Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan - E. A. Cruikshank - Страница 4

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The lively contemporary author of The Bucaniers of America circumstantially relates that Henry Morgan was the son of a rich farmer or yeoman in Wales, and that at an early age he had been kidnapped and sold, or had bound himself voluntarily as a hired servant for a term of four years to a planter in the island of Barbadoes. This statement has been accepted and repeated by many later writers. Morgan hotly repudiated it, for on the publication of the English version of that book in 1683, it was named in his actions for libel as being false and malicious. The printed apology of William Crooke, its publisher, dictated or at least approved by Morgan's solicitor, declares that Morgan was "a Gentleman's son of good quality in the county of Monmouth, and was never a Servant unto anybody in his life, unless unto his Majesty, the late King of England."

The preface to The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp, published in London in 1684, referring to Morgan, remarked that "it is sufficiently known that he was descended from an honourable Family in Monmouthshire, and went at first out of England with the Army commanded by General Venables for Hispaniola and Jamaica."

Welsh genealogists of repute concur however in stating that he was the eldest son of Robert Morgan of Llanrhymney, a small estate in Glamorganshire, near Tredegar Castle, where he was born in 1635.[1] The year of his birth is ascertained with tolerable certainty as an affidavit made by him in Jamaica on the 21st November, 1671, definitely states his age as thirty-six.

The family of Tredegar was recognized as the head of the clan, of which the Morgans of Llanrhymney were a cadet branch. In a poem, entitled "Prosopoeia Tredegar", believed to have been written by Percy Enderby about 1661, the following lines occur:

"And so LanRumney yet must bend the knee, And from Tredegar fetch their pedigree."[2]

Henry Morgan in fact claimed rather close relationship as in his will he made a bequest to his sister, Catherine Lloyd "to be payed into the hands of my ever-honest Cozen, Mr. Thomas Morgan of Tredegar."

Members of his family had already earned much distinction in recent continental wars, notably Sir Thomas Morgan in command of the regiment afterwards known as "The Buffs", who was governor of the fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom in 1594, and General Sir Charles Morgan, who took part in the siege of that place in 1621. Later two of Henry Morgan's uncles, Edward and Thomas Morgan, younger brothers of his father, had become soldiers of fortune under foreign flags. Both won considerable renown in Germany and Holland and eventually attained high rank in England, having returned to engage in the civil war on opposite sides. Edward Morgan, who figures in Dutch records as "Heer van Lanrumnij", entered the royal army and in 1649 was given a commission as Colonel-General of the King's forces in South Wales under the Earl of Carbery. While in Germany he had married Anna Petronilla, the only sister of Johan Ernst, Freiherr von Poellnitz, governor of Lippstadt in Westphalia. When the triumph of the Parliament was seen to be complete, he fled to the Netherlands and afterwards lived in exile for several years with his brother-in-law on the family estates at Aschbach near Bamberg. After the restoration he returned to London to seek official favour and compensation for his losses. In a memorial addressed to Mr. Secretary Bennet in 1663, he asserted that he had forty years experience as a soldier.[3]

Thomas Morgan had fought in the wars of the Low Countries and Germany, at one time under the French flag, and at another in the army of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. On his return to England he took the side of the Parliament. He first commanded a regiment of foot but in 1661 was transferred to command a regiment of dragoons. He became Monck's chief subordinate in the subjugation of Scotland and gained his esteem for sound military judgment and trustworthiness. He was considered an expert in the employment of artillery and the conduct of siege operations. Having attained the rank of major-general and second in command in Scotland he was recalled by Cromwell to act as second in command of the expedition to Flanders, in which the "little, shrill-voiced, choleric man," is admitted to have acted a more important part than his nominal chief. He was wounded in the siege of Saint Venant and again in the successful assault of Ypres, when he commanded all the English troops. Having once more greatly distinguished himself in the battle of the Dunes near Dunkirk, he was knighted by Richard Cromwell in November, 1658, when he was described as "being esteemed in the army next to the general, [Monck], a person of the best conduct then in arms in the three nations, having been nearly forty years and present in the greatest battles and sieges of Christendom for a great part of that time." After the restoration he was retained in the army and, in 1663, appointed governor of the island of Jersey, then menaced with an invasion by the French.[4]

Little reliable record has been found of the youth of Henry Morgan beyond what he wrote himself in middle life, when, acting as governor of Jamaica, he stated that: "The office of Judge Admiral was not given to me for my understanding of the business better than others, nor for the profitableness thereof, for I left the schools too young to be a great proficient in that or other laws, and have been more used to the pike than the book."[5] This want of education so frankly confessed was probably due to the disturbed state of the country, as he was born too late to take any very active part in the civil war and was still in his twentieth year when the expedition commanded by Venables sailed from Portsmouth in December, 1654.

Leslie must have relied on local tradition when he wrote fifty years after Morgan's death:

"His Father was a Farmer of pretty good Repute, and designed his Son for the same Way of Life; but his Inclinations were turned on another way; and finding his Father positive in his Resolution, bid him adieu and rambled to Bristol, where he bound himself a Servant for Four Years and was transported to Barbadoes; there he was sold and served his Master with a great deal of Fidelity."[6]

There may be some truth in this account and Morgan may have enlisted in Venables's command at Barbados, as Ludlow relates that "they [Penn and Venables] made proclamation there that whosoever would engage in the undertaking should have their freedom, whereupon about two thousand servants listed themselves to the great distress of the planters."[7]

In Colonel Thomas Modyford, speaker of the House of Assembly, Venables found a most ardent and influential supporter, who persuaded that body to offer sixty horsemen for the expedition, and give him permission to recruit by beat of drum in public places, by which much ill will was excited among the planters, some of whom did not hesitate to denounce Modyford as a traitor to the interests of that island. But war with Spain was always popular, as it was usually profitable, and many volunteers were enrolled in the hope of plunder, expecting to take "mountains of gold". Venables reported that he had raised three thousand men but was unable to arm more than thirteen hundred. At Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitt's smaller bodies were recruited, numbering in all between twelve and thirteen hundred more and increasing his force to seven thousand ill-trained and ill-armed men. Henry Morgan's name does not appear in the list of officers which has been preserved, and his service must have been in the ranks, but it seems likely that the nephew of Thomas Morgan would be entitled to special consideration.

Owing to the misconduct of a considerable part of this hastily assembled mob the invasion of Hispaniola failed disgracefully and even a month after its successful landing in Jamaica an officer made the distasteful confession: "We now find by sad experience that but few of them were old Soldiers, but certainly most of them were Apprentices that ran from their Masters, and others that came out of Bridewell, or one Gaol or another, so that in our poor Army we have but few that either fear God or reverence man."[8]

Yet several of the officers had sat as judges at the trial of the King and had signed his death warrant, and among both officers and soldiers there was a fair sprinkling of "Ironsides".

Cromwell's commission to Admiral Penn took the form of an incisive and passionate manifesto, justifying his contemplated attack upon the Spanish possessions in the West Indies as a rightful measure for exacting reparation for past injuries and ensuring security for the future. It fiercely denounced "the cruelties and inhuman practices of the King of Spain exercised in America, not only upon the Indians and natives but also upon the people of those nations inhabiting in those parts, whom he hath, contrary to the common right and law of nations, by force of arms driven from those places whereof they were the rightful possessors; murdering many of their men, and leading others into captivity; and to this very day doth not only deny to trade, or to have any commerce with us or the people of those countries in any part of America, but, contrary to the treaties between the two States, doth exercise all acts of hostility against us, and this people there, as against open and professed enemies, giving thereby and [by] the claim he makes to all that part of the world by the colour of the pope's donation, just grounds to believe that he intends the ruin and destruction of all the English plantations, people and interest in those parts."[9]

His peremptory demand that English merchants should be allowed the free exercise of their religion in the Spanish dominions and that English colonists and traders should no longer be treated as pirates in the West Indies had in fact been curtly rejected. "To ask for liberty from the Inquisition and free sailing in the West Indies", said the Spanish ambassador, "was to ask for his master's two eyes", and no concession would be made on either point. Venables was consequently given full liberty of action. "The design in general", he was told, "is to gain an interest in that part of the West Indies in the possession of the Spaniard; for the effecting whereof we shall not tie you up to a method by any particular instructions."[10]

From Hispaniola the baffled English commanders made their way to Jamaica, thinly peopled and weakly garrisoned, where they had better fortune. Inefficient as the land forces were, the conquest of the inhabited part of the island was easily accomplished, with the exception of a considerable portion of the hilly pasture lands on its north side to which the governor with most of the Spanish planters and their slaves retired, and with the aid of reinforcements from Cuba and Porto Rico, waged an intermittent but tantalizing and costly guerilla warfare with the invaders for five years before they were finally expelled. From the first the Spanish court had recognized the distressing prospect that undisputed possession of the island would enable the English "to obstruct the commerce of all the islands to the windward with the coasts of the mainland and of New Spain. The fleets and galleons will run great risk in passing Jamaica."[11] Its immediate recovery was seen to be an object of vital importance. In fair weather with a favouring breeze the passage from Cuba to the northern coast of Jamaica could be made with ease and safety even by small undecked boats. Soldiers and workmen were sent over in small parties, and several small forts were built by them. Bands of maroons and negroes were encouraged to harass the invaders, with some success, under the command of a mulatto, Juan Lubolo or Juan de Bolas, whose memory is still perpetuated in the name of a river and savanna. But although they thus succeeded in maintaining a substantial foothold behind the central range of hills, they failed to recover any lost ground.

After venting his displeasure upon the unlucky commanders of the expedition for their failure to take Hispaniola, Cromwell decided to retain and colonize their actual conquest and published a proclamation describing Jamaica as "spacious in extent, commodious in its harbours and rivers within itself, healthful by its situation, well stored with horses and other cattle, and generally fit and worthy to be planted and improved to the advantage, honour, and interest of this nation." Laws and ordinances for its government were promulgated. Surveyors were appointed to lay out lands for desirable settlers. It announced that all "planters and adventurers to that island" would be exempted from paying any excise or custom duty "on goods and necessaries transported thither for seven years, and that no customs or other tax or impost would be laid upon any product imported from thence into any other English possession for the next ten years," dating in each case from the following Michaelmas, and that no embargo would be imposed during that period on any ships or seamen sailing for Jamaica. The struggling colonists of New England, who had begun to despond, were invited "to remove themselves or such numbers of them as shall be thought convenient, out of those parts where they now are to Jamaica."[12]

Many English people were firmly convinced that Spain was a cruel and implacable national enemy. Cromwell proclaimed this doctrine insistently in his speech to Parliament on 17th September, 1656.

"Abroad," he said, "our great enemy is the Spaniard. He is a natural enemy, by reason of that enmity that is in him against whatsoever is of God." No satisfaction could be obtained either for the denial of freedom of conscience to the English traders in Spain or for "the blood of our poor people shed in the West Indies. The truth is that no peace is possible with any popish state. Sign what you will with one of them, that peace is but to be kept so long as the pope says 'Amen' to it.... The Spaniard hath an interest in your bowels. The Papists in England have been accounted Spanielised ever since I was born. They never regard France; they never regarded any Papist state. Spain was their patron."[13]

In his opinion the contest was a just and holy war. He promised liberal supplies to General Fortescue, to whom Venables had turned over the command of the troops. "We think it much designed and it is much designed amongst us," he assured him, "to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas." His mind had been strongly impressed by proposals for an easy conquest of other Spanish provinces in America, laid before him by Thomas Modyford of Barbados and the renegade priest, Thomas Gage.[14]

His instructions to Admiral Goodson, Penn's successor, declared that the war must be carried on in the spirit of a crusade. "Set up your banners in the name of Christ," he wrote to him with his wonted fervour, "for undoubtedly it is his cause. And let the reproach and shame that hath been for your sins and the misguidance of some lift up your hearts to confidence in the Lord, and for the redemption of his honour from men who attribute their success to their idols, the work of their own hands.... The Lord himself hath a controversy with your enemies; even with that Roman Babylon of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper. In this respect we fight the Lord's battles."[15]

He intended to make Jamaica the base for very extensive offensive operations against the Spaniards both by land and sea. These were delayed by frequent unforeseen changes in the command. Fortescue died after holding it only for three months. Colonel Edward D'Oyley was chosen to succeed him by his fellow officers. Major Robert Sedgewick soon after arrived from England to replace Winslow, the Protector's civil commissioner, who had also fallen a victim to disease, and superseded D'Oyley. The army was much reduced by sickness and desertion. Being warned by letters from England, confirmed by statements of prisoners, that a great "armado" was under orders to sail from Spain for the West Indies, both D'Oyley and Sedgewick gave some attention to fortifying the excellent harbour of Cagua, afterwards known as Port Royal.

Attacks by parties of fugitive slaves gave them much annoyance and sometimes inflicted serious loss of life. "They have", so Sedgewick reported, "no moral sense, and do not understand what the laws and customs of civil nations mean; we know not how to capitulate or treat with them; but be assured they must either be destroyed or brought in upon some terms or other, or else they will prove a great discouragement to the settling of the Country."[16]

Fortescue had described the island as "a fruitful and pleasant land and a fit receptacle for honest men." Sedgewick had confirmed this report, and on the 4th of January, 1656, he published a proclamation jointly with Admiral Goodson, urging the soldiers to cultivate plots of land which would be allotted for them. Some of the officers opposed this by presenting a petition in the name of their men, advising the entire abandonment of the island. But Goodson kept his squadron of ships actively employed. His cruisers lay in wait for Spanish ships and brought in many prizes. Embarking some soldiers he took Santa Marta and Rio de la Hacha, two ports of some importance on the mainland of Veragua. But Sedgewick gave him grudging support in these distant excursions, which he did not fail to condemn as both impolitic and unprofitable.

"We are not able", he complained, "to possess any place we attack, and so are in no hope thereby to effect our intention of dispensing anything of the true knowledge of God to the inhabitants. To the Indians and blacks we shall make ourselves appear a cruel, bloody, and ruinating people, which will cause them, I fear, to think us worse than the Spaniard."[17]

Intercepted letters and the admissions of prisoners soon convinced him that the negro guerillas would be reinforced by Spanish soldiers, who could land on the north shore of the island unnoticed and unopposed.

"If neither soldiers nor planters do come hither," D'Oyley gloomily declared in April, 1656, "we cannot long keep the place, the advantages of the enemy being able to poise the difference in numbers."

The mortality among officers and soldiers was appalling. Sedgewick's sudden death in June replaced D'Oyley in command for a few months, until he was again superseded by the arrival of Major General William Brayne with a thousand raw recruits.[18] This did not greatly improve the situation, as Brayne reported in the following April.

"The soldiers are forced to neglect the strictness of their martial duty by rambling abroad to seek a livelihood; so that if the enemy from Spain should attempt us in this condition, I greatly fear the soldiers would make but a weak resistance, their spirits have been so dejected for want of necessary food and raiment. But many of the officers seem resolved (through the assistance of God), to sell their lives as dearly as they can."[19]

Brayne died early in September, 1657, leaving a blank commission given him by Cromwell, filled in with the name of D'Oyley, who was at once obliged to make active exertions to repel an invasion. Small bands of Spanish soldiers had landed from time to time and placed themselves under the orders of Don Christoval Arnaldo Yssasi, who had been given a commission as governor of Jamaica. One company of these men came from Havana, another from San Domingo, and a third from Porto Rico. They were joined by two companies of zealous volunteers formed of refugees from Jamaica at Santiago de Cuba. The whole body did not much exceed five hundred of all ranks. Still, it formed a substantial reinforcement to the guerillas, who had already given so much annoyance.

Many years before the Spaniards had opened a bridle path and rough cart track quite across the island at nearly its widest part, connecting Sevilla Nueva (St. Ann's Bay), on the northern shore with Puerto de Esquivella (Old Harbour), on the southern. It wound through dense woods and rocky gorges and was little known and very difficult. Vestiges of it are still pointed out as the "old Spanish road". Their war parties had generally advanced by it. The steepness of the passes and dangers of ambushes were sufficient to discourage effective pursuit by this route. The only prudent manner of reaching the enemy was by the sea.

Major Richard Steevens accordingly embarked, and passing around the eastern end of the island attacked one body of Spaniards at St. Ann's Bay, D'Oyley reported, at the head of a party "of Stout, Well, and Willing men, to whom about Sixty of our Officers joyned, Volunteers, exceedingly desirous of action after so long a cessation." On their approach the Spaniards dispersed in a complete panic and hid themselves in the neighbouring forest. "So finding the vanity of following them in the Woods and Mountains, we left them," D'Oyley concluded.

Many privateers and buccaneers of several nations, who had long haunted the petty island of Tortuga and the adjoining coast of Hispaniola, had gladly availed themselves of the safer harbour and more convenient base of operations at Cagua, and some of them had been given letters-of-marque against Spain by Brayne or D'Oyley. Yssasi, who was vigilant and alert in gathering information, reported that in "that port there were generally fifteen or twenty vessels, some entering, some leaving, with a reserve of eight ships of war." He added that D'Oyley had held a general muster and review of all his troops in March and found that he had three thousand foot, many of them boys, and the greater part serving through compulsion.[20]

A prisoner taken in a canoe on his way to Cuba told D'Oyley that three hundred Spaniards were forming a magazine at Las Chorreras (Ocho Rios) and fortifying it in the expectation of being reinforced. Leaving one hundred men to guard their plantations, he promptly embarked the remainder of the troops under Steevens in a small warship and sailed to attack this party. A ship just coming over from Cuba with soldiers and supplies was driven off before it could reach land, and D'Oyley then disembarked his force in a bay six miles further west, as he found no suitable landing place nearer the enemy. Marching through the woods he was attacked from an ambush, but his men being well prepared for this by his orders, fired a single volley in reply and instantly charged, routing their assailants and pursuing them so fiercely that few were able to regain the shelter of their stockade, which was built "with great Trees and Flankers". Placing a third of his force in reserve D'Oyley advanced to its assault with the rest. There was "a stiff dispute" for three-quarters of an hour, until the storming party cut a passage through the palisades with their hatchets, when most of their opponents tried to escape by running out over the rocks and throwing themselves into the bay in spite of the desperate efforts of their officers to rally them, "yet made not such haste", D'Oyley wrote, "but that they left One hundred and twenty or thereabouts dead on the place, and many wounded, amongst whom were most of the Officers; the Mastre del Campo, Don Francisco de Prencia, by means of a Prisoner of ours, whom he kept by him, got quarter, and some others whom we found in the Rocks whom (though we had received barbarous usage from them) we could not kill in cold blood."[21]

Eighteen prisoners were taken, but according to the Spanish account, D'Oyley had greatly exaggerated the number killed. They lost nearly all their arms and ammunition, as well as the whole of the provisions they had so laboriously collected, including large quantities of dried beef and cassava. Many fugitives were believed to have perished miserably in the woods, and some surrendered in despair in a state of starvation. The English lost only four men killed and ten wounded.

"The King of Spain's affairs do very much fail in these parts," D'Oyley added exultantly in his official letter, "and his Trade is almost brought to nothing by the many private Men of War of English and French and ours are still abroad to annoy them."

Among the ships thus taken or destroyed were three loaded with supplies for the Spaniards in Jamaica.

The Spanish government was goaded into making still greater efforts to recover its lost possession. The governors of Havana, Santiago, Porto Rico, and San Domingo were all instructed to send immediate assistance to Yssasi, who clung obstinately to his foothold in the recesses of the hills. The viceroy of Mexico was given supreme control of these operations. Two small squadrons of ships were equipped, conveying 950 soldiers with provisions and other supplies, which were safely landed at the mouth of the Rio Nuevo on the northern shore of Jamaica some time in May, 1658. Yssasi had been instructed to make every effort to hold his ground. The number of soldiers actually landed was reported to be only 557 of all ranks, under command of Sargento-Mayor Don Alvaro de Rasperu, formed into thirty-one companies of foot. They began at once to fortify a strong position on a steep, rocky hill overlooking the bay, now known as "the Cliff", which they called the Camp of the Conception. Yssasi joined them with his followers and there they remained undiscovered and unmolested for twelve days, when some English warships, cruising along the coast, observed three strange sail anchored near the land but were prevented by calms and variable winds from attacking them closely. In the night these Spanish ships made their escape unseen, having landed six small iron guns for the defence of the camp. When this news reached D'Oyley at Cagway, he lost no time in assembling a council of war which began a discussion, he wrote, "whether it were most advantageous to assault them presently, or let them partake of the distemper and want of the country; and when sickness weakened them to attempt them then, though much might have been and was urged, how invaders were to be used with delayes, &c., the exceeding desire of the officers and soldiers to be doing with them cut off all debates and termed a sudden resolution to fall on them before they were fortified."[22]

Seven hundred and fifty men were embarked in six of the ships in the service of the Commonwealth, which sailed from Cagway on June 11. Eleven days later this expedition, commanded by D'Oyley himself, anchored in the little bay of Rio Nuevo, and the soldiers were landed under distant gun-fire from the Spanish camp. They were opposed near the shore by two companies of Spaniards and a band of fifteen or twenty negroes, who defended an advanced post with great obstinacy until a third of them were killed and many others wounded. At the same time the guns of the English ships bombarded the camp with little effect, "the place being of so vast a height, they could bear to doe them little harme."[23]

Ladders were made for the escalade of the stockade, which was plainly seen to be of considerable height on the face nearest them. In the evening a drummer was sent with a summons to the commandant to surrender, assuring him of honourable terms and a safe passage to his own territory, but partly also to sound the depth of the river, which he was obliged to ford. This man was civilly received by Yssasi himself, who gave him twenty-five pieces of eight and sent a jar of sweetmeats to D'Oyley with the reply that he was well provided with provisions, ammunition, and brave men "that knew how to dye before they be overcome."

Next morning, after instructing two of his ships to move to leeward as a feint to distract the enemy's attention, and all the others to warp inward as close to the shore as possible and keep up a brisk fire upon the enemy's camp, D'Oyley began his march through the tangled woods to get at the other side of the intrenchment. After fording the river higher up, his advanced guard surprised a working party occupied in building a breastwork, who ran away crying that "all the world was coming." The hill was then climbed with great difficulty on its steepest side, and the storming party discovered with great joy that the rampart had not been built to its full height on that front. "Wee ordered our business with our forlorne ladders and hand grenades," D'Oyley stated, "and without any further dispute received their shott, and rann up to their flankers, which in a quarter of an hour wee gained. Many of them made a shift to runn out of the works, and ours followed their chase about three or four miles. The seamen likewise seeing them runn along the rocks, came out with their boats, and killed many of them."

A battle in those days, as soon as either body took to its heels to escape, almost invariably became a pitiless butchery of the panic-stricken fugitives. D'Oyley reported that about three hundred Spaniards were killed, including the sargento-mayor, several other officers, and two priests. About a hundred, including six captains, were made prisoners. All their cannon, many muskets, a great supply of ammunition and provisions, the King of Spain's standard, and ten other flags were taken. In the assault six English officers and twenty-three soldiers had been killed and thirty-four were wounded, some of them mortally.

"Thus hath the Lord made knowne his salvation," D'Oyley devoutly affirmed, "His righteousness hath so openly showed in the sight of the heathen."[24]

His victory was largely due to his own efficient leadership.

William Burrough, "stewart-general" of the expedition, related that he had "seen a great deal of bloody work in his time, both by land and sea, but never saw any action carried on with so much cheerfulness as this was, the Commander-in-Chief, Colonel D'Oyley telling the soldiers that a great deal of England's glory lay at stake, and therefore hoped they would consider it accordingly, going himself from party to party, and following the forlorn in a very signal habit. His gallant behaviour was answered both by officers and soldiers with a silent cheerful obedience, and through God's gracious goodness there was found such a joint unanimous willingness to the work that the truth is it was of God and it hath exceedingly endeared us to one another since we came here."[25]

Colonel Samuel Barry, being "an eye-witness and principal actor herein", was chosen by D'Oyley to carry his letter and the captured flags to the Protector, but when he arrived in England he learned that Cromwell was dead, so that he "never had one syllable of anything that was grateful from the vastest expense and greatest design that was ever made by the English."[26]

In fact D'Oyley's success was so complete that although Yssasi escaped unhurt, he was never able to collect more than 150 followers and was obliged to hide among the hills, wandering from place to place near the north coast in the vain hope of relief. His most active adherent, the negro, Juan Lubolo, deserted him and joined the English. He then became extremely disheartened. "This", he wrote, "is very serious news, both because twelve slaves had been taken prisoners from the defeated settlement as well as because all these negroes are very capable and experienced, not only as to roads, but as to all the mountains and most remote places, are hunters and ready for anything."

After enduring an extremity of hardship, hunger, and privation, Yssasi's worst forebodings were fulfilled. On the 26th of February, 1660, Lieut.-Colonel Tyson with a party of only eighty men, guided over the mountains by some of these negroes, surprised his camp at Rio Hoja, near Moneague, killed his chief lieutenant and fifty others, took a few prisoners, and dispersed the rest of his men beyond recall. The English leader reported that Yssasi "ran so nimbly as to save himself from being taken."

Negotiations were begun for a treaty of surrender, but failed. A boat bringing supplies from Cuba was captured in the bay of Ocho Rios, making further resistance all but hopeless. Two large canoes were fashioned out of cottonwood logs, sails were improvised from hunters' sheets, Yssasi embarked with his remaining adherents at the little harbour, which has ever since been known as Runaway Bay, and safely crossed the hundred miles of tranquil water that separated him from Cuba. Spanish dominion over any part of Jamaica had come to an end. Some hundreds of impoverished fugitives found an asylum at Bayano, Santiago, and Trinidad, where they obtained lands and continued for the next ten years to cherish hopes of regaining their lost possessions, and form fruitless plans for that object. They seem even to have been officially informed that the exiled King of England had promised to restore Jamaica to Spain if he regained his throne.

Admiral Goodson had returned to England, but he had been succeeded in command of his small squadron by Captain Christopher Mings, who was not less active and enterprising and received cordial support from D'Oyley, who was not troubled by the conscientious scruples of Sedgewick. Taking on board his ships a few hundred soldiers, Mings sailed for the Spanish Main, where he easily took and sacked the flourishing and wealthy towns of Coro and Cumana, returning, it is stated, "with more plunder than ever was brought to Jamaica", which enriched many of its inhabitants. The privateers were encouraged in consequence to undertake other expeditions. More private ships of war were equipped and provided with commissions by the governor.

The astonishing news of the restoration of the monarchy became known in Jamaica late in July, 1660, and must have caused serious alarm and anxiety in the minds of many veteran officers and soldiers of the Commonwealth. Some of them had faithfully served the Parliament or the Protector for nearly twenty years. Two or more were liable to be denounced and brought to trial as regicides. Lands in proportion to their military rank had been assigned to all of them, but no patents had been issued. Were they now to be deprived of their hardly-won conquest, completed only a few months before, and lose the rewards promised them?

There were, in truth, good grounds for their fears. The King of Spain lost little time in sending the Prince de Ligne as an ambassador extraordinary to demand in due form, under the terms of a secret treaty, sanctioned during his exile by King Charles II, the restitution of the island of Jamaica and the fortress of Dunkirk, wrested from him by the armies of the Commonwealth. This envoy made his entry into London with great pomp, "accompanied with divers greate persons from thence, and an innumerable retinue. Greater bravery had I not seene", John Evelyn wrote with his accustomed candour.

But the merchants of the city at once combined to oppose the cession. Ten days later the King received their addresses in his closet, "giving them assurance of his persisting to keepe Jamaica, choosing Sir Edw. Massey governor." The Privy Council readily confirmed this decision. The Spanish ambassador was informed that His Majesty did not find himself obliged by the terms of any treaty "se rendre ces deux places de Jamaique et Dunquerque." The House of Commons declared its hearty approval.[27]

Nothing was known of this in Jamaica until 29th May, 1661, exactly a year after the King's return, when D'Oyley received his commission and royal instructions as governor. He had already sternly suppressed a republican insurrection, whose leaders, Colonels Raymond and Tyson, had been tried by court martial and shot as mutineers. The publication of a proclamation in the name of Charles, "King of England and Lord of Jamaica", greatly relieved the fears of the people. By it they were informed that the governor had been instructed to encourage agriculture and commerce and allot and register grants of land. A census of the population and land under cultivation, taken soon afterwards, showed a total of 2,458 men, 454 women, 44 children, 584 negroes, 618 arms, and 2,588 planted acres.[28]

Negotiations with Spain were still being carried on for a treaty of amity and commerce. On the 5th of February, 1662, D'Oyley, in accordance with later royal instructions as General-in-Chief, published a second proclamation at Point Cagway, addressed to "all Governors of Islands, captains of ships, officers and soldiers under his command", announcing that "His Majesty having commanded a cessation of hostilities, they are hereby ordered to cease from all acts of hostility against the King of Spain or any of his subjects", and all captains of ships of war at sea with his commissions were required to return with all speed to receive further orders. The actual effect of this document was probably insignificant, as its circulation must have been limited, and the privateers of that day had a convenient habit of turning a blind eye on all such instructions when it suited them and were accustomed to announce bluntly that "there was no peace beyond the line."[29] As the Reverend Thomas Fuller quaintly put it, "The Case was clear in sea-divinity, and few are such infidels as not to believe doctrines which make for their profit."[30]

A legislative council of twelve members, including a secretary, was formed under the presidency of the governor, which proceeded to enact ordinances and levy taxes for the expenses of the civil government, estimated at first at £1,640 per annum. Judges and justices of the peace were appointed, most of them as a matter of course being officers of the army. Colonel Philip Ward was commissioned as chief justice, to be soon succeeded by Colonel Samuel Barry. In confirming a sentence of death passed by the court, D'Oyley grimly remarked that it was necessary "to let them see that the law could do as much as a court martial."[31]

Immigrants arrived in considerable numbers from Barbados, Nevis, Bermuda, and even from New England. They were allotted tracts of land and began planting and breeding horses, horned cattle, and hogs. The willingness of many persons to migrate then from one colony to another whenever they became discontented with their condition deserves notice. At the end of the civil war and the subsequent hostilities with Spain, many soldiers and seamen had been discharged and were obliged by debt or poverty to seek a living out of England. Numbers of adventurous, reckless men gradually made their way to the West Indies in the hope of making a fortune as planters or privateers, preferring as a rule the latter occupation.

Such a man of "desperate fortune" was Sir Thomas Whetstone, a nephew of Oliver Cromwell, but a royalist of such unquestioned fidelity that he had been employed by the King while in exile on a special mission to the Baltic squadron to win over its commander, Edward Mountague. After the restoration he had become extremely dissipated, and in September, 1661, he humbly petitioned Secretary Nicholas for assistance to save him from perishing miserably through starvation, being then confined for debt in the Marshalsea prison, without any prospect of release. Nicholas advised the Lord Chancellor that it was expedient to advance Whetstone a hundred pounds to enable him to obtain his liberty and remove to Jamaica. This must have been done, as two years later Whetstone was in chief command of a small squadron of Jamaican privateers, and in October, 1664, he was elected a member of the newly constituted House of Assembly, for the parish of St. Catherine, and was chosen as its first Speaker.[32]

D'Oyley was worn out by a long term of arduous service in the tropics, and soon requested to be relieved of his office and given permission to return to England. Early in the summer of 1662, he was informed that his application had been granted and that Thomas, Lord Windsor (afterwards Earl of Plymouth) had been appointed to succeed him. The new governor was given new royal instructions, by one article of which he was directed to "grant such commissions as to you may seem requisite for the subduing of all our enemies by sea and land, within and upon the Coast of America."[33]

His additional instructions, dated a few weeks later, contained the following significant and outstanding article.

"You shall endeavour by all fitting means to obtain and preserve a good correspondence and free commerce with the plantations and territories belonging to the King of Spain, for all such our subjects as shall trade there with security to their persons, ships, and goods, and with regulations for the benefit of trade as shall seem to you and the council most advantageous to the same; but if the governor of the King of Spain shall refuse to admit our subjects to trade with them, you shall in such case endeavour to procure and settle a trade with his subjects in those parts by force, and by doing any such acts upon and against them as you and the council shall judge most proper to oblige them to admit you to a free trade with them according to your commission and the instructions now given you herein or which you shall hereafter receive from us declaring whom we have treated and accounted as enemies to us."[34]

He was commanded to disband the army and distribute ten thousand pounds among the officers and soldiers as gratuities for their past service. Four hundred foot soldiers and one hundred and fifty horsemen were to be kept "under command and discipline as long as shall be thought fit for the preservation of the island with two ships of war constantly plying upon that coast." Two thousand pounds were granted for "perfecting the fort of Cagway".

A royal proclamation was published, describing the great fertility and great advantages of the island, and offering a free grant of thirty acres of land to every person over twelve years of age then residing in it or who should remove to it in two years. It ended with the declaration: "And we doe further publish and declare that all the children of our naturall borne subjects of England, to bee borne in Jamaica, shall from their respective births, bee reputed to bee free denizens of England; and shall have the same privileges, to all intents and purposes, as our free borne subjects of England."[35]

The captain of the Great Charity bound for Jamaica was authorized by a special act of the Privy Council "by the sound and beating of drums in the cities of London and Westminster and the suburbs thereof to invite any person or persons to transport themselves in the said ship to the said island."[36]

After his arrival at Barbados, Windsor made a downright effort to execute his orders peacefully, by sending the frigate Griffin with messages to the governors of Porto Rico and San Domingo, requesting liberty of trade with those islands. In both cases his application was curtly refused. Windsor arrived at Cagway, to which he gave the appropriate name of Port Royal, on August 11, and at once assembled the council to make them acquainted with his instructions, which he asserted gave power to make peace with the Spaniards or to declare war upon them if they refused commercial intercourse. The fear of another invasion from Cuba had not subsided, and Santiago was believed to be the most likely place where such an expedition would be fitted out. An attack upon that town and fortress had been already proposed more than once. It had been considered immediately after the first landing in Jamaica. Sedgewick had written to Thurloe in November, 1655, that "The Admiral was intended before our coming in to have taken some few soldiers and gone over to Saint Jago de Cuba, a town upon Cuba, but our coming hindred him, without whom, we could not well tell how to do anything."

On 24th January, 1656, he announced that the plan had been given up. "We had long since attempted St. Jago de Cuba", he said, "could our army have afforded us but 500 men, but from the full intelligence we had of the strength of the place, we thought it not convenient to hazard our chief sea forces without a sufficient number of men to land." Admiral Goodson also reported that "the numbers of the soldiers had been so thinned by disease that they had not men enough to secure their own quarters."[37]

The situation was now much more favourable, as many of the disbanded soldiers were eager to undertake any enterprise which promised to be profitable. With a single exception all the members of the council had been officers in the army and their voice favoured open war. They promptly passed a resolution declaring that "the letters of the governors of Porto Rico and San Domingo were in absolute denial of trade, and that according to His Majesty's instructions to Lord Windsor a trade by force or otherwise was to be attempted." They further stated their opinion that the proclamation commanding a cessation of hostilities applied only to Europe.

A month was then allowed to pass, during which probably more intelligence was obtained. At a meeting held on September 18, the council passed a resolution directing that men should be forthwith enlisted "for a design with the Centurion and other vessels provided that they be not servants or persons who sell or desert their plantations for the purpose."

The redoubtable Christopher Mings had been recalled to England to answer for his successful raids on the coast towns of the Spanish Main, but had apparently justified his conduct to the satisfaction of his superiors and had resumed command of the naval force at Jamaica. He was a rough-tongued, ready-witted, practical seaman, who had begun his service as a cabin-boy, or in the sailor's phrase, "had entered the service by the hawsehole and worked his way aft." With him began a sort of apostolic succession of cabin-boys, who became admirals and knights. One of his cabin-boys became Admiral Sir John Narborough, who had in his turn a cabin-boy, who became still more famous as Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel. Mings, to borrow the words of Pepys, "was a very stout man, and a man of great parts, and a most excellent tongue among ordinary men." He liked to boast that his father was a shoemaker and his mother a hogman's daughter, and was ever a favourite with the rough, illiterate sailors, whom he commanded with unvarying success.[38]

From his former expeditions he had brought to Jamaica booty valued at £200,000 or as much as £300,000, but being accused of some irregularities in the distribution of the prize-money, D'Oyley had suspended him from command, and described him with veiled sarcasm as "the wonder-working captain of the Marston Moor". Another military officer maliciously referred to him as "a proud-speaking, vain fool and a knave in cheating the state and robbing the merchants." But his popularity in Jamaica was unimpaired by these accusations, for, as a contemporary writer stated, "Not a man in the island but can say that he has reaped a benefit of that action."[39]

As many of the disbanded soldiers were very poor and possessed small means of cultivating their lands, they gladly enlisted for this expedition, and about thirteen hundred men, mostly former soldiers of the army of the Commonwealth, were assembled and equipped in a week. Eleven ships, most of them privateers, were quickly fitted out and provisioned, having, however, the Centurion, a fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, carrying forty-six guns and a crew of 180 men, as the flagship of Commodore Mings. Formal instructions for him were prepared by the governor, and he set sail from Point Cagway on September 21, "with great hopes of a large booty." Calms and contrary winds retarded the fleet in rounding the windward end of the island, as was usually the case. "On the 25th", Mings reported, "we encountred Sir Thomas Whetstone in Pacazo with a family of Indians, whose intelligence assured us of noe aditional forces in St. Jago upon Cuba, and likewise rectified our former advice beeing most by English prisoners, whose restraints there gave them not the advantage of a full discovery. At a councell of warr itt was judged feasable and upon debate resolved the manner of atempting itt which was to land in the harbour, the mouth of which was very strongly fortefied."

Still much delayed by calms and variable breezes, the grey stone tower of the castle of Santiago on its lofty cliff did not come in sight until the morning of October 5, and the wind continued so faint that the ships did not succeed in approaching the harbour's narrow entrance until late that afternoon. When within half a mile of the shore a land breeze rose, which made it dangerous to venture into that narrow winding channel leading into a land-locked bay, which would not admit of the passage of more than one ship at a time. The depth of water forbade them from attempting to cast anchor with safety near the castle. A strong surf beat upon the reefs and as the great height of the cliffs intercepted the wind and formed eddies and gusts, the ships seemed in great danger of drifting upon the jagged rocks along shore. The plan of attack was quickly changed, and orders were given to make a landing at the little wharf of Aguadores, about two miles to the windward or east of the castle, "the only place possible to march for the towne, on all that rocky coast."

According to a Spanish account, which seems reliable, Mings's fleet had by that time been increased to eighteen sail, and he landed nine hundred men, who, the writer justly remarks, were not buccaneers but seasoned soldiers discharged from service since the completion of the conquest of Jamaica. As the Spaniards had expected an attack upon the castle and neighbouring batteries protecting the harbour's mouth, the disembarkation was quite unopposed. Some inhabitants fled to the town to give the alarm.

"Before our whole party was on shore itt was night," Mings wrote, "the place rocky and narrow, wee were forced to advance the van in the wood to make way to the reare to land, the path so narrow that but one man could march at a tyme, the way soe difficult and the night soe dark that wee were forced to make stand and fires, and our guides with brands in their hands to beat the path."

The country over which they advanced is cut up with gullies and ledges of jagged rock, now thickly overgrown with gnarled trees and a tangle of tropic underwood firmly rooted in the clefts and fissures, which is scarcely penetrable. Yet the movement was continued with such perseverance that at daybreak the vanguard arrived at a plantation by the riverside six miles from the landing-place, and only three miles from the town. There a halt was made to eat and drink. Then being favoured by daylight and a passable road the march was cautiously resumed.

Don Pedro de Morales, governor of Santiago and a good soldier, had been informed early in the evening before that the English were landing in great force. Having only a garrison of about two hundred regular soldiers, he determined to defend the town, and called in all the militia of the neighbouring populous settlement to his assistance. Among them were many refugees from Jamaica, who seem to have imposed upon him by a boastful show of courage. All night long the people of the town were busy in removing their families and concealing their valuable property in the woods. Morales with 170 soldiers and a few of the bravest emigrants and peasants awaited the attack at the entrance of the main street, which had been hastily barricaded with raw hides and casks of earth, and two guns were mounted to command the road, while the reserve of about five hundred militia was commanded by Yssasi, "the ould Governor of Jamaica (and a good friend to the English)" as Mings ironically described him. The town, though of course much smaller, was then as now built on the north-eastern side of the spacious triangular basin, forming the inner harbour, securely sheltered from every wind by rugged hills and ridges.

The English rushed forward with loud shouts in the face of a general discharge of artillery and musketry, which being ill-aimed and ill-timed, did them little harm, scaled the barricades, and scattered their opponents.

"With themselves and the helpe of Don Christopher, who fairely ran away," Mings stated, "wee routed the rest, a pursueing them divers waies through the towne of which beeing masters, Some 6 small vessels were swam too and possessed by our soldiers, their men through feare diserted them."[40]

The rest of that day was spent by the victors in ransacking the deserted buildings, and afterwards, while resting, in considering what they should do next. In the morning five hundred men in several parties were sent out in different directions in pursuit of the fugitives, and a hundred seamen went back to reinforce the fleet, which had been left weakly manned, with orders to attack the defences of the harbour, "with assurance at the same tyme wee would not fayle them with a considerable party to atempt the inward and most esential works."

At the appointed hour, eleven o'clock on the following day, the ships deftly felt their way into and through the channel under the fire of the guns of the tall stone castle, called the "Morro" or "San Pedro de la Roca", which so proudly crowned the precipitous cliff on the eastern side. The soldiers, who had taken the town so easily, advanced at the same time against its outworks on the landside, with their usual fierce shouts and menacing gestures, which so terrified their weak garrison, consisting only of a subaltern and thirty men, that they retired hastily into the citadel. This stronghold was also soon abandoned by them, after firing only two musket-shots, on the advance of a storming party. Hitherto this fortress had been deemed nearly impregnable, and it might easily have been held by a sufficient force, as it occupied the crest of a steep, rocky promontory and its walls facing the land were sixty-three feet in height. It was armed with thirty-four cannon, and its walls enclosed a church and quarters for a thousand soldiers.

The ships entered the inner harbour and the town was held for five days. In conformity with the customary barbarous methods of the time in making war, large parties were sent out daily to plunder and lay waste the neighbouring plantations and settlements. Morales rallied some of his men on the heights of El Caney and on the crags of the Sierra Maestra, whence he watched the movements of the invaders, though he did not venture to attack them. Yet he annoyed them at a distance, and threatened to cut off their retreat by occupying the shores of the inlet. Besides many sugar-works, a great part of the town, which was said to contain two thousand houses, was destroyed.

"The yll offices that towne had don to Jamaica had soe exasperated the souldiers," Mings declared, "that I had mutch adoo to keepe them from fireing the churches." In fact the Spanish historian states that the cathedral, rebuilt with great exertions by Bishop Cabezas and his immediate successors, the governor's residence, and the hospital were all destroyed to gratify their hostility.

On October 15, Mings embarked his men and returned in the ships to the harbour's mouth, where the next four days were employed in dismantling and destroying the castle and its outworks. Of the great quantity of captured powder found there "700 barrels was spent in bloweing up the mayne castle, the rest in country houses and platforms; and truly itt was soe demolished as the greater part lyes levell with the foundation", Mings exultantly reported. The lighter guns, made of brass or copper, were carried away and the heavier iron cannon were rolled over the cliff into the sea.

The capture of the second largest town in Cuba and the demolition of this fortress, in the construction of which it was said that the King of Spain had expended a hundred thousand pounds only a few years before, was justly deemed an exploit of great importance. On October 22, the victorious fleet sailed into the harbour at Port Royal with the ships they had taken and much booty, consisting of sugar, hides, wine, silver plate, some negro slaves, some captured artillery, and even some church-bells, one of which may now be seen in the Institute of Jamaica. Four of the brass cannon then taken were sent to London, where they were exhibited as trophies in the Tower. The damage the expedition had caused to the unhappy Cubans in ruined buildings and wasted plantations was roughly estimated at five hundred thousand pounds, probably a considerable exaggeration. Only six of the men engaged had been killed in battle but twenty other lives had been lost by accident or disease.[41]

The authority of the Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral of England, under a recent commission had been extended to include all colonial possessions. Commissions were at once issued by him to all governors of colonies, appointing them Vice-Admirals and empowering them to establish courts of admiralty in each of their governments. Accordingly, Lord Windsor had appointed William Michell, a member of the Council, as Judge of the admiralty court in Jamaica, with authority to hear complaints, condemn lawful prizes, and impose penalties for infractions of the recently enacted Navigation Acts. Of all captures so condemned and declared lawful prizes, the King was entitled to receive one-fifteenth and the Lord High Admiral one-tenth share, thus making them partners with the privateers. The records of this court are still extant, unpublished. Letters-of-marque against Spain were freely granted by Lord Windsor, and the signal success of the raid upon Santiago having, it was believed, removed all immediate danger of an invasion, many small privateers put to sea in search of booty, while the Centurion and some smaller ships of the Royal Navy were retained in or near Port Royal for its protection.[42]

All the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms were enrolled in the militia, which was formed into five regiments. The regiment of Port Royal, which then had a population, according to an official report, of 3,500, was completely supplied with arms, and officers were appointed, among them being Captain Morgan. It is safe to infer that he had gained much experience in his long apprenticeship in the art of war under such capable commanders as D'Oyley and Mings, although no record has been found of his actual service. He had certainly obtained promotion and acquired sufficient means to build or buy and equip a small ship, for which a commission as a privateer was granted him by Lord Windsor.

Having disbanded the army, organized the militia in its place, and taken Santiago in less than three months, the governor sailed for England on October 28, very well satisfied with his achievements, alleging persistent ill health as a sufficient excuse for his hasty departure. Pepys recorded his return with the scornful comment that "Lord Windsor being come home from Jamaica unlooked for, makes us think that these young lords are not fit to do any service abroad." He added that Lord Windsor had informed the Duke of Albemarle "how he had taken a fort from the Spaniards and how he fell sick at a certain degree of latitude, and never got well (though he did take that fort) until he arrived at the same place on his way home."[43]

Sir Charles Lyttleton, the deputy governor, took over the administration, and Captain Christopher Mings was sworn as a member of the Council, probably in recognition of his recent service. Early in November some Spaniards arrived from Cuba under a pretence of trading, but their subsequent conduct excited suspicion and the Council seriously debated whether it was not probable that the people of that island, enraged at the destruction of Santiago, were contemplating retaliation and that these men were sent as spies. Five of the captured copper cannon were ordered to be sold and the proceeds applied to the completion of the fortification on "Point Cagua," which was officially given the name of Fort Charles in honour of the King. All revenue due to the Crown was called in and forty men were set at work to finish this small fort. It then consisted only of a round tower of stone surrounded by an embankment of sand. By the end of the year a new half-moon battery was built and several guns mounted in it.[44]

Far from projecting an attack upon Jamaica, the people of Havana at that time were actually menaced by famine from the great scarcity of grain and all kinds of provisions. Don Juan de Salamanca, then governor of Cuba, had sought relief from Vera Cruz in Mexico. It was seed-time, and the militia of the city were dispersed in the country employed in tilling the land, when the dismaying ill news was received on November 2 of the capture of Santiago. Although scarcely recovered from a severe illness, Salamanca collected the militia and armed a thousand of them. Forming a relieving force of two hundred regular soldiers and five hundred militiamen, he took command of them, and began the long and trying march overland to the assistance of the invaded province. Arriving ten days later at Trinidad on the south coast, less than half way to Santiago, he learned that the English had sailed away and turned back. At the sight of their ruined dwellings and plantations the people of Santiago had raised an outcry of fury against Morales, whom they unjustly accused of slackness and incompetence. In self-defence he was forced to arrest the sargento-mayor, treasurer, and other officials suspected of fomenting discontent. In the midst of discord and scarcity of food there could be little thought of any offensive against Jamaica.[45]

The population of that island had in fact increased remarkably in the past two or three years, chiefly by immigration from the other English colonies in the West Indies. Captain John Wentworth had brought two hundred from Bermuda. A census taken for the purpose of enrolling the militia had reported 1,717 families consisting of 15,298 persons in seven parishes, more than half of them being congregated at Port Royal and in the vicinity of Spanish Town. Besides these about two thousand were supposed to be scattered in five other more distant parishes, of whom no exact account had been obtained. Nearly all were living in the lowlands on the southern shore of the island, and there were very few settlers on the north side, so much more exposed to raids of the Spaniards.

The most notable of the recent immigrants was Colonel Thomas Modyford from Barbados, who had been so helpful in securing recruits for the army commanded by Venables, and was destined to take a very important part in the public affairs and development of agriculture of the island. He was a kinsman of General Monck, who since the restoration of the monarchy, mainly by his efforts, had been created Duke of Albemarle and had great influence.

"What likewise contributed not a little to the Advantage of the Colony was the Removal of a great many Gentlemen of Estates from other Islands, who settled here", the well informed historian Leslie wrote, about 1740. "They knew that the Fertility of the Soil would make large Returns for their pains, and therefore many, but chiefly Sir Thomas Modiford, who before this had acquired a vast Estate in Barbados, left that place and settled in Jamaica, where he set about Improvements and shewed the Planters a fair way of getting rich; he taught them how to order the Cane, which before they were almost ignorant of; and with the greatest Good Nature gave them all the insight he could into the Methods of planting, cleaning, grinding, boiling, and curing the Cane. He soon patented vast Tracts of Land, and in a short time reduced it into such good order, that others led by his Example and Hope of Gain, pursued the same way and by Degrees they came to vie with any other of the Neighbours for the Quantity and Goodness of their Sugar and at last to outstrip them all."[46]

Encouraged by the surprising success of the raid upon Santiago, Sir Charles Lyttleton and the Council were easily induced to approve a proposal by the energetic Mings to conduct an expedition against some unnamed town on the Spanish Main, for which the Centurion and other ships were fitted out and stocked with provisions. Many men were quickly enlisted, who, as Colonel William Beeston recorded, "were ready enough for all such enterprises."[47]

Fifteen hundred volunteers were embarked in the Centurion and eleven other ships, mostly privateers, and on the 12th of January, 1663, this fleet sailed for the coast of Central America. Nothing was heard of it for six weeks, when a privateer returned from the Bay of Campeachy with the dispiriting report that three of the vessels had been wrecked, with the loss of many lives. It was also stated that the Spaniards had been warned of an intention to attack the city known as San Francisco de Campeche, the only important place on the coast between Cape Catoche and Vera Cruz. Its inhabitants had accordingly removed their families and valuable goods to Merida in the interior. Fifteen hundred men had been assembled for its defence, all the ships in the harbour had been unrigged and their guns landed to arm the fortifications. Look-out parties had been stationed all along that coast to give warning of the approach of any enemy. This intelligence naturally excited great alarm for the fate of the rest of the fleet, on which the future security of the colony was justly believed to depend. Colonel Beeston, who dabbled in astrology, had observed that "all the planets in the heavens were in Mars ascendant of the Spanish nation", a combination which he interpreted as pregnant with disaster for Jamaica.[48]

Next day this forecast seemed partly fulfilled by the unsuccessful return of the veteran Colonel Barry, who had sailed some months before with another band of volunteers in a large London privateer with a commission from the governor to expel the French from Tortuga. The captain of that ship had unexpectedly refused to co-operate when he learned that resistance was probable. He had landed Barry and his men on the desolate coast of Hispaniola and deserted them there to make their way back as best they could.[49]

But before nightfall another small privateer arrived at Port Royal from Campeachy with the pleasing news of the entire success of the expedition, although the Centurion and most of the other ships did not return for more than a month, having had to contend with adverse winds all that time.

San Francisco de Campeche they had found to be a fine town, seated on an excellent harbour, and making a brave show as its houses were all built of stone, generally of a single storey, with thick, strong walls, and flat roofs, covered with blue or red pantiles. The citadel or castle, built on a height to protect the town as well as the harbour, seemed very strong and well armed with artillery. Having summoned the governor to surrender, Mings waited in vain for an answer for three days. It is said that he was advised to attack it by night, but replied that he would be ashamed to steal a victory in the dark. Landing his men in broad daylight, he marched boldly against it with all his drums beating and trumpets sounding to give the Spaniards fair warning of his approach. Three small redoubts or batteries were taken at the first onset. The governor then attempted to defend the town, being "as it were a castle, being a continued parcell of stone houses, flat at top and very plentiful." After much hard fighting the Spaniards and their Indian allies were driven out and pursued to the woods. Fourteen ships were taken, "with much goods of many sorts." In the assault Captain Minor was seriously wounded and, in all, thirty Englishmen were killed and many more wounded. One was captured and taken to Merida, where he was closely questioned, "civilly treated", and finally set at liberty. The Spanish loss in killed was estimated at fifty. Many prisoners, both wounded and unwounded, were taken, who were released when the fleet came away.[50]

This exploit once more revived the drooping spirits of the people of Port Royal, and many greedy privateers again put out to sea on long cruises. "The Sweete trade of privateering" was far more alluring than the hard monotonous toil of planting sugar cane or raising cattle. An imperfect list of the private ships of war afloat at that time contains the names of eleven frigates and brigantines belonging to Jamaica, commanded by Sir Thomas Whetstone, Captains Swart, Gaye, James, Cooper, Morris, Brenning, Mansfield, Goodler, Blewfield, and Horder, manned by 740 men, English, Dutch, and Indians, and carrying eighty-one guns, besides four other ships, whose names and those of their commanders are not given. Three small ships carrying twelve guns and a hundred men had lately sailed from Jamaica, under a Dutch captain named Senolve. Four ships had been fitted out at Tortuga, armed with thirty-two guns and carrying 250 men who were all French, but they were commanded by Captains Buckell, Colstree, and Davis, who were almost certainly Englishmen, and an unnamed Portuguese.[51]

Among these privateersmen the ability and courage of Mansfield soon achieved pre-eminence, and he became the acknowledged leader of a considerable squadron operating under his direction.

The old "grudge" between the soldiers of Cromwell and pronounced royalists, who had arrived later and gained the upper hand, had continued to smoulder, and for some time became very bitter, as it seemed that few of the old army would be allowed to occupy posts of trust or profit. The disbanded officers and soldiers were seen to be discontented and restless, and were distrusted in consequence. Privateering enterprises offered them distracting and profitable employment.

"As they were the only Party that understood the Art of War," Leslie wrote, "they could not miss being formidable to a raw, undisciplined Few, who had lately come over and thro' a too partial Favour were encouraged. This seemed to make the Entertainment of the Pyrates necessary on a double account. First that their Power and Courage might balance the others; and, next, That the Riches they daily brought in should be a Lure and turn the thoughts of these Republicans to the Methods of acquiring Riches. And indeed it proved a good Piece of Policy; for they no sooner found their Account in joining with the Privateers than they forgot their old Murmurs, acquiesced in the Administration, and in a short time all distinction of Parties was quite lost."[52]

These successful inroads upon Spanish dominions and the capture of many of their ships at sea did not fail to excite extreme indignation in Spain, and the Spanish ambassador in London protested so forcibly that at length positive royal instructions were sent to Lyttleton to abstain from further hostilities.

"Understanding with what jealousy and offence the Spaniards look upon our island of Jamaica," they read, "and how disposed they are to make some attempt upon it, and knowing how disabled it will remain in its own defence, if encouragement be given to such undertakings as have been lately set on foot and are yet pursued and which divert the inhabitants from that industry which alone can render the island considerable, the King signifies his dislike of all such undertakings, and commands that no such be pursued for the future, but that they unitedly apply themselves to the improvement of the plantation and keeping the force in a proper condition."[53]

The ship Friendship brought these oddly-worded orders to Jamaica on August 4, and a cessation of hostilities was at once proclaimed by beat of drum through the sandy, sun-smitten streets and on the wharves of the busy little town of Port Royal, with surprising little result. "Nevertheless," the candid local diarist wrote in his journal, "the privateers brought in their prizes and particularly on the nineteenth of October, Captain Cooper brought in the rich quicksilver prize."[54]

Like the Dutch, the English colonists in general, and especially the Puritans among them, cherished an inappeasable hatred of the Spaniards, and sincerely believed that in plundering them, they were not merely enriching themselves but serving the cause of God and true religion.[55]

Nor were the Spaniards less guiltless of similar unprovoked aggressions, as was shown by a deposition of Charles Hadsell, master of the ship Prosperous of London, taken before Sir Charles Lyttleton, as Judge of the Court of Admiralty for the American seas. Hadsell described the capture of his ship, which was carried into San Domingo by a Spanish royal man-of-war. After being kept in prison there for fourteen months, he was sent to Havana, whence he had made his escape with five other English prisoners. Two of them were seamen, who had been taken more than a year before in the bay of Matanzas in a ship owned by Colonel Arundell. After a month's captivity at Puerto Principe, Arundell and the master of his ship had been taken into the woods by negroes and there killed. These men had seen their heads carried into the town by their murderers, and believed that they had only been saved from a like fate by the influence of a Flemish friar, by whose intercession they had been sent to Havana. Hadsell estimated his loss through the confiscation of his ship at not less than five thousand pounds.[56]

As the English were denied access to the Spanish dominions, it was believed that a profitable trade might be developed with them if Spanish merchants were invited to come to the English colonies and buy negro slaves there. Lyttleton accordingly informed the Secretary of State that he hoped to establish such a traffic with the Spaniards as they could obtain negro slaves nowhere else so easily.[57]

Beyond the mere publication of the royal instructions he appears to have made little real effort to suppress privateering, and in fact had little power to do so, as Captain Mings and all the ships of the royal navy were recalled to England when it was seen that war with Holland had become inevitable.

Acting on the royal instructions to Windsor, writs were issued for the election of a House of Assembly, which met at Spanish Town on the 20th January, 1664, and sat there until February 12, when it adjourned to re-assemble at Port Royal on May 17. Care was taken by the members to retain full control of the expenditure of the limited revenue.

Being in ill health, Lyttleton had obtained permission to return to England, and was instructed to invest the Council with authority to administer the government in his absence. Colonel Thomas Lynch, a wealthy planter in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, already one of the most populous and best cultivated parts of the island, was elected president. He had come to the country as an officer under Venables, had held the responsible office of provost marshal, and then commanded the largest regiment of the militia. Lyttleton gave him a commission on his departure to command all the military and naval forces and to act as Chief Justice "with some assistance".

The Privy Council in England made sincere, though perhaps in some respects, ill-judged efforts to encourage immigration. At one session it recommended that "every person, who shall have land allotted to him upon Jamaica shall have the same by grant from his Majesty rent-free and without payment for the space of seven years, but after the said seven years hath expired, shall pay unto his Majesty five per cent, for all native goods whatsoever exported, and in case any shall fail to pay the said five per cent., he or they so failing or defrauding his Majesty of the same or any part thereof, shall forfeit twenty times so much in value of the same commodities as he failed to pay as aforesaid and this to be expressed in every such grant to be paid by way of rent, such rent and forfeitures to be gathered, collected, and levied in such manner as shall be thought fit and declared."[58]

A proclamation was accordingly published, declaring "upon what terms and encouragement people may plant there and giving strangers liberty to plant there, provided they be Protestants and will be obedient to the government and laws of England."[59]

Three weeks later official letters were written to the Lord Mayor of London and the High Sheriff of the County of Surrey, directing that "all persons now in Newgate under condemnation, and not for murder or burglary, and also such as after conviction of being incorrigible rogues or vagabonds should be transported to Jamaica, the merchants undertaking to keep them from returning for ten years at least."[60]

Some months after arriving in England Lyttelton complied with a peremptory order from the Privy Council to give a short account of the state of the colony.

"The Interest of this Island as of all New Settlements", he wrote, "is daily changing—Provisions and all sorts of goods of the Country Produce being infinitely increased in that two years which Sir Charles Lyttelton stayed there, before which they little intended Planting or Breeding of Cattle.

"The Designs of a Free Trade can hardly be effectual but by order from Spain nor the Privateers called in but (and that difficultly) by Frigates from England, the English being grown so hateful to the Spaniards in those parts, they would scarce receive the very Friars and other Prisoners [who] were sent home to them. We had then in their coasts about fourteen or fifteen sail of Privateers, in them 1,500 or 2,000 Seamen, few of which take Orders but from stronger Men of War, and as it hath been always their trade and livelihood, and they being of several Nations, if we forbid them our Ports they will go to others, to the French or Dutch, and find themselves welcome enough.

"The Government of the Island was plain and agreeable, so were the Laws and Execution thereof; neither Merchants nor Planters seemed dissatisfied, every Cause or Law suit being determined in six weeks with 30s. or 40s. charges.

"The People were generally easy to be governed yet rather by Persuasion than severity. The attempts by Captain Mings upon the Spaniards and Privateering had lett out the many ill Humours, and those that remained were in ways of thriving, and by that made peaceable and industrious."[61]

From Lord Windsor during his brief term of command, Henry Morgan had secured his first commission as commander of a privateer. It is probable, but not certain, that he took part in the raids upon Santiago and Campeachy, and then went on a long cruise into the Gulf of Mexico in company with other ships of the same class. He was then twenty-seven years of age and had seven years military experience, but could have had little knowledge of navigation or seamanship. Being still undistinguished beyond the other captains of privateers, it is not surprising that there is little definite account of his early activity in this new venture.

Leslie is not always accurate, as his mind was saturated by local tradition, but he may have talked with old men who knew Morgan. Few contemporary documents were accessible to him when he wrote:

"He [Morgan] found entertainment immediately on his Arrival on Board a Sloop, which was to cruise upon the Spanish coasts; and behaved with such Resolution and Courage, that he soon became famous. Having made several voyages, he took care to secure his share of the Booty in good Hands. He saw the Excess and Debauchery of his Fellows, and that they became reduced to the lowest Shifts by their lavish Expenses on their Arrival; but he having Vast Designs in View, lived moderate and got soon together as much Money as purchased a Vessel for himself; and having a fine Crew, put to Sea. His success was at first but small, but afterwards he took several Prizes, which he carried to Jamaica and disposed of."[62]