This last consideration had great weight with the pirates. The number engaged in the sack of Puerto Principe was so great, that each one murmured at the meagre share he received. Morgan was very familiar with all this region, and was thoroughly acquainted with the avenues to the city. In the dusk of the evening he ran his little fleet into a solitary harbor, called Naos, about thirty miles from Puerto Velo. There was a river, flowing into the harbor from the west, threading a dense, tangled, almost uninhabited wilderness. Leaving their ships at anchor, under guard of a few men, the pirates, “armed to the teeth,” in crowded boats and canoes, ascended the river until, at midnight, they reached a point but a few miles distant from the city. They then landed and rapidly marched through a solitary Indian trail, overshadowed by the gloom of a dense tropical forest, until they came within sight of the lights gleaming from the battlements of the forts. On the main avenue to the city, not far from the gate, they came upon a solitary sentry, pacing his beat. Four men crept cautiously forward in the darkness, seized him, gagged him, and brought him a prisoner to Morgan. The pirate questioned his captive minutely, respecting the troops in the city, and the means for defence. The trembling man was threatened with death by the most horrible tortures, should it be found that he had in the slightest degree deceived them. Having gained this important information, they advanced upon the city. The march of a mile brought them to the main fort, or Castle, as it was called. The morning had not yet dawned. In the darkness they surrounded it so completely that no one could either go in or out. Morgan then sent the sentinel, whom he had captured, into the fort, with a demand for its immediate surrender. “If you yield at once,” said the message of the pirate, “your lives shall be spared. But if there be the least resistance, or any delay, I will cut to pieces every individual within the fort. Not one shall escape.” The commandant of the castle heeded not the threat, but opened fire upon his foes. The report of his guns roused the city. The governor, as speedily as possible, rallied all his forces and made such preparation as he could for defence. The slumbering garrison, attacked so utterly by surprise, were speedily overpowered. The pirates, breaking down the gates, rushed in, and soon gained possession of the works. The castle was but feebly prepared to repel an assault from the land side.