morgan's expedition. 



370 



hundred and fourteen Spaniards he put two hundred to death. 

 He left five hundred men in the castle, one hundred and fifty on 

 board of his thirty-seven ships, and with the rest — who, after 

 deducting the killed and wounded, amounted to about twelve 

 hundred men — began his progress through a wild and trackless 

 country which was then known only to the native Indians. On 

 the tenth day, after a desperate combat with the Spaniards, he 

 took and plundered Panama, which then consisted of about seven 

 thousand houses. His cruelties here were abominable. He im- 

 prisoned one of his female captives, with whom he had fallen 

 in love but who repelled his advances, causing her to be cast 

 into a dungeon and to be insufficiently supplied with food. But 

 his men murmured at the delay, and he was compelled to depart. 

 He returned to the mouth of the Chagres with an enormous 

 booty, and, after defrauding the fleet of their share of the spoils, 

 sailed for Jamaica, which was already an English colony. He 

 was made Deputy Governor of the island by Charles II., by 

 whom he was also knighted. He proved an efficient officer, 

 and gave no quarter to the buccaneers ! 



Morgan's expedition had pointed out a short way to the South 

 Sea; and in 1680, some three hundred English buccaneers 

 started from the Atlantic side to cross the isthmus. They 

 formed an alliance with the Darien Indians, who furnished them 

 a quantity of canoes upon the Pacific side. They launched out 

 in these into the Bay of Panama, attacked three large armed 

 ships, took two of them, and began cruising in them. They 

 captured vessels and plundered towns along the coast. Some 

 of them remained a long time in the South Sea, and made 

 many discoveries of undoubted benefit to mankind. 



The Spaniards never dared to defend themselves unless they 

 greatly outnumbered their assailants, and even then they were 

 usually routed with ease. They had become so enervated by 

 luxury that they had lost all military spirit and had well-nigh 

 forgotten the use of arms. They had acquired from the monks 



