und the
camp fires, and then fell in to muster, thinking rapturously of the inns
and brothels which waited for their custom at Port Royal.

[Illustration: SIR HENRY MORGAN]

"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 did stand; 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." Thus they marched out of the ruined
capital, over the green savannah, towards the river, where a halt was
called to order the army for the march to Venta Cruz. A troop of picked
marksmen was sent ahead to act as a scouting party; the rest of the
company marched in hollow square, with the prisoners in the hollow. In
this array they set forward towards Venta Cruz to the sound of drums and
trumpets, amid "lamentations, cries, shrieks and doleful sighs" from the
wretched women and children. Most of these poor creatures were fainting
with thirst and hunger, for it had been Morgan's policy to starve them,
in order "to excite them more earnestly to seek for money wherewith to
ransom themselves." "Many of the women," says the narrative, "begged of
Captain Morgan upon their knees, with infinite sighs and tears, he would
permit them to return to Panama, there to live in company of their dear
husbands and children, in little huts of straw which they would erect,
seeing they had no houses until the rebuilding of the city. But his
answer was: he came not thither to hear lamentations and cries, but
rather to seek money. Therefore they ought to seek out for that in the
first place, wherever it were to be had, and bring it to him, otherwise
he would assuredly transport them all to such places whither they cared
not to go." With this answer they had to remain content, as they lay in
camp, under strict guard, on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Early the next morning, "when the march began," "those lamentable cries
and shrieks were renewed, in so much as it would have caused compassion
in the hardest heart to hear them. But Captain Morgan, a man little
given to mercy, was not moved therewith in the least." They marched in
the same order as before, but on this day, we read, the Spaniards "were
punched and thrust in their backs and sides, with the blunt end of [the
pirates'] arms, to make t