Morgan has assembled a fleet of ten…
June 1668 CE
Morgan has assembled a fleet of ten ships in a way that is quite different from most Admirals of the time.
Instead of sending out a flyer and allowing willing buccaneers of the region to come to him, Morgan has sailed to the places where the most daring pirates could be found.
When he arrived at the ports, he dressed himself in red silk and wears fancy gold and jewels so that he appeared to be extremely successful, drawing to him the most ambitious swashbucklers.
Using a word-of-mouth approach, he is able to acquire five hundred of the best pirates in the area.
In a meeting held by Morgan prior to the start of their journey, he had proposed that the fleet attack Havana, but, after much debate it had been decided that they did not have enough men to take Havana, so they have decided instead to take Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe (present Camagüey).
While on their quest for Spanish ships, Morgan’s fleet encounters heavy storms that bring them to Cuba’s southern shore to search for provisions instead of continuing on to the north shore where they had originally aimed.
Once on land, the buccaneers meet a French crew that had also been driven ashore in search of provisions and decided to combine their forces.
A Spanish hostage escapes and warns the citizens of Puerto Principe of the impending attack.
The citizens quickly desert the town with their valuables, leaving very little for the buccaneers.
After searching the town and torturing its residents for information regarding the location of their riches, Morgan’s fleet is only able to gather fifty-thousand pieces of eight.
As this sum is insufficient to pay off the debts that the buccaneers had accumulated back in Jamaica, they need to find more riches before returning to Port Royal.
In order to cover their debts, Morgan and his men decide to aim for Portobelo, at this time the third most important Spanish city in the New World.
Considered the center of Spanish trade in the Americas, it contains warehouses of the goods and valuables of many wealthy merchants.
Because of its enormous concentration of wealth, Porto Bello is extremely well protected by three Spanish forts.
However, the French crew refuses to take part in this voyage because they do not get along with Morgan’s English crew.
It was reported that there was a dispute between a Frenchman and Englishman that had been decided to be solved in a duel when the Englishman stabbed the other in the back before the duel could take place.
In addition to this, the French believe that they have been cheated out of their fair share of the loot by Morgan.
Whereas the reputation of most pirates would have been ruined by this rumor, Morgan sets sail to sack Portobelo with his original fleet.