The Sack of Panamá by Peter Earle

Author:Peter Earle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2012-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

13

BAD NEWS ALONG THE MAIN

God free us from so many thieves and look after Your Excellency.’1 Simon Barranco, Governor of the small port of Santa Marta, heartily reciprocated both sentiments as he finished reading the second of the two letters which he had just received describing the English capture of Rio de la Hacha. The letters had been written, four days after Collier’s arrival, by citizens who had been allowed out into the countryside to organize the collection of the maize and meat demanded as ransom, and had then taken a further week to travel the hundred mountainous and inhospitable miles between the two towns. No doubt Barranco felt pity for his fellow-countrymen in Rio de la Hacha, but his first thought was probably one of relief that it had not been his turn this time. Santa Marta had been sacked enough times in the last twenty years as it was and needed a long period of peace to recover some of its lost economic vitality. But this was no time for complacency. He called for his scribe and dictated a letter reporting the news to Pedro de Ulloa, Governor of Cartagena, the next city along the Main.

The news seemed very bad. As usual the privateers had been quite incapable of holding their tongues, and Barranco had received a tolerably accurate estimate of the enemy’s total numbers and intentions. It looked as though the attack on Rio de la Hacha was no more than a preliminary to the biggest raid that the longsuffering Spanish Main had ever known. The privateers had said that fifty big and small ships were gathering in Jamaica and Isla Vaca and that they planned to attack either Cartagena or Panamá by way of the River Chagres. Various estimates were made of the numbers of the privateers, but none was less than two thousand, and some of the men were said to be regular soldiers fresh out from England. Some said that the Duke of York was behind this enormous concentration of the enemies of Spain. Opinion was divided on whether Panamá or Cartagena was the most threatened, but the majority view was that ‘it is for Cartagena (may God save Your Excellency)’.

Barranco’s letter, with its enclosed copies of the correspondence from Rio de la Hacha, took a further five days to travel the slightly longer distance to Cartagena, so that it was not till 9 November that the Governor, Pedro de Ulloa, was informed of Collier’s landing. The news had taken seventeen days to travel just over two hundred miles, a good indication of the problems of communication on the Spanish Main. Letters would have travelled far faster by ship but, of course, the whole problem was that the privateers were masters of the sea and very few Spanish ships sailed along these coasts any longer. This humiliating indication of the effectiveness of the privateers made communication and mutual defence very difficult, and reinforced a naturally selfish and insular attitude amongst the governors of the

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