Port Royal a Pirate Heaven

Port Royal was a city located at the end of the Palisadoes at the mouth of the Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. It was the centre of shipping commerce in the Caribbean Sea during the latter half of the 17th century. It was one home port of the privateers employed to nip at superpower Habsburg Spain's empire when smaller European powers dared not directly make war on Spain. As a port city, it was notorious for its gaudy displays of wealth and loose morals, and was a popular place and base (homeport) for the English and Dutch sponsored privateers to bring and spend their treasure during the 17th century. When those governments abandoned the practice of issuing letters of marque against the Spanish treasure fleets and possessions in the later 16th century, many privateers turned pirate and used the city as their main base during the heyday of the Caribbean pirates in the 17th century. During the 16th century, the English and French actively encouraged and even paid buccaneers based at Port Royal to attack Spanish and French shipping. Pirates from around the world congregated at Port Royal coming from waters as far away as Madagascar on the far side of Africa.

In archaeology, Port Royal is the site of the only earthquake which can be dated closely by not only date, but time—which is documented by recovery from the sea floor in the 1960s of a pocket watch stopped at 11:43 a.m. recording the time of the devastating earthquake shortly before^[1][2] on June 7, 1692, largely destroying Port Royal, causing two thirds of the city to sink into the Caribbean Sea such that today it is covered by a minimum of 25 ft (8 m) of water. Known today to 16th–18th-century focused archaeologists as the "City that Sank"^[3], it is considered the most important underwater archaeological site in the western hemisphere, yielding 16th–17th-century artifacts and many important treasures from indigenous peoples predating the 1588 founding, some from as far away as Guatemala. Several 17th and early 18th century pirate ships sank within Kingston Harbour and are being carefully harvested under controlled conditions by different teams of archaeologists. Other "digs" are staked out along various quarters and streets by different teams.

After this disaster, its commercial role was taken over by the city of Kingston. Current development in progress will redevelop the small fishing town into a tourist destination, serviced by cruise ships, with the archaeological findings at the heart of the attractions. These include a combination underwater museum-aquarium and restaurant with underwater dioramas and viewing of the native tropical sealife^]

Colonization of Port Royal

Situated at the western end of the Palisadoes sand spit that protects Kingston, Port Royal was well-positioned as a harbour. Its first visitors were the Arawak Indians, the native peoples of what is today called Haiti. The Arawak Indians used the land during their fishing expeditions, although it is not known whether they ever settled at the spit. They did, however, inhabit other parts of the Jamaican island.^[4]

The Spanish first landed in Jamaica under the leadership of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Permanent settlement occurred when Juan de Esquevil brought a group of settlers in 1509. The Spanish came to Jamaica in search of gold and silver, but found none. Instead they began what they saw as a viable alternative: enslaving Arawaks to farm the sugar cane that Esquevil had transported from England with him. Much like the Arawak peoples before them, the Spanish did not appear to have much use for Port Royal area. The area could not provide them with the precious metals they sought. Still, Spain kept control of the territory, mostly so that it could prevent other countries from accessing the island so strategically placed within the trade routes of the Caribbean. Spain maintained control over the island for 146 years, until the English invasion of 1655.^[5]

England acquired it in 1655. England never intended to take the island of Jamaica, but they did intend to take land from Spain. Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Realm, had sent an English fleet to capture Hispaniola. His goal was to give England a trading base in the middle of the Spanish New World. The fleet, however, failed miserably at its attempt and was disgracefully beaten in Santo Domingo. Facing defeat, and fearing the rage of Lord Cromwell, Commanders General William Penn and Admiral Robert Venables chose to capture Jamaica as a consolation prize.^[6] The fleet arrived in Jamaica on May 10, 1655, greatly outnumbering their Spanish opposition. They found it relatively easy to gain control of the island, but immediately realized that a larger Spanish force could easily take it back just as quickly.^[7] By 1659, two hundred houses, shops, and warehouses surrounded the fort, and by 1692 five forts defended the port.^[8]

For much of the period between the English conquest of Jamaica and the earthquake, Port Royal served as the capital of Jamaica; after the 1692 earthquake, Spanish Town overtook this role, later followed by Kingston, whose development was spurred through resettlement of quake-survivors^[8].

Defence of the Port

In 1657, as a solution to his defence issue, Governor Edward D’Oley invited the Brethren of the Coast to come to Port Royal and make it their homeport. The Brethren was made up of a group of pirates who were descendents of cattle-hunting buccaneers who had turned to piracy themselves after being robbed by the Spanish (and subsequently thrown out of Hispaniola).^[9] These pirates were a seemingly perfect solution; their attacks were concentrated against Spain, the main threat to the town. These pirates later became legal English privateers who were given letters of marque by Jamaica’s governor. Around the same time that pirates were invited to Port Royal, England launched a series of attacks against Spanish shipping vessels and coastal towns. By sending the newly appointed privateers after Spanish ships and settlements, England had successfully set up a system of defense for Port Royal. Spain was forced to continually defend their property, and did not have the means with which to retake its land.^[10]

Economy

In addition to being unable to retake their land, Spain was no longer able to provide their colonies in the New World with manufactured goods on a regular basis. The progressive irregularity of annual Spanish fleets, combined with an increasing desperation by colonies for manufactured goods, allowed Port Royal to flourish. Merchants and privateers worked together in what is now referred to as forced trade. Merchants would sponsor trading endeavors with the Spanish while also sponsoring privateers to attack Spanish ships and rob Spanish coastal towns.^[11] While the merchants most certainly had the upper hand, it was the privateers who were an integral part of the operation. Nuala Zahedieh, a lecturer at The University of Edinburgh, wrote “Both opponents and advocates of so-called ‘forced trade’ declared the town’s fortune had the dubious distinction of being founded entirely on the servicing of the privateers’ needs and highly lucrative trade in prize commodities.”^[12] She wrote further “A report that the 300 men who accompanied Henry Morgan to Portobello in 1668 returned to the town with a prize to spend of at least £60 each (two or three times the usual annual plantation wage) leaves little doubt that they were right.”^[13]

The forced trade became almost a way of life in Port Royal. Michael Pawson and David Busseret wrote “…one way or the other nearly all the propertied inhabitants of Port Royal seem to have an interest in privateering.”^[14] Forced trade was rapidly making Port Royal one of the wealthiest communities in the English territories of North America, far surpassing any profit made from the production of sugar cane. Zahedieh wrote “The Portobello raid [in 1668] alone produced plunder worth £75,000, more than seven times the annual value of the island’s sugar exports, which at Port Royal prices did not exceed £10,000 at this time.”^[15]

Piracy in Port Royal

Port Royal provided a safe harbour initially for privateers and subsequently for pirates plying the shipping lanes to and from Spain and Panama. Buccaneers found Port Royal appealing for several reasons. Its proximity to trade routes allowed them easy access to prey, but the most important advantage was the port's proximity to several of the only safe passages or straights giving access to the Spanish main from the Atlantic.^[8] The harbour was large enough to accommodate their ships and provided a place to careen and repair these vessels. It was also ideally situated for launching raids on Spanish settlements. From Port Royal, Henry Morgan attacked Panama, Portobello, and Maracaibo. Roche Brasiliano, John Davis (buccaneer), and Edward Mansveldt (Mansfield) also came to Port Royal.

Since the English lacked sufficient troops to prevent either the Spanish or French from seizing it, the Jamaican governors eventually turned to the pirates to defend the city.

By the 1660s, the city had gained a reputation as the Sodom of the New World where most residents were pirates, cutthroats, or prostitutes. When Charles Leslie wrote his history of Jamaica, he included a description of the pirates of Port Royal:

Wine and women drained their wealth to such a degree that… some of them became reduced to beggary. They have been known to spend 2 or 3,000 pieces of eight in one night; and one gave a strumpet 500 to see her naked. They used to buy a pipe of wine, place it in the street, and oblige everyone that passed to drink.

Port Royal grew to be one of the two largest towns and the most economically important port in the English colonies. At the height of its popularity, the city had one drinking house for every ten residents. In July 1661 alone, forty new licenses were granted to taverns. During a twenty-year period that ended in 1692, nearly 6,500 people lived in Port Royal. In addition to prostitutes and buccaneers, there were four goldsmiths, forty-four tavern keepers, and a variety of artisans and merchants who lived in 200 buildings crammed into 51 acres (206,000 m²) of real estate. 213 ships visited the seaport in 1688. The city’s wealth was so great that coins were preferred for payment rather than the more common system of bartering goods for services.

Following Henry Morgan’s appointment as lieutenant governor, Port Royal began to change. Pirates were no longer needed to defend the city. The selling of slaves took on greater importance. Upstanding citizens disliked the reputation the city had acquired. In 1687, Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws. Instead of being a safe haven for pirates, Port Royal became noted as their place of execution. Gallows Point welcomed many to their death, including Charles Vane and Calico Jack, who were hanged in 1720. Two years later, forty-one pirates met their death in one month.^[16]

 Earthquake of 1692 and its aftermath

On June 7, 1692, a devastating earthquake hit the city causing most of its northern section to fall into the sea (and with it many of the town’s houses and other buildings). In addition, the island lost many of its forts. Fort Charles survived, but Forts James and Carlisle sank into the sea. Fort Rupert became a large region of water, and great damage was done to an area known as Morgan’s Line.^[17] Although the earthquake hit the entire island of Jamaica, the citizens of Port Royal were at a greater risk of death due to the perilous sand, falling buildings, and the tidal wave that followed. Though the local authorities tried to remove or sink all of the corpses from the water, they were not successful. Some simply got away from them, while others were trapped in places that were inaccessible. The decomposing bodies combined with improper housing, a lack of medicine or clean water, and the fact that most of the survivors were homeless, led to many people dying of malignant fevers.^[18] The earthquake and tsunami killed between 1,000 and 3,000 people combined, over half the city's population. Disease ran rampant in the next several months, claiming an estimated 2,000 additional lives.

Many viewed this horrific event as God’s punishment for unlawful proceedings by group of sinful people. Major events, such as earthquakes and other natural disasters, were seen as heavenly punishments for sins, or signs of much greater retributions to come. The people of Port Royal had erected several places for worship, and it was reported that within the population were Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Jews, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers. Nevertheless, a historian has written, “Organised religion […] had little impact on the population. Material concerns occupied the attention of most, particularly the rich.” It became a general consensus that worldly desires had become far too important to the citizens of Port Royal, be they wealthy or not. Some went so far as to say it was home to some of the vilest individuals on earth. The quake was to be seen as a message to all Christians, not just those living in Jamaica. Reverend Cotton Mather wrote that the earthquake was an event speaking to all of English America.^[19]

The earthquake caused the sand on which Port Royal was built to liquefy and flow out into Kingston Harbour. The water table was generally only two feet down before the impact. “Modern scientists have determined that much of the ground on which the town stands comprises little more than water-saturated sand for about sixty-five feet, at which point sand and gravel mix with coral reef.”^[20] This type of area did not provide a solid foundation on which to build an entire town. Unlike the Spanish before them, the English decided to settle and develop the small area of land, even while acknowledging that the area was nothing but “hot loose sand”. The town grew rapidly, reaching a population of around 6,500 people with approximately 2,000 dwellings by 1692. As they began to run out of land on which to build, it became common practice to either fill in areas of water and build new infrastructure on top of it, or simply build buildings taller. In addition, buildings gradually became heavier as the residents adopted the brick style homes of their native England. Some urged the population to adopt the low, wooden building style of the previous Spanish inhabitants, but many refused. In the end all of these separate entities combined were a disaster waiting to happen. According to Mulcahy, “[Modern] scientists and underwater archaeologists now believe that the earthquake was a powerful one and that much of the damage at Port Royal resulted from a process known as liquefaction.”^[21]. Liquefaction occurs when earthquakes strike ground that is loose, sandy, and water-saturated, increasing the water pressure and causing the particles to separate from one another and form a sludge resembling quicksand. Eyewitness accounts attested to buildings sliding into the water, but it is more likely that they simply sank straight down into the now unstable layer.^[22]

Some attempts were made to rebuild the city, starting with the one third of the city that was not submerged, but these met with mixed success and numerous disasters.^{[citation needed]} An initial attempt at rebuilding was again destroyed in 1703 by fire. Subsequent rebuilding was hampered by several hurricanes in the first half of the 18th century, including flooding from the sea in 1722, a further fire in 1750 and a major hurricane in 1774, and soon Kingston eclipsed Port Royal in importance. In 1815 what repairs were being undertaken were destroyed in another major fire, while the whole island was severely affected by an epidemic of cholera in 1850.^[ Although a work of historical fiction James Michener's The Caribbean details the history, atmosphere and geography of Port Royal accurately.

Recent history

A final devastating earthquake on January 14, 1907 again liquefied the sand spit, destroying nearly all of the rebuilt city and submerging additional portions.

Today the area is a shadow of its former self with a population of less than 2,000 and has little to no commercial or political importance. This is in part a result of abandonment of plans begun in the early 1960s to develop the town as a cruise ship port and destination; the plans for which stimulated the archaeological explorations on the site, which in turn led to suspension of the development.^[8]

In 1981 the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University began a ten-year underwater archaeological investigation of the portion of Port Royal that sank underwater during the 17th century. The area the team focused on had sunk directly into the sea, and suffered very little damage. Due to very low oxygen levels, a large amount of organic material could be recovered. The efforts made by the program have allowed everyday life in the English colonial port city to be reconstructed with great detail.^[23]

In 1998, the Port Royal Development Company commissioned architectural firm The Jerde Partnership to create a master plan for the redevelopment of Port Royal, which was completed in 2000.^[24] The focus of the plan is a 17th century-themed attraction that reflects the city's heritage. It has two anchor areas: Old Port Royal and the King’s Royal Naval Dockyard. Old Port Royal features a cruise ship pier extending from a reconstructed Chocolata Hole harbour and Fisher's Row, a group of cafes and shops on the waterfront. The King’s Royal Naval Dockyard has a shipbuilding museum and the headquarters for the Admiral of the Royal Navy. The plan also includes a five-star hotel.^[25]

Port Royal has been featured as a location within Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series, though much of the location work for Port Royal was actually done on the island of Saint Vincent, not in Jamaica.^[26]

Tortuga The Pirate Port

In 1625 the French arrive and establish a colony at the island St. Kitts (St. Christopher), together with English colonists. From this island they set sail to Hispaniola. They found it fairly populated by Spanish colonists and therefore continued to the North to the island Tortuga. On this island only a few Spanish colonists were based.

The French colonists start setting up plantations and steadily increase their numbers, some of them from the Islands St. Kitts and Nevis that were attacked in 1629 by Spanish forces under command of Don Fabrique de Toledo. In the same year they also attacked Tortuga. The Spanish forces were succesfull and temporarily expelled the Frenchmen.
A number of the colonists flee into the woods and some escape to the woods of Hispaniola. Spanish forces fortify Tortuga in 1630. Despite this, the French take possession of the island again when most of the Spanish forces leave for Hispaniola to root out the French colonists in the woods there.
The small Spanish force that had been left was defeated and the Frenchmen extend the fortifications the Spaniards had set up. Most of the English colonists did not return, but settled again at the Island of Nevis. Those that did return established a new colony under the control of the Providence Island Company in 1631. The Governor of the English Colony on Tortuga is Anthony Hilton.

Buccaneers on Tortuga (1633-1634)

The French send a request for a Governor to the Governor of St. Kitts. He sends Jean Le Vasseur to them with men and equipment to further fortify the island. He built the Fort de Rocher on a rocky outrcrop of a natural harbour.
Tortuga from then on is regularly used by privateers and pirates as a base of operations. In 1633 the governor of Tortuga, also called association island, is still Captain Anthony Hilton. In this year the first slaves are imported. 1634 saw the Governor-General of the French West Indies transfer his seat of power from St. Kitts to Tortuga. The Compagnie des Isles d'Amerique takes posession of French Colony on the island.

Tortuga under Attack (1635)

Captain Nicholas Riskinner(/Reiskimmer) arrives on Tortuga in 1635 to take up as Governor of the English Colony on the island. Apparantly he was a scoundrel since Richard Lane, enroute to the Island of Providence and sailing on the same vessel to the West Indies, reported that he had taken his goods by force. Riskinner dies shortly after his arrival at Tortuga.
For some time now slaves had been imported to work on the plantations of the island. Despite advice that the colonists should distribute them evenly over the island and treat them well the experiment with slavery faltered in 1635. On Tortuga the slaves were said to be out of control and the planters dispersed because of Fraud and mismanagement. There are also continual disagreements and fights between the English and French colonists.
An Irish deserter of the English colony named John Murphy brought intelligence of this to the Spanish forces in the area. As a result, in the same year, the colony is attacked by Spanish forces under the command of Captain Gregorio de Castellar y Mantilla. The English colony is soon captured and many colonists are killed. The Spanish forces later continued on to the Island of Providence (Santa Catalina). The English forces on this island were able to defend it succesfully against the attack. After the attack on Tortuga, and its abandonement by the Spaniards, the English and French colonists that managed to escape from the attack return to the Island.

Second Attack on Tortuga (1636-1639)

This situation of the failing plantations must not have been improved much by the year 1638 when Spanish forces again attack Tortuga and temporarily expell the colonists. In a letter by Don Inigo de la Mota to the Spanish king in 1639 he makes mention of the succesful attack on the pirate colony and its mixed population that consisted of Dutch and French pirates.
Very shortly hereafter, in 1639, these manage to recapture the Island and refortify it. In 1639 the number of colonists on Barbados and St. Christopher is so large that these wander to other colonies to be able to establish themselves and make a living. Some of them go to Tortuga where they set up succesful plantations in tobacco. Their leader was Captain Robert Flood.

The Third Attack on Tortuga (1640-1659)

In 1640 the buccaneers of Tortuga began calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. In this same year Jean Le Vasseur is commissioned to take full posession of the island. He was able to expell the ill-organised English colonists without much difficulty by 1641.
The population of pirates and privateers on Tortuga consisted of a mix of most Europeans, but the largest parts were French and English. A Spanish report from 1646 again mentions the buccaneer hideout and informs us that in 1645 the population consisted of Dutchmen and Englishmen.

The French governer imported several hundred prostitutes round 1650, hoping to regularize the lives of the unruly pirates, some of whom lived in a kind of homosexual union known as matelotage. Le Vasseur is assassinated by his own followers in 1653. During his years as a Governor the island was heavily fortified against attacks from Spanish forces.
His successor, Chevalier de Fontenay, was attacked in January 1654 by Spanish forces from Santo Domingo. A garrison was left to hold the island but it was withdrawn in 1655 to aid in the defence of Santo Domingo against English forces in the area. When some Englishmen heard of this they sailed from Jamaica to reoccupy Tortuga. This they did from 1655 to 1659. From the island they frequently attacked the few Spanish settlements that still remained on Hispaniola. As a consequence these were destroyed. Colonel Edward D'Oyley, then Governor of Jamaica, tried to establish an English government on Tortuga from 1658 to 1659. Despite help from French deserters he failed and a French government was set up by the colonists.

The High Point of the Buccaneer Base (1660-1669)

In 1660 the French attack the Spaniards on Tortuga and retake posession of the island to use it again as base for piracy and privateering. Most buccaneers set out from the island and, after some time, return to drink and gamble away their spoils in a matter of days or weeks.
The buccaneer Captain Guy used Tortuga as well as Jamaica as bases of operation in 1663. In this same year the Governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford (1664-1671) received orders to relax his restrictions against buccaneers on the island. Many of the English on the island went sea-roving against Spain again, but the Frenchmen under the rovers left Jamaica to concentrate on Tortuga as a base of operations. The immediate result was that they expelled most of the English settlers living there.

1664 saw the French West India Company take possession of the island and send as its Governor Monsieur D'Ogeron. In 1665 he arrived at Tortuga. Bertrand D'ogeron had the difficult task of convincing the buccaneers to accept him as governor and to abandon their relations with Dutch rovers. He found the men whom he hoped to convert into colonists dispersed in small and unorganised parties living in a rather primitive fashion.
In a report to the French Minister Colbert he told him that there were about seven or eight hundred men scattered along the coasts of the island in inaccessible places. By the by he was able to control them and he even managed to get many new colonists to settle on the island and on Hispaniola. Several French privateers and sea-rovers were also attracted and made Tortuga their base of operations.

In 1666 Morgan arrives on Tortuga as an endentured servant. After running away from a cruel master he joins up with buccaneers as a surgeon. The Buccaneer L'Ollonais is based at Tortuga in the 1660s. Together with Michel le Basque he carries out an attack on the cities of Gibraltar and Maracaibo in 1667. Sometime later this year he sets out again with a fleet of ships to plunder the harbour city Puerto de Cavallo and the town of San Pedro. In 1667 he dies on the coast of Nicaragua where he and some of his crew were captured by Indians and killed.
Henry Morgan sailed to the Isla Vache, South-West of Hispaniola, in October of 1668. There he was joined by a band of French buccaneers from Tortuga. After sailing for some time he attacked Maracaibo in 1669. In 1669 the Governor of Tortuga, d'Ogernon, was again trying to restrict the activities of the buccaneers of Tortuga: he tried to persuade them to confine themselves to Tortuga for refitting and the disposal of their booty. He did not succeed, however.

The Decline of the Buccaneers (1670-1679)

Some of the buccaneers of Tortuga who found piracy too dangerous turned to logwood-cutting. When the forests of Tortuga and the easily accessible ones in Hispaniola were cut out they went to Campeachy. In the peninsula of Yucatan they sought the better wood. Their principal gathering-ground was in the Gulf of Mexico at a place called Triste. There were several more of these places along the coasts of Yucatan, Moskito and between Honduras and Guatemala. A valuable trade sprang up between the logwood-cutters and Jamaica. Despite many protests of Spain Jamaica continued to trade in the wood. The use of corsairs by Spain forced the buccaneers to sail in company for protection.

By 1670 the English buccaneer Henry Morgan had to conceal his activities under French Letters of Commission and he actively promoted the island of Tortuga as a base of operations and for the disposal of booty.
500 buccaneers from Tortuga and a 1000 buccaneers from Jamaica, under the command of Henry Morgan set sail in 1670. They attacked and plundered Santa Marta, Rio de la Hacha, Puerto Bello and Panama. Morgan received a formal vote of thanks from the Council of Jamaica in May 1671 for his activities. In this year he is send to England and briefly incarcerated in the Tower (for appearances sake) in 1672. He was treated as a hero on his arrival in London.
A lot of Jamaican buccaneers went sailing under commission for the Governor of Tortuga by 1670. Many of them also settled on the coast of St. Dominigue. Others wandered off to other colonies in the Caribbean. Despite the attempts of D' Ogeron these settlers continued to trade with the Dutch. They obtained most of their stores and African slaves from them in exchange for tobacco and ginger.
Around Tortuga the Governor eventually managed to control the trading activities of the buccaneers somewhat by employing a regular squadron of frigates that drove the Dutch traders away. The buccaneers from Tortuga and St. Dominique were used as a striking force and a means to supplement French forces in their attempts to gain a larger foothold in te Caribbean.
When the Lieutenant-General of the French Antilles, Jean Charles Baas, made an attack on Curacao in March 1673 he was expecting help from Tortuga. The assistance from Tortuga failed to arrive, however, because they were shipwrecked on the coast of Puerto Rico. They fell in the hands of the Spaniards and were treated as pirates.
In 1675 a Dutch force under the command of Jacob Binckes arrived in St. Dominique and attempted to stir up a revolt under the colonists there. In a fight off Petit-Goave they attacked and plundered a French merchantman, but soon afterwards the Governor of Tortuga arrived with reinforcements to aid in the defence of the settlement and the Dutch were driven off.

The Governor never completely succeeded in controlling the buccaneers at Tortuga. Between 1670 and 1678 many buccaneers continued their raids on vessels and colonies of foreign nations, especially those of Spain. Tortuga remained a harbour where not much questions were asked and buccaneers could come with their booty. Among them were many Englishmen who plied heir trade under French commissions.
In 1678 the leader of the French buccaneers in Tortuga and Hispaniola was the Sieur de Grammont. At the head of a large force he continued attacking Spanish settlements around Maracaibo. He even managed to set up a pirate stronghold there for six months.
Buccaneers under command of the Marquis de Maintenon were ravaging the coast of Venezuela. They also destroyed the Pearl fisheries at Margarita and several Spanish settlments on Trinidad.

The End of the Buccaneers at Tortuga (1680-1688)

Eventually, in the 1680s, laws were made that English rovers sailing under foreign flags were considered to be felons. The laws were actively enforced: several Englishmen were convicted and hanged for piracy after attacking Dutch ships. Jamaican plantations also became the frequent targets of attacks by French buccaneers as the opportunities for profitable attacks on Spanish targets diminished. This led to protests from the English government to the King of France. Increasingly ships of all nations were attacked by buccaneers despite being nominally under Letters of Reprisal. The Governor-general of the French Colonies also increased his efforts to stop the activities of the buccaneers who were nominally under the control of the Governors.

In 1684 the Treaty of Ratisbone, between France and Spain, was signed which included provisions to suppress the actions of the buccaneers. The buccaneers were still at it in 1684. They would rather break out into open revolt than give up their piracies. In this year several buccaneers were made offers by Governor Tarin De Cussy of St. Domingue. Enlisted into royal service they were employed to suppress their former buccaneer allies.
By 1688, the same year in which Henry Morgan dies in Jamaica, the age of the buccaneers was over in Tortuga. Many turned pirate or went away to find other harbours to sell their booty.

Sir Henry Morgan

According to some accounts Henry Morgan was born around 1635 at Llanrumney (in Welsh, Llanrhymny). In those days, Llanrumney was a manor in the ancient Hundred of Newport in Monmouthshire but nowadays is thought of as a suburb of Cardiff.. The manor had been the property of the ancient family of Kemeys but an heiress married Henry Morgan of Machen in the 16th century and the Morgans were here for six generations. Towards the end of his life Henry Morgan is said to have bought an estate in Jamaica and named it Penkarne. The manor of Pencarn (again in the Hundred of Newport) was itself associated with the Morgans for many centuries. An ancestor Owen, son of the Lord of Caerleon, lived there in the 12th century. Sir Thomas Morgan of Pencarn became known as "the warrior" after commanding English forces overseas in the 1580s and 1590s. His nephew, Sir Matthew Morgan was wounded at the siege of Rouen in 1591. Matthew's brother, Sir Charles also served overseas with distinction and became a member of the privy council of King Charles I.

A brief note of his career (revised March 2000)

Of the generally available literature on Henry Morgan, I have found Dudley Pope's "Harry Morgan's Way" (Secker and Warburg, London 1977) to be the most satisfactory and I have followed this in describing Morgan's exploits. Dudley Pope consulted British and Spanish archives and brought his wide knowledge of maritime history to the topic. It is worth remembering that Morgan's raids were carried out in his capacity as a "privateer". Like commanders in many colonial outposts of the time, he was authorised to act as an agent of his country at a time when official government forces were often not available so far from home. His reports to the governor of Jamaica and papers between Jamaica and London survive. His own official reports of his exploits are usually laconic in the extreme and seem to reveal a naturally modest man, not comfortable with the sometimes rather flowery prose of his day. As he once wrote, "I ... have been more used to the pike than the book ...".

There is little doubt that the detailed descriptions of his famous raids on Spanish colonial outposts are based on the writings of a Dutch (or possibly French) man known as Esquemeling who took part in some of these raids and published his account as De Americaensche Zee-Rovers. This was translated for the Spanish market and entitled Piratas de la America y Luz ... . An English translation followed and this was called Bucaniers (sic) of America ... Wherein are contained ... the Unparallel'd Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan, our English (sic) Jamaican Hero. Who sacked Puerto Velo, burnt Panama etc ... . This (and another English translation) incorporated material which Esquemeling seems to have included with an eye to his Dutch and Spanish readers many of whom would have been antagonistic towards Morgan . When the English translations were brought to Morgan's attention he promptly sued the publishers, who eventually settled out of court. Each paid him 200 pounds in damages and issued new editions with apologetic prefaces. The original books had accused Morgan of permitting atrocities while raiding Spanish colonial outposts but he seems to have been most upset by passages which stated that he had arrived in the West Indies as an indentured servant, like so many of the early settlers. The new prefaces pointed out that Morgan "was a gentleman's son of good quality in the county of Monmouth, and never was a servant to anybody in his life, unless unto his Majesty ..." . It is well known that Welsh people were particularly proud of their pedigrees and in this respect Morgan was true to type.

Henry Morgan was born around 1635. He arrived at the West Indian island of Barbados in 1655 as a junior officer in an expedition sent out by Oliver Cromwell and commanded by General Venables (the naval commander was Vice-Admiral Penn, whose eldest son gave his name to the American state). This was the time of the Commonwealth. King Charles I had been executed and Cromwell's head appeared on the coinage. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Henry's uncle Edward was sent out to Jamaica as lieutenant governor. The Venables expedition had by now captured the island of Jamaica with its large natural harbour and strategic position. Henry, already famous in Jamaica, courted and married his uncle's oldest surviving daughter Mary Elizabeth, and her sisters wed two of his trusted friends. Henry remained faithful to his wife until his death in 1688, but they were not blessed with children.

Henry learned much from Commodore Christopher Mings when he sailed as part of the flotilla which first attacked and plundered Santiago (Cuba) and in 1663 when he commanded a vessel in the attack on the Mexican coast. In this, 1100 men described as privateersmen, buccaneers and volunteers sailed more than 1000 miles to attack Campeche. The town, defended by two forts and regular Spanish troops, fell after a day of fighting and the buccaneers took fourteen Spanish ships from the port as prizes.

Why did the English authorities seem to encourage the activities of the buccaneers? The answer lies in the fact that people in power in London knew that Britain's future prosperity rested on her ability to expand trading markets. The Spanish had claimed the New World and Spain had become dependant upon the gold and silver it produced. They sought to control trade and limit it to Spanish ships. At the time in question, it was not unknown for the Spaniards to capture British ships in the West Indies and to enslave their crews. The Spanish Armada had sailed to attack England only seventy or so years ago and the perceived threat from Spanish catholicism was probably greater than the more recent worry about eastern European communism. England had no colonies where slaves toiled in gold mines and knew that only the outposts of the enfeebled Spanish empire prevented British merchants from exploiting new opportunities for trade.

Why were buccaneers so called? The original boucaniers were the native inhabitants of the West Indies who had developed a method of preserving meat by roasting it on a barbecue and curing it with smoke. Their fire pit and grating were called a boucan and the finished strips of meat were also known as boucan. In time, the motley collection of international refugees, escaped slaves, transported criminals and indentured servants who roamed along the coasts if the islands became known as buccaneers and the term came to describe an unscrupulous adventurer of the area.

In 1663, Henry Morgan was one of five captains who left the old Port Royal in Jamaica and set a course for New Spain. They were not to return for about 18 months. Although his fellow captains were experienced privateers, it seems likely that Morgan became leader of the expedition because of his background as a soldier. It might be as well to remind readers that the renowned exploits of the buccaneers took place on land. In most cases, ships were simply used to carry them to a safe landing from which they could march to attack a fortified town. Battles on the high seas were not liable to be so rewarding so these were generally not sought. It is also worth pointing out that whereas Morgan seemed to lead a charmed life in the face of danger on land, at sea he was rather unlucky. One ship exploded beneath him when his crew, the worse for drink, lit candles near the gunpowder stores and on another occasion his ship struck a reef near shore and he had to be rescued from a rock.

On the expedition mentioned above, the small fleet sailed from Jamaica and rounded the Yucatan peninsula to the Gulf of Mexico. They landed at Frontera and marched 50 miles inland to attack Villahermosa. After sacking this town they found that their own ships had been captured by the Spanish so they had to themselves capture two Spanish ships and four coastal canoes in which to continue their epic voyage. They sailed and paddled 500 miles against an adverse current to return around the Yucatan peninsular and continued along the coast of Central America. They landed on the coast of modern Nicaragua and again struck inland to attack a rich town called Granada. This was taken in a surprise raid and the official report said that more than a thousand of the Indians "joined the privateers in plundering and would have killed the (Spanish) prisoners, especially the churchmen ...".

Morgan and his men returned to Jamaica with great riches. As Dudley Pope points out, by 1665 Morgan had taken the lead in the most audacious buccaneering expedition ever known in the West Indies. He could have settled to the comfortable life of a planter and this might have been expected after his marriage to Mary Morgan but it was felt that Jamaica was threatened and it seems Morgan was asked to organise the island's militia and defences. This task completed, in 1668 he gathered a fleet of a dozen privateers at a rendezvous in the tiny islands south of Cuba known as the South Cays. 700 hundred men crewed vessels we would regard as very small in these days. The largest was perhaps the Dolphin, a Spanish prize. She was of fifty tons, carried 8 guns and was perhaps 50 feet along the deck. Some of the vessels were merely large open boats with some shelter for the crews and provisions. They would have a single mast and could be rowed when necessary.

It was decided to attack the town of El Puerto del Principe, which despite its name was 45 miles inland from the Cuban coast. In Morgan's words "we marched 20 leagues to Porto Principe and with little resistance possessed ourselves of the same. ... On the Spaniard's entreaty we forebore to fire the town, or bring away prisoners, but on delivery of 1,000 beeves, released them all." This raid did not provide much plunder and on their return to the coast most of the French captains decided to join up with their countryman, the bloodthirsty privateer L'Ollonais, at Tortuga. Thus, in May of 1668 Morgan sailed with his remaining force south, across the Caribbean to a place near the present day Panama Canal, called a council of war and announced his intention to attack the heavily defended harbour of Portobelo. He was soon to write "we took our canoes, twenty-three in number and rowing along the coast, landed at three o'clock in the morning and made our way into the town, and seeing that we could not refresh ourselves in quiet we were enforced to assault the castle ..." When they had captured the fort of San Geronimo they made their way to the dungeon and there found eleven English prisoners covered with sores caused by the chafing of their heavy chains. The story of the plundering and further attack on a fort in the centre of Portobelo is too long to be told here but it made Morgan's name as a daring and successful leader. So much coin was plundered that Spanish pieces of eight became additional legal currency in Jamaica.

Later in 1668, Morgan sailed with ten vessels to Cow Island off the coast of Hispaniola (modern Haiti). Here the Oxford, a warship sent out for the defence of Jamaica by the British government, found the French privateer ship Le Cerf Volant. The British master of a ship from Virginia had accused the French vessel of piracy so the Cerf Volant was arrested and condemned as a prize by the Jamaica Court of Admiralty. After the Oxford was blown up (in an explosion said to have killed 250 people) while Morgan dined in the great cabin, the Cerf Volant ultimately became his flagship, under the new name of Satisfaction. After cruising east along the coast of Hispaniola and attacking coastal towns along the way, Morgan turned south to sail across the Caribbean again, making for Maracaibo in the Gulf of Venezuela. This he took, together with the more southerly town of Gibraltar. On their return journey, the privateers were bottled up at the lake of Maracaibo by several large Spanish warships and and a reinforced fort. Morgan had to use great ingenuity to escape. While doing so added to his treasure yet again.

In 1670 Morgan assembled an expedition of 36 ships and over 1800 men at a safe anchorage off Hispaniola. At a meeting with his captains, English and French, it was decided to attack Panama, the legendary Spanish city of the Indies. All the riches of the mines of Peru passed through here on the way to Spain and the city was known to be full of rich merchants and fine buildings. The task confronting Morgan was extremely difficult and dangerous. There was no Panama Canal and his force would have to take the Caribbean island of Old Providence, sail from there to land at Chagres and cross the isthmus to Panama through thick jungle and across high mountains. Even England's hero Sir Francis Drake had failed in a similar undertaking many decades before. After many battles and privations, in 1671 Panama finally fell. The city burned after some houses were fired (supposedly by the defenders) and after the buccaneers left, the ruins were overgrown with vegetation. Ultimately a new city was built miles away at Perico. (If you are interested in a more informed account of Morgan's activities in Panama, Sean P. Kelley knows the country and describes Morgan's exploits there within his resource on Colonial Panama

Morgan returned to Jamaica minus his ship the Satisfaction which had been wrecked on a reef but his fleet docked at Port Royal with hundreds of slaves and chests of gold, silver and jewels. Under the strict agreement that governed the division of the spoils in those days, Dudley Pope estimates that Morgan would have made 1000 British pounds (around 1600 USD) from the Panama expedition and it is known that ordinary seamen pocketed 200 pieces of eight (worth 50 pounds or 80 dollars). In those days, 50 pounds would have been considered "a small fortune".

By the time that the sack of Panama was known in London, politics had taken a turn. There were those who sought to conciliate Spain, especially since reports from some European capitals suggested that she was near to declaring war on England. It was thought prudent to arrest Modyford, the governor of Jamaica and later to arrest Morgan. In 1672 Morgan sailed for London in the Welcome, a leaky naval frigate. He arrived in a country which differed greatly to the one he had left seventeen years before. Then it had been Puritan, now the monarchy had been restored and London was once more a city of theatre, fashion, corruption and fascinating figures. Some of Christopher Wren's new classically inspired churches already adorned the city and the diarist Samuel Pepys became secretary to the Board of Admiralty in 1673. There is no record of Morgan having been detained and he seems to have spent three years in London at his own expense but free to meet the people he chose. He became friendly with the second duke of Albermarle (Morgan's uncle had fought with the duke's father in the Civil Wars) and it seems that this friendship brought Morgan to the notice of King Charles II. In time, England's attitude to Spain changed and when the King became aware that the English colony of Jamaica was under threat again, he asked Morgan for advice about the defence of the island, knighted him and wondered if he might like to return there as Lieutenant Governor.

At the age of 45, Sir Henry was acting governor of Jamaica, Vice-Admiral, Commandant of the Port Royal Regiment, Judge of the Admiralty Court and Justice of the Peace. Dudley Pope sketches a picture of a tall and generally lean man but one who now exhibited a paunch. He was known to drink heavily and to be fond of the company of his old comrades in the rum shops of Port Royal. He seems to have worked to transform the island's fortifications and he survived various political upheavals while expanding his estate. In 1687 the duke of Albermarle arrived in Jamaica to take up his post as the new governor. Christopher Monck's private yacht was of a type never seen in those waters and the merchant ships which accompanied it carried 500 tons of his possessions and stores as well as around a hundred servants. His wife, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, formerly the toast of London society had, by the age of 27, become mentally unstable and to attend on her the duke had brought out young Dr. Hans Sloane. Sloane's name was to become famous in many fields but for those with an interest in the history of the buccaneers he is always remembered for his notes on the last days of Sir Henry Morgan. Sloane attempted to treat Morgan, finding him yellow of complexion and swollen, but it seems that Morgan's frame did not respond. At one time Sloane describes Morgan as having sought the advice of a black doctor who plastered him all over with clay and water but even this treatment failed and he signed his will in June of 1688. On the 25th of August he died.

For many, Henry Morgan is little more than the name of a romantic "pirate" of yore, but I now see signs of Morgan being re-evaluated as one of Britain's most successful military strategists and as a man with the leadership qualities of an Alexander. He gained the loyalty of the buccaneers, who followed him without question, and the respect of kings and princes. Of all the great figures in Welsh history he must be counted among the most attractive and able.

However ...

I must be admitted that there is a case for a different viewpoint. A Spanish reader of this page has drawn attention to the atrocities carried out by Morgan's men on many of his raids. (These typically involved the torture of residents of the towns attacked in order to make them divulge the location of hidden valuables.) He sees Morgan as "a man who used clergy as human shields, tortured civilians, organized gigantic looting expeditions in in the full knowledge that no state of war existed between the parties, and did not hesitate to put whole populations to the sword". There is little doubt that by today's standards Morgan could be accused of crimes agains humanity. As their leader, he would be held responsible for the actions of his men.