Morgan had obtained an excellent reputation as a buccaneer; he had captured several cities, murdered many people, often under circumstances of great cruelty, and had been almost universally successful in his expeditions. Priests, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered along with his other prisoners, when they could not find a market as slaves; and the stories of his barbarities would fill a volume. At one time he had two thousand men and a fleet of thirty-seven ships under his command. His piracies were directed against the Spaniards; the English looked upon his performances with a kindly eye; and when he organized his expedition which ended with the capture of Panama the governor of Jamaica ordered an English ship of thirty-six guns to assist him, and gave him authority to act in English interest. There was a French ship in the harbor of Jamaica, also carrying thirty-six guns, which Morgan desired; and he soon found reason enough, to his mind, for her capture.
A short time before, this French ship had stopped an English vessel at sea and taken provisions from her without paying for them. Morgan made this a pretext for seizing her; accordingly, he invited her officers on board the English ship and there made them prisoners. Then he seized their craft, but, unfortunately for his plans, she blew up a few hours afterwards and was totally destroyed. It was not known how the accident occurred, but Morgan said it was caused by the French prisoners, who set the ship on fire.
MORGAN'S RECEPTION AT CHAGRES.
The fleet sailed away a week after this incident and proceeded to capture Maracaibo, Saint Catherine's, and one or two other places, before proceeding to Panama. From Saint Catherine's Morgan sent four ships to capture the fort at the mouth of the Chagres River; the expedition was successful, and when Morgan arrived and saw the English flag flying over the fort he fired all his cannon in honor of the victory. When he landed he was carried into the fort on the shoulders of his fellows amid many demonstrations of delight.
An old nursery song has it that "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief." Substitute "Morgan" for "Taffy" and the description is exact, as the hero of this story was born in Wales. Many of his followers were from that country or from other parts of the British Isles, and his second, who captured the fort at Chagres, was Captain Brodely, an officer of English birth.
Morgan repaired the fort, gave it a garrison of five hundred men, left a hundred and fifty to take care of the ships, and with twelve hundred men started across the Isthmus for Panama. They ascended the Chagres River in boats as far as they could go, and then marched overland through the forest. All the boats but one were sent back; a guard remained with this single boat, with orders never to leave it for a moment.
The journey to Panama was a terrible one, and showed the power of the commander over his men. They had expected to find plenty of provisions in the country, and consequently did not burden themselves with any on their departure from Chagres. At the first landing-place they found the people had fled, leaving nothing behind them, and this was the case at nearly every other point. For three entire days the men were without food, and many of them wanted to turn back; partly by persuasion and partly by threats Morgan kept them together, though they were so much reduced that they were forced to eat some leather sacks found at an abandoned plantation on the way.