The Pirate King: The Incredible Story of the Real Captain Morgan by Graham A. Thomas

Author:Graham A. Thomas [Thomas, Graham A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2015-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

When the Spanish surrendered to the buccaneers they found that only thirty of the entire Spanish garrison of 314 troops remained alive, and of these, twenty were wounded. All thirty were taken prisoner by the buccaneers. Interestingly, not one officer had survived.

However, upon demanding of the prisoners that they tell them everything they knew, the buccaneers soon realized they’d lost the element of surprise. Eight or nine of the Spanish soldiers in the lower gun emplacements had deserted and headed straight for Panama with news of the buccaneer invasion. Worse was to come. A deserter from the buccaneers during the operation at Rio de la Hache had made his way to Panama with news that the English and French buccaneers under Morgan were assembling a fleet to attack Panama.

The governor of Panama, Don Juan Perez de Guzman, might have been a sick man with erysipelas (an acute bacterial skin infection), but his mind was clear enough to understand what the news meant. He sent an additional 164 men to reinforce the garrison of 150 men at San Lorenzo. In addition, he’d sent another 200 men to reinforce the garrison at Portobello should the buccaneers land there. All these men, according to Esquemeling, had been given ‘much provision and ammunition’. The buccaneers also discovered from the Spanish captives that the governor had ordered ambushes be placed at key points along the Chagres River and ‘that he waited for them in the open fields of Panama with 3,600 men.’ This would have included artillery, cavalry and infantry so an extremely formidable force up against the relatively lightly armed buccaneers.

While the cost of the battle had been horrendous for the Spanish it had also been bad for the buccaneers. They’d lost a quarter of the men they landed with and Captain Bradley was mortally wounded. Those buccaneers who were fit to work began moving downriver to Chagres town, rounding up slaves and others they could find to get them to work on rebuilding San Lorenzo Castle. With Bradley so ill, Captain Richard Norman took over as commander. He must have wondered why on earth Morgan was taking so long to arrive.

Back at Old Providence Morgan had not been idle. He was doing all he could to ensure that the island, and especially Santa Catalina, the smaller island, was made ready to be ‘the perpetual possession of the pirates’, according to Esquemeling. He also ‘embarked all the provisions that could be found, with much maize, or Indian wheat, and cazave, whereof also is made bread in those parts.’ So while he made the entire fleet ready to depart, he ordered that all the houses and forts on Santa Catalina be burnt, with the exception of St Teresa, ‘which he judged to be the strongest and securest wherein to fortify himself at his return from Panama.’10

By New Year’s Day 1671, the Mayflower and her two consorts had sailed into the river and anchored so they were protected by the guns of the fort, battery and castle.

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