Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers
TextCHAPTER XIX
Capture of St. Catherine and Chagres
The Defences at St. Catherine. – Morgan’s Strategy. – The Midnight Storm. – Deplorable Condition of the Pirates. – The Summons to Surrender. – Disgraceful Conduct of the Spanish Commander. – The Advance to Chagres. – Incidents of the Battle. – The Unexpected Victory. – Measures of Morgan.
On the 16th day of December, 1670, the piratic fleet weighed anchor from Cape Tiburon. They first directed their course to the recapture of the Island of St. Catherine upon the coast of Costa Rica. This island had become a penal colony, the Botany Bay, of Spain. The malefactors from all the Spanish dominions in the West Indies were transported here.
Four days’ sail brought the fleet within sight of the island. The settlement was near the mouth of one of the rivers. Morgan sent forward one of his best sailing vessels to reconnoitre the defences. The river emptied into a large bay or harbor called the Grande Aguada. Upon the shores of this harbor the town was beautifully situated, surrounded by massive and well-garrisoned forts. Several of Morgan’s desperadoes had been there before. With his whole fleet he entered the harbor in the night-time.
Guided by instinctive military ability, with his usual promptness he landed one thousand men. Instead of marching directly upon the batteries, a corps of able engineers, with their axes, cut a new path through the tangled forest to the residence of the governor. Here they found a small rampart which was abandoned. The Spaniards, not being able to cope with so large a force as Morgan led, had retired to a stronger position. The pirates pursued. Soon they came upon a massive fort so fortified with encircling batteries as to seem impregnable. As soon as the pirates arrived within gun-shot the Spaniards opened upon them so deadly a fire from their heavy guns, that they were compelled to retire beyond reach of the balls, and take a position upon the grass of the open fields.
Night came. The pirates were weary and hungry. No food had been brought from the ships. It was supposed that food would be found in abundance. But the Spaniards had destroyed all which they could not remove; and it took a very large quantity to satisfy the appetites of a thousand hungry men. Faint from hunger, they threw themselves unsheltered upon the grass to sleep.
At midnight a tropical tempest arose. The glare of the lightning and the crashing peals of thunder were terrific. The windows of heaven seemed to be opened, and the flood fell in sheets. The sailors had left the ships with no clothing but their trousers and a shirt. In one moment they were drenched. And yet, hour after hour, in blackest darkness, the deluge descended, smothering them with its volume and flooding the fields. Notwithstanding all their efforts, nearly all of their powder was injured, and much was utterly destroyed.
In the morning, for an hour the rain ceased. They had just begun to flatter themselves that a pleasant day was opening upon them, when the clouds again gathered blackness, and the tempest assailed them with redoubled fury. It did seem as though they were exposed to the frown and the chastising blows of an indignant God. They found in the fields a poor old sick horse, “which was,” writes Esquemeling, who was present, “both lean and full of scabs and blotches, with galled back and sides. This horrid animal they instantly killed and skinned, and divided into small pieces among themselves as far as it would reach; for many could not obtain one morsel. This they roasted and devoured without either salt or bread more like unto ravenous wolves than men.”
They were at that time, Esquemeling says, in so deplorable a condition that had the Spaniards fallen upon them with one hundred men they might have cut them all to pieces. The rain fell in such blinding torrents that the pirates could not even retreat. At noon there was another lull. Morgan, assuming an air of great boldness and confidence, sent a flag of truce to the governor, with the following summons to surrender:
“I solemnly swear unto you, that unless you immediately deliver your works, yourself, and all your men into my hands, I will put every one to the sword.”
The governor was appalled. A piratic fleet of thirty-seven vessels of war, manned by over two thousand of the most fiend-like desperadoes earth could furnish, presented a force greater than the governor thought he could withstand. He sent back a request that two hours’ time might be allowed him to deliberate with his officers, when he would return a decisive answer. At the appointed time he sent to Morgan the following humiliating proposal:
“The governor is willing to surrender the island, as he has not sufficient force to repel the English fleet. But for the saving of his reputation and that of his officers, he begs that Captain Morgan would attack him by night, with all his marine and land forces. The governor will feign an attempt to escape from one fort to another, when Captain Morgan’s troops can intercept and capture him. There shall be a continued firing on both sides, but without bullets.”
To these terms, so degrading to the governor, Morgan rejoicingly acceded. Thus, from apparently hopeless defeat, his sagacity won a signal and bloodless victory. The sham fight took place according to the programme. That night there was a great and ridiculous roar of all the big guns in the fort and on the ships. Powder was burned freely. The white flag was raised by the governor, the surrender made, and the island, with all it contained, passed into the hands of the pirates.
The buccaneers were half starved. Several days were spent in feasting. The island was well stocked with beef cattle, swine, and poultry. Recklessly they were destroyed. The houses were torn down to build their fires. Two thousand men, by day and by night, indulged in the wildest orgies of revelry. Many of the people of the settlement fled into the woods. But the pirates counted four hundred and fifty captives. The women, who were subject to every indignity, were imprisoned in a church.
Morgan, upon inspecting the works, was astonished at their strength and at his own victory. The main fort, or castle as it was called, was very strong, built of stone, and surrounded by a wide ditch twenty feet deep. Heavy guns commanded the port. There were other supporting batteries which mounted nearly sixty guns. An immense amount of ammunition, including thirty thousand pounds of powder, were found in the fort. These were all transferred on board the ships. The guns were spiked, the gun-carriages burned, and the pirates, with shouts of victory, again spread their sails.
Among the prisoners there were three desperadoes, notorious robbers, who professed to be familiar with the route to Panama, and with all the region around. Eagerly they joined in the expedition with the promise of sharing in the spoil. Esquemeling, speaking of the proposition made to these wretches by Morgan, says:
“These propositions pleased the banditti very well. They readily accepted his proffers, promising to serve him very faithfully; especially one of these three, who was the greatest rogue, thief, and assassin among them, and who deserved, for his crimes, to be broken alive upon the wheel. This wicked fellow had a great ascendency over the other two, and could domineer over them as he pleased, they not daring to refuse obedience to his orders.”
The Isthmus of Panama was then celebrated for its gold and silver mines. It was the seat of a very extensive commerce, and was perhaps more strongly fortified and more populous than any other of the Spanish colonies. This narrow tongue of land, which separates the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is about three hundred miles in length, and from thirty to forty in breadth.
Chagres, on the Atlantic coast, was a very strongly fortified settlement at the mouth of the Chagres River. On the other side of the isthmus, on the Pacific shore, was Panama, a far more important place, abounding in wealth. Morgan’s plan was to capture Chagres; leave his fleet in the harbor there; ascend the river in his boats as far as the stream was navigable, and then to march to the doomed city. With his two thousand well-armed desperadoes he doubted not his ability to crush any force which might be brought against him.
Morgan sent, in advance, four ships and a large boat to capture Chagres. The expedition was intrusted to the vice-admiral Bradley, the same one who had so successfully led the foraging party to Rancheria. He was a notorious buccaneer, renowned for his exploits. Three days’ sail brought his squadron to Chagres. Upon an eminence, commanding the entrance to the river, there was a strong fort, called Castle Lawrence. As Bradley approached the harbor, he unfurled at his mast-head the blood-red flag of the pirate. The garrison immediately displayed the royal banner of Spain, and foolishly saluted them with a volley of shot which did not reach their ships.
The buccaneers, according to their usual stratagem, instead of bringing their wooden walls up to be battered by the guns of the fort, cast anchor about a mile from the castle, and landing, cut a path with hatchet and sabre through the tangled forest, to attack the works upon their weakest side. Early in the morning the landing was effected. By the middle of the afternoon they had reached a hill, from whose summit they could throw their shot into the fort, could they but have drawn their cannon to that spot.
But the marshy ground would not admit of this. The garrison had brought their guns to bear upon the eminence, and opened a fire before which many of the pirates fell. Bradley was greatly disheartened. The fort proved to be of very unexpected strength. It was surrounded by two high parallel walls of timber, filled in with earth. Well-constructed bastions were at each corner. The works were enclosed by a ditch, thirty feet deep. There was but one entrance, and that was by a drawbridge across this ditch. The north side of the castle was washed by the broad and rapid river. On the south there was a precipitous inaccessible crag. Strong batteries guarded the approaches to both the other sides.
Even the most desperate of the pirates recoiled from the idea of attempting to carry works so formidable by assault. But Bradley could not endure the thought of the scorn and rage he would encounter from Morgan should he retreat without making the attempt. After much perplexity and disputing it was resolved to hazard the assault. They hoped with hatchet and sabre to cut down the timber, and then to clamber over the crumbling earth. The interior of the works was all of wood. There were barracks and huts, which, beneath the blaze of a tropical sun, had become dry as powder.
Cautiously the buccaneers descended the hill, throwing themselves upon their faces as the explosions of the massive guns showered the balls around them. Their sharpshooters threw bullets through the loops of the walls, and through the embrasures, to strike down the artillery-men at the guns. This skirmishing was continued until night, but nothing was accomplished. Many of the pirates were killed, and Bradley himself had one of his legs broken by a cannon-ball. The reckless men charged up to the very walls, threw over fire-balls, and hacked at the timbers.
The pirates, as darkness approached, began to retreat. The Spaniards shouted to them from the walls:
“Come on, you English devils; you heretics; the enemies of God and of the king. Let your comrades, who are behind, come also. We will serve them as we have served you. You shall not get to Panama this time.”
This shout alarmed them. It revealed the fact that, in some way, the Spaniards had been warned of the expected attack upon Panama, and would prepare for resistance. As a group of the pirates were conferring together, in the dusk, an arrow from the castle struck one of them in the shoulder. He coolly drew the point from the bleeding wound, and addressing his companions, said:
“Look here, my comrades, I will make this accursed arrow the means of the destruction of all the Spaniards.”
He then drew from his pocket a quantity of wild cotton, which the buccaneers carried with them as lint to staunch their wounds. This he wound around the head of the arrow. Charging his musket with powder only, he inserted the arrow and fired it back into the castle. It lighted upon a roof of thatch. The powder set fire to the cotton, and the cotton to the dry leaves. The roof was instantly in a flame.
The Indians had aided the garrison, and their arrows lay thick around. Instantly the air was filled with a shower of these flaming meteors. They fell upon the thatched roofs, and tongues of fire flashed in all directions. One chanced to fall upon a large quantity of powder, and a fearful explosion followed. A terrible conflagration blazed forth. A scene of shrieks, confusion, and horror ensued which is indescribable. The inmates of the fort found themselves in the crater of a volcano in its most violent state of eruption. It was in vain to attempt to extinguish the flames. No one could live in such a furnace.
The night was dark, moonless and starless. The bodies of the Spaniards were clearly defined against the glowing background of flame. The pirates, with unerring aim, shot them down. Every bullet struck its target. The Spaniards, in the horrible tumult, could make but little resistance. They still, however, taking refuge as they could in different parts of the fort, fought with impotent desperation. Oexemelin relates an incident illustrative of the indomitable fury of the assailants.
One of the pirates was pierced in the eye by an Indian arrow. In terrible agony he came to Oexemelin to draw it out. Its barbed point had sunk deep in the socket of the eye, and could only be withdrawn by cruelly tearing it out. Oexemelin hesitated; he had not sufficient nerve to inflict such torture. The pirate seized it with both hands, tore it out with its mangled and bloody adhesions, bound a handkerchief over the wound, and with a curse rushed forward again to the assault.
The fire raged through the whole night. All the wood-work was consumed. The walls of earth crumbled down. The pirates, mounting upon each other’s shoulders, climbed the ramparts and threw down hand-grenades and fire-balls, and pots of suffocating odors upon the helpless garrison. “The armor had fallen piecemeal from their giant adversary, and he now stood before them bare, wounded, and defenceless.”
Still, in one corner of the fort, the heroic governor rallied the few survivors, twenty-five only in number, resolved to fight to the bitter end. They were slightly protected from a charge by a deep ditch, which ran directly before them. This, however, afforded them no shelter from the bullets of their foes. A dreadful storm of fire-balls and lead fell upon them. They had no hope of victory – no hope of escape even. Their only desire was to kill as many of the pirates as they could before they should die themselves. At last a shot pierced the brain of the governor. The feeble remnant was easily overpowered.
The garrison had consisted of three hundred and fourteen men. All of these, excepting fourteen, were either killed or helplessly wounded. Not a single officer was left alive. The governor had previously dispatched a courier to Panama to alarm the city. In this sanguinary conflict the pirates had lost very heavily. One hundred were killed and seventy grievously wounded. A large pit was dug and the one hundred dead bodies of the pirates were thrown in and covered up from sight and smell. The prisoners were compelled to drag the bodies of the dead Spaniards to the cliff, and cast them into the sea. A large amount of ammunition and provisions were found in the fort.
Morgan, informed of the fall of Chagres, devastated the Island of St. Catherine as much as possible, so as to render it quite indefensible. It was his intention to return and recover the place, so as to make it a rendezvous for his fleet in future operations. On the cruise to Chagres a violent storm arose. His fleet was scattered, so that they were detained many days at sea. But as ship after ship entered the bay, and the crews beheld the English flag floating from the blackened walls of Chagres Castle, the bay resounded with their cheers, and with salutes from their cannon. So eager was the admiral and some of the others in their heedless joy, that, without waiting for a pilot, his own and three other vessels were driven upon sunken rocks, where they broke to pieces. The crew and cargoes were saved.
Morgan immediately set to work with great energy, employing all his force of engineers, carpenters, and laborers in repairing the castle. Here he stationed a garrison of picked men, storing the magazines with provisions and ammunition, as a refuge from any possible disaster at Panama. The fortunes of war are proverbially inconstant. The pirate Morgan was a very able general. His plans were generally well formed to meet adversity as well as prosperity.
CHAPTER XX
The March from Chagres to Panama
Preparations to Ascend the River. – Crowding of the Boats. – The Bivouac at Bracos. – Sufferings from Hunger. – The Pathless Route. – The Boats Abandoned. – Light Canoes Employed. – Abandoned Ambuscades. – Painful Marches, Day by Day. – The Feast on Leathern Bags. – Murmurs and Contentions. – The Indians Encountered. – Struggling through the Forest. – The Conflagration at Santa Cruz. – Battle and Skirmishes. – First Sight of Panama. – Descent into the Plain. – Feasting.
From the prisoners Morgan learned that three weeks before their arrival the garrison at Chagres was informed, by a message from Carthagena, that the English were equipping a fleet at Hispaniola for the capture of Panama. The governor immediately sent one hundred and sixty-four soldiers to strengthen the garrison at Chagres, which had previously numbered but one hundred and fifty. Morgan was also informed that the governor of Panama had placed several ambuscades along the Chagres River, and that a force of three thousand six hundred men was awaiting his arrival at Chagres.
These were tidings sufficient to appal any ordinary mind. But the pirates were accustomed to triumph over vastly superior numbers. There were several large Spanish boats at Chagres, adapted to river navigation. All these Morgan seized. They generally mounted two great iron guns and four smaller ones of brass. These vessels, with those he took from his ships, made a flotilla of thirty-two gunboats. They were manned by twelve hundred sailors. Five hundred were left behind to garrison the castle. One hundred and fifty had charge of the ships.
On the 18th of August, 1670, Morgan put his fleet in motion to ascend the Chagres River on his advance to Panama. His boats were greatly crowded, and so heavily laden with men, ammunition, and arms, that he could take but a small supply of provisions. He expected to provide himself abundantly from the supplies he should find in the Spanish ambuscades.
The first day the little fleet ascended the river but eighteen miles, to a place called Bracos. The men on board his boats were greatly cramped in their limbs, having but little room to move, and none in which to lie down. They therefore found it necessary to land for the night, that they might enjoy a few hours of sleep. They also hoped to rob some of the neighboring plantations. Nearly all their food had disappeared in this one day’s sail.
The cheer of camp-fires seems to be essential to all bivouacs. The gloom of the dense tropical forest was soon illumined by the flames around which twelve hundred men were congregated. Most of them went supperless to their mossy beds, consoled only by their pipes of tobacco. In the morning they ranged the country in vain for food. The planters had fled, taking with them or destroying everything that could be eaten.
Again they repaired to their boats. Hungry, disappointed, and murmuring, they ascended the river about twenty miles farther until they reached a place called Juan Gallego. Here they were compelled to leave their boats, as the river was so shallow from want of rain; it was also much impeded by decayed and fallen trees. Thus ended the second day.
There was no road for an army through the rough, miry, tangled maze. They were told by the guides that, at the distance of two leagues, they would find the country more favorable. With sabre and hatchet these half-famished men hewed a narrow path for themselves. They fed upon berries, roots, and leaves. One hundred and sixty men were left to guard the boats, and to feed themselves as best they could by hunting or plundering, or obtaining supplies from the fleet.
Morgan had advanced but a mile or two when the gigantic growth and interlacing vines seemed to render the forest impenetrable. The river also deepened a little, so that some of his boats would float. There was imminent danger every moment that he would fall into some ambuscade. He sent back for some light canoes to be brought up. This was accomplished with great labor. He then embarked his men, taking a part at a time, and thus, ascending the river a few miles farther, reached a place called Cedro Bueno. To accomplish this, the canoes made several passages. The pirates were very eager to encounter the Spaniards, as their only means of obtaining any food. But the Spaniards wisely left them to the hardships of their march and to the pangs of starvation.
The morning of the fourth day dawned upon these wretched marauders. Most of them struggled along the banks of the river, led by one of their guides. Others toiled against the stream, in the canoes, being often compelled to alight in the water, to cross sandbars or surmount rapids. To guard against ambuscades the guides were kept a quarter of a mile in advance. The Spaniards had sent forward their Indian scouts, and kept themselves informed of every movement of the foe. About noon of this day they reached a place which from its extreme ruggedness was called Torna Cavallos.
Here the guides came rushing back to the main body with the announcement that they had discovered an ambuscade. The half-starved men were delighted. They knew that the Spaniards, on all their expeditions, provided themselves luxuriously with food. Examining their muskets, their priming, and their sabres, that they might be prepared for a resistless charge, they pressed eagerly yet cautiously forward. They soon came in sight of an intrenchment, which was shaped like a half-moon. Their practised eyes told them that it would protect a garrison of about four hundred men. Twelve hundred men, impelled by rage and hunger, with hideous yells rushed upon it. Bitter was their disappointment when they found no foe there. They had captured but an abandoned and crumbling rampart. There were some coarsely tanned, hairy leather bags scattered around. Their hunger was so great that these were cut up, cooked, and eaten. We have a minute account of the cookery of these unsavory morsels.
First they took the leather and sliced it in pieces. Then they beat the pieces between two stones rubbing them and dipping them in the water, to render them supple and tender. Lastly they scraped off the hair, and roasted or broiled the pieces upon the fire. Being thus cooked, they cut it into very fine pieces, which “they helped down with frequent gulps of water, which by good fortune they had nigh at hand.”
“I can assure the reader,” writes Oexemelin, “that a man can live on such food, though he can hardly get very fat.”
Esquemeling adds, “Some who were never out of their mothers’ kitchens may ask how these pirates could eat, swallow, and digest those pieces of leather so hard and dry? Unto whom I would answer that could they once experience what hunger, or rather famine is, they would certainly find the manner, as the pirates did, by their own experience.”
On the morning of the fifth day the weary march was resumed. Having had but little food, save the leather bags, they were in a deplorable condition. The pirates were not amiable men. They staggered along, in their weakness, over the rough ways, murmuring, quarrelling, and cursing each other. As night approached they came to a place called Barbacoa. Here they found another abandoned ambuscade. Not a particle of food was to be obtained. Loud and bitter were their oaths against the Spaniards. Dreadful would have been the fate of any of them who might have fallen into their hands. Esquemeling says that they were so consumed by hunger, that if they had caught any of the Spaniards they would certainly have roasted and eaten them.
Parties were sent out to explore the woods in search of habitations. But none could be found. The inhabitants, in all directions, had fled, carrying with them their provisions. The day was spent here. It was a day of dreadful suffering. Life was preserved by devouring berries, roots, and leaves. Several plantations were discovered, but there was generally not an individual, an animal, or a kernel of corn left behind. In one place they found concealed two sacks of wheat, two jars of wine, and a few plantains. These Morgan divided among those who were nearest to perishing of hunger.
The sixth day they continued their march, still along the banks of the Chagres River. Such as could not walk were paddled along in light canoes. At night they came to a plantation, which, as usual, was entirely abandoned. Their supper consisted mainly of leaves and grass.
The next day, at noon, they discovered a barn, full of Indian corn in the husk. They fell upon it and devoured it dry, with the rapacity of a herd of swine. Having satiated their hunger, each man loaded himself with as much as he could carry. With renovated spirits, they pressed on their way. After journeying along for a couple of hours, they came upon a band of about two hundred Indians, who fled with the utmost precipitation. They were far more fleet of foot than the exhausted pirates, and not one of them was shot or captured. In their flight, the Indians threw back a shower of arrows, which wounded several of the pirates, and killed three of them. They shouted out in Spanish: “Ha! ye dogs, go to the plain, go to the plain.”
They now reached such a bend in the river that it was necessary to cross it. They therefore bivouacked for the night. This place was called Santa Cruz.
Loud murmurings filled the camp. Morgan was denounced in unmeasured terms. They were indeed involved in gloom. To go back was certain starvation. And destruction seemed equally to threaten them in a farther advance. There were some, however, who still kept up their courage, and shouted, “Onward! onward!”
The morning of the seventh day they crossed the river. As it was supposed that they must soon meet the Spaniards, every man was required carefully to examine his musket and pistols, to be ready for any engagement. The guides told them that they were approaching the important town of Cruz, where they would find provisions and other stores in abundance. This was called the halfway house between Chagres and Panama, though it was sixty-eight miles from the former place and but twenty-four from the latter. To this point the Chagres merchandise was taken in boats, when the river was full, and, being landed, was conveyed to Panama on the backs of mules. To give the reader some idea of the style of Esquemeling’s narrative, written two hundred years ago,* I will quote his graphic description of what ensued:
“While yet at a considerable distance from Cruz, they perceived much smoke to arise out of the chimneys. The sight thereof afforded them great joy, and hopes of finding people in the town; and afterwards what they most desired was plenty of good cheer. Thus they went on, with as much haste as they could, making several arguments to one another upon those external signs, though all like castles built in the air. For said they, ‘There is smoke cometh out of every house. Therefore they are making good fires for to roast and boil what we are to eat,’ with other things to this purpose.
“At length they arrived there, in great haste, all sweating and panting; but found no person in the town, nor any thing that was eatable, wherewith to refresh themselves, unless it were good fires to warm themselves, which they wanted not. For the Spaniards, before their departure, had every one set fire to his own house, excepting only the store-houses and stables belonging to the king.
“They had not left behind them any beast whatever, either alive or dead. This occasioned much confusion in their minds; they not finding the least thing to take hold of, unless it were some few cats and dogs, which they immediately killed and devoured with great appetite. At last, in the king’s stables, they found, by good fortune, fifteen or sixteen jars of Peru wine, and a leather sack full of bread. But no sooner had they begun to drink of the said wine, when they fell sick, almost every man.
“This sudden disaster made them think that the wine was poisoned, which caused a new consternation in the whole camp, as judging themselves now to be irrecoverably lost. But the true reason was their huge want of sustenance in that whole voyage, and the manifold sorts of trash which they had eaten upon that occasion. Their sickness was so great that day as caused them to remain there till the next morning, without being able to prosecute their journey, as they used to do, in the afternoon.
“Here Captain Morgan was constrained to leave his canoes and land all his men, though never so weak in their bodies. But lest the canoes should be surprised, or take too many men for their defence, he resolved to send them all back to the place where the boats were, excepting one, which he caused to be hidden, to the intent it might serve to carry intelligence, according to the exigency of affairs. Many of the Spaniards and Indians, belonging to this village, were fled unto the plantations thereabouts. Hereupon Captain Morgan gave express orders that none should dare to go out of the village except in whole companies of one hundred together.