e of no use to him in this dilemma, Morgan was obliged to fall back
upon his own brains; therefore, he planned a trick.

When everything had been prepared for departure, Morgan anchored his
fleet at a distance from the castle, but not so far away that the
Spaniards could not observe his movements. Then he loaded some boats
with armed men and had them rowed ashore on the side of the channel on
which the castle stood. The boats landed behind a little wood, and there
the men, instead of getting out, crouched themselves down in the bottom
of the boats so that they should not be seen. Then the boats, apparently
empty, were rowed back to the pirate ships, and in a short time, again
full of men sitting, upright, with their muskets and cutlasses, they
went to the shore, and soon afterwards returned apparently empty as
before.

This performance was repeated over and over again, until the people in
the castle were convinced that Morgan was putting his men on shore in
order to make a land attack upon the rear of the castle during the
night. But the Spanish admiral was not to be caught by any such clumsy
stratagem as that, and, therefore, in great haste he had his big cannon
moved to the land side of the fort, and posted there the greater part of
his garrison in order that when the pirates made their assault in the
dead of the night they would meet with a reception for which they had
not bargained.

When it was dark, and the tide began to run out, the pirate vessels
weighed anchor, and they all drifted down toward the castle. Morgan's
spies had perceived some of the extraordinary movements in the Spanish
fortifications, and he therefore drifted down with a good deal of
confidence, although, had his trick been discovered in time it would
have gone very hard with his fleet. It is probable that he had taken all
these chances into consideration and had felt pretty sure that if the
cannon of the fort had been opened upon them it would not have been the
big ship which carried him and his precious load which would have been
sunk by the great guns, and that no matter what happened to the smaller
vessels and the men on board them, he and his own ship would be able to
sail away.

But the Spaniards did not perceive the approach of the drifting fleet,
for they were intrepidly waiting at the back of the castle to make it
very hot for the pirates when they should arrive. Slowly past the great
walls of the fort drifted the fleet of buccaneers