Henry Morgan was born around 1635 to a good
family in the county of Monmouth in Wales. Little was
known of his parents, although two of his uncles were
distinguished soldiers. They were Major General Sir Thomas
Morgan and Colonel Edward Morgan, who was briefly Lieutenant
Governor of Jamaica and was written to have died leading an
expedition to Curaçao.
The first details of Henry's life as a pirate
were of him joining the expeditionary forces under General
Venables and Admiral Penn.
In 1654, these forces were dispatched from
Britain with the aim of capturing Hispaniola. This mission
failed, and the forces decided to attack Jamaica next, which was
defended at the time by only a few Spanish soldiers.
General Venables and Admiral Penn successfully captured the
island of Jamaica, which henceforth became a British settlement
and base for operations of the Royal Navy and for privateers.
Records show that Henry was given commissions by the Governor of
Jamaica to captain a ship.
In 1663, he led a raid which resulted in the
sacking of Villahermosa and the plundering of Gran Granada in
Nicaragua.
In 1665, Captain Henry Morgan returned to Jamaica
with the reputation of a formidable military leader. When
Edward Mansfield, the current leader of the privateers, was put
to death by the Spaniards in Havana, Captain Morgan seemed to be
the natural successor.
At the age of 32, Henry Morgan was entitled
"Admiral of the Brethren of the Coast", which was a loose
association of privateers and pirates who came to be known as
buccaneers.
In July of 1668, Admiral Morgan led an amazingly
ruthless and strategic attack upon Portobello. It was
written that he even pulled the mayor, several women and old
men, and some friars and nuns from a church in order to use them
as a human shield so that his men could advance the castle
without casualty. Once the town and its occupants were
secured, Morgan's men spent the rest of the day looting and
drinking. Morgan then proceeded to fill the captured
harbor and its perimeter with warships and some 200 buccaneers
armed to the teeth. He threatened the President of Panama
that he would burn Portobello down to the ground if a ransom of
350,000 pesos was not met.
On August 3, Morgan and his crew left for Jamaica
with a ransom of silver and gold pesos, silver bars and plates,
and looted valuables worth about 250,000 pesos.
They arrived in Port Royal to a hero's
welcome. It was written that for the next few weeks, the
town was a scene of orgies of drinking, gambling, and
womanizing, as the buccaneers blew their booty in the local
taverns and whorehouses.
In October 1668, Morgan announced his plans to
raid Isla Vaca, located on the southwest coast of Hispaniola.
The warship Oxford and French buccaneers from Tortuga assisted
Morgan with the successful attack.
In January of 1669, Morgan went after
Cartagena, the treasure port on the Spanish Main.
Unfortunately though, at some point during the drunken
celebration of victory, gunpowder on board was set alight and
Henry's ship was blown apart. Morgan, who was said to have
lived a charmed life, was one of only ten men to survive
this disaster. The mission to attack Cartagena was
scratched and Morgan then set his sights on Maracaibo, located
on the cost of Venezuela. Through shrewd military
deception Morgan was able to get one over on the Spanish West
Indian fleet, which was led by Admiral Don Alonzo de Campos y
Espinosa. When Morgan returned to Jamaica, he was informed
that Lord Arlington had dispatched a letter to Governor Sir
Thomas Modyford stating that all hostilities with Spain must
cease. Henry Morgan then decided to purchase 836 acres in
the parish of Clarendon, an area still called Morgan's Valley
today, and settle down. Shortly thereafter, Spain
officially declared war on Jamaica. A Council of Jamaica
was assembled and agreed that a commission be granted to Henry
Morgan to be Admiral and Commander in Chief of all of the ships
of war belonging to this harbour and authorized his assembling a
fleet to attack, seize and destroy all the enemy's vessels that
shall come within his reach. Admiral Henry Morgan
officially received his commission on August 1, 1670.
A Council of War was held on December 12, 1670
and agreed that Panama was to be the target of the next raid.
The battle for Panama only cost Morgan 15 men,
while Spain lost over 500 of the black slaves inhabiting the
land. After looting and plundering the land for a booty of
about £ 30,000 Morgan burned the town, leaving only a handful of
stone buildings standing.
In a letter he wrote to Modyford, Morgan
summarized the capture as "thus was consumed the famous and
ancient city of Panama, the greatest mart for silver and gold in
the whole world".
Morgan returned to Jamaica along with some of
his men who decided to join crews of trading sloops and fishing
boats, or just settle down to life ashore. The Council of
Jamaica met again on June 10, 1671 and publicly thanked Admiral
Henry Morgan. However, in order to appease the Queen of
Spain for the destruction of Panama, Modyford and Morgan were
both arrested. After spending two years in London, Morgan
was granted knighthood by King Charles II and returned to
Jamaica with an appointed post of Lieutenant Governor, serving
under the new governor, Lord Vaughan at the start of the year
1674. Vaughan was soon recalled as governor and replaced
by Sir Henry Morgan. By this time, Morgan now owned
several thousand acres on the island of Jamaica, some of which
were used as sugar plantations.
Although Morgan was married to Dame Mary
Elizabeth for over twenty years, no children were ever
conceived. There were no descriptions of Henry's
appearance except late in his life, around his fifties, when Dr.
Hans Sloane attended to his health. Sloane depicted Henry
as lean and sallow-colored, with eyes a little yellowish and
belly jutting out. All of which were accumulated effects
of tropical fevers, dropsy, and alcoholism.
When Morgan died at his estate in Jamaica on
August 25, 1688, the Duke of Albemarle ordered a state funeral.
The crew of the Assistance fired a twenty-two gun salute, which
was echoed by the guns of the warship Drake. The gunfire
was followed by all the merchant ships at anchor and moored
along the wharves firing their guns in a deafening barrage of
explosions. This surely was a remarkably fitting send-off
for the brilliant and courageous commander of the buccaneers!
