all his
forces, "both freemen and slaves," to prejudice the enemy when he
attacked. The forest ways were blocked with timber baulks, and several
ambuscades were laid, with cannon in them, "to play upon them on their
march." In all, he raised and armed 800 men, whom he disposed in order,
either in the jungle at the ambuscades or in a wide expanse of grass
which surrounded the town.

In due course Morgan sent his men ashore, and marched them through the
wood towards the town. They found the woodland trackways blocked by the
timber baulks, so they made a detour, hacking paths for themselves with
their machetes, until they got clear of the wood. When they got out of
the jungle they found themselves on an immense green field, covered with
thick grass, which bowed and shivered in the wind. A few pale cattle
grazed here and there on the savannah; a few birds piped and twittered
in the sunshine. In front of them, at some little distance, was the town
they had come to pillage. It lay open to them--a cluster of houses, none
of them very large, with warehouses and tobacco drying-rooms and
churches with bells in them. Outside the town, some of them lying down,
some standing so as to get a view of the enemy, were the planters and
townsfolk, with their pikes and muskets, waiting for the battle to
begin. Right in the pirates' front was a troop of horsemen armed with
lances, swords, and pistols, drawn up in very good order, and ready to
advance. The pirates on their coming from the wood formed into a
semicircle or half-moon shape, the bow outwards, the horns curving to
prevent the cavalry from taking them in flank. They had drums and
colours in their ranks. The drums beat out a bravery, the colours were
displayed. The men halted for a moment to get their breath and to
reprime their guns. Then they advanced slowly, to the drubbing of the
drums, just as the Spanish horsemen trotted forward. As the Spaniards
sounded the charge, the buccaneers fired a volley of bullets at them,
which brought a number of cavaliers out of their saddles. Those horsemen
who escaped the bullets dashed down upon the line, and fired their
pistols at close quarters, afterwards wheeling round, and galloping back
to reform. They charged again and again, "like valiant and courageous
soldiers," but at every charge the pirates stood firm, and withered them
with file-firing. As they retired after each rush, the marksmen in the
ranks picked them off one by one, killing