arved until the sixth day, when they found a
barn full of maize, which the fleeing Spaniards had neglected to destroy.
On the evening of the ninth day a scout reported he had seen the steeple
of a church in Panama. Morgan, with that touch of genius which so often
brought him success, attacked the city from a direction the Spaniards had
not thought possible, so that their guns were all placed where they were
useless, and they were compelled to do just what the buccaneer leader
wanted them to do--namely, to come out of their fortifications and fight
him in the open. The battle raged fiercely for two hours between the brave
Spanish defenders and the equally brave but almost exhausted buccaneers.
When at last the Spaniards turned and ran, the buccaneers were too tired
to immediately follow up their success, but after resting they advanced,
and at the end of three hours' street fighting the city was theirs. The
first thing Morgan now did was to assemble all his men and strictly forbid
them to drink any wine, telling them that he had secret information that
the wine had been poisoned by the Spaniards before they left the city.
This was, of course, a scheme of Morgan's to stop his men from becoming
drunk, when they would be at the mercy of the enemy, as had happened in
many a previous buccaneer assault.

Morgan now set about plundering the city, a large part of which was burnt
to the ground, though whether this was done by his orders or by the
Spanish Governor has never been decided. After three weeks the buccaneers
started back on their journey to San Lorenzo, with a troop of 200
pack-mules laden with gold, silver, and goods of all sorts, together with
a large number of prisoners. The rearguard on the march was under the
command of a kinsman of the Admiral, Colonel Bledry Morgan.

On their arrival at Chagres the spoils were divided, amidst a great deal
of quarrelling, and in March, 1671, Morgan sailed off to Port Royal with a
few friends and the greater part of the plunder, leaving his faithful
followers behind without ships or provisions, and with but L10 apiece as
their share of the spoils.

On May 31st, 1671, the Council of Jamaica passed a vote of thanks to
Morgan for his successful expedition, and this in spite of the fact that
in July, a year before, a treaty had been concluded at Madrid between
Spain and England for "restraining depredations and establishing peace" in
the New World.

In April, 1672, Morgan was carri