idence. They made
the church the common meeting-place where they might all gather together
when it was necessary, and when they had spent the night in eating and
drinking all the good things they could find, they set out the next day
to hunt for the fugitive citizens.

For three weeks Morgan and his men held a devil's carnival in Maracaibo.
To tell of the abominable tortures and cruelties which they inflicted
upon the poor people, whom they dragged from their hiding-places in the
surrounding country, would make our flesh creep and our blood run cold.
When they could do no more evil they sailed away up the lake for
Gibraltar.

It is not necessary to tell the story of the taking of this town. When
Morgan arrived there he found it also entirely deserted. The awful dread
of the human beasts who were coming upon them had forced the inhabitants
to fly. In the whole town only one man was left, and he was an idiot who
had not sense enough to run away. This poor fellow was tortured to tell
where his treasures were hid, and when he consented to take them to the
place where he had concealed his possessions, they found a few broken
earthen dishes, and a little bit of money, about as much as a poor
imbecile might be supposed to possess. Thereupon the disappointed fiends
cruelly killed him.

For five weeks the country surrounding Gibraltar was the scene of a
series of diabolical horrors. The pirates undertook the most hazardous
and difficult expeditions in order to find the people who had hidden
themselves on islands and in the mountains, and although they obtained a
great deal of booty, they met with a good many misfortunes. Some of them
were drowned in swollen streams, and others lost much of their pillage
by rains and storms.

At last, after having closed his vile proceedings in the ordinary pirate
fashion, by threatening to burn the town if he were not paid a ransom,
Morgan thought it time for him to depart, for if the Spaniards should
collect a sufficient force at Maracaibo to keep him from getting out of
the lake, he would indeed be caught in a trap. The ransom was partly
paid and partly promised, and Morgan and his men departed, carrying with
them some hostages for the rest of the ransom due.

When Morgan and his fleet arrived at Maracaibo, they found the town
still deserted, but they also discovered that they were caught in the
trap which they had feared, out of which they saw no way of escaping.
News had been sent the