Chapter 10

Attack on Maracaibo

Gave him account about a month since of the unhappy blowing up of the Oxford frigate and the taking of M. La Vivon, of the Cour Volant, of eighteen guns, which was condemned as a pirate; she is now called the Satisfaction, and victualled for four months, to go as a privateer against the Spaniards in the Bay of Campeachy.

With the destruction of the Oxford, Morgan now had to change his plans. The firepower he needed to take Cartagena disappeared when the frigate blew up. It had only been in the service of Jamaica for a few months and now Morgan had to contend with a smaller fleet with fewer men and less firepower than he had with the Oxford, so that meant Cartagena was out of the question.

Rallying the fleet, Morgan sent out a call for more privateers to join him on his expedition. The primary means of doing this was by sending the Satisfaction back to Jamaica. Morgan hoped the men on that ship would send the word out to the privateers in Port Royal, Tortuga and beyond with a message to meet him at the new rendezvous point at the Isle of Savona a month later.

Morgan and the rest of his fleet left Cow Island and sailed into the teeth of a strong easterly wind that delayed his journey round the False Cape and Punta Beata by three weeks, exhausting their food and water. With his provisions so low and his men weak he had no choice but to land near Santo Domingo, where, Esquemeling states, Morgan ordered some of the men from the ships to go inland to find water and provisions.

But it was not that easy. His men killed many cattle and while they did they were watched all the time by the Spaniards, who had set a trap by ‘gathering a great herd of cows, and set two or three men to keep them. The pirates, having spied them, killed a sufficient number, and though the Spaniards could see them at a distance, yet they could not hinder them at present, but as soon as they attempted to carry them away, they set upon them furiously,’ writes Esquemeling. This running fight meant that the buccaneers had to flee. But they did so by degrees, taking enough meat with them that could be salted away in casks on board the ships. According to Esquemeling, many Spanish were killed in these attacks.

He tried again to resupply by sending a mission to Hispaniola, but the men on this mission returned empty-handed having been harried by a large contingent of Spanish soldiers.

When the fleet finally arrived at the Isle of Savona they were very weak. Since leaving Cow Island they had been heading windward, their ships battered and beaten by high rolling seas that pitched the ships violently. The men had been constantly working to keep their vessels afloat. Most of the ships in the fleet were small, as Dudley Pope states, they were little more than ‘large boats whose crew had to spend most of their time at the pumps or bailing with calabash shells.’1 The men were exhausted, their clothes constantly soaked and their provisions difficult to keep from spoiling in such small vessels because of the lack of cabins or shelter.

However, once they arrived at the anchorage at Savona, Morgan’s heart must have fallen, for there were no other privateers there waiting to join him. ‘Having hitherto resolved to cruise on the coasts of Caraca, and to plunder the towns and villages there, finding himself at present with such small forces he changed his resolution by advice of a French captain in his fleet.’

At this juncture it is worth reiterating that the only real eyewitness account we have of Morgan’s actions on this part of his expedition comes from Esquemeling.2 However, to use the vernacular, he is the only game in town. Yet at the heart of his book is the character of Morgan himself: the man we seek, the kind of leader he was and that he was a man of his age.

No one today could do what Morgan did. He stood astride the line between law and order and criminal behaviour. Esquemeling refers to him as a pirate, which infers that he was, like Blackbeard, a common criminal. But Morgan was not a criminal; he was a military man and his actions, as we have seen, were entirely against an enemy of England.

While the detail of the Maracaibo raid comes primarily from Esquemeling, the character of Morgan and his actions should be evaluated in an objective light, taking Esquemeling’s bias against Morgan away. So while Esquemeling is the primary source to understand the essence of Morgan it is necessary to look at this account through the eyes of other historians.

The French captain referred to by Esquemeling had been on an expedition to Maracaibo with the brutal French buccaneer Francis L’Ollonais. The city was attacked on that raid by a fleet of eight ships and 650 men, the unknown French captain advised Morgan. As a result of that attack, this French captain knew ‘all the entries, passages, forces and means, how to put in execution the same again.’3

image

Map of Lake Maracaibo with Guajira and Paraguana peninsulas and Nederlandse Antillen in the French language.

Having listened to the advice from the French captain, Morgan decided to head for Maracaibo. He put the proposal to the rest of his captains and they all agreed. The plan as outlined by the Frenchman was a good one. The people of Maracaibo had not been attacked since L’Ollonais had raided them and they would be complacent. Indeed, they may even have seen that attack as a unique event, one that couldn’t happen again because the defences were better now and no one could get past them. It couldn’t happen again, could it?

In his biography of Morgan, Dudley Pope describes the course that Morgan’s fleet would have to take and the geography of the area to get to Maracaibo. The goal was to sail for the Dutch Island of Curaçao in the Gulf of Venezuela. This coastline, which runs east and west, and was at the time the coast of the province of Caracas (Venezuela), borders with Columbia at its western end. Here the Gulf of Venezuela ‘funnels down at its inshore side to become a narrow channel, like the neck of a flask, and then opens out again into the almost circular Lake of Maracaibo.’4

Having agreed the plan the fleet now weighed anchor and set sail for Curaçao. Fifty miles west of Curaçao, and almost exactly in the centre of the entrance to the Gulf of Venezuela, lies the island of Aruba. The journey from Savona to Curaçao was 400 miles and when Morgan sighted the Dutch island, instead of heading for it, he turned the fleet towards Aruba and anchored there for a couple of days. According to Esquemeling, this island had a small garrison to defend it and it was primarily populated with Indians who were under Spanish rule. ‘The Inhabitants exercise commerce or trade with the pirates that go or come this way: they buy of the islanders sheep, lambs and kids, which they exchange for linen, thread and like things,’ writes Esquemeling.5 He also states that the island was very dry and barren but was full of dangerous insects, snakes and spiders.

Morgan purchased sheep, lamb and wood for his fleet and then two days after arriving he quietly ordered the anchors to be raised and the fleet slipped out of the anchorage under the cover of night, ‘to the intent they might not see what course he steered.’

Morgan headed for the western side of the Gulf, keeping well out of sight of the Spanish forts and watchtowers along the coast. He continued south, towards the channel that led to Maracaibo. At this point finding the channel became a little more difficult, for the coast along this section of the Gulf consisted of low, long sandy beaches where the surf would break more than a mile from shore, so there were few landmarks for a navigator to find his way towards the channel. After some time, they sighted the village of Sinamaica, which the French captain had been able to identify. Morgan decided to anchor his fleet for the night.

Inside the channel are three islands that Pope tells us almost close it off. They are San Carlos, Bajo Seco and Zapara. These islands ‘were low and sandy, fringed here and there with mangroves.’6 The water level in the channel itself is quite low, 12 feet or less, and the channel at the time when Morgan attacked twisted and turned in a series of bends between the three islands. The most difficult to navigate was the channel around Seco as this island was not much more than a sandy cay. The difficulty lay in the shallow bank of quicksand that ran from Seco to Zapara, which also bore the brunt of the sea and was known as the Bar of Maracaibo.

Morgan raised anchor at dawn and the little fleet headed towards San Carlos, the first of the three islands. However, they soon discovered that the Spanish had not been idle since the attack by L’Ollonais. They’d erected a fort on the island, whose guns covered the channel. Because of the low terrain, Morgan’s fleet was discovered by the garrison in the fort shortly after they set sail. Stephen Talty tells us that Morgan’s flagship was the Lilly, a frigate of fourteen guns. But it would be no match for the Spanish guns in the fort. While the location of the fort was excellent, the Spanish had failed to provide the necessary resources to make it a viable defence.

Inside, there were just nine men, no doubt astonished by the sudden appearance of the long-dreaded privateers in their peaceful cay. But they knew their duty and began furiously loading and firing the eleven guns as Morgan sailed up to the beach and offloaded his men in the teeth of the barrage, while his gunners provided covering fire.7

Morgan knew there was no way they could navigate the channel with the Spanish guns raining fire on them. The guns had to be silenced and the fort taken so the attack on the fort was carried out.

However, it was slow going as on the beach where the men landed there was virtually no cover for the buccaneers, who slowly began working their way forward towards the fort. Spanish cannon balls smashed into the sand near the buccaneers as they ran for the only cover they could find, a sandy ridge. According to Esquemeling, ‘the dispute continued very hot on both sides.’

In the late afternoon a gale blew up, which whipped sand into the buccaneers’ faces, stinging their eyes, clogging their muskets and pistols while the Spanish continued firing. To the Spanish gunners, the buccaneers below were no more than blurred shapes in the flying sand and grit whipped up by the gale. Still they continued to fire. In addition to this the buccaneers had to contend with the muggy and intense tropical heat. Yet, according to Esquemeling, Morgan and his men ‘managed the fight with great courage from morning till dark at night.’

Morgan had not stayed in his ship and sent the men out to take the fort under the command of one of his captains. He was leading this attack himself. It is crucial to point this out because had he not been there it is very likely that his men, upwards of 200 in number, would have been killed if not for his bravery and courage.

As darkness fell, Morgan moved quickly and quietly towards the walls of the fort, expecting the crack of musket fire at any moment. But the Spanish guns were silent. Perhaps the gunners had had enough and were tired from the day-long battle. Morgan moved around the walls of the fort looking for a way in and finally he found one. A gate had been left open. He stepped quickly inside and, ‘having examined, he found nobody in it, the Spaniards having deserted it not long before.’ There was good reason for the Spaniards to desert the place. As his men quickly joined him and they moved deeper into the building they soon found ‘a match lighted near a train of powder, to have blown up the pirates and the whole fortress as soon as they were in it,’ Esquemeling writes.8 He states that the match had been rigged to burn for fifteen minutes before igniting the powder and blowing up the fort. With only minutes to spare, Morgan grabbed the lit match and stamped it out, saving the lives of him and all his men. How did he know there was a burning match there and where he could find it? According to Dudley Pope, he recognized the smell of a slow-burning match and was able to pinpoint its location.

Whatever legendary status Admiral Morgan had at this point with the buccaneers, and it was growing all the time, this action would have given it a real boost.

What had happened to the Spanish gunners manning the fort? ‘They’d jumped into a boat and headed into town to raise the alarm.’9

Of course, this meant that Morgan had lost the edge of surprise but this loss was softened by the huge quantities of powder that they found in the fort. They found sixteen guns, ranging from 12- to 24-pounders, and proceeded to spike (or nail) them so they could not be used by the Spanish to blast the fleet on their way out of the channel. Spiking, or nailing, a gun usually meant hammering a nail into the touch hole to completely block it and then cutting the head of the nail off. This procedure meant that the only way the gun could be cleared and made usable again was by drilling the nail out of the touch hole, which quite often made the touch hole too large or damaged it.

In addition to the powder, Esquemeling tells us they also ‘found many muskets and other military provisions.’ These provisions included holsters for the pistols, rests for the muskets, spare ramrods and flints. With the guns spiked, sentries posted and muskets and military provisions made ready for carrying aboard the fleet the next day, Morgan and his men slept securely in the shelter of the fort.

The next day they commanded the ships to enter the bar, among which they divided the powder, muskets and other things found in the fort: then they embarked again to continue their course towards Maracaibo but the waters being very low, they could not pass a certain bank at the entry of the lake.10

The bank that Esquemeling refers to is a bank of deadly quicksand, which meant they could not navigate the channel using their fleet. Morgan turned to his old tried and true tactic—canoes. These were quickly lowered into the water and the men clambered into them, loading them with as much as they required for the upcoming operations. Slowly, they ‘rowed into a stiff wind and soon found the shore at the foot of the fort named de la Barra.’11

As with the previous day, they landed on shore and began approaching the fort cautiously, and as quietly as possible, keeping low as they moved forward. The same scenario from the day before now played out again as they reached the fort, ‘which they found as the precedent, without any person in it, for all were fled into the woods, leaving also the town without any people.’12

This fort defended the city, which was also silent and empty, its streets bereft of any kind of movement. According to Esquemeling, the first thing Morgan did was send out search parties throughout the town looking for Spanish soldiers or snipers who may still be hiding and waiting to attack. But they found nothing.

Morgan’s men then left their boats and began choosing ‘what houses they pleased to themselves, the best they could find’. The main church in the town was taken over as Morgan’s headquarters. With the town secure Morgan sent out more than a hundred men to look for people, the wealthiest and most influential of the town, to find out where they had hidden their valuables. The following day the men returned with fifty mules and thirty prisoners. ‘On these innocent wretches they exercised the most horrible torments, thereby endeavouring to extort a confession, where the rest of the inhabitants, and their riches were concealed.’13

The above quote comes from Charles Leslie’s book, A New History of Jamaica, which was published in 1740, after Esquemeling’s book, and much of his account of the exploits of Morgan and his men is based on Esquemeling’s. It is his account that tells us these prisoners were tortured, put on the rack, by the buccaneers. Some of the tortures included stretching their limbs with cords and then beating them with sticks while others were placing lit matches under the fingernails of the prisoners, which were then allowed to burn. ‘Others had slender cords or matches twisted about their heads, till their eyes burst out.’ Those who had nothing to say or had no fortune to hand over died. ‘These tortures and racks continued for three whole weeks, in which time they sent out daily parties to seek for more people to torment and rob, they never returning without booty and new riches.’14

However, as this book is about the character of Morgan, this barbarous activity needs to be taken seriously. Was he aware of it? Did he order it to take place? Did he participate in this cruelty? Were his captains, the men under his command, involved in organizing this torture or was it set up and carried out at a much lower level of command?

In this passage, as in other passages where Esquemeling accuses the buccaneers of torture and cruelty, he does not explicitly mention Morgan as taking part. Whether or not Morgan was aware of it, or ordered it, or rather just let it happen and ensured he had no direct part in it is something we will never really know for sure.

Dudley Pope points out that the rack and other instruments of torture were not things that the buccaneers brought with them. They were already there in the town, just as they would have been in any other town across the Spanish Main. They were there for the Spanish administration and religious leaders to use on their own people, to keep the population in check.15

It is likely that Morgan took a house in Maracaibo for himself while supervising operations in the town. He would have spent a large amount of time in the church, which Esquemeling said was set up as a headquarters or ‘common corps du guard’. Therefore there is a possibility that Morgan may not have heard the screams of the prisoners being tortured as the rack could have been in another building in another part of the town. In his earlier raids we have seen him treat his prisoners with respect and honour, especially the ladies, so people being tortured may not have been Morgan’s decision.

After three weeks, Morgan had about a hundred of the most influential and wealthiest families of the town along with their valuables and goods. Anything else of value that the buccaneers could find had been stripped out of the town and loaded onto their ships, which by this time had managed to navigate the bar and had anchored off Maracaibo. Every day, canoes loaded with booty and provisions went out to the ships. Cattle were killed, salted and loaded on board.

But Morgan was restless. He decided that he’d taken all that he could from the people and town of Maracaibo and set his sights on sailing south into the Lake of Maracaibo to ‘look for purchase’. The French captain who had sailed with L’Ollonais knew Gibraltar at the far end of the lake and was sure that he could guide Morgan and the fleet to that town, which was wealthy and ripe for the picking.

Listening to the Frenchman’s advice, Morgan and his captains decided on a course of action. They would set sail for Gibraltar. Morgan ordered the fleet to be ready to sail. Soon they weighed anchor and left Maracaibo. This was the point at which things began to go wrong.