Customer Reviews

Harry Morgan's Way: Biography Of Sir Henry Morgan 1635-1688

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Henry Morgan was born in Wales sometime around 1635. The exact time and place of his birth are unknown. Some think he might have been born in Penkarne near Monmouth, others say Llanrhymny near Glamorgan. It is certain that was related to the Morgans of Tredegar, as they are mentioned in his will. Although the names of his parents are unknown, The Morgans were by then a distinguished army family. Henry was related to Sir Thomas Morgan, who forty years before Henry's birth had helped Queen Elizabeth help the Dutch fight the Spanish. In 1594 The Queen's Own Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) were commanded by Colonel Thomas Morgan. They fought off a Spanish attempt to capture a fortress at Bergen-op-Zoom in the Netherlands, and Thomas Morgan received a knighthood for this service.

In 1642, when Henry was seven years old, the British Civil War broke out. We know that various uncles and other assorted relatives fought on both sides, Royalist and Roundhead. Henry is surrounded by wars and soldiers until and during the decade-long Civil War. Cromwell eventually rules Britain, and decides to try and do something about Spanish hegemony in the New World.

By this time, the English had finally managed to establish colonies on two small islands in the Caribbean, Barbados and St. Kitts. Spain considered the British colonies on these tiny islands to be illegal. The Catholic Pope had helped Spain and Portugal divide between themselves the entire New World: Portugal got Brazil and Spain got the rest. The two British colonies were annoying pinpricks to the gigantic Spanish Empire in the New World. Spain was determined to harass the British colonists in the Caribbean, lest they gain more ground. Spain claimed and/or ruled the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Spanish Main- most of the New World where Europeans had settled. Spain was in the New World to extract gold and silver from mines in Peru and Mexico, and wasn't there for planting tobacco and sugar like the British.

The Spanish ships carrying all that gold and silver back to Spain proved very tempting to pirates and privateers. What's the difference between a pirate and a "privateer"? The distinction was important. Spain was always at war with one or another of the other European powers. Sometimes they were at war with the French, sometimes the English, sometimes the Dutch. It was quite expensive for countries at war with Spain to outfit navies. So any ship that asked would be granted a commission to fight the Spanish Dons, and became legal pirates- "privateers". If captured by the enemy, instead of being hanged as pirates, they were instead prisoners of war. Sometimes these POW's were put in dungeons, sometimes they became slaves.

Oliver Cromwell sent out ships and soldiers to wrest Central America and the Caribbean from the Spanish, the young Henry Morgan among them. They arrive in Barbados at in 1655. After a series of mishaps on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) the British manage to win Jamaica. Jamaica is the perfect island from which to raid the rich Spanish cities that ring that Caribbean, and that's just what Henry Morgan and his buccaneers (the book explains what a "buccaneer" is) do. The best part of this book are the descriptions of the daring raids which Morgan makes on the Spanish Main, culminating in the looting and burning of Panama in 1671. Morgan and the buccaneers pillage their way around the Caribbean legally and with the sanction of the British, as they comprise the Jamaican navy.

Dudley Pope was an accomplished novelist, author of the "Ramage" series. The Ramage novels are historical fiction, the action taking place on sailing ships in the warm Caribbean seas. Pope has an impeccable command of Jamaican history, combined with the writing skills of a novelist. The reader will find himself wondering about the larger historical picture back in Europe, and some of this is gone into. I very much enjoyed reading this book- it's as much a history of the early British settlement of Jamaica as it is a biography of Harry Morgan. One couldn't find a more stirring history than Pope's biography of Morgan, and I'm glad to see it back in print.

Sir Henry Morgan left behind a huge legend, but not much else - no artifacts of his life remain, no heir carried on his name - even his grave was lost when Port Royal was obliterated by earthquake and swallowed by the sea shortly after his death. Today, most know him better as myth than history, or worse, as nothing more than a cartoon caricature used to sell rum. In `Harry Morgan's Way', navel historian and novelist Dudley Pope cuts through the myths and reconstructs for us the history of this bold and fascinating man.

It would be impossible to understand Morgan without some basic knowledge of the history of European conquest and conflict in the West Indies, the pivotal part that Jamaica played in that conflict, or the history and significance of the buccaneers to that conflict. Pope realized this; `Harry Morgan's Way' is as much an early history of Jamaica and the West Indies buccaneers as it is a biography of Morgan. Henry Morgan doesn't even enter the action of the book until chapter seven. Pope used his initial chapters to explain how Spain came to be in conflict with the English, Dutch, and French in the West Indies, and to tell the fascinating story of how the unique buccaneer culture developed. We learn that buccaneer has a very specific meaning, and is not an interchangeable synonym for pirate, and discover the fine legal and ethical points that separated privateers from pirates as well. All of this is absolutely necessary background to understanding a man who was not only the undisputed leader of the buccaneers of the West Indies, but was knighted by his king and made lieutenant governor of Jamaica.

Morgan was a bold man of action, equal to the great Sir Francis Drake in stature, and a history of his exploits makes for fascinating reading. Pope is at his best when describing Morgan's major raids (for he was more soldier than sailor, ships being little more than the transport that moved his troops for land battles) against Granada, Portobelo, Maracaibo, and Panama. Much of his life was spent in the intrigue and battles of Jamaican politics as well, and though these can be interesting, Pope does not show the same deft touch when writing of them, and sometimes my interest waned under the brunt of their detail. Still, all told `Harry Morgan's Way' is a riveting read - exciting, informative, well written, and recommended.

Theo Logos