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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.