The citizens of Maracaibo have to pay the pirate captain Henry Morgan a ransom to prevent him and his pirates from destroying their town - being a merchant town, they can’t resist haggling over the price!

>Time was against [Morgan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Henry_Morgan_in_colour.jpg). As the pilot spoke, there were frigates full of musketeers cresting the waves of the North Sea on a rescue mission to Maracaibo. Morgan had jiggled a main strand of the spiderweb that was the Spanish Empire; the news had radiated along the trade routes, and soldiers would soon be on the way from Panama to check on the disturbance. >Morgan had been fortunate with Don Alonzo [**a Spanish captain that had been defeated once already by the pirates**], but he could not afford to linger to try his luck again. There was, however, one weak link in the system: the Maracaiboans. They wanted him gone. >Morgan sent Don Alonzo an offer to leave the town unmolested in return for safe passage out, but he could have no expectation that it would be accepted. He offered the good citizens a deal: the return of their prisoners and no torching of the city in return for 30,000 pieces of eight and 500 beeves. The Spanish paid up: after, that is, getting Morgan down to 20,000 pesos, or $1 million in modern terms; they were merchants, after all, and used to haggling. _________________________________ **Source:** Talty, Stephan. “An Amateur English Theatrical.” *Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign*. New York: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2007. 169. Print. _________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Harri Morgan / Sir Henry Morgan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan)