The Book of Pirates and Highwaymen (12 page)

Morgan had, from his various expedients, acquired an immense fortune; and was at length desirous of enjoying some repose; but his comrades speedily dissipated the produce of their depredations, and had even contracted new debts. They besought him, therefore, to plan new enterprises, in such a pressing manner, that he yielded to their entreaties. The moment his resolution was taken and known, the free-booters flocked together from all parts, from Jamaica, St Domingo, and Tortuga; some in ships, others in canoes, in order to place themselves under his command. This example was followed by a great number of hunters from the island of St Domingo, who had never been on the sea, and who crossed vast forests, that they might join him.

The 24th day of October, 1670, was fixed upon for their departure…

At length the fleet under his orders, the greatest that had been commanded by a free-booter in the West Indian seas, was ready to set sail. It consisted of thirty-seven ships, of various rates; the admiral’s ship carrying thirty-two, the others twenty, eighteen, and seventeen pieces of cannon; and the smallest four pieces. On board the fleet there was a great quantity of ammunition, together with powder machines of a new invention, and also two hundred marines, exclusive of the seamen and swabbers.

With such force great expectations might be formed: Morgan, therefore, promised his free-booters that, on their return, they should have wherewith to spend their days agreeably; provided, as already had too often happened, they did not attack places of little strength, but would direct their valour against the strongest; for experience had caused Morgan to adopt this principle:– Where the Spaniards obstinately defend themselves, there is something to take; consequently their best fortified places are those which contain most treasure.

Morgan hoisted on his main-mast the royal flag of England, and divided his naval forces into two squadrons, distinguished by red and white flags, and formally assumed the title of admiral. He afterwards nominated a vice-admiral for each squadron, who took an oath of fidelity to him; established signals; and chose all his officers… Morgan also formally issued patents and letters of marque, empowering them to attack with hostilities, and in every possible manner, the Spaniards, both on land and sea, so long as they were the declared enemies of his sovereign, the king of England.

After these acts of authority, Morgan assembled all his officers, on whom he conferred full powers to sign in the name of the whole fleet, a convention or agreement with regard to plunder. It was stipulated that Morgan, as admiral, should have a hundredth part of the whole, and afterwards, for every hundred men, such a share as every private freebooter would have; that the commanding officer of every ship should have eight shares, beside what would be due to him on account of the money, provisions, & c. which he might have advanced for the fitting out of his vessels; that the chief surgeon should, in addition to his appointments, receive one hundred piasters out of the whole, for medicines; that the ship’s carpenter, independently of his pay, should have a present of one hundred piasters. By the same agreement, the indemnities, already fixed in the general regulation for the loss of different limbs, were augmented; and particular rewards were established for every illustrious achievement, either in engagements or in the attacking of fortresses.

Until all these measures had been effectuated, Morgan did not announce his plan to his companions. He proposed nothing less than to attack Panama, that great and opulent city, where he hoped to find accumulated all those heaps of gold and silver which were annually sent, as a tribute, from America to Europe. The difficulties in executing such a plan were apparently innumerable. The chief obstacle was, the great distance of that city from the sea; and not an individual on board the fleet was acquainted with the road that led thither. To remedy this inconvenience, the admiral determined in the first instance to go to the island of St Catherine, where the Spaniards confined their criminals, and thence to provide themselves with guides.

The passage was rapid. Morgan landed in that island one thousand men; who, by threatening to put to death every one that refused to surrender so terrified the Spaniards that they speedily capitulated. It was stipulated that, to save at least the honour of the garrison, there should be a sham fight: in consequence of this, a very sharp fire ensued, from the forts on one side, and from the ships on the other; but on both sides the cannons discharged only powder. Farther, to give a serious appearance to this military comedy, the governor suffered himself to be taken, while attempting to pass from fort Jerome to another fort. Hence followed an apparent disorder. At the beginning, the crafty Morgan did not rely too implicitly on this feint; and to provide for every event, he secretly ordered his soldiers to load their fusees with bullets, but to discharge them in the air, unless they perceived some treachery on the part of the Spaniards. But his enemies adhered most faithfully to their capitulation: and this mock engagement, in which neither party was sparing of powder, was followed for some time with all the circumstances which could give it the semblance of reality. Ten forts surrendered, one after another, after sustaining a kind of siege or assault: and this series of successes did not cost the life of a single man, or even a scratch, on the part of the victors or of the conquered.

All the inhabitants of the island were shut up in the great fort of Santa Teresa, which was built on a steep rock: and the conquerors, who had not taken any sustenance for twenty-four hours, declared a most furious war against the horned cattle and game of the district.

In the Isle of St Constantine, he found four hundred and fifty-nine persons of both sexes; one hundred and ninety of whom were soldiers, forty-two criminals, eighty-five children, and six-six negroes. There were ten forts, containing sixty-eight cannons, and which were so defended in other respects by nature, that very small garrisons were deemed amply sufficient to protect them. Beside an immense quantity of fusees and grenades (which were at that time much used), upwards of three hundred quintals of gunpowder were found in the arsenal. The whole of this ammunition was carried on board the pirates’ ships: the cannon, which could be of no service to them, were spiked; their carriages were burnt; and all the forts demolished excepting one, which the free-booters themselves garrisoned. Morgan selected three of the criminals to serve him as guides to Panama; and whom he afterwards, on his return to Jamaica, set at liberty; even giving them a share in the booty.

The plan, conceived by this intrepid chieftain, inspired all his companions in arms with genuine enthusiasm: it had a character of grandeur and audacity that enflamed their courage; how capable they were of executing it, the subsequent pages will demonstrate.

Resurrection Of A Highwayman

Patrick O’Brian, a native of Ireland, after committing a series of atrocities, was at length apprehended and executed at Gloucester for highway robbery; and when he had hung the usual time, his body was cut down, and given to his friends; but when carried home he was observed to move, on which a surgeon was immediately sent for, who bled him, and other means being used, he recovered life. This fact was kept a secret, and it was hoped that it would have a salutary effect upon his future conduct. His friends were very willing to contribute towards his support, in order that he might live in the most retired manner. He engaged to reform his life, and for some time kept his promise; but the impressions of death, and all the tremendous consequences, soon wearing off his mind, he returned to his vicious courses. Abandoning his friends, and purchasing a horse and other necessaries, he again visited the road.

In about a year after his execution, he met the same gentleman who was his former prosecutor, attacked him in the same manner as before. The gentleman was surprised to see himself stopped by the same person who had formerly robbed him, and who was executed for that crime. His consternation was so great, that he could not avoid acknowledging it, and asked him, ‘How comes it to pass? I thought you had been hanged a twelvemonth ago.’ ‘So I was, and therefore you ought to imagine that what you now see is only my ghost. However, lest you shall be so uncivil as to hang my ghost too, I think it my best way to secure you.’ Upon this he discharged a pistol through the gentleman’s head, and alighting from his horse, cut his body in pieces with his hanger.

One barbarity was followed by a greater. O’Brian, accompanied by another four, attacked the house of Launcelot Wilmot, Esquire, of Wiltshire; entered and bound all the servants, then went up to the gentleman’s own room, and bound him and his wife. They next proceeded to the daughter’s chamber; used her in a brutal manner, and stabbed her to the heart. They then returned – in the same manner, butchered the old people, and rifled the houses to the value of two thousand five hundred pounds.

This miscreant continued his depredations two years longer, until one of his accomplices confessed his crime, and informed upon all who were concerned. Our adventurer was seized at his lodgings in Little Suffolk Street, and conveyed to Salisbury, where he acknowledged his crime. He was a second time executed, and, to prevent a second resurrection, he was hung in chains near the place where the crime was perpetrated.

Pressing To Death

The horrid punishment of pressing to death, which the English law imposes on persons standing mute when put on their trial, was frequently inflicted in former times, and some instances of it are even to be met with, of as late a date as the reign of George II.

At the Kilkenny assizes, in 1740, one Matthew Ryan was tried for highway robbery. When he was apprehended, he pretended to be a lunatic, stripped himself in the gaol, threw away his clothes, and could not be prevailed upon to put them on again, but went as he was to the court to take his trial. He then affected to be dumb, and would not plead; on which the judges ordered a jury to be impanelled, to inquire and give their opinion, whether he was mute and lunatic by the hand of God or wilfully so. The jury returned in a short time, and brought in a verdict of ‘Wilful and affected dumbness and lunacy.’ The judges on this desired the prisoner to plead; but he still pretended to be insensible to all that was said to him. The law now called for the peine forte et dure; but the judges compassionately deferred awarding it until a future day, in the hope that he might in the meantime acquire a juster sense of his situation. When again brought up however, the criminal persisted in his refusal to plead; and the court at last pronounced the dreadful sentence, that he should be pressed to death. This sentence was accordingly executed upon him two days after, in the public market of Kilkenny. As the weights were heaping on the wretched man, he earnestly supplicated to be hanged; but it being beyond the power of the sheriff to deviate from the mode of punishment prescribed in the sentence, even this was an indulgence which could no longer be granted to him.

In England, the latest instance (we believe) of a similar kind occurred in a case where Baron Thompson presided as judge. It is an odious and revolting mode of satisfying public justice; yet it is only a necessary adjunct to that fondness of capital punishments which pervades, and is a stain to the whole of the English penal code.