Henry Morgan: "The Pirate Admiral" II appointment

Here is the second appointment with the great buccaneer Henry Morgan. The great buccanier's admiral, the real owner of Caribbean seas!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After his election Henry Morgan was the undisputed king of the buccaneers. He went on to attack Puerto del Principe on Cuba which brought in another 50,000 pieces of eight. His men being disappointed by the recent booty from Puerto del Principe, Morgan was not to rest. And at the end of June he was already off the great harbour of Puerto Bello on the northern coast of the Isthmus of Panama. In a daring attack he took the town, held its citizens to ransom and beat off 3,000 strong troops coming to the aid of the town from the city of Panama. Morgan and his men arrived back at Port Royal with 250,000 pieces of eight along other booty in the hulls of their ships. This amounted to an absolute fortune ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Then in October 1668 Morgan set sail yet again. Governor Modyford and Morgan had agreed that it was likely the Spaniards were preparing an attack upon Jamaica. To prevent this it had been agreed Morgan should attack them instead. The best target it was thought would be Cartagena, Spain's chiefest harbour along the Main. But on Cow Island where Morgan established his base for the operation, his prime ship,the Oxford, exploded, killing 300 of his 900 men. Reduced by a third of his strength, Morgan no longer thought himself strong enough to tackle Cartagena and, following an idea by one of his French captains who'd earlier sailed under the infamous L'Ollonais, he decided to instead attempt the harbour town of Maracaibo. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The raid on Maracaibo was of little success, all the people having fled the city before the buccaneers had landed. Morgan sent out search parties to track down some of the citizens hiding in the forests. They found at least some people, but still not much money was to be had. So Morgan instead decided to take his fleet further into the Lagoon of Maracaibo towards the town of Gibraltar at its southern end. But once again, the people were already gone. After eight unsuccessful weeks in the Lagoon of Maracaibo he sailed back for Maracaibo itself. There he was to famously meet at sea with Vice-Admiral Alonso del Campo y Espinosa, who commanded three powerful men-o-war. On 1 May 1669 the battle took place whereby Morgan's buccaneers sailed a fireship (a ship purposely set alight) into the Vice-Admiral's 48-gun ship Magdalen. The Magdalen burnt and sank, the Santa Louisa fled and the Marquesa, the third Spanish ship, was captured by the buccaneers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Morgan controlled both the city of Maracaibo, and all the ships. Meanwhile Don Alonso was marooned in his little fort but controlled the only exit the buccaneers had. The Spanish citizens now agreed to pay a ransom of 20,000 pesos (pieces of eight) to save their city from being torched by the buccaneers. But Don Alonso refused to agree with his compatriots and let the pirates get away. Morgan's men meanwhile busied themselves raising the gold which had sunk with the stubborn Spaniard's great warship, bringing in yet anohter 15,000 pieces of eight and more in plate gold. Then in a strike of genius Morgan began to fake landing his troops close to Don Alonso's fort for a night attack. (the pirates sat upright when being rowed landward and lay flat and out of sight, when the "empty" boats were rowed back to pick up "some more" pirates.) Thus convinced he was about to be attacked with canoes from landward, Don Alonso moved all his guns to the landward side of the fort and Morgan cheekily set sail and with the ebbtide slipped out of the now unguarded channel of the Lagoon. Leaving his seething enemy behind him, the cunning rogue sailed back for Port Royal where he arrived in triumph on 17th May 1669. (Poor Don Alonso was at first arrested and deported to Spain for questioning. But there he was cleared and deservedly commended for his bravery.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the following year Morgan concentrated his efforts more on expanding his plantations than raiding hapless Spaniards. He'd since grown rich and was making the most of it, investing into sugar and becoming a man of status rather than mere infamy. Though by the end of 1670 he was to be scheming again. Uniting the two pirate forces of the Caribbean, those from Port Royal with those from Tortuga, he now ventured fourth for Panama. Thirty six captains under his command and 1800 men he first conquered the little island of Old Providence before continuing southward. He overcame Fort San Lorenzo at Chagres and then, travelling up the Rio Chagres he headed for his main goal - Panama. Governor Don Juan Perez de Guzman, viceroy of Panama, met him in battle outside Panama on 19 January, outnumbering Morgan's forces by about 500. Though superior in numbers, the Spaniards' resistance was a fiasco, many of Guzman's troops fleeing after the first shots were fired. It appears that Morgan's reputation had preceded him and that in their heart of hearts the Spanish ranks no longer believed they could overcome the mighty buccaneer. Their city fell and, the origins of the fire are disputed, burnt to the ground. An estimated 400,000 pieces of eight were eventually stolen and/or extorted from the formerly great Spanish city, but most men are believed to have been disappointed by this amount. Panama was understood to be the capital city of Spanish America (one of the richest cities in the whole world!) and hence it had been expected that one would carry away unseen riches. But the silver gathered from the Peruvian mines and the merchants' fortunes had all been taken to safety before Morgan's army arrived. Though as Morgan in March 1671 got back to Chagres on the north side of the Isthmus, things were to get worse. Message had arrived that a treaty had been signed between England and Spain. The buccaneers had in fact attacked Panama during times of peace between the two Kingdoms. Only shortly after Morgan had left Port Royal had the message arrived with Governor Modyford. Morgan returned back to Port Royal in April. By June Governor Modyford was already under arrest and on his way back to England. But as more and more news reached Europe of the great raid and the Spanish court's protests at this breech of the peace got ever more outraged, the order to arrest Henry Morgan was eventually dispatched to Jamaica, reaching the island against the end of 1671. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At first the new governor, Sir Thomas Lynch, was reluctant to execute this order, fearing public disorder if the island's greatest hero was put in chains. But on 4 April 1672 Henry Morgan was arrested and taken back to England on the frigate Welcome. Though strangely he was never to see the insides of the infamous Tower of London, where his former governor Modyford was incarcerated, although Morgan too remained a prisoner of State. England was at war with Holland again and governor Lynch on Jamaica was getting into some trouble trying to fight the Dutch off, for the buccaneers seemed little cooperative once their leader had been taken away in disgrace. In July 1673, considering West Indian affairs, the King eventually sought the advice of Henry Morgan, with the infamous buccaneer replying in writing what should be done to defend England's greatest colony (the sugar trade was very, very lucrative and brought in lots of tax for the Crown !). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is believed that Morgan's memorandum made a good impression with his Majesty. And, wonder over wonders, it was soon decided that Morgan should return to his home Jamaica as deputy governor to Lord Vaughan who was to succeed luckless governor Lynch. And as though it would not have been enough to be sent back home to his beloved Jamaica for the 34-year old Welshman, just before Christmas 1675 he was knighted ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On 6 March Morgan was back in Port Royal. But never again was he to be the infamous pirate, far more the respectable man of power and status. He soon settled down to life in the island's council, overseeing the defences and of course expanding his fortunes as a rich sugar planter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During his further life as deputy governor he showed great ability when acting as governor (when the governor proper was in England), endured countless quarrels and political intrigues with political opponents and even sued for libel the publishers of Esquelemling's famous tales about him and the buccaneers of America. For a time his political enemies did get the better of him, though he was restored to the council shortly before his death on 25 August 1688 .