Fort San Lorenzo In Panama: Henry Morgan And Other Adventures ~ by Escapeartist Staff

Fort San Lorenzo In Panama

Henry Morgan And Other Adventures

by Escapeartist Staff

No one knows exactly when Fort San Lorenzo was built. Evidence shows that the fort was probably built in the 1570s. When you arrive to the fort from the city of Colon - it’s about a 40 minute ride, you cross through the Panama Canal to get to San Lorenzo - you immediately understand why the fort was built by the Spanish: it sits high up on cliffs that overlook both the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to Rio Chagres. In the centuries before the Panama Canal was built the Rio Charges was a very important river because it was the starting point from which pirates like Drake or Morgan would cross the Isthmus of Panama from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean.

It was also the crossing point for Americans searching for gold in California during the 1840s.

For both the pirates and gold diggers, the first half of the trip across the Isthmus of Panama began on the Rio Chagres; the second half of the trip was on land along the old Spanish gold trail known as the Camino Real. So any pirate that wanted to sack Panama City would have to first attack San Lorenzo on the Atlantic coast and then make the difficult trip up the Rio Chagres and then through the jungle to Panama City. Henry Morgan was the one pirate that was able to sack San Lorenzo, then make his way up the Rio Chagres and then cross the Camino Real and finally arrive to Panama City. This is the story of how he did it.

Morgan was a Welshman whose father was a wealthy farmer, but as a young boy Morgan ran away from home and headed for the English seaside town of Bristol. From Bristol he set sail for the Caribbean and was at some point sold into slavery; after some years as a slave he escaped his master and made his way to Jamaica: Jamaica had been taken from the Spanish by England in 1655, so Morgan found safe haven in Jamaica.

Soon after arriving in Jamaica Morgan decided to become a pirate; over time he became well known in the Caribbean for his cruelty and bravery.

He was one of the few people at the time who knew the way from Jamaica to Panama: the Isthmus had been shrouded in secrecy by the Spanish because of the valuable gold shipments that were transported from Panama City to the Atlantic port of Portobello. In fact, in 1666 Morgan was able to capture the port of Portobello and hold it for two weeks, as Drake had done a century earlier.

But the real treasure in Panama wasn’t in Portobello but rather on the Pacific side of Panama in Panama City. In 1670, Morgan assembled 2,000 men on the pirate island of Hispaniola – today Haiti and the Dominican Republic – and headed out into the Caribbean for the pirate island of Santa Catalina.

Santa Catalina was an island Morgan knew well from earlier raids and it was only 300 kilometers from Panama – today the island of Santa Catalina is just north of the Colombian island of San Andres.

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He sent out a force of 400 men from Santa Catalina to capture Fort San Lorenzo; Morgan stayed in Santa Catalina as he knew there was little hope of capturing the Spanish fort. And the Spaniards knew that Morgan and his men were coming; there had been rumors circulating around the Caribbean that Morgan was planning a major attack on Panama. Knowing this the Spanish increased the size of their force at San Lorenzo from 150 to 300 men and supplied them with plenty of food and gunpowder. Morgan’s men landed three kilometers from the fort and then made their way through the jungle to the perimeter of the fort, the three kilometer hike through the jungle must have been scary as the jungle is thick and filled with poisonous snakes and animals - I stepped near a number of deadly coral snakes and bushmasters while walking in the jungle near Fort San Lorenzo.

The other difficulty would have been finding their way through the jungle. As anyone who has spent anytime in the jungle knows, there is no horizon in the jungle by which to orient yourself, so it is easy to become lost, scared and confused. With many of Morgan's men lost and scared in the jungle, it would have been easy for the Spanish to hear them coming through the jungle and when the Englishmen exited the jungle they were immediately attacked.

After being forced back into the jungle by the initial engagement with the Spanish, the English tried to attack again that night but were pushed back again by the Spanish. It was a stroke of luck that allowed the Englishmen to take the fort: one of the Englishmen was shot through the back with an arrow; the arrow went straight through him. He broke off the arrowhead and wrapped cotton around it and loaded it into his musket.

The arrow ignited when it was shot from the rifle and hit a thatch roof in the fort, the roof that covered the Spanish gunpowder. The gunpowder exploded and the fort caught on fire. During the night the Englishmen were able to shoot and kill a great number of Spaniards as the fire burned away and their vision from the surrounding jungle improved.

The Englishmen were then able to create a breach in the fort’s walls and eventually take the fort.

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Of the 300 Spaniards in the fort only 30 survived, most threw themselves off the cliffs surrounding the fort. Morgan arrived 5 days later and was surprised to see the English flag flying above the fort. Morgan left some of his men at San Lorenzo and headed up the Rio Chagres on the first leg of the of his famous crossing of Panama. Morgan had a former Spanish prisoner from Panama guide he and his men down the Rio Chagres to the town of Venta Cruces; the town marked the place where the river ended and the Spanish trail to Panama City began. Morgan’s men had no food as they thought they could capture food on the way: there was nothing to catch. There were no people along the route. They only found some leather bags in a hideout along the river, which they boiled and ate. On the seventh day they saw smoke up the river where the town of Venta Cruces was supposed to be located, when they arrived to the town they realized the smoke was not food cooking but rather the village of Venta Cruces burning: the inhabitants had heard Morgan coming. However, even though they knew Morgan was coming, the men of Panama City made no provisions for Morgan’s arrival; no defenses were set up: Panama City was not well defended from behind - where the jungle began - because the jungle had always eaten up anyone who had tried to cross it. Morgan and his men made their way down the Spanish trail to Panama City and were attacked periodically by Indians. For two days they made their way down the old Spanish trail, most of them starving to death, until the trail ended and the grasslands behind Panama City began. There were cattle in the grasslands behind the city and these grazing cattle would lead to the defeat of the Spanish: Morgan’s men jumped on the cattle and ate them; they must have gone wild with lust as they ate the flesh half-cooked or raw, but the meat gave them the strength to do battle the next day.

The Spaniards lost the battle because they fought Morgan and his men on horseback and since the grasslands where the battle took place were soggy and wet, fighting on horseback was impossible. Morgan took Panama City and held it for three weeks. There was little gold in the town, so Morgan took people as hostages for ransom. As he left Panama City to make the return trip to San Lorenzo, people came running after their wives and children and paid the ransom that Morgan wanted. Morgan finally returned to San Lorenzo and split up the small treasure; his men were unhappy about receiving so little for their efforts, Morgan was fearful: in the middle of the night Morgan snuck out of San Lorenzo, onto his ship and out to sea leaving most of his men stranded at San Lorenzo, where most would die.

San Lorenzo Today

To get to San Lorenzo you first need to cross Gatun Locks on the Panama Canal. The Gatun Locks are located near the town of Colon. The old fort is in San Lorenzo National Park. The Park is near the old U.S. military base, Fort Sherman. Fort Sherman was where most American military personnel were trained in jungle warfare during the Vietnam War. This is the place where agent orange was first used; there are still protests in Panama about the unexploded landmines and chemical contamination in the jungle around Fort Sherman. San Lorenzo National Park is not located near any of these “contaminated zones”.

When you arrive to the San Lorenzo Fort the first thing you feel is the absolute tranquility of the place. There is a small wooden house on stilts near the fort that is used by the caretaker, other than that there isn’t a house in sight. The history of the place feels immediate, as the fort seems to have been abandoned since the days of Morgan. The park has a number of trails you can walk and there is a nice spot where you can park your car near Rio Chagres and enjoy the river and the view of San Lorenzo from below the cliffs where the fort sits. Like many historical places in Panama the spot feels abandon.

Panama Canal

One of the benefits of visiting San Lorenzo is that you get a close up view of Gatun Locks. The swing bridge that takes you across Gatun Locks goes right through the locks. When ships are passing through the Canal you have to wait a while, sometimes as long as an hour an half until you can pass through to the other side of the bridge.

There has been a lot of talk since the Canal was turned over to the Panamanians in 1978 that Panama couldn’t run the Canal, that the Chinese might take the Canal – as in the novel and movie The Tailor of Panama - or that the Canal might be run into the ground by the Panamanians, or that its security would be threaten from Colombian guerillas or outside forces. The irony is that because the Canal is now in the hands of Panama it’s probably more secure, as it’s unlikely that any terrorist organization would want to carry out attacks against the country of Panama. No one wants to attack Panama today. Panama has become a business center for people all around the world and almost every country in the world and most organizations – even terrorist organizations – want to be represented in Panama. I believe that Panama has more diplomatic missions than any other country in Latin America. Libya has an embassy in Panama on the main avenue. In the old days the rebels in Western Sahara who were fighting the Spanish even had an mission in Panama. Panama is a weak power militarily and politically but geographically it’s a major power because of the Canal.

Panama’s Elections

The elections are over and Panama has a new President. Martin Torrijos is the new President of Panama. His father was the former dictator of the country. The son is known as an affable man who has a very nice wife and ideologically is known as a moderate. He ran with the support of his father’s political party the PRD. The PRD is the best-organized party in Panama; its organizational structure reaches down deep into the Panamanian community. People credit the PRD with modernizing the country, especially in the interior, but when the party was formed in 1979 it was seen as a political tool for then dictator Omar Torrijos. The PRD has been associated with the human rights abuses that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s – it was also the party of Noriega. The elections were May 2nd and Torrijos will assume office in September. That’s when all government employees that are in power now will be thrown out and the new government will put their people into the bureaucracy. Government freezes in Panama for a few months after presidential elections as this process takes place. As they say in Panama, the botellas (the bottles) will be broken. Botellas are checks that are given to political friends who never show up to work. So for example I pull a check of $3000 a month from the Ministry of Justice, but in the five years that the government is in power I never show up to the Ministry of Justice, only to collect my check – great fun to get these kinds of checks.

Americans In Panama

Have had a number of visitors from the States who have been staying with me in Panama. And boy do they want to visit Panama: out of the pressure-cooker and ready to go wild. I enjoy the visits but they can be hard on my body: the men who visit always follow more or less the same pattern: first let’s decide how many rules can I break – meaning all the rules they can’t break in the U.S., they want to break here. The first rule is normally of a chemical kind. So chemicals first, then sex – must have sex. So it’s a straight line to the hoar house. So now we have woman and drugs, next lets gamble: lots of gambling, then to an island with the women, drugs and winnings. At this point we have to extend the plane tickets: I want stay at least another week. Then comes one of three ideas: buy real estate, open up a bank account or start a business in Panama. The trip is now about three-fourths over. The fatigue from breaking the rules has set in. The airline doesn’t want to change the tickets – they will, but for a large fee. The spending spree piles up and the black hole of indulging widens, and the quiet realization that much more of this will mean the end sets in and everyone is happy to get on the plane and get back home – some never leave and just stay. What I have described above is not negative.

Marco Antonio Solis

Ex-buky, is his name in Panama, people kept saying to me, oh, you went to see ex-buky: and I thought about
something like Bigfoot: my fault. Marco Amtonio Solis is a Mexican singer who performed at Atalapa Theatre in
Panama on the 18th of May at 7:00 pm. The music was mellow and the stage show was romantic and sound was good, with good musicians and very excited crowd: little air from the screaming and lots of catfights among the women. Gabi(my wife) was firing off orders to the security that if they took her friends camera, as they did, then they needed to take everyone's camera, which also came to pass. During the concert, I tapped my foot and slapped my knee all-night and cheered - age. The concert was full; the crowd was a mix of Panamanian elite and people who just loved music. He played for more than two hours; the music was a mix between Mexican Crooning and Latin Party Music.

Robert Rubin's Book

Robert Rubin's book, In An Uncertain World showed how someone in the U.S. government might act - he was Treasury Secretary from 1995-1999. If Rubin is telling the truth - as he seems to - then the book is very interesting in showing how a life unfolds. One of the most interesting points that came out of the book was learning that U2 singer Bono was referred to Robert Rubin by ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker - the incongruity and refreshment of that, but only if don't know the people involved. There was a lot of discussion in the book about the Mexican bailout of 1994 and the Asian Crisis of 1997; to me, not any different from the 1920s, just global, except in the 90s there was a lender of last resort. In the book, Rubin talks about "moral hazards" in economics: a moral hazard would be a situation, as described in the book, in which doing the wrong thing would not harm you, like gambling too much at a casino but knowing at the end of the night the house was going to reimburse you for every loose cent you threw into the air in the name of gold. In Rubin’s explanation of “moral hazards” in the 1995 and 1997 global financial crises, the gamblers are pension fund mangers and private investors, the casinos are developing states that offer high interest rates to investors and the house – the institutions that will reimburse bad gamblers - is a combination of the IMF and U.S. government.

James Dunkerley

The best book that I've read recently is James Dunkerley's, Americana: The Americas in the World, around
1850. This is a book that places Ireland in the Western Hemisphere and discusses Althusser, Bill Clinton, and the disappearance of Bolivia in Great Britain.