[Michael Z Williamson Rogue Epub File
Iberio Ralda
To Jamaica, most beautiful of islands, where the writer hasspent ten happy winters, this book is affectionately inscribedin commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the birthof Henry Morgan.
The lively contemporary author of The Bucaniers of Americacircumstantially relates that Henry Morgan was the son of a rich farmeror yeoman in Wales, and that at an early age he had been kidnapped andsold, or had bound himself voluntarily as a hired servant for a term offour years to a planter in the island of Barbadoes. This statement hasbeen accepted and repeated by many later writers. Morgan hotlyrepudiated it, for on the publication of the English version of thatbook in 1683, it was named in his actions for libel as being false andmalicious. The printed apology of William Crooke, its publisher,dictated or at least approved by Morgan's solicitor, declares thatMorgan was "a Gentleman's son of good quality in the county of Monmouth,and was never a Servant unto anybody in his life, unless unto hisMajesty, the late King of England."
The preface to The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp,published in London in 1684, referring to Morgan, remarked that "it issufficiently known that he was descended from an honourable Family inMonmouthshire, and went at first out of England with the Army commandedby General Venables for Hispaniola and Jamaica."
Welsh genealogists of repute concur however in stating that he was theeldest son of Robert Morgan of Llanrhymney, a small estate inGlamorganshire, near Tredegar Castle, where he was born in 1635.[1] Theyear of his birth is ascertained with tolerable certainty as anaffidavit made by him in Jamaica on the 21st November, 1671, definitelystates his age as thirty-six.
The family of Tredegar was recognized as the head of[2] the clan, of whichthe Morgans of Llanrhymney were a cadet branch. In a poem, entitled"Prosopoeia Tredegar", believed to have been written by Percy Enderbyabout 1661, the following lines occur:
Henry Morgan in fact claimed rather close relationship as in his will hemade a bequest to his sister, Catherine Lloyd "to be payed into thehands of my ever-honest Cozen, Mr. Thomas Morgan of Tredegar."
Members of his family had already earned much distinction in recentcontinental wars, notably Sir Thomas Morgan in command of the regimentafterwards known as "The Buffs", who was governor of the fortress ofBergen-op-Zoom in 1594, and General Sir Charles Morgan, who took part inthe siege of that place in 1621. Later two of Henry Morgan's uncles,Edward and Thomas Morgan, younger brothers of his father, had becomesoldiers of fortune under foreign flags. Both won considerable renown inGermany and Holland and eventually attained high rank in England, havingreturned to engage in the civil war on opposite sides. Edward Morgan,who figures in Dutch records as "Heer van Lanrumnij", entered the royalarmy and in 1649 was given a commission as Colonel-General of the King'sforces in South Wales under the Earl of Carbery. While in Germany he hadmarried Anna Petronilla, the only sister of Johan Ernst, Freiherr vonPoellnitz, governor of Lippstadt in Westphalia. When the triumph of theParliament was seen to be complete, he fled to the Netherlands andafterwards lived in exile for several years with his brother-in-law onthe family estates at Aschbach near Bamberg. After the restoration hereturned to London to seek official favour and compensation for hislosses. In a memorial addressed to Mr. Secretary Bennet in 1663, heasserted that he had forty years experience as a soldier.[3]
Thomas Morgan had fought in the wars of the Low Countries and Germany,at one time under the French flag, and at another in the army ofBernhard of Saxe-Weimar. On his return to England he took the side ofthe Parliament. He first commanded a regiment of foot but in 1661 wastransferred to command a regiment of dragoons. He became Monck's chiefsubordinate in the subjugation of Scotland and gained his esteem forsound military judgment and trustworthiness. He was considered an expertin the employment of artillery and the conduct of siege operations.Having attained the rank of major-general and second in command inScotland he was recalled by Cromwell to act as second in command of theexpedition to Flanders, in which the "little, shrill-voiced, cholericman," is admitted to have acted a more important part than his nominalchief. He was wounded in the siege of Saint Venant and again in thesuccessful assault of Ypres, when he commanded all the English troops.Having once more greatly distinguished himself in the battle of theDunes near Dunkirk, he was knighted by Richard Cromwell in November,1658, when he was described as "being esteemed in the army next to thegeneral, [Monck], a person of the best conduct then in arms in the threenations, having been nearly forty years and present in the greatestbattles and sieges of Christendom for a great part of that time." Afterthe restoration he was retained in the army and, in 1663, appointedgovernor of the island of Jersey, then menaced with an invasion by theFrench.[4]
Little reliable record has been found of the youth of Henry Morganbeyond what he wrote himself in middle life, when, acting as governor ofJamaica, he stated that: "The office of Judge Admiral was not given tome for my understanding of the business better than others, nor for theprofitableness thereof, for I left the schools too young to be a greatproficient in that or other laws,[4] and have been more used to the pikethan the book."[5] This want of education so frankly confessed wasprobably due to the disturbed state of the country, as he was born toolate to take any very active part in the civil war and was still in histwentieth year when the expedition commanded by Venables sailed fromPortsmouth in December, 1654.
"His Father was a Farmer of pretty good Repute, and designed hisSon for the same Way of Life; but his Inclinations were turnedon another way; and finding his Father positive in hisResolution, bid him adieu and rambled to Bristol, where hebound himself a Servant for Four Years and was transported toBarbadoes; there he was sold and served his Master with a greatdeal of Fidelity."[6]
There may be some truth in this account and Morgan may have enlisted inVenables's command at Barbados, as Ludlow relates that "they [Penn andVenables] made proclamation there that whosoever would engage in theundertaking should have their freedom, whereupon about two thousandservants listed themselves to the great distress of the planters."[7]
In Colonel Thomas Modyford, speaker of the House of Assembly, Venablesfound a most ardent and influential supporter, who persuaded that bodyto offer sixty horsemen for the expedition, and give him permission torecruit by beat of drum in public places, by which much ill will wasexcited among the planters, some of whom did not hesitate to denounceModyford as a traitor to the interests of that island. But war withSpain was always popular, as it was usually profitable, and manyvolunteers were enrolled in the hope of plunder, expecting to take"mountains of gold". Venables reported that he had raised three thousandmen but was unable to arm more than thirteen hundred. At Montserrat,Nevis, and[5] St. Kitt's smaller bodies were recruited, numbering in allbetween twelve and thirteen hundred more and increasing his force toseven thousand ill-trained and ill-armed men. Henry Morgan's name doesnot appear in the list of officers which has been preserved, and hisservice must have been in the ranks, but it seems likely that the nephewof Thomas Morgan would be entitled to special consideration.
Owing to the misconduct of a considerable part of this hastily assembledmob the invasion of Hispaniola failed disgracefully and even a monthafter its successful landing in Jamaica an officer made the distastefulconfession: "We now find by sad experience that but few of them were oldSoldiers, but certainly most of them were Apprentices that ran fromtheir Masters, and others that came out of Bridewell, or one Gaol oranother, so that in our poor Army we have but few that either fear Godor reverence man."[8]
Cromwell's commission to Admiral Penn took the form of an incisive andpassionate manifesto, justifying his contemplated attack upon theSpanish possessions in the West Indies as a rightful measure forexacting reparation for past injuries and ensuring security for thefuture. It fiercely denounced "the cruelties and inhuman practices ofthe King of Spain exercised in America, not only upon the Indians andnatives but also upon the people of those nations inhabiting in thoseparts, whom he hath, contrary to the common right and law of nations, byforce of arms driven from those places whereof they were the rightfulpossessors; murdering many of their men, and leading others intocaptivity; and to this very day doth not only deny to trade, or to haveany commerce with us or the people of those countries in any part ofAmerica, but, contrary to the treaties between the two[6] States, dothexercise all acts of hostility against us, and this people there, asagainst open and professed enemies, giving thereby and [by] the claim hemakes to all that part of the world by the colour of the pope'sdonation, just grounds to believe that he intends the ruin anddestruction of all the English plantations, people and interest in thoseparts."[9]
His peremptory demand that English merchants should be allowed the freeexercise of their religion in the Spanish dominions and that Englishcolonists and traders should no longer be treated as pirates in the WestIndies had in fact been curtly rejected. "To ask for liberty from theInquisition and free sailing in the West Indies", said the Spanishambassador, "was to ask for his master's two eyes", and no concessionwould be made on either point. Venables was consequently given fullliberty of action. "The design in general", he was told, "is to gain aninterest in that part of the West Indies in the possession of theSpaniard; for the effecting whereof we shall not tie you up to a methodby any particular instructions."[10]
795a8134c1