170. Captain Morgan - Privateer, Pirate & Buccaneer - Part I

Hello, delicious friends and welcome to Herodad Warnow, the history podcast that's not your history class, with me, your host, Katie Chowward, history highlight and reader of books. So I would like to preemptively apologize if at any point over the next few episodes you hear my laptop, because it's fucking noisy. It sounds like an airplane taking off. It is absolutely ridiculous. I have done everything. It's the fans. It's a 10-year-old laptop. I've got to come up the ghost now. I've done the pressure error thing. I've done the take in the back off and scrubbing it thing. There's not much else I can do. I now need to replace the laptop. But of course those are expensive, so I am saving up. So you're going to have to bear with me for a few more episodes. I mean, I did try and get a replacement laptop a few years ago. At the suggestion of someone who allegedly knew what they were talking about, spoiler alert, they did not. And it was absolute bollocks. It just couldn't do anything. Anything at all. I had episodes that I would be in the middle of the recording and it would just shut down. And I would lose the audio file forever. And I cried so much. It caused me such, such issues. But speaking of daylight robbery, we're doing a month on pirates. This is pirate month. And you may be thinking why does Amber of all times listen? I wanted to talk about something that wasn't incredibly depressing. She says who's going to talk about just horrible things for the next few episodes. But like pirates, you can kind of have a little bit of fun with piracy. I mean, anyone who had an appster or a line wire knows what kind of pirate audio. The swashbuckling one or the one who burns DVDs. Oh, if you're so young that you don't know what burning a CD is, oh, that may be another history lesson that I'll just have to do at some point. But yeah, I was like pirates because I wanted to do something a little bit more fun. She says about like horrible stuff because this time of year, especially this time of year can be really hard for a lot of people. It can be really difficult, especially if you're neurodivergent. So if you're neurodivergent, you are affected more on big days, not just because of the what goes up must come down scenario. But these big days, like big events, high holidays, whatever, they can like really, really affect your regulation and whatnot. Like your ADHD symptoms, it's like they're turned up to 11 this time of year. And on top of this, typically people are more likely to suffer anxious or depressive episodes during the festive period. And so I'm like pirates. That being said, I am going to be talking about Raiders, Marauders, Pelagers, plundering, murdering, torture, rubbing stealing, slavery, cloning lesson, and just a whole lot of crime. So if you have an issue with any of those, I'm going to suggest you exit stage left and I will see you in like two episodes. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking KT, it has been over three minutes. Please quit your job, job, job, and fucked me and fact you I will. But first, we've got to get our source on. Our sources are private years and pirates of the West Endies by Violet Barber, pirates of the original Panama Canal by Samir Espanyl, piracy and the lyrics of Renate of the 18th century Atlantic by Mark Scherck. Pirates of the West Endies by Clinton V. Black, piracy and history by Adlerie Morally, Buccaneers of the Caribbean, how piracy forged an empire by John Latimer. Modern scholarship and Caribbean pirate 1650 to 1725 by Larry Schweigat and B. R. Berg, Sir Thomas Mordefurt by Noelle Zahidio, Henry Morgan by David Williams, Jamaica Gleaner, pieces of the past, Henry Morgan the Pirate King by Rebecca Tartello, the Buccaneer King, the story of Captain Henry Morgan by Greem Thomas, pirates by Gans Buccaneers and privateers in fact, Fection and Legend by John Urugazinski, the history of piracy by Philip Gors. Iberia and the Americas, Culture, Politics and History by John Michael Francis. Buccaneer, Adleros or Henry Morgan by H.R. Allen, Adleros or Henry Morgan, the greatest Buccaneer of them all by Terry Breverton, the Buccaneers of America, a true account of the most remarkable assault committed of late years upon the coasts of the West Endes by the Buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga by John X. Gomeslyn. I have definitely must pronounce his name and of course we have our old favourites, history.com and biography.com. Well, I use it in comfortable, good, then let's begin. Captain Morgan more than just a rum, he was a real person from Wales of all places. So Wales is a country that's sort of on the side of England and it's part of Britain and the UK but it is also its own country lesson. Geography is political and it's also weird anyway. So Henry or as he was originally, Harry Morgan was born around 1635 in either Penkahn or Chlannrommne in Wales. Basically one of these two towns which is between Cardiff and Newport. So as father he's a successful farmer and naturally it was assumed that he would follow and his father's footsteps. But alas, Harry had other plans. He ends up moving to Bristol which I have mentioned in previous episodes that Bristol was a port town and Bristol is fairly close to Cardiff. So like once you get there you're just like a hop skiff in a jump away. Like they're really really close. And so Henry/Harry, he is seeking adventure. So his uncle I believe is some kind of semen. I'm not sure which type but at that point he's something to do with a man on the sea. And Henry here he's seeking adventure and so he makes his way to Bristol for exciting employment opportunities and he reaches the docks. He manages to make his way from Bristol to Barbados. Now I don't think I mentioned that this time about Bristol as it's actually an English town. So it's an English port town. It's just across from like Cardiff and Wales to separate countries. They are a bit part of another. It's a thing. So yes you have Bristol to Barbados. How? I mean logically one would assume he either joined a crew or he stood away or perhaps he just tied an inflatable banana to the bank of a ship and hoped for the best. Yet my friends, net. So there are two main theories because we don't actually know exactly how he got there. Right? The first theory being that he traveled to the Caribbean as part of Robert Venable's army. Like they were being sent over there as part of the Caribbean expedition against the Spanish by Oliver Crumwell. I know that I discussed this actually Oliver Crumwell and the whole monarchy situation in several episodes. I think it's in some of the wet episodes and I know I talked about it in the Barbara Palmer episode. So I will probably just do an episode on Crumwell at some point. That day is not today though because why would I speak about a man if I don't have to? I say that as if I'm not talking about Captain Morgan today. But like, like I mean I have so many pirates I've got to talk about some of the male ones. Right? Anyway, it's equality. Right? It's fair. So the other theory as to how Henry Morgan got to the Caribbean was that he was taken to Barbados as crew and then sold on as a servant. Neither is verified. Right? For the record. traveling on the ship and then becoming a servant on the other side, that's indentured servitude. It was a way that a lot of people actually go to the new world. So someone would pay their passage and their passage would result in them like working on the other side and then they would work off so many years and they're like basically paying off a debt effectively. So you could work your way out of indentured servitude. You could not work your way out of slavery. Just want to confirm this for the people who may not know that. And again I feel like I've discussed this many times before. It's just a lot of history repeating. So when he's in Barbados he does join Robert Vanibles Army and it's from this military service that Henry Morgan finds himself in the world of piracy and privateering. And this is around the 1650s which is like the beginning of the golden age of piracy. Now the golden age of piracy lasted between like 1650 and 1720 maybe 1730 1730 actually. Yeah because it's 80 years in total. And not that long in the grand scheme of things but it's a good chunk of time this 80 year period. And the golden age of piracy itself is split into three periods. You've got the buck and earring period, you've got the pirate round and then you've got the post-Spanish succession period. I'm going to cover this thing a little bit now but I'm think I'm gonna go do a deep dive in another episode I think. Yeah you deserve that because there's a lot there. So the buck and earring period is the first period and this is from about 1650s to 1680 watch 30 years which you know fairly decent. And this occurred typically around Jamaica and Tortuga. And this was between the English and French seamen against Spanish ships, settlements and colonies. Why the buck and earring period? Well it's region specific so buck and ear relates to pirates in the Caribbean and the west coast of Central America. And the word buck and ear actually comes from the French bouquet because English is four languages in a trench coat. So buca was a grow for smoking meat and it was basically making jerky. It made jerky. So French wild game hunters they would use the buca on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic because again remember geography is political. So originally the term applied to these French hunters who were exactly welcome on the Spanish controlled island of Hispaniola. So these huntels like they mainly survived by hunting game from native species like the Hotea and game introduced by the Spanish. Oxen, Boar, cows, actual cows like that's so many cows spain brought cows but yeah so there's hunting game but in addition they are also pillaging Spanish ships around the coast of the island because you know finite sources. Naturally the Spanish aren't too happy about that and so they are trying to push the French game hunters out of Spanish territory and at the time goes on unscrupulous members join these huntels along with some Nerdo elves you might say, possibly scoundrels and scallywags and this is not making the Spanish happy. Now the Spanish are all over the Caribbean right they have made many settlements and they have like really dug you know their their heels in here and so the Spanish are making life a bit more difficult you know for the bookeneers and so these grips start fighting back and start pillaging more Spanish ships and as these bookeneer grips call larger and you know these sort of end up fleeing for another island just off the coast of Hispaniola which was also controlled by Spain and one that you may have heard of the island of Dortuga. Dortuga was a bit more defensible than the northwest of Hispaniola so like because they were relegated to this island with little to no food sources they really turned to piracy because like they didn't have things to hunt because they were kicked off this other island I mean yeah it's like effectively how do I put this piracy is crime on water more specifically the sea I mean I'll be honest with you I'm not entirely sure that lake or river piracy is quite a thing like does it stop when you get to an estuary like where where does it stop being piracy is only open water that is that is the question someone will have that answer for me any who you've got bookeneers you've got Cossé and privateers now privateers are legal pirates they have a letter of mark which is a document that makes you a legal pirate robbery under arms was a thing anyway like it was seen as acceptable to like loot during acts of war right to the winner go the spoils right legal looting if you will now I'm not gonna go into that right now we're gonna we're gonna deal with that later but so a lot of countries they used privateers because most of them either had like teeny tiny navies or no navies at all and so they were able to outsource this so they could just hire these guys to be their little navy you know and all they had to do is be like yeah you can also steal whatever you want I'm gonna touch on Cossé's even though they're not like involved in this in any way so the Cossé's because they're mostly over in the Mediterranean some were like government sponsored crown sponsored somewhere it like they they caused such a commotion that like entire wars would start because of them and so you had like Turkish Turkish Cossé's you had French Cossé's like a whole bunch of them they were like a massive geopolitical headache but we will discuss them at some point but yes but to Henry Morgan and so like at this point he's joined General Venables British army in Barbados and again the reason this army was there was because Britain had put them together with the aim of invading Spanish territory in the West Indies and this army was 3000 strong so a fair few men when it sailed from England a number that tripled when it stopped in Barbados right so whether Henry Morgan was an original crew member or joined in Barbados well who's to say right so it's got 3000 men at this point I had a decent number to begin I had a thousand right to start now it's got three like that's big at the best of times now I'm not here to tell people how to run their dangerous colonial armies but perhaps it would have been a good idea do have a plan because like Venables he wasn't exactly given a target as such right the more sort of floated the idea because some targets and the West Indies they were suggested but they were basically given free rein to do whatever during the Anglo-Spanish war of 1645 to 1660 there were many Anglo-Spanish wars like a whole chunk of them so I will be being specific about specific wars because there's a lot if I miss one I'm sorry but there's there's so many like when weren't the English sparring with another nation right like there's many anyhow Venables he decides that he's not going to do anything by halves and comes out all guns blazing and he decides that he's going to attack the island of his Spanula the island that has been under Spanish control for well over a century on a scale of zero to invading Russia in the winter how bad is your idea okay because this They. This is. oh my goodness, unsurprisingly. This attempt to take his vanilla was an absolute disaster. Twice! That is to say, he fucked up royally. Twice! Right? They had their arses handed to them both times, and in a move that surprised absolutely no one. After the second defeat, Vanneville was declared very loudly that his men were cowards. And he's like, "Fuck this for Game of Soldiers" and sets his sights on Jamaica instead. Right, he thought that if he could take Jamaica, that it would be like a pretty sweet victory for the British as an alternative to his Spaniola. I would like to preface this by saying that I have nothing against Jamaica. I would love to visit Jamaica, so if you want to invite me, I would love to. Actually, sidebar. Right? Sidebar. So, I discovered that you can pre-pay customs through the UK if you're sending packages to the US, right? And I, I live in a border county, so I am very close to the UK. I live in Ireland, but I'm literally across the border. So I was like, "Oh, let's do that because I have been having a fight with USPS for months." So, I'm trucking the package. And for a week, at least, it has been an assorting office and Jamaica. I didn't know that assorting office was in Jamaica because it's going to the US because it went to New York. Then went to Jamaica. And I thought Jamaica was part of a Commonwealth? If it's not, again, geography, by the way, not my strong point, by the way. So, I was like, "Where's it going? Is it going there? Is it not?" Like, because it's supposed to be going to Los Angeles. And there was like tea and chocolate in it, and I've already had to replace the chocolate before because of a customs issue. And now I don't know if this Terry's chocolate orange is going to land there still spherical at this point. Like, I'm at the point where I'm going to have to just travel over with a suitcase full of goodies, right? Just throw it in the window and go. Like, that's my new plan. Anyway, I didn't realize there'd be a assorting office in Jamaica as my whole thing. I was very surprised. And I actually think, "Do you really want to see the Jamaican sorting office?" I'm still, I'm such a weirdo. I'm like, "Ooh, I want to go see the sorting office." But anyway, Jamaica, at this point in time, so we're talking mid-17th century, it is this underdeveloped island, like compared to like hispaniola. It had one town, just one, I'm serious, and it was devented by a grand total of 200 Spanish soldiers. And again, to reiterate, at this point in history, it wasn't really seen as a useful, like a useful island for the British and the Caribbean. So, Venables here, he just used a thousand men to capture an island that wasn't significant at this point. Right? At this point. Now, here's the thing, he had three thousand men. There's a whole stuff happening. He marched them up to the top of the hill, he marched them down again, and then he had one thousand men. Like, some deserted, some just like, obviously were injured or killed. And yeah, he's left with a thousand, and in that thousand, one of which is Henry Morgan. So, they take the island and the well. The country, England, they are not impressed. Like, they thought that this was such a waste of manpower and resources, so that when general Venables returns to England, they threw him in the terror of London. Like, straight away, he was imprisoned for mishandling the army. Like, that's the whole thing. So, while he's in the clank, like most of his troops, they're still in Jamaica, including Henry Morgan. And surprise, surprise, the Spanish were fighting back. Not very well, but they were. But it wasn't military manoeuvres that were the greatest threat to the British troops. No. It was disease. So, all of these tropical diseases, like the old English and Welsh bodies, they just couldn't handle it. So, you had yellow fever, was a major one, and another, of course, was desentary, because all routes lead to desentary. But Henry Morgan survived, because otherwise this would be a much shorter story. Jamaica eventually came under complete British control when the Spanish were pushed back, and this island was actually a good vantage point. And the advantage point into the Caribbean for the British, even though it was initially seen as Vanibals failure. Also, in addition furthermore, it led to a village with a fairly decent port being established. One of great interest to privateers and buccaneers alike. The village of Port Royal. Another one that you may have heard of. And Henry Morgan, he would always circle back to Port Royal with his booty from swashbuckling and adventuring. So, Henry Morgan, the wee Welshman, he's unemployed in Jamaica, what with Vanibals being imprisoned in all. And then a crazy random happenstance, an opportunity, befalls him. There are two pirate ships ready to set sail, and they always need decent crewmembers. It's quite likely that these ships were comprised of many of Vanibals' ex-trips, because, you know, they had seafaring skills and were no longer in receipt of a working wage. Disclaimer. We disclaimer for you. Some historians will argue that Morgan was always a privateer and not a pirate, but listen, you can absolutely be a pirate and a privateer at the same time. And let me tell you, that Van was definitely up to some piratey shit, okay? So yeah, he's sailing with these pirates and they did very well for themselves, with their voyages resulting in decent profits. Better than most privateers kicking about actually. And because they're doing so well, Morgan, he has a wee chinwag with some of his shipmates, and suggests that they come together and use that, you know, big hunk of decent profits to buy a ship themselves. And they think this is a great idea. They buy a ship? So yeah, him, his shipmates, they have a ship now, and this is the thing about pirate ships. Right? What's interesting is, like, pirates are their own little society, right? And typically, weirdly progressive, like little floating democrysies, you know, they voted on how they were going to do things, on how they were going to share profits, on how they were going to run the ship. Now, obviously you have to have like a big boss in charge who knows what the fuck they're doing, because you need some, you need to cap it, okay? That person, just like you need someone who can steer, just like you need someone who knows how to cook, like you need these things on your ship. So they vote, and they unanimously choose Henry to be the captain, captain Morgan. And this is a good crew, like they are well good at this. They've got this plundering Malakke down part, and for the next few years, they are marauding, rating, and getting some really great holes. I don't know, they're sheer an ultimia bill ship, by the way, really good stuff. And independent work, as we know, is all good, but sometimes a wee bit of sponsorship doesn't go awry. A bit of freelancing here, and there, and so like, somewhere between the late 1650s and early 1660s, captain Morgan joins a fleet. So Sarc Christopher Meng's, he was putting together a fleet of ships to launch attacks against Spanish territories, just like the Noble's hat. What years before, a couple years before? Now Meng's here, he is outsourcing here, and he masses the largest Buckingear fleet at the time. Right? So for this plan, he has this absolutely massive fleet. of flint like for this era. He's got 14 ships involved with at least 1400 pirates altogether. And this is all approved by the British Crown. A huge group of privateers were provided a letter of Mark. And this is just like a seafaring whole pass for murder, mayhem, littering and pelaging. In 1662, Captain Morgan led a ship and an attack on Cuba. Basically, it's the second largest city on the island, right after Havana, which was the most important and the largest. Santiago de Cuba was an important for city and, unsurprisingly, this had an incredibly strong fortress at the harbor, like a steel del moral. Now, what is surprising is that the private air fleet took it quite easily. And they did this by destroying the sh*t out of it. Yeah, like it's easy to take over when it's f*cking rubble, okay? Like, you're not trying to claim this as your own. You're just trying to tear it down because if you wanted, you know, this to be somewhere where you could live, if you really wanted this area to grow, to have, you know, industry, to have comers, to have, you know, living spaces, if you wanted to do that in this area, you wouldn't have blown the sh*t out of it. I'm just saying, the way she just considered that, in general, about the world. Captain Morgan continues privateering for Sarmengs the following year with the sack of competje, also known as the Mansfields assault, which would become the blueprint for coastal raids and the Buccaneering era. Again, to slip into some context, this is all part of the Anglo-Spanish War, this one, 1654 to 1671, so we're like in the middle of that. And the attack on San Francisco de Competje, which was a heavily fortified coastal town, and what is now like southern Mexico. This battle lasted two evils. The Buccaneers sat to the city, claiming another 14 ships from the harbor, and a bitty of around 150,000 Spanish pieces of eight. So, because of the way this port had been absolutely palaged, Ken Charles II of England had to officially forbid further raids of this elk, right? The way that this was done, because it absolutely, it's basically ungentlemanly warfare, like because of the manner that it was done, like it has seen a shocking and like there's a really bad reaction to it sort of socially. And so he has to like, forbid it, like there is massive outrage because of just how catastrophic it was. Now, you can sort of see the way that private raids happen, you can imagine it in lots of running and shouting and big bam bam, like it's violent, it is terrifying, it is destructive. Like we put this little Hollywood wash on it, and it's fun and silly and I'm a big fan of a swashbuckling movie and we should bring those back, okay? We don't need magic, we don't need magic, you want to put magic in it, that's fine. Swashbuckling Adventures man, that's a great time period, it's just, it's interesting, I'm not gonna enter, because I'll just rant, but any who Captain Morgan is like private hearing is fine and all, but what if I actually want to do something instead of waiting for the opportunity to be handed to him? And so he decides instead to attack different coastal cities, Trujillo, Vio Hermosa, Grenada, like he's got his eyes set on all these places. Every single village fell, like every single one of them, he takes them all and he was gaining quite the reputation for being this like amazing leader, for having massive gohonies, and he's like being feared and respected, and there's just this sort of, methe legend coming from it because he's really really good at pelaging and plundering, right? With very few loss of crew, he's well respected by his men, he's doing well in the piracy sphere. And like this reputation, it's also because he hasn't lost a lot of crew especially, like either by like defeat or by desertion, I should say, because the thing about being a captain, like during this era, like I said, a pirate ship is like a little floating democracy, right? If they don't like the shit you're doing, if they think that you don't know what you're doing, if they don't respect you, they're going to mutiny, right? That's what's going to happen. They're going to take over, someone else is going to become captain. That's how this works, right? And his crew would have mutinyed. They did not. So he's gaining a reputation and people are just kind of like, "Oh, he's out there being a privateer, good for him." And his family start making their way to the Caribbean, and this is wall 1665, 1666, and you know, he does the thing that is classy, if you're rich, trashy, if you're poor, marrying your cousin. I mean, he was into more than one type of booty. Listen, he didn't actually have any kids with his cousin, like there weren't any children from this marriage. So yeah, I'm not sure he was really into booty, like there's no sort of documentation regarding that. Maybe he wasn't into sex, maybe he was just into pillaging. Anywho, seriously though, this is actually a really smart move because his uncle, Colonel Edward Morgan, like I said, he was a seaman. So he had moved to Jamaica with his family, and he was made the deputy governor of Jamaica. So he's like upper class now, right? So this ensured that Captain Morgan had friends in high places, and these connections with the upper echelons of Jamaican society were solidified when he married his cousin Mary Elizabeth Morgan. I mean, at least she didn't have to worry about changing her soul name though I feel like less paperwork. That's nice. Anyway, he gets quite pally with Colonel Thomas Moodyford, which is handy because the very year the Edward Morgan is named deputy governor, he dies. On Thomas Medeford, he as has replacement. On Moodyford here, he names Captain Henry Morgan, Colonel of the Port Royal Molesha, and it's round about this time as well, that Captain Morgan purchases his first plantation and Jamaica. He would go on to own three. He has plantations, he has slaves, like to be clear, Captain Henry Morgan was very much a man of his era, right? He had slaves, he had plantations, he really, really liked money, okay? So all this washbuckling adventuring has said, it would be weird if I didn't mention this because a lot of his pirate booties, so he would take a portion of like treasures and trade and whatever. And he would use that to purchase things like plantations, like he invested his pirating money so that he could then make more money. Like that's, it's weird that that's his own income. But yeah, he purchased his first plantation. Now Captain Morgan served in the Port Royal Molesha as a captain before, but no, he's advanced in rank and he's commanding it. And the deputy governor issued him a letter of against the Spanish. Now remember, this letter of Mark allowed him to attack Spanish, vessels, fleets, etc. It did not approve any raids on land. This is important, like now and in the next episode. Anyway, as it still happens, around about the same time as this is going on, these pirates called the "Breathrin of the Coast". Like I mean that's actually a pretty cool name. We are the brethren of the coast. I mean, when you are a professional pirate, you'll be honest, brave and free. Oh, the soul of decency. Anyway. So these brethren of the coast, they were in need of an admiral because they lost their somehow. Maybe to Dessentary. Maybe to something else, him's to say. Naturally, being a big lover of booty, he accepts the possession. And now he has an entire fleet of Buccaneel's under his admiralty. So now he's admiral Morgan. So his reputation certainly preceded him. And he's seen as the king of Buccaneel's. And he is fucking loving it by the way. Like he uses his privateer fleet because again, he's got his letter of mark. He uses this to attack the Spanish. And even though he's not supposed to attack land, he's going to do it anyway. Right. The audacity is not new lads. It's not new. Like it's been a round quite a while. He can set us attacking the very heavily fortified city of Javana. But realizes that on the scale of zero to invading Russia in the winter, this is attacking a Caribbean fortress with not enough men. And so he chooses a new target. That of Puerto principi. Which by the way, this was this is a total shit show. So here's the thing. They're on the ship. They're planning their attacks. They're laying out all the details schemes. You know, the backup plan, the whole lot. All in front of a Spanish prisoner. They'll do it in front of this guy. Why? Why would you be doing it in front of the prisoners anyway? Like you should be doing this privately. I'm not. Again, I am not teaching people how to rob effectively. I'm just saying you could be smarter. So of course, not one person considered that maybe. Just maybe. It was possible that the aforementioned prisoner could speak English. Spoil a little bit. He did. So when the ship got to a bay like near Puerto principi, the aforementioned English-speaking Spanish prisoner escaped. He swam to shore and warned everyone of the attack. So the governor gets notified. And he sends messengers through the street. They are preparing for the attack. The entire town is woken up. And they're telling people to go hide their valuables. So when the pirates attack the town, not only are they faced with resistance that they weren't expecting, this battle lasts four hours. Now the Spanish, they are absolutely bollocks, right? They are. They are. I'm good. I don't want to say annihilated, but they are pretty beaten down by this pirate crew. And eventually the pirates demand a surrender or they will burn the town to the ground. You would be surprised how many, how many solutions there are to problems that involve arson. So they're like, we're going to do that, but also we are going to viciously kill all of the women and children in Puerto principi and front of all of you if you don't surrender. So the Spanish surrendered. They had suffered heavy losses. And then the buccaneers had like, barely any lit. Like, there wasn't a lot of return for the amount of effort. I didn't put any out. So they decided to lock the Spanish and their churches. And then they decided they were going to try and like, search the town. So they plundered, they were trying to find like valuables and whatnot, but most of them had already been ever removed from the town and heading away. So yeah, there was very little reward for this outracked act of illegal piracy. Unsurprisingly, captain Morgan is pissed. So he decides that he's going to starve the prisoners locked in the churches. And then the pirates torture them. This may shock you, but pirates were not exactly the most patient of people. And so they're like, this is bullshit, and they give the Spaniards an ultimatum. Provide two ransoms or suffer, right? That's it. That's that's the ultimatum. If they paid these ransoms, they'd be fine. So like, there the two ransoms are, there's one for the town and one for their lives. So if they paid the ransom for their life, then the town would be burnt to ash before their eyes. If they didn't pay any ransom, the town would be set ablaze, and the prisoners would either be killed or taken to Jamaica and sold off as slaves. Yeah, these guys were not fucking about. So for prisoners, they offer to go find the hidden goods and valuables and they're like, there's some people who've run away with some of the goods as well, like they've gone, we'll find them. You know, and we'll bring them back. And these guys are worn, they're like, listen, if you don't return, there's going to be so much death. Like, the streets will be read with blood. And we will kill every member of your family. We're going to destroy everything, and you will come back to blood and ash. And so they're out there for a couple days, and they come back empty handed. Right? They're like, we couldn't find it, but they play with Captain Morgan to give them 15 days, which is an oddly specific number. And they're like, we will pay you the whole Shabbang 15 days. And he's like, you know what? Yeah, why not? Sure. He's like, I'm here now. Like, I'm here as well. Like, wait. And so these present us, they go away and they come back with a ne'agree time frame, and they bring with them a sweet, sweet junk of booty. And even more prisoners, right? They're like, we found these guys hiding, and we brought this, and we brought this. Hurry. And so the pirates, obviously, they search, you know, all the prisoners just in case they've get anything else, had none of them, like maybe some valuables, maybe something else. And they do. So as the searching, they find a letter from the governor of Santiago, who tells them to drag it out, you know, as long as they can, so that they can send reinforcements to fight the pirates. So he had new Morgan, he's reading this letter, and he is not a happy bunny, right? He is angry. And so he orders all of the treasure to be put on the ships. And then he tells the prisoners that they have one day to pay their rancums, right? Like, you got one day. Or else. And the Spanish are, they're begging for more time, but he is so done at this point that he's just like, no, I can't give you any more time. I'm absolutely done with this whole thing. And like to the point, like he's so fucked off with this whole scenario, that he just takes 500 cows with him. Like, I said, you know, They're like we don't have money. I got these cash though. Okay, fine 800 counts and it's like I guess I could eat you know and so it's cruel there and they're cutting up the cows right because they're just like deviant stuff up and they're figuring out what we're gonna do. So while this is happening two crew members get into a fate one French one English right and they challenge each other to a duel which is supposed to be a fair fight but when they get to the meeting point to do the duel right the English fella stabs the French guy literally in the back right and another Frenchman he wants revenge and it's a whole thing. Captain Morgan does not allow insurrection amongst his ranks a fair fight is fair a challenge with honour is fine but this stabbing in the back bullshit absolutely not so the Englishman he's viewed as treacherous right this is this is dodgy behaviour and so he's putting chains and he was to be hanged in Jamaica like that's the goal being brought back to Jamaica is gonna get hanged because you know sweet it and as far as raids go this was Pespur 50,000 pieces of 8 and 500 cows which not really that much when you have to consider it has to be shared between 700 or so men. Now Morgan obviously he thinks it would be best to attack another type you know to try and reap some more rewards you know make up for the loss but the French ships that were part of this fleet they they weren't keen on this idea and they went their separate ways but it was like a totally co-sapperation like Noharm Novel they were like we were kind of done now no worries and so Captain Morgan takes you know the remaining fleet and the return to Port Royal where he had the English crew member hanged because you know he was severe but he was true to his what. So he's lost a good chunk of his fleet thanks to the whole backstabbing incident but of course he wants more booty because of course he does and like he's lost what 30% of his crew but he's still like let's go bigger and better like he's chasing that next that next sort of raid like in adrenaline chunky but like for pirating so it's what 1668 at this point and the fleet set sail to where well. Captain Morgan had learned his lesson about talking about his plans in front of people so his fleet they're following his lead and they get close to Costa Rica and he tells his captains his plan to pillage the town of Portobello under the cover of darkness and he tells them that he wants to steal every damn valuable from this frankly massive city as this raid is this ego is this just like the whole thing of gambling like you're just chasing that next rush is it like a dopamine thing for him now his captains they question this very audacious plan because to put it simply they do not have enough men but Henry Morgan he's just like less men means less people to share treasure with like he is so self-assured like he genuinely doesn't believe that they can fail and here's here's the thing Portobello is not a place you want to fuck with like apart from Havana and Cartagena like you know no like like it was the strongest place owned by Spain and the West Endes right this would be a challenge for any fleet let alone one much reduced not only was the very entrance to the city guarded by two castles there were many more inside the city for people to shelter in if there was an attack so you've got 400 families there are thereabouts residing and this ridiculously well fortified city along with a garrison of about 300 soldiers right he's only got about 460 men right those numbers are not good this is not an easy pillage and plunder scenario but captain Morgan clearly has something to prove and so they decide to be sneaky to keep about it and they carefully head up river they transfer from the ships into smaller boats and even like canoes there's like 23 of them all in all because they don't want to be noticed they make it to land they reach the guard post the first one it is manned by a single guard who they very quickly overpower question and bring with them it's by the time they get to that sort of first point it's sort of early hours of the morning like it's still night time but it's that kind of time so he's telling them all about the city and how to maneuver it like and so when they get to the castles at the entrance of the city they line up against the castle walls you know as not to be seen and then the guards they've captured right Morgan orders him to call into the castle and tell the soldiers within to surrender or they'll be cut into pieces with no mercy and so he shouts in and says the thing and instead of surrendering the Spanish guards and just starts shooting at the pirates and this fight starts but it is over fairly quickly because inside the castles there were explosives right it's like this clay pot which we set a light and thrown kind of like an old timey grenade right so what they would do is they would infiltrate the castle and take it from inside so then when the pirates were in you know they did what they threatened to do which was slice up the Spanish now they didn't dice everyone because they didn't have time for that instead the remaining soldiers were locked in a small room in this castle there is full of old timey grenades and gunpowder so on the way out they set a light and it goes boom this not the most subtle of moves and does not go unnoticed by the people in the city the citizens are just like chucking valuables into wells the hig and shit because you know massive explosion has happened and they don't want to lose everything they have and the governor could not do shit right he's trying to rally trips he's trying to rally people he cannot do either and so like Princess Peach he runs off to another castle and the pirates are absolutely well paladging the shit out of Puerto Bello right they're on hour 12 so like they are 12 hours of plundering how are they not tired exactly like there's a lot to say for a gentleman and so even though they had looted a lot of stuff they knew that there were higher classes and the governor they were all hiding in these other castles and the city naturally they assumed a whole lot of that treasure would be in there with them so captain Morgan takes a small force to attack the governor's castle and a few other teams like they split up right and they go attack now the governor's castle is so well guarded that they beat back Morgan and his men meanwhile captain Morgan saw that the other castles were being taken by his crew because they were raising the flags and I think his eagle got the best of him here because he's just infused with I don't know if rage is the right word but definitely a terrible horrible horrible idea he gets one of his men to round up his many religious men and women as he could find super castle like Spain remember very religious so he's got nuns priests monks anybody he can get his hands on right he gets the crew to make 12 ladders that were weighed enough that they could hold three other people at a time so they could claim three or four at a time so these ladders were placed up against the castle walls and he makes these, you know, religious men and women climb up. Gently followed by his pirate crew. So, he makes the assumption that the governor of Super Catholic Spain, I mean, one that he wouldn't fire on his own people, and he especially would not fire on people who had taken religious orders, right? He couldn't shoot men and women of God. Like, that's just a no-brainer, right? He assumed incorrectly. So, all of the nuns, priests, whatever, climbing up the ladder, they were fired upon, and they are begging and pleading but to no avail. Right, they're begging the governor to just stop firing, but he is just killing everyone. The pirates climb up after all of these, like, religious people, like they're using them as human shields effectively. So, they get up and they overpower the castle. All of the Spanish soldiers surrendered, right? Straight away, no issue. The governor was so pissed that he shoots at them and he kills some of his own soldiers. The pirates offer him the chance to surrender, and he tells them he'd rather die. And so, they kill him. So, yeah, the city is now under the power of the pirates, and they're just loving it up. Like, they've been doing this for a whole day nearly, they're tired. They're, you know, they're relaxed and be cool ever then spite. Have a party. They spend the next fortnight in Portobello, drinking, feasting, and just have an adam good time. They've earned this. In Captain Morgan, he'll love the good ransom, demands a 100,000 pieces of eight from the city. And so, they send two men over to the city of Panama. Like, pre-Canal for him, by the way. And they're like, "Go get your money." So, these guys, they tell the president of Panama about the attack, and so he got as a force, right, to deal with the pirates. But, first, he sends a letter to Captain Morgan warning him that if the pirates do not get the heck a dodge, they will receive no mercy. But, Captain Morgan, a man with balls, so big, that you'd think he had a elephant take to solve this grotum, he responds with the threat that if he doesn't get his money, he's going to burn Portobello to the fucking ground. And he'll go once he has his damn money. So, the president of Panama just pays it. And not only does he pay the ransom, but he's like, "He's writing his letters and he's like, 'Hey!' How did you take the city with so few men? And Captain Morgan responds by sending him a pistol, whether or not telling him to watch over it, and he'll soon come to Panama to collect it. The president sends the pistol back because this is the least fun pain pal he has, and warns him that Panama would not be as favourable to him as Portobello had been. The president also had massive balls, because Captain Morgan was not a man to be trifled with. But, they have the booty, and so they returned to Jamaica. Now, these fellows, like, their money is shared, they get their pay whatever, he's investing in his plantations. So, these pirates, right, these privateers, they spend every single one of the 250,000 pieces of eight. Okay. Like, it doesn't take them long, it's like two weeks, three weeks, I mean, it's a few weeks. And these big spenders are on the lookout for their next adventure. But that's gonna be for next time. Yeah, I'm stopping it here because we have more to talk about, so I'm gonna make that into another episode, which you're going to get very soon if you don't already have it. That is the story of half the story of Captain Morgan, because it's gonna get worse. It's gonna get worse. Now, oh, I, oh goodness, I didn't tell you all. I, I'm in Delphast in the first of February. It's for em bulk, it's like same-bridge-day, it's. I'm probably gonna talk about some cool lemon. That's a live show, that's gonna be in Delphast and the Sunflower on the socials. Come, see me. If you're thinking, "Oh, I don't know what to get someone for Christmas." Attack it to see me. I'm amazing. More gegs will be coming out. Um, over the year, more stuff's happening. I've got big news to share. It's gonna be coming. It's gonna be fab. You. Plus. Now. Yeah, anything else, anything else to share with you at the end of the show? Yeah, I'm so excited to have like a month of Pirates' Kiz. It's just a really fun era. It's a really fun era to talk about. Although, what I've noticed is some people have such an issue with the term of the Golden Age of Piracy. I'm like, "That's just what it's called." It's like I'd be called Things the Victorian period or the Golden Age or whatever. It's just a name we give things. It's fine. Don't forget about it. But yeah, that's what that is. Um, but I guess we are on to recommendation time. For a listening, I'm gonna put the link in the description down below. Danny Vadella, he's got a song called "Stay mad." Look at me promoting men today. So yeah, there we go. You can listen to him. It's really catchy. Come on, let's do it. Do a thing. Also, I think it's such a thing. I'm gonna pause sidebar for recommendations. Um, I'm the person who believes that we should be like always like interact your friend's content. Share it, boost it. Like, don't just like in scroll because you want to show the algorithm that you're interested in the content. Like, you really need to engage with it. You know what I mean? You need to interact with the content. And I think that's really important when it comes to our friends. Like, because I know a lot of, a lot of the platforms are being a bit decades right now. And so we need to share their stuff. Like that's, that's something we need to do. And I think it's very important to share your friend's stuff. Like, you can't buy stuff all the time or do whatever. But if you share it and comment on it and do stuff interact like it helps boost it, right? It's just a good thing to do. Now I do O'Donnie Abagle, which is not why I'm sharing it. I do actually think it's a really catchy song. So listen to Danny's song, stay mad. Okay, let's do this. Now for watching. For reading, I'm gonna go with the Marder Game by Tom Hendel. Look at me supporting more men. And for watching. Watching, watching, watching. What should I recommend? I feel like I'm on a roll with like men. You know what? Daniels Los. Daniels Los is new comedy special. Can't. It's on Daniels Los.com. Go check that out. There you go. I've supported three men this episode. Who knew I could do it. Listen, I don't hate men. Okay. Some of my best friends are men. But those are your recommendations for today. So adios. Au revoir. Au revoir, my friends. Bye-bye.