fleet, and therefore he was glad to accept the suggestion made to him by
a Frenchman who happened to be in his company.

This man had been with L'Olonnois two years before when that bloody
pirate had sacked the towns of Maracaibo and Gibraltar; he had made
himself perfectly familiar with the fortifications and defences of these
towns, and he told Morgan that it would be easy to take them. To be
sure they had been thoroughly sacked before, and therefore did not offer
the tempting inducements of perfectly fresh towns, such as
Port-au-Prince, but still in two years the inhabitants must have
gathered together some possessions desirable to pirates, and therefore,
although Morgan could not go to these towns with the expectation of
reaping a full harvest, he might at least gather up an aftermath which
would pay him for his trouble.

So away sailed this horde of ravenous scoundrels for the lake of
Maracaibo, at the outer end of which lay the town of Maracaibo, and at
the other extremity the town of Gibraltar. When they had sailed near
enough to the fortifications they anchored out of sight of the
watch-tower and, landing in the night, marched on one of the forts. Here
the career of Morgan came very near closing forever. The Spaniards had
discovered the approach of the pirates, and this fort had been converted
into a great trap in which the citizens hoped to capture and destroy the
pirate leader and his men. Everybody had left the fort, the gates were
open, and a slow-match, communicating with the magazine, had been
lighted just before the last Spaniard had left.

But the oldest and most sagacious of rats would be no more difficult to
entrap than was the wily pirate Morgan. When he entered the open gates
of the fort and found everything in perfect order, he suspected a trick,
and looking about him he soon saw the smouldering match. Instantly he
made a dash at it, seized it and extinguished the fire. Had he been
delayed in this discovery a quarter of an hour longer, he and his men
would have been blown to pieces along with the fort.

Now the pirates pressed on toward the town, but they met with no
resistance. The Spaniards, having failed to blow up their dreaded
enemies, had retreated into the surrounding country and had left the
town. The triumphant pirates spread themselves everywhere. They searched
the abandoned town for people and valuables, and every man who cared to
do so took one of the empty houses for his private res