Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/222

202 the dread which he inspired that life and property were no longer considered safe in Vera Cruz, and when foreign vessels appeared in sight the inhabitants fled to the woods. It was now ordered that the treasure destined for Spain should be detained at Jalapa until after the arrival of the fleet, and the armada de Barlovento was ordered thenceforth to convoy the vessels as far as Habana. This force was reorganized, and its commander tried by court-martial and cashiered for neglect of duty, Don Andrés Ochoa y Zárate being appointed in his stead.

The raid of Morgan and his gang on Panamá, in 1671, had always been considered as the boldest venture of the buccaneers; but the sack of Vera Cruz was a yet more daring exploit. When Morgan was once in possession of Panamá, it was impossible that any large body of Spanish troops could arrive in time to interfere with his operations, but at Vera Cruz the case was different. Apart from the garrison of San Juan de Ulúa there were troops stationed at several points not more than thirty leagues distant. A courier was despatched to the city of Mexico within a few hours after the landing of the pirates, and arrived in three days, reporting that they came in fifteen large ships and numbered eight thousand men. On the following day a hastily levied force of nearly two thousand horse and a few-companies of foot set forth, soon to be followed by large reënforcements from the capital, all Spaniards capable of bearing arms, between the ages of fifteen and sixty, being enrolled. The ecclesiastics assembled in the cathedral and resolved to join them in a body. But before any of these reënforcements could arrive the buccaneers had abandoned the city, and news of their departure was received in Mexico on the 5th of June.