Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers

Hearing that the governor was on the march to attack them, Morgan placed himself at the head of a hundred of his most determined men, and marched forward to meet the foe. Every man was armed, in pirate fashion, with a musket, several pistols in his belt, and a keen-edged sabre. At a few leagues from the city they came to a narrow defile, along whose circuitous path but two could march abreast. The tangled thicket was on each side, with gigantic trees, and huge rocks buried in the luxuriant verdure of the tropics. Here a whole army might lie in impenetrable concealment.

And here Morgan, with great skill, placed his troops. Every man took a position where he could have perfect command of some portion of the track. With his hatchet he cut a loop-hole through the dense growth of shrubs and interlacing vines. Thus, while quite invisible, he could take deliberate aim. They were to wait in perfect silence until the winding defile was filled with unsuspecting troops. Then, at a signal from Morgan, every man was to fire. And every man was to take such aim as to be sure that his bullet would strike down his victim.

The Spaniards, four or five hundred in number, soon appeared in rapid march. Anticipating a bloody struggle with the pirates behind their ramparts, they had no thought that they would leave such vantage-ground to march forth to the encounter. Their only fear was that the pirates might rush to their ships and thus escape. Hurrying heedlessly along, they had filled the labyrinthine trail, when the deadly signal was given. One hundred muskets were instantaneously exploded. One hundred bullets were sent on their fatal mission. One hundred Spaniards were either struck down in instantaneous death or wounded.

There was no time for thought; no time to rally. The case was clear. The defeat was entire and remediless. Rapidly the pirates reloaded and kept up a continuous fire. The Spaniards discharged their muskets at random, hitting no one. Pell-mell, in awful confusion, they turned, and struggling against their own numbers, rushed, as best they could, from the defile. The narrow path was strewed with the dying and the dead. With a shattered and bleeding remnant the governor returned to Panama for reënforcements.

Morgan and his men, wishing that their deeds should strike terror all around, emerged from their covert, dispatched the wounded with pistol-shots or sabre-thrusts, searched the pockets of the dead, and, leaving their bodies unburied, returned in triumph to their comrades.

In triumph! But what a triumph! They had now been fifteen days in Puerto Velo. Famine and disease were assailing them with more cruel attacks than sabre or pistol can inflict. Recklessly they had wasted their provisions. They could not eat their gold or their silver, or the spoil which they had stored away in the holds of their ships. They had already consumed the mules and the horses. Their blood, inflamed by debaucheries and almost boiling beneath a meridian sun, produced the most loathsome and painful disorders. The slightest wound would fester and cause death. No wonder they were reckless. Better far to die than to live in such misery. This was the triumph to which the pirate Morgan returned.

The Spanish prisoners suffered still more than their captors. Crowded together in apartments whose awful impurity tainted the air; deprived of every comfort; witnessing intense sufferings which they could not alleviate, but which they were compelled to share; despondent, starving, dying, there was for them no relief but such as death gives.

The Spanish governor, who had shown such utter want of military ability in marching into the ambuscade, was as self-conceited and boastful as he was incompetent. Notwithstanding his ignominious repulse, he sent to Morgan the following message:

“If you do not immediately withdraw, with your ships, from Porto Velo, I will march upon you with a resistless force. You shall receive no quarter. Every man shall be put to death.”

Morgan sent back the reply, “If you do not immediately send me one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in gold, I will lay every building in Puerto Velo in ashes; I will blow up the forts; and I will put every captive I have to the sword, man, woman, and child.”

The pride of the governor would not allow him to purchase the retreat of the pirates. He sent to Carthagena imploring that some ships might be sent from there to block up the pirates in the river. But they had no sufficient force to make the attempt. The citizens were very anxious to have the money sent. But the governor kept them in suspense in hopes of gaining time.

“He was deaf and obdurate to all the entreaties of the citizens, who sent to inform him that the pirates were not men, but devils, and that they fought with such fury that the Spanish officers had stabbed themselves in very despair, at seeing a supposed impregnable fortress taken by a handful of people, when it should have held out against twice that number.”*

The governor was astonished at their exploits. Four hundred men had captured a city which he said any general in Europe would have found it necessary to blockade in due form. It is indicative of the almost inconceivable state of public opinion in those times, that the governor of Panama, Don Juan Perez de Guzman, who had acquired considerable renown for his bravery in the wars in Flanders, should have sent a courteous message to Morgan, expressive of his astonishment and admiration in view of his heroic achievement, and begging Morgan to send him a pattern of the arms with which he had gained so wonderful a victory. The scornful pirate sent a common musket and a handful of bullets to the governor, with the following sarcastic message:

“I beg your excellency to accept these as a small pattern of the arms with which I have taken Puerto Velo. Your excellency need not trouble yourself to return them. In the course of a twelvemonth I will visit Panama in person, and will fetch them away myself.”

The governor replied: “I return the weapons you sent me, and thank you for the loan of them. It is a pity that a man of so much courage is not in the service of a great and good prince. I hope that Captain Morgan will not trouble himself to come and see me at Panama. Should he do so, he surely will not fare so well as he has at Puerto Velo.”

It is very difficult to credit the statement made by Thornbury that “the envoy, having delivered this message, so chivalrous in its tone, 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.”*

Puerto Velo was left to its fate. The pirates left scarcely anything behind but the tiles and the paving-stones. Many of the best guns Morgan carried off. Of the rest, all which he could not burst he spiked. He then set sail. Behind him were smouldering ruins, pestilence, poverty, misery, and death.

Eight days’ sail brought the fleet to Cuba. Upon that vast and sparsely inhabited island there were many solitary harbors and coves where the silence of the wilderness reigned. Into one of these lonely spots Morgan ran his fleet. Here he divided the spoil. It was indeed a beggarly pittance which they had obtained as the fruit of so much toil, suffering, and crime. In coin or bullion they counted but two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. There was a large amount of silks and other merchandise, which, was not deemed of much value.

The division was amicably made, and they spread their sails to return to Jamaica, there to squander, in a few days of insane excess, all that they had gained through weary months of danger, toil, suffering, and crime. The entrance of a richly laden piratic fleet into the harbor of Kingston was an occasion of public rejoicing. The gamblers, the courtezans, the rumsellers were all overjoyed. Even the children expected to see the strange visitors scatter their doubloons through the streets to be scrambled for.

We are told that every door was open to them, and that, for a whole week, all loudly praised their generosity and their courage. At the end of a month they had squandered all, and every door was shut in their faces. Morgan was a drunkard as well as a robber. He spent his gains as infamously and as speedily as did the rest. Shrewder men than he emptied his purse at the gambling-table. The Delilahs of Jamaica speedily transferred his jewels to their necks. But one short month had passed away when Morgan and all his crew, utterly impoverished, were eager for another expedition.

Undismayed by the past, this bold adventurer planned an enterprise of such magnitude that he boasted that, at its close, both he and his men might be able to retire, if they wished, with a sufficiency for the rest of their days.

A rendezvous was appointed at De la Vaca or Cow Island, on the south side of the Island of Hispaniola. This would be easily accessible by the pirates, both French and English, ever swaggering through the streets of Tortuga. Again the desperadoes rushed to his banner. They came in boats and in small vessels and by land. Men enough were found to furnish the adventurer with funds.

A large English ship, which mounted thirty-six guns, entered the harbor of Kingston, Jamaica, from New England. This ship, the Oxford, carried a crew of three hundred men. It was on a buccaneering cruise against Spanish commerce. Oexemelin says that the ship actually belonged to the King of England, Charles II. He had fitted it out at his own expense, and the captain was employed in his service. What authority he had for this astonishing assertion we know not. But it is certain that the governor at Jamaica felt at liberty to send this ship to join Morgan’s expedition. And when we subsequently find Charles II. conferring the honor of knighthood on this desperate marauder, and appointing him governor of Jamaica, the report receives much confirmation.

The harbor at Isle de la Vaca was a fine one. A large French ship, the Cerf Volant, on a trading excursion, entered the port. The ship was well armed, mounting twenty-four iron guns and twelve guns of brass. The captain and crew, disappointed in the results of trade, were disposed to try their luck as buccaneers. Morgan, anxious to secure so powerful a ship, urged them to join his expedition. But the French officers would not accede to his terms.

The Frenchman was about to weigh anchor and return to Tortuga. Several of his crew, who were English sailors, had deserted him, and had been received on board Morgan’s ships. Through them Morgan learned that the captain of the Cerf Volant, being out of provisions, had stopped an English vessel, taken from her sundry articles of food, for which he had paid, not in coin, for he had none on hand, but in bills of exchange cashable at Jamaica.

Morgan, who was seeking for some pretext under which he might seize the French ship, decided to consider this an act of piracy. He invited the officers of the Volant to dine with him, on board the splendid ship which the governor of Jamaica had sent him. Unsuspicious of treachery, the captain and his officers all came. While in the cabin, drinking their wine, Morgan rose and denounced them as pirates who had robbed an English vessel, and declared them to be his prisoners. At the same moment a band of armed men came in and put them in irons. They could make no resistance. He then took possession of the ship.

Soon after this he called a council of his officers to decide upon their first expedition. They met in the cabin of the Volant. Several of the French who had refused to join Morgan were prisoners in the hold. After much deliberation they decided first to repair to the Island of Savona, a few leagues south-east of San Domingo. A flotilla of merchant-ships, under convoy, was daily looked for from Spain. It was to be expected that, during this long voyage, some vessels would get separated from the rest. These stragglers they hoped to cut off.

Having settled this question, the desperadoes commenced drinking and carousing. A scene of uproar ensued with the intermingling of drunken songs and unintelligible blasphemies. While the officers were thus carousing in the cabin, the sailors, four hundred in number, were engaged in equally wild orgies in their quarters of the ship. As the toasts were drained, broadsides were discharged, by men reeling in drunkenness around their smoking guns. Some were cursing, some fighting, some sleeping in deathly stupor.

The magazine, amply stored with powder, was near the bows of the boat. Powder was carelessly scattered over the decks. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion. The whole ship seemed lifted into the air, as by some volcanic power. Dense volumes of sulphurous smoke, pierced with forked flame, enveloped the scene, shutting it out from the view of all around. Then there were seen, ejected hundreds of feet into the air, massive timbers, and ponderous cannon, and the mangled bodies of three hundred and fifty men. But thirty of the crew escaped.

The officers’ cabin, far in the stern of the boat, escaped the force of the explosion. Though the revellers there were terrified, stunned, almost smothered with smoke, and many of them severely wounded, they escaped with their lives.

Such was the end of the Cerf Volant. This only did Morgan gain by his treachery. “Morgan,” says Esquemeling, “had captured the ship. And God only could take it from him. And God did so.”

For eight days the bodies of the dead were seen floating upon the waters of the bay. Morgan sent out boats to collect these bodies, not for burial, but for plunder. The pockets were searched. The clothing, when good, was stripped off. The heavy gold rings, which nearly all the sailors wore, were taken, and then the bodies were abandoned to the sharks and the carrion birds.

Morgan, upon a review of his forces, found that he had fifteen vessels, large and small, and eight hundred and sixty men. With these he set sail for Savona. Head winds impeded their progress. Three weeks had elapsed ere they reached the eastern extremity of Hispaniola. Eight hundred hungry men consume a vast amount of food each day. Their provisions ran short. They chanced to meet an English ship which had a superfluity for sale. Thus recruited, they pressed on, in a long straggling line, until eight of the ships reached a harbor called Ocoa, on the southern coast of the great island. Here he cast anchor to wait the arrival of the rest of the fleet.

CHAPTER XVI

The Expedition to Maracaibo

The Delay at Ocoa. – Hunting Excursions. – The Repulse. – Cities of Venezuela. – The Plan of Morgan. – Suggestions of Pierre Picard. – Sailing of the Expedition. – They Touch at Oruba. – Traverse Venezuela. – Enter Lake Maracaibo. – Capture of the Fort. – The City Abandoned. – Atrocities of the Pirates.

At Ocoa, on the Island of Hispaniola, the pirates remained several days waiting for the arrival of the other vessels, which were unaccountably lagging behind. Every morning Morgan sent a party of eight men, from each ship, upon the island as hunters, in search of game. He also sent a body of armed men to protect them from any attack by the Spaniards. Though there were many Spaniards upon the island, they did not feel strong enough to assail so great a force as the pirates could muster. They, however, sent to the city of San Domingo for three or four hundred men, to kill or drive away all the cattle and game around the Bay of Ocoa. They hoped thus to starve out the buccaneers, and compel them to depart.

Goaded by hunger, a band of fifty of Morgan’s men ventured far into the woods. The Spaniards, who were watching them, drew them into an ambuscade. The pirates were outnumbered and surrounded. With cries of “Kill, kill,” the Spaniards opened a sudden and deadly fire. But these desperadoes, accustomed to every kind of danger, could not be thrown into a panic. Instantly they formed themselves into a hollow square, and keeping a rolling fire from the four sides, slowly retreated to their ships. Many fell by the way, dead or wounded. Many of the Spaniards were also slain.

The next day, Morgan, rendered furious by the discomfiture, landed himself, at the head of two hundred men, to take dire revenge upon his foes. But no foe was to be met. Finding his search useless, he gave vent to his rage in burning all the dwellings he encountered, from which the Spaniards had fled.

Still the seven missing ships did not appear. After waiting a few days more, he decided to delay no longer. Spreading his sails, he steered his course for the Island of Savona. But none of the missing vessels were there. While waiting, he sent several boats, with crews amounting to one hundred and fifty well-armed men, to plunder several of the small towns upon the San Domingo coast. But in the capital city and all along the shore scouts were on the watch. Sentinels were placed upon every headland. The moment the boats appeared in sight, signals were given. At every point where a landing was attempted such energetic resistance was presented, that the pirates were compelled to retreat.

They returned to Morgan with this discouraging report. He was in a towering rage, and with sneers and curses denounced them as cowardly poltroons. As no longer delay could be safely indulged in, and as the missing vessels did not arrive, he made another review of his fleet and army, and found that he had eight vessels of various sizes and about five hundred men.

Upon the coast of Venezuela there was a large and opulent city, called Caraccas. It was the capital of the province of Venezuela, and had been founded nearly one hundred years before, in 1567, by the Spanish Government. It was a well-built and beautiful city, delightfully situated, in the enjoyment of a salubrious climate, and enriched by extensive commerce. Near by were Valencia, Barcelona, and Cumana, all important commercial ports. The latter place was the oldest city on the continent of South America. It was established in 1523. The plunder of these four cities would indeed enrich the marauders. And Morgan, in command of fifteen vessels, and with an army of fifteen hundred men did not doubt that he could effect their capture, one by one, if he could strike them entirely by surprise. But it was folly to attempt it with eight vessels and five hundred men.

There was a Frenchman in command of one of Morgan’s ships, by the name of Pierre Picard. This man, several years before, had been the pilot of Lolonois’s fleet, in his capture and destruction of Maracaibo and Gibraltar, of which expedition we have already given an account. During the intervening years those places had, in a very considerable degree, recovered from their disasters. Again they presented riches sufficient to entice the buccaneers.

Picard was a remarkable man, of great resources. He was a bold soldier and a skilful sailor. Familiar with all these waters, fearless and unscrupulous, with French plausibility of address, and speaking the English language with volubility and correctness, he gained great influence over Morgan.

A council of the officers was called. He proposed an attack upon Maracaibo and Gibraltar. A chart was presented exhibiting the course to be run, the channels to be threaded, the forces to be encountered, and the means of overcoming them.

His proposition was received with general acclaim, and the fleet weighed anchor. After several days’ sail to the south, they reached an island called Oruba. It was inhabited only by natives. They had a large stock of sheep, lambs, goats, and kids. Here the pirates cast anchor, to take in water and provisions. For once these marauders seemed to come to the conclusion that honesty was more politic than thievery, and that it was easier to buy a goat with a skein of thread, than to steal it, and thus rouse the hostility of the whole native population. They remained here twenty-four hours, acting as nearly like honest men as such a gang of thieves, drunkards, and desperadoes could do. They filled their water-casks, and laid in quite a store of provisions, which they bought, though without money and almost without price.

They were now within a day’s sail of Maracaibo. They were anxious that the natives should not know their destination, lest in some way they might give the alarm. Therefore the anchors were raised and the sails spread in the night. When the morning dawned the islanders looked in vain for the fleet.

During the day the ships came in sight of the cluster of islands which are found at the entrance of the Lake of Maracaibo. A fair breeze from the north had swept them rapidly through the Gulf of Venezuela. Just within the narrows which connected the gulf with the lake, there was a mountainous island called Vigilia. Upon one of its eminences there was a watch-tower erected, where sentinels were stationed, ever on the lookout to give warning of the approach of any suspicious craft.

Just as the fleet reached this point the wind died away into a perfect calm. Though Morgan made every endeavor to cast anchor out of sight of the watch-tower, the vigilant eyes of the sentinels detected him. The alarm was instantly sent up to the city. Twelve hours passed away before there was a breath of wind to ripple the crystal surface of the lake. It was then four o’clock in the morning. All this time had been granted the Spaniards to prepare for their defence.

At a little distance beyond Vigilia there was a narrow channel to be threaded, which was defended by a fort. Not deeming it safe to expose his vessels to the heavy guns of the Spaniards, and knowing that the works would be weak on the land side, he manned his boats, and marching through the woods struck his foes in the rear. The garrison had made arrangements for the most desperate resistance. They had burned all the huts around the walls of the fort, and had removed everything which could afford the assailants any shelter.

The defenders of the works numbered probably not more than thirty or forty men. Nearly five hundred reckless desperadoes emerged from the woods for the assault. They were all veterans, and all sharpshooters. Not a hand could be exposed but a bullet would strike it. Such a storm of balls were thrown with unerring aim in at every embrasure, that the guns could not be worked.

When the pirates, in their large numbers, first appeared emerging from the forest, the fort opened a fire so intense and continuous that it resembled the crater of a small volcano in most rapid eruption. But the pirates, who could return ten bullets for every one received, and who were careful that every bullet should accomplish its mission, soon caused the fire to slacken. Still the fight continued for many hours, till night came, with no apparent advantage on either side.

With the darkness the conflict ceased. Morgan sent a party cautiously forward to reconnoitre. No light was to be seen. No sound was to be heard. Solitude and silence reigned. The fort was deserted. With shouts the pirates rushed forward to take possession of the works. The loud voice of Morgan arrested them. He was as cautious as he was brave. A party of engineers was dispatched, led by Morgan himself, to search lest there might be lighted fuses leading to the magazine. Morgan was the first to enter. His quick eye discerned the gleam of a fuse slowly creeping toward the magazine, where three thousand pounds of gunpowder were stored. It was instantly trampled out.

But for this caution, five hundred pirates would have swarmed all over the fort. There would have been an earthquake roar, a volcanic upheaval, and not one of those five hundred desperadoes would have survived to tell the story of the retribution which had so suddenly befallen them.

The fort was a small but strong redoubt, or outwork, built of stone, circular in form, with a massive wall thirty feet high. It was only accessible by an iron ladder which could be let down from a guard-room. It mounted fourteen cannons, of eight, twelve, and fourteen pound calibre. There was also found a quantity of fire-pots, hand-grenades, pikes, and muskets.

The pirates had no time to lose. It was needful to press forward as rapidly as possible, for every hour the inhabitants of the city might be adding to their defences. They blew up a portion of the wall; spiked the cannon, and threw them over the ramparts; burned the gun-carriages, and destroyed all the material of war which they could not carry away with them.

The way was now open for the passage of the fleet up the lake to the very entrance of the harbor. With the earliest dawn the fleet spread its sails, leaving behind the smouldering ruins of the fort. The breeze was light, the shoals many, the channel intricate. It was not until the next day that they came within sight of the city. There was still another fort to be passed at the very mouth of the port. Morgan stood upon his quarter-deck, spy-glass in hand. He could see the Spanish cavaliers at work on the ramparts, and had reason to expect a very desperate resistance. Again he decided not to expose his ships to the cannonade which the heavy guns of the fort could bring to bear upon them.