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Henry Morgan's raid on Porto Bello
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1671)
Henry Morgan's attack on the Castillo de San Jeronimo, Porto Bello, 1668
Date July 1668 Location Porto Bello, Real Audiencia of Panama Result English Privateer victory
Belligerents
Spain	England
Commanders and leaders
Agustín de Bracamonte	Henry Morgan
Strength
1,100 soldiers and militia	8 ships 500 men

Henry Morgan's raid on Porto Bello was a military event which took place in the latter half of the Anglo-Spanish war and took place in Porto Bello (now Portobelo in modern Panama) on 10 July 1668. Notable Buccaneer Henry Morgan led a Privateer force which captured rhe city and then plundered it for fourteen days before withdrawing. The attack was highly successful and garnered some 100,000 pieces of eight.

Background

Further information: Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)

England and Spain had remained in a state of war in the Caribbean following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. England's taking possession of Jamaica since 1657 had yet to be confirmed by Spain in a treaty. As a result Buccaneers were invited, to base themselves at Port Royal, to help defend against Spanish attacks.

Henry Morgan, who had been in charge of the Port Royal militia and the defence of Jamaica, took over further privateering expeditions as Admiral in Chief of the Confederacy of Buccaneers.

After dividing the spoils of the conquest of Puerto del Príncipe, Morgan announced a plan to attack Porto Bello in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. The city was the third largest and strongest on the Spanish Main as it was one of the main routes of high value of goods passing through its port between the Spanish territories and Spain. Porto Bello was protected by two castles in the harbour and another under construction in the town. It had last been attacked by English Privateers before; Francis Drake was repelled in 1595 and died of disease not far off the coast, and William Parker when it was captured and ransomed six years later.

The 200 French privateers, unhappy with the division of the treasure at Puerto Principe and the murder of their countryman, left Morgan's service and returned to Tortuga. Morgan and his ships briefly landed at Port Royal before leaving for Porto Bello.

Attack

Morgan at Porto Bello with a prisoner: published in December 1888 from "Buccaneers and Marooners of the Spanish Main". Harper's Magazine and illustrated by Howard Pyle

On 11 July 1668 Morgan weighed anchor with his nine vessels and 470 men at Naos, a village twelve miles from the Porto Bello in the Bay of Bocas del Torro. From there he sailed along the coast to the port of El Puerto del Ponton, four miles from Porto Bello and transferred his men to 23 canoes, which they paddled to within three miles (4.8 km) of the target. Accompanying then was an escaped English prisoner, he guided them and landed. They approached the first castle from the landward side, where they arrived half an hour before dawn.

Santiago Castle

After 4 days, shortly after midnight, he reached the first peak of the town of Porto Bello. He built pretty high and wide wooden ladders that three men could climb head on. The operation was difficult and he lost many men.

San Gerónimo Castle

Zahedieh considers the action at Porto Bello displayed a "clever cunning and expert timing which marked ... [Morgan's] brilliance as a military commander".

San Felipe Castle

Exquemelin wrote that in order to take the third castle, Morgan ordered the construction of ladders wide enough for three men to climb abreast; when they were completed he "commanded all the religious men and women whom he had taken prisoners to fix them against the walls of the castle ... these were forced, at the head of the companies to raise and apply them to the walls ... Thus many of the religious men and nuns were killed". Terry Breverton, in his biography of Morgan, writes that when a translation of Exquemelin's book was published in England, Morgan sued for libel and won. The passage about the use of nuns and monks as a human shield was retracted from subsequent publications in England.

Sack of Porto Bello

Morgan and his men remained in Porto Bello for a month. He wrote to the Governor Don Agustín de Bracamonte the acting president of Panama, to demand a ransom for the city of 350,000 pesos. As they stripped the city of its wealth it is probable that torture was used on the residents to uncover hidden caches of money and jewels. Zahedieh records that there were no first-hand reports from witnesses that confirmed Exquemelin's claim of widespread rape and debauchery.

Spanish counter attack and ransom

Don Agustín set out with some 800 soldiers, militia and natives to try and retake the city. At the same time he was in communication with his Governor and Morgan as well. News of the ransom from Morgan is brought to him but he swiftly refuses and warns that he will spare no 'pirate' alive. Morgan angry at being called pirate then builds up defences and threatens retribution on the town.

After an attempt by Don Agustín to recapture the city by force – his army of 800 soldiers was repelled by the privateers. Seeing the strength of the dfecnes and weakness of his army B negotiated a ransom of 100,000 pesos.

The ransom was brought by mules in the first week of August: 27 bars of silver worth 43,000 pesos, silver plate worth 13,000 pesos, and 44,000 pesos worth of gold and silver coins: 100,000 pesos in total. Morgan kept his promise: he loaded the treasure in addition to what had been found in the city, freed the prisoners and set sail, leaving the city and forts intact.

Aftermath

Following the ransom and the plunder of the city, Morgan returned to Port Royal, with between £70,000 and £100,000 of money and valuables; Zahedieh reports that the figures were more than the agricultural output of Jamaica, and nearly half Barbados's sugar exports. Each privateer received £120 – equivalent to five or six times the average annual earnings of a sailor of the time. Morgan received a five per cent share for his work; Modyford received a ten per cent share, which was the price of Morgan's letter of marque.

Back in Spain news of the assault was met with fury and bitterness. The raid also exposed the weaknesses of the empire even though the financial loss wasn't that huge. Spain was going through a financial crisis which was affecting the crown. An English diplomat in Madrid received an earful about the raid not just from Spanish ministers but also from the public. As Morgan had overstepped the limits of his commission, Modyford reported back to London that he had "reproved" him for his actions although, Zahedieh observes, in Britain "Morgan was widely viewed as a national hero and neither he nor Modyford were rebuked for their actions".

Morgan didn't stop there - in retaliation to Spain's privateering against English shipping in the Caribbean launched a wave of further attacks. Morgan set forth the following year to strike at Spanish settlements in Lake Maracaibo. He did this and then defeated the Spanish Armada de Barlovento set to trap him before heading back to Jamaica with few losses.

References

Bibliography

• Allen, H. R (1976). Buccaneer: Admiral Sir Henry Morgan. London: Arthur Baker. ISBN 978-0-213-16569-7.
• Breverton, Terry (2005). Admiral Sir Henry Morgan: The Greatest Buccaneer of them all. Pencader, Carmarthenshire: Glyndŵr Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903529-17-1.
• Cordingly, David (2006) [1996]. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-7722-6.
• Exquemelin, John (2010) [1684]. The Buccaneers of America: A True Account of the Most Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years Upon the Coasts of the West Indies by the Buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 978-1-108-02481-5.
• Davenport, Frances Gardiner; Paullin, Charles Oscar, eds. (2004). European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies: Issue 254. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 9781584774228.
• Earle, Peter (2007). The Sack of Panamá: Captain Morgan and the Battle for the Caribbean. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-36142-6.
• Gosse, Phillip (2007) [1932]. The History of Piracy. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-46183-0.
• Latimer, Jon (2009). Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03403-7.
• Little, Benerson (2007). The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674–1688. Washington, DC: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-101-0.
• Marley, David (2010). Pirates of the Americas, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842012.
• Marley, David (1998). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780874368376.
• Paxman, Jeremy (2011). Empire. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-91957-4.
• Pope, Dudley (1978) [1977 (in the UK, as Harry Morgan's Way)]. The Buccaneer King: The Biography of the Notorious Sir Henry Morgan 1635–1688. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. ISBN 978-0-396-07566-0.
• Rogoziński, Jan (1995). Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend: An A–Z Encyclopedia. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-2761-3.
• Thomas, Graham (2014). The Buccaneer King: the Story of Captain Henry Morgan (Kindle ed.). Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-4738-3522-1.
• Talty, Stephan (2007). Empire of Blue Water: Henry Morgan and the Pirates Who Ruled the Caribbean Waves. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-0293-7.

Articles and journals

• Barbour, Violet (April 1911). "Privateers and Pirates of the West Indies". The American Historical Review. 16 (3): 529–566. doi:10.2307/1834836. JSTOR 1834836.
• Zahedieh, Nuala (2004a). "Morgan, Sir Henry (c.1635–1688)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19224. Retrieved 10 October 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Zahedieh, Nuala (2004b). "Modyford, Sir Thomas, First Baronet (c.1620–1679)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18871. Retrieved 13 October 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)