The city of Panama at that time (1670) was considered one of the greatest
and most opulent in America. It contained two thousand large buildings and
five thousand smaller, all of which were three stories high. Many of these
were built of stone, others of cedar wood, being elegantly constructed and
richly furnished. The city was the emporium for the silver- and gold-mines
of New Spain, and its merchants lived in great opulence, their houses rich
in articles of gold and silver, adorned with beautiful paintings and other
works of art, and full of the luxuries of the age. The churches were
magnificent in their decorations, and richly embellished with ornaments in
gold and silver. The city presented such a prize to cupidity as
freebooters and bandits had rarely conceived of in their wildest dreams.

[Illustration: STREET IN OLD QUARTER OF PANAMA.]

STREET IN OLD QUARTER OF PANAMA.

The daring enterprise began with the capture by four hundred men of the
Fort of St. Laurence, at the mouth of the Chagres River. Up this
serpentine stream sailed the freebooters, as far as it would bear them,
and thence they marched overland, suffering the greatest hardships and
overcoming difficulties which would have deterred men of less intrepid
spirit. Eight days of this terrible march brought the adventurers within
sight of the far-spreading Pacific, and of the spires of the coveted city
on its shores.

The people of Panama had been apprised of what was in store for them, and
had laid ambuscades for the buccaneers, but Morgan, by taking an indirect
route to the town, avoided these. Panama was but partly fortified. In
several quarters it lay open to attack. It must be fought for and won or
lost on the open plain. Here the Spaniards had assembled to the number of
two thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry, well equipped and
possessing everything needed but spirit to meet the dreaded foe. They had
adopted an expedient sure to prove a dangerous one. A herd of wild bulls,
to the number of more than two thousand, was provided, with Indians and
negroes to drive them on the pirate horde. The result resembled that in
which the Greeks drove elephants upon the Roman legions. Many of the
buccaneers were accustomed to the chase of wild cattle, and, by shouts and
the waving of colored flags, turned the bulls back upon the Spanish lines,
which they threw into disorder.

The buccaneers followed with an impetuous ch