Cup of Gold

Young Henry Morgan leaves Wales convinced that greatness and wealth await him across the Atlantic. In the Caribbean he rises among the buccaneers, gaining ships, followers and a reputation for audacity while directing his ambition towards Panama, the rich Spanish city he imagines as the “Cup of Gold”. His pursuit is also entangled with the legend of La Santa Roja, a woman who becomes another symbol of the fulfilment he believes conquest will provide.

Steinbeck’s first novel is a deliberately romanticised and psychologically speculative account rather than a documentary biography. It uses Morgan’s 1670–1671 Panama campaign to examine hunger for fame, the violence of colonial rivalry and the emptiness that can follow success when a desired place or person has been transformed into an idea.