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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As Mansfield was then an elderly man and had been engaged as a privateer for many years, he had probably visited the place and knew its advantages well. The soil was fertile, and the island was well supplied with springs of fresh water. The climate was healthy. The coast was difficult of access and could be easily fortified. The whole island was nearly surrounded by an impassable reef of jagged rocks, through which one winding channel, so narrow as to admit the passage only of a single ship at one time, led into a fine, safe harbour, where sixty or eighty vessels, of as much as three hundred tons, might anchor together in perfect security.

Mansfield had still under his command four English privateers and two French "rovers", with perhaps two hundred men. They succeeded in taking the island with very slight opposition. Here popular rumour said they intended "to set up for themselves". In fact, Mansfield arrived at Port Royal on June 12 to report his success and invite the governor to furnish a garrison of soldiers to retain his conquest as a dependency of Jamaica.