As the seventeenth century passed on, Spain, under the influence of
religious intolerance and bad government, grew weak, both at home and
abroad. Its prominent place in Europe was lost. Its vast colonial
provinces in America were scenes of persecution and anarchy. There the
fortresses were allowed to decay, the soldiers, half-clothed and unpaid,
to become beggars or bandits, the treasures to be pilfered, and commerce
to become a system of fraud; while the colonists were driven to detest
their mother land. This weakness was followed by dire consequences. Bands
of outcasts from various nations, who had settled on Spanish territory in
the West Indies, at first to forage on the cattle of Hispaniola, organized
into pirate crews, and, under the name of buccaneers, became frightful
scourges of the commerce of Spain.
These wretches, mainly French, English, and Dutch, deserters and outlaws,
the scum of their nations, made the rich merchant and treasure ships of
Spain their prey, slaughtering their crews, torturing them for hidden
wealth, rioting with profuse prodigality at their lurking-places on land,
and turning those fair tropical islands into a pandemonium of outrage,
crime, and slaughter. As they troubled little the ships of other nations,
these nations rather favored than sought to suppress them, and Spain
seemed powerless to bring their ravages to an end. In consequence, as the
years went on, they grew bolder and more adventurous. Beginning with a few
small, deckless sloops, they in time gained large and well-armed vessels,
and created so deep a terror among the Spaniards by their savage attacks
that the latter rarely made a strong resistance.
Lurking in forest-hidden creeks and inlets of the West India islands, they
kept a keen lookout for the ships that bore to Spain the gold, silver,
precious stones, and rich products of the New World, pursued them in their
swift barks, boarded them, and killed all who ventured to resist. If the
cargo was a rich one, and there had been little effort at defence, the
prisoners might be spared their lives; if otherwise, they were flung
mercilessly into the sea. Sailing then to their place of rendezvous, the
captors indulged in the wildest and most luxurious orgies, their tables
groaning with strong liquors and rich provisions; gaming, music, and
dancing succeeding; extravagance, debauchery, and profusion of every kind
soon dissipating their blood-bought wealth.
Among the pirate leaders several gained prominence for superior boldness
or cruelty, among whom we may particularly name L'Olonnois, a Frenchman,
of such savage ferocity that all mariners of Spanish birth shuddered with
fear at his very name. This wretch suffered the fate he deserved. In an
expedition to the Isthmus of Darien he was taken prisoner by a band of
savage Indians, who tore him to pieces alive, flung his quivering limbs
into the fire, and then scattered the ashes to the air.
Most renowned of all the buccaneers was Henry Morgan, a native of Wales,
who ran away from home as a boy, was sold as a slave in Barbadoes, and
afterwards joined a pirate crew, in time becoming a leader among the
lawless hordes. By this time the raids of the ferocious buccaneers had
almost put an end to Spanish commerce with the New World, and the daring
freebooters, finding their gains at sea falling off, collected fleets and
made attacks on land, plundering rich towns and laying waste thriving
settlements. So greatly had Spanish courage degenerated that the pirates
with ease put to flight ten times their number of that Spanish soldiery
which, a century before, had been the finest in the world.
The first pirate to make such a raid was Lewis Scott, who sacked the town
of Campeachy, robbing it of all its wealth, and forcing its inhabitants to
pay an enormous ransom. Another named Davies marched inland to Nicaragua,
took and plundered that town, and carried off a rich booty in silver and
precious stones. He afterwards pillaged the city of St. Augustine,
Florida. Others performed similar exploits, but we must confine our
attention to the deeds of Morgan, the boldest and most successful of them
all.
Morgan's first enterprise was directed against Port au Prince, Cuba,
where, however, the Spaniards had received warning and concealed their
treasures, so that the buccaneer gained little for his pains. His next
expedition was against Porto Bello, on the Isthmus, one of the richest and
best fortified of American cities. Two castles, believed to be
impregnable, commanded the entrances to the harbor. When the freebooters
learned that their leader proposed to attack so strong a place as this the
hearts of the boldest among them shrank. But Morgan, with a few inspiring
words, restored their courage.
"What boots it," he exclaimed, "how small our number, if our hearts be
great! The fewer we are the closer will be our union and the larger our
shares of plunder."
Boldness and secrecy carried the day. One of the castles was taken by
surprise, the first knowledge of the attack coming to the people of the
town from the concussion when Morgan blew it up. Before the garrison or
the citizens could prepare to oppose them the freebooters were in the
town. The governor and garrison fled in panic haste to the other castle,
while the terrified people threw their treasures into wells and cisterns.
The castle made a gallant resistance, but was soon obliged to yield to the
impetuous attacks of the pirate crews.
It was no light exploit which Morgan had performed,--to take with five
hundred men a fortified city with a large garrison and strengthened by
natural obstacles to assault. The ablest general in ordinary war might
well have claimed renown for so signal a victory. But the ability of the
leader was tarnished by the cruelty of the buccaneer. The people were
treated with shocking barbarity, many of them being shut up in convents
and churches and burned alive, while the pirates gave themselves up to
every excess of debauchery.
The great booty gained by this raid caused numerous pirate captains to
enlist under Morgan's flag, and other towns were taken, in which similar
orgies of cruelty and debauchery followed. But the impunity of the
buccaneers was nearing its end. Their atrocious acts had at length aroused
the indignation of the civilized world, and a treaty was concluded between
Great Britain and Spain whose chief purpose was to put an end to these
sanguinary and ferocious deeds.
The first effect of this treaty was to spur the buccaneers to the
performance of some exploit surpassing any they had yet achieved. So high
was Morgan's reputation among the pirates that they flocked from all
quarters to enlist under his flag, and he soon had a fleet of no fewer
than thirty-seven vessels manned by two thousand men. With so large a
force an expedition on a greater scale could well be undertaken, and a
counsel of the chiefs debated whether they should make an assault upon
Vera Cruz, Carthagena, or Panama. Their choice fell upon Panama, as the
richest of the three.
The city of Panama at that time (1670) was considered one of the greatest
and most opulent in America. It contained two thousand large buildings and
five thousand smaller, all of which were three stories high. Many of these
were built of stone, others of cedar wood, being elegantly constructed and
richly furnished. The city was the emporium for the silver- and gold-mines
of New Spain, and its merchants lived in great opulence, their houses rich
in articles of gold and silver, adorned with beautiful paintings and other
works of art, and full of the luxuries of the age. The churches were
magnificent in their decorations, and richly embellished with ornaments in
gold and silver. The city presented such a prize to cupidity as
freebooters and bandits had rarely conceived of in their wildest dreams.
[Illustration: STREET IN OLD QUARTER OF PANAMA.]