“to staff it”: The Spanish perspectives on the Maracaibo raid are taken from the testimony of Captain Juan de Acosta Abreu and Gabriel Neveda of June 20, 1669 (Escribiana 699A, part I, fos. 39v–40, 44), in “Information concerning the loss of the Armada of Barlovento at the Lagoon of Maracaibo” (Contratación 3164).
“in their peaceful cay”: Abreu testimony, point 4, Escribiana 699A.
“do not eat me!”: de Lussan, p. 22.
“left him alone”: Captain Juan de Acosta Abreu and Gabriel Neveda of June 20, 1669 (Escribiana 699A, part I, fos. 39v–40, 44), point 5.
“Realm of Spain”: ibid., testimony of Gabriel Neveda.
“law and reason”: Morgan to Jenkins, March 8, 1682. CSPWI item 431, pp. 203–5.
“spotted the pirate’s flag”: The story of Alonzo’s itinerary and his views of the confrontation with Morgan are from Contratación 3164.
“all sorts of ammunition”: Esquemeling, p. 167.
“all manner of hopes”: ibid.
“a parcel of cowards”: The correspondence between Morgan and Alonzo is contained in Esquemeling, pp. 168–78.
“everything was ablaze.” Contratación 3164.
“hands of their persecutors”: Esquemeling, p. 172.
“by Captaine Morgan”: The illustration can be seen at Esquemeling, p. 170.
“to do it withal?”: Esquemeling, p. 176.
“of this New World”: ibid., p. 173.
“in my favor”: Contratación 3164.
10. Black Clouds to the East
“befall the vessel”: quoted in Volo, p. 155.
“into a foam”: Bassett, p. 115.
“by a whistling sound”: quoted in Rappaport, p. 57.
“indeed invaded”: IG 1877.
“passivity of Her Majesty’s subjects”: ibid.
“and spying on their fortifications”: White’s hugely entertaining demands are contained in a letter of December 4, 1671, from the Count of Medellín to the queen, IG 1877.
“with love and respect”: Arlington to the queen, February 23/5, 1669. IG 1877.
“put an end to it”: Arlington to Modyford, June 12, 1670, CSPWI item 194.
“in his Majesty’s men-of-war”: ibid.
“of the Indians”: quoted in Earle, Sack, p. 145.
“or set up for themselves”: Modyford to Arlington, August 20, 1670. CSPWI item 237.
“ready to serve us”: quoted in Cruikshank, p. 127.
“Happy victories”: CO 1/25. Translated by M. Isabel Amarante.
“by these Pirates”: letter from Don Pedro de Ulloa Riva de Neira, April 24, 1670. IG 2542.
“since it is the source”: letter of April 9, 1669. IG 1877.
“Dated 5th of July, 1670”: CSPWI item 310.
“everlasting renown”: from Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett. FSG, NY, 1986, p. 30.
“commissions against us”: from “Extract of a Letter from Port Royal,” June 28, 1670. CSPWI item 207.
“account of your fleet”: Governor Modyford’s instructions to Admiral Henry Morgan, July 2, 1670. CSPWI item 212.
“said to be a sorceress”: “Declaration of Juan de Leo,” February 14, 1671. Panama 93, fos. 11–14.
“as successful as expected”: Browne to Arlington, October 12, 1670. CSPWI item 293.
“much care and watchfulness”: Morgan to Jenkins, June 13, 1681. CSPWI item 138.
“a final answer from Spain”: Arlington to Modyford, June 12, 1670. CSPWI item 194.
“sociableness of man’s nature”: Modyford to Arlington, August 20, 1670. CSPWI item 237.
“here to reunite”: letter of Salvador Barranco, November 11, 1670. Panama 93, fos. 11–14.
“a thousand cursed things”: ibid.
“to Admiral Morgan”: Browne to Arlington, October 12, 1670. CSPWI item 293.
“audacious character”: from Fragment of a Voyage to New Orleans (1855) by Elisée Reclus. Translated by Camille Martin and John Clark, published in Mesechabe 11 (Winter 1993) and 12 (Spring 1994).
“an enemy position”: The contract terms can be found in Esquemeling, p. 189.
“take this one”: quoted in Ure, p. 180.
“beyond description”: ibid.
“to stock the garrisons”: Some of the correspondence relating to the improvements made for the defense of Panama is in Guzmán’s letters of October 29 and November 3, 1668, Panama 87.
“and you will not need them”: letter from Don Pedro to Don Juan, January 7, 1670, Panama 93, fos. 34v–36.
11. The Isthmus
“Things began miserably”: The main English sources for the Panama mission are Esquemeling and “A True account and relation” by Morgan, August 20, 1671, CSPWI item 504.
“stone or brick”: Esquemeling, p. 198.
“infinite asperity of the mountain”: ibid.
“and destroy them”: letter from Don Pedro de Elizalde to Don Juan, Panama 93, fos. 112v–113.
“and the wooden walls”: Among the most complete Spanish accounts of the battle is the letter from Don Miguel Francisco de Marichalar to the queen, October 25, 1671; and the “Declaration of Fernando de Saavedra,” Panama 93, fos. 11–14.
“to defend the isthmus”: “Declaration of Fernando de Saavedra,” Panama 93, fos. 11–14.
“they had planned”: A copy of Don Juan’s report was also captured by the English and sent to Morgan, and later reprinted in Bartholomew Sharp’s Voyages.
12. City of Fire
“seeing the Face of the Enemy”: Don Juan’s report, from Sharp’s Voyages.
“to their Fury”: ibid.
“so precise an Obligation”: ibid.
“nothing more than to engage”: ibid.
“in their bodies”: Esquemeling, p. 219.
“drew up to confront the Spaniards”: The main English accounts of the battle come from Esquemeling and from Morgan’s report, “A True account and relation,” April 20, 1671. CSPWI item 504.
“till he lost his life”: Morgan, April 20, 1671. CSPWI item 504.
“Follow me!”: Guzmán, February 19, 1671. Panama 92, fo. 5.
“so many thousand Bullets”: ibid.
“it was impossible”: ibid.
“Alexander the Great”: quoted in Petrovich, p. 38.
“Peru and Potozí”: Morgan, April 20, 1671. CSPWI item 504.
“took prisoners every day”: from “Copy of the Relation of Wm. Fogg concerning the action of the privateers at Panama, taken the 4th of April 1671,” CSPWI item 483.
“richest merchants of Panama”: Esquemeling, p. 225.
“to the vanquished enemy”: Browne to Williamson, August 21, 1671. CO 1/27, fo. 69v.
“fled to the mountains”: Guzmán, February 19, 1671. Panama 92, fo. 5.
“of the men of this Kingdom”: letter from Don Juan Olivares Urrea, February 25, 1671. Panama 93, fos. 129, 129v, and 130.
“where they come ashore”: quoted in Bradley, p. 104.
13. Aftermath
“were broken”: quoted in Petrovich, p. 94.
“11 and 18 million pesos”: Earle, Sack, p. 255.
“and its trade”: This quotation and the details that follow are from the council’s letter to the queen, June 13, 1671. Panama 93.
“cries of the women and children”: This and the following quotations are from “Considerations from Sir Thomas Modyford which moved him to give his consent for fitting the privateers of Jamaica against the Spaniard,” June?, 1671. CSPWI item 578, pp. 237–38.
“cheating and deserting them”: Lynch to Arlington, July 2, 1671. CSPWI 580.
“an unseasonable irruption”: ibid.
“left to the law”: Browne to Williamson, August 21, 1671. CSPWI 608.
“sorrows and misfortune”: Don Miguel Francisco de Marichalar to the queen, October 25, 1671. Panama 93, fos. 11–14.
“the Spaniards satisfied”: Lynch to Arlington, December 17, 1671. CSPWI 697.
“one of great courage”: B
annister to Arlington, March 30, 1672, quoted in Pope, p. 285.
“forced to stay here”: quoted in Pope, p. 289.
“where he was”: Morgan to Williamson, April 13, 1675. CO 1/34, no. 55.
“in fortifying the South Sea”: Lynch to Williamson, November 20, 1674. CSPWI item 1389.
“and fall by him”: Morgan to Williamson, April 13, 1675. CO 1/34, no. 55.
“a kind of veneration”: Roberts, p. 274.
“can cut a diamond”: Morgan to Jenkins, August 22, 1681. CSPWI item 208.
“that I could get”: Morgan to Jenkins, April 9, 1681. CSPWI item 73.
“led on to gaming”: quoted in Cordingly, p. 239.
“as well as we”: Johnson, p. 26.
“with an exacting eye”: Sloane’s account of Morgan’s illness is included in his Voyages, pp. xcviii–cxix.
14. Apocalypse
“hot and airless”: For the circumstances of life in Port Royal, I am indebted to Marx’s wonderfully detailed Port Royal Rediscovered, especially pp. 1–12; and to Black’s Port Royal, especially pp. 99–119.
“a small trembling”: from “A Letter from Hans Sloane…,” reprinted in Philosophical Transactions, volume XVIII, S. Smith and B. Walford, London, 1695. Sloane was not present on Jamaica for the earthquake but collected letters from actual eyewitnesses. It will not be referenced here again.
“It will soon be over”: from Heath’s “A Full Account of the late dreadful Earthquake at Port Royal in Jamaica,” June 22 and 28, 1692. Printed in A True and Particular Relation…, second edition, T. Osborne, London, 1748. Heath’s entire account is contained here and will not be referenced again.
“sunk under Water”: quoted in Clark, p. 16.
“above ground”: from The True and Largest Account of the Late Earthquake in Jamaica, J. Butler, London, 1693.
“nineteen white People”: quoted in Judgment Cliff Landslide in the Yallahs Valley, by V. A. Zans, Geonotes, volume II, p. 43. 1959.
“snuff out its victims”: ibid.
“they are irrepairable”: ibid.
“before the tremors struck”: I am indebted to George Clark’s research on the earthquake, referenced above.
“fowls of the air”: Pike’s letter of June 19, 1692, is reprinted in “Quakers and the Earthquake at Port Royal,” 1692, by H. J. Cadbury, Jamaican Historical Review, volume VIII, 1971.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my researcher in Seville, Yolanda Morillo, who searched through miles of documents to find the relevant papers. Her sister, Maria, helped enormously in coordinating the Spanish research. My translators, Ana Triaureau and M. Isabel Amarante, turned seventeenth-century Castilian longhand into legible English, for which I’m grateful. Fact-checker Miriam Intrator combed the manuscript with her sharp eye for historical detail. Ken Kinker read the manuscript and offered valuable comments. I’d also like to thank the staff at the British Library in London and the Public Record Office for their assistance in tracking down Morgan-related papers. Professor George R. Clark of Kansas State University graciously provided me with his research on the Port Royal earthquake.
My agent, Scott Waxman, helped focus my original idea and found the right home for the book. Farley Chase carried the manuscript to foreign shores and placed it with sympathetic editors abroad. And my editor at Crown, Rick Horgan, sharpened the original narrative and undoubtedly made Empire a better book.
My lovely wife, Mariekarl, was an inexhaustible source of humor and love when they were needed most. And finally, my son, Asher, born during the revisions, did nothing at all, except arrive safely.
About the Author
Stephan Talty is a widely published journalist who has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Men’s Journal, Time Out New York, Details, and many other publications. His book Mulatto America: At the Crossroads of Black and White Culture was published to critical acclaim in 2003.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephan Talty
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Crown is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Talty, Stephan.
Empire of blue water: Captain Morgan’s great pirate army, the epic battle for the Americas, and the catastrophe that ended the outlaws’ bloody reign. / Stephan Talty.—1st ed. Includes bibliographical references.
1. Pirates—Caribbean Area—History—17th century. 2. Caribbean Area—History to 1810. 3. Morgan, Henry, Sir, 1635?–1688. I. Title.
F2161.T35 2007
972.904—dc22
2006015273
Maps by Jackie Aher
eISBN: 978-0-307-38275-7
v3.0
Empire of Blue Water Page 35
