above his common
salary, should draw one hundred pieces of eight. Lastly, unto him that
in any battle should signalize himself, either by entering the first
any castle, or taking down the Spanish colors and setting up the
English, they constituted fifty pieces of eight for a reward. In the
head of these articles it was stipulated that all these extraordinary
salaries, recompenses and rewards should be paid out of the first spoil
or purchase they should take, according as every one should then occur
to be either rewarded or paid."

The expedition was a gorgeous success, for "on the 24th of February, of
the year 1671, Captain Morgan departed from the city of Panama, or
rather from the place where the said city of Panama had stood; of the
spoils whereof he carried with him one hundred and seventy-five beasts
of carriage, laden with silver, gold and other precious things, besides
six hundred prisoners, more or less, between men, women, children and
slaves.... About the middle of the way to the castle of Chagre,
Captain Morgan commanded his men to be placed in due order, according
to their custom, and caused every one to be sworn that they had
reserved nor concealed nothing privately to themselves, even not so
much as the value of sixpence. This being done, Captain Morgan, having
had some experience that those lewd fellows would not much stickle to
swear falsely in points of interest, he commanded every one to be
searched very strictly both in their clothes and satchels and
everywhere it might be presumed they had reserved anything. Yea, to
the intent this order might not be ill taken by his companions, he
permitted himself to be searched, even to the very soles of his shoes.
To this office, by common consent, there was assigned one out of every
company to be the searcher of all the rest. The French Pirates that
went on this expedition with Captain Morgan were not well satisfied
with this new custom of searching.

"From Chagre, Captain Morgan sent presently after his arrival a great
boat to Porto Bello, wherein were all the prisoners he had taken at the
Isle of St. Catharine, demanding by them a considerable ransom for the
castle of Chagre, where he then was, threatening otherwise to ruin and
demolish it even to the ground. To this message those of Porto Bello
made answer: That they would not give one farthing towards the ransom
of the said castle, and that the English might do with it as they
pleased. The answer