Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers

by John S. C. Abbott

The whole fleet speedily set sail, and ran along the southern shore of Cuba toward the doomed town. The nearest available landing-place, for Principe, was at a bay called St. Mary’s. Here, in the night, a Spanish prisoner, on board one of the ships, secretly let himself down into the dark water, and, at the imminent danger of being devoured by sharks, swam ashore. He hastened through the mule-paths of the forest to Principe, with the tidings of the terrible danger impending over the town.

The inhabitants were thrown into an awful state of consternation. They knew full well that they had as much to dread from the pirates as from so many fiends from the bottomless pit. Men, women, and children were running in all directions to convey away and hide their treasures.

All these Spanish towns had a governor appointed over them by the king. The governor summoned all the able-bodied men he could, and armed the slaves, and placed his little force in ambush along the route which he supposed that the pirates must of necessity traverse. He had also the immense trees of the dense tropical forest felled across the path, and other obstructions thrown in the way, to retard their march. But Morgan, as he approached these impediments, cut a new road with great difficulty through the woods, and thus escaped falling into the ambuscades.

Morgan had left but a small guard to keep the fleet. Nearly eight hundred men were on the march with him. The pirates advanced in three divisions, with beating of drums, flying banners, and an ostentatious display of military array. The town was in the centre of a smooth plain. The governor had retreated from his ambush, and, as the pirates approached, stood before the town at the head of a troop of horsemen. Morgan formed his men in a semicircle, and marched down upon them.

Both parties fought with desperation. The greatly outnumbering pirates soon shot down the governor, and so many of his soldiers, that the remainder attempted to escape to the woods. They were hotly pursued, and most of them were killed. The battle, with the skirmishing, lasted nearly four hours.

The pirates, having encountered but little loss, entered the town. Still, as they marched through the narrow streets which were ever found in these old Spanish towns, many of the inhabitants continued a brave resistance. They fired upon the pirates from the windows of their stone houses, and hurled down heavy articles of furniture upon their heads from the roofs. Morgan had it loudly proclaimed that if they continued this resistance he would lay the whole town in ashes, and put every man, woman, and child to the sword.

The Spaniards, hoping that by submission they might save their own lives and their houses from conflagration, threw down their arms and raised the white flag. There were several large stone churches in the place. The demoniac pirates drove the whole population, men, women, and children, into these churches, and imprisoned them there. They then commenced their system of plunder and wanton destruction. Every house and by-place, and the region all around, were searched. The night was rendered hideous by their drunken orgies. There was scarcely a conceivable crime of which these wretches were not guilty. They were fiends of the foulest dye, with no pity. Their outrages cannot be described. Even the imagination of most readers cannot conceive of the crimes they perpetrated.

They either forgot the captives they had crowded into the churches or intentionally left them to starve. No provision whatever was made for their wants, and they were not furnished with any food. The piteous moans of women and children touched not their hearts. Large numbers perished in the lingering agonies of starvation.

Disappointed in the amount of treasure they found, they began to put their prisoners to the torture, men, young girls, and even little children, to extort from them the confession of where riches were secreted. While perpetrating atrocities which cannot be named, a man was captured who had letters from the governor of Santiago to some of the leading inhabitants. In these documents the governor wrote:

“Do not be in too much haste to ransom your town or persons from the pirates. Put them off as long as you can, with excuses and delays. In a short time I will certainly come to your aid.”