Note XXVIII‑20 — Chapter XXVIII · MORGAN'S RAIDS ON THE ISTHMUS. 1664-1671.

It is difficult to decide, amidst a conflict of authorities, whether the burning of Panamá was due to the Spaniards or to Morgan's orders. In Exquemelin, Hist. Bucaniers, 148, it is implied that Morgan gave such an order secretly, and for private reasons. In Hist. Flib., ii. 169, it is positively stated that Morgan, fearing the Spaniards might surprise him by night, caused the city to be fired. In Archenholtz' Hist. Pirates, 143, the blame is also laid to Morgan's charge. On the other hand, in the president's despatch, translated in Sharp's Voyages, 156, it is admitted that the city was fired by slaves and by some of the inhabitants. It is acknowledged by all these writers that the freebooters attempted to stay the conflagration. There seems no good reason why Morgan, who had now at his disposal 28 pieces of artillery, should have feared an attack from the Spaniards, or why he should commit an act which destroyed his chance of receiving a ransom. In Robles, Documentos para la Historia de Méjico, série i. tom. ii. 117, it is mentioned that a letter from the president of Panamá, dated April 3, 1671, nearly six weeks after Morgan's departure, was received in Mexico in December of that year. The letter confirms the intercepted despatch in many particulars, and adds that when the city was burned the buccaneers 'found themselves without provisions and supplies, and on that account did not carry out their main intention, which was to pass to Portobello by land, besiege it with vessels by sea, and capture it by blockade, and that they brought with them in anticipation a boy whom they styled the prince, and intended to crown king of Tierra Firme.'