ivateers, however, were soon out upon a much larger design.
Six captains, Sharp, Coxon, Essex, Allison, Row, and Maggott, in four
barques and two sloops, met at Point Morant in December 1679, and on 7th
January set sail for Porto Bello. They were scattered by a terrible
storm, but all eventually reached their rendezvous in safety. There they
picked up another barque commanded by Captain Cooke, who had sailed from
Jamaica on the same design, and likewise a French privateering vessel
commanded by Captain Lessone. They set out for Porto Bello in canoes
with over 300 men, and landing twenty leagues from the town, marched for
four days along the seaside toward the city. Coming to an Indian village
about three miles from Porto Bello, they were discovered by the natives,
and one of the Indians ran to the city, crying, "Ladrones! ladrones!"
The buccaneers, although "many of them were weak, being three days
without any food, and their feet cut with the rocks for want of shoes,"
made all speed for the town, which they entered without difficulty on
17th February 1680. Most of the inhabitants sought refuge in the castle,
whence they made a counter-attack without success upon the invaders. On
the evening of the following day, the buccaneers retreated with their
prisoners and booty down to a cay or small island about three and a half
leagues from Porto Bello, where they were joined by their ships. They
had just left in time to avoid a force of some 700 Spanish troops who
were sent from Panama and arrived the day after the buccaneers departed.
After capturing two Spanish vessels bound for Porto Bello with
provisions from Cartagena, they divided the plunder, of which each man
received 100 pieces of eight, and departed for Boca del Toro some fifty
leagues to the north. There they careened and provisioned, and being
joined by two other Jamaican privateers commanded by Sawkins and Harris,
sailed for Golden Island, whence on 5th April 1680, with 334 men, they
began their march across the Isthmus of Darien to the coasts of Panama
and the South Seas.[408]

Lord Carlisle cannot escape the charge of culpable negligence for having
permitted these vessels in the first place to leave Jamaica. All the
leaders in the expedition were notorious privateers, men who had
repeatedly been concerned in piratical outrages against the Dutch and
Spaniards. Coxon and Harris had both come in after taking part in the
expedition against Santa Marta; Sawkins had be