Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan - E. A. Cruikshank - Страница 6

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A spontaneous national movement towards colonial expansion in England, arising mainly from the economic wants of the country, had enlisted the active support of the King, his brother James, and several leading statesmen. This they saw could only be accomplished at the expense of those rival nations, who already possessed the advantage of priority in that inviting field of enterprise. Charles II was a shrewd and intelligent man of affairs, and warmly favoured colonial and commercial ventures. "Upon the king's first arrival in England," Clarendon wrote, "he manifested a very great desire to improve the general traffick and trade of the Kingdom, and upon all occasions conferred with the most active merchants upon it and offered all he could contribute to the advancement thereof." Charles doubtless believed that national prosperity would benefit himself as well as his subjects. Clarendon, as his chief adviser, took an active interest in colonization and the promotion of commerce. He relates with frank satisfaction how he "used all the endeavours he could to prepare and dispose the king to a great esteem of his plantations, and to encourage the improvement of them by all the ways that could reasonably be proposed to him."[63] Jamaica was fast becoming a plantation of some importance, and Clarendon acquired a considerable tract of land by royal patent in the parish, which the Council named in his honour.

The navigation act passed by the parliament in 1660, declaring that all productions of the English colonies must be transported in English ships, was distinctly framed in the hope of overthrowing the maritime supremacy of Holland, in which it eventually succeeded.[64]

About the end of the same year the first African Company was chartered with the King's brother, the Duke of York, as president, and the King himself as a partner. It was granted exclusive rights of trade with the coast of Africa. Two years later the company undertook to deliver three hundred negro slaves annually to the planters of Jamaica. Its efforts to establish trading stations on the west coast of Africa brought it at once into sharp competition with the powerful Dutch West India Company, whose trade it was seeking to capture. An English fleet, commanded by Captain Robert Holmes, forcibly expelled the Dutch from several small posts claimed by the English company, and the Dutch quickly retaliated by seizing two English merchant ships and driving another away. In the summer of next year the English met with the most obstinate opposition from their sturdy rivals.

"The Dutch", they complained to the government, "have endeavoured to drive the English Company from the coast, have followed their ships from port to port, and hindered their coming nigh the shore to trade.... and had it not been for the countenance of some of his Majesty's ships, to give the Company a respect in the eyes of the natives and preserve their forts, the Company had ere this been stripped of their possessions and interest in Africa."

They consequently prayed for protection, and asserted that on the success of this petition depended "the very being of the American plantations, which must fall with the loss of the African trade, through want of negro servants."[65]

In response to this request Holmes was again sent to the African coast with a much stronger force, and the English ambassador in Holland was instructed to demand reparation and an assurance that these aggressions would not be continued. Holmes soon acted with such decision that matters came to a crisis. He proposed mutual concessions, but the Dutch beat and even killed some of his messengers. They fired upon his ships. Holmes then attacked and took all their forts but one, bringing off so much booty that an acquaintance referred sarcastically to "the return of poor—nay, rich—Robin Holmes from his conquest of the River Gambo with Dutch prizes."[66]

Pepys noted in his private diary that "Fresh news come of our beating the Dutch at Guinny quite out of all their castles almost which make them quite sad and here at home sure. And Sir G. Cartaret did tell me that the King do joy mightily at it." But it appeared that the King's delight was not unalloyed by misgivings, for the diarist also recorded that he exclaimed: "How shall I do to answer this to the Embassador when he comes?"[67]

A committee of the House of Lords had investigated the complaints of the English merchants, and reported that the Dutch were liable for damages done to ships and goods of the East India Company amounting to £148,000; for burning their factories amounting to £87,000; for damages to the particular traders to the coasts of Africa, £330,000; to the Turkey Company, £119,500; and to the Portugal merchants, £100,000. Both Houses of Parliament waited upon the King "in full body", to urge these formidable demands for reparation upon his attention. The landed gentry and the merchants were equally eager for a definite trial of strength with the Dutch, while it was asserted that "the Parliament would pawne their estates to maintain a warre". They showed their sincerity by making the unprecedented appropriation of £2,500,000 to equip the royal navy.

Yet on his return to England Holmes was placed under arrest and closely questioned, although Pepys describes the investigation as "a mere jest". Williamson, the Under Secretary of State, who was certainly better informed, treated the matter soberly.

"And the plain truth is," he wrote, "Holmes upon his examination, as he was examined in the Tower by the two Secretaries, gives so good an account of whatever he hath done in his late expedition to Guiney that it will plainly appear that he hath done no hostility or damage to them there, for which—besides all their former injuries and oppressions to our trade there, which it might have otherwise been not unjust to have resented—he did not first receive the just provocations from the Dutch at each particular place."[68]

The Dutch government promptly retaliated by sending a fleet to Africa under the famous De Ruyter, who not only retook all the posts they had lost but captured all the English factories. Meanwhile Holmes was exonerated, promoted, and sent across the Atlantic to attack the New Netherlands and other possessions of the Dutch in America.

War was not actually declared by England until the 17th of March, 1665, but long before that declaration was made the two nations had been engaged in fierce and open hostilities in nearly every quarter of the globe; in the East and West Indies, in the Mediterranean, at many places on the west coast of Africa, and in North America. The commercial supremacy of the world was frankly at stake.[69]

By a treaty concluded in 1662, Louis XIV had agreed to assist the Dutch in any war in which they were not the aggressors. It seemed more than probable that war with Holland might involve England in hostilities with France. It therefore was considered expedient to make a resolute effort to conciliate Spain. Sir Henry Bennet, soon to become Lord Arlington, had been appointed a Secretary of State in October, 1662. He had negotiated the secret treaty by which the Spanish government had undertaken to assist Charles to regain his throne, and had afterwards spent four years at Madrid, vainly endeavouring to obtain the fulfilment of its terms. Since his appointment the French ambassador had consistently referred to him in his official correspondence with his court as "a Spaniard", and there is little doubt he was inclined to support Spain as the weakest of the two belligerents in resisting the aggression of France, which was becoming more menacing. But the English ambassador was instructed to demand the concession of freedom of trade with the Spanish possessions in the West Indies and America and an "assiento" granting the Company of Royal Adventurers to Africa the monopoly of the profitable slave trade with those colonies, which was then virtually in the hands of the Dutch. The charter granted to the African Company had been cancelled and another granted to this far stronger association, which included among its partners the Queen, the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and many great noblemen and ministers of the Crown, giving it a monopoly of trade on the west coast of Africa from Sallee to the Cape of Good Hope, and prohibiting all other Englishmen from competing. In the success of this company the King and his government took a particular interest as being an enterprise of great national importance.[70]

The belated news of Mings's successful raids did not tend to promote a friendly feeling in Spain, although English merchants domiciled there did not think it would lead to war. The English consul at Cadiz wrote that "the King of Spain had sent to England to know if the King will own Lord Windsor's action in Cuba, but it will probably be easily answered, as experience shows 'that the Spaniard is most pliable when well beaten.'"[71]

Nearly at the same time, in accordance with the treaty with Portugal, three English regiments had been sent there to assist in repelling a Spanish invasion, and had taken a notable part in winning victories at Amoixial and Villa Viciosa. It was therefore not surprising that the Spanish minister countered the proposals of the English by demands for the restitution of Jamaica and Tangiers and the withdrawal of these troops.[72]

The appointment of a governor for Jamaica received very careful consideration. In May, 1663, the Under Secretary of State informed Sir Richard Fanshaw, then the English ambassador at Madrid, that letters from Cadiz stated that "they are much dejected there at hearing from the West Indies of our hostile carriage towards them, which has wholly ruined their trade." He added that no new governor had been selected for Jamaica, but the Earl of Craven was talked of, with Colonel Mostyn for his lieutenant. The King had ordered Sir Charles Lyttelton to "desist those hostilities upon the Spaniards and other neighbours, as much disturbing the settlement of that Plantation."[73]

After considerable delay the King was advised to appoint Thomas Modyford, a kinsman of "old silent George Monck", Duke of Albemarle, then chairman of the Committee of the Privy Council on the affairs of Jamaica. Modyford had been a successful sugar-planter in Barbados for sixteen years, but before his emigration from England he had been a lawyer and an officer in the royalist army. In that island he had been Speaker of the House of Assembly and commandant of a militia regiment. He had taken a leading part in drafting the treaty of capitulation which was considered the charter of its liberties. He became an ardent supporter of Cromwell's "Western Design", and gave Venables valuable assistance. After the restoration he was charged with high treason and obliged to claim the protection of the general act of oblivion.[74] His administration of the government of Barbados had been creditable. Since his removal to Jamaica he had given much attention to the cultivation of sugar cane on a considerable scale. Modyford was at once created a baronet to give him greater dignity.

The choice of Colonel Edward Morgan as lieutenant-governor and military commander was probably made on the advice of the same powerful nobleman, who had been closely associated with Morgan's brother. In case of war with Holland and an attempt to capture the Dutch colonies in the West Indies, which was already in view, Edward Morgan's knowledge of the Dutch language and military system and his varied experience in actual warfare should be of great value. In a letter addressed by him to Sir Henry Bennet he asked that full scope should be given him to render the King his best service. Consequently he was supplied with arms and munitions but informed that he must enlist men in the island as soldiers could not be sent from England.[75]

On his way out from England, Modyford made a stay of some weeks at Barbados, which was believed to be overpeopled, to invite emigrants from that island to go with him, to whom he was authorized to offer a free passage and liberal grants of land. While at sea he wrote a polite letter to the governor of San Domingo, which he sent to him in care of Colonel Theodore Cary and two other officers with two ships of war, probably as a demonstration of naval strength, asking the favour of an immediate reply. In it he announced his appointment as governor of Jamaica, and stated that the King had enjoined him strictly to restrain all his subjects from molesting the ships or invading the territories of his Catholic Majesty, "nothing being more pleasing to his royal nature than that they live in friendly relations and have good intercourse with all their neighbours, in order to promote which his Majesty's Ambassador, Sir Richard Fanshaw, was then residing at the court of the King of Spain, well instructed to make all those tenders which might produce a lasting friendship between those most glorious nations. Meanwhile," he concluded, "let us not only forbear all acts of hostility, but allow each other the free use of our respective harbours and the civility of wood, water, and provisions for money."[76]

To this overture the Spanish governor returned a courteous but evasive reply, which Cary brought to Jamaica before Modyford arrived. When it was shown to Colonel Lynch he made cynical comments upon its terms in an official memorandum.

"It is improbable Jamaica will be advantaged by it, for it is not in the power of the Governor to have or suffer a commerce, nor will any necessity or advantage bring private Spaniards to Jamaica, for we have used too many mutual barbarisms to have a sudden correspondence. When the King was restored the Spaniards thought the manners of the English changed too, and adventured two or three vessels to Jamaica for blacks, but the surprises and irruptions of C. Mings, for which the Governor of San Domingo has upbraided the Commissioners, made the Spaniards double their vigilance, and nothing but an order from Spain can gain us admittance or trade, especially while they are so plentifully and cheaply supplied by the Genoese, who have contracted to supply them with 24,500 negroes in seven years, which the Spaniards have contracted to receive from the Dutch at Curacao, on which cursed little barren island they have now 1,500 or 2,000. You may judge whether the Royal [African] Company had not best sell their negroes by contract to the Genoese, and whether the best way to get the trade and silver of America is not to seclude the Flemings out of Africa. The calling in of the privateers will be but a remote and hazardous expedient and can never be effectually done without five or six men-of-war. If the Governor commands and promises a cessation and it be not entirely complied with, his and the English faith will be questioned and the design of trade further undone by it. Naked orders to restrain or call them in will teach them only to keep out of this port, and force them (it may be) to prey on us as well as the Spaniards. What compliance can be expected from men so desperate and numerous, that have no other element but the sea, nor trade but privateering? There may be above 1,500 in about twelve vessels, who if they want English commissions can have French or Portugal papers, and if with them, they take anything they are sure of a good reception at New Netherlands and Tortugas. And for this we shall be hated and cursed, for the Spaniards call all the rogues in these seas, of what nation soever, English. And this will happen, though we live tamely at Jamaica, and sit still and see the French made rich by the prizes, and the Dutch by the trade of the West Indies. We hope at last to thrive by planting, and are sure none of our inhabitants will now go to sea or follow another C. Mings. Those that were so disposed are long since gone and lost to us."[77]

When Lynch wrote this, Edward Morgan had already arrived, and Modyford was expected to follow him very soon. Modyford's efforts to secure settlers from Barbados were successful, and he brought with him several hundred immigrants, who were encouraged and assisted to engage in the cultivation of sugar cane.[78]

On the 12th of June, 1664, the new governor published a proclamation declaring that in future all hostilities against the Spaniards must cease, and a special messenger was sent to inform the governor of Cartagena. Still, he already doubted the success of the policy imposed upon him by his instructions. In a letter to his brother in England, written soon after, he remarked that he was "troubled for" Sir Charles Lyttelton, but added, "he was truly a weak man and much led by mean fellows, and lately sent out so many privateers, which renders my actions very difficult; for I have an account of no less than 1,500 lusty fellows abroad, who, if made desperate by any act of injustice or oppression, may miserably infest this place and much reflect on me."[79]

Not many weeks later a letter was received from the King himself, which informed him that "His Majesty cannot sufficiently express his dissatisfaction at the daily complaints of violence and depredation done by ships, said to belong to Jamaica, upon the King of Spain's subjects, to the prejudice of that good intelligence and correspondence which His Majesty hath so often recommended to those who have governed Jamaica. You are therefore again strictly commanded not only to forbid the prosecution of such violences for the future, but to inflict condign punishment upon offenders, and to have entire restitution and satisfaction made to the sufferers."[80]

This letter was at once laid before the Council, and an order was made commanding the seizure and restoration to their owners of a Spanish ship and a barque lately brought into Port Royal by Captain Robert Searle, with all the specie that could be recovered. A resolution was adopted that notice of this action should be sent to the governor of Havana, and that "all persons making further attempts of violence upon the Spaniards be looked upon as pirates and rebels, and that Captain Searle's commission be taken from him and his rudder and sails taken ashore for security."[81]

An opportunity soon occurred of proving that this order was not to be disregarded with impunity. About the end of the year, Captain Munro, who had obtained a Jamaican commission as a privateer, "turned pirate" and plundered several English ships coming to the island. Captain Ensor in the Swallow, an armed ketch, was sent in pursuit of the offender, whose ship was taken after a stubborn resistance in which some of his crew were killed and the rest captured. The prisoners were tried, convicted, and hanged in chains on the public gallows on the point at the entrance of Port Royal harbour.

Yet on the other hand the conscientious Beeston noted that in spite of the proclamation, Captain Maurice Williams brought in "a great prize with logwood, indigo, and silver." Several other privateers went out, and Bernard Nicholas came in "with a great prize."[82]

Having carefully considered the correspondence laid before them the committee of the Privy Council on the affairs of Jamaica finally recommended that the Lord High Admiral be advised to command all privateers in the West Indies to forbear all acts of hostility against the Spaniards until they received further orders, but to give them permission to dispossess the Dutch of Curacao and their other plantations, after which they should be invited "to come and serve his Majesty in these parts."[83]

Letters received from Jamaica at that time did not hold out much prospect of arranging peaceable commerce with the Spanish dominions. One correspondent wrote despondently:

"The fortune of trade here none can guess, but all think that the Spaniards so abhor us that all the commands of Spain and the necessity of the Indies will hardly bring them to an English port; if anything will effect it, negroes are the likeliest."[84]

Another reported that most of the old soldiers had become hunters, and it was supposed that they killed a thousand hundred weight of wild hogs per month, for which they found a ready market at a good price. Sir Thomas Modyford's brother-in-law, a Mr. Kendall, submitted a proposal for recalling the privateers, which probably represented Modyford's own views.

"This", he wrote, "must be done by fair means and giving them leave to dispose of their prizes when they come in, otherwise they will be alarmed and go to the French at Tortuga, and his Majesty will lose 1,000 or 1,500 stout men, but they will still take the Spaniards and disturb the trade to Jamaica, and if war break out with Holland, will certainly go to the Dutch at Curacao and interrupt all trade to Jamaica; for they are a desperate people, the greater part having been in men-of-war for 20 years. Therefore it will be much to the advantage of the Spaniard that the governor has orders to permit them to sell their prizes and set them a-planting; and if his Majesty shall think fit to have Tortuga or Curacao taken, none will be fitter for that work than they."[85]

This advice was ultimately adopted. The privateers Were invited to return to Port Royal and permission was given them to dispose of their captures and become planters or accept letters-of-marque against the Dutch. In his first letter to the Secretary of State next year, Modyford reported that d'Ogeron, the enterprising French governor of Tortuga, had given commissions to some English privateers, and bitterly remarked that he would deal with him after he had tried his fortune against the Dutch. He thought, however, that all of these privateers would eventually come to Jamaica and take commissions against Holland. Some six weeks later he joyfully announced that "upon my gentleness towards them, the privateers come in a-pace and cheerfully offer life and fortune to his Majesty's service."[86]

A new House of Assembly was elected and met in October, 1664, but soon divided into factions and lost the confidence of the governor. The form of enacting all laws had been strictly prescribed in the royal instructions, yet a majority of the members, apparently guided by the advice of Samuel Long, their clerk, a convinced republican, objected to the insertion of the King's name in a revenue bill, which they regarded as being different from all other bills which were to be reserved for the royal assent, as it would come into effect immediately and might expire before such assent was received. Modyford suspected that if their contention was accepted it might be gradually extended to other bills and the principle established "that the governor being here the representative of the crown, his act should bind the crown; and the operation of their laws, thus passed, not to be impeded or suspended by waiting for the King's determination upon them."

As a result of this dispute the Assembly was frequently prorogued and finally dissolved. The weight of the governor's displeasure was vented upon Long, who was arrested in the House by his warrant and committed to gaol for some time, as the record states "for high and treasonable crimes, causing himself to be elected Speaker after the Governor had dissolved the House, procuring a Law to be passed setting up a Treasury and himself the Treasurer, procuring himself to be elect-Clerk of the Assembly, and had done his utmost to infuse his traitorous principles into the members, but they altogether disown and abhor his advice."[87]

No other Assembly was elected during Modyford's term of office which lasted for the next seven years, and it was asserted that the conduct of this Assembly served as a sufficient excuse for introducing a new form of constitution for the colony, "so contrived as to take away from their assembly all power of defending themselves against any future act of tyranny exercised upon them by either the crown or its governor."[88]

Lady Modyford had remained in England, and the Griffin frigate, with her eldest son on board, was sent for her, but was wrecked in the Florida channel and nothing was known of its fate for some years.[89]

Preparations for an expedition to capture the Dutch islands in the West Indies were begun with much vigour before the formal declaration of war was made known. The lieutenant-governor, Colonel Edward Morgan, was given the command as a matter of course, having Colonel Theodore Cary and Major Richard Steevens, both veteran officers of the old army, as his immediate subordinates.

Before embarking on this distant undertaking, Morgan took the precaution of making his will in the form of a memorial to the governor giving particulars of his estate, from which it appears that he had already became owner of a plantation. This he bequeathed to his two sons, who were both still minors. To his second daughter, Mary Elizabeth Morgan, he left his house in London, mortgaged for £200, and his "pretence upon Lanrumney". The remainder of his property was to be divided between his other three daughters and his youngest son in nearly equal shares.

"I leave nothing to my sonn Charles," he added, "but my arms and what else belongs to my body in regard of ye Good Offices yr Excellency hath bestowed upon him, yett never-the-less I leave him ye one half part of my plantation with his brother, who shall make use of his money to ye increase of ye said plantation and they both having brought it to perfection shall not only mayntaine theyr Sisters according to theyr qualities but also add to theyr portions when they marry."

The patent for his pension of £300 per annum and his father's will and testament, which his daughter Mary Elizabeth "must have for to pretend her Right wch I past upon her in Zutphen in Gilderland", were, he stated, in the hands of his "cozen Wm. Morgan, Clarke of ye stables to his Maj'tie."[90]

In the voyage from England to Jamaica Morgan had had the misfortune to lose his eldest daughter, "a lady of great beauty and virtue," Modyford stated, "and three more sicke, one whereof recovered, the rest since dead of a maligne distemper by reason of the nastiness of the passengers."[91]

In a letter to Lord Arlington Morgan asserted that the Court had kept him poor, as he had spent near £3,000 in the King's service, and although he ought to have been worth £7,000 or £8,000, he would hardly be able to leave his six surviving children £2,000, if paid to them, which he could not much doubt, "considering how generously he had spent life and fortune in the service."[92]

The expedition under his command sailed from Port Royal on the 16th April, 1665, in ten ships, all privateers, but so well manned that Morgan expected to be able to land five hundred men.

"They are chiefly reformed privateers," Modyford reported, "scarce a planter amongst them, being resolute fellows, and well armed with fusees and pistols. Their design is to fall upon the Dutch fleet trading at St. Christopher's, capture St. Eustatia, Saba, and Curacao, and on their homeward voyage visit the French and English buccaneers at Hispaniola and Tortugas. All this is prepared by the honest privateer, at the old rate of no purchase[93] no pay, and it will cost the King nothing considerable, some powder, and mortar pieces."[94]

This grandiose project was not fully executed. Morgan first visited the Isle of Pines where he confidently expected to be joined by several other privateers. After considerable delay only nine ships were found to be serviceable, manned with about 650 men. The names of these vessels with those of their commanders have been recorded.[95] The most noted of their captains were Searle and Williams. On the passage southward to the Leeward Islands two ships parted company in a storm and another deserted, which caused a loss of 150 men. With this diminished force Morgan arrived at St. Eustatia, where he landed at the head of only three hundred men, without much opposition, but died the same day from the effects of over exertion.

"The good old colonel," wrote Modyford, "leaping out of the boat and being a corpulent man, got a strain, and his spirit being great he pursued over earnestly the enemy on a hot day, so that he surfeited and suddenly died, to almost the loss of the whole design, but Colonel Cary succeeded him, and about three weeks after sent Major Richard Steevens with a small party and took Saba also. Besides other plunder they had 900 slaves, 500 are arrived in Jamaica, with many coppers and stills to the great furtherance of this colony, being very brave knowing blacks....

"The Spanish prizes have been inventoried and sold, but the privateers plunder them and hide the goods in holes and creeks, so that the present orders little avail the Spaniard but much prejudice his Majesty and his Royal Highness in the tenths and fifteenths. Some of the privateers are well bred, and I hope with good handling to bring them to more humanity and good order, which once obtained his Majesty hath 1,500 of the best men in the world belonging to this island....

"I suppose his Majesty may save the charges of a Deputy Governor, as being altogether needless, and I fear I shall never again meet with one so useful, so complacent and loving as Colonel Morgan was; he died very poor, his great family having little to support them; his eldest daughter is since married to Serjeant-Major Bindlosse of good estate."[96]

In fact, after a very short acquaintance the governor had formed a very high opinion of his late lieutenant, as in a former letter he had remarked:

"I find the character of Colonel Morgan short of his worth and am infinitely obliged to his Majesty for sending so worthy a person to assist me, whom I really cherish as my brother as being thereto tyed by my duty to his Maj'y and those eminent virtues wch I finde caused his Maj'y to command it."[97]

Colonel Cary in his official narrative of the expedition reported that:

"The Lieutenant-General [Morgan] died, not with any wound, but being ancient and corpulent, by hard marching and extraordinary heat fell and died, and I took command of the party by the desire of all."[98]

He mentioned the capture of four colours, twenty cannon, a quantity of small arms and munitions, 942 slaves, besides horses, goats, and sheep. More than three hundred Dutch inhabitants were deported. His success was short-lived, as the privateers soon dispersed in search of other spoils. Cary, with other officers, was forced to return to Jamaica, leaving their conquests to be recovered by a Dutch squadron before the end of the same year. No attempt was made to take Curacao, although it was a much more tempting object as it was then a great depot of contraband trade with the Spaniards, nor for the expulsion of the French from Tortuga, as had been planned.

Beeston noted significantly in his journal under date of the 20th August, 1665, when the result of the expedition against the Dutch was still unknown, that "Captain Freeman and others arrived from the taking of the towns of Tobascoe and Villa de Moos in the bay of Mexico, and although there had been peace with the Spaniards not long since proclaimed, yet the privateers went out and in, as if there had been an actual war, without commissions."

Several weeks later the three chief leaders in this daring series of raids, Captains Jackman, Henry Morgan, and John Morris, returned from a prolonged cruise which they had undertaken soon after the capture of San Francisco de Campeche, in which they had taken part. They were closely questioned by the governor, who caused their statements to be put into the form of a narrative and sent to his patron, the Duke of Albemarle.

"Having been out 22 months," they said, "and hearing nothing of the cessation of hostilities between the King and the Spaniards, they sailed in January last, according to the commission from Lord Windsor to prey upon that nation, up the River Tabasco in the Bay of Mexico, and guided by Indians, marched with 107 men, 300 miles to avoid discovery to Villdemos [Villa de Mosa] which they took and plundered, capturing 300 prisoners, but on returning to the mouth of the river they found that their ships had been taken by the Spaniards, who soon attacked them with ships and 300 men. They gave a short account of this fight, in which the Spaniards were beaten off without the loss of a man. They then fitted out two barques and four canoes, took Rio Carta with 30 men and stormed a breastwork there, killing 15 and taking the rest prisoners, crossed the Bay of Honduras, watering at the Isle of Rattan [Roatan], took the town of Truxillo and a vessel in the road, and came to the Mosquitos, where the Indians are hostile to the Spaniards, and nine of them willingly came with them. They then anchored in Monkey Bay near the Nicaragua river, up which they went in canoes, passing three falls, for a distance of 37 leagues, where began the entrance to a fair laguna or lake, which they judged to be in size 50 leagues by 30, of sweet water, full of excellent fish, with its banks full of brave pastures and savannahs, covered with horses and cattle, where they had as good beef and mutton as any in England. Hiding by day under keys and islands and rowing all night, by the advice of their Indian guides, they landed near the city of Gran Granada, marched undiscried into the centre of the city, fired a volley, overturned 18 great guns in the Parada Place, took the serjeant-major's house, wherein were all their arms and ammunition, secured in the Great Church 300 of the best men prisoners, abundance of which were churchmen, plundered for 16 hours, discharged the prisoners, sunk all the boats and so came away. This town is bigger than Portsmouth with seven churches and a very fair cathedral, besides divers colleges and monasteries, all built of free stone, as also are most of their houses. They have six companies of horse and foot besides Indians and slaves in abundance. Above 1,000 of these Indians joined the privateers in plundering, and would have killed the prisoners, especially the churchmen, imagining the English would keep the place, but finding they would return home, requested them to come again, and in the meantime have secured themselves in the mountains. A few of them came away and are now in Martin's vessel, who, being a Dutchman and fearing his entertainment at Jamaica, has put into Tortugas. At the end of the large lagoon they took a vessel of 100 tons and an island as large as Barbados, called Lida, which they plundered. The air here is very cool and wholesome, producing, as the inhabitants told them, all sorts of European grains, herbs, and fruits in great plenty; that five leagues from the head of the lagoon is a port town on the South Seas, called Realleyo, [Realejo] where the King of Spain has ships built for trading between Panama and Peru, and that there is a better passage to the lake by Bluefields River to the northeast, and another to the southeast through Costa Rica, almost to Porto Bello, a country inhabited by creolians, mulattos, and Indians, whom the Spaniards dare not trust with arms. The Indians are driven to rebellion by cruelty and there is no reconciling them. They told them also of a city called Segovia, where there are many sheep with excellent fine wool. By comparing this relation with maps and histories it appears that this country is in the middle of the Spanish dominions in America, dividing Peru from Mexico, both being very convenient to infest by sea, but being environed by inaccessible hills, rocks, and mountains, very difficult, if not impossible, to be attacked by land. The wealth of the place is such that the first plunder will pay for the venture, being well supplied with commodities and food and free from vermin; the assistance of the Indians and negro slaves, if well handled, will be very considerable; the creolians will not be long obstinate, when they feel the freedom and ease of his Majesty's government; 2,000 men, some say 500, may easily conquer all this quarter, the Spaniards in their large dominions being so far asunder, they are the easier subdued. This place can be reached by eight or ten days' sail; the proper time to attempt it is between March and August, the rest being rainy months when the rivers are high and the strength of their streams not to be stemmed. I have represented this matter to your Grace," Modyford commented, "being convinced that if ever the reasons of State at home require any attempt on the Spanish Indies, this is the properest place and the most probable to lay a foundation for the conquest of the whole."[99]

In these closing remarks the governor practically repeated what he had written to Cromwell ten years before. Yet for some reason he deferred transmitting this narrative until the following March. England was in open war with Holland and France, and what course the court of Spain would pursue was yet very uncertain. Its sympathy with the Dutch had been openly manifested in the presence of the English ambassador. Spanish ships of war continued to take English vessels whenever they could and to treat their prisoners as pirates. The restitution of Jamaica was still demanded. English captives confined at Seville as well as in several prisons in Spanish America still clamoured in vain for liberty.

This small band of dauntless adventurers had penetrated the Spanish provinces of Central America for many hundreds of miles, had taken and pillaged three important and populous towns, and had escaped with their spoil, unharmed. The river Tabasco, Dampier stated, was the best known of any flowing into the gulf of Campeachy from southern Mexico. No settlement had then been made upon it lower than twenty-five miles from its mouth, where a fort was built and outposts established with Indians as sentries to guard against surprise. The long roundabout march of the raiders had been made to avoid this post, as Villa de Mosa was situated only twelve miles further up. The produce of the province of Honduras was mainly shipped from Truxillo. That exported from the fruitful plain of Nicaragua was taken to Granada and conveyed down the Desaguadero, or as it is now called, the San Juan river, in small decked boats of thirty tons or less. The ascent of this narrow, shallow, winding stream, even in the coolest weather, was a task of enormous toil and hardship.[100]

Modyford found himself in a very embarrassing situation. The defence of Jamaica had been left to its own resources by the removal of the ships of the royal navy and the disbandment of the army. Those resources were mainly controlled by the privateers. He was absolutely powerless, and probably had little desire to punish the recent offenders, foremost among them being the nephew of the late lieutenant-governor and Sir Thomas Morgan, a friend of the powerful Duke of Albemarle.

He continued his fruitless efforts to restrain private ships of war from further hostilities against the Spaniards, which a knowledge of these successful raids had probably greatly stimulated as they had revealed at once the great wealth and the weakness of those provinces. Learning in November, after Colonel Cary had returned, that a raid was being planned upon Cuba, he directed Colonel Beeston to go with three or four privateers then in Port Royal in search of several others, with instructions to dissuade them from this project and induce them to attack the Dutch instead. After seeking for a squadron of privateers without success for several weeks, Beeston returned without having accomplished his mission. In his journal he stated that "this parcell of ships and privateers were commanded by Mansell, [Mansfield] and he cared for dealing with no enemy but the Spaniards, nor would go against Curacao, neither were any of them taken notice of for plundering the Spaniards, it being what was desired by the generality, as well the government as privateers."

Finally the situation was seen to be so critical that on the 22nd February, 1666, it was considered at a meeting of the Council. Besides the governor, who presided, eight members were present and after some deliberation, the following astonishing resolution was passed unanimously and entered on the Minutes:

"Resolved that it is in the interest of the island to have letters of marque granted against the Spaniard.

"1. Because it furnishes the island with many necessary commodities at easy rates.

"2. It replenishes the island with coin, bullion, cocoa, logwood, hides, tallow, indigo, cochineal, and many other commodities, whereby the men of New England are invited to bring their provisions and many merchants to reside at Port Royal.

"3. It helps the poorer planters by selling provisions to the men-of-war.

"4. It hath and will enable many to buy slaves and settle plantations, as Harmenson, Brinicain, and many others, who have considerable plantations.

"5. It draws down yearly from the Windward Islands many an hundred of English, French, and Dutch, many of whom turn planters.

"6. It is the only means to keep the buccaneers on Hispaniola, Tortuga, and the South and North Quays of Cuba from being their enemies and infesting their plantations.

"7. It is a great security to the island that the men-of-war often intercept Spanish advices and give intelligence to the Governor, which they often did in Colonel D'Oyley's time and since.

"8. The said men-of-war bring no small benefit to his Majesty and his Royal Highness by the 15ths and 10ths.

"9. They keep many able artificers at work in Port Royal and elsewhere at Extraordinary wages.

"10. Whatsoever they get the soberer part bestow in strengthening their old ships, which in time will grow formidable.

"11. They are of great reputation to this island and of terror to the Spaniard, and keep up a high and military spirit in all the inhabitants.

"12. It seems to be the only means to force the Spaniards in time to a free trade, all ways of kindness producing nothing of good neighbourhood, for though all old commissions have been called in and no new ones granted, and many of their ships restored, yet they continue all acts of hostility, taking our ships and murdering our people, making them work at their fortifications and then sending them into Spain, and very lately they denied an English fleet, bound for the Dutch colonies, wood, water, or provisions. For which reasons it was unanimously concluded that the granting of said commissions did extraordinarily conduce to the strengthening, preservation, enriching, and advancing the settlement of this island."[101]

Their motives for advising the employment of privateers for making war upon the commerce and possessions of Spain in America, could hardly have been more plainly stated.

Soon after his return to Jamaica as governor Modyford had reported to Albemarle "the decay of the forts and wealth of Port Royal", but affirmed that he had continued to discountenance and reprimand the privateers engaged in hostilities with the Spaniards until he had received a letter from the Duke advising "gentle usage of them". "Still", he remarked in a letter dated the 6th of March, 1665, "they went to decay."

After a serious consideration of these letters with the King and Lord Chancellor, Albemarle had written to Modyford on June 1 following, giving him permission to refuse or grant commissions against the Spaniards to private ships of war at his discretion "as should seem most to the advantage of the King's service and the benefit of the island."

Modyford replied that he was glad to receive this authority, but had decided to make no use of it unless he was forced to do so by the most urgent necessity. Afterwards he saw "how poor the fleets returning from Statia [St. Eustatia] were, so that vessels were broken up and the men disposed of for the coast of Cuba to get a livelihood, and so be wholly lost from us. Many stayed at the Windward Isles, having not enough to pay their engagements, and at Tortuga among the French buccaneers." Still he had abstained from resorting to that desperate expedient, "hoping", he said, "that their hardships and great hazards would reclaim them from that course of life." But on learning that the town-guard of Port Royal, which had numbered six hundred men in Colonel Morgan's time, had dwindled to 130, he had assembled the Council to provide for its reinforcement from the militia of other parts of the island. The members had declared that "the only way to fill Port Royal with men was to grant commissions against the Spaniards, which they were very pressing in." He had required them to state their reasons in the Minutes, and "looking on their weak condition, the chief merchants gone from Port Royal, no credit given to privateers for victualling, &c., and rumours of a war with the French often repeated," he had consented to comply. A proclamation announcing this fateful decision was accordingly made by beat of drum through the streets of Port Royal on February 27.[102]

The resolution of the Council accompanied by the narrative of the successful raids into the heart of Central America, was immediately transmitted to Albemarle, with a covering letter, in which Modyford made some significant remarks.

"Every action", he said, "gives new encouragement to attempt the Spaniard, finding them in all places very weak and very wealthy. Two or three hundred privateers lately on the coast of Cuba, being denied provisions for money, marched 42 miles into the country, took and fired the town of Santo Spirito, [Sancti Spiritu] routed a body of 200 horse, carried their prisoners to their ships, and for their ransom had 300 fat beeves sent down. Many of their blacks would not go back, but stay with our men, and are willingly kept for guides. They are since closed with the other part of the fleet bound for Curacao. All this was done without order from hence, under colour of Portugal commissions, under which if not reduced they will prey upon the Spaniards, and in time be totally alienated from this place, which we must prevent or perish, and no expedient but commissions against the Spaniard can do it."[103]

The ambitious and not over-scrupulous French governor of the buccaneer resort at Tortuga, knowing that war against England would soon be declared, was making every effort in his power to attract the privateers from Jamaica to that island, offering to obtain for them Portuguese letters-of-marque, as France had made a treaty of peace with Spain. This, he asserted, was the only means of retaining their friendship as they would become enemies rather than renounce their hopes of plunder.[104]

St. Eustatia and Saba had long since been recovered by the Dutch, but Captains Searle and Stedman had taken Tobago from them. After Beeston's return, Modyford employed Colonel Cary to make a second effort to engage the English privateers to make an attack upon Curacao. Cary held a conference with them and reported that they had agreed unanimously to undertake this enterprise, had chosen Captain Edward Mansfield as their admiral, and had sailed from the South Cays of Cuba towards that island. They had even given him a letter to deliver to Modyford, "professing much zeal in his Majesty's service and a firm intention to attack Curacao. They are much wasted in numbers," Modyford observed, "many being gone to the French, where Portugal commissions are of force against the Spaniard."[105]