A Spanish governor gets into an argument with his subordinates about whether or not to retreat in the face of Captain Morgan and his wonderful pirates, later pats himself on the back for defeating the defeatists in his own camp. Or not.

>Clearly Don Juan would have to make a stand himself with the men he had with him; these soft-handed civilians were hardly the stuff to put against Morgan’s troops, who overawed even the kingdom’s best soldiers. He decided on Venta de Cruces and held a junta to confirm his intentions. But it was immediately apparent that the decision to stand and fight so far from Panama was not going to be popular: Those who had their fortunes stores in the city wanted to be close enough to protect them; those who didn’t have a cob to their name wanted no part of the battle. Arguments were made for staying put and for a retreat back to Panama; Don Juan quickly countered the latter. “But it being impossible then to fortifie it, it having many entrances, and the Houses all built of Wood; so soon as the Enemy should once make a breach, we should be quickly exposed to their Fury.” Finally his opponents gave up, and the exhausted, feverish Don Juan fell into bed thinking he’d at least stalled the talk of retreat. >The next morning he awoke to find his army vanished; in the middle of the night, over 500 of his men had sneaked away back to Panama. _______________________________ **Source:** Talty, Stephan. “City of Fire.” *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. 233-34. Print.