CO CO LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF CO ^^xv^^S^I LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF ^^^^^A^^^^^ ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOR GC Ca' — ii. CO :ea\ - / ERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOR Two to Fifty. p. 22. THE MOMECHS OF THE MAIN. BY WALTER THOHNBURY, ESQ. AUTHOE OF "ART AWD NATURE," "SONGS OF THE CAVALIERS AND JACOBITES,'' ETC. ETC. "One foot OQ sea and one on shore. To one thing- constant never." Much Ado about Nothing. % yefo €bition, toltb Illustrations b |fei^. LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, WARNE, & ROUTLEDGE, FAKRINGDON STREET; NEW YORK: 56, AVALKER STREET. 1861. PRESERVATION COPY ADDED ORIGINAL TO BE RETAINED NOV 1 2 1992 i PREFACE. The history of tlie Buccaneers has hitherto remained un- written. Three or four mouldy forgotten volumes contain Jiterally all that is recorded of the wars and conquests of these extraordinary men. Of these volumes two are French, one Dutch, and one English. The majority of my readers, therefore, it is probable, know nothing more of the free- booters but their name, confound them with the mere pirates of two centuries later, and derive their knowledge of Flibustier manners from those dozen lines of the Abbe Reynal, that have been transferred from historian to his. torian, and from writer to writer, for the last two centuries. The chief records of Buccaneer adventurers are drawn literally from only three books. The first of these is (Exmelins Histoire des Aventuriers. 12mo. Paris, 1688. CExmelin was a Frenchman, who went out to St. Domingo as a planter's apprentice, or engage, eventually l^ecame a 2 IV PREFACE. surgeon in the Buccaneer fleet — knew Lolonnois, and ac- companied Sir Henry Morgan to Panama. The second is Esquemeling's Zee Hoovers. Amsterdam. 4to. 1684. — A book constantly mistaken by booksellers and in catalogues for (Exmelin. Esquemeling was a Dutch engage at St. Domingo. The writer appears of humbler birth than (Exmelin, but served also at Panama. The third is Bingroses History of the Cruises of Sharpe, rey, for each of their crews was strong enough to capture any merchant vessel that had not more than fifteen or sixteen unarmed men on board. They remained some months beating ofi" and on Cuba, but caught nothing, although this was the very height of the commercial season. After a long delay ot wonder and vexation, they learned the cause of their failure LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 05 from the crew of a fishing-boat which they captured, who told them that the people of Cayos would not venture to sea because they knew that they were there. It would be dangerous for them to remain, they added, for the chief merchants of the port had instantly despatched a " vessel overland " to the Governor of Havannah, telling him that Lolonnois had come in two canoes to destroy them, and begging him to send and destroy the " ladrones." Tlie governor could with difficulty at first be persuaded to listen to the petition, because he had just received letters from Campeachy bidding him rejoice at the death of that pirate ; but, aroused by the continued importunities of his angry petitioners, he at last sent a ship to their relief This ship carried ten guns, and had a crew of ninety young, vigorous, and well-armed men, to whom he gave at parting an express command that they should not return into his presence without having first destroyed those pirates. He sent with them a negro hangman, desiring him to kill on the spot all they should take, except Lolon- nois, the captain, who was to be brought alive in triumph to the Havannah. The ship had scarcely arrived at Cayos when the pirate, advertised of its approacii, came to seek it at its moorings in the river Estera. Lolonnois cried out, when he saw it loom in the distance, '•' Courage, mes cama- rades ! courage, mes bons freres ! we shall soon be well mounted." Capturing some fishermen busy with their nets, he forced them at night to show him the entrance of the port. Rowing very quietly under the shadow of the trees that bordered the river's banks and hid their approach, they arrived under the vessel's side a little after two o'clock in the morning — not long before daybreak. The watch on board the ship hailed them, and asked them whence they came and if they had seen any pirates ? They made one of the fishermen who guided them reply in Spanish that they had seen no pirates or anything else ; and this made the Spaniards believe that Lolonnois had fled at their approach The Buccaneers instantly began to open fire on both sides from their canoes. The Spaniards, who ke}>t good guard, returned the fire, but without much efiect, for their enemies 04 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. lay down flat in their boats, and the trees served them as gabions. The Spaniards fought bravely, in spite of the suddenness and vigour of the attack, and made some use of their great guns. The combat lasted from dawn till mid- day, the crew of the vessel discharging ineffectual volleys of musketry, which seldom injured the assailants, whose bullets, on the other hand, killed or wounded every moment some of the Havannah youth. When the firing began to slacken, Lolonnois pulled his canoes out into the stream, and boarded the vessel, which almost instantly surrendered. Those who survived were beaten down under the hatches, while the wounded on the decks received the coup de grace. When this had been done, Lolonnois commanded his men to bring up the prisoners one by one from the hold, cutting off their heads as they came up with his own hand, and tasting their blood. The negro hangman, seeing the fate of his predecessors, threw himself passionately at the feet of the Buccaneer chief, and exclaimed in Spanish, " If you will not kill me, I will tell you the truth." Lolonnois, supposing he had some secret to tell, bade him speak on. But he refused to open his lips further till life were pro- mised him ; upon the promise being made, the trembling wretch exclaimed, " Seiior capitan, monsieur, massa, the governor of the Havannah, not doubting but that this well- armed frigate would have taken the strongest of your vessels, sent me on board to serve as executioner, and to hang all the prisoners that his men took, in order to intimidate your nation, so that they should not dare ever to approach a Spanish vessel." Esquemeling, who always exaggerates the cruelty of his quondam companions, says, Lolonnois, making the black confess what he thought fit, commanded him to be murdered with the rest ; but (Exmelin gives a more probable version. At the negro's mention of his being a hangman he grew furious, and but for his words, " I give thee quarter, and even liberty, because I promised it thee," would certainly have put him to death. He then slew all the rest of the crew but this one man, whom he spared in order to send him back with a letter to the governor of the Havannah. The letter ran thus : " I have returned your kindness by doing to your men what they designed LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 95 to do to me and my companions. I shall never hence- forward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever, and I have great hopes of executing upon your own person the very same punishment I have done upon those you sent against me. It would be better for you to cut your throat than to fall into my power." The governor, enraged at the loss of his ship and crew, and exasperated by the insolent daring of the letter, swore in the presence of many that he would not grant quarter to any pirate who fell into his hands. Furious that two canoes, with twenty-two half-naked men, should be able to deride the might of Spain in his person, he instantly sent round word to the neighbouring Indian forts to hang all their French and English prisoners, instead of, as usual, embarking them for Spain. The citizens and planters of Havannah, hearing of this imprudent bravado, sent a deputation to the governor to represent to him that, for one Englishman or Frenchman that the Spaniards captured, the Buccaneers took every day a hundred of their people, that the men of Havannah were obliged to get their living by trading, that life was far dearer to them than mere money, which was all the Buccaneers wanted ; and lastly, that all their fishermen would be daily exposed to danger, the Buc- caneers having frequent opportunity for reprisal. Upon this the angry governor was at last persuaded to bridle his passion and remit the severity of his oath. Lolonnois, now provided with a good ship, resolved to cruise from port to port to obtain provisions and men. Off Maracaibo he surprised a ship laden with plate, outward- bound to buy cocoa-nuts, and with this prize returned to Tortuga, much to his own satisfaction and the general joy of that strange colony of runaway slaves, disbanded soldiers, hunters, privateersmen, pirates, puritans, and papists. He had not been long in port before he planned an expedition to Maracaibo, joining another adventurer in equipping a body oi five hundred men. In Tortuga he found prisoners for guides, and disbanded adventurers resolute enough to be his companions. His partner was Michael le Basque, a Buccaneer who had retired very rich, and was now major of the island. He had done great actions in Europe, and bore 96 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. tlie repute of being a good soldier. Lolonnois was to rule by sea and Le Basque by land. Le Basque knew all the avenues of Maracaibo, and had lately taken in a prize two Indians, who knew the port well and offered to act both as pilots and guides. Le Basque had consented to join Lolonnois, struck by the daring and compreliension of his plans^ and Lolonnois was overjoyed at the alliance of so tried a rover. Notice was instantly given to all the unemployed Buccaneers that they were planning a great expedition with much chance of booty. All who were willing to join them were to come by a certain day to the rendezvous, on the north side of Hispaniola, where he revictualled his fleet, took some French hunters as volunteers into his company, careened his vessels, and procured beef and pork by the chase. His fleet consisted of eight small ships, of which his own, the largest, carried only twenty pieces of cannon ; his crews amounted alto2:ether to about 400 men. Settinoj sail from Bayala the last day in July, while doubling Ponta del Es- pada (Sword Point), the eastern cape ot Hispaniola, Lolon- nois overtook two Spanish vessels coming from Porto Bico to New Spain, and one of these Lolonnois insisted on cap- turing with his own hand, sending in his fleet to Savona. The Spaniards, although they had an opportunity for two whole hours, refused to fly, and, being well armed, prepared for a desperate resistance ', the combat lasted for three hours. The ship carried sixteen guns, and was manned by fifty fighting men. They found in her a cargo of 120,000 pounds' weight of cocoa, 40,000 pieces of eight, and the value of 10,000 more in jewels. Lolonnois instantly sent this prize back to Tortuga to be unloaded, with orders to return to the rendezvous at Savona. On their way to this place, his vanguard had also been in luck, having met with a Spanish vessel bringing military stores and money from Cumana for the garrisons of Hispaniola. In this vessel, which they took without any resistance, though armed with eight guns, they found 7,000 pounds' weight of powder, a great number of muskets and other arms, together with 12,000 pieces of eight. These successes encouraged the adventurers, and to super- LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 97 stitious men seemed like promises of good fortune and success. The generosity of the governor of Tortuga also tended to heighten their spirits. M. D'Ogeron, the French governor, had been greatly delighted at the early arrival of so rich a prize, worth, at the lowest calculation, 180,000 livres, and threw open all his store-houses for the use of the prize crew. Ordering her to be quickly unloaded, he sent her back to Lolonnois full of provisions and necessaries. Many persons who had come from France with the governor now joined an expedition which had begun so auspiciously, desirous of gaining a fortune with the same rapidity as the older colonists. By hazarding a little money a planter could now obtain a chance of sharing in the plunder of a distant city without moving from under the shadow of his tamarind tree, and the governor's approval threw an air of legal government patronage over the expedition. D'Ogeron even sent his two nephews on board, young gallants newly arrived from France, and one of whom afterwards ruled the island in the room of his uncle. With a fleet recruited with men in room of those killed by the fever or the Spaniards, and full of hope and spirits, Lolonnois sailed for Maracaibo. His own vessel he gave to his comrade Anthony du Puis, and went himself on board the Cacaoyere, as the largest prize was called. Before sailing, he reviewed his little invincible armada. His own new frigate carried sixteen guns and 120 men. His vice-admiral, Moses Vauclin, had ten guns and ninety men ; and his matelot, Le Basque, sailed in a vessel called La Poudriere, because it contained all the powder, the am- munition, and the money for the sailors' pay. It carried twenty pieces of cannon and ninety men. Pierre le Picard steered a brigantine with forty men. Moses had equipped another of the same size, and the two other smaller vessels were each managed by a crew of thirty men. Every sailor was armed with a good musket, a brace of pistols, and a strong sabre. At this review Lolonnois first disclosed his whole plan, which was to visit Maracaibo, in the province of New Venezuela, and to pillage all the towns that border the lake. He then produced his guides, one of whom had been a pilot over the bar at Maracaibo, and who vouched lor the ease H 98 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. with which the attack could be made. Shouts and clamour announced the universal satisfaction at the proposal. They all agreed to follow him, and took an oath that they would obey him implicitly on the penalty of being mulcted of their booty. The usual chassepartie, or Buccaneer's agreement, was then drawn up, specifying the exact share that each one should receive of the spoil, from the captain down to the boys of the ships, and not forgetting the wounded and the guides. Venezuela, or " Little Venice," derived its name from its being very low land, and only preserved from frequent inun- dation bv artificial means. At six or seven leasfues' distance from the Bay of Maracaibo, or Gulf of Venezuela, are two small islands — the island of the Watch Tower, and the island of the Pigeons. Between these two islands runs a channel of fresh water — as wide across as an eight-pound shot can carry, about sixty leagues long, and thirty broad — which empties itself into the sea. On the Isla de las Vigilias stood a hill surmounted by a watch-tower ; on the Isla de las Pa- lombas, a fort to impede the entrance of vessels, which were obliged to come very near, tlie channel being narrowed by two sand -banks, which left only fourteen feet water. The sand-drifts were very numerous ; some of them, particularly one called El Tablazo, not having more than six feet water. " West hereof," says Esquemeling — for we must describe the past, not the present city — " is the city of Maracaibo, very pleasant to the view, its houses being built along the shore, having delightful prospects all round. The city may contain three or four thousand persons, slaves included, all which make a town of reasonable bigness. There are judged to be about 800 persons able to bear arms, all Spaniards. Here are one parish church, well built and adorned, four monasteries, and one hospital. The city is governed by a dej)uty-governor, substituted by the governor of the Carac- cas. The trade here exercised is mostly in hides and tobacco. The inhabitants possess great numbers of cattle and many plantations, which extend thirty leagues in the country, especially towards the great town of Gibraltar, where are gathered great quantities of cocoa-nuts and all other garden- fruits, which serve for the reorale and sustenance of the LOLONXOTS THE CRUEL. 9§ inhabitants of Maracaibo, whose territories are much drier than those of Gibraltar. Hither those of Maracaibo send great quantities of flesh, they making returns in oranges, lemoiis, and other fruits ; for the inhabitants of Gibraltar want flesh, not being capable of feeding cows and sheep." The inner lake within the great bar, so difiicult to cross, was fed by upwards of seventy streams, of which several were navigable. The two capes on either side of the gulf were named respectively Cape St. Roman and the Cape of Caqui- bacoa. The east side, though frequently flooded, was un- healthy but very fertile, something resembling the Maremma, where, according to an Italian proverb, a man gets rich in six months, and dies in seven. In the bay itself, ten or twelve leagues from the lake, are the two islands of Onega and Las Monges. On the east side, near the embouchure, there was a fishermen's village called Barbacoa, where the Indians lived in trees to escape the floods ; for, after great rains, the lands were often overflowed in broad tracts of two or three leagues. A few miles frotu this was the town of Gibraltar, where the best cocoa in the Indies was grown, aswell as the celebrated " priests' tobacco." Beyond this twenty leagues of jurisdiction rose mountains perpetually covered with snow, contrasting remarkably with the swampy fields and the rich tropical vegetation of the well-irrigated district below. On the other side of these mountains lay the mother city of Merida, between which, during the summer alone, mules carried merchandise to Gib- raltar ; the cocoa and tobacco of Merida beinsc exchansfed for Peruvian flour and the fruits of Gibraltar. Near this latter town were rich plantations and wooded districts, abounding with the tall cedars from which the Indians scooped out solid piraguas, or canoes, capable of carrying thirty tons, which were rigged with one large sail. The territory of Gibraltar was flat, and naturally fertile, watered by rivers and brooks, besides being artificially irri- gated by small channels, necessary in the frequent droughts. Everything desirable for food, and pleasant to the sight, grew here in abundance ; the air was filled with birds as beautiful as wandering blossoms, and the rivers teemed with many-coloured fish. But into this Indian Paradise death H 2 100 LOLOXNOIS THE CRUEL. often entered, and these swamps were the lairs of the dead- liest fevers that devastate humanity. In the rainy season the merchants left Gibraltar, just as the rich do Rome in autumn, and retired to Merida or Maracaibo to escape the pestilence that walked, not merely in darkness, but even in the bright noon. At six leagues from this town and its 1,500 inhabitants, ran a river navigable by vessels of fifty tons' burthen. Maracaibo itself had a spacious and secure port, and was well adapted for building vessels, owing to the abundance oi timber in the neighbourhood. In the small island of Borica were fed great numbers of goats, which were bred chiefly for their skins. In curious contradistinction to all this bustle of commerce, life, and wealth, on the south-east border of the lake lived the Bravo-Indians, a savage race, who had never been subdued by the Spaniard. They also, like the fisher- men, dwelt in huts built in the branches of the mangrove- trees at the very edge of the water, safe from the floods, and from the equally annoying, though less fatal, visitation of the mosquitoes. Beyond them to the west spread a dry and arid country — where nothing but cacti and stunted, bitter shrubs grew, so thorny as to be almost impassable by the traveller — waste and barren. Here the Spaniards pas- tured a few flocks, and the only houses were the huts of the armed shepherds who tended the lonely herds. These cattle were killed chiefly for their fat and hides, the flesh being left for the flocks of merchant birds — a sort of vulture, four or five of whom would pick an ox to the bone in a day or two. Lolonnois, arriving at one of the islands in the gulf, landed and took in provisions, not wishing to arrive at the bar till daybreak, in hopes of surprising the fort ; and anchoring out of sight of the watch-tower, weighed anchor in the evening from the island of Onega, and sailed all night, but was seen by the sentinels, who immediately made signals to the fort, which discharged its cannon and announced the approach of an enemy. Mooring off the bar, Lolonnois lost no time in landing to attack the fort that guarded the veiy door through which he must pass. The batteries consisted of simple gabions, or baskets masked with turf, concealing fourteen pieces of can- LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 101 non and 250 men, with' flanking earthworks thrown up to protect • the gunners. Lolonnois and Le Basque landed at a league from the fort, and advanced at the head of their men. The governor, seeing them land, had prepared an ambuscade, in hopes of attacking them at the same time in flank and rear. The Buccaneers, discovering this, got before the Spaniards, and routed them so utterly that not a single man returned to the fort, which was instantly attacked " with the usual desperation of this sort of people," says Esquemeling. The fighting continued for three h()urs. The Buccaneers, aiming with hunters' precision, killed so many of the Spaniards, and reduced their numbers so terribly, that the survivors could not prevent the savage swordsmen storm- ing the embrasures, slaying half the survivors, and taking the rest prisoners. A few l)leeding wretches are said to have fled in confusion into Maracaibo, crying, " The pirates will presently be here with 2,000 men." The rest of the day Lolonnois spent in destroying the fort he had captured, first signalling his ships to come in, as the danger was over. His men levelled the earth ramparts, spiked the guns, buried the dead, and sent the wounded on board the fleet. The next day, very early in the morning, the ships weighed anchor and directed their course, in close- winged phalanx, like a flock of locusts, towards the doomed city of Maracaibo, now only six leagues distant. They made but slow way, in spite of all their impatience, for there was very little wind ; and it was not till the next morning that they drew in sight of the town, standing pleasantly on the cool shore, with its galleries of shaded balconies, its towers and steeples — the goal to which they steered. Suspicious of ambuscades, after the danger at the bar, Lolonnois put his men into canoes, and pulled to shore under protection of salvos from his great guns, which he ordered to be pointed at the woods which lined the beach. Half the men went in the canoes, and half remained on board ; but these furious discharges were thrown away, the Spaniards having long since fled. To their great astonish- ment, the town itself was deserted. The people, remembering the horrors of a former Buccaneer descent, when ]\J aracaibo had been " sacked to the uttermost," had escaped to Gibraltar 102 LOLOXNOIS THE CRUEL. in their boats and canoes, taking with them all the jewels and money they could cany. To the alarmed friends who received them, they said that the fort of the bar had been taken, and nothing been saved, nor any soldiers escaped. At Gibraltar they believed them- selves safe, thinking the Buccaneers would pillage the unfor- tunate and defenceless town and then retreat over the bar. The hungry sailors, who had lived scantily for four weeks, found the deserted houses well provided with flour, bread, pork, poultry, and brandy, and with these they made good cheer. The warehouses were brimming with merchandise, the cellars were flowing with Spanish wine. The more prudent fell to plunder, the more thoughtless to revel. The former class probably embraced the older, and the latter the younger men. Each party abused the vice from which he abstained, and gave himself up without scruple to his own more favourite indulgence. But soon the man weary of wine began to plunder, and the man loaded with pieces of eight began to drink. The moment that plunder ceased, waste began, and prudence and folly alike ended the day poor and drunk. The commanders at once seized on the best houses, indulging their natural love of order and justice by placing sentinels at the larger shops and warehouses. The great monastery of the Cordeliers served them as a guard-house, for a long time the abode of thieves, yet never so manifestly as now ; for a long time the shrine of mam- mon, yet now for the first time filled by his avowed worshippers. Had the town not been deserted, that night would have heard the groans of the victims of cruelty ; as it was, it echoed only with the songs and shouts of debauchery. The Buccaneer had reached his Capua, but there was no Judith ready to slay this llolofernes in his drunken sleep. Perhaps a night surprise would have failed. These men were still the vigilant hunters and the watchful sailors ; sunken rocks and lurking Spaniards, breakers and wild bulls, reefs and wild panthers had taught them never to sleep unguarded and unvvatched. The next day a fresh source of plunder was opened. Lolonnois — for Le Basque's command, even by land, seems to have been secondary — sent a body of 160 men to recon- LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 103 noitre the neiglibouring woods, where some of the inhabitants were, it was supposed, concealed. They returned the same night, discharging their guns, and dragging after them a miserable weeping train of twenty prisoners, men, women, and children ; besides this, a sack of 20,000 pieces of eight, and many mules, laden with household goods and merchan- dise. Some of the prisoners were at once racked, to make them confess where they had hidden their riches, but neither pain nor fear could extort their secrets. Lolonnois, who valued not murdering, though in cold blood, ten or twelve Spaniards, drew his cutlass and hacked one of them to pieces before all his companions ; and while the pale tortured men were still writhing and groaning by his side, declared, " If you do not confess and declare where you have the rest of your goods, I will do the like to all your companions." In spite of all these horrible cruelties and inhuman threats, only one was found base enouoh to offer to conduct the Buccaneers to a place where the rest of the fugitives were hidden. When they arrived there, they found their coming had been announced, the riches had been removed to another place, and the Spaniards, had fled. The exiles now changed their hiding-places daily, and, amid the universal danger and dis- trust, a father would not even rely on his own son. After fifteen days "taking stock" at Maracaibo, Lolonnois marched towards Gibraltar, intending afterwards to sack Merida, as at these places he expected to find the wealth transported from the City of the Lake. Several of his prisoners offered to serve as guides, but warned him that he would find the place strong and fortified. "No matter," cried the Buccaneer, " the better sign that it is worth taking." Gibraltar was already prepared. The inhabitants, expect- ing Lolonnois, had entreated aid from the governor of Merida, a stout old soldier who had served in Flanders. He sent back word, that they need take no care, for he hoped in a little while to exterminate the pirates. He had, soon after this hopeful bravado, entered the town at the head of 400 well-armed men, and was joined by an equal number of armed townsmen, whom he at once enrolled. On the side of the town towards the sea he raised with great rapidity a 104 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. battery, mounting twenty guns, well protected by baskets of earth, and flanked by a smaller traverse of eight pieces. He lastly barricaded a narrow passage to the town, through which the pirates, he knew, must pass, and opened another decoy path leading to a swampy wood that was quite impassable. Three days after leaving Maracaibo, Lolonnois, who approached Gibraltar, seeing the royal standard hung out, perceived there were breakers ahead, and called a general council, one of those republican gatherings that distinguished the Buccaneer armies, and remind us of the less unanimous consultations that Xenophon describes. He confessed that the difficulty of the enterprise was great, seeing the Spaniards had had so much time to put themselves in a state of defence, and had now got together a large force and much ammunition ; " But have a good courage," said he, " we must either defend ourselves like good soldiers or lose our lives with all the riches we have got. Do as I shall do, who am your captain. At other times we have fought with fewer men of our own than we have now, and yet have overcome a greater number of enemies than can be in this town ; the more they are the more riches we shall (/ain." His men all cried out, with one voice, that they would follow and obey him. " 'Tis well," he replied, " but know ye, the first man who will show any fear or the least apprehension thereof, I will pistol him with my own hands." The Buccaneers cast anchor near the shore, about three- quarters of a league from the town, and the next day before sunrise landed to the number of 380 determined men, each armed with a cutlass, a brace of pistols, and thirty charges of powder and bullets. On the shore they all shook hands with one another, many for the last time, and began their march, Lolonnois exclaiming, " Come, mes freres, follow me and have good courage." Their guide, ignorant of what the governor of Merida had done, led them in all good faith up the barricaded way, where to his surj)rise, he found the paths in one place blocked up with large trees, newly cut, and in another swamped so that the soft black mud reached up above their thighs. Lolonnois, seeing the passage hopeless, attempted the' LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 105 narrow way, which had been carefully cleared as a trap for them. Here only six men could go abreast, and the shots of the town ploughed incessantly down the path. At the same time the Spaniards, in a small terraced battery of six guns, beat their drums and hung out their silk flags. The adventurers, harassed by the fire that they could not return, and slipping on the swampy path, grew vexed and impatient. " Courage, ray brothers," cried their leader, " we must beat these fellows or die ; follow me, and if I fall don't give in for that." With these words he ran full butt, with head down like a mad bull, against the Spaniards, followed by all his men, quite as daring but less patient than himself. Cutting down boughs they made a rude netted pathway, firm and sure, over the deep mud. When within about a pistol shot from the entrenchments, they began again to sink up to their knees, and the enemy's grape-shot fell thick and hot upon the impeded ranks. Many dropped, but their last words were always, "Courage, never flinch, mes f Teres, and you'll win it yet." All this time they could scarce see or hear, so blinded and deafened were they by the thunder and fire. In the midst of this discomfiture the Spaniards suddenly broke through the gloom, just as they got out of the wood and trod upon firmer ground, and drove them back by a furious onslaught, many of them being killed and wounded. They then attempted the other passage again, but without success ; and finding the Spaniards would not sally out, and the gabions too heavy to tear up by hand, Lolonnois resorted to the old stratagem, so successful at Hastings, by which the very impatience of courage is made to prove fatal to an enemy. At a preconcerted signal the Buccaneers began to retreat, upon which the defenders of the battery, exclaiming, " They fly ! they fly ! kill, kill ! follow, follow !" sallied forth in disorder to the pursuit, shouting and firing like an undis- ciplined rabble. Once out of gun-shot of the batteries, the pursued turned into pursuers, and falling on the foe, sword in hand, slew about 200. Fighting their way through those who survived, the Buccaneers soon became masters of all the fortifications. Not more than 100 out of the 600 de- 106 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. fenders remained alive, and these, as Falstaff says, would liave to limp to the town-end and beg for life. The brave old governor lay dead among his foremost men. The survivors who could crawl or run hid themselves in the woods, impeded in their flight by the very obstructions they had themselves raised. The men in the battery sur- rendered, and obtained quarter. Neither Lolonnois nor Le Basque was scratched, but forty of their companions perished, and eighty were grievously wounded. The greater part of these died through the fevers and subsequent pestilence. Five hundred dead Spaniards were found, but many more had hidden themselves, to die alone in peace. The Buccaneers, now masters of Gibraltar, pulled down the Spanish colours from tower and steeple, and hoisted their own red and black flag. Making prisoners of all they met, they shut them up under guard in the chief church, where they erected a battery of great guns, in case the Spaniards should attempt to rally in a fit of despair. They then col- lected the dead bodies of the Spaniards, and, piling them up, scarred and gashed, in two large canoes, towed them out a quarter of a league at sea, and scuttled them. They then gathered from every house, rich or poor, all the plate, mer- chandise, and household stuff, which was not too hot or too heavy to carry off, as rapacious as the borderer who stopped wistfully opposite the hay-stack, wishing it had but four legs, that he might make it " gang awa' wi' the rest." The .Spaniards having buried their treasure, as usual, armed parties were sent into the surrounding woods to search for buried money, and to bring in hunters and planters as pri- soners to torture. Hung up by the beard, or burnt with gun-matches, the wretched sufferers were forced to confess their friends' hiding-places. Lolonnois soon turned the fertile country into a smoking black desert ; and, still insatiable for money and blood, planned an expedition over the snow mountains to Merida, but reluctantly relinquished it when he found his men un- willing to risk what they had got for the mere uncertainty of getting more, though Merida was only forty leagues dis- tant. They had now 150 prisoners, besides 500 slaves, and many women and children, many of whom were dying daily LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 107 of famine, so short were provisions already in a city in which the small army had been encamped only eighteen days. When they had spent six weeks in the town, Lolonnois determined to return, nothing now being left to pillage. Disease and famine were worse enemies than the Spaniard or the Indian, and cared for neither steel nor lead. A pestilence appeared, in consequence of the numerous dead bodies left in the woods, exposed to the wild beasts and the birds. Those that lay nearest to the walls had been only strewn over with earth, the rest were left to taint the air, and slay the living — a putrid fever broke out ; the Spaniards killed more of the enemy after their death than they had done in their life. The Frenchmen's wounds, already closing, began now to re-open, the sick died daily, and the strongest pined and sickened ; all longed to return, even plunder grew distasteful to them without health, and once more at sea they hoped soon to be well. Men who had been revelling in the plenty of two captured cities, could not return without imj^atience to the restraints of a time of scarcity. Gibraltar always depending upon Maracaibo for its meat, and not well supplied with flour, was, in fact, like a miser dying for want of a loaf, while his store- houses were brimmed over with gold. The little meat and flour were quickly consumed by the Buccaneers, who left their prisoners to shift for themselves. The cattle they soon appropriated, giving the mules' and asses's flesh to those Spaniards whose hunger was strong enough to conquer their disgust. A few of the women were allowed better fare, and many who had become the mistresses of their captors were well treated by their lovers. Some of these were mere slaves, others were voluntary concubines, but the greater part had been compelled by jDoverty and fear to abandon their fathers and husbands. Lolonnois, sending four of his prisoners into the woods, demanded a ransom of 80,000 pieces of eight within two days, threatening the fugitives to burn the town to ashes if his desire was not acceded to. The Spaniards, already half- beggared, disagreed about the ransom ; th6 bolder and the more avaricious refused to pay a piastre, the old, the timid, and the more generous preferred poverty to such a loss. 108 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. Some said it would serve as a mere bribe to allure a third adventurer, and others declared it was the only means of saving Merida. While they wero thus disputing the two days passed, and the debate was put an end to by the sight of flame ascending above the roofs. The city w^as already fired in two or three places, when the inhabitants, promising to bring the ransom, persuaded the Buccaneers to assist in quenching the flames, not, however till the chief houses were burned, and the chief monastery was ruined. CExmelin merely says that Lolonnois set fire to the four corners of the town, and in six hours reduced the whole to ashes. Palm thatch and cedar walls burn quickly, and the sea-breeze was there to fan the flames, while the Buccaneers were learned in the art of destruction. Lolonnois then col- lected his men by beat of drum, and embarked his booty. Before he sailed, he sent two of his prisoners again into the woods, to tell the inhabitants that all the prisoners in his hands would be at once put to death it the ransom were not paid. All who had not paid their ransom he took with him, even the slaves being valued at so much, and having put on board all riches that were movable, and a large sum of money as a ransom for what was immovable, the Buccaneer fleet returned to Maracaibo. The city, now partly repeopled, was thrown asrain into disorder, nor much lessened when three or four prisoners came to the governor, bearing a demand from Lolonnois to pay at once 30,000 pieces of eight down upon his deck, or to expect a second sack, and the fate of Gibraltar. While these terms were under concession, and the Spanish merchants were chaffering with the sailors, as a lowland farmer might have done with a highland cateran, a party of well- inclined Flibustiers, unwilling to waste their time, rowed on shore, and stripped the great church of its pictures, images, carvings, clocks, and bells, even to the very cross on its steeple, piously desiring to erect a chapel at Tor- tuga, where there was much need of spiritual instruction. The Spaniards at last agreed to pay for their ransom and liberty 20,000 piastres, 10,000 pieces of eight, and 500 cows, provided the fleef would do no further injury, and depart at at once, the blessing of Maracaibo with them. We can imagine the trembling and suppressed joy with LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 109 which the people of Maracaibo must have beheld the fleet sail slowly out of their harbour, all eyes on board bent on- ward to the horizon and the golden future — none looking back with a moment's regret upon the misery and the black ruin left behind. How many orphans must have cursed them as they sailed, and how many widows ! Three days after the embarkation, to the horror of the city, a vessel with a red flag at its masthead was seen re-entering the har- bour, but only, as it soon appeared, to demand a pilot to take the fleet over the bar. On their way to Hispaniola, Lolonnois touched at the Isle de laYacca, intending to stay there and divide the spoil. This island was inhabited by French Buccaneers, who sold the flesh of the animals they killed to vessels in want of victual. But a dispute arising here, the fleet again set out to disband the crew at Guaves, in Hispaniola. They arrived in two months, and, unlading the whole " cargazon of riches," proceeded to make a dividend of their prizes and their gains. Lolonnois and the other captains began by taking a solemn oath in public, that they had con- cealed and held back no portion of the spoil, but had thrown all without reserve into the public stock. The ceremony of this oath must have been an imposing sight : wild groups of half-stripped sailors, wounded men, and female captives, negroes and Indians, Spanish soldiers, mulatto fishermen, and in the middle piled bales of silks, heaps of glittering coin and rich stuffs streaming over scattered arms and costly jewels, while looking on perhaps wistfully, leaning on their muskets, a few hunters fresh from the sa\ annahs, bull's-hide sandals on their feet, and long knives hanging from their belts, After the captains had taken the oath, the common matelois, down even to the cabin boys, took the vow that they had given up all their spoil, to be shared equally by those who had equally ventured their lives to win it. After an exact calculation, the total value of their profits in jewels and money was discovered to be 260,000 crowns, not including 100,000 crowns' worth of church furniture and a cargo of tobacco. On the final division, every man received money, silk, and linen to the value of about 100 pieces ot eight. The surgeon and the wounded were as usual 110 LOLOKNOIS THE CRUEL. paid first. The slaves were then sold by auction^ and their purchase-money divided among the various crews. The un- coined plate was weighed, and sold at the rate of ten pieces of eight to a pound ; the jewels were sold at false and fan- ciful prices, and were generally undervalued, owing to the ignorance of the arbitrators. A Buccaneer always preferred coin to jewels, and jewels, as being portable, to heavy mer- chandise, which they often threw overboard or wantonly destroyed. The adventurers then all took the oath a second time, and proceeded to apportion the shares of such as had fallen, handing them to the matelots, or messmates, to for- ward to their heirs or nearest relations. We do not know whether, in peculiar cases, a matelot became his camarade^s heir. The dividend over, they returned to Tortuga, amid the general rejoicing of all over whom love or cupidity had any power. " For three weeks, while their money lasted," says Q^xmelin, probably an eye-witness of the scene, " there was nothing but dances, feasts, and protestations of unceasing friendship." The caharetiers and the gambling-house keepers soon revenged the cruelties of Maracaibp. The proud cap- tors of that luckless city in a few weeks were hungry beggars, basking on the quay of Tortuga, straining their eyes to catch sight of some vessel that might take them on board, and re- lieve them from that reaction of wretchedness. They were ieered at as mad spendthrifts by the very men who had urged them to their folly. The love of courtesans grew colder as the pieces of eight diminished, and men were refused charity by the very wretches whom their foolish generosity had lately enriched. No doubt watches were fried and bank-bills eaten as sandwiches, just as they were, during the war, at Portsmouth or at Dover. The prudent were those who made the money spin out a day longer than their fellows, and the wildest were those who had found out that two dice-boxes and two fiddlers ran through the bur- densome money a little faster than only one dice-box and one fiddler. Some of the Buccaneers, skilful with the cards, added to their store and returned at once to France, resolved to turn merchants, and trade with the Indies they had wasted. The LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. Ill extravagant prices paid by these men for wine, and particu- larly brandy, rendered that trade a source of great profit. Just before the return of the fleet two French vessels had arrived at Tortuga laden with spirits, which at first sold at very moderate rates, but ultimately, from the great demand and the limited means of supply, reached an exorbitant price, a gallon selling for as much as four pieces of eight. The tavern-keepers and the jilles de joie obtained most of the money so dearly earned, and lavished it as those from whom they won it had done. Cards and dice helped those who had not struck a blow at the Spaniard, to now quietly spoil the captors. The story of Sampson and Delilah was daily acted. Even the governor hastened to benefit by the expedition. He bought a cargo of cocoa of the Buccaneers, and shipped it at once to France in Lolonnois' vessel, giving scarcely a twentieth part of its value, and realizing a profit of £120,000. The adventurers did not grudge him this bargain, as he had risked everything for Tortuga, and had suflfered considerable losses. " M. D'Ogeron," says CExmelin, with some naivete, " aimait les ' honnetes gens,' les obligeait sans cesse, et ne les laissait jamais manquer de rien." Neither Lolonnois' talent, rank, nor courage kept him further from the tavern door than the meanest of his crew. The poor drudge of a negro cook that served as a butt to the sailors could not give way to baser debauchery. It was the voice of the cannon alone that roused him to great actions. On land he was a Caliban, at sea a Barbarossa. In spite of his great booty, in a few short weeks he was poorer than his crew. Tortuga was to him the Circe's island that trans- formed him into a beast. As soon as his foot trod the plank, he became again the wily and the wise Ulysses : the first in daring or in suffering, ready to endure or to attack, above his fellow men in patience and impatience. His ex- penses were large, when the prizes ceased to come in he was soon reduced to live upon his capital, and that quickly melted away in open-house feasting and entertainments given to the governor. He had been before he returned, moreover, so burdened with debts that even his prize-money could not have defrayed them. There was but one means of release — another expedition. Let the Spanish mother 112 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. clasp her child closer to her breast, for she knows not how soon she may have to part with it for ever. Is there no comet that may warn an unprepared and a doomed people 1 Lolonnois had now acquired great repute at Tortuga. He was known to be brave, and, what is a rare combination, prudent. Under his guidance men who had forgot his pre- vious misfortunes, thought themselves secure of gold, and without glory gold is not to be won. He needed now no entreaties to induce men to fill his ships ; the difficulty was in selecting from the volunteers. Those who had before stayed behind now determined to venture ; those who had once followed him were already driven by mere poverty to enlist. The privations of land were intolerable to men who had just revelled in riches — the privations of sea could be endured by the mere force of habit. The planters threw by their hoes, and quitted the hut for the cabin. The towns of Nicaragua were now to share the fate of those of V^enezuela. About 700 men and six ships formed the expedition. Lolonnois himself sailed in a large Jlilte which he had brought from Maracaibo with 300 men ; the other adventurers embarked in five smaller vessels. Having careened and revictualled at Bayala, in Hispaniola, he steered for Matamana, a port on the south side of Cuba. He here informed his companions of the plan of the expedition, and produced an Indian of Nicaragua who had offered to serve as guide. He assured them of the riches of the country, and expressed his belief that they could surprise the place before the inhabitants had secreted their money. His proposal was received with the usual unhesitating applause. At Matamana, Lolonnois collected by force all the canoes of the tortoise fishermen, much to their grief and dismay, these poor men having no other means of subsistence but fishing. These boats he needed to take him up the channel of Nicaragua, which was too shallow for vessels of any larger burthen. While attempting to round Cape Gracias a Dios, the fleet was arrested by what the Spanish sailors call a " furious calm" — a sad and tedious imprisonment to men to whom every delay involved the success of their enterprise. In spite of all their endeavours, they were carried by the LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 113 current into the Gulf of Honduras. Both wind and tide being against them, the smaller vessels — better sailers and more manageable than that of Lolonnois — made more way than he could do ; but were obliged to wait for him, and stay for his orders, being quite powerless without him and his 300 men. They spent nearly a month in trying to recover their path, but all in vain, losing in two hours what they gained in two days, and, their provisions running short, put ashore to revictual. Touching at the first land they could reach, they sent their canoes up the river Xagua — their guides bringing them to the villages of the " long-eared Indians," a race tributary to Spain, whose traders bartered knives and mirrors with them for cocoa. The Buccaneers burned their huts and carried off their millet, hogs, and poultry, loading the canoes with all the food they could bring away to their impatient comrades, who determined to remain here till the untavour- able weather had passed, and burn and pillage along the whole borders of the gulf. The Indian provisions proved but scanty for so numerous a band, but were divided equally among the ships that were seeking food like locusts, and moving daily on to new pastures. A council of war was now held to discuss their position. Some were for discontinuing the expedition, since the pro- visions ran so short. The oldest and most experienced pro- posed plundering round the gulf till the bad season had passed ; and this plan was decided on. Having rifled a few villages, they came to Puerto Cavallo, a place where Spanish ships frequently anchored, and which contained two store- houses full of cochineal, indigo, hides, &c., from Guatimala. There happened then to be lying in the port a Spanish ves- sel of twenty-four guns and sixteen patarerros. Its cargo, however, was nearly all unloaded and carried up into the interior to be exchanged in barter with the Indians. This ship was instantly seized ; and Lolonnois, landing without any resistance, burned the magazines and all the houses, and made many prisoners. The Spaniards he put to the torture to induce them to confess. If any refused to answer, he pulled out their tongues, or cut them to pieces with his I 114 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. hanger, " desiring," says Esquemeling, " to do so to every Spaniard in the world." Many, terrified by the rack, pro- mised to confess, really having nothing to disclose. These men were always cruelly put to death in revenge. One mulatto was bound hand and foot and thrown alive into the sea to intimidate the rest, and to induce two survivors to show the French chief the nearest road to the neighbouring town of San Pedro. For this expedition Lolonnois selected 300 men, leaving his lieutenant, Moses Vauclin, to govern in his absence, and despatching a few of his small flotilla to help him by a diversion on the coast. Before starting, he told his com- panions that he would never refuse to march at their head, but that he should kill with his own hand " the first who turned tail." San Pedro was only ten leagues distant. He had not proceeded three before he fell into an ambuscade. The Spaniards' favourite scheme of attack was the trea- cherous surprise — a mere sort of attempt at wholesale assas- sination — seldom successful, and always exasperating the enemy to greater cruelties. They had now entrenched themselves behind gabions in a narrow road, impassable on either side with trees and strong thickets. Lolonnois in- stantly striking down the guides, whether innocent or guilty, charged the enemy with desperate courage, and put them to flight after a long encounter, ending in a total rout. They killed a few Buccaneers and left many of their own men dead upon the ground. The wounded Spaniards, being first questioned as to the distance from San Pedro, and the best way to get there, were instantly beheaded. The prisoners informed him that some runaway slaves, escaped from Porto Cavallo, had told them of the intended attack on San Pedro. Determined to prevent this, they had planned tlie ambus- cade, and two other still stronger earthworks which awaited him farther on. To prevent connivance, or any possible treachery, Lolonnois then had the Spaniards brought before him one by one, and demanded of each in turn if there were no means of getting into another and less guarded road. On their each denying that there was, he grew frenzied and almost mad at the thoughts of sucli inevitable danger, and had them all murdered but two; and then, in ungovernable LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 115 passion, lie ripped open with liis cutlass the breast of one of these survivors, who was bound to a tree. Esquemeling asserts that he even tore out his heart and gnawed it " Hke a ravenous wolf," swearing and shouting that he would serve them all alike if thev did not show him another wav. The miserable survivor, willing to save his life at any risk, his memory or invention quickened by the imminent danger, conducted him into another path, but so bad a one that Lolonnois preferred to return to the old one in spite of all its perils, so difficult, slow, and laborious was the march. He now seems to have grown almost fevered with rage, anxiety, and vexation. " Mon Dieu," he growled, " les Espagnols me le payeront," and he cursed the delay that kept him from the enemy. There is no doubt that in these men a fanatical and almost superstitious hatred of the enemy had sprung up, inflamed by mutual cruelties, for forgiveness was not the chief virtue of the victorious Spaniard. To the Buccaneer the Spaniard seemed cruel, cowardly, treacherous, and de- graded ; to the Spaniard the Buccaneer seemed a monster scarcely human — bloody, voluptuous, faithless, and rapacious. That same evening the chief fell into a second ambuscade, which, says Esquemehng, *•' he assaulted with such horrible fury " that in less than au hour's time he routed the Spaniards and killed the greater part of them, the rest flying to the tliird ambush, which was planted about two leagues from the town. The Spaniards had thought, by these repeated attacks, to destroy the enemy piecemeal, and for this object, which they did not attain, frittered their forces into small and useless detachments. Lolonnois and his people, weary with fighting and march- inir, and half-faintinc( with hunoer and thirst, lav down in the woods that night, and slept till the morning, the mate- lots keeping good watch and ward, and guarding their sleep- ing companions. At daybreak they resumed their journey, with confidence increased by the clear light and with bodies invigorated by rest. The third ambuscade was stronger and more advantageously placed than even the two preceding. They attacked it with showers of lire-balls, and drove out the enemy, slaying without mercy, and giving no quarter. I 2 116 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. " No quarter, no quartei^," cried tlieir ferocious leader, still thirsty for human blood, when some would have stayed their hands, from exhaustion rather than from pity. '• The more we kill here, the less we shall meet in the town," was his war-cry. Yery few of the enemy escaped to San Pedro, the greater part being either slain or wounded. Before they ventured to make the final attack, the Buc- caneers rested to look to their arms and prepare their am- munition. In vain they attempted to discover a second approach. There was but one, and that was well barricaded, and planted all round with thorny shrubs, which the best shod traveller could not pass, much less barefooted men, clad only in a shirt and drawers. These thorns, (Exmelin says, were more dangerous than those crow's-feet used in Europe to annoy cavalry. Lolonnois, seeing that no other way was left, and that delay would imply fear in his own men, and excite hope in the enemy, resolved to storm the works, in spite of the rage and despair of a well-armed and superior force, sheltered from shot and commanding his approach. " The Spaniards," says Esquemeling, " posted behind the said defences, seeing the pirates come, began to ply them with their great guns ; but these, perceiving them ready to fire, used to stoop down, and, when the shot was made, to fall upon the defendants witli fire-balls and naked swords, killing many of the town." Driven back for a time, they renewed the attack with fewer men ; husbanding their shot, for they were now short of powder ; never shooting at a long distance, and seldom firing but with great deliberation when an enemy's head appeared above the rampart ; and occasionally giving a general dis- charge, in which nearly every bullet killed an enemy. Several times the Buccaneers advanced to the very mouths of the guns, and, throwing down bursting fire-balls into the works, leaped after them, sword in hand, through the em- brasures ; but only to be again driven back. This obstinate combat, so eager on both sides, had lasted about four hours, and night was fast approaching, when Lolonnois, ordering a last furious attack, put the now weak- ened Spaniards to flight, a great number of them being killed as soon as they turned their backs. The citizens then liung LOLOXXOIS THE CRUEL. 117 out a white flag, and, coming to a parley, agreed to snrrendei- the town on condition of receiving two hours' re>;pite, Durinof this time, Lolonnois found that he had lost about thirty men, ten more being w^ounded. This demand of two hours was employed by the townspeople in loading them- selves with their riches and preparing for flight — the Buc- caneers virtuously abstaining from any molestation till the time had duly expired, and then pursuing the fugitives and plundering them of every maravedi. But neither their self- denial nor their vigilance was well rewarded, for fortune gave them nothing but a few leather sacks full of indigo, the rest, even in that short time, having been buried or destroyed — a disappointment which, we think, no reasonable person can regret. Lolonnois had particularly ordered that not only all the goods should be seized, but that every fugi- tive should be made prisoner. The Buccaneer chief, having stayed a few days at San Pedro, and " committed most horrid insolences," was anxious to send for a new reinforcement, and attack the town of Guatimala — a place a long way distant, and defended by 400 men. On his men as usual refusing to accede to such an apparently rash project, Lolonnois contented himself by pil- laging San Pedro, intending to impress a recollection of his visit upon the grateful inhabitants by burning their town. He obtained no great booty, for the inhabitants were a poor people, trading in nothing but dyes. If he had chosen to carry away their stores of indigo, he might have realised more than 40,000 crowns; but the Buccaneers cared for nothing but coin and bullion, and were too ignorant, too lazy, and too improvident to stop their debauches by loading their vessels with a perishable cargo of uncertain value. Having remained now eigliteen days in San Pedro without obtaining much, for the West Indian Spaniard had already learned to hide as skilfully as the Hindoo ryot, Lolonnois called together his prisoners, and demanded from them a ransom as the condition of sparing their town. They dog- gedly answered, with all the insolence of despair, that he had taken from them all they had, and that they had nothing more to give; that they could not coin without 118 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. gold, and that, as far as they went, he might do what he liked to the town. Loloiinois then reduced the town to ashes, and, marching to the sea-side to rejoin his companions, found that they had been employing tlieir time, innocently and usefully, in capturing the fishing-boats of Guatimala. Some Indians, newly taken, informed him that a hour que, a vessel of 800 tons, bringing goods from Spain to the Honduras, was then lying in the great river of Guatimala. Resolving to careen and victual at the islands on the other side of the gulf, they stationed two canoes at the mouth of the river to give notice when the vessel should venture forth. The time spent in thus watching outside the covert, they devoted to turtle-fishing, dividing theinselves into parties, each having his own station, to prevent disputes. Their nets they made of the bark of the macoa tree ; a natural pitch or bitumen for their boats they found in fused heaps upon the shore. The formation of this pitch, or " wax," as Esque- meling calls it, the sailors attributed to wild bees ; the hollow trees in which they built being torn down by storms and swept down into the sea. The rest of their time — v;hich never seems to have been wearisome, unless the sub- sequent mutiny indicates it, for these men had the tenacity of a slot-hound in the pursuit of blo6d — was spent in cruises among those Indians of the coast of Yucatan, who seek for amber on the shore. These tribes were the willing serfs of Spain, having served them without resistance for a full century. The Spaniards had, as they believed, converted the whole nation to Christianity by sending a priest to them once a-week, but, on their sudden return to idolatry, had begun to persecute them, angry at their own failure. According to the Buccaneers' account, these Indian chiefs worshipped each a peculiar spirit, to whom they offered sacrifices of fire, burning incense of sweet-scented gums. They had a singular custom of carrying their new-born children into their temples, and leaving them for a night in a hole filled with wood-ashes, generally in an open place, untended, and where wild boasts could enter. Leaving the child here, they generally found in the morning the foot- prints of some wild beast on the ashes. To this animal, LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 119 whatever it might be, jaguar, snake, or cayman, they dedi- cated tlie child, whose patron god it became. To this animal the child prayed for vengeance against its enemies, and to it he offered sacrifices. Their marriages were accompanied by a very beautiful and simple ceremony. A young man, having satisfied his intended bride's father as to his fitness to manage a planta- tion, was presented with a bow and arrow. He then visited the maiden, and put on her head a wreath of green leaves and sweet-smelling flowers, taking off the crown usually worn by virgins. A meeting of her relations was then called, the maize juice was drunk, and the day after marriage the bride's garland was torn to pieces with cries and feigned lamentations. In these islands the Buccaneers found canoes of the Aregues Indians, which must have drifted 600 leagues. They had remained turtle-fishing and amber-seeking about three months, when the welcome tidings came that the enemy's vessel had ventured out. All hands were now employed in preparing the careening ships. It was, how- ever, at last agreed to wait for its return, when, as they expected, it would not only contain merchandise but money. They therefore sent their canoes to observe her motions, and, hearing of the ambuscade, the Spaniards returned to port. Lolonnois, as weary of delay as a greyhound is vexed by a hare's repeated doubling, determined to do what Mahomet did when the mountain would not go to him ; since the Spaniards would not come to him, he went himself to the Spaniards. Informed of their approach by spies, Indians or fishermen, the vessel was pre])ared to receive him. The decks were cleared, the boarding-nettings up, and the guns double-shotted. The ^Spaniard carried fifty- six pieces of cannon, and the crew were well provided with hand grenades, torches, fusees, and fire-balls, especially on the quarter-deck and bows, while a crew of some 130 men stood armed and threatening at their quarters. But Lolon- nois cared for none of these things, and the rich cargo shone, to his eye, through the ship's transparent sides. With his small craft of twenty-two guns, with a single fly- 120 LOLONXOIS THE CRUEL. boat as his only ally, he boldly attacked the enemy, but was at first beaten off. To the Buccaneer a slight check was almost a certain precursor of victory ; waiting till about sixty of the Spanish sailors had fallen from the fire of his deadly musketry, when their courage slackened, and the smoke of their powder lay in a dark mist round the bulwarks, hiding his movements, he boarded with four canoes, well manned. In spite of the brave defence, the Buccaneers fought with such fury, that they forced the Spaniards to surrender. Lolonnois then sent his boats up the river to secure a small 'patache, which they knew lay near at hand, laden with plate, indigo, and cochineal. But the inhabitants, alarmed at the capture of the larger vessel, swept away from under their very eyes, saved the 'patache by preventing her de- parture. The booty of the prize was much less than was expected, the vessel being already almost entirely unladen. Its cargo consisted of iron and paper, and it still contained 20,000 reams of paper, and 100 tons of iron bars, which had served as ballast. The few bales of merchandise w^ere nothing but linens, serges, and cloth, thread, and a few jars of wine. In the return cargo there would have been at least a million in specie. These heterogeneous articles were of no use to men who wanted nothing but coin or jewels, lead or powder. Dividing the paper, they used it for napkins, and other useless trifles, and several jars of almond and olive oil were wasted in the same reckless manner. Having now accomplished their purpose, without much return for their three months' patience, Lolonnois called a general council of the fleet, and declared his intention of going to Guatimala. Upon this announcement a division arose in the assembly, and the hoarse murmurs of a coming tempest were heard around the speaker. Many of the ad- venturers, new to the trade, could no longer conceal their weariness and their disappointment. They had set sail from Tortuga with the feeling with which a country boy comes to London. They had believed that pieces of eight grew on the trees like fiears, and had overlooked the dragons that guarded the Hesperian trees. Having seen their prede- LOLOXNOIS THE Cr^UEL. 121 cessors return Lome laden with the plunder of Maracaibo, many had forgotten the toil and dangers by which it was won, in the sight of the joy and prodigality with which it was lavished; they had seen only the rich j^earls, and had for- gotten the stonny seas from which they had been gathered. They were weary of the hardships, and mutinous for want of food. The mere seeker for gold could not endure what was submitted to by those who were desirous of earning distinction. The older hands laughed at their pinings, derided their complaints, and swore that they would rather die and starve there, than return home with empty purses, to be the scorn and laughing-stock of all Hispaniola. The majority of the experienced men, foreseeing that the voyage to Nicaragua would not succeed, and was " little to their purpose," separated from Lolonnois, and set sail secretly in the swift sailing-vessel that Moses Yauclin had captured in the port of Cavallo, and which he now commanded, boasting, with reason, that it was the swiftest sailing-vessel that had been seen in the West Indies for fifty years. With Moses "Vauclin went Pierre le Picard, who, seeing others desert Lolonnois, resolved to do the same. Steering homewards, the fugitives coasted along the whole continent till they came to Costa Eica, where they landed a good party, marched up to Yeraguas, and burnt the town, pillaging the Spaniards, who made a stout resistance, carry- ing off a few prisoners, and. obtaining a scanty booty of some seven or eight pounds' worth of gold, which their slaves washed from the mud of the rivers. Alarmed at the multi- tude of Spaniards that began to gather round them, the marauders abandoned their design of attacking the town of Nata, on the south sea-coast, although many rich merchants lived there, whose slaves worked in the gold-w;!shings of Yeraguas. Pteturning to Tortuga, these undisciplined men, impatient of poverty, united themselves under the flag of a noble adventurer, the Chevalier du Plessis, who had just arrived in the Indies, poor and proud, and prepared to cruise against the Spaniards in those seas. Yauclin being an experienced pilot, well acquainted with the turtle islands, and every key and reef the surf washed from California to Cape Horn, was taken into favour by the titled privateers- 122 LOLONNOIS THE CKUEL. man, wlio jjroniised him tlie first prize lie captured if he would sail in his company. But a serious difficulty arose in the execution of this liberal promise, for the Chevalier was soon after shot through the head while grappling with a Spanish ship of thirty- six guns, and Moses was elected captain in his stead. In his first cruise, the brave deserter was fortunate enough to take a cocoa vessel from the Havannah, with a cargo valued at 150,000 livres. During this time, however, Lolonnois and his men remained alone and deserted in the gulf of Honduras. He was now in some distress, short of provisions, and in a vessel too " great to get out at the reflux of those seas." His 300 men had no food but that which they contrived to kill daily on shore, living chiefly on the flesh of parrots and monkeys. By day they generally fished or hunted ; by night, taking advantage of the land-breeze, they sailed painfully on till they rounded Cape Gracios a Dios, and slowly the Pearl Islands hove in sight. Stanch and inexorable, Lolonnois, amid all the tedium of this enervating idleness, still nourished the project of making a swoop upon Nicaragua, intending to leave his cumbrous vessel behind, and row up the river St. John in canoes, until he reached the lake. But the same reason that made his vessel lag behind those of his com- panions, now drove it ashore in a shallow near Cape Gracias, where it drew too much water to be extricated. lu vain he unloaded his guns and iron, and used every means that experience and ingenuity could suggest to lighten the ship, and float her again into deep water. Always firm and resolute, Lolonnois at once determined to break her to pieces on the sand-shoal, and with her planks and nails to construct a boat. His men, with perfect sang froid, not even impatient at the loss, much less afraid of danger, escaping to land, began to build Indian ajoupas, or huts. Lolonnois, accustomed to such reverses, concealed his chagrin, if he even felt any. Begardless of himself, he adjured his men to lose no courage, for he knew of a means of escape, and, what was more, a way to make their fortune yet, before they returned to Tortuga. Pre])ared for every emergency, and even for the longest delay, part of the crew were at once employed LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 12 o in planting peas and other vegetables, the remainder in fishing and hnnting, all but the few who worked busily at the boat in which Nicaragua was to be visited. In spite of desertion, ftiilure, wreck, and famine, Lolonnois held on to the plan of the expedition, which he deemed cowardly and shameful to abandon. The men, confident in the sagacity and courage of their leader, surrendered themselves like children to his guidance. The Indians of the Perlas Islands, on which they had struck, were a fierce and untameable race, strong and agile, swift as horses, hardy divers, brave but cruel, warlike, and man-eaters. Their wooden clubs v/ere jagged with croco- diles' teeth ; they had no bows or arrows, but used lances a fathom and a half long. They built no huts, and lived on fruits grown in plantations cleared from the forest. Fishers and swimmers, they were so dexterous as to be able to bring up with a rope an anchor of six cwt. from a rock, a feat which Esquemeling himself saw a few of them perform. The seamen in vain attempted to propitiate these wild free- men, to serve them as guides or hunters. At last, finding a great number together, and pursuing the fugitives, they tracked five men and four women to a cave, and took much pains to propitiate them. The captives remaining obsti- nately silent, as if from fear, in spite of the food that was given them, were dismissed with presents of knives and beads. They left, promising to return j " but soon forgot their henpf actors^'' says Esquemeling, disgustfully. The sailors believed that at night all the Indians swam to a neighbouring island, as they never saw either boat or Indian again. Some time before this the Frenchmen's terror had been excited by the discovery that these Indians were cannibals. Two Buccaneers, a Frenchman and a Spaniard, had straggled into the woods in search of game. Pursued by a troop of savages, the latter, after a desperate struggle, was captured, and heard of no more ; the former, the swifter footed of tlie two, escaped. A few days after, an armed party of a dozen FlibustierG, led by this survivor, went into the same part of the forest to see if they could find any traces of the Indian encampment. Near the place where the Spaniard had 124 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. fallen into the ambush they discovered the ashes of a fire, still warm, and among the embers some human bones, well scraped, and a white man's hand with two fingers half roasted, but still unconsumed. For six months, till the long-boat was com.pleted, the Buccaneers lived on Spanish wheat, bananas, and on the fruits and green crops which they had sown on landing. Their bread they baked in portable ovens saved from the wreck. Lolonnois now once more prepared to carry out his unabandoned project. With part of his crew he resolved to row up the river of Nicaragua, to capture some canoes, and return to fetch away those whom the new boat would not hold. The men cast lots for the choice of sailins: with him. He took about one-half of the shipwrecked crew with him, part in the long-boat and part in a skiff which had been saved when the larger vessel drove on the bank. They arrived in a few days at Desaguadera, near Nicaragua ; but attacked on the beach by an overpowering number of Spaniards and Indians, they were driven back to their boats, with the loss of many men, and escaped with difficulty, beaten and desponding. Lolonnois, now fairly at bay with fortune, still resolv^ed neither to return to Tortuga ragged and penniless, nor to rejoin his comrades till he had obtained a sufiicient number of canoes to embark his companions. In order the better to obtain provisions he divided his men into two bands. The one party proceeded to the Cape Gracias a Dios, where they were well received ; the other sailed to Boca del Toro, on the coast of Carthagena, where adventurers frequently repaired for turtle and other provisions, intending to embark in the first friendly vessel that should arrive. Nicaragua was still destined to remain unscathed. " God Almighty," says Esquemeling, who writes with some bitter- ness, and probably much hypocris}', " the time of His divine justice being now come, had appointed the Indians of Darien to be the instruments and executioners thereof" Landing at a place called the La Pointe a Diegue to obtain fresh water, Lolonnois and his men, weary of "wave, and wind, and oar," drew their canoes to land, and threw up entrench- LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. 1£5 ments, knowing that they were now in the neighbourhood of the Bravo Indians, the most savage race known on the niainkmd — as cruel as sharks, and as numerous and greedy of blood as the vultures. He himself and a few others, passing the river, near the Gulf of Darien, landed in order to sack a town and obtain provisions. Here this modern Ulysses found a termination to his troubles and his life, for, being taken prisoner by the Indians, he was killed, chopped to pieces, and devoured. Many of his comi3anions were also burnt alive, and but a few escaped to Tortuga, by the detail of their horrors to check for a few days the love of adven- ture in the minds of its restless and impetuous adventurers. Esquemeling, or his English translator — who generally considers it necessary to conclude his chapters with a sancti- monious moral, a snuffle of the nose, and a lifting up of the eyes — says, " Hither Lolonnois came (brought by his evil conscience that cried for punishment), thinking to act his cruelties ; but the Indians, within a few days after his arrival, took him prisoner, throwing his body limb by limb into the fire, and his ashes into the air {virtuous indignation), that no trace or memory might remain of such an infamous, inhuman creature. . . . Thus ends the history, the life^ and the miserable death of that infernal wretch, Lolonnois, who, full of horrid, execrable, and enormous deeds, and debtor to so much innocent blood, died by cruel and butcherly hands, such as his own were in the course of his life." To- wards the conclusion of his malediction Esquemeling's wrath unfortunately gets much the better of his grammar. The men left behind in the island de las Perlas, after long waiting for their companions — who had only escaped Scylla to run into Charybdis — were taken off by an English ad- venturer, who, collecting a body of 500 men, resolved on an expedition to the mainland. Ascending the river Mous- tique, near Cape Gracias, he sailed on, expecting to find some inlet to the lake' of Nicaragua, round which Lolonnois' men still hovered. The expedition started full of hope, for the shipwrecked men were rejoiced at ending ten months of suffering, anxiety, and privation. The result was worse than mere disappointment. In fifteen days they reached no Spanish town^ but only some 126 LOLONNOIS THE CRUEL. poor Indian villages, which they found deserted by the natives, who, aware of their coming, had fled, carrying off all the produce of their plantations. These they burnt in their rage, and marched recklessly onwards. They had carried no provision with them, expecting to find everywhere sufficient ; and, to render their condition worse, had brought all their 500 men, exce})t five or six who were left to guard each vesseL " These their hopes," says Esquemeling — turn- ing up as usual the whites of his eyes — who looks with great contempt on all unsuccessful attempts at thieving, " were found totally vain, as not being grounded^ In a few days the hope of plunder, which had first animated them, grew clouded by despondency. Scarcity rapidly became want, and they were reduced to such extreme necessity and hun- ger that they gathered the plants that grew on the river's bank for food. In a fortnisfht their courajxe and viijour had entirely gone ; their hearts sank, and their bodies were wasted by famine. Leaving the river they took to the woods, seeking for Indian villages where they might obtain food. Ranging up and down the woods for some days in a fruitless search, they returned to the river, now their only guide, and struck back towards the point of coast where their ships lay. In this laborious journey they were reduced to much extremity — eating their shoes, tlieir leather belts, and the very sheaths of their knives and swords. They grew at last so ravenous as to resolve to kill and devour the first Indian they could meet ; but they could not obtain one either for food or as a guide. Some fell sick, and, fainting by the wayside, were left to perish. Many were killed and eaten by the natives, and others died of starvation. At last they reached the shore, and, finding some comfort and relief to their present miseries, at once set sail to encounter more. After remain- ing some time on land, they re-embarked, but a quarrel arising between the French and English Buccaneers^ who seldom kept long friends, tliey separated into small parties, and engaged in fresh expeditions. ALEX^VNDRE BRAS-DE-FER, AXD MOIs TEARS. 12' CHAPTER VI. ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. Bras-de-Fer compared to Alexander the Great — His adventures and stratagems — Montbars — Anecdotes of his childiiood — Goes to sea — His first fight — Meets and joins the Buccaneers — Defeats the Spanish Fifties — His uncle killed — His revenge — The negro vessel — Adam and Anne le E,oux plunder Santiago. "We now come to a cla&s of Buccaneere who lived at we scarcely know what period, altliough they were probably contemporaries of (Exmelin. Their adventures, though on a narrower scale, are perhaps more interesting than those that had subsequently taken place, and are valuable as illustrations of manners. OExmelin relates, in his usual shrewd and vivacious man- ner, the singular exploits of Alexandre Bras-de-Fer, a French adventurer, with whom he was acquainted, and who, unlike his contemporaries, never joined in large expeditions, pre- ferring the promptitude of a single swift cruiser, with none to share his risks or subtract from his bootv. His life seems to have been crowded with romantic and strange incidents. His character appears to have been a strange combination of bravery and chivalry, a love of rapine, and a fantastic vanity. CExmelin says naively, that this modern Alexander was as great a man among the adventurers of Tortuga as the ancient Alexander was among the conquerors of the East. Nor does he see much difference between the two worthies, except that the Macedonian was the adventurer upon the larsjer scale, CI? Our Alexandre was vigorous in body and handsome in feature — so, at least, vouches CExmelin, who, a surgeon by profession, once cured him of a severe wound that he had received — a cure which, if xVlexandre had been generous 128 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, (which lie was not, in this instance at least), might have made the doctor's fortune. Bras-de-Fer displayed as great judgment in the conception of his enterprises as he did courage in the carrying them out. His head and hand worked well together, and he sel- dom had to fight his way out of dangers into which his own incautiousness had led him. The vessel which he commanded he called the Plioenix^ because it was of such a unique and' peculiar structu]"e that it was said to be among vessels what the phoenix was fabled to be among birds. Alexandre always went alone, in preference to crowding in a fleet. His pride or his prudence may have given him a fondness for solitary cruises, for the Phoenix was a bird of p)rey. A picked crew and a single swift vessel had many advantages over a rebellious flotilla — and subordinate cap- tains were often mutinous if not treacherous. If solitude increased his risk, it also increased his probability of success. CExmelin, the only writer who mentions Alexandre, re- lates but one of his adventures, which he took down, as he tells VIS, from the hero's own lips. The rest of his exploits he suppresses, either from a fear of being tedious or a dread of being considered a mere romancer. On the occasion of which he speaks, Alexandre was bound upon an expedition of great consequence — which, however, as it did not succeed, the narrator, with a wise modesty, does not think worth mentioning. After lying some time imprisoned in a tedious calm, his prayers for a change of weather were . answered by a great storm, that blew up the sea into mountains — wind and fire seeming to struggle together in the air for the possession of the helpless ship and its pale crew. The furious thunder drowned the very roar ot the sea, and the masts soon went by the board. The lightning, striking its burning arrows through the deck, set lire to the powder-magazine, and blew up the part of the vessel in which it was stored. Half of the crew- were hurled into the air, and were killed before they reached the boiling sea that eagerly waited for their fall. The remain- der of the crew, finding the vessel going down by the head, took to swimming, and soon reached dry land : Alexandre strong and brawny, brave, but desirous of life, and always AND MOXTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 129 awake to the means of its preservation — by no means the last, setting an example at once of prudence, coolness, and decision. On shaking the brine from their limbs and look- ing around, the wrecked men found that thej had been thrown upon a tract of land as much to be dreaded bj the Buccaneer as the realm of Polyphemus was by the wise Ulysses. They stood upon an island near the Boca del Drago (Dragon's Mouth), inhabited by a tribe of Indians, fierce and cruel cannibals. Remaining for some time upon the shore, they exerted themselves in recovering wdiat they could from the scorched driftinsfs of the wreck. Amono^st other things they saved — what was more valuable than food, because they presented the means of saving their lives for the present and for the future — a number of their hunters' muskets, sufficient to arm all their number, together with a quantity of powder and lead for bullets. "Without either of the three requisites the other two had been useless. They now gathered courage from the possibility of escape, and de- termined to secure themselves from the Indians, reconnoitre the place for fear of surprise, and after that remain patiently encamped till some friendly vessel should arrive. One dav, while some of the band w^ere smokinof, singfiner, and talking, their past dangers already half forgotten in the desire of escaping the present by encountering fresh in the future, the sentinels on the look-out hill gave the signal of an approaching vessel. On all rushing to the spot, the keener eyes detected a large ship, dark against the grey horizon. It presently discharged a gun at the shore, and in the direction in which they stood. Preparing for the worst, Alexandre and his men hid themselves in a wooded hollow, and held a council of war. Some were of opinion that they should wait for the stranger's arrival, and then quietly beg the captain to take them on board. The more impatient and lawless, less pacific in such an emergency, believed that such a plan would lead, if the vessel proved, as it probably would, a Spaniard, to their all being taken prisoners, and at once strung from the yard-arm, without inquiry, as French- men and pirates. Bras-de-Fer spoke last, and crushed all opposition by his voice and gesture. He was for war to the deathj and escape at any risk. Better Spanish rope than K 130 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, Indian fire, better pistol shot than starvation. Quick in decision and firm in execution, he had at once determined not merely to stand on the defensive, but at all risks to assume the aggressive. The adventurers yielded as if an angel had spoken, for Alexandre had more than the usual ascendancy of a leader over them. Both his mind and body were of a more athletic bulk and iron mould. He could dare and suffer more. His active and his passive, his moral and physical courage, were greater than theirs. They loved him because he shared their dangers, and did not humiliate them by the assumption of his real superiority. He wore the crown, but he was not always dazzling their eyes with its oppressive glitter. They respected him because he could control both his own passions and those of the men whom he led to victory and never* to defeat. The success of his vic- tories he doubled by the prudence with which they were followed up, and the skill with which he conducted a retreat rendered his very defeats in themselves successes. The vessel, which proved to be a Spanish merchant ship, with war equipments, approached nearer, standing off and on, attracted by the fruit and flowers whose perfume spread over the level sea, and allured by that fragrance, a sure proof of the existence of good water not far from the shore. The boats were lowered, and a well-armed party landed with much caution. The captain marched at their head, followed by his best soldiers, dreading an ambuscade of the Indians of that coast, who were known to be warlike and treacherous, but not suspecting the Buccaneers, who kept themselves in the wood, ready to swoop down upon their i)rey, like the kite upon the dovecot. Already well acquainted with the paths and foot-tracks, Alexandre's men crept quietly through the trees, which grew thick and dark, and, defiling by secret avenues, surrounded the principal approach by which the Spaniards had already entered, in good order, and on the alert, but with apprehen- sions already subsiding. The adventurers being very inferior in number, and scantily armed, kept themselves hidden, waiting for chance to give them some momentary advantage; "When the enemy was well encircled in the defile, mistaking, perhaps, the lighted matches for fire-flies among the branches, AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 131 the Frencli siicklenly opened a murderous fire upon the sol- diers, who found themselves girt by a belt of flame, coming from they knew not where. A pilgrim seeing a volcano opening at his feet could not be more astonished. The Spaniards, seeing no enemies to aim at, withheld their fire, thinking that the Indians were burning the forest. The absence of arrows, and the report of muskets, convinced them more deadly enemies awaited them, and that Europeans and not Indians were the preparers of the ambush. With much promptitude, instead of flying in a foolish headlong rout, they threw themselves upon their faces ; and the captain gave the word of command not to fire till the enemy came in sight, being ignorant yet of their number and their nation. The adventurers looked through the loop-holes which they had cut in the thick underwood for the passage of their fire- arms, to see what eflfect their volley had produced, the smoke now clearing away and permitting them to see more clearly. To their astonishment they could see no one ; the enemy had vanished, as if blown to pieces by the fire. They began to think that they had retreated, although they had heard no sound of their retreat ; they could scarcely believe that they were all dead. Alexandre's impatience soon decided the question ; deter- mined to conquer, he chafed at the delay and mystery. His resolution was soon made. He left his ambush, and broke out from the wood into the open. The mystery was quickly solved, for he was instantly attacked by the Spaniards, who, when they saw him break cover, sprang up to their feet, with a shout, as swift as the foes of Cadmus. Alexandre, retreat- ing for a moment, to make his S23ring the surer, leaped upon the hostile captain, and aimed a blow at his head with his sabre, which was warded ofl" by a large skull-cap, from which the steel glanced. Bras-de-Fer was about to repeat his stroke with better effect, when his foot caught in a root, and he fell. Closely pressed by his antagonist, and requiring all his skill to save his life, rising up with his left hand, and with his strong right arm he struck the uplifted sabre from the hand of his enemy. This lucky blow of a defenceless man gave Alexandre time to leap up and call the adven- K 2 132 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, turers, who had not then left the ambush, and were now pour- ing out on every side, pressing the enemy in the rear and on the flank. Having made a great carnage among the Spani- ards, the Flibustiers, at a signal from Alexandre, closed in, and, bearing down upon the craven and terrified foe sword in hand, slew them to a man, taking special care that not a single one should escape, for fear of spreading an alarm. The Spanish crew remaining to keep guard in the vessel had heard the sound of musketry, and at once supposed that their people had fallen in with some hostile Indians ; but knowing that their troops were brave and numerous, and believing they could easily cut a few savages to pieces, they sent no reinforcement, but contented themselves by discharg- ing a noisy broadside, to turn the scale of the supposed battle and increase the terror of the fugitives. On the other hand, the victorious adventurers lost no time in following up their ambush by an ingenious stratagem. They stripped the dead, arrayed themselves in their dress and arms, and collected a quantity of their own Indian arrows, which they had previ- ously taken from savages whom they had killed ; then pulling their broad-brimmed Panama hats over their eyes (even the captain's, with a red gash through it), and shouldering their arms, imitating the Si)anish march, and uttering shouts of " victory, victory," proceeded to the shore at the point nearest the vessel. The guards on board, seeing their sup- posed companions returned so soon, victorious, laden with spoil, and each one carrying a sheaf of arrows, received them with open arms as they clambered up by the main-chains. Before they could recover from their astonishment, the Buc- caneers were masters of the vessel. There was scarcely any struggle, for only the sailors and a few marines had been left on board. The surprise was complete and sudden, and the most watchful might be pardoned for being deluded by such an artifice. The adventurers found the vessel laden with costly merchandise, and soon started with it upon a trip of a verv different nature from that for which it had been first intended. CExmelin laments, that in many other adventures which Alexandre told him, he found that he passed too liglitly over his own exploits, and attributed all the glory to the courage AND MOXTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 133 of his companions. But when his comrades related the story, they were not so generous to him as he had been to them, and, either from envy or shame, suppressed many of liis noblest actions. He conchides his sketch of the two Alex- anders with incom[)arable naivete, in the following manner : " Au reste, je ne pretends pas que la comparaison soit toute- a-fait juste, car s'il y a quelque rapport, il y a encore plus de difference. En effet il etoit aussi brave que temeraire, et lui 6toit brave que prudent. Alexandre aymoit le vin, et hii I'eau-de-vie. Aussi Alexandre fuyoit les femmes par grandeur dame, et luy les cherchoit par tendresse de coeur ; et pour preuve de ce que je dis il s'en trouve une assez belle dans le vaisseau dont j'ay parle, qu'il prefera a tout I'avantage du butin." " To conclude : if I have compared him to the great Alex- ander, I do not pretend that the comparison is altogether just ; for, if there are some points of resemblance, there are many more of difference. Of a truth, the one Alexander was as brave as he was headstrong, the other as brave as he was prudent ; the one loved wine, and the other brandy ; the one fled from women through real greatness of heart, the other sought them from a natural tenderness of soul ; and, as a proof of what I say, he met a beautiful woman in the vessel of which I have spoken, whom he valued more than all the other spoil." Providence, a French moral philosopher ventures to gravely suggest, raised up the Buccaneers to revenge on the Spaniards all the sufferings and injustices of the Indians. The Spaniard was the scourge of the Indian, and the Buc- caneer the scourge of the S]Daniard. Lolonnois and Montbars are always considered as equal claimants for the hateful pre-eminence of being the most ferocious of the whole Buccaneer brotherhood, considerins: them from their origin to their extinction. But the sove- reignty of blood must be at once awarded to Lolonnois. Montbars seldom killed a Spaniard who begged for mercy, while Lolonnois delighted to spurn them from his feet, and slew all he could without pity, or even regard for ransom. It was from the very lips of Lolonnois that CExmelin was informed that Montbars was sprung from one of the best 134 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, families in Languedoc. He was well educated, but soon dis- regaixled every other study to practise martial exercise, and particularly shooting. These warlike sports he pursued with a concentrated, unremitting eagerness, approaching insanity. Even as a boy, when firing with his cross-bow, he said he only wished to shoot well that he might know how to kill a Spaniard. 11 is mind had already become filled with a generous but cruel determination, which grew rapidly into monomania. The animal force of a strong but ill-balanced mind all grew to this point, and his thoughts by day, and his dreams by night, became but a reiteration and reblending of the one master passion. No one ever became his confi- dant, but the following is the general explanation given of the deeds of his after life. It is said that, in his early childhood, Montbars had read of the almost incredible cruel- ties practised by the Spaniards during the conquest of America. In the Antilles, they had exhibited the horrors of the Inquisition in broad daylight. Fanaticism, avarice, and ambition had ruled like a trinity of devils over the beautiful regions, desolated and plague-smitten ; whole nations had become extinct, and the name of Christ was polluted into the mere cypher of an armed and aggressive commerce. These books had impressed the gloomy boy with a deep, absorbing, fanatical hatred of the conquerors, and a fierce pity for the conquered. He believed himself marked out by God as the Gideon sent to their relief. Dreams of riches and gratified ambition spurred him uncon- sciously to the task. He thought and dreamed of nothing but the murdered Indians. He inquired eagerly from tra- vellers for news from America, and testified prodigious and ungovernable joy when he heard that the Spaniards had been defeated by the Caribs or the Bravos. He indeed knew by heart every deed of atrocity that historv recorded of liis enemies, and would dilate on each one with a rude and impatient eloquence. The following story he was frequently accustomed to relate, and to gloat over with a look that indicated a mind ca]>able of even greater cruelty, if once led away by a fanatic spirit of retali- ation. A Spaniard, the story ran, was once upon a time appointed governor of an Indian province, which was in- AND MONTBAP.S THE EXTERMINATOR. 135 habited by a fierce and warlike race of savages. He proved a cruel governor, unforgiving in his resentments, and insa- tiable in his avarice. The Indians, unable any longer to endure either his barbarities or his exactions, seized him, and, showing him gold, told him that they had at last been able, by great good luck, to find enough to satisfy his de- mands. They then held him firm, and melting the ore, poured it down his throat till he expired in torments under their hands. On one occasion, Montbars openly showed that his reason was somewhat disturbed, and that, on the one subject of his thoughts, he had ceased to be able to reflect calmly. While a boy, he had to take part in a comedy which was to be acted by himself and the fellow-students of the college, for his friends either ignored or disregarded his dreams and fancies. Amongst other scenes was a prologue, in the shape of a dialogue between a Spaniard and a Frenchman. Mont- bars was to represent the Frenchman, and his companion the Spaniard. The Spaniard, appearing first upon the stage, began to utter a thousand invectives against France, mingled with much ribald rhodomontade, and Montbars became excited, and could not contain his impatience. To his heated mind the mimic scene became a reality. He broke in upon the stage, furiously interrupted his comrade in the middle of his speech, and, loading him with blows, would certainly have put him to death on the spot, as " a Spanish liar and murderer," had the combatants not been separated by the terrified bystanders. His father, rich, and loving his son much, perhaps all the better for these wayward eccentricities, which, he believed, contact of the world and the pleasures of youth would soon drive from his memory, desired to enrol him in the army, or induce him to enter some profession. But to all his ques- tions and entreaties the boy only replied, that all he wanted was " to fight against the SjDaniards." Seeing that his friends would oppose his project, he ran away from his father's house, and took refuge at Havre with an uncle who commanded one of the French king's ships. He was about to start on a cruise against Spain, with whom France was then at war, and, pleased at the boy's avowed attachment to a maritime 136 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, life, wrote to liis father, approving of the boy's resolution. The father reluctantly gave what could be construed into a consent, and in a few days the vessel sailed. During the voyage out, tlie young fanatic evinced the greatest eagerness for an engagement, and directly a vessel appeared in sight ran to arm himself, hoping it might be a Spaniard. At length, one did in reality appear, and he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself against his declared enemies. They gave chase to the Spanish vessel, and received her broadside. The elder Montbars, seeing his nephew in- toxicated with joy, and, disregarding all risk of exposure, determining to throw away his life, clapped him under hatches, as a reckless boy, and only let him rush out when the boarding commenced, and the enemy's vessel was evi- dently their own. The liberated youth led the boarders with all the calmness of a veteran man-of-war's-man. Leap- ing, sabre in hand, upon the foe, he fought with them pell- mell, broke through their thickest ranks, and, followed by a few whom his courage animated to rival his own rashness, rushed twice from end to end of the Spanish vessel, mowing down all he met to the right and left. The Spaniards were refused quarter, those who escaped the sword perished in the sea, and Montbars, to whom the honour of the victory was unanimously awarded, refused quarter to a single one. The prize was found full of spoil, the hold crammed with riches, containing 30,000 bales of cotton, 2,000 bales of silk, besides Indian stuffs, 2,000 packets of incense, and 1,000 of cloves, which made up the treasure. In addition to all this, they found a small casket of diamonds, the case clasped with iron, and fastened with four locks, the contents of which alone outvalued ail the bulkier merchandise. Wliile his uncle and the sailors exulted over these treasures, Montbars was count- ing the dead Spaniards, and gloating over the first victims of the hecatomb he still hoped to slay. Blood, and not booty, was his oVjject. In spite of the young victor, a few Spanish sailors and ofiicers had been spared in the general carnage. From these survivors they learnt that two other vessels had been parted from them in a storm, near where they then were (St. Domingo), and that their rendezvous had been fixed at Port AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 137 Margot. Captain Montbars determined to wait for them there, and to capture them by the stratagem of sending the captured vessel with its Spanish colours out to meet them, as a decoy. While the French vessel and its prize lay waiting at the rendezvous, some huntsmen's boats came off to sea, bringing boucanned meat to barter for brandy. The Buccaneers apologized for bringing so little meat, saying, " that a band of Spanish Fifties had lately ravaged their district, burnt their hides, stolen their dried meat, and burnt their boucans." " And why do you suffer it ?" said Montbars, impetuously, for he had been listening eagerly all this time, to the recital of a new proof of Spanish perfidy. " We do not suffer it," answered the huntsmen, rouglily, " The Spaniards know well what sort of people we are, and they chose a time when we were all away cow-killing ; but our day is coming. We are now collecting our companions, who have suffered worse than we have ; we have given notice far and wide, and if the fifty grow to a thousand, we shall soon bring them to bay." " If you are willing," says Montbars, " I will march at your head. I do not want to command you, but to expose myself first, to show you what I am ready to do against these accursed Spaniards." The old hunters, astonished at the daring of a mere youth, and glad of another musket, accepted his proposal. His uncle, unable to rein him in, and already weary of so hot-brained a volunteer, yielded to his entreaties. He per- mitted him to go, giving him a party of seamen to guard him, and supplied him with but few provisions, in hopes of bringing him quickly back. He threatened on parting, to leave him behind if he was not on board to the very hour, then calling him a foolish madcap, and cursing him for a hair-brain, he dismissed him with his blessing, swearing the next minute there wasn't a braver lad at that moment treading a plank. « Montbars departed with some uneasiness, not caring about his uncle's advice or the scantiness of provisions, but only afraid that he might miss the Spaniards on land, and be absent also when the Spanish vessels were attacked. 138 ALEXANDRE BPxAS-DE-FER, He wanted no greater inducement to hurry his return than the })ros2iect of a naval engagement. He liad scarcely landed with his men, when the hunters brought them into a small savannah surrounded by hills and woods. They had not taken many steps across this broad hunting-ground before they saw some mounted Spaniards appear in the dis- tance — these men were part of a troop that had collected, hearing that the Buccaneers were assembling to attack them. Montbars, transported with rage at the sight of a Spaniard, would have rushed at once upon them, single-handed, but an old experienced Buccaneer caught him by the arm : " Stop," said he, " there is plenty of time, and, if you do what I tell you, not one of these fellows shall escape." These words, " not one," would at any time have arrested Montbars, and they did so then. The old Buccaneer, crying a halt, bade the men turn their backs on the Spaniards, as if they had not seen them. He next unrolled the linen tent, which he carried in the usual fashion of his craft, and began to pitch it, followed by all his companions, who did the same, imitating their fugleman, without inquiry, trusting to the address that had often before delivered them out of danger. They then drew out their brandy-flasks and affected to prepare for a revel, intending to deceive the Spaniards, who, they knew, would give them time to drink, in hopes of surprising them, an easy prey, when asleep. The empty horns were passed round with jokes, and songs, and shouts, and the corked flasks circulated as merrily as if the feast had been a real one. "Without appearing to observe, they could see the Spanish patrols disappear over the ridge of the hill, to warn their men in the valley to prepare for a night surprise. The Buccaneer leader, passing the signal from hand to hand, sent an engage into the woods to quickly rouse all the " brothers " in the neigh- bourhood, to bid them come and help them, and to prepare an ambush in the opposite forest. In the mean time, other scouts were sent to watch the motions of the enemy, to be sure that they were coming, and were not making any flank movement. At dusk the Buccaneers sli})ped quietly from beneath their tents, and crept into the adjacent woods. Here they AND MOXTExVr.S THE EXTERMINATOR. 139 found tlieii" companions and tlieir engages already assembled and eager for the attack. Montbars, weary of all prepara- tions, Avas now burning to see the Spaniards, declared they never would come, and that they had better go out and surprise them while night lasted ; but the Spaniards were purposely delaying, knowing that the longer they delayed the deeper would be the sleep of the revellers. At day- break they could see a dark troop beginning to move for- ward over the ridge, and soon to descend the hill into the plain in good order, a small detachment marching before them as a forlorn hope. The Buccaneers, well posted and unobserved, waited for them, sure of their prey, for the tents being pitched at some distance one from the other, they could see every movement of the Spaniards. As they drew nearer, the Fifties broke into small troops, and each encircled a tent. To their astonishment, at that moment, the wood grew a flame, and a hot rolling fire led on the advancing Buccaneers, who, breaking out with yell and shout, very terrible in the silence of the dawning, overthrew horse and rider. Montbars, inspired by the fever of the onslaught, wliich always seemed for a moment to restore the balance of his mind, leaped on a horse, whose rider he had killed, and headed the attack. Wherever resistance was made, he rode in, charging every knot of troopers as they attempted to rally. Hurrying on too far beyond his com- j)anions, while breaking into the heart of the squadron, he was surrounded, and would have been quickly overpowered had he not been rescued by a determined rush of his men. More furious at this escape, he pursued the scattered enemy right and left, with increased fury, inflicting blows as dread- ful as they were unusual. One of the Buccaneers, seeing many of his men suffering from the Indian arrows, cried out to the Indians, in Spanish, pointing to Montbars, " Do you not see that God has sent you a liberator, wly) fights for you, to deliver you from the Spaniards, and yet you still fight for your tyrants V Hearing these words, and asto- nished at Montbars' contempt for death, the archers changed sides and turned their arrows against the Spaniards, who fled, overwhelmed by this new misfortune, and perhaps impelled by an undefmable and superstitious terror. 140 ALEXANDRE BI^AS-DE-FER, Montbars looked upon this day as tlie happiest in his life. He had seen the Indians he had so pitied fighting by his side, and regarding him as their protector. Cleaving down a wounded Spaniard, who clung to his knees and begged for mercy, he cried, " I would you were the last of this accursed race." An eye-witness of the battle describes the carnage as horrible — the living trampling on the living, and stum- bling over the dying and the dead. The Buccaneers and the Indians rejoicing in their liberty and their revenge, entreated Montbars to follow up his successes, and wanted at once to ravage the Spanish plantations, and extirpate the survivors, while they were still discouraged. Montbars gladly consented to the proposal, and was about to march exultingly at their head, when the boom of a cannon was heard. It was the report of a gun from his uncle's vessel, and he could not resist obeying a signal that might be the signal of an approaching battle. He instantly hurried back, but found, to his annoyance, that the signal had been only fired as a warning to announce the hour of instant sailing. The hunters, already attached to their young leader, refused to leave him, and the Indians were afraid to abide the vengeance of the Spaniards. They were all therefore at once placed on board the prize, and supplied with muskets and sabres. The delighted uncle appointed INIontbars as captain, with an old ofiicer, under the name of lieutenant, to act as his guardian. After eight days' sail, Montbars was attacked, at the mouth of a large quay, by four Spanish vessels, each one larger than his own. They surrounded him so suddenly that he had no time to escape, and he lay amongst them like a wolf at bay. They formed, in fact, the van of the great Indian plate fleet, which was, every year, as eagerly expected by the king of Spain as it was by all the marauders of the Spanish main. The elder Montbars, bold and hardy, un- hesitatingly attacked two of the vessels, and several times drove back their boarders. Although gouty himself and unable to move, the staunch old Gascon shouted his orders from his elbow chair ; and, cursing alternately the enemy and the disease, defended his ship to the lust extremity. AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 1-il Haviuir fouolit for more than three hours with ferocious obstinacy, and seeing his young hero terribly pressed by his two adversaries, he resolved upon a final effort, the last struggle of a wild beast that leels the knife is at his throat. Firing a tremendous broadside, he attacked both his enemies with such fury that he sank them and himself, and died " laughing" in all the exultation of that revenge which is the only victory of despair. Montbars the younger made great exertions to save him- self and to avenge his uncle. The old lion was dead, but the cub had much life in him yet. He sank one of his antagonists with a crushing shot and boarded the other. His Indians, seeing their leader enter the Spanish vessel at one end, threw themselves into the water and clambered promptly up the other. Their war-cries and arrows pro- duced a powerful diversion, and took the Spaniards by surprise. Throwing many into the sea, they killed others, while Montbars put all that resisted to the sword. In a short time he was master of a vessel larger even than those that had been sunk. The friendly Indians, who now looked upon him as an invincible demigod, he employed in a fruitless search for his uncle's body. Conquerors and con- quered were destined to remain locked in each other's arms, and piled over with bloody trophies of burnt wreck until the day that the blue sea should give up her dead. The hunters renewed their proposal of a descent upon the mainland, and Montbars agreed to any scheme which would enable him to avenge his uncle and his friends. He had formerly lived to avenge the wrongs of others, to these were now added his own. The governor of the province, hearing of the contemplated attack, prepared an ambuscade of negroes and militiamen. Putting himself at the head of 800 men, divided into three battalions, his wings strengthened with cavalry and his van guarded with cannon, he prepared to prevent the landing of the " Exterminator." These preparations only increased the ardour of Montbars. It seemed cowardly to ravage an unprotected country : its devastation, after defeating its defenders, was a reward of conquest. Montbars was the first to leap from the canoes, and the first to rush upon the Spanish pikes. The front 142 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DEFER, battalion was soon repulsed, and some Indians taking the reserve force in the flank, they were driven back in great disorder. Montbars, hotly pursuing, made a prodigious car- nage of the enemy, and carried fire and sword far into the interior. One day, while at sea, the young captain, already a veteran in experience, was obliged to put into a bay to careen. To his great surprise, although the place was a mere track of sand, he saw some Spaniards on a distant plain, marching in good order and well-armed. Fearing that if they saw his men they would take to flight, he sent a few of his favourite Indians to decoy them towards him. Then falling upon them with fury as they cried out for quarter Montbars shouted, in Spanish, that they had nothing to hope for till they had killed himself and all his men. These dreadful words, together with his revengeful looks, drove them to take up their arms and fight with dogged and brutal despair, till they were slain almost to a man. Advancing into the country in search of more human prey, Montbars carried off the arras of the Spaniards and a great quantity of fruits and provisions. It appeared, from a survivor, that these Spaniards had arrived in that country in a singular manner. They had formed the crew in guard of a vessel full of negro slaves who had conspired together to drive the ship on shore. The Africans had secretly bored holes in the ship's hold, in which they had placed pluggets, which they drew out, and replaced, unseen, and in a moment. While the Spaniards were seated together, talking with their usual stately, stolid phlegm, this unaccountable leak would break out and fill the cabin, or drench them in their hammocks. The slaves never seemed alarmed, but were always duly astonished, and filled the air with interjections, in the Congo language. The water rushing in pell-mell, even the ship's carpenter did not know from where, drove all hands, at great danger to the ship, almost to leave the helm to save the cargo, which was already damaged. The negroes, quiet and orderly, would generally succeed, after a time, in stopping the leak, and excited general admiration by their promptitude and naval skill All then went on well for a time ; but with the AND MOKTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 143 least wind or storm the dreadful and mvsterious leak reconi' menced, till the very captain began reluctantly to confess, with tears in his eyes, that they were all as good as lost, for the vessel was dangerous and not seaworthy. In the middle of the night, or at meal time, this supernatural leak would recommence, till the pumps were all but worn out, and the men faint with want of sleep. One day, when the vessel was skirting a reef, the negroes watched the opportunity, and the leak commenced with redoubled fury, the slaves howling as if from the very disquietness of their hearts. The Spaniards, thinking all hope lost, and the vessel, as they declared, already beginning to settle down, abandoned the ship, and threw themselves on that very tongue of land where Montbars afterwards surprised them. The trick had been cleverly planned and cleverly executed, but a hitch in the machinery had nearly ruined all. One of the blacks, more timid or less sagacious than the rest, seeing the water pour in with more than usual impetuosity, and on all sides, lost his presence of mind. Not able at once, in his panic, to find the hole which he had to stop, he believed that his companions had also failed, and that all was indeed lost, and, throwing himself overboard without inquiring, he joined the Spaniards, who were thanking God (prematurely) for their deliverance. Looking back for his companions, to his horror he saw a dozen of them tugging at the helm, and putting out wildly to sea. The truth flashed upon him, and he knew in a moment that his safety was a loss. Giving way to uncon- trollable despair, he tore his wool, and stamped his feet, and cursed his fetish, and stretched out his foolish black hands, as if to stay the parting vessel. The Spaniards, astonished at this api)arently passionate desire to be drowned, began slowly to discover the successful stratagem. They looked : " Demonio ! — San Antonio ! " — the vessel did not sink, but glided swiftly out to sea. They could see the blacks laugh- ing, pulling at the ropes, and grinning with white teeth from the port-holes. They turned with fury on the unhappy survivor, and put him to the torture till he confessed the truth. And this story completes all that history has preserved of 144 ALEXANDRE BRAS-DE-FER, one of the strangest combinations of fanatic and soldier that has ever appeared since the days of Loyola. In another age, and under other circumstances, he might have become a second Mohammed. Equally remorseless, his ambition, though narrower, seems to have been no less fervid. If he was cruel, we must allow him to have been sincere even in his fanaticism. Daring, untiring, of unequalled courage, and unmatched resolution, the cruelty of the Spaniards he put down by greater cruelty. He passes from us into unknown seas, and we hear of him no more. He died probably unconscious of crime, unpitying and un pitied. OExmelin, who saw Montbars at Honduras, describes him as active, vivacious, and fall of fire, like all the Gascons. He was of tall stature, erect and firm, his air grand, noble, and martial. His complexion was sun-burnt, and the colour of his eyes could not be discerned under the deep, arched vaulting of his bushy eyebrows. His very glance in battle was said to intimidate the Spaniards, and to drive them to despair. In 1659, Santiago was pillaged by the Flibustiers, in revenge for the murder of twelve Frenchmen, who had been shot by a Spanish captain, who took them from a Flemish vessel, si)aring only a woman, and a child who hid itself under the robe of a monk. Determined on retaliation, the people of the coast assem- bled, to the number of 500. Obtaining an English commis- sion, they embarked on board a frigate from Nantes, and a number of small craft — De Flsle being their commander, and Adam, Lormel, and Anne le Roux their lieutenants. They landed at Puerto de Plata, " le Dimanche des Ra- meaux " (Palm Sunday), and marched upon St. Jago at day- break. Passing over the bodies of the guards, they rushed to the governor's house, and surprised him in bed. He, knowing French, threw himself on his knees, and told them that peace was about to be declared between the two nations. They replied that they carried an English commission, and, reproaching him for his cruelties, bade him either prepare for death, or pay down 60,000 crowns. Part of this ransom he instantly paid in hides. The pillage of the town lasted twenty- four hours, and nothing was spared ; the very bells AND MONTBARS THE EXTERMINATOR. 145 were carried from the cliurclies, and tlie altars stripped of tlieir plate. No violence, however, we are glad to record, was offered to the women, the brotherhood having, with some chivalry, agreed that any such offender should lose his share of the spoil. 146 SIR HENRY MORGAN. CHAPTER VII. 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 oi 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. o Morgan's campaigns farnisli 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 Sharpe, 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 under- taken 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, went to sea. Embarking on board a vessel bound for Barbadoes, 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 p SIR HENRY MORGAN. 147 to seek his fortune at that El Dorado, and arriving there, sav/ two Buccaneer vessels just fitting out tor an expedition. Being now in search oi 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 comrades to join stock, and to buy a vessel, of which he was unanimously a})i)ointed commander. Such was the usual beGfinninof 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 Cam peachy. With these prizes he returned triumphantly to Jamaica, his name established as a terror to the Spaniard, and a war-cry to the English. Find- ing 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 Bica, 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, stror;gly built of hewn stone ; but, landing most of their men, they soon forced the garrisons to surrender. Morgan distinguished himself remarkably in this expedi- L 2 148 SIR HEXRY :.IORGAIT. tion, forcing even liis very enemies to laud his skill and valour. He now proceeded to demolish all the castles but one, in which he placed 100 men, with the slaves and j^risoners, 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 ord- nance which they had taken, laying waste their first conquest with fire and sword. They then set sail again, having first set their })risoners ashore near Porto Bello, 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 ISTata, 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 always 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 pro- bable, 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 both 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, the whole country being 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 settle- ments, resolved to hold it, appointing as governor Le Sieur Simon, a Frenchman, whom he left behind, with a garrison of lUO men. St. Simon had behaved well in his absence, and put the island in a good posture of defence ; he had strengtliened the four large forts, and turned the smaller island into a citadel, p;uarding 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 SIR HENRY MORGAN. 149 Jamaica, promising to send recruits to Simon, for fear of an. invasion, and themselves engaging 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 Tor- tuga, and died wliile 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 llansvelt'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 Ptica 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 equip])ed a fleet of four vessels, witli 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 Ve- raguas." 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 150 SIR HEXRY MORGAN. said pirates liad made in the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, and propounded, "that it was absohitely necessary to send some forces to the isle of St. Catherine, suf- ficient 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 coun- tries thereabout.'" The less vapouring, or more pacific, ingeniously proposed to leave the pirates alone till they ])erished 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 dano-er of his life. At this port he found the aS'^. 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, tweuty-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 (wlio did not go with them) encouraged them to tight against the enemies of their country and their religion, "those inhuman pirates who had committed so many horrid cruel- ties 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 aS'^. Vincent attacked tlie Conception battery, the *S'^. 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 8001bs. of powder, and 2501bs. of bullets. Two Spanish deserters, discovered amongst the prisoners, were " shot to death" the next day. The prisoners were trans- SIR HENRY MORGAN. 151 ported to Puerto Yelo, all but three, who, hy order of the governor, were kept as trophies, 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's, bringing reinforcements and j)ro- visions 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 oppo- sition 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 am- munition and provisions ; but this hope being ended by the Spanish conquest, he felt himself free to embark on a wider and more ambitious Held. 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 tirst 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 Buc- 152 SIR HENRY MORGAN. caneers, who had been prisoners there, said nothing could be done with less than 1,500 men, and the proposal was aban- doned, 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 ap- proaches, 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 Buc- caneers at a long distance. The townsmen, in the meanwhile, prepared for the worsti with the usual timidity of the rich, hiding their riches and carrying away their movables. The adventurers, on en-* tering 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 first to disperse them 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 SIR HENRY MORGAN. 153 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 charge'd them hotly for awhile, but, finding their enemies dexterous at their arms, movinsr 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 being killed before they could reach it. The Buccaneers with few men either killed or wounded, advancing still in their phalanx, cut down without mercy all they met, for the space of the four hours that the fight lasted. The fuijitives of the town barred themselves in their houses and kept up a fire from the windows and loop- holes. The shots from the roofs and balconies still con- tinuing, though the town was taken, the Buccaneers threat- ened, 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 cathe- dral, 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 tlie 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 brother- hood. They now demanded a double ransom of their chief pri- soners ; first, for themselves, under pain of being transported I'J-i SIR HENRY MORGAN. to Jamaica ; and secondly, for the town, or it would be burned to the ground. Four merchants were chosen to col- lect 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 de- manded a respite of iifteen 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 ob- tain 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 profita- ble expedition. The same day IMorgan 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 voj^age had been per])etuated, and had grown into a deep and lasting feud, producing ultimately a disunion fatal to all increase of the power of the brotherhood of tlie 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. SIR HENRY MORGAN. 155 A FrenchmaTi, employed as one of the butchers, had drawn out the dainty and placed it by his side, as a bonne houche 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 con- demned him to be instantly shot, declaring that he had a right to challenge his adversary, but not to stab him treach- erously. Qilxmelin says, the man was sent in chains to Jamaica (and there tried and hanged), 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 00,000 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 per- suasions, but still with every external mark of friendship, entreating noisily to the last to have justice done to the " mjame" Morgan, who had always placed great reliance on the courage of the French adventurers, was not going to relin- quish his new expedition on account of their desertion. He had inspired his men with courage and the ho})e of acquiring riches, and they all resolved to follow him to the attack of the place, whose name he would not yet disclose, 156 SIR HENRY MORGAN. exciting tlicm 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 Ms 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 secrecy ; 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 ])ainfully impressed on his mind, and Morgan submitted, with perfect confidence, to his guidance. By his advice, they steered straight for the bay of Santa IMaria, 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 ad- vantage 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. Bowing softly, they reached about midnight a j^lace called Esterade Longa lenios, where they all landed, and marched u2)on the outposts of the city. Micliael Scott describes Porto Bello as built in a misera- ble, dirty, damp hole, surrounded by high forest-clad hills, wreathed in mist, and reeking with dirt and fever. Ever- lasting vapours obscure the sun, and mingle with the exhala- SIR HENRY MORGAN. lo7 tion of the steaming marshes of the lead-coloiiredj 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, threat- ening 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 Span- iard 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 woidd be able to take the place in spite of all the fort- resses and the 300 soldiers. Morgan then pushed on to the fort, carrying the man bound before them, and after a quar- ter of a league reached the castle, where tlie 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, en- couraged 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, aud 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 ; while all the survivors they put to the sword, in order to strike terror in the city. At daybreak they fell upon the place, and found the 158 SIR HENRY MORGAN. 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, as 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, abstakiing 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 wliich 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 suddenly 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 /;i«?c5 de resistance, being the store-house of the church plate, and the wealth of the richer citizens now with the garrison. A stratagem was suggested, appealing strongly to Si»anish sujierstition, 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 s})ite 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, <■ _ -f- 'k V- r The Monks ai-e compelled to carry the Scahng Ladders. p. 15S. SIR HENRY MORGAN. 159 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 aper- ture 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 unshel- tered by palisade or earthwork. In sjjite 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 super- stitious of the Spaniards were unnerved at hearing the dying curse of the consecrated servants of God, rising slirill 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 determina- tion 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, exce{)t the governor and a few officers, who deter- mined 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 160 SIR HENRY MORGAN. which commahdecl the towers below, advanced with con- fidence 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 des[)airing 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, striking 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 liis 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 scaSbld," 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 chival- rous 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. CExmelin says, fifty brave Spaniards might have put all the revellers to death, and recovered the place. We do not, however, hear that a SIR HENRY MORGAN. 161 single Spanish Jael was found to revenge lierself on these modern ki^iseras. 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 debauch- eries, 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 Spaniards 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 huno-er, or turn cannibals. Parties of hunters were sent into the suburbs to huiat the cattle, whose flesh they then devoured, saving the mules for their 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 as usual 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 fell with dreadful rapidity. Kich 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 warnet^ M 162 SIR HENRY MORGAN. 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 1,500 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 ob- tained 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 much 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 attemi)t again to force a passage, but waited for reinforcements. The presi- dent, 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 ; 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 oflicers had stabbed them- selves, in very despair, at seeing a supposed im])regnable fortress taken by a handful of jieople, 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 Flan- ders, 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 SIR HENllY MORGAN. 1(13 in Europe would have found necessaiy 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 where- with 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 presi- dent, begging him to accept it as a small pattern of the arms wherewith a rover 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, aston- ished 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, the Welshman 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 M 2 164 SIR HENRY MORGAN". been, and he left behind him famine, pestilence, poverty, and death. Orphans and widows, mutilated men and vio- lated 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, (Exmelin says, surtout des caharetie7's. 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 i'aces, all but one — that of the prison for debt, 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 Esqueme- ling, " 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 hisjhwavman — in them both trades were combined. Mor^fan 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 courte- sans 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 J SIR HENRY MORGAN. 165 he looked seaward, turned his back on the hot lotus-land and the painted 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 aboard 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 lonsj-boat towimx 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 2:uns 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 riag fioate 1 at the Frenchman's peak. The change happened thus : the French captain having 16G SIR HENRY MORGAN. refused to join Morgan's expedition, unless he drew up a peculiar charter-party opposed to all Buccaneer law, and quarrelling about this, 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 Qllxmelin calls the lIaktsivo7't (Oxford 1), 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 govern- ment 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 IMorgan's mind was instantly made up. He asked the St. Malo captain and all his officers to dinner on board tlie newly-arrived vessel, and there made them prisoners, without any resistance, away from their cvew, and with their ship exposed to an overwhelming fire. He then affected the anger of indignant justice, declared they SIR HENRY MORGAN. 167 were robbers, who plundered tlie Englisli imder 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 misfor- tunes that befall an enemy, but none in those that befall 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 jDlans. They calculated what provisions they had in store, and of what their force was capable. The island of Savona was agreed upon as a rendez- vous, as at that east corner of Hisj)aniola they might lurk and cut off stragglers from the armed Spanish flota, now daily expected. Having completed their arrangements they gave way to pleasure, tlie 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 dis- charged a broadside when the toasts were drained, fell sense- less 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 wide 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 j^owder 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 168 SIR HENRY MORGAN. them on tlie spot, but Morgan, not apparently the least chapfallen by the disappointment, sent them all as prisoners to Jamaica. Tlie 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 re- turned unsuccessful they might have perhaps been listened to. Eight days after this loss Morgan commanded his men to collect the floating bodies now putrefying, 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 unsalable 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. Always seeking for pleasure, though in emergencies capa- ble of the severest self-denials, six or seven of the fleet remained clustering round a vessel. They met to purchase brandy, as eager and thoughtless as stragglers round a vivan- dicre. The more thoughtful and earnest pressed on with Mor- gan, 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, killinf? some oxen and a few horses. Detained here bv continued bad weather, Morgan maintained strict disci- pline, 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 SIR HENRY MORGAN". 169 matadors. The Spaniards, few in number, did not attack tliem ; but, adopting a Fabian policy, whicli 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 mon- keys and parrots, and resorting even 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 be- sides on the hide and the tallow. During this parley, 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 "J/a^a, mata" — " kill, kill," imagining they could cut to pieces so small a force without a struggle. The Buc- caneers, 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 170 SIR HENRY MORGAN. Spaniards fell thick and fast, cried out, in imprudent bra- vado, that the enemy 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, 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 skir- mish. 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, bavins: first burned down all the deserted huts he could find : '^ Beturaing," says Esquemeling, " somewhat more satisfied in his mind for having done considerable damage to the enemy, wliich 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 want- ing provisions, he sent some boats and 150 men to plunder the towns round St. Domingo, but they, finding the Span- iards vigilant and desperate, gave up the enterprise as hope- less, 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 shifts did not arrive, and all agreed, with their SIR HENRY MORGAN. 171 seven small vessels and their 300 men, some place of import- ance mioht still be taken. Morgfan 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, more- over, much esteemed by Morgan, the scheme for a new cam- paign 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, buy- ing 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 instantlv manned, in order to take the Bar 172 SIR HENRY MORGAN. Fort, rebuilt since Picard's last visit. Its guns played upon the boats as tliey 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 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, we hear, reconnoitred the fort and found it deserted. The ces- sation of the tire had already aroused 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. ]Moi-gan 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 carcasses ; 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 burst- ing mine. Their own city was rocking beneath their feet ; a more dreadful visitation than the earthquake or the hurri- cane was at their doors. At daybreak the fleet sailed up the lake, the ruined fort smoking behind them. Making SIR HENRY MORGAN". 173 great haste, the rovers arrived at Maracaibo the next day, haviiirc first divided amono: themselves the arms and ammu- nition 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 dis- tance 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 Bucca- neer ; 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 re- mained." Crippled slaves, not worth removing, lay in the streets ; the dying groaned untended in the hospital. Chil- dren 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 holiest 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 174 SIR HENRY MORGAN-. 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 tied had had fathers and children killed and tortured in the first expedition. Friends, still maimed by the rack, increased their fears by their narra- tions. The Buccaneers seemed a judgment from God, irresistible and unavertible. 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 witli 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 whei'e their richer and more vu'tuous fellow citizens were hidden. Morgan, finding none to resist him, quartered his men in the richest houses, selecting the church as their central guard-houso and rally- ing point, their store-room for plunder, their court of justice (blind and with false weights), and their torture-chamber. Some of the })risoners offered to act as guides to places where they knew money and jewels were hidden. As several places were named, two parties went out the same SIR HENRY MORGAN". 175 night upon this exciting search. The one party returned on the morrow with much booty, the other did not wander in for two days, having been misled by a prisoner, who, in the hopes of finding means to escape through his knowledge of the country, had led them into such dangerous and unin- habited places that they had had a thousand difficulties in avoidinof. Furious at findins: themselves mocked bv their guide, they hung him on a tree without any parley. In returning they came, however, suddenly upon some slaves who were seeking for food by night, having been hiding in the woods all dav. Torture was at once resorted to, to find out where the masters lay, for slaves could not be there alone. The braver of the two suffered the most horrible pain without disclosing a syllable, and was eventually cut to pieces without confessing ; the weaker, and perhaps younger negro, endured his sufferings at first with equal fortitude, although he was offered liberty and reward if he would sj)eak. But when the seamen drew their sabres, still red w^ith the blood of his companion, and began to hew and gash his brother's limbs that still lay palpitating on the ground, his courage fell, and he offered to lead them to his master. The Spaniard was soon taken with 30,000 crowns' worth of plate. For eight days the men practised unheard-of cruelties upon the wretched townsmen, already starved and beggared, wretches whose only crime had been their yielding to the natural impulse of self-preservation. They hung them up by their beards and by the hair of their heads, by an arm or a leg ; they stretched their limbs tight with cords, and then beat with rattans upon the rigid flesh ; they placed burning matches between their fingers ; they twisted cords about their heads, tightening the strain by the leverage of their pistol-stocks, till the eyes sprang from the sockets. The death-blow was never given from pity, but only as the climax and consummation of suffering, when the execu- tioners were weary of their cruelty. In vain the tortured Spaniards screamed that the treasure w^as all removed to Gibraltar, and that they were not the rich citizens but very poor men, monks and servants of Jesus, God help them ! Many died before the rack could be loosened. 176 SIR HENRY MORGAN. Captain Picarcl, exulting in the success of his expedition, was now very urgent in pressing Morgan to advance on Gibraltar before succours could arrive there from Merida, believins: that it would surrender as it had done to Lolon- nois. Morgan having in his custody about a hundred of the chief families of Maracaibo, and all the accessible booty, embarked eight days after his landing and proceeded to Gibraltar, ho))ing to rival Lolonnois in every virtue. His prisoners and plunder went with him, and he determined to hazard a battle. Expecting an obstinate defence, every Buccaneer made his will, consoling himself by the thought of revelry at Jamaica if he was one of those lucky enough to escape. " Death," says CExmelin, " was never much mixed up in their thoughts, especially when there was booty in view, for if there were only some hopes of plunder they would fight like lions." Before the fleet started, two pri- soners had been sent to Gibraltar to warn the governor that Captain JM organ would give him no quarter if he did not surrender. Picard, who remembered the former dangerous spots, made his men land about a quarter of a league from the town, and march through the woods in hopes of taking the Spaniards in the rear, in case they should be again entrenched. The enemy received them with quick dis- charges of cannon, but the men cheered each other, saying, " We must make a breakfast of these bitter things ere we sup on the sweetmeats of Gibraltar." They landed early in the morning, and found no more difficulty than at Mara- caibo. The Spaniards, deceived by a stratagem, had ex- pected their approach by the road, and not by the woods. They had no time to throw up entrenchments, and only a few l^arricades, planted with cannon, protected their flight. They remembered Lolonnois ; their hearts became as water, and they fled ere the Buccaneers took peaceable possession of the town. The Spaniards took with them their riches, and all their ammunition, to use at some more convenient season. Morgan, rejoicing in the easy victory, posted his men at the strong points of the town, while a hundred men, under Picard, went out to pursue and bring in prisoners. j They found the guns spiked, and every house sacked by its ' Sm HENrvY MORGAN. 177 owner, mucli spoiled, much carried off, and the heavy and worthless alone left. The only inhabitant remaining in the town was a poor half-witted Spaniard, who had not clearly ascertained what he ought to do. He was so well dressed that they at first took him, much to his delight, for a man of rank, and asked him what had become of all the people of Gibraltar. He replied, "They had been gone a day, but he did not know where ; he had not asked, but he dared say they would soon be back, and for his part he, Pepe, did not ca^re." When they inquired where the sugar-mills were, he replied that he had never seen any in his life. The church money, he knew, was hid in the sacristy of the great church. Taking them there he showed them a large coffer, where he pre- tended to have seen it hid. They opened it and found it empty. To all other inquiries he now answered, '•' I know nothing, I know nothing." Some of the Buccaneers, angry at the disappointment, and vexed at the subtlety of the Spaniards, declared the fellow was more knave than fool, and dragged him to torture. They gave him first the strapado, till he began to wish the people were returned ; they then hung him up for two hours with heavy stones tied to his feet, till his arms were dislocated. At last he cried out, " Do not plague me any more, but come with me and I will show you my goods and my riches." He then led them to a miserable hovel, containing only a few earthen pots and three pieces of eight, wrapped in faded finery, buried under the hearth. He then said his name was Don Sebastian Sanchez, brother of the governor of Maracaibo, that he was worth more than 50,000 crowns, and that he Would write for it and give it up if they would cease to hang and plague him so. They then tortured him again, thinking he was really a grandee in disguise, till he offered, if he was released, to show them a sugar refinery. They had not got a musket-shot from the hut before he fell on his knees and gave himself up as a criminal. " Jesu Maria ! " he cried, " what will you do with me, Englishmen 1 I am a poor man who live on alms, and sleep in the hospital. I know nothing." They then lit palm-leaves and scorched him, and would have burnt off all his clothes had he not been released N 178 SIE HENRY MORGAN. by one of the Buccaneers who now saw he was an idiot. The poor fellow died in great torment in about half an hour, and before he grew cold was dragged into the woods and buried. The following day Picard brought in an old peasant and his two daughters ; the old man, his crippled limbs having been tortured, offered to serve as guide, and lead them to some houses in the suburbs. Half-blind and frightened, he mistook his way, and the Buccaneers, thinking the error intentional, made a slave, who declared he had intentionally misled them^ hang him on a tree by the road side. Slavery here brought its own retribution, for this same slave, burning to avenge some ill-treatment he had received, offered, on being made free, to lead them to many of the Spanish jolaces of refuge. Before evening ten or twelve families, with all their wealth, were brought into Gibraltar. It had now become difficult to track the fugitives, as fathers refused even to trust their children ; no one slept twice in the same spot, for fear that some one who knew of the retreat would be captured, and then, under torture, betray the spot, generally huts in the darkest recesses of the woods, where their goods were stored from the weather. These exiles were, however, obliged to steal at night to their country-houses to obtain food, and then they were intercepted. From some of these merchants Morgan heard that a vessel of 100 tons, and three barges laden with silver and merchandise belonging to Maracaibo, now lay in the river, about six leagues distant, and a hundred men were despatched to secure the prize. In scouring the woods again with a body of two hundred human bloodhounds, Morgan surprised a large body of Spaniards. Some of these he forced the negro guide to kill before the face of the others, in order to im])licate him in the eyes of the survivors. After eight days' search the band returned with 250 j^risoners, and a long train of baggage mules, bound for Merida. The prisoners were each sei)arately examined as to where the treasure was hid. Those who would not confess, and even those who had nothing to confess, were tortured to death — burnt, maimed, or had their life slowly crushed out of them. SIR HENRY MORGAN. 179 Amongst the greatest sufferers in this purgatory on earth was an old Portuguese of venerable appearance, perhaps either a miser or purposely disguised. This man the blood- thirsty negro, now high in favour with the Buccaneers, and trying to rival them in cruelty, declared was very rich. The poor old man, tearing his thin grey hair, swore by the Virgin and all the saints that he had but 100 pieces of eight in the whole world, and these had been stolen, from him a few days before, during the general chaos, by a run- away slave. This he vowed on his knees with tears and prayers, doubly vehement when coming from one already on the grave's brink. The cruel slave still looked sneeringly on, and swore he was known to be the richest merchant in all Gibraltar. The Buccaneers then stretched the Portuguese with cords till both his arms broke at the shoulder, and then bound him by the hands and feet to the four corners of a room, placing upon his loins a stone weighing five cwt., while four men, laughing at his cries, kept the cords that tied him in perpetual motion. This inhuman ])unishment they called " swimming on land." As he still refused to speak, they held fire under him as he swung groaning, burnt off his beard and moustaches, and then left him hanging while they strapadoed another. The next man they threw into a ditch, after having pierced him with many sword- thrusts ; for they seem to have been as insatiable for variety of cruelty as they were for cruelty itself They left him for dead ; but he crawled home, and eventually recovered, although several sword-blades had passed completely through his body. As for the old Portuguese, his sufferings were far from ended. Putting him on a mule, they brought him into Gibraltar, and imprisoned him in the church, binding him to a pillar, apart from the rest, supplying him with food barely sufficient to enable him to endure his tortures. Four or five days having passed, he entreated that a certain fellow- prisoner, whom he named, might be brought to him. This request being complied with, as the first step to obtaining a ransom while he still remained alive, he offered them, through this agent, a sum of 500 pieces of eight. But the Buccaneers N 2 ISO SIR HENSY MORGAN. lauglied at so small a sum, and fell upon him with clubs, crying, " 500,000, old hunks, and not 500, or you shall not live." After several more days of continued suffering, during which he incessantly protested that he was a poor man, and kept a small tavern, the raiser confessed that he had a store of 2,000 i)ieces of eight buried in an earthen jar ; and all these, bruised and mutilated as he was, and much as he loved money, he gave for his liberty, and a few days more of painful life. IJjion the other prisoners, without regard to age, sex, or rank, they inflicted tortures too disgusting and shocking to mention. Fear, hatred, and avarice generated crimes, till the prisoners grew as vile as their persecutors. A slave, who had been cruelly treated by his master, per- suaded the Buccaneers to torture him on the plea that he was very rich, although he was in reality a man of no wealth. The other prisoners, roused from the selfishness of self-preservation by a thrill of involuntary compassion, told Morgan that the Spaniard was a poor man, and that the slave had perjured himself to obtain revenge. Morgan released the Spaniard directly ; but he had been already tortured. The slave was given up to his master to be punished by any sort of death he chose to inflict. Handed over to the Buccaneers, he was chopped to })ieces in his master's presence, still exulting in his revenge. *' This," says CExmelin, with a cold naivete, " satisfait I'Espagnol, quoyqu'il fast fort mal traite, et en danger d'estre estropie " (this satisfied the Spaniard, though he had been very badly treated, and almost lamed for life). Some of the prisoners were crucified ; others were burnt with matches tied between their toes or fingers ; many had their feet forced into the lires till they dro[)ped from the leg black and charred. All that the Indians had suffered was now retaliated on the Spaniards. The Buccaneers themselves considered the l»unishment a vengeance of Providence. The only mercy ever shown to a Spaniard was to end his sufferings by death. The coup de grace was a kindness when it ended the misery of a groaning wretch, bruised and burnt, lying in the hot sun, half mortified, or with his body already paralyzed four or five days since. The masters being all tortured, the sill HENRY MORGAN. 181 slaves next received the strapado. These men, weaker ill tlieir moral nature, and with no motive for concealment but fear, told everything. Many of the hiding-places v/ere, however, not known to them. One of them, during the fever of his wound, declared he knew where the governor of the town was secreted, with many of the ladies of Gibraltar, and a large portion of the treasure. Threats of death revealed the rest ; and he confessed that a ship and four boats, laden with Maracaibo wealth, lay in a river of the lake. The Buccaneers were instantly on their feet. Morgan, with 200 men and the slave guide, set out to capture the governor ; and 100 others, in two large settees (boats), sallied out to capture the treasure and the ships. The governor was not easily caught, for it needed a battalion of balloons to surprise him. His first retreat was a fort thrown up in the centre of a small island in the river, two days' march •distant. Hearing that Morgan was coming in force, he retreated to the top of an adjoining mountain, into which there was but one ascent, so straight, narrow, and perilous, that it could only be mounted in single file. The expedition altogether broke down ; the rock proved inaccessible to any but eagles ; a "huge rain" wetted their baggage and ammunition. In fording a river swollen by this " huge rain," many of their female prisoners were lost, and, wdiat they valued more, several mules laden with plate were whirled down the torrents. Many of the women and children sank under the fatigue, and some escaped. Involved in a marshy country, up to their middles in water, the Buc- caneers had to toil on for miles. A few lost their lives, others their arms (the means of preserving them). A body of fifty determined men, the Buccaneer historian himself says, could have destroyed the v/hole body. But the Spaniards were already so paralyzed by fear, that they fled at the very rustle of a leaf. Twelve days v/ere spent in this dangerous and useless expedition. Two days after them arrived their comrades, who had been somewhat more suc- cessful. The Spaniards had unloaded the vessels, and were beginning to burn them when they arrived ; but many bales were left in the haste of flight ; and the boats, full of plunder, were brought away in tow. 182 SIR HENRY MORGAN. Morcfan had now been lord in Gibraltar for five whole weeks, practising all insolences that a conqueror ever inflicts on the conquered ; revenging on them the sufferings of the conquest, and trampling them under foot for the very pleasure of destruction. Provisions now failing, he resolved to depart ; the provisions of Gibraltar, except the fruits, coming entirely from Maracaibo, were delayed and intercepted, lie first sent some prisoners into the woods to collect a ransom from the fugitives, under pain of again burning down their newly rebuilt city. He demanded 5,000 pieces. They promised to pay it in eight days, and gave four of their richest citizens as hostages. The governor, safe from all danger himself, had, however, forbidden them to pay any ransom ; and they prayed Morgan to have patience. Setting sail with his hostages, he arrived in three days at Maracaibo, afraid that during his long absence the Spaniards had fortified themselves, and he should have to fight his way through the passes. Before his departure he released all his prisoners who had paid ransom, but detained the slaves. He refused particularly to give up the treacherous negro, because he knew the planters would burn him alive. The only inmate of all the rich palaces and wide squares of Maracaibo was a poor sick man, who informed him (Mor- gan), to his astonishment, that three Spanish men-of-war had arrived at the bar, and had repaired and garrisoned the fort. Their commander was Don Alonso del Campo d'Espinosa, the vice-admiral of the Indian fleet, who had been despatched to those seas to protect the S])anish colonists, and put to the sword every adventurer he could meet. This news did not alarm those who every day " set their lives u})on the hazard of a die ;" but it enraged men who thought themselves secure of their plunder, and which they now might have to throw off to lighten them in their retreat. Morgan instantly despatched his swiftest vessel to reconnoitre the bar. The men returned next day, assuring him that the story was too true, and they were in very imminent danger. They had approached so near as to be in peril of the shot. The biggest ship mounted forty guns, the next thirty, and the smallest twenty, while Morgan's flag-ship had only fourteen. They had seen the castled flag of Castile waving ou the redoubt. SIR HEXEY MORGAN. 183 There was no means of escape by sea or land; and all were in despair at sucli enemies so placed. Morgan, undaunted and roused to new courage by the extremity, grew more full of audacity than ever. He at once sent a flag of truce to the Magdalene, the Spanish admiral's vessel, demanding 20,000 pieces of eight, or he should set Maracaibo in flames. The admiral, amused and astonished at such temerity, wrote back to say, that hearing that they had committed hostilities in the dominions of His Catholic Majesty, his sovereign lord and master, he had come to dispute their passage out of the lake, from that castle, which they had taken out of the hands of a parcel of cowards, and he intended to follow and pursue them every- where, as was his duty. The letter continued : " Notwith- standing if you be contented to surrender with humility all you have taken, together with the slaves and other prisoners, I will let you pass freely without trouble or molestation, on condition tliat you retire home presently to your own country. But if you make any resistance or opposition to what I offer you, I assure you I will command boats to come from the Caraccas, wherein I will put my troops, and, coming to Maracaibo, will put you every man to the sword. This is my last and absolute resolution ; be prudent, there- fore, and do not abuse my bounty with ingratitude. I have with me very good soldiers, who desire nothing more .ardently than to revenge on you and your people all the cruelties and base infamous actions vou have committed upon the Spanish nation in America." This vapouring letter Morgan read aloud to his men in the broad market-place at Maracaibo, first in French and then in English, begging their advice on the whole matter — asking them whether they would surrender everything for liberty, or fight for both liberty and hard- won treasure. They all answered unanimously, they did not care for the ■Spanish brag, and they would rather figlit to the last drop of their blood than surrender booty got with such peril. One of the men stepping forward, cried, " You take care of the rest, I'll build a hriilot, and with twelve men will burn the biggest of the three Spaniards." The scheme was adopted, but resolved once more to try / 184 SIR HENRY MORGAN. negotiation, now that he was prepared for the worst, Mor- gan wrote again to Don Alonso, offering to leave Maracaibo uninjured, surrender all the prisoners, half the slaves, and to give up the hostages. The Don, trusting in his superior strength, and believing Morgan fairly intimidated or at least entirely in his mercy, refused to listen to any terms but those he had proposed, adding, that in two days he should come and force him to yield. Morgan resolved upon this to fight his way out and surrender nothing, his men, though discouraged, being still brave and desperate. All things were put in order to fight. The Englishman of Morgan's crew proceeded as fast as possible with his hrulotf or fire-ship. He took the small vessel captured in the Riviere des Espines, filling it full of palm-leaves dipped in tar, and a mixture of brimstone and gunpowder. He put several pounds of powder under each of the ten sham guns, which were formed of negro drums. The partitions of the cabins were then broken down, so that the flame miaht spread unimpeded. The crew were wooden posts, dressed up with swords, muskets, bandoliers, and hats or montero caps. This fire-ship bore the English colours, so that it might pass for Morgan's vessel ; and in eight days, by all hands working upon it, it was ready. During the prepara- tion an extra guard was kept upon the prisoners, for even one escaping would have destroyed all their hopes of safety. The male prisoners were kept in one boat, and the females^ slaves, plate, and jewels in another. In others, guarded by twelve men each, came the merchandise. The hrulot was to go first and grapple with the admiral's ship. All things being now completed, Morgan, with a heart as gay as if he fought for God and the right, made his men take the usual Buccaneer oath, employed on all occasions of pressing danger, when mutual confidence was peculiarly necessary. They vowed to fight till death, and neither to give nor take quarter. He promised a reward to all who distinguished themselves, exciting all the strongest feelings of their nature — revenge, avarice, and self-pre- servation. With these desperate resolves, full of hope, for they were accustomed to consider his promises of victory as certain. SIR HENRY MORGAN. IS-J prophecies, they set sail on the 30th day of April, 1G69, to seek the Spaniards. They found the Spanish fleet riding at anchor in the middle of the entry of the lake, like gaolers of their spacious prison. It being late and almost dark, JNIorgan gave orders to anchor within range of the enemy, determined to resist if attacked, but to wait for light. They kept a strict watch, and at daybreak lifted anchor and set sail, bearing down straight upon the Spaniards, who seeing them move, ad- vanced to meet them. Poor fishing boats the Buccaneer's barques seemed beneath those proud floabing castles ; '• but the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." The hrulot sailed first, pushing on to the admiral's vessel, which lay stately between its two companions, and was suffered to approach within cannon shot. The Spaniards believing that it was Morgan's vessel, and intended to board them, waited till it came closer to crush it with a broadside. They little thought that they were fighting with the elements. The fire-ship on a sudden fell uj)on the Spaniard, and clung to its sides like a wild cat on an elephant. Too late the Spaniard attempted to push her oft", but the flames had ah'eady leaped from their lurking places ; first the sails were swathed in fire, then the tackling shrivelled up, and soon the solid timbers burst into a blaze. The stern wa,s first consumed, and the fore part sank hissing into the sea. The wretched crew, flying from one element to the other, perished, some by fire, some by water ; the half-drowning clung to the burning planks and withered in the glare ; the burning sailors were sucked down by the vortex of the sinking wreck. Don Alonso, seeing the danger, called out to them in vain to cut down the masts, and throwing him- self with difficulty into his sloop, escaped to land. The sailors, refusing quarter, were allowed to perish by the Buc- caneers' boats' crews, who at first oftered to save them. Perhaps the recollection of their oath lessened their ex- ertions. The boats were pulling round the burning vessel in hopes of saving plunder, and not of saving lives. The second vessel was boarded by the Buccaneers and taken^ in the 1S6 SIR HENRY MORGAN. confusion, almost without resistance. The third ship, cutting its cables, drifted towards the fort, and there ran ashore, the crew setting fire to her to prevent capture. The Buccaneers, proud of their victory, determined to push it to extremities by landing and attempting to storm the fort at the bar, without ladders, and relying only on their hand grenades, but their artillery was too small to make any practicalile breach. The fort they found well supplied with men, cannon, and ammunition. The garrison had not suf- fered personally by the loss of a fleet manned by strangers, and they repulsed all attacks. Unwilling to retire, Morgan spent the whole of the day till dusk in firing muskets at any defenders who showed themselves above the walls, and at dusk lit them up with a shower of fireballs, but the Span- iards desperately resisted, and shot so furiously at them as to drive them back to the ships, with the loss of thirty killed and as many wounded — more loss than they had suffered in the capture of Maracaibo and Gibraltar, while the fleet had been destroyed without the loss of a single man. The gar- rison, expecting a fresh attack at daybreak, laboured all night to strengthen their works, levelling the ground towards the sea, and throwing up entrenchments from spots that commanded the castle. The next day Morgan, not intending to renew the attack, employed himself in saving the Spanish sailors who were still floating on charred pieces of the wreck ; not rescuing them from mercy, but in order to make them help in re- covering part of the sunk treasure. They acknowledged that Don Alonso had compelled them before the engage- ment, after they had confessed to the chaplain, to come and take an oath to give the enemy no quarter, which was the reason many had refused to be saved. The pilot of the smaller vessel being saved, and promised his life, disclosed all Don Alonso's plans. He had been sent, upon the tidings of the loss of Porto Bello, by direction of the supreme council of state, with orders to I'oot out the English pirates in those parts, and to destroy as many as he could, for dismal lamentations had been made to the court of Spain, to the Catholic king, to whom belonged the care and preservation of the New AVorld, of the damages and SIR HENRY MORGAX. 1S7 hostilities committed by the English, and he had resolved to punish these proceedings and avenge his subjects. The king of England being complained to, constantly replied that he never gave any letters-patent to such men or such ships. Sending home his more cumbrous ships, the Don had heard at St. Domingo of the fleet sailing from Jamaica, and a pri- soner, taken at Alta Grecia, disclosed Morgan's plan on the Garaccas. On arriving there the wild Are had already broken out at Maracaibo a second time, and hither he came to extinguish it. A negro slave had indeed informed the admiral of the fire-ship, but with short-sighted pride he de- rided the idea, saying that the English had had neither wit, tools, nor time to build it. The pilot who made these disclosures was rewarded by Morgan, and, yielding to his promises, entered into his ser- vice. He informed him, with the usual zeal of a deserter, that there was plate to the value of 40,000 pieces of eight in the sunken sliip, for he had seen it brought on board in boats. The divers eventually recovered 2,000 pounds' worth of it, some " in plate " and others in piastres, that had melted into large lum]^s, together with many silver hilts of swords and other valuables. Leaving a vessel to superintend this profitable fishery, Morgan hurried back to Maracaibo, and, fitting up his largest prize for himself, gave his own ship to a companion. He also sent to the governor, now somewhat crest-fallen, to re-demand the ransom, threatening more violently than be- fore to Ijurn down the city in eight days if it was not brought in. He also demanded, in addition, 500 cows as victual for his fleet. These were brought in in the short space of two days, with part of the money, and eleven more days were spent in salting the meat and preparing for sea. Then returning to the mouth of the lake, he sent to Don Alonso to demand a free passage, offering to send all the prisoners on shore as soon as he had once passed out, but- otherwise to tie the prisoners to the rigging, exposing them to the shot of the fort, and then to kill and throw overboard those who were not struck. The prisoners also sent a petition, praying the governor to spare their lives. But the Don, quite undaunted, sternly answered to the hostages, 188 SIR HENRY MORGAN. who besouglit liim on tlieir knees to save them from the sword and rope, " If you had been as loyal to your king in hindering the entry of these pirates as I shall be in hinder- ing their going out, you had never caused these troubles, either to yourselves or to our whole nation, which hath suf- fered so much through your pusillanimity. I shall not grant your request, but shall endeavour to maintain that respect which is due to ray king, according to my duty." When the terrified messengers returned and told JMorgan, he replied, " If Alonso will not let me pass, I will find out a way without him," resolving to use either force or strata- gem, and perhaps both. Fearing that a storm might separate his fleet, or that some might not succeed in escaping, Morgan divided the booty before he attempted to pass the bar. Having ail taken the the usual oath, he found they had collected 250,000 pieces of eight, including money and jewels, and in addition a vast bulk of merchandize and many slaves. Eight days were spent in this division, which took place within sight of the exasperated garrison in the fort. The followinof stratafjem was then resorted to. Knowing that the S})aniards were expecting a final and desperate attack on the day before their departure, the Buccaneers made great show of preparing to land and attack the fort. Part of each ship's crew embarked with their colours in their canoes, which were instantly rowed to shore. Here the men, concealed by the boughs on the banks, lay down flat in their boats, and were rowed back again to their ves- sels by only two or three sailors. This feigned landing they repeated several times in the day. The tS{)aniards, certain of an escalade, at night brought down the great eighteen pound ship guns of the fort to the side of the island looking towards the land, and left the sea-shore almost defenceless. When night came Morgan weighed anchor, and, by moon- light setting sail, at the commencement of the ebb tide, dropped gently down the river, till the vessels were almost alongside of the castle. Then spreading sails, quick as magic, he drove past, firmly but warily. Every precaution was taken. The crew were couched flat on the poop, and some placed below to plug the shot-holes as they came. The SIR HENRY moega:\*. 189 Spaniards, astonished at tlieir daring, and enraged at their escape, ran with all speed and shifted their battery, firing hastily, furiously, and with little certainty ; but by this time, a favourable wind springing up, the Buccaneers were almost out of reach, with few men killed, and little damage done. In this manner escaped Morgan from the clutches of Don Alonso, who had thought himself sure of his prey. The baffled rage of the Spaniards and the wild joy of the Buc- caneers, their clamorous approval of Morgan's skill, the ex- ultation of their triumph, and the prisoners' dismay, may be easily imagined. Generous in success, Morgan, once out of range of the guns that thundered in pursuit, sent a canoe on shore with his prisoners from Maracaibo, but those of Gibraltar he carried off, as they had not yet paid their ran- som. The joy of one and the grief of the other, their parting and the tears, were painful to witness. As he set sail, and the fort was still looming to the right, Morgan dis- charged a farewell salute of eight guns, to which the chap- fallen Spaniards had not the heart to return even a single musket shot. But out of Scylla into Charybdis was a Buccaneer's fate : one danger was succeeded by another, hope by hope, despair by despair. The very day of their escape the judgment of Heaven seemed to overtake the sea-rovers, as if to warn them that no stratagem could defeat God. The fleet was surprised by such a tempest that they were compelled to anchor in five or six fathom water. The storm increased, they were obliged to weigh again, and at any risk keep off the land. Their only choice seemed to be death by the Spaniard, the Indian, or the wave — all equally hostile and deaf to mercy. Q^xmelin says he was on board the least seaworthy vessel of the whole fleet, that, having lost anchors and mainsail, they had great difficulty in keeping afloat, and were obliged to bale as well as work night and day at the pumps, amid deafening thunder and mountainous seas that threatened to drown them even while the vessel still floated. The ship, but for the ropes that held it together, would have instantly sunk. The lightning and the wave disputed for their prey, but the rude arbiter, the wind, came in and snatched them 190 sm henhy morgan. from these destroyers. " Indeed," says CExmelin, " though worn out with fatigue and toil, we could not make up our minds to close our eyes on that blessed light which we might so soon lose sight of for ever, for no hope of safety now re- mained. The storm had lasted four days, and there was no probability of its termination. On one side we saw rocks on which our vessel threatened every instant to drive, on the other were Indians who would no more have spared us than the Spaniards who were behind us ; and by some evil fortune the wind drove us ceaselessly towards the rocks and the Indians, and away from the place whither we desired to go." In the midst of these distresses, six armed vessels gave them chase through the storm when they were near the bay of Venezuela. They turned out to be vessels of the Count d'Estrees, the French admiral, who generously ren- dered them aid, and the wind abating enabled them to reach the shore. Morgan and some others made for Jamaica, and the French for St. Domingo, — the Spaniards at the fort probably believing they had perished in the gale. The laggers of Morgan's fleet, who had never joined him, were less fortunate than the admiral they deserted. Four hundred in number, they landed at Savona, but could not find the buried letter. They determined to attack the town of Comana, on the Caraccas, choosing Captain Hansel, who had distinguished himself at Porto Bello, as their commander. This town was distant sixty leagues from Trinidad. On landing they killed a few Indians who awaited them on the beach, but the Spaniards, disputing briskly the entry of the town, drove them back at last to their ships with great loss and confusion. On returning to Jamaica they were jeered at by Morgan's men, who used to say, " Let us see what sort of money you brought from Comana, and if it be as good as that which we won at Maracaibo." Morgan, encouraged by success, soon determined on fresh enterprises. On arriving at Jamaica, ''he found many of his officers and soldiers already reduced to their former indigency by their vices and debaucheries. Hence they perpetually importuned him for new exploits, thereby to get something to exjiend still in wine and strumpets, as they SIR HENRY MORGAN. 191 had already done what they got before. Captain Morgan, willing to follow fortune's call, stopped the mouths of many inhabitants of Jamaica who were creditors to his men for large sums, with the hopes and promises of greater achieve- ments than ever in a new expedition. This done, he could easily levy men for any enterprise, his name being so famous through all these islands, as that alone would readily bring him in more men than he could v/ell employ." Affecting a mystery, attractive in itself, and necessary where Spanish spies might be present, Morgan aj)poiuted a rendezvous at Port Couillon, on the south side of Hispaniola, and made known his intentions to the English and French adventurers, whether in Tortuga or St. Domingo. He wrote letters to all the planters and old Buccaneers in Hispaniola, and desired their attendance at a common council. At many a hunting fire this announcement was read, and many an engages heart beat high at the news, for Morgan was now the champion and hero of all the Buccaneers of America, Great numbers flocked to the port in sliips and canoes, others traversed the woods and arrived there by land, through a thousand dangers. Such crowds came that it soon became difiicult to obtain a place in the crev/s. Vessels and provisions were now all that was wanted. Plunder was certain, and they had but to choose on what rich coast they should land. The French adventurers, ever gay and ready, were first in the field. Morgan himself, punctual and prompt, followed in the Flying Stag, the St. Malo vessel we have before mentioned, earring forty-two guns. The vessel had been lately confiscated and sold by the governor of Jamaica, the unfortunate captain escaping with his life, happy in being free although penniless. At the rendezvous on the 24th dav of October, 1670, 1600 men were present, and twenty-four vessels assembled at the muster, amid shouting, gun-firing, flag-waving, and great joy and hope. Morgan's proposition was to attack some rich place which was well defended — the more danger the more booty, for it was only rich places that the Spaniards cared to defend. Several previous expeditions had failed from want of provisions, and the necessity of attacking small places to obtain food gave the alarm to the Spaniards 192 SIR HENRY MORGAN. and frustrated their plans. They therefore resolved to visit La Ptancheria; a small place on the banks of the Kiver de la Hache, on the mainland, with four vessels and 400 men. This was a place where corn and maize were brought by the farmers for the supply of the neighbouring city of Cartha- gena, and they hoped to capture in the port some pearl vessels from that place. In the meanwhile, Morgan, not caring for lesser prey, employed his men in careening, cleaning, rigging, and pitch- ing their vessels ready for sea, that all might be ready to weigh anchor the moment the expedition of foragers returned. It augured terribly to the Spaniard that it was necessary to sack a town or two before the Buccaneer fleet could even set sail. Part of the men were in the woods boar-hunting, and others salting the flesh for the voyage. Each crew had a certain part of the woods allotted it for its own district, so perfect v/as Morgan's discipline. Each party prepared the salt pork for its own use, while the caldrons of pitch were smoking on the beach, and the clank of the shipwrights' hammers could be heard all niijht bv the hunters. The English, who were not so expert in hunting as their Gallic brethren (so says a French writer), generally took a French hunter with them, to whom they gave 150 or 200 piastres. Some of these men had trained packs of dogs that would kill enough boars in a day to load twenty or thirty men. The Eancheria expedition arrived in six days within sight of the river, and was unfortunately becalmed for some time within a gunshot of land, this gave the Spaniards time to prepare for their defence, and either to bury their goods or throw u}) entrenchments, for these repeated visits of the Buccaneers had rendered them quick on such occasions. A land-wind at last springing up, gave a corn vessel from Carthagena, lying in the river, an opportunity to sally out and attempt its escape, but being a bad sailer it was soon captured, much to the Englishmen's delight, for corn was the object of their visit. By a singular coincidence, it turned out to be that very cocoa vessel which Lolonnois sold to the governor of Tortuga, Avho, on his return from France, had sold it to Cajitain Champaigne, a French adventurer, who in SIR HENRY MORGAN. 193 his turn sold it to the same merchant captain who then com- manded it. He told the Buccaneers that it made the twelfth vessel taken from him by the brotherhood of the coast in five years only, and yet that, with all these losses, he had contrived to make a fortune of 500,000 crowns. "On pent juger par la," says CExmelin, with a shrug, " s'il y a des geus riches dans rA.merique." Landing at daybreak, in spite of the mowing fire from a battery, and under protection of their own cannon, they drove the Spaniards back to their strongly fortified village, which they at once attacked. Here the enemy rallied and fought desperately, hand-to-hand, sword blow and pusli of pike, from ten in the morning till night, when they fled, having suffered great loss, into secret places in the woods. The Buccaneers, who had suffered scarcely less loss, pushed on at once headlong to the town, which they found deserted; and next day pursuing the Spaniards, took many prisoners, and proceeded to torture them, inflicting on fear and inno- cence all the horrors of the Madrid inquisition. In fifteen days they captured many prisoners and much booty, and with the usual threats of destroying the town, they obtained 4,000 hanegs, or bushels of maize, sufficient for the whole of the fleet. They preferred this to money, and in three days, the whole quantity being brought in by the people, eager for their departure, they at once sailed. Morgan, alarmed at their five weeks' absence, had begun to despair of their return, thinking Bancheria must have been relieved from Carthagena or Santa Maria. He also thought that they might have had good fortune, and deserted him to return to Jamaica. His joy was great to see them arrive laden with corn, and more in number than when they departed. A council of war was actually holding to plan a new expedition, when Captain Bradley and his six vessels hove in sight. The maize was divided among the fleet, but the plunder was awarded to the captain who had risked his life for the general good. The captured ship arrived very opportunely, and it was instantly awarded by general consent to Le Gascon, a French adventurer, who had lately lost his vessel. Morgan, having divided the meat and corn, and personally inspected every o 194 SIR HENRY MORGAN. bark, set sail for Cape Tiburon, at the west end of His- paiiiola, a spot convenient lor laying in stores of wood and water. Here he was joined by several ships from New England, refitted at Jamaica. Morgan now found himself suzerain of a fleet of thirty-seven vessels, large and small, carrying sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, even down to four pound guns. To man these there were 2,200 sailors, well armed and ready for fight and plunder. The fleet was divided into two squadrons, under his vice-admiral and sub- ordinate officers. To the captains he gave letters-patent, guaranteeing them from all the eflects of Spanish hostility, from " the open and declared enemies of the king his master " (Charles II.). The charter-party, which we give elsewhere, was then signed ; the rewards were higher than usual, and many modifications were introduced. In the jjrivate council three places proposed as rich and accessible — Panama, Car- thagena, and Vera Cruz. In these consultations the only thing considered was whether a town was rich or poor, not whether it was well or ill defended. " The lot fell" on Panama, as the richest of the three, though the least known to them, being further from the North Pacific than any Buccaneer had yet gone. Panama was the galleon port, and the El Dorado of the adventurers' yarns. Being so unknown a place, they determined to first recapture St. Catherine's, where in the prisons they might obtain many guides, who had seen both the North and South Pacifies, for outlaws made, they found, the best guides for outlaws ; and they agreed before sailing that, if they took a Spanish vessel, the first captain who boarded it should have for his reward a tenth part of lier cargo. They had begun by sacking a town to victual their fleet, they now proposed to storm a fort to obtain a guide — St. Catherine's stone batteries, if resolutely manned, being able to beat off three such wooden fleets. The admiral, it was agreed, should have a share for every hundred men, and every captain eight shares if the vessel they took was large. The crews then one by one took the oath of fidelity. On the 18th December, 1670, the fleet set sail for St. Catherine's, whose prisoners would rejoice at their arrival. SIR HENRY MORGAN. 195 The one squadron carried the royal English and the other a white flas:. The admiral's division bore a red banner with a white cross, " Le pavilion du parlement,' and at the bow- sprit one of three colours, blue, white, and red. Those of the other divisions carried a white and red flag. Morgan also appointed peculiar signals for all emergencies. On their way to St. Catherine's they chased two Dutch vessels from Cuba, which escaped by aid of contrary winds that baffled their pursuers. In four days the fleet arrived at St. Catherine's, and Morgan despatched two small vessels to guard the port. The next day, before sunrise, they an- chored in the bay of Aguada Grande, where the Spaniards had erected a four-gun battery. Morgan, at the head of 100 men, landed and made his way through the woods, having no guides but some old Buccaneers, who had been there before with Mansvelt. On arriving that night at the governor's house and the Platform Battery, they found the Spaniards had retreated by a bridge into the smaller and almost impregnable island, which they had made strong enough to beat off 10,000 men. Being driven back at first by a tremendous fire, Morgan was obliged to encamp that night in the woods or open country — no hardship to hunters or sailors in fine weather. There still remained a whole league of dense brush betv>-een them and their enemies, at once their protection and destruction. A chilling torrent of rain began to beat upon them, and instead of ceasing, as they had hoped, lasted till noon of the next day. They pulled down two or three thatched huts, and made small damp fires, that scorched a few, but warmed none. They could not shelter themselves, and, what was worse, could not keep their arms and powder dry. But more than this, they suftered from hunger, having had no food for a whole day. The men for the greater part being dressed with no clothes but a seaman's shirt and trowsers, and without shoes or stockings, suffered dreadfully after the burning of a tropic noon from this freezing cold and rain. One hundred men, says Esquemeling, even indifferently well armed, might have cut them all to pieces. At daybreak they were roused from their shivering sleep by the Spanish drums beating the diane, or reveille. The rain had now ceased, and their o 2 196 SIR HENRY MORGAN". courage rose as higli as ever. But they could not answer this challenge, for their own drums were loose and soaked with wet, and they had now to employ themselves in quickly drying their arms. Scarcely had they done this, when it began to cloud over and rain with increased fury, as if the " sky were melting into waters," which blinded them and prevented them again from advancing to the attack. Many of them grew faint-hearted, and talked of returning. The men were now feeble for want of sleep, and faint with cold and hunger. The eager foragers found in a field " an old horse, lean, and full of scabs and blotches, with galled back and sides." This was instantly killed and flayed, and divided in small pieces among as many as could get any, and eagerly eaten without salt or bread by the few lucky e])icures — " eaten," says the historian, " more like ravenous wolves eat than men." The rain still gushing down, and the men, worn out in mind and body, growing angry, discontented, and clamorous, it became necessary for Morgan to act with promptitude. About noon, to his great joy, the rain ceased and the sun broke out. Taking advantage of this lull — for the rain had barred even their retreat — Morgan ordered a canoe to be rigged out in great haste, and despatched four men with a white flag to the Spanish governor, declaring, that if they did not all surrender, he would put them to the sword without quarter. His audacity was luckily crowned with success. Op])osed armies are often men mutually afraid, trying to frighten each other. The governor was intimidated. He demanded two hours to confer with his oflGicers. At the end of this time, on Morgan giving hostages, two soldiers with white flags were sent to arrange terms. The governor had decided in full conference that he could not defend the island a^-^ainst such an armada, but he proposed a certain (Dalgetty- like) stratagem of war to save his own head, and preserve the reputation of his officers at home and abroad. Morgan was to come at night and assault the fort of St. Jerome, which stood near the bridge that joined the two islands, and at the same moment his fleet was to attack the castle of ^anta Teresa by sea, and land troops near the bat- tery of St. Matthew. These men were to intercept and take prisoner the governor as he made his way to the St. Jerome SIR HENRY MORGAN. 197 batteries. He would then at once lead them to the castle, as if they were his own men. On both sides there was to be continual firing, but only v/ith powder and no bullets. The forts thus taken, the island would of course surrender. This well-arranged performance took place with great eclat. Morgan, in acceding to the terms, had insisted on. their strict performance of every item, and gave notice, for fear of ambush, that every straggling Spaniard would be shot. Afraid of a stratagem, some Buccaneers loaded their muskets with ball, and held themselves ready for any danger. "With much smoke and great consumption of powder, the unsuspecting Spaniards were driven iike sheep into the church, the island surrendered, and by this bloodless artifice Spanish pride remained unhurt. But a cruel massacre now commenced. The Buccaneers had eaten nothing for nearly two days. They made war upon all the poultry and cattle — the oldest cow was slain, the toughest rooster strangled. For several days the island was lit up with huge fires, round which the men roasted their meat, and revelled and caroused. When wood grew scarce they pulled down cottages to light their fires, and, having no wine, very wisely made use of water. The day after the surrender they numbered their prisoners, and found they had collected 450 souls — seventy of the garrison, forty-three children, and thirty-one slaves. The men were all carefully disarmed, and sent to the plantations to bring in provisions ; the women were left in the church to pray and weep. They next inspected all the ten batteries, wondering at their strength, and exulting in their victory. In the magazine they found 30,000 pounds of powder, which they at once shipped, with all the other ammunition. In the St. Jerome battery Morgan left a guard, but in all the other forts the guns were spiked and the gun-carriages burnt. The object of his visit was still to seek. Examining the prisoners, who were now crowded in with merchants and grandees, he inquired for banditti from Panama, and three slaves stepped forward who knew every path and avenue to the city. These men he chose as guides, promising them a full Buccaneer's share of the spoil if they brought him by a 198 SIR HENRY MORGAN. secure way to the city, and, in addition, their liberty when they reached Jamaica. Tliese vohmteers consisted of two Indians and a mulatto. The former denied all knowledge of the place ; the latter — a " rogue, thief, and assassin, who had deserved breaking on the wheel rather than mere gamson service" — readily accepted Morgan's propositions, and pro- mised to serve him faithfully. He had a great ascendancy over the two Indians, and domineered over them as he pleased, without their daring to disobey a half-blood already on the point of preferment. The next step to Panama was to capture Chagres and its castle, and Morgan a,t once despatched five vessels, well equipped, with 400 men on board, to undertake this expe- dition, remaining himself at St. Catherine's, lest the people of Panama should be alarmed. Pie was to follow his van-guard in eight days, guided by the Indians, who knew Chagres. This time he and his men prudently spent in pulling manioc roots for cassava, and digging potatoes for the voyage. The Ciiagres expedition was led by the same Captain Brad- ley who commanded at Ptancheria. He had been with Mansvelt formerly, and had rendered himself famous by his exploits both among the Buccaneers and the S[)aniards. He arrived in three days at Chagres, opposite Port St. Law- rence, which was built on a mountain commanding the en- trance of the river. As soon as the Spaniards saw the red flag spreading from his vessels, they displayed the royal colours of Spain, and saluted him with a volley too hasty and angry to be very destructive. The Buccaneers, according to their usual stratagem, landed at Narangui, a place a quarter of a league distant from the castle, their guide leading them through thick woods, through which they had to cut a path v/itli their sabres. It was early morning when they landed, and requiring half a day to perform the short distance, they' did not reach a hill commandinij the castle till two o'clock. The mire and dirt of the road combined with the darkness of the way to lengthen their march. The guides served them well, but brought them at one spot so near to the castle, and in so open and bare a place, that they lost many •men by the shot. In other parts the wood was so thick that they could only tell that they were near the castle by SIR HENRY MORGAN. 199 the discharge of the cannon. The hill they had now reached was not within musket range, and they were thus deprived of the use of their favourite weapon. Could they have dragged cannon so far, they might have taken the place without losing a man. The castle of Chaofres was built on a his^h mountain at the entry of a river, and surrounded by strong wooden palisadoes banked with earth. The top of the mountain was divided into two parts, between which ran a ditch thirty feet deep ; the tower had but one entrance ; by a drawbridge towards the land it had four bastions, and towards the sea two more. The south wall was inaccessible crag, the north was moated by the broad river. At the foot of the hill lay a strong fort with eight guns, which commanded the river's mouth ; a little lower down were two other batteries, each of six guns, all jiointing tlie same way. At another side were two great store- houses, full of goods, brought from the inland, and near these a flight of steps, cut in the rock, led to the castle of the summit. On the west side was a small port not more than seven or eight fathoms deep, with good anchorage for small vessels, and before the hill a great rock rose from the waves, which almost covered it at low water. The place appeared such a perfect volcano of fire, and so threatening and dangerous, that the Buccaneers, but for fear of Morgan's rage and contempt, would have at once turned back. After many disputes, and much doubt and perplexity, they resolved to hazard the assault and risk their lives. When they descended from their hill into the plain, they had to throw themselves on their faces to escape the desolating shower of balls j but their marksmen, quite un- covered and without defence, shot at the Spanish gunners through the loops of the palisading, and killed all who showed themselves. This skirmishing continued till the evening, when the Buccaneers, who had lost many men, their commander having his leg broken with a cannon shot, began to waver and to think of retiring, having in vain tried to burn down the place with their fire-balls, and charged up to the very walls, which they tried in vain to climb, sword in hand. AYhen the Spaniards saw them drawing back through the dusk in some disorder, carrying their wounded men and 200 SIR HENRY MORGAN. gnashing tlieir teeth in rage at the dark lines of defence, they shouted out, " Come on, you dogs of heretics ; come on, you English devils : you shan't get to Panama this bout, for we'll serve your comrades as we have served you." The Buc- caneers, astonished at their cries, now for the first time learnt that Morgan's expedition had been heard of at Panama. Night had already begun, and the rain of bullets, shot, and Indian arrows (more deadly almost than the bullets), harassing and well-aimed, continued as grievous as by day. Taking advantage of the gloom, another party advanced to the palisadoes ; the light of tlieir burning fuses directed the aim of the Spaniards. A singular accident of war gave the place, so briskly de- fended, into the hands of the assailants. A party of the French musketeers were talking together, devising a plan of advance, when a swift Indian arrow fell among them and pierced one of the speakers in the shoulder (Esquemeling says in the back and right through the body, another writer says in the eye). A thought struck the wounded man, for the wound had spurred his imagination : coolly drawing the point from his shoulder, he said to those near him : " At- tendez, mes freres, je m'en vais faire perir tous les Espagnols — tous — avec cette sacree fleche" (Wait a bit, my mates, I'll kill all the Spaniards — all — with this d arrow) ; so saying, he drew from his pocket a handful of wild cotton, which the Buccaneers kept as lint to stanch their wounds, and wound it round the dart ; then putting it in his loaded musket, from which he extracted the ball, he fired it back at the castle roof It alighted on some dry thatch, which in a moment began to smoke, and in another second broke into a bright flame, more visible for the darkness. The Buccaneers shouted and pushed on to the attack, and the wounded men forgot their wounds. Some of the men, seeing the result of the experiment, gathered up the Indian arrows that lay thick around them, and fired them into the place. Many houses were soon in flames. The Spaniards, busy with the defence, did not see the fire until it had gained some head, and reaching a parcel of powder blown it up and caused ruin and cousternatiou within the fort. If SIR HENRY MORGAN. 201 they left tlie walls, the Buccaneers gained ground ; if they left the fire, the flames spread more terribly than before ; the want of sufficient water increased the confusion, and while they tried to quench the conflagration, the Buccaneers set fire to the palisadoes. (Exmelin, who was present as a surgeon at this attack of Chagres, relates an anecdote of courage which he himself witnessed, to show the indomitable fury of the assailants. One of his own friends was pierced in the eye by an Indian, arrow, and came to him to beg him to pull it out, the pain was so intense and unbearable. Although a surgeon, (Exmelin had not the nerve to inflict such torture, however momentary, on a friend, and turned away in pity, upon which the hardy seaman tore out the arrow with a curse, and, binding up the wound, rushed forward to tlie wall. The few Buccaneers who had retreated, seeing the flames, now hurried back to the attack. The Spaniards could no longer see the enemy at whom they fired, the night was so dark and starless, while the Buccaneers shot down with the unerring aim of hunters the Spaniards, whose bodies stood out dark and well-defined against the bright background of flame. All this time, before the fire of the roofs could be extinguished, the Buccaneers had swarmed through the fosse, and, mounting upon each other's shoulders, burnt down part of the palisadoes, as we have before described, in spite of the hand-grenades that were thrown from above, and which burst among them. The fire ran along the wall, leaping like a winged thing, and devoured wherever it clung, spreading with dreadful rapidity. The fight continued all night, and when the calm daylight broke on the worn soldiers, the Buccaneers saw with spar- kling eyes that the gabions had smouldered through, and that the earth had fallen down in large heaps into the fosse. The breaches in many places were practicable. The armour had fallen piece-meal from their giant adversary, and he now stood before them bare, wounded, and defenceless. The Buccaneers, creeping within musket-shot of the walls, shot down the gunners in the breaches, to which the cannon had been dragged, by the governor's orders, during the night. Divided into two bands, one party kept up a constant fire 202 SIR HENllY MORGAN. on the guns, and the other watched the motions of the enemy. About noon they advanced to a spot which the governor himself defended, belted round with twenty-five brave Spaniards, armed with pikes, halberds, swords, and muskets. They advanced under a dreadful hail of fire and lead, the defenders casting down flaming pots full of com- bustible matter and " odious smells''' which destroyed many of the English, But we do not know how smells could drive back men who would have marched through red hell if it had been only the shortest way to Panama. Nothing could equal the unflinching courage of the Spani- ards — they disputed every inch of ground — they yielded slowly like wounded lions when the hunters narrow their circles. They showered stones and all available missiles on their assailants, only wishing to kill a Buccaneer, but feeling that resistance was hopeless ; some, rather than yield, threw tliemselves from the cliffs into the sea, and few survived the fall. As the Buccaneers won their way to the castle the Spaniards retreated to the garde du corps, where they entrenched themselves with two cannon ; to the last the governor refused quarter, and at last fell, shot through the brain. The few who remained surrendered when the guns v/ere taken and would have been turned asfainst them. Only fourteen men were found unhurt in the fort, and about nine or ten wounded, who had hid themselves among the dead. They told Morgan that they were all that were left of a garrison of 314 soldiers. The governor, seeing that he was lost, had despatched the survivors to Panama to alarm the city, and remained behind to die. No oflacer was left alive ; they had been the first to set their men the example of a glorious death. It appeared that a Buccaneer deserter, an Irishman, whom Morgan had not even informed of his design, had come to the port, and assured them of the attack on La Bancheria, and the contemplated movement on Panama. The governor of tliat place had instantly sent to Ch:)gres a reinf<>rcement of IGi men with ammunition and provisions, and had placed ambuscades along the river. He was at that very moment, they said, awaiting them in the savannah with 3, GOO men : of these 2,000 were infantry, 400 cavalry, and 600 Indians. He had also employed 200 SIR HENRY MORGAN. 203 muleteers and hunters to collect a drove of 1,000 wild cattle to drive down upon the invaders. " The taking of this castle," says Esquemeling, " cost the pirates excessively dear, in comparison to what they were wont to lose, and their toil and labour was greater than at the conquest of the Isle of St. Catherine." On numbering their thinned ranks, many voices were silent at the roll call. More than 100 men were found to be dead, and more than seventy grievously wounded. There were sixty who could not rise, and many in the ranks wore on their arms strips of the Spanish colours, or had their heads bound round with bloody cloths. The prisoners they compelled to drag their own dead to the edge of the cliffs and cast them among the shattered bodies on the beach, then to bury them where the sea could not wash them out of their graves, or the birds devour them. The castle chapel they turned into an hos- pital for the wounded, and the female slaves were employed to tend them, for the surgeons in the heat of battle had only had time to amputate a limb or bind an artery. 204 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. CHAPTER VIII. CONQUEST OF PANAMA. March from "Chagres — Famine — Ambuscade of Indians — Wild bulls driven down upon them — Victory — Battle of the Forts — Takes the city — Burns part of it — Cruelties — Debauchery — Retreat with pri- soners — Virtue of the Spanish prisoner, and her sufferings — Ransom — Division of booty — Treason of Morgan — Escapes by night to Jamaica — Dispersion of the fleet — Morgan's subsequent fate. The bodies of their comrades, who had died that they who survived might conquer, were buried, not without some tears even from these rude men, in large (plague-pit) graves, dug by the prisoners. The women were violated in the first fury of the sack. During their plunder they found a great quan- tity of provisions and ammunitions stored up for the use of the fleet. Their next act was to repair the fort and render it tenable. Morgan, instantly informed of the fall of Chagres, did not remain long behind. Having first collected all the Indian wheat and cassava he could carry, he embarked his prisonei'S and provisions, taking with him Don Joseph Ramirez de Leiba, the governor, and the chief officers. The cannon he spiked, or threw into the sea in places where he might reco- ver them, intending to return and fortify the place as a stronghold if his design on Panama failed. The forts, and church and house he fired, with the exception of the castle of Santa Teresa. In sailing to Chagres a storm arose and dispersed his ves- sels, keeping them many days at sea. The admiral, always watchful in danger, suiiered himself for a moment to sleep in the hour of prosperity. When he approached the river mouth and saw the English flag floating frbm the blackened walls, he could not restrain the heedless joy of his crew — not waiting for the pilot canoe that was putting out to warn CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 205 them of their danger, he drove on the sunken rock at the foot of the castle hill. His own and three other vessels sank, yet the crews and cargoes were all saved^ and but for a strong " norther " the ships themselves would have been preserved. Brought into the castle with acclamations and hearty con- gratulations at his escape, Morgan employed the Spanish prisoners from St. Catherine's in repairing the palisading of the fort, carefully destroying all thatched sheds for fear of fire. He then chose a garrison by lot, and divided the stores. He heard with delight the details of the victory, but lamented the absent dead and the many brave men that had shared so often his own hopes and fears. His next movement was to seize some diatten, or small Spanish vessels that were still in the river. They were small craft that went to and fro between Cliagres and Porto Bello, or Nicaragua, or plied with merchandise up and down the river. They mounted six guns, two iron, and four small brass, and were navigated by six men. He also took four small frigates of fourteen and eight guns, and all the canoes he could lay hands on, requiring them for the expedition. He left behind him 100 men, under command of Captain Le Maurice, and 150 men to guard the ships. For Panama, Morgan took with him 1,300 of the best armed and the most robust of his band, five boats with artil- lery, and thirty two canoes. He imprudently carried little provisions, expecting to obtain plenty from the Spaniards they should kill in the ambuscades. In spite of the recent vic- tory, and of Morgan's certainty of conquest, many of the Buccaneers were less sanguine than on former expeditions. The Spanish prisoners had succeeded in alarming them by rumours of the dangers and intricacy of the road, and the ambuscades that had been two months in preparation. Some, more superstitious than the rest, thought the wreck of Morgan's ship, and the severe loss at Chagres, bad omens for their success at Panama. But these were mocked at by the rest, as white-livered ; and Morgan having divided the provisions between the garrison and the St. Catherine pri- soners, reviewed his men, and examined himself their arms and ammunition. He quieted their fears, and spoke of vie- 206 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. tory as already obtained. He exhorted them to show more thau usual courage, in order to return as soon as possible rich and glorious to Jamaica. With a shout of '^ Long live the king of England, and long live Harry Morgan ! " they began their march towards the doomed city on the 18th of January, 1670. The first day they advanced only six leagues to Rio de los BraQos, where they got out of their canoes to sleep on shore, being crippled with overcrowding in the boats. They could have brought no provisions, for few had any food that day, but a pipe of tobacco " to stop the orifice of the stomach." They could find nothing in the deserted plantations, where even the unripe fruits had been plucked and the roots pulled up before their arrival. The men longed to fight, in order that they might eat. By noon of the next day they reached Cruz de Juan Gallego, where they were obliged to leave their canoes ; the river was very dry and shallow from want of rain, and much impeded with fallen trees, but their hopes were excited by the guide's intelligence, that about two leagues further the roads grew better. Here they left their boats with 160 men to guard them, as a resource in case of defeat, giving them strict injunctions not to land, for fear of ambuscades in the neighbouring woods, which were so thick as to seem impenetrable. Finding the forest almost impassable, Morgan ordered a few of the canoes to be rowed, though with immense labour, to a place called Cedro Bueno, farther up the river, taking half the men at a time and returning for the rest ; so by nightfall all the men were once more united. From discovering no ambuscades, in s})ite of all the wishes of these hungry soldiers, it was supposed that the Spanish spies, willing to avoid a fight, had fright- ened their officers by exaggerating the number of the adven- turers. On the third day Morgan sent forward some guides, who could find no road, the country being flat, inundated, and marsh}^ The men, who had scarcely eaten anything since their departure, grew faint and Inmgry, and a few of them gathered and fed on the leaves from the forest trees. It being night before they could ])ass the river, they slept on the bank, ex])Osed, half-clothed as they were, to the tropical damps and cold. CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 207 The fourth day's march they advanced in divisions ; the largest went by land, the smaller in canoes. The guides were always kept two musket shots in advance, to give notice of ambuscades, and in hopes of capturing stragglers, wlio might furnish intelligence. But the Spaniards had also scouts, very wary, and very " dexterous" in giving notice of all accidents, frequently bringing the Panama men intelli- gence of the Buccaneers' approach six hours before the enemy arrived. About noon the army reached a post named Torna Cavallos, so called probably from the rough- ness of the road ; and at this spot the guide of the canoes cried out that he saw an ambuscade. With infinite joy the hungry men, thirsting for blood, flew to arms, knowing that the Spaniards always Avent luxuriously provided with food, and knowin'g that a dead Spaniard could want no more provender. As soon as they came within sight of the entrenchment, which was shaped like a half-moon, and the palisading formed of entire trees, they uttered a dreadful shout, and, driven on by rage and hunger, began to race like starved wolves, seeing which could first cross swords with the enemy, whom they believed to be about 400 strong. But their hearts fell within them wdien they found the place a mere deserted rampart, and all the provisions, but a few crumbs which lay scattered about, either burnt or carried off. Some leather bags lay here and there, as if left in a hasty retreat. Enraged at this, they at once pulled down the Spanish huts, and cutting the leather bags, tore them up for food. Quarrels then arose for the largest messes ; but before they could well finish this unsavoury banquet, the drum sounded for the march. About 500 Spaniards seem to have held these entrenchments ; and many of the men threatened to devour the first fugitive they could meet with. About night they reached another deserted ambuscade, called Torna Munni, equally bare of food ; and the remain- der of the bags were now devoured. Those fortunate enough to obtain a strip, first soaked slices of it in water, next beat it between two stones, then scraped off the hair with their hunters' knives, and, roasting it in the fire, ate it leisurely in small pieces. " I can assure the reader," says (Exmelin, " that a man can live on this fare, but he can hardly get 208 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 'very faV Frequent draughts of water (wliicli by good fortune they had at hand) seasoned this not very palatable food of men accustomed to revel on venison and brandy. " Some who were never out of their mothers' kitchens," says Esquemeling, "may ask how these pirates could eat and digest those pieces of leather, so hard and dry ; whom I answer, that could they once experience what hunger, or rather famine, is, they would find the way as the pirates did." The fifth day at noon they arrived at a place called Barbacoa, where there were more deserted barricades, and the adjacent plantations were equally bare of either man, animal, or plant. Searching with all the zeal and perse- verance of hungry men, they found at last, buried in the flioor of a cave lately hewn out of the rock, two sacks of flour, two jars of wine, and some plantains, and Morgan generously divided these among the most exhausted of his troops, some being now nearly dead with famine. The flour they mixed with water, and wrapping the dough in banana leaves, baked it in the fire. Somewhat refreshed, they renewed their mai'ch with increased skill and vigour. The laafffina: men they placed in the canoes, till they reached at night some deserted jilantations known as the Tabernillas, where they slept. On the sixth day they marched slowly, after resting a time from real weakness, some of the strongest being sent into the woods to pluck berries and pull roots, many even eating leaves and grass. The same day at noon they arrived at a plantation. Eagerly foraging here, but not expecting to find anything, they turned a little from the road, and came upon a barn full of maize in the husk. Beating down the door, they fell upon it and devoured it as rapaciously as a herd of swine, till they fell ofl' satiated. A distribution was then made of it to each man, for hunger does not care for cooking. Loaded with this grain they continued their march in high spirits for about two hours, when they came suddenly on about 200 Indians, and soon after passed a deserted ambuscade. Those who had maize still left threw it away, thinking that the Sj)aniards and better food were at hand. These archers were on the opposite side of the river. I CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 209 The Buccaneers, firing, killed a few, and pursued tlie others as far as Santa Cruz. The nimblest escaped by swimming, but two or three adventurers, who waded after them, were pierced with arrows at the ford. The Indians, as they fled, hooted — "Ah perros Ingleses, a la savanah, a la savanah :" "English dogs, English dogs, come to the savanvLahr Pass- ing the river they were now compelled to begin their march on the opposite side. There was little sleep that night, but great dejection, and murmurs arose against Captain Morgan and his conduct. He was blamed for not having brought provisions, and for not having yet met the Spaniards ; con- demned for irreconcilable errors, and reviled for even his past successes. Some declared they would return home, others would willingly have done so, yet were afraid to retreat ; but a large j^arty declared they would rather die than go back a step. One of the guides, perhaps bribed by Morgan, promised that it should not be long before they met with peo})le from whom they should derive no small •advantage, and this comforted them. A tinge of super- stition would have soon converted this into one of those prophecies by which Cromwell and Cortes both consoled their desponding troopers. On the seventh morning, expecting enemies, the men all cleaned their arms, and every one discharged his musket and pistols without ball, to let the Spaniards hear they were coming, and that their ammunition was not damaged. Leaving Santa Cruz, where they had rested, they crossed the river in their canoes, and arrived at the town of Cruz. At some distance from Cruz they had beheld, to their great joy, a great smoke arising above the roofs, which they thought arose from kitchen chimneys, and quickening their pace, they began to laugh, and shout, and leap, — joking at the Spanish waste of fuel, and saying, " The S})anish cooks are roasting meat for our dinner when we have mastered their masters ;" but as the smoke grew thicker, they began to think that the enemy were burning some houses that interfered with the fire of the entrenchments. Two hours after, on arriving panting and hot at Cruz, they found the place deserted and stri[)ped, and no meat, but many fires, for every Spaniard had burnt his own house, P 210 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. and only the royal store-house and stables were left standing. A few crackling ruins were all that remained of the great halfway house between Chagres and Panama, for here the Chagres merchandise was always landed and transported to Panama on the backs of mules, being distant only twenty- six S2)anisli leagues from the river of Chagres, and eight from Panama. The disappointed Buccaneers spent the remainder of the day at Cruz in seeking food and resting. Every cat and dog was soon killed and eaten, for the cattle had been all driven off. Morgan, growing now more strict in discipline, gave orders that no party of less than 100 men should leave the town. Five or six Englishmen who dis- obeyed the order were killed by the Indians. In the king's stables fifteen or sixteen jars of Peruvian wine Avere found, and a leather sack full of biscuit. Morgan, afraid that his men would fall into excesses, sj^read a report that the Spaniards had poisoned the wine — a report confirmed by the violent sickness of all who drank of it ; althoutrh half- starved men, fed for a week on vegetable refuse, would have been injured by any excess. It was, however, eagerly drunk, and would have been had there been death in every cup. This sickness detained them a day at Cruz. The canoes, being now useless, were sent back, guarded by sixty men, to join the other boats ; one alone being hid in a thicket, for fear of any emergency or any necessity arising, and to transmit intelligence to the vessels. Morgan feared that, if left at Cruz, they might be captured, and would at least require an extra guard. On the eighth day at morning he reviewed his troop, and found that he had 1,100 able and resolute men still at his back. He persuaded them that their comrade who was carried off by the Indians had returned, having only lost his way in the woods, fearing they might be discouraged at his disappearance. He then chose a band of the best marksmen as a forlorn hope, " a hundred of these men," says CExmelin, " are worth six hundred of any other nation." He divided the remainder into a van and wings, knowing that he should have to pass many places where not more than two men could pass abreast. After ten hours' march they arrived at a place called CONQUEST OP PANAMA. 211 Quebrada Ohscura, a dark wooded gorge wliere tlie sunliglit rarely entered. Here, on a sudden, a shower of 300 or 400 arrows poured down upon them, killing eight or nine men, and wounding ten. These arrows came from an Indian ambuscade hid on a wooded and rocky mountain, perforated by a natural arch, through which only one laden beast could pass. The Buccaneers, though they could see nothing but rocks and trees, instantly returned the fire, and two Indians rolled down into the path. One of these, who appeared to be a chief, for he wore a coronet of variegated feathers, at- tempted to stab an English adventurer with his javelin, but a companion, parrying the thrust with his sabre, slew the Indian, This brave man was, it is supposed, the leader of the ambuscade, for the savages, seeing him fall, took at once to flight, and never discharged another shaft. As they entered a wood, the rest of the Indians fled to seize the next height, from whence they might observe the enemy and harass their march. The Buccaneers found them too swift to capture, and pursued them in vain : but two or three of the wounded fugitives were found dead in the road. A few armed and disciplined men could have made this pass good against a hundred, but these Indians were now scattered and without a leader, and they had only flred at random, and in haste, through trees and thickets that intercepted their arrows. On leaving this defile the Buccaneers entered a broad prairie, where they rested while the wounded were tended. At a long distance before them they could see the Indians on a rocky eminence, commanding the road where they must pass. Fifty active men were dispatched to take them in the rear in the hopes of obtaining some prisoners, but all in vain, for the Indians were not only more agile but knew all the passes. Two hours after, they were seen at about two gun-shots' distance, on the same eminence from which they had been just driven, while the Buccaneers were now on an opposite height, and between them lay a wood. The Buccaneers supposed that a Spanish ambuscade was hid here, for whenever thev came near enough, the Indians cried out "A la savanah, a la savanah, cornudos perros Ingleses :" " To the savannah, to the savannah, you cuckold English dogs." Morgan sent a hundred men to search this wood, p 2 212 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. and upon tins the Spaniards and Indians came down from tlie mountain as if to attack them, but appeared no more. About night, a great rain falling, the Buccaneers marched faster, in order to prevent their arms getting wet, but they could find no houses to barrack in, for the Indians had burnt them all, and driven away the cattle, hojjing to starve out the men whom they could not drive out. They left the main road after diligent search, and found a few shepherds' huts, but too few to shelter all their company ; they therefore piled their arms, and chose a small number from each com- pany to guard them. Those who slept in the open air endured much hardship, the rain not ceasing all night. They made temporary sheds, which they covered with boughs, in order to sleep under a shelter, however impei-fect ; and sentinels were placed, Morgan being afraid of the Indians, who chose wet nights for their onslaughts, when fire-arms were often useless. Next morning very early, being the ninth of their tedious journey, they recommenced their march, Morgan bidding them all discharge their guns and then reload them, for fear of the wet having damped the powder. The fresh air of the morning, clear after the storm, was still about them, and the clouds had not yet yielded to the tropical sun, as they pushed on over a path more difficult than before. In about two hours' time a band of twenty Spaniards began to appear in the distance, and the Indians were also visible, but Morgan could obtain no prisoners, though he offered a reward of oOO crowns for every Spaniard brought in. When pursued the enemy hid themselves in caves and eluded all search. At last, toiling slowly up a high mountain, the adven- turers unexpectedly beheld from the to]:) the South Sea glit- tering in the distance. This caused them as great joy as the sight of '' Thalatta " did to the soldiers of Xenophon. They thought their expedition now completed, for to them victory was a certainty. They could discern upon the sea, never before beheld, a large ship and six small boats setting forth from Panama to the islands of Tavogra and Tavoofilla, which were only six leagues distant. Fortune smiled upon them to-day, for, descending this mountain, they came into a grassy prairie vcvlley, full of all sorts of cattle, which were CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 213 being pursued by mounted Si^aniards, who fled at the sight of the Buccaneers. Upon these animals Morgan's men rushed with the avidity of half-starved hunters, the eager- ness of sailors to obtain fresh meat, and all the haste that brave men exhibit to get at an enemy. One shot a horse, another felled a cow, but the greater part slaughtered the mules, which were the most numerous. Some kindled tires, others collected wood, and the strongest hunted the cattle, while the invalids slew, and skinned, and flayed. The whole plain was soon alight with a hundred fires. The hungry men cut ofl:' lumps of flesh, carbonadoed them in the flame, and ate them half raw with incredible haste and ferocity. " They resembled," Esquemeling says, " rather cannibals than Christians, the blood running down their beards to the mid- dle of their bodies." But no hunger, no fear, no passion threw Morgan ofl" his guard. Hungry and weary himself, and sympathizing with his men's hunger, he saw the danger of this reckless gluttony, which produced a reaction of inert- ness as dangerous as intoxication. Dreading surprise, for he was surrounded by enemies, lie beat a false alarm, and seizing their arms, his men, ashamed of their excess, renewed their march. The remainder of the meat, half-roasted or quite raw, they strung to their bandoliers. " The very look of these men," says Esquemeling, " was enough to liave terrified the boldest, for we know that in love as well as war, the eyes are the soonest conquered." Morgan, anxious at not having yet obtained a prisoner as guide, again despatched a van- guard of fifty men, who about evening saw in the distance 500 Spaniards, who shouted to them they knew not what. Soon after, almost at dusk, mounting a small eminence, they saw a better sight than even the South Sea — the highest steeples of Panama, bright in the sunset ; upon this, like the German soldiers at the sight of the Bhine, the Buc- caneers gave three cheers, to show their extreme joy, leaping and shouting, and throwing their hats into the air, as if they had already won the victory. At the same time the drums beat stormily and proudly, and each man shot oft' his piece, while the red flag was displayed waving in defiance of the Spaniard, and high above all the trumpet sounded. The camp was pitched for the night by the men, who 214 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. waited impatiently for the morning, when the battle should join ; with equal pride and courage 200 mounted Spaniards shouted in return, as they dashed up within musket shot, " To-morrow, to-morrow, ye dogs, we shall meet in the savan- nah j" and as they ended, their trumpet sounded clearer and louder than even that of Morgan's. These horsemen were soon joined by several companies of infantry and several squadrons of cavalry, who wheeled round tliem within can- non shot. These troops had been despatched when the sounds of the Buccaneers' approach reached the gates of the city. There were still two hours of light, but Morgan de- termined not to fight till early in the morning, when he might be able to move freely in the unknown country, and when there would be a whole clear, bright day for the battle. As night drew on, all the Spaniards retired to the city, excepting seven or eight troopers, who hovered abouc to watch the enemy's motions, and give the alarm if a night attack was contemplated. On his side Morgan placed double sentinels, and every now and then ordered false alarms to be beat to keep his men on the alert. Those who had any meat left ate it raw, as they had often done when hunters. No fires were allowed to be kindled, and the men lying, ready armed, on the grass, waited eagerly for the day- light. 120 cavaliers again joined the Spanish scouts, and affected to maintain a strict blockade, and the city all night 2)layed with its biggest guns upon the camp, but, being at so great a distance, did little harm to the Buccaneers. At daybreak of the tenth day of their march the Spaniards beat the diane, and Morgan, replying heartily, began with great eagerness to push forward to the city, the S[)aniards wheeling cautiously around his wings. One of the guides warned Morgan against the high road, which he knew would be blocked uj) and crowded with ambuscades, and the army defiled into a wood to the right, where the passage was so difficult tluit none but Buccaneers could have forced a way, — " very irksome indeed," says Esquemeling. The Spaniards, completely bailled and astonished by this diversion, left their batteries in a hurry, and, without any distinct plan of attack, crowded out into the })lain. After two hours' march the Buccaneers reached the top of a small hill. From this CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 21-5 eminence tliey could now see their goal, and Panama, with all the roofs that hid its treasure, lay before them. Below, on the plain, they might also discern the Spanish army drawn up in battalia^ awaiting their descent. Even Esque- meling admits that the forces seemed numerous. " There were two squadrons of cavalry, four regiments of foot, and a still more terrible enemy, a huge number of wild bulls, roaring and tossing their horns, driven by a great number of Indians and a few neijroes and mounted matadors." The historian, more truthful in his confessions than his boasts, says, " They were surprised with fear, much doubting the fortune of the day ; yea, few or none there were but wished themselves at home, or at least free from the obligation of that engagement, it so nearly concerning their lives. Having been for some time wavering in their minds, they at last reflected on the strait they had brought themselves into, and that now they must either fight resolutely or die, for no quarter could be expected from an enemy on whom they had committed so many cruelties. Hereupon they encouraged one another, resolving to conquer or spend the last drop of their blood." They then divided themselves into three battalions, send- ing before 200 Buccaneers, very dexterous at their guns, who descended the hill, marching directl}'' upon the Spaniards, and the battle closed. The Spanish cavalry uttered cries of joy, as if they were going to a bull-fight. The infantry shouted " Viva el rey ! " and the vari-coloured silks of their doublets glistened in the sun. The Buccaneers, giving three cheers, charged upon the enemy. The forlorn hope Morgan despatched against the cavalry and the bulls. The cavalry galloped forward to meet them, but, the ground being marshy, they could not advance with speed, and sank one by one before the unceasing dropping fire of 200 Buccaneers, who fell on one knee and poured in a full volley of shot, the foot and horse in vain trying to break through this hot line of flame and death. The bulls proved as fatal to those who em- ployed them as the elej^hants to Porus. Driven on the rear of the Buccaneers, they took fright at the noise of the battle ; a few only broke through the English companie-s, and tramjjled the red colours under foot, but these were soon shot by the 216 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. old hunters ; a few fled to the savannah, and the rest tore back and carried havoc through the Spanish ranks. The firing lasted for two hours ; at the end of that time the cavalry and infantry had separated, and the troopers had fled, only about fifty of their number succeeding in escaping. The infantry, discouraged at their defeat, and despairing of success, fired off one more vollej^ and then threw down their arms ; the victory was won. Morgan, having no cavalry, could not pursue, and a mountain soon hid the fugitives from the Buccaneers' sight, who would not follow, expecting the flight was a mere decoy to lure them into an ambuscade. The Buccaneers, weary and faint, threw themselves down to rest. A few Spaniards found hiding in the bushes by the sea-shore were at once slain, and several cordeliers belonging to the army, being dragged before Morgan, were pistolled in spite of all their cries and entreaties. A Spanish captain of cavalry was taken pri- soner by the English musketeers, who had hitherto given no quarter, and confessed that the governor of Panama had led out that morning 2,000 men, 200 bulls, 1,450 horse, and twenty- four companies of foot, 100 men in each, 60 In- dians, and some negroes. In the city, he said, were many trenches and batteries, and at the entrance a fort with fifty men and eight brass guns. The women and wealth had all been sent to Tavoga Island, and 600 men with twenty -eight pieces of cannon were inside the town, defended by ram- parts of flour sacks. The ambuscade had been waiting fifteen days in the savannah, expecting Morgan. On reviewing their men, the English found a much greater number of killed and wounded than they had expected, so Esquemeling confesses, but does not give the number. CExmelin puts the loss at only two killed and two wounded, an incredible statement, trustworthy as he generally is. The Spaniards lost 600 men. " The pirates, nothing discouraged," says the former his- torian, " seeing their number so diminished, but rather filled with greater pride, perceiving what liuge advantage they had obtained against their enemies, having rested some time, prepared to march courageously towards the city, plighting their oaths one to another that they would fight till not a CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 217 man was left alive. With this courage they recomraencecl their march, either to conquer or be conquered, carrying with them all the prisoners." They avoided the high road from Vera Cruz, on which the Spaniards had placed a battery of eight pieces of cannon, and selecting that from Porto Bello, they advanced to the town before the people could rally, and while the exagge- rated rumours of the defeat were still uncontradicted. Trembling fugitives filled the streets, and terror was in every face. The Spaniards fought desperately, but without hope. In spite of Morgan's endeavour to maintain strict discipline, his men began to undervalue the enemy, and to advance straggling and reckless. The Spaniards, observing this, fired a broadside, killing twenty-five or thirty of the van- guard at the first discharge, and wounding nearly as many, but before they could reload were overpowered and slain at their guns, the Buccaneers stabbing all whom they met. Of this attack, Esquemeling gives the following graphic but rambling account : " They found much difiicultyin their approach to the city, for within the town the Sj^aniards had placed many great guns at several quarters, some charged with small pieces of iron, and others with musket- bullets. With all these they saluted the pirates at their approaching, and gave them full and frequent broadsides, firing at them incessantly, so that unavoidably they shot at every step great numbers of men. But neither these manifest dangers of their lives, nor the sight of so many as dropped con- tinually at their sides, could deter them from advancing and gaining ground every moment on the enemy ; and though the Spaniards never ceased to fire and act the best they could for their defence, yet they were forced to yield after three hours' combat, and the pirates, having possessed themselves, killed and destroyed all that attempted in the least to oppose them." Morgan was now master of Panama, as he had been of St. Catherine's, la Bancheria, Maracaibo, and Gibraltar, but his vigilance did not yet relax. As soon as the first fury of the entrance was over, he assembled his men, and com- manded them, under great penalties, not to drink or taste 218 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. any wine, as lie had been informed by a prisoner that it had been poisoned by the Spaniards. Though much wealth had been hidden, great warehouses of merchandise, they rejoiced to find, w^ere still well stocked with silks, cloths, and linens. Morgan's only fear now was, that with so small a body of men as remained to him, the Spaniards might rally, or his men, grown intoxicated by success and intent on plunder, be cut ofi" without resistance. Having placed guards at all the important points of defence within and without the city, he ordered twenty-five men to seize a boat laden with merchandise, that owing to the low water in the harbour could not })ut out to sea. The command of this vessel he gave to an English captain. The houses of Panama were built chiefly of cedar, and a few of stone. Fortunately, Michael Scott sketches for us nearly the whole scenery of Morgan's march. " One side of the harbour of Chagres is formed," he says, '•' by a small promontory that runs 500 yards into the sea. This bright little bay looks upon an opposite shore, long and muddy, and covered with mangroves to the water's brink. On the uttermost bluff" is a narrow hill, with a fort erected on its apex. The rock is precipitous on three sides. The river of Chagres is about 100 yards across, and very deep. It rolls sluggishly along, through a low, swampy country. It is covered down to the water w4th thick sedges and underwood, and where the water is stagnating, generates mosquitoes and fevers. The gigantic trees grow close to the water, and are laced together by black, snake-like withes. Here and there, black slimy banks of mud slope out near the shore, and on these, mon- strous alligators roll or sleep, like logs of rotting drift-wood. For some miles below Cruz, where the river ceases to be navigable by canoes, oars are laid aside, and long ]:>oles used to pro})el the boats, like punts, over the shoals. Panama is distant about seven leagues from Cruz. The road is only passable for mules : in some places it has been hewn out of the rock, and zig-zags along the face of hills, in parts scarcely passable for two persons meeting. " The scenery on each side is very beautiful, as the road winds for the most part amongst steeps, overshadowed by CONQUEST OF PANAMA. 210 magnificent trees, among which birds of all sizes, and of the most gorgeous plumage, are perpetually glancing, while a monkey every here and there sits grimacing and chattering overhead. The small, open savannahs gradually grow larger, and the clear spaces widen, until the forest you have been travelling under breaks into beautiful clumps of trees, like those of a gentleman's park, and every here and there are placed clear pieces of water, s])reading out full of pond- turtle, and short grass, that sparkles in the dew." As you approach the town, the open spaces become more frequent, until at length you gain a rising ground about three miles from Panama, where the view is enchanting. Below lies the city, and the broad Pacific, dotted with ships, lies broad and glassy beyond. Basil Hall, an accurate but less poetical observer, sketches the bay of Panama, its beach fringed with plantations shaded by groves of oranges, figs, and limes, the tamarinds surrounding all but the feathery tops of the cocoanut trees; the ground hidden with foliage, among which peep cane- built huts and canoes pulling to shore. Tavoga he describes as a taugle of trees and flowers. " The houses of the city are very curious and magnificent," says Esquemeling, " and richly adorned with paintings and hangings, of which a part only had been removed." The buildings were all stately, and the streets broad and well arranged. There were within the walls eight monasteries, a cathedral, and an hospital, attended by the religious. The churches and monasteries were richly adorned with paintings, and in the subsequent fire may have perished some of the masterpieces of Titian, Murillo, or Yelasquez. The gold plate and fittings of these buildings the priests had concealed. The number of rich houses was computed at 2,000, and the smaller shops, &c., at 5,000 additional. The grandest buildings in the town were the Genoese warehouses connected with the slave trade ; there were also long rows of stables, where the horses and mules were kept that wore used to convey the royal plate from the South to the North Pacific Ocean. Before the city, like oflferings spread before a throne, lay rich plantations and pleasant gardens. Panama was the city to which all the treasures of Peru 220 CONQUEST OF PANAMA. were annually brought. The plate fleet, laden with bars of gold and silver, arrived here at certain periods, brimming with the crown wealth, as well as that of private merchants. It returned laden with the merchandise of Panama and the Spanish main, to be sold in Peru and Chili, and still oftener with droves of negro slaves that the Genoese imported from the coast of Guinea to toil and die in the Peruvian mines. So wealthy was this golden city that more than 2,000 mules were employed in the transport of the gold and silver from thence to Porto Bello, where the galleons were loaded. The merchants of Panama were proverbially the richest in the whole S})anish West Indies. The governor of Panama was the suzerain of Porto Bello, of Nata, Cruz, Veragua,