Learning that a treaty was being negotiated between Spain and Great Britain, which would soon put an end to further raids, the buccaneers were eager that some new expedition should be at once organized on a larger scale, and with more ambitious intent than any before undertaken. Morgan readily agreed to take command, and sending despatches to the veteran freebooters quartered in Santo Domingo and Tortuga to acquaint them with his purpose, appointed as a rendezvous Port Corillon in the island of Vache, where by the end of October 1670 his followers had assembled in force.
The first care was to obtain a supply of provisions, and for this purpose hunting parties were sent forth daily to scour the woods, while a squadron of four vessels with four hundred men under the command of Captain Bradley[XXVIII‑5] was despatched to the mainland, to obtain supplies of wheat or maize. Entering the mouth of the Rio Hacha, about fifty leagues to the north-west of the lake of Maracaibo, Bradley captured a vessel laden principally with cereals, received four thousand bushels of maize as ransom from a village on the bank of the river, and with other booty and a number of prisoners returned after an absence of five weeks.[XXVIII‑6]
Morgan next sailed for Cape Tiburon, where reënforcements from Jamaica joined the expedition, and he now found at his disposal a fleet of thirty-seven ships and a force of two thousand fighting men.[XXVIII‑7]
PIRACY PAPERS.
His largest vessel carried twenty-four heavy guns and six small brass cannon;[XXVIII‑8] many of the others were armed with sixteen to twenty, and none with less than four pieces of ordnance. Morgan assumed the title of admiral; the royal banner of England was hoisted from the main-mast of his flag-ship; and commissions[XXVIII‑9] were given to the officers, authorizing the capture of Spanish vessels either at sea or in harbor, and all manner of hostilities against the Spanish nation, as against the declared enemies of the king of Great Britain.
Articles of agreement were signed stipulating that those who were maimed or had distinguished themselves in action should receive compensation or reward from the first proceeds of the raid, and that the remainder should be distributed according to the rank or office of the members of the expedition.[XXVIII‑10]
The three most tempting prizes on the Spanish mainland were Panamá, Vera Cruz, and Cartagena. A council was summoned on board the admiral's ship, and it was decided that Morgan, fulfilling the promise he had made at Portobello, should show Don Juan Perez de Guzman, president of Panamá, the use the buccaneers made of their weapons.
It happened that the isthmus of Darien was little known to any of these sea-rovers, and before venturing on the mainland it was determined to capture the isle of Santa Catarina, which was then used as the penal settlement of the Spanish West Indies, and contained among its garrison men serving out their sentence under ban from Panamá. Among these outlaws some would no doubt be found who were well acquainted with the approaches to that city.
Setting sail from Cape Tiburon on the 16th of December, the fleet anchored off Santa Catarina the fifth day, and on the same afternoon the freebooters landed without opposition. The garrison and inhabitants had retired to a small adjacent islet defended by ten castles which, with a resolute defence, would have been impregnable; but the governor, when summoned to capitulate, consented on condition that he should be allowed to depart unmolested after making a show of resistance. A sham fight was maintained by night for several hours, and no powder was spared.[XXVIII‑11] The buccaneers fired with blank cartridge, and the Spaniards were ordered to train their guns so that the shot whistled harmless overhead. The place was then surrendered, the prisoners were mustered and disarmed, and the freebooters, having fasted for twenty-four hours, waged war in earnest on the cattle, poultry, and game which they found in the neighborhood. Three outlaws from Panamá, two of them Indians and one a mulatto, all well acquainted with the most favorable routes, were delivered up as guides. The Indians, aware that their own countrymen would suffer from the raid in common with the Spaniards, feigned ignorance, but were betrayed by the mulatto and put to the torture. One of them died on the rack, and the survivor then confessed that he knew the roads, and consented to serve his captors.
CASTLE OF SAN LORENZO.