171. Captain Morgan - Pirate, Knight & Politician - Part II

"Hello, delicious friends and welcome to Who Then What Now?" The History Podcast that's not your history class, with me your host Katie Choralwood, History Harlett and reader of books. And this is part two of two, the second half, if you will, of the tale of Captain Morgan, the man, not the rum. Right? Speak another rum. I was told this week that it's technically not rum, it's actually more like a bourbon because it's made with like mash or whatever. I have to look that up because I didn't have time. So I am going to look up this whole thing because I was like, is it not rum? But like, I used to do a joke actually about, about Captain Morgan, about Captain Jack Sparrow being like drinking it. I was like drinking it and then catching, so he's like, "Luck, catch is the bottle, brings it down, takes one look at it with an outstretched arm and goes, "Gabby's in Morgan, I don't like the competition and then smashes it on the ground." But yes, to everyone, to everyone who was kind enough to contact me and let me know that there is a town called Jamaica in New York and that's where the sorting officers and that my post wasn't going to the country of Jamaica. Thank you, thank you, a geography, clearly not my strong point. Nobody's coming to me for geographic questions, right? Strangely good at orienting though. I can follow a map. It's just instructions though, and it, like you're just following instructions on a map, really. This is a river, this is a road. If you need, you know, you just recognize places and follow it. Like an IKEA instruction manual. Like if you ever need anyone to help you build a IKEA for the job, I know a gal. It's me, I'm your gal. If you're thinking, "Jeez, this episode came out a wee bit early." Yes, it did. There was nothing I hate more. One of those many things I hate more, like, bigotry. But I generally quite dislike having to wait for a part two of anything because I am genuinely impatient, so I always wanted to get the part two out. But you know, I just physically did not have the time to get this done. Like I am, I am literally at my kitchen table after packing bags because I'm heading to Dublin first thing in the morning because I'm taking the kids and my mom to go see the lights at Dublin's at noon and to go to my son, I'm taking them to a CG5 concert. So like, it's all go. I was working today, we did this, we're going to be going in the morning, it's all go. So like I don't even know if I'm going to be back home in time to record the next episode. So it's probably going to be somewhere between 12 and 24 hours later than it should be. But I have it written, I just have to be able to record it, but I do need to get to sleep tonight. So this needs to be done now. But I know what you're thinking, you're thinking Katie. Let your double, double and fact me and fact you I well because all the sources were listed in the previous episode. So all that's left to say is, are you sitting comfortably? Good, then let's begin. The tale of Captain Henry Morgan, again, the pirate, not the rum. So time to cleft notes catch up. Henry Morgan, actually Harry Morgan, was Welsh. He moved to Bristol, ended up in the West Indies, started off as a soldier for Britain and the Anglo-Spanish war, one of many, many, and he may or may not have been an indentured servant for a time. So he joins a pirate crew, becomes a captain, gaining a no fucking around reputation, becomes a privateer, marries his cousin, becomes an admiral and commits blatant acts of illegal piracy, after which he's in Jamaica making his buddy the deputy governor Thomas Modyford really fucking nervous. Modyford see he had given Henry Morgan a letter of mark. That granted him permission to attack Spanish ships, but not any Spanish territories. So no on land, right? Who can plunder in pillage as long as you're on the water, that you cannot do it on land? Just kinda like in the pirate to the Caribbean movies. Davy Jones could not set foot on land, okay? He could not do that. Just like Captain Morgan could not attack on land, okay? So it used to be, like I said in the previous episode, it used to be that you could attack settlements, right? And that would be fine. But then they basically attacked a settlement a little too hard, and King Charles the second went, "No, don't do that. No." Because like the outrage even amongst like the court and everything because of just how violent and debauched the whole thing was, so they were like, "Oh no, we can't be doing that though." So basically he was like, "The letter of mark covers these specific things." And so Captain Morgan performed illegal acts of piracy. "Now here's the thing. The amount of men and it is men. It is men specifically. Who have been in my comments section this week on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, who keep arguing on behalf of Captain Henry Morgan, as if Captain Henry Morgan did not do the very things that I said he was doing. And one, they're wrong. And two, and two. The level of confidence one has to have to argue with a historian over a topic that they have quite aggressively researched fact checked because, "Listen, I'm not a pirate historian, okay? There are pirate historians just like there are Viking historians, they're not called Viking historians, and they're called something else. They are medieval Norse or whatever it is, right? There are historians, we all focus on our own special topics. You have Dr. Kate Lester, who is a sex historian. As is, I think Dr. Karlin West might be as well. And obviously Dr. Esmelemi's James, she's also a sex historian. These people exist in these fields. I don't know why I chose sex historians, but I know them well, and that seems to be the better option. So, private historians, I am not one of those. I am a historian who covers misinformation and propaganda and history from typically the early modern period upwards. So, "Billshet" in history that has been presented as not "Billshet" really, that's my gig. So when I see something, and I see, say for example, how Henry Morgan was portrayed as opposed to what he did, that I can see that and I work from there. So I've had like actual pirate historians go on and go, "Oh no, she's right by the way." Like, she has though, "Good job." Because I fact check stuff. I do my research words. I don't mean to be a dick about it. And like, and if I get something wrong, grant. I can deal with that. I'll correct it at some point. But like, yeah, yeah, accountability. Yeah. But make sure I'm wrong before you try and correct me because like. What the odacity? Like, you'll not an expert on piracy just because you used to bum DVDs, and understand we really loved lime wire and napster back in the day, but you really need to stop. But yeah, I get back to this. Sorry for the sidebar, but it was just like, really? Like, why are you arguing this? Like, somebody got mad because I used the term "war criminal." They were just like, "war criminals didn't exist yet." And I'm like, "I assure you they did." Just because the terminology didn't exist doesn't mean that the act didn't. Right? Like, get over it. But anyway, back to Captain Morgan. The attack on Portobello was an act of piracy. And it was causing a wee bit of a problem for more effort because. Morgan was his number one privateer. Like, he was very clear about this. This was his number one guy, and he's out there doing a legal shit. And as such, he's guilty by association. So Tom is modified. He was a royalist, right? He had fought on the side of King Charles I during the English Civil War. Now, this meant that he fought against Cromwell and his parliamentarians, but after his military service ended, he like high-tailed it to Bob Beidot's. where he owned a plantation. Right? And while he's in Barbados, he becomes a man of influence and standing. Now, remember none of these are technically good people because you can't own a person and feel like I'm a good guy. No. So he was made a kernel of the regiment in Barbados and so being a royalist when parliamentary forces demanded the surrender of Barbados, he fought for it. Right? He was like, "No." Which was okay for real, but then when Charles the First was beheaded and the royalists lost the Battle of Worcester, his loyalty started to shift a wee bit. Probably because he liked having his head attached to his body. But he ends up entering secret negotiations. So we bit sleeker in that, right? He enters these secret negotiations with the round heads and joined them by taking his regiment with him. No. He gets made governor of Barbados, but in a shocking twist, everybody hates him, you know, probably because he's a fucking tongue coat. So when eventually the monarchy is restored in the restoration, because yeah, of course the monarchy is restored in the restoration. That was really clever right in there, wasn't that? That was really good on my part. When Charles the Second takes the throne, Barbados gets a new governor and modifords out on his arse. He managed to not pass everybody off because he does get the job of deputy governor of Jamaica, right? So he's gone. He's gone, huh? So skip forward to now, and he is stressing because Captain Morgan has plundered this shit out of a major setty on the Spanish main. Like it's not like it was a wee turn and this could be swept under the rug. Like not as if he can cobble this up and hide it. No, no, no, no, no. This is big news and it is absolutely going to reach the ears of the king. So the governor wants to get ahead of the game. What's that? Miss information you say. Creating the narrative you say. What? Who would know anything about that? You say. Anyhow, like he writes to England to exonerate himself, right? He's saying that he didn't sanction or approve the assault on Portobello and that his letter of mark only covered attacks at sea only. Like he is totally trying to save his arse at this point. So he's doing that and he's trying to like add no knowledge this was without my consent, not into doing me by the way. Fapping said. Fapping said. He's like the Caribbean is like super treacherous and dangerous. Like he tries to paint it as like this. Big scary. Like very like lollus plays like it's very dangerous and everybody's watching their back all times and that the Spanish were planning to attack Jamaica and because they were planning to attack Jamaica, he was just trying to get ahead of it because of those dastardly spannials. So Mordivert is telling England that Captain Morgan wasn't doing any of that under his orders but he was preemptively striking the enemy to protect British territory. So effectively, the blame is being shifted to the Spanish. Like, under helps, you know, that they have been at war quite a few times because you've got like one Anglo-Spanish war and then you have another Anglo-Spanish war like there's a lot of Anglo-Spanish wars happening. That being said, when is the Anglo-Nottet war? You know what I mean? At this point, right at war with Christmas. Sorry, I can't help myself. I just love the fact is well that he's trying to turn around to go add no knowledge of this but he was doing the right thing though because those Spanish over there, what's interesting though, out of all the antagonising and attacking that's happening like during this? Very little of the attacking, like the going on the offense is by the Spanish. Like, I'm not here to justify any colonial power by any stretch of the imagination, but like they're just kind of there a lot of the time and they're not, it's certainly not to the extent that the English are doing like it's wild. So now Morgan and Mordeford, they have a plan. Spain is the enemy and they're going to attack. So they're basically trying to like create this narrative that the Spanish are getting ready to attack English territory as if we're not just you know trying to continue invading the continent that they have colonized, right? Weird. But yeah, Morgan, he leaves Port Royal and he sails with 800 men across ten ships. Do Iravesh? Yes, to those of you who speak French, that is Kau Island. Yep, yep, that was, I'm going to assume an island that they put cows on. What's funny is like the Spaniards, like I mentioned in the previous episode, they'd brought like livestock with them and so at this point they had created like feral hogs and feral cows just like out in the wild. Like they undemesticated a cow as a cow domesticated but like yeah there was just like oxen and wild like things happening specifically because the Spanish brought them over. But yeah, so Kau Island, Iravesh is a rendezvous point for him and his men and what if he was now in on this, he's like okay we need to sort of build ourselves up a wee bit. And so he sends a royal navy frigate. So a frigate if you don't know was a three-mastered warship like especially during the 17th century. So it's quite fast, you know, it's the quicker than a galleon for example and it was used for like scouting, reading, escorting, like it was just yeah it was it was a warship okay anyway. This royal navy frigate the oxfold. It was sent by Modiford to be the flagship of Morgan's fleet and so and by adding this impressive ship to the fleet Captain Morgan would be able to take the Spanish settlement of Katahenla de India's quite easily. This ship was massive it had like 36 guns like it was a very intimidating vessel. Like and the whole point of it was that like it's a warship. Now it's a navy warship there was no reason to be giving this to a privateer but Modiford's like let's do this famous last words no it's no famous last words that being said it's okay let's get into this. So Katahenla de India's was the richest city on the Spanish main right it is a major port on the northern coast of what is now Colombia I think it's now just called Katahenla so it was the main port for the export of Bolivian-Selvotspane and it was a massive trade port for the Spanish Empire and Kale's surprise it was a key part in the import of enslaved Africans under the Asiento de Negroes and what's that when it's at home well let me tell you the Asiento de Negroes or the agreement of blacks I don't like saying that out loud it was a contract system used by the Spanish crown between the 16th and 18th centuries this granted monopoly rights to like merchants or companies Asiento's does to supply a set number of enslaved Africans to the Spanish Americas like in exchange for payments to the crown and access to this trade so yeah this place is super rich because it's a major hub of the Spanish American slave trade right that's what this is so Lonemani loads of stuff going on so Captain Morgan he gets to Irabash, Kaewa Island and he sees a French ship there and he offers to have that ship join their fleet in the attack but they polently declined at queues to the request Now, this friendship, French ship, not French ship, French ship, they had taken provisions from an English ship and they had not paid for them. Instead, had given them bills of exchange, which they were to be paid in Tortuga and Jamaica. So it's basically like an IOU situation, which is very trusting. So more getting, he acts like Tordlico that he's like bills of exchange, that's totally fine. But remember, he is a sneaky sausage. He invites the French commander and his men to join him and to dine on his massive ship and when they step on board, they are taken prisoner and they are very confused, right? Very confused. He tells them that they're being arrested for piracy against a British vegetable, right? And he just takes the ship, right? So he's feeling very smug at this point that well, right? He's taken the ship, he's gone, oh, this is piracy because you didn't pay for them and they're like, but we're going to pay for them and he's like, are you though? Are you though? So he's just blaming them for following the rule of the thing they were doing, right? He's a lip holder, right? A ba karma is a bitch like me. And on the second of January, 1669, he calls a council of war with all of his captains aboard the Oxfilt because they're obviously getting me on the bear ship, obviously. And then there's a spark in the powder magazine. So, a big ship loads of guns, 36, so lots of gunpowder, lots of stuff on that ship and then, but a Bing, but a boom. Well, that's actually funny because like what I wrote here on the and my notes was boom, shakalakalakabum. Well, I'm too wait to say that. Anyway, the Oxfilt exploded because, again, all of the gunpowder. The ship was destroyed and 300 of Morgan's men were dead. So Morgan and the captains on one side of the table, they were blasted, right, out of the ship and into the water. And they survived. The four on the other side of the table did not. The Oxfilt was tied to two other ships at the time. So when it sank, it brought two more down with it, right, as it was sinking, like it goes down. Now, I feel like, because this was happening at a council of warmeeting, I feel like loose lips sink ships. That being said, there is a theory, right? There is a wee theory that it's not just this that led to this happening, that it wasn't just like an accidental spark. There's a theory that with the capture of these, you know, French, whatever, sailors and this French ship that they acquired, that they were like, celebrating and having to be partying and, you know, going about too far and then wish somebody, strike something. And again, boom, Shaqqalakabum. Yeah, now I'm definitely too wait for that. So this ship goes down to other ships, go down with it and Captain Morgan instructs his crew to search for bodies, you know. But like not to give them a proper burial or anything, right? He's not, he's not that into it. The reason he's doing that is so that they can search the bodies of the dead for valuables. So they do that, he collects them altogether, they search them for valuables, and then they dump them back into the ocean to be devoured by the monsters of the sea. The monsters of the sea. That was my attempt at Welsh, a Welsh accent. It's not great. So he's got all the valuables from his dead men. He's lost three ships, including his super big awesome 30-sex gun ship. The frigate is gone. And now he has to figure out what to do next. So Morgan, he's lost a ton of men and his best ship. So he's not feeling at this point super confident. So instead of attacking the very rich, very important city of Carthagena, he decides to aim for a smaller target. So they go look for one. And this is like, this is just a calamity of errors. Like more ships are separated from his flotilla due to like a storm. And then he is down to eight ships and 500 men, which is less than what he started with. Right? Like this 800, he'd got an the island. Like he had other crews join him. So he had like 1200 at one point. And it's just like a load, a load. But this French pirate that's there, he suggests that they attack Marrakeibu and Gibraltar. They're both on Lake Marrakeibu and modern Dave Venezuela. I have also heard it being referred to as the sea of Marrakeibu. Now I listen again, geography, not my strong point. Is it a lake? Is it a sea? I mean, it has an opening from the ocean. Okay. So Marrakeibu and Gibraltar, they had been attacked two years previously. And so this guy, he knew the area. So when the fleet get to the sea of Marrakeibu, and it's basically a lagoon, okay? And the big ships, they cannot make it through. It's such a small entrance like to this lake, they just, they're not going to fat. And so they get into small boats and canoes, right? Canoes will keep showing up. They're not kayaks, they're canoes. That's the shape of the boat. Sidebar. I once got into an argument with my uncle's ex-wife when I was, I want to say somewhere between nine and eleven. It was somewhere between nine and eleven because of when I was in school. Because I know I was still a national school at that point, which is like primary school or like elementary school. So that's where I was there. So I was, I was reading some non-fiction story. I think it was a bit enubit culture or something. And it was talking about how kayaks are made. Because it was talking about like family structures and sort of living accommodations and how travel and hunting and all this kind of stuff worked. And they were talking about kayaks and how they were made with like a frame and then an animal's skin was stretched over. And it was talking about the many uses of blubber because that kept coming up. About how there was a lack of waste in this type of society. And yeah, I was reading this at the time and this grown-ass woman kept arguing with me that kayaks and canoes were the same thing. And I'm like, no, they're not because I'd been in a kayak and I'd been in a canoe. Like I'd been in both of them actually is part of a school trip. So I was like these are two different things. They're made from different materials. They're different shapes and they're from different regions. They're like from totally different cultures. Like they're not even remotely the same. And again, they're they're grown adult women arguing with a child. And because I wouldn't back down and I wouldn't lie and say that I was wrong, then not only did she get angry with me but my uncle got angry with me and every adult in the house got angry with me including my own father. It was only when my mom came home and she had to deal with this and she had to figure out why I was crying in my room and why I was being punished, right? By a bunch of grown people who should fucking know better. And she was like, I'm sorry. What did you do? And she's like, oh, so you punished her for being right and they're like, oh, she was talking back. And it's like, were she talking back at the beginning or did she talk back after you tried to call her a liar or to say that she didn't know what she was talking about? Like, is that what happened? And it's like, yeah, that's what happened. And then she gave my dad an absolute bollacan for being a prick and not standing up for his door. But yeah, so that was such a such a thing. But like, I was like, they're from different places. They're not the same thing. So anyway, can you as I made a word? and there are these canoes because the water was so shallow. So like since the earlier attack, like on Maracaybo and on Gibraltar, like the Spanish had built the San Carlos de la Barra Fortes, which is, you know, a fortress, so that was where they headed. So like they had seen the pirates approaching, and so the fortress left only nine men to load and fire. These nine soldiers, right, they fired at the marauders. But when Captain Morgan and his men stormed the fortress, it was completely abandoned. Right, so they had fired out on the way in, but when they actually reach it, everybody scarped like they're gone. Right, probably because they've dealt with this before and this time they've just gone, no, no, no, no, and off they go. So that's happened, and they're like, they've gone. So then they decide, listen, we're going to make her way into the 10. And so when they reach Maracaybo, it is deserted. Basically the town's folk, when they saw the pirates approaching, they just caught the heck at a dodge. So they had been warned by obviously the guys in the fortress and they'd all just legged it. Taking all their valuables with them. So the pirates, they make themselves comfortable. And then they sent out a group of about 100 men into the forest to find the town's valuables. And as they're searching, they find their tea people. They bring them back into the town and immediately start torturing them. This torture lasted for three whole weeks, three weeks of the rack, all beatings, all of burnings. Right, so much torture and by the end of the three weeks, information had been spelled and a 100 families had been captured. So he manages to get 100 families and then steals their shit. Yeah well, he's like my chef's sunk. This has happened. I need a wedding. He just needs that. What is the word for that? He just needs to keep winning. He can't stop himself. I mean, he could have had this big attack and then a chef's sink and then he's like, I need to attack something. Like I need to go destroy stuff. And then he's allowing torture. Like he's the captain. He's probably an admiral for this group actually. And they'll just like, what do they do? And he's like, let's just torture them if they're not going to give our stuff. Because he is so determined to get his booty so determined. And this is when, after getting as much as he can, from Mara Kaibo, he sets his sights on Gibraltar. Just like Mara Kaibo, when the pirates reach Gibraltar, it's also deserted. Every single person saved for one man who was, well, he appears to have had an intellectual disability according to the records. His clothes were ragged and he was clearly not a man of means. And they still tortured him for information. They put him on the rack and demanded to know where the treasure was. And after being tortured, he confessed to having treasure. And he brought them to a shack that was, it looked basically abandoned. And in it, he had three pieces of eight. Now clearly they're like, this isn't enough. And they're angry at this point because he's led them to what he thinks is treasure. Like these three pieces of eight, he's like, treasure, here's treasure. And he gets tortured again. And when he's being tortured, he says that he's the brother of the governor of Mara Kaibo. But just makes them angrier. And so they torture him more. They put him on the rack. They break his shoulders. And they burn him alive by putting flaming palm tree leaves on his body. This time these pirates are very torture heavy. They go searching into the forest for the townspeople who fled. And they come across an enslaved man. The pirates promised him gold and his freedom. I feel sure them where people were hiding. And yeah, he did. Right. I feel like also tortured and enslaved. Or free. I feel like, like hedging his bets. This did seem like the best option. Like, I'm not mad at this guy. I feel like he was kind of like damned if he dead, damned if he didn't. Like either way, he was going to be, he was going to end up dead. So I feel like considering he was viewed as property by, you know, the Spanish settlement he was in. And these bunch of guys who are just like he's sure as where these guys are. And you can join our crew and be free. And his look, you know what, I wouldn't mind being free actually. I don't feel like a good time. So what does help? They find more people, hear then, and form them where more people are hiding. Right. They find 250 townspeople hiding in the forest. They continue to torture people in the most barbaric ways. The rack crushed with boulders burning them just lots and lots of horrible stuff. Like at one point, they find a family. And they tell the guy that they're just going to straight up murder and torture his children in front of him. If he doesn't show them where more people are. And so yeah, he does that. Right. This is not a situation where the pirates are the good guys. That being said, nobody hears really that good a guy in this story. So they've been in Gibraltar at this point. I think it's like five weeks. And the citizens of Mara Kaibo had time to regroup while Morgan's crew plundered and tortured. He took prisoners with him as a bargaining chip, which was very smart in the scenario because when he reached Mara Kaibo, they were informed that three large Spanish ships had arrived at the very small entrance and were waiting for pirates to try and escape. The Armada de Barvolento was under the command of Don Alenzo del Campo Iyip Spinoza. Every Spanish speaker, every Spanish speaker who just helped me say that is like, what is she doing? What are those words coming at home? How does she know what a syllable is? I don't speak Spanish. I guess I did this in a previous episode, sidebar, that my friend Sahara, she wrote me a letter and I was reading the false few lines and I was really, really confused. I thought I was going insane. But then I realized that she was writing in Spanish. Like for a second, I thought I couldn't read cursive anymore and then I realized it was in Spanish and that's why I know I do always have any. And she did it to fuck with me because I don't read Spanish. So yes, the Armada were under the orders to end piracy in the Caribbean and to and Captain Morgan decided to fuck this for Game of Soldiers and sent one of the Spanish prisoners in a small boat to have a wee chat with these ships. Yeah, but not my idea. He returns with a letter from the admiral of the Spanish fleet and he says that he's been chasing Morgan's fleet for a while, lost them in the storm and won't know. But basically says if he surrenders, prisoners, if he surrenders the treasure, then they can just leave. Without the threat of attack from the al-Bague massive ships. Otherwise, they're going to blow them out to the water. Oh, and they didn't sure that they had killed every single last one of them. Under threat of being blown out of the water by this Spanish Armada, the negotiations last a week just going back and forth. So Captain Morgan asks his men what they want to do, which is very democratic, like I said, pirate ships, it's floating democracies, right? He asks them what they want to do, like he's the captain, he needs the crew behind him to do the next part and has men tell him that they don't want to give up any of their spoils and that they would rather die and he's like "bett". So Captain Morgan sends another letter back to Espinoza saying he'll release half the prisoners without ransom, the other half were to be ransomed and if you want it you gotta pay for it. He also refused to return any of the treasure. So the letter gets sent to Espinoza who is getting more and more pissed and obviously declines this all far. But it doesn't really matter because this letter only exists to buy some time. Because these pirates, they're outgunned, outmaned, outnumbered, outplanned and they decide that this is yet another situation that can be solved with fire. They plan to send out a fire ship. That is a ship that's set on fire for anyone who's not in the nautical know. Basically, they make a ship extra flammable or extra inflemable depending on how big a score you want and scrabble and they make it look fully manned. So they have logs that are dressed in men's clothing but really it's only got like a crew of 12. And the 12 guys, they are on the ship with the logs dressed as people and they set the ship on fire and abandoned ships. So basically you need the best swimmers to do that job. So they head out with a fire ship leading the fleet and the other ships following. The fire ship, the ship on fire collates with the Spanish ships. It hits Don Arlanzo de Campo y Espanosa's massive gunship, setting it on fire and then causing it to sink. Another of the ships catches fire and seals towards the San Carlos de la Barra Fortress, which now is manned by Espanosa's men and they shoot it sinking it because they don't want it taken by the pirates. Right? This is that scorched earth policy. We don't want anybody to have it if we can't have it. So we're going to burn it to the ground. So the pirates, they do take the third Spanish ship and add it to their fleet. And the Fortress being manned was a sticky bucket for the men though. So before they tried like the Fennel escape plan, they devied out all the planter equally just in case. So before the fire ship situation, they did this. The plan was to send 10 men a shore and a robot, two men rowing, right? And then 10 being brought to the shore. So there's technically 12 failures and a robot, right? So this was spotted by the Spanish manning the Fort. So it readyed itself for a land attack. A land attack that wasn't coming. They'll sleek it with a tell you, the sneaky Diki. When the boat was bringing the men a shore, no it wasn't. It just looked like it was. So when the boat is rowing to shore, so you've got 12 men visible setting up in the boat, two men are rowing and the other 10 are just sitting there, right? That is being sailed over to the land and therefore a little while and then when it rows away, they only see the two men rowing. That's because when the boat rode away from the shore, the 10 men lay down as not to be seen. And they dead this many times, right? They had done this, I think, from, what was it from like morning to night or night to morning? They dead this like over the course of several hours to make it look like they were just bringing more and more men to shore. And so because they thought all these guys were going to attack them from land, the Spaniards had fortified the side of the fortress facing the land, expecting the attack to come from there and the entire side that faced the sea was free of cannons. So the pirates were able to sail away without receiving more damage. Now, well, this is going on, well, all of this is happening and they are out away for going free. The British and Spanish are communicating, right? Basically, the Spanish are sick of being rated especially when they're not doing it to British territories, right? If they were both like attacking each other's settlements, then you know, that would be a thing, but they're not both doing it. It's just these British privateers that are doing it and pirates and the Buccaneers. 'Cause like the French are at it as well, like they're all at it, right? So they're saying privateers are the problem, right? And then you've got more different here saying that privateers are necessary, but also I never told them to do that. So this all reaches a boiling point with the attack by Morgan and his fleet. And when Mariana of Austria, the Queen Regent of Spain, here is a bit this, she declares war on all the English and the Caribbean. She orders all of her governors to dispossess the English, all their ships, islands, places and ports. She even allowed the governors to issue letters of mark against English vessels. So now the Spanish are private hearing too. And modifart, he is now bricking it because he's the one in Jamaica, he was the one at risk, and he's pleading for permission to attack the Spanish and retaliation. But the Crown did not want to poke the bear. Because they were trying to negotiate a treaty when Captain Manuel Roberto Pandal attacked another part of Jamaica. And left a note. This note allegedly challenges Captain Morgan to a battle. I mean, I like that it's like come and get me. So modifart, he is super fricking out now and makes Henry Morgan commander in chief of all port royal ships and authorised any attack on Spanish vessels and ports if necessary. So England, right, it's saying don't attack the Spanish. And so modifart says, "Peace modest as possible when carrying out attacks of war." And obviously Morgan's like, "I'll try." But if there is a threat, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you know what I mean? So off he sails to the Yravash and yeah, he's sucking so many Spanish ports. Like at a time when he's been told not to fucking do it. Like do it modestly and he's like, "I'm going to fuck with every single one of these places." Right? He's raiding and plundering with a force of 1500 men. He speaks to his captains about what to do next, right? They have a war council. And they all agree that they should attack a Spanish city. Remember in the last episode that thing about Panama? Well, Panama City is not in the Caribbean. It's not in the Caribbean because it's not in the Caribbean side. Like it's on the Pacific, right? So in order to get to it. And it's a bit of a trick to get there in fairness. So in order to get to it, Morgan has to say. sail down the Chagrace River with his fleet. Also, an addition, farther more, this river was also guarded by the Chagrace Castle. So after the castle, they have to sail like 40, 50 miles down this river, then walk when they get closer. But before all of that, they have to attack the island of Providence, which was manned by 300 Spanish soldiers. They besieged the island for two days, and eventually they surrendered. So after this, about some more between like 40 and 500 men were sent to take Chagrace Castle, which they did, but they lost 150 or so men in the attack. And about a week after this, Captain Morgan regrouped with his 1200 men, and sailed down the Chagrace River. Halfway? Sealed halfway, and then walked halfway. Right, I mean, that's a hell of a trick, man. They would have been exhausted, which obviously is not the best state to be in to besiege a city. So after they sail the 40, 50 miles, and then walk the rest of the way because it's just not any other option with this terrain. There's just not. So when they land outside Panama City, they are met with a Spanish force of 2500 men, which is more than double what Morgan had. And these Spaniards, they fire a single shot, and then they bolt it like they go. So that's weird, right? And what's weirder is that when they get to into the city, almost every building is burning. The president of Panama had set the city ablaze before fleeing because he didn't want it taken by pirates. So the butcher here, it was a small one for all that effort. So then on the way home, it got worse. The fleet got absolutely banjaxed by storms, the roundout of provisions. And in the end, four fifths of the fleet that left Jamaica died. That being said, when Captain Morgan returned to Jamaica, he was seen as an English hero. Meanwhile, Anglund and Spain had signed a treaty which ended the war. Meaning Captain Morgan's attack on Panama happened during a time of peace. And Spain was pissed. But they didn't want Morgan. They wanted his boss, Thomas Modiford. So he gets taken prisoner, brought back to Anglund and chucked into the Tower of London for three years. Fun fact, when he's released, he just returns to Jamaica. He just goes back. Captain Morgan too, he is called to Anglund to defend all his plundering, pelaging and marauding on the Spanish. So he gets brought before the king. Who's like, but why though? Like you did it, but why? You had a letter of mark, you knew the rules. Like why'd you do it? And Henry Morgan, he's like, I had orders and I had authority, so I just did it. Like I could. And this level of just, again, massive cojones, right? Just huge, just the testosterone oozing out of this man. He was just eats such audacity. And like King Charles was like really into it. Like he really sort of got it. And here's the thing as well, the stories of Captain Morgan, the pirate, the privateer who's like defending British territories and the Caribbean. Remember how they said the Spanish were going to attack Jamaica? Remember how the Spanish attacked Jamaica like after, after this? So because those attacks started happening, it was like, look, he was right as if he wasn't the fucking trigger, you know? And Morgan, Morgan is just really impressing everybody. And so the king on the court, the like, oh, you had orders, that's fair enough. And so he's so impressed with this just stuff. He's like, oh, you did really well. And so he nights him. Like he nights him like a bachelor of the realm or something. He even contacts him for advice on how to fight with the Dutch. Right? He's like, listen, I good to fight the Dutch. Even though I was over there for so long and now we're just at war. So advice please. And so obviously he gives it to him. Then in 1675, Captain Morgan returns to Jamaica. After he is named Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Island and its forces. At this point, he had three large plantations. And he's leading campaigns against the Jamaican marines. Right? He's, again, he's not a good guy. It's after this that Captain Morgan gets into politics. And like he's supposed to be redding the Caribbean of pirates and private eels, but he kind of turns a blind eye to a lot of it. And he uses Port Royal for that sort of, hey, come over and do your stuff here. Do your trade. We'll take the spices. You've stolen or whatever. By the late 1670s. Right? The French are becoming an increasing threat in the Caribbean. And Morgan declares martial law in both 1678 and 1680, where he was made a temporary governor. Like he before to fight the port and increased artillery defenses. And he's just like preparing for this kind of stuff. And when he's on the assembly of Jamaica, like he tries to keep things right. But his secretary commits fraud, forging his signature on an illegal proclamation, establishing the monopoly of the Royal African company. Yeah, that's the slave trade, guys. That's a slave trade. So two former governors who absolutely hated him after donating a good chunk of money to the Crown had Captain Morgan's commissions as lieutenant, lieutenant general and lieutenant governor revoked. Now, I had someone email me and say it by heart. Do you be like, if it's American, it's lieutenant, if it's British, it's lieutenant. I know I was one and I'm like, you know what, that's fair. That's fair. That's on me. Sometimes my brain doesn't click if it's the same spelling and I'm like, is it? Okay. Shit. But yeah, so he's lieutenant. Left didn't. It just sounds better when you say it with the accent. Now Morgan, he's got his left-end and governor and left-end and general revoked. But he is still on the assembly of Jamaica. But he's not doing great now because he's drinking heavily and the alcohol is a detriment to his health. By 1687, he was L. Very L. The second jick of Albemarle was the new governor and he sends his personal possession to check on him. Because he's like, someone's going on here. I need to make sure this dude's okay because he doesn't mind. You know, Captain Morgan, the previous governor is where we're like, we hate this guy and he's like, he's fine. He's just some old dude. And so he sends his private doctor to go check on him. And Captain Morgan, he's diagnosed with dropsafe. So dropsafe, if you don't know, is edema. So basically it's fluid retention and swelling under the skin. The thing with Dropsay, what a demon does, is that. There's like swelling and heaviness in the affected areas. So like it's typically on like arms and legs and feet that you'd notice it. They're puffy, they feel heavy, they look swollen. Your skin becomes like tight and shiny and discolored. You can get like dense in it sometimes. Your limbs get ache, your joints get stiff and it's harder to move. Then with this as well you have circulatory issues, right? It reduces blood flow and so you've got the flexibility in like ariravanes and your joints. It's just buggering up your circulation. And then of course you're more likely to get infections with this. So you've got like skin ulcers can happen. You've got cellulitis that can happen. It means you're more likely to be wounded because of the way the skin is stretched, right? But there's always like a demon, there's usually like an underlying like thing, whether it's like a kidney problem or liver issues. And if he's drinking the way he's drinking, I'm not surprised those kidney and liver issues to be honest. But like a demon basically signals an underlying issue like heart, kidney liver problems. And many, many issues I've left untreated. Not that there's a lot that you can do in the 17th century. On the 25th of August 1688, Henry Morgan died in his sleep at Lawrence Field Estate, Jamaica. The governor ordered a state funeral and Henry Morgan's body was laid out at King's house for those to pay their respects. Here's a wild fact about this. Amnesty was declared so that privateers and pirates could pay their respects without being arrested. There were like, listen, if there's a bounty on you, if you're a pirate, you know, whatever, you can still come this day, pay respects to Morgan. And you know, without threat of being like arrest or killed. Like by the soldiers and the governing body. Like if someone else treats you, that's a you problem. No, um, Vidape. So he was buried at Palasadus Cemetery on Port Royal. And there was a 22 guns salute from Cheps Murlund and the Harbour. When he died, right, when he died, he was a man of means. He had like 5,263 pounds, it's like, perisinal wealth. Which, in today's money, I put it through a calculator on the Bank of England's inflation calculator, which by the way, checks how prices in the UK have changed in 12 or 9. And so, yeah, so 5,263 pounds in 1688 would end as of October this year, 2025. And today's money would be 1,148,621 pounds in 70 pence. So he died a millennium, so that's, that's not that weird. So initially, he left his plantations and the enslaved people that he owned to his wife, Maria Lezibeth. So when she died because of, like, his well, they passed to his nephew, which are the children of his brother-in-law. Like, like, it's funny when people tell me that they're related to Captain Morgan, which is like, kinder, because, like, there's no direct line there. Like, there's no direct line to Captain Morgan because he didn't have any children. That we knew of, right? But, yes, so effectively, his god-sons, Charles Bindloss and Henry Archbold, they were going to get, like, all of his estate and everything, as long as they changed their surname to Morgan. And these were the children of his two cousins, right? To his sister, like, he gave what was it, like, 60 pounds a year. And, yeah. Yeah. So here's a weird thing that happened a few years after his death, like, and I mean four years after his death. An earthquake strikes Port Royal and, like, two-thirds of the town sank into Kingston Harbor, right? Including Palisadeau Cemetery. So Captain Morgan's grave. That fell into the sea. So the entire cemetery has body, so it goes into the sea and it's never recovered, because, of course, it isn't, because earthquake and the sea and monsters of the ocean. So, yeah. That's a weird thing to happen. But that is, and that is the end of the story, of the pirate and privateer, because you can be both at once, of Henry Morgan. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, I don't know if I mentioned it in the last episode, and may have mentioned it in the last episode, but I don't remember it. Some of you might think, hey, is she being a bit of a hypocrite, because I'm calling him Henry Morgan, as opposed to Harry Morgan, because his name was Harry. So, a couple things to remember. One, Henry was pronounced Harry, like it was pronounced that way for years. That's why, Prince Harry's name is Henry. That's his legal name. So, that's a thing, like Henry the 8th would have been called Harry the 8th, but it just was, it was a thing back in the day. Now, when he was knighted, so when Henry Morgan, when he was knighted by King Charles, he was knighted as Henry Morgan. And so, he was known from that point, at least, as Henry Morgan, if he wasn't before. So, that was a name that he personally used in his lifetime, that he adopted and used. And so, as such, we can go that to his name, right? If someone, if you call them a name that they were never called in their lifetime, that they never wanted that someone just gave to them because they thought it sounded better, then that's not the same thing. And it's not good to accept. But, again, here ends the story of Captain Morgan. Actually, I'm going to look up this rum thing when we say, "OK, I looked it up and apparently flavored rum because it's a blend of rums with Madagascan vanilla." Now, no man is an island unless his name is Madagascan. Anyway, can't help myself. So, hence the story of Captain Morgan, it's a rum-ish, apparently, not a whiskey or a bourbon-sory. That's matured in bourbon barrels, but so are many things. Like, some things are aged in different barrels. Anyway, I kind of whiskey that's aged in a cognac barrel, it doesn't make a cognac. Anyway, I spent a lot of time visiting distilleries because they're usually in historic places. I usually have a really interesting history behind them. Even though I don't really drink anymore, it's very rare that I drink. It's like, anyway. It's that time at the end. Oh, goodness. I have a shorn bellfast. If you like me and are near bellfast, I am February 1st, playing bellfast. Come see me. I'm amazing. It's the perfect Christmas present to give someone, or an Airelli Mother's DeGaft, or a Saint Bridget's Deep Present. Just go on. Just come see me. I'm very fun. And if I have to tell something to pressing, I've got jokes and mubbibs. Now, I see jokes. I have fun cellophacts and mubbibs. And they come out. It shows the facts. Not the boobs. That is a different show. So, so now of course we are at recommendation time. Now, for watching, I was a mess last week, I think, when I did not tell you to watch the classic movie, one of the best pirate movies to exist. And the last century. I'm up at Treasure Island. I did a show where it wasn't Canada. It was Boston, where whenever I had to tell a really bad part of the story, I had a fun fact about a mubbib at Treasure Island. I just, I love it so much. It's so good. For for lessening. Now, I do have the last word. link for Stamad, go listen to Stamad, stream Stamad. Come on, let's support and apprendant artists, people. Do I have a new listening recommend? No, you know what? No, listen to Stamad or I will Stamad. Okay, I'm going to show you how much I want it to do well because like I don't repeat intentionally. It happens sometimes because I consume a lot of the same media over and over again. The link is down below, stream it now. I've actually had a really fun idea for a video based on that song just because of how much shit I've been getting this week specifically from Man About Pirates. And I was like, oh my goodness, I should do like a Stamad video, like sucks to be ears boys. But yes, and for reading, you know what? Screw it. Read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Will it be as good with Muppets? No. It clearly will not be good without Muppets. And of course, I love him. I love him so much. Tim Curry. Tim Curry. Actually, you know what? Bonest though, his deck of antique reached 100 years old. And I think we need to celebrate him because he is amazing and I love him. And you know what? He was an absolute stunner when he was younger, right? Like you're even though, like even in his diagnosis, martyr days, you would though. That should be a rewatch sometime. But no, we're not going to do that now because we are very much focused on our pirates thing. To deck the antique ever play a pirate. Anyway, that is your recommendation. And with that, I am going to say adios au revoir. A vuit de Zemma friends. Bye bye.