Morgan Attacks Portobelo 1668

[El Pirata]

In 1668 Henry Morgan and a band of pirates numbering around 500 sacked and plundered the town of Portobelo. Prior to getting underway with his fleet of 8 ships Morgan had gained the approval of Port Royal's Governor Moodyford, it took a little grease to ease the skids but he finally argeed.

Several days into the trip, off what is now Costa Rica, Morgan told his destination to all of the Captains in his fleet. They, as Moodyford had thought that his plan was a little more of a suicide plan rather than a feasable venture. Just as Morgan had sold Moodyford on the plan he also sold his Captains and finally the crew for the big score.

Morgan's advantage, as he saw it, was instead of trying the impossible and fighting head to head against the big guns of Santiago de la Gloria and San Geronimo he would secretly anchor and take his crew through the jungles and attach the unguarded rear of the city.

The fleet anchored about 2 miles south west of the city of Portobelo in a place now called Bahia de Buenaventura. Leaving only enough to sail his ships into the bay once the city had fallen Morgan marched overland with a force of under 400 pirates. Shortly after midnight Morgan encountered a small wooden fort that was a part of Santiago de la Gloria. He tried to reason with the extremely small garrison at the outpost that he would spare their lives if they surrendered. Morgan truly needed to take the outpost silently or else the city would be allerted to the pirates attack. Muskets were Morgan's anwser.

There really was no way for the defenders of the small outpost to win the battle however the city was alerted to the pirates attack. Upon taking the outpost Morgan was so furious that the city was now alerted to his intentions he locked the survivors of the outpost into the powder magazine and lit a fuse into the powder magazine. Morgan received great satisfaction as bits and pieces of the magazine and it's defenders were hurtled through the air.

One can never know exactly how much luck will accompany a person at any particular time. The Governor of Portobelo rode through the town on a horse telling the town's people to arm themselves and defend against the pirates. Lose all their wealth to pirates, don't defend the city, make a pathetic attempt to hide your wealth is what the vast majority of the cities inhabitants chose instead.

Santiago de la Gloria was taken almost without incident and the pirate force continued onto San Geronimo where the remaining soldiers and Governor had retreated. The big guns of San Geronimo was not intended to fire into the city, however there was one cannon that could as well as several hundred firing ports for muskets.

For the better part of the morning and into the afternoon the defenders held off the pirate band. Morgan, knowing that he could not plunder the riches he so desperately wanted if he could not take out San Geronimo came up with a ghastly diabolical plan. A small band of his pirates made their way into the church and forced everyone inside to carry the ladders the pirates needed to scale the walls of the fort. In essence, the priests and nuns became a human shield for Morgan's forces.

The defenders literally had no choice however they defended their fort relentlessly. Little by little the ladders were able to be brought to the walls and pirates were able to scale the ladders until a large enough force was able to push the defenders back. As the defenders were kept occupied the pirates were able to open the gates to the fortress and let in more of the pirates.

The defenders were forced back until finally they only held a small portion of the fort.

The Governor kept his defenders fighting unto their deaths. Finally in the late afternoon the fort was taken. Morgan's remaining men began looting the town and finding the riches and rum that were pathetically hidden, as well as most of their owners. Morgan's men worked themselves into a drunken frenzy as the day turned into night literally had their been a desire from the townspeople to reclaim their city they would have had little to no trouble in doing so. The pirates remained in the city for 2 weeks where they gave new meaning to rape, pillage and profit, torture too.

During these 2 weeks in the city the Governor of Panama, Don Juan De Guzman, sent a letter from his great city to the Pirate captain. He asked of all things how a force of so little had taken a city so easily defended. Morgan sent a musket, lead and powder as a form of a reply and promised he would be back in a year to claim it personally. Don Juan De Guzman in all accounts I have read portray him as weak leader with high enough political connection to give him to job of being the governor of such a large city. He made no attempt to retake the city while the pirate force remained and this small fact probably is what led Morgan to the idea that he might be able to take such a place as Panama with a larger force.

Maybe I'll write of the sack of Panama when I get some more time. Hope you liked the account.

[Scupper]

Good story. Look forward to your next.

Scupper

[El Pirata]

It only took you 2 nimutes to read that and it took me like 30 minutes to restart my brain cells to write it.

[BoneHunterLane]

Interesting account. Thank you.

[El Pirata]

Next time I'll resize the images a little better to make them fit the text so it is more user friendly.

[captweaver65]

Next time I'll resize the images a little better to make them fit the text so it is more user friendly.

that would be very appreciated

[Coastie04]

Thanks for the great story. I look forward to your next installment.

Coastie04

[tsunatra]

Wow, news you can use. Thanks for taking the time.

T

[Rumba Rue]

Thank you for such wonderful and interesting story and pictures!

Though my first thought when seeing your post was, hmmmm, pirates and portabello mushrooms.....don't ask, I'm just wierd (and I love every minute of it).

RumbaRue

**I intend to live forever, so far, so good**

[El Pirata]

Next one might be about Morgan in Panama or I might switch to Drakes part in plundering Panama. I will make sure whichever one I do have the pics a little more user friendly.

[Capt Grey]

A wonderful tale, me hearty. Thank'ee fer sharin'; it be makin' me pirate day.

[El Pirata]

Maybe the next one will be better since a little more thought will go into it as well as the pics will be scaled down a bit. The hard thing about Drake's exploits in Panama would be that the stuff he attacked in 1577 and 1595 was wooden forts vs stone forts. There really is little to nothing left of Nombre de Dios and the wooden forts he found when he tried to sack Panama in 1595.