bjections to
every scheme the English buccaneers proposed. Each proposition was
received contemptuously, with angry bickerings and mutterings. At last
the French captains intimated that they desired to part company. Captain
Morgan endeavoured to dissuade them from this resolution by using every
flattery his adroit nature could suggest. Finding that they would not
listen to him, even though he swore by his honour that the murderer,
then in chains, should be hanged as soon as they reached home, he
brought out wine and glasses, and drank to their good fortune. The booty
was then shared up among the adventurers. The Frenchmen got their shares
aboard, and set sail for Tortuga to the sound of a salute of guns. The
English held on for Port Royal, in great "resentment and grief." When
they arrived there they caused the murderer to be hanged upon a gallows,
which, we are told, "was all the satisfaction the French Pirates could
expect."

_Note._--If we may believe Morgan's statement to Sir T. Modyford,
then Governor of Jamaica, he brought with him from Cuba reliable
evidence that the Spaniards were planning an attack upon that colony
(see State Papers: West Indies and Colonial Series). If the
statements of his prisoners were correct, the subsequent piratical
raid upon the Main had some justification. Had the Spaniards matured
their plans, and pushed the attack home, it is probable that we
should have lost our West Indian possessions.

_Authorities._--A. O. Exquemeling: "Bucaniers of America," eds.
1684-5 and 1699. Cal. State Papers: "West Indies."

CHAPTER X

THE SACK OF PORTO BELLO

The Gulf of Maracaibo--Morgan's escape from the Spaniards

It was a melancholy home-coming. The men had little more than ten pounds
apiece to spend in jollity. The merchants who enjoyed their custom were
of those kinds least anxious to give credit. The ten pounds were but
sufficient to stimulate desire. They did not allow the jolly mariner to
enjoy himself with any thoroughness. In a day or two, the buccaneers
were at the end of their gold, and had to haunt the street corners,
within scent of the rum casks, thinking sadly of the pleasant liquor
they could not afford to drink. Henry Morgan took this occasion to
recruit for a new enterprise. He went ashore among the drinking-houses,
telling all he met of golden towns he meant to capture. He always
"communicated vigour with his words," for, bein