Before landing the main body of the buccaneers on the Isthmus, Morgan determined to capture the castle of San Lorenzo, which guarded the mouth of the Chagre River. For this purpose he despatched a squadron of five vessels with four hundred men[XXVIII‑12] under Captain Bradley, remaining himself at Santa Catarina with the rest of his forces, in order to mask his main design. The castle was built on a high rock, steep enough to render it inaccessible on the southern side, and was protected on the north by the river, which widens at that point. Four bastions mounted with artillery guarded the approaches by land, and two faced seaward. At the foot of the rock were three batteries which commanded the mouth of the Chagre. At the outlet of the river is a sunken reef and a sand-bar, over which the breakers roll for almost the entire width. Only in the calmest weather can one detect a narrow passage close under the precipice, whose height is still crowned by the ruins of the castle of San Lorenzo. The fortress was surrounded with palisades, filled in with earth, and its single entrance could be approached only by a drawbridge which spanned a crevasse in the rock thirty feet in depth. The garrison consisted of three hundred and fourteen well armed and veteran troops, and a party of expert Indian bowmen under as gallant an officer as ever drew sword.
A GALLANT DEFENCE.
Bradley saw that the stronghold could be assailed only from the land side, and anchored his vessels in a small bay at a short distance from the outlet of the river. The freebooters went ashore soon after midnight, and after cutting their way through woods tangled with undergrowth, and scaling precipitous rocks, debouched about two in the afternoon on an open space within gunshot of the fort and advanced to the attack. The garrison at once opened on them a hot fire, crying out: "Come on, ye cursed English dogs, and let your companions that are behind you come on; you shall not get to Panamá this bout." The assailants suffered severely and were driven back to the shelter of the woods; but returning at nightfall came close up to the edge of the crevasse and attempted to burn down the palisades which bordered the opposite verge. Guided by the light of the fireballs the Spaniards plied them incessantly with musketry and artillery and the Indians discharged their arrows with hardly less effect. Men fell fast, and Bradley had both his legs taken off by a round shot. The buccaneers were sorely distressed and well nigh despaired of success, when a lucky stroke turned the scale in their favor. One of their party, being pierced with an arrow, plucked it forth and winding it round with cotton, shot it back from his musket toward the fortress, where it lighted on a house[XXVIII‑13] thatched with palm leaves. The cotton, ignited by the flash of the powder, set fire to the roof. The flames were unnoticed until beyond control, and spreading rapidly soon exploded a package of gunpowder. The besieged now bent all their efforts to stay the conflagration and the freebooters crowded into the crevasse, and mounting on each other's shoulders burnt down the stakes of the palisades.
By daybreak the castle was almost a ruin, and the earth which supported the palisades had fallen into the crevasse, filling it in places to a level with the surface. A murderous fire was poured on the defenders till noon, when the assailants advanced to storm the breach. Many of the Spaniards hurled themselves down the steep side of the rock, preferring death to surrender. The governor, at the head of a handful of men, still maintained a hopeless struggle, but a musket-ball through the head soon laid him low, and all resistance was at an end. Only thirty of the garrison were found alive; among them not a single officer, and scarcely a dozen unwounded men. The prisoners gave information that news of the intended raid had reached Panamá by way of Cartagena several weeks previously; that a deserter from the expedition, when at the Rio Hacha, had also revealed Morgan's design; that messengers had been despatched by the governor of the fortress to the president, with news of the invaders' approach; that ambuscades were already posted at several points on the banks of the Chagre, and that the president with the main body of his forces awaited their approach on the plains surrounding Panamá.
The Spaniards were ordered to throw down their dead to the foot of the castle rock, and there to bury them. A neighboring church served as a hospital for the wounded, and a prison-house for the captured women, who were subjected as usual to foul outrage and defilement, daughters being violated in presence of their mothers, and wives before their husbands—pantomimes of hell performed within the walls of a sanctuary.
UP THE CHAGRE.
On receiving news of the capture of San Lorenzo, the commander of the buccaneers gave orders that all the houses on the isle of Santa Catarina should be burned to the ground, and that the fortifications on the adjacent islet should be destroyed, with the exception of one of the strongest castles, which he reserved for future occupation. Casting the guns of the fortress into the sea, and placing his prisoners on board the fleet, he set sail for the mainland, and arrived off the mouth of the Chagre in January 1671. Overjoyed at seeing the English colors flying from the fort, the freebooters, through careless navigation, lost four of their ships on the sunken rock at the entrance of the river, but prizes were made of several large flat-bottomed boats, and of a number of canoes built specially for the navigation of the stream. Five hundred men were left as a garrison for the castle, and one hundred and fifty as a guard for the fleet; the captives were ordered to repair the breaches in the fortress; and the main body of the adventurers, at least twelve hundred strong,[XXVIII‑14] started on their expedition against Panamá. Morgan gave orders that no provisions should be taken but a slender stock of maize, barely sufficient for a single day's rations. He told his men that, their means of conveyance being limited, they must not encumber themselves with unnecessary baggage, for they would soon replenish their supplies from the magazines of the Spaniards, who lay in ambush along the route. Moreover, the detachment left behind at San Lorenzo numbered with the prisoners over 1,000 persons, and the entire supply was hardly enough for their subsistence until his return.
The journey was begun in boats and canoes, and notwithstanding a rapid current and a want of skill in managing the overloaded vessels, about six leagues were made the first day. So little did the freebooters know of the impediments they were soon to encounter in their ascent of the stream, that they took with them five large scows laden with artillery and ammunition. A few of the party went ashore at night to search for food, as their scanty allowance of maize was soon devoured, but nothing eatable was discovered and most of the buccaneers lay down to rest supperless with nothing but a pipe of tobacco to appease their hunger.
On the second evening they arrived at a spot where the river-bed was shoal from drought, and choked with fallen trees. The guides assured them that a few miles beyond they would find no difficulty in continuing their route, either by land or water, and next morning, leaving a strong guard over their vessels, they attempted to make their way through the forests that skirt the banks of the Chagre. The trees were matted with vines, and the spaces between them filled with a dense wall of tropical undergrowth, in places impenetrable to sight. Most of the men were ordered to return to the river, and leaving there the scows with the artillery they managed to drag their canoes over the shallow places, a portion of them embarking wherever the water was of sufficient depth. The remainder cut a passage through the woods with extreme difficulty, and on the following afternoon all assembled on the bank of the stream, where they passed the night without food, benumbed with cold, and unable to sleep.
HUNGER AND HARDSHIPS.