not notice that a gun discharged upon the big flagship of the fleet dropped a bit of smoldering wadding onto the deck. There was a terrific explosion and the vessel was blown to bits, destroying three hundred and fifty English buccaneers and the unfortunate French prisoners who were confined in the hold. Only thirty members of the crew, including Morgan, escaped, they having been within the cabin at the high poop of the vessel and away from the main force of the explosion. “But instead of being a wholesome lesson to Morgan and his fellows, this accident only enraged them, and, claiming that their ship had been blown up by the French prisoners—despite the fact that they were manacled and far from the magazine—they at once seized all the French ships in the harbor and sent them with their crews as prisoners to Jamaica, with word that they had been found with papers authorizing them to commit piracy against the British. In reality the papers were merely permits from the Governor of Barracoa permitting the French to trade in Spanish ports and to ‘cruise against English pirates,’ the clause being inserted as a cloak to cover the reason for the permits. But despite their protests and the fact that they had repeatedly aided the English buccaneers against the Dons, Morgan’s influence was such that the Frenchmen were imprisoned and several were hanged when they reached Jamaica. “Morgan’s brutality was still further shown when, eight days after the explosion, he sent out boats to gather up the bodies of the buccaneers which were now floating about, not, as Esquemeling assures us, ‘with the design of affording them Christian burial, but only to obtain the spoil of their clothes and attire.’ Rings were cut from their dead fingers, earrings torn from their ears, their weapons and garments stripped from the corpses and the naked bodies cast back for the sharks. Then, the loot from their dead comrades having been auctioned off, the buccaneers set sail with fifteen ships—the largest carrying fourteen guns—and nine hundred and sixty men. “Sending some of his ships and men to plunder the farms and villages of Santo Domingo for provisions and cattle, Morgan continued to Saona. But his men met with reverses on the island, many of the buccaneers were killed, and though they escaped they were empty-handed and dared not return to Morgan with their tale of reverses. Impatient at the delay, Morgan at last decided to go on without them, and, with his fleet reduced to eight ships and a force of five hundred men, he started for the Gulf of Maracaibo.