylight broke on the worn soldiers,
+the Buccaneers saw with sparkling eyes
+that the gabions had smouldered through,
+and that the earth had fallen down in large
+heaps into the fosse. The breaches in many
+places were practicable. The armour had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>
+fallen piece-meal from their giant adversary,
+and he now stood before them bare, wounded,
+and defenceless. The Buccaneers, creeping
+within musket shot of the walls, shot down
+the gunners in the breaches to which the
+cannon had been dragged by the governor's
+orders during the night. Divided into two
+bands, one party kept up a constant fire on
+the guns, and the other watched the motions
+of the enemy. About noon they advanced
+to a spot which the governor himself defended,
+belted round with twenty-five brave
+Spaniards, armed with pikes, halberds, swords,
+and muskets. They advanced under a dreadful
+hail of fire and lead, the defenders casting
+down flaming pots full of combustible matter
+and "<i>odious smells</i>," which destroyed many of
+the English. But we do not know how smells
+could drive back men who would have
+marched through hell if it had been the
+shortest way to Panama.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could equal the unflinching courage
+of the Spaniards&mdash;they disputed every
+inch of ground&mdash;they yielded slowly like
+wounded lions when the hunters narrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span>
+their circles. They showered stones and all
+available missiles on their assailants, only
+wishing to kill a Buccaneer, but feeling that
+resistance was hopeless; some, rather than
+yield, threw themselves from the cliffs into
+the sea, and few survived the fall. As the
+Buccaneers won their way to the castle the
+Spaniards retreated to the <i>garde du corps</i>,
+where they entrenched themselves with two
+cannon; to the last the governor refused
+quarter, and at last fell shot through the
+brain. The few who remained surrendered
+when the guns were taken and would have
+been turned against them.</p>
+
+<p>Only fourteen men were found unhurt in
+the fort and about nine or ten wounded, who
+had hid themselves among the dead. They
+told Morgan that they were all that were
+left of a garrison of 314 soldiers. The
+governor, seeing that he was lost, had despatched
+the survivors to Panama to alarm the
+city, and remained behind to die. No officer
+was left alive; they had been the first to set
+their men the example of a glorious death.
+It appeared that a Buccaneer deserter, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>
+Irishman, whom Morgan had not even informed
+of his design, had come to the port,
+and assured them of the attack on La Rancheria,
+and the contemplated movement on
+Panama. The governor of that place had
+instantly sent to Chagres a reinforcement of
+164 men, with ammunition and provisions,
+and had placed ambuscades along the river.
+He was at that very moment, they said,
+awaiting them in the savannah with 3600
+men: of these 2000 were infantry, 400
+cavalry, and 600 Indians. He had also employed
+200 muleteers and hunters to collect
+a drove of 1000 wild cattle to drive down
+upon the invaders.</p>
+
+<p>"The taking of this castle," says Esquemeling,
+"cost the pirates excessively dear,
+in comparison to what they were wont to
+lose, and their toil and labour was greater
+than at the conquest of the Isle of St.
+Catherine." On numbering their thinned
+ranks, many voices were silent at the roll
+call. More than 100 men were found to be
+dead, and more than seventy grievously
+wounded. There were sixty who could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>
+rise, and many in the ranks wore on their arms
+strips of the Spanish colours, or had their
+heads bound round with bloody cloths. The
+prisoners they compelled to drag their own
+dead to the edge of the cliffs and cast them
+among the shattered bodies on the beach, and
+then to bury them where the sea could not
+wash them out of their graves, or the birds
+devour them. The castle chapel they turned
+into an hospital for the wounded, and the
+female slaves were employed to tend them,
+for the surgeons in the heat of battle had
+only had time to amputate a limb or bind
+an artery.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+
+<small>CONQUEST OF PANAMA.</small></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>March from Chagres&mdash;Famine&mdash;Ambuscade of Indians&mdash;Wild
+bulls driven down upon them&mdash;Victory&mdash;Battle
+of the Forts&mdash;Takes the City&mdash;Burns part of
+it&mdash;Cruelties&mdash;Debauchery&mdash;Retreat with prisoners&mdash;Virtue
+of the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings&mdash;Ransom&mdash;Division
+of booty&mdash;Treason of Morgan&mdash;Escapes
+by night to Jamaica&mdash;Dispersion of the Fleet&mdash;Morgan's
+subsequent fate.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The bodies of their comerades, who had
+died that they who survived might conquer,
+were buried, not without some tears even
+from these rude men, in large (plague pit)
+graves, dug by the prisoners. The women
+were violated in the first fury of the sack.
+During their plunder they found a great
+quantity of provisions and ammunitions stored<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>
+up for the use of the fleet. Their next act
+was to repair the fort and render it tenable.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, instantly informed of the fall of
+Chagres, did not remain long behind. Having
+first collected all the Indian wheat and
+cassava he could carry, he embarked his
+prisoners and provisions, taking with him
+Don Joseph Ramirez de Leiba, the governor,
+and the chief officers. The cannon he spiked
+or threw into the sea, in places where he
+might recover them, intending to return and
+fortify the place, as a stronghold if his design
+on Panama failed. The forts, and church,
+and house he fired, with the exception of the
+castle of Santa Teresa.</p>
+
+<p>In sailing to Chagres a storm arose and
+dispersed his vessels, keeping them many
+days at sea. The admiral, always watchful
+in danger, suffered himself for a moment to
+sleep in the hour of prosperity. When he
+approached the river mouth and saw the
+English flag floating from the blackened
+walls, he could not restrain the heedless joy
+of his crew&mdash;not waiting for the pilot canoe
+that was putting out to warn them of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span>
+danger, he drove on the sunken rock at the
+foot of the castle hill. His own and three
+other vessels sank, yet the crews and cargoes
+were all saved, and but for a strong "norther"
+the ships themselves would have been
+preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Brought into the castle with acclamations
+and hearty congratulations at his escape,
+Morgan employed the Spanish prisoners from
+St. Catherine's in repairing the palisading
+of the fort, carefully destroying all thatched
+sheds for fear of fire. He then chose a garrison
+by lot, and divided the stores. He
+heard with delight the details of the victory,
+and lamented the absent dead and the many
+brave men that had shared so often his
+own hopes and fears. His next movement
+was to seize some <i>chatten</i>, or small Spanish
+vessels that were still in the river. They
+were small craft that went to and fro between
+Chagres and Porto Bello, or Nicaragua, or
+plied with merchandise up and down the
+river. They mounted six guns, two iron,
+and four small brass, and were navigated by
+six men. He also took four small frigates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>
+of fourteen and eight guns, and all the canoes
+he could lay hands on, requiring them for
+the expedition. He left behind him 100
+men, under command of Captain Le Maurice,
+and 150 men to guard the ships.</p>
+
+<p>For Panama, Morgan took with him 1300
+of the best armed and the most robust of his
+band, five boats with artillery, and thirty-two
+canoes. He imprudently carried little provisions,
+expecting to obtain plenty from the
+Spaniards they should kill in the ambuscades.
+In spite of the recent victory, and of Morgan's
+certainty of conquest, many of the Buccaneers
+were less sanguine than on former
+expeditions. The Spanish prisoners had
+succeeded in alarming them by rumours of
+the dangers and intricacy of the road, and
+the ambuscades that had been two months in
+preparation. Some, more superstitious than
+the rest, thought the wreck of Morgan's ship,
+and the severe loss at Chagres, bad omens
+for their success at Panama. But these were
+mocked at by the rest, as white-livered, and
+Morgan having divided the provisions between
+the garrison and the St. Catherine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>
+prisoners, reviewed his men, and examined
+himself their arms and ammunition. He
+quieted their fears and spoke of victory as
+already obtained. He exhorted them to show
+more than usual courage, in order to return
+as soon as possible rich and glorious to
+Jamaica. With a shout of "Long live the
+King of England, and long live Henry Morgan,"
+they began their march towards the
+doomed city on the 18th of January, 1670.</p>
+
+<p>The first day they advanced only six
+leagues to Rio de los Braços, where they got
+out of their canoes to sleep on shore, being
+crippled with overcrowding in the boats.
+They could have brought no provisions, for
+few had any food that day, but a pipe of
+tobacco "to stop the orifice of the stomach."
+They could find nothing in the deserted
+plantations, where even the unripe fruits had
+been plucked and the roots pulled up before
+their arrival. The men longed to fight, in order
+that they might eat. By noon of the next day
+they reached Cruz de Juan Gallego, where they
+were obliged to leave their canoes; the river
+was very dry and shallow from want of rain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span>
+and much impeded with fallen trees, but
+their hopes were excited by the guide's
+intelligence, that about two leagues further
+the roads grew better. Here they left their
+boats with 160 men to guard them, as a
+resource in case of defeat, giving them strict
+injunctions not to land for fear of ambuscades
+in the neighbouring woods, which were so
+thick as to seem impenetrable. Finding the
+forest almost impassable, Morgan ordered a
+few of the canoes to be rowed, though with
+immense labour, to a place called Cedro
+Bueno, further up the river, taking half the
+men at a time and returning for the rest,
+so by nightfall all the men were once more
+united. From discovering no ambuscades,
+in spite of all the wishes of these hungry
+soldiers, it was supposed that the Spanish spies,
+willing to avoid a fight, had frightened their
+officers by exaggerating the number of the
+adventurers. On the third day Morgan sent
+forward some guides, who could find no
+road, the country being flat, inundated, and
+marshy. The men, who had scarcely eaten
+anything since their departure, grew faint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>
+and hungry, and a few of them gathered the
+leaves from the forest trees. It being night
+before they could pass the river, they slept
+on the bank, exposed, half-clothed as they
+were, to the tropical damps and cold.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth day's march they advanced in
+divisions; the largest went by land, the
+smaller in canoes. The guides were always
+kept two musket shots in advance, to give
+notice of ambuscades, and in hopes of capturing
+stragglers who might furnish intelligence.
+But the Spaniards had also scouts, very wary,
+and very "dexterous" in giving notice of all
+accidents, frequently bringing the Panama
+men intelligence of the Buccaneers' approach
+six hours before the enemy arrived. About
+noon the army reached a post named Torna
+Cavallos, so called probably from the roughness
+of the road, and at this spot the guide
+of the canoes cried out that he saw an ambuscade.
+With infinite joy, the hungry men,
+thirsting for blood, flew to arms, knowing that
+the Spaniards always went luxuriously provided
+with food, and knowing that a dead
+Spaniard could want no more provender. As<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span>
+soon as they came within sight of the entrenchment,
+which was shaped like a half-moon,
+and the palisading formed of entire
+trees, they uttered a dreadful shout, and,
+driven on by rage and hunger, began to race
+like starved wolves, seeing which could first
+cross swords with the enemy, whom they
+believed to be about 400 strong. But their
+hearts fell within them when they found
+the place a mere deserted rampart, and all
+the provisions, but a few crumbs which
+lay scattered about, either burnt or carried
+off. Some leather bags lay here and there,
+as if left in a hasty retreat. Enraged at
+this, they at once pulled down the Spanish
+huts, and cutting the leather bags, tore
+them up for food. Quarrels then arose for
+the largest messes, but before they could well
+finish this unsavoury banquet, the drum
+sounded for the march. About 500 Spaniards
+seem to have held these entrenchments, and
+many of the men threatened to devour the
+first fugitive they could meet with. About
+night they reached another deserted ambuscade,
+called Torna Munni, equally bare of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span>
+food, and the remainder of the bags were now
+devoured. Those fortunate enough to obtain
+a strip first soaked slices of it in water, next
+beat it between two stones, then scraped off
+the hair with their hunters' knives, and,
+roasting it in the fire, ate it leisurely in small
+pieces. "I can assure the reader," says
+&#338;xmelin, "that a man can live on this fare,
+but he can hardly get <i>very fat</i>." Frequent
+draughts of water (which, by good fortune,
+they had at hand) seasoned this not very
+palatable food of men accustomed to revel
+on venison and brandy. "Some who were
+never out of their mothers' kitchens," says
+Esquemeling, "may ask how these pirates
+could eat and digest those pieces of leather,
+so hard and dry, whom I answer, that could
+they once experience what hunger, or rather
+famine, is, they would find the way as the
+pirates did."</p>
+
+<p>The fifth day at noon they arrived at a
+place called Barbacoa, where there were more
+deserted barricades, and the adjacent plantations
+were equally bare of either man, animal,
+or plant. Searching with all the zeal and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>
+perseverance of hungry men, they found at
+last, buried in the floor of a cave lately hewn
+out of the rock, two sacks of flour, two jars
+of wine, and some plantains, and Morgan
+generously divided these among the most
+exhausted of his troops, some being now
+nearly dead with famine. The flour they
+mixed with water, and, wrapping the dough
+in banana leaves, baked it in the fire.
+Somewhat refreshed, they renewed their
+march with increased skill and vigour. The
+lagging men they placed in the canoes, till
+they reached at night some deserted plantations
+known as the Tabernillas, where they
+slept.</p>
+
+<p>On the sixth day they marched slowly,
+after resting a time from real weakness,
+some of the strongest being sent into the
+woods to pluck berries and pull roots, many
+even eating leaves and grass. The same day
+at noon they arrived at a plantation. Eagerly
+foraging here, but not expecting to find anything,
+they turned a little from the road, and
+came upon a barn full of maize in the husk.
+Beating down the door, they fell upon it and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span>
+devoured it as rapaciously as a herd of swine,
+till they fell off satiated. A distribution was
+then made of it to each man, for hunger does
+not care for cooking. Loaded with this grain
+they continued their march in high spirits
+for about two hours, when they came suddenly
+on about 200 Indians, and soon after passed
+a deserted ambuscade. Those who had maize
+still left threw it away, thinking that the
+Spaniards and better food were at hand.
+These archers were on the opposite side of
+the river. The Buccaneers, firing, killed a
+few, and pursued the others as far as Santa
+Cruz. The nimblest escaped by swimming,
+and two or three adventurers, who waded
+after them, were pierced with arrows at the
+ford. The Indians, as they fled, hooted&mdash;"Ah
+perros Ingleses, à la savanah, à la savanah:"
+"<i>English dogs, English dogs, come to the
+savannah.</i>" Passing the river they were
+now compelled to begin their march on the
+opposite side. There was little sleep that
+night, but great dejection, and murmurs
+arose against Captain Morgan and his conduct.
+He was blamed for not having brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span>
+provisions, and for not having yet met the
+Spaniards; condemned for irreconcilable
+errors, and reviled for even his past successes.
+Some declared they would return home, others
+would willingly have done so, yet were afraid
+to retreat; but a large party declared they
+would rather die than go back a step. One
+of the guides, perhaps bribed by Morgan,
+promised that it should not be long before
+they met with people from whom they
+should derive no small advantage, and this
+comforted them. A tinge of superstition
+would have soon converted this into one of
+those prophecies by which Cromwell and
+Cortes both consoled their desponding
+troopers.</p>
+
+<p>On the seventh morning, expecting enemies,
+the men all cleaned their arms, and
+every one discharged his musket and pistols
+without ball to let the Spaniards hear they
+were coming, and that their ammunition was
+not damaged. Leaving Santa Cruz, where
+they had rested, they crossed the river in
+their canoes, and arrived at the town of Cruz.</p>
+
+<p>At some distance from Cruz they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span>
+beheld to their great joy a great smoke rising
+above the roofs, which they thought arose
+from kitchen chimneys, and quickening their
+pace they began to laugh, and shout, and
+leap,&mdash;joking at the Spanish waste of fuel,
+and saying, "the Spanish cooks are roasting
+meat for our dinner when we have mastered
+their masters;" but as the smoke grew
+thicker, they began to think that the enemy
+were burning some houses that interfered
+with the fire of the entrenchments.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after, on arriving panting and
+hot at Cruz, they found the place deserted
+and stripped, and no meat, but many fires,
+for every Spaniard had burnt his own house,
+and only the royal store-house and stables
+were left standing. A few crackling ruins
+were all that remained of the great halfway
+house between Chagres and Panama, for
+here the Chagres merchandise was always
+landed and transported to Panama on the
+backs of mules, being distant only twenty-six
+Spanish leagues from the river of Chagres,
+and eight from Panama. The disappointed
+Buccaneers spent the remainder of the day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span>
+at Cruz in seeking food and resting. Every
+cat and dog was soon killed and eaten, for the
+cattle had been all driven off. Morgan, growing
+now more strict in discipline, gave orders
+that no party of less than 100 men should
+leave the town. Five or six Englishmen
+who disobeyed the order were killed by the
+Indians. In the king's stables fifteen or
+sixteen jars of Peruvian wine were found,
+and a leather sack full of biscuit. Morgan,
+afraid that his men would fall into excesses,
+spread a report that the Spaniards had
+poisoned the wine&mdash;a report confirmed by the
+violent sickness of all who drank of it; although
+half-starved men, fed for a week on
+vegetable refuse, would have been injured by
+any excess. It was, however, eagerly drunk,
+and would have been had there been death
+in every cup. This sickness detained them
+a day at Cruz. The canoes, being now
+useless, were sent back, guarded by sixty
+men, to join the other boats, one alone being
+hid in a thicket for fear of any emergency
+or any necessity arising, and to transmit
+intelligence to the vessels. He feared that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>
+if left at Cruz, they might be captured, and
+would at least require an extra guard.</p>
+
+<p>On the eighth day at morning Morgan
+reviewed his troop, and found he had 1100
+able and resolute men still at his back. He
+persuaded them that their comerade who was
+carried off by the Indians had returned,
+having only lost his way in the woods,
+fearing they might be discouraged at his
+disappearance. He then chose a band of
+the best marksmen as a forlorn hope, and a
+"hundred of these men," says &#338;xmelin,
+"are worth six hundred of any other nation."
+He divided the remainder into a van and
+wings, knowing that he should have to pass
+many places where not more than two men
+could pass abreast.</p>
+
+<p>After ten hours' march they arrived at a
+place called <i>Quebrada Obscura</i>, a dark wooded
+gorge where the sunlight rarely entered.
+Here, on a sudden, a shower of 300 or 400
+arrows poured down upon them, killing eight
+or nine men, and wounding ten. These arrows
+came from an Indian ambuscade hid
+on a wooded and rocky mountain, perforated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span>
+by a natural arch, through which only one
+laden beast could pass. The Buccaneers,
+though they could see nothing but rocks and
+trees, instantly returned the fire, and two
+Indians rolled down into the path. One of
+these, who appeared to be a chief, for he
+wore a coronet of variegated feathers, attempted
+to stab an English adventurer with
+his javelin, but a companion, parrying the
+thrust with his sabre, slew the Indian. This
+brave man was, it is supposed, the leader of
+the ambuscade, for the savages seeing him
+fall took at once to flight, and never discharged
+another shaft. As they entered
+a wood the rest of the Indians fled to seize
+the next height, from whence they might
+observe them and harass their march. The
+Buccaneers found them too swift to capture,
+and pursued them in vain: but two or three
+of the wounded fugitives were found dead
+in the road. A few armed and disciplined
+men could have made this pass good against
+a hundred, but these Indians were now
+scattered and without a leader, and they had
+only fired at random, and in haste, through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span>
+trees and thickets that intercepted their arrows.
+On leaving this defile the Buccaneers
+entered a broad prairie, where they rested
+while the wounded were tended. At a long
+distance before them they could see the
+Indians on a rocky eminence, commanding
+the road where they must pass. Fifty active
+men were dispatched to take them in the
+rear in the hopes of obtaining some prisoners,
+but all in vain, for the Indians were not only
+more agile but knew all the passes. Two
+hours after they were seen at about two gunshots'
+distance, on the same eminence from
+which they had been just driven, while the
+Buccaneers were now on an opposite height,
+and between them lay a wood. The Buccaneers
+supposed that a Spanish ambuscade was
+hid here, for whenever they came near enough
+the Indians cried out "À la savanah, à la
+savanah, cornudos perros Ingleses:" "To the
+savannah, to the savannah, you cuckold English
+dogs." Morgan sent 100 men to search
+this wood, and upon this the Spaniards and
+Indians came down from the mountain as if
+to attack them, but appeared no more.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span></p>
+
+<p>About night, a great rain falling, the Buccaneers
+marched faster, in order to prevent
+their arms getting wet, but they could find
+no houses to barrack in, for the Indians had
+burnt them all and driven away the cattle,
+hoping to starve out the men whom they
+could not drive out. They left the main
+road after diligent search, and found a few
+shepherds' huts, but too few to shelter all
+their company; they therefore piled their
+arms, and chose a small number from each
+company to guard them. Those who slept in
+the open air endured much hardship, the rain
+not ceasing all night. They made temporary
+sheds, which they covered with boughs, in
+order to sleep under a shelter, however imperfect;
+and sentinels were placed, Morgan
+being afraid of the Indians, who chose wet
+nights for their onslaughts, when fire-arms
+were often useless.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning very early, being the ninth
+of their tedious journey, they recommenced
+their march, Morgan bidding them all discharge
+their guns and then reload them, for
+fear of the wet having damped the powder.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span>
+The fresh air of the morning, clear after the
+storm, was still about them, and the clouds
+had not yet yielded to the tropical sun as
+they pushed on over a path more difficult
+than before. In about two hours' time a
+band of twenty Spaniards began to appear
+in the distance, and the Indians were also
+visible, but Morgan could obtain no prisoners,
+though he offered a reward of 300 crowns
+for every Spaniard brought in. When pursued
+the enemy hid themselves in caves and
+eluded all search.</p>
+
+<p>At last, toiling slowly up a high mountain,
+the adventurers unexpectedly beheld from
+the top the South Sea glittering in the
+distance. This caused them as great joy as
+the sight of "Thalatta" did to the soldiers of
+Xenophon. They thought their expedition
+now completed, for to them victory was a
+certainty. They could discern upon the sea,
+never before beheld, a large ship and six
+small boats setting forth from Panama to the
+islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla, which were
+only six leagues distant. Fortune smiled
+upon them to-day, for, descending this mountain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>
+they came into a grassy prairie valley,
+full of all sorts of cattle, which were being
+pursued by mounted Spaniards, who fled at
+the sight of the Buccaneers. Upon these
+animals Morgan's men rushed with the avidity
+of half-starved hunters, the eagerness
+of sailors to obtain fresh meat, and all the
+haste that brave men exhibit to get at an
+enemy. One shot a horse, another felled
+a cow, but the greater part slaughtered the
+mules, which were the most numerous.
+Some kindled fires, others collected wood,
+and the strongest hunted the cattle, while
+the invalids slew, and skinned, and flayed.
+The whole plain was soon alight with a
+hundred fires. The hungry men cut off
+lumps of flesh, carbonadoed them in the
+flame, and ate them half raw with incredible
+haste and ferocity. "They resembled," Esquemeling
+says, "rather cannibals than
+Christians, the blood running down their
+beards to the middle of their bodies." But
+no hunger, no fear, no passion threw Morgan
+off his guard. Hungry and weary himself,
+and sympathising with his men's hunger, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>
+saw the danger of this reckless gluttony,
+which produced a reaction of inertness as
+dangerous as intoxication. Dreading surprise,
+for he was surrounded by enemies, he
+beat a false alarm, and seizing their arms, his
+men, ashamed of their excess, renewed their
+march. The remainder of the meat, half-roasted
+or quite raw, they strung to their
+bandoliers. "The very look of these men,"
+says Esquemeling, "was enough to have
+terrified the boldest, for we know that in
+love as well as war, the eyes are the soonest
+conquered." Morgan, anxious at not having
+yet obtained a prisoner as guide, again despatched
+a vanguard of fifty men, who about
+evening saw in the distance 500 Spaniards,
+who shouted to them they knew not what.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after, almost at dusk, mounting a
+small eminence, they saw a better sight than
+even the South Sea&mdash;the highest steeples of
+Panama, bright in the sunset; upon this,
+like the German soldiers at the sight of the
+Rhine, the Buccaneers gave three cheers, to
+show their extreme joy, leaping and shouting,
+and throwing their hats into the air as if they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>
+had already won the victory. At the same
+time the drums beat stormily and proudly, and
+each man shot off his piece, while the red
+flag was displayed and waved in defiance of
+the Spaniard, and high above all the trumpet
+sounded.</p>
+
+<p>The camp was pitched for the night by the
+men, who waited impatiently for the morning
+when the battle should join; with equal pride
+and courage 200 mounted Spaniards shouted
+in return as they dashed up within musket
+shot, "To-morrow, to-morrow, ye dogs, we
+shall meet in the savannah;" and as they
+ended, their trumpet sounded clearer than
+even that of Morgan's. These horsemen
+were soon joined by several companies of
+infantry and several squadrons of cavalry, who
+wheeled round them within cannon shot.
+These troops had been despatched when the
+sounds of the Buccaneers' approach reached the
+gates of the city. There were still two hours
+of light, but Morgan determined not to fight
+till early in the morning, when he might
+be able to move freely in the unknown
+country, and when there would be a whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span>
+clear, bright day for the battle. As night drew
+on all the Spaniards retired to the city, excepting
+seven or eight troopers, who hovered
+about to watch the enemy's motions and
+give the alarm, if a night attack was contemplated.
+On his side Morgan placed
+double sentinels, and every now and then
+ordered false alarms to be beat to keep his
+men on the alert. Those who had any meat
+left ate it raw, as they had often done when
+hunters. No fires were allowed to be kindled,
+and the men lying, ready armed, on the
+grass, waited eagerly for the daylight. 120
+cavaliers again joined the Spanish scouts,
+and affected to maintain a strict blockade,
+and the city all night played with its biggest
+guns upon the camp, but being at so great
+a distance did little harm to the Buccaneers.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak of the tenth day of their
+march the Spaniards beat the <i>Diane</i>, and
+Morgan, replying heartily, began with great
+eagerness to push forward to the city, the
+Spaniards wheeling cautiously around his
+wings. One of the guides warned Morgan
+against the high road, which he knew would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span>
+be blocked up and crowded with ambuscades,
+and the army defiled into a wood to the right,
+where the passage was so difficult that none
+but Buccaneers could have forced a way,
+"very irksome indeed," says Esquemeling.
+The Spaniards, completely baffled and astonished
+by this diversion, left their batteries
+in a hurry, and, without any distinct plan of
+attack, crowded out into the plain. After
+two hours' march the Buccaneers reached the
+top of a small hill. From this eminence they
+could now see their goal, and Panama, with
+all the roofs that hid its treasure, lay before
+them. Below, on the plain, they might also
+discern the Spanish army drawn up in battalia,
+awaiting their descent. Even Esquemeling
+admits that the forces seemed numerous.
+"There were two squadrons of cavalry,
+four regiments of foot, and a still more terrible
+enemy, a huge number of wild bulls,
+roaring and tossing their horns, driven by a
+great number of Indians, and a few negroes
+and mounted matadors." The historian,
+more truthful in his confessions than his
+boasts, says, "They were surprised with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span>
+fear, much doubting the fortune of the day;
+yea, few or none there were but wished
+themselves at home, or at least free from the
+obligation of that engagement, it so nearly
+concerning their lives. Having been for
+some time wavering in their minds, they at
+last reflected on the strait they had brought
+themselves into, and that now they must
+either fight resolutely or die, for no quarter
+could be expected from an enemy on whom
+they had committed so many cruelties. Hereupon
+they encouraged one another, resolving
+to conquer or spend the last drop of their
+blood."</p>
+
+<p>They then divided themselves into three
+battalions, sending before 200 Buccaneers,
+very dexterous at their guns, who descended
+the hill, marching directly upon the Spaniards,
+and the battle closed. The Spanish
+cavalry uttered cries of joy, as if they were
+going to a bull-fight. The infantry shouted
+"Viva el rey!" and the vari-coloured silks
+of their doublets glistened in the sun. The
+Buccaneers, giving three cheers, charged
+upon the enemy. The forlorn hope Morgan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span>
+despatched against the cavalry and the bulls.
+The cavalry galloped forward to meet them,
+but, the ground being marshy, they could not
+advance with speed, and sank one by one
+before the unceasing dropping fire of 200
+Buccaneers, who fell on one knee and poured
+in a full volley of shot, the foot and horse
+in vain trying to break through this hot
+line of flame and death. The bulls proved
+as fatal to those who employed them, as the
+elephants to Porus. Driven on the rear of
+the Buccaneers, they took fright at the noise
+of the battle, a few only broke through the
+English companies, and trampled the red
+colours under foot, but these were soon shot
+by the old hunters; a few fled to the savannah,
+and the rest tore back and carried
+havoc through the Spanish ranks.</p>
+
+<p>The firing lasted for two hours; at the
+end of that time the cavalry and infantry
+had separated, and the troopers had fled,
+only about fifty of their number succeeding
+in escaping. The infantry, discouraged at
+their defeat, and despairing of success, fired
+off one more volley, and then threw down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span>
+their arms; the victory was won. Morgan,
+having no cavalry, could not pursue, and
+a mountain soon hid the fugitives from the
+Buccaneers' sight, who would not follow,
+expecting the flight was a mere decoy to
+lure them into an ambuscade. The Buccaneers,
+weary and faint, threw themselves
+down to rest. A few Spaniards, found hiding
+in the bushes by the sea-shore, were at once
+slain, and several cordeliers belonging to the
+army, being dragged before Morgan, were
+pistolled in spite of all their cries and entreaties.
+A Spanish captain of cavalry was
+taken prisoner by the English musketeers,
+who had hitherto given no quarter, and
+confessed that the governor of Panama had
+led out that morning 2000 men, 200 bulls,
+1450 horse, and twenty-four companies of
+foot, 100 men in each, sixty Indians, and
+some negroes. In the city, he said, were
+many trenches and batteries, and at the entrance
+a fort with fifty men and eight brass
+guns. The women and wealth had all been
+sent to Tavoga, and 600 men with twenty-eight
+pieces of cannon were inside the town,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span>
+defended by ramparts of flour sacks. The
+ambuscade had been waiting fifteen days in
+the savannah, expecting Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>On reviewing their men, the English
+found a much greater number of killed and
+wounded than they had expected, so Esquemeling
+confesses, but does not give the number.
+&#338;xmelin puts the loss at only two
+killed and two wounded, an incredible statement,
+trustworthy as he generally is. The
+Spaniards lost 600 men.</p>
+
+<p>"The pirates, nothing discouraged," says
+the former historian, "seeing their number
+so diminished, but rather filled with greater
+pride, perceiving what huge advantage they
+had obtained against their enemies, having
+rested some time, prepared to march courageously
+towards the city, plighting their
+oaths one to another, that they would fight
+till not a man was left alive. With this
+courage they recommenced their march, either
+to conquer or be conquered, carrying with
+them all the prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>They avoided the high road from Vera
+Cruz, on which the Spaniards had placed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span>
+battery of eight pieces of cannon, and selecting
+that from Porto Bello, they advanced to the
+town before the people could rally, and while
+the exaggerated rumours of the defeat were
+still uncontradicted. Trembling fugitives
+filled the streets, and terror was in every
+face.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards fought desperately, but
+without hope. In spite of Morgan's endeavour
+to maintain strict discipline, his men
+began to undervalue the enemy, and to advance
+straggling and reckless. The Spaniards,
+observing this, fired a broadside, killing
+twenty-five or thirty of the vanguard
+at the first discharge, and wounding nearly as
+many, but before they could reload were
+overpowered and slain at their guns, the
+Buccaneers stabbing all whom they met.</p>
+
+<p>Of this attack, Esquemeling gives the following
+graphic but rambling account: "They
+found much difficulty in their approach to
+the city, for within the town the Spaniards
+had placed many great guns at several quarters,
+some charged with small pieces of iron,
+and others with musket bullets. With all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span>
+these they saluted the pirates at their approaching,
+and gave them full and frequent
+broadsides, firing at them incessantly, so that
+unavoidably they shot at every step great
+numbers of men. But neither these manifest
+dangers of their lives, nor the sight of so
+many as dropped continually at their sides,
+could deter them from advancing, and gaining
+ground every moment on the enemy; and
+though the Spaniards never ceased to fire
+and act the best they could for their defence,
+yet they were forced to yield after three hours'
+combat, and the pirates having possessed
+themselves, killed and destroyed all that
+attempted in the least to oppose them."</p>
+
+<p>Morgan was now master of Panama, as he
+had been of St. Catherine's, la Rancheria,
+Maracaibo, and Gibraltar, but his vigilance
+did not yet relax. As soon as the first fury
+of their entrance was over, he assembled his
+men, and commanded them, under great penalties,
+not to drink or taste any wine, as he
+had been informed by a prisoner that it had
+been poisoned by the Spaniards. Though much
+wealth had been hidden, great warehouses of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span>
+merchandise, they rejoiced to find, were still
+well stocked with silks, cloths, and linens.
+Morgan's only fear now was, that with so
+small a body of men as remained to him, the
+Spaniards might rally, or his men, grown intoxicated
+by success and intent on plunder,
+be cut off without resistance. Having placed
+guards at all the important points of defence
+within and without the city, he ordered
+twenty-five men to seize a boat laden with
+merchandise, that owing to the low water in
+the harbour could not put out to sea. The
+command of this vessel he gave to an English
+captain.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of Panama were built chiefly
+of cedar, and a few of stone.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Michael Scott sketches for
+us nearly the whole scenery of Morgan's
+march. One side of the harbour of Chagres
+is formed, he says, by a small promontory
+that runs 500 yards into the sea. This bright
+little bay looks upon an opposite shore, long
+and muddy, and covered with mangroves to
+the water's brink. On the uttermost bluff
+is a narrow hill, with a fort erected on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>
+its apex. The rock is precipitous on three
+sides. The river of Chagres is about 100
+yards across, and very deep. It rolls sluggishly
+along, through a low, swampy country.
+It is covered down to the water with
+thick sedges and underwood, and where the
+water is stagnating, generates mosquitoes and
+fevers. The gigantic trees grow close to the
+water, and are laced together by black, snake-like
+withes. Here and there, black, slimy
+banks of mud slope out near the shore, and
+on these, monstrous alligators roll or sleep,
+like logs of rotting drift-wood. For some
+miles below Cruz, where the river ceases to
+be navigable by canoes, oars are laid aside,
+and long poles used to propel the boats,
+like punts, over the shoals. Panama is distant
+about seven leagues from Cruz. The
+roads are only passable for mules: in some
+places it has been hewn out of the rock, and
+zig-zags along the face of hills, in parts
+scarcely passable for two persons meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"The scenery on each side is very beautiful,
+as the road winds for the most part amongst
+steeps, overshadowed by magnificent trees,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>
+among which birds of all sizes, and of the
+most gorgeous plumage, are perpetually glancing,
+while a monkey every here and there
+sits grimacing and chattering overhead. The
+small, open savannahs gradually grow larger,
+and the clear spaces widen, until the forest
+you have been travelling under breaks into
+beautiful clumps of trees, like those of a gentleman's
+park, and every here and there are
+placed clear pieces of water, spreading out
+full of pond-turtle, and short grass, that
+sparkles in the dew."</p>
+
+<p>As you approach the town, the open spaces
+become more frequent, until at length you
+gain a rising ground, about three miles from
+Panama, where the view is enchanting.
+Below lies the city, and the broad Pacific,
+dotted with ships, lies broad and glassy beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Basil Hall, an accurate but less poetical
+observer, sketches the bay of Panama, its
+beach fringed with plantations shaded by
+groves of oranges, figs, and limes, the tamarinds
+surmounting all but the feathery tops
+of the cocoa-nut trees; the ground hidden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span>
+with foliage, among which peep cane-built
+huts and canoes pulling to shore. Tavoga
+he describes as a tangle of trees and flowers.
+"The houses of the city, very curious and
+magnificent," says Esquemeling, "and richly
+adorned with paintings and hangings, of which
+a part only had been removed." The buildings
+were all stately, and the streets broad and
+well arranged. There were within the walls
+eight monasteries, a cathedral, and an hospital,
+attended by the religious. The churches
+and monasteries were richly adorned with
+paintings, and in the subsequent fire may
+have perished some of the masterpieces of
+Titian, Murillo, or Velasquez. The gold plate
+and fittings of these buildings the priests had
+concealed. The number of rich houses was
+computed at 2000, and the smaller shops, &amp;c.,
+at 5000 additional. The grandest buildings
+in the town were the Genoese warehouses
+connected with the slave trade; there were
+also long rows of stables, where the horses
+and mules were kept that were used to convey
+the royal plate from the South to the
+North Pacific Ocean. Before the city, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span>
+offerings spread before a throne, lay rich
+plantations and pleasant gardens.</p>
+
+<p>Panama was the city to which all the
+treasures of Peru were annually brought.
+The plate fleet, laden with bars of gold and
+silver, arrived here at certain periods brimming
+with the crown wealth, as well as that of
+private merchants. It returned laden with
+the merchandise of Panama and the Spanish
+main, to be sold in Peru and Chili, and still
+oftener with droves of negro slaves that the
+Genoese imported from the coast of Guinea to
+toil and die in the Peruvian mines. So wealthy
+was this golden city that more than 2,000
+mules were employed in the transport of the
+gold and silver from thence to Porto Bello,
+where the galleons were loaded. The merchants
+of Panama were proverbially the
+richest in the whole Spanish West Indies.
+The Governor of Panama was the suzerain of
+Porto Bello, of Nata, Cruz, Veragua, &amp;c., and
+the Bishop of Panama was primate of the Terra
+Firma, and suffragan to the Archbishop of
+Peru. The district of Panama was the most
+fertile and healthy of all the Spanish colonies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>
+rich in mines, and so well wooded that its
+ship-timber peopled with vessels both the
+northern and the southern seas; its land
+yielded full crops, and its broad savannahs
+pastured innumerable herds of wild cattle.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers found the booty in the
+half-devastated town ample beyond their
+expectations, in spite of all that had
+been destroyed, buried, or removed. The
+stores were still full of wealth, which not
+even a month of alarm had given the merchants
+time to remove to their overcharged
+vessels. Some rooms were choked with corn,
+and others piled high with iron, tools, plough-shares,
+&amp;c., for Peru. In many was found
+"metal more attractive," in the shape of
+wine, olive oil, and spices, while silks, cloths,
+and linen lay around in costly heaps.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, still afraid of surprise, resorted to
+a reckless scheme to avert the danger. The
+very night he entered Panama he set fire to a
+few of the chief buildings, and before morning
+the greater part of the city was in a flame,
+although the first blaze had been detected
+in the suburbs. No one knew his motive,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span>
+and few that the enemy had not done it.
+He carefully spread a report, both among
+the prisoners and his own people, that the
+Spaniards themselves were the authors of the
+fire. The citizens and even the English
+strove to extinguish the flames, by blowing
+up some houses with gunpowder and pulling
+down others, but being of wood, the fire
+spread rapidly from roof to roof. In less
+than half an hour a whole street was consumed.
+The Genoese warehouses and many
+of the slaves were burnt, and only one church
+was left standing; 200 store buildings were
+destroyed. &#338;xmelin seems to lament chiefly
+the slaves and merchandise, and scarcely even
+affects a regret for the stately city. The
+ruins continued to smoke and smoulder for a
+month, and at daybreak of the morning after
+their arrival, little of the great city they had
+lately seen glorious in the sunset remained
+but the president's house, where Morgan and
+his staff lodged, a small clump of muleteers'
+cottages, and two convents, that of St. Joseph
+and that of the Brothers of the Redemption.
+Still fearful of surprise, the adventurers encamped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span>
+outside the walls in the fields, from a
+wish to avoid the confusion, and in order to
+keep together in case of an attack by a
+superior force. The wounded were put into
+the only church that had escaped the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Morgan despatched 160 men
+to Chagres to announce his victory, and to
+see that his garrison wanted for nothing.
+They met whole troops of Spaniards running
+to and fro in the savannah, but, in spite of
+their expectations, they never rallied. In
+the afternoon the Buccaneers re-entered the
+city, and selected houses of the few left to
+barrack in. They then dragged all the available
+cannon they could find and placed them
+round the church of the Fathers of the Trinity,
+which they entrenched. In this they placed
+in separate places the wounded and the
+prisoners. The evening they spent in searching
+the ruins for gold, melted or hidden, and
+found much spoil, especially in wells and
+cisterns.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours after, Morgan's vessels returned
+with three prizes, laden with plate and other
+booty, taken in the South Sea. The day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span>
+they sailed, arriving at one of the small
+islands of refuge near Panama, they took a
+sloop with its crew of seven men, belonging
+to a royal Spanish vessel of 400 tons, laden
+with church plate and jewels, removed by
+the richest merchants in Panama; there were
+also on board all the religious women of the
+nunnery, with the valuable ornaments of their
+church, and she was so deeply laden as not
+to require ballast. It carried only seven
+guns and a dozen muskets, had no more sails
+than the "uppermost of the mizen," was
+short of ammunition and food, and even of
+water. The Buccaneers received this intelligence
+from some Indians who had spoken
+to the seamen of the galleon when they
+came ashore in a cock-boat for water. Had
+they given chase they might have easily
+captured it, but Captain Clark let the golden
+opportunity slip through his hands. Thinking
+himself sure of his prize as he had got
+her sloop, his men spent the night in
+drinking the rich wines they found in the
+sloop, and reposing in the arms of their
+Spanish mistresses, the more beautiful for their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span>
+tears and despair. During these debaucheries
+the galleon slipped by and was no more seen,
+and so they lost a prize of greater value than
+all the treasure found in Panama. In the
+morning, weary of the revel, they crowded
+all sail and despatched a well-armed boat to
+pursue the cripple, ascertaining that the
+Spanish ship was in bad sailing order and
+incapable of making any resistance. In the
+islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla they captured
+several boats laden with merchandise. Informed
+by a prisoner of the probable moorings
+of the galleon, Morgan, enraged at her escape,
+sent every boat in Panama in pursuit of
+her, bidding them seek till they found her.
+They were eight days cruising from port to
+creek. Returning to the isles, they found
+here a large ship newly come from Payta,
+laden with cloth, soap, sugar, biscuit, and
+20,000 pieces of eight; another small boat
+near was also taken and laden with the
+divided merchandise. With these glimpses
+of wealth the boats returned to Panama
+somewhat consoled for the loss of their larger
+prize. The Buccaneers' vessels now began to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span>
+excite the astonishment of the Spaniards,
+they being the first Englishmen, since
+Drake, who had appeared as enemies on those
+seas.</p>
+
+<p>During this expedition Morgan had employed
+the rest of his men in scouring the
+country in daily companies of 200, one party
+relieving another, and perpetually bringing
+in flocks of pale and bleeding prisoners, or
+mules laden with treasure. Some tortured the
+captives, others explored the mines, and the
+rest burnt glittering heaps of gold and silver
+stuffs, merely to obtain the metal, expecting to
+have to fight their way back to their ships at
+Chagres, and not wishing to be encumbered
+with unwieldy bundles on that toilsome and
+dangerous march. Morgan, complaining much
+of the fruitless labours of his foragers, at last
+placed himself at the head of 350 men, and
+sallied into the country to torture every
+wealthy Spaniard he could meet.</p>
+
+<p>The following anecdote presents us with
+such a complete picture of the demoralisation
+of a panic, that it reminds us of Thucydides'
+description of Athens during the plague, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span>
+Boccaccio's of Florence during the raging of
+the pest. On one occasion Morgan's men met
+with a poor Spaniard, who, during the general
+confusion, had strolled into a rich man's house
+and dressed himself in the costume of a
+merchant of rank. He had just stripped off
+his rags, and, first luxuriating in a change of
+costly Dutch linen, had slipped on a pair of
+breeches of fine red taffety, and picking up
+the silver key of some coffer, had tied it to
+one of his points. Esquemeling represents
+the man as a poor retainer of the house. He
+was still wondering childishly at his unwonted
+finery, when the Buccaneers broke
+into the house and seized him as a prize.
+Finding him richly dressed and in a fine
+house, they believed him at once to be the
+master. His story they treated as a subtle
+invention. In vain he pointed to the black
+rags he had thrown off&mdash;in vain he protested,
+by all the saints, that he lived on charity,
+and had wandered in there and put on the
+clothes by the merest chance, and without a
+motive but of venial theft. Spying the little
+key at his girdle they became sure that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span>
+lied, and they demanded where he had hid
+his cabinet. They had at first laughed at
+his ingenious story&mdash;they now grew angry
+at his denials of wealth. They stretched
+him on the rack and disjointed his arms,
+they twisted a cord round his wrinkled forehead
+"till his eyes appeared as big as eggs,
+and were ready to fall out," and as he still
+refused to answer, they hung him up and
+loaded him with stripes. They then cut
+off his nose and ears, singing his face with
+burning straw till he could not even groan
+or scream, and at last, despairing of obtaining
+a confession, gave him over to their attendant
+band of negroes to put him to death with
+their lances. "The common sport and recreation
+of the pirates," says Esquemeling,
+"being such cruelties."</p>
+
+<p>They spared no sex, age, or condition;
+priest or nun, peasant or noble, old man,
+maiden, and child were all stretched on the
+same bed of torture. They granted no
+quarter to any who could not pay a ransom,
+or who would not pay it speedily. The most
+beautiful of the prisoners became their mistresses,
+and the virtuous were treated with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span>
+rigour and cruelty. Captain Morgan himself
+seduced the fairest by alternate presents
+and threats. There were women found
+base enough to forsake their religion and
+their homes to become the harlots of a pirate
+and a murderer. But to his iron heart
+love found a way, and enervated the mind
+of the man whom nothing before could soften.</p>
+
+<p>After ten days spent in the country beyond
+the walls, Morgan returned to Panama,
+and found a shipload of Spanish prisoners
+newly arrived. Amongst these was a woman
+of exquisite beauty, the wife of a Spanish merchant,
+then absent on business in Peru. He
+had left her in the care of some relations, with
+whom she was captured. Esquemeling says:
+"Her years were few, and her beauty so great,
+as, peradventure, I may doubt whether in
+all Christendom any could be found to surpass
+her perfections, either of comeliness or
+honesty." &#338;xmelin, a more skilful observer,
+and who saw her, being a sharer in the expedition,
+describes her hair as ink black, and
+her complexion of dazzling purity. Her eyes
+were piercing, and the Spanish pride, usually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span>
+so cold and repulsive, served in her only as a
+foil to her surpassing beauty, and to attract
+respect. The roughest sailors and rudest
+hunters grew eloquent when they praised her.
+The common men would willingly have drawn
+swords for such a prize. But their commander
+was already the slave of her whom
+he had captured. His demeanour changed:
+he was no longer brutal and truculent: he
+became sociable in manner, and more attentive
+to the richness of his dress, for lovers
+grow either more careless or more regardful
+of their attire.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneer's aspect was changed. He
+separated the lady from the other prisoners,
+and treated her with marked respect. An
+old negress, who waited on her, served at
+once as an attendant and a spy. She was
+told to assure her mistress, that the Buccaneers
+were gentlemen and no thieves, and
+men who knew what politeness and gallantry
+were as well as any. The lady wept and entreated
+to be placed with the other prisoners,
+for she had heard that her relations were
+afraid of some plot against her good fame.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The lady, like other Spanish women, had
+been told by their priests and husbands, that
+the Buccaneers had the shape of beasts and
+not of men. The more intelligent reported
+they were robbers, murderers, and heretics;
+men who forswore the Holy Trinity, and did
+not believe in Jesus Christ. "The <i>oaths</i> of
+<i>Morgan</i>," says Esquemeling, with most commendable
+gravity, "<i>soon convinced her that
+he had heard of a God</i>." It was said, that a
+woman of Panama who had long desired to
+see a pirate, on their first entrance into the
+city cried out, "Jesu Maria, the thieves are
+men, like the Spaniards, after all;" and some
+volunteers, when they went out to meet Morgan's
+army, had promised to bring home a
+pirate's head as a curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>Morgan, refusing to restore the beauty to
+her friends, treated her with more flattering
+care than before. Tapestries, robes, jewels,
+and perfumes, lay at her disposal. Such
+kindness, after all, was cheap generosity, and
+part of this treasure may even have been her
+husband's. In her innocence, she began to
+think better of the Buccaneers. They might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span>
+be thieves, but they were not, she found,
+atheists, nor very cruel, for Captain Morgan
+sent her dishes from his own table. She at
+first received his visits with gratitude and
+pleasure, surprised at the rough, frank kindness
+of the seaman, and loudly denounced his
+slanderers, that had so cruelly attempted to
+poison her mind against him, her guardian
+and protector. The snares were well set,
+and the bird was fluttering in. But Heaven
+preserved her, and she passed through the
+furnace unhurt. Morgan soon threw off his
+disguise, and offered her all the treasures of
+the Indies if she would become his mistress.
+She refused his presents of gold and pearl,
+and resisted all his artifices. In vain he
+tried alternately kindness and severity. He
+threatened her with a thousand cruelties, and
+she replied, that her life was in his hands,
+but that her body should remain pure, though
+her soul was torn from it. On his advancing
+nearer, and threatening violence, she drew
+out a poignard, and would have slain him or
+herself, had he not left her uninjured. Enraged
+at her pride, as he miscalled her virtue,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>
+he determined to break her spirit by
+suffering. She was stripped of her richest
+apparel, and thrown into a dark cellar, with
+scarcely enough food allowed her to support
+life, and the chief demanded 30,000 piastres
+as her ransom, to prevent her being sold as a
+slave in Jamaica. Under this hardship the
+lady prayed like a second Una daily to God,
+for constancy and patience. Morgan, now convinced
+of her purity, and afraid of his men,
+who already began to express openly their
+sympathy with her sufferings, to account for
+his cruelty, accused her to his council of having
+abused his kindness by corresponding
+with the Spaniards, and declared that he had
+intercepted a letter written in her own hand.
+"I myself," says Esquemeling, "was an
+eye-witness of the lady's sufferings, and could
+never have judged such constancy and chastity
+to be found in the world, if my own
+eyes and ears had not assured me thereof."
+Amid the blood, and dust, and vapour of
+smoke, the virtue of this incomparable lady
+shines out like a pale evening star, visible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span>
+above all the murky crimson of an autumn
+sunset.</p>
+
+<p>A new danger now arose to Morgan from
+this adventure, for the seamen began to
+murmur, saying that the love of this beautiful
+Spaniard kept them lingering at Panama,
+and gave the Spaniards time to collect their
+forces, and surprise them on their return.
+But Morgan, having now stayed three weeks,
+and nothing more being left to plunder, gave
+orders to collect enough mules to carry the
+spoil to Cruz, where it could be shipped for
+Chagres, and so sent homeward.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that various causes
+had for some time been undermining the
+long subsisting attachment between Morgan
+and his men. He had shown himself a slave
+to the passions which enchained their own
+minds, and their riches perhaps made them
+independent, and therefore mutinous. It
+was while the mules were collecting that he
+became aware of the loaded mine over which
+he stood. A plot was discovered, in which
+there were 100 conspirators. They had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span>
+resolved to seize the two vessels they had
+captured in the South Sea, and with these to
+take possession of an island, which they
+could fortify for a stronghold. They would
+then fit out the first large Spanish vessel
+they could obtain, and with a good pilot
+and a bold captain start privateering on
+their own account, and work home by the
+straits of Magellan. As the spoil had not
+yet been divided, it is probable that all these
+men had broken the Buccaneer oath, and had
+secreted part of the plunder. They had
+already hidden in private places, cannons,
+muskets, provisions, and ammunition. They
+were on the very point of raising the anchor,
+when one of them betrayed the scheme, and
+Morgan at once ordered the vessel to be dismasted
+and the rigging burnt. The vessels
+he would also have destroyed, but these he
+spared at the intercession of the friend he had
+appointed their captain. From this time all
+confidence seems to have ceased between
+Morgan and his men. Many a king has
+been made a tyrant by the detection of a
+conspiracy. The men dreaded his vengeance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>
+and he their treachery. From this hour he
+appears to have resolved to enrich himself
+and his immediate friends at any risk, leaving
+the French to shift for themselves. It is not
+improbable but that the old French and
+English feud may have had something to
+do with this quarrel. In war it ceased, but
+rankled out again in peace. The French
+seem to have been his greatest enemies, and
+the English friendly or indifferent. This
+distinction is visible even in the historians,
+for Esquemeling speaks of him with mere
+distrust, and &#338;xmelin with bitter hatred.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days the mules were ready,
+and the gold packed in convenient bales, for
+Spanish or English gold it was all one to the
+mules. The costly church plate was beaten
+up into heavy shapeless lumps, and the
+heavier spoil was left behind or destroyed.
+Better burn it, they thought, than leave it
+to the accursed Spaniard, for we always hate
+those whom we have injured. The artillery
+of the town being carefully spiked, and all
+ready to depart, Morgan informed his prisoners
+that he was about to march, and that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span>
+should take with him all those who were either
+unable or unwilling at once to bring in their
+ransom. The sight was heart-rending, and
+the panic general. At his words, says the
+historian, there was not one but trembled,
+not one but hurried to write to his father,
+his brother, or his friends, praying for instant
+deliverance or it would be too late. The
+slaves were also priced, and hostages were sent
+to collect the money. While this was taking
+place, a party of 150 men were sent to Chagres
+to bring up the boats and to look out for
+ambuscades, it being reported that Don Juan
+Perez de Guzman, the fugitive president of
+Panama, had entrenched himself strongly at
+Cruz, and intended to dispute the passage.
+Some prisoners confessed that the president
+had indeed so intended, but could get no
+soldiers willing to fight, though he had sent
+for men as far as Carthagena; for the scattered
+troopers fled at the sight of even their
+own friends in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>Having waited four days impatiently for
+the ransom, Morgan at last set out on his
+return on the 24th of February, 1671. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span>
+took with him a large amount of baggage,
+175 beasts of burden laden with gold, silver,
+and jewels, and about 600 prisoners, men,
+women, children, and slaves, having first
+spiked all the cannon and burnt the gun-carriages.
+He marched in good order for
+fear of attack, with a van and rear-guard,
+and the prisoners guarded between the two
+divisions.</p>
+
+<p>The departure was an affecting sight, as
+even the two historians, who were Buccaneers
+themselves and eye-witnesses, admit. Lamentations,
+cries, shrieks, and doleful sighs of
+women and children filled the air. The men
+wept silently, or muttered threats between
+their teeth, to avoid the blows of their unpitying
+drivers. Thirst and hunger added
+to their sufferings. Many of the women
+threw themselves on their knees at Morgan's
+feet and begged that he would permit them
+to return to Panama, there to live with their
+dear husbands and children in huts till the
+city could be rebuilt. But his fierce answer
+was, that he did not come there to hear
+lamentations, but to seek money, and that if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span>
+that was not found, wherever it was hid, they
+should assuredly follow him to Jamaica. All
+the selfishness and all the goodness of each
+nature now came to the surface. The selfish
+fell into torpid and isolated despair&mdash;the
+good forgot their own sufferings in trying to
+relieve those of others.</p>
+
+<p>Some gazed at each other silently and
+hopelessly; others wailed and wept, a few
+cursed and raged. Here stood one mourning
+for a brother&mdash;there another lamenting a wife.
+Many believed that they should never see
+each other again; but would be sold as slaves
+in Jamaica. The first evening the army
+encamped in the middle of a green savannah
+on the banks of a cool and pleasant river.
+This was a great relief to the wretched
+prisoners, who had been dragged all day
+through the heat of a South American noon
+by men themselves insensible to climate&mdash;urged
+forward by the barrels of muskets and
+blows from the butts of pikes. Some of the
+women were here seen begging the Buccaneers,
+with tears in their eyes, for a drop of water,
+that they might moisten a little flour for their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>
+children, who hung crying at their parched
+and dried-up breasts. The next day, when
+they resumed the march, the shrieks and
+lamentations were more terrible than before.
+"They would have caused compassion in the
+hardest heart," says Esquemeling; "but Captain
+Morgan, as a man little given to mercy,
+was not moved in the least." The lagging
+Spaniards were driven on faster with blows,
+till some of the women swooned with the
+intense heat, and were left as dead by the
+road-side. Those who had husbands gave
+them the children to carry. The young
+and the beautiful fared best. The fair
+Spaniard was led between two Buccaneers,
+still apart from the rest. She wept as she
+walked along, crying that she had entrusted
+two priests in whom she relied to procure her
+ransom money, 30,000 piastres, from a certain
+hidden place, and that they had employed
+it in ransoming their friends. A slave had
+brought a letter to the lady and disclosed the
+treachery. Her complaint being told to
+Morgan he inquired into it, and found it
+to be true. The religious men confessed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span>
+their crime, but declared they had only
+borrowed the money, intending to repay it
+in a week or so. He therefore at once
+released the lady, and detained the monks
+in her place, taking them on to Chagres
+and despatching two men to obtain their
+ransom.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Cruz the mules were unloaded,
+preparatory to embarkation. The
+Buccaneers encamped round the king's warehouse,
+where it was stored. Three days were
+given to collect the ransom. The Spaniards,
+tardy or unwilling in the collection, brought
+in the money the day after. Vast quantities
+of corn, rice, and maize were collected here
+for victualling the ships. Morgan embarked
+150 slaves, and a few poor and obstinate Spaniards
+who had not yet paid their ransom. The
+monks were redeemed, and escaped happy
+enough. A part of the Buccaneers marched
+by land. Many tears of joy and sorrow
+were shed when the prisoners and those who
+were liberated took farewell.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Barbacoa the division of the
+spoil began. Mustering his men, Morgan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span>
+compelled them all to swear they had concealed
+nothing, even of the smallest value,
+and, what was more unusual, he ordered them
+all to be individually searched from top to
+toe, down even to the very soles of their
+shoes. This search was suspicious and insulting.
+The Frenchmen, hot-blooded and
+mutinous, would have openly resisted had
+they not been in the minority. Morgan
+allowed himself to be first searched to lessen
+the general discontent, and one man in every
+company was employed as searcher. No precautions
+were neglected that could be suggested
+by long experience of plundering.</p>
+
+<p>This unusual vigilance was a mere cloak
+for Morgan's own dishonesty. Every man
+was now compelled to discharge his musket
+before the searchers, that they might be sure
+no precious stones were hidden in the barrel.
+These searchers were generally the lieutenants
+of each crew, and had all taken an additional
+oath to perform their duty with fidelity. The
+murmurs against Morgan had now reached
+such a height, and were so hourly increasing,
+that many Frenchmen threatened to take his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span>
+life before they reached Jamaica. The more
+temperate controlled the younger and the more
+impetuous, and the band reached Chagres
+without any revolt. They found the garrison
+short of provisions and glad to be relieved,
+but the wounded had nearly all died of
+their wounds.</p>
+
+<p>From Chagres Morgan sent a great boat
+to Porto Bello with all the St. Catherine's
+prisoners, and demanded a ransom for sparing
+the castle of Chagres. The people of Porto
+Bello replied they would not give one farthing,
+and he might burn it as he chose.</p>
+
+<p>The day after their arrival, Morgan divided
+the booty. It amounted to only 443,000
+pounds, estimating at ten piastres the pound.
+The jewels were sold unfairly, the admiral
+and his cabal buying the greater part very
+cheap, having already, it was believed, retained
+all the best of the spoil. Every one
+had expected at least 1000 pieces each, and
+was disappointed and indignant at receiving
+only about 200. There was an end now
+to all co-operation between English and
+French adventurers, and the hopes of a Buccaneer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span>
+republic were at an end for ever.
+The murmurs again rose incontrollably high,
+and some proposed to seize Morgan and force
+him to a fair division.</p>
+
+<p>The suspected admiral, trying in vain to
+pacify them, and finding he could obtain no
+price for Chagres, divided the provisions of
+the fort among the vessels, removed the
+cannon and ammunition, then demolished
+the fortifications, and burnt the buildings.
+Suddenly taking alarm, or more probably
+following a preconcerted plan, Morgan sailed
+out of the harbour without any signal or
+notice, and hurried to Jamaica, followed by
+four English vessels, whose captains had been
+his confidants.</p>
+
+<p>In the first paroxysm of their rage, the
+French adventurers would have pursued
+Morgan, and attacked his vessel, but he
+escaped while they were still hesitating. We
+shall find him finally settled in Jamaica, and
+married to the daughter of the chief person of
+the island, a sure proof, says the indignant
+and philosophical &#338;xmelin, that any one is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span>
+esteemed in this world provided he has
+money.</p>
+
+<p>The same vivacious writer gives a lively
+picture of the rage of the crews at the treacherous
+flight of Morgan. They shouted, swore,
+stamped, clenched their fists, gnashed their
+teeth, and tore their hair, fired off their pistols
+in the air, and brandished their arms,
+with imprecations loud and deep. They longed
+for the plunder they had lost, and longed
+still more eagerly for revenge. They never
+now mentioned the Welsh name but with an
+execration. Strange anomaly of the human
+mind, that men who lived by robbery, should
+be astonished at a small theft committed by
+a comrade! In the first bitterness of their
+vexation, they drew their sabres, and hewed
+and thrust at their imaginary enemy. They
+bared their arms, and pointed out to each
+other the cicatrices of their half-healed
+wounds.</p>
+
+<p>Confirmations of the admiral's treachery
+reached them from every side.</p>
+
+<p>They remembered that Morgan had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span>
+latterly unusually reserved and unsociable,
+closeting himself with a few English confidants,
+to whom he had been seen whispering
+even during public conferences. He
+had, it was now recollected, grown silent
+during all discussions, and more particularly
+when the booty was mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>&#338;xmelin (a surgeon) also mentions, that
+on one occasion, as he was visiting a wounded
+Buccaneer, Morgan came up to the hammock,
+and said in English, thinking he could not
+be overheard, "Courage, get soon well, you
+have helped me to conquer, and you must
+help me to profit by the conquest." Another
+day, as &#338;xmelin was searching by the river
+for a medical herb, he turned round suddenly,
+and saw Morgan secreting something in the
+corner of a canoe, and looking frequently over
+his shoulder to see if he was observed. When
+he observed &#338;xmelin, he looked troubled,
+and, coming up, asked him what he was doing
+there, to which the surgeon made no answer,
+but, stooping down, picked the plant he
+was in search of, and began to tell him its
+properties. Morgan turned off the subject,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span>
+beginning to converse on indifferent topics,
+and, although the proudest of men, insisted
+on accompanying him home. &#338;xmelin took
+care to find an opportunity afterwards to
+rummage the canoe, but found nothing; but
+this same canoe he always observed Morgan
+took great care of, and never permitted to
+row out of his sight. But these stories none
+had dared to utter, for since the victory of
+Panama, the admiral, always proud, sensual,
+and cruel, had grown every day more stern,
+and had rendered himself dreaded by his
+severities.</p>
+
+<p>The adventurers sought for a long time
+some means of avenging themselves on Morgan
+for his successful treachery. They at last
+heard that he had resolved to take possession
+of St. Catherine's island, being apprehensive
+of the governor of Jamaica. In this spot he
+had determined to fortify himself, renew his
+Buccaneering, and defy both open enemies and
+treacherous friends. The Buccaneers agreed
+to waylay him on his passage, and carry him
+off, with his wife, children, and ill-gotten
+treasure. They then planned either to kill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>
+him, or compel him to render an account of
+the spoil of Panama. But an unexpected
+accident saved Morgan, and defeated their
+scheme of vengeance. At the very crisis,
+a new governor, Lord G. Vaughan, arrived
+at Port Royal, and brought a royal order for
+Morgan to be sent to England to answer the
+complaints of the King of Spain and his subjects.
+Of his trial we hear nothing, but we
+soon after see the culprit knighted by Charles
+II., and appointed Commissioner of Admiralty
+for Jamaica. The king, who frolicked with
+Rochester, and smiled at the daring villany
+of Blood, had no scruples in disgracing
+knighthood by such an addition.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1680, the Earl of Carlisle,
+then governor of Jamaica, finding his
+constitution undermined by the climate, returned
+to England, leaving Morgan as his
+deputy.</p>
+
+<p>His opportunity of revenge had now come,
+and he remembered his old dangers of ruin
+and assassination. Many of the Buccaneers
+were hung by his authority, and some of them
+were delivered up to the governor of Carthagena.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span>
+A new governor arrived, and terminated
+his cruelties, and the justice inspired
+by a personal hatred. He still remained commissioner.
+In the next reign he was thrown
+into prison, where he remained three years.
+Of his final fate we know nothing certain.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+
+<small>THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.</small></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Dispersion of the fleet&mdash;&#338;xmelin's interview with
+the old Buccaneer&mdash;Adventure with Indians&mdash;Esquemeling's
+Escapes&mdash;1673. D'Ogeron's Escape
+from the Spaniards&mdash;1676. Buccaneers' Fight at
+Tobago against the Dutch&mdash;1678. Captain Cook
+captures a Spanish vessel&mdash;1679. Captains Coxen
+and Sharp begin their cruise.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>On the departure of Morgan, the Buccaneers,
+without food, and without leaders,
+underwent many sufferings, and remained
+uncertain what to do.</p>
+
+<p>&#338;xmelin and a few of his French friends
+being informed by a female slave that an old
+Buccaneer lived in the neighbourhood, determined
+to go to him and barter goods, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span>
+they were told that, although a Spaniard,
+such was his custom. Following the slave
+with great expectation, they reached the
+veteran's fort after about six hours' march.
+The Buccaneers' "peel" towers were scattered
+all over the West Indies, and Waterton mentions
+seeing the ruins of one near Demerara.
+This fort was defended by a fosse of immense
+depth, and by massy walls of an extraordinary
+thickness, flanked at each corner by
+a bastion well supplied with cannon. The
+Frenchmen displayed their colours and beat
+their drums as a greeting, yet no one appeared,
+and no one answered; but, at the
+end of a quarter of an hour, they saw a light
+in one of the bastions, and perceived a man
+about to discharge a cannon. Throwing
+themselves on their faces with professional
+dexterity, the shot flew over their heads,
+and they then rose and retreated out of range.
+Believing at once that they had been betrayed,
+for many dangers had made them
+suspicious, they were about to cut their guide
+to pieces, when, running from them, she cried
+to the gunner, "Why is your master false<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span>
+to his word? did he not promise to receive
+these gentlemen?" "It is true," cried the
+soldier, "but he has changed his mind; and
+if you and your people do not go off, I will
+blow out your brains." The Buccaneers,
+enraged at the insolence of this threat, and
+the capricious change of intention, were about
+to attempt to storm the place, when four
+Spaniards advanced and demanded a truce, in
+the name of their master. "We had," they
+explained, "been alarmed at your numbers,
+and feared foul play or treachery."
+The old adventurer was now willing to receive
+them, if they would send four of their
+band as ambassadors and hostages. &#338;xmelin
+was one of the four chosen. They found the
+old man, grey and venerable, seated between
+two others. He was so old and feeble that
+he could not speak audibly, but he smiled
+and moved his lips, and stroked his long
+white beard, as they entered, and they could
+observe that he was pleased to see once more
+the well-remembered dress of the Buccaneer
+seamen. His majestic bearing was impressive.
+Though he could not rise to welcome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>
+them, he bent his head in answer to their
+greetings, and beckoned to one of his attendants
+to speak for him. By his orders they
+were at once taken to his store-rooms, where
+they bartered their goods, and obtained all
+that they required. They first eagerly selected
+some brandy, and &#338;xmelin is never
+tired of repeating "ses gens l'aiment avec
+passion." On their way back to the ships
+with the guide, delighted at their success,
+the Spaniards who carried the goods they had
+bought told them their master's history. He
+was, it appeared, properly speaking, neither
+an adventurer nor a Castilian, but a Portuguese,
+who had lived long both with adventurers
+and with Spaniards. A Spanish ship
+had picked him up in a drifted canoe when
+quite a boy, and he had been employed
+among the slaves in a cocoa plantation, where
+he soon became a successful steward, and
+much beloved by his master. His patron
+sent every year a vessel to his plantation to
+be loaded with cocoa. One day, as the
+steward was on board superintending the
+lading, a sudden squall came on, snapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span>
+the cable, and drove them out to sea. He
+being a good pilot, and accustomed to navigation,
+attempted to put back to land as soon
+as the storm abated, but the slaves, with one
+voice, declared that they would not return, and
+that he should not take them, for they knew
+that their master would suspect, and would
+cruelly punish them. At that time the
+slightest offence of a slave was punished
+with death. The steward remonstrated with
+them; but the slaves resolved to be free,
+although they knew not where to steer. At
+this crisis the bark was pursued by a Buccaneer
+vessel, from which a storm for a short
+time released them, but they were eventually
+overtaken and captured.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneer captain brought these prisoners
+to the fortress they had just visited.
+Here he became again a faithful steward,
+and finally inherited the place at his master's
+death, and continued to trade with the Buccaneers,
+as his predecessor had done. The
+fortress had been originally built to repel
+the Spaniards, who had been several times
+beaten off with loss.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is very seldom that we can follow the
+Buccaneer to the last scene of all: he flashes
+across our scene from darkness to darkness,
+and we hear of him no more. In the present
+instance, &#338;xmelin enables us to fill up the
+vacuum and tell out the tale. In a subsequent
+voyage he returned to the old spot, the
+scene of an oft told story. Devastation had
+fallen upon the devastator, the fortress was
+completely demolished and no dwelling remained.
+He ascertained from the Spaniards
+that the old man had died and left his riches to
+his two sons, who, impatient of a slothful
+wealth, and with imaginations excited from
+their youth by the recital of Buccaneer adventures,
+had at last turned Flibustiers. Before
+their father's death they had often expressed
+a wish to conquer the country of the ferocious
+Bravo Indians, but he had always discouraged
+them from the dangerous and unprofitable
+expedition, being afraid of attacks from the
+Spaniards in their absence. They were
+never heard of again, but report was current
+that, having been shipwrecked, the two Buccaneers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>
+had been taken by the Indians, and
+killed and eaten.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the Boca del Toro, about thirty
+leagues distant from Chagres, &#338;xmelin and
+his companions arrived at the country of the
+very dreaded Bravo Indians. These people
+were known to be warlike cannibals, cruel
+and very treacherous. They were expert
+archers, and could discharge their arrows, like
+the Parthians, even when in full retreat.
+They had axes and spears, and wore metal
+ornaments, the clash of which animated them
+to the charge. They carried tortoise-shells
+for shields, which covered their whole bodies,
+and were most to be dreaded when few in
+number and quite overpowered, for they
+would then throw themselves like wild-cats
+on the foe, and think only of destroying their
+enemy's life, regardless of their own. Morgan,
+who seems to have made every preparation
+for an extensive Buccaneer empire, had often
+sworn to totally destroy this nation which
+had slain so many shipwrecked men, and
+so frequently frustrated his plans. No Buccaneer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span>
+historian ever seems to have reflected
+that these savages, rude as they were, fought
+as patriots defending their country. We sing
+of Tell and rave of Wallace, but we have no
+interest in a hero without breeches!</p>
+
+<p>These Indians had at first been friendly to
+the Buccaneers, who had sold them iron in
+exchange for food, but on one fatal occasion,
+at a Buccaneer debauch, a quarrel had arisen,
+and some Indians had been killed and their
+wives carried off. From this time irreconcilable
+hatred existed between the two
+people, and to be wrecked on the Bravo shore
+was equivalent to certain death. On reaching
+Cape Diego (so called, like many other points
+of land, from an old adventurer), &#338;xmelin
+was compelled by hunger to feed on crocodile
+eggs, which were found buried in the sand.
+Meeting here with some French adventurers,
+they all removed to an adjacent spot, where
+they caught turtle and salted it for the
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Ascending a river to obtain provisions,
+they surprised and killed two Indians, of
+whom one had a beard-case of tortoise-shell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>
+and another of beaten gold: the latter they
+took for a chief. Putting off from here, and
+meeting with contrary winds that drove them
+from Jamaica, they returned again to Chagres,
+and were pursued by a ship of Spanish
+build, which they feared had been sent from
+Carthagena to rebuild the fort.</p>
+
+<p>They attempted in vain to escape, and
+were clearing the decks, preparing to fight
+to the last, when the enemy hoisted the red
+flag, and proved to be one of their companions'
+vessels driven back by the <i>bise</i>, or
+north-east wind. They lost two days' sail by
+this accident, more than they could regain
+in a fortnight, and returned to the Boca del
+Toro to get provisions and kill sea-cows, and
+then passed on to the Boca del Drago. The
+islands here they knew to be inhabited, for
+the fragrance of the fruits was wafted on the
+sea wind. One day a fishing party gave
+chase to two Indians in a canoe, which they
+instantly drew ashore and carried with them
+into the woods. This boat, weighing above
+2,000 lbs. and requiring 11 men afterwards
+to launch it, was made of wild cedar, roughly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span>
+hewn; being nimble the savages both escaped
+the Buccaneers. A pilot who had been often
+in those parts, told them that a few years
+before, a Buccaneer squadron arriving in
+that place, the men went in canoes to catch
+the humming birds that swarmed round the
+flowering trees of the coast. They were
+observed by some Indians who had hid themselves
+in the trees, who, leaping down into
+the sea, carried off the boats and men before
+their companions could arrive to their aid.
+The admiral instantly landed 800 men to
+rescue the prisoners, but so many Indians
+collected that they found it necessary to
+retreat in haste to their ships.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the Buccaneers arrived at
+Rio de Zuera, but the Spaniards were all fled,
+leaving no provisions; they therefore filled
+their boats with plantains, coasting for a
+fortnight along the shore to find a convenient
+place to careen, for the vessel had now grown
+so leaky that slaves and men were obliged to
+work night and day at the pumps. Arriving
+at a port, called the Bay of Blevelt, from a
+Buccaneer who used to resort there, half the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span>
+crew were employed to unload and careen
+the bark on the shore, and half to hunt in
+the woods&mdash;still much afraid of the Indians,
+though they had as yet seen none.</p>
+
+<p>The huntsmen shot several porcupines of
+great size, and many monkeys and pheasants.
+The men took great pleasure in the midst of
+their danger in this pursuit. They laughed
+to see the females carrying their little ones
+on their backs, just like the negro women,
+and they admired the love and fidelity
+which some showed when their friends were
+wounded, and were delighted when they
+pelted their pursuers with fruit and dead
+boughs. The men were obliged to shoot
+fifteen or sixteen to secure three or four, as
+even when dead they remained clinging to
+the trees, and remained so for several days,
+hanging by their fore-paws or their tails.
+When one was wounded the rest came chattering
+round him, and would lay their paws on
+the wound to stop the flow of blood, and others
+would gather moss from the tress to bandage
+the place, or, gathering certain healing herbs,
+chew them and apply them as a poultice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span>
+If a mother was killed the young ones would
+not leave the body till they were torn away.</p>
+
+<p>But these amusements were soon to come to
+an end. The Indians were upon their track.
+They had been now eight days hunting. It
+was the daybreak of the ninth day, and the
+fishermen and hunters were preparing their
+nets and guns to start for the sea and for the
+woods. The slaves were on the beach burning
+shells to make lime, which served instead
+of pitch for the vessels, and the women were
+drawing water at the wells which had been
+dug in the shore. A few of them were washing
+dishes, and others sewing, for they had risen
+earlier than usual. While the rest went to
+the wells, one of them lingered behind to
+pick some fruit that grew near the beach.
+Seeing suddenly some Indians running from
+the spot where she had left her companions,
+she ran to the tents, crying, "Indians, Indians,
+Christians, the Indians are come."
+The Buccaneers, running to arms, discovered
+that three of their female slaves were lying
+dead in the wood, pierced with fourteen or
+fifteen flint-headed arrows. These darts were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>
+about eight feet long, and as thick as a man's
+thumb; at one end was a wooden hook, tied
+on with a string, at the other, a case containing
+a few small stones. Searching the
+woods, no traces of Indians, or any canoes,
+were to be found, and the Buccaneers, fearing
+they should be surrounded and overpowered,
+re-embarked all their goods, and
+sailed in great haste and fear.</p>
+
+<p>They soon arrived at Cape Gracias à Dios,
+and rejoiced to find themselves once more
+among friendly Indians; and at a port where
+Buccaneer vessels often resorted, the rudest
+sailors giving thanks to God for having
+delivered them out of so many dangers, and
+brought them to a place of refuge. The
+Indians provided them with every necessary,
+and treated them with friendship. For an
+old knife or hatchet the men each bought an
+Indian woman, who supplied them with food.
+These people often went to sea with the
+Buccaneers, and, remaining several years, returned
+home with a good knowledge of French
+and English. They were used as fishermen,
+and for striking tortoises and manitees, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span>
+Indian being able to victual a vessel of 100
+men. &#338;xmelin's crew having on board two
+sailors who could speak the Indian tongue,
+they were unusually well received.</p>
+
+<p>This nation was not more than 1700
+in number, including a few negro slaves,
+who had swum ashore from a wreck, having
+murdered the Spanish crew, and, in their ignorance
+of navigation, stranded the vessel.
+Some of them cultivated the ground, and
+others wandered about hunting and fishing.
+They wore little clothes but a palm leaf hat,
+and a short apron, made of the bark of some
+tree. Their arms were spears, pointed with
+crocodile's teeth. They believed in a Supreme
+Being, and, as Esquemeling quaintly
+says, "believe not in nor serve the devil, as
+many other nations of America do, and hereby
+they are not so much tormented by him as
+other nations are." Their food was chiefly
+fruit and fish. They prepared pleasant and
+intoxicating liquors from the plantain, and
+from the seed of the palm, and at their banquets
+every guest was expected to empty a
+four-quart calabash full of achioc, as the palm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span>
+drink was called, merely a whet to the feast
+to follow. Their achioc was as thick as gruel.
+When they were in love, they pierced themselves
+with arrows to prove their sincerity.
+When a youth wished to marry a maiden,
+the first question of the bride's father to the
+lover was, whether he could make arrows, or
+spin the thread with which they bound them.
+If he answered in the affirmative, the father
+called for a calabash of achioc, and he himself,
+the bride, and the bridegroom, all tasted of
+the beverage. When one of these hardy
+women was delivered, she rose, went to the
+nearest brook, washed and swathed the
+child, and went about her ordinary labour.
+When a husband died, the wife buried him,
+with all his spears, aprons, and ear jewels,
+and for fifteen moons after (a year) brought
+meat and drink daily to the grave. Some
+writers contend that the devil visited the
+graves, and carried away these offerings to
+the manes; but Esquemeling says, he knows
+to the contrary, having often taken away the
+food, which was always of the choicest and
+best sort. At the end of the year, an extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span>
+custom prevailed. The widow had
+then to open the grave, and take out all the
+bones; she scraped, washed, and dried them
+in the sun; then placed them in a satchel,
+and for a whole year was obliged to
+carry them upon her back by day, and sleep
+upon them by night. At the end of the
+year, she hung up the bag at her door-post,
+or, if she was not mistress of her house, at
+the door of her nearest relation. A widow
+could not marry again till this painful ceremony
+was completed, and if an Indian woman
+married a pirate, the same custom prevailed.
+The negroes maintained the habits of their
+own countries.</p>
+
+<p>After refreshing themselves in this friendly
+region, the Buccaneers steered for the island
+de los Pinos, and, arriving in fifteen days,
+refitted their vessel, now become dangerously
+leaky. Half the crew were employed in
+careening, and half in fishing, and by the
+help of some of the Cape Gracias Indians
+who accompanied them they killed and salted
+a sufficient number of wild cattle and turtle
+to revictual the ship. In six hours they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span>
+could capture fish sufficient for a thousand
+persons. "This abundance of provision,"
+says Esquemeling, "made us forget the miseries
+we had lately endured, and we began
+to call one another again by the name of
+<i>brother</i>, which was customary among us, but
+had been disused in our miseries." They
+feasted here plentifully, and without fear of
+enemies, for the few Spaniards who were on
+the island were friendly, and past dangers
+grew mere dreams in the distance. Their
+only anxiety now was about the crocodiles,
+which swarmed in the island, and, when
+hungry, would devour men.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion a Buccaneer and his negro
+slave, while hunting in the wood, were attacked
+by one of these monsters. With
+incredible agility it fastened upon the Englishman's
+leg, and brought him to the ground.
+The negro fled. The hunter, a robust and
+courageous man, drawing his knife, stabbed
+the crocodile to the heart, after a desperate
+fight, and then, tired with the combat and
+weak with loss of blood, fell senseless by its
+side. The negro, returning, from curiosity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>
+rather than compassion, to see how the duel
+had ended, lifted his master on his back and
+brought him to the sea-shore, a whole league
+distant, where he placed him in a canoe and
+rowed him aboard. After this, no Buccaneer
+dared to go into the woods alone, but the
+next day, sallying out in troops, they killed
+all the monsters they could meet. These
+animals would come every night to the sides
+of the vessel and attempt to climb up, attracted
+probably by the smell of food. One of
+these, when seized with an iron hook, instead
+of diving or swimming, began to mount the
+ladder of the ship, till they killed him with
+blows of pikes and axes. After remaining
+some time here they sailed for Jamaica, and arrived
+there in a few days after a prosperous
+voyage, being the first adventurers who had
+arrived there from Panama since Morgan.</p>
+
+<p>In 1673, when the war between the French
+and Hollanders (Dutch) was still raging, the
+inhabitants of the French West Indian colonies
+equipped a fleet to attack the Dutch
+settlements at Curaçoa, engaging all the Buccaneers
+that could be induced to join the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span>
+white flag, either from hopes of plunder or
+from hatred to the Dutch. M. D'Ogeron, the
+Governor of Tortuga, the planner of this
+invasion, headed the fleet in a large vessel
+named after himself, built by himself, and
+manned by 500 picked adventurers. His
+unlucky star led them to misfortune. The
+new frigate ran upon the rocks near the
+Guadanillas Islands, and broke into a thousand
+pieces, during a storm near Porto Rico. Being
+at the time very near to land, the governor
+and all his men swam safe to shore. The
+next day, discovered by the Spaniards, they
+were attacked by a large force, who supposed
+they had come purposely to plunder the islands
+as the Buccaneers had done before. The whole
+country, alarmed, rose in arms. The shipwrecked
+men were surrounded by an overpowering
+army, who, finding them almost
+without arms, refused to give them quarter,
+slew the greater part without mercy, and
+made the remainder prisoners. Binding them
+with cords, two by two, they drove them
+through the woods into the open champaign.
+To all inquiries as to the fate of their commander,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span>
+whom they could not distinguish
+from the rest, they replied that he had sunk
+with the wreck. D'Ogeron, following up this
+deception with French sagacity, behaved
+himself as a mere half-witted suttler, diverting
+the Spanish soldiers by his tricks and
+mimicry, and was the only Buccaneer whom
+they allowed to go at liberty. The troopers
+at their camp fires gave him scraps from their
+meals and rewarded him with more food than
+his companions.</p>
+
+<p>Among the prisoners there was also a
+French surgeon who had on former occasions
+done some service to the Spaniards, and him
+they also allowed to go at large. D'Ogeron
+agreed with him to attempt an escape at all
+risks, and after mature deliberation, they both
+agreed upon a plan, and succeeded in escaping
+safely into the woods, and in making
+their way to the sea-side. They determined
+to attempt to build a canoe, although unsupplied
+with any tool except a hatchet. By
+the evening they reached the sea-shore, to
+their great joy, and caught some shell fish on
+the beach from a shoal that ran in upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span>
+sands in pursuit of their prey. Fire to roast
+them they obtained by rubbing two sticks
+together in the Indian fashion. The next
+morning early they began to cut down and
+prepare timber to build the canoe in which
+to escape to Vera Cruz. While they were
+toiling at their work they observed in the
+distance a large boat, which they supposed
+to contain an enemy, steering directly towards
+them. Retreating to the woods, they discovered
+as soon as it touched land that it
+held only two poor fishermen. These unsuspecting
+men they determined if possible to
+overpower, and to capture the boat. As the
+mulatto came on shore alone, with a string of
+calabashes on his back to draw water, they
+killed him with a blow of their axe, and
+then slew the Spaniard, who, alarmed at the
+sound of voices, was attempting in vain to
+push from the shore. Having filled the dead
+man's calabashes they set sail, using the
+precaution of taking the dead bodies with
+them out into the deep sea, in order to conceal
+their death from the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>They steered at once for Porto Rico, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span>
+passed on to Hispaniola. A fair wind soon
+brought them to Samana, where they found
+a party of their people. Leaving the surgeon
+to collect men at Samana, D'Ogeron sailed
+to Tortuga to collect vessels and crews to
+return and deliver his companions, and revenge
+his late disaster. He sailed eventually
+with 300 men, and took great precautions to
+prevent the Spaniards being aware of his
+coming, using only his lower sails in order
+that his masts should not rise above the
+horizon. In spite of this the Spaniards, informed
+of his approach, had placed troops of
+horse upon the shore at various assailable
+points.</p>
+
+<p>D'Ogeron landed his men under favour of
+a discharge from his great guns, which drove
+the horsemen into the woods, where, as he
+little suspected, the infantry lay in ambush.
+Eagerly pursuing, his men, who thought the
+victory their own, found themselves hemmed
+in on every side. Few escaped even to the
+ships. The Spaniards, cruel from the reaction
+of fear, cut off the limbs of the dead and
+carried them home as trophies. They lighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span>
+bonfires on the shore as tokens of defiance to
+the retreating fleet.</p>
+
+<p>The first prisoners were now treated worse
+than ever. Some of them were sent to
+Havannah and employed on the fortifications
+all day, and chained up like wild beasts at
+night to prevent their desperate attempts at
+escape. Many were sent to Cadiz, and from
+thence escaped over the Pyrenees into France,
+and, assembling together, like sworn members
+of a common brotherhood, returned by the
+first ship to Tortuga.</p>
+
+<p>These very men some time after equipped
+a small fleet, under command of Le Sieur
+Maubenon, which sacked Trinidad, and put
+the island to a ransom of 10,000 pieces of
+eight, and from thence proceeded to the
+Caraccas.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers fought against the Dutch,
+in 1676, and helped the French to recover
+Cayenne, that had been taken by Vice-Admiral
+Binkes. After this conquest, M. D'Estrees
+attacked Tobago, but was repulsed with the
+loss of 150 killed, and 200 wounded. His
+ship, the <i>Glorieux</i>, of seventy guns, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>
+blown up, and two others stranded; several
+of the Dutch vessels were, however, burnt.</p>
+
+<p>D'Estrees, returning to Brest, was ordered
+back to Tobago, with twenty sail of vessels
+of war, besides a great number of small
+craft. 1500 men were landed, and, approaching
+a fortified place called Le Cort, summoned
+Heer Binkes to surrender. The French began
+their attack by throwing fire-balls into
+the castle; the third grenade fell upon some
+loose powder in the path leading to the magazine,
+and blew it up. Heer Binkes and all
+his officers but one were killed. 500 French
+instantly stormed the works, killing all but
+300 men, who were sent prisoners to France.
+D'Estrees then destroyed every fort and house
+in the island, and sailed away.</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1678 that the same Comte
+D'Estrees collected 1200 Buccaneers from
+Hispaniola, and twenty vessels of war, besides
+fire-ships, to capture Curaçoa, which
+could have been taken with 300 Buccaneers
+and three vessels. This fleet was, however,
+lost on the Isles d'Aves, as we shall describe
+in Dampier's voyage.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the year 1678, Captain Cook loaded
+his vessel with logwood, at Campeachy, and,
+while anchoring at the island of Rubia, on
+his way to Tobago, was captured by three
+Spanish men-of-war, who left his crew upon
+the shore, and carried off his ship and cargo.
+They had not lain there long before a Spanish
+sloop of sixteen men arrived, laden with
+cocoa and plate, and gave them opportunity for
+escape and for revenge. Borrowing muskets
+of the Dutch governor, they employed six of
+their men in seizing the sloop's boat as it
+came to land, and then embarked and took
+the larger vessel, leaving their prisoners
+bound upon the beach, to watch the combat
+that would decide their fate. Two men navigated,
+two more loaded the guns, and two
+others fired into the enemy as fast as they
+could pour their shot into the stern-ports.
+The Spaniards resisted stoutly for some time,
+but, seeing their priest and captain shot dead,
+threw their arms overboard, and cried for
+quarter. The Buccaneers gave the Dutch
+governor a handsome reward, with a recompence
+for the arms, and divided among themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span>
+about £4,000 worth of plate. On
+arriving at Jamaica they burnt the prize,
+and embarked their goods for England.</p>
+
+<p>In the year of our Lord 1679, a Buccaneer
+fleet of five sail, commanded by Captains
+Coxen, Essex, Alliston, Rose, and
+Sharp, set sail from Port-Royal, and steered
+for the island of Pines, losing two vessels
+in their passage, at the Zamballos islands.
+They met a French ship, whose commission
+was only for three months, and showed its captain,
+with great exultation, their forged commission
+for three years, purchased for only ten
+pieces of eight.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+
+<small>THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.</small></h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>Land at Darien&mdash;March Overland&mdash;Take Santa Maria&mdash;Sail
+to Panama&mdash;Ringrose is wrecked&mdash;Failure of
+Expedition&mdash;Driven off by Spanish Fleet&mdash;Coxen
+accused of cowardice&mdash;Sharp elected Commander&mdash;Plunder
+Hillo and take La Serena&mdash;Take Aries&mdash;Saved
+with difficulty&mdash;Conspiracy of slaves&mdash;Land
+at Antigua&mdash;Return to England&mdash;Sharp's trial&mdash;Seizes
+a French ship in the Downs, and returns to
+Jamaica.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The cruises of Sawkins and Sharp are
+recorded in the travels of Ringrose, who
+was present at all their exploits. At this
+time the Buccaneers widened their field of
+operations, and passed from the South into
+the North Pacific. The whole coast of South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>
+America, on either side, met the fate of the
+West Indian islands. The gold mines of
+Peru were the next object of their speculation.</p>
+
+<p>A fleet which took Porto Bello a second
+time rendezvoused at Boca del Toro. A
+new expedition was then formed to follow
+Captain Bournano, a French commander,
+who had lately attacked Chepo, to Tocamora,
+a great and very rich place, whither the
+Darien Indians had offered to conduct him,
+in spite of a late treaty with the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>The vessels first dispersed into coves and
+creeks to careen and salt turtle, and then reunited
+at the Water key. The fleet consisted
+of nine vessels, with a total of 22 guns and
+458 men, in the following order:&mdash;Captain
+Coxen, a ship of 80 tons, with 8 guns, and
+197 men; Captain Harris, 150 tons, 5 guns,
+and 107 men; Captain Bournano, 90 tons,
+6 guns, and 86 men; Captain Sawkins, 16
+tons, 1 gun, and 35 men; Captain Sharp,
+25 tons, 2 guns, and 40 men; Captain Cook,
+35 tons, and 43 men; Captain Alleston, 18
+tons, and 24 men; Captain Row, 20 tons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span>
+and 25 men; Captain Macket, 14 tons, and
+20 men.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition sailed March 26, 1679.
+The first place to touch at was the Zemblas
+Islands, where they traded with the friendly
+Indians, who brought fruits and venison in
+exchange for beads, needles, knives, and
+hatchets. These Indians were quite naked,
+but richly decorated with gold and silver
+plates of a crescent form, and gold rings
+worn in the nose, which they had to lift up
+when they drank. They were generally
+painted with streaks of black and red, but
+were a handsome race, and frequently as fair
+as Europeans. The sailors believed that they
+could see better by night than by day.</p>
+
+<p>The Indians dissuaded the captains from
+the march upon Tocamora, and agreed to
+guide them to the vicinity of Panama. The
+way to Tocamora, they declared, was mountainous
+and uninhabited, and ran through
+wild places, where no provisions could be
+obtained. In this change of plan, Row and
+Bournano, whose crews were all French, separated,
+being unwilling to risk a long march<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span>
+by land, and remained at the Zemblas, while
+Andræas, an Indian chief, guided the remaining
+vessels to the Golden Island, a little
+to the westward of the mouth of the great
+river of Darien. There the seven remaining
+vessels rendezvoused April 3, 1680.</p>
+
+<p>They here agreed to follow the Indians'
+advice, and attack the town of Santa Maria,
+situated on the river of the same name,
+which runs into the South Sea by the gulf
+of St. Miguel. It was garrisoned by 400
+soldiers, and from hence the gold gathered
+in the neighbouring mountains was carried
+to Panama, on which they could march if
+they could not find enough at Santa Maria.</p>
+
+<p>On the 5th of April they landed 331 men,
+leaving Captains Alleston and Macket to
+guard the ships in their absence. Each man
+carried with him three or four "dough-boys"
+(cakes), trusting to the rivers for drink.
+Captain Sharp, who went at their head, was
+still faint from a late sickness. His company
+carried a red flag and a bunch of white and
+green ribbons. The second division, led by
+Captain Richard Sawkins, had a red flag,
+striped with yellow. Captain Peter Harris,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>
+with the third and fourth divisions, had two
+green flags; Captain John Coxen, two red
+flags; while Captain Edmund Cook bore red
+colours, striped with yellow, with a hand
+and sword for the device. All the men
+carried fusees, pistols, and hangers.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian guides led them through a
+wood and over a bay two leagues up a
+woody valley, along a good path, with here
+and there old plantations. At a river, then
+nearly dry, they built huts to rest in. Another
+Indian chief, a man "of great parts," and
+called Captain Antonio, now promised to be
+their leader, as soon as his child, who was
+then sick, had died, which he expected would
+be next day. This Indian warned them
+against lying in the grass, which was full of
+large snakes.</p>
+
+<p>The men, breaking some of the stones
+washed down from the mountains, found
+them glitter like gold; but, in spite of this,
+several grew tired and returned to the ships,
+leaving only 327 sailors and six Indian
+guides.</p>
+
+<p>The next day they ascended a very steep
+hill, and found at the foot of it a river,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span>
+on which Andræas told them Santa Maria
+was built. About noon they ascended another
+and higher mountain, by so perpendicular and
+narrow a path that only one man could pass at
+a time. Having marched eighteen miles, they
+halted that night on the banks of the same
+river, much rain falling during both nights.
+The next day they crossed the river, after
+wading sometimes up to the knee, sometimes
+to the middle, in a steep current. At noon
+they reached the Indian village, near which
+the king of Darien resided. The houses
+were neatly built of cabbage-tree, with the
+roofs of wild canes, thatched with palmito
+royal, and were surrounded by plantain
+walks; they had no upper storeys. The king,
+queen, and family, came to visit them in
+royal robes. Like most savages, he was all
+ornament and nakedness, gold and dirt. His
+crown was made with woven white reeds,
+lined with red silk. In the middle was a
+thin plate of gold, some beads, and several
+ostrich feathers; in each ear a gold ring;
+and in his nose a half-moon of the same
+metal. His robe was of thin white cotton,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>
+and in his hand he held a long bright lance,
+sharp as a knife. The queen wore several red
+blankets, and her two marriageable daughters
+and young child were loaded with coloured
+beads, and covered with strips of rag. The
+women seemed "free, easy, and brisk," but
+modest and afraid of their husbands. The
+king gave the sailors each three plantains
+and some sugar-canes to suck, but, after that
+regal munificence, did not disdain to sell his
+stores like his subjects, who proved very
+cunning dealers in their purchases of knives,
+pins, and needles. Resting here a day, Captain
+Sawkins was appointed to lead the
+forlorn hope of eighty men. Their march
+still lay along the river, and here and there
+they found a house. The Indians, standing
+at the doors, would present each with a ripe
+plantain or cassave root, or count them by
+dropping a grain of millet for each one that
+passed. They rested at night at some native
+houses.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Sharp, Coxen, and Cook,
+and ninety men, embarked in fourteen canoes
+to try how far the stream was navigable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span>
+Captain Andræas being with them, and two
+Indians in each canoe serving as guides. But
+the water proved more tedious than the land;
+for at the distance of every stone's-cast, they
+were constrained to get out of the boats and
+haul them over sands, rocks, or fallen trees,
+and sometimes over spits of land. That
+night they built huts on the bank, being
+worn out with fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>The next day proved a repetition of the
+past; at night a tiger came near them, but
+they dared not fire for fear of alarming the
+Spaniards. The following day was worse than
+before, and their men grew mutinous and
+suspicious of the Indians, who, they thought,
+had divided the troop in order to betray
+them. The fourth day, resting on "a beachy
+point of land," where another arm joined the
+river, they were joined by their companions,
+whom they had sent their Indians to seek,
+and who had grown alarmed at their continued
+absence. That night they prepared
+their arms for action. On the morrow they
+re-embarked, in all sixty-eight canoes and
+327 Englishmen, with fifty Indian guides.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span>
+They made themselves paddles, threw away
+the Indian poles, and rowed with all speed,
+meeting several boats laden with plantains.
+About midnight they arrived within half-a-mile
+of Santa Maria, and landed. The mud
+was so deep that they had to lay down their
+paddles and lift themselves up by the boughs
+of the trees; then cutting a way through the
+woods, they took up their lodging there for
+the night, hoping to surprise the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak, to their disappointment, they
+were awoke by the discharge of a musket
+and the beating of a drum. The Spaniards
+had already prepared some lead for their
+reception, and had sent away their gold to Panama.
+Directly they emerged into the plain,
+the enemy ran into a large palisaded fort,
+twelve feet high, and began to fire quick and
+close. The vanguard, running up, pulled
+down part of the stockade and broke in and
+took them prisoners, the whole 280 men.
+A few English were wounded, not one being
+killed of the fifty men who led the attack.
+200 other Spaniards were in the mines conveying
+away the gold, the mines there being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>
+the richest of the western world. Twenty-six
+Spaniards were killed in the fort and sixteen
+wounded, but the governor, priest, and chief
+men all escaped by flight. The town proved
+to be merely a few cane houses, built to
+check the Indians, who frequently rebelled.
+Some days before, three cwt. of gold had
+been sent in a bark to Panama, the same quantity
+being despatched twice or thrice a-year.</p>
+
+<p>During the fight the Indians, frightened
+at the whistling of the bullets, had hid themselves
+in a hollow; when all was over they
+entered the place, with great courage stabbing
+the prisoners with their lances, and putting
+about twenty to death in the woods, till the
+Buccaneers interfered. In the town the
+Indians found the eldest daughter of the
+Darien king, whom one of the garrison had
+carried off, and who was then with child by
+him. Rather than be left to the mercy of
+the Indians, this man offered to lead them to
+Panama, where they hoped to capture all the
+riches of Potosi and Peru. Sawkins in a
+canoe attempted in vain to overtake the
+governor and his officers, and rather than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span>
+return empty-handed, resolved to go to
+Panama, to satisfy what Ringrose calls
+"their hungry appetite of gold and riches."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Coxen was chosen commander,
+and the booty and prisoners sent back to the
+ships under a guard of twelve men. The
+Indians, being rewarded with presents of
+needles and beads, also returned, all but the
+king. Captain Andræas, Captain Antonio,
+and the king's son, King Golden Cap (bonete
+d'oro), as the Spaniards called him, resolved
+to go on, desiring to see Panama sacked,
+and offering to aid them with a large
+body of men. The Spanish guide declared
+he would not only lead them into the town,
+but even to the very door of the governor of
+Panama's bed-chamber, and that they should
+take him by the hand, and seize him and
+the whole city, before they should be discovered
+by the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>After remaining two days at Santa Maria,
+they departed April 17th, 1680, for Panama.</p>
+
+<p>They embarked in thirty-five canoes and a
+piragua which they had found lying at
+anchor, rowing down the river to the gulf<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>
+of Belona, where they would enter the South
+Sea and work round to Panama. At the
+request of the Indian king the fort, church,
+and town were all burnt. The Spanish
+prisoners, afraid of being put to death by the
+savages if left behind, collected some bark
+logs and leaky canoes, although the Buccaneers
+could scarcely find boats for themselves,
+and went with them.</p>
+
+<p>Ringrose and four other men were put in
+the heaviest and slowest canoe, and, getting
+entangled between a shoal two miles long,
+and obliged to wait for high water, the boat
+being too heavy to row against tide, were soon
+left behind. At night, it being again low
+water, they stuck up an oar in the river, and,
+in spite of a weltering rain, slept all night by
+turns in the canoe. The next morning,
+rowing two leagues, they overtook their
+companions filling water at an Indian hut,
+there being no more for six days' journey.
+Hurrying to a pond a quarter of a mile distant
+with their calabashes, they returned to
+their boats and found the rest again gone and
+out of sight. "Such," moralises Ringrose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span>
+"is the procedure of these wild men, that they
+care not in the least whom they lose of their
+company or leave behind. We were now
+more troubled in our minds than before,
+fearing lest we should fall into the same
+misfortune we had so lately overcome."</p>
+
+<p>They rowed after them as fast as possible,
+but in vain, and lost their way among the innumerable
+islands of the river's mouth; but
+at last, with much trouble and toil, hit the
+Bocca Chica, the desired passage. But
+though they saw the door, they could not
+pass through, the "young flood" running violently
+against them&mdash;although it was only a
+stone's-cast off, and not a league broad.
+Here, then, in despair they put ashore, fastening
+the rope to a tree, almost covered by a
+tide that flowed four fathoms deep.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the tide turned, they rowed to
+an island about a league-and-a-half from the
+river's mouth, in the gulf of St. Miguel,
+in much danger from the waves, their boat
+being twenty feet long, but not quite a foot-and-a-half
+broad. Here they rested for the
+night, wet through with the continual and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>
+impetuous rain, without water to drink, and
+unable to light a fire, "for the loss of our
+company, and the dangers we were in," says
+Ringrose, "made it the sorrowfullest night
+that, until then, I ever experimented." None
+slept that tedious night, for a vast sea surrounded
+them on one side, and the mighty
+power of the Spaniards on the other. They
+were all without shoes, and their clothes
+were drenched through. They could see
+nothing but sea, mountain, and rock.</p>
+
+<p>At break of day they rowed past several
+islands to the Point St. Laurence, one man
+incessantly employed in baling. As they
+passed one of these islands, a huge sea overturned
+their boat, but they gained the beach,
+swimming for life, and the canoe came
+tumbling beside them. The arms fast lashed
+at the bottom of the boat, the locks cased
+and waxed down like the cartouche boxes,
+and powder horns, escaped uninjured, but
+the bread and fresh water were either spoiled
+or lost. While carefully wiping and cleaning
+their arms, for a Buccaneer's musket
+was as his wife and child to him, they saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>
+another canoe tossed to shore, a little to leeward.
+This proved to be six of the Spanish
+prisoners, who had escaped in an old piragua
+which was split to pieces, the English boat,
+formed of wood, six inches thick, having
+escaped unhurt. A common misfortune
+makes all men friends, and the English and
+Spaniards sat down together and broiled their
+meat amicably at the same fire. They then
+held a council, discussing for two or three
+hours what course to take, and all the men but
+Ringrose were for returning and living with
+the Indians, if they could not reach the ships
+lying in the northern sea. With much ado,
+Ringrose prevailed on them to persist for
+one day longer, and, just as they were concluding
+their debate, the man on the look-out
+cried that he saw Indians. Pursued into
+the woods by two Buccaneers, they found
+that he was one of the expedition, and had
+arrived with seven others in a great canoe.
+They were glad to see them, and declared,
+to their joy, that, all in one canoe, they could
+overtake the boats in the course of a day.
+On seeing the Spaniards (Wankers they called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span>
+them), they would have put them to death
+but for Ringrose's interposition, for his men
+stood by indifferent. They then insisted
+on keeping one as a slave. Ringrose, still
+fearing for their lives, gave the five Spaniards
+his own canoe, and bade them shift for their
+lives. Now in a large canoe, with a good
+sail, and a fresh and strong gale, they made
+brave way, with infinite joy and comfort of
+heart, the smooth and easy passage, and the
+pleasant, fresh ripple of the sea, filling them
+with hope and gladness; but that very evening
+it grew very dark, and rained heavily.
+Suddenly two fires were seen to blaze up
+from the opposite shore of the continent,
+and the Indians, thinking they must indicate
+the encampment of their people, shouted,
+"Captain Antonio, Captain Andræas," and
+made for the shore as fast as they could pull.
+The canoe, however, had hardly got amongst
+the breakers, before sixty Spaniards, armed
+with clubs, leaped from the woods; and,
+drawing the boat on land, made all the crew
+their prisoners. Ringrose seized his gun,
+and prepared for resistance, but was pulled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>
+down by four or five of the enemy. The
+Indians, leaping overboard, escaped nimbly
+into the woods. Ringrose spoke to his captors
+in French and English, without obtaining
+any answer. On addressing the strangers
+in Latin, he discovered that they were the
+Spanish prisoners from Santa Maria, who
+had been liberated, for fear they might escape
+when nearer Panama, and inform the city of
+the Buccaneers' approach. The Englishmen
+were presently taken with shouts of joy into
+a hut made of boughs, and examined by the
+Spanish captain, who meditated retaliating
+upon them the injuries inflicted on the town.
+At this critical juncture, the Spaniards whom
+Ringrose had liberated came in, and explained
+how they had been delivered from
+the Indians. On hearing this, the Spanish
+captain rose, and, embracing Ringrose, said,
+"The English were good people, and very
+friendly enemies, but the Indians very rogues,
+and a treacherous nation." He then made
+him sit down and eat with him, and consented,
+for the kindness he had shown his
+countrymen, to give him and all his men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>
+and even the Indians, if they could find them,
+their lives and liberties, which otherwise
+would have been forfeited. Finally, giving
+them a canoe, the noble-hearted enemy bade
+them go in God's name, praying that they
+might be as fortunate as they had been generous.
+All that night they skirted a dangerous
+and iron coast, without daring to land.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, after sailing, paddling,
+and rowing for a few hours, they saw a canoe
+suddenly making towards them. It was one
+of the English boats, which had mistaken
+them for a Spanish piragua. They at once
+conducted them to a deep bay, sheltered by
+rocks, where the rest lay at anchor. They
+were all delighted to see Ringrose and his
+men, having given them up as lost. They
+then made their way with all speed to a
+hilly island, about seven leagues distant, and
+surprised an old man, who was stationed
+there to watch. The road up to the hut was
+very steep, and the Buccaneers surrounded the
+old man, who did not see them till they had
+already entered his plantain walk. They
+were much encouraged by his declaration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>
+that no tidings of their arrival had yet
+reached Panama. About dusk, two of their
+boats surprised a small bark that came and
+anchored outside the island. The crew had
+been absent eight days from the city, landing
+soldiers on the adjacent shore, to curb
+and drive back the Indians. The crews of
+the smaller canoes now crowded into this
+vessel to the number of 137 men, together
+with Captain Cook and Captain Sharp, the
+latter of whom Ringrose calls "a sea artist,
+and valiant commander."</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, rowing all day over shallow
+water, they chased a bark, which Captain
+Harris took after a sharp dispute, putting
+on board a prize crew of thirty men. During
+this pursuit the vessels scattered, and did
+not reunite till next day at the island of
+Chepillo, a preconcerted rendezvous. They
+again chased a bark, but with less success,
+and Captain Coxen's canoe missed the prize,
+owing to a breeze springing up, having
+one man killed and another wounded, and,
+what was worst of all, the vessel not only
+escaped, but spread the alarm at Panama.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span>
+At Chepillo they took fourteen negro and
+mulatto prisoners, and secured two fat hogs,
+plenty of plantains, and some good water.
+Believing it useless now to attack Panama,
+the Buccaneers resolved to hurry on to the
+town to at least surprise some of the shipping.
+Their boats had the addition of
+another piragua, which they found lying at
+Chepillo. Before starting, the captains
+cruelly decided, for reasons which Ringrose
+could not fathom, to allow the Indians to
+murder all the Spanish prisoners before their
+eyes, the savages having long thirsted for
+their blood. But by a singular coincidence
+the prisoners, though without arms, forced
+their way by a sudden rush through all the
+Indian spears and arrows, and escaped unhurt
+into the woods, to the chagrin of both
+white and black savages.</p>
+
+<p>Staying only a few hours at Chepillo, the
+boats started at four o'clock in the evening,
+intending to reach Panama, which was only
+seven leagues distant, before the next morning.
+The next day (St. George's day),
+before sunrise they arrived at Panama, "a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>
+city," says Ringrose, "which has a very
+pleasant prospect seaward." They could see
+all the ships of the city lying at anchor at
+the island of Perico, two leagues distant,
+where storehouses had been built. There
+now rode at anchor five great ships and three
+smaller armadillas, (little men-of-war). This
+fleet, which had been hastily manned to defend
+the city, as soon as they saw the Buccaneers,
+weighed anchor, got under sail, and
+bore down at once upon them, directly before
+the wind, and with such velocity as to
+threaten to run them down. The Spanish
+admiral's vessel was manned by ninety Biscayans,
+agile seamen and stout soldiers.
+They were all volunteers, and had come out
+to show their valour under the command of
+Don Jacinto de Barahona, high-admiral of
+those seas. In the second were seventy-seven
+negroes, led by a brave old Andalusian,
+Don Francisco de Peralta. In the third,
+making 228 men in all, were sixty-five mulattoes,
+under Don Diego de Carabaxal. The
+Spaniards had strict orders given them to
+grant no quarter.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To add to the disparity of numbers, only
+a few of the Buccaneers' boats were able to
+arrive in time. The first five canoes that
+came up, leaving the heavy piraguas still
+lagging behind, contained only thirty-seven
+men, and these were tired with rowing in the
+wind's eye, and trying to get close to the
+windward of the enemy. The lesser piragua
+coming up with thirty-two more men,
+made a total force of sixty Buccaneers, including
+the king of Darien, engaged in this
+daring resistance to an overwhelming force.</p>
+
+<p>Carabaxal's vessel, passing between Sawkins's
+and Ringrose's canoes, fired at both,
+wounding four men in the former and one in
+the latter, but being slow in tacking, the
+Spaniard paid dear for his passage, the first return
+volley killing several men upon his decks.
+Almost before they had time to reload, the
+admiral passed, but the Buccaneers' second
+volley quite disabled their giant antagonist,
+killing the man at the helm; and the ship ran
+into the wind and her sails lay aback. She
+fell now like a lamed elephant at the mercy
+of the hunters; the canoes, pulling under her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span>
+stern, fired continually upon the deck, killing
+all who dared to touch the helm, and cutting
+asunder the mainsheet and mainbrace. Sawkins,
+whose canoe was disabled, went next
+into the piragua to meet Peralta, leaving the
+four canoes to harass the admiral. Between
+Sawkins and Peralta, lying alongside of each
+other, the fight was desperate, each crew
+trying to board, and firing as quick as they
+could load. In the mean time the first vessel
+tacked about and came to relieve the admiral,
+but the canoes, seeing the danger of being
+beaten from the admiral's stern and allowing
+him to rally, sent two of their number
+(Springer and Ringrose) to meet Peralta.
+The admiral stood upon his quarter-deck,
+waving his handkerchief as a signal for his
+captains to come at once to his help. The
+canoes pursued Peralta, and would have
+boarded him had he not given them the helm
+and made away.</p>
+
+<p>Giving a loud shout, the remaining boats
+wedged up the admiral's rudder and poured
+in a blinding volley, that killed the admiral
+and chief pilot. Two-thirds of the Spaniards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span>
+being now killed, many wounded, and all
+disheartened at the bloody massacre of the
+Buccaneers' shot, cried for quarter, which
+they had been already several times offered,
+and at once surrendered. Captain Coxen
+then boarded the prize, taking with him
+Captain Harris, who had been shot through
+both legs as he was heading a boarding party.
+They put all their other wounded men on
+board, and, manning two canoes, hurried off
+to aid Sawkins, who had already been three
+times beaten off by Peralta.</p>
+
+<p>Coming close under his side and giving
+him a full volley, they were expecting a return,
+when suddenly a volcano of fire spouted
+up from the deck, and all the Spaniards abaft
+the mast were blown into the air or sea.
+While the brave captain, leaping overboard,
+was helping the drowning men in spite of
+the rain of shot and the pain of his own
+burns, another jar of powder blew up in the
+forecastle. Under cover of the smoke and
+confusion, Sawkins boarded and took the
+ship, or at least all that was left of it.
+Ringrose says it was a miserable sight, not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>
+a man but was either killed or desperately
+wounded, blind, or horribly burnt with the
+powder. In some cases the white wounds
+where the flesh had peeled to the bone,
+showed through the blackening of the powder.
+The admiral had but twenty-five men
+left out of eighty-six, and of these twenty-five
+only eight were now able to bear
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>The blood ran down the deck in streams,
+and every rope and plank was smeared with
+gore.</p>
+
+<p>Peralta, as prudent as he was brave, attempted
+by every possible argument, forgetful
+of his own wounds and the death of his
+men, to induce the Buccaneers not to attack
+the remaining vessels in the harbour. In
+the biggest alone he said there were 350
+men, and the rest were well defended. But
+a dying sailor, lifting up his head from the
+deck, contradicted him, and said that they
+had not a man on board, all their crews being
+placed in the armadillas. Trusting to dying
+treason rather than living fidelity, the Buccaneers
+instantly proceeded to the island,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span>
+and found the ships deserted. The largest, <i>La
+Santissima Trinidada</i>, had been set on fire, the
+crew, loosing her foresail, having pierced her
+bottom. The captains soon quenched the fire,
+and stopping the leak turned their prize into
+a floating hospital-ship. They found they
+had eighteen men killed and twenty-two
+wounded (only two of whom died) in this
+desperate sea battle, which began an hour after
+sunrise and ended at noon. The third vessel,
+it appeared, while running away had met
+with two others, but even with this reinforcement
+refused to fight.</p>
+
+<p>Their brave prisoner, Peralta, now that all
+was over, broke out into repeated praises of
+their courage, which was so congenial to his
+own. He said: "You Englishmen are the
+valiantest men in the whole world, always
+desiring to fight open, while all other nations
+invent all the ways imaginable to barricade
+themselves, and fight as close as possible."
+"Notwithstanding all this," adds Ringrose,
+"we killed more of our enemies than they
+of us." Two days after the battle the Buccaneers
+buried Captain Harris, a brave Englishman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>
+of the county of Kent, whose death
+was much lamented by the fleet.</p>
+
+<p>The new city of Panama, built four miles
+more easterly than that which Morgan burnt,
+had been three times destroyed by fire since
+that event. A few people still lived round
+the cathedral in the old town. The new city
+was bigger than the old one, and built chiefly
+of brick and stone, and was defended by a
+garrison of 300 soldiers and 1,000 militiamen.
+They afterwards learnt that the troops
+were then absent, and that if they had
+landed instead of attacking the fleet, they
+might have taken the place, all the best
+shots being on board the admiral's vessel.</p>
+
+<p>In the five vessels taken at Perico there
+was much spoil. The <i>Trinidada</i> (400 tons)
+was laden with wine, sugar, sweetmeats,
+skins, and soap. The second, of 300 tons,
+partly laden with bars of iron, one of the
+richest commodities brought into the South
+Sea, was burnt by the Buccaneers, because
+the Spaniards would not redeem it. The
+third, of 180 tons, laden with sugar, was
+given to Captain Cook; the fourth, an old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span>
+vessel (60 tons), laden with meal, was burnt
+as useless, with all her cargo. The fifth, of
+50 tons, with a piragua, fell to the lot of
+Captain Coxen. The two armadillas, the
+rigging and sails being saved, and a bark
+laden with poultry, were also burnt.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Coxen, indignant at charges made
+against him of cowardice in the late action, determined
+to rejoin the ships in the northern
+seas, together with seventy men who had
+assisted in his election. The Indian king,
+Don Andræas, and Don Antonio, returned
+with him. The king left his son and nephew
+in the care of Captain Sawkins, who was now
+commander-in-chief, and desired him not to
+spare the Spaniards. A few days after Captain
+Sharp returned from the King's islands,
+having taken a Spanish vessel and burnt his
+own. Captain Harris's crew had also taken a
+vessel, and, dismasting their own, turned
+their prisoners adrift in the hulk, and soon
+after taking a poultry vessel, the meanest of
+the Spaniards were treated in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>Having remained now ten days at Panama,
+the fleet steered to the island of Tavoga,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span>
+where they found a village of 100 houses
+quite deserted, and many of these were burnt
+by the carelessness of a drunken sailor. The
+Panama merchants came here to sell the Buccaneers
+commodities and to purchase the
+plunder from their own vessels, giving 200
+pieces of eight for every negro. Staying
+eight days, they captured a vessel from
+Truxillo laden with money to pay the garrison
+of Panama, while in the hold were 2,000
+jars of wine and fifty jars of gunpowder. A
+flour vessel from the same place informed
+them that a ship was coming in a few days
+laden with 100,000 more pieces of eight.</p>
+
+<p>To a message from the President, who
+sent by some merchants to ask why they
+came into those parts, Captain Sawkins replied,
+that he came to assist the King of
+Darien, the true lord of the country, and he
+required a ransom of 500 pieces of eight for
+each sailor, and 1,000 for the commander.
+He must also promise not to molest the Indians,
+who were the natural owners of the
+soil. Hearing from the messengers that a
+certain priest, now bishop of Panama, formerly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>
+of Santa Martha, lay in the city, Sawkins,
+remembering that he had been his prisoner
+when he took that city five years before,
+sent him two loaves of sugar as a present.
+The next day the bishop replied by forwarding
+him a gold ring. The President, at the
+same time, sent another letter, desiring to
+see his commission, that he might know to
+what power to complain. Sawkins replied,
+that as yet all his men were not come together,
+but when they had met, they would
+come up to Panama, and bring their commissions
+on the muzzles of their guns, at
+which time he should read them as plain as
+the flame of gunpowder would let him.</p>
+
+<p>The men growing now mutinous for fresh
+meat, Sawkins was compelled to give up his
+hopes of capturing the rich vessel from Peru,
+and to sail to the island of Otoque, to buy
+fowls and hogs, losing two barks, one with
+seven, and the other with fifteen men. While
+lying off the pearl fishery of Cayboa, Sawkins
+and Sharp made an unfortunate attack
+with sixty men on the town of Puebla Nueva.
+They were piloted up the river in canoes by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>
+a negro prisoner. A mile below the town,
+great trees had been laid to block up the
+stream, and before the town three strong
+breastworks were thrown up. Sawkins,
+running furiously up the sloping ramparts,
+was shot dead, and his men driven back to
+their boats, two men being killed, and three
+wounded, in the retreat, which was made in
+pretty good order. They soon after, however,
+captured a vessel laden with indigo,
+and burnt two others. This Captain Sawkins,
+Ringrose says, was as valiant and courageous
+as any, and, next to Captain Sharp,
+the best beloved. His death was much lamented,
+and occasioned another overland expedition.
+Sharp, surrendering his last prize to
+Captain Cook, took his vessel and gave it to
+the sixty-three men who wished to return
+home. They led with them all the Indians
+to serve as guides overland.</p>
+
+<p>Before they started, Sharp, in full council
+on board the <i>Trinidada</i>, offered to insure to all
+who would carry out Sawkins's scheme, and
+go home by the Straits of Magellan, a £1000
+profit, but none would stay. Ringrose himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>
+acknowledges he should have left with
+them, but was afraid of the Indians, and the
+long and dangerous journey in the rainy
+season.</p>
+
+<p>At Cayboa, the men took in water and
+cut wood, killing alligators, and salting deer
+and turtle. Here two "remarkable events"
+happened to Ringrose. In the first place,
+he ate an oyster so large that he found it
+necessary to cut it into four large mouthfuls:
+secondly, as he was washing himself in a
+pond, some drops fell on him from a mançanilla
+tree, and these drops broke out into a
+red eruption that lasted a week. Here
+Sharp burnt one of his prizes for the sake
+of the iron work, and received Captain Cook,
+whose men had revolted, on board his own
+ship, making John Cox, a New Englander,
+commander in his stead.</p>
+
+<p>Sharp now determined to careen at the island
+of Gorgona, and then to proceed to Guayaquil,
+where Captain Juan, the captain of the
+Tavoga money ship, assured them they might
+throw away their silver and lade with gold.
+They selected Gorgona, because, on account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>
+of the perpetual rain, the Spaniards seldom
+touched there. The sailors, who had lost
+their money at gambling, were impatient of
+these delays, and declared that the Spaniards
+would now gain time, and the whole coast
+be alarmed, and on the defensive. But the
+richer men, wanting rest, decided for Gorgona.</p>
+
+<p>In this island, they fished their mainmast,
+shot at whales, killed monkeys, snakes,
+and turtle for food, being short of provision,
+caught a large sloth, and killed a serpent,
+fourteen inches thick, and twelve feet long.
+While moored here, Joseph Gabriel, the
+Chilian, who stole the Indian king's daughter,
+died of a malignant calenture. He had
+been very faithful, and discovered many
+plots and conspiracies among the prisoners of
+intended escapes and murders.</p>
+
+<p>Sharp now abandoned the design on Guayaquil,
+and resolved to attack Arica, the dépôt
+of all the Potosi plate. An old man who had
+served much with the Spaniards, promised
+them £2000 a-man.</p>
+
+<p>After a fortnight's sail they arrived at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span>
+island of Plate, so called from Drake dividing
+his plunder there among his men. The
+Spaniards had a tradition, that he took
+twelve score tons of plate in the galleon
+armada, and that each of his forty-five men
+had sixteen bowls full of coined money&mdash;his
+ships being so full that they were obliged to
+throw much of it overboard. In the adjoining
+bay of Manta, in Cromwell's time, a
+Lima vessel, laden with thirty millions of
+dollars, on its way as a present to Charles I.,
+was lost by keeping too near the shore.
+While catching goats on this island, on which
+the cross of the first Spanish discoverer still
+stood, they were joined by Captain Cox,
+whom they had lost a fortnight before, as
+they feared, irrecoverably. They killed and
+salted on this island 100 goats in a day,
+and one man alone, in a few hours, in one
+small bay turned seventeen turtle. Peralta
+congratulated them on getting as far to windward
+in two weeks as the Spanish captains
+did in three months, from their keeping boldly
+so far from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>While passing Guayaquil, they espied a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span>
+Spanish vessel and gave chase. Being hailed
+in Spanish by an Indian prisoner, to lower
+their topsails, the enemy replied they would
+pull down the Englishman's first, and answered
+with their arquebuses to the Buccaneers'
+muskets, till, one bullet killing the man at
+the helm and another cutting their maintop
+halliards, they cried out for quarter. There
+were thirty-five men on board, including
+twenty-four Spaniards and several persons of
+quality. The captain's brother, since the
+death of Don Jacinto de Barahona at Panama,
+was admiral of the armada. The Buccaneers'
+rigging was much cut during the fight, and
+two men were wounded, besides a sailor who
+was shot by an accident. The captain, it
+appears, had in a bravado sworn to attack
+their fleet if he could meet it. The Spaniard,
+a very "civil and meek gentleman," informed
+them that the governor of Lima, hearing of
+their visit to Panama, had collected five ships
+and 750 sailors; while two other vessels and
+400 soldiers, furnished by the viceroy, were
+preparing to start. A patache with twenty-four
+guns was also lying at Callao, ready to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>
+remove the king's plate from Arica. At
+Guayaquil they had built two forts, and
+mustered 850 men of all colours. The same
+day the English unrigged their new prize
+and sank her.</p>
+
+<p>Reckoning up the pillage, they found they
+had now 3,276 pieces of eight, which were at
+once divided. The same day they punished
+a Spanish friar, who was chaplain in the last
+prize, and, shooting him on the deck, flung
+him overboard before he was dead. "Such
+cruelties," says Ringrose, "though I abhorred
+very much in my heart, yet here I was
+forced to hold my tongue and not contradict
+them, as having no authority to oversway
+them." The prisoners now confessed they
+had killed a boat full of the Buccaneers' men,
+lost near Cayboa, and had discovered from
+the only survivor the plan on Guayaquil.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Cox's vessel being so slow as to
+require towing, they sank it, so there were now
+140 men and boys and fifty-five prisoners in
+one and the same bottom. While to the
+leeward of Tumbes, Peralta told them a
+legend of a priest having once landed there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span>
+in the face of 10,000 Indians, who stared at
+his uplifted cross. As he stepped out of his
+boat on the shore, before the water could
+efface his footprints, two lions and two tigers
+came out of the woods to meet him, but when
+he gently laid the cross on their backs, they
+fell down and worshipped it, upon which all
+the Indians came forward and were baptised.</p>
+
+<p>The night they passed Paita they espied a
+sail and gave chase, following it by the lights
+which it showed through negligence. Scantiness
+of provisions made them more eager
+in the pursuit, and coming up the Spaniard instantly
+lowered all her sails and surrendered.
+The Buccaneers casting dice as to who should
+first board, the lot fell to the larboard watch.
+The vessel contained fifty packs of cocoa, and a
+great deal of raw silk and India cloth, besides
+many bales of thread stockings. The prize
+being plundered and dismasted, the prisoners
+were turned adrift in it, supplied with only
+a foresail, some water, and a little flour.
+The chief prisoners, as Don Thomas de
+Argandona, commander of the Guayaquil
+vessel, and his friends Don Christoval and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span>
+Don Baltazar, gentlemen of quality, Captain
+Peralta, Moreno, a pilot, and twelve slaves,
+to do the drudgery, were still kept. The
+next day the sailor wounded in taking the
+Guayaquil vessel, died, and was buried with
+ceremony, three French volleys being fired
+as the body was let down into the deep.</p>
+
+<p>Their next expedition was to attack Arica
+with 112 men, first sending five boats to
+capture some fishermen at the river of Juan
+Diaz, whom they might employ as spies.</p>
+
+<p>To their great chagrin they found the
+landing impracticable, and the whole coast
+in arms. Troops of horse covered the low
+hills round the bay, and close beneath six ships
+rode at anchor. Abandoning this project,
+these indefatigable marauders (more pirates
+than real Buccaneers) despatched four
+canoes and fifty men, to plunder the town
+of Hillo. On the shore the English were
+met by some horsemen, who fled after a few
+volleys. Marching to the town, they forced
+their way through a small breastwork of clay
+and sandbags, and took the town. Keeping
+good watch for fear of surprise, a dying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span>
+Indian, wounded in the skirmish, told them
+that the townspeople had heard from Lima
+nine days before, and expected their coming.
+In the town they found pitch, wine, oil, and
+flour, and sixty of the ablest men were sent up
+the adjoining valley to reconnoitre. They
+found it beautifully planted with fig, lemon,
+lime, olive, and orange trees, and four miles
+up came to a sugar-mill, the greater part of
+the sugar having been removed. The Spaniards,
+watching them from the hills, rolled
+stones upon them, but hid themselves when
+a musket-shot was fired in retaliation. Captain
+Cox and a Dutch interpreter being
+despatched with a flag of truce to the Spaniards,
+they agreed to give eighty beeves
+as a ransom for the mill, and a message was
+despatched to Captain Sharp not to injure
+the drivers of the oxen when they came.
+Hearing that sixteen beeves had already arrived
+at the port, the men, contrary to Ringrose's
+opinion, returned to the ships laden
+with sugar, and found the whole story of the
+oxen's arrival a mere <i>ruse de guerre</i>. The
+Spaniards being appealed to promised the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span>
+cattle should arrive that night, but at last
+declared the wind was so high they could
+not drive the herds. Enraged at this delay,
+the Buccaneers, who had now taken in
+water, marched 100 men up the valley, and
+burned the house, the mill, and the canes,
+carried off the sugar, broke the oil jars, and
+cracked the copper wheels. Near the shore
+they were charged by a body of 300 horsemen,
+who took them by surprise, but not
+before they had thrown down the sugar and
+taken up their arms.</p>
+
+<p>Ringrose shall tell the rest: "We being in
+good rank and order," he says, "fairly proffered
+them battle upon the bay; but as we advanced
+to meet them, they retired and rid
+towards the mountains, to surround us, and
+take the rocks from us, if possibly they could.
+Hereupon, perceiving their intentions, we returned
+back and possessed ourselves of the
+said rocks, and also of the lower town, as
+the Spaniards themselves did of the upper
+town (at the distance of half-a-mile from the
+lower), the hills and the woods adjoining
+thereunto. The horsemen being now in possession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span>
+of those quarters, we could perceive
+as far as we could see, more and more men
+resort unto them, so that their forces increased
+hourly to considerable numbers. We
+fired at one another as long as we could see,
+and the day would permit. But in the mean
+time we observed that several of them rid
+to the watch hill and looked out often to the
+seaward. This gave us occasion to fear that
+they had more strength and forces coming
+that way, which they expected every minute.
+Hereupon, lest we should speed worse than
+we had done before, we resolved to embark
+silently in the dark of the night." They carried
+off a great chest of sugar (seven pounds
+and a-half to each man), thirty jars of oil,
+and much fruit, wild and cultivated. From
+appearances next morning they believed the
+enemy had also fled in the night, as only fifty
+men could be seen. The prisoners, seeing
+a comet at dusk, told the Englishmen that
+many such appearances had preceded the
+arrival of the Buccaneers in the South Sea.
+Their brave prisoner, Captain Peralta, began
+at this time to show signs of insanity, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span>
+mind being shaken by continued hardship
+and despair at his long imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers next landed 100 men,
+hoping to take by surprise the city of La
+Serena. Here, too, they found the Spaniards
+vigilant, and had to break through 100 horsemen
+to reach the town, killing three officers
+and wounding four men. The town contained
+seven great churches and many rich
+merchants' houses surrounded by gardens.
+The inhabitants had fled, and either carried
+away or buried all their treasures, and a Chilian
+prisoner said the Spaniards had killed most
+of their negro and even their Chilian slaves,
+for fear of their revolting and joining the
+Buccaneers. A party of forty men, with a
+Chilian guide, searched the woods in vain to
+secure prisoners for guides. The Spaniards,
+sending a flag of truce, agreed to pay 95,000
+pieces of eight as ransom for the town; but,
+not bringing it in, the place was set on fire.
+Taking advantage of an earthquake, the
+Spaniards opened the sluices and inundated
+the streets. Every house, Ringrose says, was
+separately fired to render the conflagration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span>
+complete. Two parties were then despatched
+laden with booty to the ships, who on their
+way beat up an ambuscade of 250 Spanish
+horse. During their absence, a daring attempt
+was made to burn their ship. The
+enemy hired a man who floated under the
+stern of the ship on a horse's hide, blown out
+like a bladder. He then stuffed oakum
+and brimstone between the keel and the
+stern-post, and set the rudder on fire. The
+men, alarmed at the smoke, ran up and down,
+not knowing where the fire could be, and
+believing the prisoners had done it in order
+to escape. The source of the evil was at last
+discovered, and the flames extinguished. The
+Buccaneers, before sailing, released all their
+prisoners, not knowing what to do with them,
+and fearing that they would revolt or perhaps
+try to burn the ship.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the island of Juan Fernandez,
+they solemnized the festival of Christmas by
+discharging three volleys of shot, and killing
+sixty goats in one day. The shore was
+covered so thick with seals that they were
+obliged to shoot a few in order to land. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span>
+then filled 200 water-jars, and were nearly
+lost in a place called "False Wild Harbour,"
+where they killed several sea-lions. Their
+beds they made of fern. It was on this
+island, their pilot told them, a deserted sailor
+(Alexander Selkirk) had lived five years.</p>
+
+<p>The men now in the midst of storms
+and dangers, were all in a mutiny. Some
+were for going back to England or the plantations,
+and returning by the straits of Magellan;
+others for continuing longer in those
+seas. All agreed to depose Captain Sharp
+and elect John Watling, an old privateer,
+"and a stout seaman." The next Sunday
+was the first, says Ringrose, that had been
+kept by common consent since the death of
+Sawkins, who would throw the dice overboard
+if he found any in use on that day.</p>
+
+<p>Juan Fernandez abounded in cabbage palms
+and building timber. The fish swarmed in
+such quantities that they could be caught
+with the bare hook, one sailor in a few hours
+capturing enough for the whole crew. Shoals
+a mile long were seen in the bay. While
+busily employed in catching fish, shooting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span>
+goats, and cutting timber, the hunters suddenly
+gave the alarm of three Spanish men-of-war
+approaching the island, and, slipping
+their cables, the Buccaneers put out hurriedly
+to sea. In the confusion, William, a Mosquito
+Indian, who could not be found at the
+time, was left behind to endure the hardships
+that a few days before he may have heard
+the pilot relate as experienced by the celebrated
+Alexander Selkirk (the prototype of
+Robinson Crusoe).</p>
+
+<p>The three Spanish vessels proved to be the
+<i>El Santo Christo</i>, of 800 tons, carrying twelve
+guns; the <i>San Francisco</i>, of 600 tons, with
+ten guns; and a third of 350 tons. As soon
+as they came in sight, they hung out "bloody
+flags;" and the Buccaneers, nothing daunted,
+did the same. The English, keeping close
+under the wind, were very unwilling to fight,
+as the Spaniards held together, and their
+new commander, Watling, showed a faint
+heart. The trio eventually sheered off, glad
+to escape uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>Determining to pay a second visit to Arica,
+twenty-five men and two canoes were despatched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span>
+to obtain guides from the island of
+Yqueque. On the shore of the mainland
+they found a hut built of whales' bones, a
+cross, and some broken jars.</p>
+
+<p>They brought away from the island, which
+they could not at first discover, two old
+white men and two Indians. The people of
+Arica, they found, came to this place to
+buy clay, and the natives were obliged to
+fetch all the water they used from the mainland.
+The Indians wore no clothes, and
+chewed leaves which dyed their teeth green.
+One of the old prisoners being examined was
+shot to death by order of the commander,
+who believed him to be lying, although, as
+it afterwards appeared, he told nothing but
+the truth. Sharp was troubled and dissatisfied
+at this cruel and rash order, and,
+taking water and washing his hands, he
+said, "Gentlemen, I am clear of the blood
+of this old man, and will warrant you a hot
+day for this piece of cruelty whenever we
+come to fight at Arica." The other prisoner
+said that he was the superintendent of fifty
+slaves belonging to the governor of the town.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span>
+These slaves caught fish and sold them when
+dried in the inland towns. There were then
+three Chilian ships and a bark in the harbour,
+and a fortification of twelve guns in
+the town. The people had already, he said,
+heard from Coquimbo of their arrival, and
+removed and buried their treasure. There
+were also, they heard, breast-works round
+the town, and barricades in every street.</p>
+
+<p>Disregarding these warnings, the Buccaneers
+embarked next day in a launch and
+four canoes, rowing and sailing all night, in
+hopes of surprising Arica. At daybreak
+they hid themselves under the cliffs for fear
+of being seen, and at night began again to
+row. On Sunday (Jan. 30), 1680&mdash;"sacred
+to the memory of King Charles the Martyr"&mdash;they
+landed among some rocks four miles
+to the south of the town, ninety-two men
+going on shore, the rest staying to defend
+the boats. The signal agreed on was, that at
+one smoke, they should come up to the harbour
+in one canoe; but if there were two
+smokes, they should "bring all away, leaving
+only fifteen men with the boats." Mounting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>
+a steep hill, they could see no Spaniards,
+and hoped that the surprise was complete;
+but as they were descending the other side,
+three horsemen on the look-out hill rode
+down at full speed and alarmed the city. The
+forty men who attacked the fort with hand
+grenades, seeing their companions overpowered,
+ran down into the valley to join them.
+"Here the battle was very desperate, and
+they killed and wounded two more of our
+men from their outworks before we could
+gain upon them. But our rage increasing
+with our wounds, we still advanced, and at
+last beat the enemy out of all, and filled
+every street in the city with dead bodies.
+The enemy made several retreats from one
+breast-work to another, but, we had not a
+sufficient number of men to man all places
+taken. Insomuch, that we had no sooner
+beat them out of one place but they came
+another way, and manned it again with new
+forces and fresh men." So says Ringrose.</p>
+
+<p>Imprudently overburdening themselves
+with prisoners, they found there were in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span>
+the place 400 soldiers from Lima, 200 armed
+townsmen, and 300 men garrisoning the
+fort. Being now nearly masters of the place,
+the English sent to demand the surrender of
+the fort, and, receiving no answer, advanced
+to the attack. Several times repulsed, the
+Buccaneers at last mounted the top of a
+neighbouring house and fired down into the
+castle; but, being again surrounded by the
+enemy, they were obliged to desist. The
+number and vigour of the enemy increased
+hourly, and, almost overpowered, the English
+were compelled to retreat to the hospital where
+the surgeons were tending the wounded.
+Captain Watling and both quartermasters
+were killed, and many were disabled. We
+will let Ringrose tell the rest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So that now, the enemy rallying against
+us, and beating us from place to place, we
+were in a very distracted condition, and in
+more likelihood to perish, every man, than
+escape the bloodshed of that day. Now we
+found the words of Captain Sharp true,
+being all very sensible that we had a day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span>
+too hot for us, after that cruel heat in killing
+and murdering in cold blood the old Mestizo
+Indian.</p>
+
+<p>"Being surrounded with difficulties on all
+sides, and in great disorder, having nobody
+to give orders, what was to be done? We
+were glad to have our eyes upon our good
+old commander, Captain Bartholomew Sharp,
+and beg of him very earnestly to commiserate
+our condition, and carry us off. It was
+a great while before he would take any notice
+of our request, so much was he displeased
+with the former mutiny of our people
+against him, all which had been occasioned
+by the instigation of Mr. Cook.</p>
+
+<p>"But Mr. Sharp is a man of an undaunted
+courage, and excellent conduct, not fearing
+in the least to look an insulting enemy in
+the face, and a person that knows both the
+theory and practice of navigation as well as
+most do. Hereupon, at our earnest request
+and petition, he took upon him the command
+in chief again, and began to distribute his
+orders for our safety. He would have brought
+off our surgeons, but they, having been drinking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>
+while we assaulted the fort, would not come
+with us when they were called. They killed
+and took of our number twenty-eight men, besides
+eighteen that we brought off, who were
+desperately wounded. At that time we were
+all extremely faint for want of water and victuals,
+whereof we had none all that day. We
+were likewise almost choked with the dust of
+the town, being so much raised by the work
+that their guns had made, that we could
+scarce see each other. They beat us out of
+the town, then followed us into the savannahs,
+still charging as fast as they could.
+But when they saw that we rallied, again
+resolving to die one by another, they ran
+from us into the town, and sheltered themselves
+under their breast-works. Thus we
+retreated in as good order as we possibly
+could observe in that confusion. But their
+horsemen followed us as we retired, and fired
+at us all the way, though they would not
+come within reach of our guns, for theirs
+reached further than ours, and outshot us
+above one-third. We took the sea-side for
+our greater security, which when the enemy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span>
+saw, they betook themselves to the hills,
+rolling down great stones and whole rocks
+to destroy us. Meanwhile, those of the
+town examined our surgeons, and other men
+whom they had made prisoners. These gave
+them our signs that we had left to our boats
+that were behind us, so that they immediately
+blew up two fires, which were perceived
+by the canoes. This was the greatest
+of our dangers; for had we not come at that
+instant that we did to the sea-side, our boats
+had been gone, they being already under
+sail, and we had inevitably perished every
+man. Thus we put off from the shore, and
+got on board about ten at night, having been
+involved in a bloody fight with the enemy
+all the day."</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers, thus cruelly baffled, plied
+for some time outside the port, hoping to be
+revenged on the three ships, but they did
+not venture out. Arica Ringrose describes as
+a square place, with the castle at one corner.
+The houses were only eleven feet high, and
+built of earth. It was the place of embarkation
+for all minerals sent to Lima. Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span>
+the English prisoners, only ten survived.
+The Spaniards lost more than seventy men,
+three times as many being wounded, and of
+forty-five allies from Hillo only two returned
+alive.</p>
+
+<p>On dividing the plate, they found only
+thirty-seven pieces of eight fell to each man.
+Landing at Guasco, they took in 500 jars of
+water, and carried off 120 sheep, 80 goats,
+and 200 bushels of flour. At Hillo they
+surprised the townsmen asleep, and heard a
+false report that 5000 Englishmen had taken
+Panama. They carried off eighteen jars of
+wine and some new figs, and, ascending to the
+sugar-work they had before visited, laded
+seven mules with molasses and sugar. The
+townsmen told them, that the owner of the
+mill had brought an action against them for
+having done him more injury than the Buccaneers.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this another mutiny
+broke out, and forty-seven men, refusing to
+serve any longer under Captain Sharp, landed
+near the island of Plate, with five Indian
+slaves to serve as guides. Near the island<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span>
+of Chica they captured two Spanish vessels,
+one of them the very ship they had captured
+before at Panama. They heard here that
+some of their overland parties had taken a
+good ship at Porto Bello. Capturing some
+Spanish shipwrights at this place, they employed
+them for a fortnight in altering
+their vessel, and then set them at liberty,
+with some others of their prisoners, giving
+them one of their prizes, and manning the
+other with six men and two slaves.</p>
+
+<p>They now agreed in council to bear up for
+Golfo Dolce, there to careen their vessels, and
+then to cruise about under the equinoctial.
+They landed in Golfo Dolce, and, treating
+kindly some Indians whom they took prisoners,
+bought honey and plantains of them. Here
+they learned that the Spaniards, having
+treacherously captured forty Darien chiefs,
+had forced the natives into a peace. Having
+careened here, they soon after captured a rich
+prize, the <i>San Pedro</i>, bound from Truxillo
+to Panama, deeply laden with 37,000 pieces
+of eight, in chest and bags, besides plate.
+This was the same vessel they had taken the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span>
+year before, and it was now their prize a
+second time in fourteen months. The crew
+consisted of forty men, besides friars and
+merchants. Taking out part of her lading
+of cocoa, they cut down her masts and turned
+her adrift with all the old slaves, as "<i>a reward
+for good service</i>," taking new ones from the
+prize. Francisco, a negro, who had attempted
+to escape by swimming on shore in the Golfo
+Dolce, they retained as a prisoner, as a punishment
+for his insubordination. From this prize
+each Buccaneer received 234 pieces of eight,
+much being left for a future division. They
+learnt from this vessel that a new Viceroy of
+Peru, arrived at Panama, had not dared to
+venture to Lima in his ship of twenty-five
+guns, but had waited for the armada as a
+convoy. A few days later, they captured
+the packet that ran between Lima and Panama.
+A friar and five negroes escaped on
+shore, but two white women were captured.
+Rummaging the boat, they found nothing of
+value but a letter announcing the departure
+of the viceroy with four ships. The prisoners
+and the boat were then released. "That<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span>
+week," says Ringrose, "we stood out to
+sea all night long, most of our men being
+fuddled."</p>
+
+<p>The next day they captured a Spanish
+vessel that had at first frightened them by
+its size. The volleys of the Buccaneers
+soon drove the Spaniards into the hold and
+made them cry for quarter, having killed the
+captain at the first fire, and wounded the
+boatswain. Captain Sharp and twelve
+others were the first to board. She proved
+to be <i>El Santo Rosario</i>, commanded by Don
+Diego Lopez, bound from Callao to Panama.
+The crew were forty in number. She was
+deeply laden with plate and coined money,
+and carried 620 jars of wine and brandy. At
+Cape Passao Sharp sank the bark taken at
+Nicoya, preserving her rigging, and disabling
+the last prize set the prisoners adrift in it,
+keeping only the one man, named Francisco,
+who had described himself as the best pilot
+in those seas. They then divided the booty,
+which came to ninety-four pieces of eight
+a man. From these prisoners they learned
+that their men taken at Arica had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span>
+kindly treated at Callao. Of the last party
+that one had been captured, and the rest
+had had to fight their way overland through
+Indians and Spaniards. Ten Buccaneers
+were also announced as about to enter the
+South Sea. In August they landed again to
+kill goats on the island of Plate, where Ringrose
+and James Chappel, a quartermaster,
+fought a duel on shore, with what result
+we do not know. The same evening a conspiracy
+of the slaves was detected, in which
+they had plotted to slay all their masters
+when in drink, not sparing any. The ringleader,
+San Jago, a prisoner from Yqueque,
+leaped overboard when the plot was discovered,
+and was shot by the captain. The
+rest, being terrified at his death, were forgiven,
+and the same night the usual debauch
+took place in spite of the danger. From
+their pilot they heard that a Lima vessel
+bound for Guayaquil had run ashore lately
+on Santa Clara, losing 100,000 pieces of
+eight, that would have been their prize.
+They heard also that the Viceroy of Peru
+had beheaded the great Admiral Ponce for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span>
+not destroying the Buccaneer fleet while at
+Gorgona.</p>
+
+<p>They next made a descent on Paita, but
+found the place garrisoned by three companies
+horse and foot, well armed, from
+Puira, twelve leagues up the country. 150
+musketeers and 400 lancers occupied a hill
+and a breast-work, and fired upon the canoes.
+Had they suffered them to land they might
+have killed them to a man. Finding the
+whole coast now alarmed, they bore at once
+away for the Straits of Magellan. Touching
+at some unknown islands, they were almost
+inclined to winter there. Here they shot
+geese, made broth of limpets, and one of
+the boats captured an Indian and shot
+another dead. The prisoner was clad in a
+seal's skin, and carried a net to catch penguins.
+He was so strong as to be able to
+open mussels with his fingers, and they kept
+him as a slave, and called him Orson. They
+then proceeded to divide eight chests of
+money still unallotted, and each man received
+322 pieces of eight. On December 7th Captain
+Sharp received intelligence of a conspiracy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span>
+to shoot him during the ensuing
+festivities of Christmas-day. The only precaution
+he took was at once to divide all the
+wine in store, believing that no sober man
+would attempt so dastardly an act. Each
+mess received three jars. The cold grew
+now so intense that several of the negro
+slaves had their feet mortify, and some died.
+Christmas-day was celebrated by killing a fat
+sow, this being the first flesh the men had
+eaten since they left the island of Plata. By
+January 16th the days grew very hot again,
+and the nights cool and dewy. The men, weary
+of the voyage, offered a piece of eight "each
+man" to him who first discovered land. The
+sight of birds soon indicated this, and January
+28th the look-out spied Barbadoes; but
+hearing of peace they dared not put in for
+fear of being seized, and therefore steered for
+Antigua, much afraid of frigates, and shunning
+even a Bristol interloper that lay in the
+offing. Ringrose says: "Here I cannot
+easily express the infinite joy we were possessed
+with all this day, to see our own
+countrymen again." They then freed a negro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span>
+shoemaker, whom they had kept as a prisoner,
+and who had been very serviceable
+during the voyage. To Captain Sharp the men
+gave a mulatto boy as slave, for a token of
+the respect of his whole company to him for
+having led them safely through so many
+dangerous adventures. They then divided
+the last parcels of money, and received
+twenty-four pieces of eight a man. A little
+Spanish shock dog, taken from a prize, was
+also sold at the mast by public outcry, for
+forty pieces of eight, the owner promising all
+he gained should be devoted to a general feast.
+Captain Sharp bought the dog, saying he
+would eat it if they did not soon get leave to
+land. 100 pieces of eight was also added
+to the store, the boatswain, carpenter, and
+quartermaster having quarrelled about the
+last dividend.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Antigua Sharp sent a canoe
+ashore to buy tobacco and other necessaries,
+and to ask leave of the governor to land.
+The conclusion of Ringrose's book tells the
+rest: "The gentry of the place and common<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span>
+people were very willing and desirous to receive
+us, but on Wednesday, February 1st,
+the governor flatly refused us entry, at
+which all the gentry were much troubled,
+showing themselves very kind to us; hereupon
+we agreed among ourselves to give the
+ship to those of our company who had no
+money left them of all their purchase in this
+voyage, having lost it at play, and then put
+ourselves on board two ships bound for England.
+So I myself and thirteen more of our
+company went on board Captain Robert
+Porteen's ship called the <i>Lisbon Merchant</i>,
+set sail from La Antigua February 11th,
+and landed in England March 26th, anno
+1682."</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival in England Captain Sharp
+was tried for piracy and acquitted. He at
+once resolved to return to the West Indies,
+but all the merchant ships refused to carry
+him, afraid he would tempt their men to
+revolt against their master, and run away
+with the ship for a privateer, as he had done
+before. No promises or entreaties could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span>
+avail, and he seemed doomed to remain a
+prisoner in an island for which he entertained
+no filial affection.</p>
+
+<p>He therefore hit upon a desperate scheme,
+worthy of such a man. Collecting a little
+money he bought an old, half-rotten boat,
+lying near London-bridge, for £20, and embarked
+with sixteen desperadoes equally
+fearless as himself, carrying a supply of butter
+and cheese, and two dozen pieces of salt beef.
+He sailed down the river and reached the
+Downs, and there he boarded and captured a
+French vessel and sank his boat. By a
+foray on Romney Marsh he supplied himself
+with cattle, and sailed away like a bold Buccaneer
+as he was, to die no one knows where.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="p6"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+
+<small>DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.</small></h2>
+
+
+<blockquote><p>Leaves Captain Sharp&mdash;Land march over the Isthmus&mdash;Joins
+Captain Wright&mdash;Wreck of the French fleet&mdash;Returns
+to England&mdash;Second voyage with Captain
+Cook&mdash;Guinea coast&mdash;Juan Fernandez&mdash;Takes Ampalla&mdash;Takes
+Paita&mdash;Dampier's scheme of seizing the
+mines&mdash;Attacks Manilla galleon&mdash;Captain Swan&mdash;Death
+unknown. Van Horn&mdash;Captures galleons&mdash;Takes
+Vera Cruz&mdash;Killed in a duel by Le Graff.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Dampier, one of the wisest and best of
+English travellers, was himself a Buccaneer.
+Son of a Somersetshire farmer, he went early
+to sea, and became a freebooter without much
+compunction, just at the time when the
+brothers of the coast were sinking into mere
+pirates. "No peace beyond the line" was
+their early motto; "Friends to God and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>
+enemies to all mankind," was the later. The
+flag, once reddened by the Spaniards' blood,
+grew now black with the shadows of death
+and of the grave.</p>
+
+<p>Dampier was among those who left Captain
+Sharp after the dreadful repulse from
+Arica. His party consisted of forty-four
+Englishmen and two Mosquito Indians, who
+determined to re-cross the Isthmus of Darien,
+and return to the North Pacific Ocean. They
+carried with them a large quantity of flour
+and chocolate mixed with sugar, and took a
+mutual and terrible oath, that if any of their
+number sank from fatigue, he should be shot
+by his comrades, rather than allow him to
+fall into the hands of the Spaniards, who
+would not only torture him horribly, but
+compel him to betray his companions.</p>
+
+<p>In a fortnight after leaving the vessels they
+landed at the mouth of a river in the Bay of
+St. Michael, where unloading their provisions
+and arms they sank their boats; and while
+preparing for the inland journey, the Indians
+caught fish, and built huts for them to sleep
+in. The next day they struck into an Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>
+path and reached a village, but found, to
+their alarm, that the Spaniards had placed
+armed ships at the mouths of all the navigable
+rivers to intercept them on their
+return. Hiring an Indian guide, they reached
+the day after a native house, but the
+savage would neither give them food nor
+information. At any other time the Buccaneers
+would have at once put him on the
+rack, or hung him at his own door, but they
+felt this was no place to be angry, for their
+lives lay in the enemy's hands. Neither
+dollars, hatchets, nor knives, would move
+this stubborn man, till a sailor pulled a sky
+blue petticoat from his bag and threw it over
+the head of the Indian's wife. Delighted with
+the gift, she coaxed her husband till he gave
+them information and found a guide. It had
+rained hard for two days, the country was
+difficult and fatiguing, and there was no
+path that even an Indian eye could discover.
+They guided themselves by day by
+the rivers, and at night by the stars. They
+had frequently to ford the rivers twenty
+or thirty times in twelve hours. Rain, cold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span>
+fatigue, and hunger made them forget even
+the Spaniards.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days they reached the house of a
+young Spanish Indian, who had lived with
+the bishop of Panama, and who received them
+kindly. Here, while resting to dry their
+arms and powder, their surgeon, Mr. Wafer,
+had his knee burnt by an accidental explosion.
+After dragging himself along with pain for
+another day, he determined to remain behind
+with two or three more. He stayed five
+months with the Indians, and the published
+account of his experiences still exists.</p>
+
+<p>The rainy season that frightened Mr. Ringrose
+had now set in, and the thunder and
+lightning was frequent and violent. The
+valleys and river banks were overflowed, and
+the Buccaneers had to sleep in trees or under
+their shade, instead of building warm and
+sheltering huts. In the very height of their
+misery, the slaves fled and carried away all
+they could. Dampier, whose only anxiety
+was to preserve his journal, placed it in a
+bamboo, closed at both ends with wax. In
+fording one of the rivers, a Buccaneer, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span>
+carried 300 dollars on his back, was swept
+down the stream and drowned, but the survivors
+were too hopeless and weary to look
+for either body or gold.</p>
+
+<p>In eighteen days the English reached the
+river Concepcion, and, obtaining Indian
+canoes, rowed to Le Sound's Key, one of the
+Samballas islands, where Buccaneers rendezvoused.
+Here they embarked on board a
+French privateer, commanded by Captain
+Tristian, dismissing their Indian guides
+with presents of money, beads, and hatchets.
+At Springer's Key, Tristian joined them with
+other vessels, and would have attacked Panama
+had not Dampier and his men deterred
+them. For a week the council deliberated
+about the available towns worth
+plundering from Trinidad to Vera Cruz. The
+French and English could not agree, but at
+last all sailed for Carpenter's River, touching
+at the isle of St. Andreas. The ships
+separated in a gale; and Dampier taking a
+dislike to his French commander, induced Captain
+Wright, an Englishman, to fit out a small
+vessel and cruise for provisions along the coast.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span>
+While the sailors shot pecary, deer, parrots,
+pigeons, monkeys, and cuvassow birds, their
+Mosquito Indians struck turtle for their use.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to Le Sound's Key they were
+joined by Mr. Wafer, who had escaped from
+the Darien Indians, but he was so painted
+and bedizened that it was some time before
+they could recognize him. An Indian chief
+had offered him his daughter in marriage,
+and he had only got away by pretending
+to go in search of English dogs for hunting.
+Passing Carthagena, they cast wistful eyes
+at the convent dedicated to the Virgin, situated
+on a steep hill behind the town. There
+was immense wealth hoarded in this place,
+rich offerings being frequently made to it,
+and many miracles worked by our Lady.
+Any misfortune that befel the Buccaneer
+was attributed to this Lady's doing, and the
+Spaniards reported that she was abroad that
+night the <i>Oxford</i> man-of-war blew up at
+the isle of Vaca, and that she came home
+all wet, and with clothes soiled and torn.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Wright's company pillaged several
+small places about the Rio de la Hache<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span>
+and the Rancherias pearl fisheries, and captured,
+after a smart engagement, an armed
+ship of twelve guns and forty men, laden
+with sugar, tobacco, and marmalade, bound
+to Carthagena from Santiago, in Cuba. The
+Dutch governor of Curaçoa, having much
+trade with the Spaniards, would not openly
+buy the cargo, but offered, if it was sent
+among the Danes of St. Thomas, to purchase
+it through his agents. The rovers, declining
+this, sold it at another Dutch colony,
+and then sailed for the isle of Aves, so called
+from the quantity of boobies and men-of-war
+birds. On a coral reef, near this island,
+Count d'Estrees had shortly before lost the
+whole French fleet. He himself had first run
+ashore, and firing guns to warn the rest of
+the danger, they hurried on to the same
+shoal, thinking, in the darkness, that he
+had been attacked by the enemy. The ships
+held together till the next day, and many
+men were saved. The ordinary seamen died
+of hunger and fatigue, but the Buccaneers,
+hardier, and accustomed to frequent wrecks,
+made the escape an excuse for revel and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span>
+debauchery. As Dampier says, they, "being
+used to such accidents, lived merrily, and if
+they had gone to Jamaica with £30 in their
+pockets, could not have enjoyed themselves
+more; for they kept a gang by themselves
+and watched when the ships broke up, to
+get the goods that came out of them, and,
+though much was staved against the rocks,
+yet abundance of wine and brandy floated
+over the reef where they waited to take it
+up." * * "There were about forty Frenchmen
+on board one of the ships, in which
+was good store of liquor, till the after part
+of her broke, and floated over the reef and
+was carried away to sea, with all the men
+drinking and singing, who, being in drink,
+did not mind the danger, but were never
+heard of afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>This wreck having left the Bird Island a
+storehouse of masts and spars, the Buccaneer
+vessels had begun to repair thither to careen
+and refit. Among others, a Captain Pan, a
+Frenchman, had been there. A Dutch vessel
+of twenty guns, despatched from Curaçoa
+to fish up the sunken cannon, observing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span>
+privateer, resolved to capture him before he
+began his diving. Pan, afraid of the Dutchman's
+superior force, abandoned his vessel,
+and, landing his guns, prepared to throw up
+a redoubt. While thus engaged, a Dutch
+sloop entered the road, and at night anchored
+at the opposite end of the island. In the
+night, Pan, with two canoes, boarded the
+ship, and made off, leaving his empty hulk
+for the Dutch man-of-war.</p>
+
+<p>At this island, Dampier's men careened
+their largest vessel, scrubbed the sugar prize,
+and recovered two guns from the wreck.
+At the island of Rocas, a Knight of Malta,
+captain of a French thirty-six gun ship,
+bought ten tons of their sugar. Failing to
+sell any more sugar at Petit Guaves, they
+sailed for Blanco, an uninhabited island, full
+of lignum-vitæ trees, and teeming with iguanas,
+that were to be found in the swamps,
+among the bushes, or in the trees. Their
+eggs were eaten by the Buccaneers, who
+made soup of the flesh for their sick.</p>
+
+<p>While cruising on the Caraccas coast, they
+landed in some of the bays, and took seven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>
+or eight tons of cocoa, and three barks laden
+with hides, brandy, earthenware, and European
+goods. Returning to the Rocas, they
+divided the spoil, and Dampier and nineteen
+others embarking in one of the prizes,
+reached Virginia July 1682.</p>
+
+<p>Dampier's next voyage was with a Creole,
+named Cook, who arrived at Virginia with a
+French vessel he had captured by a trick at
+Petit Guaves. He had been quartermaster,
+or second in command, under a French Flibustier
+named Gandy. By the usual Buccaneer
+law, he had been made captain of a
+large Spanish prize. The French commanders
+in the same fleet, jealous of this promotion,
+seized the ship, plundered the English
+prize crew, and sent them ashore. Tristan,
+another French captain, took ten of them
+with him to Petit Guaves. Cook and his
+nine companions, taking advantage of a day
+when Tristan and many of his men were absent,
+overpowered the rest of the crew, sent them
+ashore, and sailed to the Isle à la Vache. Here
+he picked up a crew of English Buccaneers,
+and steered for Virginia, taking two prizes by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span>
+the way, one of which was a French vessel,
+laden with wines. He then sold his wine and
+two of the ships, and equipped the largest,
+the <i>Revenge</i>, with eighteen guns. Amongst
+the crew were Dampier, Wafer, and Cowley,
+all of whom have written narratives of their
+voyages. They sailed from the Chesapeak
+on the 23rd of August 1683, and captured a
+Dutch vessel, laden with wine and provisions.
+At the Cape de Verd islands they
+encountered a dreadful storm, that lasted a
+week. While the ship scudded before wind
+and sea under bare poles, she was suddenly
+broached to by order of the master, and would
+have foundered but for Dampier and another
+man who, going aloft and spreading out
+the flaps of their coats, righted the ship. At
+the isle of Sal, the sailors feasted on flamingo
+tongues. These birds stood in ranks round the
+feeding ponds, so as to resemble a new brick
+wall. They purchased here some ambergris,
+which Dampier says he had in a lump of
+100 lbs. weight. Its origin was at that
+time unknown; it is now believed to be a
+secretion of the whale. The governor and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span>
+his court at this island rejoiced in rags, their
+revenues being small, and drawn principally
+from the salt ponds, from which the island
+derives its name. Having dug wells, watered,
+and careened, they went to Mayo to obtain
+provisions, but were not allowed to land, as
+only about a week before Captain Bond, a
+pirate of Bristol, had carried off the governor
+and some of his people.</p>
+
+<p>Steering to the Straits of Magellan, they
+were driven to the Guinea coast, and there
+captured a Danish ship by a stratagem.
+Captain Cook, concealing his men under deck,
+approached the Dane like a weak, unarmed
+merchant vessel. When quite close, he commanded
+in a loud voice the helm to be put
+one way, while by a preconcerted plan the
+steersman shifted into another, and fell on
+board the Dane, which was captured with
+the loss of only five men. She was double
+their size, carried thirty-six guns, and was
+equipped and victualled for a long voyage.</p>
+
+<p>This vessel they called <i>The Bachelor's
+Delight</i>, and they at once burned the <i>Revenge</i>,
+that she might "tell no tales."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span></p>
+
+<p>During frequent tornadoes near the straits,
+being short of fresh meat, the sailors
+caught sharks during the calms, and boiling
+their flesh, stewed it with pepper and vinegar.
+When they reached the Falkland, or Sebald
+de Weist islands, as they were then called,
+Dampier proposed to the captain to reach
+Juan Fernandez by Cape Horn, avoiding the
+straits. Their men being privateers, wilful,
+and not much in command, he feared would
+not give sufficient attention in a passage so
+difficult, and, though he owns they were
+more than usually obedient, he says he could
+not expect to find them at an instant's call in
+critical moments. At these islands they
+found the sea for a mile round red with
+shoals of small, scarlet-shelled lobsters. Dampier's
+advice was not taken, but on entering
+the South Sea they met the <i>Nicholas</i>, of
+London, a vessel fitted out ostensibly as a
+trader, but being in reality a Buccaneer.
+The captain came on board, related his adventures,
+and gave them a supply of bread
+and beef. They reached Juan Fernandez
+together, and heard from the <i>Nicholas</i> of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span>
+vessel from London, called the <i>Cygnet</i>, commanded
+by Captain Swan, which was sailing
+in those latitudes. It was a trader, holding
+a licence from the Duke of York, then High
+Admiral of England.</p>
+
+<p>The crews discovered on the island the
+Mosquito Indian left behind by Captain Watling,
+in Lussan's expedition, because he was
+hunting goats when the vessel sailed. He
+was warmly greeted by Dampier, a fellow-countryman
+named Robin, and some old
+messmates. Robin, running up to him, fell
+flat on his face at his feet, and then rose and
+embraced him. They found he had killed
+three goats, and prepared some cabbage palms,
+to feast his visitors. The interview, writes
+Dampier, was tender, solemn, and affecting.
+When abandoned, William had nothing with
+him but his gun and a knife, some powder,
+and some shot. By notching his knife into
+a saw, he cut his gun barrel into pieces.
+These he hammered in the fire, and ground
+them into lances, harpoons, hooks, and knives.
+He hunted goats, fished, and killed seals.
+His clothes he made of skins, and with these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span>
+also he had lined his hut; and he had contrived
+to elude the search of the Spaniards.
+Wild goats, originally brought by the Spaniard,
+abounded on the hills and in the grassy
+valleys. There was abundance of water and
+good timber, and the bays abounded with seals
+and sea-lions, that covered the sea for a mile.</p>
+
+<p>Remaining here sixteen days, for the sake
+of the sick and those ill with the scurvy,
+and getting in water and provision, Cook
+then steered for the American coast, standing
+out fourteen or fifteen leagues to escape the
+notice of the Spaniard. The ridges were
+blue and mountainous. They soon captured
+a timber ship from Guayaquil laden with
+timber for Lima, from whose crew they heard
+that their arrival was known. They anchored
+next at the sandy islet of Lobos de la Mar,
+and scrubbed their ships. Captain Eaton, of
+the <i>Nicholas</i>, proposing to march with them in
+their descents, and the two vessels mustering
+108 able men, Cook soon took another
+prize, and Eaton two more, which he pursued.
+They were laden with flour from
+Lima for Panama, and in one of them was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span>
+eight tons of quince marmalade. The prisoners
+informed them that, on the rumour of
+their approach, 800,000 pieces of eight had
+been landed at an intermediate port. They
+sailed next to the Galapagos islands, abandoning
+a design on Truxillo, which they heard
+had been lately fortified. On these rocky,
+barren shores they feasted on turtle, pigeons,
+fish, and the leaves of the mammee tree. Off
+Cape Blanco, Captain Cook died, and was
+buried on land.</p>
+
+<p>Capturing some Spanish Indians who had
+been sent as spies by the Governor of Panama,
+they used them as guides, and landed
+on the coast in search of cattle. Here a few
+of the men were surprised by fifty armed
+Spaniards, and their boat burned. The
+sailors thus imperilled waded out neck deep
+to an insulated rock near the shore, and remained
+there for seven hours exposed to the
+Spanish bullets, till they were taken off by a
+boat from their ship just as the tide was
+rising to devour them. The Spanish, lurking
+in ambush, made no attempt to resist the
+rescue.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The quartermaster, Edward Davis, was
+now elected commander; and after cutting
+lancewood for the handles of their oars, they
+bore away for Ria Lexa, steering for a high
+volcano that rises above the town and the
+island that forms the harbour. But here,
+too, the Spaniards had thrown up breast-works
+and placed sentinels, and the Buccaneers
+sailed for the Gulf of Ampalla and the island
+of Mangera. Davis captured the padre of a
+village and two Indian boys, and, proceeding
+to Ampalla, informed the people that he commanded
+a Biscay ship, sent by the King of
+Spain to clear those seas of pirates, and that
+he had come there to careen. The sailors
+were well received, and entertained with
+feasts and music, and they all repaired together
+to celebrate a festival by torchlight
+in the church. Here Davis hoped to cage
+them till he could dictate a ransom, but the
+impatience of one of his men frustrated the
+plan. Pushing in a lingering Indian, the
+man spread an alarm, the people all fled,
+and the Buccaneers, firing, killed one of
+their chiefs. They remained, however, good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span>
+friends, and these very Indians soon after
+helped to store the ship with cattle belonging
+to a nunnery, situated on an island in the
+gulf. On leaving, Davis gave them one
+of his prize ships, and a quantity of flour,
+and released the priest who had helped him
+in his first stratagem.</p>
+
+<p>The crews now quarrelled, and Davis, who
+claimed the largest share of the common
+plunder, left them, taking Dampier with
+him. Eaton touched at Cocos island, purchased
+a store of flour, and took in water and cocoa
+nuts. Davis landed at Manta, a village near
+Cape St. Lorenzo, and captured two old
+women, in order to obtain information.
+They learnt that many Buccaneers had lately
+crossed the isthmus, and were coming along
+the coast in canoes and piraguas. The
+viceroy had left no means untried to check
+them; the goats on the uninhabited islands
+had been destroyed, provisions were removed
+from the shore, and ships even burnt to save
+them from the enemy. At La Plata, Davis
+was joined by Captain Swan in the <i>Cygnet</i>,
+who had turned freebooter in self-defence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>
+He had been joined by Peter Harris, who
+commanded a small bark, and was nephew of
+the Buccaneer commander killed in a sea-fight
+at Panama three years before. They
+now sent for Eaton, but found from a letter
+at the rendezvous at Lobos, that he had already
+sailed for the East Indies. While the
+ships were refitting at La Plata, a small bark
+taken by Davis, after the Spaniards had set
+it on fire, captured a Spaniard of 400 tons,
+laden with timber, and brought word that
+the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to
+sweep them from the seas. Captain Swan,
+at this crisis, turned wholly freebooter, and
+cleared his ship of goods by selling them to
+every Buccaneer on credit. The bulky bales
+he threw overboard, the silks and muslins he
+kept, and retained the iron bars for ballast.
+In compensation for these sacrifices, the
+Buccaneers agreed to set aside ten shares of
+all booty for Captain Swan's owners.</p>
+
+<p>Having cleaned the vessels and fitted up a
+fire-ship, the squadron landed at Paita, but
+found it deserted. Anchoring off the place,
+they demanded as ransom 300 pecks of flour,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span>
+3000 pounds of sugar, twenty-five jars of
+wine, and 1000 of water, and having coasted
+six days and obtained nothing, they burnt
+the town in revenge, and sailed away. They
+found afterwards that Eaton had been there
+not long before, landed his prisoners, and
+burnt a ship in the road. Burning Harris's
+vessel, which proved unseaworthy, the squadron
+steered for the island of Lobos del Tierra,
+and, being short of food, took in a supply of
+seals, penguins, and boobies, their Mosquito
+men supplying them with turtle, while the
+ships were cleaned and provided with firewood,
+preparatory to a descent upon Guayaquil.
+Embarking in their canoes, they captured in
+the bay a small ship laden with Quito cloth
+and two vessels full of negroes. One of these
+they dismasted, and a few only of the slaves
+they took with them. From disagreement
+between the two crews, the expedition failed.
+Having lain in the woods all night, and cut
+a road with great difficulty, they abandoned
+the scheme without firing a shot, when almost
+within a mile of the town, which they believed
+was alarmed, and on the watch.</p>
+
+<p>Dampier now proposed a scheme as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span>
+feasible and grand as any of Raleigh's. He
+declared that they never had a greater opportunity
+of enriching themselves. His bold
+plan was, with the 1000 negroes lying in the
+three prizes, to go and work the gold mines
+of St. Martha. The Indians would at once
+join them from their hatred of the Spaniards.
+For provision they had 200 tons of flour laid
+up in the Galapagos islands; the North Sea
+would be open to them; thousands of Buccaneers
+would join them from all parts of the
+West Indies; united they would be a match
+for all the forces of Peru, and might be at once
+masters of the west coast as high as Quito.
+This golden cloud melted into mere fog. The
+Buccaneers returned to La Plata, divided the
+Quito cloth, and turned the Guayaquil vessel
+into a tender for the <i>Swan</i>. The old Buccaneers
+of Davis now quarrelled with the
+new recruits in the <i>Swan</i>, accused them
+of cowardice and of having baulked the
+attempt on Guayaquil, and complained of
+having to supply them with flour and
+turtle, for they had neither provisions nor
+Indian fishermen. Unable to divorce, the ill-assorted
+pair proceeded to attack together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span>
+Lavelia, in the Bay of Panama. From charts
+found in the prizes they checked the deceptions
+and errors of the Spanish and Indian
+prisoners whom they employed as pilots. Their
+object was now to search for canoes in rivers
+unvisited by the Spaniards, where their
+schemes might remain still undiscovered.</p>
+
+<p>Such rivers abounded from the equinoctial
+line to the Gulf of St. Michael. When five
+days out from La Plata they made a sudden
+swoop on the village of Tomaco, and captured
+a vessel laden with timber, with a Spanish
+knight, eight sailors, and a canoe containing
+twelve jars of old wine. A boat party
+that rowed up the St. Jago river visited a
+house belonging to a lady of Lima, whose
+servants traded with the Indians for gold,
+several ounces of which were found left by
+them in their calabashes when they fled.</p>
+
+<p>The twin vessels next sailed for the island
+of Gallo, capturing by the way a packet boat
+from Lima, fishing up the letters, which the
+Spaniards had thrown overboard attached to
+a buoy. From these they learnt that the
+governor of Panama was hastening the departure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span>
+of the triennial plate fleet from Callo
+to Panama, where it would be carried on
+mules across the isthmus. To intercept this
+fleet and to grow millionaires in a day was
+now their only dream. They proceeded at
+once to careen their ships at the Pearl islands
+in the bay of Panama. Their force consisted
+of two ships, three barks, a fire-ship,
+and two small tenders. Near the uninhabited
+island of Gorgona they captured a flour ship,
+and landing most of their prisoners at Gorgona,
+they proceeded to the bay, captured
+a small provision boat, and continued their
+watch, cruising round the city.</p>
+
+<p>Having cut off all communication between
+Panama and the islands in the bay, Davis
+proposed an exchange of prisoners, surrendering
+forty monks, whom he was glad to get
+rid of, for one of Harris's band and a sailor
+who had been surprised while hunting on an
+island. The Lima fleet still delaying, the
+Buccaneers anchored at Tavoga, an island
+abounding in cocoa and mammee trees, and
+beautiful water. About this time they were
+nearly ensnared by a Spanish ship, sent to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span>
+island at midnight under pretence of clandestine
+traffic. This scheme originated in
+Captain Bond, an English pirate who had
+deserted to the enemy. The squadron, which
+had scattered in alarm, to avoid the fire-ship,
+were just re-uniting and looking for their
+abandoned anchors, when a cry rose that a
+fleet of armed canoes were steering direct
+towards them through the island channel.
+This was the French Flibustiers of which we
+have given an account in the adventures of
+Ravenau de Lussan. After joining in the
+sea-fight off Panama, and the descent upon
+Leon and Ria Lexa, the Buccaneers again split
+into small parties. Dampier joined Swan and
+Townley, who determined to cruise along the
+shores of the mine country of Mexico, and
+then, sailing as high as the south-west point of
+California, cross the Pacific, and return to
+England by India. At Guatalico, famous for
+its blowing rock, they landed their sick for a
+few days, and obtained provisions, and, in a
+descent near Acapulco, stopped a string of
+sixty laden mules and killed eighteen beeves,
+carrying off all the cattle safely to their ships.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To obtain provisions, Swan sacked the
+town of St. Pecaque, on the coast of New
+Gallicia, where large stores were kept for
+the use of the slaves of the neighbouring
+mines. A great many of these he carried off
+the first day on horseback and on the
+shoulders of his men. These visits were repeated&mdash;a
+party of Buccaneers keeping the
+town till the Spaniards had collected a force.
+Of this Captain Swan gave his men due warning,
+exhorting them, on their way to their
+canoes with the burdens of maize, to keep
+together in a compact body, but they chose
+to follow their own course, every man
+straggling singly while leading his horse, or
+carrying a load on his shoulder. They accordingly
+fell into the ambush the Spaniards
+had laid for them, and to the amount of
+fifty were surprised and mercilessly
+butchered. The Spaniards, seizing their
+arms and loaded horses, fled, before Swan,
+who heard the distant firing, could come to
+the assistance of his men. Fifty-four Englishmen
+and nine blacks fell in this affair,
+which was the most severe the Buccaneers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span>
+had encountered in the South Sea. Dampier
+relates that Captain Swan had been warned
+of this disaster by an astrologer he had consulted
+before he sailed from England. Many
+of the men, too, had foreboded the misfortune;
+and the previous night, while lying in the
+church of St. Pecaque, had been disturbed
+by frequent groanings which kept them from
+sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>This disaster drove Swan from the coast to
+careen at Cape St. Lucas, the south point of
+California&mdash;in revenge for his loss leaving
+his pilot and prisoners on an uninhabited
+island. While lying here, Dampier was
+cured of dropsy by being buried all but his
+head in hot sand. The whole 150 men were
+now living on short allowances of maize, and
+the fish the Indians struck salted for store.
+One meal a-day was now the rule, and the
+victuals were served out by the quartermaster
+with the exactness of gold. Yet,
+even in this distress, two dogs and two cats
+received their daily shares. They now
+started for their cruise among the Philippines.
+In a long run of 7,302 miles they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>
+saw no living thing&mdash;neither bird, fish, nor
+insect, except one solitary flight of boobies.
+At the end of the voyage the men were
+almost in mutiny at the want of food, and
+had secretly resolved to kill and eat their
+captain (Swan), and afterwards, in regular
+order, all who had promoted the voyage.
+At the island of Gualan, where there was a
+Spanish fort and a garrison of thirty men,
+the Buccaneers traded with the natives, who
+took them for Spaniards from Acapulco.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Eaton, who had visited the island
+before them on his way to India, had, at the
+instigation of the Spaniards, plundered and
+killed many of the natives, and driven the
+rest to emigration. While trading here the
+Acapulco vessel arrived, and, being signalled
+by the governor, took to flight; but in her
+hurry to escape ran upon a shoal, from which
+she was with difficulty extricated. Swan,
+who now grew anxious for quiet commerce,
+discouraged the pursuit, and proceeded
+quietly on his voyage. At Mindanao, Captain
+Swan and thirty-six men were left behind
+by his crew, who were only anxious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span>
+for plunder, and soon after captured a Spanish
+vessel bound for Manilla. Captain
+Swan was eventually drowned while attempting
+to escape to a Dutch vessel lying in the
+river. Weary of the mean robberies of the
+crew, who now turned mere pirates, Dampier
+left them at the Nicobar islands, and, embarking
+in canoes, reached Sumatra, and
+eventually sailed for England.</p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers left behind in the South
+Sea prospered, and made many successful
+descents. At Lavelia Townley captured the
+treasure and merchandise landed from the
+Lima ship in the former year, for which
+Swan had watched so long in vain, and for
+which the Buccaneers had fought in the Bay
+of Panama. Townley died of his wounds.
+Harris followed Swan across the Pacific;
+and Knight, another English Buccaneer,
+satiated with plunder, returned home laden
+with Spanish gold; and off Cape Corrientes
+they lay in wait in vain for the Manilla
+ship, the great prize aimed at by all adventurers.
+Soon after, a malignant fever breaking
+out among the crews, many left the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>
+squadron and returned towards Panama,
+carrying back the Darien Indians, but leaving
+the Mosquito Indians in the <i>Cygnet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Davis sailed from Guayaquil to careen at
+the Galapagos islands, which were in the
+South Pacific what Tortuga was in the North,
+the harbour and sanctuary of the Buccaneers.
+In returning by Cape Horn, Davis discovered
+Easter island, and left five of his men and
+five negro slaves on Juan Fernandez. These
+men had been stripped at the gambling-table,
+and were unwilling to return empty-handed.
+The <i>Bachelor's Delight</i> eventually doubled
+Cape Horn, and he reached the West Indies
+just in time to avail himself of a pardon
+offered by royal proclamation.</p>
+
+<p>Dampier reached England in 1691, and
+having published his travels, was sent out in
+1691 by William III. on a voyage of discovery
+to New Holland, and was wrecked
+near Ascension. In Queen Anne's reign,
+during the war of the succession, he commanded
+two privateers, and cruised against
+the Spaniards in the South Sea. His objects
+were to capture the Spanish plate vessels sailing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span>
+from Buenos Ayres, to lie in wait for the
+gold ship from Boldivia to Lima, and to seize
+the Manilla galleon. Off Juan Fernandez
+he fought a French Buccaneer vessel for
+seven hours, but parted without effecting
+a capture. So strong were his old Flibustier
+habits upon him, that he confesses
+it with reluctance he attacked any vessel not
+a Spaniard. Before they reached the proper
+latitude the Boldivia vessel had sailed.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Stradling, the commander of his
+companion ship, parted company. A surprise
+of Santa Maria, in the bay of Panama, failed,
+but Dampier made a few small prizes.
+While lying in the gulf of Nicoya, his chief
+mate, John Clipperton, mutinied, and, seizing
+his tender, with its ammunition and stores,
+put out to sea. A worse disappointment
+awaited the commander&mdash;off the Fort de
+Narida he came suddenly upon the Manilla
+galleon, and gave her several broadsides
+before she could clear for action. But even
+at this disadvantage the Spaniards' twenty-four
+pounders soon silenced Dampier's five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>
+pounders, drove in the rotten planks of his
+vessel, the <i>St. George</i>, and compelled him to
+sheer off&mdash;the galleon's crew quadrupling
+that of the English.</p>
+
+<p>The men growing despondent and weary
+of the voyage, Dampier put thirty-four of
+them into a prize brigantine of seventy tons,
+and appointed one named Funnel as their
+commander. Allowing them to sail for
+India, he with twenty-nine men returned to
+Peru and plundered the town of Puna. The
+vessel being no longer fit for sea, they abandoned
+her at Lobos de la Mar, and embarking
+in a Spanish brigantine crossed the
+Pacific. In India, Dampier, having had his
+commission stolen by some of his deserters,
+was imprisoned by the Dutch. When he
+reached England at last, he found that
+Funnel had returned and published his
+voyage to the West Indies. A few of his
+men who had lost their money in gambling
+remained in the <i>Bachelor's Delight</i> with
+Davis.</p>
+
+<p>It is supposed he now fell into very extreme<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span>
+poverty, for in 1708 we find him acting as
+pilot to the two Bristol privateers that circumnavigated
+the globe, and were as successful
+as he had been unfortunate. At Juan
+Fernandez the commander, Woodes Rogers,
+brought off the celebrated Alexander Selkirk,
+who had been abandoned here four years
+before, by Dampier's mutinous consort, Captain
+Stradling, and, by the traveller's advice,
+the poor outcast was made second mate of the
+<i>Duke</i>. At Guayaquil, where Dampier commanded
+the artillery, they obtained plunder
+to the value of £21,000, besides 27,000 dollars,
+as ransom for the town. Off Cape Lucas
+they captured a rich Manilla ship, laden with
+merchandise, and containing £12,000 in gold
+and silver. They also encountered the great
+Manilla galleon, but were beaten off after a
+severe engagement with a loss of twenty-five
+men. After a run of two months they
+reached Gualan, and obtained provisions by
+anchoring under Spanish colours. Visiting
+Batavia, they waited a long time at the Cape
+for a home-bound fleet, and in July, 1711,
+entered the Texel five-and-twenty sail, Dutch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span>
+and English; and in October sailed up the
+Thames with booty valued at £150,000. Of
+the great Dampier we hear no more, and his
+very burial place is unknown.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Van Horn</span> was originally a common Dutch
+sailor, who, having, by dint of the prudence
+of his nation, saved 200 dollars, entered
+into partnership with a messmate who had
+laid by the same sum, and, going to France,
+obtained a privateer's commission, and fitted
+up a fishing-boat with a crew of thirty men.
+Cruising first as Dutch, he then purchased
+a large vessel at Ostend, and, hoisting the
+French flag, made war on all nations. The
+French court ordered M. d'Estrees to detain
+this Flying Dutchman, whose commission
+had now expired, and a ship was sent for
+the purpose; but as the commander had no
+orders to proceed to extremities, and Van
+Horn was determined not to go alive, he
+was suffered to escape. Quite undaunted
+he proceeded to Puerto Rico, entered the
+bay, sounding his trumpets, and, sending
+on shore, told the governor that he had come
+to offer his services to escort the galleons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>
+which were then ready to sail. The governor
+accepted the offer, and Van Horn sailed
+off with them; but being soon joined by
+some Buccaneer companions, he turned on
+the prey, seized the richest, sank some
+others, and pursued the rest. Such was
+the commencement of this adventurer's
+career. His after life was worthy of such
+a beginning.</p>
+
+<p>Van Horn was immensely rich. He usually
+wore a string of pearls of extraordinary size,
+and a large ruby of great beauty. His
+widow lived afterwards at Ostend.</p>
+
+<p>In 1683, Van Horn, who had all his life
+fought under French colours, though not
+very scrupulous about what nation a vessel
+was, so it were rich, having gone to St.
+Domingo to sell negroes, had his ship confiscated
+by the Spanish governor. The Buccaneer's
+ungovernable passions could no
+more brook such an insult than a knight
+would have borne a blow. Buccaneer pride
+desired revenge; Buccaneer cupidity desired
+redress. Resolved on vengeance, the angry
+Dutchman hastened to Petit Guaves, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>
+took out a commission from the governor of
+Tortuga, and at once enrolled 300 of the
+bravest Buccaneers, with a determination of
+attacking Vera Cruz. Among his crew were
+enrolled several of the leading Buccaneer
+chiefs. Grammont, who had lately lost his
+ship at the Isles des Aves, lately a commander,
+was now a mere volunteer. Such
+were the vicissitudes of Buccaneer life.
+Laurence de Graff was also there. He was a
+Dutchman like Van Horn, but one came
+from Ostend and the other from Dort.
+Among the less celebrated were Godefroy
+and Jonqué. Their numbers soon swelled
+to 1,200 picked men, in six vessels, under
+the command of Van Horn and De Graff,
+who had each a frigate of fifty guns, while
+the rest had simple barks. Their common
+aim was Vera Cruz, the emporium of all the
+riches of New Spain, and they needed no
+other incitement to urge them to speed and
+unity.</p>
+
+<p>From some Spanish prisoners they heard
+that two large vessels laden with cocoa were
+hourly expected at Vera Cruz from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span>
+Caraccas. The Buccaneer leaders instantly
+fitted up two of their largest ships in the
+Spanish fashion, and, hoisting the Spanish
+flag, sent them boldly into the harbour, as if
+just returning as peaceful but armed traders
+from a long and successful voyage. It was
+the eve of the Assumption, crowds of sailors
+and townsmen lined the quays, and the expectant
+populace cheered the rich merchantmen
+as they steered with a stately sweep
+into the haven. The keener eyes, however,
+soon observed that the Caraccas vessels advanced
+very slowly, although the wind was
+good, and their suspicions became excited
+almost before the Buccaneers could work
+into port. Some even ran to tell the governor
+that all was not right, but Don Luis de
+Cordova told them that their fears were
+foolish, the two vessels he knew by unmistakable
+signs to be the two vessels he
+expected; and he returned the same answer to
+the commander of the fort at St. Jean d'Ulloa,
+who also sent to bid him be upon his guard.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight the French, under cover
+of the dark, landed at the old town, about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span>
+three leagues to the west of the more modern
+city. They obtained easy access to the place,
+and surprised the governor in his bed. The
+drowsy sentinels once overpowered, the small
+fortress with its twelve guns was in the
+possession of their men. At every corner
+pickets were placed. The surprise was so
+complete, that when the tocsin rang at daybreak,
+the watchmen being alarmed at some
+musket shots they heard, they found the town
+already bound hand and foot. At the first
+clang of the bell, the garrison rushed out of
+their barracks, and ranged themselves under
+their colours, but saw the French already in
+arms at the head of all the principal streets.
+They were surrounded and helpless. When
+the day broke, nobody dare show themselves,
+for all those who ran out armed were
+instantly struck down. Sentinels were placed
+at every door in the principal streets, a
+barrel of powder with the lid off by their
+sides, ready to fire the train that connected
+one with the other at the least signal of
+danger. We believe it was on this occasion
+that Van Horn forced a monk into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span>
+cathedral, who preached to the people on
+the vanity of worldly riches, and the necessity
+of abandoning them to the spoiler. The
+Buccaneers then drove all the Spaniards into
+their houses, and forced the women and
+children into the churches. Here they
+remained, crowded together, weeping and
+hungry, for three days, while their enemies
+collected the booty. The Buccaneers, now
+safe, abandoned themselves, as usual, to
+debauchery and gluttony&mdash;some dying from
+immoderate gluttony. Fortunately for this
+wretched people, the bishop of the town,
+happening to be near Vera Cruz at the
+time, began to treat for their ransom. It
+was fixed at two million piastres, of which
+a part was paid the very same day&mdash;the
+Buccaneers only dispensing with the remaining
+million, as the Vice-Royal was
+already approaching the town at the head of
+a large force. Dangers were now hemming
+in the Dutchman and his band. About
+eleven o'clock in the morning, the look-out
+on the tower of St. Catherine's reported that a
+fleet of fourteen sail was approaching the city.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Buccaneers, alarmed, sprang to arms.
+Aghast at this intelligence, the French,
+dreading to be shut in between two fires,
+decided upon an immediate retreat. The
+townspeople, terrified at the prospect of
+being massacred by their infuriated and
+despairing enemies, were as apprehensive of
+danger as the Buccaneers themselves. Van
+Horn embarked with speed all the plate
+and cochineal, and the more valuable and
+portable of the spoil, and waited eagerly for
+the ransom which was now almost in sight.
+It, however, never arrived, for the drivers of
+the mules, hearing the firing, halted till the
+fleet came within sight. The Buccaneers
+had no time to lose, and compensated themselves
+by carrying off 1,500 slaves to their
+vessels, which lay moored at some leagues'
+distance, at Grijaluc, a place of safety.</p>
+
+<p>They spent the night in great disorder, in
+continual apprehension of being attacked by
+the Spanish fleet, which was, at the same
+time, congratulating itself on reaching Vera
+Cruz unharmed. The danger of the Buccaneers
+was indeed not yet removed, for they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span>
+had neither water nor sufficient provisions,
+and some 1,500 prisoners were on board.
+About these hostages the leaders differed in
+opinion, and words ran high. The two
+chiefs fought, and Van Horn received a
+sword thrust in the arm from De Graff.
+The several crews took up their captains'
+quarrels, and would have come to blows, had
+not De Graff divided the prey, and at once
+set sail. Van Horn followed, but died on
+the passage, a gangrene having formed upon
+a wound at first very slight. He was devotedly
+beloved by his men, says Charlevoix,
+though he was in the habit of cutting down
+any sailor whom he saw flinch at his guns.
+He left his frigate with his dying breath to
+Grammont, who reached St. Domingo, after
+dreadful sufferings, having lost three-fourths
+of his prisoners by famine&mdash;his patache being
+cast away and taken by the Spaniards. De
+Graff's vessel was also wrecked, but the
+crew made their way one by one to St. Domingo,
+where, in spite of the ill reception of
+the governor, they were welcomed by the
+hospitality of the inhabitants, who longed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>
+share the treasure of Vera Cruz. The
+governor, M. de Franquesnoy, without fortress
+or garrison, and exposed to the inroads
+of the Spaniards, could make no resistance
+to these wild refugees, who, on one occasion,
+hearing that he intended to seize upon
+part of the Vera Cruz booty, surrounded
+his house to the number of 120 men,
+and threatened his life. At this time, a
+general outbreak of the French was expected.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the very next year that the
+governor of Carthagena, hearing that Michael
+le Basque and Jonqué were cruising near his
+port, sent two vessels against them, one of
+48 guns and 300 men, and the other of
+40 guns and 250 men, with a small bark as
+a decoy. The Buccaneer chiefs each commanded
+a vessel of 30 guns and 200 men.
+They both grappled the Spaniards, held
+them for an hour and a-half, swept their
+decks with musketry, tortured them with
+hand grenades and missiles, and eventually
+bore them off in triumph. All the Spaniards
+who were not killed were put on shore with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span>
+a note to the governor, thanking him for
+having sent them two such good vessels, as
+their own had long been unfit for service.
+They, moreover, promised to wait fifteen
+days off Carthagena for any other vessel he
+might wish to get rid of, provided he would
+send money in them, of which they were in
+great need.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6">END OF VOL. II.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6">LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME II (OF 3)***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3),
+by Walter Thornbury
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3)
+       Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers
+
+
+Author: Walter Thornbury
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 21, 2012  [eBook #38632]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME
+II (OF 3)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Adam Buchbinder, Rory OConor, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of
+public domain material generously made available by the Google Books
+Library Project (http://books.google.com/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work.
+      Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38631
+      Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38633
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      http://books.google.com/books?vid=ASYCAAAAYAAJ&id
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN;
+
+Or,
+
+Adventures of the Buccaneers.
+
+by
+
+GEORGE W. THORNBURY, ESQ.
+
+"One foot on sea and one on shore,
+To one thing constant never."
+                MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
+
+In Three Volumes.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Hurst and Blackett, Publishers,
+Successors to Henry Colburn,
+13, Great Marlborough Street.
+1855.
+
+London: Sercombe and Jack, 16 Great Windmill Street.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--SIR HENRY MORGAN.
+
+Son of a Welsh farmer--Runs to sea--Turns Buccaneer--Joins Mansvelt and
+takes the Island of St. Catherine--Mansvelt dies--St. Catherine re-taken
+by the Spaniards--Morgan takes Port au Prince--Quarrel of French and
+English adventurers about a marrow-bone--Takes Porto Bello--Captures _Le
+Cerf Volant_, a French vessel--It blows up--Takes Maracaibo---City
+deserted--Tortures an Idiot beggar--Le Picard, his guide--Takes
+Gibraltar--Also deserted--Tortures the citizens--With a Fire-ship
+destroys the Spanish fleet and repasses the bar--Escapes the fort by a
+stratagem--The Rancheria expedition--Sails for Panama--Captain Bradley
+takes the Castle of Chagres--Anecdote of a wounded Buccaneer          1
+
+CHAPTER II.--CONQUEST OF PANAMA.
+
+March from Chagres over the Isthmus--Famine--Ambuscades of Indians--Wild
+bulls driven down upon them--Victory in the Savannah--Battle of the
+Forts--Takes the city--Burns part of it--Cruelties--Revels--Virtue of
+the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings--Retreats with
+prisoners--Ransom--Divisions of booty--Treason of Morgan--Escapes by
+night to Jamaica--Dispersion of his fleet--Morgan's subsequent fate 125
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.
+
+Oexmelin's interview with the old Buccaneer--Adventure with
+Indians--Esquemeling's escapes--D'Ogeron's escape from the
+Spaniards--Buccaneers' fight in Tobago against the Dutch--Captain Cook
+captures a Spanish vessel--Captains Coxen and Sharp begin their cruise
+                                                                    189
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.
+
+The South sea now visited--Buccaneers land at Darien--March
+overland--Take Santa Maria--Sail to Panama--Ringrose is wrecked--Failure
+of Expedition--Driven off by Spanish fleet--Partial victory--Coxen
+accused of cowardice--Sharp elected commander, deposed--Plunder Hillo
+and take La Serena--Take Arica--Sharp re-elected--Retreat with
+difficulty--Conspiracy of the prisoners--Land at Antigua--Return to
+England--Sharp's trial for piracy--Seizes a French ship in the
+Downs--Returns to Jamaica                                           215
+
+CHAPTER V.--DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.
+
+Dampier leaves Captain Sharp--Land march over the Isthmus--Joins Captain
+Wright--Wreck of D'Estrees and the French fleet--Returns to
+England--Second voyage--With Captain Cook--Guinea coast--Visits Juan
+Fernandez--Takes Ampalla--Plunders Paita--Scheme for working the Spanish
+mines--Attacks Manilla Galleon--Captain Swan--Dampier's death
+unknown--Van Horn, a Dutch sailor--Entraps the Galleons--Takes Vera
+Cruz--Killed in a duel with De Graff--His Dress                     277
+
+
+
+
+MONARCHS OF THE MAIN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SIR HENRY MORGAN.
+
+    Son of a farmer--Runs to sea--Turns Buccaneer--Joins Mansvelt, and
+    takes the Island of St. Catherine--Mansvelt dies--St. Catherine
+    retaken by the Spaniards--Takes Port-au-Prince--Quarrel of French
+    and English Buccaneers about a marrow-bone--Takes Porto
+    Bello--Captures _Le Cerf Volant_, a French vessel--It blows
+    up--Takes Maracaibo--City deserted--Tortures an Idiot--Le
+    Picard--Storms Gibraltar--Also deserted--Tortures the Citizens--With
+    a Fire-ship destroys Spanish fleet, and repasses the Bar--Escapes by
+    stratagem--Rancheria expedition--Sails for Panama--Captain Bradley
+    takes the Castle of Chagres--Anecdote of wounded Buccaneer.
+
+
+Morgan's campaigns furnish one of the amplest chapters of Buccaneer
+history. Equally daring, but less cruel than Lolonnois, less fanatical
+than Montbars, and less generous and honest than De Lussan or Sharp, he
+appears to have been the only freebooting leader who obtained any formal
+recognition from the English government. From an old pamphlet, we find,
+that the expedition to Panama was undertaken under the commission and
+with the full approbation of the English governor of Jamaica.
+
+Sir Henry Morgan was the son of a Welsh farmer, of easy circumstances,
+"as most who bear that name in Wales are known to be," says Esquemeling,
+his Dutch historian. Taking an early dislike to the monotonous,
+unadventurous life of his father's house, he ran away from home, and,
+coming to the coast, turned sailor, and went to sea.
+
+Embarking on board a vessel bound for Barbadoes, that lay with several
+others in the port, he engaged himself in the usual way to a planter's
+agent, who resold him for three years immediately on his arrival in the
+West Indies. Having served his time and obtained his hard-earned
+liberty, he repaired to Jamaica, a place of which wild stories were
+told all over the Main. He resolved to seek his fortune at that El
+Dorado, and arriving there, saw two Buccaneer vessels just fitting out
+for an expedition. Being now in search of employment, and finding this
+suit his daring and restless spirit, he determined to embrace the life
+of a Flibustier. The gentlemen of fortune were successful, and had not
+been long at sea before they took a valuable prize.
+
+This early success was as fatal to Morgan as good luck is to a young
+gambler on his first visit to a hell. It roused his ambition, heightened
+his hope, and encouraged him to continue a career so auspiciously begun.
+He followed the Buccaneer chiefs, and learnt their manners of living. In
+the course of only three or four voyages, he signalized himself so much
+as to acquire the reputation of a good soldier, remarkable for his
+valour and success. He was a good shot, and renowned for his
+intrepidity, coolness, and determination. He seemed to foresee all
+contingencies, and set about his schemes with a firm confidence that
+insured their success.
+
+Having already laid by much money, and being fortunate both in his
+voyages and in gambling, Morgan agreed with a few rich comerades to join
+stock, and to buy a vessel, of which he was unanimously appointed
+commander. Such was the usual beginning of an adventurer's career.
+Setting out from Jamaica, he soon became remarkable for the number of
+prizes which he took, his well known stations being round the coast of
+Campeachy. With these prizes he returned triumphantly to Jamaica, his
+name established as a terror to the Spaniard, and a war-cry to the
+English. Finding Mansvelt, an old Buccaneer, lying in harbour, about to
+start on a grand expedition to the mainland, he joined him, and was at
+once elected as vice-admiral of a small fleet of fifteen vessels and 600
+men, part English and part French.
+
+They sailed first to the island of St. Catherine, near the continent of
+Costa Rica, and distant about thirty-five degrees from the river of
+Chagres. Here they made their first descent, and found the Spaniards
+well entrenched in forts, strongly built of hewn stone, but landing most
+of their men they soon forced the garrisons to surrender. Morgan
+distinguished himself remarkably in this expedition, forcing even his
+very enemies to laud his skill and valour. He now proceeded to demolish
+all the castles but one, in which he placed 100 men, and the slaves and
+prisoners, and proceeded to attack a small neighbouring island. In a few
+days they threw over a bridge to join it to St. Catherine's, and
+conveyed over it all the larger ordnance which they had taken, laying
+waste their first conquest with fire and sword. They then set sail
+again, having first set their prisoners ashore near Portobello,
+intending to cruise along Costa Rica, as far as the river Colla, and
+burn and pillage all the towns up to Nata. They had, in fact, only taken
+the island in order to procure a guide who could lead them on their way
+to Nata, knowing that the Spaniards used St. Catherine's as a depot for
+their prisoners of all nations. The first step towards a Buccaneer
+expedition was to procure a guide. They found, to their delight, a
+mulatto who knew Nata, and who undertook to lead them to the destruction
+of a people whom he hated. It is probable, too, that Mansvelt had
+already projected founding a colony at St. Catherine's, which might be
+neither dependent on the French nor the English. But their schemes were
+frustrated, for the governor of Panama, hearing of their approach, and
+of their past success, advanced to meet them with a body of men, and
+compelled them to retreat suddenly, for the whole country was now
+alarmed and their plans all known.
+
+Morgan, however, seeing St. Catherine's to be a well-fortified island,
+easily defended, and important as to situation, because its harbour was
+good and near the Spanish settlements, resolved to hold it, appointing
+as governor Le Sieur Simon, a Frenchman, whom he left behind, with a
+garrison of 100 men. St. Simon had behaved well in his absence, and put
+the island in a good posture of defence, had strengthened the four large
+forts, and turned the smaller island into a citadel, guarding carefully
+the three accessible spots, planting vegetables and clearing plantations
+in the smaller island, where abundance of fresh water could be procured,
+providing victual enough for the fleet for two voyages.
+
+The two commanders now determined to return to Jamaica, promising to
+send recruits to Simon, for fear of an invasion, and themselves to bring
+speedy succours, intending to make the island a sanctuary and refuge for
+the brotherhood of both nations. The governor of Jamaica refused to
+accede to Mansvelt's requests for soldiers, afraid to weaken the forces
+of the island without permission from England. Mansvelt, worn out with
+delay, hastened to Tortuga, and died while collecting volunteers, his
+plans being still in embryo. Had his scheme succeeded, and been pushed
+with energy, the Buccaneers might have founded a republic, and have
+eventually driven the Spaniards out of the Indies.
+
+While Simon was impatiently expecting succour from Jamaica, and
+astonished at Mansvelt's really unavoidable silence, the Spaniards were
+preparing to smoke out the wasps' nest that lay so dangerously near
+their orchard. A new governor of Costa Rica threw unusual decision into
+their plans. Fearing they should lose the Indies piecemeal, they
+resolved to crush the evil ere it grew indestructible. Don Juan Perez de
+Guzman equipped a fleet of four vessels with fifty or sixty men each,
+commanded by Don Joseph Sancho Ximenes, major-general of the garrison of
+Porto Bello. Don Juan, in a letter to Simon, promised him a reward if he
+would surrender the island to his Catholic Majesty, and threatened him
+with punishment if he resisted. Simon, seeing the impossibility and
+uselessness of resistance, surrendered it after a few shots, on the same
+condition with which Morgan had obtained it from the enemy.
+
+The Spaniards made much of their victory, publishing "a true relation
+and particular account of the victory obtained by the arms of his
+Catholic Majesty, against the English pirates, by the direction and
+valour of Don Juan Perez de Guzman, knight of the order of St. James,
+governor and captain-general of Terra Firma, and the province of
+Veraguas."
+
+The account goes on to describe the arrival of fourteen English vessels
+on the coast, 1665, their arrival at Puerto de Naos, and the capture of
+St. Catherine's from the governor, Don Estevan del Campo, the enemy
+landing unperceived. Upon this the valorous Don Juan called a council of
+war, wherein he declared the great progress the said pirates had made in
+the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, and propounded, "that it was
+absolutely necessary to send some forces to the isle of St. Catherine,
+sufficient to retake it from the pirates, the honour and interest of his
+Majesty of Spain being very narrowly concerned herein, otherwise the
+pirates, by such conquests, might _easily_, in course of time, possess
+themselves of 'all the countries thereabout.'" The less vapouring, or
+more pacific, ingeniously proposed to leave the pirates alone till they
+perished for want of provisions, but Don Juan, overruling their
+timidity, sent stores to the militia of Porto Bello, and conveyed
+himself there, with no small danger of his life. At this port he found
+the _St. Vincent_, a good ship, belonging to the Negro Company, which he
+equipped with a crew of 270 soldiers, thirty-seven prisoners, thirty-two
+of the Spanish garrison, twenty-nine mulattos of Panama, twelve Indian
+archers, seven gunners, two lieutenants, two pilots, a surgeon, and a
+Franciscan chaplain. Before they set sail, Don Juan (_who did not go
+with them_) encouraged them to fight against the enemies of their
+country and their religion, "those inhuman pirates who had committed so
+many horrid cruelties upon the subjects of his Catholic Majesty,"
+promising liberal rewards to all who behaved themselves well in the
+service of their king and country. At Carthagena, they received a
+reinforcement of one frigate, one galleon, a boat, and 127 men.
+
+On arriving at the island, the pirates discharged three guns, refused to
+surrender, and declared they preferred to lose their lives. The next day
+three negro deserters, swimming to the admiral, told him there were only
+seventy-two men on the island, and two days after the day of the
+Assumption the Spaniards landed and commenced the affray. The _St.
+Vincent_ attacked the Conception battery, the _St. Peter_ the St.
+James's forts, the pirates driving off many of the enemy by loading
+their guns with part of the pipes of a church organ, threescore pipes at
+a time. The pirates lost six men before surrendering, the Spaniards one.
+They found in the island 800 lbs. of powder, and 250 lbs. of bullets.
+Two Spanish deserters, discovered amongst the prisoners, were "shot to
+death" the next day. The prisoners were transported to Puerto Velo, all
+but three, who, by order of the governor, were kept as a trophy, like
+chained Samsons, to work in the castle of St. Jerome at Panama, a
+fortress building by the governor at his own expense.
+
+A day or two after this unavoidable surrender, a vessel arrived at St.
+Catherine, bringing reinforcements and provisions from the governor of
+Jamaica, who had repented of his rejection of Mansvelt's proposal, but
+had not even yet the courage to be boldly dishonest. The Spaniards,
+hoisting an English flag, persuaded Simon to welcome it, and betray it
+into their hands. There were fourteen men on board and two women, all of
+whom were made prisoners.
+
+On the death of Mansvelt, Morgan became without opposition the leader of
+all the adventurers of Jamaica. He at once published far and wide his
+intention of setting out on a grand expedition, and named Cuba as a
+rendezvous, St. Catherine's not being far distant. Morgan had been no
+less anxious than Mansvelt to make this island a fortress and a
+storehouse. He had written to the merchants of Virginia and New England,
+to contract with them for ammunition and provisions; but this hope being
+ended by the Spanish conquest, he felt himself free to embark on a wider
+and more ambitious field. His plans were for a moment defeated, but his
+courage and ambition were not a whit humbled.
+
+Two months spent in the southern ports of Cuba sufficed him to collect a
+fleet of twelve sail, with 700 fighting men, part English, part French,
+resolved to follow him to the death. To prevent the disunion so frequent
+between the two nations, Morgan had a clause inserted in the
+charter-party, empowering him to condemn to instant death any adventurer
+who killed or wounded another. A council was then called to decide on
+what place they should first fall. Some proposed Santiago, which had
+been before sacked, others a swoop on the tobacco of the Havannah, or
+the dye-woods of Campeachy. Many voices were strong for a night assault
+on the Havannah, which, they said, could be taken before the castle
+could be ready to defend itself. The very ransom of the clergy they
+might carry off, would be worth more than the pillage of a smaller town.
+But some Buccaneers, who had been prisoners there, said nothing could be
+done with less than 1500 men, and the proposal was abandoned, when they
+proved that they must first go to the island de los Pinos, and land in
+small boats at Matamana, fourteen leagues from the city.
+
+At last some one proposed a visit to Port-au-Prince, a town of Cuba,
+very rich from its traffic in hides, and which, being far inland and
+built on a plain, could be very easily surprised. The speaker knew the
+city well, and was sure that it never had been sacked. Despairing of
+collecting forces enough to attempt the Havannah, they pursued the
+Spaniard's plan. Morgan at once acceded to this scheme, and, giving the
+captain the signal of weighing anchor, steered for Port St. Mary, the
+nearest harbour to Port-au-Prince. The night of their arrival in the bay
+a Spanish prisoner threw himself into the sea, and swimming on shore
+went to inform the governor of the Buccaneers' plans, having, with a
+scanty knowledge of English, gathered a full insight, deeper than
+history tells us, of Morgan's intentions.
+
+The governor instantly sent to the neighbouring town for succour, and
+collected, in a few hours, a force of 800 armed freemen and slaves,
+occupying a pass which the Buccaneers must traverse. He cut down the
+trees, barricaded the approaches, and planned eight ambuscades,
+strengthened by cannon to play upon them on their march. He then marched
+out into a savannah, where he might see the Buccaneers at a long
+distance.
+
+The townsmen, in the meanwhile, prepared for the worst with the usual
+timidity of the rich, hiding their riches and carrying away their
+movables. The adventurers, on entering the place, found the paths almost
+impassable with trees, but, supposing themselves discovered, took to the
+woods, and thus fortunately escaped the ambuscade.
+
+The governor, seeing the enemy, to his astonishment, emerge from the
+trees into the plain, instantly ordered his cavalry to surround them as
+he would have done a troop of wolves, intending to disperse them first
+with his horse and then pursue them with his main body. The Buccaneers,
+nothing daunted by the flashing of the spears or the tramp of the
+horsemen, advanced boldly, with drums beating and colours displayed.
+They drew up in a semicircle to receive the charge, and advanced swiftly
+towards the enemy, not waiting to be attacked. The Spaniards charged
+them hotly for a while, but, finding their enemies dexterous at their
+arms, moving their feet forward rather than backward; and seeing their
+governor and many of their companions dead at their feet, fled headlong
+to the town; those who escaped towards the wood were killed before they
+could reach it. The Buccaneers with few men either killed or wounded,
+advancing still in their phalanx, killed without mercy all they met, for
+the space of the four hours that the fight lasted. The fugitives of the
+town barred themselves in their houses and kept up a fire from the
+windows and loopholes. The shots from the roofs and balconies still
+continuing, though the town was taken, the Buccaneers threatened, if the
+firing did not cease, to set the town in a flame, and cut the women and
+children in pieces before the eyes of the survivors.
+
+Having thus silenced all resistance, Morgan drove all his prisoners,
+men, women, children, and slaves, into the cathedral, where he placed a
+guard. He then gave the town over to pillage, for the benefit of his
+joint-stock company, finding much that was valuable, but little money,
+so skilful had the Spaniards grown in hiding. Parties were next sent
+out, as usual, to plunder the suburbs, and bring in provisions and
+prisoners for the torture.
+
+The revelry then began, while the prisoners were allowed to starve in
+the churches; old women and children were daily tortured to make them
+disclose where their money was hidden.
+
+The monks had been the first to fly from the English heretics, but bands
+of them were frequently captured in the woods, and thrown, half dead
+with fear, to confess the dying in the prisons. When pillage and
+provisions grew scanty, and they themselves began to feel the privations
+they had inflicted on others, the Buccaneers resolved to depart, after
+fifteen days' residence, a favourite time with the brotherhood.
+
+They now demanded a double ransom of their chief prisoners; first, for
+themselves, under pain of being transported to Jamaica; and secondly,
+for the town, or it would be burned to the ground. Four merchants were
+chosen to collect the contributions, and some Spaniards were first
+tortured in their presence, to increase the zeal of their applications.
+After a few days, they returned empty-handed, and demanded a respite of
+fifteen days, which Morgan granted. They had searched all the woods,
+they said, and found none of their countrymen. Delay now grew
+dangerous--a party of foragers had captured a negro, with letters from
+the governor of Santiago, telling the citizens not to make too much
+haste to pay the ransom, but to put off the pirates with excuses till he
+could come to their aid. Enraged at what he deemed treachery, Morgan
+swore he would have no more delay, and would burn the town the next day
+if the ransom was not paid down, but not alluding to the detected
+letter, and betraying no apprehension. Still unable to obtain money,
+Morgan consented to take 500 oxen, which he insisted on the Spaniards
+placing on board his ships at Port-au-Prince, together with salt enough
+to "powder" them, needing the flesh to re-victual for a fresh and more
+profitable expedition.
+
+The same day Morgan left the city, taking with him six of the principal
+citizens as hostages. The next day came the cattle, but he now required
+the Spaniards to assist him in killing and salting them. This was done
+in a great hurry, Morgan expecting every moment the Santiago vessels
+would appear in sight. As soon as the butchering was completed he
+released his hostages and set sail, unwilling to fight when nothing
+could be gained by victory.
+
+At this juncture, the smouldering jealousy of the two nations that
+formed his crews broke into a flame. The grudges of the last voyage had
+been perpetuated, and had grown into a deep and lasting feud, producing
+ultimately a disunion fatal to all increase of the power of the
+brotherhood of the coast.
+
+While the prisoners were toiling at salting the beeves, the sailors
+employed themselves in drinking and rejoicing at their success, cooking
+the richest morsels while they were still fresh, and all hands intent on
+securing the hot marrow bones, the favourite delicacy of the hunters of
+Hispaniola. A Frenchman, employed as one of the butchers, had drawn out
+the dainty and placed it by his side, as a _bonne bouche_ when his work
+was over. An English Buccaneer, more hungry than polite, passing by,
+and knowing no reservation of property in such a republic, snatched up
+the reeking bone and carried it off. The Frenchman, pursuing him with
+angry vociferations, challenged him to fight for it, but before they
+could reach the place of combat, the aggressor stabbed his adversary in
+the back, and laid him dead on the spot. The Frenchmen, rising in arms,
+made it a national quarrel, and demanded redress. Morgan, just and
+impartial by nature and from policy, arrested the murderer and condemned
+him to be instantly shot, declaring that he had a right to challenge his
+adversary, but not to stab him treacherously. Oexmelin says, the man was
+sent in chains to Jamaica (and there tried and hung), Morgan promising
+to see justice done upon him. The French, however, remained
+discontented, lamented the fate of their comrade, and vowed revenge.
+
+Morgan, not waiting for the governor of Jamaica to share his spoil,
+sailed to a small island, at some distance, to make the dividend. To the
+general grief and disgust, they found the whole amounted to only 60,000
+crowns, not enough to pay their debts at Jamaica: this did not include
+the silk stuffs and other merchandise, which gave a poor pittance of 80
+crowns to each man, as the return for so much danger and privation.
+
+Morgan, as unwilling as the rest to revisit Port Royal empty-handed,
+proposed a new expedition, in search of a greater prize. But the French,
+not able to agree with the English, left the fleet, in spite of all
+their commander's persuasions, but still with every external mark of
+friendship, entreating to the last to have justice done to the
+"_infame_."
+
+Morgan, who had always placed great reliance on the courage of the
+French adventurers, was not going to relinquish his new expedition on
+account of their desertion. He had inspired his men with courage and the
+hope of acquiring riches, and they all resolved to follow him to the
+attack of the place, whose name he would not yet disclose, exciting them
+by a mystery, which prevented the possibility of treachery.
+
+He put forth to sea with eight small vessels, but was soon joined by an
+adventurer of Jamaica, just returning from Campeachy; with this new
+ally, he had now a force of nine vessels and 470 men, many French being
+still among them, and arrived at Costa Rica with all his fleet safe.
+
+As soon as they sighted land, he disclosed his design to his captains,
+and soon after to all his seamen. He intended to storm Porto Bello by
+night, and to put the whole city to the sack: he was confident of
+success, because no one knew of his secret; although some of his men
+thought their force too small for such an enterprise. To these Morgan
+replied, that if their number was small, their courage was great, and
+the fewer they were the more booty for each, with the greater prospect
+of union and secresy; and upon this, all agreed unanimously to the
+design.
+
+By good fortune, or by preconcerted arrangement, one of Morgan's crew
+turned out to be an Englishman who, only a short time before, had been a
+prisoner at Porto Bello, and his past sufferings now proved to have been
+the foundation of his future good fortune. Having escaped from that
+place, he knew every inch of the coast, which had been so painfully
+impressed on his mind, and Morgan submitted, with perfect confidence, to
+his guidance. By his advice, they steered straight for the bay of Santa
+Maria, arriving there purposely about dusk, and reached a spot about
+twelve leagues from the city, without meeting any vessel. They then
+sailed up the river to Puerto Pontin, four leagues distant, taking
+advantage of the land wind that sprang up, cool and fresh, at night.
+
+They here anchored, and embarked in boats, leaving a few men to bring on
+the ships. Rowing softly, they reached about midnight a place called
+Estera de Longa lemos, where they all landed, and marched upon the
+outposts of the city.
+
+Michael Scott describes Porto Bello as built in a miserable, dirty, damp
+hole, surrounded by high forest-clad hills, wreathed in mist, and
+reeking with dirt and fever. Everlasting vapours obscure the sun, and
+mingle with the exhalation of the steaming marshes of the
+lead-coloured, land-locked cove that forms the harbour.
+
+They were now within reach of the strongest city in the Spanish West
+Indies, except Havannah and Carthagena, the port of Panama, and the
+great mart for silver and negroes. Leaving as usual a party to guard the
+boats, and preceded by their guide, they began halfway to the town to
+prepare their arms. Upon approaching the first sentinel, Morgan sent
+forward the guide and three or four others to surprise him. They did it
+cunningly, before he could fire his musket, and brought him with his
+hands bound to Morgan, who, threatening him with death, asked him how
+things in the city went, and what forces they had, making a "thousand
+menaces to kill him if he did not speak the truth." The terrified
+Spaniard informed them that the town was well garrisoned, but that there
+were very few inhabitants; the merchants only residing in the town while
+the galleons are loading, and that he would be able to take the place in
+spite of all the fortresses and the 300 soldiers. Morgan then pushed on
+to the fort, carrying the man bound before them, and after a quarter of
+a league reached the castle, where the man's company was stationed,
+closely surrounding it, so that no one could get in or go out. The
+prisoner had in vain attempted to avoid this redoubt, to which he had
+served as picket, encouraged by Morgan's promises of reward, and avowal
+that he would not give him up to his countrymen.
+
+The Spaniards, finding the sentinel gone, had already spread the alarm
+of the Buccaneers' approach. From beneath the walls Morgan commanded the
+sentinel to summon the garrison to surrender at once to his discretion,
+or they should be cut in pieces without quarter. Not regarding these
+threats, the Spaniards began instantly to discharge their guns and
+muskets to alarm the town and obtain succour. But though they made a
+good resistance they were soon overpowered, and the Buccaneers, driving
+them into one room, set fire to the powder which lay about on the floor,
+and blew the tower and its defenders together into the air; all the
+survivors they put to the sword, in order to strike terror in the city.
+
+At daybreak they fell upon the city, and found the inhabitants, some
+still asleep and others scared and alarmed; many had thought of nothing
+but hiding their treasure, and only the professional soldier prepared
+for resistance. The governor, unable to rally the citizens, fled into
+the citadel, and fired upon the town as well as the enemy. The
+frightened herd, stupid with fear, were throwing their money and jewels
+into wells and cisterns, or burying their treasure in their courtyards,
+cellars, gardens, and chapels. The adventurers, abstaining from pillage,
+sent a chosen party to the convents to make prisoners of the religious,
+male and female; while another division prepared ladders to escalade the
+fort, not relaxing for a moment either in attack or defence. They
+attempted in vain to burn down a castle-gate which proved to be of iron,
+and baffled their efforts, and kept up a warm fire at the embrasures,
+aiming with such dexterity at the mouths of the guns as to kill a
+gunner or two every time the pieces were either run out or loaded.
+
+The firing continued from daybreak till noon, and even then the result
+seemed doubtful, for when the adventurers approached the walls with
+their grenades to burn the doors the defenders threw down upon them
+earthen pots full of powder, and lighted by a fusee, together with
+showers of stones and other missiles. Morgan himself began to despair of
+success, and did not know how to escape from that strait, when the
+English flag arose above the smaller fort, and a troop of men ran forth
+to proclaim victory with shouts of joy. The remaining castle, however,
+was the _piece de resistance_, being the storehouse of the church plate,
+and the wealth of the richer citizens now with the garrison. A stratagem
+was suggested, appealing strongly to Spanish superstition, and, as it
+happened, successfully. Ten or twelve ladders were made so broad and
+strong that three or four men might mount them abreast. To all threats
+the governor replied he would never surrender alive, although the
+religious should themselves plant the ladders. The monks and nuns were
+then dragged to the heads of the companies, and forced to plant the
+ladders, in spite of the hot rain of fire and shot; the governor "using
+his utmost endeavours to destroy all who came near the walls, firing on
+the servants of God, although his kinsmen, and prisoners, and forced to
+the service. Delicate women and aged men were goaded at the sword's
+point to this hateful labour, derided by the English, and unpitied by
+their countrymen."
+
+All this time the Buccaneers maintained an unceasing fire along the
+whole line of grey battlements at every aperture where a pike head
+glittered or a lighted match smouldered; suffering much in return,
+unarmed as they were, guarded neither by steel-cap nor cuirass, and
+unsheltered by palisade or earthwork. In spite of the cries of the
+religious as they reared the ladders, their prayers to the saints, and
+their entreaties to the garrison to remember their common blood and
+nation, many of the priests were shot before the walls could be scaled.
+The more superstitious of the Spaniards were unnerved at hearing the
+dying curse of the consecrated servants of God, rising shrill above the
+roar of the battle. The ladders were at last planted, amid a shower of
+fire-pots that killed almost as many of the Spaniards as the English,
+and the Buccaneers sprang up with all the agility of sailors and the
+determination of Berserkers; their best marksmen shooting down the few
+Spaniards who awaited their arrival at the summit. Their falling bodies
+struck a few Buccaneers from their ladders. Every man that went up
+carried hand grenades, pistols, and sabre, but the musket was now laid
+aside, for it had done its work, and was a mere encumbrance in the
+grapple of closer combat. The English swarmed up in great numbers, and
+reaching the top kindled their fusees and threw down their fire-pots
+upon the crowded ranks of the enemy, with destructive effect. Before
+they could recover their dismay, sabre in hand, as if they were
+boarding, they leaped down upon the garrison, who drove them off with
+pikes and clubbed muskets, and, closing with them, hurled many from the
+ramparts, or, stabbing them, fell clenched with the foe in their
+despair. When their cannon was taken, the Spaniards threw down their
+arms and begged for quarter, except the governor and a few officers, who
+determined to die fighting against the robbers and heretics, the enemies
+of God and Spain.
+
+The Buccaneers, seeing the red flag flying from the first fort, which
+was the strongest, and built on an eminence which commanded the towers
+below, advanced with confidence to the attack of the remaining one,
+hitherto thought impregnable, which defended the port, and prevented the
+entrance of their vessels, which they wished to secure safe in the
+harbour, as the number of their wounded would require their long stay in
+the place they had captured. The governor, proud and brave, still
+refused to surrender, and fired upon them with his cannon, which were
+soon silenced by the superior fire of the newly-taken fort, which
+flanked his position. Out of this last stronghold, the weary and
+despairing defenders were quickly driven.
+
+Major Castellon, the stout-hearted governor, disdaining to ask quarter
+of a pack of heretic seamen, killed several of his own men who would not
+stand to their arms and called on him to save their lives, and struck
+down many of the hunters who tried to take him alive, not from a
+generous compassion, for pity seldom entered a Buccaneer's heart, but in
+order to obtain his ransom. A still more cruel trial of his courage, and
+duty to his king, awaited him: his wife and children fell at his knees,
+and, with cries and tears, begged him to lay down his arms and save both
+their lives. But he obstinately and sternly refused, replying, "Better
+this than a scaffold," preferring to die as a valiant soldier at his
+post, than to be hanged as a coward for deserting it. He died the death
+of a brave man, fighting desperately, and was found buried under the
+bodies of his dead enemies. If unpitied by his ferocious foes, he has
+left a name to be honoured by all brave men, as one worthy of a more
+chivalrous age, and a better cause.
+
+It now being nearly sunset, and the city their own, the adventurers
+enclosed all their prisoners in the citadel, separating the wounded,
+and, although heedless of their sufferings, employing the female slaves
+to wait upon them. It now being nearly night, they gave way to all the
+excesses of soldiers in a town taken by storm, exasperated by the
+recollection of past danger, and the death of friends, and maddened by
+both the certainty of present pleasure and the power of indulging in
+every success. Oexmelin says, fifty brave Spaniards might have put all
+the revellers to death, and recovered the place. We do not, however,
+hear that a single Spanish Jael was found to revenge herself on these
+modern Siseras.
+
+The following morning Morgan summoned his vessels into the harbour, and
+collecting all the loose wealth of the town, had it brought into the
+fort. Directing the repairs of the ramparts, scorched and shattered, he
+remounted the guns, in order to be ready to repel any attack from
+Panama. He collected a few of the prisoners who had been persuaded to
+say they were the richest merchants in Porto Bello, and put all who
+would not confess to the torture. He maimed some and killed others, who
+remained silent because they were in reality poor, and had concealed no
+treasure. Having spent fifteen days in these alternate cruelties and
+debaucheries, Morgan resolved to retreat. No Buccaneer general had ever
+taken a city which could not be stripped clean in fourteen days. Famine
+and disease began ungratefully to take the part of the Spaniard against
+the nation that had fed them with so many victims. Wild waste compelled
+them already to devour their mules and horses, rather than die of
+hunger, or turn cannibals. Parties of hunters were sent into the suburbs
+to hunt the cattle, whose flesh they then devoured, saving the mules for
+the prisoners, who, between their wounds and their hunger, were reduced
+to dreadful extremities.
+
+A death more terrible than that of a blow in battle now appeared in
+their midst. Many had already died victims of excess, and even the most
+prudent perished. The bad food, the sudden transition from excess to
+want, and the impurity of the tainted air, produced a pestilence. The
+climate of Porto Bello, always unhealthy, as Hosier's squadron
+afterwards experienced, was poisoned by the putrefaction of the dead
+bodies, hastily buried, and scarcely covered by earth. The wounded
+nearly all sickened, and the intemperate were the first to die.
+
+The prisoners, crowded together, and already weakened mentally by
+despondency, and physically by famine, soon caught the fever, and died
+with dreadful rapidity. Rich merchants, accustomed to every luxury, and
+to the most varied and seasoned food, pined under a diet of half-putrid
+mule's flesh, and bad, unfiltered water. Everything warned Morgan that
+it was time to weigh anchor, for the president of Panama was already on
+his march towards the city at the head of 1500 men. Informed of their
+approach from a slave captured by a hunting party, Morgan held a
+council, at which it was agreed not to retreat until they had obtained a
+ransom for the town greater than the spoil at present collected; and, in
+order to prevent a surprise, he placed a body of 100 well-armed men in a
+narrow defile, where but a few men could go abreast, and through which
+the president must pass. They found that that general had fewer troops
+with him than was reported, and these took flight at the first
+encounter, and did not attempt again to force a passage, but waited for
+reinforcements. The president, with the usual gasconade of a Spaniard,
+sent word to Morgan, that if he did not at once leave Porto Bello he
+should receive no quarter when he should take him and his companions, as
+he hoped soon to do.
+
+To this, Morgan, knowing he had a sure means of escape, said he should
+not leave till he had received 180,000 pieces of eight as a ransom for
+the city, and if he could not get this he should kill all his prisoners,
+blow up the castle, and burn the town, and two men were sent by him to
+the president to procure the money.
+
+The president, seeing that nothing could either deceive or intimidate
+Morgan, gave up Porto Bello to its fate, not caring to erect a silver
+bridge for a flying enemy. In vain he sent to Carthagena for a fleet to
+block up the ships in the river; in vain he kept the citizens in
+suspense as to the money, in hopes of gaining time. He was deaf and
+obdurate to all the entreaties of the citizens, who sent to inform him
+that the pirates were not men but devils, and that they fought with such
+fury that the Spanish officers had stabbed themselves, in very despair,
+at seeing a supposed impregnable fortress taken by a handful of people,
+when it should have held out against twice the number.
+
+Don Juan Perez de Guzman, the president, a man of "great parts," and who
+had attained high rank in the war in Flanders, expressed himself, with
+candour, as astonished at the exploits of 400 men (not regular soldiers)
+who, with no other arms but their muskets, had taken a city which any
+general in Europe would have found necessary to have blockaded in due
+form. He gave the people of Porto Bello, at the same time, leave to
+compound for their safety, but offered them no aid to insure it.
+
+To Morgan himself he could not refrain from expressing astonishment. He
+admired his success, with no ordnance for batteries, and against the
+citizens of a place who bore the reputation of being good soldiers,
+never wanting courage in their own defence. He begged, at the same time,
+that he would send him some small pattern of the arms wherewith he had,
+with such vigour, taken so great a city. Morgan received the messenger
+with great kindness and civility, flattered by the compliment from an
+enemy, and glad of an opportunity of expressing contempt of any
+assailants. He took a hunter's musket from one of his men, and sent it,
+together with a handful of Buccaneer bullets, to the president, begging
+him to accept it as a small pattern of the arms wherewith he had taken
+Porto Bello, hoping he would keep it a twelvemonth or two, at which time
+he hoped to visit Panama and fetch it away. The Spaniard, astonished at
+the wit and civility of the captain, whom he had deemed a mere brutal
+sea thief, sent a messenger to return the present, as he did not need
+the loan of weapons, but thanking Morgan and praising his courage,
+remarking at the same time that it was a pity that such a man should
+not be employed in a just war, and in the service of a great and good
+prince, and hoping, in conclusion, that he would not give himself the
+trouble of coming to see him at Panama, as he would not fare there so
+well as he had done at Porto Bello. Having delivered this message, so
+chivalrous in its tone, the messenger presented Morgan with a beautiful
+gold ring, set with a costly emerald, as a remembrance of his master Don
+Guzman, who had already supplied the English chief with fresh
+provisions.
+
+Having now provided himself with all necessaries, and stripped the
+unfortunate city of almost everything but its tiles and its paving
+stones, carried off half of the castle guns and spiked the rest, he then
+set sail, taking on board the ransom, which was punctually paid in the
+shape of silver bars. Corn seldom grew where his foot had once been, and
+he left behind him famine, pestilence, poverty, and death. Orphans and
+widows, mutilated men and violated women leaped for joy as his fleet
+melted into the distance.
+
+Setting sail, with great speed, he arrived in eight days at Cuba, where
+the spoil was divided.
+
+They found that they had in gold and silver, whether in coin or bar, and
+in jewels, which from haste and ignorance were seldom estimated at
+one-fourth part of their value, to the value of 260,000 pieces of eight.
+This did not include the silks and merchandise, of which they paid
+little heed, only valuing coin or bullion, and regarding the richest
+prize without coin as scarce worth the taking. This division
+accomplished, to the general satisfaction of all but the people of Porto
+Bello, who were now poor enough to defy all thieves, they returned at
+once to Jamaica, where they were magnificently received, Oexmelin says,
+"_surtout des cabaretiers_." Every door was open to them, and for a
+whole week all loudly praised their generosity and their courage; at the
+end of a month, every door was shut in their faces, all but one--the
+prison for debts, and that closed behind their backs. "They spent in a
+short time," says one of their historians, "with boundless prodigality,
+what they had gained with boundless danger and unremitting toil." The
+people of Tortuga considered them as mere slaves, who dived to get their
+pearls, and cared not whether they perished by the wave or by the shark,
+so the pearls which they had gathered could be first secured.
+
+"Not long after their arrival in Jamaica," says Esquemeling, "being that
+short time needed to lavish away all their riches, they concluded on
+another enterprise to seek new fortunes:" a sailor spends his money
+quickly, and so does a highwayman--in them both trades were combined.
+Morgan remained at rest as long as most Buccaneers did, that is to say,
+till he had drunk out half his money, strung the jewels of Spanish
+matrons around the necks of the fairest courtesans in Jamaica, and
+stripped himself at the gambling-table to-day in the hope of recovering
+the losses of yesterday. As his purse grew thin his heart grew stout,
+as his hunger grew greater his thirst for blood began also to increase.
+At last he looked seaward, turned his back on the lotus-land and the
+sirens, and prepared for sea.
+
+His rendezvous this time was fixed in a small island on the south side
+of Hispaniola, in order to invite both the French hunters and the
+sailors of Tortuga. By this sign of confidence Morgan hoped to remove
+all rankling prejudice between the French and English adventurers, and
+to obtain recruits from both nations. He resolved this time upon an
+expedition which would enable him and his men to retire from the sea
+life for ever, or at least to hold a longer revel.
+
+The Buccaneers of the coast seeing him always successful, and never
+returning without booty, less cruel and less rash than Lolonnois, and
+not only very brave but very fortunate, flocked to his flag almost
+without a summons. Every one furbished up his musket, cast bullets,
+bought powder, or fitted up a canoe. Parties were at once despatched to
+hunt in the savannahs, and to prepare salted meat sufficient for the
+voyage. Great numbers of French and English crowded to Cow Island.
+
+A powerful ally appeared at this crisis, in the shape of a French
+vessel, _Le Cerf Volant_, of St. Malo, which had come out to the Indies,
+virtuously intending to trade with the Spaniards, but, finding this
+difficult or unprofitable, had less virtuously determined to live by
+plundering them, and was now manned by French adventurers from Tortuga,
+no friends to Morgan, but anxious to share his booty. The vessel, which
+had also a long-boat towing at its stern, had a short time before
+attacked a Genoese ship, trading with negroes, but which, mounting
+forty-eight cannon, had driven it off, and compelled the captain to
+return home and refit. The crew seemed unwilling to trust the English,
+and would not listen to any terms. Morgan, who had just been joined by a
+ship from New England with thirty-six cannon, longed to add the
+twenty-four iron guns and the twelve brass ones of _Le Cerf Volant_ to
+his collection. In spite of his wish to unite the two nations, and
+close the green and still rankling wound, the temptation was rather too
+strong for him. His guardian angel slept for a moment, and when she
+awoke the English flag floated at the Frenchman's peak.
+
+The change happened thus: the French captain having refused to join
+Morgan's expedition, unless he drew up a peculiar charter party opposed
+to all Buccaneer law, and quarrelling about this, he swore _ventre St.
+Gris_, he would return to Tortuga, reload his cargo, and return to
+France.
+
+The blow was to be struck now or never. The English part of the St. Malo
+crew had already deserted to Morgan. Some of these men furnished him
+with an opportunity of revenge. The merchant captain, unaccustomed to
+the looseness of Buccaneer discipline, had treated them as sailors, and
+not as _matelots_ and brothers. They told Morgan, that being short of
+victual, he had lately stopped an English vessel, and taken provisions
+by force, paying the commander only with bills of exchange, cashable at
+Jamaica, and that he carried secretly a Spanish commission, empowering
+him to plunder the English. These charges, though full of malice, had a
+specious appearance of truth. The captain had indeed stopped an English
+vessel, but had paid for all he had taken with honest bills. He did also
+carry a Spanish commission, having been driven to anchor at the port of
+Baracoa, on the north-east side of Cuba, where he had obtained letters
+of marque from the governor, in order to conceal his real errand. Morgan
+considered this a sufficient pretext, and sounded his crew to ascertain
+how far they would help him at the moment of need. It was at this very
+moment of indecision that the New England vessel joined the fleet, and
+enabled him to bear down any opposition. This ship, which Oexmelin calls
+the _Haktswort_ (Oxford?) carried a crew of 300 men. It was said to
+belong to the king of England (Charles II.), and to have been lent by
+him to the present captain.
+
+[A strange, improbable story, unless the English government had really
+determined to encourage the Buccaneer movement. The _Haktswort_ was
+really sent by the governor of Jamaica to join the expedition.]
+
+With this timely succour Morgan's mind was instantly made up. He asked
+the St. Malo captain and all his officers to dinner, on board the
+newly-arrived vessel, and there made them prisoners, without any
+resistance, away from their crew, and with their ship exposed to an
+overwhelming fire. He then affected the anger of indignant justice,
+declared they were robbers, who plundered the English under a commission
+from the enemy, and came there as mere spies and traitors. Fortunately
+for him, the English vessel that had been stopped by the St. Malo crew
+arrived at the very moment to repeat and exaggerate the charge. The ship
+was now his own, and only God could take it from him. And "God did so,"
+says Esquemeling, who sees a judgment in all misfortunes that befal an
+enemy, but none in those that befal his friends.
+
+Morgan, victorious and exulting, called a council of war, and summoned
+all his captains to attend him on board his large prize. They praised
+the vessel, laughed at the tricked Frenchmen, and discussed their plans.
+They calculated what provisions they had in store, and of what their
+force was capable. The island of Savona was agreed upon as a rendezvous,
+as at that east corner of Hispaniola they might lurk and cut off
+stragglers from the armed Spanish flota, now daily expected. Having
+completed their arrangements they gave way to pleasure, the real
+occupation and business of a Buccaneer's life, his toil being only
+expended to procure the means for pleasure, and time to enjoy it. They
+began to feast and drink healths, the officers below and the sailors on
+deck. Prayers for a successful voyage were blended with drunken songs,
+and unintelligible blasphemies. The captain and the cook were both
+drunk, the very gunners who discharged a broadside when the toasts were
+drained, fell senseless beside their smoking guns. Those who could not
+move slept, those who could walk drank on. By some accident, a spark
+from a smoking match caught the powder, and in an instant the vessel
+blew up. In perfect equality all ranks were lifted up towards heaven,
+in a column of flame, only to fall back again to perish, burnt and
+helpless, in the sea. More than 350 of the 400 men that formed the crew
+were drowned. By a singular coincidence, the officers nearly all
+escaped. The English having their powder stored in the fore part of the
+vessel, and not in the stern like the French, the sailors only perished;
+the officers and the St. Malo prisoners who were drinking with them were
+merely blown, much bruised, into the water. The English adventurers,
+declaring that the French had set fire to the powder, would have killed
+them on the spot, but Morgan, not apparently the least chapfallen by the
+disappointment, sent them all as prisoners to Jamaica. The thirty men,
+seated in the great cabin at some distance from the main force of the
+powder, escaped, and many more would have been saved had they been
+sober.
+
+The French prisoners in vain endeavoured to obtain justice in Jamaica,
+were long detained in confinement, and threatened with death when they
+demanded a trial. Had Morgan returned unsuccessful they might have
+perhaps been listened to.
+
+Eight days after this loss Morgan commanded his men to collect the
+floating bodies now putrifying, not to give them Christian burial, but
+to save the clothes, and to remove the heavy gold rings which the
+English Buccaneers wore upon their forefingers, abandoning their
+unsaleable bodies to the birds and to the sharks.
+
+Undaunted by this accident, Morgan found he had still a force of fifteen
+vessels, and 860 men, but his gun ship, the largest of all, only carried
+fourteen small guns. They now made way to Savona, where all were to
+repair and careen, and the swift to wait for the slow. Letters were soon
+placed in bottles, and buried at a spot indicated by a mark agreed on.
+Coasting Hispaniola, they were detained by contrary winds, and attempted
+for three weeks in vain to double Cape Lobos. Their provisions ran
+short, but they were relieved by an English vessel, bound to Jamaica,
+which had a superfluity for sale.
+
+Always seeking for pleasure, though in emergencies capable of the
+severest self-denials, six or seven of the fleet remained clustering
+round this vessel to purchase brandy, as eager and thoughtless as
+stragglers round a vivandiere. The more thoughtful and earnest pressed
+on with Morgan, and, reaching the bay of Ocoa, waited for them there,
+the men spending their time usefully, as they had agreed before, in
+hunting, and foraging for water and provisions, killing some oxen and a
+few horses. Detained here by continued bad weather, Morgan maintained
+strict discipline, compelling every captain to send, daily, on shore
+eight men from each ship, making a total force of sixty-four. He also
+instituted a convoy, or a body of armed men, who attended the hunters as
+a guard, for they were now near St. Domingo, which was full of Greek
+soldiers and Spanish matadors. The Spaniards, few in number, did not
+attack them, but, adopting a Fabian policy, which suited their pride and
+phlegm, sent for 300 or 400 men to kill all the cattle round the bay.
+Another party drove all the herds far into the interior, wishing to
+starve the foe out of the island, knowing that a Buccaneer, pressed by
+hunger, did not care whether he ate horse, mule, or ass, falling back
+upon monkeys and parrots, and resorting to sharks' flesh or his own
+shoes as a last resource. But when the Buccaneers spread further inland,
+a body of soldiers was despatched to the coast, to practise a stratagem,
+and to form an ambuscade.
+
+The following was their plan, which completely succeeded, but
+nevertheless ended in the Spaniards' total rout. A band of fifty
+Buccaneers having resolved to venture further than usual into the woods,
+a party of Spanish muleteers were ordered to drive the bait, a small
+herd of cattle, past the shore, where they had landed, pretending to fly
+when they caught sight of their enemies. When they approached the
+ambuscade two Spaniards were sent out, carrying a white flag of truce.
+The Buccaneers, ceasing the pursuit, pushed forward two men to parley.
+
+The treacherous Spaniards beseeched them plaintively not to kill their
+cows, offering to sell them cattle, or furnish them with food. The
+Buccaneers, with all the good faith of seamen, replied that they would
+give a crown and a-half for each ox, and that the seller could make his
+own profit besides on the hide and the tallow. During this time, which
+was planned to give time for the operation, the Spanish troops were
+turning the flank of the enemy, and had now surrounded the small band on
+all sides. They interrupted the conversation by breaking out of the
+wood, with shots and cries of "_Mata, mata_"--"kill, kill," imagining
+they could cut to pieces so small a force without a struggle. The
+Buccaneers, differing from them in opinion, faced about with good heart,
+threw themselves into a square, and beat a slow retreat to the forest,
+keeping up a rolling fire from all four sides of their brave phalanx.
+
+The Spaniards, considering the retreat a sure proof of despair and fear,
+attacked them with great courage, but great loss. The Buccaneers losing
+no men, while the Spaniards fell thick and fast, cried out, in imprudent
+bravado, that they were only trying to frighten them, and put no balls
+in their muskets. This jest cost them dear, for the Spaniards had been
+only aiming high, wishing to kill them on the spot and to make no
+prisoners. They now tried to maim as well as kill, and soon wounded so
+many in the legs that the Buccaneers were obliged to retreat to a clump
+of trees, where they stood at bay, and from whence the Spaniards did not
+dare to beat them. They then began to prepare to carry off their dead
+and wounded to the vessels, but seeing a small party of Spaniards
+piercing one of the bodies with their swords, they fired upon them,
+charged them, and drove them off, tracking their way by their dead, and
+then retreated, killing the cattle and bearing them off in sorrowful
+triumph to their vessels. The very next day, at the first light, Morgan,
+furious to revenge this treachery of the Spaniards, landed himself at
+the head of 200 men, and entered the woods, visiting the scene of the
+last night's skirmish. But the Spaniards had long since fled,
+discovering that in driving cattle towards the shore as a lure for the
+Buccaneer, they only brought destruction upon themselves, and a
+dangerous enemy nearer to their homes and treasures. Morgan, finding his
+search useless, returned to his ship, having first burned down all the
+deserted huts he could find: "Returning," says Esquemeling, "somewhat
+more satisfied in his mind for having done considerable damage to the
+enemy, which was always his ardent desire."
+
+The day after, deciding not to venture an attack upon Bourg d'Asso,
+Morgan, impatient at the delay of his vessels, resolved to sail without
+them, and visit Savona, hoping there to meet his lingering companions.
+Alarming the people of St. Domingo, he coasted round Hispaniola. He
+determined to wait eight days at Savona, and, weary of rest, still
+wanting provisions, he sent some boats and 150 men to plunder the towns
+round St. Domingo, but they, finding the Spaniards vigilant and
+desperate, gave up the enterprise as hopeless, and returned empty-handed
+to endure the curses and sneers of their commander. Morgan now held a
+council of war, for provisions were very scanty and time was going. The
+eight ships did not arrive, and all agreed, with their seven small
+vessels and their 300 men, some place of importance might still be
+taken. Morgan had hitherto resolved to cruise about the Caraccas and
+plunder the towns and villages, mere hen-roost robbing and footpad work,
+compared with the enterprise proposed by one of his French captains amid
+great applause.
+
+This captain was Pierre le Picard, the _matelot_ of the famous Lolonnois
+when he took Maracaibo: he it was who had steered the vessels over the
+bar, and had served both as pilot at sea and guide on land; he reefed
+and fought, and could handle a rope as well as a musket. He now proposed
+a second attack upon the same place, and, with all the rude eloquence of
+sincerity, proved the facility of the attempt, and the riches that lay
+within their reach. As he spoke good English that could be understood by
+all, and was, moreover, much esteemed by Morgan, the scheme for a new
+campaign was at once rapturously approved. He disclosed in the council
+all the entries, passages, forces, and means. A charter-party was drawn
+up, containing a clause, that if the rest of the fleet joined them
+before they had taken a fortress, they should be allowed to share like
+the rest.
+
+Having left a letter at Savona, buried in the usual way, the Buccaneers
+set sail for Curacoa, stopping after some days' sail at the island of
+Omba, to take in water and provisions. This place was distant some
+twelve leagues from Maracaibo. Here they stayed twenty-four hours,
+buying goats of the natives for hanks of thread and linen. Sheep, lambs,
+and kids were the only products of the island, which abounded with
+spiders whose bite produced madness, unless the sufferer was tied hands
+and feet, and left without food for a night and a day. The fleet set
+sail in the night, to prevent the islanders discovering the object of
+their voyage.
+
+The next morning they sighted the small islands that lie at the entrance
+of the lake of Maracaibo, anchoring out of sight of the Vigilia, in
+hopes to escape notice, but were observed by the sentries, whose signal
+gave the Spaniards ample time for defence. The fleet remained becalmed,
+unable to reach the bar till four o'clock in the afternoon. The canoes
+were instantly manned, in order to take the Bar Fort, rebuilt since
+Picard's last visit. Its guns played upon the boats as they pulled to
+land. Morgan exhorted his men to be brave and not to give way--for he
+expected the Spaniards would defend themselves desperately, seeing their
+fire was so rolling and incessant that the fort seemed like the crater
+of a small volcano, and they could now see that the huts round the wall
+had been burnt and removed, to leave them no protection or shelter. "The
+dispute continued very hot, being managed with great courage from
+morning till dark night."
+
+That latterly the fighting died away to occasional shots is evident,
+for, at six o'clock when it grew dusk, Morgan reconnoitred the fort, and
+found it deserted. The cessation of the fire had already roused their
+suspicions. Suspecting treachery, Morgan searched the place to see if
+any lighted fuses had been placed near the powder, and a division was
+employed to enter the place before the main body. There was no lack of
+volunteers for this experimental and cat's-paw work. Morgan himself
+clambered up first. As they expected, they found a lighted match, and a
+dark train of powder communicating with the magazine. A little later and
+the whole band had perished together. Morgan himself snatched up the
+match. This fort was a redoubt of five toises high, six long, and three
+round. In the magazine they found 3,000 pounds of gunpowder that would
+have been wasted had the place been blown up; fourteen pieces of cannon,
+of eight, twelve, and fourteen pounds calibre, and abundance of
+fire-pots, hand-grenades, and carcases; twenty-four muskets and thirty
+pikes and bandoliers had been left by the runaways. The fort was only
+accessible by an iron ladder, which could be drawn up into the
+guard-room. But courage requires no ladder, and, like love, can always
+find out a way. When they had once examined the place, the Buccaneers
+broke down the parapet, spiked the cannon, threw them over the walls,
+and burnt the gun-carriages.
+
+The Spaniards waited in vain for the roar of their bursting mine. Their
+own city was rocking beneath their feet; a more dreadful visitation than
+the earthquake or the hurricane was at their doors. At daybreak the
+fleet sailed up the lake, the ruined fort smoking behind them. Making
+great haste, they arrived at Maracaibo the next day, having first
+divided among themselves the arms and ammunition of the fort. The water
+being very low and the shoals numerous, they disembarked into their
+boats, with a few small cannon. From some cavaliers whom they could see
+on the walls they believed that the Spaniards were fortifying
+themselves. The Buccaneers therefore landed at some distance from the
+town, anchoring and disembarking amid discharges of their own cannon,
+intending to clear the thickets on the shore. Their men they divided
+into two divisions, in order to embarrass the enemy by a double attack.
+
+But these precautions were useless. The timid people had already fled
+into the woods; only the beggars, who feared no plunderers, and the
+sick, who were praying for death, remained in Maracaibo. The brave fled
+with the coward, the monk with the sinner, the thief from the thieves,
+the soldiers from the seamen, the Catholic from the dreaded Protestant,
+and the Spaniard from the enemies of his name and race. The sick were
+expecting death, and cared not if it came by the hand of the doctor or
+the Buccaneer; the beggar hoped to benefit by those who could not covet,
+and might pity, their rags. "A few miserable folk, who had nothing to
+lose," says Esquemeling, "alone remained." Crippled slaves, not worth
+removing, lay in the streets; the dying groaned untended in the
+hospital. Children fled from parents, and parents from children; rich
+old age was left to die in spite of all the inducements of avarice. The
+prostitute fled to escape dishonour, and the murderer to avoid
+bloodshed.
+
+The houses were empty, the doors open, the chambers stripped of every
+movable, costly or precious. The first care of the invaders was to
+search every corner for prisoners, the next to secure, each party as
+they arrived, the richest palaces for their barracks. The palaces were
+their dens, the churches their prisons; everything they defiled and
+polluted, the loathsome things they made still more horrible, the holy
+they in some degree contaminated. At sea they were brave, obedient,
+self-denying, religious in formula (half the world goes no further),
+determined, and irresistible; on land cruel, bloody, rebellious, and
+ferocious. At sea they exceeded most men in the practice of the sterner
+virtues, on land they were demons of wrath, devils of drunkenness and
+lust, mercenaries and outlaws in their bearing and their actions. The
+three former days of terror had sapped the courage of the bravest, and
+alarm and fear had, by a common panic, induced the inhabitants to hide
+the merchandise in the woods. The men who fled had had fathers and
+children killed and tortured in the first expedition. Friends, still
+maimed by the rack, increased their fears by their narrations. The
+Buccaneers seemed a judgment from God, irresistible and unavertable. The
+desire to defend riches seems to be a weaker principle in the human mind
+than the desire to obtain them. Great conquerors have generally been
+poorer than the nations they have conquered.
+
+Scarcely any provisions remained in the town. There was no vessel or
+boat in the port, all had been removed into the wide lake beyond. The
+small demilune fort, with its four cannon, that was intended to guard
+the harbour, was also deserted. The richer the man, the further he had
+escaped inland; the needy were in the woods, the drunken beggars
+revelled alone in the town, rejoicing in an event that at least made
+them rich: "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good."
+
+The very same day the Buccaneers despatched a body of 100 men to search
+the woods for refugees, any attempt to secrete treasure being a heavy
+offence in the eyes of Morgan. These men returned the next evening with
+thirty prisoners, fifty mules, and several horses laden with baggage and
+rich merchandise. Both the male and female prisoners seemed poor and
+worthless. They were immediately tortured, in order to induce them to
+disclose where their richer and more virtuous fellow citizens were
+hidden. Morgan, finding none to resist him, quartered his men in the
+richest houses, selecting the church as their central guard-house and
+rallying point, their store-room for plunder, their court of justice
+(blind and with false weights), and their torture-chamber.
+
+Some of the prisoners offered to act as guides to places where they knew
+money and jewels were hidden. As several places were named, two parties
+went out the same night upon this exciting search. The one party
+returned on the morrow with much booty, the other did not wander in for
+two days, having been misled by a prisoner, who, in the hopes of finding
+means to escape through his knowledge of the country, had led them into
+such dangerous and uninhabited places that they had had a thousand
+difficulties in avoiding. Furious at finding themselves mocked by their
+guide, they hung him on a tree without any parley. In returning they
+came, however, suddenly upon some slaves who were seeking for food by
+night, having been hiding in the woods all day. Torture was at once
+resorted to, to find out where the masters lay, for slaves could not be
+there alone. The braver of the two suffered the most horrible pain
+without disclosing a syllable, and was eventually cut to pieces without
+confessing; the weaker, and perhaps younger negro, endured his
+sufferings at first with equal fortitude, although he was offered
+liberty and reward if he would speak. But when the seamen drew their
+sabres, still red with the blood of his companion, and began to hew and
+gash his brother's limbs that still lay palpitating on the ground, his
+courage fell, and he offered to lead them to his master. The Spaniard
+was soon taken with 30,000 crowns' worth of plate.
+
+For eight days the men practised unheard-of cruelties upon the wretched
+townsmen, already starved and beggared, wretches whose only crime had
+been their yielding to the natural impulse of self-preservation. They
+hung them up by their beards and by the hair of their heads, by an arm
+or a leg; they stretched their limbs tight with cords, and then beat
+with rattans upon the rigid flesh; they placed burning matches between
+their fingers; they twisted cords about their heads, tightening the
+strain by the leverage of their pistol stocks, till the eyes sprang from
+the sockets. The deathblow was never given from pity, but as the climax
+and consummation of suffering, and when the executioners were weary of
+their cruelty. In vain the tortured Spaniards screamed that the treasure
+was all removed to Gibraltar, and that they were not the rich citizens
+but very poor men, monks and servants of Jesus, God help them! Many died
+before the rack could be loosened.
+
+Captain Picard, exulting in the success of his expedition, was now very
+urgent in pressing Morgan to advance on Gibraltar before succours could
+arrive there from Merida, believing that it would surrender as it had
+done to Lolonnois. Morgan having in his custody about 100 of the chief
+families of Maracaibo, and all the accessible booty, embarked eight
+days after his landing, and proceeded to Gibraltar, hoping to rival
+Lolonnois in every virtue. His prisoners and plunder went with him, and
+he determined to hazard a battle. Expecting an obstinate defence, every
+Buccaneer made his will, consoling himself by the thought of revelry at
+Jamaica if he was one of those lucky enough to escape. "Death," says
+Oexmelin, "was never much mixed up in their thoughts, especially when
+there was booty in view, for if there were only some hopes of plunder
+they would fight like lions." Before the fleet started, two prisoners
+had been sent to Gibraltar to warn the governor that Captain Morgan
+would give him no quarter if he did not surrender.
+
+Picard, who remembered the former dangerous spots, made his men land
+about a quarter of a league from the town, and march through the woods
+in hopes of taking the Spaniards in the rear, in case they should be
+again entrenched. The enemy received them with quick discharges of
+cannon, but the men cheered each other, saying, "We must make a
+breakfast of these bitter things ere we sup on the sweetmeats of
+Gibraltar." They landed early in the morning, and found no more
+difficulty than at Maracaibo. The Spaniards, deceived by a stratagem,
+had expected their approach by the road, and not by the woods. They had
+no time to throw up entrenchments, and only a few barricades, planted
+with cannon, protected their flight. They remembered Lolonnois; their
+hearts became as water, and they fled as the Buccaneers took peaceable
+possession of the town. The Spaniards took with them their riches, and
+all their ammunition, to use at some more convenient period. Morgan,
+rejoicing in the easy victory, posted his men at the strong points of
+the town, while 100 men, under Picard, went out to pursue and bring in
+prisoners. They found the guns spiked, and every house sacked by its
+owner, much spoiled, much carried off, and the heavy and the worthless
+alone left.
+
+The only inhabitant remaining in the town was a poor half-witted
+Spaniard, who had not clearly ascertained what he ought to do. He was
+so well dressed that they at first took him, much to his delight, for a
+man of rank, and asked him what had become of all the people of
+Gibraltar. He replied, "they had been gone a day, but he did not know
+where; he had not asked, but he dare say they would soon be back, and
+for his part he, Pepe, did not care." When they inquired where the
+sugar-mills were, he replied that he had never seen any in his life. The
+church money, he knew, was hid in the sacristy of the great church.
+Taking them there he showed them a large coffer, where he pretended to
+have seen it hid. They opened it and found it empty. To all other
+inquiries he now answered, "I know nothing, I know nothing." Some of the
+Buccaneers, angry at the disappointment, and vexed at the subtlety of
+the Spaniards, declared the fellow was more knave than fool, and dragged
+him to torture. They gave him first the strapado, till he began to wish
+the people were returned; they then hung him up for two hours with heavy
+stones tied to his feet, till his arms were dislocated. At last he cried
+out, "Do not plague me any more, but come with me and I will show you
+my goods and my riches." He then led them to a miserable hovel,
+containing only a few earthen pots and three pieces of eight, wrapped in
+faded finery, buried under the hearth. He then said his name was Don
+Sebastian Sanchez, brother of the governor of Maracaibo, that he was
+worth more than 50,000 crowns, and that he would write for it and give
+it up if they would cease to hang and plague him so. They then tortured
+him again, thinking he was a grandee in disguise, till he offered, if he
+was released, to show them a refinery. They had not got a musket-shot
+from the hut before he fell on his knees and gave himself up as a
+criminal. "Jesu Maria!" he cried, "what will you do with me, Englishmen?
+I am a poor man who live on alms, and sleep in the hospital." They then
+lit palm-leaves and scorched him, and would have burnt off all his
+clothes had he not been released by one of the Buccaneers who now saw he
+was an idiot. The poor fellow died in great torment in about
+half-an-hour, and before he grew cold was dragged into the woods and
+buried.
+
+The following day Picard brought in an old peasant and his two
+daughters; the old man, his crippled limbs having been tortured, offered
+to serve as guide, and lead them to some houses in the suburbs. Half
+blind and frightened, he mistook his way, and the Buccaneers, thinking
+the error intentional, made a slave, who declared he had intentionally
+misled them, hang him on a tree by the road side.
+
+Slavery here brought its own retribution, for this same slave, burning
+to avenge some ill treatment he had received, offered, on being made
+free, to lead them to many of the Spanish places of refuge. Before
+evening ten or twelve families, with all their wealth, were brought into
+Gibraltar. It had now become difficult to track the fugitives, as
+fathers refused even to trust their children; no one slept twice in the
+same spot, for fear that some one who knew of the retreat would be
+captured, and then, under torture, betray the spot, generally huts in
+the darkest recesses of the woods, where their goods were stored from
+the weather. These exiles were, however, obliged to steal at night to
+their country houses to obtain food, and then they were intercepted.
+From some of these merchants Morgan heard that a vessel of 100 tons, and
+three barges laden with silver and merchandise belonging to Maracaibo,
+now lay in the river; about six leagues distant, and 100 men were
+despatched to secure the prize.
+
+In scouring the woods again with a body of 200 human bloodhounds, Morgan
+surprised a large body of Spaniards. Some of these he forced the negro
+guide to kill before the eyes of the others, in order to implicate him
+in the eyes of the survivors. After eight days' search the band returned
+with 250 prisoners, and a long train of baggage mules, bound for Merida.
+The prisoners were each separately examined as to where the treasure was
+hid. Those who would not confess, and even those who had nothing to
+confess, were tortured to death--burnt, maimed, or had their life slowly
+crushed out of them.
+
+Amongst the greatest sufferers in this purgatory on earth was an old
+Portuguese of venerable appearance, perhaps either a miser or purposely
+disguised. This man the blood-thirsty negro, now high in favour with the
+Buccaneers, and trying to rival them in cruelty, declared was very rich.
+The poor old man, tearing his thin grey hair, swore by the Virgin and
+all the saints that he had but 100 pieces of eight in the whole world,
+and these had been stolen from him a few days before, during the general
+chaos, by a runaway slave. This he vowed on his knees with tears and
+prayers, doubly vehement when coming from one already on the grave's
+brink. The cruel slave still looked sneeringly on, and swore he was
+known to be the richest merchant in all Gibraltar. The Buccaneers then
+stretched the Portuguese with cords till both his arms broke at the
+shoulder, and then bound him by the hands and feet to the four corners
+of a room, placing upon his loins a stone, weighing five cwt., while
+four men, laughing at his cries, kept the cords that tied him in
+perpetual motion. This inhuman punishment they called "swimming on
+land." As he still refused to speak, they held fire under him as he
+swung groaning, burnt off his beard and moustaches, and then left him
+hanging while they strapadoed another. The next man they threw into a
+ditch, after having pierced him with many sword thrusts, for they seem
+to have been as insatiable for variety of cruelty as they were for
+cruelty itself. They left him for dead, but he crawled home, and
+eventually recovered, although several sword blades had passed
+completely through his body.
+
+As for the old Portuguese, his sufferings were far from ended; putting
+him on a mule they brought him into Gibraltar, and imprisoned him in the
+church, binding him to a pillar apart from the rest, supplying him with
+food barely sufficient to enable him to endure his tortures. Four or
+five days having passed, he entreated that a certain fellow prisoner,
+whom he named, might be brought to him. This request being complied
+with, as the first step to obtaining a ransom while he still remained
+alive, he offered them, through this agent, a sum of 500 pieces of
+eight. But the Buccaneers laughed at so small a sum, and fell upon him
+with clubs, crying "500,000, old hunx, and not 500, or you shall not
+live." After several more days of continued suffering, during which he
+incessantly protested that he was a poor man and kept a small tavern,
+the miser confessed that he had a store of 2000 pieces of eight, buried
+in an earthen jar, and all these, bruised and mutilated as he was and
+much as he loved money, he gave for his liberty, and a few days more of
+life.
+
+Upon the other prisoners, without regard to age, sex, or rank, they
+inflicted tortures too disgusting and shocking to mention. Fear, hatred,
+and avarice generated crimes, till the prisoners grew as vile as their
+persecutors.
+
+A slave, who had been cruelly treated by his master, persuaded the
+Buccaneers to torture him on the plea that he was very rich, although he
+was in reality a man of no wealth. The other prisoners, roused from the
+selfishness of self-preservation by a thrill of involuntary compassion,
+told Morgan that the Spaniard was a poor man, and that the slave had
+perjured himself to obtain revenge. Morgan released the Spaniard
+directly, but he had been already tortured. The slave was given up to
+his master to be punished by any sort of death he chose to inflict.
+Handed over to the Buccaneers, he was chopped to pieces in his master's
+presence, still exulting in his revenge. "This," says Oexmelin, with a
+cold _naivete_, "satisfait l'Espagnol, quoyqu'il fust fort mal traite,
+et en danger d'estre estropie" (this satisfied the Spaniard, though he
+had been very badly treated, and almost lamed for life). Some of the
+prisoners were crucified, others were burnt with matches tied between
+their toes or fingers, many had their feet forced into the fires till
+they dropped from the leg black and charred. All that the Indians had
+suffered was now retaliated on the Spaniards. The Buccaneers themselves
+considered the punishment a vengeance of Providence. The only mercy ever
+shown to a Spaniard was to end his sufferings by death. The _coup de
+grace_ was a kindness when it ended the misery of a groaning wretch,
+bruised and burnt, lying in the hot sun, half mortified, or with his
+body already paralyzed four or five days since. The masters being all
+tortured, the slaves next received the strapado. These men, weaker in
+their moral nature and with no motive for concealment but fear, told
+everything. Many of the hiding-places were, however, not known to them.
+One of them, during the fever of his wound, declared he knew where the
+governor of the town was secreted, with many of the ladies of Gibraltar,
+and a large portion of the treasure. Threats of death revealed the rest,
+and he confessed that a ship and four boats, laden with Maracaibo
+wealth, lay in a river of the lake. The Buccaneers were instantly on
+their feet. Morgan, with 200 men and the slave guide, set out to capture
+the governor; and 100 others, in two large _settees_ (boats), sallied
+out to capture the treasure and the ships. The governor was not easily
+caught, for it needed a battalion of balloons to surprise him. His first
+retreat was a fort thrown up in the centre of a small island in the
+river, two days' march distant. Hearing that Morgan was coming in
+force, he retreated to the top of an adjoining mountain, into which
+there was but one ascent, so straight, narrow, and perilous, that it
+could only be mounted in single file.
+
+The expedition altogether broke down, the rock proved inaccessible to
+any but eagles; a "huge rain" wetted their baggage and ammunition; in
+fording a river swollen by this "huge rain," many of their female
+prisoners were lost, and, what they valued more, several mules laden
+with plate were whirled down the torrents. Many of the women and
+children sank under the fatigue, and some escaped. Involved in a marshy
+country, up to their middles in water, the Buccaneers had to toil on for
+miles. A few lost their lives, others their arms (the means of
+preserving them). A body of fifty determined men, the Buccaneer
+historian himself says, could have destroyed the whole body. But the
+Spaniards were already so paralyzed by fear that they fled at the very
+rustle of a leaf. Twelve days were spent in this dangerous and useless
+expedition. Two days after them arrived their comrades, who had been
+somewhat more successful. The Spaniards had unloaded the vessels, and
+were beginning to burn them when they arrived, but many bales were left
+in the haste of flight, and the boats, full of plunder, were brought
+away in tow.
+
+Morgan had now been lord in Gibraltar for five whole weeks, practising
+all insolences that a conqueror ever inflicts on the conquered;
+revenging on them the sufferings of the conquest, and trampling them
+under foot for the very pleasure of destruction. Provisions now failing,
+he resolved to depart; the provisions of Gibraltar, except the fruits,
+coming entirely from Maracaibo, were delayed and intercepted. He first
+sent some prisoners into the woods to collect a ransom from the
+fugitives, under pain of again burning down their newly rebuilt city. He
+demanded 5,000 pieces of eight. They promised to pay it in eight days,
+and gave four of their richest citizens as hostages. The governor, safe
+from all danger himself, had, however, forbidden them to pay any
+ransom, and they prayed Morgan to have patience.
+
+Setting sail with his hostages he arrived in three days at Maracaibo,
+afraid that, during his long absence, the Spaniards had fortified
+themselves, and he should have to fight his way through the passes.
+Before his departure he released all his prisoners who had paid ransom,
+but detained the slaves. He refused particularly to give up the
+treacherous negro, because he knew they would burn him alive.
+
+The only inmate of all the rich palaces and wide squares of Maracaibo,
+was a poor sick man, who informed him (Morgan), to his astonishment,
+that three Spanish men-of-war had arrived at the bar, and had repaired
+and garrisoned the fort. Their commander was Don Alonso del Campo
+d'Espinosa, the vice-admiral of the Indian fleet, who had been
+despatched to those seas to protect the Spanish colonists, and put to
+the sword every adventurer he could meet. This news did not alarm those
+who every day "set their lives upon the hazard of a die," but it enraged
+men who thought themselves secure of their plunder, and which they now
+might have to throw off to lighten them in their retreat. Morgan
+instantly despatched his swiftest vessel to reconnoitre the bar. The men
+returned next day, assuring him that the story was too true, and they
+were in very imminent danger. They had approached so near as to be in
+peril of the shot, the biggest ship mounted forty guns, the next thirty,
+and the smallest twenty, while Morgan's flag-ship had only fourteen.
+They had seen the flag of Castile waving on the redoubt. There was no
+means of escape by sea or land, and all were in despair at such enemies
+so placed.
+
+Morgan, undaunted and roused to new courage by the extremity, grew more
+full of audacity than ever. He at once sent a flag of truce to the
+_Magdalene_, the Spanish admiral's vessel, demanding 20,000 pieces of
+eight, or he should set Maracaibo in flames. The admiral, amused and
+astonished at such temerity, wrote back to say, that hearing that they
+had committed hostilities in the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, his
+sovereign lord and master, he had come to dispute their passage out of
+the lake, from that castle, which they had taken out of the hands of a
+parcel of cowards, and he intended to follow and pursue them everywhere,
+as was his duty. The letter continued: "Notwithstanding if you be
+contented to surrender with humility all you have taken, together with
+the slaves and other prisoners, I will let you pass freely without
+trouble or molestation, on condition that you retire home presently to
+your own country. But if you make any resistance or opposition to what I
+offer you, I assure you I will command boats to come from the Caraccas,
+wherein I will put my troops, and, coming to Maracaibo, will put you
+every man to the sword. This is my last and absolute resolution; be
+prudent, therefore, and do not abuse my bounty with ingratitude. I have
+with me very good soldiers, who desire nothing more ardently than to
+revenge on you and your people all the cruelties and base infamous
+actions you have committed upon the Spanish nation in America."
+
+This vapouring letter Morgan read aloud to his men in the broad
+market-place at Maracaibo, first in French and then in English, begging
+their advice on the whole matter--asking them whether they would
+surrender everything for liberty, or fight for both liberty and hard-won
+treasure. They all answered unanimously, they did not care for the
+Spanish brag, and they would rather fight to the last drop of their
+blood than surrender booty got with such peril. One of the men, stepping
+forward, cried, "You take care of the rest, I'll build a _brulot_, and
+with twelve men will burn the biggest of the three Spaniards."
+
+The scheme was adopted, but resolved once more to try negotiation, now
+that he was prepared for the worst, Morgan wrote again to Don Alonso,
+offering to leave Maracaibo uninjured, surrender all the prisoners, half
+the slaves, and to give up the hostages. The Don, trusting in his
+superior strength, and believing Morgan fairly intimidated or at least
+entirely in his mercy, refused to listen to any terms but those he had
+proposed, adding, that in two days he should come and force him to
+yield. Morgan resolved upon this to fight his way out and surrender
+nothing, his men, though discouraged, being still brave and desperate.
+All things were put in order to fight. The Englishman of Morgan's crew
+proceeded as fast as possible with his _brulot_, or fire-ship. He took
+the small vessel captured in the Riviere des Espines, and filled it full
+of palm-leaves dipped in tar, and a mixture of brimstone and gunpowder.
+He put several pounds of powder under each of the ten sham guns, which
+were formed of negro drums. The partitions of the cabins were then
+broken down, so that the flame might spread unimpeded. The crew were
+wooden posts, dressed up with swords, muskets, bandoliers, and hats or
+montero caps. This fire-ship bore the English colours, so that it might
+pass for Morgan's vessel; and in eight days, by all hands working upon
+it, it was ready. During the preparation an extra guard was kept upon
+the prisoners, for one escaping would have destroyed all their hopes of
+safety. The male prisoners were kept in one boat, and the females,
+slaves, plate, and jewels in another. In others, guarded by twelve men
+each, came the merchandise. The _brulot_ was to go first and grapple
+with the admiral's ship.
+
+All things being now completed, Morgan, with a heart as gay as if he
+fought for God and the right, made his men take the usual Buccaneer
+oath, employed on all occasions of pressing danger, when mutual
+confidence was peculiarly necessary. They vowed to fight till death, and
+neither to give nor take quarter. He promised a reward to all who
+distinguished themselves, exciting all the strongest feelings of their
+nature--revenge, avarice, and self-preservation.
+
+With these desperate resolves, full of hope, for they were accustomed to
+consider his promises of victory as certain prophecies, they set sail on
+the 30th day of April, 1669, to seek the Spaniards.
+
+They found the Spanish fleet riding at anchor in the middle of the entry
+of the lake, like gaolers of their spacious prison. It being late and
+almost dark, Morgan gave orders to anchor within range of the enemy,
+determined to resist if attacked, but to wait for light. They kept a
+strict watch, and at daybreak lifted anchor and set sail, bearing down
+straight upon the Spaniards, who, seeing them move, advanced to meet
+them.
+
+Poor fishing boats the Buccaneers' barks seemed beneath those proud
+floating castles; "but the race is not always to the swift, nor the
+battle to the strong." The _brulot_ sailed first, pushing on to the
+admiral's vessel, which lay stately between its two companions, and was
+suffered to approach within cannon shot. The Spaniards believing that it
+was Morgan's vessel, and intended to board them, waited till it came
+closer to crush it with a broadside. They little thought that they were
+fighting with the elements. The fire-ship fell upon the Spaniard and
+clung to its sides, like a wild cat on an elephant. Too late the
+Spaniard attempted to push her off, but the flames had already leaped
+from their lurking places; first the sails were swathed in fire, then
+the tackling shrivelled up, and soon the solid timbers burst into a
+blaze. The stern was first consumed, and the fore part sank hissing
+into the sea. The wretched crew, flying from one element to the other,
+perished, some by fire, some by water; the half-drowning clung to the
+burning planks and withered in the glare; the burning sailors were
+sucked down by the vortex of the sinking wreck. Don Alonso, seeing the
+danger, called out to them in vain to cut down the masts, and, throwing
+himself with difficulty into his sloop, escaped to land. The sailors,
+refusing quarter, were allowed to perish by the Buccaneers' boats'
+crews, who at first offered to save them. Perhaps the recollection of
+their oath lessened their exertions.
+
+The boats were pulling round the burning vessel in hopes of saving
+plunder, and not of saving lives. The second vessel was boarded by the
+Buccaneers and taken, in the confusion, almost without resistance. The
+third ship, cutting its cables, drifted towards the fort, and there ran
+ashore, the crew setting fire to her to prevent capture. The Buccaneers,
+proud of their victory, determined to push it to extremities by landing
+and attempting to storm the fort at the bar, without ladders, and
+relying only on their hand grenades, but their artillery was too small
+to make any practicable breach. The fort they found well supplied with
+men, cannon, and ammunition. The garrison had not suffered personally by
+the loss of a fleet manned by strangers, and they repulsed all attacks.
+Unwilling to retire, Morgan spent the whole of the day till dusk in
+firing muskets at any defenders who showed themselves above the walls,
+and at dusk lit them up with a shower of fireballs, but the Spaniards
+desperately resisted, and shot so furiously at them as to drive them
+back to the ships, with the loss of thirty killed and as many
+wounded--more loss than they had suffered in the capture of Maracaibo
+and Gibraltar, while the fleet had been destroyed without the loss of a
+single man. The garrison, expecting a fresh attack at daybreak, laboured
+all night to strengthen their works, levelling the ground towards the
+sea, and throwing up entrenchments from spots that commanded the
+castle.
+
+The next day Morgan, not intending to renew the attack, employed himself
+in saving the Spanish sailors who were still floating on charred pieces
+of the wreck; not rescuing them from mercy, but in order to make them
+help in recovering part of the sunk treasure. They acknowledged that Don
+Alonso had compelled them before the engagement, after they had
+confessed to the chaplain, to come and take an oath to give the enemy no
+quarter, which was the reason many had refused to be saved. The
+admiral's vessel, the _Magdalene_, had carried thirty-eight guns and
+twelve small brass pieces, and was manned by 350 sailors; the second,
+the _St. Louis_, had thirty-four guns and 200 men; and the third, the
+_Marquise_, twenty-two guns and 150 men. The _Marquise_ derived its name
+from the Marquis de Coquin, who had fitted it out as a privateer. The
+_Concepcion_ and _Nostra Signora de la Soledad_, two larger vessels, had
+been sent back to Spain from Carthagena; a fourth, _Nostra Signora del
+Carmen_ (for the Spaniards generally drew the names of their war vessels
+from the lady of love and peace), had sunk near Campeachy.
+
+The pilot of the smaller vessel being saved, and promised his life,
+disclosed all Don Alonso's plans. He had been sent, upon the tidings of
+the loss of Porto Bello, by direction of the supreme council of state,
+with orders to root out the English pirates in those parts, and to
+destroy as many as he could, for dismal lamentations had been made to
+the court of Spain, to the Catholic king, to whom belonged the care and
+preservation of the New World, of the damages and hostilities committed
+by the English, and he had resolved to punish these proceedings and
+avenge his subjects. The king of England being complained to, constantly
+replied that he never gave any letters-patent to such men or such ships.
+Sending home his more cumbrous ships, the Don had heard at St. Domingo
+of the fleet sailing from Jamaica, and a prisoner, taken at Alta Grecia,
+disclosed Morgan's plan on the Caraccas. On arriving there the wild fire
+had already broken out at Maracaibo a second time, and hither he came to
+extinguish it. A negro slave had indeed informed the admiral of the
+fire-ship, but with short-sighted pride he derided the idea, saying that
+the English had had neither wit, tools, nor time to build it.
+
+The pilot who made these disclosures was rewarded by Morgan, and,
+yielding to his promises, entered into his service. He informed him,
+with the usual zeal of a deserter, that there was plate to the value of
+40,000 pieces of eight in the sunken ship, for he had seen it brought on
+board in boats. The divers eventually recovered 2000 pounds' worth of
+it, some "in plate" and others in piastres, that had melted into large
+lumps, together with many silver hilts of swords and other valuables.
+
+Leaving a vessel to superintend this profitable fishery, Morgan hurried
+back to Maracaibo, and, fitting up his largest prize for himself, gave
+his own ship to a companion. He also sent to the governor, now somewhat
+crest-fallen, to re-demand the ransom, threatening more violently than
+before to burn down the city in eight days if it was not brought in. He
+also demanded, in addition, 500 cows as victual for his fleet. These
+were brought in in the short space of two days, with part of the money,
+and eleven more days were spent in salting the meat and preparing for
+sea. Then returning to the mouth of the lake, he sent to Don Alonso to
+demand a free passage, offering to send all the prisoners on shore as
+soon as he had once passed out, but otherwise to tie the prisoners to
+the rigging, exposing them to the shot of the fort, and then to kill and
+throw overboard those who were not struck. The prisoners also sent a
+petition, praying the governor to spare their lives. But the Don, quite
+undaunted, sternly answered to the hostages, who besought him on their
+knees to save them from the sword and rope, "If you had been as loyal to
+your king in hindering the entry of these pirates as I shall be in
+hindering their going out, you had never caused these troubles, either
+to yourselves or to our whole nation, which hath suffered so much
+through your pusillanimity. I shall not grant your request, but shall
+endeavour to maintain that respect which is due to my king, according to
+my duty."
+
+When the terrified messengers returned and told Morgan, he replied, "If
+Alonso will not let me pass, I will find out a way without him,"
+resolving to use either force or stratagem, and perhaps both.
+
+Fearing that a storm might separate his fleet, or that some might not
+succeed in escaping, Morgan divided the booty before he attempted to
+pass the bar. Having all taken the usual oath, he found they had
+collected 250,000 pieces of eight, including money and jewels, and in
+addition a vast bulk of merchandise and many slaves. Eight days were
+spent in this division, which took place within sight of the exasperated
+garrison in the fort.
+
+The following stratagem was then resorted to. Knowing that the Spaniards
+were expecting a final and desperate attack on the day before their
+departure, the Buccaneers made great show of preparing to land and
+attack the fort. Part of each ship's crew embarked with their colours
+in their canoes, which were instantly rowed to shore. Here the men,
+concealed by the boughs on the banks, lay down flat in their boats, and
+were rowed back again to their vessels by only two or three sailors.
+This feigned landing they repeated several times in the day. The
+Spaniards, certain of an escalade, at night brought down the great
+eighteen pound ship guns of the fort to the side of the island looking
+towards the land, and left the sea-shore almost defenceless. When night
+came Morgan weighed anchor, and, by moonlight setting sail, at the
+commencement of the ebb tide, dropped gently down the river, till the
+vessels were almost alongside of the castle. Then spreading sails, quick
+as magic, he drove past, firmly but warily. Every precaution was taken.
+The crew were couched flat on the poop, and some placed below to plug
+the shot-holes as they came. The Spaniards, astonished at their daring,
+and enraged at their escape, ran with all speed and shifted their
+battery, firing hastily, furiously, and with little certainty; but by
+this time, a favourable wind springing up, the Buccaneers were almost
+out of reach, few men were killed, and little damage done.
+
+In this manner escaped Morgan from the clutches of Don Alonso, who had
+thought himself sure of his prey. The baffled rage of the Spaniards and
+the wild joy of the Buccaneers, their clamorous approval of Morgan's
+skill, the exultation of their triumph, and the prisoners' dismay, may
+be easily imagined. Generous in success, Morgan, once out of range of
+the guns that thundered in pursuit, sent a canoe on shore with his
+prisoners from Maracaibo, but those of Gibraltar he carried off, as they
+had not yet paid their ransom. The joy of one and the grief of the
+other, their parting and the tears, were painful to witness. As he set
+sail, and the fort was still looming to the right, Morgan discharged a
+farewell salute of eight guns, to which the chapfallen Spaniards had not
+the heart to return even a single musket shot.
+
+But out of Scylla into Charybdis was a Buccaneer's fate: one danger was
+succeeded by another, hope by hope, despair by despair. The very day of
+their escape the judgment of Heaven seemed to overtake the sea rovers,
+as if to warn them that no stratagems could defeat God. The fleet was
+surprised by such a tempest that they were compelled to anchor in five
+or six fathom water. The storm increased, they were obliged to weigh
+again, and at any risk keep off the land. Their only choice seemed to be
+death by the Spaniard, the Indian, or the wave--all equally hostile and
+deaf to mercy.
+
+Oexmelin says he was on board the least seaworthy vessel of the whole
+fleet, that, having lost anchors and mainsail, they had great difficulty
+in keeping afloat, and were obliged to bale as well as work night and
+day at the pumps, amid deafening thunder and mountainous seas that
+threatened to drown them even while the vessel still floated. The ship,
+but for the ropes that held it together, would have instantly sunk. The
+lightning and the wave disputed for their prey, but the rude arbiter,
+the wind, came in and snatched them from these destroyers. "Indeed,"
+says Oexmelin, "though worn out with fatigue and toil, we could not make
+up our minds to close our eyes on that blessed light which we might so
+soon lose sight of for ever, for no hope of safety now remained. The
+storm had lasted four days, and there was no probability of its
+termination. On one side we saw rocks on which our vessel threatened
+every instant to drive, on the other were Indians who would no more have
+spared us than the Spaniards who were behind us; and by some evil
+fortune the wind drove us ceaselessly towards the rocks and the Indians,
+and away from the place whither we desired to go."
+
+In the midst of these distresses, six armed vessels gave them chase
+through the storm when they were near the bay of Venezuela. They turned
+out to be vessels of the Count d'Estrees, the French admiral, who
+generously rendered them aid, and the wind abating enabled them to reach
+the shore. Morgan and some others made for Jamaica, and the French for
+St. Domingo,--the Spaniards at the fort probably believing they had
+perished in the gale.
+
+The laggers of Morgan's fleet, who had never joined him, were less
+fortunate than the admiral they deserted. 400 in number, they landed at
+Savona, but could not find the buried letter. They determined to attack
+the town of Comana, on the Caraccas, choosing Captain Hansel, who had
+distinguished himself at Porto Bello, as their commander. This town was
+distant sixty leagues from Trinidad. On landing they killed a few
+Indians who awaited them on the beach, but the Spaniards, disputing
+briskly the entry of the town, drove them back at last to their ships
+with great loss and confusion. On returning to Jamaica they were jeered
+at by Morgan's men, who used to say, "Let us see what sort of money you
+brought from Comana, and if it be as good as that which we won at
+Maracaibo."
+
+Morgan, encouraged by success, soon determined on fresh enterprises. On
+arriving at Jamaica, "he found many of his officers and soldiers already
+reduced to their former indigency by their vices and debaucheries. Hence
+they perpetually importuned him for new exploits, thereby to get
+something to expend still in wine and strumpets, as they had already
+done what they got before. Captain Morgan, willing to follow fortune's
+call, stopped the mouths of many inhabitants of Jamaica who were
+creditors to his men for large sums, with the hopes and promises of
+greater achievements than ever in a new expedition. This done, he could
+easily levy men for any enterprise, his name being so famous through all
+these islands, as that alone would readily bring him in more men than he
+could well employ."
+
+Affecting a mystery, attractive in itself, and necessary where Spanish
+spies might be present, Morgan appointed a rendezvous at Port Couillon,
+on the south side of Hispaniola, and made known his intentions to the
+English and French adventurers, whether in Tortuga or St. Domingo. He
+wrote letters to all the planters and old Buccaneers in Hispaniola, and
+desired their attendance at a common council. At many a hunting fire
+this announcement was read, and many an _engage's_ heart beat high at
+the news, for Morgan was now the champion and hero of the Buccaneers of
+America. Great numbers flocked to the port in ships and canoes, others
+traversed the woods and arrived there by land, through a thousand
+dangers. Such crowds came that it soon became difficult to obtain a
+place in the crews. Vessels and provisions were now all that was wanted.
+Plunder was certain, and they had but to choose on what rich coast they
+should land. The French adventurers, ever gay and ready, were first in
+the field. Morgan himself, punctual and prompt, followed in the _Flying
+Stag_, the St. Malo vessel we have before mentioned, carrying forty-two
+guns. The vessel had been lately confiscated and sold by the governor of
+Jamaica, the unfortunate captain escaping with his life, happy in being
+free although penniless.
+
+At the rendezvous on the 24th day of October, 1670, 1600 men were
+present, and twenty-four vessels assembled at the muster, amid shouting,
+gun firing, flag waving, and great joy and hope. Morgan's proposition
+was to attack some rich place which was well defended--the more danger
+the more booty, for it was only rich places that the Spaniards cared to
+defend. Several previous expeditions had failed from want of provisions,
+and the necessity of attacking small places to obtain food gave the
+alarm to the Spaniards and frustrated their plans. They therefore
+resolved to visit La Rancheria, a small place on the banks of the River
+de la Hache, on the mainland, with four vessels and 400 men. This was a
+place where corn and maize were brought by the farmers for the supply of
+the neighbouring city of Carthagena, and they hoped to capture in the
+port some pearl vessels from that place.
+
+In the meanwhile, Morgan, not caring for lesser prey, employed his men
+in careening, cleaning, rigging, and pitching their vessels ready for
+sea, that all might be ready to weigh anchor the moment the expedition
+of foragers returned. It augured terribly to the Spaniard that it was
+necessary to sack a town or two before the Buccaneer fleet could even
+set sail.
+
+Part of the men were in the woods boar-hunting, and others salting the
+flesh for the voyage. Each crew had a certain part of the woods allotted
+it for its own district, so perfect was Morgan's discipline. Each party
+prepared the salt pork for its own use, while the cauldrons of pitch
+were smoking on the beach, and the clank of the shipwrights' hammers
+could be heard all night by the hunters. The English, who were not so
+expert in hunting as their Gallic brethren (so says a French writer),
+generally took a French hunter with them, to whom they gave 150 or 200
+piastres. Some of these men had trained packs of dogs that would kill
+enough boars in a day to load twenty or thirty men.
+
+The Rancheria expedition arrived in six days within sight of the river,
+and was unfortunately becalmed for some time within a gunshot of land.
+This gave the Spaniards time to prepare for their defence, and either to
+bury their goods or throw up entrenchments, for these repeated visits of
+the Buccaneers had rendered them quick on such occasions. A land-wind at
+last springing up, gave a corn vessel from Carthagena, lying in the
+river, an opportunity to sally out and attempt its escape, but being a
+bad sailer it was soon captured, much to the Englishmen's delight, for
+corn was the object of their visit. By a singular coincidence, it turned
+out to be that very cocoa vessel which Lolonnois sold to the governor of
+Tortuga, who, on its return from France, had sold it to Captain
+Champaigne, a French adventurer, who in his turn sold it to the same
+merchant captain who then commanded it. He told the Buccaneers that it
+made the twelfth vessel taken from him by the brotherhood of the coast
+in five years only, and yet that with all these losses he had contrived
+to make a fortune of 500,000 crowns. "On peut juger par la," says
+Oexmelin, with a shrug, "s'il y a des gens riches dans l'Amerique."
+
+Landing at daybreak, in spite of the mowing fire from a battery, and
+under protection of their own cannon, they drove the Spaniards back to
+their strongly fortified village, which they at once attacked. Here the
+enemy rallied and fought desperately, hand-to-hand, sword blow and push
+of pike, from ten in the morning till night, when they fled, having
+suffered great loss, into secret places in the woods. The Buccaneers,
+who had suffered scarcely less loss, pushed on at once headlong to the
+town, which they found deserted; and next day pursuing the Spaniards
+took many prisoners, and proceeded to torture them, inflicting on fear
+and innocence all the horrors of the Madrid inquisition. In fifteen days
+they captured many prisoners and much booty, and with the usual threats
+of destroying the town, they obtained 4000 hanegs, or bushels of maize,
+sufficient for the whole of the fleet. They preferred this to money, and
+in three days, the whole quantity being brought in by the people, eager
+for their departure, they at once sailed.
+
+Morgan, alarmed at their five weeks' absence, had begun to despair of
+their return, thinking Rancheria must have been relieved from Carthagena
+or Santa Maria. He also thought that they might have had good fortune,
+and deserted him to return to Jamaica. His joy was great to see them
+arrive laden with corn, and more in number than when they departed. A
+council of war was actually holding to plan a new expedition, when
+Captain Bradley and his six vessels hove in sight. The maize was divided
+among the fleet, but the plunder was awarded to the captain who had
+risked his life for the general good.
+
+The captured ship arrived very opportunely, and it was instantly awarded
+by general consent to Le Gascon, a French adventurer who had lately lost
+his vessel. Morgan having divided the meat and corn, and personally
+inspected every bark, set sail for Cape Tiburon, at the west end of
+Hispaniola, a spot convenient for laying in stores of wood and water.
+Here he was joined by several ships from New England, refitted at
+Jamaica. Morgan now found himself suzerain of a fleet of thirty-seven
+vessels, large and small, carrying sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, even
+down to four pound guns. To man these there were 2200 sailors, well
+armed and ready for flight and plunder. The fleet was divided into two
+squadrons, under his vice-admiral and subordinate officers. To the
+captains he gave letters-patent, guaranteeing them from all the effects
+of Spanish hostility, from "the open and declared enemies of the King
+his master," (Charles II.)
+
+The charter-party which we give elsewhere was then signed, the
+rewards were higher than usual, and many modifications introduced.
+In the private council three places were proposed as rich and
+accessible--Panama, Carthagena, and Vera Cruz. In these consultations
+the only thing considered was whether a town was rich or poor, not
+whether it was well or ill defended.
+
+"The lot fell" on Panama, as the richest of the three, though the least
+known to them, being further from the North Pacific than any Buccaneer
+had yet gone. Panama was the galleon-port and the El Dorado of the
+adventurer's yarns. Being so unknown a place they determined to first
+recapture St. Catherine's, where in the prisons they might obtain many
+guides, who had seen both the North and South Pacifics, for outlaws
+made, they found, the best guides for outlaws; and they agreed before
+sailing that, if they took a Spanish vessel, the first captain who
+boarded it should have for his reward a tenth part of her cargo.
+
+They had begun by sacking a town to victual their fleet, they now
+proposed to storm a fort to obtain a guide--St. Catherine's batteries,
+if resolutely manned, being able to beat off three such fleets.
+
+The admiral, it was agreed, should have a share for every hundred men,
+and every captain eight shares if the vessel they took was large. The
+crews then one by one took the oath of fidelity. On the 18th December,
+1670, the fleet set sail for St. Catherine's, whose prisoners would
+rejoice at their arrival.
+
+The one squadron carried the royal English and the other a white flag.
+The admiral's division bore a red banner with a white cross, "le
+pavillon du parlement," and at the bow-sprit one of three colours, blue,
+white, and red. Those of the other divisions carried a white and red
+flag. Morgan also appointed peculiar signals for all emergencies.
+
+On their way to St. Catherine's they chased two Dutch vessels from
+Cuba, which escaped by aid of contrary winds that baffled their
+pursuers. In four days the fleet arrived at St. Catherine's, and Morgan
+despatched two small vessels to guard the port.
+
+This island was renowned for its vast flocks of migratory pigeons, and
+is watered by four streams, two of which are dry in summer. The land,
+though fertile, was not cultivated.
+
+The next day, before sunrise, they anchored in the bay of Aguada Grande,
+where the Spaniards had erected a four-gun battery. Morgan, at the head
+of 100 men, landed and made his way through the woods, having no guides
+but some old Buccaneers who had been there before with Mansvelt. On
+arriving that night at the governor's house and the Platform Battery
+they found the Spaniards had retreated by a bridge into the smaller and
+almost impregnable island, which they had made strong enough to beat off
+10,000 men. Being driven back at first by a tremendous fire, Morgan was
+obliged to encamp that night in the woods or open country--no hardship
+to hunters or sailors in fine weather. There still remained a whole
+league of dense brush between them and their enemies, at once their
+protection and destruction. A chilling torrent of rain began to beat
+upon them, and instead of ceasing, as they had hoped, lasted till noon
+of the next day. They pulled down two or three thatched huts, and made
+small damp fires, that scorched a few but warmed none. They could not
+shelter themselves, and, what was worse, could not keep their arms and
+powder dry. But more than this, they suffered from hunger, having had no
+food for a whole day. The men for the greater part being dressed with no
+clothes but a seaman's shirt and trowsers, and without shoes or
+stockings, suffered dreadfully after the burning of a tropic noon from
+this freezing cold and rain. One hundred men, says Esquemeling, even
+indifferently well armed, might have cut them all to pieces. At daybreak
+they were roused from their shivering sleep by the Spanish drums beating
+the _Diane_, or _reveille_. The rain had now ceased, and their courage
+rose as high as ever. But they could not answer this challenge, for
+their own drums were loose and soaked with wet, and they had now to
+employ themselves in quickly drying their arms. Scarcely had they done
+this, when it began to cloud over and rain with increased fury, as if
+the "sky were melting into waters," which blinded them and prevented
+them again from advancing to the attack. Many of them grew
+faint-hearted, and talked of returning. The men were now feeble for want
+of sleep, and faint with cold and hunger. The eager foragers found in a
+field "an old horse, lean, and full of scabs and blotches, with galled
+back and sides." This was instantly killed and flayed, and divided in
+small pieces among as many as could get any, and eagerly eaten without
+salt or bread by the few lucky epicures--"eaten," says the historian,
+"more like ravenous wolves eat than men."
+
+The rain still gushing down, and the men, worn out in mind and body,
+growing angry, discontented, and clamorous, it became necessary for
+Morgan to act with promptitude. About noon, to his great joy, the rain
+ceased and the sun broke out. Taking advantage of this lull--for the
+rain had barred even their retreat--Morgan ordered a canoe to be rigged
+out in great haste, and dispatched four men with a white flag to the
+Spanish governor, declaring that if they did not all surrender he would
+put them to the sword without quarter. His audacity was luckily crowned
+with success. Opposed armies are often men mutually afraid, trying to
+frighten each other. The governor was intimidated. He demanded two hours
+to confer with his officers. At the end of this time, on Morgan giving
+hostages, two soldiers with white flags were sent to arrange terms. The
+governor had decided in full conference that he could not defend the
+island against such an armada, but he proposed a certain (Dalgetty-like)
+stratagem of war to save his own head, and preserve the reputation of
+his officers at home and abroad.
+
+Morgan was to come at night and assault the fort of St. Jerome, which
+stood near the bridge that joined the two islands, and at the same
+moment his fleet was to attack the castle of Santa Teresa by sea, and
+land troops near the battery of St. Matthew. These men were to
+intercept and take prisoner the governor as he made his way to the St.
+Jerome batteries. He would then at once lead them to the castle, as if
+they were his own men. On both sides there was to be continual firing,
+but only with powder, and no bullets. The forts thus taken, the island
+would of course surrender.
+
+This well-arranged performance took place with great _eclat_. Morgan, in
+acceding to the terms, had insisted on their strict performance of every
+item, and gave notice, for fear of ambush, that every straggling
+Spaniard would be shot. Afraid of a stratagem, some Buccaneers loaded
+their muskets with ball, and held themselves ready for any danger. With
+much smoke and great consumption of powder, the unsuspecting Spaniards
+were driven like sheep into the church, the island surrendered, and by
+this bloodless artifice Spanish pride remained unhurt.
+
+But a cruel massacre now commenced. The Buccaneers had eaten nothing for
+nearly two days. They made war upon all the poultry and cattle--the
+oldest cow was slain, the toughest rooster strangled. For several days
+the island was lit up with huge fires, round which the men roasted their
+meat, and revelled and caroused. When wood grew scarce they pulled down
+cottages to light their fires, and having no wine very wisely made use
+of water.
+
+The day after the surrender they numbered their prisoners, and found
+they had collected 450 souls--seventy of the garrison, forty-three
+children, and thirty-one slaves. The men were all carefully disarmed,
+and sent to the plantations to bring in provisions; the women were left
+in the church to pray and weep. They next inspected all the ten
+batteries, wondering in their strength and exulting in their victory.
+The fort St. Jerome contained eight great guns and sixty muskets; the
+St. Matthew three guns; the Santa Teresa twenty guns and 120 muskets.
+The castle was very strong, and moated; impregnable on the sea side, and
+on the land side ascended by a narrow mountain path, while the guns on
+its summit commanded the port. The St. Augustine fort mounted three
+guns; the Platform two; the St. Salvador and another also two; the Santa
+Cruz three; and the St. Joseph six and twelve muskets. In the magazine
+they found 30,000 pounds of powder, which they at once shipped, with all
+the other ammunition. In the St. Jerome battery Morgan left a guard, but
+in all the other forts the guns were spiked and the gun-carriages burnt.
+
+The object of his visit was still to seek. Examining the prisoners, who
+were now crowded in with merchants and grandees, he inquired for
+banditti from Panama, and three slaves stepped forward who knew every
+path and avenue to the city. These men he chose as guides, promising
+them a full Buccaneer's share of the spoil if they brought him by a
+secure way to the city, and, in addition, their liberty when they
+reached Jamaica. These volunteers consisted of two Indians and a
+mulatto. The former denied all knowledge of the place; the latter--a
+"rogue, thief, and assassin, who had deserved breaking on the wheel
+rather than mere garrison service"--readily accepted Morgan's
+propositions, and promised to serve him faithfully. He had a great
+ascendancy over the two Indians, and domineered over them as he pleased,
+without their daring to disobey a half-blood already on the point of
+preferment.
+
+The next step to Panama was to capture Chagres and its castle, and
+Morgan at once dispatched five vessels, well equipped, with 400 men on
+board, to undertake this expedition, remaining himself at St.
+Catherine's, lest the people of Panama should be alarmed. He was to
+follow his van-guard in eight days, guided by the Indians, who knew
+Chagres. This time he and his men prudently spent in pulling manioc
+roots for cassava, and digging potatoes for the voyage.
+
+The Chagres expedition was led by the same Captain Bradley who commanded
+at Rancheria. He had been with Mansvelt formerly, and had rendered
+himself famous by his exploits both among the Buccaneers and the
+Spaniards. He arrived in three days at Chagres, opposite Fort St.
+Lawrence, which was built on a mountain commanding the entrance of the
+river. As soon as the Spaniards saw the red flag spreading from his
+vessels, they displayed the royal colours of Spain, and saluted him with
+a volley too hasty and angry to be very destructive. The Buccaneers,
+according to their usual stratagem, landed at Narangui, a place a
+quarter of a league distant from the castle, their guide leading them
+through thick woods, through which they had to cut a path with their
+sabres. It was early morning when they landed, and requiring half a day
+to perform the short distance, they did not reach a hill commanding the
+castle till two o'clock. The mire and dirt of the road combined, with
+the darkness of the way, to lengthen their march. The guides served them
+well, but brought them at one spot so near to the castle, and in so open
+and bare a place, that they lost many men by the shot. In other parts
+the wood was so thick that they could only tell that they were near the
+castle by the discharge of the cannon. The hill they had now reached was
+not within musket range, and they were thus deprived of the use of
+their favourite weapon. Could they have dragged cannon so far they might
+have taken the place without losing a man.
+
+The castle of Chagres was built on a high mountain at the entry of a
+river, and surrounded by strong wooden palisadoes banked with earth. The
+top of the mountain was divided into two parts, between which ran a
+ditch thirty feet deep; the tower had but one entrance by a drawbridge,
+towards the land it had four bastions, and towards the sea two more. The
+south wall was inaccessible crag, the north was moated by the broad
+river. At the foot of the hill lay a strong fort with eight guns, which
+commanded the river's mouth; a little lower down were two other
+batteries, each of six guns, all pointing the same way. At another side
+were two great store-houses, full of goods, brought from the inland, and
+near these a flight of steps, cut in the rock, led to the castle of the
+summit. On the west side was a small port not more than seven or eight
+fathoms deep, with good anchorage for small vessels, and before the
+hill a great rock rose from the waves, which almost covered it at low
+water.
+
+The place appeared such a perfect volcano of fire, and so threatening
+and dangerous, that the Buccaneers, but for fear of Morgan's rage and
+contempt, would have at once turned back. After many disputes and much
+doubt and perplexity, they resolved to hazard the assault and risk their
+lives. When they descended from their hill into the plain, they had to
+throw themselves on their faces to escape the desolating shower of
+balls; but their marksmen, quite uncovered and without defence, shot at
+the Spanish gunners through the loops of the palisading, and killed all
+who showed themselves. This skirmishing continued till the evening, when
+the Buccaneers, who had lost many men, their commander having his leg
+broken with a cannon shot, began to waver and to think of retiring,
+having in vain tried to burn down the place with their fireballs, and
+charged up to the very walls, which they tried in vain to climb, sword
+in hand. When the Spaniards saw them drawing back through the dusk, in
+some disorder, carrying their wounded men and gnashing their teeth in
+rage at the dark lines of defence, they shouted out "Come on, you dogs
+of heretics; come on, you English devils: you shan't get to Panama this
+bout, for we'll serve your comerades as we have served you." The
+Buccaneers, astonished at their cries, now for the first time learnt
+that Morgan's expedition had been heard of at Panama.
+
+Night had already begun, and the rain of bullets, shot, and Indian
+arrows (more deadly almost than the bullets), harassing and well-aimed,
+continued as grievous as by day. Taking advantage of the gloom, another
+party advanced to the palisadoes; the light of their burning fuses
+directed the aim of the Spaniards.
+
+A singular accident of war gave the place, so briskly defended, into the
+hands of the assailants. A party of the French musketeers were talking
+together, devising a plan of advance, when a swift Indian arrow fell
+among them and pierced one of the speakers in the shoulder (Esquemeling
+says in the back and right through the body, another writer says in the
+eye). A thought struck the wounded man, for the wound had spurred his
+imagination: coolly drawing the point from his shoulder, he said to
+those near him, "Attendez, mes freres, je m'en vais faire perir tous les
+Espagnols--tous--avec cette sacre fleche" (wait a bit, my mates, I'll
+kill all the Spaniards--all--with this d---- arrow); so saying he drew
+from his pocket a handful of wild cotton, which the Buccaneers kept as
+lint to staunch their wounds, and wound it round the dart; then putting
+it in his loaded musket, from which he extracted the ball, he fired it
+back at the castle roof. It alighted on some dry thatch, which in a
+moment began to smoke, and in another second broke into a bright flame,
+more visible for the darkness. The Buccaneers shouted and pushed on to
+the attack, and the wounded men forgot their wounds. Some of the men,
+seeing the result of the experiment, gathered up the Indian arrows that
+lay thick around them, and fired them at the roofs. Many houses were
+soon in flames. The Spaniards, busy with the defence, did not see the
+fire until it had gained some head, and reaching a parcel of powder
+blown it up and caused ruin and consternation within the fort. If they
+left the walls the Buccaneers gained ground, if they left the fire the
+flames spread more terribly than before; the want of sufficient water
+increased the confusion, and while they tried to quench the
+conflagration, the Buccaneers set fire to the palisadoes.
+
+Oexmelin, who was present as a surgeon at this attack of Chagres, relates
+an anecdote of courage which he himself witnessed, to show the
+indomitable fury of the assailants. One of his own friends was pierced
+in the eye by an Indian arrow, and came to him to beg him to pull it
+out, the pain was so intense and unbearable. Although a surgeon, Oexmelin
+had not the nerve to inflict such torture, however momentary, on a
+friend, and turned away in pity, upon which the hardy seaman tore out
+the arrow with a curse, and, binding up the wound, rushed forward to the
+wall. The few Buccaneers who had retreated, seeing the flames, now
+hurried back to the attack. The Spaniards could no longer see the enemy
+at whom they fired, the night was so dark and starless, while the
+Buccaneers shot down with the unerring aim of hunters the Spaniards,
+whose bodies stood out dark and well-defined against the bright
+background of flame. All this time, before the fire of the roofs could
+be extinguished, the Buccaneers had swarmed through the fosse, and,
+mounting upon each other's shoulders, burnt down part of the palisadoes,
+as we have before described, in spite of the hand grenades that were
+thrown from above, and which burst among them. The fire ran along the
+wall, leaping like a winged thing, and devoured wherever it clung,
+spreading with dreadful rapidity.
+
+The fight continued all night, and when the calm daylight broke on the
+worn soldiers, the Buccaneers saw with sparkling eyes that the gabions
+had smouldered through, and that the earth had fallen down in large
+heaps into the fosse. The breaches in many places were practicable. The
+armour had fallen piece-meal from their giant adversary, and he now
+stood before them bare, wounded, and defenceless. The Buccaneers,
+creeping within musket shot of the walls, shot down the gunners in the
+breaches to which the cannon had been dragged by the governor's orders
+during the night. Divided into two bands, one party kept up a constant
+fire on the guns, and the other watched the motions of the enemy. About
+noon they advanced to a spot which the governor himself defended, belted
+round with twenty-five brave Spaniards, armed with pikes, halberds,
+swords, and muskets. They advanced under a dreadful hail of fire and
+lead, the defenders casting down flaming pots full of combustible matter
+and "_odious smells_," which destroyed many of the English. But we do
+not know how smells could drive back men who would have marched through
+hell if it had been the shortest way to Panama.
+
+Nothing could equal the unflinching courage of the Spaniards--they
+disputed every inch of ground--they yielded slowly like wounded lions
+when the hunters narrow their circles. They showered stones and all
+available missiles on their assailants, only wishing to kill a
+Buccaneer, but feeling that resistance was hopeless; some, rather than
+yield, threw themselves from the cliffs into the sea, and few survived
+the fall. As the Buccaneers won their way to the castle the Spaniards
+retreated to the _garde du corps_, where they entrenched themselves with
+two cannon; to the last the governor refused quarter, and at last fell
+shot through the brain. The few who remained surrendered when the guns
+were taken and would have been turned against them.
+
+Only fourteen men were found unhurt in the fort and about nine or ten
+wounded, who had hid themselves among the dead. They told Morgan that
+they were all that were left of a garrison of 314 soldiers. The
+governor, seeing that he was lost, had despatched the survivors to
+Panama to alarm the city, and remained behind to die. No officer was
+left alive; they had been the first to set their men the example of a
+glorious death. It appeared that a Buccaneer deserter, an Irishman,
+whom Morgan had not even informed of his design, had come to the port,
+and assured them of the attack on La Rancheria, and the contemplated
+movement on Panama. The governor of that place had instantly sent to
+Chagres a reinforcement of 164 men, with ammunition and provisions, and
+had placed ambuscades along the river. He was at that very moment, they
+said, awaiting them in the savannah with 3600 men: of these 2000 were
+infantry, 400 cavalry, and 600 Indians. He had also employed 200
+muleteers and hunters to collect a drove of 1000 wild cattle to drive
+down upon the invaders.
+
+"The taking of this castle," says Esquemeling, "cost the pirates
+excessively dear, in comparison to what they were wont to lose, and
+their toil and labour was greater than at the conquest of the Isle of
+St. Catherine." On numbering their thinned ranks, many voices were
+silent at the roll call. More than 100 men were found to be dead, and
+more than seventy grievously wounded. There were sixty who could not
+rise, and many in the ranks wore on their arms strips of the Spanish
+colours, or had their heads bound round with bloody cloths. The
+prisoners they compelled to drag their own dead to the edge of the
+cliffs and cast them among the shattered bodies on the beach, and then
+to bury them where the sea could not wash them out of their graves, or
+the birds devour them. The castle chapel they turned into an hospital
+for the wounded, and the female slaves were employed to tend them, for
+the surgeons in the heat of battle had only had time to amputate a limb
+or bind an artery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CONQUEST OF PANAMA.
+
+   March from Chagres--Famine--Ambuscade of Indians--Wild bulls driven
+   down upon them--Victory--Battle of the Forts--Takes the City--Burns
+   part of it--Cruelties--Debauchery--Retreat with prisoners--Virtue of
+   the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings--Ransom--Division of
+   booty--Treason of Morgan--Escapes by night to Jamaica--Dispersion of
+   the Fleet--Morgan's subsequent fate.
+
+
+The bodies of their comerades, who had died that they who survived might
+conquer, were buried, not without some tears even from these rude men,
+in large (plague pit) graves, dug by the prisoners. The women were
+violated in the first fury of the sack. During their plunder they found
+a great quantity of provisions and ammunitions stored up for the use of
+the fleet. Their next act was to repair the fort and render it tenable.
+
+Morgan, instantly informed of the fall of Chagres, did not remain long
+behind. Having first collected all the Indian wheat and cassava he could
+carry, he embarked his prisoners and provisions, taking with him Don
+Joseph Ramirez de Leiba, the governor, and the chief officers. The
+cannon he spiked or threw into the sea, in places where he might recover
+them, intending to return and fortify the place, as a stronghold if his
+design on Panama failed. The forts, and church, and house he fired, with
+the exception of the castle of Santa Teresa.
+
+In sailing to Chagres a storm arose and dispersed his vessels, keeping
+them many days at sea. The admiral, always watchful in danger, suffered
+himself for a moment to sleep in the hour of prosperity. When he
+approached the river mouth and saw the English flag floating from the
+blackened walls, he could not restrain the heedless joy of his crew--not
+waiting for the pilot canoe that was putting out to warn them of their
+danger, he drove on the sunken rock at the foot of the castle hill. His
+own and three other vessels sank, yet the crews and cargoes were all
+saved, and but for a strong "norther" the ships themselves would have
+been preserved.
+
+Brought into the castle with acclamations and hearty congratulations at
+his escape, Morgan employed the Spanish prisoners from St. Catherine's
+in repairing the palisading of the fort, carefully destroying all
+thatched sheds for fear of fire. He then chose a garrison by lot, and
+divided the stores. He heard with delight the details of the victory,
+and lamented the absent dead and the many brave men that had shared so
+often his own hopes and fears. His next movement was to seize some
+_chatten_, or small Spanish vessels that were still in the river. They
+were small craft that went to and fro between Chagres and Porto Bello,
+or Nicaragua, or plied with merchandise up and down the river. They
+mounted six guns, two iron, and four small brass, and were navigated by
+six men. He also took four small frigates of fourteen and eight guns,
+and all the canoes he could lay hands on, requiring them for the
+expedition. He left behind him 100 men, under command of Captain Le
+Maurice, and 150 men to guard the ships.
+
+For Panama, Morgan took with him 1300 of the best armed and the most
+robust of his band, five boats with artillery, and thirty-two canoes. He
+imprudently carried little provisions, expecting to obtain plenty from
+the Spaniards they should kill in the ambuscades. In spite of the recent
+victory, and of Morgan's certainty of conquest, many of the Buccaneers
+were less sanguine than on former expeditions. The Spanish prisoners had
+succeeded in alarming them by rumours of the dangers and intricacy of
+the road, and the ambuscades that had been two months in preparation.
+Some, more superstitious than the rest, thought the wreck of Morgan's
+ship, and the severe loss at Chagres, bad omens for their success at
+Panama. But these were mocked at by the rest, as white-livered, and
+Morgan having divided the provisions between the garrison and the St.
+Catherine prisoners, reviewed his men, and examined himself their arms
+and ammunition. He quieted their fears and spoke of victory as already
+obtained. He exhorted them to show more than usual courage, in order to
+return as soon as possible rich and glorious to Jamaica. With a shout of
+"Long live the King of England, and long live Henry Morgan," they began
+their march towards the doomed city on the 18th of January, 1670.
+
+The first day they advanced only six leagues to Rio de los Bracos, where
+they got out of their canoes to sleep on shore, being crippled with
+overcrowding in the boats. They could have brought no provisions, for
+few had any food that day, but a pipe of tobacco "to stop the orifice of
+the stomach." They could find nothing in the deserted plantations, where
+even the unripe fruits had been plucked and the roots pulled up before
+their arrival. The men longed to fight, in order that they might eat. By
+noon of the next day they reached Cruz de Juan Gallego, where they were
+obliged to leave their canoes; the river was very dry and shallow from
+want of rain, and much impeded with fallen trees, but their hopes were
+excited by the guide's intelligence, that about two leagues further the
+roads grew better. Here they left their boats with 160 men to guard
+them, as a resource in case of defeat, giving them strict injunctions
+not to land for fear of ambuscades in the neighbouring woods, which were
+so thick as to seem impenetrable. Finding the forest almost impassable,
+Morgan ordered a few of the canoes to be rowed, though with immense
+labour, to a place called Cedro Bueno, further up the river, taking half
+the men at a time and returning for the rest, so by nightfall all the
+men were once more united. From discovering no ambuscades, in spite of
+all the wishes of these hungry soldiers, it was supposed that the
+Spanish spies, willing to avoid a fight, had frightened their officers
+by exaggerating the number of the adventurers. On the third day Morgan
+sent forward some guides, who could find no road, the country being
+flat, inundated, and marshy. The men, who had scarcely eaten anything
+since their departure, grew faint and hungry, and a few of them
+gathered the leaves from the forest trees. It being night before they
+could pass the river, they slept on the bank, exposed, half-clothed as
+they were, to the tropical damps and cold.
+
+The fourth day's march they advanced in divisions; the largest went by
+land, the smaller in canoes. The guides were always kept two musket
+shots in advance, to give notice of ambuscades, and in hopes of
+capturing stragglers who might furnish intelligence. But the Spaniards
+had also scouts, very wary, and very "dexterous" in giving notice of all
+accidents, frequently bringing the Panama men intelligence of the
+Buccaneers' approach six hours before the enemy arrived. About noon the
+army reached a post named Torna Cavallos, so called probably from the
+roughness of the road, and at this spot the guide of the canoes cried
+out that he saw an ambuscade. With infinite joy, the hungry men,
+thirsting for blood, flew to arms, knowing that the Spaniards always
+went luxuriously provided with food, and knowing that a dead Spaniard
+could want no more provender. As soon as they came within sight of the
+entrenchment, which was shaped like a half-moon, and the palisading
+formed of entire trees, they uttered a dreadful shout, and, driven on by
+rage and hunger, began to race like starved wolves, seeing which could
+first cross swords with the enemy, whom they believed to be about 400
+strong. But their hearts fell within them when they found the place a
+mere deserted rampart, and all the provisions, but a few crumbs which
+lay scattered about, either burnt or carried off. Some leather bags lay
+here and there, as if left in a hasty retreat. Enraged at this, they at
+once pulled down the Spanish huts, and cutting the leather bags, tore
+them up for food. Quarrels then arose for the largest messes, but before
+they could well finish this unsavoury banquet, the drum sounded for the
+march. About 500 Spaniards seem to have held these entrenchments, and
+many of the men threatened to devour the first fugitive they could meet
+with. About night they reached another deserted ambuscade, called Torna
+Munni, equally bare of food, and the remainder of the bags were now
+devoured. Those fortunate enough to obtain a strip first soaked slices
+of it in water, next beat it between two stones, then scraped off the
+hair with their hunters' knives, and, roasting it in the fire, ate it
+leisurely in small pieces. "I can assure the reader," says Oexmelin,
+"that a man can live on this fare, but he can hardly get _very fat_."
+Frequent draughts of water (which, by good fortune, they had at hand)
+seasoned this not very palatable food of men accustomed to revel on
+venison and brandy. "Some who were never out of their mothers'
+kitchens," says Esquemeling, "may ask how these pirates could eat and
+digest those pieces of leather, so hard and dry, whom I answer, that
+could they once experience what hunger, or rather famine, is, they would
+find the way as the pirates did."
+
+The fifth day at noon they arrived at a place called Barbacoa, where
+there were more deserted barricades, and the adjacent plantations were
+equally bare of either man, animal, or plant. Searching with all the
+zeal and perseverance of hungry men, they found at last, buried in the
+floor of a cave lately hewn out of the rock, two sacks of flour, two
+jars of wine, and some plantains, and Morgan generously divided these
+among the most exhausted of his troops, some being now nearly dead with
+famine. The flour they mixed with water, and, wrapping the dough in
+banana leaves, baked it in the fire. Somewhat refreshed, they renewed
+their march with increased skill and vigour. The lagging men they placed
+in the canoes, till they reached at night some deserted plantations
+known as the Tabernillas, where they slept.
+
+On the sixth day they marched slowly, after resting a time from real
+weakness, some of the strongest being sent into the woods to pluck
+berries and pull roots, many even eating leaves and grass. The same day
+at noon they arrived at a plantation. Eagerly foraging here, but not
+expecting to find anything, they turned a little from the road, and came
+upon a barn full of maize in the husk. Beating down the door, they fell
+upon it and devoured it as rapaciously as a herd of swine, till they
+fell off satiated. A distribution was then made of it to each man, for
+hunger does not care for cooking. Loaded with this grain they continued
+their march in high spirits for about two hours, when they came suddenly
+on about 200 Indians, and soon after passed a deserted ambuscade. Those
+who had maize still left threw it away, thinking that the Spaniards and
+better food were at hand. These archers were on the opposite side of the
+river. The Buccaneers, firing, killed a few, and pursued the others as
+far as Santa Cruz. The nimblest escaped by swimming, and two or three
+adventurers, who waded after them, were pierced with arrows at the ford.
+The Indians, as they fled, hooted--"Ah perros Ingleses, a la savanah, a
+la savanah:" "_English dogs, English dogs, come to the savannah._"
+Passing the river they were now compelled to begin their march on the
+opposite side. There was little sleep that night, but great dejection,
+and murmurs arose against Captain Morgan and his conduct. He was blamed
+for not having brought provisions, and for not having yet met the
+Spaniards; condemned for irreconcilable errors, and reviled for even his
+past successes. Some declared they would return home, others would
+willingly have done so, yet were afraid to retreat; but a large party
+declared they would rather die than go back a step. One of the guides,
+perhaps bribed by Morgan, promised that it should not be long before
+they met with people from whom they should derive no small advantage,
+and this comforted them. A tinge of superstition would have soon
+converted this into one of those prophecies by which Cromwell and Cortes
+both consoled their desponding troopers.
+
+On the seventh morning, expecting enemies, the men all cleaned their
+arms, and every one discharged his musket and pistols without ball to
+let the Spaniards hear they were coming, and that their ammunition was
+not damaged. Leaving Santa Cruz, where they had rested, they crossed the
+river in their canoes, and arrived at the town of Cruz.
+
+At some distance from Cruz they had beheld to their great joy a great
+smoke rising above the roofs, which they thought arose from kitchen
+chimneys, and quickening their pace they began to laugh, and shout, and
+leap,--joking at the Spanish waste of fuel, and saying, "the Spanish
+cooks are roasting meat for our dinner when we have mastered their
+masters;" but as the smoke grew thicker, they began to think that the
+enemy were burning some houses that interfered with the fire of the
+entrenchments.
+
+Two hours after, on arriving panting and hot at Cruz, they found the
+place deserted and stripped, and no meat, but many fires, for every
+Spaniard had burnt his own house, and only the royal store-house and
+stables were left standing. A few crackling ruins were all that remained
+of the great halfway house between Chagres and Panama, for here the
+Chagres merchandise was always landed and transported to Panama on the
+backs of mules, being distant only twenty-six Spanish leagues from the
+river of Chagres, and eight from Panama. The disappointed Buccaneers
+spent the remainder of the day at Cruz in seeking food and resting.
+Every cat and dog was soon killed and eaten, for the cattle had been all
+driven off. Morgan, growing now more strict in discipline, gave orders
+that no party of less than 100 men should leave the town. Five or six
+Englishmen who disobeyed the order were killed by the Indians. In the
+king's stables fifteen or sixteen jars of Peruvian wine were found, and
+a leather sack full of biscuit. Morgan, afraid that his men would fall
+into excesses, spread a report that the Spaniards had poisoned the
+wine--a report confirmed by the violent sickness of all who drank of it;
+although half-starved men, fed for a week on vegetable refuse, would
+have been injured by any excess. It was, however, eagerly drunk, and
+would have been had there been death in every cup. This sickness
+detained them a day at Cruz. The canoes, being now useless, were sent
+back, guarded by sixty men, to join the other boats, one alone being hid
+in a thicket for fear of any emergency or any necessity arising, and to
+transmit intelligence to the vessels. He feared that, if left at Cruz,
+they might be captured, and would at least require an extra guard.
+
+On the eighth day at morning Morgan reviewed his troop, and found he had
+1100 able and resolute men still at his back. He persuaded them that
+their comerade who was carried off by the Indians had returned, having
+only lost his way in the woods, fearing they might be discouraged at his
+disappearance. He then chose a band of the best marksmen as a forlorn
+hope, and a "hundred of these men," says Oexmelin, "are worth six hundred
+of any other nation." He divided the remainder into a van and wings,
+knowing that he should have to pass many places where not more than two
+men could pass abreast.
+
+After ten hours' march they arrived at a place called _Quebrada
+Obscura_, a dark wooded gorge where the sunlight rarely entered. Here,
+on a sudden, a shower of 300 or 400 arrows poured down upon them,
+killing eight or nine men, and wounding ten. These arrows came from an
+Indian ambuscade hid on a wooded and rocky mountain, perforated by a
+natural arch, through which only one laden beast could pass. The
+Buccaneers, though they could see nothing but rocks and trees, instantly
+returned the fire, and two Indians rolled down into the path. One of
+these, who appeared to be a chief, for he wore a coronet of variegated
+feathers, attempted to stab an English adventurer with his javelin, but
+a companion, parrying the thrust with his sabre, slew the Indian. This
+brave man was, it is supposed, the leader of the ambuscade, for the
+savages seeing him fall took at once to flight, and never discharged
+another shaft. As they entered a wood the rest of the Indians fled to
+seize the next height, from whence they might observe them and harass
+their march. The Buccaneers found them too swift to capture, and pursued
+them in vain: but two or three of the wounded fugitives were found dead
+in the road. A few armed and disciplined men could have made this pass
+good against a hundred, but these Indians were now scattered and without
+a leader, and they had only fired at random, and in haste, through
+trees and thickets that intercepted their arrows. On leaving this defile
+the Buccaneers entered a broad prairie, where they rested while the
+wounded were tended. At a long distance before them they could see the
+Indians on a rocky eminence, commanding the road where they must pass.
+Fifty active men were dispatched to take them in the rear in the hopes
+of obtaining some prisoners, but all in vain, for the Indians were not
+only more agile but knew all the passes. Two hours after they were seen
+at about two gunshots' distance, on the same eminence from which they
+had been just driven, while the Buccaneers were now on an opposite
+height, and between them lay a wood. The Buccaneers supposed that a
+Spanish ambuscade was hid here, for whenever they came near enough the
+Indians cried out "A la savanah, a la savanah, cornudos perros
+Ingleses:" "To the savannah, to the savannah, you cuckold English dogs."
+Morgan sent 100 men to search this wood, and upon this the Spaniards and
+Indians came down from the mountain as if to attack them, but appeared
+no more.
+
+About night, a great rain falling, the Buccaneers marched faster, in
+order to prevent their arms getting wet, but they could find no houses
+to barrack in, for the Indians had burnt them all and driven away the
+cattle, hoping to starve out the men whom they could not drive out. They
+left the main road after diligent search, and found a few shepherds'
+huts, but too few to shelter all their company; they therefore piled
+their arms, and chose a small number from each company to guard them.
+Those who slept in the open air endured much hardship, the rain not
+ceasing all night. They made temporary sheds, which they covered with
+boughs, in order to sleep under a shelter, however imperfect; and
+sentinels were placed, Morgan being afraid of the Indians, who chose wet
+nights for their onslaughts, when fire-arms were often useless.
+
+Next morning very early, being the ninth of their tedious journey, they
+recommenced their march, Morgan bidding them all discharge their guns
+and then reload them, for fear of the wet having damped the powder. The
+fresh air of the morning, clear after the storm, was still about them,
+and the clouds had not yet yielded to the tropical sun as they pushed on
+over a path more difficult than before. In about two hours' time a band
+of twenty Spaniards began to appear in the distance, and the Indians
+were also visible, but Morgan could obtain no prisoners, though he
+offered a reward of 300 crowns for every Spaniard brought in. When
+pursued the enemy hid themselves in caves and eluded all search.
+
+At last, toiling slowly up a high mountain, the adventurers unexpectedly
+beheld from the top the South Sea glittering in the distance. This
+caused them as great joy as the sight of "Thalatta" did to the soldiers
+of Xenophon. They thought their expedition now completed, for to them
+victory was a certainty. They could discern upon the sea, never before
+beheld, a large ship and six small boats setting forth from Panama to
+the islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla, which were only six leagues
+distant. Fortune smiled upon them to-day, for, descending this
+mountain, they came into a grassy prairie valley, full of all sorts of
+cattle, which were being pursued by mounted Spaniards, who fled at the
+sight of the Buccaneers. Upon these animals Morgan's men rushed with the
+avidity of half-starved hunters, the eagerness of sailors to obtain
+fresh meat, and all the haste that brave men exhibit to get at an enemy.
+One shot a horse, another felled a cow, but the greater part slaughtered
+the mules, which were the most numerous. Some kindled fires, others
+collected wood, and the strongest hunted the cattle, while the invalids
+slew, and skinned, and flayed. The whole plain was soon alight with a
+hundred fires. The hungry men cut off lumps of flesh, carbonadoed them
+in the flame, and ate them half raw with incredible haste and ferocity.
+"They resembled," Esquemeling says, "rather cannibals than Christians,
+the blood running down their beards to the middle of their bodies." But
+no hunger, no fear, no passion threw Morgan off his guard. Hungry and
+weary himself, and sympathising with his men's hunger, he saw the
+danger of this reckless gluttony, which produced a reaction of inertness
+as dangerous as intoxication. Dreading surprise, for he was surrounded
+by enemies, he beat a false alarm, and seizing their arms, his men,
+ashamed of their excess, renewed their march. The remainder of the meat,
+half-roasted or quite raw, they strung to their bandoliers. "The very
+look of these men," says Esquemeling, "was enough to have terrified the
+boldest, for we know that in love as well as war, the eyes are the
+soonest conquered." Morgan, anxious at not having yet obtained a
+prisoner as guide, again despatched a vanguard of fifty men, who about
+evening saw in the distance 500 Spaniards, who shouted to them they knew
+not what.
+
+Soon after, almost at dusk, mounting a small eminence, they saw a better
+sight than even the South Sea--the highest steeples of Panama, bright in
+the sunset; upon this, like the German soldiers at the sight of the
+Rhine, the Buccaneers gave three cheers, to show their extreme joy,
+leaping and shouting, and throwing their hats into the air as if they
+had already won the victory. At the same time the drums beat stormily
+and proudly, and each man shot off his piece, while the red flag was
+displayed and waved in defiance of the Spaniard, and high above all the
+trumpet sounded.
+
+The camp was pitched for the night by the men, who waited impatiently
+for the morning when the battle should join; with equal pride and
+courage 200 mounted Spaniards shouted in return as they dashed up within
+musket shot, "To-morrow, to-morrow, ye dogs, we shall meet in the
+savannah;" and as they ended, their trumpet sounded clearer than even
+that of Morgan's. These horsemen were soon joined by several companies
+of infantry and several squadrons of cavalry, who wheeled round them
+within cannon shot. These troops had been despatched when the sounds of
+the Buccaneers' approach reached the gates of the city. There were still
+two hours of light, but Morgan determined not to fight till early in the
+morning, when he might be able to move freely in the unknown country,
+and when there would be a whole clear, bright day for the battle. As
+night drew on all the Spaniards retired to the city, excepting seven or
+eight troopers, who hovered about to watch the enemy's motions and give
+the alarm, if a night attack was contemplated. On his side Morgan placed
+double sentinels, and every now and then ordered false alarms to be beat
+to keep his men on the alert. Those who had any meat left ate it raw, as
+they had often done when hunters. No fires were allowed to be kindled,
+and the men lying, ready armed, on the grass, waited eagerly for the
+daylight. 120 cavaliers again joined the Spanish scouts, and affected to
+maintain a strict blockade, and the city all night played with its
+biggest guns upon the camp, but being at so great a distance did little
+harm to the Buccaneers.
+
+At daybreak of the tenth day of their march the Spaniards beat the
+_Diane_, and Morgan, replying heartily, began with great eagerness to
+push forward to the city, the Spaniards wheeling cautiously around his
+wings. One of the guides warned Morgan against the high road, which he
+knew would be blocked up and crowded with ambuscades, and the army
+defiled into a wood to the right, where the passage was so difficult
+that none but Buccaneers could have forced a way, "very irksome indeed,"
+says Esquemeling. The Spaniards, completely baffled and astonished by
+this diversion, left their batteries in a hurry, and, without any
+distinct plan of attack, crowded out into the plain. After two hours'
+march the Buccaneers reached the top of a small hill. From this eminence
+they could now see their goal, and Panama, with all the roofs that hid
+its treasure, lay before them. Below, on the plain, they might also
+discern the Spanish army drawn up in battalia, awaiting their descent.
+Even Esquemeling admits that the forces seemed numerous. "There were two
+squadrons of cavalry, four regiments of foot, and a still more terrible
+enemy, a huge number of wild bulls, roaring and tossing their horns,
+driven by a great number of Indians, and a few negroes and mounted
+matadors." The historian, more truthful in his confessions than his
+boasts, says, "They were surprised with fear, much doubting the fortune
+of the day; yea, few or none there were but wished themselves at home,
+or at least free from the obligation of that engagement, it so nearly
+concerning their lives. Having been for some time wavering in their
+minds, they at last reflected on the strait they had brought themselves
+into, and that now they must either fight resolutely or die, for no
+quarter could be expected from an enemy on whom they had committed so
+many cruelties. Hereupon they encouraged one another, resolving to
+conquer or spend the last drop of their blood."
+
+They then divided themselves into three battalions, sending before 200
+Buccaneers, very dexterous at their guns, who descended the hill,
+marching directly upon the Spaniards, and the battle closed. The Spanish
+cavalry uttered cries of joy, as if they were going to a bull-fight. The
+infantry shouted "Viva el rey!" and the vari-coloured silks of their
+doublets glistened in the sun. The Buccaneers, giving three cheers,
+charged upon the enemy. The forlorn hope Morgan despatched against the
+cavalry and the bulls. The cavalry galloped forward to meet them, but,
+the ground being marshy, they could not advance with speed, and sank one
+by one before the unceasing dropping fire of 200 Buccaneers, who fell on
+one knee and poured in a full volley of shot, the foot and horse in vain
+trying to break through this hot line of flame and death. The bulls
+proved as fatal to those who employed them, as the elephants to Porus.
+Driven on the rear of the Buccaneers, they took fright at the noise of
+the battle, a few only broke through the English companies, and trampled
+the red colours under foot, but these were soon shot by the old hunters;
+a few fled to the savannah, and the rest tore back and carried havoc
+through the Spanish ranks.
+
+The firing lasted for two hours; at the end of that time the cavalry and
+infantry had separated, and the troopers had fled, only about fifty of
+their number succeeding in escaping. The infantry, discouraged at their
+defeat, and despairing of success, fired off one more volley, and then
+threw down their arms; the victory was won. Morgan, having no cavalry,
+could not pursue, and a mountain soon hid the fugitives from the
+Buccaneers' sight, who would not follow, expecting the flight was a mere
+decoy to lure them into an ambuscade. The Buccaneers, weary and faint,
+threw themselves down to rest. A few Spaniards, found hiding in the
+bushes by the sea-shore, were at once slain, and several cordeliers
+belonging to the army, being dragged before Morgan, were pistolled in
+spite of all their cries and entreaties. A Spanish captain of cavalry
+was taken prisoner by the English musketeers, who had hitherto given no
+quarter, and confessed that the governor of Panama had led out that
+morning 2000 men, 200 bulls, 1450 horse, and twenty-four companies of
+foot, 100 men in each, sixty Indians, and some negroes. In the city, he
+said, were many trenches and batteries, and at the entrance a fort with
+fifty men and eight brass guns. The women and wealth had all been sent
+to Tavoga, and 600 men with twenty-eight pieces of cannon were inside
+the town, defended by ramparts of flour sacks. The ambuscade had been
+waiting fifteen days in the savannah, expecting Morgan.
+
+On reviewing their men, the English found a much greater number of
+killed and wounded than they had expected, so Esquemeling confesses, but
+does not give the number. Oexmelin puts the loss at only two killed and
+two wounded, an incredible statement, trustworthy as he generally is.
+The Spaniards lost 600 men.
+
+"The pirates, nothing discouraged," says the former historian, "seeing
+their number so diminished, but rather filled with greater pride,
+perceiving what huge advantage they had obtained against their enemies,
+having rested some time, prepared to march courageously towards the
+city, plighting their oaths one to another, that they would fight till
+not a man was left alive. With this courage they recommenced their
+march, either to conquer or be conquered, carrying with them all the
+prisoners."
+
+They avoided the high road from Vera Cruz, on which the Spaniards had
+placed a battery of eight pieces of cannon, and selecting that from
+Porto Bello, they advanced to the town before the people could rally,
+and while the exaggerated rumours of the defeat were still
+uncontradicted. Trembling fugitives filled the streets, and terror was
+in every face.
+
+The Spaniards fought desperately, but without hope. In spite of Morgan's
+endeavour to maintain strict discipline, his men began to undervalue the
+enemy, and to advance straggling and reckless. The Spaniards, observing
+this, fired a broadside, killing twenty-five or thirty of the vanguard
+at the first discharge, and wounding nearly as many, but before they
+could reload were overpowered and slain at their guns, the Buccaneers
+stabbing all whom they met.
+
+Of this attack, Esquemeling gives the following graphic but rambling
+account: "They found much difficulty in their approach to the city, for
+within the town the Spaniards had placed many great guns at several
+quarters, some charged with small pieces of iron, and others with musket
+bullets. With all these they saluted the pirates at their approaching,
+and gave them full and frequent broadsides, firing at them incessantly,
+so that unavoidably they shot at every step great numbers of men. But
+neither these manifest dangers of their lives, nor the sight of so many
+as dropped continually at their sides, could deter them from advancing,
+and gaining ground every moment on the enemy; and though the Spaniards
+never ceased to fire and act the best they could for their defence, yet
+they were forced to yield after three hours' combat, and the pirates
+having possessed themselves, killed and destroyed all that attempted in
+the least to oppose them."
+
+Morgan was now master of Panama, as he had been of St. Catherine's, la
+Rancheria, Maracaibo, and Gibraltar, but his vigilance did not yet
+relax. As soon as the first fury of their entrance was over, he
+assembled his men, and commanded them, under great penalties, not to
+drink or taste any wine, as he had been informed by a prisoner that it
+had been poisoned by the Spaniards. Though much wealth had been hidden,
+great warehouses of merchandise, they rejoiced to find, were still well
+stocked with silks, cloths, and linens. Morgan's only fear now was, that
+with so small a body of men as remained to him, the Spaniards might
+rally, or his men, grown intoxicated by success and intent on plunder,
+be cut off without resistance. Having placed guards at all the important
+points of defence within and without the city, he ordered twenty-five
+men to seize a boat laden with merchandise, that owing to the low water
+in the harbour could not put out to sea. The command of this vessel he
+gave to an English captain.
+
+The houses of Panama were built chiefly of cedar, and a few of stone.
+
+Fortunately, Michael Scott sketches for us nearly the whole scenery of
+Morgan's march. One side of the harbour of Chagres is formed, he says,
+by a small promontory that runs 500 yards into the sea. This bright
+little bay looks upon an opposite shore, long and muddy, and covered
+with mangroves to the water's brink. On the uttermost bluff is a narrow
+hill, with a fort erected on its apex. The rock is precipitous on three
+sides. The river of Chagres is about 100 yards across, and very deep. It
+rolls sluggishly along, through a low, swampy country. It is covered
+down to the water with thick sedges and underwood, and where the water
+is stagnating, generates mosquitoes and fevers. The gigantic trees grow
+close to the water, and are laced together by black, snake-like withes.
+Here and there, black, slimy banks of mud slope out near the shore, and
+on these, monstrous alligators roll or sleep, like logs of rotting
+drift-wood. For some miles below Cruz, where the river ceases to be
+navigable by canoes, oars are laid aside, and long poles used to propel
+the boats, like punts, over the shoals. Panama is distant about seven
+leagues from Cruz. The roads are only passable for mules: in some places
+it has been hewn out of the rock, and zig-zags along the face of hills,
+in parts scarcely passable for two persons meeting.
+
+"The scenery on each side is very beautiful, as the road winds for the
+most part amongst steeps, overshadowed by magnificent trees, among
+which birds of all sizes, and of the most gorgeous plumage, are
+perpetually glancing, while a monkey every here and there sits grimacing
+and chattering overhead. The small, open savannahs gradually grow
+larger, and the clear spaces widen, until the forest you have been
+travelling under breaks into beautiful clumps of trees, like those of a
+gentleman's park, and every here and there are placed clear pieces of
+water, spreading out full of pond-turtle, and short grass, that sparkles
+in the dew."
+
+As you approach the town, the open spaces become more frequent, until at
+length you gain a rising ground, about three miles from Panama, where
+the view is enchanting. Below lies the city, and the broad Pacific,
+dotted with ships, lies broad and glassy beyond.
+
+Basil Hall, an accurate but less poetical observer, sketches the bay of
+Panama, its beach fringed with plantations shaded by groves of oranges,
+figs, and limes, the tamarinds surmounting all but the feathery tops of
+the cocoa-nut trees; the ground hidden with foliage, among which peep
+cane-built huts and canoes pulling to shore. Tavoga he describes as a
+tangle of trees and flowers. "The houses of the city, very curious and
+magnificent," says Esquemeling, "and richly adorned with paintings and
+hangings, of which a part only had been removed." The buildings were all
+stately, and the streets broad and well arranged. There were within the
+walls eight monasteries, a cathedral, and an hospital, attended by the
+religious. The churches and monasteries were richly adorned with
+paintings, and in the subsequent fire may have perished some of the
+masterpieces of Titian, Murillo, or Velasquez. The gold plate and
+fittings of these buildings the priests had concealed. The number of
+rich houses was computed at 2000, and the smaller shops, &c., at 5000
+additional. The grandest buildings in the town were the Genoese
+warehouses connected with the slave trade; there were also long rows of
+stables, where the horses and mules were kept that were used to convey
+the royal plate from the South to the North Pacific Ocean. Before the
+city, like offerings spread before a throne, lay rich plantations and
+pleasant gardens.
+
+Panama was the city to which all the treasures of Peru were annually
+brought. The plate fleet, laden with bars of gold and silver, arrived
+here at certain periods brimming with the crown wealth, as well as that
+of private merchants. It returned laden with the merchandise of Panama
+and the Spanish main, to be sold in Peru and Chili, and still oftener
+with droves of negro slaves that the Genoese imported from the coast of
+Guinea to toil and die in the Peruvian mines. So wealthy was this golden
+city that more than 2,000 mules were employed in the transport of the
+gold and silver from thence to Porto Bello, where the galleons were
+loaded. The merchants of Panama were proverbially the richest in the
+whole Spanish West Indies. The Governor of Panama was the suzerain of
+Porto Bello, of Nata, Cruz, Veragua, &c., and the Bishop of Panama was
+primate of the Terra Firma, and suffragan to the Archbishop of Peru. The
+district of Panama was the most fertile and healthy of all the Spanish
+colonies, rich in mines, and so well wooded that its ship-timber
+peopled with vessels both the northern and the southern seas; its land
+yielded full crops, and its broad savannahs pastured innumerable herds
+of wild cattle.
+
+The Buccaneers found the booty in the half-devastated town ample beyond
+their expectations, in spite of all that had been destroyed, buried, or
+removed. The stores were still full of wealth, which not even a month of
+alarm had given the merchants time to remove to their overcharged
+vessels. Some rooms were choked with corn, and others piled high with
+iron, tools, plough-shares, &c., for Peru. In many was found "metal more
+attractive," in the shape of wine, olive oil, and spices, while silks,
+cloths, and linen lay around in costly heaps.
+
+Morgan, still afraid of surprise, resorted to a reckless scheme to avert
+the danger. The very night he entered Panama he set fire to a few of the
+chief buildings, and before morning the greater part of the city was in
+a flame, although the first blaze had been detected in the suburbs. No
+one knew his motive, and few that the enemy had not done it. He
+carefully spread a report, both among the prisoners and his own people,
+that the Spaniards themselves were the authors of the fire. The citizens
+and even the English strove to extinguish the flames, by blowing up some
+houses with gunpowder and pulling down others, but being of wood, the
+fire spread rapidly from roof to roof. In less than half an hour a whole
+street was consumed. The Genoese warehouses and many of the slaves were
+burnt, and only one church was left standing; 200 store buildings were
+destroyed. Oexmelin seems to lament chiefly the slaves and merchandise,
+and scarcely even affects a regret for the stately city. The ruins
+continued to smoke and smoulder for a month, and at daybreak of the
+morning after their arrival, little of the great city they had lately
+seen glorious in the sunset remained but the president's house, where
+Morgan and his staff lodged, a small clump of muleteers' cottages, and
+two convents, that of St. Joseph and that of the Brothers of the
+Redemption. Still fearful of surprise, the adventurers encamped outside
+the walls in the fields, from a wish to avoid the confusion, and in
+order to keep together in case of an attack by a superior force. The
+wounded were put into the only church that had escaped the fire.
+
+The next day Morgan despatched 160 men to Chagres to announce his
+victory, and to see that his garrison wanted for nothing. They met whole
+troops of Spaniards running to and fro in the savannah, but, in spite of
+their expectations, they never rallied. In the afternoon the Buccaneers
+re-entered the city, and selected houses of the few left to barrack in.
+They then dragged all the available cannon they could find and placed
+them round the church of the Fathers of the Trinity, which they
+entrenched. In this they placed in separate places the wounded and the
+prisoners. The evening they spent in searching the ruins for gold,
+melted or hidden, and found much spoil, especially in wells and
+cisterns.
+
+A few hours after, Morgan's vessels returned with three prizes, laden
+with plate and other booty, taken in the South Sea. The day they
+sailed, arriving at one of the small islands of refuge near Panama, they
+took a sloop with its crew of seven men, belonging to a royal Spanish
+vessel of 400 tons, laden with church plate and jewels, removed by the
+richest merchants in Panama; there were also on board all the religious
+women of the nunnery, with the valuable ornaments of their church, and
+she was so deeply laden as not to require ballast. It carried only seven
+guns and a dozen muskets, had no more sails than the "uppermost of the
+mizen," was short of ammunition and food, and even of water. The
+Buccaneers received this intelligence from some Indians who had spoken
+to the seamen of the galleon when they came ashore in a cock-boat for
+water. Had they given chase they might have easily captured it, but
+Captain Clark let the golden opportunity slip through his hands.
+Thinking himself sure of his prize as he had got her sloop, his men
+spent the night in drinking the rich wines they found in the sloop, and
+reposing in the arms of their Spanish mistresses, the more beautiful for
+their tears and despair. During these debaucheries the galleon slipped
+by and was no more seen, and so they lost a prize of greater value than
+all the treasure found in Panama. In the morning, weary of the revel,
+they crowded all sail and despatched a well-armed boat to pursue the
+cripple, ascertaining that the Spanish ship was in bad sailing order and
+incapable of making any resistance. In the islands of Tavoga and
+Tavogilla they captured several boats laden with merchandise. Informed
+by a prisoner of the probable moorings of the galleon, Morgan, enraged
+at her escape, sent every boat in Panama in pursuit of her, bidding them
+seek till they found her. They were eight days cruising from port to
+creek. Returning to the isles, they found here a large ship newly come
+from Payta, laden with cloth, soap, sugar, biscuit, and 20,000 pieces of
+eight; another small boat near was also taken and laden with the divided
+merchandise. With these glimpses of wealth the boats returned to Panama
+somewhat consoled for the loss of their larger prize. The Buccaneers'
+vessels now began to excite the astonishment of the Spaniards, they
+being the first Englishmen, since Drake, who had appeared as enemies on
+those seas.
+
+During this expedition Morgan had employed the rest of his men in
+scouring the country in daily companies of 200, one party relieving
+another, and perpetually bringing in flocks of pale and bleeding
+prisoners, or mules laden with treasure. Some tortured the captives,
+others explored the mines, and the rest burnt glittering heaps of gold
+and silver stuffs, merely to obtain the metal, expecting to have to
+fight their way back to their ships at Chagres, and not wishing to be
+encumbered with unwieldy bundles on that toilsome and dangerous march.
+Morgan, complaining much of the fruitless labours of his foragers, at
+last placed himself at the head of 350 men, and sallied into the country
+to torture every wealthy Spaniard he could meet.
+
+The following anecdote presents us with such a complete picture of the
+demoralisation of a panic, that it reminds us of Thucydides' description
+of Athens during the plague, or Boccaccio's of Florence during the
+raging of the pest. On one occasion Morgan's men met with a poor
+Spaniard, who, during the general confusion, had strolled into a rich
+man's house and dressed himself in the costume of a merchant of rank. He
+had just stripped off his rags, and, first luxuriating in a change of
+costly Dutch linen, had slipped on a pair of breeches of fine red
+taffety, and picking up the silver key of some coffer, had tied it to
+one of his points. Esquemeling represents the man as a poor retainer of
+the house. He was still wondering childishly at his unwonted finery,
+when the Buccaneers broke into the house and seized him as a prize.
+Finding him richly dressed and in a fine house, they believed him at
+once to be the master. His story they treated as a subtle invention. In
+vain he pointed to the black rags he had thrown off--in vain he
+protested, by all the saints, that he lived on charity, and had wandered
+in there and put on the clothes by the merest chance, and without a
+motive but of venial theft. Spying the little key at his girdle they
+became sure that he lied, and they demanded where he had hid his
+cabinet. They had at first laughed at his ingenious story--they now grew
+angry at his denials of wealth. They stretched him on the rack and
+disjointed his arms, they twisted a cord round his wrinkled forehead
+"till his eyes appeared as big as eggs, and were ready to fall out," and
+as he still refused to answer, they hung him up and loaded him with
+stripes. They then cut off his nose and ears, singing his face with
+burning straw till he could not even groan or scream, and at last,
+despairing of obtaining a confession, gave him over to their attendant
+band of negroes to put him to death with their lances. "The common sport
+and recreation of the pirates," says Esquemeling, "being such
+cruelties."
+
+They spared no sex, age, or condition; priest or nun, peasant or noble,
+old man, maiden, and child were all stretched on the same bed of
+torture. They granted no quarter to any who could not pay a ransom, or
+who would not pay it speedily. The most beautiful of the prisoners
+became their mistresses, and the virtuous were treated with rigour and
+cruelty. Captain Morgan himself seduced the fairest by alternate
+presents and threats. There were women found base enough to forsake
+their religion and their homes to become the harlots of a pirate and a
+murderer. But to his iron heart love found a way, and enervated the mind
+of the man whom nothing before could soften.
+
+After ten days spent in the country beyond the walls, Morgan returned to
+Panama, and found a shipload of Spanish prisoners newly arrived. Amongst
+these was a woman of exquisite beauty, the wife of a Spanish merchant,
+then absent on business in Peru. He had left her in the care of some
+relations, with whom she was captured. Esquemeling says: "Her years were
+few, and her beauty so great, as, peradventure, I may doubt whether in
+all Christendom any could be found to surpass her perfections, either of
+comeliness or honesty." Oexmelin, a more skilful observer, and who saw
+her, being a sharer in the expedition, describes her hair as ink black,
+and her complexion of dazzling purity. Her eyes were piercing, and the
+Spanish pride, usually so cold and repulsive, served in her only as a
+foil to her surpassing beauty, and to attract respect. The roughest
+sailors and rudest hunters grew eloquent when they praised her. The
+common men would willingly have drawn swords for such a prize. But their
+commander was already the slave of her whom he had captured. His
+demeanour changed: he was no longer brutal and truculent: he became
+sociable in manner, and more attentive to the richness of his dress, for
+lovers grow either more careless or more regardful of their attire.
+
+The Buccaneer's aspect was changed. He separated the lady from the other
+prisoners, and treated her with marked respect. An old negress, who
+waited on her, served at once as an attendant and a spy. She was told to
+assure her mistress, that the Buccaneers were gentlemen and no thieves,
+and men who knew what politeness and gallantry were as well as any. The
+lady wept and entreated to be placed with the other prisoners, for she
+had heard that her relations were afraid of some plot against her good
+fame.
+
+The lady, like other Spanish women, had been told by their priests and
+husbands, that the Buccaneers had the shape of beasts and not of men.
+The more intelligent reported they were robbers, murderers, and
+heretics; men who forswore the Holy Trinity, and did not believe in
+Jesus Christ. "The _oaths_ of _Morgan_," says Esquemeling, with most
+commendable gravity, "_soon convinced her that he had heard of a God_."
+It was said, that a woman of Panama who had long desired to see a
+pirate, on their first entrance into the city cried out, "Jesu Maria,
+the thieves are men, like the Spaniards, after all;" and some
+volunteers, when they went out to meet Morgan's army, had promised to
+bring home a pirate's head as a curiosity.
+
+Morgan, refusing to restore the beauty to her friends, treated her with
+more flattering care than before. Tapestries, robes, jewels, and
+perfumes, lay at her disposal. Such kindness, after all, was cheap
+generosity, and part of this treasure may even have been her husband's.
+In her innocence, she began to think better of the Buccaneers. They
+might be thieves, but they were not, she found, atheists, nor very
+cruel, for Captain Morgan sent her dishes from his own table. She at
+first received his visits with gratitude and pleasure, surprised at the
+rough, frank kindness of the seaman, and loudly denounced his
+slanderers, that had so cruelly attempted to poison her mind against
+him, her guardian and protector. The snares were well set, and the bird
+was fluttering in. But Heaven preserved her, and she passed through the
+furnace unhurt. Morgan soon threw off his disguise, and offered her all
+the treasures of the Indies if she would become his mistress. She
+refused his presents of gold and pearl, and resisted all his artifices.
+In vain he tried alternately kindness and severity. He threatened her
+with a thousand cruelties, and she replied, that her life was in his
+hands, but that her body should remain pure, though her soul was torn
+from it. On his advancing nearer, and threatening violence, she drew out
+a poignard, and would have slain him or herself, had he not left her
+uninjured. Enraged at her pride, as he miscalled her virtue, he
+determined to break her spirit by suffering. She was stripped of her
+richest apparel, and thrown into a dark cellar, with scarcely enough
+food allowed her to support life, and the chief demanded 30,000 piastres
+as her ransom, to prevent her being sold as a slave in Jamaica. Under
+this hardship the lady prayed like a second Una daily to God, for
+constancy and patience. Morgan, now convinced of her purity, and afraid
+of his men, who already began to express openly their sympathy with her
+sufferings, to account for his cruelty, accused her to his council of
+having abused his kindness by corresponding with the Spaniards, and
+declared that he had intercepted a letter written in her own hand. "I
+myself," says Esquemeling, "was an eye-witness of the lady's sufferings,
+and could never have judged such constancy and chastity to be found in
+the world, if my own eyes and ears had not assured me thereof." Amid the
+blood, and dust, and vapour of smoke, the virtue of this incomparable
+lady shines out like a pale evening star, visible above all the murky
+crimson of an autumn sunset.
+
+A new danger now arose to Morgan from this adventure, for the seamen
+began to murmur, saying that the love of this beautiful Spaniard kept
+them lingering at Panama, and gave the Spaniards time to collect their
+forces, and surprise them on their return. But Morgan, having now stayed
+three weeks, and nothing more being left to plunder, gave orders to
+collect enough mules to carry the spoil to Cruz, where it could be
+shipped for Chagres, and so sent homeward.
+
+There can be no doubt that various causes had for some time been
+undermining the long subsisting attachment between Morgan and his men.
+He had shown himself a slave to the passions which enchained their own
+minds, and their riches perhaps made them independent, and therefore
+mutinous. It was while the mules were collecting that he became aware of
+the loaded mine over which he stood. A plot was discovered, in which
+there were 100 conspirators. They had resolved to seize the two vessels
+they had captured in the South Sea, and with these to take possession of
+an island, which they could fortify for a stronghold. They would then
+fit out the first large Spanish vessel they could obtain, and with a
+good pilot and a bold captain start privateering on their own account,
+and work home by the straits of Magellan. As the spoil had not yet been
+divided, it is probable that all these men had broken the Buccaneer
+oath, and had secreted part of the plunder. They had already hidden in
+private places, cannons, muskets, provisions, and ammunition. They were
+on the very point of raising the anchor, when one of them betrayed the
+scheme, and Morgan at once ordered the vessel to be dismasted and the
+rigging burnt. The vessels he would also have destroyed, but these he
+spared at the intercession of the friend he had appointed their captain.
+From this time all confidence seems to have ceased between Morgan and
+his men. Many a king has been made a tyrant by the detection of a
+conspiracy. The men dreaded his vengeance, and he their treachery. From
+this hour he appears to have resolved to enrich himself and his
+immediate friends at any risk, leaving the French to shift for
+themselves. It is not improbable but that the old French and English
+feud may have had something to do with this quarrel. In war it ceased,
+but rankled out again in peace. The French seem to have been his
+greatest enemies, and the English friendly or indifferent. This
+distinction is visible even in the historians, for Esquemeling speaks of
+him with mere distrust, and Oexmelin with bitter hatred.
+
+In a few days the mules were ready, and the gold packed in convenient
+bales, for Spanish or English gold it was all one to the mules. The
+costly church plate was beaten up into heavy shapeless lumps, and the
+heavier spoil was left behind or destroyed. Better burn it, they
+thought, than leave it to the accursed Spaniard, for we always hate
+those whom we have injured. The artillery of the town being carefully
+spiked, and all ready to depart, Morgan informed his prisoners that he
+was about to march, and that he should take with him all those who were
+either unable or unwilling at once to bring in their ransom. The sight
+was heart-rending, and the panic general. At his words, says the
+historian, there was not one but trembled, not one but hurried to write
+to his father, his brother, or his friends, praying for instant
+deliverance or it would be too late. The slaves were also priced, and
+hostages were sent to collect the money. While this was taking place, a
+party of 150 men were sent to Chagres to bring up the boats and to look
+out for ambuscades, it being reported that Don Juan Perez de Guzman, the
+fugitive president of Panama, had entrenched himself strongly at Cruz,
+and intended to dispute the passage. Some prisoners confessed that the
+president had indeed so intended, but could get no soldiers willing to
+fight, though he had sent for men as far as Carthagena; for the
+scattered troopers fled at the sight of even their own friends in the
+distance.
+
+Having waited four days impatiently for the ransom, Morgan at last set
+out on his return on the 24th of February, 1671. He took with him a
+large amount of baggage, 175 beasts of burden laden with gold, silver,
+and jewels, and about 600 prisoners, men, women, children, and slaves,
+having first spiked all the cannon and burnt the gun-carriages. He
+marched in good order for fear of attack, with a van and rear-guard, and
+the prisoners guarded between the two divisions.
+
+The departure was an affecting sight, as even the two historians, who
+were Buccaneers themselves and eye-witnesses, admit. Lamentations,
+cries, shrieks, and doleful sighs of women and children filled the air.
+The men wept silently, or muttered threats between their teeth, to avoid
+the blows of their unpitying drivers. Thirst and hunger added to their
+sufferings. Many of the women threw themselves on their knees at
+Morgan's feet and begged that he would permit them to return to Panama,
+there to live with their dear husbands and children in huts till the
+city could be rebuilt. But his fierce answer was, that he did not come
+there to hear lamentations, but to seek money, and that if that was not
+found, wherever it was hid, they should assuredly follow him to Jamaica.
+All the selfishness and all the goodness of each nature now came to the
+surface. The selfish fell into torpid and isolated despair--the good
+forgot their own sufferings in trying to relieve those of others.
+
+Some gazed at each other silently and hopelessly; others wailed and
+wept, a few cursed and raged. Here stood one mourning for a
+brother--there another lamenting a wife. Many believed that they should
+never see each other again; but would be sold as slaves in Jamaica. The
+first evening the army encamped in the middle of a green savannah on the
+banks of a cool and pleasant river. This was a great relief to the
+wretched prisoners, who had been dragged all day through the heat of a
+South American noon by men themselves insensible to climate--urged
+forward by the barrels of muskets and blows from the butts of pikes.
+Some of the women were here seen begging the Buccaneers, with tears in
+their eyes, for a drop of water, that they might moisten a little flour
+for their children, who hung crying at their parched and dried-up
+breasts. The next day, when they resumed the march, the shrieks and
+lamentations were more terrible than before. "They would have caused
+compassion in the hardest heart," says Esquemeling; "but Captain Morgan,
+as a man little given to mercy, was not moved in the least." The lagging
+Spaniards were driven on faster with blows, till some of the women
+swooned with the intense heat, and were left as dead by the road-side.
+Those who had husbands gave them the children to carry. The young and
+the beautiful fared best. The fair Spaniard was led between two
+Buccaneers, still apart from the rest. She wept as she walked along,
+crying that she had entrusted two priests in whom she relied to procure
+her ransom money, 30,000 piastres, from a certain hidden place, and that
+they had employed it in ransoming their friends. A slave had brought a
+letter to the lady and disclosed the treachery. Her complaint being told
+to Morgan he inquired into it, and found it to be true. The religious
+men confessed their crime, but declared they had only borrowed the
+money, intending to repay it in a week or so. He therefore at once
+released the lady, and detained the monks in her place, taking them on
+to Chagres and despatching two men to obtain their ransom.
+
+On arriving at Cruz the mules were unloaded, preparatory to embarkation.
+The Buccaneers encamped round the king's warehouse, where it was stored.
+Three days were given to collect the ransom. The Spaniards, tardy or
+unwilling in the collection, brought in the money the day after. Vast
+quantities of corn, rice, and maize were collected here for victualling
+the ships. Morgan embarked 150 slaves, and a few poor and obstinate
+Spaniards who had not yet paid their ransom. The monks were redeemed,
+and escaped happy enough. A part of the Buccaneers marched by land. Many
+tears of joy and sorrow were shed when the prisoners and those who were
+liberated took farewell.
+
+On reaching Barbacoa the division of the spoil began. Mustering his men,
+Morgan compelled them all to swear they had concealed nothing, even of
+the smallest value, and, what was more unusual, he ordered them all to
+be individually searched from top to toe, down even to the very soles of
+their shoes. This search was suspicious and insulting. The Frenchmen,
+hot-blooded and mutinous, would have openly resisted had they not been
+in the minority. Morgan allowed himself to be first searched to lessen
+the general discontent, and one man in every company was employed as
+searcher. No precautions were neglected that could be suggested by long
+experience of plundering.
+
+This unusual vigilance was a mere cloak for Morgan's own dishonesty.
+Every man was now compelled to discharge his musket before the
+searchers, that they might be sure no precious stones were hidden in the
+barrel. These searchers were generally the lieutenants of each crew, and
+had all taken an additional oath to perform their duty with fidelity.
+The murmurs against Morgan had now reached such a height, and were so
+hourly increasing, that many Frenchmen threatened to take his life
+before they reached Jamaica. The more temperate controlled the younger
+and the more impetuous, and the band reached Chagres without any revolt.
+They found the garrison short of provisions and glad to be relieved, but
+the wounded had nearly all died of their wounds.
+
+From Chagres Morgan sent a great boat to Porto Bello with all the St.
+Catherine's prisoners, and demanded a ransom for sparing the castle of
+Chagres. The people of Porto Bello replied they would not give one
+farthing, and he might burn it as he chose.
+
+The day after their arrival, Morgan divided the booty. It amounted to
+only 443,000 pounds, estimating at ten piastres the pound. The jewels
+were sold unfairly, the admiral and his cabal buying the greater part
+very cheap, having already, it was believed, retained all the best of
+the spoil. Every one had expected at least 1000 pieces each, and was
+disappointed and indignant at receiving only about 200. There was an end
+now to all co-operation between English and French adventurers, and the
+hopes of a Buccaneer republic were at an end for ever. The murmurs
+again rose incontrollably high, and some proposed to seize Morgan and
+force him to a fair division.
+
+The suspected admiral, trying in vain to pacify them, and finding he
+could obtain no price for Chagres, divided the provisions of the fort
+among the vessels, removed the cannon and ammunition, then demolished
+the fortifications, and burnt the buildings. Suddenly taking alarm, or
+more probably following a preconcerted plan, Morgan sailed out of the
+harbour without any signal or notice, and hurried to Jamaica, followed
+by four English vessels, whose captains had been his confidants.
+
+In the first paroxysm of their rage, the French adventurers would have
+pursued Morgan, and attacked his vessel, but he escaped while they were
+still hesitating. We shall find him finally settled in Jamaica, and
+married to the daughter of the chief person of the island, a sure proof,
+says the indignant and philosophical Oexmelin, that any one is esteemed
+in this world provided he has money.
+
+The same vivacious writer gives a lively picture of the rage of the
+crews at the treacherous flight of Morgan. They shouted, swore, stamped,
+clenched their fists, gnashed their teeth, and tore their hair, fired
+off their pistols in the air, and brandished their arms, with
+imprecations loud and deep. They longed for the plunder they had lost,
+and longed still more eagerly for revenge. They never now mentioned the
+Welsh name but with an execration. Strange anomaly of the human mind,
+that men who lived by robbery, should be astonished at a small theft
+committed by a comrade! In the first bitterness of their vexation, they
+drew their sabres, and hewed and thrust at their imaginary enemy. They
+bared their arms, and pointed out to each other the cicatrices of their
+half-healed wounds.
+
+Confirmations of the admiral's treachery reached them from every side.
+
+They remembered that Morgan had been latterly unusually reserved and
+unsociable, closeting himself with a few English confidants, to whom he
+had been seen whispering even during public conferences. He had, it was
+now recollected, grown silent during all discussions, and more
+particularly when the booty was mentioned.
+
+Oexmelin (a surgeon) also mentions, that on one occasion, as he was
+visiting a wounded Buccaneer, Morgan came up to the hammock, and said in
+English, thinking he could not be overheard, "Courage, get soon well,
+you have helped me to conquer, and you must help me to profit by the
+conquest." Another day, as Oexmelin was searching by the river for a
+medical herb, he turned round suddenly, and saw Morgan secreting
+something in the corner of a canoe, and looking frequently over his
+shoulder to see if he was observed. When he observed Oexmelin, he looked
+troubled, and, coming up, asked him what he was doing there, to which
+the surgeon made no answer, but, stooping down, picked the plant he was
+in search of, and began to tell him its properties. Morgan turned off
+the subject, beginning to converse on indifferent topics, and, although
+the proudest of men, insisted on accompanying him home. Oexmelin took
+care to find an opportunity afterwards to rummage the canoe, but found
+nothing; but this same canoe he always observed Morgan took great care
+of, and never permitted to row out of his sight. But these stories none
+had dared to utter, for since the victory of Panama, the admiral, always
+proud, sensual, and cruel, had grown every day more stern, and had
+rendered himself dreaded by his severities.
+
+The adventurers sought for a long time some means of avenging themselves
+on Morgan for his successful treachery. They at last heard that he had
+resolved to take possession of St. Catherine's island, being
+apprehensive of the governor of Jamaica. In this spot he had determined
+to fortify himself, renew his Buccaneering, and defy both open enemies
+and treacherous friends. The Buccaneers agreed to waylay him on his
+passage, and carry him off, with his wife, children, and ill-gotten
+treasure. They then planned either to kill him, or compel him to render
+an account of the spoil of Panama. But an unexpected accident saved
+Morgan, and defeated their scheme of vengeance. At the very crisis, a
+new governor, Lord G. Vaughan, arrived at Port Royal, and brought a
+royal order for Morgan to be sent to England to answer the complaints of
+the King of Spain and his subjects. Of his trial we hear nothing, but we
+soon after see the culprit knighted by Charles II., and appointed
+Commissioner of Admiralty for Jamaica. The king, who frolicked with
+Rochester, and smiled at the daring villany of Blood, had no scruples in
+disgracing knighthood by such an addition.
+
+In the autumn of 1680, the Earl of Carlisle, then governor of Jamaica,
+finding his constitution undermined by the climate, returned to England,
+leaving Morgan as his deputy.
+
+His opportunity of revenge had now come, and he remembered his old
+dangers of ruin and assassination. Many of the Buccaneers were hung by
+his authority, and some of them were delivered up to the governor of
+Carthagena. A new governor arrived, and terminated his cruelties, and
+the justice inspired by a personal hatred. He still remained
+commissioner. In the next reign he was thrown into prison, where he
+remained three years. Of his final fate we know nothing certain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE COMPANIONS AND SUCCESSORS OF MORGAN.
+
+    Dispersion of the fleet--Oexmelin's interview with the old
+    Buccaneer--Adventure with Indians--Esquemeling's Escapes--1673.
+    D'Ogeron's Escape from the Spaniards--1676. Buccaneers' Fight at
+    Tobago against the Dutch--1678. Captain Cook captures a Spanish
+    vessel--1679. Captains Coxen and Sharp begin their cruise.
+
+
+On the departure of Morgan, the Buccaneers, without food, and without
+leaders, underwent many sufferings, and remained uncertain what to do.
+
+Oexmelin and a few of his French friends being informed by a female slave
+that an old Buccaneer lived in the neighbourhood, determined to go to
+him and barter goods, as they were told that, although a Spaniard, such
+was his custom. Following the slave with great expectation, they reached
+the veteran's fort after about six hours' march. The Buccaneers' "peel"
+towers were scattered all over the West Indies, and Waterton mentions
+seeing the ruins of one near Demerara. This fort was defended by a fosse
+of immense depth, and by massy walls of an extraordinary thickness,
+flanked at each corner by a bastion well supplied with cannon. The
+Frenchmen displayed their colours and beat their drums as a greeting,
+yet no one appeared, and no one answered; but, at the end of a quarter
+of an hour, they saw a light in one of the bastions, and perceived a man
+about to discharge a cannon. Throwing themselves on their faces with
+professional dexterity, the shot flew over their heads, and they then
+rose and retreated out of range. Believing at once that they had been
+betrayed, for many dangers had made them suspicious, they were about to
+cut their guide to pieces, when, running from them, she cried to the
+gunner, "Why is your master false to his word? did he not promise to
+receive these gentlemen?" "It is true," cried the soldier, "but he has
+changed his mind; and if you and your people do not go off, I will blow
+out your brains." The Buccaneers, enraged at the insolence of this
+threat, and the capricious change of intention, were about to attempt to
+storm the place, when four Spaniards advanced and demanded a truce, in
+the name of their master. "We had," they explained, "been alarmed at
+your numbers, and feared foul play or treachery." The old adventurer was
+now willing to receive them, if they would send four of their band as
+ambassadors and hostages. Oexmelin was one of the four chosen. They found
+the old man, grey and venerable, seated between two others. He was so
+old and feeble that he could not speak audibly, but he smiled and moved
+his lips, and stroked his long white beard, as they entered, and they
+could observe that he was pleased to see once more the well-remembered
+dress of the Buccaneer seamen. His majestic bearing was impressive.
+Though he could not rise to welcome them, he bent his head in answer to
+their greetings, and beckoned to one of his attendants to speak for him.
+By his orders they were at once taken to his store-rooms, where they
+bartered their goods, and obtained all that they required. They first
+eagerly selected some brandy, and Oexmelin is never tired of repeating
+"ses gens l'aiment avec passion." On their way back to the ships with
+the guide, delighted at their success, the Spaniards who carried the
+goods they had bought told them their master's history. He was, it
+appeared, properly speaking, neither an adventurer nor a Castilian, but
+a Portuguese, who had lived long both with adventurers and with
+Spaniards. A Spanish ship had picked him up in a drifted canoe when
+quite a boy, and he had been employed among the slaves in a cocoa
+plantation, where he soon became a successful steward, and much beloved
+by his master. His patron sent every year a vessel to his plantation to
+be loaded with cocoa. One day, as the steward was on board
+superintending the lading, a sudden squall came on, snapped the cable,
+and drove them out to sea. He being a good pilot, and accustomed to
+navigation, attempted to put back to land as soon as the storm abated,
+but the slaves, with one voice, declared that they would not return, and
+that he should not take them, for they knew that their master would
+suspect, and would cruelly punish them. At that time the slightest
+offence of a slave was punished with death. The steward remonstrated
+with them; but the slaves resolved to be free, although they knew not
+where to steer. At this crisis the bark was pursued by a Buccaneer
+vessel, from which a storm for a short time released them, but they were
+eventually overtaken and captured.
+
+The Buccaneer captain brought these prisoners to the fortress they had
+just visited. Here he became again a faithful steward, and finally
+inherited the place at his master's death, and continued to trade with
+the Buccaneers, as his predecessor had done. The fortress had been
+originally built to repel the Spaniards, who had been several times
+beaten off with loss.
+
+It is very seldom that we can follow the Buccaneer to the last scene of
+all: he flashes across our scene from darkness to darkness, and we hear
+of him no more. In the present instance, Oexmelin enables us to fill up
+the vacuum and tell out the tale. In a subsequent voyage he returned to
+the old spot, the scene of an oft told story. Devastation had fallen
+upon the devastator, the fortress was completely demolished and no
+dwelling remained. He ascertained from the Spaniards that the old man
+had died and left his riches to his two sons, who, impatient of a
+slothful wealth, and with imaginations excited from their youth by the
+recital of Buccaneer adventures, had at last turned Flibustiers. Before
+their father's death they had often expressed a wish to conquer the
+country of the ferocious Bravo Indians, but he had always discouraged
+them from the dangerous and unprofitable expedition, being afraid of
+attacks from the Spaniards in their absence. They were never heard of
+again, but report was current that, having been shipwrecked, the two
+Buccaneers had been taken by the Indians, and killed and eaten.
+
+Leaving the Boca del Toro, about thirty leagues distant from Chagres,
+Oexmelin and his companions arrived at the country of the very dreaded
+Bravo Indians. These people were known to be warlike cannibals, cruel
+and very treacherous. They were expert archers, and could discharge
+their arrows, like the Parthians, even when in full retreat. They had
+axes and spears, and wore metal ornaments, the clash of which animated
+them to the charge. They carried tortoise-shells for shields, which
+covered their whole bodies, and were most to be dreaded when few in
+number and quite overpowered, for they would then throw themselves like
+wild-cats on the foe, and think only of destroying their enemy's life,
+regardless of their own. Morgan, who seems to have made every
+preparation for an extensive Buccaneer empire, had often sworn to
+totally destroy this nation which had slain so many shipwrecked men, and
+so frequently frustrated his plans. No Buccaneer historian ever seems
+to have reflected that these savages, rude as they were, fought as
+patriots defending their country. We sing of Tell and rave of Wallace,
+but we have no interest in a hero without breeches!
+
+These Indians had at first been friendly to the Buccaneers, who had sold
+them iron in exchange for food, but on one fatal occasion, at a
+Buccaneer debauch, a quarrel had arisen, and some Indians had been
+killed and their wives carried off. From this time irreconcilable hatred
+existed between the two people, and to be wrecked on the Bravo shore was
+equivalent to certain death. On reaching Cape Diego (so called, like
+many other points of land, from an old adventurer), Oexmelin was
+compelled by hunger to feed on crocodile eggs, which were found buried
+in the sand. Meeting here with some French adventurers, they all removed
+to an adjacent spot, where they caught turtle and salted it for the
+voyage.
+
+Ascending a river to obtain provisions, they surprised and killed two
+Indians, of whom one had a beard-case of tortoise-shell and another of
+beaten gold: the latter they took for a chief. Putting off from here,
+and meeting with contrary winds that drove them from Jamaica, they
+returned again to Chagres, and were pursued by a ship of Spanish build,
+which they feared had been sent from Carthagena to rebuild the fort.
+
+They attempted in vain to escape, and were clearing the decks, preparing
+to fight to the last, when the enemy hoisted the red flag, and proved to
+be one of their companions' vessels driven back by the _bise_, or
+north-east wind. They lost two days' sail by this accident, more than
+they could regain in a fortnight, and returned to the Boca del Toro to
+get provisions and kill sea-cows, and then passed on to the Boca del
+Drago. The islands here they knew to be inhabited, for the fragrance of
+the fruits was wafted on the sea wind. One day a fishing party gave
+chase to two Indians in a canoe, which they instantly drew ashore and
+carried with them into the woods. This boat, weighing above 2,000 lbs.
+and requiring 11 men afterwards to launch it, was made of wild cedar,
+roughly hewn; being nimble the savages both escaped the Buccaneers. A
+pilot who had been often in those parts, told them that a few years
+before, a Buccaneer squadron arriving in that place, the men went in
+canoes to catch the humming birds that swarmed round the flowering trees
+of the coast. They were observed by some Indians who had hid themselves
+in the trees, who, leaping down into the sea, carried off the boats and
+men before their companions could arrive to their aid. The admiral
+instantly landed 800 men to rescue the prisoners, but so many Indians
+collected that they found it necessary to retreat in haste to their
+ships.
+
+The next day the Buccaneers arrived at Rio de Zuera, but the Spaniards
+were all fled, leaving no provisions; they therefore filled their boats
+with plantains, coasting for a fortnight along the shore to find a
+convenient place to careen, for the vessel had now grown so leaky that
+slaves and men were obliged to work night and day at the pumps. Arriving
+at a port, called the Bay of Blevelt, from a Buccaneer who used to
+resort there, half the crew were employed to unload and careen the bark
+on the shore, and half to hunt in the woods--still much afraid of the
+Indians, though they had as yet seen none.
+
+The huntsmen shot several porcupines of great size, and many monkeys and
+pheasants. The men took great pleasure in the midst of their danger in
+this pursuit. They laughed to see the females carrying their little ones
+on their backs, just like the negro women, and they admired the love and
+fidelity which some showed when their friends were wounded, and were
+delighted when they pelted their pursuers with fruit and dead boughs.
+The men were obliged to shoot fifteen or sixteen to secure three or
+four, as even when dead they remained clinging to the trees, and
+remained so for several days, hanging by their fore-paws or their tails.
+When one was wounded the rest came chattering round him, and would lay
+their paws on the wound to stop the flow of blood, and others would
+gather moss from the tress to bandage the place, or, gathering certain
+healing herbs, chew them and apply them as a poultice. If a mother was
+killed the young ones would not leave the body till they were torn away.
+
+But these amusements were soon to come to an end. The Indians were upon
+their track. They had been now eight days hunting. It was the daybreak
+of the ninth day, and the fishermen and hunters were preparing their
+nets and guns to start for the sea and for the woods. The slaves were on
+the beach burning shells to make lime, which served instead of pitch for
+the vessels, and the women were drawing water at the wells which had
+been dug in the shore. A few of them were washing dishes, and others
+sewing, for they had risen earlier than usual. While the rest went to
+the wells, one of them lingered behind to pick some fruit that grew near
+the beach. Seeing suddenly some Indians running from the spot where she
+had left her companions, she ran to the tents, crying, "Indians,
+Indians, Christians, the Indians are come." The Buccaneers, running to
+arms, discovered that three of their female slaves were lying dead in
+the wood, pierced with fourteen or fifteen flint-headed arrows. These
+darts were about eight feet long, and as thick as a man's thumb; at one
+end was a wooden hook, tied on with a string, at the other, a case
+containing a few small stones. Searching the woods, no traces of
+Indians, or any canoes, were to be found, and the Buccaneers, fearing
+they should be surrounded and overpowered, re-embarked all their goods,
+and sailed in great haste and fear.
+
+They soon arrived at Cape Gracias a Dios, and rejoiced to find
+themselves once more among friendly Indians; and at a port where
+Buccaneer vessels often resorted, the rudest sailors giving thanks to
+God for having delivered them out of so many dangers, and brought them
+to a place of refuge. The Indians provided them with every necessary,
+and treated them with friendship. For an old knife or hatchet the men
+each bought an Indian woman, who supplied them with food. These people
+often went to sea with the Buccaneers, and, remaining several years,
+returned home with a good knowledge of French and English. They were
+used as fishermen, and for striking tortoises and manitees, one Indian
+being able to victual a vessel of 100 men. Oexmelin's crew having on
+board two sailors who could speak the Indian tongue, they were unusually
+well received.
+
+This nation was not more than 1700 in number, including a few negro
+slaves, who had swum ashore from a wreck, having murdered the Spanish
+crew, and, in their ignorance of navigation, stranded the vessel. Some
+of them cultivated the ground, and others wandered about hunting and
+fishing. They wore little clothes but a palm leaf hat, and a short
+apron, made of the bark of some tree. Their arms were spears, pointed
+with crocodile's teeth. They believed in a Supreme Being, and, as
+Esquemeling quaintly says, "believe not in nor serve the devil, as many
+other nations of America do, and hereby they are not so much tormented
+by him as other nations are." Their food was chiefly fruit and fish.
+They prepared pleasant and intoxicating liquors from the plantain, and
+from the seed of the palm, and at their banquets every guest was
+expected to empty a four-quart calabash full of achioc, as the palm
+drink was called, merely a whet to the feast to follow. Their achioc was
+as thick as gruel. When they were in love, they pierced themselves with
+arrows to prove their sincerity. When a youth wished to marry a maiden,
+the first question of the bride's father to the lover was, whether he
+could make arrows, or spin the thread with which they bound them. If he
+answered in the affirmative, the father called for a calabash of achioc,
+and he himself, the bride, and the bridegroom, all tasted of the
+beverage. When one of these hardy women was delivered, she rose, went to
+the nearest brook, washed and swathed the child, and went about her
+ordinary labour. When a husband died, the wife buried him, with all his
+spears, aprons, and ear jewels, and for fifteen moons after (a year)
+brought meat and drink daily to the grave. Some writers contend that the
+devil visited the graves, and carried away these offerings to the manes;
+but Esquemeling says, he knows to the contrary, having often taken away
+the food, which was always of the choicest and best sort. At the end of
+the year, an extraordinary custom prevailed. The widow had then to open
+the grave, and take out all the bones; she scraped, washed, and dried
+them in the sun; then placed them in a satchel, and for a whole year was
+obliged to carry them upon her back by day, and sleep upon them by
+night. At the end of the year, she hung up the bag at her door-post, or,
+if she was not mistress of her house, at the door of her nearest
+relation. A widow could not marry again till this painful ceremony was
+completed, and if an Indian woman married a pirate, the same custom
+prevailed. The negroes maintained the habits of their own countries.
+
+After refreshing themselves in this friendly region, the Buccaneers
+steered for the island de los Pinos, and, arriving in fifteen days,
+refitted their vessel, now become dangerously leaky. Half the crew were
+employed in careening, and half in fishing, and by the help of some of
+the Cape Gracias Indians who accompanied them they killed and salted a
+sufficient number of wild cattle and turtle to revictual the ship. In
+six hours they could capture fish sufficient for a thousand persons.
+"This abundance of provision," says Esquemeling, "made us forget the
+miseries we had lately endured, and we began to call one another again
+by the name of _brother_, which was customary among us, but had been
+disused in our miseries." They feasted here plentifully, and without
+fear of enemies, for the few Spaniards who were on the island were
+friendly, and past dangers grew mere dreams in the distance. Their only
+anxiety now was about the crocodiles, which swarmed in the island, and,
+when hungry, would devour men.
+
+On one occasion a Buccaneer and his negro slave, while hunting in the
+wood, were attacked by one of these monsters. With incredible agility it
+fastened upon the Englishman's leg, and brought him to the ground. The
+negro fled. The hunter, a robust and courageous man, drawing his knife,
+stabbed the crocodile to the heart, after a desperate fight, and then,
+tired with the combat and weak with loss of blood, fell senseless by its
+side. The negro, returning, from curiosity rather than compassion, to
+see how the duel had ended, lifted his master on his back and brought
+him to the sea-shore, a whole league distant, where he placed him in a
+canoe and rowed him aboard. After this, no Buccaneer dared to go into
+the woods alone, but the next day, sallying out in troops, they killed
+all the monsters they could meet. These animals would come every night
+to the sides of the vessel and attempt to climb up, attracted probably
+by the smell of food. One of these, when seized with an iron hook,
+instead of diving or swimming, began to mount the ladder of the ship,
+till they killed him with blows of pikes and axes. After remaining some
+time here they sailed for Jamaica, and arrived there in a few days after
+a prosperous voyage, being the first adventurers who had arrived there
+from Panama since Morgan.
+
+In 1673, when the war between the French and Hollanders (Dutch) was
+still raging, the inhabitants of the French West Indian colonies
+equipped a fleet to attack the Dutch settlements at Curacoa, engaging
+all the Buccaneers that could be induced to join the white flag, either
+from hopes of plunder or from hatred to the Dutch. M. D'Ogeron, the
+Governor of Tortuga, the planner of this invasion, headed the fleet in a
+large vessel named after himself, built by himself, and manned by 500
+picked adventurers. His unlucky star led them to misfortune. The new
+frigate ran upon the rocks near the Guadanillas Islands, and broke into
+a thousand pieces, during a storm near Porto Rico. Being at the time
+very near to land, the governor and all his men swam safe to shore. The
+next day, discovered by the Spaniards, they were attacked by a large
+force, who supposed they had come purposely to plunder the islands as
+the Buccaneers had done before. The whole country, alarmed, rose in
+arms. The shipwrecked men were surrounded by an overpowering army, who,
+finding them almost without arms, refused to give them quarter, slew the
+greater part without mercy, and made the remainder prisoners. Binding
+them with cords, two by two, they drove them through the woods into the
+open champaign. To all inquiries as to the fate of their commander,
+whom they could not distinguish from the rest, they replied that he had
+sunk with the wreck. D'Ogeron, following up this deception with French
+sagacity, behaved himself as a mere half-witted suttler, diverting the
+Spanish soldiers by his tricks and mimicry, and was the only Buccaneer
+whom they allowed to go at liberty. The troopers at their camp fires
+gave him scraps from their meals and rewarded him with more food than
+his companions.
+
+Among the prisoners there was also a French surgeon who had on former
+occasions done some service to the Spaniards, and him they also allowed
+to go at large. D'Ogeron agreed with him to attempt an escape at all
+risks, and after mature deliberation, they both agreed upon a plan, and
+succeeded in escaping safely into the woods, and in making their way to
+the sea-side. They determined to attempt to build a canoe, although
+unsupplied with any tool except a hatchet. By the evening they reached
+the sea-shore, to their great joy, and caught some shell fish on the
+beach from a shoal that ran in upon the sands in pursuit of their prey.
+Fire to roast them they obtained by rubbing two sticks together in the
+Indian fashion. The next morning early they began to cut down and
+prepare timber to build the canoe in which to escape to Vera Cruz. While
+they were toiling at their work they observed in the distance a large
+boat, which they supposed to contain an enemy, steering directly towards
+them. Retreating to the woods, they discovered as soon as it touched
+land that it held only two poor fishermen. These unsuspecting men they
+determined if possible to overpower, and to capture the boat. As the
+mulatto came on shore alone, with a string of calabashes on his back to
+draw water, they killed him with a blow of their axe, and then slew the
+Spaniard, who, alarmed at the sound of voices, was attempting in vain to
+push from the shore. Having filled the dead man's calabashes they set
+sail, using the precaution of taking the dead bodies with them out into
+the deep sea, in order to conceal their death from the Spaniards.
+
+They steered at once for Porto Rico, and passed on to Hispaniola. A
+fair wind soon brought them to Samana, where they found a party of their
+people. Leaving the surgeon to collect men at Samana, D'Ogeron sailed to
+Tortuga to collect vessels and crews to return and deliver his
+companions, and revenge his late disaster. He sailed eventually with 300
+men, and took great precautions to prevent the Spaniards being aware of
+his coming, using only his lower sails in order that his masts should
+not rise above the horizon. In spite of this the Spaniards, informed of
+his approach, had placed troops of horse upon the shore at various
+assailable points.
+
+D'Ogeron landed his men under favour of a discharge from his great guns,
+which drove the horsemen into the woods, where, as he little suspected,
+the infantry lay in ambush. Eagerly pursuing, his men, who thought the
+victory their own, found themselves hemmed in on every side. Few escaped
+even to the ships. The Spaniards, cruel from the reaction of fear, cut
+off the limbs of the dead and carried them home as trophies. They
+lighted bonfires on the shore as tokens of defiance to the retreating
+fleet.
+
+The first prisoners were now treated worse than ever. Some of them were
+sent to Havannah and employed on the fortifications all day, and chained
+up like wild beasts at night to prevent their desperate attempts at
+escape. Many were sent to Cadiz, and from thence escaped over the
+Pyrenees into France, and, assembling together, like sworn members of a
+common brotherhood, returned by the first ship to Tortuga.
+
+These very men some time after equipped a small fleet, under command of
+Le Sieur Maubenon, which sacked Trinidad, and put the island to a ransom
+of 10,000 pieces of eight, and from thence proceeded to the Caraccas.
+
+The Buccaneers fought against the Dutch, in 1676, and helped the French
+to recover Cayenne, that had been taken by Vice-Admiral Binkes. After
+this conquest, M. D'Estrees attacked Tobago, but was repulsed with the
+loss of 150 killed, and 200 wounded. His ship, the _Glorieux_, of
+seventy guns, was blown up, and two others stranded; several of the
+Dutch vessels were, however, burnt.
+
+D'Estrees, returning to Brest, was ordered back to Tobago, with twenty
+sail of vessels of war, besides a great number of small craft. 1500 men
+were landed, and, approaching a fortified place called Le Cort, summoned
+Heer Binkes to surrender. The French began their attack by throwing
+fire-balls into the castle; the third grenade fell upon some loose
+powder in the path leading to the magazine, and blew it up. Heer Binkes
+and all his officers but one were killed. 500 French instantly stormed
+the works, killing all but 300 men, who were sent prisoners to France.
+D'Estrees then destroyed every fort and house in the island, and sailed
+away.
+
+It was in 1678 that the same Comte D'Estrees collected 1200 Buccaneers
+from Hispaniola, and twenty vessels of war, besides fire-ships, to
+capture Curacoa, which could have been taken with 300 Buccaneers and
+three vessels. This fleet was, however, lost on the Isles d'Aves, as we
+shall describe in Dampier's voyage.
+
+In the year 1678, Captain Cook loaded his vessel with logwood, at
+Campeachy, and, while anchoring at the island of Rubia, on his way to
+Tobago, was captured by three Spanish men-of-war, who left his crew upon
+the shore, and carried off his ship and cargo. They had not lain there
+long before a Spanish sloop of sixteen men arrived, laden with cocoa and
+plate, and gave them opportunity for escape and for revenge. Borrowing
+muskets of the Dutch governor, they employed six of their men in seizing
+the sloop's boat as it came to land, and then embarked and took the
+larger vessel, leaving their prisoners bound upon the beach, to watch
+the combat that would decide their fate. Two men navigated, two more
+loaded the guns, and two others fired into the enemy as fast as they
+could pour their shot into the stern-ports. The Spaniards resisted
+stoutly for some time, but, seeing their priest and captain shot dead,
+threw their arms overboard, and cried for quarter. The Buccaneers gave
+the Dutch governor a handsome reward, with a recompence for the arms,
+and divided among themselves about L4,000 worth of plate. On arriving
+at Jamaica they burnt the prize, and embarked their goods for England.
+
+In the year of our Lord 1679, a Buccaneer fleet of five sail, commanded
+by Captains Coxen, Essex, Alliston, Rose, and Sharp, set sail from
+Port-Royal, and steered for the island of Pines, losing two vessels in
+their passage, at the Zamballos islands. They met a French ship, whose
+commission was only for three months, and showed its captain, with great
+exultation, their forged commission for three years, purchased for only
+ten pieces of eight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.
+
+    Land at Darien--March Overland--Take Santa Maria--Sail to
+    Panama--Ringrose is wrecked--Failure of Expedition--Driven off by
+    Spanish Fleet--Coxen accused of cowardice--Sharp elected
+    Commander--Plunder Hillo and take La Serena--Take Aries--Saved with
+    difficulty--Conspiracy of slaves--Land at Antigua--Return to
+    England--Sharp's trial--Seizes a French ship in the Downs, and
+    returns to Jamaica.
+
+
+The cruises of Sawkins and Sharp are recorded in the travels of
+Ringrose, who was present at all their exploits. At this time the
+Buccaneers widened their field of operations, and passed from the South
+into the North Pacific. The whole coast of South America, on either
+side, met the fate of the West Indian islands. The gold mines of Peru
+were the next object of their speculation.
+
+A fleet which took Porto Bello a second time rendezvoused at Boca del
+Toro. A new expedition was then formed to follow Captain Bournano, a
+French commander, who had lately attacked Chepo, to Tocamora, a great
+and very rich place, whither the Darien Indians had offered to conduct
+him, in spite of a late treaty with the Spaniards.
+
+The vessels first dispersed into coves and creeks to careen and salt
+turtle, and then reunited at the Water key. The fleet consisted of nine
+vessels, with a total of 22 guns and 458 men, in the following
+order:--Captain Coxen, a ship of 80 tons, with 8 guns, and 197 men;
+Captain Harris, 150 tons, 5 guns, and 107 men; Captain Bournano, 90
+tons, 6 guns, and 86 men; Captain Sawkins, 16 tons, 1 gun, and 35 men;
+Captain Sharp, 25 tons, 2 guns, and 40 men; Captain Cook, 35 tons, and
+43 men; Captain Alleston, 18 tons, and 24 men; Captain Row, 20 tons,
+and 25 men; Captain Macket, 14 tons, and 20 men.
+
+The expedition sailed March 26, 1679. The first place to touch at was
+the Zemblas Islands, where they traded with the friendly Indians, who
+brought fruits and venison in exchange for beads, needles, knives, and
+hatchets. These Indians were quite naked, but richly decorated with gold
+and silver plates of a crescent form, and gold rings worn in the nose,
+which they had to lift up when they drank. They were generally painted
+with streaks of black and red, but were a handsome race, and frequently
+as fair as Europeans. The sailors believed that they could see better by
+night than by day.
+
+The Indians dissuaded the captains from the march upon Tocamora, and
+agreed to guide them to the vicinity of Panama. The way to Tocamora,
+they declared, was mountainous and uninhabited, and ran through wild
+places, where no provisions could be obtained. In this change of plan,
+Row and Bournano, whose crews were all French, separated, being
+unwilling to risk a long march by land, and remained at the Zemblas,
+while Andraeas, an Indian chief, guided the remaining vessels to the
+Golden Island, a little to the westward of the mouth of the great river
+of Darien. There the seven remaining vessels rendezvoused April 3, 1680.
+
+They here agreed to follow the Indians' advice, and attack the town of
+Santa Maria, situated on the river of the same name, which runs into the
+South Sea by the gulf of St. Miguel. It was garrisoned by 400 soldiers,
+and from hence the gold gathered in the neighbouring mountains was
+carried to Panama, on which they could march if they could not find
+enough at Santa Maria.
+
+On the 5th of April they landed 331 men, leaving Captains Alleston and
+Macket to guard the ships in their absence. Each man carried with him
+three or four "dough-boys" (cakes), trusting to the rivers for drink.
+Captain Sharp, who went at their head, was still faint from a late
+sickness. His company carried a red flag and a bunch of white and green
+ribbons. The second division, led by Captain Richard Sawkins, had a red
+flag, striped with yellow. Captain Peter Harris, with the third and
+fourth divisions, had two green flags; Captain John Coxen, two red
+flags; while Captain Edmund Cook bore red colours, striped with yellow,
+with a hand and sword for the device. All the men carried fusees,
+pistols, and hangers.
+
+The Indian guides led them through a wood and over a bay two leagues up
+a woody valley, along a good path, with here and there old plantations.
+At a river, then nearly dry, they built huts to rest in. Another Indian
+chief, a man "of great parts," and called Captain Antonio, now promised
+to be their leader, as soon as his child, who was then sick, had died,
+which he expected would be next day. This Indian warned them against
+lying in the grass, which was full of large snakes.
+
+The men, breaking some of the stones washed down from the mountains,
+found them glitter like gold; but, in spite of this, several grew tired
+and returned to the ships, leaving only 327 sailors and six Indian
+guides.
+
+The next day they ascended a very steep hill, and found at the foot of
+it a river, on which Andraeas told them Santa Maria was built. About
+noon they ascended another and higher mountain, by so perpendicular and
+narrow a path that only one man could pass at a time. Having marched
+eighteen miles, they halted that night on the banks of the same river,
+much rain falling during both nights. The next day they crossed the
+river, after wading sometimes up to the knee, sometimes to the middle,
+in a steep current. At noon they reached the Indian village, near which
+the king of Darien resided. The houses were neatly built of
+cabbage-tree, with the roofs of wild canes, thatched with palmito royal,
+and were surrounded by plantain walks; they had no upper storeys. The
+king, queen, and family, came to visit them in royal robes. Like most
+savages, he was all ornament and nakedness, gold and dirt. His crown was
+made with woven white reeds, lined with red silk. In the middle was a
+thin plate of gold, some beads, and several ostrich feathers; in each
+ear a gold ring; and in his nose a half-moon of the same metal. His robe
+was of thin white cotton, and in his hand he held a long bright lance,
+sharp as a knife. The queen wore several red blankets, and her two
+marriageable daughters and young child were loaded with coloured beads,
+and covered with strips of rag. The women seemed "free, easy, and
+brisk," but modest and afraid of their husbands. The king gave the
+sailors each three plantains and some sugar-canes to suck, but, after
+that regal munificence, did not disdain to sell his stores like his
+subjects, who proved very cunning dealers in their purchases of knives,
+pins, and needles. Resting here a day, Captain Sawkins was appointed to
+lead the forlorn hope of eighty men. Their march still lay along the
+river, and here and there they found a house. The Indians, standing at
+the doors, would present each with a ripe plantain or cassave root, or
+count them by dropping a grain of millet for each one that passed. They
+rested at night at some native houses.
+
+The next day Sharp, Coxen, and Cook, and ninety men, embarked in
+fourteen canoes to try how far the stream was navigable, Captain
+Andraeas being with them, and two Indians in each canoe serving as
+guides. But the water proved more tedious than the land; for at the
+distance of every stone's-cast, they were constrained to get out of the
+boats and haul them over sands, rocks, or fallen trees, and sometimes
+over spits of land. That night they built huts on the bank, being worn
+out with fatigue.
+
+The next day proved a repetition of the past; at night a tiger came near
+them, but they dared not fire for fear of alarming the Spaniards. The
+following day was worse than before, and their men grew mutinous and
+suspicious of the Indians, who, they thought, had divided the troop in
+order to betray them. The fourth day, resting on "a beachy point of
+land," where another arm joined the river, they were joined by their
+companions, whom they had sent their Indians to seek, and who had grown
+alarmed at their continued absence. That night they prepared their arms
+for action. On the morrow they re-embarked, in all sixty-eight canoes
+and 327 Englishmen, with fifty Indian guides. They made themselves
+paddles, threw away the Indian poles, and rowed with all speed, meeting
+several boats laden with plantains. About midnight they arrived within
+half-a-mile of Santa Maria, and landed. The mud was so deep that they
+had to lay down their paddles and lift themselves up by the boughs of
+the trees; then cutting a way through the woods, they took up their
+lodging there for the night, hoping to surprise the Spaniards.
+
+At daybreak, to their disappointment, they were awoke by the discharge
+of a musket and the beating of a drum. The Spaniards had already
+prepared some lead for their reception, and had sent away their gold to
+Panama. Directly they emerged into the plain, the enemy ran into a large
+palisaded fort, twelve feet high, and began to fire quick and close. The
+vanguard, running up, pulled down part of the stockade and broke in and
+took them prisoners, the whole 280 men. A few English were wounded, not
+one being killed of the fifty men who led the attack. 200 other
+Spaniards were in the mines conveying away the gold, the mines there
+being the richest of the western world. Twenty-six Spaniards were
+killed in the fort and sixteen wounded, but the governor, priest, and
+chief men all escaped by flight. The town proved to be merely a few cane
+houses, built to check the Indians, who frequently rebelled. Some days
+before, three cwt. of gold had been sent in a bark to Panama, the same
+quantity being despatched twice or thrice a-year.
+
+During the fight the Indians, frightened at the whistling of the
+bullets, had hid themselves in a hollow; when all was over they entered
+the place, with great courage stabbing the prisoners with their lances,
+and putting about twenty to death in the woods, till the Buccaneers
+interfered. In the town the Indians found the eldest daughter of the
+Darien king, whom one of the garrison had carried off, and who was then
+with child by him. Rather than be left to the mercy of the Indians, this
+man offered to lead them to Panama, where they hoped to capture all the
+riches of Potosi and Peru. Sawkins in a canoe attempted in vain to
+overtake the governor and his officers, and rather than return
+empty-handed, resolved to go to Panama, to satisfy what Ringrose calls
+"their hungry appetite of gold and riches."
+
+Captain Coxen was chosen commander, and the booty and prisoners sent
+back to the ships under a guard of twelve men. The Indians, being
+rewarded with presents of needles and beads, also returned, all but the
+king. Captain Andraeas, Captain Antonio, and the king's son, King Golden
+Cap (bonete d'oro), as the Spaniards called him, resolved to go on,
+desiring to see Panama sacked, and offering to aid them with a large
+body of men. The Spanish guide declared he would not only lead them into
+the town, but even to the very door of the governor of Panama's
+bed-chamber, and that they should take him by the hand, and seize him
+and the whole city, before they should be discovered by the Spaniards.
+
+After remaining two days at Santa Maria, they departed April 17th, 1680,
+for Panama.
+
+They embarked in thirty-five canoes and a piragua which they had found
+lying at anchor, rowing down the river to the gulf of Belona, where
+they would enter the South Sea and work round to Panama. At the request
+of the Indian king the fort, church, and town were all burnt. The
+Spanish prisoners, afraid of being put to death by the savages if left
+behind, collected some bark logs and leaky canoes, although the
+Buccaneers could scarcely find boats for themselves, and went with them.
+
+Ringrose and four other men were put in the heaviest and slowest canoe,
+and, getting entangled between a shoal two miles long, and obliged to
+wait for high water, the boat being too heavy to row against tide, were
+soon left behind. At night, it being again low water, they stuck up an
+oar in the river, and, in spite of a weltering rain, slept all night by
+turns in the canoe. The next morning, rowing two leagues, they overtook
+their companions filling water at an Indian hut, there being no more for
+six days' journey. Hurrying to a pond a quarter of a mile distant with
+their calabashes, they returned to their boats and found the rest again
+gone and out of sight. "Such," moralises Ringrose, "is the procedure of
+these wild men, that they care not in the least whom they lose of their
+company or leave behind. We were now more troubled in our minds than
+before, fearing lest we should fall into the same misfortune we had so
+lately overcome."
+
+They rowed after them as fast as possible, but in vain, and lost their
+way among the innumerable islands of the river's mouth; but at last,
+with much trouble and toil, hit the Bocca Chica, the desired passage.
+But though they saw the door, they could not pass through, the "young
+flood" running violently against them--although it was only a
+stone's-cast off, and not a league broad. Here, then, in despair they
+put ashore, fastening the rope to a tree, almost covered by a tide that
+flowed four fathoms deep.
+
+As soon as the tide turned, they rowed to an island about a
+league-and-a-half from the river's mouth, in the gulf of St. Miguel, in
+much danger from the waves, their boat being twenty feet long, but not
+quite a foot-and-a-half broad. Here they rested for the night, wet
+through with the continual and impetuous rain, without water to drink,
+and unable to light a fire, "for the loss of our company, and the
+dangers we were in," says Ringrose, "made it the sorrowfullest night
+that, until then, I ever experimented." None slept that tedious night,
+for a vast sea surrounded them on one side, and the mighty power of the
+Spaniards on the other. They were all without shoes, and their clothes
+were drenched through. They could see nothing but sea, mountain, and
+rock.
+
+At break of day they rowed past several islands to the Point St.
+Laurence, one man incessantly employed in baling. As they passed one of
+these islands, a huge sea overturned their boat, but they gained the
+beach, swimming for life, and the canoe came tumbling beside them. The
+arms fast lashed at the bottom of the boat, the locks cased and waxed
+down like the cartouche boxes, and powder horns, escaped uninjured, but
+the bread and fresh water were either spoiled or lost. While carefully
+wiping and cleaning their arms, for a Buccaneer's musket was as his wife
+and child to him, they saw another canoe tossed to shore, a little to
+leeward. This proved to be six of the Spanish prisoners, who had escaped
+in an old piragua which was split to pieces, the English boat, formed of
+wood, six inches thick, having escaped unhurt. A common misfortune makes
+all men friends, and the English and Spaniards sat down together and
+broiled their meat amicably at the same fire. They then held a council,
+discussing for two or three hours what course to take, and all the men
+but Ringrose were for returning and living with the Indians, if they
+could not reach the ships lying in the northern sea. With much ado,
+Ringrose prevailed on them to persist for one day longer, and, just as
+they were concluding their debate, the man on the look-out cried that he
+saw Indians. Pursued into the woods by two Buccaneers, they found that
+he was one of the expedition, and had arrived with seven others in a
+great canoe. They were glad to see them, and declared, to their joy,
+that, all in one canoe, they could overtake the boats in the course of a
+day. On seeing the Spaniards (Wankers they called them), they would
+have put them to death but for Ringrose's interposition, for his men
+stood by indifferent. They then insisted on keeping one as a slave.
+Ringrose, still fearing for their lives, gave the five Spaniards his own
+canoe, and bade them shift for their lives. Now in a large canoe, with a
+good sail, and a fresh and strong gale, they made brave way, with
+infinite joy and comfort of heart, the smooth and easy passage, and the
+pleasant, fresh ripple of the sea, filling them with hope and gladness;
+but that very evening it grew very dark, and rained heavily. Suddenly
+two fires were seen to blaze up from the opposite shore of the
+continent, and the Indians, thinking they must indicate the encampment
+of their people, shouted, "Captain Antonio, Captain Andraeas," and made
+for the shore as fast as they could pull. The canoe, however, had hardly
+got amongst the breakers, before sixty Spaniards, armed with clubs,
+leaped from the woods; and, drawing the boat on land, made all the crew
+their prisoners. Ringrose seized his gun, and prepared for resistance,
+but was pulled down by four or five of the enemy. The Indians, leaping
+overboard, escaped nimbly into the woods. Ringrose spoke to his captors
+in French and English, without obtaining any answer. On addressing the
+strangers in Latin, he discovered that they were the Spanish prisoners
+from Santa Maria, who had been liberated, for fear they might escape
+when nearer Panama, and inform the city of the Buccaneers' approach. The
+Englishmen were presently taken with shouts of joy into a hut made of
+boughs, and examined by the Spanish captain, who meditated retaliating
+upon them the injuries inflicted on the town. At this critical juncture,
+the Spaniards whom Ringrose had liberated came in, and explained how
+they had been delivered from the Indians. On hearing this, the Spanish
+captain rose, and, embracing Ringrose, said, "The English were good
+people, and very friendly enemies, but the Indians very rogues, and a
+treacherous nation." He then made him sit down and eat with him, and
+consented, for the kindness he had shown his countrymen, to give him and
+all his men, and even the Indians, if they could find them, their lives
+and liberties, which otherwise would have been forfeited. Finally,
+giving them a canoe, the noble-hearted enemy bade them go in God's name,
+praying that they might be as fortunate as they had been generous. All
+that night they skirted a dangerous and iron coast, without daring to
+land.
+
+The next morning, after sailing, paddling, and rowing for a few hours,
+they saw a canoe suddenly making towards them. It was one of the English
+boats, which had mistaken them for a Spanish piragua. They at once
+conducted them to a deep bay, sheltered by rocks, where the rest lay at
+anchor. They were all delighted to see Ringrose and his men, having
+given them up as lost. They then made their way with all speed to a
+hilly island, about seven leagues distant, and surprised an old man, who
+was stationed there to watch. The road up to the hut was very steep, and
+the Buccaneers surrounded the old man, who did not see them till they
+had already entered his plantain walk. They were much encouraged by his
+declaration, that no tidings of their arrival had yet reached Panama.
+About dusk, two of their boats surprised a small bark that came and
+anchored outside the island. The crew had been absent eight days from
+the city, landing soldiers on the adjacent shore, to curb and drive back
+the Indians. The crews of the smaller canoes now crowded into this
+vessel to the number of 137 men, together with Captain Cook and Captain
+Sharp, the latter of whom Ringrose calls "a sea artist, and valiant
+commander."
+
+Next morning, rowing all day over shallow water, they chased a bark,
+which Captain Harris took after a sharp dispute, putting on board a
+prize crew of thirty men. During this pursuit the vessels scattered, and
+did not reunite till next day at the island of Chepillo, a preconcerted
+rendezvous. They again chased a bark, but with less success, and Captain
+Coxen's canoe missed the prize, owing to a breeze springing up, having
+one man killed and another wounded, and, what was worst of all, the
+vessel not only escaped, but spread the alarm at Panama. At Chepillo
+they took fourteen negro and mulatto prisoners, and secured two fat
+hogs, plenty of plantains, and some good water. Believing it useless now
+to attack Panama, the Buccaneers resolved to hurry on to the town to at
+least surprise some of the shipping. Their boats had the addition of
+another piragua, which they found lying at Chepillo. Before starting,
+the captains cruelly decided, for reasons which Ringrose could not
+fathom, to allow the Indians to murder all the Spanish prisoners before
+their eyes, the savages having long thirsted for their blood. But by a
+singular coincidence the prisoners, though without arms, forced their
+way by a sudden rush through all the Indian spears and arrows, and
+escaped unhurt into the woods, to the chagrin of both white and black
+savages.
+
+Staying only a few hours at Chepillo, the boats started at four o'clock
+in the evening, intending to reach Panama, which was only seven leagues
+distant, before the next morning. The next day (St. George's day),
+before sunrise they arrived at Panama, "a city," says Ringrose, "which
+has a very pleasant prospect seaward." They could see all the ships of
+the city lying at anchor at the island of Perico, two leagues distant,
+where storehouses had been built. There now rode at anchor five great
+ships and three smaller armadillas, (little men-of-war). This fleet,
+which had been hastily manned to defend the city, as soon as they saw
+the Buccaneers, weighed anchor, got under sail, and bore down at once
+upon them, directly before the wind, and with such velocity as to
+threaten to run them down. The Spanish admiral's vessel was manned by
+ninety Biscayans, agile seamen and stout soldiers. They were all
+volunteers, and had come out to show their valour under the command of
+Don Jacinto de Barahona, high-admiral of those seas. In the second were
+seventy-seven negroes, led by a brave old Andalusian, Don Francisco de
+Peralta. In the third, making 228 men in all, were sixty-five mulattoes,
+under Don Diego de Carabaxal. The Spaniards had strict orders given them
+to grant no quarter.
+
+To add to the disparity of numbers, only a few of the Buccaneers' boats
+were able to arrive in time. The first five canoes that came up, leaving
+the heavy piraguas still lagging behind, contained only thirty-seven
+men, and these were tired with rowing in the wind's eye, and trying to
+get close to the windward of the enemy. The lesser piragua coming up
+with thirty-two more men, made a total force of sixty Buccaneers,
+including the king of Darien, engaged in this daring resistance to an
+overwhelming force.
+
+Carabaxal's vessel, passing between Sawkins's and Ringrose's canoes,
+fired at both, wounding four men in the former and one in the latter,
+but being slow in tacking, the Spaniard paid dear for his passage, the
+first return volley killing several men upon his decks. Almost before
+they had time to reload, the admiral passed, but the Buccaneers' second
+volley quite disabled their giant antagonist, killing the man at the
+helm; and the ship ran into the wind and her sails lay aback. She fell
+now like a lamed elephant at the mercy of the hunters; the canoes,
+pulling under her stern, fired continually upon the deck, killing all
+who dared to touch the helm, and cutting asunder the mainsheet and
+mainbrace. Sawkins, whose canoe was disabled, went next into the piragua
+to meet Peralta, leaving the four canoes to harass the admiral. Between
+Sawkins and Peralta, lying alongside of each other, the fight was
+desperate, each crew trying to board, and firing as quick as they could
+load. In the mean time the first vessel tacked about and came to relieve
+the admiral, but the canoes, seeing the danger of being beaten from the
+admiral's stern and allowing him to rally, sent two of their number
+(Springer and Ringrose) to meet Peralta. The admiral stood upon his
+quarter-deck, waving his handkerchief as a signal for his captains to
+come at once to his help. The canoes pursued Peralta, and would have
+boarded him had he not given them the helm and made away.
+
+Giving a loud shout, the remaining boats wedged up the admiral's rudder
+and poured in a blinding volley, that killed the admiral and chief
+pilot. Two-thirds of the Spaniards being now killed, many wounded, and
+all disheartened at the bloody massacre of the Buccaneers' shot, cried
+for quarter, which they had been already several times offered, and at
+once surrendered. Captain Coxen then boarded the prize, taking with him
+Captain Harris, who had been shot through both legs as he was heading a
+boarding party. They put all their other wounded men on board, and,
+manning two canoes, hurried off to aid Sawkins, who had already been
+three times beaten off by Peralta.
+
+Coming close under his side and giving him a full volley, they were
+expecting a return, when suddenly a volcano of fire spouted up from the
+deck, and all the Spaniards abaft the mast were blown into the air or
+sea. While the brave captain, leaping overboard, was helping the
+drowning men in spite of the rain of shot and the pain of his own burns,
+another jar of powder blew up in the forecastle. Under cover of the
+smoke and confusion, Sawkins boarded and took the ship, or at least all
+that was left of it. Ringrose says it was a miserable sight, not a man
+but was either killed or desperately wounded, blind, or horribly burnt
+with the powder. In some cases the white wounds where the flesh had
+peeled to the bone, showed through the blackening of the powder. The
+admiral had but twenty-five men left out of eighty-six, and of these
+twenty-five only eight were now able to bear arms.
+
+The blood ran down the deck in streams, and every rope and plank was
+smeared with gore.
+
+Peralta, as prudent as he was brave, attempted by every possible
+argument, forgetful of his own wounds and the death of his men, to
+induce the Buccaneers not to attack the remaining vessels in the
+harbour. In the biggest alone he said there were 350 men, and the rest
+were well defended. But a dying sailor, lifting up his head from the
+deck, contradicted him, and said that they had not a man on board, all
+their crews being placed in the armadillas. Trusting to dying treason
+rather than living fidelity, the Buccaneers instantly proceeded to the
+island, and found the ships deserted. The largest, _La Santissima
+Trinidada_, had been set on fire, the crew, loosing her foresail, having
+pierced her bottom. The captains soon quenched the fire, and stopping
+the leak turned their prize into a floating hospital-ship. They found
+they had eighteen men killed and twenty-two wounded (only two of whom
+died) in this desperate sea battle, which began an hour after sunrise
+and ended at noon. The third vessel, it appeared, while running away had
+met with two others, but even with this reinforcement refused to fight.
+
+Their brave prisoner, Peralta, now that all was over, broke out into
+repeated praises of their courage, which was so congenial to his own. He
+said: "You Englishmen are the valiantest men in the whole world, always
+desiring to fight open, while all other nations invent all the ways
+imaginable to barricade themselves, and fight as close as possible."
+"Notwithstanding all this," adds Ringrose, "we killed more of our
+enemies than they of us." Two days after the battle the Buccaneers
+buried Captain Harris, a brave Englishman of the county of Kent, whose
+death was much lamented by the fleet.
+
+The new city of Panama, built four miles more easterly than that which
+Morgan burnt, had been three times destroyed by fire since that event. A
+few people still lived round the cathedral in the old town. The new city
+was bigger than the old one, and built chiefly of brick and stone, and
+was defended by a garrison of 300 soldiers and 1,000 militiamen. They
+afterwards learnt that the troops were then absent, and that if they had
+landed instead of attacking the fleet, they might have taken the place,
+all the best shots being on board the admiral's vessel.
+
+In the five vessels taken at Perico there was much spoil. The
+_Trinidada_ (400 tons) was laden with wine, sugar, sweetmeats, skins,
+and soap. The second, of 300 tons, partly laden with bars of iron, one
+of the richest commodities brought into the South Sea, was burnt by the
+Buccaneers, because the Spaniards would not redeem it. The third, of 180
+tons, laden with sugar, was given to Captain Cook; the fourth, an old
+vessel (60 tons), laden with meal, was burnt as useless, with all her
+cargo. The fifth, of 50 tons, with a piragua, fell to the lot of Captain
+Coxen. The two armadillas, the rigging and sails being saved, and a bark
+laden with poultry, were also burnt.
+
+Captain Coxen, indignant at charges made against him of cowardice in the
+late action, determined to rejoin the ships in the northern seas,
+together with seventy men who had assisted in his election. The Indian
+king, Don Andraeas, and Don Antonio, returned with him. The king left his
+son and nephew in the care of Captain Sawkins, who was now
+commander-in-chief, and desired him not to spare the Spaniards. A few
+days after Captain Sharp returned from the King's islands, having taken
+a Spanish vessel and burnt his own. Captain Harris's crew had also taken
+a vessel, and, dismasting their own, turned their prisoners adrift in
+the hulk, and soon after taking a poultry vessel, the meanest of the
+Spaniards were treated in the same way.
+
+Having remained now ten days at Panama, the fleet steered to the island
+of Tavoga, where they found a village of 100 houses quite deserted, and
+many of these were burnt by the carelessness of a drunken sailor. The
+Panama merchants came here to sell the Buccaneers commodities and to
+purchase the plunder from their own vessels, giving 200 pieces of eight
+for every negro. Staying eight days, they captured a vessel from
+Truxillo laden with money to pay the garrison of Panama, while in the
+hold were 2,000 jars of wine and fifty jars of gunpowder. A flour vessel
+from the same place informed them that a ship was coming in a few days
+laden with 100,000 more pieces of eight.
+
+To a message from the President, who sent by some merchants to ask why
+they came into those parts, Captain Sawkins replied, that he came to
+assist the King of Darien, the true lord of the country, and he required
+a ransom of 500 pieces of eight for each sailor, and 1,000 for the
+commander. He must also promise not to molest the Indians, who were the
+natural owners of the soil. Hearing from the messengers that a certain
+priest, now bishop of Panama, formerly of Santa Martha, lay in the
+city, Sawkins, remembering that he had been his prisoner when he took
+that city five years before, sent him two loaves of sugar as a present.
+The next day the bishop replied by forwarding him a gold ring. The
+President, at the same time, sent another letter, desiring to see his
+commission, that he might know to what power to complain. Sawkins
+replied, that as yet all his men were not come together, but when they
+had met, they would come up to Panama, and bring their commissions on
+the muzzles of their guns, at which time he should read them as plain as
+the flame of gunpowder would let him.
+
+The men growing now mutinous for fresh meat, Sawkins was compelled to
+give up his hopes of capturing the rich vessel from Peru, and to sail to
+the island of Otoque, to buy fowls and hogs, losing two barks, one with
+seven, and the other with fifteen men. While lying off the pearl fishery
+of Cayboa, Sawkins and Sharp made an unfortunate attack with sixty men
+on the town of Puebla Nueva. They were piloted up the river in canoes
+by a negro prisoner. A mile below the town, great trees had been laid
+to block up the stream, and before the town three strong breastworks
+were thrown up. Sawkins, running furiously up the sloping ramparts, was
+shot dead, and his men driven back to their boats, two men being killed,
+and three wounded, in the retreat, which was made in pretty good order.
+They soon after, however, captured a vessel laden with indigo, and burnt
+two others. This Captain Sawkins, Ringrose says, was as valiant and
+courageous as any, and, next to Captain Sharp, the best beloved. His
+death was much lamented, and occasioned another overland expedition.
+Sharp, surrendering his last prize to Captain Cook, took his vessel and
+gave it to the sixty-three men who wished to return home. They led with
+them all the Indians to serve as guides overland.
+
+Before they started, Sharp, in full council on board the _Trinidada_,
+offered to insure to all who would carry out Sawkins's scheme, and go
+home by the Straits of Magellan, a L1000 profit, but none would stay.
+Ringrose himself acknowledges he should have left with them, but was
+afraid of the Indians, and the long and dangerous journey in the rainy
+season.
+
+At Cayboa, the men took in water and cut wood, killing alligators, and
+salting deer and turtle. Here two "remarkable events" happened to
+Ringrose. In the first place, he ate an oyster so large that he found it
+necessary to cut it into four large mouthfuls: secondly, as he was
+washing himself in a pond, some drops fell on him from a mancanilla
+tree, and these drops broke out into a red eruption that lasted a week.
+Here Sharp burnt one of his prizes for the sake of the iron work, and
+received Captain Cook, whose men had revolted, on board his own ship,
+making John Cox, a New Englander, commander in his stead.
+
+Sharp now determined to careen at the island of Gorgona, and then to
+proceed to Guayaquil, where Captain Juan, the captain of the Tavoga
+money ship, assured them they might throw away their silver and lade
+with gold. They selected Gorgona, because, on account of the perpetual
+rain, the Spaniards seldom touched there. The sailors, who had lost
+their money at gambling, were impatient of these delays, and declared
+that the Spaniards would now gain time, and the whole coast be alarmed,
+and on the defensive. But the richer men, wanting rest, decided for
+Gorgona.
+
+In this island, they fished their mainmast, shot at whales, killed
+monkeys, snakes, and turtle for food, being short of provision, caught a
+large sloth, and killed a serpent, fourteen inches thick, and twelve
+feet long. While moored here, Joseph Gabriel, the Chilian, who stole the
+Indian king's daughter, died of a malignant calenture. He had been very
+faithful, and discovered many plots and conspiracies among the prisoners
+of intended escapes and murders.
+
+Sharp now abandoned the design on Guayaquil, and resolved to attack
+Arica, the depot of all the Potosi plate. An old man who had served much
+with the Spaniards, promised them L2000 a-man.
+
+After a fortnight's sail they arrived at the island of Plate, so called
+from Drake dividing his plunder there among his men. The Spaniards had a
+tradition, that he took twelve score tons of plate in the galleon
+armada, and that each of his forty-five men had sixteen bowls full of
+coined money--his ships being so full that they were obliged to throw
+much of it overboard. In the adjoining bay of Manta, in Cromwell's time,
+a Lima vessel, laden with thirty millions of dollars, on its way as a
+present to Charles I., was lost by keeping too near the shore. While
+catching goats on this island, on which the cross of the first Spanish
+discoverer still stood, they were joined by Captain Cox, whom they had
+lost a fortnight before, as they feared, irrecoverably. They killed and
+salted on this island 100 goats in a day, and one man alone, in a few
+hours, in one small bay turned seventeen turtle. Peralta congratulated
+them on getting as far to windward in two weeks as the Spanish captains
+did in three months, from their keeping boldly so far from the shore.
+
+While passing Guayaquil, they espied a Spanish vessel and gave chase.
+Being hailed in Spanish by an Indian prisoner, to lower their topsails,
+the enemy replied they would pull down the Englishman's first, and
+answered with their arquebuses to the Buccaneers' muskets, till, one
+bullet killing the man at the helm and another cutting their maintop
+halliards, they cried out for quarter. There were thirty-five men on
+board, including twenty-four Spaniards and several persons of quality.
+The captain's brother, since the death of Don Jacinto de Barahona at
+Panama, was admiral of the armada. The Buccaneers' rigging was much cut
+during the fight, and two men were wounded, besides a sailor who was
+shot by an accident. The captain, it appears, had in a bravado sworn to
+attack their fleet if he could meet it. The Spaniard, a very "civil and
+meek gentleman," informed them that the governor of Lima, hearing of
+their visit to Panama, had collected five ships and 750 sailors; while
+two other vessels and 400 soldiers, furnished by the viceroy, were
+preparing to start. A patache with twenty-four guns was also lying at
+Callao, ready to remove the king's plate from Arica. At Guayaquil they
+had built two forts, and mustered 850 men of all colours. The same day
+the English unrigged their new prize and sank her.
+
+Reckoning up the pillage, they found they had now 3,276 pieces of eight,
+which were at once divided. The same day they punished a Spanish friar,
+who was chaplain in the last prize, and, shooting him on the deck, flung
+him overboard before he was dead. "Such cruelties," says Ringrose,
+"though I abhorred very much in my heart, yet here I was forced to hold
+my tongue and not contradict them, as having no authority to oversway
+them." The prisoners now confessed they had killed a boat full of the
+Buccaneers' men, lost near Cayboa, and had discovered from the only
+survivor the plan on Guayaquil.
+
+Captain Cox's vessel being so slow as to require towing, they sank it,
+so there were now 140 men and boys and fifty-five prisoners in one and
+the same bottom. While to the leeward of Tumbes, Peralta told them a
+legend of a priest having once landed there in the face of 10,000
+Indians, who stared at his uplifted cross. As he stepped out of his boat
+on the shore, before the water could efface his footprints, two lions
+and two tigers came out of the woods to meet him, but when he gently
+laid the cross on their backs, they fell down and worshipped it, upon
+which all the Indians came forward and were baptised.
+
+The night they passed Paita they espied a sail and gave chase, following
+it by the lights which it showed through negligence. Scantiness of
+provisions made them more eager in the pursuit, and coming up the
+Spaniard instantly lowered all her sails and surrendered. The Buccaneers
+casting dice as to who should first board, the lot fell to the larboard
+watch. The vessel contained fifty packs of cocoa, and a great deal of
+raw silk and India cloth, besides many bales of thread stockings. The
+prize being plundered and dismasted, the prisoners were turned adrift in
+it, supplied with only a foresail, some water, and a little flour. The
+chief prisoners, as Don Thomas de Argandona, commander of the Guayaquil
+vessel, and his friends Don Christoval and Don Baltazar, gentlemen of
+quality, Captain Peralta, Moreno, a pilot, and twelve slaves, to do the
+drudgery, were still kept. The next day the sailor wounded in taking the
+Guayaquil vessel, died, and was buried with ceremony, three French
+volleys being fired as the body was let down into the deep.
+
+Their next expedition was to attack Arica with 112 men, first sending
+five boats to capture some fishermen at the river of Juan Diaz, whom
+they might employ as spies.
+
+To their great chagrin they found the landing impracticable, and the
+whole coast in arms. Troops of horse covered the low hills round the
+bay, and close beneath six ships rode at anchor. Abandoning this
+project, these indefatigable marauders (more pirates than real
+Buccaneers) despatched four canoes and fifty men, to plunder the town of
+Hillo. On the shore the English were met by some horsemen, who fled
+after a few volleys. Marching to the town, they forced their way through
+a small breastwork of clay and sandbags, and took the town. Keeping good
+watch for fear of surprise, a dying Indian, wounded in the skirmish,
+told them that the townspeople had heard from Lima nine days before, and
+expected their coming. In the town they found pitch, wine, oil, and
+flour, and sixty of the ablest men were sent up the adjoining valley to
+reconnoitre. They found it beautifully planted with fig, lemon, lime,
+olive, and orange trees, and four miles up came to a sugar-mill, the
+greater part of the sugar having been removed. The Spaniards, watching
+them from the hills, rolled stones upon them, but hid themselves when a
+musket-shot was fired in retaliation. Captain Cox and a Dutch
+interpreter being despatched with a flag of truce to the Spaniards, they
+agreed to give eighty beeves as a ransom for the mill, and a message was
+despatched to Captain Sharp not to injure the drivers of the oxen when
+they came. Hearing that sixteen beeves had already arrived at the port,
+the men, contrary to Ringrose's opinion, returned to the ships laden
+with sugar, and found the whole story of the oxen's arrival a mere _ruse
+de guerre_. The Spaniards being appealed to promised the cattle should
+arrive that night, but at last declared the wind was so high they could
+not drive the herds. Enraged at this delay, the Buccaneers, who had now
+taken in water, marched 100 men up the valley, and burned the house, the
+mill, and the canes, carried off the sugar, broke the oil jars, and
+cracked the copper wheels. Near the shore they were charged by a body of
+300 horsemen, who took them by surprise, but not before they had thrown
+down the sugar and taken up their arms.
+
+Ringrose shall tell the rest: "We being in good rank and order," he
+says, "fairly proffered them battle upon the bay; but as we advanced to
+meet them, they retired and rid towards the mountains, to surround us,
+and take the rocks from us, if possibly they could. Hereupon, perceiving
+their intentions, we returned back and possessed ourselves of the said
+rocks, and also of the lower town, as the Spaniards themselves did of
+the upper town (at the distance of half-a-mile from the lower), the
+hills and the woods adjoining thereunto. The horsemen being now in
+possession of those quarters, we could perceive as far as we could see,
+more and more men resort unto them, so that their forces increased
+hourly to considerable numbers. We fired at one another as long as we
+could see, and the day would permit. But in the mean time we observed
+that several of them rid to the watch hill and looked out often to the
+seaward. This gave us occasion to fear that they had more strength and
+forces coming that way, which they expected every minute. Hereupon, lest
+we should speed worse than we had done before, we resolved to embark
+silently in the dark of the night." They carried off a great chest of
+sugar (seven pounds and a-half to each man), thirty jars of oil, and
+much fruit, wild and cultivated. From appearances next morning they
+believed the enemy had also fled in the night, as only fifty men could
+be seen. The prisoners, seeing a comet at dusk, told the Englishmen that
+many such appearances had preceded the arrival of the Buccaneers in the
+South Sea. Their brave prisoner, Captain Peralta, began at this time to
+show signs of insanity, his mind being shaken by continued hardship and
+despair at his long imprisonment.
+
+The Buccaneers next landed 100 men, hoping to take by surprise the city
+of La Serena. Here, too, they found the Spaniards vigilant, and had to
+break through 100 horsemen to reach the town, killing three officers and
+wounding four men. The town contained seven great churches and many rich
+merchants' houses surrounded by gardens. The inhabitants had fled, and
+either carried away or buried all their treasures, and a Chilian
+prisoner said the Spaniards had killed most of their negro and even
+their Chilian slaves, for fear of their revolting and joining the
+Buccaneers. A party of forty men, with a Chilian guide, searched the
+woods in vain to secure prisoners for guides. The Spaniards, sending a
+flag of truce, agreed to pay 95,000 pieces of eight as ransom for the
+town; but, not bringing it in, the place was set on fire. Taking
+advantage of an earthquake, the Spaniards opened the sluices and
+inundated the streets. Every house, Ringrose says, was separately fired
+to render the conflagration complete. Two parties were then despatched
+laden with booty to the ships, who on their way beat up an ambuscade of
+250 Spanish horse. During their absence, a daring attempt was made to
+burn their ship. The enemy hired a man who floated under the stern of
+the ship on a horse's hide, blown out like a bladder. He then stuffed
+oakum and brimstone between the keel and the stern-post, and set the
+rudder on fire. The men, alarmed at the smoke, ran up and down, not
+knowing where the fire could be, and believing the prisoners had done it
+in order to escape. The source of the evil was at last discovered, and
+the flames extinguished. The Buccaneers, before sailing, released all
+their prisoners, not knowing what to do with them, and fearing that they
+would revolt or perhaps try to burn the ship.
+
+On reaching the island of Juan Fernandez, they solemnized the festival
+of Christmas by discharging three volleys of shot, and killing sixty
+goats in one day. The shore was covered so thick with seals that they
+were obliged to shoot a few in order to land. They then filled 200
+water-jars, and were nearly lost in a place called "False Wild Harbour,"
+where they killed several sea-lions. Their beds they made of fern. It
+was on this island, their pilot told them, a deserted sailor (Alexander
+Selkirk) had lived five years.
+
+The men now in the midst of storms and dangers, were all in a mutiny.
+Some were for going back to England or the plantations, and returning by
+the straits of Magellan; others for continuing longer in those seas. All
+agreed to depose Captain Sharp and elect John Watling, an old privateer,
+"and a stout seaman." The next Sunday was the first, says Ringrose, that
+had been kept by common consent since the death of Sawkins, who would
+throw the dice overboard if he found any in use on that day.
+
+Juan Fernandez abounded in cabbage palms and building timber. The fish
+swarmed in such quantities that they could be caught with the bare hook,
+one sailor in a few hours capturing enough for the whole crew. Shoals a
+mile long were seen in the bay. While busily employed in catching fish,
+shooting goats, and cutting timber, the hunters suddenly gave the alarm
+of three Spanish men-of-war approaching the island, and, slipping their
+cables, the Buccaneers put out hurriedly to sea. In the confusion,
+William, a Mosquito Indian, who could not be found at the time, was left
+behind to endure the hardships that a few days before he may have heard
+the pilot relate as experienced by the celebrated Alexander Selkirk (the
+prototype of Robinson Crusoe).
+
+The three Spanish vessels proved to be the _El Santo Christo_, of 800
+tons, carrying twelve guns; the _San Francisco_, of 600 tons, with ten
+guns; and a third of 350 tons. As soon as they came in sight, they hung
+out "bloody flags;" and the Buccaneers, nothing daunted, did the same.
+The English, keeping close under the wind, were very unwilling to fight,
+as the Spaniards held together, and their new commander, Watling, showed
+a faint heart. The trio eventually sheered off, glad to escape
+uninjured.
+
+Determining to pay a second visit to Arica, twenty-five men and two
+canoes were despatched to obtain guides from the island of Yqueque. On
+the shore of the mainland they found a hut built of whales' bones, a
+cross, and some broken jars.
+
+They brought away from the island, which they could not at first
+discover, two old white men and two Indians. The people of Arica, they
+found, came to this place to buy clay, and the natives were obliged to
+fetch all the water they used from the mainland. The Indians wore no
+clothes, and chewed leaves which dyed their teeth green. One of the old
+prisoners being examined was shot to death by order of the commander,
+who believed him to be lying, although, as it afterwards appeared, he
+told nothing but the truth. Sharp was troubled and dissatisfied at this
+cruel and rash order, and, taking water and washing his hands, he said,
+"Gentlemen, I am clear of the blood of this old man, and will warrant
+you a hot day for this piece of cruelty whenever we come to fight at
+Arica." The other prisoner said that he was the superintendent of fifty
+slaves belonging to the governor of the town. These slaves caught fish
+and sold them when dried in the inland towns. There were then three
+Chilian ships and a bark in the harbour, and a fortification of twelve
+guns in the town. The people had already, he said, heard from Coquimbo
+of their arrival, and removed and buried their treasure. There were
+also, they heard, breast-works round the town, and barricades in every
+street.
+
+Disregarding these warnings, the Buccaneers embarked next day in a
+launch and four canoes, rowing and sailing all night, in hopes of
+surprising Arica. At daybreak they hid themselves under the cliffs for
+fear of being seen, and at night began again to row. On Sunday (Jan.
+30), 1680--"sacred to the memory of King Charles the Martyr"--they
+landed among some rocks four miles to the south of the town, ninety-two
+men going on shore, the rest staying to defend the boats. The signal
+agreed on was, that at one smoke, they should come up to the harbour in
+one canoe; but if there were two smokes, they should "bring all away,
+leaving only fifteen men with the boats." Mounting a steep hill, they
+could see no Spaniards, and hoped that the surprise was complete; but as
+they were descending the other side, three horsemen on the look-out hill
+rode down at full speed and alarmed the city. The forty men who attacked
+the fort with hand grenades, seeing their companions overpowered, ran
+down into the valley to join them. "Here the battle was very desperate,
+and they killed and wounded two more of our men from their outworks
+before we could gain upon them. But our rage increasing with our wounds,
+we still advanced, and at last beat the enemy out of all, and filled
+every street in the city with dead bodies. The enemy made several
+retreats from one breast-work to another, but, we had not a sufficient
+number of men to man all places taken. Insomuch, that we had no sooner
+beat them out of one place but they came another way, and manned it
+again with new forces and fresh men." So says Ringrose.
+
+Imprudently overburdening themselves with prisoners, they found there
+were in the place 400 soldiers from Lima, 200 armed townsmen, and 300
+men garrisoning the fort. Being now nearly masters of the place, the
+English sent to demand the surrender of the fort, and, receiving no
+answer, advanced to the attack. Several times repulsed, the Buccaneers
+at last mounted the top of a neighbouring house and fired down into the
+castle; but, being again surrounded by the enemy, they were obliged to
+desist. The number and vigour of the enemy increased hourly, and, almost
+overpowered, the English were compelled to retreat to the hospital where
+the surgeons were tending the wounded. Captain Watling and both
+quartermasters were killed, and many were disabled. We will let Ringrose
+tell the rest:--
+
+"So that now, the enemy rallying against us, and beating us from place
+to place, we were in a very distracted condition, and in more likelihood
+to perish, every man, than escape the bloodshed of that day. Now we
+found the words of Captain Sharp true, being all very sensible that we
+had a day too hot for us, after that cruel heat in killing and
+murdering in cold blood the old Mestizo Indian.
+
+"Being surrounded with difficulties on all sides, and in great disorder,
+having nobody to give orders, what was to be done? We were glad to have
+our eyes upon our good old commander, Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and beg
+of him very earnestly to commiserate our condition, and carry us off. It
+was a great while before he would take any notice of our request, so
+much was he displeased with the former mutiny of our people against him,
+all which had been occasioned by the instigation of Mr. Cook.
+
+"But Mr. Sharp is a man of an undaunted courage, and excellent conduct,
+not fearing in the least to look an insulting enemy in the face, and a
+person that knows both the theory and practice of navigation as well as
+most do. Hereupon, at our earnest request and petition, he took upon him
+the command in chief again, and began to distribute his orders for our
+safety. He would have brought off our surgeons, but they, having been
+drinking while we assaulted the fort, would not come with us when they
+were called. They killed and took of our number twenty-eight men,
+besides eighteen that we brought off, who were desperately wounded. At
+that time we were all extremely faint for want of water and victuals,
+whereof we had none all that day. We were likewise almost choked with
+the dust of the town, being so much raised by the work that their guns
+had made, that we could scarce see each other. They beat us out of the
+town, then followed us into the savannahs, still charging as fast as
+they could. But when they saw that we rallied, again resolving to die
+one by another, they ran from us into the town, and sheltered themselves
+under their breast-works. Thus we retreated in as good order as we
+possibly could observe in that confusion. But their horsemen followed us
+as we retired, and fired at us all the way, though they would not come
+within reach of our guns, for theirs reached further than ours, and
+outshot us above one-third. We took the sea-side for our greater
+security, which when the enemy saw, they betook themselves to the
+hills, rolling down great stones and whole rocks to destroy us.
+Meanwhile, those of the town examined our surgeons, and other men whom
+they had made prisoners. These gave them our signs that we had left to
+our boats that were behind us, so that they immediately blew up two
+fires, which were perceived by the canoes. This was the greatest of our
+dangers; for had we not come at that instant that we did to the
+sea-side, our boats had been gone, they being already under sail, and we
+had inevitably perished every man. Thus we put off from the shore, and
+got on board about ten at night, having been involved in a bloody fight
+with the enemy all the day."
+
+The Buccaneers, thus cruelly baffled, plied for some time outside the
+port, hoping to be revenged on the three ships, but they did not venture
+out. Arica Ringrose describes as a square place, with the castle at one
+corner. The houses were only eleven feet high, and built of earth. It
+was the place of embarkation for all minerals sent to Lima. Of the
+English prisoners, only ten survived. The Spaniards lost more than
+seventy men, three times as many being wounded, and of forty-five allies
+from Hillo only two returned alive.
+
+On dividing the plate, they found only thirty-seven pieces of eight fell
+to each man. Landing at Guasco, they took in 500 jars of water, and
+carried off 120 sheep, 80 goats, and 200 bushels of flour. At Hillo they
+surprised the townsmen asleep, and heard a false report that 5000
+Englishmen had taken Panama. They carried off eighteen jars of wine and
+some new figs, and, ascending to the sugar-work they had before visited,
+laded seven mules with molasses and sugar. The townsmen told them, that
+the owner of the mill had brought an action against them for having done
+him more injury than the Buccaneers.
+
+A few days after this another mutiny broke out, and forty-seven men,
+refusing to serve any longer under Captain Sharp, landed near the island
+of Plate, with five Indian slaves to serve as guides. Near the island
+of Chica they captured two Spanish vessels, one of them the very ship
+they had captured before at Panama. They heard here that some of their
+overland parties had taken a good ship at Porto Bello. Capturing some
+Spanish shipwrights at this place, they employed them for a fortnight in
+altering their vessel, and then set them at liberty, with some others of
+their prisoners, giving them one of their prizes, and manning the other
+with six men and two slaves.
+
+They now agreed in council to bear up for Golfo Dolce, there to careen
+their vessels, and then to cruise about under the equinoctial. They
+landed in Golfo Dolce, and, treating kindly some Indians whom they took
+prisoners, bought honey and plantains of them. Here they learned that
+the Spaniards, having treacherously captured forty Darien chiefs, had
+forced the natives into a peace. Having careened here, they soon after
+captured a rich prize, the _San Pedro_, bound from Truxillo to Panama,
+deeply laden with 37,000 pieces of eight, in chest and bags, besides
+plate. This was the same vessel they had taken the year before, and it
+was now their prize a second time in fourteen months. The crew consisted
+of forty men, besides friars and merchants. Taking out part of her
+lading of cocoa, they cut down her masts and turned her adrift with all
+the old slaves, as "_a reward for good service_," taking new ones from
+the prize. Francisco, a negro, who had attempted to escape by swimming
+on shore in the Golfo Dolce, they retained as a prisoner, as a
+punishment for his insubordination. From this prize each Buccaneer
+received 234 pieces of eight, much being left for a future division.
+They learnt from this vessel that a new Viceroy of Peru, arrived at
+Panama, had not dared to venture to Lima in his ship of twenty-five
+guns, but had waited for the armada as a convoy. A few days later, they
+captured the packet that ran between Lima and Panama. A friar and five
+negroes escaped on shore, but two white women were captured. Rummaging
+the boat, they found nothing of value but a letter announcing the
+departure of the viceroy with four ships. The prisoners and the boat
+were then released. "That week," says Ringrose, "we stood out to sea
+all night long, most of our men being fuddled."
+
+The next day they captured a Spanish vessel that had at first frightened
+them by its size. The volleys of the Buccaneers soon drove the Spaniards
+into the hold and made them cry for quarter, having killed the captain
+at the first fire, and wounded the boatswain. Captain Sharp and twelve
+others were the first to board. She proved to be _El Santo Rosario_,
+commanded by Don Diego Lopez, bound from Callao to Panama. The crew were
+forty in number. She was deeply laden with plate and coined money, and
+carried 620 jars of wine and brandy. At Cape Passao Sharp sank the bark
+taken at Nicoya, preserving her rigging, and disabling the last prize
+set the prisoners adrift in it, keeping only the one man, named
+Francisco, who had described himself as the best pilot in those seas.
+They then divided the booty, which came to ninety-four pieces of eight a
+man. From these prisoners they learned that their men taken at Arica had
+been kindly treated at Callao. Of the last party that one had been
+captured, and the rest had had to fight their way overland through
+Indians and Spaniards. Ten Buccaneers were also announced as about to
+enter the South Sea. In August they landed again to kill goats on the
+island of Plate, where Ringrose and James Chappel, a quartermaster,
+fought a duel on shore, with what result we do not know. The same
+evening a conspiracy of the slaves was detected, in which they had
+plotted to slay all their masters when in drink, not sparing any. The
+ringleader, San Jago, a prisoner from Yqueque, leaped overboard when the
+plot was discovered, and was shot by the captain. The rest, being
+terrified at his death, were forgiven, and the same night the usual
+debauch took place in spite of the danger. From their pilot they heard
+that a Lima vessel bound for Guayaquil had run ashore lately on Santa
+Clara, losing 100,000 pieces of eight, that would have been their prize.
+They heard also that the Viceroy of Peru had beheaded the great Admiral
+Ponce for not destroying the Buccaneer fleet while at Gorgona.
+
+They next made a descent on Paita, but found the place garrisoned by
+three companies horse and foot, well armed, from Puira, twelve leagues
+up the country. 150 musketeers and 400 lancers occupied a hill and a
+breast-work, and fired upon the canoes. Had they suffered them to land
+they might have killed them to a man. Finding the whole coast now
+alarmed, they bore at once away for the Straits of Magellan. Touching at
+some unknown islands, they were almost inclined to winter there. Here
+they shot geese, made broth of limpets, and one of the boats captured an
+Indian and shot another dead. The prisoner was clad in a seal's skin,
+and carried a net to catch penguins. He was so strong as to be able to
+open mussels with his fingers, and they kept him as a slave, and called
+him Orson. They then proceeded to divide eight chests of money still
+unallotted, and each man received 322 pieces of eight. On December 7th
+Captain Sharp received intelligence of a conspiracy to shoot him during
+the ensuing festivities of Christmas-day. The only precaution he took
+was at once to divide all the wine in store, believing that no sober man
+would attempt so dastardly an act. Each mess received three jars. The
+cold grew now so intense that several of the negro slaves had their feet
+mortify, and some died. Christmas-day was celebrated by killing a fat
+sow, this being the first flesh the men had eaten since they left the
+island of Plata. By January 16th the days grew very hot again, and the
+nights cool and dewy. The men, weary of the voyage, offered a piece of
+eight "each man" to him who first discovered land. The sight of birds
+soon indicated this, and January 28th the look-out spied Barbadoes; but
+hearing of peace they dared not put in for fear of being seized, and
+therefore steered for Antigua, much afraid of frigates, and shunning
+even a Bristol interloper that lay in the offing. Ringrose says: "Here I
+cannot easily express the infinite joy we were possessed with all this
+day, to see our own countrymen again." They then freed a negro
+shoemaker, whom they had kept as a prisoner, and who had been very
+serviceable during the voyage. To Captain Sharp the men gave a mulatto
+boy as slave, for a token of the respect of his whole company to him for
+having led them safely through so many dangerous adventures. They then
+divided the last parcels of money, and received twenty-four pieces of
+eight a man. A little Spanish shock dog, taken from a prize, was also
+sold at the mast by public outcry, for forty pieces of eight, the owner
+promising all he gained should be devoted to a general feast. Captain
+Sharp bought the dog, saying he would eat it if they did not soon get
+leave to land. 100 pieces of eight was also added to the store, the
+boatswain, carpenter, and quartermaster having quarrelled about the last
+dividend.
+
+On reaching Antigua Sharp sent a canoe ashore to buy tobacco and other
+necessaries, and to ask leave of the governor to land. The conclusion of
+Ringrose's book tells the rest: "The gentry of the place and common
+people were very willing and desirous to receive us, but on Wednesday,
+February 1st, the governor flatly refused us entry, at which all the
+gentry were much troubled, showing themselves very kind to us; hereupon
+we agreed among ourselves to give the ship to those of our company who
+had no money left them of all their purchase in this voyage, having lost
+it at play, and then put ourselves on board two ships bound for England.
+So I myself and thirteen more of our company went on board Captain
+Robert Porteen's ship called the _Lisbon Merchant_, set sail from La
+Antigua February 11th, and landed in England March 26th, anno 1682."
+
+On his arrival in England Captain Sharp was tried for piracy and
+acquitted. He at once resolved to return to the West Indies, but all the
+merchant ships refused to carry him, afraid he would tempt their men to
+revolt against their master, and run away with the ship for a privateer,
+as he had done before. No promises or entreaties could avail, and he
+seemed doomed to remain a prisoner in an island for which he entertained
+no filial affection.
+
+He therefore hit upon a desperate scheme, worthy of such a man.
+Collecting a little money he bought an old, half-rotten boat, lying near
+London-bridge, for L20, and embarked with sixteen desperadoes equally
+fearless as himself, carrying a supply of butter and cheese, and two
+dozen pieces of salt beef. He sailed down the river and reached the
+Downs, and there he boarded and captured a French vessel and sank his
+boat. By a foray on Romney Marsh he supplied himself with cattle, and
+sailed away like a bold Buccaneer as he was, to die no one knows where.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DAMPIER'S VOYAGES.
+
+    Leaves Captain Sharp--Land march over the Isthmus--Joins Captain
+    Wright--Wreck of the French fleet--Returns to England--Second voyage
+    with Captain Cook--Guinea coast--Juan Fernandez--Takes
+    Ampalla--Takes Paita--Dampier's scheme of seizing the mines--Attacks
+    Manilla galleon--Captain Swan--Death unknown. Van Horn--Captures
+    galleons--Takes Vera Cruz--Killed in a duel by Le Graff.
+
+
+Dampier, one of the wisest and best of English travellers, was himself a
+Buccaneer. Son of a Somersetshire farmer, he went early to sea, and
+became a freebooter without much compunction, just at the time when the
+brothers of the coast were sinking into mere pirates. "No peace beyond
+the line" was their early motto; "Friends to God and enemies to all
+mankind," was the later. The flag, once reddened by the Spaniards'
+blood, grew now black with the shadows of death and of the grave.
+
+Dampier was among those who left Captain Sharp after the dreadful
+repulse from Arica. His party consisted of forty-four Englishmen and two
+Mosquito Indians, who determined to re-cross the Isthmus of Darien, and
+return to the North Pacific Ocean. They carried with them a large
+quantity of flour and chocolate mixed with sugar, and took a mutual and
+terrible oath, that if any of their number sank from fatigue, he should
+be shot by his comrades, rather than allow him to fall into the hands of
+the Spaniards, who would not only torture him horribly, but compel him
+to betray his companions.
+
+In a fortnight after leaving the vessels they landed at the mouth of a
+river in the Bay of St. Michael, where unloading their provisions and
+arms they sank their boats; and while preparing for the inland journey,
+the Indians caught fish, and built huts for them to sleep in. The next
+day they struck into an Indian path and reached a village, but found,
+to their alarm, that the Spaniards had placed armed ships at the mouths
+of all the navigable rivers to intercept them on their return. Hiring an
+Indian guide, they reached the day after a native house, but the savage
+would neither give them food nor information. At any other time the
+Buccaneers would have at once put him on the rack, or hung him at his
+own door, but they felt this was no place to be angry, for their lives
+lay in the enemy's hands. Neither dollars, hatchets, nor knives, would
+move this stubborn man, till a sailor pulled a sky blue petticoat from
+his bag and threw it over the head of the Indian's wife. Delighted with
+the gift, she coaxed her husband till he gave them information and found
+a guide. It had rained hard for two days, the country was difficult and
+fatiguing, and there was no path that even an Indian eye could discover.
+They guided themselves by day by the rivers, and at night by the stars.
+They had frequently to ford the rivers twenty or thirty times in twelve
+hours. Rain, cold, fatigue, and hunger made them forget even the
+Spaniards.
+
+In a few days they reached the house of a young Spanish Indian, who had
+lived with the bishop of Panama, and who received them kindly. Here,
+while resting to dry their arms and powder, their surgeon, Mr. Wafer,
+had his knee burnt by an accidental explosion. After dragging himself
+along with pain for another day, he determined to remain behind with two
+or three more. He stayed five months with the Indians, and the published
+account of his experiences still exists.
+
+The rainy season that frightened Mr. Ringrose had now set in, and the
+thunder and lightning was frequent and violent. The valleys and river
+banks were overflowed, and the Buccaneers had to sleep in trees or under
+their shade, instead of building warm and sheltering huts. In the very
+height of their misery, the slaves fled and carried away all they could.
+Dampier, whose only anxiety was to preserve his journal, placed it in a
+bamboo, closed at both ends with wax. In fording one of the rivers, a
+Buccaneer, who carried 300 dollars on his back, was swept down the
+stream and drowned, but the survivors were too hopeless and weary to
+look for either body or gold.
+
+In eighteen days the English reached the river Concepcion, and,
+obtaining Indian canoes, rowed to Le Sound's Key, one of the Samballas
+islands, where Buccaneers rendezvoused. Here they embarked on board a
+French privateer, commanded by Captain Tristian, dismissing their Indian
+guides with presents of money, beads, and hatchets. At Springer's Key,
+Tristian joined them with other vessels, and would have attacked Panama
+had not Dampier and his men deterred them. For a week the council
+deliberated about the available towns worth plundering from Trinidad to
+Vera Cruz. The French and English could not agree, but at last all
+sailed for Carpenter's River, touching at the isle of St. Andreas. The
+ships separated in a gale; and Dampier taking a dislike to his French
+commander, induced Captain Wright, an Englishman, to fit out a small
+vessel and cruise for provisions along the coast. While the sailors
+shot pecary, deer, parrots, pigeons, monkeys, and cuvassow birds, their
+Mosquito Indians struck turtle for their use.
+
+On returning to Le Sound's Key they were joined by Mr. Wafer, who had
+escaped from the Darien Indians, but he was so painted and bedizened
+that it was some time before they could recognize him. An Indian chief
+had offered him his daughter in marriage, and he had only got away by
+pretending to go in search of English dogs for hunting. Passing
+Carthagena, they cast wistful eyes at the convent dedicated to the
+Virgin, situated on a steep hill behind the town. There was immense
+wealth hoarded in this place, rich offerings being frequently made to
+it, and many miracles worked by our Lady. Any misfortune that befel the
+Buccaneer was attributed to this Lady's doing, and the Spaniards
+reported that she was abroad that night the _Oxford_ man-of-war blew up
+at the isle of Vaca, and that she came home all wet, and with clothes
+soiled and torn.
+
+Captain Wright's company pillaged several small places about the Rio de
+la Hache and the Rancherias pearl fisheries, and captured, after a
+smart engagement, an armed ship of twelve guns and forty men, laden with
+sugar, tobacco, and marmalade, bound to Carthagena from Santiago, in
+Cuba. The Dutch governor of Curacoa, having much trade with the
+Spaniards, would not openly buy the cargo, but offered, if it was sent
+among the Danes of St. Thomas, to purchase it through his agents. The
+rovers, declining this, sold it at another Dutch colony, and then sailed
+for the isle of Aves, so called from the quantity of boobies and
+men-of-war birds. On a coral reef, near this island, Count d'Estrees had
+shortly before lost the whole French fleet. He himself had first run
+ashore, and firing guns to warn the rest of the danger, they hurried on
+to the same shoal, thinking, in the darkness, that he had been attacked
+by the enemy. The ships held together till the next day, and many men
+were saved. The ordinary seamen died of hunger and fatigue, but the
+Buccaneers, hardier, and accustomed to frequent wrecks, made the escape
+an excuse for revel and debauchery. As Dampier says, they, "being used
+to such accidents, lived merrily, and if they had gone to Jamaica with
+L30 in their pockets, could not have enjoyed themselves more; for they
+kept a gang by themselves and watched when the ships broke up, to get
+the goods that came out of them, and, though much was staved against the
+rocks, yet abundance of wine and brandy floated over the reef where they
+waited to take it up." * * "There were about forty Frenchmen on board
+one of the ships, in which was good store of liquor, till the after part
+of her broke, and floated over the reef and was carried away to sea,
+with all the men drinking and singing, who, being in drink, did not mind
+the danger, but were never heard of afterwards."
+
+This wreck having left the Bird Island a storehouse of masts and spars,
+the Buccaneer vessels had begun to repair thither to careen and refit.
+Among others, a Captain Pan, a Frenchman, had been there. A Dutch vessel
+of twenty guns, despatched from Curacoa to fish up the sunken cannon,
+observing the privateer, resolved to capture him before he began his
+diving. Pan, afraid of the Dutchman's superior force, abandoned his
+vessel, and, landing his guns, prepared to throw up a redoubt. While
+thus engaged, a Dutch sloop entered the road, and at night anchored at
+the opposite end of the island. In the night, Pan, with two canoes,
+boarded the ship, and made off, leaving his empty hulk for the Dutch
+man-of-war.
+
+At this island, Dampier's men careened their largest vessel, scrubbed
+the sugar prize, and recovered two guns from the wreck. At the island of
+Rocas, a Knight of Malta, captain of a French thirty-six gun ship,
+bought ten tons of their sugar. Failing to sell any more sugar at Petit
+Guaves, they sailed for Blanco, an uninhabited island, full of
+lignum-vitae trees, and teeming with iguanas, that were to be found in
+the swamps, among the bushes, or in the trees. Their eggs were eaten by
+the Buccaneers, who made soup of the flesh for their sick.
+
+While cruising on the Caraccas coast, they landed in some of the bays,
+and took seven or eight tons of cocoa, and three barks laden with
+hides, brandy, earthenware, and European goods. Returning to the Rocas,
+they divided the spoil, and Dampier and nineteen others embarking in one
+of the prizes, reached Virginia July 1682.
+
+Dampier's next voyage was with a Creole, named Cook, who arrived at
+Virginia with a French vessel he had captured by a trick at Petit
+Guaves. He had been quartermaster, or second in command, under a French
+Flibustier named Gandy. By the usual Buccaneer law, he had been made
+captain of a large Spanish prize. The French commanders in the same
+fleet, jealous of this promotion, seized the ship, plundered the English
+prize crew, and sent them ashore. Tristan, another French captain, took
+ten of them with him to Petit Guaves. Cook and his nine companions,
+taking advantage of a day when Tristan and many of his men were absent,
+overpowered the rest of the crew, sent them ashore, and sailed to the
+Isle a la Vache. Here he picked up a crew of English Buccaneers, and
+steered for Virginia, taking two prizes by the way, one of which was a
+French vessel, laden with wines. He then sold his wine and two of the
+ships, and equipped the largest, the _Revenge_, with eighteen guns.
+Amongst the crew were Dampier, Wafer, and Cowley, all of whom have
+written narratives of their voyages. They sailed from the Chesapeak on
+the 23rd of August 1683, and captured a Dutch vessel, laden with wine
+and provisions. At the Cape de Verd islands they encountered a dreadful
+storm, that lasted a week. While the ship scudded before wind and sea
+under bare poles, she was suddenly broached to by order of the master,
+and would have foundered but for Dampier and another man who, going
+aloft and spreading out the flaps of their coats, righted the ship. At
+the isle of Sal, the sailors feasted on flamingo tongues. These birds
+stood in ranks round the feeding ponds, so as to resemble a new brick
+wall. They purchased here some ambergris, which Dampier says he had in a
+lump of 100 lbs. weight. Its origin was at that time unknown; it is now
+believed to be a secretion of the whale. The governor and his court at
+this island rejoiced in rags, their revenues being small, and drawn
+principally from the salt ponds, from which the island derives its name.
+Having dug wells, watered, and careened, they went to Mayo to obtain
+provisions, but were not allowed to land, as only about a week before
+Captain Bond, a pirate of Bristol, had carried off the governor and some
+of his people.
+
+Steering to the Straits of Magellan, they were driven to the Guinea
+coast, and there captured a Danish ship by a stratagem. Captain Cook,
+concealing his men under deck, approached the Dane like a weak, unarmed
+merchant vessel. When quite close, he commanded in a loud voice the helm
+to be put one way, while by a preconcerted plan the steersman shifted
+into another, and fell on board the Dane, which was captured with the
+loss of only five men. She was double their size, carried thirty-six
+guns, and was equipped and victualled for a long voyage.
+
+This vessel they called _The Bachelor's Delight_, and they at once
+burned the _Revenge_, that she might "tell no tales."
+
+During frequent tornadoes near the straits, being short of fresh meat,
+the sailors caught sharks during the calms, and boiling their flesh,
+stewed it with pepper and vinegar. When they reached the Falkland, or
+Sebald de Weist islands, as they were then called, Dampier proposed to
+the captain to reach Juan Fernandez by Cape Horn, avoiding the straits.
+Their men being privateers, wilful, and not much in command, he feared
+would not give sufficient attention in a passage so difficult, and,
+though he owns they were more than usually obedient, he says he could
+not expect to find them at an instant's call in critical moments. At
+these islands they found the sea for a mile round red with shoals of
+small, scarlet-shelled lobsters. Dampier's advice was not taken, but on
+entering the South Sea they met the _Nicholas_, of London, a vessel
+fitted out ostensibly as a trader, but being in reality a Buccaneer. The
+captain came on board, related his adventures, and gave them a supply of
+bread and beef. They reached Juan Fernandez together, and heard from the
+_Nicholas_ of a vessel from London, called the _Cygnet_, commanded by
+Captain Swan, which was sailing in those latitudes. It was a trader,
+holding a licence from the Duke of York, then High Admiral of England.
+
+The crews discovered on the island the Mosquito Indian left behind by
+Captain Watling, in Lussan's expedition, because he was hunting goats
+when the vessel sailed. He was warmly greeted by Dampier, a
+fellow-countryman named Robin, and some old messmates. Robin, running up
+to him, fell flat on his face at his feet, and then rose and embraced
+him. They found he had killed three goats, and prepared some cabbage
+palms, to feast his visitors. The interview, writes Dampier, was tender,
+solemn, and affecting. When abandoned, William had nothing with him but
+his gun and a knife, some powder, and some shot. By notching his knife
+into a saw, he cut his gun barrel into pieces. These he hammered in the
+fire, and ground them into lances, harpoons, hooks, and knives. He
+hunted goats, fished, and killed seals. His clothes he made of skins,
+and with these also he had lined his hut; and he had contrived to elude
+the search of the Spaniards. Wild goats, originally brought by the
+Spaniard, abounded on the hills and in the grassy valleys. There was
+abundance of water and good timber, and the bays abounded with seals and
+sea-lions, that covered the sea for a mile.
+
+Remaining here sixteen days, for the sake of the sick and those ill with
+the scurvy, and getting in water and provision, Cook then steered for
+the American coast, standing out fourteen or fifteen leagues to escape
+the notice of the Spaniard. The ridges were blue and mountainous. They
+soon captured a timber ship from Guayaquil laden with timber for Lima,
+from whose crew they heard that their arrival was known. They anchored
+next at the sandy islet of Lobos de la Mar, and scrubbed their ships.
+Captain Eaton, of the _Nicholas_, proposing to march with them in their
+descents, and the two vessels mustering 108 able men, Cook soon took
+another prize, and Eaton two more, which he pursued. They were laden
+with flour from Lima for Panama, and in one of them was eight tons of
+quince marmalade. The prisoners informed them that, on the rumour of
+their approach, 800,000 pieces of eight had been landed at an
+intermediate port. They sailed next to the Galapagos islands, abandoning
+a design on Truxillo, which they heard had been lately fortified. On
+these rocky, barren shores they feasted on turtle, pigeons, fish, and
+the leaves of the mammee tree. Off Cape Blanco, Captain Cook died, and
+was buried on land.
+
+Capturing some Spanish Indians who had been sent as spies by the
+Governor of Panama, they used them as guides, and landed on the coast in
+search of cattle. Here a few of the men were surprised by fifty armed
+Spaniards, and their boat burned. The sailors thus imperilled waded out
+neck deep to an insulated rock near the shore, and remained there for
+seven hours exposed to the Spanish bullets, till they were taken off by
+a boat from their ship just as the tide was rising to devour them. The
+Spanish, lurking in ambush, made no attempt to resist the rescue.
+
+The quartermaster, Edward Davis, was now elected commander; and after
+cutting lancewood for the handles of their oars, they bore away for Ria
+Lexa, steering for a high volcano that rises above the town and the
+island that forms the harbour. But here, too, the Spaniards had thrown
+up breast-works and placed sentinels, and the Buccaneers sailed for the
+Gulf of Ampalla and the island of Mangera. Davis captured the padre of a
+village and two Indian boys, and, proceeding to Ampalla, informed the
+people that he commanded a Biscay ship, sent by the King of Spain to
+clear those seas of pirates, and that he had come there to careen. The
+sailors were well received, and entertained with feasts and music, and
+they all repaired together to celebrate a festival by torchlight in the
+church. Here Davis hoped to cage them till he could dictate a ransom,
+but the impatience of one of his men frustrated the plan. Pushing in a
+lingering Indian, the man spread an alarm, the people all fled, and the
+Buccaneers, firing, killed one of their chiefs. They remained, however,
+good friends, and these very Indians soon after helped to store the
+ship with cattle belonging to a nunnery, situated on an island in the
+gulf. On leaving, Davis gave them one of his prize ships, and a quantity
+of flour, and released the priest who had helped him in his first
+stratagem.
+
+The crews now quarrelled, and Davis, who claimed the largest share of
+the common plunder, left them, taking Dampier with him. Eaton touched at
+Cocos island, purchased a store of flour, and took in water and cocoa
+nuts. Davis landed at Manta, a village near Cape St. Lorenzo, and
+captured two old women, in order to obtain information. They learnt that
+many Buccaneers had lately crossed the isthmus, and were coming along
+the coast in canoes and piraguas. The viceroy had left no means untried
+to check them; the goats on the uninhabited islands had been destroyed,
+provisions were removed from the shore, and ships even burnt to save
+them from the enemy. At La Plata, Davis was joined by Captain Swan in
+the _Cygnet_, who had turned freebooter in self-defence. He had been
+joined by Peter Harris, who commanded a small bark, and was nephew of
+the Buccaneer commander killed in a sea-fight at Panama three years
+before. They now sent for Eaton, but found from a letter at the
+rendezvous at Lobos, that he had already sailed for the East Indies.
+While the ships were refitting at La Plata, a small bark taken by Davis,
+after the Spaniards had set it on fire, captured a Spaniard of 400 tons,
+laden with timber, and brought word that the viceroy was fitting out ten
+frigates to sweep them from the seas. Captain Swan, at this crisis,
+turned wholly freebooter, and cleared his ship of goods by selling them
+to every Buccaneer on credit. The bulky bales he threw overboard, the
+silks and muslins he kept, and retained the iron bars for ballast. In
+compensation for these sacrifices, the Buccaneers agreed to set aside
+ten shares of all booty for Captain Swan's owners.
+
+Having cleaned the vessels and fitted up a fire-ship, the squadron
+landed at Paita, but found it deserted. Anchoring off the place, they
+demanded as ransom 300 pecks of flour, 3000 pounds of sugar,
+twenty-five jars of wine, and 1000 of water, and having coasted six days
+and obtained nothing, they burnt the town in revenge, and sailed away.
+They found afterwards that Eaton had been there not long before, landed
+his prisoners, and burnt a ship in the road. Burning Harris's vessel,
+which proved unseaworthy, the squadron steered for the island of Lobos
+del Tierra, and, being short of food, took in a supply of seals,
+penguins, and boobies, their Mosquito men supplying them with turtle,
+while the ships were cleaned and provided with firewood, preparatory to
+a descent upon Guayaquil. Embarking in their canoes, they captured in
+the bay a small ship laden with Quito cloth and two vessels full of
+negroes. One of these they dismasted, and a few only of the slaves they
+took with them. From disagreement between the two crews, the expedition
+failed. Having lain in the woods all night, and cut a road with great
+difficulty, they abandoned the scheme without firing a shot, when almost
+within a mile of the town, which they believed was alarmed, and on the
+watch.
+
+Dampier now proposed a scheme as feasible and grand as any of
+Raleigh's. He declared that they never had a greater opportunity of
+enriching themselves. His bold plan was, with the 1000 negroes lying in
+the three prizes, to go and work the gold mines of St. Martha. The
+Indians would at once join them from their hatred of the Spaniards. For
+provision they had 200 tons of flour laid up in the Galapagos islands;
+the North Sea would be open to them; thousands of Buccaneers would join
+them from all parts of the West Indies; united they would be a match for
+all the forces of Peru, and might be at once masters of the west coast
+as high as Quito. This golden cloud melted into mere fog. The Buccaneers
+returned to La Plata, divided the Quito cloth, and turned the Guayaquil
+vessel into a tender for the _Swan_. The old Buccaneers of Davis now
+quarrelled with the new recruits in the _Swan_, accused them of
+cowardice and of having baulked the attempt on Guayaquil, and complained
+of having to supply them with flour and turtle, for they had neither
+provisions nor Indian fishermen. Unable to divorce, the ill-assorted
+pair proceeded to attack together Lavelia, in the Bay of Panama. From
+charts found in the prizes they checked the deceptions and errors of the
+Spanish and Indian prisoners whom they employed as pilots. Their object
+was now to search for canoes in rivers unvisited by the Spaniards, where
+their schemes might remain still undiscovered.
+
+Such rivers abounded from the equinoctial line to the Gulf of St.
+Michael. When five days out from La Plata they made a sudden swoop on
+the village of Tomaco, and captured a vessel laden with timber, with a
+Spanish knight, eight sailors, and a canoe containing twelve jars of old
+wine. A boat party that rowed up the St. Jago river visited a house
+belonging to a lady of Lima, whose servants traded with the Indians for
+gold, several ounces of which were found left by them in their
+calabashes when they fled.
+
+The twin vessels next sailed for the island of Gallo, capturing by the
+way a packet boat from Lima, fishing up the letters, which the Spaniards
+had thrown overboard attached to a buoy. From these they learnt that the
+governor of Panama was hastening the departure of the triennial plate
+fleet from Callo to Panama, where it would be carried on mules across
+the isthmus. To intercept this fleet and to grow millionaires in a day
+was now their only dream. They proceeded at once to careen their ships
+at the Pearl islands in the bay of Panama. Their force consisted of two
+ships, three barks, a fire-ship, and two small tenders. Near the
+uninhabited island of Gorgona they captured a flour ship, and landing
+most of their prisoners at Gorgona, they proceeded to the bay, captured
+a small provision boat, and continued their watch, cruising round the
+city.
+
+Having cut off all communication between Panama and the islands in the
+bay, Davis proposed an exchange of prisoners, surrendering forty monks,
+whom he was glad to get rid of, for one of Harris's band and a sailor
+who had been surprised while hunting on an island. The Lima fleet still
+delaying, the Buccaneers anchored at Tavoga, an island abounding in
+cocoa and mammee trees, and beautiful water. About this time they were
+nearly ensnared by a Spanish ship, sent to the island at midnight under
+pretence of clandestine traffic. This scheme originated in Captain Bond,
+an English pirate who had deserted to the enemy. The squadron, which had
+scattered in alarm, to avoid the fire-ship, were just re-uniting and
+looking for their abandoned anchors, when a cry rose that a fleet of
+armed canoes were steering direct towards them through the island
+channel. This was the French Flibustiers of which we have given an
+account in the adventures of Ravenau de Lussan. After joining in the
+sea-fight off Panama, and the descent upon Leon and Ria Lexa, the
+Buccaneers again split into small parties. Dampier joined Swan and
+Townley, who determined to cruise along the shores of the mine country
+of Mexico, and then, sailing as high as the south-west point of
+California, cross the Pacific, and return to England by India. At
+Guatalico, famous for its blowing rock, they landed their sick for a few
+days, and obtained provisions, and, in a descent near Acapulco, stopped
+a string of sixty laden mules and killed eighteen beeves, carrying off
+all the cattle safely to their ships.
+
+To obtain provisions, Swan sacked the town of St. Pecaque, on the coast
+of New Gallicia, where large stores were kept for the use of the slaves
+of the neighbouring mines. A great many of these he carried off the
+first day on horseback and on the shoulders of his men. These visits
+were repeated--a party of Buccaneers keeping the town till the Spaniards
+had collected a force. Of this Captain Swan gave his men due warning,
+exhorting them, on their way to their canoes with the burdens of maize,
+to keep together in a compact body, but they chose to follow their own
+course, every man straggling singly while leading his horse, or carrying
+a load on his shoulder. They accordingly fell into the ambush the
+Spaniards had laid for them, and to the amount of fifty were surprised
+and mercilessly butchered. The Spaniards, seizing their arms and loaded
+horses, fled, before Swan, who heard the distant firing, could come to
+the assistance of his men. Fifty-four Englishmen and nine blacks fell in
+this affair, which was the most severe the Buccaneers had encountered
+in the South Sea. Dampier relates that Captain Swan had been warned of
+this disaster by an astrologer he had consulted before he sailed from
+England. Many of the men, too, had foreboded the misfortune; and the
+previous night, while lying in the church of St. Pecaque, had been
+disturbed by frequent groanings which kept them from sleeping.
+
+This disaster drove Swan from the coast to careen at Cape St. Lucas, the
+south point of California--in revenge for his loss leaving his pilot and
+prisoners on an uninhabited island. While lying here, Dampier was cured
+of dropsy by being buried all but his head in hot sand. The whole 150
+men were now living on short allowances of maize, and the fish the
+Indians struck salted for store. One meal a-day was now the rule, and
+the victuals were served out by the quartermaster with the exactness of
+gold. Yet, even in this distress, two dogs and two cats received their
+daily shares. They now started for their cruise among the Philippines.
+In a long run of 7,302 miles they saw no living thing--neither bird,
+fish, nor insect, except one solitary flight of boobies. At the end of
+the voyage the men were almost in mutiny at the want of food, and had
+secretly resolved to kill and eat their captain (Swan), and afterwards,
+in regular order, all who had promoted the voyage. At the island of
+Gualan, where there was a Spanish fort and a garrison of thirty men, the
+Buccaneers traded with the natives, who took them for Spaniards from
+Acapulco.
+
+Captain Eaton, who had visited the island before them on his way to
+India, had, at the instigation of the Spaniards, plundered and killed
+many of the natives, and driven the rest to emigration. While trading
+here the Acapulco vessel arrived, and, being signalled by the governor,
+took to flight; but in her hurry to escape ran upon a shoal, from which
+she was with difficulty extricated. Swan, who now grew anxious for quiet
+commerce, discouraged the pursuit, and proceeded quietly on his voyage.
+At Mindanao, Captain Swan and thirty-six men were left behind by his
+crew, who were only anxious for plunder, and soon after captured a
+Spanish vessel bound for Manilla. Captain Swan was eventually drowned
+while attempting to escape to a Dutch vessel lying in the river. Weary
+of the mean robberies of the crew, who now turned mere pirates, Dampier
+left them at the Nicobar islands, and, embarking in canoes, reached
+Sumatra, and eventually sailed for England.
+
+The Buccaneers left behind in the South Sea prospered, and made many
+successful descents. At Lavelia Townley captured the treasure and
+merchandise landed from the Lima ship in the former year, for which Swan
+had watched so long in vain, and for which the Buccaneers had fought in
+the Bay of Panama. Townley died of his wounds. Harris followed Swan
+across the Pacific; and Knight, another English Buccaneer, satiated with
+plunder, returned home laden with Spanish gold; and off Cape Corrientes
+they lay in wait in vain for the Manilla ship, the great prize aimed at
+by all adventurers. Soon after, a malignant fever breaking out among the
+crews, many left the squadron and returned towards Panama, carrying
+back the Darien Indians, but leaving the Mosquito Indians in the
+_Cygnet_.
+
+Davis sailed from Guayaquil to careen at the Galapagos islands, which
+were in the South Pacific what Tortuga was in the North, the harbour and
+sanctuary of the Buccaneers. In returning by Cape Horn, Davis discovered
+Easter island, and left five of his men and five negro slaves on Juan
+Fernandez. These men had been stripped at the gambling-table, and were
+unwilling to return empty-handed. The _Bachelor's Delight_ eventually
+doubled Cape Horn, and he reached the West Indies just in time to avail
+himself of a pardon offered by royal proclamation.
+
+Dampier reached England in 1691, and having published his travels, was
+sent out in 1691 by William III. on a voyage of discovery to New
+Holland, and was wrecked near Ascension. In Queen Anne's reign, during
+the war of the succession, he commanded two privateers, and cruised
+against the Spaniards in the South Sea. His objects were to capture the
+Spanish plate vessels sailing from Buenos Ayres, to lie in wait for the
+gold ship from Boldivia to Lima, and to seize the Manilla galleon. Off
+Juan Fernandez he fought a French Buccaneer vessel for seven hours, but
+parted without effecting a capture. So strong were his old Flibustier
+habits upon him, that he confesses it with reluctance he attacked any
+vessel not a Spaniard. Before they reached the proper latitude the
+Boldivia vessel had sailed.
+
+Captain Stradling, the commander of his companion ship, parted company.
+A surprise of Santa Maria, in the bay of Panama, failed, but Dampier
+made a few small prizes. While lying in the gulf of Nicoya, his chief
+mate, John Clipperton, mutinied, and, seizing his tender, with its
+ammunition and stores, put out to sea. A worse disappointment awaited
+the commander--off the Fort de Narida he came suddenly upon the Manilla
+galleon, and gave her several broadsides before she could clear for
+action. But even at this disadvantage the Spaniards' twenty-four
+pounders soon silenced Dampier's five pounders, drove in the rotten
+planks of his vessel, the _St. George_, and compelled him to sheer
+off--the galleon's crew quadrupling that of the English.
+
+The men growing despondent and weary of the voyage, Dampier put
+thirty-four of them into a prize brigantine of seventy tons, and
+appointed one named Funnel as their commander. Allowing them to sail for
+India, he with twenty-nine men returned to Peru and plundered the town
+of Puna. The vessel being no longer fit for sea, they abandoned her at
+Lobos de la Mar, and embarking in a Spanish brigantine crossed the
+Pacific. In India, Dampier, having had his commission stolen by some of
+his deserters, was imprisoned by the Dutch. When he reached England at
+last, he found that Funnel had returned and published his voyage to the
+West Indies. A few of his men who had lost their money in gambling
+remained in the _Bachelor's Delight_ with Davis.
+
+It is supposed he now fell into very extreme poverty, for in 1708 we
+find him acting as pilot to the two Bristol privateers that
+circumnavigated the globe, and were as successful as he had been
+unfortunate. At Juan Fernandez the commander, Woodes Rogers, brought off
+the celebrated Alexander Selkirk, who had been abandoned here four years
+before, by Dampier's mutinous consort, Captain Stradling, and, by the
+traveller's advice, the poor outcast was made second mate of the _Duke_.
+At Guayaquil, where Dampier commanded the artillery, they obtained
+plunder to the value of L21,000, besides 27,000 dollars, as ransom for
+the town. Off Cape Lucas they captured a rich Manilla ship, laden with
+merchandise, and containing L12,000 in gold and silver. They also
+encountered the great Manilla galleon, but were beaten off after a
+severe engagement with a loss of twenty-five men. After a run of two
+months they reached Gualan, and obtained provisions by anchoring under
+Spanish colours. Visiting Batavia, they waited a long time at the Cape
+for a home-bound fleet, and in July, 1711, entered the Texel
+five-and-twenty sail, Dutch and English; and in October sailed up the
+Thames with booty valued at L150,000. Of the great Dampier we hear no
+more, and his very burial place is unknown.
+
+VAN HORN was originally a common Dutch sailor, who, having, by dint of
+the prudence of his nation, saved 200 dollars, entered into partnership
+with a messmate who had laid by the same sum, and, going to France,
+obtained a privateer's commission, and fitted up a fishing-boat with a
+crew of thirty men. Cruising first as Dutch, he then purchased a large
+vessel at Ostend, and, hoisting the French flag, made war on all
+nations. The French court ordered M. d'Estrees to detain this Flying
+Dutchman, whose commission had now expired, and a ship was sent for the
+purpose; but as the commander had no orders to proceed to extremities,
+and Van Horn was determined not to go alive, he was suffered to escape.
+Quite undaunted he proceeded to Puerto Rico, entered the bay, sounding
+his trumpets, and, sending on shore, told the governor that he had come
+to offer his services to escort the galleons which were then ready to
+sail. The governor accepted the offer, and Van Horn sailed off with
+them; but being soon joined by some Buccaneer companions, he turned on
+the prey, seized the richest, sank some others, and pursued the rest.
+Such was the commencement of this adventurer's career. His after life
+was worthy of such a beginning.
+
+Van Horn was immensely rich. He usually wore a string of pearls of
+extraordinary size, and a large ruby of great beauty. His widow lived
+afterwards at Ostend.
+
+In 1683, Van Horn, who had all his life fought under French colours,
+though not very scrupulous about what nation a vessel was, so it were
+rich, having gone to St. Domingo to sell negroes, had his ship
+confiscated by the Spanish governor. The Buccaneer's ungovernable
+passions could no more brook such an insult than a knight would have
+borne a blow. Buccaneer pride desired revenge; Buccaneer cupidity
+desired redress. Resolved on vengeance, the angry Dutchman hastened to
+Petit Guaves, and took out a commission from the governor of Tortuga,
+and at once enrolled 300 of the bravest Buccaneers, with a determination
+of attacking Vera Cruz. Among his crew were enrolled several of the
+leading Buccaneer chiefs. Grammont, who had lately lost his ship at the
+Isles des Aves, lately a commander, was now a mere volunteer. Such were
+the vicissitudes of Buccaneer life. Laurence de Graff was also there. He
+was a Dutchman like Van Horn, but one came from Ostend and the other
+from Dort. Among the less celebrated were Godefroy and Jonque. Their
+numbers soon swelled to 1,200 picked men, in six vessels, under the
+command of Van Horn and De Graff, who had each a frigate of fifty guns,
+while the rest had simple barks. Their common aim was Vera Cruz, the
+emporium of all the riches of New Spain, and they needed no other
+incitement to urge them to speed and unity.
+
+From some Spanish prisoners they heard that two large vessels laden with
+cocoa were hourly expected at Vera Cruz from the Caraccas. The
+Buccaneer leaders instantly fitted up two of their largest ships in the
+Spanish fashion, and, hoisting the Spanish flag, sent them boldly into
+the harbour, as if just returning as peaceful but armed traders from a
+long and successful voyage. It was the eve of the Assumption, crowds of
+sailors and townsmen lined the quays, and the expectant populace cheered
+the rich merchantmen as they steered with a stately sweep into the
+haven. The keener eyes, however, soon observed that the Caraccas vessels
+advanced very slowly, although the wind was good, and their suspicions
+became excited almost before the Buccaneers could work into port. Some
+even ran to tell the governor that all was not right, but Don Luis de
+Cordova told them that their fears were foolish, the two vessels he knew
+by unmistakable signs to be the two vessels he expected; and he returned
+the same answer to the commander of the fort at St. Jean d'Ulloa, who
+also sent to bid him be upon his guard.
+
+About midnight the French, under cover of the dark, landed at the old
+town, about three leagues to the west of the more modern city. They
+obtained easy access to the place, and surprised the governor in his
+bed. The drowsy sentinels once overpowered, the small fortress with its
+twelve guns was in the possession of their men. At every corner pickets
+were placed. The surprise was so complete, that when the tocsin rang at
+daybreak, the watchmen being alarmed at some musket shots they heard,
+they found the town already bound hand and foot. At the first clang of
+the bell, the garrison rushed out of their barracks, and ranged
+themselves under their colours, but saw the French already in arms at
+the head of all the principal streets. They were surrounded and
+helpless. When the day broke, nobody dare show themselves, for all those
+who ran out armed were instantly struck down. Sentinels were placed at
+every door in the principal streets, a barrel of powder with the lid off
+by their sides, ready to fire the train that connected one with the
+other at the least signal of danger. We believe it was on this occasion
+that Van Horn forced a monk into the cathedral, who preached to the
+people on the vanity of worldly riches, and the necessity of abandoning
+them to the spoiler. The Buccaneers then drove all the Spaniards into
+their houses, and forced the women and children into the churches. Here
+they remained, crowded together, weeping and hungry, for three days,
+while their enemies collected the booty. The Buccaneers, now safe,
+abandoned themselves, as usual, to debauchery and gluttony--some dying
+from immoderate gluttony. Fortunately for this wretched people, the
+bishop of the town, happening to be near Vera Cruz at the time, began to
+treat for their ransom. It was fixed at two million piastres, of which a
+part was paid the very same day--the Buccaneers only dispensing with the
+remaining million, as the Vice-Royal was already approaching the town at
+the head of a large force. Dangers were now hemming in the Dutchman and
+his band. About eleven o'clock in the morning, the look-out on the tower
+of St. Catherine's reported that a fleet of fourteen sail was
+approaching the city.
+
+The Buccaneers, alarmed, sprang to arms. Aghast at this intelligence,
+the French, dreading to be shut in between two fires, decided upon an
+immediate retreat. The townspeople, terrified at the prospect of being
+massacred by their infuriated and despairing enemies, were as
+apprehensive of danger as the Buccaneers themselves. Van Horn embarked
+with speed all the plate and cochineal, and the more valuable and
+portable of the spoil, and waited eagerly for the ransom which was now
+almost in sight. It, however, never arrived, for the drivers of the
+mules, hearing the firing, halted till the fleet came within sight. The
+Buccaneers had no time to lose, and compensated themselves by carrying
+off 1,500 slaves to their vessels, which lay moored at some leagues'
+distance, at Grijaluc, a place of safety.
+
+They spent the night in great disorder, in continual apprehension of
+being attacked by the Spanish fleet, which was, at the same time,
+congratulating itself on reaching Vera Cruz unharmed. The danger of the
+Buccaneers was indeed not yet removed, for they had neither water nor
+sufficient provisions, and some 1,500 prisoners were on board. About
+these hostages the leaders differed in opinion, and words ran high. The
+two chiefs fought, and Van Horn received a sword thrust in the arm from
+De Graff. The several crews took up their captains' quarrels, and would
+have come to blows, had not De Graff divided the prey, and at once set
+sail. Van Horn followed, but died on the passage, a gangrene having
+formed upon a wound at first very slight. He was devotedly beloved by
+his men, says Charlevoix, though he was in the habit of cutting down any
+sailor whom he saw flinch at his guns. He left his frigate with his
+dying breath to Grammont, who reached St. Domingo, after dreadful
+sufferings, having lost three-fourths of his prisoners by famine--his
+patache being cast away and taken by the Spaniards. De Graff's vessel
+was also wrecked, but the crew made their way one by one to St. Domingo,
+where, in spite of the ill reception of the governor, they were welcomed
+by the hospitality of the inhabitants, who longed to share the treasure
+of Vera Cruz. The governor, M. de Franquesnoy, without fortress or
+garrison, and exposed to the inroads of the Spaniards, could make no
+resistance to these wild refugees, who, on one occasion, hearing that he
+intended to seize upon part of the Vera Cruz booty, surrounded his house
+to the number of 120 men, and threatened his life. At this time, a
+general outbreak of the French was expected.
+
+It was in the very next year that the governor of Carthagena, hearing
+that Michael le Basque and Jonque were cruising near his port, sent two
+vessels against them, one of 48 guns and 300 men, and the other of 40
+guns and 250 men, with a small bark as a decoy. The Buccaneer chiefs
+each commanded a vessel of 30 guns and 200 men. They both grappled the
+Spaniards, held them for an hour and a-half, swept their decks with
+musketry, tortured them with hand grenades and missiles, and eventually
+bore them off in triumph. All the Spaniards who were not killed were put
+on shore with a note to the governor, thanking him for having sent them
+two such good vessels, as their own had long been unfit for service.
+They, moreover, promised to wait fifteen days off Carthagena for any
+other vessel he might wish to get rid of, provided he would send money
+in them, of which they were in great need.
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+LONDON: SERCOMBE AND JACK, 16 GREAT WINDMILL STREET.
+
+
+
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