800 buccaneers,
including several hundred French, and thirty-six ships under his
command.[292] Upon consideration of the reports brought from the Main by
his own men, and the testimony of prisoners they had taken, Morgan
decided that it was impossible to attempt what seems to have been his
original design, a descent upon St. Jago de Cuba, without great loss of
men and ships. On 2nd December, therefore, it was unanimously agreed by
a general council of all the captains, thirty-seven in number, "that it
stands most for the good of Jamaica and safety of us all to take Panama,
the President thereof having granted several commissions against the
English."[293] Six days later the fleet put to sea from Cape Tiburon,
and on the morning of the 14th sighted Providence Island. The Spanish
governor capitulated next day, on condition of being transported with
his garrison to the mainland, and four of his soldiers who had formerly
been banditti in the province of Darien agreed to become guides for the
English.[294] After a delay of five days more, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph
Bradley, with between 400 and 500 men in three ships, was sent ahead by
Morgan to the isthmus to seize the Castle of San Lorenzo, situated at
the mouth of the Chagre river.

The President of Panama, meanwhile, on 15th December, had received a
messenger from the governor of Cartagena with news of the coming of the
English.[295] The president immediately dispatched reinforcements to the
Castle of Chagre, which arrived fifteen days before the buccaneers and
raised its strength to over 350 men. Two hundred men were sent to Porto
Bello, and 500 more were stationed at Venta Cruz and in ambuscades along
the Chagre river to oppose the advance of the English. The president
himself rose from a bed of sickness to head a reserve of 800, but most
of his men were raw recruits without a professional soldier amongst
them. This militia in a few days became so panic-stricken that one-third
deserted in a night, and the president was compelled to retire to
Panama. There the Spaniards managed to load some of the treasure upon
two or three ships lying in the roadstead; and the nuns and most of the
citizens of importance also embarked with their wives, children and
personal property.[296]

The fort or castle of San Lorenzo, which stood on a hill commanding the
river Chagre, seems to have been built of double rows of wooden
palisades, the space between being filled with earth; and it was