Scourge of the Seas

The Battle of Panama

Morgan began his final advance, ‘red and green banners clearly visible to the Spaniards’, and he deployed into a three-deep line, his force split into three divisions. The left flank was commanded by the Dutch buccaneer Laurens Prins, who advanced in a wide sweep around the Spanish right flank and occupied a hill overlooking the Spanish line. This stung the Spaniards into committing to an attack, but it also disrupted their secret weapon. The Spanish commander Juan Pérez de Guzmán had collected a herd of cattle and kept them behind his infantry line. His intention was to let them pass through his lines and stampede them into the buccaneers, disrupting them just before the Spanish foot advanced into contact. The advance by Prins scared the cattle drovers, who fled, leaving the cattle to wander through the Spanish lines. A simultaneous advance on Morgan’s men and on the hill held by Prins ended in disaster. Concentrated volley fire from the buccaneers felled the Spanish, who lost over 100 militiamen in the first volley alone. Stampeding cattle and a withering fire were enough to break the Spaniards, who fled the field, leaving between 400 and 500 dead and wounded. As Pérez de Guzmán stated, ‘hardly did our men see some fall dead and others wounded but they turned their backs and fled’. This was not completely fair, as even veteran infantry, particularly those who suffered 40 per cent casualties in a few minutes, would be inclined to break. As in numerous other actions, superior buccaneer firepower and tactical initiative proved more than a match for the Spanish militiamen who opposed them.