New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-26
A BuccaTeer of the Sixteenth
Century.
Howard Pyle, in Harper's Magazine for
A,tu11 "a


| August.
Ihe greatest of all the buccaneers,
no who stands pre-en1inent amongst
them, and whose name even
to this day is q, charm to call up his
deeds OF daring, his dauntless courage,
his truculent cruelty. and his insati-
ate and unappeasable lust for gold,
was Captain Henry Morgan, the bold
Welshman, who brought buccaneering
to the height and power of its glory.
Having sold himself after the man
ner OF the times, for his passage across
the seas, he worked out his time Of
seryltude at the Bal BADGE AS soon
as he had reggained his liberty, he en-
tered upon the trade Of piracy, where
IN he soon reached a position OF con-
siderable prominence.
The first attempt Captain Henry
Morgan ever made against any town
! IN the Spanish Indies was the
bold descent upon the city of
Puerto del Principe in the island OF
Cuba, with a mere handful Of men.
1t was 8 deed the boldness of which
has never been outdone by. any of a
like nature-not even. the famous at
tack upon Panama itself. Thence they
returned to their boats in the very
face OF the whole island Of Cuba.
aroused and determined upon their
determination. Not only did they
make good their escape, but they
brought away with them Il vast
amount OF plumber, computed at three
hundred thousa and pieces OF eight, be-
yides five hundred head of cattle and
many prisoners held for ransom.
But when the division OF all this
wealth came to be made, 10! there
We're only fifty thousand pieces OF
eight to be found. What had become
Of the rest no man could tell but Cap
tain Henry Morgan himself. Honesty
among thieves was never an axiom
with him..
Rude, truculent, and dishonest as
Captain Morgan was, he seems to
have had q wonderful power OF per-
suading the wild buccaneers under
him to submit everything to his iudg-
ment, and to rely entirely upon his
word. In spite of the vast sum OF
money that he had very evidently
made away with, recruits poured in
| upon him, until his band was larger
and better equipped that ever.
The next towns to suffer their poor
| Maracaybo and Gibraltar, now Just
beginning to recover from the desola-
ton wrought by L'Olonoise. Once
more both towns We're plundered Of
every bale OF northumberland ofevery
piastre, and once more both were ram
somed until everything was squeezed
from the wretched inhabitants.
Here affairs were like to have taken
q turn. for when Captain Morgan
came up from Gibraltar, he found
three great men-of-war lying in the
entrance to the lake awaiting his com
ing. Seeing that he was hemmed in
| the narrow sheet of water, Captain
Morgan was inclined to compromise
matters, even offering to relinquish all
the plumber he had gained If he were
allowed to depart in peace. But no;
| the Spanish admiral would hear
nothing OF this. Having the pirates,
! as he thought, securely in his grasp,
he would relinquish nothing, but
would sweep them from the face OF
the sea once and forever.
That was an unlucky determination
for the Spaniards to reach, for in.
stead Of paralyzing the pirates with
fear, as he expected it would do, it
| simply turned their mad courage in
to as mad desperation.
A great vessel that they had taken
with the town Of Maracaybo was con-
verified into a fre-ship, manned with
logs OF wood in montera caps
and sailor. jackets, and filled with
| brim- stone, pitch, and palm-lsaves
soaked in oil. Then out Of the lake
the pirates sailed to meet the Span
| iards, the fre-ship leading the way,
and bearing down directly upon the
| admiral,s vessel. At the helm stood
volunteers, the most desperate and
the bravest Of all the pirate gang, and
at the ports stood the logs Of wood in
montera caps. So they came up with
the admiral, and grappled with his
| ship in spite Of the thunder Of all his
great guns, and then the Spaniard
saw, all to late, what his opponent
really was.
He tried to swing loose, but clouds
| of smoke and almost instantly a mass
OF roaring flames enveloped both yes
sells, and the admiral was lost. The
second vessel, not wishing to wait
for the coming of the pirates, bore
down upon the fort, under the guns Of
which the cowardly crew sunk her,
and made the best Of their way to the
shore. The third vessel, not having
an opportunity to escape, was taken
by the pirates without the slightest
resistance, and the passage from the
lake was cleared. So the buccaneers
sailed away, leaving Maracaybo and
Gibraltar prosJrate second time,
And now Captain Morgan determine
ed to undertake another venture, the
like of which had never been equalled
In all OF the annals of buccaneering.
This was nothing less than the de-
scent upon and the capture OF Pana-
ma, which was, next to Cartagena,
perhaps, the most powerful and the
most strongly fortified city in the
West Indies.
Down they poured upon Panama,
and out came the Spaniards to meet
them; four hundred horse, two thous-
and five hl1ndrnd foot and two tbo,,o