01x04 - The Tale of Henry Morgan

[bunniefuu]

[Narrator] Henry Morgan,

an obscure soldier

from rural Wales,

sent to the Caribbean as a pawn

in a w*r of empires.

[Expert 1] He was really

interested in being

on the seas, capturing treasure.

[Narrator] Through cunning,

plunder, and conquest,

he outmaneuvered his enemies

[Expert 2] Morgan was an agent

of very violent

imperial expansion.

[Narrator] to build

a kingdom for himself.

[Expert 3] Morgan,

he's ruthless and brutal

in his military tactics.

[Narrator] Morgan's sins

were continuously overlooked,

his ability to make great sums

of money for the right people

rendering him untouchable.

From lowly privateer to pirate

to lieutenant governor,

Henry Morgan used the power he

seized to transform his life,

building up Jamaica's

earliest sugar plantations,

accelerating

a brutal sl*ve trade.

[Expert 4] Henry Morgan

was a sl*ve trader

as well as a pirate.

[Narrator] So how did

Morgan come to be known

as a fierce pirate?

♪

The year is 1654.

Across English port towns,

able men join

a rapidly expanding navy

to be shipped off to fight

for England's stake

in the New World.

♪

Some volunteer; others are

conscripted against their will.

Amongst the crowd is

a young man, Henry Morgan.

[Mark Hanna] That navy consisted

often of guys drunk from bars

who would be kidnaped

and thrown on board these ships.

We're pretty sure

that Morgan might have been

one of those guys, someone

who had just been swept up

in this, this fervor

to invade the Caribbean.

[Narrator] Spain and England

have been lodged

in a fierce rivalry

for nearly 200 years.

For decades, the Spanish

have dominated the Caribbean.

To launch a counterstrike,

the English Navy

needs serious manpower.

7,000 troops sail

to the Caribbean;

amongst their ranks,

young Henry Morgan.

Their aim?

To conquer the island

of Hispaniola,

the cornerstone of Spain's

New World empire.

But the Spanish lie in wait.

[Nuala Zahedieh]

They were humiliatingly

defeated at Hispaniola.

[Narrator] Thousands

of English troops

lose their lives

on Hispaniola,

survivors beating a hasty

retreat to their boats.

[Zahedieh] And then

limped on to Jamaica.

It's much smaller,

ill defended,

and very much

a consolation prize.

♪

[Narrator]

This invading force,

with Morgan amongst them,

have just become the first

English settlers to set foot

on the shores of Jamaica.

But they're at constant

risk of attack.

Four major European

powers subscribed

to the mutual concept

of no peace behind the line,

a mutual understanding

that w*r will continue

in the Caribbean

regardless of any peace

treaties agreed in Europe.

[Zahedieh] So, whatever

the situation in Europe,

whether there's w*r or peace,

the Spanish treated anyone

who ventured into these waters

as a pirate.

[Iszi Lawrence]

It's perfect for pirates.

It's very hard to actually

control and police by any state.

Spain is extracting a lot

of wealth from the Americas,

all coming

through the Caribbean,

and where there's trade,

there's opportunity to thieve.

[Harcourt Fuller] When you look

at a map of Jamaica,

it's right in the middle

of the action.

All of the ships coming

into the New World,

there's a point where they

have to go past Jamaica.

[Zahedieh]

It's completely surrounded

by Spanish territories,

and it's a very long way

from the nearest

English outpost,

so there was real fear

about Spanish reprisals.

[Narrator] Within a year,

the English naval fleet

withdraws from Jamaica,

their fight spreading

to other fronts.

But some men remain.

Morgan is one of them.

The young Welshman

harbors fantasies

of raiding treasure

from Spanish colonies,

fed by an insatiable desire

to make his fortune.

♪

[Hanna] 1660s is the first time

English people started

to use the word "privateer,"

and privateer was a term

coined specifically in Jamaica

to describe these sailors

who had been forced

to come into

the Caribbean to fight,

but now on their own,

acting independently.

[Narrator] Morgan is

eager to prove himself.

Whilst many settle into

quiet lives farming the land,

Morgan has developed

a taste for battle

and a reputation

as a talented tactician.

He decides to put

these skills to good use.

[Hannah Cusworth] He was

very wedded to the life

of a privateer,

of being on the seas,

of capturing treasure.

He was really interested

in Jamaica being a place

that privateering

could flourish.

[Richard Blakemore]

Morgan, by the early 1660s,

is a captain,

and he leads

a series of voyages,

each one striking

at a different part

of the Spanish territories,

and with each one

bringing back more plunder.

[David Wilson] He's part

of different privateering crews.

But then

by the sort of mid-1660s,

he's sort of elevated

to become one of the principal

or dominant privateering

figures in Jamaica.

And part of that

is through the patronage

of Sir Thomas Modyford.

[Narrator] In 1664,

Thomas Modyford becomes

governor of Jamaica.

The English Crown instructs

Modyford to clamp down

on any privateering

in the region.

But Modyford soon grasps

just how essential

these privateers are

to both the security

and economy of his island.

And he finds a like-minded

accomplice in Captain Morgan.

[Wilson] They strike up

a bit of a partnership,

a bit of a relationship,

whereby Modyford commissions

Morgan to attack the Spanish

as part of this idea of

offensive defense, if you will.

It was a really good way

of outsourcing w*r

at a time when navies

were extremely expensive,

so they couldn't afford

a standard navy, as it were.

But what that meant was

that you had a maritime force

that were focused

on attacking other vessels.

It wasn't really

a defensive force.

All of the wages

for the privateers

came from the plunder,

so if they didn't

attack vessels,

if they didn't take any prizes,

they didn't get paid.

[cannon fire]

♪

[Narrator] In the 10 years

since his arrival in Jamaica,

Morgan's striking reputation

has grown to attract

colonial officials

and fellow privateers alike.

He is elected Admiral

of the Brethren of the Coast

a loose coalition

of free boaters,

better known

as the buccaneers.

[Blakemore] Morgan is

authorized by Thomas Modyford

to take out a buccaneer fleet

and to gather intelligence

about Spanish intentions.

He is not commissioned

to attack Spanish towns,

and in fact, his commission,

by excluding Spanish towns,

gives him an incentive

to attack Spanish towns

because any plunder from shore

is not due to be shared

with the governor and the Crown,

whereas anything he takes at sea

is due to be shared with

the governor and the Crown.

[Hanna] There is a difference

between a buccaneer

and a pirate.

The original buccaneers were

essentially French cowboys,

cattle rustlers,

who also took to piracy,

who were known as "boucaniers."

But among the English,

when they anglicized

the word to buccaneers,

that became individuals

who committed acts of piracy

that involved

amphibious attacks.

They're usually referring

to individuals who start

their ventures on a ship,

but actually their plundering

is typically land-based.

♪

[Zahedieh] Buccaneers

knew the local geography.

They understood

how to extract resources.

They had local

knowledge and skills.

In fact, much of this knowledge

was gained

from indigenous people.

So, whereas a European

force would come out

and usually die like flies,

buccaneers were

seasoned to the climate.

♪

[Narrator] To satisfy

their desire for plunder,

the buccaneers

take to the seas

with a fleet of nine ships

packed with a crew

of 500 privateers.

[Blakemore] So the first thing

Morgan does is attack a town

in Cuba, to capture prisoners,

so he's already

instantly gone beyond

the commission

that he was given.

But the prisoners

that he captured,

prisoners who may

have been tortured

to elicit this information,

obligingly say Portobelo is

intending to attack Jamaica,

and so he uses that

as his justification

to go and attack the city.

[Narrator] Morgan

sets his sight on one

of the wealthiest settlements

in the Spanish Empire.

Portobelo is the terminus

for a cache of silver

plucked from

across South America.

As a result, it's one

of the most heavily fortified

cities in the New World,

surrounded by hostile waters

busy with Spanish

fighting ships.

♪

To snatch

Portobelo's treasures,

Morgan must remain invisible.

[Blakemore] A particular

kind of vessel,

often known as a Jamaica

or a Bermuda sloop,

develops in the Caribbean.

And it has two particularly

important characteristics.

One is they're relatively small

and therefore can fit

into shallow water.

And the other feature

was a different sail plan.

They used what we'd now

call a fore and aft

and a gaff-rig sail, which

was much more maneuverable

than the larger square rigged

sails of frigates or warships.

[Narrator] Anchoring

at Bocas de Toro,

Morgan and his buccaneers

transfer to an agile

fleet of canoes.

For four days, they traverse

the coast undetected.

[Zahedieh] Canoes were faster,

more maneuverable.

They could go

in very shallow waters,

and they were silent, so people

didn't know they were coming.

[Narrator] The men leave their

canoes and continue by foot.

At the gates of the city

looms Santiago Castle.

Gathering his troops,

Morgan prepares to strike.

♪

[Blakemore] And it's

an astonishingly quick attack.

The buccaneers sweep through

the defenses outside the city.

[swords clashing]

The guard of the city

are caught

almost completely

by surprise.

[Narrator] The buccaneers push

into the heart of the city,

cutting down its terrified

defenders and seizing captives.

One final stronghold

stands between them

and complete control

of Portobelo.

But Morgan has a cruel plan.

[Blakemore] Morgan forces

some friars and some nuns

and the mayor of the city

to walk as a sort of human

shield towards the gate.

So he's ruthless and brutal

in his military tactics.

[Narrator] With innocent

hostages as their shield,

Morgan and his men

storm the final battlement.

Soldiers are captured,

tortured into revealing

the whereabouts of

Portobelo's hidden riches.

Several blood-soaked weeks see

the buccaneers loot the city,

ransoming captives and

reveling in their new wealth.

But Morgan still wants more.

[Blakemore] He writes

to the Spanish governor

and threatens to destroy

Portobelo if he is not paid off.

[Zahedieh] He started off asking

for 350,000 pieces of eight,

but in the end,

settled for 100,000,

mainly because his men were

actually beginning to get fever,

so he wasn't sure that

he could last a long siege.

They left after a month

with a prize

worth about 100,000

pieces of eight.

[Blakemore] A piece of eight,

or a Spanish dollar,

was a peso de ocho,

a Spanish coin

worth eight reales,

hence "pieces of eight."

Pieces of eight became really

the first international

currency, and they traveled

through all of the colonies

in the Americas,

many of them finding their way

there by the way of buccaneers.

A single piece of eight

would probably be worth

a couple of days' wages

for a merchant sailor,

but it could be a very

unreliable currency as well.

It was very common

to clip the edges off

in order to make new coins.

And when people

needed small change,

because there was no

smaller denomination,

people would simply

cut up the pesos.

And so slivers of silver

would be changing hands.

So this really was the coinage

that floated the economy

of the early modern world.

[Zahedieh] Every one

of the 500 men

came away with about 120 pounds,

which was a massive amount

for a 17th-century mariner

probably about 20 times

their usual annual wage.

♪

[Narrator] The victorious

buccaneers return to Jamaica

to a hero's welcome,

their ships crammed

with looted treasure,

their pockets bulging

with Spanish silver.

For a buccaneer with silver to

spend, Port Royal is paradise.

[Fuller] The importance

of Port Royal to the English

cannot be overemphasized.

It was considered

to be the richest

and the wickedest

city on earth.

It was quite the town.

It had taverns, it had brothels.

[Blakemore]

Which are being driven

by the presence

of the buccaneers.

The buccaneers probably make up

somewhere between a third

and a half of the population

of Port Royal at this time.

[Kevin Dawson] Port Royal

becomes this sanctuary

for pirates,

including Henry Morgan,

and so they end up bringing

much of their looted wealth

into Port Royal.

[Narrator] When buccaneers

have silver in their palm,

rum flows like water.

[Hanna] The connection

between pirates and rum

is real for one reason,

which is that sugar

is the primary commodity

produced in the Caribbean.

And rum, of course,

is made from sugar.

So, of course,

pirates drinking rum

would have been quite common.

Morgan himself was probably

more fond of drinking

than many of his contemporaries

and was well known for causing

small riots in Port Royal.

[Lawrence] All of these stories

about Morgan being this drunk,

I think it's very likely

because water couldn't

keep fresh at sea.

You had to drink in order

to not die of thirst.

This is, you know,

part of being a pirate.

And the fact that Morgan

is seen this way

means that he must have

been drinking a lot.

This is, you know, a story

that we keep getting about him,

a rumor that keeps returning

is actually he was very out

of control a lot of the time.

♪

[Narrator]

Port Royal, however,

is more than a chaotic jumble

of raucous taverns

and brothels.

By the tail end of the 1660s,

the city has grown

to become the largest,

richest English settlement

in the New World,

overtaking

North American towns

such as Boston, New York,

and Philadelphia.

[Cusworth] It was

quite a diverse place.

There were English settlers,

enslaved Africans,

Jewish merchants.

[Lawrence]

People wanted to settle,

and if you wanted to settle,

you can't do that with

just men; you need women.

And so women

were being transported

down to the Caribbean.

[Narrator] Ever more people

begin to settle,

families taking root,

building communities,

men, women, children,

merchants, officials, soldiers,

and of course,

those with growing wealth

from ill*gal privateering.

[Narrator] Anglo-Spanish

relations remain

on a knife edge.

Morgan has clearly overstepped

the limits

of Modyford's commission.

But he's also made Jamaica,

and its governor, wildly rich.

So long as treasure continues

to fill Modyford's lap,

Captain Morgan is free

to do as he pleases.

Still, the official

has to at least appear

to be reprimanding

the overzealous captain.

Despite a warning

to appease the Crown,

Morgan is gifted

a brand-new flagship,

a frigate known as the Oxford.

Capable of carrying

a crew of around 250 men

armed with 26 cannons,

this two-deck gunship

offers Morgan a level

of firepower and speed

that far surpasses any vessel

he has commanded before.

Sent to protect

Jamaica's coastline,

Morgan decides that the Oxford

is far too magnificent

to be wasted on mere defense.

[Blakemore] He instantly

takes it as his flagship

because even though

it's relatively small

by the standards

of naval ships of the day,

it's one of the most powerful

warships in the Caribbean.

Most of the shipping

in the Caribbean at this time

is relatively small vessels,

and so a frigate like the Oxford

is a pretty big weapon

in the Caribbean at this time.

[Narrator] Plotting his next

attack on the Spanish,

Morgan sails to a small island

off the coast of Hispaniola,

where he's joined

by 900 buccaneers

from across the Caribbean.

A w*r council is assembled

aboard the Oxford

in preparation

for one of the greatest

buccaneering expeditions

ever attempted.

[Blakemore] He calls a council

on the ship to plan their raid,

and after the council, they

have a big party on the ship,

as is the custom

of the buccaneers.

There's lots of firing of g*ns

and salutes and drinking.

Doing those two things together

is probably not a good idea.

The spark hits the magazine,

and the ship explodes.

♪

[distant screams]

All of those who were sitting

on the same side of the table

as Morgan at dinner survive.

All of those sitting

on the other side of the table

are k*lled

in this enormous blast.

Of about 200 men on board,

fewer than 10 survive.

[man yelling]

[Narrator] What remains

of the HMS Oxford sinks.

Most of Morgan's

best men, dead.

His grand plan

is no longer feasible

with such a diminished force,

and so Morgan settles

on a soft target--

the Spanish city of Gibraltar

and its neighbor, Maracaibo.

If his fleet can safely

navigate the sandbanks

which shield both cities,

this could still be

his greatest raid yet.

[Zahedieh] Gibraltar

is in a huge lagoon.

It was extremely difficult

to get entry.

[Narrator] Once again,

Morgan utilizes canoes,

now as pilot boats

guiding his ships

through the perilous

shallows of the inlet.

Once into the mouth

of the lagoon,

his men head for Gibraltar.

[Zahedieh] They took

Gibraltar fairly easily.

They gathered the prize.

[Narrator] Those unable

or unwilling to flee

the city face t*rture.

[man screams]

[Narrator] Morgan and his men

thieving vast piles of silver,

stealing a major Spanish

trading vessel,

and seizing enslaved

African captives.

Flush with victory

and treasure,

they head back

through the lagoon.

[Blakemore] A Spanish

squadron arrives

and blockades

the mouth of the lake.

[Zahedieh] Three Spanish

men-of-w*r were lined up.

There was a moment of panic.

[Blakemore] So, the buccaneers

are trapped within this lake,

and they have to fight their way

out against a Spanish squadron

of much more

heavily armed ships.

[Zahedieh] But Morgan quickly

developed a strategy.

[Narrator]

He has his carpenters

convert his newly stolen ship

into a floating trap.

The decks of the ship

are lined with wooden planks.

[Zahedieh] They put sailor's

hats on the top of them

to make it look as though

it was heavily manned.

They cut holes in the sides of

the ship and stuck logs through

to make it look

as though it was armed.

They put gunpowder

inside with fuses

and sailed towards

the exit of the lagoon.

[Blakemore] So when

this flagship is sailing

towards the Spanish fleet,

the Spanish sailors

think that Morgan

is just overconfident.

[shouting]

[Blakemore] No one would

sail their flagship

straight into the g*ns

of the enemy fleet.

[Narrator] Morgan times it

to perfection.

As the Spanish realize they've

been tricked, it's too late.

The buccaneers' empty vessel

plows into

the Spanish flagship,

which immediately ignites,

engulfed by flames.

[Zahedieh] The Spanish flagship

was totally burnt in minutes.

Most of the crew drowned.

♪

[Narrator] Racing past

the smoking remains

of the flagship, Morgan seizes

the second Spanish ship,

while survivors rush

for the safety of dry land

on their third and final boat.

Within minutes, Morgan has

cleared his way to safety.

But he suspects

the sunken flagship

may have carried

great treasures.

[Dawson] The flagship sinks,

and so Morgan comes to realize

that a number of the Africans

that he has stolen

are actually skilled

underwater divers.

These African divers,

they've trained their bodies

to basically work underwater.

So, they're engaged in

what we call free diving,

which is basically just diving

with the air in their lungs.

Most of these divers were

able to hold their breath

two to five minutes.

And so they're not just

kind of diving underwater

and picking things up,

but they're actually having

to dive underwater

and to break into the hulls

of Spanish treasure ships.

They would have a rope with

rocks tied to both ends of it

that they could loop

around their neck.

They'd use these rock weights

to quickly descend

and stand on a ship's deck,

and then using

sledgehammers and pickaxes

to actually gain access.

And so he sends

those divers down,

and they end up recovering

about 17,000 silver coins.

[Narrator]

Morgan is unstoppable.

This expedition has blessed him

with unimaginable wealth,

his unique military cunning

proven by his

spectacular escape.

The infamous captain's

return to Port Royal

is sure to be celebrated.

But upon his arrival,

he receives startling

news from London.

There's been another swing

in Anglo-Spanish relations,

and privateering is

now strictly forbidden.

Without knowing it,

Morgan has just committed

an ill*gal act of piracy.

Will he face arrest,

or worse?

But silver saves

Morgan's skin once again.

An official scolding

from Governor Modyford

is softened by a share

of the plunder.

♪

Now in his mid-30s,

Morgan must discover a way

to thrive in a time of peace

between England and Spain.

In a world without privateers,

his raids have made him rich,

and now he seeks status.

Founding sugar plantations

and populating them

with enslaved people,

Morgan's bleak empire

is growing.

[Fuller] Jamaica at the time

was a sugar producing country.

Sugar was essentially

the major commodity.

All of that wealth

Morgan had acquired,

he brought that back to Jamaica

and he owned three plantations.

What does that mean?

It means that Sir Henry Morgan

was a sl*ve trader

as well as a pirate.

When we speak about pirates,

we talk about the gold

and the silver,

but oftentimes

when pirates raided ships,

some of those ships

were sl*ve ships,

and they would also

take those sl*ves.

Jamaica is one

of the most brutal places

where enslaved Africans went to.

Jamaica is a tropical country,

it's very hot,

and they are working

sunup to sundown,

the sun bearing down

on their backs.

The leaves of sugarcane,

they're almost like razors.

Their skins are being cut

by the extremely sharp edges

of the sugarcane leaves.

Their sweat is running

down into their cuts.

And of course, they can't stop.

[Blakemore] By the 18th century

and through the course

of the 18th century,

Britain becomes

the biggest shipper

of enslaved African people

in the world.

And that's directly

related to the growth

of these Caribbean

sugar colonies.

And in their early decades,

without buccaneering,

these colonies would

not have been viable.

So, there's a direct

personal connection

because Henry Morgan

is himself a slaveholder,

is capturing enslaved people,

is selling enslaved people.

But there's also this broader

economic dimension.

He is boosting the economy

that then leads

to this enormous sl*ve system

that continues

for more than 100 years.

[Narrator] But Morgan isn't

content living out his days

on a plantation.

July 1668.

With trouble brewing

between England and Spain,

he spots an opportunity.

[Zahedieh] Modyford

received instructions

to proclaim peace with Spain.

But ironically,

the Spanish sent out orders

to the Spanish governors

to commission privateers

against the English,

and there was a real feeling

that they were very

vulnerable to attack.

[Hanna] Governor Modyford

told Morgan,

"Hey, I have a feeling

that the governor of Panama

is gonna raid Jamaica.

I don't have proof,

but I have a good feeling

it's gonna happen,"

and that will justify

a raid against the Spanish.

"So, how about you,

Morgan, go out and prove

that this is going to happen,

that there is going to be

a preemptive attack

against Jamaica on the island."

So Morgan said,

"Sure, I can do that."

And so he captured a ship,

and he went up

to the captain and said,

"I have a feeling you are

about to raid Jamaica."

He said, "No, I don't think so."

And Morgan essentially

put a knife to his throat

and said, "No, tell me, you were

about to raid Jamaica, right?"

He said, "Sure.

Yeah, of course I was."

And Morgan said, "Great.

Okay, now I have a right

to do whatever I want."

[Narrator] Upon receipt

of this information,

Modyford issues Morgan

with a wide-ranging commission,

the ruthless pirate given

carte blanche to organize

the biggest

buccaneering expedition

in the history

of the West Indies,

targeting one of

the oldest European cities

in the Americas.

[Zahedieh] Like Portobelo,

Panama had a sort of

legendary wealth.

It was a glittering

sort of prize.

[Narrator] Not only

does Panama boast

a thriving mercantile community

of some 7,000 households,

but it's key to

the Spanish silver route.

Aware this could be

the mightiest conquest

of his pirating career,

Morgan and his invading force

set sail for Panama.

[Blakemore] He gathers

about 2,000 buccaneers,

probably four out

of every five buccaneers

who are present

in the Caribbean at that time,

including Dutch, French,

Spanish, Italian,

also some people

of African heritage,

some indigenous

Americans as well.

[Narrator]

Between the buccaneers

and the treasures of Panama

are 70 long miles

of thick rainforest.

Unable to safely dock

any closer to Panama,

Morgan's men sail to the head

of the Chagres River,

anchor their boats,

gather their weapons,

and set off into the jungle.

[Zahedieh] It's very,

very dense tropical vegetation

either side of the river,

so they were chopping

their way through.

Along the river, there

were regular defense posts

which had been manned

by the Spaniards.

When they realized there was

this massive English force

coming, they all just fled.

But they did take all

their provisions with them.

So the main problem

for the English

was that they actually

had no food.

[Narrator] As the days go by,

hunger and sickness

grip the buccaneers,

and many die of exhaustion.

Seven torturous days

and nights pass

before finally the survivors

emerge from the jungle.

At the shores of the Pacific,

they find Panama

and their salvation.

[moo]

[Zahedieh] They saw fields which

were full of grazing cattle,

so they just fell upon them

and barbecued the meat.

[Narrator] Whilst the

buccaneers gorge themselves

in the fields outside the city,

the people of Panama

prepare as best they can

for the battle ahead.

♪

[Zahedieh] The town of Panama

was very ill defended.

They were completely

inexperienced.

There was no trained militia

or real defense force,

so they were very vulnerable.

[Narrator] The Spanish governor

makes a difficult decision--

if the city falls

to the pirates,

there will be nothing left

for the invaders to plunder.

He orders barrels of gunpowder

to be wedged between buildings,

to be ignited if and when

their defenses are breached.

The two armies clash

beyond the city's walls.

Morgan rapidly seizes

the high ground,

dispatching a small body

of troops to take a hill

overlooking

the enemy's position.

The Spanish try

to dislodge Morgan's men,

first with a cavalry charge

and then with infantry

but are cut down by a curiously

disciplined pirate force.

In desperation,

the governor unleashes

a huge herd of cattle,

hoping the beasts will

stampede over the attackers.

But the animals, startled

by the crash of g*nf*re,

turn back on their keepers,

crushing the Spanish troops.

♪

It's a m*ssacre.

The buccaneers

only lose 15 men,

whilst the Spanish

sacrifice around 500.

The last line

of defense breaks,

and Morgan's men

storm the fabled city.

[Zahedieh] Because

the Spaniards had got warning

that these privateers were

coming, they had actually

managed to ship off

all of the real treasure.

They put it all on ships

and taken it away,

and then by the time

the privateers entered,

the Spaniards burned

the town to the ground.

♪

[cannons fire]

[Narrator] The buccaneers

had battled the ocean waves,

trekked through miles

of inhospitable forest,

and slaughtered hundreds

of Spanish soldiers,

and yet all that awaits them

are smoldering ruins.

The treasures they were

promised are long gone.

Owing to the sheer size

of the invasion force,

each man takes home

a mere 80 pieces of silver,

the equivalent today of $2,500.

[Blakemore] Ironically, although

Panama is the biggest expedition

and probably

his most well known,

it's also his least successful.

[Zahedieh] The shares

were really quite small,

and there were actually stories

that Morgan had embezzled

some of the prize.

He was shipwrecked,

or cast away,

in a port outside Port Royal

when he was on his way home.

So it would have been

perfectly possible for him

to have unloaded

some of the prize.

[Narrator] Rumors

evolved into accusations.

Could Panama really have

held so little plunder?

Had Morgan taken

the best jewels for himself?

We will never truly

know what happened.

Legend claims that

Morgan's buried treasure

is still out there,

waiting for a lucky adventurer

to unearth

the lost hoard of Panama.

♪

[Narrator] Back in Jamaica,

controversy grows

around Morgan.

It becomes clear

his raid on Panama

was carried out

under false intelligence.

The Spanish never

did attack Jamaica,

meaning Spain and England

were at peace

when Morgan effectively

destroyed the city

and stole all that remained

of its riches.

A furious Spain demands

immediate retribution

for what it considers

an unprovoked attack.

[Wilson] He is taken,

as is Modyford,

and sent back

to England in chains.

[Blakemore] It seems that Morgan

is going to get into trouble.

Modyford is imprisoned

in the Tower.

Both of them may well be

put on trial for piracy,

but in fact,

no trial ever happens.

It seems like this is

just a sort of way

of calming relations

with the Spanish.

[Hanna] The king himself

clearly interacted

and met Morgan himself

and was also very impressed.

And so rather than

be charged with piracy,

Morgan was actually knighted

and sent back to Jamaica

as lieutenant governor,

meaning the sort of right-hand

man to the governor himself,

which is probably one of

the most dramatic career changes

in the entire history of piracy.

[Narrator] 1676.

Morgan returns to Port Royal

as lieutenant governor.

His mission from the king--

to end piracy

in Jamaican waters.

Former comrades

are now enemies.

Despite his orders,

Morgan is rumored

to support the local pirates,

taking a cut from the bounty

of each of the hundreds of men

operating illicitly

in the area.

When Morgan suspects the French

plan to invade Jamaica,

threatening his land,

his wealth,

he uses his new powers

to declare martial law.

The lieutenant governor

spends the following decade

fortifying the island.

[Zahedieh] By 1680, Port Royal

had 4 castles, about 120 cannon.

It was actually better fortified

then somewhere like Portobelo

had been when

he'd attacked in 1668.

[Wilson] But at the same time,

as a plantation owner

and a slaver,

he is starting to get

more invested in the land

and more embedded in

that plantocracy in Jamaica,

that is mostly actually

emerging through the wealth

that was brought in

by the privateers.

[Blakemore] Morgan becomes

an establishment figure,

and so he ends up being part

of this establishment

who move against the buccaneers

and tries

to suppress buccaneers.

He sends out expeditions to

capture what he calls pirates.

He executes some people

for piracy.

[Narrator] At the age of 53,

Morgan has reached the pinnacle

of Jamaican society.

He has plundered a fortune

in Spanish silver

and African labor.

He now owns more than

100 enslaved people

on three sugar plantations.

But the consequences

of a lifetime

of excessive drinking

finally catch up with him.

[Cusworth] His body had

really taken a battering,

and that he was

in pretty bad health.

[Narrator] On August 25, 1688,

he dies at

his mountaintop estate.

Morgan is given

a state funeral,

and an amnesty is declared

so that pirates,

privateers, and buccaneers

can pay their respect

without fear of arrest.

♪

Henry Morgan rose from poverty,

through the ranks,

becoming a powerful pirate.

[Lawrence] Morgan's story

is unbelievable.

He goes from absolutely nothing

to becoming a captain.

[Narrator] Stirring up

conflict between nations

only to find himself

coming face-to-face

with a king who pardoned him.

[Hanna] He was

sent back to England

to face charges for piracy,

only to be instead knighted,

appointed lieutenant governor,

and then sent back as one

of the primary political leaders

of the island of Jamaica.

It's a remarkable trajectory

and career transformation.

[Narrator] He had little

respect for the rule of law

other than when

it benefitted him.

He didn't care

for the lives of others.

But his relentless

desire for more

and a masterful

ever-tactical military mind

rewarded him with great wealth.

[Zahedieh] He accumulated

a considerable fortune

through the proceeds of plunder.

[Narrator] Treasure which would

be shared with powerful men

to ensure his

continued prosperity.

[Lawrence] Unlike so many

pirates who end up dead

or hanged,

Morgan is celebrated,

Morgan ends up on top,

and that makes him really

unique among pirates.

[Narrator] Morgan

singlehandedly bolstered

the Jamaican economy

through piracy, theft,

death, and sl*very.

[Blakemore] Henry Morgan himself

ends up purchasing

numerous large plantations,

becomes a very large

landholder in Jamaica

and a slaveholder himself.

So there are these really

intricate connections

between sl*very and plundering.

[Narrator] He rose

to the role of governor

and defended the lands

he'd helped build,

but only when his own personal

wealth was under threat.

[Zahedieh] I think

in the last 20 years,

Morgan has been recast.

He's no longer seen

as a national hero.

He was an agent of very violent

imperial expansion.

[Narrator] Captain Morgan

might be best remembered today

as a brave, swashbuckling

pirate, but he was, in fact,

a cruel and brutal thug

[g*nsh*t]

who would do almost anything

to protect

his ill-gotten treasures.