ne of the most considerable men in
the colony. He was but thirty-three years old when he led the expedition
against Porto Bello.[267]

In the beginning of 1668 Sir Thomas Modyford, having had "frequent and
strong advice" that the Spaniards were planning an invasion of Jamaica,
had commissioned Henry Morgan to draw together the English privateers
and take some Spanish prisoners in order to find out if these rumours
were true. The buccaneers, according to Morgan's own report to the
governor, were driven to the south cays of Cuba, where being in want of
victuals and "like to starve," and meeting some Frenchmen in a similar
plight, they put their men ashore to forage. They found all the cattle
driven up into the country, however, and the inhabitants fled. So the
freebooters marched twenty leagues to Puerto Principe on the north side
of the island, and after a short encounter, in which the Spanish
governor was killed, possessed themselves of the place. Nothing of value
escaped the rapacity of the invaders, who resorted to the extremes of
torture to draw from their prisoners confessions of hidden wealth. On
the entreaty of the Spaniards they forebore to fire the town, and for a
ransom of 1000 head of cattle released all the prisoners; but they
compelled the Spaniards to salt the beef and carry it to the ships.[268]
Morgan reported, with what degree of truth we have no means of judging,
that seventy men had been impressed in Puerto Principe to go against
Jamaica, and that a similar levy had been made throughout the island.
Considerable forces, moreover, were expected from the mainland to
rendezvous at Havana and St. Jago, with the final object of invading the
English colony.

On returning to the ships from the sack of Puerto Principe, Morgan
unfolded to his men his scheme of striking at the very heart of Spanish
power in the Indies by capturing Porto Bello. The Frenchmen among his
followers, it seems, wholly refused to join him in this larger design,
full of danger as it was; so Morgan sailed away with only the English
freebooters, some 400 in number, for the coasts of Darien. Exquemelin
has left us a narrative of this exploit which is more circumstantial
than any other we possess, and agrees so closely with what we know from
other sources that we must accept the author's statement that he was an
eye-witness. He relates the whole story, moreover, in so entertaining
and picturesque a manner that he deserves quotation.

"Capt