Henry Morgan was the most famous of all buccaneers, amassing a fortune by plundering Spain's Caribbean colonies during the late seventeenth century. Through his leadership, courage, ruthlessness, and phenomenally successful expeditions, he ensured the survival of English interests in the Caribbean and his name became legendary in the annals of piracy.

Morgan's origins and early career are obscure. He was a member of the expedition that in 1655 seized Jamaica from the Spanish and converted it into an English colony. He participated in an expedition against Cuba in 166. during the second Anglo-Dutch War, he was second in command of the buccaneers operating against Dutch colonies in the Caribbean.

In 1668 he was commissioned by the governor of Jamaica to capture some Spanish prisoners in Cuba, in order to discover details of the threatened attack on Jamaica. Collecting ten ships with 500 men, Morgan landed on the island, captured and sacked Puerto Principe. In an extraordinarily daring move, he went on to storm the well-fortified city of Porto Bello of Panama. It is said that Morgan's men used captured Jesuits as human shields in taking the third, most difficult fortress.

The governor of Panama, astonished at this daring adventure, offered Morgan a large ransom to evacuate the place. These exploits had considerably exceeded the terms of Morgan's commission and had been accompanied by frightful cruelties and excesses, but the governor of Jamaica endeavored to cover the whole under the necessity of allowing the English a free hand to attack the Spanish whenever possible. In London, the Admiralty publicly claimed ignorance about this.

In March, 1669, Morgan sacked Maracaibo, Venezuela which had emptied out when his fleet was first spied. He spent a few weeks at the Venezuelan settlement on Lake Maracaibo, torturing the wealthy residents to discover hidden booty.

Returning to Maracaibo, Morgan found three Spanish ships waiting at the inlet to the Caribbean. These war galleons -- the 40 gun flagship Magdalena, the 30 gun Luis, and the 24 gun La Marquesa -- far outclassed anything Morgan had in his motley collection of sloops and converted merchantmen. Furthermore, behind the galleons, the Spaniards had fortified an island in the narrowest stretch of the inlet with cannon and infantry. Maracaibo's governor Del Campo offered to let Morgan go provided the privateers turn over the loot they had taken from the area. He gave Morgan and his men two days to decide their fate. The buccaneers decided to fight.|

At dawn on April 31st, Del Campo awoke to find a half dozen small English ships sailing towards his fleet. He ordered the galleons manoeuver into position and fire a broadside. The Magdalena had barely discharged her first barrage when a small English ship, laden with explosives, crashed into the side of the galleon. A skeleton English crew of twelve men grappled their ship to the galleon, lit several fuses, then jumped over the side and swam for their lives. Behind them the exploding fireship ripped a hole in the side of the Magdalena and flames raced uncontrollably through the galleon. Within minutes Del Campo gave orders to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the captain of the Luis had ineptly run his ship aground in the narrow waters by the inlet, and she too began to sink. Morgan focused his attention on the La Marquesa, which was soon surrounded by his ships and boarded. After a short, bloody fight she was in English hands.

In the euphoria of victory Morgan ordered an immediate frontal assault against the Spanish fortifications on the island. Here, however, the Spanish held and the buccaneers were beaten back with over 30 dead and many wounded. The setback chastened Morgan to adopt a brilliant plan of deception. He sent rowboats laden with men to the far shore of the island, only to have the men duck when the boats were out of sight and return to the ships with every man. The Spaniards, fearing a land assault from behind, turned their heavy guns away from the inlet and towards the vulnerable side. While the Spaniards were busily shifting their cannons and preparing themselves for infantry attack, Morgan raised anchor and sailed through the inlet unscathed.

On his return to Jamaica he was again reproved, but not punished.

In August 1670 Morgan commanded the largest force of privateers yet brought together for one venture: 36 ships and nearly 2,000 buccaneers. His destination was Panama-- the wealthiest city in the New World. He defeated a large Spanish force while crossing the Isthmus of Panama in Jan. 18, 1671. He burned the city to the ground while his men were looting it.

Because the sack of Panama violated a peace treaty between England and Spain, Morgan was arrested and conducted to England in 1672. He was able to prove he had no knowledge of the treaty. As relations with Spain quickly deteriorated, in 1674 King Charles II knighted Morgan and sent him out again as deputy governor of Jamaica where he lived as a wealthy and respected planter until his death in 1688.

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