Sir Henry Morgan (c.
1635–
August 25, 1688) was a privateer of Welsh birth, who made a name in the Caribbean
as a leader of buccaneers and roughnecks.
Early life
The eldest son of Robert Morgan, a squire of Llanrhymny
in Glamorgan, Wales, the details of Morgan's early life are
sketchy. He was said to have been kidnapped as a boy in
Bristol and sold as a slave in Barbados, making his way to
Jamaica. However his uncle Edward Morgan was
Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica after the Restoration of
Charles II of England, and Henry Morgan married his uncle's
daughter, his cousin, Mary. Therefore it is more likely that
he was the 'Captain Morgan' who joined the fleet of
Christopher Myngs in 1663 and accompanied the expedition of
John Morris and Jackman when the Spanish settlements at
Vildemos, Trujillo and Granada were taken.
In 1666 Morgan commanded a ship in Edward Mansfield's
expedition which seized the island of Old Providence (Santa
Catalina), and when Mansfield was captured and killed by the
Spanish shortly afterwards, Morgan was chosen by the
buccaneers as their admiral.
Governor's commission, Privateering career
In 1668 he was commissioned by Sir Thomas Modyford, the
governor of Jamaica, to capture some Spanish prisoners in
Cuba, in order to discover details of the threatened attack
on Jamaica. Collecting ten ships with 500 men, Morgan landed
on the island and captured and sacked Puerto Principe, then
went on to take the fortified and well-garrisoned town of
Portobelo, Panama. It is said that Morgan's men used
captured Jesuits as human shields in taking the third, most
difficult fortress.
The governor of Panama, astonished at this daring
adventure, attempted in vain to drive out the invaders, and
finally Morgan consented to evacuate the place on the
payment of a large ransom. These exploits had considerably
exceeded the terms of Morgan's commission and had been
accompanied by frightful cruelties and excesses, but the
governor of Jamaica endeavoured to cover the whole under the
necessity of allowing the English a free hand to attack the
Spanish whenever possible. In London the Admiralty publicly
claimed ignorance about this, whilst Morgan and his crew
returned to their base at Port Royal, Jamaica, to celebrate.
Modyford almost immediately entrusted Morgan with another
expedition against the Spaniards, and he proceeded to ravage
the coast of Cuba. In January, 1669 the largest of his ships
was blown up accidentally in the course of a carousal on
board; Morgan and his officers narrowly escaped death. In
March he sacked Maracaibo, Venezuela which had emptied out
when his fleet was first spied, and afterwards spent a few
weeks at the Venezuelan settlement of Gibraltar on Lake
Maracaibo, torturing the wealthy residents to discover
hidden booty.
Returning to Maracaibo, Morgan found three Spanish ships
waiting at the inlet to the Caribbean; but these he
destroyed or captured, recovered a considerable amount of
treasure from one which had run aground, exacted a heavy
ransom as the price of his evacuating the place, and finally
by an ingenious stratagem faking a landward attack on the
fort, which convinced the governor to shift his cannon,
eluded the enemy's guns altogether and escaped in safety. On
his return to Jamaica he was again reproved, but not
punished by Modyford.
The Spaniards on their side were moreover acting in the
same way, and a new commission was given to Morgan, as
commander-in-chief now of all the ships of war in Jamaica,
to levy war on the Spaniards and destroy their ships and
stores, the booty gained in the expedition being the only
pay. Thus Morgan and his crew were privateers, not pirates.
Accordingly, after ravaging the coasts of Cuba and the
mainland, Morgan determined on an expedition to Panama.
He recaptured the island of Santa Catalina on December
15, 1670, and on the December 27 gained possession of the
castle of Chagres, killing 300 of the garrison. Then with
1400 men he ascended the Chagres River, some of the worst
swampland in the area. When his force finally appeared
outside of Panama they were very weakened and tired.
Loss of English support
On January 18, 1671, Morgan discovered that Panama had
roughly 1500 infantry and cavalry. He split his forces in
two using one to march through the woods and flank the
enemy. The Spaniards were untrained and rushed Morgan's line
where he cut them down with gunfire, only to have his
flankers emerge and finish the rest of the army off. After
taking a booty that exceeded 100,000 pounds, he burnt down
the city and massacred all its inhabitants, the worst
atrocity perpetrated by any Welsh pirate in history.
However, because the sack of Panama violated a peace
treaty between England and Spain, Morgan was arrested and
conducted to England in 1672. He was able to prove he had no
knowledge of the treaty, and in 1674 Morgan was knighted
before returning to Jamaica the following year to take up
the post of Lieutenant Governor.
By 1681, then acting governor Morgan had fallen out of
favour with the British King, who was intent on weakening
the semi-autonomous Jamaican Council, and was replaced by
long-time political rival Thomas Lynch. He gained
considerable weight and gained a reputation for rowdy
drunkenness.
Retirement
In 1683, Morgan was suspended from the Jamaican Council
by the machinations of Governor Lynch. Also during this
time, an account of Morgan's irreputable exploits was
published by Alexandre Exquemelin in a Dutch volume entitled
De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (History of the Bouccaneers of
America). Morgan took steps to discredit the book and
successfully brought a libel suit against the book's
publisher, securing a retraction and damages of 200 English
pounds (Campbel, 2003).
When Thomas Lynch died in 1684, his friend Christopher
Monck was appointed to the governorship and arranged the
dismissal of Morgan's suspension from the Jamaican Council
in 1688. Morgan's health had steadily declined since 1681.
He was diagnosed with 'dropsie' but may have contracted
tuberculosis in London - and died August 25, 1688. It's
possible that he may have had liver failure due to his heavy
drinking.
Morgan had lived in an opportune time for pirates. He was
able to successfully use the conflicts between England and
her enemies to both support England and to enrich himself
and his crews. With his death, the pirates that would follow
would also use this same ploy, but to less successful
results. He also was one of the few pirates who was able to
basically retire from his piracy, having had great
success, and with little legal retribution.
Trivia
- Sir Henry is immortalised now by Captain Morgan's
Spiced Rum, though it is produced in both Puerto Rico,
and Jamaica.
- Bob Marley and the Wailers have included Morgan in
the song 'You Can't Blame the Youth'. Peter Tosh states,
'You teach the kids about the pirate Morgan, and you say
he was a very good man.'
- Amadan, an Oregon-based Irish music band told of the
night of Sir Henry Morgan's death in a song titled
'August 24th, 1688' on their album 'Hell-Bent 4
Victory.'
- In the manga/anime One Piece, there is a
pirate villain called Axe-Hand Morgan, that Eiichiro Oda
admitted was based on a real-life pirate.
- John Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, which was
written in 1926, is about Henry Morgan's life. It is a
historical fiction with Henry Morgan as the main
character.
- Captain Blood, a novel about piracy by Rafael
Sabatini, features a character, Peter Blood, whose
adventures are reportedly based on the piratical
exploits of Henry Morgan. In 1935, the novel was made
into a movie starring Errol Flynn -- and features
several Captain Blood movie sequels.
Katie King
A character known as Annie Owen Morgan (or Katie King)
was a common control for spiritualists in the 19th century;
most notably as a bodily materialisation allegedly summoned
by Florence Cook. Katie/Annie was reputed to be Henry
Morgan's daughter.
References
- This article incorporates text from the
Encyclopędia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a
publication now in the public domain.
- Campbell, Russ. 'Sir Henry Morgan'. 2003.
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External links
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