XXIV. NICARAGUA AND COSTA RICA
1551-1600.
REVOLT OF JUAN GAITAN—HIS DEFEAT BY THE LICENTIATE JUAN DE CABALLON—EXPEDITION OF CABALLON AND JUAN DE ESTRADA RÁBAGO TO COSTA RICA—SETTLEMENTS FOUNDED—DISTRESS OF THE SPANIARDS—JUAN VAZQUEZ CORONADO COMES TO THEIR RELIEF—FURTHER EXPEDITIONS—FLIGHT OF THE NATIVES—CAPTURE OF THE STRONGHOLD OF COTU—ADMINISTRATION OF DIEGO DE ARTIEGO CHERINO—THE FRANCISCANS IN COSTA RICA—MARTYRDOM OF JUAN PIZARRO—THE ECCLESIASTICS IN NICARAGUA—FRAY JUAN DE TORRES—CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENTS—SLOW GROWTH OF TRADE.
The revolt of the Contreras brothers served at least one good purpose. It rid Nicaragua of swarms of vagabonds and dissatisfied adventurers, most of whom found a grave, as we have seen, during their raid on the Isthmus. Still there remained in the province a residuum of floating ruffianism, the very sweepings of all the provinces, and four years after the events described in a preceding chapter a fresh disturbance broke out. A band of disaffected soldiers and runaways from Nicaragua and Honduras, joining with themselves a number of negroes, rose in rebellion under the leadership of Juan Gaitan, a criminal banished from Nicaragua by order of the licentiate Juan de Caballon, then in charge at Leon.
The rebels began by sacking the village of San Miguel,[XXIV‑1] and thence proceeding to the mines of Chuluteca captured them after a stout resistance[XXIV‑2] and despoiled the adjacent village. They then entered Nicaragua and marched directly on the capital, but when within five leagues of it, Gaitan, who was a firm believer in astrology, was drawn into a controversy with his maestre de campo, Tarragona, a dabbler in the occult art. The latter predicted that they would certainly be hanged should they then continue their march on Leon, and advised that they repair first to Realejo and seize the vessels lying there. But revenge got the better of Gaitan's superstition, and he proceeded on his way to the capital, resolved to take the life of the licentiate.
Meanwhile news of the outbreak had reached Caballon. Assistance had been summoned from Realejo and Granada; the ships at the former port were ordered to put out to sea to avoid capture;[XXIV‑3] and entering Leon on the last day of pentecost 1554, Gaitan found the licentiate's forces drawn up in the public square well posted for defence. A stubborn conflict ensued; but, the powder of the rebels having become damp from the rains, they fought at a disadvantage and were finally routed. Gaitan took refuge in a convent belonging to the order of Merced, where his brother was one of the friars, but this asylum availed him nothing. The licentiate Sotomayor, an exile from New Spain, who was also an inmate, seized him and delivered him to the authorities. Next day the insurgent leader was beheaded, and that the prophecy of the maestro de campo might be fulfilled, Tarragona and others were hanged, the rest being sent into exile.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: CABALLON AND RÁBAGO.]
While fiscal of Guatemala, Caballon had been requested by the audiencia to undertake the pacification of Costa Rica, conjointly with a wealthy ecclesiastic, named Juan de Estrada Rábago, and it was for this purpose that he had originally proceeded to Nicaragua. In 1560 an expedition was organized, Rábago furnishing the necessary funds, for Caballon had none. Each one was to found his own settlements, but to render aid and advice to the other. The former with four vessels sailed up the Desaguadero, while Caballon journeyed by land and explored the southern coast. Whether they ever met according to their original plan is doubtful, and their lack of coöperation may partly explain the failure of the enterprise.
Rábago with a party of sixty Spaniards founded the "Villa del Castillo de Austria" on the bay of San Gerónimo.[XXIV‑4] He also speaks of three other towns which he founded, and of churches which he built and furnished, but fails to name or locate them. Caballon established the Villa de Landecho, on the coast near the southern border of the province, and three days' journey thence the settlement of Castillo de García Muñoz. The reasons that induced him to select the former site were known only to himself, and are not recorded by the chroniclers. There were no Indians in its neighborhood to be enslaved; most of the land was marshy, and the high ground sterile and consisting mainly of bare rock. Caballon was soon afterward appointed fiscal of the audiencia of Mexico, and Rábago, being now left in sole charge, was ordered by the emperor not to abandon the undertaking, though the Spaniards were in sore distress. "It is now two years and more," write the members of the cabildo from Cartago, in December 1562, "since we entered this province in company with the licentiate Juan de Caballon, and it is with great difficulty that we have held out against the rebellious natives, who could not be converted and brought to obedience by peaceable means."[XXIV‑5]
After the departure of Caballon for Mexico the audiencia of the Confines perceived that a man of means and capacity was needed for the occasion, and their choice fell on Juan Vazquez Coronado, who was appointed alcalde mayor of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. On him the emperor afterward conferred the title of adelantado and captain general. Coronado at once despatched a ship with reënforcements and provisions for the relief of the needy colonists, and sent by land a train of cattle laden with material for clothing, and with blankets, boots, saddles, harness, hardware, and other stores. At the head of a powerful and well equipped force he soon afterward proceeded to Nicoya, an Indian town then claimed both by Nicaragua and Costa Rica.[XXIV‑6] Here he awaited the arrival of a vessel. The rainy season had now set in, and it was impossible to reach by land the Villa de Landecho, whither he was bound; but a vessel soon afterward arriving, the alcalde mayor reached that settlement with his command, and relieving the need of the colonists, sent the ship back to Panamá, for fresh supplies and proceeded to Cartago where the royal standard was delivered to him. Rábago meanwhile had set forth for Spain and appears no more in connection with the history of the New World.
[Sidenote: THE CACIQUE GARABITO.]
Coronado distributed his supplies bountifully, and when his own means were exhausted[XXIV‑7] contracted heavy debts in order to relieve the necessities of his countrymen. He then sent expeditions in various directions to explore and subdue the territory. The principal cacique, one named Garabito, was believed to have large forces at his command, and a company of forty soldiers under Francisco de Marmolejo was sent against him to the province of Los Botos,[XXIV‑8] reputed to be a rich and populous district, and whither it was supposed that Garabito had retired. The country was found almost deserted, there being but two houses, and those inhabited by some ninety half-starved Indians. To Garabito's own province Captain Juan de Illanes de Castro was despatched, but the natives had fled; and after a fruitless search he returned with only a few women and boys, from whom it was learned that the number of the cacique's followers had been greatly exaggerated. It was ascertained, however, that four of Garabito's chiefs were at the foot of a mountain many leagues distant, and Dávila, who became the narrator of many of these expeditions, was ordered to go in search of them and bring them peaceably to head-quarters. They were found in company with about twenty men, thirty women, and a few children, all living in two houses, and declared that Garabito had gone to Los Botos,[XXIV‑9] and that it would be difficult to find him, for he never spent two nights in the same place. His subjects, they said, might number from five hundred to six hundred.
Coronado sent these chiefs to inform the natives of his arrival, promising them kind treatment; and in a few days ten or twelve others came to his head-quarters. One of them, the cacique of the province of Anzarri,[XXIV‑10] promised to guide an expedition to the most thickly populated part of the country; but when asked for four hundred carriers, he answered that even Garabito could not furnish so many. The alcalde mayor then started with seventy soldiers and about a hundred Indians for Anzarri, taking with him the cacique. Arrived there, the chieftain collected a few natives, and said they were all that he had, and that together with himself they were at the service of the Spaniards. Coronado, much incensed, placed him under arrest, telling him he must make up the required number or forfeit his life. To this the cacique only replied: "Do your pleasure; other people I have not." A day or two afterward thirty more carriers were procured. Coronado now resolved to continue his march, shaping his course for the province of Quepo, where, as he was assured, was the cacique with an abundance of Indians.
On entering the territory he obtained the services of one hundred and thirty additional carriers, and was informed that if he was in search of gold he would find all he wanted at the stronghold of Cotu, a few days' journey thence. The fort was reached after a toilsome march, and Marmolejo with thirty men was ordered to surprise it by night and capture all the caciques there stationed. The Spaniards, expecting no resistance, incautiously handed their weapons to the attendant natives, and on entering the place were themselves surprised, twenty of them being wounded before they could seize their arms. Assistance soon arrived from Coronado, whereupon the Indians abandoned the fort and fled, first setting fire to all the houses, some sixty-five in number. Messengers were then sent to the caciques, asking them to tender their allegiance, and promising kind treatment. One of them returned, bringing a golden patena as a token of peace, and was followed next day by the chieftains, who also brought with them some small offerings of gold.[XXIV‑11]
[Sidenote: HOW THE KING'S COMMANDS WERE KEPT.]
Coronado then set his face toward Garci Muñoz, where he soon afterward organized a second expedition, during which, journeying far inland, he discovered a large river which he named the Rio de la Estrella. In that neighborhood he found a large amount of gold. Returning thence to the coast he took ship for Spain,[XXIV‑12] and shortly after his arrival a royal cédula was issued, ordering that testimony be taken at Santiago as to whether he had actually effected the pacification of Costa Rica and was entitled to the governorship of that province. The evidence was extremely favorable, and in April 1565 he was appointed governor of Costa Rica for life, with an annual salary of two thousand pesos,[XXIV‑13] and also governor of Nicaragua for a term of three years.
Of the subsequent career of Coronado little is known, but he does not appear to have continued long in office, for in 1573 Diego de Artieda Cherino[XXIV‑14] entered into a contract with the crown to pacify and further colonize the provinces of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Nicoya, and was appointed governor and captain general of those territories. According to the terms of his contract the natives were to be taught the arts of peace, and those who should be christianized were to be exempt from tribute for ten years; commerce with the Indians was to be encouraged; agriculture, mining, and other industries were to be developed; no hostilities with the natives were to be permitted until overtures of peace had been thrice rejected; settlements were not to be founded in districts reserved for the use of Indians; the principal towns were to revert to the emperor; four ecclesiastics must accompany the expedition, two of them at least to be Jesuits. Finally, full reports of all important proceedings were to be forwarded from time to time to the crown.[XXIV‑15]
[Sidenote: BUCCANEERS.]
Cherino soon levied a force of two hundred men, but on account of the difficulty in procuring vessels, his Majesty having secured every available ship for a naval expedition to Flanders, it was not until the 15th of April 1575 that he took his departure, setting sail from the port of San Lúcar.[XXIV‑16] He was directed first to cruise off the coast in search of English buccaneers, who were then infesting those parts; but finding no sign of their presence he landed on the shore of Costa Rica near the mouth of a river to which he gave the name of Rio de Nuestra Señora del Valle del Guaini. Sailing up the stream for two or three leagues, he founded on its banks two settlements, to one of which he gave the name of Ciudad de Artieda del Nuevo Reyno de Navarra. In the presence of most of his men he took formal possession of the site; on a tree standing on the spot selected for the plaza he marked with a cutlass the sign of the cross "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" he then addressed his followers,[XXIV‑17] telling them that all who desired might select town lots and secure all the privileges granted to settlers by the emperor. Captain Francisco Paron was then ordered by the governor to make further explorations, and ascending the river for a distance of nine leagues he discovered a fertile valley, and finding the natives tractable and well disposed, took possession with the usual formalities, naming it Valle de los Pufibais y del Valderroncal. Cherino does not appear to have been successful in founding any permanent settlements in Costa Rica; for we learn that in 1586 Cartago and Esparza were the only towns in the province inhabited by Spaniards,[XXIV‑18] and that they were constantly at war with the Indians.
Thus the efforts of the Spaniards to subjugate the natives of Costa Rica were but partially successful; but meanwhile great progress had been made in the pacification of the province by the efforts of the Franciscan friars. About the year 1555 Fray Pedro Alonso de Betanzos laid there the foundation of the province of San Jorge de Nicaragua.[XXIV‑19] Betanzos came to New Spain in 1542, being one of the two hundred friars who formed the mission of Jacobo de Testera, and was assigned to Guatemala. He had labored there with great zeal and success, translating the catechism into the Indian vernacular, converting many, and inducing others to quit their nomadic life and form regular settlements. Four friars, among whom were Juan Pizarro from Guatemala and Lorenzo de Bienvenida from Guatemala, the latter having previously labored in company with Testera in Yucatan,[XXIV‑20] accompanied Betanzos to Costa Rica.[XXIV‑21] Bienvenida soon afterward departed for Spain, and bringing thence thirty ecclesiastics returned to Costa Rica. The bishop of Nicaragua furnished a like number, and when all were assembled the province was founded in 1575, and four years later its establishment was confirmed by a general chapter of the order held in Paris in 1579, the number of convents assigned being twelve.[XXIV‑22]
Betanzos was a man of ability and tireless industry. In a short time he had made himself master of twelve Indian dialects, speaking them as fluently as did the natives themselves.[XXIV‑23] "When first he went to Costa Rica," says Vazquez, "he would not allow soldiers to enter the territory. He travelled barefoot and accompanied only by a little boy. In two or three months he returned with many natives, all baptized and converted, bringing great store of provisions for the Spaniards. This he did many times, until by the word of God alone he pacified great multitudes. During the sixteen years which he thus labored, there remained not a palm of territory in the province which he did not traverse in search of souls." After laboring for thirty years he was attacked by fever and died near the town of Chomez in 1570, his remains being interred in a convent which he himself had founded at Cartago.[XXIV‑24]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: ANOTHER MARTYR.]
The year 1586 was made memorable by the martyrdom of Juan Pizarro, an aged and venerable friar of the Merced order, friend and associate of Betanzos, and one who first established the Mercenarios in Costa Rica. On the day of the immaculate conception he was preaching in one of the Indian towns, when a band of natives rushed upon him, disrobed him, bound him naked to a post, and flogged him unmercifully. Not satisfied with this, they fastened a rope round his neck, beat him senseless, hanged the bruised and bleeding body to a tree, and when life had fled flung the corpse down a neighboring chasm.
* * * * *
The dissensions which the new code of laws had occasioned in Nicaragua were not yet at an end. Cerrato, who was still president of the audiencia, of the Confines,[XXIV‑25] was harassed on all sides. The ecclesiastics contended that the natives should be taken from the encomenderos and placed under the crown, which virtually meant the church, and that their owners be recompensed directly from the royal treasury. The conquerors, however, would listen to no such proposition, but tenaciously held to their possessions.
The number of Indian towns subject to the crown in Nicaragua about the year 1555 was twenty-seven.[XXIV‑26] Nicoya, the largest, contained five hundred families; there was no other with more than one hundred, and most of them had but ten or twenty families. The extreme poverty of the natives had rendered necessary a reduction of their tribute,[XXIV‑27] and hence the salaries of civil officers and of the clergy were on a reduced scale. The aggregate tithes of the church in the province amounted in 1555 but to sixteen hundred pesos, and were decreasing from year to year. The bishop's portion was three hundred and eighty pesos, a sum insufficient for his maintenance, and he was compelled to petition the king to increase his income. Priests laboring in native villages received two hundred pesos, and in one instance the stipend was only eighty pesos.
[Sidenote: ECCLESIASTICAL SUCCESSION.]
After the death of Valdivieso, the friar Alonso de la Vera Cruz, who had for many years filled the chair of theology in the university of Mexico, and during a quarter of a century had preached to the natives in their own tongue, was nominated as his successor, but declined the preferment.[XXIV‑28] The see was then offered to the licentiate Carrasco, who took charge of the diocese, but never proceeded to consecration.[XXIV‑29] As bishop-elect he made himself familiar with the affairs of the province, instituted numerous inquiries, and as the result made various suggestions to the civil authorities. He declared that the decrease in population and revenue was caused by the conduct of the alcaldes mayores, most of whom were either fools or knaves. Within three years five or six had been sent to Nicaragua by appointment of the audiencia, and the natives had been compelled each time to erect gala arches to welcome them, and to fatten fowl and prepare delicacies for their entertainment. The officers of the crown gave Carrasco but little satisfaction, and even went so far as to deny his right to demand an account of tithes received for ecclesiastical purposes, although through their peculations the amount had fallen so low as to be inadequate for the support of the bishopric. Little wonder that he soon had enough of so uninviting a field of labor.
To Carrasco succeeded Fray Gomez Fernandez de Córdoba. This princely ecclesiastic was a native of the city whose name he bore, and belonged to the highest nobility of Spain, being grandson of the great captain.[XXIV‑30] He was consecrated in Spain and took charge of the bishopric in 1553.[XXIV‑31] During his tenure of office the cathedral was completed, and a migration of Dominicans took place.
The building of the cathedral had been long retarded by misappropriation of the funds set apart for the purpose, the treasurer having invested large sums at different times in speculations and in the purchase of lands in Peru. The audiencia at length took action and ordered its completion; the means to be raised in equal proportion from the treasury, the colonists, and the natives. When it was finished there remained a surplus of more than two thousand pesos, which was returned to the treasury.
Among the Dominicans discipline was somewhat lax about this period, and their mode of life such as to cause scandal throughout the province. In 1554 Fray Juan de Torres, a resident of Guatemala, was appointed the Dominican vicar provincial of Nicaragua, with orders to visit the convents in Leon and Granada and restore the ecclesiastics to becoming austerity. Failing in this, he was to give them permission to leave for Spain or elsewhere as they pleased, and bring back with him all the jewels and ornaments belonging to the order.[XXIV‑32] Arriving in Nicaragua, the vicar provincial at once imposed such severe ordinances that the friars became disgusted and resolved to return to Spain. Nothing could be more agreeable to Fray Juan, who thereupon stealthily collected all the jewels and ornaments according to his instructions and returned to Guatemala.[XXIV‑33]
This proceeding was censured even by the vicar's superiors. The general of the order, Estéfano Ususmaris, disapproved of it, and instead of lauding him for his zeal, blamed him for his indiscretion.[XXIV‑34] From Peru came a protest; and the president and oidores of the audiencia of the Confines felt aggrieved that such an important measure should be taken without consulting them. A few years later Padre Torres was ordered to Spain, that the king, council, and the general of his order might be informed on matters pertaining to the election of Father Angulo to the see of Vera Cruz. His ship was captured by French corsairs when in sight of Cádiz, and all on board were made prisoners; but so elated was the ecclesiastic by the glory of thus falling into the hands of heretics, that his captors, regarding his high and holy zeal as a kind of insanity, set him ashore without ransom.
After his arrival at court, the subject of his having dismembered the convents of Nicaragua was revived, and it was decided that he should reëstablish them in person. In consideration, however, of the fact that in this matter he had merely acted according to the orders of his superiors, he was exonerated from all blame and appointed vicar general of the province of Nicaragua, which was at the same time segregated from that of San Vicente de Chiapas. He was then ordered to collect a number of friars and return to Leon, the king bearing the expenses of the expedition and providing everything necessary to refit the convents. He was heartily welcomed by the bishop, settlers, and natives, and together with his colleagues renewed his labors throughout the province; but toil and advancing years had sapped his strength, and about the year 1562 Fray Juan de Torres sickened and died at an Indian village on the Desaguadero.
After his decease the Dominicans became disconsolate and all left the province, some for Santo Domingo, others for Peru, and the rest for Spain. The ornaments and properties donated by the king to the convents were left in charge of lay brothers, but subsequently the Dominicans of San Vicente de Chiapas appropriated them as belonging to the order. They were obliged, however, by a judicial decision to return them, after which they were distributed by royal order among other churches.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.]
At the close of the sixteenth century the chief towns in Nicaragua were Leon the capital, Realejo, and Granada. In 1586 the former was in a dilapidated condition, the houses that fell into decay being never rebuilt. Realejo had but thirty settlers and its chief industry was the building and repairing of ships. Granada had two hundred vecinos and at a short distance from it were many tributary Indians. The walls of the buildings were of mud, buttressed with a few bricks and stones, the roofs being of tiles. The population included encomenderos, merchants, traders, and a few mechanics and stock-raisers. Vessels traded thence with Nombre de Dios, passing down the Desaguadero to the North Sea, though with some difficulty during the dry season.[XXIV‑35]
Notwithstanding the commercial relations thus opened with the province of Panamá, no trade of importance had yet been developed in Nicaragua. There was little money in circulation,[XXIV‑36] and the prices of all imported articles were extremely high. An arroba of wine was worth twelve pesos; cloth could not be bought for less than ten pesos, nor linen for less than fifteen reales a yard. Other commodities sold in the same proportion, and were beyond the means of all but the wealthiest settlers. This condition of affairs may be attributed in part to a clique of merchants in Seville, who had already monopolized the commerce of the New World, who shipped their goods in such small quantities as always to keep the market bare of supplies and insure extravagant prices for their merchandise, and who by their grasping policy gave rise, as we shall see later, to contraband trading.
XXV. NICARAGUA AND COSTA RICA
1601-1700.
LEON ABANDONED—ANOTHER SITE SELECTED—DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW CITY—THE SACRILEGIOUS MOUSE—THE TRADE OF GRANADA—FREEBOOTERS IN NICARAGUA—CHURCH MATTERS—THE JESUITS ENTER THE PROVINCE—THEY ARE RECALLED—THE DIOCESE SUBJECT TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA—SUCCESSION OF PRELATES—ERUPTION OF EL INFIERNO DE MASAYA—MASSACRE OF SPANIARDS IN COSTA RICA—MALDONADO'S EXPEDITION TO TALAMANCA—VERDELETE'S MISSION TO TOLOGALPA—ITS FAILURE—HIS FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE NATIVES—MASSACRE OF SOLDIERS AND ECCLESIASTICS.
[Sidenote: LEON, GRANADA, AND REALEJO.]
The city of Leon was founded, as will be remembered, by Córdoba, in 1523,[XXV‑1] a few leagues from the shore of the South Sea. The murder of Bishop Valdivieso, which has already been mentioned,[XXV‑2] was believed to have entailed a curse upon the place, and after suffering a series of disasters the inhabitants abandoned its site in 1610. First keeping a solemn fast they marched forth under the flags of Spain and the municipality, and about midway between the ocean and Lake Managua in the centre of a populous Indian district named Subtiaba, established a new city which soon became noted as one of the best built in Central America. "Leon," says the English traveller Thomas Gage, an apostate monk who passed through the city in 1637, "is very curiously built, for the chief delight of the Inhabitants consisteth in their houses, and in the pleasure of the Country adjoyning, and in the abundance of all things for the life of man, more than in any extraordinary riches, which there are not so much enjoyed as in other parts of America. They are contented with fine gardens, with variety of singing birds, and parrets, with plenty of fish and flesh, which is cheap, and with gay houses, and so lead a delicious, lasie and idle life; not aspiring much to trade and traffique, though they have neer unto them the Lake, which commonly every year sendeth forth some Frigats to the Havana by the North Sea, and Realejo on the South Sea, which to them might be very commodious for any dealing and rich trading in Peru or to Mixco, if their spirits would carry them so far. The Gentlemen of this City are almost as vain and phantastical as are those of Chiapa. And especially from the pleasure of this City, is all that province of Nicaragua, called by the Spaniards Mahomets Paradise. From hence the way is plain and level to Granada, whither I got safely and joyfully."[XXV‑3]
"What in Granada we observed," continues Gage, "was, two Cloisters of Mercenarian and Franciscan Frayers, and one of the Nuns, very rich; and one Parish Church, which was as a Cathedral, for the Bishop of Leon did more constantly reside there than in the City. The houses are fairer than those of Leon, and the Town of more Inhabitants, amongst whom are some few Merchants of very great wealth, and many of inferiour degree very well to pass, who trade with Carthagena, Guatemala, San Salvador, and Comayagua and some by the South Sea to Peru and Panamá.... In one day there entered six Requas (which were at least three hundred Mules) from St Salvador and Comayagua only, laden with nothing else but Indigo, Cochinil, and Hides; and two days after from Guatemala came in three more, the one laden with silver, which was the Kings tribute from that Countrey; the other with Sugar, and the other with Indigo."[XXV‑4]
In 1665 Fort San Cárlos on the Desaguadero was captured by freebooters under Gallardillo, and thus Granada lay at the mercy of corsairs. The city was captured, and the invaders, disappointed in their hopes of plunder, set it on fire, putting to rout during their retreat a force of three thousand Spaniards gathered to intercept them, and thence extended their depredations to Realejo. San Cárlos was recaptured by Martin Cárlos de Mencos, the president of Guatemala, and, in October 1671, the erection of new and stronger works was ordered by the king, the site selected being near the outlet of the lake.[XXV‑5]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.]
The ecclesiastical records of the province during the seventeenth century contain few incidents worthy of record. In 1616 the Jesuits of Guatemala attempted to establish themselves in Nicaragua, and at the instance of the Conde de la Gomera, president of the audiencia, Pedro de Contreras was despatched to Granada in charge of the work.[XXV‑6] He was welcomed to the diocese of Nicaragua by the Bishop Don Pedro Villa Real,[XXV‑7] and every assistance was afforded him, the cathedral being placed at his disposal during the whole of lent. But when he made known the main purpose of his mission—the establishment of a Jesuit college in Nicaragua—the people of Granada, though they listened to him with delight, refused to respond to his appeals for aid. Means were supplied, however, by an ex-captain-general of the province, Vicente Saldívar y Mendoza, whose deceased wife had left one fifth of her property for the endowment of a college. The sum thus bequeathed was increased by Saldívar to twenty-seven thousand pesos and presented to Contreras. Until 1621 the Jesuits remained in Nicaragua, Contreras and Padre Blas Hernandez being the only names recorded in connection with the mission. It was then announced that the superiors of the order had recalled them, and immediately the widespread interest in the labors of the fathers was manifested by large public meetings, at which petitions were adopted against such a measure.[XXV‑8] But the orders of the Provincial Nicolás de Armoya were peremptory, for the location, he alleged, was deemed too remote to be governed in keeping with the strict rules of the Jesuits.[XXV‑9]
Meanwhile the people of Realejo had sent frequent petitions to Guatemala, and as a last resort addressed themselves directly to the king, asking for the establishment of a Jesuit college in their midst,[XXV‑10] especially as the cura of the town had made donations which would yield a revenue of six thousand pesos. The royal license for the foundation of the college was issued, accompanied by a grant from the royal treasury of three thousand ducats, whereupon the provincial relented, and notwithstanding the opposition of his fellow padres, authorized its institution. About the close of 1621 the Jesuits returned for a while to Granada, but the consent of the provincial to the establishment of the order in this province had in truth been given only with the expectation of multiplying dependencies until Guatemala could claim the dignity of a vice-provincia. When this failed the padres were not allowed to remain in Nicaragua, and henceforth the Jesuits disappear for a time from the history of the province.
The see of Nicaragua was subject to the archbishop of Lima, and the remoteness of the archiepiscopal court was a frequent source of complaint among the Spaniards, for the expense of the voyage often exceeded the monetary value of the interests involved. In 1621 Benito Valtonado was prelate at Granada.[XXV‑11] He was a man noted for his kindness of heart, and mainly from his own resources, which were ample, he founded the hospital of Santa Catalina at Leon. After his decease in 1627 little worthy of special note is mentioned in connection with the prelates of Nicaragua until after the appointment in 1667 of Andrés de las Navas y Quevada,[XXV‑12] who built an episcopal palace, a church college, and received by royal order a grant of religious books.
About the middle of the seventeenth century the income of the diocese amounted to 3,000 pesos, of which sum the dean received 600 pesos, the archdeacon 400, and two canons each 300 pesos a year. At this period the convent of La Merced in Leon contained twenty ecclesiastics.
If Fray Blas del Castillo could have deferred until 1670 the journey which he made through Nicaragua in 1537, discovering, as we have seen, that providence had reserved for the ecclesiastics the molten treasures of El Infierno de Masaya,[XXV‑13] he would have had a better opportunity to test his belief. "Some assert," relates Oviedo, who it will be remembered was in that neighborhood in 1529, when a violent outburst occurred, and resided for three years in Nicaragua,[XXV‑14] "that the light caused by the eruption is sufficient to read by at the distance of three leagues." From the northern slope of the mountain poured in 1670 a volume of lava so vast as to extend almost to the lake of Managua, or as many conjecture, to reach far into the lake.[XXV‑15]
Toward the close of the century the raids of buccaneers, of which a description will be given in its place, coupled with the restrictions on trade imposed by the home government, were sore afflictions to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, both of which territories were rich in natural resources. The governor of the latter province, writing to the king at the opening of the eighteenth century, reports that Costa Rica does not yield enough for the support of the priests and the secular officials.
[Sidenote: OBSERVATIONS OF THOMAS GAGE.]
There are no reliable records of the condition of affairs in Esparza until, as we shall see later, the settlement was several times sacked by buccaneers toward the close of the century, its site being changed in 1688. Of the capital of Costa Rica, Gage, who sojourned there four days during his journey to England, writes: "We came at last through thousand dangers to the City of Carthago, which we found not to be so poor, as in richer places, as Guatemala and Nicaragua it was reported to be. For there we had occasion to inquire after some Merchants for exchange of gold and silver, and we found that some were very rich, who traded by land and sea with Panamá and by sea with Portobello, Cartagena, and Havana, and from thence with Spain. The City may consist of four hundred Families, and is governed by a Spanish Governour. It is a Bishops See, and hath in it three Cloisters, two of Fryers, and one of Nuns."
Calle, whose work was published in 1646, states that Cartago had sixty vecinos, and that in the entire province there were but a hundred and twenty vecinos and fifteen thousand peaceable Indians. The capital, he says, had two judges, and among other officials a high constable, with a salary of a thousand pesos a year.[XXV‑16]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: TALAMANCA AND TOLOGALPA.]
The district of Talamanca, which lay on the coast of the North Sea and within the province of Costa Rica, was not fully explored until 1601, in which year the city of Concepcion was founded on the Rio de la Estrella. The establishment of this colony was quickly followed by an insurrection of the natives who, incited by the rapacity and cruelty of the Spaniards, rose en masse on the 10th of August 1610, and massacred the inhabitants of that settlement and of Santiago de Talamanca, which had been built on the left bank of the river, slaughtering indiscriminately men, women, children, and priests.
Nothing else worthy of record occurred in this district until the year 1660, when Rodrigo Arias Maldonado, being governor and captain-general of Costa Rica,[XXV‑17] resolved upon the subjugation of the natives of Talamanca, then consisting of some twenty-six tribes. Maldonado proposed to carry the gospel in one hand and the sword in the other; but his ambition was rather to represent the church militant than to follow the example of previous conquerors.
With a corps of one hundred and ten men he started forth upon his self-imposed mission, expending his own private fortune upon the enterprise,[XXV‑18] enduring great fatigue and hardship, exploring all the coast as far as Boca del Drago and Boca del Flor, and visiting the adjacent islands. His success was remarkable. He gathered the Indians into villages, had them instructed in the faith, and erected churches; but with his retirement from the scene the natives returned to their nomadic life, the villages were deserted, and the churches fell into decay. The intelligence of his labors, when communicated to the king, won for him the title of marqués de Talamanca, but before the royal decree reached him he had turned his back upon the honors of this world, and enrolled himself as a humble brother of Bethlehem, to be thenceforward known as Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz.[XXV‑19]
In 1684 the two Franciscans, Melchor Lopez, and Antonio Margil, resumed the work of christianization, and found the paths that had led to the interior overgrown and hidden as if they had never been opened, and the people as fierce and untractable as though no efforts had been made to civilize them. Yet these two priests, without arms or protection, advanced into the interior of the country and reported within five years the baptism of forty thousand Indians and the establishment of fourteen villages. The work was continued with varying success by a number of ecclesiastics, several of whom suffered martyrdom in their cause,[XXV‑20] but the final result of all efforts was failure so complete that, to use the words of Pelaez, "it was as if these mountains were the gates of hell, from within which there was no redemption."
* * * * *
In connection with the attempted pacification of Talamanca may be mentioned certain missionary expeditions to Tologalpa, the name given to a mountainous country lying between the Desaguadero and the Nueva Segovia river, and peopled by sambos, by the Xicaques, the Lencas, and other tribes[XXV‑21] or admixtures of tribes, differing widely in language, government, and manners. The Spanish government had repeatedly directed inquiries to be made concerning them and the best means of effecting their reconciliation;[XXV‑22] and in letters addressed to the president of the audiencia early in the seventeenth century the king urges that efforts be made for the peaceful conquest of this province.
Among others who were imbued with a passion for this particular work was a Franciscan named Estévan Verdelete, who was appointed local superior in Comayagua and to whom the provincial granted a license authorizing the adoption of any measures that would be likely to prove successful. Under the guidance of some Indians, who avowed sympathy with his projects, he and his friend Juan de Monteagudo, penetrated this territory, only to be abandoned, however, by the natives when in the midst of a vast wilderness, without food, and apparently cut off from all human aid. Guided by the stars they succeeded in making their way through the wilds, and after suffering excessive hardship arrived in safety at Comayagua, whence they immediately afterward set forth for Santiago to assist at the provincial synod held there in 1606.
Not disheartened by this failure, Verdelete asked permission from the synod to proceed to Spain, for the purpose of asking the king's assistance in the conversion and pacification of the natives. His request was granted and eight assistants were appointed, whose expenses were to be paid out of the royal treasury.[XXV‑23]
In October 1609 Verdelete left Santiago in company with his party of ecclesiastics, and in passing through Comayagua obtained the services of Captain Daza and three other Spaniards, who were familiar with the country. After several days' travel they came in sight of Indian dwellings and were received with every manifestation of joy. Verdelete in the enthusiasm of the hour declared that he was prepared to live and die among them. Converts were numerous,[XXV‑24] and the mission so promising that Verdelete wrote to the provincial asking for more missionaries.
[Sidenote: WAR ON THE MISSIONARIES.]
But soon a change came over the scene, caused mainly by the deep feeling of hostility that sprang up among the unconverted natives against their christianized brethren. A frenzy of hatred against the very semblance of religion seized upon them, and they resolved to burn down the settlement of the missionaries and to massacre the inmates. On the evening set for the execution of their purpose the ecclesiastics received warning through some children, and while yet Verdelete was exhorting them to stand steadfast in the hour of trial, hideous yells roused them to an immediate sense of peril. Issuing forth they found the village enveloped in flames, and encompassed by war-painted Indians brandishing lances and torches. Verdelete at once rushed into their midst, crucifix in hand, and with words of indignation upbraided them for their baseness and treachery, and threatened the vengeance of offended heaven. His courage inspired his associates, and at the spectacle of such boldness the natives shrank abashed, and one by one slunk away. At daybreak not an Indian was to be seen, and the missionaries then returned to Guatemala, where their story only incited a more determined effort at the reduction of the offending tribes, and another and larger expedition was organized again under the leadership of Verdelete.
The missionaries were accompanied by an escort of twenty-three soldiers under Captain Daza, and reached the confines of Tologalpa in April 1611. They found some of their old converts, and by their agency others were brought into the fold. Thus encouraged, they wished to penetrate farther into the interior, but were dissuaded by Daza, who volunteered to go in advance with some of his men and test the feeling of the natives. After waiting some time for their return,[XXV‑25] the ecclesiastics were beguiled into the mountain fastnesses, and found upon turning the brow of a hill a large hostile band, brandishing lances and hideous in war-paint. Their first glance showed them the head of Daza and some of his soldiers carried on the points of lances, and at once they saw that their fate was sealed. Nothing daunted, Verdelete advanced toward them and began to expostulate. He was answered by a flight of javelins, and fell pinned to the earth by a lance. Of the entire party but two escaped,[XXV‑26] and for many years the inhabitants of Tologalpa saw no more of the Christians.
Toward the close of the century, however, the rule of the Spaniards had become somewhat milder throughout the provinces of Central America, and in 1674 two of the Tologalpan tribes sent representatives to Guatemala and besought Fernando de Espino, the provincial of the Franciscan order, to send instructors to their countrymen. Soon afterward the governor, after consultation with the provincial, resolved to send another missionary, and out of many candidates Pedro de Lagares, a young man of culture and an enthusiast in the cause, was chosen for the task. At Nueva Segovia Lagares opened a missionary school, to which all were admitted who were willing to work. He made numerous journeys into the interior, and converts multiplied until in 1678 they were counted by hundreds. His decease occurred during the following year, and his successors, though meeting with some encouragement, finally abandoned the field, though without any obvious cause.
XXVI. BUCCANEERS AND BUCCANEERING RAIDS
1518-1664.
BUCCANEERS AT SANTO DOMINGO—TORTUGA THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE PIRATES—THEIR MODES OF LIFE—FRANÇOIS L'OLONNOIS THE FILIBUSTER—HIS VESSEL CAST ON THE SHORE OF CAMPECHE—HE ESCAPES TO TORTUGA—AND REAPPEARS IN THE BAY OF HONDURAS—HE CAPTURES SAN PEDRO—HE PLANS A RAID ON GUATEMALA—HIS COMRADES DESERT HIM—HIS VESSEL WRECKED OFF CAPE GRACIAS Á DIOS—HIS EXPEDITION TO DESAGUADERO—AND TO COSTA RICA—HE IS HACKED TO PIECES—MANSVELT CAPTURES THE ISLAND OF SANTA CATARINA—AND ATTACKS CARTAGO—SANTA CATARINA RETAKEN BY THE SPANIARDS.
About the year 1518 an English trading ship touching at Santo Domingo was fired upon by order of the governor, and thence setting sail for Porto Rico bartered wrought iron for provisions.[XXVI‑1] A few years later the passage to the Indies became known among the nations of western Europe, and foreign vessels were often seen in the waters of the North Sea. In 1529 guarda costas were procured by the governor of Santo Domingo, and their captains commissioned to seize all craft which sailed under any flag but that of Spain, and to enslave their crews. But in that island are many excellent harbors, and the Spaniards seemed not averse to obtain at smaller cost from foreigners goods such as those on which the merchants of Seville made enormous profits; and vessels from several countries, more especially from England, France, and Holland, continued to make voyages to the New World, their captains combining for mutual protection, and not unfrequently making raids on the Spanish settlements.
In 1531 French corsairs were seen off the coast of Tierra Firme; and in 1537 Bishop Marroquin, when about to depart for Spain, was dissuaded as we have observed from making the journey by his friends in Mexico,[XXVI‑2] for even at that date the North Sea was infested by pirates. Santo Domingo was the favorite calling-place of foreign marauders; for wild cattle abounded in every part of the island, and there the pirates could revictual their ships without expense.
At the close of the sixteenth century the island on which the great discoverer founded his first settlement had been thinned of its inhabitants. Moreover the mines had become exhausted and the vast wealth of Mexico and Peru had drawn away all the most enterprising of the Spaniards, and the few that remained dwelt for the most part in small villages, where they cured at their boucans, or drying establishments, the flesh of cattle and hogs, giving to the cured meat the same name as to the place where it was prepared.[XXVI‑3] Hence also the origin of the word bucaniers, or buccaneers, the latter term being used by Dampier,[XXVI‑4] whose raids will be described later.
[Sidenote: THE PHILOSOPHY OF PIRACY.]
English, French, and Dutch adventurers found in Santo Domingo places where they could lead an idle roving life, the monotony of which was relieved by an occasional fight with the Spaniards, the French being termed flibustiers,[XXVI‑5] or as we shall call them filibusters, though this word was not used till the seventeenth century, and the Dutch styling themselves zee roovers.
In 1623 James I. of England granted to one Thomas Warner the island of San Cristóbal, though by what authority is not recorded by the chroniclers of the period. Warner associated with him fourteen others, who were to share the profits of the expedition, and sailed in charge of a band of adventurers for the Indies. His vessel arrived off San Cristóbal in 1625, and during that year a party of Frenchmen landed on the island, which was then inhabited by Caribs. The Spaniards had never formed a settlement there, and the English and French divided the territory between them. Fearing that the Caribs might be incited to rise against them by the crews of Spanish vessels, which frequently called there to obtain provisions, these licensed marauders attacked the savages by night, massacred the chiefs, and drove the rest from the island. Warner soon afterward returned to England, and for this gallant exploit was knighted by his learned Majesty, thus justifying the title which James I. has gained in the page of history as the greatest fool in christendom. A powerful armament was despatched to San Cristóbal by order of the court of Spain, and the intruders were dispersed; those who escaped the swords of the Spaniards taking refuge in the adjacent islands, and returning a year or two later.
Trading companies were now organized, and licenses granted to establish colonies. The islet of Tortuga, lying to the north-west of Santo Domingo, was captured almost without resistance. There storehouses were built, and there for a time were the head-quarters of the pirates. Tortuga was recaptured by the Spaniards in 1638, and the freebooters received no quarter; a few of them escaped to the woods; others were away on piratical or other expeditions; and though some of them fell into the hands of the Spaniards and were massacred, the latter soon abandoned the island, and in the following year the freebooters at Tortuga mustered three hundred men. For the first time the pirates now elected a leader, and their numbers were soon recruited by French, English, and Dutch volunteers.
Though they were regarded by the Spaniards as foes, they were esteemed by other European nations as allies and champions, and so rapid was the growth of their settlements that in 1641 we find governors appointed, and at San Cristóbal a governor-general named De Poincy, in charge of the French filibusters, in the Indies. During that year Tortuga was garrisoned by French troops, and the English were driven out, both from that islet and from Santo Domingo, securing harborage elsewhere in the islands. Nevertheless, corsairs of both nations often made common cause; and in 1654 a large party of buccaneers and filibusters, ascending a river a little to the south of Cape Gracias á Dios, plundered the settlement of Nueva Segovia. In the same year Tortuga was again recaptured by the Spaniards, but in 1660 fell once more into the hands of the French; and in their conquest of Jamaica in 1655 the British troops were reënforced by a large party of buccaneers.
[Sidenote: CUSTOMS OF CORSAIRS.]
The monarchs, both of England and France, but especially the former, connived at, and even encouraged the freebooters, whose services could be obtained in time of war, and whose actions could be disavowed in time of peace. Thus buccaneer, filibuster, and sea-rover were for the most part at leisure to hunt wild cattle, and to pillage and massacre the Spaniards wherever they found an opportunity. When not on some marauding expedition they followed the chase, and one day's employment was like that of another. Setting forth at daybreak, accompanied by their dogs and servants, they continued their search until as many head of bullocks were slain as there were members in the party. Hides were thus provided sufficient to fill contracts with the captain of a trading vessel which usually lay stationed in some neighboring bay, and were carried down to the sea-shore by bondsmen, who under the name of apprentices had been inveigled into a contract to serve for a term of years. For them there was no seventh or other day of rest. One of these unfortunates ventured on a certain occasion to expostulate with his master, quoting the divine injunction with the preamble: "I say unto thee, etc." And "I say unto thee," returned the buccaneer, "six days shalt thou kill bullocks, and strip them of their skins, and on the seventh day thou shalt carry their hides to the sea-shore."
The dress of the buccaneers consisted of a shirt dipped in the blood of a slaughtered animal, pantaloons of leather, if possible filthier than the shirt, shoes of rawhide, and a hat without rim. All goods, other than articles of virtu, were held in common; and as life was precarious, half of them at least being sure to die in the Indies, each chose a comrade with whom property of every description was shared. Though without laws or religion they had few disputes, and those were readily adjusted. They were governed by a rough code, established by themselves, and there were not wanting among them those who displayed, though usually in a brutal fashion, the possibilities of a better nature. Of Ravenau de Lussan, who figures in the history of the buccaneers, and whose operations will be mentioned in their place, it is related that he joined them only because he was in debt, and in order to obtain the means of satisfying his creditors. Of Montbar, a Frenchman of Languedoc, the chroniclers relate that on reading the story of the atrocities committed by the Spaniards on the hapless natives, he conceived such a hatred against them that he also joined the corsairs, and by his deeds of vengeance won the sobriquet of the Exterminator. Of a French captain of filibusters named Daniel, it is recorded that he shot one of his own crew in church for some indecorous act committed during the performance of mass. Until 1665 there were few women among these rapscallions. In that year a governor sent out to take charge of the French settlements in Santo Domingo, brought with him a few females of lax morality, whom the buccaneers took to wife in this fashion: "Your past is nothing to me, for then I did not know, and you did not then belong to me. I acquit you of all evil; but you must pledge me your word for the future." The foul troth was thus plighted, when striking his hand on the barrel of his gun the husband exclaimed: "This will avenge me should you prove false."[XXVI‑6]
The deeds of Pierre Le Grande and Bartolomé Portuguez, who figure in the stories of buccaneering raids about the time of Montbar's exploits—the middle of the seventeenth century—require no record in these pages. The name that stands preëminent among all the cut-throats, who at this period infested the North Sea and the shores of the main, is that of a personage called François L'Olonnois, a native of France, but one whose natural ferocity almost forbids us to class him with the human race. Montbar, though his hate amounted to frenzy, was impelled only by indignation against the oppressors and sympathy for the sufferings of the oppressed, and would accept no share in the proceeds of his raids.[XXVI‑7] But no such half-human feeling, no shadow of honest intent, ever prompted the monster L'Olonnois. Montbar was an undiscerning fiend; L'Olonnois an arch-fiend, with no faculty impaired. Transported in youth to the West Indies, ere long he exchanged convict life for the more genial pursuits of a filibuster, and his first position among those rovers on sea and land was that of a common mariner. In that capacity he made several voyages, and so distinguished himself by his brute strength and fearlessness that the governor of Tortuga[XXVI‑8] supplied him with a ship and armament wherewith to reap a harvest of gold.
The success which he achieved was great, and his operations attracted the attention of congenial cut-throats, who eagerly manned his decks, and at the same time stamped his name in crimson letters on the hearts of the race which he regarded as his prey. Even the elements attempted to arrest his destroying hand, and in one of his cruises cast his vessel on the shore of Campeche, where nearly all his comrades were killed by the Spaniards.
But the devil did not abandon his high-priest. L'Olonnois, though severely wounded, and regarding himself and his party as lost, smeared himself with blood without being perceived, and fell apparently lifeless among the slain.[XXVI‑9] Stripping off the dress of a dead Spaniard when the enemy had departed, he crawled over the ghastly forms of his late comrades and hid in the woods; then he boldly entered a neighboring town, and by promise of freedom induced some slaves to go with him. Stealing a large canoe, in due time they reached the isle of Tortuga.
[Sidenote: GLORIOUS BUTCHERY.]
Terrible as he was before this disaster, the future deeds of L'Olonnois were still more atrocious. "I shall never henceforward give quarter to any Spaniard whatsoever," he writes to the governor of Cuba, after having beheaded, with his own hand, all save one of the survivors on board a captured ship which had been sent against him. And he was as good as his word. He hacked to pieces captive after captive, quenching his thirst with the blood that dripped from his heated cutlass. He tore out men's hearts and chewed them, and watched prisoners slowly die of hunger and thirst. If under the most agonizing torture the information wrung from a Spaniard was not satisfactory, the hapless wretch's tongue was wrenched out by the roots. Verily the cruelties of the conquerors were visited upon their descendants.
The reputation of L'Olonnois as a successful leader became so great that the most reckless and determined were ever ready to join in any enterprise projected by him. Between 1660 and 1665 he planned an expedition against the north coast of Central America and soon was in command of six ships and seven hundred men. Directing his course to Cape Gracias á Dios, he was driven by stress of weather into the bay of Honduras, where, distressed for want of provisions, his party ascended the Jagua River[XXVI‑10] in their canoes, sacking and destroying the Indian villages on the banks, and murdering the inhabitants. The pirates then cruised along the coast committing similar depredations. At Puerto de Caballos, after taking a Spanish ship of twenty-four guns and sixteen swivels, they landed and sacked two large store-houses. These with the town they burned, and having captured a number of the inhabitants inflicted upon them the most inhuman cruelties. L'Olonnois at the head of three hundred men next proceeded to San Pedro, about twelve leagues distant, and on his march thither fell in with three strong bodies of Spaniards who lay in ambush for him. These he successively routed, but not without the loss of many of his men. His treatment of prisoners and wounded captives was marked by his customary atrocities.
[Sidenote: A MOST VALIANT SOLDIER.]
On arriving at San Pedro he found the town strongly fortified at the main entrance, the other parts being surrounded by impenetrable thickets of thorny shrub and cactus, and his only plan was to assault the barricades. The Spaniards, however, defended themselves with desperation, and the pirates were compelled to withdraw from their first attack. Their second attempt caused such mortality among the defenders that they hoisted a flag of truce and agreed to surrender the town on condition that quarter be given the inhabitants for two hours. These terms were agreed to, and, strange though it may appear, were faithfully kept by the pirates. The inhabitants gathered up their effects and fled, but no sooner had the two hours expired than L'Olonnois gave orders for pursuit. The freebooters were disappointed, for the men of San Pedro had secreted the greater part of their valuables and merchandise, and the pirates found only some indigo to recompense them for their toil and danger.[XXVI‑11]
The star of the great Frenchman was now on the wane, and with the exception of capturing a Spanish ship of forty-two[XXVI‑12] guns after a desperate engagement his operations off the Central American coast were unimportant. But even this prize, for which the freebooters had long waited in hope of great booty, they found discharged of her valuable cargo, and a few unimportant articles of merchandise was all they obtained. The companions of L'Olonnois were becoming discontented with his want of success, and though he recklessly proposed to make a raid on the city of Guatemala, to many this seemed too desperate an enterprise, and the greater portion of his followers deserted him and turned their vessels homeward.[XXVI‑13] Misfortune now followed him relentlessly. While working his poorly manned ship along the coast, she struck a sand-bank near the isle of Pearls off Cape Gracias á Dios. The crew were already half famished and there was no hope of saving the vessel. So they broke the craft in pieces and built a long-boat, occupying five or six months in this work. But when finished it would only hold half their number. Then it was decided that the half to go should be selected by casting lots. They would embark for the Desaguadero in Nicaragua,[XXVI‑14] in the expectation of seizing vessels and returning for their comrades. L'Olonnois took command of the expedition, but was unsuccessful in his attempt on the Desaguadero. Spaniards and Indians assailed him in such overwhelming numbers that he was compelled to retreat with heavy loss. But determined not to return for his companions on the isle of Pearls without a vessel in which to take them back to Tortuga, he sailed for Costa Rica, and being obliged to land for provisions near the gulf of Darien he and all his men, save one who escaped by flight, were cut to pieces by the Indians and roasted.[XXVI‑15] Thus with a fitting retribution ended the career of François L'Olonnois, who might give lessons in greatness to the leaders of armies and in savagism to the Indians who slew him.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MANSVELT AND MORGAN.]
About the year 1664 a noted buccaneer named Mansvelt formed the design of attacking the town of Natá, by making a descent upon it overland from the North Sea. For this purpose he sailed from Jamaica with a fleet of fifteen vessels and five hundred men.[XXVI‑16] To obtain guides he assaulted and captured the island of Santa Catarina, or Old Providence.[XXVI‑17] There he established a buccaneer settlement, leaving one hundred men under command of a Frenchman named St Simon. Then he proceeded against Natá, but found such preparations had been made by the president of Panamá that he was forced to abandon the attempt. A Spanish prisoner, however, offered to lead him to Cartago, the capital of Costa Rica, which he represented as a rich and unfortified city. This proposal met with general approval, and the fleet sailed back along the coast as far as Port Matina,[XXVI‑18] where they disembarked.
At first their way was not difficult, and from the settlements on the road they obtained abundance of provisions; but in a few days they reached the cordillera, where provisions could no longer be procured in sufficient quantity. Mansvelt's crew was composed of Englishmen and Frenchmen, and whatever amity might exist under favorable circumstances between them was now destroyed by hardship and hunger. No fair distribution was made of such food as could be obtained. Fierce brawls ensued. Mansvelt and the afterward famous Morgan, the second in command, in vain attempted to allay the discord, which was so violent that the two factions were almost as ready to fall upon each other as on the Spaniards. Meantime the governor of Cartago had raised all the forces he could muster,[XXVI‑19] and had taken up a strong position on a hill commanding the town of Turialba,[XXVI‑20] which the pirates had entered. At daybreak, before the invaders were yet under arms, the Spaniards unexpectedly opened fire upon them from the eminence. In the absence of mutual confidence the pirates were thrown into confusion, and their leaders deemed it best to return to the fleet. The Spaniards followed for a short distance, and having seized a few stragglers returned triumphant to Cartago.
But to the victors was not all the glory. The precipitate flight of so large a band of desperadoes could only have been accomplished by divine power; and, indeed, the Spaniards learned from their captives[XXVI‑21] that when the invaders' quarters were broken up they saw on the height a host of warriors commanded by a radiant female form,[XXVI‑22] who were none others than the holy virgin and an army of saints who had come to the succor of the chosen of God; so the grateful people of Cartago chose her as their patron, and instituted an annual procession to her shrine at Ujarraz,[XXVI‑23] which ceremony continued to the time of Juarros.
[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE CHIEF.]
When Mansvelt arrived at the bay of Matina he reëmbarked and set sail for Santa Catarina. There he found his pirate colony thriving. The fortifications had been put in the best repair, portions of the island cultivated, and other measures taken for a permanent residence thereon. He therefore decided to request aid for carrying out his project from the governor of Jamaica; but that official, though inclined to connive at the doings of the buccaneers, did not dare place his position in jeopardy by such an open act of hostility against Spain, with which nation England was then at peace. Mansvelt made an equally unsuccessful appeal to the governor of Tortuga, and dying ere long, the robbers at Santa Catarina were left to their own resources. Not long afterward the president of Panamá, sent a force to recover the island, and St Simon, finding that the promised reënforcements did not arrive, and considering it impossible to defend the place with the company under his command, surrendered after a slight show of resistance.[XXVI‑24]
XXVII. PANAMÁ, PORTOBELLO, AND PIRACY
1601-1670.
AN AUDIENCIA AGAIN ESTABLISHED IN PANAMÁ—ITS PRESIDENTS—CAPTAIN PARKER'S RAID ON PORTOBELLO—GROWTH OF PORTOBELLO AND DECADENCE OF PANAMÁ—MALEFEASANCE OF OFFICIALS—INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION—CONTRABAND TRADING—CHURCH MATTERS IN PANAMÁ—DISPUTES BETWEEN THE BISHOPS AND THE OIDORES—THE ECCLESIASTICS IN EVIL REPUTE—DESTRUCTIVE CONFLAGRATION—BAZAN'S ADMINISTRATION—HIS DOWNFALL AND ITS CAUSE—THE ANNUAL FAIR AT PANAMÁ.
During the first half of the seventeenth century the province of Panamá was under the control of a governor or president, and an audiencia real, which was reëstablished toward the close of the previous century. The archives are meagre of information regarding the governors, some of them being barely mentioned, and their succession not always agreed upon by the authorities. In 1601 Alonso de Sotomayor was governor; on the 9th of June 1604 the licentiate Alonso de Coronado, an oidor of the audiencia of Guatemala, was appointed president; and on the 18th of September in the same year that office was filled by Valverde de Mercado, each of the officials receiving as salary six thousand ducats per annum.[XXVII‑1]
We have also the personnel of the ayuntamiento of Panamá,[XXVII‑2] and certain ordinances passed by that body, one of which relates to the sale of a noxious liquor known as vino de Aljarafe,[XXVII‑3] and the other forbids trafficking in negro slaves.[XXVII‑4]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: PARKER'S ATTACK.]
It was during the administration of Mercado that Captain William Parker attacked and captured Portobello. He sailed from Plymouth in November 1601 with two ships, a pinnace, and two shallops, and at least two hundred men.[XXVII‑5] After a tempestuous voyage in which he lost his pinnace and all her crew save three, he captured the town of San Vicente, on the Cape Verde Islands, and after despoiling it and giving it up to the flames sailed for the coast of Tierra Firme. Arriving at the island of Cubagua, where was a pearl-fishery, he was confronted by a company of soldiers, who resisted manfully, but were finally overcome; several barks and boats were captured, and several prisoners taken, for whose ransom he received pearls to the value of twenty-five hundred pesos. Thence he shaped his course for Cape de la Vela, off which he met with a fine Portuguese ship of two hundred and fifty tons, bound for Cartagena, and laden with negroes for the mines. An easy capture was made, and another twenty-five hundred pesos secured as ransom for the slaves. Calling at the islands of Cabezas and Bastimentos, at the latter of which he procured several negro guides, he embarked one hundred and fifty of his men in the shallops and in two small pinnaces which he had built during the voyage. He entered the mouth of the river on which Portobello is situated about two o'clock in the morning of the 7th of February 1602.[XXVII‑6]
The moonlight quickly revealed the boats to the watch on duty at the fort of San Felipe, commanding the entrance of the harbor. Being challenged as to whence they came, they answered from Cartagena, the reply being given in Spanish by men taken on board at that town for the purpose. They were then commanded to anchor, and did so at once, six leagues from Portobello, "the Place where my Shippes roade," says Parker, "beinge the rock where Sir Francis Drake his Coffin was throwne overboarde."
The captain was well aware that at San Felipe were always thirty-five great pieces of brass ordnance, ready mounted, to bid an enemy welcome, and fifty soldiers to manage them. Nevertheless, as soon as all was quiet, he proceeded up the river with thirty men and two cannon in his shallops, ordering the remainder of his forces to follow him. Directly opposite the castle was a smaller fort named Santiago, mounting five pieces of ordnance and manned by thirty soldiers, some of whom, seeing the boats, cried out to them to stop, and ran along the shore in pursuit. Heedless of their noise Parker proceeded to the suburban town of Triana, landed there with his company, and in a trice, though the alarm was promptly given, set it on fire. Then, leaving it burning, he marched on Portobello, capturing on his way a piece of ordnance with the loss of only one man. The English made directly for the king's treasure-house, a large and conspicuous building where the governor of the town, Pedro Melendez, was stationed, with a strong force. The flames and smoke of Triana had given warning of the invaders' approach, and Parker found before the treasury a squadron of soldiers drawn up ready to receive him, and also a company of trained civilians with two field-pieces. The conflict that followed was sharp and bloody. Soon all of the English except eight or nine were killed or wounded, and the governor at the head of sixty soldiers was now advancing to crush the remnant of their little band. "But," says the pious pirate, "God did prosper our Proceedings mightelie, for the first two Shott which went from us shot Malendus through his Targett, and went throughe both his Armes, and the other Shott hurted the Corporall of the Fielde, whereupon they all retired to their House which they made good untill it was almost daie."
[Sidenote: PORTOBELLO TAKEN.]
Meanwhile the remainder of the captain's forces had come up, and after a fight of four or five hours the contest was decided in favor of the English. Among the prisoners taken were the governor, the king's escribano, and many of the leading citizens, all of whom were afterward released, Melendez[XXVII‑7] being carried on board the fleet and liberated without ransom after his wounds had been dressed.
The booty captured in the treasure-house amounted to but ten thousand ducats,[XXVII‑8] though had the English arrived but seven days earlier they would have made prize of a hundred and twenty thousand ducats which had just before been carried away by two frigates bound for Cartagena. Elsewhere in the town a considerable amount of plunder was found in the shape of plate, merchandise, and money, all of which was divided among the men, the commander reserving for himself the sum found in the treasury.
No further injury was done to the town, except that a few negro huts were burned in order to intimidate the inhabitants. Seizing two vessels that he found in the port, and in one of which were three mounted pieces of cannon, the English, as they dropped down the river, opened fire on the forts, and were warmly answered by the Spaniards, who expected to sink their vessels. "But God so wrought for us," says the captain, "that we safely gott forthe againe contrarie to the Expectation of our Enemyes." Most of the shots fired from shore passed high overhead, though a few of the English were wounded, among them the commander, who was hit in the elbow with a musket ball which passed out at his wrist. Reaching a neighboring island, Parker was soon rejoined by his ships, and next day, the 9th of February, put out to sea.[XXVII‑9]
* * * * *
It has already been said that in 1585 Portobello contained not more than ten dwellings, and that in March 1597 the port of entry was removed there from Nombre de Dios. During the five years that elapsed between this change and Parker's raid the town had developed into a thriving settlement, and now contained two churches, a treasury, an exchange, a hospital rich and large, a convent and several streets, where for six weeks in the year, when the galleons were in port, merchants and artificers congregated.
Upon the arrival of the galleons, the treasurer, contador, or factor, was ordered by the governor to proceed there, taking with him the deputies of the other two officials.[XXVII‑10] When the gold and silver had been put on board the galleons, and other commodities on board the merchant ships, all were visited by the royal officers to see that the king was not cheated—except for valuable consideration. The coming and going of the annual fleets was a matter of the utmost solicitude to the crown, to shippers, and to consignees. Many a treasure-laden craft either foundered at sea or fell a prey to buccaneers, and the safe arrival of a convoy was heralded with every manifestation of joy, even royalty itself not deeming it out of place to announce such an event. Thus on October 15, 1605, the king in a despatch to the president and audiencia informs them of the arrival of General Don Luis de Córdoba in January of that year.
After the departure of the galleons, Portobello was almost abandoned by the Spaniards, and left mainly to negroes and mulattoes, the inhabitants living chiefly by renting their dwellings and stores at exorbitant rates.[XXVII‑11] The town was built in the shape of a crescent; its harbor was one of the most secure in the Indies,[XXVII‑12] and ship-building and the preparation of cedar lumber were its leading industries. The climate of Portobello, like that of other towns on the Isthmus, was unhealthy, as I have elsewhere stated, though less so than that of Nombre de Dios or even Panamá. The hospital was crowded with invalid soldiers, laborers, and slaves, and in 1608 an annual grant of two thousand ducats was assigned by the crown for its support.
In 1610 the city of Panamá had not more than one third of the population which it possessed in 1585,[XXVII‑13] although from the time of its establishment to the latter date it had grown steadily in wealth and population. The best indication of its decline as a commercial centre is the fact that the revenues of the casa de Cruces,[XXVII‑14] which at one time were farmed out for ten thousand pesos a year, were rented in 1610 for only two thousand pesos. There were mines, but they were not worked;[XXVII‑15] pearl-fisheries, but they lay idle; a measure of trade, but it was in the hands of monopolists, who shared their profits with the king.[XXVII‑16]
* * * * *
The expenses of the general government of Panamá were met by annual appropriations allowed by the council of the Indies, and if we take into consideration the sparseness of the population and the comparative cheapness of the necessaries of life, the officials were exceedingly well paid for their services.[XXVII‑17] But good pay does not seem to have secured faithful service, for on the 28th of March 1605 his Majesty informs the president that he has learned that married officials, while going their official rounds, were accustomed to take with them their wives, who were always provided for at the towns they visited; he enjoins him to forbid them thus to take advantage of their position and to insist that the retinue of bailiffs and servants be reduced to the smallest possible number. Governor Valverde in his report of June 6th following, says that many of the interior towns of Tierra Firme had not been visited by an oidor for many years, and that the province of Veragua had never been visited at all. To remedy such neglect the governor orders the oidores to visit all properly designated places in rotation.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION.]
The question of interoceanic communication, to which allusion has already been made, was discussed at intervals during the latter half of the sixteenth century, and further surveys were made early in the seventeenth. "It is true," writes Gomara in 1554, "that mountains obstruct these passages, but if there be mountains there be also hands; let but the resolve be formed to make the passage and it can be made." On the 31st of December 1616 the king informed Diego Fernandez de Velasco, who at that date was appointed governor of Castilla del Oro, that the court of Spain endorsed the opinion of the commercial world on this project. They believed that communication might be easily established between the oceans by constructing a canal connecting the rivers Dacil and Damaquiel, about thirty leagues from Cartagena, and that such a work would enable the king to provide better for the defence of the provinces.[XXVII‑18]
The governor was directed to report on the feasibility of the project, and to despatch a few small vessels for the purpose of making a similar investigation at the gulf of San Miguel and the Rio Darien. The conclusions arrived at by the officers employed on these surveys is not recorded in the chronicles of the age, but we learn that his Majesty was very explicit in his directions that all such explorations and surveys should be made at the expense of those who were interested, and not charged to the royal treasury.[XXVII‑19]
* * * * *
When Felipe IV. ascended the throne of Spain he assured his subjects in the New World that no forced loans should be required during his reign. He even reimbursed, with interest, the money seized by his predecessor, who a year before his death appropriated to his own use an eighth of the treasure on board the fleet from the Isthmus.[XXVII‑20] Nevertheless the fourth Philip was often in sore need of funds. About this time Rodrigo de Vivero was governor of Castilla del Oro, having been appointed the successor of Velasco,[XXVII‑21] and those in charge of the bullion fleet had made a practice of tarrying long at the port of Perico under pretence of taking in merchandise from Spain. Claiming to be under the jurisdiction of the viceroy of Peru they refused obedience to the audiencia of Panamá. In order to prevent delay in the arrival of the treasure-ships it was ordered that all the officers and men of the fleets calling at Tierra Firme should be placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the audiencia.
[Sidenote: SMUGGLING.]
The king was constantly defrauded of his revenues by contraband trading which prevailed throughout the provinces, but nowhere to such an extent as in Panamá. In the year 1624 the amount of merchandise registered as passing through the casa de Cruces was 1,446,346 pesos, while goods to the amount of 7,597,559 pesos were reported by the factor Cristóbal de Balba to have been smuggled through. No punishment was inflicted for these frauds, though his Majesty thus suffered a loss of 1,370,656 pesos, and the matter was compounded by the payment of 200,000 pesos into the treasury, the factor having received a bribe of 6,000 pesos. Smuggling was practised to such an extent that it threatened the very existence of legitimate commerce. For this condition of affairs Spain had but herself to blame. The merchants of Seville, who still enjoyed a monopoly of the trade with the provinces, despatched only a small squadron twice a year to supply the wants of the colonists. They regulated no less the supply of European goods in America than of American goods in Europe, and took care that both should be shipped in quantities so small as to ensure enormous profits. All kinds of devices were resorted to by contraband traders, both Spaniards and foreigners,[XXVII‑22] to secure a portion of the rich traffic of the Isthmus, and the government finding its revenues constantly decreasing, finally declared smuggling to be a mortal sin, and made those who engaged in it liable to be tried by the inquisition.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.]
It is now in place to allude briefly to the progress of ecclesiastical affairs in Panamá, for here, as elsewhere, they figure largely in the history of the province. With regard to moral and spiritual matters, the people of Panamá, as we have seen, were low enough. Reforms were needed, but reformers were few. On the 26th of November 1572 Pedro Castro de Vedeales, provoked by the flagrant abuses of the time, addressed the licenciado Juan de Ovando, his Majesty's counsellor of the holy inquisition and visitador of the council of the Indies, upon reforms needed in church matters. The communication is elaborate and reviews the errors and misdoings of the Spaniards, particularly in their intercourse with the natives.[XXVII‑23]
When Francisco de Toledo, the new viceroy, arrived at Panamá on his way to Peru in 1569, he restored the royal prerogative of church patronage, which in this diocese, and throughout his viceroyalty, had fallen by disuse into the hands of the archbishop and bishops. In the same year, probably, Francisco Ábrego, a secular priest, had been elevated to the bishopric of Panamá, and continued to hold that office till his decease in 1574.[XXVII‑24] During his administration the chapter considered and formally ratified the decrees of the council of Trent, and in keeping with its behests appointed adjutos, or inferior ecclesiastical judges.
After an interval of four years Fray Manuel de Mercado was placed in charge; and at this time Panamá contained a cathedral, a Franciscan and a Dominican convent, and one belonging to the Merced order. Mercado was succeeded, probably in 1583, by Bartolomé Martinez,[XXVII‑25] who had formerly been archdeacon of the Santa Iglesia of Lima, and after presiding over the see of Panamá for about ten years was promoted to the new prelacy of Granada, but died en route at Cartagena.[XXVII‑26]
The successor of Martinez was Pedro, duque de Ribera, a prominent Jesuit, elected in 1594, who died like his predecessor on reaching Cartagena. The next in succession was Antonio Calderon who was transferred from the bishopric of Porto Rico, and in 1603 was promoted to the see of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.[XXVII‑27]
In 1592 the chapter resolved on the establishment of a nunnery at Panamá, and an appeal in behalf of the project met with prompt and generous response, one citizen alone providing the necessary buildings and a considerable endowment. Six years later the convent was dedicated to Our Lady of the Conception, with an assured revenue of four thousand pesos a year.[XXVII‑28] Four nuns and twenty-four assistants were sent by the archbishop of Lima, whose coöperation had been heartily given.
Thus the spiritual welfare of the inhabitants of Panamá was fully provided for; but the ecclesiastics were by no means single-minded in their labors on behalf of the church. Not content with receiving maintenance, service, and tithes, as provided by law, they extorted, with the connivance of their bishops, salaries of three hundred pesos each from the Indians under their charge,[XXVII‑29] and justly aroused against them the indignation of the king, who instructed the audiencia forthwith to banish from the province many irregular friars of whose disgraceful conduct he had heard.
[Sidenote: WEIGHTY MATTERS OF FORM.]
After the promotion of Bishop Calderon the see of Panamá remained vacant until 1605, when Fray Agustin de Carabajal was appointed prior, and assistant-general of the provinces of Spain and America.[XXVII‑30] Meanwhile the long struggle for supremacy between the authorities of the state and the church, which had now subsided into an unseemly question of precedence in the various religious ceremonials, was disposed of by a royal decree assigning the place of lay and clerical dignitaries in all such pageants. In all processions the bishop led, followed by the officiating presbyter and the clergy. Behind them came the president and audiencia. At the sprinkling with holy water before high mass, the ecclesiastics were to be first sprinkled, and then the president and the audiencia. With regard to handing their bible to the president, the king declared it should not be done, it being an honor to be extended only to viceroys. The bishop's train was to be raised in ecclesiastical ceremony, even though the president and audiencia were present, but only one servant should be allowed to carry it. When the bishop went to the royal house, his train was to be carried as far as the door of the president's room and then dropped. But the main points in dispute were the momentous questions where the bishop was to place his chair on the side of the high altar in the cathedral when the oidores were present, and whether the prebendaries were to be seated beside him. The king decided these matters in favor of the church, and on the 4th of June 1614, after a consultation with the bishop, issued a decree ordering that the regulations in force in the cathedral of Quito should be observed.[XXVII‑31]
In 1611 Carabajal was appointed to the see of Guamango, having founded during his administration at Panamá the college of San Agustin and endowed it with six scholarships, according to the directions of the council of Trent.[XXVII‑32] His successor was Francisco de la Cámara y Raya, who entered upon his office in 1614. During his prelacy was convened the first synod ever held in the diocese of Panamá. During his administration four monks of the order of San Juan de Dios[XXVII‑33] arrived in that city, proposing to serve in the hospitals established there or elsewhere on the Isthmus. Their admission was bitterly opposed by the audiencia, and by the prelate, who was a Dominican, and it was not until June 26, 1620, and in obedience to a provision received, that Captain Ordonó de Salazar, the alguacil mayor, enabled them to take possession of the hospital of Panamá.[XXVII‑34] The order was permanently established in Panamá by Fray Fabian Diaz, who came from Spain with Fray Francisco Lopez in 1604, became celebrated as a physician,[XXVII‑35] and grew rapidly in importance.[XXVII‑36]
In 1625 Fray Cristóbal Martinez, formerly abbot of Segovia, was appointed to the see of Panamá.[XXVII‑37] During his administration serious disturbances occurred among the Augustinian Recollets of the convent of San José, the prime mover, Fray Francisco de la Resurreccion, and his disorderly followers being arrested and sent to Spain by Enrique de Sotomayor, then governor of the province.[XXVII‑38]
The reputation of the ecclesiastics in Panamá about this period appears to have been somewhat unsavory. In 1634 Felipe IV. issued a decree ordering the members of the audiencia to see that the reputation of cloistered nuns be protected. On the 14th of July 1636 the monarch writes to the bishop ordering that he enforce the provisions of a decree addressed to the hierarchy of the Indies in the previous February, by which no mestee, illegitimate son, or person of moral or physical defect was to be ordained. Immoral or scandalous priests were to be expelled from the diocese.[XXVII‑39] During the same year it was ordered that the religious processions, which had hitherto been held at night, should, in the interest of order and decency, be thenceforth conducted by daylight. Nevertheless the work of conversion went bravely on, and during four years the number of baptisms reported in the district of the audiencia exceeded thirteen thousand souls.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FIRES AND FAIRS.]
In 1644, during the prelacy of Fray Hernando Ramirez, the successor of Martinez, a fire broke out in Panamá which consumed ninety-seven houses, including the episcopal residence, and almost destroyed the cathedral. The latter edifice was restored by the prelate and dedicated in 1655 by his successor, Bernardo de Izaguirre, a fiscal of the inquisition of Cartagena. Its ruins exist at the present day. Great was the distress caused to the citizens by this calamity. "Panamá," writes Juan de Vega Bazan, then governor of the province,[XXVII‑40] in a letter addressed to Felipe IV., "has now but a small population, and this decreasing more and more every day, the fields and roads being filled with vagrants." The king, entertaining an unjust suspicion that the Portuguese had fired the city,[XXVII‑41] ordered their removal from Panamá and Portobello to a distance of twenty leagues into the interior, and instructed Bazan to extort from them as much money as possible before sending them into banishment; but to the credit of that official it is related that he gave no heed to the mandate. For this neglect, and for the nepotism which he displayed during his administration, he was severely censured by his sovereign.[XXVII‑42]
In 1647 Bazan was again censured by the crown for a proceeding which, after due investigation by the fiscal of the audiencia, caused his downfall. Acting under the advice of the licentiate Pedro Chacon, he had caused to be driven from their homes eighteen friars of the order of San José, appointing in their places others of bad repute. The ecclesiastics took refuge in the San Cristóbal hills, but were soon afterward reinstated, and at the close of the following year the governor was superseded by Juan Bitrian de Biamonte y Navarra.[XXVII‑43] The latter died in 1651 while superintending the despatch of a fleet from Portobello, and in the parish church of that city a marble monument was erected to his memory.
Panamá appears to have recovered quickly from the prostration caused by the fire of 1644. An annual fair was held there until the year 1671, at which date the city was destroyed during the raid of Morgan and his buccaneers, as will be presently related. In 1655 the value of merchandise that changed hands during the fair is officially reported at five millions of pesos, and this sum probably represents but a small portion of the business actually done, for, as we have seen, the quantity of goods that found their way into the provinces through contraband trading was often three or four fold greater than that on which duty was paid.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.]
A rare and valuable manuscript and one indispensable to the history of the district of Darien is the report of its governor, Don Andrés de Ariza, of April 5, 1774, addressed to the viceroy, Don Manuel Guirior, entitled Comentas de la Rica y Fertilísima Provincia de el Darien. The original report, accompanied by a map, exists in the National Library of Bogotá, whence the present copy was made for the author. Three separate documents compose the report; a letter describing the generally ruined condition of the province, causes, and proposed remedies; a detailed description of the towns, military posts, and inhabitants, and a condensed account of the actual condition of the province, its inhabitants, resources, and history. These documents review in brief the history of the province for the previous sixty-two years, describing more fully the latest Indian revolts. The manuscript forms one volume in folio of forty closely written pages.
XXVIII. MORGAN'S RAIDS ON THE ISTHMUS
1664-1671.
MORGAN'S EARLY CAREER—HE RESOLVES TO ATTACK PORTOBELLO—THE CASTLE OF TRIANA BLOWN INTO THE AIR—CAPTURE OF THE CITY—ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE BUCCANEERS—THE PRESIDENT OF PANAMÁ MARCHES AGAINST THEM—HE IS DRIVEN BACK—MORGAN SENDS HIM A SPECIMEN OF HIS WEAPONS—RANSOM OF THE CITY AND RETURN TO JAMAICA—THE BUCCANEERS PREPARE ANOTHER ARMAMENT, AND RESOLVE TO ATTACK PANAMÁ—CAPTURE OF FORT SAN LORENZO—MARCH ACROSS THE ISTHMUS—MORGAN ARRIVES IN SIGHT OF PANAMÁ—COWARDICE OF THE GOVERNOR—BATTLE WITH THE SPANIARDS—BURNING OF THE CITY—TORTURE OF PRISONERS—BRAVERY OF A CAPTIVE GENTLEWOMAN—THE BUCCANEERS RECROSS THE ISTHMUS—DIVISION OF THE BOOTY.
None of the "brethren of the coast," as English buccaneer, French filibuster, and Dutch sea-rover were pleased to style each other, are better known to fame than Henry Morgan, the Welshman, whose deeds have been heralded in all the principal languages of Europe. Born of respectable parents in easy circumstances, he left home still a lad, and shipped for Barbadoes in the service of a master who, on reaching port, sold him as a slave. On regaining his liberty he proceeded to Jamaica, and finding no other employment joined a piratical expedition which was then on the point of starting for a cruise in the Spanish West Indies. After storing up his share in the proceeds of three or four profitable raids, he was enabled to purchase a vessel in partnership with a few of his more thrifty comrades, and being elected captain made a successful cruise off the coast of Campeche. On his return he was appointed vice-admiral of a fleet, which, under the command of Mansvelt, was preparing for an attack on the island of Santa Catarina.
On the death of Mansvelt in 1664, Morgan, whose gallantry had won the respect of the buccaneers, was appointed his successor, and soon found himself in command of a dozen vessels and seven hundred men. A council was summoned, and it was first proposed to attempt the capture of the city of Habana; but not daring to undertake such an enterprise with so slender a force, the freebooters determined to plunder Puerto Principe, an island town of Cuba grown rich by traffic in hides, and one never yet sacked by the sea-robbers. Warned by a Spanish prisoner who escaped from the fleet as it neared the shore, the inhabitants had time to conceal most of their valuables, and the spoils of this expedition amounted to but fifty thousand pesos, a sum insufficient to pay the debts of the marauders on their return to Jamaica. It was at once determined to undertake some new adventure, and though a difference of opinion between the French and English members of his command caused the former to withdraw from Morgan's service, he soon afterward set sail for the mainland with a fleet of nine ships, and a force of four hundred and sixty fighting men, revealing his design to no one, but promising his followers booty in abundance.
[Sidenote: ATTACK ON PORTO BELLO.]
On the last day of June 1668 the buccaneers arrived off the shore of Castilla del Oro. On sighting land their chief disclosed his intention of attacking by night Portobello, a town often visited by the wealthiest merchants of Panamá, whose ingots of gold were there exchanged for slaves or for the merchandise of Spain, and the point to which it will be remembered were forwarded, at certain periods of the year, the gold and silver of the Peruvian and Mexican mines. The place was then accounted one of the strongest of the Spanish fortresses in the western world; it was garrisoned by three hundred troops, contained four hundred citizens capable of bearing arms, and was guarded by strongly fortified castles, commanding the approaches by land and sea. Many hesitated to attack such a stronghold with a mere handful of men, but their commander spoke words of cheer,[XXVIII‑1] and stimulated by the promise of vast spoils all at last gave their consent.
In the dusk of a summer evening the fleet anchored at Porto Ponto, thirty miles west of the town. Leaving a few men to guard their ships the buccaneers ascended a small river in boats or canoes, and landing about midnight marched at once to the attack. All the avenues of approach were well known to Morgan, and among his band was an Englishman, once a prisoner among the Spaniards, who now acted as guide. A castle named Triana, situated in the eastern suburb, was selected as the first point of assault. A sentinel posted at some distance from the fortress was seized and bound by a small party sent in advance, before he had time to fire his musket. Brought into Morgan's presence he was closely questioned, and frequently menaced with death if his answers should prove untrue.
Creeping along under the shroud of night and the cover of a dense thicket, the silence broken now and then by the watchword of a drowsy sentinel, the freebooters surrounded the castle unperceived, and Morgan, coming close under the walls, bid his captive summon the garrison to capitulate, threatening sure death in case of resistance. They replied with a random volley of musketry and cannon shot. Applying scaling-ladders to the walls, the buccaneers swarmed over the parapets, and after a stout resistance the Spaniards surrendered. Morgan fulfilled his threat. Securing all his prisoners in a large chamber, near the powder-magazine, he fired it by means of match and train when at a safe distance, and the citizens of Portobello, now roused by the sound of the firing, beheld the castle and all its inmates blown high into the air. The invaders fell at once on the panic-stricken inhabitants, rushing through the streets with hideous outcries, and cutting down whomever they met. Many had already fled to the neighboring forests, first casting their money and jewelry into wells and cisterns, or hiding them underground. The governor of the town rallied a small party and retired with them into the strongest of the remaining forts, whence a brisk fire was opened on the assailants. Approaching within two hundred yards the buccaneers aimed at the mouths of the cannon, picking off the Spanish gunners as they reloaded their pieces; but their ranks were repeatedly ploughed by well-directed discharges of artillery. After suffering heavy loss to little purpose, they came close up to the castle and attempted to burn down the gates. The Spaniards received them with sharp volleys of musketry, and dropping hand-grenades and missiles of every description on the heads of the besiegers, they drove them back beyond the range of the guns.
Morgan now began to despair, but rallied after remaining for a while in hesitation as to his next movement. To quote the words of Exquemelin, "many faint and calm meditations came into his mind; neither could he determine which way to turn himself in that strait." A part of his forces had been detailed to attack one of the minor fortresses, and looking in that direction he saw that his men had already planted the English colors on the battlements, and were hastening to his support. Taking heart from this success the commander at once resolved to renew the attack, and being a man ready of resource soon hit on a new expedient. He caused a number of priests and nuns to be seized and dragged from their cloisters, and ordering scaling-ladders to be made, wide enough for several to mount abreast, bid his prisoners fix them against the castle walls, thinking thus to shield his men from the weapons of the Spaniards.
[Sidenote: A VALIANT SPANIARD.]
Driven forward at the point of sword and pike the captives came close up to the guns of the fort, and falling on their knees besought the governor by all the saints to surrender, and save his own life and their own; but orders were given to spare none who came near the walls. Priest and nun were crushed beneath falling rocks or shot down without mercy, and numbers were killed before the ladders could be adjusted. When at length the task was accomplished, the buccaneers swarmed up to the assault; and though many were hurled down by the defenders, others held their footing on the parapet, and after plying the garrison with hand-grenades and pots of powder containing lighted fuses, leaped down with sword and pistol in their midst. The Spaniards then threw down their arms and craved for mercy; that is, all but the governor, who, single-handed, maintained for a while a hopeless struggle, killing several of his assailants, and running through the body some of his own recreant soldiers. In vain the buccaneers offered him quarter, unwilling to put to the sword so gallant an officer; in vain his wife and daughter knelt and entreated him with tears to yield. His reply was: "By no means; I had rather die as a valiant soldier than be hanged as a coward."[XXVIII‑2] After several attempts to overpower or capture him, he was at length despatched.
There still remained several castles in the hands of the Spaniards, one of which was strongly fortified and commanded the entrance to the harbor. It was deemed necessary to capture it without delay in order to allow the fleet to be brought round to Portobello, for the losses of the freebooters had been so severe that time must be allowed for the recovery of the wounded. Turning against it the cannon of the captured fort, Morgan compelled his captives to work the guns, and advancing under cover of the fire took it by escalade after a sharp struggle, in which all the Spanish officers were slain.
[Sidenote: RUTHLESS INVADERS.]
Soon after nightfall the invaders held entire possession of the city. They placed their own wounded in comfortable quarters under care of female slaves, and the wounded Spaniards in a separate apartment, without food, water, or attendance; and after posting their guards fell at once, as was their custom after victory, to feasting, drunkenness, and foul debauch. Matron and virgin, threatened at the point of the sword, were forced to yield to the embrace of these cut-throats, whose hands were yet stained with the blood of their husbands and brothers. Neither age nor condition was spared. The religious recluse torn from the shelter of the convent, and girls of tender age dragged from their mothers' arms, fell victims alike to the conquerors' lust. At length, stupefied with wine, and worn out with twenty-four hours of continuous toil, the marauders sank to rest. Fifty resolute men could then have delivered the town; but all night long no sound was heard save the moans of the wounded and the cries of heart-broken women.
At daylight the buccaneers plundered the place of all the valuables they could find, sacking the houses of the citizens, and stripping the churches of their gold and silver ornaments and their services of massive plate. Those who were believed to be the wealthiest of the prisoners were questioned as to the whereabouts of their concealed treasures; and failing to disclose them, were stretched on the rack, until many died under the torture.
For fifteen days Morgan remained at Portobello, though aware that the president of Panamá was preparing an expedition against him. His retreat was open to the ships, and the threatened attack gave him no uneasiness; but many of his men had died of wounds, of the effects of drunken excess, and of an atmosphere poisoned by half-buried corpses. Moreover provisions began to run short. They were compelled to live almost entirely on the flesh of horses and mules. Many of the captive and most of the wounded Spaniards had perished from privation, having been allowed no sustenance but a morsel of mule meat and a little muddy unfiltered water. Preparations were therefore made for departure. Placing the booty on board the fleet, Morgan demanded of his prisoners a ransom of 100,000 pesos, threatening otherwise to burn the town and blow up the castles. Two of the citizens, despatched to Panamá by his orders to raise the amount, gave information of the true condition of affairs. The president had a force of fifteen hundred men at his disposal, and at once marched to relieve his countrymen, and, as he hoped, cut off the retreat of the adventurers.
Forewarned of his approach Morgan posted a hundred picked men in a narrow defile through which lay the route of the Spaniards. At the first encounter the main body of the Spanish forces was routed; many fled at once to Panamá, bearing with them the news of their defeat; and for a time the expedition was crippled. While awaiting reënforcements the president resolved to try the effect of threats, though aware that he was in no position to enforce them. Sending a messenger to Morgan, he bid him depart at once from Portobello or expect no quarter for himself or his companions. The commander of the buccaneers answered by doubling the amount of the required contribution[XXVIII‑3] and stating that he would hold the place until the ransom was paid, or if it were not paid, would burn down the houses, demolish the forts, and put every captive to death.
As further effort appeared to be useless, the president left the inhabitants of the town to work out their own salvation; but surprised that a place defended by strongly fortified castles should fall a prey to so slender a force, he despatched a messenger to request of the conquerors a specimen of their weapons. Morgan received him courteously, and with grim humor handed him a musket and a few bullets, bidding him tell his master "that he was much pleased to show him a slender pattern of the arms wherewith he had taken Portobello, and begged him to keep them a twelvemonth, after which he promised to come to Panamá and take them away." The president soon returned the weapon, together with a present of an emerald ring and a message "that he did not want for arms of that sort, but regretted that men of such courage were not employed on some just war under a great prince."
[Sidenote: THE TOWN RANSOMED.]
Meanwhile the freebooters had agreed to deliver up the town on receiving a ransom of a hundred thousand pesos. The amount was collected and paid over. The best guns of the stronghold were then put on board the vessels; the rest were spiked, and the buccaneers sailed for Cuba, where they portioned out the spoils, which consisted of coin, bullion, and jewels, to the value of two hundred and sixty thousand pesos, counting the jewels at less than half their real value, besides large stores of silk, linen, cloth, and other merchandise. Proceeding thence to Jamaica, they squandered in riot and gross dissipation the wealth that others had accumulated by years of patient toil and self-denial. A few days of swinish debauchery among the wine-shops and brothels of Port Royal left the majority of the gang without means or credit, and clamorous for some new expedition. It was nothing unusual for some of them to spend or gamble away in a single night their entire share in the proceeds of a successful raid, and to render themselves liable to be sold next morning as slaves to satisfy an unpaid tavern score. Some would drag out into the streets a cask of wine, others a barrel of strong ale, and presenting their pistols at the passers-by, compel them, whether men or women, to drink in their company, running up and down the streets, when crazed with liquor, and beating or bespattering whomsoever they met.
* * * * *
The standard of humanity among the buccaneers was such as might be expected among men who have been cut off from honorable intercourse with their kind. Many of them had been kidnapped in early youth, and shipped from England to the British West Indies, and there sold as slaves, and subjected to such treatment as often reduced those of weakly constitution to idiocy. They had been starved and racked and mutilated. They had been beaten till the blood ran in streams from their backs, and then rubbed with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. It is not strange that the temper of men who had passed through such ordeals should be permanently warped; that their hand should be against every man, and that they should afterward inflict on the prisoners who fell into their power tortures as cruel as they themselves had suffered at the hands of their masters.
The fame of Morgan's exploits induced numbers of both French and English to join the standard of the freebooter. To the veterans who had served under him during former raids was added a swarm of recruits, eager to share in the plunder if not in the glory of his expeditions. He was soon in command of his squadron of fifteen vessels and a force of nine hundred and sixty combatants, and appointing as a rendezvous the islet of Saona gave orders to sail along the southern coast of Española. Heavy gales were encountered during the voyage, and a portion of his ships being driven from their course he found his diminished forces inadequate for any great enterprise. Under the advice of a French captain, who had served under L'Olonnois and Michel Le Basque at the capture of Maracaibo and Gibraltar in 1666, he determined to plunder those towns and their surrounding neighborhood. The proceeds of this foray amounted, according to some authorities, to two hundred and fifty thousand pesos.[XXVIII‑4] After defeating a strong Spanish squadron stationed at the entrance of Lake Maracaibo to bar the escape of his fleet, Morgan returned to Jamaica, where he found most of his missing vessels.
Learning that a treaty was being negotiated between Spain and Great Britain, which would soon put an end to further raids, the buccaneers were eager that some new expedition should be at once organized on a larger scale, and with more ambitious intent than any before undertaken. Morgan readily agreed to take command, and sending despatches to the veteran freebooters quartered in Santo Domingo and Tortuga to acquaint them with his purpose, appointed as a rendezvous Port Corillon in the island of Vache, where by the end of October 1670 his followers had assembled in force.
The first care was to obtain a supply of provisions, and for this purpose hunting parties were sent forth daily to scour the woods, while a squadron of four vessels with four hundred men under the command of Captain Bradley[XXVIII‑5] was despatched to the mainland, to obtain supplies of wheat or maize. Entering the mouth of the Rio Hacha, about fifty leagues to the north-west of the lake of Maracaibo, Bradley captured a vessel laden principally with cereals, received four thousand bushels of maize as ransom from a village on the bank of the river, and with other booty and a number of prisoners returned after an absence of five weeks.[XXVIII‑6]
Morgan next sailed for Cape Tiburon, where reënforcements from Jamaica joined the expedition, and he now found at his disposal a fleet of thirty-seven ships and a force of two thousand fighting men.[XXVIII‑7]
[Sidenote: PIRACY PAPERS.]
His largest vessel carried twenty-four heavy guns and six small brass cannon;[XXVIII‑8] many of the others were armed with sixteen to twenty, and none with less than four pieces of ordnance. Morgan assumed the title of admiral; the royal banner of England was hoisted from the main-mast of his flag-ship; and commissions[XXVIII‑9] were given to the officers, authorizing the capture of Spanish vessels either at sea or in harbor, and all manner of hostilities against the Spanish nation, as against the declared enemies of the king of Great Britain.
Articles of agreement were signed stipulating that those who were maimed or had distinguished themselves in action should receive compensation or reward from the first proceeds of the raid, and that the remainder should be distributed according to the rank or office of the members of the expedition.[XXVIII‑10]
The three most tempting prizes on the Spanish mainland were Panamá, Vera Cruz, and Cartagena. A council was summoned on board the admiral's ship, and it was decided that Morgan, fulfilling the promise he had made at Portobello, should show Don Juan Perez de Guzman, president of Panamá, the use the buccaneers made of their weapons.
It happened that the isthmus of Darien was little known to any of these sea-rovers, and before venturing on the mainland it was determined to capture the isle of Santa Catarina, which was then used as the penal settlement of the Spanish West Indies, and contained among its garrison men serving out their sentence under ban from Panamá. Among these outlaws some would no doubt be found who were well acquainted with the approaches to that city.
Setting sail from Cape Tiburon on the 16th of December, the fleet anchored off Santa Catarina the fifth day, and on the same afternoon the freebooters landed without opposition. The garrison and inhabitants had retired to a small adjacent islet defended by ten castles which, with a resolute defence, would have been impregnable; but the governor, when summoned to capitulate, consented on condition that he should be allowed to depart unmolested after making a show of resistance. A sham fight was maintained by night for several hours, and no powder was spared.[XXVIII‑11] The buccaneers fired with blank cartridge, and the Spaniards were ordered to train their guns so that the shot whistled harmless overhead. The place was then surrendered, the prisoners were mustered and disarmed, and the freebooters, having fasted for twenty-four hours, waged war in earnest on the cattle, poultry, and game which they found in the neighborhood. Three outlaws from Panamá, two of them Indians and one a mulatto, all well acquainted with the most favorable routes, were delivered up as guides. The Indians, aware that their own countrymen would suffer from the raid in common with the Spaniards, feigned ignorance, but were betrayed by the mulatto and put to the torture. One of them died on the rack, and the survivor then confessed that he knew the roads, and consented to serve his captors.
[Sidenote: CASTLE OF SAN LORENZO.]
Before landing the main body of the buccaneers on the Isthmus, Morgan determined to capture the castle of San Lorenzo, which guarded the mouth of the Chagre River. For this purpose he despatched a squadron of five vessels with four hundred men[XXVIII‑12] under Captain Bradley, remaining himself at Santa Catarina with the rest of his forces, in order to mask his main design. The castle was built on a high rock, steep enough to render it inaccessible on the southern side, and was protected on the north by the river, which widens at that point. Four bastions mounted with artillery guarded the approaches by land, and two faced seaward. At the foot of the rock were three batteries which commanded the mouth of the Chagre. At the outlet of the river is a sunken reef and a sand-bar, over which the breakers roll for almost the entire width. Only in the calmest weather can one detect a narrow passage close under the precipice, whose height is still crowned by the ruins of the castle of San Lorenzo. The fortress was surrounded with palisades, filled in with earth, and its single entrance could be approached only by a drawbridge which spanned a crevasse in the rock thirty feet in depth. The garrison consisted of three hundred and fourteen well armed and veteran troops, and a party of expert Indian bowmen under as gallant an officer as ever drew sword.
[Sidenote: A GALLANT DEFENCE.]
Bradley saw that the stronghold could be assailed only from the land side, and anchored his vessels in a small bay at a short distance from the outlet of the river. The freebooters went ashore soon after midnight, and after cutting their way through woods tangled with undergrowth, and scaling precipitous rocks, debouched about two in the afternoon on an open space within gunshot of the fort and advanced to the attack. The garrison at once opened on them a hot fire, crying out: "Come on, ye cursed English dogs, and let your companions that are behind you come on; you shall not get to Panamá this bout." The assailants suffered severely and were driven back to the shelter of the woods; but returning at nightfall came close up to the edge of the crevasse and attempted to burn down the palisades which bordered the opposite verge. Guided by the light of the fireballs the Spaniards plied them incessantly with musketry and artillery and the Indians discharged their arrows with hardly less effect. Men fell fast, and Bradley had both his legs taken off by a round shot. The buccaneers were sorely distressed and well nigh despaired of success, when a lucky stroke turned the scale in their favor. One of their party, being pierced with an arrow, plucked it forth and winding it round with cotton, shot it back from his musket toward the fortress, where it lighted on a house[XXVIII‑13] thatched with palm leaves. The cotton, ignited by the flash of the powder, set fire to the roof. The flames were unnoticed until beyond control, and spreading rapidly soon exploded a package of gunpowder. The besieged now bent all their efforts to stay the conflagration and the freebooters crowded into the crevasse, and mounting on each other's shoulders burnt down the stakes of the palisades.
By daybreak the castle was almost a ruin, and the earth which supported the palisades had fallen into the crevasse, filling it in places to a level with the surface. A murderous fire was poured on the defenders till noon, when the assailants advanced to storm the breach. Many of the Spaniards hurled themselves down the steep side of the rock, preferring death to surrender. The governor, at the head of a handful of men, still maintained a hopeless struggle, but a musket-ball through the head soon laid him low, and all resistance was at an end. Only thirty of the garrison were found alive; among them not a single officer, and scarcely a dozen unwounded men. The prisoners gave information that news of the intended raid had reached Panamá by way of Cartagena several weeks previously; that a deserter from the expedition, when at the Rio Hacha, had also revealed Morgan's design; that messengers had been despatched by the governor of the fortress to the president, with news of the invaders' approach; that ambuscades were already posted at several points on the banks of the Chagre, and that the president with the main body of his forces awaited their approach on the plains surrounding Panamá.
The Spaniards were ordered to throw down their dead to the foot of the castle rock, and there to bury them. A neighboring church served as a hospital for the wounded, and a prison-house for the captured women, who were subjected as usual to foul outrage and defilement, daughters being violated in presence of their mothers, and wives before their husbands—pantomimes of hell performed within the walls of a sanctuary.
[Sidenote: UP THE CHAGRE.]
On receiving news of the capture of San Lorenzo, the commander of the buccaneers gave orders that all the houses on the isle of Santa Catarina should be burned to the ground, and that the fortifications on the adjacent islet should be destroyed, with the exception of one of the strongest castles, which he reserved for future occupation. Casting the guns of the fortress into the sea, and placing his prisoners on board the fleet, he set sail for the mainland, and arrived off the mouth of the Chagre in January 1671. Overjoyed at seeing the English colors flying from the fort, the freebooters, through careless navigation, lost four of their ships on the sunken rock at the entrance of the river, but prizes were made of several large flat-bottomed boats, and of a number of canoes built specially for the navigation of the stream. Five hundred men were left as a garrison for the castle, and one hundred and fifty as a guard for the fleet; the captives were ordered to repair the breaches in the fortress; and the main body of the adventurers, at least twelve hundred strong,[XXVIII‑14] started on their expedition against Panamá. Morgan gave orders that no provisions should be taken but a slender stock of maize, barely sufficient for a single day's rations. He told his men that, their means of conveyance being limited, they must not encumber themselves with unnecessary baggage, for they would soon replenish their supplies from the magazines of the Spaniards, who lay in ambush along the route. Moreover, the detachment left behind at San Lorenzo numbered with the prisoners over 1,000 persons, and the entire supply was hardly enough for their subsistence until his return.
The journey was begun in boats and canoes, and notwithstanding a rapid current and a want of skill in managing the overloaded vessels, about six leagues were made the first day. So little did the freebooters know of the impediments they were soon to encounter in their ascent of the stream, that they took with them five large scows laden with artillery and ammunition. A few of the party went ashore at night to search for food, as their scanty allowance of maize was soon devoured, but nothing eatable was discovered and most of the buccaneers lay down to rest supperless with nothing but a pipe of tobacco to appease their hunger.
On the second evening they arrived at a spot where the river-bed was shoal from drought, and choked with fallen trees. The guides assured them that a few miles beyond they would find no difficulty in continuing their route, either by land or water, and next morning, leaving a strong guard over their vessels, they attempted to make their way through the forests that skirt the banks of the Chagre. The trees were matted with vines, and the spaces between them filled with a dense wall of tropical undergrowth, in places impenetrable to sight. Most of the men were ordered to return to the river, and leaving there the scows with the artillery they managed to drag their canoes over the shallow places, a portion of them embarking wherever the water was of sufficient depth. The remainder cut a passage through the woods with extreme difficulty, and on the following afternoon all assembled on the bank of the stream, where they passed the night without food, benumbed with cold, and unable to sleep.
[Sidenote: HUNGER AND HARDSHIPS.]
Worn out with toil and gaunt with hunger, their clothing torn to rags, the buccaneers resumed their journey on the morning of the fourth day, some of them already staggering from weakness and halting now and then to gnaw the roots and leaves, or to soak in water and chew strips cut from the empty leathern sacks which had contained their dole of maize. About noon one of the guides called out that he had discovered signs of an ambuscade—a cry welcome to the freebooters, who advanced at once to the attack, hoping at length to obtain a supply of provisions. Forewarned by their scouts, who had given timely notice of the enemy's approach, the Spaniards had retired to a safe distance, and none were found to offer resistance, nor any scrap of food save a few crumbs scattered round the spot where the fugitives had made a recent meal. All their bright visions of wealth now faded before the grim spectre of famine, and their one thought was to obtain the means of relieving the gnawing at their vitals. Ill had it fared with any captive who might then have fallen into the hands of these famished desperadoes, for he would surely have been carved and eaten. In some neighboring huts were found a few bundles of dry hides, such as were used by the natives for making bags for the storage of corn. These were beaten between rocks, soaked in the river, cut into small pieces, rubbed by hand, and after the hair had been scraped off, were cooked and gulped down morsel by morsel with draughts of water. About sundown a spot was reached where were traces of another ambuscade, but no fragments of victuals, for orders had been given to destroy or remove everything edible beyond reach of the invaders, in the hope that they would be forced by starvation to retrace their steps. Fortunate was he that night who had reserved some scraps of hide on which to make his evening repast.
At noon on the fifth day of the journey they arrived at the village of Barbacoas, near which, after a long search, they discovered in a grotto recently hewn out of the rock, two sacks of meal, a quantity of plantains, and two jars of wine. This scanty supply was portioned out among those who were in the last extremity, many of them so weak that they had to be carried on board the canoes. Most of the buccaneers again lay down supperless to rest, some jesting at their sorry plight, but the majority threatening to desert, and uttering curses loud and deep against the man who with promise of rich spoils had lured them into a wilderness where they seemed fated soon to leave their carcasses a prey to the vultures.
Nevertheless all continued their course next morning, and about midday came in sight of a plantation which they approached with slow step and staggering gait, halting every few paces to rest through extreme weakness. At first no relief was found, and many of the freebooters were about to carry out their threat of returning to Chagre, when one of them discovered a barn filled with maize which the Spaniards had neglected to remove, thinking that the invaders could not make their way so far across the Isthmus. The stronger of the party at once beat in the doors with the but-end of their muskets, and after devouring their fill of the raw grain made way for their comrades, and carried a portion down to those who lay in the canoes so enfeebled with their long fast that they were unable to crawl further. When all had satisfied their hunger, enough remained to give each man a good allowance. Toward nightfall they came in sight of a body of Indians posted on the opposite side of the river. Morgan at once ordered a party to give chase, hoping to capture some; but being more fleet of foot and in better condition, they easily made their escape, after discharging a flight of arrows, which laid low two or three of their pursuers, the natives crying out as they brandished their weapons: "Ha, perros, á la savana, á la savana."
[Sidenote: AT CRUCES.]
At sunrise on the seventh day the freebooters crossed the river and continued their route on the other side, arriving in a few hours in sight of the village of Cruces, about eight leagues from Panamá, and the head of navigation on the Chagre. Smoke was soon observed rising from the chimneys, and the buccaneers ran forward, exclaiming: "They are making good fires to roast and boil what we are to eat." One more disappointment was in store for them: the place was found to be deserted and the houses in flames. The only provisions discovered were a single leathern sack of bread and some jars of wine. A number of dogs and cats left straying around the neighborhood were instantly killed and devoured. The wine, acting on stomachs weak with fasting and disordered by unwholesome diet, caused a violent sickness, and for a while they believed themselves poisoned.
At daybreak next morning two hundred of the best armed and strongest were sent forward to search for ambuscades and to reconnoitre the road, Morgan himself following a few hours later with the rest of his forces. After a few hours' march the advanced guard arrived at a spot then called Quebrada Obscura, a ravine enclosed between walls of rock, and so narrow that three men could with difficulty walk abreast. A flight of arrows, discharged by an unseen foe, fell upon them as from the clouds. For a moment the most stout-hearted hesitated. They were not the men to shrink from peril, but they saw that a handful of resolute troops could hold the pass against an army. Before them lay a forest from which artillery and musketry could sweep the pass. Overhead were sheer precipices from which rocks hurled on their heads might easily have destroyed the entire force. The buccaneers observed some Indians gliding among the trees in their front, and pushing forward after a brief delay to a point where the pass widened, fired a volley into the woods at random. The Indian chieftain, recognized by his parti-colored plumes, fell wounded, and, when the freebooters offered him quarter, raised himself on his elbow and made a pass at one of them with his javelin. He was instantly shot through the head, and his followers took to flight. In this skirmish no prisoners were taken, and the loss of Morgan's advanced guard was about ten killed and as many wounded.[XXVIII‑15]
The main body of the buccaneers soon arrived, and after a brief halt the march was resumed, for toward dusk a heavy storm of wind and rain set in, and continued far into the night. It was the custom of the Spaniards to burn the houses that lay on the line of route, and the men passed the night without shelter, sitting huddled on the ground. A few shepherds' huts afforded scant protection for the wounded, and storage room for the arms and ammunition. The robbers were on foot at the first gleam of dawn, and after discharging their fire-locks at once fell into the ranks. Toward noon on this, the ninth day of the journey, they ascended a lofty hill which yet bears the name of El Cerro de los Buccaneros, and from its summit looked down for the first time on the Pacific. The storm had broken, and a few white sailing boats were seen gliding among a group of islands that lay a few leagues to the south of Panamá; but a far more interesting sight to these toil-worn and famished marauders was a neighboring valley, where droves of oxen and bands of horses were quietly grazing. No enemy appeared, and some of the cattle were at once shot down. Hacking them piecemeal they cast the flesh into hastily kindled fires, and snatching it from the flames while still half raw, tore it with their fingers and devoured it with the greed of starving wolves, the blood streaming down their beards and dripping from their garments. Before the meal was over, Morgan ordered a false alarm to be sounded, fearing that the Spaniards might take them by surprise. It soon became evident that this was no needless precaution, for an hour or two later a strong detachment of Spanish cavalry appeared almost within musket shot. Finding the enemy prepared to receive them they quickly withdrew, and the sound of drum and trumpet soon gave notice to the retreating squadrons that the buccaneers were in sight of Panamá.
[Sidenote: BEFORE PANAMÁ.]
Two or three piers of a shattered bridge, a fragment of wall, a single tower, and a few remnants of public buildings, half buried under a dense growth of creepers, still mark the spot where, in 1671, stood a city with fine streets and beautiful edifices, among which were stately churches richly adorned with altar-pieces and rare paintings, with golden censers and goblets, and tall candelabra of native silver. There were the abodes of the merchant princes of the New World, some of them the descendants of men who had fought under Cortés when he added the empire of the Montezumas to the realms of the Spanish crown. There were vast warehouses stored with flour, wine, oil, spices, and the merchandise of Spain; there were villas of cedar surrounded with beautiful gardens, where fair women enjoyed the cool evening breeze as they gazed seaward on the untroubled waters of the Pacific.
But what was Don Juan Perez de Guzman doing while Morgan was on his way up the Chagre, after capturing the high-mounted castle of San Lorenzo? Masses were being said daily for the success of the Spanish arms. The images of our lady of pure and immaculate conception were being carried in general procession, attended by all the religious fraternity of the cathedral. Always the most holy sacrament was left uncovered and exposed to public view. Oaths were being taken with much pious fervor in the presence of the sacred effigies, and all the president's relics and jewelry, including a diamond ring worth forty thousand pesos, were laid on the altars of the holy virgin and of the saints who held in their special keeping the welfare of Panamá. Surely if the favor of celestial powers can be bought with prayers and money they have here received their price, and should deliver this city, especially when the pirates neglect to glorify God with their spoils.[XXVIII‑16] Sleek friars, with downcast look, gathering up these votive offerings, and taking in charge the gold and silver ornaments of the churches, invoked the blessing of God on the royal banners of Spain, and hurried off beyond reach of the coming fray with the treasures thus lavished upon them through the instrumentality of Satan. The forces of the Spaniards, consisting of 400 horse and 2,400 foot, with a few pieces of cannon, were then drawn up in the plain without the city. Yet another mode of warfare, unique in New World adventure, presents itself, as 2,000 wild oxen, under the guidance of Indians, were placed on the flanks of the army ready to break through the enemy's ranks.
The buccaneers pitched their camp near the brow of a hill in full view of the plain. There were yet two hours of daylight, and the Spanish artillery at once opened on them with round shot, but at too long range to take effect. Morgan posted his sentries without the least misgiving, and his men, after making their supper on the remnants of the noonday meal, threw themselves upon the ground to obtain what rest they could.
As soon as the first gleam of dawn heralded the approach of the last day the doomed city was destined to witness after an existence of one hundred and fifty years,[XXVIII‑17] the morning gun from the president's camp gave the signal for both armies to fall into the ranks, and a few minutes later the freebooters were on the march toward the city. Warned by their scouts that ambuscades were posted along the line of the main road, they cut their way with some difficulty through a neighboring wood, and debouched on the summit of a small eminence that still bears the name of El Cerro de Avance. The Spanish battalions, ill armed with carbines, fowling-pieces, and arquebuses, but dressed in parti-colored silk uniforms, the horsemen prancing on mettlesome steeds as though attending a bull-fight, lay before them almost within musket shot. Morgan drew up the main body of his forces in three columns, and sending in front a strong detachment of his best marksmen, descended into the plain to give battle. The enemy's artillery, posted in a part of the field where it commanded the main avenues of approach to the city, was far out of range, but the horse, under Francisco de Haro, at once moved forward with loud shouts of Viva el rey! to hold the enemy in check. The ground was swampy, yielding to the foot, and unfavorable for the action of cavalry; moreover Morgan's veterans were not of the stuff to be daunted by a battle-cry and the onslaught of a few squads of troopers. Forming in close order with front rank kneeling, and reserving their fire until the Spaniards came up almost to the points of their muskets, they poured in a volley which told with murderous effect. Don Francisco led his men repeatedly to the charge, but no impression could be made, and the shattered lines at length wheeled off to a safe distance, leaving their gallant chieftain dead on the field.
Meanwhile the captain-general, after being confessed by the priest and repeating his Ave Marías and prayers to the saints, had come forth from his tent to see how the battle was progressing. The Spanish foot were then ordered to assail the enemy in front, while bands of oxen were driven in on their flank to break through their battalions. The buccaneers had the wind and sun in their favor, and could concentrate on a given point as many men as their opponents could bring against them; for in rear of the latter lay a large morass which prevented them from wheeling their main body. The infantry were received with a hot fire and handled so roughly that they began to retreat. Morgan's left wing then attacked them in flank and their retreat was soon turned into a rout. The wild cattle, maddened by the uproar, the smell of blood, and by the red flag shaken in their faces—many of their drivers being shot down by a party of musketeers detailed for the purpose—were driven back on the flying columns. The president made a feeble effort to rally his men, until the staff which he carried in his hand, the only weapon apparently which he bore that day, was grazed with a shot, when, yielding to the entreaties of his chaplain, he retired from the fight, giving thanks to the blessed virgin, "who had brought him off safe from amidst so many thousand bullets."[XXVIII‑18]
[Sidenote: PANAMÁ TAKEN.]
In two hours the battle was won. Six hundred of the Spaniards lay dead on the plains; the cavalry were almost annihilated, and the infantry threw away their arms and scattered into small parties, many of them hiding among the bushes by the sea-shore where they were afterward discovered and butchered. A party of Franciscan friars, who had remained with the army to offer the last consolations of religion to the dying, were captured and shot without mercy. Orders were at first given that no quarter should be granted, as the buccaneers were too much crippled to encumber themselves with prisoners. An exception was made, however, in the case of a wounded Spanish officer, who was brought into the commander's presence and gave information that the city contained only a garrison of one hundred men, but that the streets were protected by barricades and by twenty-eight pieces of cannon, and that the president would probably reoccupy the place if he could reorganize his forces. Morgan at once assembled his troops, and telling them they must lose no time in seizing the prize, put his columns in motion by way of the Portobello road, which lay beyond reach of the enemy's fire, and within an hour made his entrance into Panamá without opposition.[XXVIII‑19] Warning was given to the men to keep out of range of the cannon that were posted in the plaza mayor, but most of them ran to and fro without heed, in search of plunder or in pursuit of fugitives, and the Spaniards, pointing their pieces at several thickly clustered groups of the enemy, poured in a volley from guns loaded to the muzzle with musket balls and scraps of iron. This was the last shot fired in defence of Panamá; for the cannoniers were cut in pieces before they had time to reload, and the freebooters rushed through the streets hewing down all who offered resistance.
Except large stores of silk and cloth little booty was discovered in the fallen city, for the greater part of the inhabitants had fled to the neighboring islands, taking with them their wives and children and all their portable property. Morgan's first precaution was to forbid his men to taste wine, under the pretence that it had all been poisoned. He feared that after their long fast they would as usual celebrate their victory with feasting and drunkenness, and thus afford the Spaniards a chance to rally and overpower them when stupefied with liquor.
[Sidenote: BURNING OF THE CITY.]
The buccaneers had barely time to post their guards, and take up their quarters in the deserted dwellings when flames were seen breaking forth from some of the largest houses. The president having received information that Morgan had among his party a young Englishman whom he intended to crown king of Tierra Firme, had given orders for the metropolitan city to be burned if it should fall into the hands of the pirates.[XXVIII‑20] The fire spread rapidly, although the freebooters did their utmost to check its progress. Several houses were torn down, and others blown up with gunpowder, but all efforts were in vain. A fresh breeze had set in from the Pacific, and the buildings, almost entirely of wood, many of them well stored with costly furniture and adorned with pictures and tapestry, fell an easy prey to the flames. Within an hour an entire street was consumed, and by midnight a single convent, one or two public buildings, and the cabins of a distant quarter, wretchedly built, and occupied only by muleteers, were all that remained of the seven thousand houses of cedar, the two hundred warehouses, the monasteries and churches of a city which but a few days before was peopled by thirty thousand inhabitants, and famed as the abode of one of the wealthiest communities in the western world.
Morgan sent a detachment of one hundred and fifty men to Chagre to carry news of his victory and bring back word as to the welfare of the garrison, and ordered the remainder of his command to camp in the plains, thus keeping them in hand and ready for action in case the president should rally his forces and renew the fight. Troops of Spaniards and Indians were seen flitting to and fro along the edge of the forest which skirted the savanna, but it was evident that they had no confidence in their captain-general, for as he himself naively remarked in his intercepted despatch: "Although he afterward attempted several times to form an army, yet he could not do any good of it, because no man would be persuaded to follow him." The buccaneers soon returned, therefore, to take up their quarters in the few buildings that had escaped the conflagration. As no spoils of value had yet been found except a few gold and silver utensils hidden in wells and cisterns, or buried beneath the ruins, parties were sent to scour the neighboring woods and hills in quest of fugitives who might be subjected to torture.
[Sidenote: COVETED TREASURE.]
A bark laden with goods for the use of the refugees who had fled to a neighboring group of islands had been captured on the evening that Morgan took possession of Panamá. Orders had been given that all sea-going vessels should take their departure, but the captain had lingered for the turn of the tide, not deeming it possible that so sudden a disaster could befall the city. The vessel was at once despatched with a company of twenty-five men to search for the treasures which, as the buccaneers learned from their captives, had been conveyed beyond their grasp. The men landed the next day at one of the smallest islands, and having managed to smuggle on board a few jars of wine, were soon half stupefied with liquor. Toward evening a Spanish ship, which lay off the opposite side of the islet, put ashore to obtain water, and the crew were captured by some of the party who had yet sense enough left to point a musket. A prize was now within their reach of greater value than all the booty that the adventurers were destined to obtain from their raid. A galleon of four hundred tons, ill manned, poorly armed, and carrying no canvas but the upper sails of the mainmast, so deeply laden with ingots of gold and silver, with the plate and treasures of the wealthiest merchants of Panamá, and with the golden vessels and decorations of church and monastery that no other ballast was needed,[XXVIII‑21] lay almost within cannon-shot. The captain of the bark did not venture to make the attack at nightfall with his feeble and drunken band, feeling satisfied, moreover, that he would have an opportunity of capturing the vessel at daybreak; but alarmed at the non-arrival of the boat, the commander of the galleon ordered the anchor slipped long before midnight, and the ship, favored with a strong breeze, was out of sight when the sun appeared above the horizon.
The detachment returned from Chagre with news that all was going well; so Morgan determined to prolong his stay at Panamá, and wrest from the Spaniards a portion at least of their concealed riches. Parties were sent forth to scour the country and bring in prisoners. The captives were placed in the convent of Mercedes, San José, and there subjected to such ingenuity of torture as might satisfy even Great Britain that her people were not behind the age in brutal barbarities. One instance only need be related. A servant, dressed in his master's garments, from one of which depended a small silver key, was captured by the buccaneers. Ordered to reveal the hiding-place of the cabinet to which the key belonged, he replied that he knew it not, and merely had the key in his possession because he had ventured to don his master's attire. No other answer coming, he was stretched on the rack and his arms disjointed. A cord was then twisted round his forehead until, to use the words of Exquemelin, "his eyes protruding from their sockets appeared as big as eggs."[XXVIII‑22] His ears and nose were then cut off, and the wounds seared with burning straw. When beyond power of speech, and insensible to further suffering, a negro was ordered to end his life by running him through the body.[XXVIII‑23]
[Sidenote: A CAPTIVE GENTLEWOMAN.]
Women who had the ill-fortune to fall into the hands of the freebooters could only escape torture and starvation at the cost of their chastity or by payment of a heavy ransom. Among the prisoners taken at the islands of Taboguilla and Taboga was a young and beautiful gentlewoman, the wife of a wealthy merchant of Panamá. Like many of her countrywomen she had learned to regard the buccaneers not as rational beings, but as monsters in human shape. The lady was brought into Morgan's presence and at first treated with respect, lodged in a separate apartment, waited on by female slaves, and supplied with food from his own table. Surprised at this usage, and mistaking the frequent and blasphemous oaths of her captors for pious ejaculations, she blessed her fate that the pirates of England were such fine specimens of Christian gentlemen. But Morgan had his little game to play. His amorous proposals were met by a firm refusal, but in such mild language as to avoid rousing his anger. For a while he sought to gain her consent by persuasion, and was lavish with his gifts of rare jewels. All failing she was threatened with torture. "My life is in your hands," she said, "but sooner shall my soul be separated from my body than I submit to your embrace." Exasperated, Morgan ordered his attendants removed, and then attempted violence. She tore herself from his arms, and warning him not to approach her again, cried out: "Imagine not that, after robbing me of my liberty, you can as easily deprive me of my honor." As he still persisted in following her, she drew a dagger and said: "See that I know how to die if I cannot kill thee." She then sprang at him and attempted to drive the blade into his heart. The commander recoiled several paces, but finally succeeded in gaining possession of the weapon. He then retired from her presence, and ordered her to be stripped of most of her apparel, cast half naked into a dark and fetid cell, and fed only with the coarsest food, in quantities so small as barely to sustain life.
Morgan had made several prizes of sea-going vessels, one of which was well adapted to a piratical cruise. A plot was concocted by some of the men to embark on an expedition to the islands of the Pacific, thence after obtaining sufficient booty to sail for Europe by way of the East Indies. Cannon, muskets, ammunition, and provisions had been secretly obtained in sufficient quantity not only to equip the vessel but to fortify and garrison one of the islands as a base of operations. Warned of the design by a repentant conspirator, Morgan ordered all the ships in the harbor to be burned, and at once made preparations to return to Chagre. Beasts of burden were collected to convey the plunder to the point where the canoes had been left on the river; some of the wealthier Spaniards were despatched under guard to obtain the amount of their ransom; and a strong detachment was sent to reconnoitre the line of march by which the buccaneers were to return.
On the 24th of February, after holding possession for four weeks of Panamá, or rather of the site where Panamá had stood, the marauders took their departure with six hundred prisoners, men, women, and children, and a hundred and seventy-five pack-animals laden with plunder. When fairly out on the plain the forces were put in order of march, and the captives placed between the van and rear guard. Many of them, fresh from the rack, well nigh perishing of hunger, and scarcely able to drag themselves along, were goaded and beaten, and with foul oaths made to quicken their pace until they dropped fainting or dead. The women, among whom were mothers with infants at the breast, cast themselves on their knees and pleaded in vain for leave to return and build for themselves huts of straw amidst the pile of ashes which had once been their native city. Dragged along between two of the buccaneers was the gentlewoman who had been subjected to Morgan's suit, and whose ransom was fixed at thirty thousand pesos. Learning that it was his intention to carry her to Jamaica, she begged for a brief respite, affirming "that she had given orders to two of the priests, on whom she had relied, to go to a certain place and obtain the sum required; that they had promised faithfully to do so, but having procured the money had employed it to release some of their friends." Morgan was conquered at last. He inquired into the truth of her assertion, and found it confirmed by a letter delivered to the lady by a slave, and afterward by the confession of the priests; whereupon he ordered her and her parents, who were among the prisoners, to be set at liberty.
Midway on their march across the Isthmus the freebooters were mustered and all made to swear that they had concealed none of the spoils, but had delivered all into the common stock. After this ceremony the commander ordered each one searched, himself first submitting. Clothes and baggage were carefully examined, and even the muskets were taken to pieces, to see that no precious stones were concealed between the barrel and stock. This proceeding excited much indignation, and threats were made against Morgan's life, but the search-officers were told to conclude their work as quietly as possible without divulging the names of the offenders, and an outbreak was avoided. A day or two afterward the expedition arrived at the castle at San Lorenzo, where it was found that most of those who had been wounded in the assault on that fortress had perished of their injuries, and that the garrison was almost destitute of provisions, being reduced to a small allowance of maize. A vessel having on board the prisoners taken at the isle of Santa Catarina was then despatched to Portobello to demand a ransom for the castle at Chagre, but returned with the answer that none would be paid.
[Sidenote: DIVISION OF SPOILS.]
A division of the spoils was next in order; and there were none who expected to receive for their share less than two or three thousand pesos, for the entire value of the booty was set down, according to the highest estimate, at little short of four and a half millions.[XXVIII‑24] Loud were the complaints and fierce the threats, therefore, when Morgan declared that, after paying the extra allowances to the captains and officers of the fleet, the compensation to the wounded, and the rewards to those who had distinguished themselves in action, each man's share amounted but to two hundred pesos. He was accused, and no doubt with justice, of setting apart the most valuable of the jewelry and precious stones for his own portion, and of estimating the rest at far less than their real worth, for the purpose of buying them in as cheaply as possible. He knew that most of his men cared for money only to squander it among the taverns of Port Royal, and turning his opportunity to good use he managed to store away for himself and a few of his accomplices the lion's share.
Morgan now began to fear for his personal safety and for the security of his stolen treasures, and determined to make no longer stay at Chagre. Assuredly he was the best prize his fellow-pirates could find at this juncture. He silenced the remonstrances of his followers, however, as best he could, and set them at work demolishing the castle of San Lorenzo. The neighboring edifices were burned; the surrounding country was laid waste; the guns of the dismantled fortress were placed on board the fleet, and all were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to embark. The commander then stole on board his ship by night and put to sea, accompanied by only three or four of the English vessels, the captains of which were in his confidence. The remainder of the band awoke next morning in time to see the topmost sails of the vanishing squadron disappear below the horizon, and at once determined to give chase; but they soon found that nearly all the ammunition and provisions had been secretly carried off by the fugitives. Seven or eight hundred of the buccaneers, including all the Frenchmen who had joined the expedition, now found themselves in a strait. They were compelled to separate into small parties, and after obtaining the means of subsistence by pillaging the shores of Castilla del Oro, returned almost empty-handed to Port Royal.
[Sidenote: AN ENGLISH KNIGHT.]
Morgan landed in Jamaica without mishap, and soon began to levy forces for an expedition to the isle of Santa Catarina, intending to make it a common rendezvous for the brethren of the seas; but the hideous atrocities committed during these piratical raids had at length roused the English ministers to a sense of shame, and awakened compunction even in the breast of the English monarch. A new governor was despatched to Jamaica, with orders that the treaty lately ratified between Spain and Great Britain should be strictly enforced. A general pardon and indemnity was proclaimed for past offences, and the ex-admiral of the buccaneers soon afterward repaired to England, where, by a judicious use of his wealth, he obtained from Charles II. the honor of knighthood, as before mentioned. The gibbet would have been a more fitting distinction.
Sir Henry Morgan, appointed commissioner of the court of admiralty and afterward deputy governor of Jamaica, held office until the accession of James II. when the court of Spain procured his arrest. He was sent a prisoner to his native country, and was cast into prison, where we will leave him. He was a ruffian, whose hell-born depravity of heart was relieved by no gleam of a better nature, and for whom one may search in vain for a parallel, even among those so-called heroes who dragged the banner of the cross through the blood of myriads of innocent victims, as they bore westward the glad tidings of Christ's redemption.
XXIX. CORSAIRS IN THE SOUTH SEA
1671-1682.
THE NEW CITY OF PANAMÁ—PORTOBELLO SACKED BY PIRATES—A BUCCANEER FLEET ASSEMBLES AT BOCA DEL TORO—THE CORSAIRS PLAN A RAID ON PANAMÁ—THEY CAPTURE SANTA MARÍA—AND THENCE SAIL FOR PLANTAIN ISLAND—MASSACRE OF THEIR CAPTIVES—DESPERATE CONFLICT IN PANAMÁ BAY—SOME OF THE MARAUDERS RETURN ACROSS THE ISTHMUS—THE REMAINDER PROCEED TO THE ISLAND OF TABOGA—AND THERE CAPTURE SEVERAL PRIZES—THEY ARE ASKED TO SHOW THEIR COMMISSIONS—THE ANSWER—THEY SAIL FOR THE COAST OF VERAGUA—THEIR REPULSE AT PUEBLO NUEVO—THEIR OPERATIONS ON THE COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA—SOME OF THEM RETURN TO ENGLAND—THEY ARE TRIED AND ACQUITTED.
[Sidenote: THE NEW PANAMÁ.]
When tidings of the destruction of Panamá reached Spain, the court ordered that a new city be forthwith built on a site that could be so strongly fortified as to render it impregnable. The one finally chosen was a small peninsula a little more than two leagues from the old city, at the base of the hill of Ancon. The foundations were laid in 1671. The town was surrounded by a wall, from twenty to forty feet high and ten feet wide, crowned with forts and watch-towers two or three hundred feet apart. So costly were the works that the council in Spain when auditing the accounts wrote to inquire whether the fortifications of Panamá, were of silver or gold. A deep moat divided the city from the mainland, the entrances being through three massive gates. Seaward the city was protected by coral reefs, extending for more than half a mile into the bay. Even at high tide vessels of heavy draught could barely approach within cannon shot and an invading force would be compelled to land from boats which would be exposed to the fire of the garrison. Thus the site, when fortified, though ill chosen in view of the commercial interests of the city, afforded the inhabitants, as they supposed, sure protection against the raids of buccaneers.
The new city of Panamá was laid out almost in the form of a square; having streets regular, but narrow, and so overhung with projecting balconies that one might pass through it during a heavy shower without being drenched. It was especially distinguished for its church architecture,[XXIX‑1] a large portion of its area being occupied by the buildings of the ecclesiastics. The church and convent of Santo Domingo was one of the finest and most important establishments, not only in Panamá, the city of churches, but in the New World. The main building, a hundred feet in length by fifty in breadth, with massive walls perforated by numerous arched windows, was separated from the porch by a strong brick arch about twenty feet high and with a span of forty feet; the radius at the key-stone being not more than two feet. The edifice remains to day apparently as firm as ever, a monument of the architectural skill of the Spaniards in the seventeenth century.
The cupola and bells for the new cathedral were fashioned at Madrid. When the bells were ready for casting, the queen invited the public to be present, and at the hour appointed the cupola was surrounded by an assemblage more brilliant than any that had ever met for such a purpose in Spain. Her Majesty, with maids bejewelled and all attired in rich silks, and dignitaries of court and state, with a vast concourse of the populace, gathered for the ceremony of blessing the bells. As it progressed, and one after another advanced with a piece of coin or of plate, enthusiasm increased. Women tore off their ornaments and flung them into the heated mass; decorations of office and mementos of affection were eagerly sacrificed, and the dedication was concluded amidst an outburst of religious zeal.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: PORTOBELLO AGAIN SACKED.]
But the deity would not at the price sell deliverance from the corsairs, who could be as Christian as any of them upon occasion. In 1679 Portobello was plundered by pirates, the spoils amounting to a hundred and sixty pesos per capita; and during the same year a buccaneer fleet assembled at the Boca del Toro, where lay two English privateers.[XXIX‑2] From them intelligence was received that the Darien Indians had rendered aid to the French captain, Bournano, in an attack on the town of Chepo. Repulsed before that place, they had offered to guide him to a large and rich city named Tocamora, but as this enterprise called for a stronger armament than he had at his disposal, he went in search of reënforcements, promising to return in three months.
The pirates who had sacked Portobello agreed to take part in the contemplated foray, and at once set about careening and refitting their vessels. As soon as the necessary preparations were completed the fleet sailed eastward along the coast to the Samballas, or isles of San Blas, where they were visited by the natives.[XXIX‑3] The Indians dissuaded the leaders of the party from making a raid on Tocamora, suggesting instead a descent on Panamá, to within a few leagues of which city they could guide them undiscovered. This proposition, backed by the argument that the march to Tocamora was difficult and provisions almost unattainable, while at Panamá they could not fail of immense booty, inclined the majority to follow the Indians' counsel.[XXIX‑4]
The French contingent considered so long a land journey too hazardous, and parted company, while the remainder of the fleet, numbering seven vessels, with thirty-six guns and three hundred and sixty-six men, sailed under the guidance of the Cacique Andrés to the Golden Island, the most easterly of the Samballas, where this chief had his head-quarters,[XXIX‑5] arriving there the 3d of April 1680. The Indians now proposed an attack upon the town of Santa María, situated on a large river of that name, which flows into the gulf of San Miguel. Here was maintained a garrison of four hundred men, for it was the entrepôt through which passed the gold on its way from the neighboring mines to the vaults of Panamá. If Santa María failed in booty, they could sail to Panamá, where success was certain. This plan was generally approved, and on April 5th they landed a strong force, divided into seven companies, each marching under its distinctive banner and led by its own captain, the supreme command being intrusted to Captain Bartholomew Sharp. The native allies accompanied the column under Andrés who acted as guide.
[Sidenote: OVERLAND MARCH.]
However perilous this expedition may appear, there were those among the rovers whose hopes soared higher than a mere swoop on Panamá, and who meditated a triumphant return through the straits of Magellan in a fleet of prizes freighted not with the gold of Panamá alone, but with the wealth of the South American coast. Burdened only with their weapons and a slender stock of provisions the buccaneers began their march on Panamá. After passing through the outskirts of a wood, they crossed a marsh[XXIX‑6] about a league in length, and struck into a well wooded valley which they ascended by a good path for two leagues more, reaching the bank of a river for the most part dry at this time of year. Here they constructed huts and encamped. They were now visited by a cacique who recommended them to carry out their proposed raid on Santa María, and volunteered to lead them in person, informing them naively that "he would have joined them at once, but his child was very ill; however, he was assured it would die by next day," when he would overtake them. The chieftain then departed, cautioning them against lying in the grass, on account of the snakes, which were poisonous and of great size. Stones found in the bed of the river when broken showed traces of gold, a harbinger of the yellow harvest toward which their steps were bent; but this was not enough to prevent four of the company from returning to the ships, thus early discouraged at the prospect of a long and tedious journey.
The following morning they climbed a steep hill, on the other side of which appeared a river, said by Andrés to be that on which Santa María was situated. The line of march then led over another hill, more precipitous than the former, where at times the path would admit of but one man in file, until with evening they reached the foot and encamped upon the same river, having marched that day six leagues. Next day they followed the course of the stream; the current was extremely strong, and the depth varied from knee to waist deep, A short though fatiguing day's march brought the column to a halt at an Indian village. This was the abode of Andrés' son, Antonio, styled Bonete de Oro, or King Golden-cap, by the same whimsical buccaneer nomenclature which dignified his father with the title of emperor. Messengers had been sent forward to announce their approach and the presence of Andrés with the column. Preparations were made for the reception of the corsairs. Golden-cap visited them in state, accompanied by his queen, his children, and his retinue. The monarch wore a golden circlet round his head, gold rings in his ears, and a gold crescent depending from his nose. He was modestly clad in a long cotton robe, which reached his ankles, and he carried a long lance. His three sons, each armed with a lance and wearing a cotton garment, stood uncovered in his presence, as did his retinue.
The queen was tastefully attired in a pair of red blankets, one girt about her waist, the other draped over her shoulders. She carried a young child, and was accompanied by two daughters, both of marriageable age, their faces streaked with red paint and their arms and necks loaded with variously colored beads. His Majesty did not disdain to barter his stock of plantains for knives, pins, and needles. He was generous enough, however, to present three plantains and some sugar-cane to each man, gratis.[XXIX‑7] The band halted at this village all the following day, when a council of war was held to determine how they might best reach Santa María undiscovered. It was resolved to embark in canoes, but to provide a sufficient quantity taxed the resources of the chief, as the number was now increased by a hundred and fifty Indians, all armed with bow, arrows, and lance, and under the immediate command of their caciques. At this council Captain Sawkins was appointed to lead the forlorn hope, consisting of eighty picked men. Resuming the march next day, April 9th, they continued to follow the course of the river, occasionally passing a solitary house, at which times the owner would generally come to his door to watch them pass by, and give each either a ripe plantain or some cassava-root. That night they halted at three large Indian huts, where a quantity of provisions and some canoes had been collected by Golden-cap's orders. Early next morning, before breaking camp, a quarrel arose between Coxon and Harris, when the former levelled his fusil and fired, but without effect. Harris was about to return the fire, but was restrained by Captain Sharp, who succeeded in adjusting the difficulty, and the fifth day's travel began.
Captains Sharp, Coxon, and Cook, with about seventy men, were detached from the main body and embarked in fourteen canoes. Andrés and Antonio accompanied them, and with two Indians to navigate each canoe put off down the Santa María River.
Canoeing, however, was found no more comfortable than trudging afoot, as the crews were continually obliged to leap out and haul the boats over shoals, rocks, or fallen trees, and sometimes to make portages over the land itself. These vexations attended the voyage for three days, and were varied only by the visit of a wild animal to one of their camps, at which they dared not fire lest the report should betray their presence to the Spaniards.[XXIX‑8] As they did not fall in with their comrades of the main body on April 12th, Sharp and Coxon's detachment began to suspect treachery on the part of the Indians, who might have designed to divide their forces and betray them into the hands of the Spaniards. Happily these fears proved groundless, for the next day they reached a point of land at the confluence of another branch of the river, a rendezvous of the Indians in their warfare with the Spaniards, and halting there in the afternoon were joined by their brethren in arms, who had been provided with canoes the day before, and were also in a state of anxiety as to the fate of their comrades.[XXIX‑9] The entire company, thus reunited, pitched their camp on this spot to get their arms in order and prepare for action, which was now believed imminent. Meanwhile the commissariat department was not neglected, for several canoes arrived with a supply of plantains and peccary pork.[XXIX‑10]
Very early the next morning they all embarked, the flotilla numbering sixty-eight canoes. The "emperor" and the "king," says Captain Sharp, continued their voyage, the former "Cloathed with a loose Robe or Mantle of pure Gold, which was extraordinary Splendid and Rich. The King was in a White Cotton Coat fringed round the bottom, about his Neck a Belt of Tygers Teeth, and a Hat of pure Gold, with a Ring and a Plate like a Cockle Shell hanging at it of Gold in his Nose, which is the Fashion in this Country for the people of Quality."
Hitherto the canoes had either drifted with the stream, or been propelled with poles; but new oars and paddles were constructed, and every nerve strained to reach the goal as soon as possible. It was after midnight when a landing was effected on a piece of swampy ground in the neighborhood of Santa María, and the weary adventurers stealthily sought shelter in the woods, where they proposed to lie until daybreak.
[Sidenote: FIGHT AT SANTA MARIA.]
At dawn on April 15th the corsairs were aroused by a discharge of small arms in the town and the sounding of the reveille. Quickly seizing their weapons they formed in line and began their advance. On emerging from the shelter of the woods they were in full view of the enemy, who had been apprized of their landing and were fully prepared to receive them, having already removed the whole treasure to Panamá. Instantly betaking themselves to the shelter of the fort, a kind of tambour-work composed of stockades twelve feet high, the Spaniards opened a random and ill-judged fire upon their assailants before the latter had approached near enough for the fusillade to be effective.
Undismayed at the warmth of their reception, the advance guard, led by Sawkins and Sharp, charged with a force impossible to withstand, and tearing down a few stockades carried the work by storm, with no further casualty than two men wounded. The rapidity of the operation may be convinced from the fact that the freebooters were masters of the situation before fifty of their men were brought into action. The Spanish loss was twenty-six killed and sixteen wounded, out of two hundred and sixty engaged. The garrison was ordinarily much stronger, numerically, but at this time two hundred were absent serving as escort of the treasure on the way to Panamá. The governor, the priest, and most of the principal inhabitants had also sought safety in flight.
The causes of this cheaply bought success are not far to seek. The fort was doubtless an excellent defence in an Indian fight, but was in no way adapted for protection against the corsairs, the stockades being neither strengthened by brickwork or masonry nor protected by a ditch. In all probability there was no banquette, so that when once the stakes were forced the defenders would have no advantage over their assailants, both being on level ground.
The Spaniards emptied their pieces at random, instead of reserving their fire till the enemy came to close quarters, when it could have been employed with deadly precision. Their foemen, on the other hand, wasted no time on a useless fusillade. Relying implicitly upon their acknowledged superiority in a hand-to-hand fight, added to the well founded terror of their name, they may be said, practically speaking, to have burnt no powder at all, their brilliant coup-de-main being effected with the cutlass alone. Panic-stricken at the ease with which their defences were forced, the Spaniards opposed but a feeble resistance to the ruthless assailants of Portobello. Hemmed within their own stronghold, from which there was no retreat, they flung down their arms and sued for quarter, and the town of Santa María was in the hands of the dreaded buccaneers.
As regards booty, it was a barren victory. The gold which came in from the mines was shipped to Panamá two or three times a year, the river at Santa María being nearly six hundred yards wide, and at high tide fifteen feet deep. The last shipment—three hundred pounds' weight—was despatched just three days before the attack. This was a cruel disappointment to the pirates. Worse almost than that, they found provisions enough to feed them for only three or four days, instead of the abundance they anticipated.
In the town was recovered the eldest daughter of Antonio Golden-cap, who had been abducted by one of the garrison, by whom she was at that time pregnant.[XXIX‑11] This had greatly embittered the chief's hatred of the Spaniards,[XXIX‑12] and now the Indians, who during the action had avoided stray bullets by taking advantage of a depression in the ground, seized many of the prisoners, led them into the neighboring woods, and butchered in cold blood as many as had previously fallen in fight.[XXIX‑13] Such deeds by Indians the Europeans deemed brutal, though falling far short of some of their own in this quarter; at all events the pirates put a stop to it as soon as it was discovered, and confined the Spaniards in the fort, guarding them closely.[XXIX‑14]
[Sidenote: AFTER THE GOVERNOR.]
As soon as possible after the capture of the town Captain Sawkins with a party of ten embarked in a canoe and started down the river to overtake and capture the governor and others who had escaped, in order to prevent their carrying news of the capture to Panamá. Failing to secure their prey, the pirates determined not to retrace their steps empty-handed, but to push on to Panamá, where they felt certain of a prize worth the risk. It is true that some at least of the company murmured at this project, and wished to return to the ships, more especially Captain Coxon. In order therefore to secure unanimity in the adventure Coxon was elected commander-in-chief.[XXIX‑15] As a matter of precaution, a few of the prisoners, together with the small amount of plunder taken, were sent back to the ships under a guard of twelve men.
The Indians were averse to proceeding farther, and most of them receiving presents of knives, scissors, and axes, returned home. Nevertheless, Emperor Andrés and King Antonio Golden-cap determined to go on to Panamá and see the end of this display of European savagism and be present at the sack of the city. Andrés indeed promised, if necessary, to raise an army fifty thousand strong to assist in the work. Additional encouragement was afforded by the Spaniard who had abducted the chief's daughter, and who volunteered, in consideration of being protected from the just revenge of the Indians, to conduct them not only to Panamá, but to the very chamber-door of the governor, when they might seize him and make themselves masters of the city before they could be discovered.
After holding Santa María for two days, the victors took their departure on April 17th, first burning the fort, church, and town to gratify the rancor of the Indian chief. They then embarked on board thirty-five canoes and a piragua,[XXIX‑16] which last was captured while lying at anchor in the river, and dropped down toward the gulf of San Miguel, whence they could gain Panamá Bay. The Spaniards begged hard to be allowed to go with them, rather than be left to the mercy of the Indians.
It was with the greatest difficulty that the freebooters had secured canoes enough for themselves, as their Indian allies had taken so many in their retreat; yet the terrified Spaniards managed to find a few old boats and construct a few rafts, and so ventured to accompany them.
In the Santa María River the ebb and flow of the tide is remarkable, and at night the navigation is extremely hazardous, many shoals and channels being encountered at low water. Still, having good native pilots on board, the flotilla paddled down on the ebb until midnight, when a native embarcadero was reached, and it was decided to land and fill the water-vessels, the river water being salt, and none suitable for drinking likely to be met with for several days. At the landing-place Captain Sawkins was found awaiting them. He had failed to overtake the governor, who had by that time made good his escape to the open bay. The canoes were then hauled ashore for the night, as there was too much risk in continuing the voyage down the estuary at that hour. Next morning they again got under way and proceeded down the river, finding two mouths by which they could reach the sea, one of them being deep and flowing out with a swift current.
About noon the sea was sighted, and shortly afterward the pirates landed on a small island, where the governor in his flight had left two women, in order to lighten his canoe. On this island the party remained waiting for the next ebb, when they crossed to another isle two leagues away, making land just before nightfall. Here were found two canoes, with some bows and arrows, which were destroyed; their owners were also seen, but managed to elude capture. Camp was then pitched, and Captain Sawkins once more despatched in chase of the governor, with orders to await their arrival at Plantain Island, whether successful or not. The following day, while continuing the voyage, a severe squall struck them, the wind freshening from the seaward and meeting the ebb. One canoe, manned by seven Frenchmen, capsized; the crew was rescued with difficulty, and after the loss of all their arms.[XXIX‑17] A heavy rain-storm followed, and compelled them to run for shelter into a sandy bay, where the canoes were beached, and the tired rovers took up their quarters for the night.
Meanwhile, on the evacuation of Santa María, one canoe was left a long way astern, being heavy and manned by five men only. It was under the command of Basil Ringrose, the buccaneer historian, who afterward gave the world so faithful a narrative of the exploits in which he took part.
[Sidenote: ADVENTURE OF RINGROSE.]
Ringrose had no Indian in his canoe to pilot him; so as the tide ran out and many shoals were exposed, he entered the wrong channel, and ran two miles inside a shoal before discovering the mistake. There he was obliged to lie until high tide, when he proceeded in hopes of overtaking the other boats. That night at low water he moored the canoe to an oar stuck in the sand, and the men took turns at sleeping; at dawn they rowed two leagues farther and came up with the main body as they were just putting off from the watering-place. As it was absolutely necessary to water there they went ashore with their calabashes, and on regaining the river-side found the flotilla was once more out of sight. They rowed in chase as hard as they could, but became bewildered among the numerous islands near the mouth of the river, and so again lost their way. At length they hit upon the Boca Chica, but by that time the tide was running in with great force, and finding that they could make no way against it, beached the canoe and made it fast to a tree, awaiting the turn of the tide which rose there upward of twenty feet.
As soon as practicable they pulled away to an island outside the mouth of the river, in the gulf of San Miguel, narrowly escaping being swamped, and passed the night in the utmost misery, drenched with rain, and not daring to light a fire. Next morning at daybreak, April 19th, they once more launched the canoe and shaped their course for Point San Lorenzo, but as the boat neared one of the many islands of the gulf a heavy sea overturned it and they had to swim for their lives. Happily all made the shore in safety, and immediately afterward the canoe was cast up high and dry. Their cartouch-boxes and powder-horns being made water-tight, and lashed with their arms to the canoe, were preserved, but all their provisions and water were spoiled. It soon appeared that they were not alone in misfortune. A party of six Spaniards, lately their prisoners, had been washed ashore from their broken boat, in worse plight than Ringrose's party. Their common fate united the castaways, and Spaniard and Englishman ate their meal in peace over the same camp-fire.
[Sidenote: A KIND ACT REWARDED.]
While debating whether to go forward or return to their ships at the Golden Island, an Indian was seen, and it became manifest that yet another party shared their isle of refuge. A piragua, manned by eight of their Darien allies, had for some reason put in there, and Ringrose learned by signs that if the whole company embarked in the Indian piragua they could overtake the Panamá expedition by the following morning. The natives wished to kill the Spaniards, and were with great difficulty prevented from doing so, but Ringrose succeeded in saving their lives by allowing one to be taken as a slave, and placing his own canoe at the disposal of the remaining five. He and his men, together with the Spanish slave, joined the Indians, and making sail on the piragua soon doubled Point San Lorenzo. During that night two camp-fires were sighted on the starboard bow, whereupon the Indians exhibited great delight, and shouting the names of their chiefs, Antonio and Andrés, headed direct for the land. No sooner were they in the breakers than out rushed some sixty Spaniards from the thickets adjacent, seized the vessel, and dragged her up on the strand. The Indians leaped overboard and made good their escape to the woods, but the others were seized and made prisoners.
None of these Spaniards could speak French or English, but Ringrose entered into conversation in Latin with their leader, and found that they also were from Santa María, and had been landed at that place by the buccaneers to preclude any possibility of their carrying tidings to Panamá. While the Spanish leader was interrogating Ringrose preparatory to the slaughter of the party, up stepped the Spaniard whom Ringrose had given the natives as a slave. He related the whole circumstances of the wreck of his canoe upon the island, and the preservation of the lives of his party by Ringrose. This put a new aspect upon affairs. The Spanish captain embraced the Englishman, and after giving them supper permitted both pirates and Indians to depart. After this Ringrose and his party held their course all night, in drenching rain, and next morning observed a canoe rowing rapidly toward them. Closer inspection revealed one of the buccaneer craft, which was about to attack the piragua, under the impression that it was a Spanish vessel. They were mutually delighted to meet again, Ringrose and his crew having been given up for lost. Then all joined the flotilla, which soon continued its way.
After clearing the bay the buccaneers steered for what appeared a lofty point about seven leagues distant, and there made Plantain Island. Landing in the afternoon, they climbed a steep ascent and surprised the sentinel, an old man who had not seen them or suspected their approach until they swarmed around his hut. From him it was ascertained that their approach was unsuspected at Panamá; so they thought they would surprise the city. Captain Sawkins, who joined them here in accordance with his instructions, reported that the governor of Santa María had sailed thence for Panamá the previous day. Sawkins was once more sent in chase, but returned unsuccessful.
[Sidenote: SEA-ARTISTS AND PIRATES OF GENIUS.]
Shortly before nightfall a thirty-ton bark anchored off the island, whereupon two canoes were hastily manned, and the vessel captured. The crew stated they were eight days out from Panamá,[XXIX‑18] and had landed a detachment of troops at a point on the mainland not far distant for the purpose of inflicting chastisement on certain Indians and negroes. Into this craft were immediately placed a hundred and thirty men, under command of "that Sea-Artist, and Valiant Commander, Captain Bartholomew Sharp."[XXIX‑19]
Anchoring off the island that night the pirates continued their voyage on the following morning, making for the isle of Chepillo, near the mouth of the river Chepo.[XXIX‑20] Sharp, however, parted company with the fleet, and bore up to King, or Pearl islands, in search of water, and while there captured a new brigantine, to which he transferred his crew after scuttling his own vessel. Having obtained water and provisions he set sail for the rendezvous about four o'clock in the afternoon, but owing to contrary winds failed to make it, and anchored at an isle five leagues distant. On the following day at noon he proceeded, but did not reach Chepillo before nightfall. Sending a canoe ashore he ascertained that his men had left the island a few hours before, as their fires were still burning, and that a fight had taken place, as was indicated by a number of dead bodies. Sharp now stood in toward Panamá.[XXIX‑21]
After the canoes had separated from the bark, Captain Harris succeeded in capturing another vessel, which was forthwith manned with thirty buccaneers. In the pursuit, however, the fleet became so scattered that it was not until the following day that they rejoined company at the island of Chepillo. Before their arrival a bark had been chased by Coxon, but escaped capture, after inflicting on her pursuers a loss of one man killed and two wounded.[XXIX‑22] This failure caused the pirates much annoyance, as the vessel which had eluded their grasp would carry to Panamá the news of their raid.
At Chepillo they took fourteen prisoners and found a piragua which they manned, and having procured some plantains and hogs again got under way about four o'clock the same afternoon, expecting to reach Panamá before daybreak, the distance being only seven leagues. But before they left the island they perpetrated one of those ruthless acts so common in their career of crime. As it was not convenient to take along the prisoners, and to leave them alive would be unsafe, it was determined to kill them. The captives were then handed over to the Indians, who were instructed, after they should have amused themselves with a little gladiatorial performance, to slay them. The sea-shore supplied a fitting arena, and under the eyes of the whole fleet the murderers opened their attack. But the victims, though unarmed, made a rush, and despite spear and arrow some of them escaped to the neighboring woods.[XXIX‑23]
The pirates now departed. They no longer hoped to surprise Panamá, but in the bay were richly freighted ships which they would like to seize. On the 23d of April they came in sight of the city before sunrise,[XXIX‑24] and presently discovered five large men-of-war and three good-sized barks at anchor near the island of Perico. Their approach was no sooner perceived than three of the men-of-war got under way and bore down upon them. The flag-ship was manned by eighty-six Biscayans under command of Jacinto de Barahona, the high admiral of the South Sea. The second ship with a crew of seventy-seven negroes was commanded by Francisco de Peralta, an Andalusian. In the third were sixty-five mulattoes under the command of Diego de Carabajal.
[Sidenote: A NAVAL COMBAT.]
The pirate flotilla was much scattered, the two piraguas being unable to keep up with the canoes, on which were only thirty-six men. These, however, as the squadron bore down upon them, succeeded in getting to windward of it and were presently joined by the smaller piragua, which raised the force of the buccaneers to sixty-eight. Sawkins and Ringrose placed themselves in front and soon were engaged with Carabajal's ship, which at the first broadside wounded four of Sawkins' crew and one of Ringrose's. The deck of the Spanish vessel, as she tacked, was swept by a deadly volley. The flag-ship then came up, and was encountered by the five canoes. As soon as she was within range the steersman was struck, and the vessel, luffing, was taken aback. This mishap the pirates immediately took advantage of, and ranging astern raked her deck fore and aft, killing every one who attempted to take the helm, and committing havoc with the ship's tackling. By this time Peralta was coming to the support of the flag-ship, whereupon Sawkins, whose canoe was sinking, went on board the piragua, and leaving the flag-ship to the attentions of the four canoes engaged Peralta single-handed. Meantime the first ship, delayed by the lightness of the wind, had slowly come about, and was again bearing down to take part in the action. She was, however, met by two of the canoes under Springers and Ringrose before she could render any assistance to the admiral, and so deadly was the fire of the pirates that Carabajal was glad to sheer off and escape with the few efficient men he had left. Springers and Ringrose now hastened to the support of their comrades, who still maintained the conflict with the flag-ship. Their return was greeted with a wild cheer of exultation, which was answered by the crew of the piragua. Drawing so closely under the stern that they "wedged up the rudder," the pirates, now confident of victory, again beset the doomed vessel. The admiral and pilot were shot dead; two-thirds of the crew being killed, and most of the survivors wounded, the flag was struck, and the triumphant ruffians boarded their prize. A shocking spectacle met their eyes. Out of eighty-six men twenty-five only were alive, and but eight capable of bearing arms. "Their Blood ran down the Decks in whole streams, and scarce one place in the Ship was found that was free from blood."
As soon as they had taken possession of the vessel the victors despatched two canoes to the assistance of Sawkins, who meantime had maintained a desperate fight with Peralta. Three times the buccaneer had boarded his antagonist, and three times had he been repulsed by the valiant Andalusian, whose indomitable bravery had gained for him the outspoken admiration of his foes. As soon as the canoes came up they saluted Peralta with a volley, which was followed by a heavy explosion in the stern of the Spanish vessel. All the men in that part of the ship were blown into the air; yet Peralta had no thought of yielding, and with voice and hand encouraged his men. But fate was against him. Soon there was another explosion in the forecastle, and in the smoke and confusion Sawkins once more boarded, and the ship was taken. As the light wind slowly carried away the smoke a scene was revealed on board which defies description. "There was not a Man, but was either killed, desperately wounded, or horribly burnt with Powder. Insomuch, that their Black Skins were turned White in several places, the Powder having torn it from their Flesh and Bones."[XXIX‑25]
The obstinacy of this battle, and the unflinching courage with which it was fought, are indicated by the heavy losses on both sides and the length of time the engagement lasted. From shortly after sunrise until noon the fight was carried on, and of the sixty-eight pirates engaged, only about a score came out unwounded.[XXIX‑26] The reputation of the Spanish captains for bravery was of the highest, and elicited the admiration of their foes. The success of the latter was undoubtedly owing to the lightness of the wind, which enabled them to take a position against which the Spaniards could not direct their cannon; nor does it appear that, with the exception of the single broadside fired by Carabajal, the Spanish guns were used during the engagement.
Having attended to the wounded the pirates steered for the island of Perico, where they found the five vessels anchored there abandoned, the largest, the Santísima Trinidad, of four hundred tons, having been set on fire. The marauders, however, succeeded in suppressing the flames and converted the vessel into a hospital. Of the others, two were burned; one of a hundred and eighty tons was assigned to Captain Cook, and the third of fifty tons to Captain Coxon.[XXIX‑27]
[Sidenote: BEFORE PANAMÁ.]
Two days after this action Captain Sharp joined company, and a little later the bark captured by Captain Harris.[XXIX‑28] The pirates remained for about ten days before Panamá, during which Captain Coxon withdrew from the gang. He had been charged with displaying more caution than courage during the engagement, and resenting the imputation he determined to go back to the North Sea. With his adherents, to the number of fifty,[XXIX‑29] he accordingly weighed anchor one night, leaving about twenty of his own wounded, but taking with him the best surgeon and nearly all the medicines. With him the Darien chief also went back and the chiefs Antonio and Andrés.
This defection did not discourage the remaining buccaneers, and weighing anchor on the 2d of May,[XXIX‑30] they stood off to the island of Taboga two leagues from Perico. This formed an excellent point of observation, every vessel passing in or out of the port of Panamá being plainly visible. Several small craft were captured which supplied the adventurers with provisions, and on the eighth day they seized a vessel containing wine, gunpowder, and fifty thousand pesos, intended for the pay of the Panamá garrison.[XXIX‑31] To the merchants of Panamá, who had now opened a trade with them, they sold the wines,[XXIX‑32] and these same traders on two occasions conveyed a message from the governor asking them to explain their presence before the city, and to state from whom they held their commissions.[XXIX‑33] Captain Sawkins replied to the first message that they had come "to assist the King of Darien, who was the true Lord of Panamá," and demanded five hundred pesos for each man and one thousand for each commander as the terms under which they would peaceably depart. His answer to the second communication was "that as yet all his company were not come together; but that when they were come up" they would visit him at Panamá and bring their "Commissions on the Muzzles of their Guns, at which time he should read them as plain as the Flame of Gunpowder could make them."
[Sidenote: DEATH OF SAWKINS.]
On the 15th of May, contrary to the wish of Sawkins, the fleet sailed to the isle of Otoque,[XXIX‑34] and thence to that of Quibo, off the coast of Veragua,[XXIX‑35] famous for its pearl fisheries. While at this island Sawkins, who had been appointed chief in command, and Sharp, conceived the project of making a descent on Pueblo Nuevo, a town situated on the mainland eight leagues off. Taking with them about sixty men,[XXIX‑36] they ascended the river on which the place was situated, but soon found that defensive measures had already been taken against them, trees having been felled across the river, and the town protected by three strong breastworks.[XXIX‑37] Undeterred by obstacles, the pirates attempted to take the place with a rush, as in the case of Santa María; but they suffered a serious repulse, and Sawkins was killed while leading on his men, the remainder of the marauders retreating to their canoes.[XXIX‑38]
Sawkins was held in high esteem among his comrades,[XXIX‑39] and his death was much regretted. It caused, moreover, a serious dissension. His men mutinied, and were determined to retrace their steps across the Isthmus. No inducements held out to the malecontents by Sharp could prevail upon them to remain, and on the 31st of May more than sixty of them[XXIX‑40] separated company, taking with them all the Indians who had remained. After the departure of the mutineers trouble arose between Cook and his men, which resulted in his resigning the command and going on board Sharp's vessel, the Trinidad. His own ship[XXIX‑41] was placed under the orders of John Cox, who thus became second in command.[XXIX‑42]
It was now decided to cruise southward, and on the 6th of June the freebooters set sail. After careening their vessels at the island of Gorgona in latitude 1° N. they engaged in a series of operations on the South American coast, plundering towns and capturing many Spanish vessels. The booty they amassed was immense. During this cruise another mutiny occurred,[XXIX‑43] which resulted in the deposition of Sharp and the elevation of one John Watling to the post of commander. Their project had been to sail homeward through the straits of Magellan, but they now changed their intention and again directed their prows northward. At an unsuccessful descent on Arica Watling lost his life, and the command was again conferred on Sharp,[XXIX‑44] but not without much dispute. Nor was the question easily settled, and it was at last arranged that the matter should be put to the vote, and that the minority should take the long-boat and canoes and go where they wished. Their votes were cast on April the 17th near the island of La Plata, and resulted in the defection of forty-seven of the malecontents, among whom was William Dampier, who sailed for the Isthmus with the intention of returning overland.[XXIX‑45]
[Sidenote: CAPTURE OF ESPARZA.]
Sharp, passing by the bay of Panamá, now paid a visit to the shore of Costa Rica, and entering the gulf of Nicoya anchored in the bay of Caldera. Here he was occupied some time in careening and refitting his ship, to aid him in which work he pressed into his service some carpenters employed in ship-building on the bank of a neighboring river. Then, after sacking and burning the town of Esparza,[XXIX‑46] he again sailed southward, and took, near the line, the treasure-ship San Pedro with thirty-seven thousand pesos. Still pursuing a southerly course, these human scourges made themselves the terror of the coast, plundering, burning, and destroying on land and sea.[XXIX‑47]
In the latter part of the year 1681 Sharp bore away for the straits of Magellan, but being unsuccessful in his endeavor to find the passage rounded Cape Horn and steering northward, well out of sight of land, reached the Barbadoes on the 28th of January 1682, but dared not enter port, as a British frigate lay at anchor at Bridgetown. He therefore steered for Antigua, where he arrived on the 1st of February. There this godless crew dispersed, the ship being given to those who had gambled away their money, while the more fortunate took passage for England.
At the instance of the Spanish ambassador in London Sharp and some of his companions were tried for piracy. They pleaded in defence that they had acted under the authority of a commission granted by the caciques of Darien, who were absolutely independent princes and in no sense subjects of Spain.[XXIX‑48] The validity of this plea was fully established,[XXIX‑49] and a verdict of acquittal obtained.