Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan. With an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica онлайн

100 страница из 128

On September 10, an English ship was seen approaching the harbour cautiously, and one of the prisoners, a Frenchman, called by the Spaniards Sieur Simon, was sent by them to decoy the stranger into port with false information, when the vessel was easily taken with all on board.

The Spanish writer states that the English pirates were confined at Puerto Bello, with the exception of three who were sent by order of the governor to labour on the fortifications of the castle of San Geronimo at Panama, "a most excellent and strong work then being built of solid rock in the middle of the harbour at the expense of private gentlemen, the President himself contributing the greatest share."[115]

Such, in brief, is the accepted Spanish account of the recapture of the island of Santa Catalina, over which they rejoiced greatly as a considerable achievement.

According to Major Smith's sworn statement, made after nearly two years of ill-treatment in Spanish prisons, he had only fifty-one effective men to defend five or six forts on the smaller island. They made a resolute resistance for three days, when, having been driven out of four of those forts, he agreed to surrender "upon articles of good quarter, which the Spaniards did not in the least perform, for the English, about forty, were immediately made prisoners, and all except Sir Thomas Whetstone, myself, and Captain Stanley, who were the commanders, were forced to work in irons and chains at the Spaniards' forts, with many stripes, and many are since dead through want and ill usage. The said three commanders were sent to Panama, where they were cast into a dungeon and bound in irons for seventeen months." Smith was then sent to Havana where he "was clapped into gaol", but at length liberated and allowed to return to Jamaica in August, 1668, when his deposition was taken by the governor and sent to England. He further reported that many English prisoners were then "lying in irons" at Havana, and he had been credibly informed that the Griffin, commanded by Captain Swaert, on which Modyford's son had sailed for England, had been sunk by a Spanish galleon.[116]