d the fort which commanded it, and entered Maracaibo, from
which the inhabitants had fled before him. The buccaneers sacked the
town, and scoured the woods in search of the Spaniards and their
valuables. Men, women and children were brought in and cruelly tortured
to make them confess where their treasures were hid. Morgan, at the end
of three weeks, "having now got by degrees into his hands about 100 of
the chief families," resolved to go to Gibraltar, near the head of the
lake, as L'Olonnais had done before him. Here the scenes of inhuman
cruelty, "the tortures, murders, robberies and such like insolences,"
were repeated for five weeks; after which the buccaneers, gathering up
their rich booty, returned to Maracaibo, carrying with them four
hostages for the ransom of the town and prisoners, which the inhabitants
promised to send after them. At Maracaibo Morgan learnt that three large
Spanish men-of-war were lying off the entrance of the lake, and that the
fort, in the meantime, had been armed and manned and put into a posture
of defence. In order to gain time he entered into negotiations with the
Spanish admiral, Don Alonso del Campo y Espinosa, while the privateers
carefully made ready a fireship disguised as a man-of-war. At dawn on
1st May 1669, according to Exquemelin, they approached the Spanish ships
riding at anchor within the entry of the lake, and sending the fireship
ahead of the rest, steered directly for them. The fireship fell foul of
the "Almirante," a vessel of forty guns, grappled with her and set her
in flames. The second Spanish ship, when the plight of the Admiral was
discovered, was run aground and burnt by her own men. The third was
captured by the buccaneers. As no quarter was given or taken, the loss
of the Spaniards must have been considerable, although some of those on
the Admiral, including Don Alonso, succeeded in reaching shore. From a
pilot picked up by the buccaneers, Morgan learned that in the flagship
was a great quantity of plate to the value of 40,000 pieces of eight. Of
this he succeeded in recovering about half, much of it melted by the
force of the heat. Morgan then returned to Maracaibo to refit his prize,
and opening negotiations again with Don Alonso, he actually succeeded in
obtaining 20,000 pieces of eight and 500 head of cattle as a ransom for
the city. Permission to pass the fort, however, the Spaniard refused.
So, having first made a division of the spoil,[278] Morgan resorted