n
winning the city, for the streets were all dug about with trenches and
mounted with heavy brass guns. He added that the main entrance to the
place was strongly fortified, and protected by a half company of fifty
men with eight brass demi-cannon.

Morgan now bade his men rest themselves and take food before pushing on
to the town. He held a review of his army before he marched, and found
that he had lost heavily--perhaps 200 men--while the Spaniards had lost
about three times that number. "The Pirates," we read, "were nothing
discouraged, seeing their number so much diminished but rather filled
with greater pride than before." The comparative heaviness of the
Spanish loss must have been very comforting. After they had rested and
eaten they set out towards the town, "plighting their Oaths to one
another in general, they would fight till never a man were left alive."
A few prisoners, who seemed rich enough to be held to ransom, were
marched with them under a guard of musketeers.

Long before they trod the streets of Panama, they were under fire from
the batteries, "some of which were charged with small pieces of iron,
and others with musket-bullets."

They lost men at every step; but their ranks kept steady, and street by
street the town was won. The main agony of the fight took place between
two and three o'clock, in the heat of the day, when the last Spanish
gunners were cut to pieces at their guns. After the last gun was taken,
a few Spaniards fired from street corners or from upper windows, but
these were promptly pistolled or knocked on the head. The town was in
the hands of the pirates by the time the bells chimed three that
afternoon.

As Morgan rested with his captains in the Plaza, after the heat of the
battle, word was brought to him that the city was on fire in several
places. Many have supposed that the town was fired by his orders, or by
some careless and drunken musketeer of his. It was not the buccaneer
custom to fire cities before they had sacked them, nor is it in the
least likely that Morgan would have burnt so glorious a town before he
had offered it to ransom. The Spaniards have always charged Morgan with
the crime, but it seems more probable that the Spanish Governor was the
guilty one. It is yet more probable that the fire was accidental. Most
of the Spanish houses were of wood, and at that season of the year the
timber would have been of extreme dryness, so that a lighted wad or
match end migh