Stolen Treasure | Page 5

ears humming and ringing from
the deafening noise of the pistol-shots fired in the close room, and the
sweat trickling down his face in drops, he knew not whether all that had
passed had been real, or whether it was a dream from which he might
presently awaken.
IV
The papers Captain Morgan had thus seized upon as the fruit of the
murder he had committed must have been as perfectly satisfactory to
him as could be, for having paid a second visit that evening to
Governor Modiford, the pirate lifted anchor the next morning and made
sail towards the Gulf of Darien. There, after cruising about in those
waters for about a fortnight without falling in with a vessel of any sort,
at the end of that time they overhauled a caravel bound from Puerto
Bello to Cartagena, which vessel they took, and finding her loaded with
nothing better than raw hides, scuttled and sunk her, being then about
twenty leagues from the main of Cartagena. From the captain of this
vessel they learned that the plate fleet was then lying in the harbor of
Puerto Bello, not yet having set sail thence, but waiting for the change
of the winds before embarking for Spain. Besides this, which was a
good deal more to their purpose, the Spaniards told the pirates that the

Sieur Simon, his wife, and daughter were confined aboard the
vice-admiral of that fleet, and that the name of the vice-admiral was the
Santa Maria y Valladolid.
So soon as Captain Morgan had obtained the information he desired he
directed his course straight for the Bay of Santo Blaso, where he might
lie safely within the cape of that name without any danger of discovery
(that part of the main-land being entirely uninhabited) and yet be within
twenty or twenty-five leagues of Puerto Bello.
Having come safely to this anchorage, he at once declared his
intentions to his companions, which were as follows:
That it was entirely impossible for them to hope to sail their vessel into
the harbor of Puerto Bello, and to attack the Spanish vice-admiral
where he lay in the midst of the armed flota; wherefore, if anything was
to be accomplished, it must be undertaken by some subtle design rather
than by open-handed boldness. Having so prefaced what he had to say,
he now declared that it was his purpose to take one of the ship's boats
and to go in that to Puerto Bello, trusting for some opportunity to occur
to aid him either in the accomplishment of his aims or in the gaining of
some further information. Having thus delivered himself, he invited
any who dared to do so to volunteer for the expedition, telling them
plainly that he would constrain no man to go against his will, for that at
best it was a desperate enterprise, possessing only the recommendation
that in its achievement the few who undertook it would gain great
renown, and perhaps a very considerable booty.
And such was the incredible influence of this bold man over his
companions, and such was their confidence in his skill and cunning,
that not above a dozen of all those aboard hung back from the
undertaking, but nearly every man desired to be taken.
Of these volunteers Captain Morgan chose twenty--among others our
Master Harry--and having arranged with his lieutenant that if nothing
was heard from the expedition at the end of three days he should sail
for Jamaica to await news, he embarked upon that enterprise, which,
though never heretofore published, was perhaps the boldest and the

most desperate of all those that have since made his name so famous.
For what could be a more unparalleled undertaking than for a little
open boat, containing but twenty men, to enter the harbor of the third
strongest fortress of the Spanish mainland with the intention of cutting
out the Spanish vice-admiral from the midst of a whole fleet of
powerfully armed vessels, and how many men in all the world do you
suppose would venture such a thing?
But there is this to be said of that great buccaneer: that if he undertook
enterprises so desperate as this, he yet laid his plans so well that they
never went altogether amiss. Moreover, the very desperation of his
successes was of such a nature that no man could suspect that he would
dare to undertake such things, and accordingly his enemies were never
prepared to guard against his attacks. Aye, had he but worn the King's
colors and served under the rules of honest war, he might have become
as great and as renowned as Admiral Blake himself!
But all that is neither here nor there; what I have to tell you now is that
Captain Morgan in this open boat with