Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan. With an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica онлайн

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The fate of the garrison of Providence had been absolutely unknown in Jamaica for several months after its surrender, until three emaciated and wretched men made their escape from captivity at Puerto Bello and told a pitiful tale of perfidy and ill usage. They had surrendered, they asserted, upon the express condition of being supplied with a barque to convey them to Jamaica.

"But when they laid down their arms," they said, "the Spaniards refused them the barque and carried them as slaves to Porto Bello, where they were chained to the ground in a dungeon ten feet by twelve, in which were thirty-three prisoners. They were forced to work in the water from five in the morning till seven at night, and at such a rate that the Spaniards confessed they made one of them do more work than three negroes, yet when weak with want of victuals and sleep, they were knocked down and beaten with cudgells, and four or five died. Having no clothes, their backs were blistered in the sun, their necks, shoulders, and hands raw with carrying stones and mortar, their feet chopped, and their legs bruised and battered with the irons, and their corpses noisome to one another. The daily abuse of their religion and King, and the continual trouble they had with friars would be tedious to mention."[117]