“But the buccaneers were not to rest in peace. Fifty horsemen appeared, taunting and insulting the English just out of gunshot, and soon the big cannon of the forts began to thunder and roar and the shot fell all about the buccaneers’ camp. Soon thereafter a party of fully two hundred cavalry galloped across the fields from the town, and presently the buccaneers discovered that they were completely surrounded and, from being the besiegers they had been transformed into the besieged.
“But having done so much and survived, the rough corsairs gave no thought or worry to this and ‘began every one to open his satchel and without napkin or plate fell to eating very heartily the remaining pieces of bulls’ and horses’ flesh which they had reserved since noon. This being done they laid themselves down upon the grass with great repose and huge satisfaction, expecting only with impatience the dawning of the next day.’ Thus does Esquemeling describe that fateful [[99]]evening, the close of the day which foreshadowed the doom of the richest city of New Spain and which ere another sun set would be a blazing funeral pyre and a bloody shambles with the shrieks and screams of tortured beings rending the air and rising loud above the roaring of the flames.” [[100]]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACK OF PANAMA
“There’s something I’d like to ask, Uncle Henry,” said Fred, as Mr. Bickford paused in his narrative and reached for an old book. “You spoke of the British flag flying from San Lorenzo. I thought the pirates always used a black flag with a skull and bones.”
“And, Dad, how did they dress?” asked Jack. “Did they wear uniforms or did they dress like the pictures of pirates, with big earrings and handkerchiefs about their heads and their sashes stuck full of pistols and knives?”
“Those are questions well taken,” replied Mr. Bickford, “and really important if we are to understand the truth about the buccaneers and their lives. The ‘Jolly Roger’ was never the emblem of the ‘Brethren of the Main,’ as they called themselves, but later, after the buccaneers were dispersed and a few had turned out-and-out pirates, the black flag with its symbol of death became a recognized pirate standard. But in the heydey [[101]]of the buccaneers, when they attacked only Spanish ships and Spanish cities, they fought under the colors of their countries—British, French or Dutch, as the case might be, and very often, in one fleet, there would be ships under the various flags. In addition, each prominent buccaneer leader had his own colors—much as merchant shipowners have their house flags—which were flown on all the ships under the leader. The flag might be of almost any conventional design, but it was known and recognized by all the buccaneers.
“Thus, Bartholomew Sharp’s flag was a blood-red burgee bearing a bunch of white and green ribbons; Sawkins’ colors were a red flag striped with yellow; Peter Harris flew a plain green ensign; John Coxon used a plain red burgee; Cook used a red flag striped with yellow and bearing a hand with a sword; Hawkins’ was appropriately a red flag with a black hawk upon it and so on. In garments, the buccaneers were not by any means uniform or particular. The rank and file of sailors dressed in rough clothes, as a rule, like the ordinary seamen of their times, in loose knee trousers or ‘shorts,’ coarse shirts and low, heavy shoes on their bare feet and with knitted caps or bandannas on their heads. [[102]]Many wore the costume of the real buccaneers of the woods—rawhide shoes and leg coverings, leather jackets and trousers and palm hats, while the majority wore any odds and ends they could pick up. After a foray they often togged themselves out in the garments of their victims—brocades, silks and satins, gold lace and plumed hats, often stiff and caked with the life-blood of their late owners. But the ordinary buccaneer was a spendthrift drunkard ashore and any finery he possessed usually went to pay for his debaucheries before he had been on land twenty-four hours, after which he was left half naked. The leaders or captains, however, dressed like dandies. To be sure, their wardrobes were often made up of miscellaneous pieces looted from the wealthy Spaniards, and, like their men, they were not over particular as to the condition they were in, but they were more or less thrifty, had plenty of ready cash and spent small fortunes in buying the most brilliant and costly costumes and trappings. Here, for example, is a description of the costume worn by Morgan. ‘A fine linen shirt brave with Italian lace with velvet waistcoat of scarlet, much laced with gold and a plum-colored greatcoat reaching to his knees and with [[103]]great gold buttons fashioned from doubloons and trimmed with heavy braid of gold. Upon his legs, breeches of saffron silk, belaced like unto his shirt and ruffled, and hose of sky-blue silk. Soft top boots of red cordovan with huge buckles of silver beset with gems and his hat of Sherwood green belaced with gold and gemmed, and wherein was placed a crimson plume draping onto his shoulder. His periwig was lustrous brown and at his side he bore a Toledo rapier, jeweled at the hilt, on a belt of gray shagreen buckled with gold, and bore also a staff, gold headed and tasseled.’ Quite a striking figure, surely, reminding us of one of the ‘three musketeers.’ And here is the description of another buccaneer chieftain: ‘A long surtout of green satin with wide skirts slit far up the arms to give his muscles play. Breeches wide and short of bullock-blood satin and hose of canary silk.’ So you see the pirate or buccaneer of fiction is by no means typical of the real thing. However, in one respect they were all much alike. When on the ‘warpath,’ as we may say, they wore all the pistols and daggers they could stow in belts or sashes, they invariably carried heavy curved cutlasses with peculiar scallop shell-shaped hilts and, in addition, they [[104]]carried muskets slung over their shoulders with horns of powder and pouches of bullets. Moreover, men and officers alike were inordinately fond of gewgaws and jewelry, and rings in ears were almost universal, as they were with all seamen of their time and for years later.
“And now let us return to Morgan and his men encamped on the plain before ‘ye goodlye and statlye citie of Panama.’