gan designedly caused them to sustain, to
excite them to seek for money to ransom themselves, according to the tax
he had set upon every one. Many of the women begged Captain Morgan, on
their knees, with infinite sighs and tears, to let them return to
Panama, there to live with their dear husbands and children in little
huts of straw, which they would erect, seeing they had no houses till
the rebuilding of the city. But his answer was, "He came not thither to
hear lamentations and cries, but to seek money: therefore they ought
first to seek out that, wherever it was to be had, and bring it to him;
otherwise he would assuredly transport them all to such places whither
they cared not to go."

Next day, when the march began, those lamentable cries and shrieks were
renewed, so as it would have caused compassion in the hardest heart: but
Captain Morgan, as a man little given to mercy, was not moved in the
least. They marched in the same order as before, one party of the
pirates in the van, the prisoners in the middle, and the rest of the
pirates in the rear; by whom the miserable Spaniards were at every step
punched and thrust in their backs and sides, with the blunt ends of
their arms, to make them march faster.

A beautiful lady, wife to one of the richest merchants of Tavoga, was
led prisoner by herself, between two pirates. Her lamentations pierced
the skies, seeing herself carried away into captivity often crying to
the pirates, and telling them, "That she had given orders to two
religious persons, in whom she had relied, to go to a certain place, and
fetch so much money as her ransom did amount to; that they had promised
faithfully to do it, but having obtained the money, instead of bringing
it to her, they had employed it another way, to ransom some of their
own, and particular friends." This ill action of theirs was discovered
by a slave, who brought a letter to the said lady. Her complaints, and
the cause thereof, being brought to Captain Morgan, he thought fit to
inquire thereinto. Having found it to be true--especially hearing it
confirmed by the confession of the said religious men, though under some
frivolous excuses of having diverted the money but for a day or two, in
which time they expected more sums to repay it--he gave liberty to the
said lady, whom otherwise he designed to transport to Jamaica. But he
detained the said religious men as prisoners in her place, using them
according to their desserts.

Ca