The Pirates' Who's Who Part 34

MITCh.e.l.l, JOHN.

Of Shadwell Parish, London.

One of the crew of the _Ranger_. Condemned to death, but reprieved and sold to the Royal African Company.

M'KINLIE, PETER. Irish pirate.

Boatswain in a merchant s.h.i.+p which sailed from the Canaries to England in the year 1765. On board were three pa.s.sengers, the adventurous Captain Gla.s.s and his wife and daughter. One night M'Kinlie and four other mutineers murdered the commander of the vessel, Captain c.o.c.keran, and Captain Gla.s.s and his family, as well as all the crew except two cabin-boys. After throwing their bodies overboard, M'Kinlie steered for the coast of Ireland, and on December 3rd arrived in the neighbourhood of the harbour of Ross. Filling the long-boat with dollars, weighing some two tons, they rowed ash.o.r.e, after killing the two boys and scuttling the s.h.i.+p. On landing, the pirates found they had much more booty than they could carry, so they buried 250 bags of dollars in the sand, and took what they could with them to a village called Fishertown. Here they regaled themselves, while one of the villagers relieved them of a bag containing 1,200 dollars. Next day they walked into Ross, and there sold another bag of dollars, and with the proceeds each man bought a pair of pistols and a horse and rode to Dublin. In the meanwhile the s.h.i.+p, instead of sinking, was washed up on the sh.o.r.e. Strong suspicion being roused in the countryside, messengers were sent post-haste to inform the Lords of the Regency at Dublin that the supposed pirates were in the city. Three of them were arrested in the Black Bull Inn in Thomas Street, but M'Kinlie and another pirate, who had already taken a post-chaise for Cork, intending to embark there on a vessel for England, were arrested on the way.

The five pirates were tried in Dublin, condemned and executed, their bodies being hung in chains, on December 19th, 1765.

MONTBARS, THE EXTERMINATOR.

A native of Languedoc. He joined the buccaneers after reading a book which recorded the cruelty of the Spaniards to the American natives, and this story inspired him with such a hatred of all Spaniards that he determined to go to the West Indies, throw in his lot with the buccaneers, and to devote his whole life and energies to punis.h.i.+ng the Spaniards. He carried out his resolve most thoroughly, and treated all Spaniards who came into his power with such cruelty that he became known all up and down the Spanish Main as the Exterminator. Eventually Montbars became a notorious and successful buccaneer or pirate chief, having his headquarters at St.

Bartholomew, one of the Virgin Islands, to which he used to bring all his prisoners and spoils taken out of Spanish s.h.i.+ps and towns.

MONTENEGRO.

A Columbian. One of Captain Gilbert's crew in the pirate schooner _Panda_.

Hanged at Boston in 1835.

DE MONT, FRANCIS.

Captured in South Carolina in 1717. Tried at Charleston, and convicted of taking the _Turtle Dove_ and other vessels in the previous July. Hanged in June, 1717.

MOODY, CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER.

A notorious pirate. Very active off the coast of Carolina, 1717, with two s.h.i.+ps under his command. In 1722 was with Roberts on board the _Royal Fortune_, being one of his chief men or "Lords." Taken prisoner, and tried at Cape Coast Castle, and hanged in chains at the age of 28.

MOORE. Gunner.

A gunner aboard Captain Kidd's s.h.i.+p the _Adventure_. When Kidd's mutinous crew were all for attacking a Dutch s.h.i.+p, Kidd refused to allow them to, and Moore threatened the captain, who seized a bucket and struck Moore on the head with it, the blow killing him. Kidd was perfectly justified in killing this mutinous sailor, but eventually it was for this act that he was hanged in London.

MORGAN, CAPTAIN.

This pirate must not be confused with the buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan.

Little is known about him except that he was with Hamlin, the French pirate, in 1683, off the coast of West Africa, and helped to take several Danish and English s.h.i.+ps. Soon the pirates quarrelled over the division of their plunder and separated into two companies, the English following Captain Morgan in one of the prizes.

MORGAN, COLONEL BLODRE, or BLEDRY.

This buccaneer was probably a relation of Sir Henry Morgan. He was an important person in Jamaica between 1660 and 1670. At the taking of Panama by Henry Morgan in 1670 the Colonel commanded the rearguard of 300 men. In May, 1671, he was appointed to act as Deputy Governor of Providence Island by Sir James Modyford.

MORGAN, LIEUT.-COLONEL EDWARD. Buccaneer.

Uncle and father-in-law of Sir Henry Morgan.

In 1665, when war had been declared on Holland, the Governor of Jamaica issued commissions to several pirates and buccaneers to sail to and attack the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius, Saba, and Curacao. Morgan was put in command of ten s.h.i.+ps and some 500 men; most of them were "reformed prisoners," while some were condemned pirates who had been pardoned in order to let them join the expedition.

Before leaving Jamaica the crews mutinied, but were pacified by the promise of an equal share of all the spoils that should be taken. Three s.h.i.+ps out of the fleet slipped away on the voyage, but the rest arrived at St. Kitts, landed, and took the fort. Colonel Morgan, who was an old and corpulent man, died of the heat and exertion during the campaign.

MORGAN, LIEUT.-COLONEL THOMAS.

Sailed with Colonel Edward Morgan to attack St. Eustatius and Saba Islands, and after these were surrendered by the Dutch, Thomas Morgan was left in charge.

In 1686 he sailed in command of a company of buccaneers to a.s.sist Governor Wells, of St. Kitts, against the French. The defence of the island was disgraceful, and Morgan's company was the only one which displayed any courage or discipline, and most of them were killed or wounded, Colonel Morgan himself being shot in both legs.

Often these buccaneer leaders altered their t.i.tles from colonel to captain, to suit the particular enterprise on which they were engaged, according if it took place on sea or land.

MORGAN, SIR HENRY. Buccaneer.

This, the greatest of all the "brethren of the coast," was a Welshman, born at Llanrhymmy in Monmouths.h.i.+re in the year 1635. The son of a well-to-do farmer, Robert Morgan, he early took to the seafaring life.

When quite a young man Morgan went to Barbadoes, but afterwards he settled at Jamaica, which was his home for the rest of his life.

Morgan may have been induced to go to the West Indies by his uncle, Colonel Morgan, who was for a time Deputy Governor of Jamaica, a post Sir Henry Morgan afterwards held.

Morgan was a man of great energy, and must have possessed great power of winning his own way with people. That he could be absolutely unscrupulous when it suited his ends there can be little doubt. He was cruel at times, but was not the inhuman monster that he is made out to be by Esquemeling in his "History of the Bucaniers." This was largely proved by the evidence given in the suit for libel brought and won by Morgan against the publishers, although Morgan was, if possible, more indignant over the statement in the same book that he had been kidnapped in Wales and sold, as a boy, and sent to be a slave in Barbadoes. That he could descend to rank dishonesty was shown when, returning from his extraordinary and successful a.s.sault on the city of Panama in 1670, to Chagres, he left most of his faithful followers behind, without s.h.i.+ps or food, while he slipped off in the night with most of the booty to Jamaica. No doubt, young Morgan came to Jamaica with good credentials from his uncle, the Colonel, for the latter was held in high esteem by Modyford, then Governor of Barbadoes, who describes Colonel Morgan as "that honest privateer."

Colonel Morgan did not live to see his nephew reach the pinnacle of his success, for in the year 1665 he was sent at the head of an expedition to attack the Dutch stronghold at St. Eustatius Island, but he was too old to stand the hards.h.i.+ps of such an expedition and died shortly afterwards.

By this time Morgan had made his name as a successful and resolute buccaneer by returning to Port Royal from a raiding expedition in Central America with a huge booty.

In 1665 Morgan, with two other buccaneers, Jackman and Morris, plundered the province of Campeachy, and then, acting as Vice-Admiral to the most famous buccaneer of the day, Captain Mansfield, plundered Cuba, captured Providence Island, sacked Granada, burnt and plundered the coast of Costa Rica, bringing back another booty of almost fabulous wealth to Jamaica. In this year Morgan married a daughter of his uncle, Colonel Morgan.

In 1668, when 33 years of age, Morgan was commissioned by the Jamaican Government to collect together the privateers, and by 1669 he was in command of a big fleet, when he was almost killed by a great explosion in the _Oxford_, which happened while Morgan was giving a banquet to his captains. About this time Morgan calmly took a fine s.h.i.+p, the _Cour Volant_, from a French pirate, and made her his own flags.h.i.+p, christening her the _Satisfaction_.

In 1670 the greatest event of Morgan's life took place--the sacking of Panama. First landing a party which took the Castle of San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River, Morgan left a strong garrison there to cover his retreat and pushed on with 1,400 men in a fleet of canoes up the river on January 9th, 1671. The journey across the isthmus, through the tropical jungle, was very hard on the men, particularly as they had depended on finding provisions to supply their wants on the way, and carried no food with them. They practically starved until the sixth day, when they found a barn full of maize, which the fleeing Spaniards had neglected to destroy.

On the evening of the ninth day a scout reported he had seen the steeple of a church in Panama. Morgan, with that touch of genius which so often brought him success, attacked the city from a direction the Spaniards had not thought possible, so that their guns were all placed where they were useless, and they were compelled to do just what the buccaneer leader wanted them to do--namely, to come out of their fortifications and fight him in the open. The battle raged fiercely for two hours between the brave Spanish defenders and the equally brave but almost exhausted buccaneers.

When at last the Spaniards turned and ran, the buccaneers were too tired to immediately follow up their success, but after resting they advanced, and at the end of three hours' street fighting the city was theirs. The first thing Morgan now did was to a.s.semble all his men and strictly forbid them to drink any wine, telling them that he had secret information that the wine had been poisoned by the Spaniards before they left the city.

This was, of course, a scheme of Morgan's to stop his men from becoming drunk, when they would be at the mercy of the enemy, as had happened in many a previous buccaneer a.s.sault.

Morgan now set about plundering the city, a large part of which was burnt to the ground, though whether this was done by his orders or by the Spanish Governor has never been decided. After three weeks the buccaneers started back on their journey to San Lorenzo, with a troop of 200 pack-mules laden with gold, silver, and goods of all sorts, together with a large number of prisoners. The rearguard on the march was under the command of a kinsman of the Admiral, Colonel Bledry Morgan.

On their arrival at Chagres the spoils were divided, amidst a great deal of quarrelling, and in March, 1671, Morgan sailed off to Port Royal with a few friends and the greater part of the plunder, leaving his faithful followers behind without s.h.i.+ps or provisions, and with but 10 apiece as their share of the spoils.

On May 31st, 1671, the Council of Jamaica pa.s.sed a vote of thanks to Morgan for his successful expedition, and this in spite of the fact that in July, a year before, a treaty had been concluded at Madrid between Spain and England for "restraining depredations and establis.h.i.+ng peace" in the New World.

In April, 1672, Morgan was carried to England as a prisoner in the _Welcome_ frigate. But he was too popular to be convicted, and after being acquitted was appointed Deputy Governor of Jamaica, and in November, 1674, he was knighted and returned to the West Indies. In 1672 Major-General Banister, who was Commander-in-Chief of the troops in Jamaica, writing to Lord Arlington about Morgan, said: "He (Morgan) is a well deserving person, and one of great courage and conduct, who may, with His Majesty's pleasure, perform good public service at home, or be very advantageous to this island if war should again break forth with the Spaniards."