ey two hundred and fifty
thousand pieces of eight, besides all other merchandises, as cloth,
linen, silks and other goods." The spoil was amicably shared about the
mast before a course was shaped for their "common rendezvous"--Port
Royal.

A godly person in Jamaica, writing at this juncture in some distress,
expressed himself as follows:--"There is not now resident upon this
place ten men to every [licensed] house that selleth strong liquors ...
besides sugar and rum works that sell without license." When Captain
Morgan's ships came flaunting into harbour, with their colours
fluttering and the guns thundering salutes, there was a rustle and a
stir in the heart of every publican. "All the Tavern doors stood open,
as they do at London, on Sundays, in the afternoon." Within those tavern
doors, "in all sorts of vices and debauchery," the pirates spent their
plunder "with huge prodigality," not caring what might happen on the
morrow.

Shortly after the return from Porto Bello, Morgan organised another
expedition with which he sailed into the Gulf of Maracaibo. His ships
could not proceed far on account of the shallowness of the water, but by
placing his men in the canoas he penetrated to the end of the Gulf. On
the way he sacked Maracaibo, a town which had been sacked on two
previous occasions--the last time by L'Ollonais only a couple of years
before. Morgan's men tortured the inhabitants, according to their
custom, either by "woolding" them or by placing burning matches between
their toes. They then set sail for Gibraltar, a small town strongly
fortified, at the south-east corner of the Gulf. The town was empty, for
the inhabitants had fled into the hills with "all their goods and
riches." But the pirates sent out search parties, who brought in many
prisoners. These were examined, with the usual cruelties, being racked,
pressed, hung up by the heels, burnt with palm leaves, tied to stakes,
suspended by the thumbs and toes, flogged with rattans, or roasted at
the camp fires. Some were crucified, and burnt between the fingers as
they hung on the crosses; "others had their feet put into the fire."

When they had extracted the last ryal from the sufferers they shipped
themselves aboard some Spanish vessels lying in the port. They were
probably cedar-built ships, of small tonnage, built at the Gibraltar
yards. In these they sailed towards Maracaibo, where they found "a poor
distressed old man, who was sick." This old man tol