ore some sort of order within the walls. By the aid of his officers
and some of the soberest men he had confiscated all of the liquor that
he could come at, and had stored it under a strong guard in the west
fort, which he selected as his headquarters. The Governor's palace on
the hill above was a more fitting and luxurious residence and it had
been promptly seized, the few defenders having fled, in the morning; but
for the present Morgan deemed it best to remain in the city and in close
touch with his men.

The Spanish soldiery had been cut down to a man the night before, and
the majority of the hapless citizens had been killed, wounded or
tortured. The unfortunates who were yet alive were driven into the
church of San Lorenzo, where they were kept without food, water, or
attention.

There were some children, also, who had survived the night, for the
buccaneers, frenzied with slaughter and inflamed with rum, had tossed
many of them on their sword-points when they came across them in the
streets. By Morgan's orders the living were collected in the store-house
and barracks of the Guinea Trading Company, a corporation which supplied
slaves to the South American countries, and which had branches in every
city on the Caribbean. He did order food and water to be given these
helpless unfortunates, so their condition was not quite so deplorable as
that of the rest. It was bad enough, however, and the old barracks which
had echoed with the sound of many a bitter cry from the forlorn lips of
wretched slaves, now resounded with the wailing of these terrified
little ones.

The condition of the women of the city was beyond description. They,
too, were herded together in another building, an ancient convent, but
were plentifully supplied with every necessary they could ask for.
Death, in lieu of the fate that had come upon them, would have been
welcomed by many a high-born dame and her humbler sister as well, but
they were all carefully searched and deprived of everything that might
serve as a weapon. They were crowded together indiscriminately, high
and low, rich and poor, black or white or red, in all states of
disorder and disarray, just as they had been seized the night before,
some of them having been dragged from their very beds by the brutal
ruffians.

Some of the women, maddened to frenzy by the treatment they had
received, screamed and raved; but most of them were filled with still
misery, overwhelmed by silent despair