t have caused the conflagration. At the time when the fire
was first noticed, the pirates were raging through the town in search of
plunder. They may well have flung away their lighted matches to gather
up the spoils they found, and thus set fire to the place unwittingly.

Hearing that the town was burning, Morgan caused his trumpeters to sound
the assembly in the Plaza. When the pirates mustered, Morgan at once
told off men to quench the fire "by blowing up houses by gunpowder, and
pulling down others to stop its progress." He ordered strong guards to
patrol the streets and to stand sentry without the city. Lastly, he
forbade any member of the army "to dare to drink or taste any wine,"
giving out that it had all been poisoned beforehand by the Spaniards. He
feared that his men would get drunk unless he frightened them by some
such tale. With a drunken army rolling in the streets he could hardly
hope to hold the town against an enemy so lightly beaten as the
Spaniards. He also sent some sailors down to the beach to seize "a great
boat which had stuck in the mud of the port."

For all that the pirates could do, the fire spread rapidly, for the dry
cedar beams burned furiously. The warehouses full of merchandise, such
as silks, velvets, and fine linen, were not burned, but all the grand
houses of the merchants, where the life had been so stately, were
utterly gutted--all the Spanish pictures and coloured tapestries going
up in a blaze. The splendid house of the Genoese, where so many black
men had been bought and sold, was burned to the ground. The chief
streets were ruined before midnight, and the fire was not wholly
extinguished a month later when the pirates marched away. It continued
to burn and smoulder long after they had gone.

Having checked the riot among his army, Morgan sent a company of 150 men
back to the garrison at the mouth of the Chagres with news of his
success. Two other companies, of the same strength, he sent into the
woods, "being all very stout soldiers and well-armed," giving them
orders to bring in prisoners to hold to ransom. A third company was
sent to sea under a Captain Searles to capture a Spanish galleon which
had left the port, laden with gold and silver and the jewels of the
churches, a day or two before. The rest of his men camped out of doors,
in the green fields without the city, ready for any attack the Spaniards
might make upon them. Search parties rummaged all day among the burning