Henry Morgan was born about 1635 within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. He left school early and was more used to the pike than the book.
Hari Morgan , although supposedly under license and some form of royal assent, making him a privateer,this most famous of Welsh pirates tended to make up his own rules of combat. In 1668with his 800 followers of rakes, rogues, mad rapscallions and broken gentlemen, the scum and scourge of the Southern seas, attacked El Puerto Del Principe. Defeated the local garrison and forced the men to surrender– by threatening to physically tear apart their wives and children.
Morgan also sacked Maracaibo, Venezuela and Portobello in attacks relying on surprise and speed, involving both land and sea raids.
It is said that in one such raid his men escaped by Morgan tricking the Spanishto point their guns in land whilst they escaped by sea.In another,his route of escape was blocked by three galleons, so he sailed a fire ship at them sinking one, badly damaging the second, capturing the third was captured and looted.
Buccaneers, or illegal 17th century privateers to their name from the word Bouchan, a smokehouse barbecue used by local Indians to cure the meat of sea cows. The bouchaneers who began by supplying ships passing by the island of Hispanola, with fresh meat, animal fat and skins.
Gradually became sailors themselves, creating “The Loyal Brotherhood of the Coast” and attacking the hated Spanish. They obeyed no laws but their own and were renowned for their cruelty. Hari Morgan was no exception, he enjoyed the torture of his prisoners with lighted matches under the finger nails and toe nails.
Hari Morgan considered his life a success. The King of Spain who lost much sleep with his exploits thought of him as a sinner. Where as the King of England give him much credit for the Country ‘s power in the Americas and as such was a saint in the King ‘s eyes and awarded a Knighthood and the governorship of Jamaica.
He was extremely wealthy and a celebrity in his later years. He died in 1688 from alcoholic poisoning and was buried in Palisadoes cemetery that sank under the sea after 1692 earthquake. Poetic justice?