Morgan, a Welshman of a family with many military officers, came to Jamaica in 1655 when the English invaded that island and seized it from the Spanish. The English intrusion into the Caribbean was aided by many criminals, transported prisoners and other violent ne’er-do-wells.
Early Campaigns
Morgan’s family became leading officers of Jamaica, but Morgan, desiring both American riches and the security of the colony, he and other would-be privateers were able to accomplish many successful raids against the Spanish. In less than fifteen years, Morgan had become Admiral-in-Chief of the buccaneer Brethren of the Coast. This Brethren, largely English and French by extraction, were Morgan’s army and the protectors of Jamaica, especially, but by no means, only when England warred with Spain.
Panama Raid Was a Turning Point
His boldest campaign was that against Panama City, a receiving station for the treasure coming up from South America and Asia. However, it lay on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama, with eighty kilometers of jungle between it and the Caribbean. 800 men canoed some way up the Chagres River, and then overland. Many were lost to marauding natives on the way, and food ran so short that they resorted to eating their own leather personal effects.
Arrest and Return to England
However, they did emerge, and with their skills of marksmanship and Morgan’s strategic acumen they took the city, and went on a days-long orgy of plunder and torture, burning the city. A dramatic blow to Spanish pride, if not a vastly profitable enterprise, Morgan returned to Jamaica and was chagrined to realize that England and Spain were at peace and that the climate had turned against him. He and the former lieutenant-governor of Jamaica were arrested and returned to England to face charges while a new governor drove privateers from the colony.
Hero’s Welcome and Return to Jamaica
At home, Morgan’s wealth allowed him to live lavishly despite pending charges. His popularity prevented King Charles II from being too heavy-handed with him, for fear of provoking the popular wrath that had lost his father his head. After lengthy prevaricating, and the realization that Jamaica was defenseless and unprofitable without the buccaneers and privateers, and a new war with Spain, they had only one man who would command the loyalty of the Jamaican people and who knew how to combat the Spanish. Morgan was therefore given a hearing and acquitted for form’s sake, then knighted and sent back to Jamaica to govern it.
Governor of Jamaica and Death
Unfortunately, the times were changing and Morgan was personally ill-suited to change with them. Spain was now no more or less a potential enemy than France or Holland, and law came down heavily on all of a piratical inclination. Morgan feuded politically with the other governors of the island, and became ill and alcoholic, still making merry in the taverns and brothels of Port Royal. In short, though he became successful in setting up the government of the island the way he wanted, he seems to have been bored with a life of politics. He died in 1688 and was given a funeral with a 22-gun salute from the ships in Port Royal.
Legacy
Morgan’s death signified the end of state-sponsored piracy; navies and their organized structure now became essential to maintaining order on the seas. Morgan is, as is frequently said of pirates, a debated figure. To contemporary and later pirates, he was a messiah and an example. He is regarded by some as a folk hero – especially by the Welsh – and by others as a scoundrel. The privateers and buccaneers’ days were winding up, and those who did not want to go back to civilization stayed on the seas, becoming the pirates we remember in modern culture.
Bibliography
Pirates! Dir. Henry Chancellor, Discovery Civilization Channel, 2000
Platt, Richard, Pirate, Eyewitness Books, 2007.
Lane, Kris E. Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the AmericasNew York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998.
Grant, Neil, “Twilight of the Buccaneers” in The Mammoth Book of Pirates edited by Jon E. Lewis, Carroll and Grant, 2006.
Breverton, Terry. Admiral Sir Henry Morgan: King of the Buccaneers, Pelican Publishing Company Inc., 2005.
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