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“..., or to
Porto Bello by the high road. The town was frequently
attacked by pirates and buccaneers, and in 1671 it was
sacked and completely destroyed by Henry Morgan.
Morgan, after capturing the castle of Chagres, marched
across the Isthmus with a force of 1,200 men. After
nine days of intense suffering through want of food, they
sighted the Pacific Ocean and the object of their walk.
Then, to quote Esquemeling:
A little while after they came the first time within sight of
the highest steeple of Panama. This steeple they no sooner
had discovered than they began to show signs of extreme joy,
casting up their hats into the air, leaping for mirth, and shouting,
even just as if they had already obtained the victory and entire
accomplishment of their designs. All their trumpets were
sounded and every drum beaten, in token of this universal
acclamation and huge alacrity of their minds.
Fifty Spanish horsemen soon came out of the city
" preceded by a trumpet that sounded...”
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