Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/438

This page needs to be proofread.
400
MORGAN
MORGAN

companions, who had quickly spent their booty, pressed him so eagerly to engage in new enter- prises that he set out on 24 Oct., 1670, with a fleet of thirty-seven sail, the largest that any buccaneer had ever commanded in tiiese seas. Morgan, who had assumed the title of admiral, raised the royal flag of England on his main-mast. Regulating be- forehand the method of dividing the booty and the measures to be taken, he announced his inten- tion of attacking Panama, and, in order to pro- cure guides across the isthmus, it was resolved to seize the island of Santa Catalina, on the coast of Nicaragua. The attempt succeeded without the loss of a man. Leaving a garrison in the fort, he took three prisoners for guides and sent forward part of his forces to carry a fort at the mouth of the Chagres. He began the march on Panama on 18 Jan., 1671, with 1,300 picked men. After en- during great hardship, experiencing all the horrors of famine, and engaging in several battles, the buccaneers carried Panama by assault. The cap- ture was followed by a general pillage, and the town was reduced to ashes by order of Morgan. He then fitted out a vessel as a cruiser, which made many rich captures, and sent detachments in every direction, who returned with many prisoners and much booty. He put several Spaniards to the torture in order to make them declare where their valuables were concealed, and his cruelties were so atrocious as to excite the indignation of some of his companions, who formed a plot to abandon him, but it was rendered ineffective by his vigi- lance. After four weeks he abandoned the ruins of Panama, carrying with him more than 600 pris- oners who were not able to pay the ransom that he demanded. He afterward sent them to Porto Bel- lo, threatening at the same time that he would de- stroy the city if they were not ransomed. He met with a refusal and carried out his threat. In the division of the booty, which exceeded 4,000,000 piastres in value, Morgan appropriated a great quantity of precious stones and thereby excited the discontent of his companions to such a point that, fearing a mutiny, he abandoned them secret- ly. He next conceived the idea of taking posses- sion of the island of Santa Catalina, fortifying it, and carrying on buccaneering on a grand scale. On the eve of executing the plan he learned that there was peace between England and Spain, and that the king of England forbade any buccaneer to leave Jamaica for the purpose of attacking the possessions of the latter power. The governor of the colony was recalled to give an account of his conduct in protecting Morgan, and the pirate him- self was ordered to return to Europe to answer the complaints of the Spanish court. He found no trouble in exculpating himself, probably by a judi- cious use of his ill-gotten riches, for he was knight- ed and appointed commissary of admiralty for Ja- maica, whither he returned soon afterward. He married there and ended liis days in peace.


MORUAN, Henry, clergyman, b. in Newtown, Conn., 7 March, 1835 ; d." in Boston, Mass., 23 March, 1884. His early life was one of hardship and poverty, and he enjoyed few educational ad- vantages. He taught a district school for several years, was licensed to preach in the Methodist church, and after a wandering life of missionary labor went to Boston in 1859 and preached to an independent congregation in Music hall. He or- ganized the Boston union mission, and was active in philanthropic work. He became chaplain of the state senate in 1867, and subsequently purchased and became pastor of the Indiana place chapel. He was a popular lecturer, and during his later career engaged in crusades against church lotteries,, certain amusements, and the vices of city life. He willed his church to the poor at his death. One of his last public acts was to buy 100 pairs of scales and distribute them about the city for the use of the poor who were obliged to purchase their sup- plies in small quantities, and were consequently at the mercy of dishonest dealers. He published juvenile books and popular addresses. Among the former are "Ned Nevins. the Newsboy" (Boston, 1869), and " Boston Within and Without" (1880).


MORGAN, Henry James, editor, b. in Quebec,. Canada, 14 Nov., 1842. He received his education at Morrin college, Quebec, and entered the public service in 1853. In 1860 he was a sessional clerk in the legislative assembly, and in 1864-'7 served as a private secretary. On the confedei-ation of 1867 he was appointed to the department of state, and promoted first-class clerk in October, 1873, having charge of the state records of Canada, which he removed from the old government-house in Montreal to Ottawa. In the same year he was called to the bar. On 22 Dec, 1875, he was given a chief clerkship, with the title of keeper of the records, and on 7 June, 1883, he was made chief clerk in the department of the secretary of state, which office he now (1888) holds. In 1884 he was thanked by the government of Victoria, Australia, for special services in connection with the pro- posed federal union of the Australian colonies and presented with a valuable collection of works on Australia. He is one of the seven honorai-y fellows of the Royal colonial institute of England and a member of numerous societies. In 1862 he established " The Canadian Parliamentary Com- panion," which he continued to edit and publish until 1876, and in 1878 he began to issue " The Do- minion Annual Register and Review," a concise record of the political, social, and general events of each year. He is a frequent contributor to peri- odicals and newspapers, and, in addition to a lec- ture entitled " The Place British Americans have won in History " (Ottawa, 1865), he is the author of " The Tour of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, through British America and the United States " (Quebec, 1860) ; " Sketches of Celebrated Canadians and Persons connected with Canada " (1860) ; " The Bibliotheca Canadensis, or a IManual of Canadian Literature " (Ottawa, 1867) : and " The Canadian Legal Directory, a Guide to the Bench and Bar of Canada " (Toronto, 1878).


MORGAN, James Appleton, author, b. in Portland, Me., 2 Oct., 1850. His grandfather, Abner, was the first lawyer in Brimfield, Mass., and as major of a Massachusetts regiment commanded part of the troops in the long retreat from Quebec in 1776 ; and his father, Peyton R. IMorgan, engaged in the fur-trade in the west, and founded the city of Saginaw, Mich. The son was graduated at Racine college. Wis., and at Columbia law-school. New York city, in 1869, and began the practice of his profession in New York in 1871, but gave much time to literary pursuits. In 1877, through the columns of " Appletons' Journal," he suggested a theory of the authorship of the plays of William Shakespeare, developing his proposition that these plays as printed in 1623 are not monographs, but the product of the growth — through a generation of stage performances — of plays that were originally mounted by Shakespeare, the interpolations and localisms of actors, and the hackings of stage censors, all contributing to the state of the text when it was printed, as it stood in the acting copies, collected from particular actors bv Heminge and Condell in 1623. Mr. Mor-