The buccaneers pitched their camp near the brow of a hill in full view of the plain. There were yet two hours of daylight, and the Spanish artillery at once opened on them with round shot, but at too long range to take effect. Morgan posted his sentries without the least misgiving, and his men, after making their supper on the remnants of the noonday meal, threw themselves upon the ground to obtain what rest they could.
As soon as the first gleam of dawn heralded the approach of the last day the doomed city was destined to witness after an existence of one hundred and fifty years,[XXVIII‑17] the morning gun from the president's camp gave the signal for both armies to fall into the ranks, and a few minutes later the freebooters were on the march toward the city. Warned by their scouts that ambuscades were posted along the line of the main road, they cut their way with some difficulty through a neighboring wood, and debouched on the summit of a small eminence that still bears the name of El Cerro de Avance. The Spanish battalions, ill armed with carbines, fowling-pieces, and arquebuses, but dressed in parti-colored silk uniforms, the horsemen prancing on mettlesome steeds as though attending a bull-fight, lay before them almost within musket shot. Morgan drew up the main body of his forces in three columns, and sending in front a strong detachment of his best marksmen, descended into the plain to give battle. The enemy's artillery, posted in a part of the field where it commanded the main avenues of approach to the city, was far out of range, but the horse, under Francisco de Haro, at once moved forward with loud shouts of Viva el rey! to hold the enemy in check. The ground was swampy, yielding to the foot, and unfavorable for the action of cavalry; moreover Morgan's veterans were not of the stuff to be daunted by a battle-cry and the onslaught of a few squads of troopers. Forming in close order with front rank kneeling, and reserving their fire until the Spaniards came up almost to the points of their muskets, they poured in a volley which told with murderous effect. Don Francisco led his men repeatedly to the charge, but no impression could be made, and the shattered lines at length wheeled off to a safe distance, leaving their gallant chieftain dead on the field.
Meanwhile the captain-general, after being confessed by the priest and repeating his Ave Marías and prayers to the saints, had come forth from his tent to see how the battle was progressing. The Spanish foot were then ordered to assail the enemy in front, while bands of oxen were driven in on their flank to break through their battalions. The buccaneers had the wind and sun in their favor, and could concentrate on a given point as many men as their opponents could bring against them; for in rear of the latter lay a large morass which prevented them from wheeling their main body. The infantry were received with a hot fire and handled so roughly that they began to retreat. Morgan's left wing then attacked them in flank and their retreat was soon turned into a rout. The wild cattle, maddened by the uproar, the smell of blood, and by the red flag shaken in their faces—many of their drivers being shot down by a party of musketeers detailed for the purpose—were driven back on the flying columns. The president made a feeble effort to rally his men, until the staff which he carried in his hand, the only weapon apparently which he bore that day, was grazed with a shot, when, yielding to the entreaties of his chaplain, he retired from the fight, giving thanks to the blessed virgin, "who had brought him off safe from amidst so many thousand bullets."[XXVIII‑18]
PANAMÁ TAKEN.
In two hours the battle was won. Six hundred of the Spaniards lay dead on the plains; the cavalry were almost annihilated, and the infantry threw away their arms and scattered into small parties, many of them hiding among the bushes by the sea-shore where they were afterward discovered and butchered. A party of Franciscan friars, who had remained with the army to offer the last consolations of religion to the dying, were captured and shot without mercy. Orders were at first given that no quarter should be granted, as the buccaneers were too much crippled to encumber themselves with prisoners. An exception was made, however, in the case of a wounded Spanish officer, who was brought into the commander's presence and gave information that the city contained only a garrison of one hundred men, but that the streets were protected by barricades and by twenty-eight pieces of cannon, and that the president would probably reoccupy the place if he could reorganize his forces. Morgan at once assembled his troops, and telling them they must lose no time in seizing the prize, put his columns in motion by way of the Portobello road, which lay beyond reach of the enemy's fire, and within an hour made his entrance into Panamá without opposition.[XXVIII‑19] Warning was given to the men to keep out of range of the cannon that were posted in the plaza mayor, but most of them ran to and fro without heed, in search of plunder or in pursuit of fugitives, and the Spaniards, pointing their pieces at several thickly clustered groups of the enemy, poured in a volley from guns loaded to the muzzle with musket balls and scraps of iron. This was the last shot fired in defence of Panamá; for the cannoniers were cut in pieces before they had time to reload, and the freebooters rushed through the streets hewing down all who offered resistance.
Except large stores of silk and cloth little booty was discovered in the fallen city, for the greater part of the inhabitants had fled to the neighboring islands, taking with them their wives and children and all their portable property. Morgan's first precaution was to forbid his men to taste wine, under the pretence that it had all been poisoned. He feared that after their long fast they would as usual celebrate their victory with feasting and drunkenness, and thus afford the Spaniards a chance to rally and overpower them when stupefied with liquor.
BURNING OF THE CITY.
The buccaneers had barely time to post their guards, and take up their quarters in the deserted dwellings when flames were seen breaking forth from some of the largest houses. The president having received information that Morgan had among his party a young Englishman whom he intended to crown king of Tierra Firme, had given orders for the metropolitan city to be burned if it should fall into the hands of the pirates.[XXVIII‑20] The fire spread rapidly, although the freebooters did their utmost to check its progress. Several houses were torn down, and others blown up with gunpowder, but all efforts were in vain. A fresh breeze had set in from the Pacific, and the buildings, almost entirely of wood, many of them well stored with costly furniture and adorned with pictures and tapestry, fell an easy prey to the flames. Within an hour an entire street was consumed, and by midnight a single convent, one or two public buildings, and the cabins of a distant quarter, wretchedly built, and occupied only by muleteers, were all that remained of the seven thousand houses of cedar, the two hundred warehouses, the monasteries and churches of a city which but a few days before was peopled by thirty thousand inhabitants, and famed as the abode of one of the wealthiest communities in the western world.
Morgan sent a detachment of one hundred and fifty men to Chagre to carry news of his victory and bring back word as to the welfare of the garrison, and ordered the remainder of his command to camp in the plains, thus keeping them in hand and ready for action in case the president should rally his forces and renew the fight. Troops of Spaniards and Indians were seen flitting to and fro along the edge of the forest which skirted the savanna, but it was evident that they had no confidence in their captain-general, for as he himself naively remarked in his intercepted despatch: "Although he afterward attempted several times to form an army, yet he could not do any good of it, because no man would be persuaded to follow him." The buccaneers soon returned, therefore, to take up their quarters in the few buildings that had escaped the conflagration. As no spoils of value had yet been found except a few gold and silver utensils hidden in wells and cisterns, or buried beneath the ruins, parties were sent to scour the neighboring woods and hills in quest of fugitives who might be subjected to torture.
COVETED TREASURE.