MORGAN, SIR Henry John, Welsh bucca neer, lieutenant-governor of Jamaica : b. Llan rhynny, Glamorganshire, about 1635; d. Jamaica, 1688. While a boy he was kidnapped at Bris told and sold at Barbados. Just when he joined the Jamaica buccaneers is uncertain, as there were several Morgans in the marine at Jamaica at the time, but he may have com manded his own ship as early as 1663; a Cap tain Morgan who sailed from Jamaica in that year taking part in the sack of Vildemos, Trux illo and Granada (1665-66). In 1666 Morgan sailed under Mansfield to capture Curacao, and was chosen admiral after Mansfield's death at the hands of the Spaniards. In 1668 he cap tured Puerto Principe in order to get informa tion of Spanish plans for an attack on Jamaica; then took Porto Bello, Panama, after a sharp siege during which the buccaneers planted scal ing ladders under the cover of captured priests and nuns, sacked the city and tortured and mal treated its inhabitants; and in the end of the summer again ravaged Cuba. The next year, 1669, saw Morgan's attack on Maracaibo, fol lowed by fresh outrages. The arrival of three Spanish warships did not check Morgan's suc cess, for he set fire to one ship, captured an other and forced the Spaniards to beach and burn the third; he killed almost all his prison ers, recovered 15,000 pieces of eight from the sunken ship, got a ransom for the city from the Spanish forces in the fort and by a clever manmuvre made his escape. Returning to Ja maica he was first reproved for exceeding his powers and then made commander-in-chief of the entire naval force of Jamaica, so that in 1671, with a stronger force under him than be fore, he approached the city of Panama, which he captured after a thrilling battle, in which the Spanish cavalry was broken by riding into a swamp, and further execution was done by a herd of cattle which the Spaniards intended should break the English ranks but which stampeded the Spanish. This attack and the
capture of Panama occurred some time later than the signature of peace between England and Spain, and in consequence Morgan was ordered to England for trial in 1672. Nothing serious came of this, however, possibly because Morgan made free use of his wealth in Eng land. In November 1674 he held a commis sion as lieutenant-governor of Jamaica. He can hardly be called a pirate; his cruel, brutal methods were those of his enemies and Eng land's enemies. The primary source for Mor gan's life is Exquemeling,