e freebooter's heart was
steeled against every humane emotion. Returning down the river Chagre,
he destroyed the castle at its entrance, and prepared to reembark for
Jamaica. Before going on board, however, a division of the plunder was
made, which gave great dissatisfaction. It seemed unaccountable to his
men that so large an apparent amount of booty should yield only about
two hundred pieces of eight _per capita_, and rumors of foul play were
rife. Meantime he had richly laden his own ship with merchandise; and in
the course of the following night, while his companions were in a deep
sleep, he put to sea and escaped to Jamaica, and thence to England. Such
an instance of treachery had never been before known among the
buccaneers, and the rage and resentment that ensued cannot be described.
His departure was the signal for the dispersion of the fleet. The French
returned to Tortuga. Some of the English attempted to overtake the
mighty robber and make him disgorge, but were unsuccessful. Others of
the crews dispersed with their vessels to seek their fortunes as best
they might. Morgan ultimately returned to England laden with wealth, and
was well received. He afterward became a commander in the naval service
of his country, and obtained the honor of knighthood from William III.

The capture of Panama, however, was the last great land expedition
successfully undertaken by the buccaneers. A few other land expeditions,
it is true, were begun by chiefs of lesser note; but the indifferent
success which attended these, induced the freebooters insensibly to
confine their operations more exclusively to the water, and there was no
sea left untraversed by them, from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean. The
commerce of almost all nations was annoyed by them, although their
depredations continued more particularly to be directed against the
first objects of their hate, the Spaniards. It is a curious fact,
illustrating the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church at that time,
that in one of the Spanish ships captured while on her way to South
America, by an Englishman named White, there were found no less than two
millions of Papal bulls, granting indulgences to the Spaniards of the
New World! These were a royal trade, and had been purchased by the king
of Spain for three hundred thousand florins, _prime cost_, and by him
were designed to be retailed for five millions. Thus, by their capture,
his Catholic Majesty lost the benefit of a fi