Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-12-16
WAS KNIGHTED FOR PIRACY
Sir Henry Morgan was Rewarded In
stead of Punished for Buceaneering.

stead of Punished for Bueeaneering.
Ho! Henry Morgan sails today
To harry the Spanish Main
With pretty bill for the Dons to pay
Ere he comes back again!
Sir Henry Morgan, who won a title
by able work at piracy, has long since
ceased to sail, and his name is only a
whisper in the southern seas today. Yet
it is not wholly forgotten, as was prov
ed the other day, when several Kansas
City men announced their intention Of
starting on an expedition to Sabine
Pass, Texas, where they believe Cap
tain Morgan buried some gold few
centuries ago. They mean to find it by
the aid Of wonderful scientific instru-
ment that shows just where to dig for
buried treasure.
To return, however, to Sir Henry
Morgan. He wasn't Sir Henry to begin
with-just plain Henry Morgan, son Of
Welsh farmer and he ran away to
sea because he didn't like to stay at
| home, and the sailing master with
whom he sailed sold him into bondage
in America at the end Of the voyage,
which proves the unwisdom of running
away from home with sailing masters
about whose characters you are not
| informed. An active lad like Henry,
however soon succeeded in getting
away from the sweatty bonds Of toll,
escaped from Barbados and went to
Jamaica. There he started in the buc-
| caneering business, and eventually de-
monstrated what w. S. Gilbert later
announced that 1T is. it is a glorious
thing to be pirate king"
You must understand that piracy, or
buccaneering, as it was called, was a
much more respectable calling in the
seventeenth century than it is today.
Spain was the natural enemy of Eng
land, and it was considered perfectly
good form to rob and murder a Span
lard wherever you found him, whether
England happened to be officially at
war with Spain or not. There might
be times Of peace between His Most
| Catholic Majesty and the King Of Eng
land on the other side of the Atlantic,
but in America the two nations were
always at war
Henry Morgan, after a trip or two on
other mems ships and thriftily saving
his share Of the booty, went in with a
number of other ambitious young pi-
rates and bought ship of his own. He
was elected captain. and from that day
on Henry Morgan continued to be cap
tain of every expedition he attended.
His first big success came at Porto
Bello. Porto Bello was a large Spanish
town in Panama. whence the treasure
ships sailed every year for Spain. 1t
was strongly fortified by two castles,
one on either side of the harbor mouth,
and had it been prepared, would have
been almost impossible to capture. But
Morgan took the place by surprise.
When he left Jamaica with fleet OF
the small ships carrying 460 ruffians
of assorted races, he did not tell even
his captains where he was going. A Sc
| cret wasn't a secret if more than one
man knew it, the astute captain be-
lieved. Not until the coast of Central
America was reached did he pass
around the word that Porto Bello was
| to be taken.
The ships themselves were left in q
harbor some miles from Porto Bello,
and, under cover of dusk, the pirates
moved stealthily upon the doomed town
in long boats and canoes. At midnight,
when no human sound disturbed the
chorus of the southern jungle, they
reached Porto Bello. They seized a
Spanish sentry-so swiftly and so eff
fectually did they gag him that he had
no chance to cry out or to fire his
| flintock. Brandishing their long knives
they made him describe to them all the
| defenses of the city. Then the pirates