_The Expedition to Maracaibo._
The Delay at Ocoa.--Hunting Excursions.--The Repulse.--Cities
of Venezuela.--The Plan of Morgan.--Suggestions of Pierre
Picard.--Sailing of the Expedition.--They Touch at
Oruba.--Traverse Venezuela.--Enter Lake Maracaibo.--Capture of
the Fort.--The City Abandoned.--Atrocities of the Pirates.
At Ocoa, on the Island of Hispaniola, the pirates remained several days
waiting for the arrival of the other vessels, which were unaccountably
lagging behind. Every morning Morgan sent a party of eight men, from
each ship, upon the island as hunters, in search of game. He also sent
a body of armed men to protect them from any attack by the Spaniards.
Though there were many Spaniards upon the island, they did not feel
strong enough to assail so great a force as the pirates could muster.
They, however, sent to the city of San Domingo for three or four
hundred men, to kill or drive away all the cattle and game around the
Bay of Ocoa. They hoped thus to starve out the buccaneers, and compel
them to depart.
Goaded by hunger, a band of fifty of Morgan’s men ventured far into
the woods. The Spaniards, who were watching them, drew them into an
ambuscade. The pirates were outnumbered and surrounded. With cries of
“Kill, kill,” the Spaniards opened a sudden and deadly fire. But these
desperadoes, accustomed to every kind of danger, could not be thrown
into a panic. Instantly they formed themselves into a hollow square,
and keeping a rolling fire from the four sides, slowly retreated
to their ships. Many fell by the way, dead or wounded. Many of the
Spaniards were also slain.
The next day, Morgan, rendered furious by the discomfiture, landed
himself, at the head of two hundred men, to take dire revenge upon his
foes. But no foe was to be met. Finding his search useless, he gave
vent to his rage in burning all the dwellings he encountered, from
which the Spaniards had fled.
Still the seven missing ships did not appear. After waiting a few days
more, he decided to delay no longer. Spreading his sails, he steered
his course for the Island of Savona. But none of the missing vessels
were there. While waiting, he sent several boats, with crews amounting
to one hundred and fifty well-armed men, to plunder several of the
small towns upon the San Domingo coast. But in the capital city and
all along the shore scouts were on the watch. Sentinels were placed
upon every headland. The moment the boats appeared in sight, signals
were given. At every point where a landing was attempted such energetic
resistance was presented, that the pirates were compelled to retreat.
They returned to Morgan with this discouraging report. He was in a
towering rage, and with sneers and curses denounced them as cowardly
poltroons. As no longer delay could be safely indulged in, and as the
missing vessels did not arrive, he made another review of his fleet and
army, and found that he had eight vessels of various sizes and about
five hundred men.
Upon the coast of Venezuela there was a large and opulent city, called
Caraccas. It was the capital of the province of Venezuela, and had
been founded nearly one hundred years before, in 1567, by the Spanish
Government. It was a well-built and beautiful city, delightfully
situated, in the enjoyment of a salubrious climate, and enriched by
extensive commerce. Near by were Valencia, Barcelona, and Cumana, all
important commercial ports. The latter place was the oldest city on the
continent of South America. It was established in 1523. The plunder of
these four cities would indeed enrich the marauders. And Morgan, in
command of fifteen vessels, and with an army of fifteen hundred men did
not doubt that he could effect their capture, one by one, if he could
strike them entirely by surprise. But it was folly to attempt it with
eight vessels and five hundred men.
There was a Frenchman in command of one of Morgan’s ships, by the name
of Pierre Picard. This man, several years before, had been the pilot
of Lolonois’s fleet, in his capture and destruction of Maracaibo and
Gibraltar, of which expedition we have already given an account. During
the intervening years those places had, in a very considerable degree,
recovered from their disasters. Again they presented riches sufficient
to entice the buccaneers.
Picard was a remarkable man, of great resources. He was a bold soldier
and a skilful sailor. Familiar with all these waters, fearless and
unscrupulous, with French plausibility of address, and speaking the
English language with volubility and correctness, he gained great
influence over Morgan.
A council of the officers was called. He proposed an attack upon
Maracaibo and Gibraltar. A chart was presented exhibiting the course to
be run, the channels to be threaded, the forces to be encountered, and
the means of overcoming them.
His proposition was received with general acclaim, and the fleet
weighed anchor. After several days’ sail to the south, they reached
an island called Oruba. It was inhabited only by natives. They had a
large stock of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids. Here the pirates cast
anchor, to take in water and provisions. For once these marauders
seemed to come to the conclusion that honesty was more politic than
thievery, and that it was easier to buy a goat with a skein of thread,
than to steal it, and thus rouse the hostility of the whole native
population. They remained here twenty-four hours, acting as nearly
like honest men as such a gang of thieves, drunkards, and desperadoes
could do. They filled their water-casks, and laid in quite a store of
provisions, which they bought, though without money and almost without
price.
They were now within a day’s sail of Maracaibo. They were anxious that
the natives should not know their destination, lest in some way they
might give the alarm. Therefore the anchors were raised and the sails
spread in the night. When the morning dawned the islanders looked in
vain for the fleet.
During the day the ships came in sight of the cluster of islands which
are found at the entrance of the Lake of Maracaibo. A fair breeze from
the north had swept them rapidly through the Gulf of Venezuela. Just
within the narrows which connected the gulf with the lake, there was
a mountainous island called Vigilia. Upon one of its eminences there
was a watch-tower erected, where sentinels were stationed, ever on the
lookout to give warning of the approach of any suspicious craft.
Just as the fleet reached this point the wind died away into a perfect
calm. Though Morgan made every endeavor to cast anchor out of sight
of the watch-tower, the vigilant eyes of the sentinels detected him.
The alarm was instantly sent up to the city. Twelve hours passed away
before there was a breath of wind to ripple the crystal surface of the
lake. It was then four o’clock in the morning. All this time had been
granted the Spaniards to prepare for their defence.
At a little distance beyond Vigilia there was a narrow channel to be
threaded, which was defended by a fort. Not deeming it safe to expose
his vessels to the heavy guns of the Spaniards, and knowing that the
works would be weak on the land side, he manned his boats, and marching
through the woods struck his foes in the rear. The garrison had made
arrangements for the most desperate resistance. They had burned all the
huts around the walls of the fort, and had removed everything which
could afford the assailants any shelter.
The defenders of the works numbered probably not more than thirty or
forty men. Nearly five hundred reckless desperadoes emerged from the
woods for the assault. They were all veterans, and all sharpshooters.
Not a hand could be exposed but a bullet would strike it. Such a storm
of balls were thrown with unerring aim in at every embrasure, that the
guns could not be worked.
When the pirates, in their large numbers, first appeared emerging from
the forest, the fort opened a fire so intense and continuous that it
resembled the crater of a small volcano in most rapid eruption. But
the pirates, who could return ten bullets for every one received, and
who were careful that every bullet should accomplish its mission, soon
caused the fire to slacken. Still the fight continued for many hours,
till night came, with no apparent advantage on either side.
With the darkness the conflict ceased. Morgan sent a party cautiously
forward to reconnoitre. No light was to be seen. No sound was to be
heard. Solitude and silence reigned. The fort was deserted. With shouts
the pirates rushed forward to take possession of the works. The loud
voice of Morgan arrested them. He was as cautious as he was brave. A
party of engineers was dispatched, led by Morgan himself, to search
lest there might be lighted fuses leading to the magazine. Morgan was
the first to enter. His quick eye discerned the gleam of a fuse slowly
creeping toward the magazine, where three thousand pounds of gunpowder
were stored. It was instantly trampled out.
But for this caution, five hundred pirates would have swarmed all
over the fort. There would have been an earthquake roar, a volcanic
upheaval, and not one of those five hundred desperadoes would have
survived to tell the story of the retribution which had so suddenly
befallen them.
The fort was a small but strong redoubt, or outwork, built of stone,
circular in form, with a massive wall thirty feet high. It was only
accessible by an iron ladder which could be let down from a guard-room.
It mounted fourteen cannons, of eight, twelve, and fourteen pound
calibre. There was also found a quantity of fire-pots, hand-grenades,
pikes, and muskets.
The pirates had no time to lose. It was needful to press forward as
rapidly as possible, for every hour the inhabitants of the city might
be adding to their defences. They blew up a portion of the wall; spiked
the cannon, and threw them over the ramparts; burned the gun-carriages,
and destroyed all the material of war which they could not carry away
with them.
The way was now open for the passage of the fleet up the lake to the
very entrance of the harbor. With the earliest dawn the fleet spread
its sails, leaving behind the smouldering ruins of the fort. The
breeze was light, the shoals many, the channel intricate. It was not
until the next day that they came within sight of the city. There was
still another fort to be passed at the very mouth of the port. Morgan
stood upon his quarter-deck, spy-glass in hand. He could see the
Spanish cavaliers at work on the ramparts, and had reason to expect a
very desperate resistance. Again he decided not to expose his ships to
the cannonade which the heavy guns of the fort could bring to bear upon
them.
Casting anchor out of gun-shot, he disembarked his forces in the boats.
They were ordered not to meddle with the fort, but to march in two
divisions through the woods, and attack the town at points which the
artillery of the fort could not protect. The guns of the fleet were
brought to bear upon all the adjacent thickets, that no foe might find
there a lurking-place.
The landing was effected without opposition. The march, through the
narrow mule-paths, was undisputed. The town was reached. But there
was no foe there; no inhabitant there. All had fled. Warned by the
awful fate which had befallen Maracaibo, but a few years before, when
sacked by the pirates under Lolonois, the citizens, men, women, and
children, had fled utterly panic-stricken. It is easy for a man of any
ordinary courage to brave death in the performance of duty. But who can
endure demoniac torture? Who can bear the idea of seeing his wife, his
daughter, his child exposed to every indignity, every cruelty which
demons in human form can devise?
Maracaibo was emptied of its population. All had sought refuge in the
forest, with speed to which terror lent wings. The aged, the sick had
fled. Even the dying were carried away. And it is stated without denial
that the ship, the Oxford, which took the lead in this enterprise,
belonged to Charles II., King of England. This royal buccaneer had
equipped it, had manned it, and was to share in the spoil. And he
rewarded the demoniac leader of this demoniac gang with the honors of
a baronetcy; and appointed him governor over one of the most important
colonies of Great Britain. Such scenes were enacted only two hundred
years ago. Surely the world has made some progress.
The fugitives had taken with them everything they could carry. There
were no carriage roads in those parts. But there were many narrow
mule-paths, leading in various directions. On pack-mules and horses
much treasure had been removed. Two days had elapsed since the alarm
had resounded through the streets, “The pirates are coming.”
The houses were empty. The doors were left wide open. The chambers
were stripped of everything valuable. Nearly all the gold and silver
and jewels had of course disappeared. There were some houses of much
elegance in the place, sumptuously furnished. The pirates rushed
through the streets, searching for the richest palaces for their
barracks. The churches they wantonly defiled and converted into
prison-houses. Not a vessel or a boat was left in the port. All had
been used, by the terrified fugitives, to escape far away upon the wide
lake beyond.
Morgan, chagrined at the loss of so much anticipated treasure,
instantly dispatched one hundred fleet-footed men to pursue the
encumbered and heavily laden refugees, along all the trails. Scarcely
any provisions could be found in the town. The fugitives had taken the
wise precaution to destroy what they could not carry away. The little
fort which guarded the harbor was merely a half-moon rampart facing the
water, and mounting but four cannon. These works the Spaniards had of
course abandoned.
The men who had been dispatched in pursuit of the Spaniards returned
the next evening. They brought with them thirty prisoners, and fifty
mules laden with valuables. The prisoners were feeble men and women
of the poorest class. The owners of the richly laden mules, seeing
the approach of the pirates, had abandoned all, and outstripped the
pursuers in their flight. The unhappy captives were put to the torture,
but nothing could be wrested from them.
This Morgan, subsequently Sir Henry Morgan, governor of Jamaica,
suspended his prisoners by the beard; hung them up horizontally by
cords bound around their toes and thumbs; placed burning matches
between their fingers; scourged them; twisted cords around their
heads till their eyes burst from their sockets, and perpetrated other
enormities too horrible to be mentioned.
“Thus,” writes Esquemeling, “all sort of inhuman cruelties were
executed upon these innocent people. Those who would not confess, or
who had nothing to declare, died under the hands of those tyrannical
men. These tortures and racks continued for the space of three whole
weeks; in which time they ceased not to send out daily parties of men
to seek for more people to torment and rob: they never returned home
without booty and new riches.”
In one of these excursions they captured two negro slaves, who were
faint for loss of food. They were both put to the torture, to compel
them to reveal where their master was concealed. One, the elder of the
two, endured the horrible torment without a word, and almost without
a groan, till death came to his release. The other captive, a young
man, just emerging from boyhood, bore up bravely until the agony became
utterly unendurable. He then offered to lead them to his master. The
wealthy Spaniard was soon taken, and with him the exultant pirates
seized thirty thousand dollars in silver.
In such days of disaster and woe, families, flying into the wilderness,
would cling together. Morgan had gradually captured one hundred of the
most prominent families. He had also acquired an unexpectedly large
amount of plunder, in silver, gold, bullion, and rich merchandise.
Captain Picard was very exultant in view of the success of the
enterprise which he had suggested and guided. He now urged that they
should advance upon the city of Gibraltar. It will be remembered that
this place was at the head of the lake, about one hundred miles south
from Maracaibo. Morgan embarked his prisoners and all of his plunder on
board his fleet and spread his sails for this new enterprise.