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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"Your lordship cannot imagine what a change there was on the faces of men and things," he said, "ships repairing, great resort of workmen and labourers to Port Royal, many returning, many debtors released out of prison, and the ships of the Curacao voyage not daring to come in for fear of creditors, brought in and fitted out again, so that the regimental forces at Port Royal are near 400. Had it not been for that seasonable action, I could not have kept this place against French buccaniers, who would have ruined all the seaside plantations, whereas I now draw from them mainly, and lately David Marteen, the best man of Tortuga, that has two frigates at sea, has promised to bring in both."[113]

The great impulse thus given to privateering soon convinced the Council that stricter regulations must be adopted to govern the conduct of seamen to whom such commissions were granted, and a resolution was entered upon its Minutes declaring that "it was advisable to give the Commanders of men-of-war these moderate instructions: To give fair quarter when demanded; to send all their prisoners hither; to receive into their ships all buccaneers of the Protestant religion and others who will take the oath of fidelity to the King; to be industrious to disable them [the Spaniards] of all barques, boats, and vessels whatever."[114]