During the seventeenth century the Spanish Main was beset with a horde of
freebooters or buccaneers, as they called themselves, to whose fierce
attacks the treasure-ships bound for Spain were constantly exposed, and
who did not hesitate to assail the strongholds of the Spaniards in quest
of plunder. They differed from pirates only in the fact that their
operations were confined to Spain and her colonies, no war giving warrant
to their atrocities. Most ferocious and most successful among these
worthies was Henry Morgan, a man of Welsh birth, who made his name dreaded
by his daring and cruelty throughout the New-World realms of Spain. The
most famous among the deeds of this rover of the seas was his capture of
the city of Panama, which we shall here describe.
On the 24th of October, 1670, there set sail from the island haunts of the
freebooters the greatest fleet which these lawless wretches had ever got
together. It consisted of thirty-seven ships, small and large, Morgan's
flag-ship, of thirty-two guns, being the largest, and flying the English
standard. The men had gathered from all the abiding-places of their
fraternity, eager to serve under so famous a leader as Morgan, and looking
for rich spoil under a man whose rule of conduct was, "Where the Spaniards
obstinately defend themselves there is something to take, and their best
fortified places are those which contain the most treasure."
[Illustration: THE CITY OF PANAMA.]