During the three distinct epochs of the history of these piratical adventurers the types were constant. From the time when they first forsook their wild calling in Hispaniola and took to hunting men for their treasure instead of animals for their flesh--up to the period when Morgan stood out as a hero who commanded the consideration if not the respect of all the inhabitants of the New World, they were unhampered by the interference of Government. From 1671 to 1685 they extended the sphere of their operations, and ranged the whole of the Pacific Coast of America from California to Chili, and this has been called the second period. The third extends from 1685 onwards, and marks the decline of their power, a degeneration in their methods, and a lessening of their numbers. There is a glamour about their adventures which appeals to most persons, the fine courage and persistent daring which was undaunted by the terrible hardships and sufferings they underwent, giving a touch of heroism to their doings in spite of the inhuman butcheries and cruelties they perpetrated. Outstanding names of buccaneers are familiar to everyone, Mansvelt, L’Ollonois, Morgan, Dampier, Kidd, Sharp, being a few of the more prominent. Round each of these romances have been written, and although there may be some deeds of valour credited to them, the glory of which they are not entitled to, and some atrocities, the gruesomeness of which they were guiltless of, yet it cannot be said that authentic details of their lives and enterprises do not furnish parallel instances. Their callous indifference to the sufferings of their own companions prepares us for the studied fiendishness with which they treated their enemies, and their fanatical hatred of the Spaniards overmastered every consideration of humanity. That the buccaneers had courage and daring is well borne out by the life of Henry Morgan, the son of a respectable Welsh farmer. He appears to have found his way to Jamaica, and there fallen in with Mansvelt, then the most notorious of the freebooters. After serving a sort of apprenticeship with this redoubtable pirate, Morgan, on the death of Mansvelt was promoted to the command. Using Jamaica as his headquarters he made excursions in the neighbourhood of Cuba which added to his reputation. His next venture was against Porto Bello, one of the best fortified ports in the West Indies. [Illustration: SIR HENRY MORGAN. From an old print.] Morgan’s profession and attention were directed to this spot by the knowledge he had of its containing the large storehouses, in which the treasure from the Spanish colonies in the South awaited the arrival of the fleet of royal galleons which sailed with it annually to Spain. As formerly in Nombre de Dios, so here an annual fair was held, and the merchants who had business came over from Panama with their treasure of gold and silver from the mines of Peru, attended by an escort of Spanish troops.