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

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About the end of the troubled year 1666, a memorandum on the affairs of Jamaica written by Colonel Theodore Cary, then a visitor in England, was presented to the committee of the Privy Council, advancing "reasons why private men-of-war are advantageous to Jamaica, and why discountenancing them will also for the future prove prejudicial to the settlement of that island."

"Two of his Majesty's nimble fifth-rate frigates", he continued, "would do manifest service in commanding the privateers on all occasions to their obedience, making the discovery of any enemies' actions, and guarding the coast from rovers. There is profitable employment for the privateers in the West Indies against the French and Dutch, and being a people that will not be brought to planting, they will prey upon the Spaniards whether countenanced at Jamaica or not. The Spaniards have so inveterate a hatred against the English in those parts that they will not hear of any trade or reconciliation, but any of the islanders that they can cowardly surprise, they butcher inhumanly."[124]