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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At the same time he transmitted the deposition of a Spanish seaman respecting the fate of his own missing "son John, who (having not been heard of these four years), was questionless either murdered or sent into the South Seas by these, our cruel neighbours." In conclusion he urged his kinsman, the Duke, "so to present my behaviour in this great affair, that no sinister construction may be put upon my actions."[147]

In his statement, the Spaniard, who said that he had been the master of a frigate, declared that in August, 1664, two English ships had been wrecked on the coast of Florida, from whom only five men escaped. After living for some months among the Indians a party of Spanish soldiers, sent in search of them, had brought them as prisoners to San Augustin. He described one of them as a young man "of a pretty gross body, very good face, and light hair somewhat curling", who said that his name was John and that his father was governor of Jamaica. The commandant had ordered the deponent to take these prisoners to Havana in his ship, with instructions for their embarkation in the first vessel sailing for Spain, so that they might return to their own country. No means of transportation had been found for them while he remained at Havana.[148]