. Captain William Kidd, and others of the pirates or buccaneers who ravaged the seas, the islands, and the continents of America two hundred years ago. , sump-tuously furnished. The pirates rushed through thestreets, searching for the richest palaces for theirbarracks. The churches they wantonly defiled andconverted into prison-houses. Not a vessel or aboat was left in the port. All had been used, bythe terrified fugitives, to escape far away upon thewide lake beyond. Morgan, chagrined at the loss of so much antici-pated treasure, instantly dispatched one hundredfleet-footed men to pursue the
. Captain William Kidd, and others of the pirates or buccaneers who ravaged the seas, the islands, and the continents of America two hundred years ago. , sump-tuously furnished. The pirates rushed through thestreets, searching for the richest palaces for theirbarracks. The churches they wantonly defiled andconverted into prison-houses. Not a vessel or aboat was left in the port. All had been used, bythe terrified fugitives, to escape far away upon thewide lake beyond. Morgan, chagrined at the loss of so much antici-pated treasure, instantly dispatched one hundredfleet-footed men to pursue the encumbered andheavily laden refugees, along all the trails. Scarcelyany provisions could be found in the town. Thefugitives had taken the wise precaution to destroywhat they could not carry away. The little fortwhich guarded the harbor was merely a half-moonrampart facing the water, and mounting but fourcannon. These works the Spaniards had of courseabandoned. The men who had been dispatched in pursuit ofthe Spaniards returned the next evening. Theybrought with them thirty prisoners, and fifty mulesladen with valuables. The prisoners were feeble. THE EXPEDITION TO MARACAIBO. 271 men and women of the poorest class. The ownersof the richly laden mules, seeing the approach of thepirates, had abandoned all, and outstripped the pur-suers in their flight. The unhappy captives wereput to the torture, but nothing could be wrestedfrom them. This Morgan, subsequently Sir Henry Morgan,governor of Jamaica, suspended his prisoners by thebeard ; hung them up horizontally by cords boundaround their toes and thumbs; placed burningmatches between their fingers ; scourged them;twisted cords around their heads till their eyes burstfrom their sockets, and perpetrated other enormitiestoo horrible to be mentioned. Thus, writes Esquemeling, all sort of inhu-man cruelties were executed upon these innocentpeople. Those who would not confess, or who hadnothing to declare, died under the hands of thosety
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1874
