By far the most celebrated, however, of all these ad venturers, was a Welshman, named Morgan, generally distinguished by the title of Sir Henry Morgan. Dislik ing the occupation of his father, who was a wealthy yeoman, Morgan had eloped from home, while yet a boy, and had engaged himself on board a ship bound for the island of Barbadoes. As soon as he reached that place, his master sold him into bondage ; and during his servitude, Morgan heard much of the ad ventures of the Buccaneers, whom he resolved to join as soon as he should recover his liberty. With this view he repaired to Jamaica, the rendezvous of the English pirates ; and finding there two vessels ready to sail on a cruize, he offered his services to one of the captains, and was willingly received. Alter distin guishing himself in several voyages, he proposed to some of his companions that they should conjointly purchase and equip a vessel for themselves, to which proposal they at once agreed, and unanimously ap pointed Morgan their captain. On his first cruize, he took several valuable prizes, which he carried into Jamaica. Mansvelt, an old experienced adventurer, was then employed in equipping a considerable fleet, with a design of making a descent upon the continent, and pillaging sonic of its richest towns. The distin guished success of Morgan recommended him to Mansvelt as a most desirable coadjutor, and he accord ingly appointed him his vice-admiral in his projected expedition.
\Vith a force amounting to five hundred men, they proceeded first to the island of St Catherine's, and demolished all its fortifications, except one small cas tle, which they garrisoned with a hundred of their own men, along with the slaves whom they had taken from the Spaniards. After this conquest, they again set sail, and proceeded to the town of Nata. The governor of Panama having been apprised of their design, they returned to St Catherine's, which they found in the same state in which they had left it. Mansvelt, fully aware of the advantages of this island, as a place of shelter and rendezvous to the pirates, applied to the governor of Jamaica for a force sufficient for its protec tion. \Vith this request, however, the governor declined to comply; and, in a short time after, the island was retaken by the Spaniards.
The death of Mansvelt having now left Morgan the principal hero among the pirates, he proclaimed his design of making another descent on the Spanish terri tories, and soon saw himself at the head of seven hun dred men. his first expedition was directed against Port-au-Prince, a village in the island of St Cuba, whose extensive commerce, carried on through the medium of the other towns in the island; seemed to promise a booty as rich, as its conquest would be easy. Warned of his design, the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince con cealed their treasure, and conveyed their moveable effects to a place of safety.—They next prepared for the reception of their invaders, by mustering all the inhabi tants capable of bearing arms, barricading the highways, and placing several parties in ambush, each supported by some pieces of artillery. The adventurers, finding the roads impracticable, made a path for themselves through the woods, and, thus escaping the ambuscades, came to a plain before the town, where the Spaniards were drawn up in order of battle. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the Spaniards were completely routed, and most of them either left dead on the field, or over taken and slain in their flight.—Those within the town defended themselves with obstinate valour, but were at length compelled to surrender. When the ad venturers saw themselves masters of the towns, they shut up all the inhabitants in the churches, ransacked every house for plunder, and laid waste all the country round.
_Morgan next resolved to attack Portobello, a strongly fortified town in the province of Costa Rica. His plan of operations was so well concerted, and so ably exe cuted, that he came upon the city by surprise, and took it almost without opposition. But the most respectable of the inhabitants had retired within the castle, where they were determined to defend themselves to the last extremity. In order to reduce them with greater facility, he compelled the women and the priests, many of whom he had taken prisoners, to fix the scaling lad ders to the walls, persuaded that the gallantry and superstition of the Spaniards would prevent them from firing upon these objects of their affection and venera tion. The governor, however, seeing through the device, desired his soldiers to fire upon all who should attempt to fix a ladder against the walls ; and it was not till many of these unhappy persons, as well as of their tyrants, had perished in the assault, that the castle was stormed, and all the Spaniards, except the gover nor, threw themselves at the mercy of the conquerors. That valiant man resolutely rejected every condition of surrender which they could propose, and, in spite of the tears and entreaties of his wife and daughters, resolved rather to die as a hero, than purchase his life by submis sion to ruffians.
The adventurers having thus obtained possession of the whole town and its forts, spent some days in col lecting all the plunder they could find ; and in tortur ing, with ingenious cruelty, their wretched prisoners, to extort from them a discovery of their hidden treasures.
Having loaded his ships with all the booty he could procure, Morgan next compelled the inhabitants to ransom their city from the flames, by the enormous sum of 100,000 crowns ; and with this treasure• he prepared to return to Jamaica. Before he set sail, a messenger came to his fleet from the governor of Panama, who requested to know by what kind of arms the adventurers were enabled to achieve such splendid exploits. Morgan received the messenger politely, and sent him back to his master with a musket and a few balls, as a specimen of the arms which he employed. The governor, pleased with this mark of civility which he did not expect, charged his messenger with a beautiful emerald ring, as a present to Morgan ; and with a letter, expressing his regret that such valour as his should not be employ ed in a more honourable cause. " Carry my thanks to your master," said Morgan, " for his obliging present ; and inform him, that, as I sent a specimen of our arms to gratify his curiosity, he shall soon have the additional satisfaction of seeing in Panama with what address we can use them." Morgan next proceeded to Maracaibo, which he took without much difficulty, and the spoil of which, with the sum he exacted for its ransom, was estimated at 250,uu0 crowns. On his return to Jamaica, he was received with great joy by the inhabitants ; and new adventurers crowded to him in such numbers, that he soon collected a force of 1000 men. With those he sailed to the island of St Catherine's, which he was anxious to wrest out of the hands of the Spaniards, and to retain as a place of rendezvous, of shelter, and of refreshment to the ad venturers, who might happen to be cruizing in the neighbourhood. The island was sufficiently strong to baffle the assaults of a much greater army than that of the Buccaneers ; yet they obtained possession of it almost without an effort, through the treachery, or the cowardice of the governor, who, on their first ap pearance, sent privately to Morgan, to concert mea sures how he might surrender, without sacrificing his reputation as an officer, and the governor of such an important place. It was agreed between them, that Morgan should attack by night a fort at some distance ; and that the governor, sallying out for its defence, should be suddenly attacked in the rear, and taken prisoner, after which the fort would immediately surrender. To render the deception more complete, a smart firing was to be kept up on both sides, but so directed as to do no mischief to either army. The farce was admirably con ducted. The Spaniards, without being really exposed to any danger, appeared to have fought with great valour; and the Buccaneers, to secure the possession of the island, demolished its fortifications ; and loading their vessels with a prodigious quantity of warlike stores, steered their course towards the river Chagre, for the purpose of invading the city of Panama. The entrance of this river was defended by a fort, apparently impregnable, built upon a steep rock, which projected into the sea. The governor of this castle was a man of extraordinary abilities and valour, and his garrison was worthy of such a commander. The assaults of the Buccaneers were repelled with such effect, that they would probably have been obliged to raise the siege, had not an accident of a very strange nature disconcerted the Spaniards, and reduced them to the necessity of surrendering at discretion. An arrow had pierced the body of one of the Buccaneers, who, with astonishing resolution, pulled it out, and winding a little cotton around it, shot it from his musket back into the castle. The cotton, kindled by the powder, alighted upon the thatch of some houses within the fort, which immediately caught fire ; and the flame communicated to a powder magazine, whose tremendous explosion spread ruin and consterna tion among the Spaniards. In addition to this misfor tune, their brave commander was killed, while perform ing prodigies of valour ; and the besiegers, taking ad vantage of this double calamity, made themselves mas ters of the place. Morgan sailed up the river in his boats, till he came to Cruces, where it ceases to be navigable. He was still five leagues distant from Panama, on his march towards which, he was met by a considerable body of troops, whom he soon put to flight, and, without farther resistance, entered the city, which was now abandoned. Amazing quantities of treasure were found concealed in wells and caves ; and the par ties, which were sent to scour the country, returned with much valuable spoil from the neighbouring forests. Not content with this, however, they exercised the most dreadful tortures on the prisoners who had fallen into their hands, in order to oblige them to discover the places where their riches were concealed ; and the Spaniards seemed now to be expiating, by their suffer ings, the massacres and cruelties of which their ances tors had been guilty in the conquest of those very regions, and in the acquisition of those riches, which were now wrested from them by the same means.