[XXVIII‑23] All the leading authorities agree that the prisoners were subjected to excruciating torture. The author of Sharp's Voyages makes an attempt to clear Morgan's character, and to throw ridicule on the story of these atrocities. The work was published in London in 1684, a few years after Morgan was knighted by Charles II. The writer collected his materials in part from inquiry among the buccaneers themselves, and may therefore be worthy of credence in some matters of detail; but the fact that 16 out of 20 pages of preface are taken up with a sorry effort 'to rescue the Honour of that incomparable Souldier and Seaman,' while the narrative of the raid on Panamá occupies but 20 out of 170 pages, seems to show the purpose for which it was written.
[XXVIII‑24] 'Quatre cent quarante-trois mille deux cens livres, comptant l'argent rompu à dix piastres la livre.' Exquemelin, in Hist. Flib., ii. 191. In pages 197-8 of the same volume there is an explanation of the manner in which Morgan contrived to secrete a large quantity of precious stones. The buccaneers may have believed that such an amount of plunder had been obtained, though its real value was probably less than one third of what they supposed it to be. In Sharp's Voyages, 143, the worth of the spoils is stated at £30,000, a sum almost insufficient to defray the expenses that Morgan must have incurred in obtaining his title from Charles II. There are no reliable data on this point.
[XXIX‑1] 'It is beautified with a great many fair Churches and Religious Houses.' Dampier's Voy., i. 178-9. So in Drake's Univ. Col. Voy., 63, and Coreal, Voy., i. 92.
[XXIX‑2] Under command of captains Harris and Sawkins. Ringrose's Voyage, 2.
[XXIX‑3] The foundation of the friendship between the natives of Darien and the buccaneers was laid by Captain Wright while cruising off the Samballas about 1665. In that year Wright made captive a lad who, in 1679, when the captain was again in those parts, convinced his people that Englishmen hated Spaniards, and would therefore prove useful allies. In proof of their friendly disposition toward the Indians, he instanced the kind treatment he had received. The natives then boarded the privateer; and being judiciously treated, an agreement was made permitting the English to cross this territory to the South Sea. Dampier's Voyage, i. 181-3.
[XXIX‑4] The buccaneers had just captured a packet conveying letters to Portobello, some of which were addressed to Panamá merchants from their correspondents in Spain. These letters alluded to a prophecy at that time current: 'That there would be English Privateers that Year in the West Indies, who would make such great Discoveries, as to open a Door into the South Seas.' This was interpreted by the captors to mean a passage overland through the territory of the Indians, and this interpretation coinciding with the invitation of the natives prompted them to undertake a march on Panamá. Dampier's Voyage, i. 180-1.
[XXIX‑5] Andrés was styled the 'emperor of Darien,' the magnate to whose service the freebooters now claimed to belong. These chieftains at one time ruled a large tract about the gulf of Darien; but had been straitened in their boundaries by the Spaniards, with whom they waged continual war. Sharp's Voyage, 2.
[XXIX‑6] 'Over a Bay.' Ringrose's Voy., 4. 'By the side of a bay.' Burney's Discov. South Sea, iv. 91. 'En doen over een Inham van byna een Mijl in de lengte.' Exquemelin, Hist. Boecaniers, 148.
[XXIX‑7] Ringrose speaks of this monarch with intense gravity, marred by no trace of irony. Probably this was the first crowned head with whom he had been on intimate terms.
[XXIX‑8] Ringrose calls the beast a 'Tygre,' Voy., 8; but it was more probably a jaguar, or a tiger-cat. It is true there may have been risk in using fire-arms, but why could not the Indians have killed it with their arrows?