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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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]