A New Target
At this stage it is necessary to make an observation and an assumption. If we assume that, for the most part, Esquemeling’s account of the raids Morgan carried out on Puerto del Príncipe, Portobello and Panama City are roughly accurate, does it mean his references to the torture carried out by the buccaneers is also true?
In his book Harry Morgan’s Way, Dudley Pope states that Esquemeling didn’t like Morgan and so his account of his exploits was biased. Esquemeling maintains that in the raid on Portobello, which we will look at in later chapters, the buccaneers locked all the prisoners into one room in one of the castles and ‘instantly set fire to the powder (whereof they found great quantity) and blew up the whole castle in the air, with all the Spanish that were within.’1
But Pope sites a report from another expedition that took place some ten years later, where the author of the report saw the three castles as being very large and very strong, so this refutes Esquemeling’s account. The castles were not blown up. Nor does Morgan himself say this in his report.
With such poor takings from the raid on Puerto del Príncipe, the French who had been with Morgan decided to join forces with the legendary privateer Francois L’Olonais. He was renowned for his cruelty towards his prisoners and was the top privateer operating out of the French port of Tortuga. This departure dramatically reduced Morgan’s forces, but his fleet was increased when Captain Jackman arrived after having pillaged Campeachy and they joined forces.
Depending on which source one believes at this stage, Morgan was joined by Jackman while at Cow Island or he had sailed back into Port Royal, where he reported to Modyford and where he met with Jackman and persuaded him to join him to attack the next target. That target would be Portobello. When he set sail he was back up to strength with nine ships and more than 460 men.2
Whether they sailed from Port Royal or from Cow Island, before they even raised their sails Morgan had the difficult task of trying to bring the remaining men together. The disappointing raid on Puerto del Príncipe meant that many men decided to try their luck with the French or elsewhere and morale with the remaining English was at a very low ebb. Morgan rose to the challenge and, gathering them all around him, he spoke: ‘Morgan put spirit into them, saying he knew of ways of making them rich if only they would follow him. The high hopes Morgan held out made them agree.’3
Such was Morgan’s oratory skill, his charisma and strength, he managed to bring the men together and they all resolved to follow him, including the Campeachy privateers under Captain Jackman, even though at this juncture they did not know their destination. The lessons he’d learned from the raid on Puerto del Príncipe ensured that no one would know the destination or his plans until the very last minute.
Finally, in May 1668, the fleet set sail and a few days later they came in sight of the coast of Costa Rica. Still Morgan had not revealed his plans to either his captains or his men. They were all ‘being sustained only by the prospect of rich booty,’ writes Esquemeling.
They were about 120 miles west of Portobello, and anchored close to the Isla Largo Remo in a small inlet in Naos Bay, which now forms part of the northern end of the Panama Canal. As the ships rode their anchors Morgan called together his captains and outlined his plan, careful this time that they were not being overheard.
Some of the men protested at the intended target saying that they did not have the numbers to attack the city. Portobello was the third strongest city on the Spanish Main after Havana and Cartagena, and no fleet of ships could penetrate its harbour because of the sixty cannon that were in the three castles overlooking the entrance and the rest of the harbour. It would be suicide. Esquemeling tells us that Morgan’s response to the naysayers was, ‘If our numbers are small our hearts are great, and the fewer we are the better shares we shall have in the spoils.’ Once again, Morgan’s gift of oratory, his charisma and dynamic personality, shone through and the rest of the men unanimously agreed to the venture.
Morgan’s fleet had carried or towed behind them canoes for moving through shallow inlets and cays where their larger ships could not navigate. While these canoes were being readied for the journey six emaciated Englishmen—who had been prisoners of the Spanish and forced into hard labour—arrived, bringing much needed intelligence.4
According to some sources these men had been part of the original garrison at Old Providence before it had been retaken by the Spanish. Indeed, Morgan states this in his report. Their news was that levies were being raised throughout Panama ‘against Jamaica, and also by some prisoners who had made their escape from Providence that Prince Maurice and diverse Englishmen were kept in irons in the dungeon of the castle of the town, they thought it their duty to attempt that place.’5 This was in addition to the levies they had learned of during their siege of Puerto del Príncipe ‘that the like levy had been made in all the islands, and considerable forces were expected from Vera Cruz and Campeachy, with materials of war to rendezvous at the Havannah, and from Portobello and Cartagena to rendezvous at St Jago of Cuba, of which he immediately gave notice to Gov Modyford.’6
Armed with this information Morgan now had even greater justification for attacking Portobello. Morgan picks up the story:
So leaving their ships on 26 June, 40 leagues to leeward of Portobello at Bogata, they took to their canoes, twenty-three in number, and rowing along the coast landed at three o’clock in the morning, and made their way into the town.7
According to Esquemeling the place where they landed was the village of Estero Longa Lemo and from here they marched until they reached an outpost of Portobello, where they captured a sentry. The man guiding them was one of the six English prisoners; he knew the roads well as he had been working on them and the fortifications of the town. The buccaneers captured the sentry without firing a shot. They quickly bound him and took him to Morgan, ‘who questioned the sentry as to the arrangements of the town’s defences and the strength of the garrison, and the prisoner told what he knew.’8 With the bound sentry in front of them, the buccaneers marched for about fifteen minutes to the first castle, which they surrounded. Using the sentry as the go-between, Morgan demanded the garrison surrendered to him but they refused and instead began firing on the buccaneers. It was a lost cause. The castle would soon fall, but the firing had done one thing—it had raised the alarm for the rest of the town.
And seeing that they could not refresh themselves in quiet, they were enforced to assault the castle, which they took by storm, and found well supplied with ammunition and provisions, only undermanned, being about 130 men, whereof seventy-four killed, among which ‘the Castiliano’ was one.9
This castle was called San Geronimo. Now with the first castle in their possession the buccaneers made a terrifying discovery. In its dungeon were eleven English prisoners in chains who Morgan tells us had been there for two years. Indeed, these prisoners confirmed the story that:
a great man had been carried thence six months before to Lima of Peru [sic] who was formerly brought from Porto Rico, and also that the Prince of Monte Circa had been there with orders from the King of Spain to raise 2,200 men against us out of the Province of Panama which Portobello stands in, the certainty whereof was confirmed by all the grandees.10
The great man was Prince Maurice.
The detail for the raid on Portobello comes almost exclusively from Esquemeling and it is to him that we turn to once again. However, his bias towards Morgan is evident in his text. We already know that his reference to the first castle, known as San Geronimo, being blown up with the Spaniards inside was untrue because the castle was still intact some years later. That means that we have to take what he has written as being a little suspect. Unfortunately, Morgan did not provide the details in his report.
If we think back to the debacle of the English garrison on Old Providence, and the way in which the Spanish betrayed the prisoners by not acting honourably, the man behind that action was Sanchez, the mayor of Portobello. He was now in the second castle—Fort Triana, or Santiago, depending on the source—with hundreds of soldiers.
This castle was located in the town and overlooks the harbour. Morgan could not bring his ships into the harbour until its guns were silenced. The smaller castle, San Felipe, on the other side of the harbour, also covered the way in and it too needed to be captured. Morgan sent a section of men to take San Felipe while he concentrated most of his forces on Fort Triana.11
Having seen the state of the English prisoners they’d just freed from the larger castle, the buccaneers wanted revenge. While it is not evident they knew that Sanchez was in Fort Triana, one has to assume that the English prisoners knew this and had passed this information on to Morgan and his men. This would have given the buccaneers even more reason for taking Fort Triana to settle the old score over Old Providence. Their blood was up. So many of the buccaneers were excellent marksmen and ‘sharpshooters because of their earlier life and now they hid on the roofs of the houses round Triana and picked off the Spanish gunners as they reloaded and ran out their guns.’12
Esquemeling states that the battle raged all morning, with both sides trying to gain advantage.
Still the invaders could not conquer the fort. Their ships lay in the harbour mouth and no one could enter for the withering fire from the forts on both sides. Finally, as they had lost many men and were gaining no advantage, the buccaneers began throwing in hand grenades and endeavoured to burn down the gate of the fort. But when they came in close for this attack the Spaniards soon made them turn back, for they hurled down at least fifty pots full of gunpowder as well as huge stones, which did much damage among the raiders.
The fight was taking too long and Morgan had already lost good men. He needed something to rouse the men and make one last push. Those he had sent to take San Felipe came to his rescue when he and his buccaneers saw the English flag raised over this fort and its guns became silent. ‘They saw the English flag flying from the smaller fort and a troop of their fellows approaching, shouting “Victory!”,’ writes Esquemeling.
However, Fort Triana was still a problem, for not only was Sanchez in the castle but so were the leading citizens of Portobello, as Esquemeling explains, ‘with their gold and silver and jewels and the silver ornaments from the churches’.
Buoyed by the success of the men who had taken San Felipe, Morgan rallied his troops and ordered a dozen huge ladders to be built for scaling the walls of Fort Triana.
The chronology of events in this battle differs from source to source. For example, Stephen Talty, in his book Empire of Blue Water, states that San Felipe Castle was not taken by the buccaneers until the following day. Indeed, he says that the flag that was raised was the red flag, which stood for no quarter. ‘The men swarmed over the ramparts and cut down the last of the defenders in their section of the castle, then raised the infamous red flag.’13 So this means the flag that the English saw was not at San Felipe but in another section of Santiago (Fort Triana) because the main body of men were still ‘assaulting the front gate of the castle and soon joined up with their compatriots. Seventy-four of the Spanish defenders lay dead, including the castellan.’14
Talty’s account is based on Esquemeling’s, as well as on Spanish reports, so there is likely considerable accuracy in his detail. However, if we go back to the account of the battle as detailed by Pope in his book Harry Morgan’s Way, which is similar to Esquemeling’s, we come to a part in the story that is contentious.
Morgan had a dozen huge ladders made, broad enough for four men to climb at the same time. He fetched out all the monks and nuns, and the Governor was informed that unless he surrendered the fort these people would be made to set the scaling ladders against its walls.
The governor replied that the buccaneers would not take the fort as long as he was alive. So, according to Esquemeling, the ladders were indeed brought out, ‘carried by the monks, priests and women, urged on by the buccaneers, who never thought the governor would fire on his own people—but he spared them as little as he had the raiders.’ Their cries for the governor to give up the castle fell on deaf ears and the governor ordered his men to open fire.
But Captain Morgan was fully deceived in his judgment of this design for the Governor, who acted like a brave soldier in performance of his duty, used his utmost endeavour to destroy whosoever came near the walls. The religious men and women ceased not to cry to him and beg of him, by all the saints of heaven, to deliver the castle, and spare both his and their own lives; but nothing could prevail with his obstinacy and fierceness.
Many of these individuals were killed but the ladders were placed against the walls and the buccaneers swarmed up them, ‘having fireballs in their hands, and earthen pots full of powder; all which things, being now at the top of the walls, they kindled and cast in among the Spaniards.’
The interesting point about this part of the story, where Morgan effectively uses the priests and nuns as human shields, is that Morgan later won a libel suit over Esquemeling’s publishers, which we will look at in detail later. So this particular incident may or may not have any foundation in truth—yet it remains in most translations.
Esquemeling provides us with the detail of the end of the battle:
The Spaniards could no longer resist nor defend the castle, which was now entered. Hereupon they all threw down their arms, and craved quarter for their lives; only the governor of the city would crave no mercy, but killed many of the pirates with his own hands and not a few of his own soldiers; because they did not stand to their arms. And though the pirates asked him if he would have quarter; yet he constantly answered, ‘By no means, I had rather die as a valiant solider, than be hanged as a coward.’ They endeavoured as much as they could to take him prisoner, but he defended himself so obstinately, that they were forced to kill him, notwithstanding all the cries and tears of his own wife and daughter, who begged him, on their knees, to demand quarter, and save his life.
According to Esquemeling, by night of the first day the buccaneers had taken all three castles. Remember that Talty states they had yet to take San Felipe. Indeed, his account states that Morgan sent 200 men to take that fort, which was held by a handful of Spaniards, and after a brief fight the castellan surrendered it to Morgan under generous terms of capitulation.15
But the buccaneers, states Talty, reneged on the terms of surrender, which allowed the Spaniards to leave the fort with their muskets and flags flying. They were stripped of everything but their swords, and the castellan, now weighed down by guilt, asked for a vial of poison, which he was given and he drank it.16
With the town now in their hands, Esquemeling states that the buccaneers ‘fell to eating and drinking, as usual; that is committing in both all manner of debauchery and excess, so that fifty courageous men might easily have retaken the city, and killed all the pirates.’
Pope suggests that Esquemeling now enters the realm of fantasy because he states that Morgan’s men, unable to extort riches from their prisoners, began to torture them, and some died under this treatment. Talty does not mention this in his book either.
Panama City was not much more than 70 miles away and had been alerted to the attack on Portobello by a Spanish horseman who had escaped and managed to get to Panama. Esquemeling states that this rider alerted the viceroy of the Province of Panama, Don Juan Perez de Guzman, who then began to raise an army of 3,000 men and set out to retake Portobello.
He employed all his care and industry to raise forces to pursue and cast out the pirates thence; but these cared little for his preparations having their ships at hand, and determining to fire the city, and retreat.
Stephan Talty tells us that the person alerted was the president of Panama, Don Agustin de Bracamonte, and it was he who sent drummers through the streets of Panama trying to drum up enough men for the army to take back Portobello. He also states that Bracamonte had 800 men at his disposal, who immediately left for Portobello without the necessary provisions to keep them sustained. The provisions caught up later.17
The story that Esquemeling tells at this point is that Morgan had all the loot they’d gathered loaded onto the ships, which had been sailed into the harbour. With all three castles now in his hands, Morgan turned to the prisoners and demanded 100,000 pieces of eight as a ransom for the town, or he would burn it to the ground. To get the money, he demanded the prisoners send two men to the president of Panama. The president was already on the march with his forces when these two men arrived and gave him ‘an account of all’.
Morgan was alerted to the oncoming army marching over the mountains and through the jungles towards them by the native Indians, who, as we have seen, were no friends of the Spanish. The Spanish treated the Indians very badly and many of the various buccaneers on expeditions in this part of the Spanish Main had made friends with the disgruntled Indians. Hearing of the approaching army, Morgan decided to lead a force of approximately 100 men into the jungle, down the only passable road (not much more than a track) up to a narrow pass where he knew the oncoming forces would have to go through. Here he set up an ambush and waited.18
It wasn’t long before the forward sentries he’d posted announced the Spanish forces were massing in the narrow passage. The Spanish had no chance against Morgan’s well-armed men, who ‘at the first encounter put to flight a good party of those of Panama,’ writes Esquemeling.
After this ambush the Spanish had no real force left to take back Portobello. They would have to give in to Morgan’s demands. So for the final word on this action we will turn to Morgan himself, who states:
On the fifth day arrived the President of Panama with about 3,000 men; whom they beat off with considerable damage, insomuch that next day he proffered 100,000 pieces of eight for delivery of the town, castles, and 300 negroes, which being paid, they repaired on board leaving the town and castles in as good condition as they found them.19
Part of the loot that Morgan loaded onto his ships was the brass cannon they’d found in the castles. ‘In the first castle there were thirty brass guns besides iron, in the second, thirteen, all brass, and in the third, fourteen guns.’ This is quite likely the reason why it took so long to load the booty into the ships.
The handing over of the money was not quite as sudden as Morgan claims. According to Stephen Talty there was considerable negotiation between him and the Spaniards (under Bracamonte). The sum that Morgan demanded was 350,000 pesos. Negotiations went back and forth until the sum of 100,000 pesos in cash was finally agreed upon. Esquemeling picks up the story:
Thus in a few days more the miserable citizens gathered the contributions required, and brought 100,000 pieces of eight to the pirates for a ransom of their cruel captivity: but the President of Panama was much amazed to consider that 400 men could take such a great city, with so many strong castles, especially having no ordnance, wherewith to raise batteries.
With the money agreed and received—gold coins and silver—and the rest of the loot loaded onto the ships, Morgan and his men sailed away from Portobello. Their haul amounted to more than 250,000 pieces of eight plus the money they would receive from the sale of goods such as cloth, linen and silks, as well as the slaves they’d taken. At their prearranged rendezvous point off Cuba, the buccaneers divided up their plunder and set sail for Jamaica.
Morgan had shown the Spanish that he could attack their heart with virtual impunity and how vulnerable the Spanish were.
They further declared to the world that in all this service of Portobello, they lost but eighteen men killed and thirty-two wounded, and kept possession of the place thirty-one days; and for the better vindicating themselves against the usual scandals of that enemy, they aver that having several ladies of great quality and other prisoners they were proffered their liberty to go to the President’s camp, but they refused, saying they were now prisoners to a person of quality, who was more tender of their honours than they doubted to find in the President’s camp among his rude Panama soldiers, and so voluntarily continued with them till the surrender of the town and castles, when with many thanks and good wishes they repaired to their former houses.20