initial commit of ebook 38632HEADmain

1 files changed, 5774 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/38632.txt b/38632.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9f3b37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38632.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5774 @@
+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.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONARCHS OF THE MAIN, VOLUME II
+(OF 3)***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 38632.txt or 38632.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/6/3/38632
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+