The Dangerous Book of Heroes (26 page)

With unlimited funds, Morgan equipped a fleet at Port Royal for an attack on Panama, another Spanish territory. He crewed them with six hundred men, of the rough sort he knew best. The red-coat uniforms of Cromwell's army still struck fear into Spaniards, so Morgan arranged for his men to wear them.

In England, negotiations for peace with Spain were under way
and Governor Modyford had orders to cease all operations against the Spanish. He made the instructions clear to Morgan, and the admiral replied that he would observe them except for landing on Spanish coasts to replenish water and supplies. Morgan also added the caveat that he would of course respond if attacked, or to relieve a British settlement. With those somewhat dubious assurances, Morgan sailed in August 1670.

He sent one ship, the
Dolphin,
to the coast of Cuba, to gather intelligence on Spanish forces in those waters. The rest of his squadron anchored around Hispaniola, gathering fresh meat and water while he waited for other privateers who had promised to join him. Three French captains came from Tortuga to aid him against the Spanish and of course share the spoils. Morgan was a charismatic “pirate's pirate,” and national interest came second to the opportunity to sail with him.

The captain of the
Dolphin
met a Spanish ship in a bay off Cuba, and though the crew were outgunned, they attacked. The Spanish panicked, their captain was killed, and many jumped overboard. In the Spanish captain's cabin, Morgan's men found letters of marque from Panama, giving the Spanish authority to raid British ships and towns.

Governor Modyford sent five more privateer ships to join Morgan as they came back from taking the island of Grenada. By then he had the most powerful fleet of privateers ever assembled in the Caribbean. It was a chance to strike a crushing blow against Spanish power.

Morgan interrogated the prisoners taken by the
Dolphin
and learned that Cartagena and Panama were poorly defended. He allowed his captains the final choice, and they decided on Panama as the target. They set sail in December 1670, a fleet of some thirty-six ships and eighteen hundred men, including two or three hundred French. As it happened, peace with Spain had finally been agreed, but it took months for the news to reach the Caribbean and Morgan was not told by the time he set off.

His first stop was at Old Providence, to the north of Panama. It
was a well-fortified Spanish island, but with a small garrison. Morgan landed a thousand men, and the Spanish abandoned their gun battery. With Morgan's men pursuing them, they retreated to a smaller island only linked to Providence by a drawbridge. From there, they accepted Morgan's request to surrender peacefully, accompanied as it was by a threat of slaughter if they didn't.

The president of Panama, Don Juan Pérez de Guzmán, had been told that Morgan's fleet was on the way. On the north coast, he reinforced his garrisons with men and supplies of gunpowder, convinced that the English force could not break his defenses. His confidence was understandable. To reach Panama City on the south coast of the isthmus, Morgan's men would have to cross land that would one day become the site of the Panama Canal. It was dense jungle all the way, complete with deadly snakes and spiders as well as aggressive native tribes.

The jewel of Panama's fortifications was the fortress of San Lorenzo de Chagres, built on a sheer cliff and, at that time, filled with three hundred soldiers and native Indian bowmen. In addition, it had heavy artillery guns with which to hammer enemy ships. One of Morgan's captains, Joseph Bradley, came as close as he dared to survey the fort and decided it could only be taken from the land side. Bradley landed along the coast with 480 men and marched to a ravine leading to the rear of the fort. The drawbridge that was usually there had vanished. Spanish troops opened fire from the fort as Bradley looked into the ravine.

His men retreated out of range but were shamed in doing so. “Thoughts of disgrace and being reproached by our Friends on board” spurred Bradley's small force into a slow descent into the ravine. They endured enemy fire the whole way until they climbed the fortress side and attacked the main gate. Bradley himself was shot in the attempt, his legs badly crushed by a cannonball. The first assault was driven back, but his men were undeterred and returned again and again, firing their muskets and throwing primitive grenades at the walls. At least one of those began a fire in the fort that took hold
quickly. Wooden palisades burned to the ground, making a breach. Bradley's best marksmen then came forward and fired at anyone trying to quench the flames.

The Spanish garrison held their ground until Bradley sent a storming party armed with cutlasses and muskets. They forced their way in and the Spanish soldiers fled, leaving only the commandant, who continued to fight until he was shot. The fort was theirs. Bradley died of his wounds along with two officers and many of his men, but a crucial defense had been taken from Panama. Morgan flew the flag of England from the battlements of the fortress when he arrived in January 1671. He was only thirty-five miles from the fabled wealth of Panama City, though as yet he had no idea of the hostile nature of the terrain in between.

In January he and his men went inland by river until it became too shallow even for canoes. Morgan disembarked with the plan of marching across the isthmus for twenty-four miles through “wild woods where there was no path.” He took twelve hundred men with him, armed with just cutlasses and two muskets each. He was always a lucky man, and his good fortune continued as Spanish garrisons inland set fire to their own positions and abandoned them, believing he was coming with a much larger force.

It was hard going, as every step had to be cut in dense jungle. Morgan had a group of thirty men whose sole task was to hack through the vegetation. As workers on the canal would suffer in the nineteenth century, so his men were tormented by ticks and mosquitoes and terrified by poisonous spiders and snakes, all the while laboring in humid, stifling heat. Some of them grew sick and others fell in exhaustion and had to be sent back. By the sixth day, they had run out of food and were starving. They found some fruit and a planted field of maize, which they devoured like locusts before moving on.

On January 16 they were attacked by natives. The sight of half-naked tribesmen appearing and vanishing around them caused great fear in the ranks, but they fought them off, losing some thirty men in the process.

The next day they came across a village in the wilderness and found it burning. Morgan's men discovered jars of wine in the ruined houses and drank themselves sick. Around the same time, one of them was carried off as a prisoner and Morgan gave orders that any foraging party should be at least a hundred strong.

Ten days after leaving the fortress of Chagres, Morgan climbed a hill and saw the towers of Panama City in the distance. His men had survived the jungle, the attacks, and the heat. Even better, they came across a herd of cattle and shot enough to fill their bellies properly for the first time in days.

In the city, the Spanish were furious that Morgan's force had come so close. Yet they knew as well as anyone what Morgan's men had suffered to make the trip and fancied that their Spanish gentlemen would have no difficulty in bloodying their cavalry swords on a ragged group of exhausted, half-starved sailors.

As the sun rose, the cream of Spanish nobility rode to Morgan's camp, brandishing their swords and shouting elaborate and colorful insults. That task complete, they then rode away and Morgan ate breakfast with his men.

The Spanish had almost double Morgan's numbers, but his sailors were hard-bitten pirates, well used to hand-to-hand fighting. Morgan made a stern speech to them, ordering each man to make two pistols ready but not to fire until he did, or he would shoot them himself.

When his ragged crew formed up, the Spanish cavalry charged them with great excitement and war cries. Morgan waited until the enemy were almost on top of them before he fired both his pistols. The volley that followed completely destroyed the Spanish attack. The survivors fled in panic, and Morgan's men pursued them ruthlessly, for three miles, killing hundreds.

Morgan's men then entered Panama City and set fire to a great deal of it, burning the wooden houses to the ground. He sent another party to seize the ships in the city docks.

At that time, Panama City was a center of Spanish trade. Wealth mined in appalling conditions by slaves in Peru passed through the city, and rich families had collections of gold and silver plates. They
had removed some of it by sea when Morgan was still far off, but most of it was recovered when one of Morgan's captains, Robert Searle, captured a Spanish ship in the port and used it to hunt fleeing vessels. Searle missed the best prize of them all, a galleon stuffed with jewels and gold, when his men became drunk on wine they found. However, they captured another ship with twenty thousand pieces of gold on board. Exact estimates are difficult, as Morgan was required to pay a percentage to his superiors in Jamaica, so he was never likely to declare all of it.

Morgan stayed in the battered city for twenty days, removing everything of value and taking three thousand hostages for ransom. His men tortured some to find the location of their treasures, and Morgan was later criticized, though his officers were adamant that he was not responsible for the worst excesses of his men.

In February he and his men began the march back to Chagres. On the way he searched his prisoners and men for hidden loot. He even took his men's muskets apart to check that they had not stuffed jewels into
the barrels. This engendered much ill feeling toward him, but Morgan was not a man to let that sort of thing trouble him.

Copyright © 2009 by Graeme Neil Reid

When they returned to Chagres, Morgan announced to his men that the final division of spoils was only twenty pounds a head. Many of them were furious, and he lost a number of loyal captains. He returned to Jamaica with only eight ships but almost all of the plunder. In all, he brought back some £237,000 in gold as well as silk, silver plate, jewels, and lace to a similar value. In today's terms, that would be more than £100 million. It was Morgan's greatest success, but his troubles were just beginning.

 

As news spread of the attack on Panama, Governor Modyford found himself facing serious difficulties. The sack of the city had taken place during peace with Spain, and the Spanish court made angry demands for punishment of those involved. A new governor, Thomas Lynch, was appointed, and when he arrived in Jamaica, he moved quickly. Modyford was invited on board Lynch's ship and then told he was a prisoner and would be sent home in disgrace. Lynch also began to gather information on Henry Morgan and looked over the records of all the ships involved in the sack of Panama. At the same time he began to get reports of Spanish attacks on British territories in reprisal. He was in the same position as Modyford had been. Lynch had absolute authority in Jamaica but needed force and ships to impose it. Worse, war with Holland looked likely once again, and Lynch had to try to appease the Spanish. He had enough cause to arrest Morgan but resisted for a time, worried that such an act would send the privateers sailing away to Tortuga.

In London there were mixed feelings about the attack on Panama. Spain was an ancient enemy, and as one royal councillor said: “Such an action had not been done since the famous Drake.”

Modyford was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained for two years before being released. He would later return to Jamaica, where he would become chief justice.

In 1672, Morgan was finally taken “as his Majesty's prisoner.” He
sailed home in the frigate
Welcome,
accompanied by another privateer captain who had already been sentenced to death for piracy. His hopes depended on being able to convince the king that he had not known of the peace with Spain when he set sail.

He need not have worried. At home, his explanation was accepted and it was not long before he was advising the king. War with the Dutch broke out in 1672, and Morgan put forward plans to fortify Jamaica. In 1674 he was appointed deputy governor.

When Governor Lynch heard of Morgan's easy treatment, he was considerably vexed. His own commission as military commander in Jamaica was revoked, and to his fury, Morgan was granted the same powers and knighted. The war with the Dutch came to an abrupt end in 1674, and in 1675 Morgan left England for Jamaica once more in triumph. Modyford returned at around the same time, and they met with great pleasure in their old haunt.

At the first meeting of the council, Morgan had the document revoking Lynch's powers read aloud in Lynch's presence. He enjoyed confounding the man who had imprisoned Modyford and himself. He also appointed himself as part of a committee to audit Lynch's handling of the stores and munitions on Jamaica. Carelessly, he had made himself a dangerous enemy.

Morgan's position as a wolf in the sheepfold of power was always going to be difficult. When the new governor, Lord Vaughan, ordered him to punish privateer captains, Morgan chose to advise his old friends how to escape. He also used the governor's authority and name freely in letters to privateers, telling them to regard Jamaica as a safe port. When one of the letters turned up, Lord Vaughan brought charges against Morgan and Modyford.