A Piratical Aftermath
Morgan's destination was the isle of Savona, near which a great Spanish
fleet was expected to pass, and here he hoped to make some rich prizes.
But when he got out to sea he met with contrary and dangerous winds,
which delayed him a long time, and eventually when he arrived at Savona,
after having landed at various places, where he pillaged, murdered, and
burned, according to the extent of his opportunities, he found at least
one-half of his men and ships had not arrived. With the small force
which he now had with him he could not set out to attack a Spanish
fleet, and therefore he was glad to accept the suggestion made to him by
a Frenchman who happened to be in his company.
This man had been with L'Olonnois two years before when that bloody
pirate had sacked the towns of Maracaibo and Gibraltar; he had made
himself perfectly familiar with the fortifications and defences of these
towns, and he told Morgan that it would be easy to take them. To be
sure they had been thoroughly sacked before, and therefore did not offer
the tempting inducements of perfectly fresh towns, such as
Port-au-Prince, but still in two years the inhabitants must have
gathered together some possessions desirable to pirates, and therefore,
although Morgan could not go to these towns with the expectation of
reaping a full harvest, he might at least gather up an aftermath which
would pay him for his trouble.
So away sailed this horde of ravenous scoundrels for the lake of
Maracaibo, at the outer end of which lay the town of Maracaibo, and at
the other extremity the town of Gibraltar. When they had sailed near
enough to the fortifications they anchored out of sight of the
watch-tower and, landing in the night, marched on one of the forts. Here
the career of Morgan came very near closing forever. The Spaniards had
discovered the approach of the pirates, and this fort had been converted
into a great trap in which the citizens hoped to capture and destroy the
pirate leader and his men. Everybody had left the fort, the gates were
open, and a slow-match, communicating with the magazine, had been
lighted just before the last Spaniard had left.
But the oldest and most sagacious of rats would be no more difficult to
entrap than was the wily pirate Morgan. When he entered the open gates
of the fort and found everything in perfect order, he suspected a trick,
and looking about him he soon saw the smouldering match. Instantly he
made a dash at it, seized it and extinguished the fire. Had he been
delayed in this discovery a quarter of an hour longer, he and his men
would have been blown to pieces along with the fort.
Now the pirates pressed on toward the town, but they met with no
resistance. The Spaniards, having failed to blow up their dreaded
enemies, had retreated into the surrounding country and had left the
town. The triumphant pirates spread themselves everywhere. They searched
the abandoned town for people and valuables, and every man who cared to
do so took one of the empty houses for his private residence. They made
the church the common meeting-place where they might all gather together
when it was necessary, and when they had spent the night in eating and
drinking all the good things they could find, they set out the next day
to hunt for the fugitive citizens.
For three weeks Morgan and his men held a devil's carnival in Maracaibo.
To tell of the abominable tortures and cruelties which they inflicted
upon the poor people, whom they dragged from their hiding-places in the
surrounding country, would make our flesh creep and our blood run cold.
When they could do no more evil they sailed away up the lake for
Gibraltar.
It is not necessary to tell the story of the taking of this town. When
Morgan arrived there he found it also entirely deserted. The awful dread
of the human beasts who were coming upon them had forced the inhabitants
to fly. In the whole town only one man was left, and he was an idiot who
had not sense enough to run away. This poor fellow was tortured to tell
where his treasures were hid, and when he consented to take them to the
place where he had concealed his possessions, they found a few broken
earthen dishes, and a little bit of money, about as much as a poor
imbecile might be supposed to possess. Thereupon the disappointed fiends
cruelly killed him.
For five weeks the country surrounding Gibraltar was the scene of a
series of diabolical horrors. The pirates undertook the most hazardous
and difficult expeditions in order to find the people who had hidden
themselves on islands and in the mountains, and although they obtained a
great deal of booty, they met with a good many misfortunes. Some of them
were drowned in swollen streams, and others lost much of their pillage
by rains and storms.
At last, after having closed his vile proceedings in the ordinary pirate
fashion, by threatening to burn the town if he were not paid a ransom,
Morgan thought it time for him to depart, for if the Spaniards should
collect a sufficient force at Maracaibo to keep him from getting out of
the lake, he would indeed be caught in a trap. The ransom was partly
paid and partly promised, and Morgan and his men departed, carrying with
them some hostages for the rest of the ransom due.
When Morgan and his fleet arrived at Maracaibo, they found the town
still deserted, but they also discovered that they were caught in the
trap which they had feared, out of which they saw no way of escaping.
News had been sent the Spanish forces; of the capture and sacking of
Maracaibo, and three large men-of-war now lay in the channel below the
town which led from the lake into the sea. And more than this, the
castle which defended the entrance to the lake, and which the pirates
had found empty when they arrived, was now well manned and supplied with
a great many cannon, so that for once in their lives these wicked
buccaneers were almost discouraged. Their little ships could not stand
against the men-of-war; and in any case they could not pass the castle,
which was now prepared to blow them to pieces if they should come near
enough.
But in the midst of these disheartening circumstances, the pirate leader
showed what an arrogant, blustering dare-devil he was, for, instead of
admitting his discomfiture and trying to make terms with the Spaniards,
he sent a letter to the admiral of the ships, in which he stated that if
he did not allow him a free passage out to sea he would burn every house
in Maracaibo. To this insolent threat, the Spanish admiral replied in a
long letter, in which he told Morgan that if he attempted to leave the
lake he would fire upon his ships, and, if necessary, follow them out to
sea, until not a stick of one of them should be left. But in the great
magnanimity of his soul he declared that he would allow Morgan to sail
away freely, provided he would deliver all the booty he had captured,
together with the prisoners and slaves, and promise to go home and
abandon buccaneering forever. In case he declined these terms, the
admiral declared he would come up the channel in boats filled with his
soldiers and put every pirate to the sword.
When Morgan received this letter, he called his men together in the
public square of the town, and asked them what they would do, and when
these fellows heard that they were asked to give up all their booty,
they unanimously voted that they would perish rather than do such an
unmanly thing as that. So it was agreed that they would fight themselves
out of the lake of Maracaibo, or stay there, dead or alive, as the case
might be.