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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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]