he spoil. Morgan ended it by running
off with the disputed plunder. On the night preceding the final division,
during the hours of deepest slumber, the treacherous chief, with a few of
his confidants, set sail for Jamaica, in a vessel deeply laden with
spoils. On waking and learning this act of base treachery, the infuriated
pirates pursued him, but in vain; he safely reached Jamaica with his
ill-gotten wealth.

In this English island the pirate chief gained not only safety, but
honors. In some way he won the favor of Charles II., who knighted him as
Sir Henry Morgan and placed him on the admiralty court in Jamaica. He
subsequently, for a time, acted as deputy governor, and in this office
displayed the greatest severity towards his old associates, several of
whom were tried before him and executed. One whole crew of buccaneers were
sent by him to the Spaniards at Carthagena, in whose hands they were
likely to find little favor. He was subsequently arrested, sent to
England, and imprisoned for three years under charges from Spain; but this
was the sole punishment dealt out to the most notorious of the buccaneers.

The success of Morgan's enterprise stimulated the piratical crews to
similar deeds of daring, and the depredations continued, not only in the
West Indies and eastern South America, but afterwards along the Pacific,
the cities of Leon, in Mexico, New Granada, on the lake of Nicaragua, and
Guayaquil, the port of Quito, being taken, sacked, and burned. Finally,
France and England joined Spain in efforts for their suppression, the
coasts were more strictly guarded, and many of the freebooters settled as
planters or became mariners in honest trade. Some of them, however,
continued in their old courses, dispersing over all seas as enemies of the
shipping of the world; but by the year 1700 their career had fairly come
to an end, and the race of buccaneers ceased to exist.

ELIZABETH FARNESE AND ALBERONI.

In 1714 certain events took place in Spain of sufficient interest to be
worth the telling. Philip V., a feeble monarch, like all those for the
century preceding him, was on the throne. In his youth he had been the
Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. of France, and upon the death of
that great monarch would be close in the succession to the throne of that
kingdom. But, chosen as king of Spain by the will of Charles II., he
preferred a sure seat to a doubtful one, and renounced his claim to the
French cr