Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers

by John S. C. Abbott

The islands of Tavoga and Tavogilla appeared in the distance as masses of foliage. The mines of Mexico and Peru had emptied their floods of wealth into that port. Many of the mansions were architecturally magnificent. They were adorned with the richest paintings and with the most costly furniture. The Spanish grandees had hung upon their walls the masterpieces of Titian, Murillo, and Velasquez. The streets of the city were broad, an unusual circumstance in Spanish cities, and were lined with the most beautiful and ever-flowering of tropical trees.

Within the walls of the city there was a cathedral of imposing magnitude and towering splendor. There were also eight monasteries, massive buildings, occupied by the religious orders, and abundantly supplied with works of art. The broad avenues were lined with two thousand mansions of the wealthy; and five thousand smaller houses and shops crowded the more busy streets. The most imposing block in the city was what was called the Genoese Warehouses. These belonged to a company who had enriched themselves by the slave trade. An immense number of horses and mules were used in transporting goods across the isthmus, from one ocean to the other. These were kept in long rows of stables admirably arranged. The products of the mines of gold and silver were melted down into solid bars called plate or bullion, and in that form were sent to the Old World. The city was surrounded with rich plantations and highly artistic gardens.

“Panama was the city to which all the treasures of Peru were annually brought. The plate fleet, laden with bars of gold and silver, arrived here at certain periods, brimming with the crown wealth, as well as that of private merchants. It returned laden with the merchandise of Panama and the Spanish main, to be sold in Peru and Chili; and still oftener with droves of negro slaves that the Genoese imported from the coast of Guinea to toil and die in the Peruvian mines.

“So wealthy was this golden city that more than two thousand mules were employed in the transport of the gold and silver from thence to Porto Bello, where the galleons were loaded. The merchants of Panama were proverbially the richest in the whole Spanish West Indies. The governor of Panama was the suzerain of Porto Bello, Nata, Cruz, and Veragua. The bishop of Panama was primate of the Terra Firma and the suffragan to the archbishop of Peru. The district of Panama was the most healthy of all the Spanish colonies, rich in mines, and so well wooded that its ship-timber covered with vessels both the northern and the southern seas. Its land yielded full crops, and its broad savannas pastured innumerable herds of wild cattle.”[A]

[A] Monarchs of the Main, vol. ii. p. 159.

Such was the city and province which had fallen into the hands of this gang of pirates. They found the booty, notwithstanding all the Spaniards had removed, rich beyond their most sanguine expectations. The stores were still crowded with goods of great value. Wine, spices, olive oil, silks and cloths of every variety of fabric were found in great abundance. The magazines were amply supplied with corn and other provisions.

Morgan himself was surprised at the grandeur of his capture. He was also alarmed in view of his own peril. The force which could still be arrayed against him was far greater than he had anticipated. He was in imminent danger of being cut off from his return to the ships. There were several Spanish vessels aground in the port. Morgan seized them. With the high tide they were floated. He manned them with the most desperate of his gang and sent them to the islands, and to pursue the vessels which had escaped with treasure along the coast.

There was one royal Spanish mercantile vessel, in particular, of four hundred tons, which had escaped, laden with church plate and jewels, and the richest merchandise. It had put to sea in the greatest haste, with but seven guns and but about a dozen muskets. It was poorly supplied with food and water, and had only the uppermost sails of the mainmast to spread. All the females of the nunnery were on board this ship, with the most valuable ornaments of the church.

Morgan was anxious to make an immediate pursuit of this vessel. Had he done so the vessel would easily have been captured. But for a time he lost the control of his demoniac crew. Inflamed with wine—for Morgan’s prohibition had no effect—and rushing into the most pitiless debauchery, they spent many hours in scenes which neither Sodom nor Gomorrah could ever have outrivalled. Thus the ship escaped. It is said that it contained gold and silver of greater value than all the treasures found in Panama.

Morgan probably foresaw that unless he could destroy these liquors, with which the city was filled, his men would become entirely disorganized, and the Spaniards, falling upon the drunken rabble, would easily cut them to pieces. He could not destroy liquors before the eyes of the pirates, for they would not permit it.