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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The ambitious and not over-scrupulous French governor of the buccaneer resort at Tortuga, knowing that war against England would soon be declared, was making every effort in his power to attract the privateers from Jamaica to that island, offering to obtain for them Portuguese letters-of-marque, as France had made a treaty of peace with Spain. This, he asserted, was the only means of retaining their friendship as they would become enemies rather than renounce their hopes of plunder.[104]

St. Eustatia and Saba had long since been recovered by the Dutch, but Captains Searle and Stedman had taken Tobago from them. After Beeston's return, Modyford employed Colonel Cary to make a second effort to engage the English privateers to make an attack upon Curacao. Cary held a conference with them and reported that they had agreed unanimously to undertake this enterprise, had chosen Captain Edward Mansfield as their admiral, and had sailed from the South Cays of Cuba towards that island. They had even given him a letter to deliver to Modyford, "professing much zeal in his Majesty's service and a firm intention to attack Curacao. They are much wasted in numbers," Modyford observed, "many being gone to the French, where Portugal commissions are of force against the Spaniard."[105]