in whatever state his letter should find them, obliging them, in any case, to abstain from hostilities on land.13

His letter found them in a very belligerent state indeed, for two occurrences had led Modyford to abandon discretion and commit himself to war without waiting for instructions. The first was an attack on the north coast of Jamaica by a Spanish captain named Rivera, who had gone a-buccaneering with zest, and now left behind him, nailed to a tree, a bombastic challenge to Henry Morgan to come and fight him.138 The second was the act of the Dutch governor of Curaçao, who, having in some way obtained an original commission of reprisal granted by the governor of St. Jago de Cuba in accordance with the orders of the Queen of Spain, sent it to Modyford,139 thinking, no doubt, that to keep alive the old enmity between Englishman and Spaniard was the best way of securing to the Dutch uninterrupted enjoyment of the Spanish trade in the Indies.

The people of Jamaica were panic-stricken, believing that mighty preparations were in train for their destruction. A night-watch was established at Port Royal, the militia was regulated, and the inhabitants were ordered to keep in their houses a specified quantity of arms and ammunition. At the order of the council, Modyford. appointed Henry Morgan commander-in-chief of all the ships fitted or to be fitted for the defense of Jamaica, instructing him to capture or destroy all Spanish vessels that he might meet, and, in case he found it feasible, to land and attack St. Jago or any other place where troops or stores were being collected to send against Jamaica.140

Morgan, now enjoying the dignity of admiral, at once set about assembling a fleet of privateers that should accomplish the designs suggested in his instructions. Arlington's order to maintain the privateers in statu quo arrived before any hostile move had been made from Jamaica, and Modyford communicated them to the admiral, "strictly charging him to observe the same, and behave with all moderation possible in carrying on this war "141 Morgan replied that he would obey as far as possible, but that necessity would compel him to land in the Spaniards' country for wood, water or food; however, unless he were assured that the enemy were mustering troops or collecting stores for the rumored descent on Jamaica, he would not attack their towns. Then he departed for his old rendezvous at the Isle de Vache." 142

137 Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., June 12, 1670, pp. 68-69.

138 Ibid., June 28, 1670, p. 72, and October 31, 1670, p. 122.

The hostilities-or the war, as both parties estimated it-were entirely insignificant on the Spanish side, being confined to the efforts of a few privateers, although a Spanish captive told Morgan in October of that year that he had seen the people of Carthagena "listed and all in arms offensive against the English ".143 But Morgan was naturally desirous of magnifying the casus belli in order that he might have an excuse for any aggressions that he might see fit to commit, and doubtless found means of forcing this sort of deposition from his prisoners.114

On the part of Jamaica, however, a great deal of activity was shown. The captain who had so valorously challenged Morgan to do battle was killed in an engagement with a Jamaica privateer, and his ship made prize. 145 Three privateers went up the Nicaragua River and took and pillaged the town of Granada.146 In September Morgan dispatched his vice-admiral, Collier, with six sail to the Main to reconnoitre. As the best way of obtaining information of the enemy's movements, he took the town of Rio de la Hacha, remained in possession of it a month, and returned to Morgan with provisions for the fleet and with prisoners who deposed that in Carthagena, Porto Bello, and Panama soldiers were being enlisted. for the conquest of Jamaica.147

Morgan did not leave the Isle de Vache until December, 1670, when he had assembled a fleet of about fifteen hundred men. The captains, in council of war, unanimously decided "that it stands most for the good of Jamaica and safety of us all to take Panama, the President thereof having granted several commissions against the English "148 The first objective point was the island of Providence which Mansvelt and his buccaneers had captured in 1665. It was garrisoned at this time by three hundred Spaniards, who sur

143 Ibid., April 20, 1671, p. 202.

144 66 Spanish gold and silver is the only cause of the quarrel; and they can easily make a ground for the contest, for the first design is the getting of prisoners, whom they force, some by torments, to say that either at Carthagena, Porto Bello, or other maritime place, they are mustering a fleet to invade Jamaica; and those who will not subscribe what they know not are cut in pieces, shot, or hanged." Ibid., August 21, 1671, p. 253, Richard Browne, surgeon on the Panama expedition, to Williamson.

148 Ibid., Morgan's account. There are three other accounts of the Panama expedition by participants; two of these are in Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., April 4, 1671, p. 190, Copy of the Relation of Wm. Fogg, and August 21, 1671, p. 252, by the surgeon, Richard Browne. The third is in Esquemeling, vol. I., pt. III., pp. 18 ff. All four agree substantially as to the main facts, though Browne is very acrimonious toward Morgan.

rendered the day after the siege began. From here Morgan sent forward a detachment of four or five hundred men under one of his captains to take Chagre Castle, which guarded the way across the isthmus to Panama. They were successful in this, though with the loss of one hundred and fifty men. A week later the admiral joined them, and leaving two hundred men to guard the larger boats, started with twelve hundred buccaneers up the Chagre River. Five leagues they covered by water, and then marched another five to Panama.

Outside the city the attacking party was met by a Spanish force of about twenty-five hundred men, who fired one volley and fled before the charge of the buccaneers. The city, however, had been set on fire by the Spanish, and only the churches and a hundred or so houses in the suburbs remained standing when the English took possession. The spoils were a disappointment, amounting to but thirty thousand pounds. According to Morgan's account, the great wealth of the town had been removed several weeks before, when the inhabitants had warning of the expedition. This explanation, however, was not acceptable to some of his men, who suspected the admiral of having withheld for himself the most valuable portion of the spoils.149

The return of the fleet was disastrous; provisions gave out and many vessels were cast away in the heavy storms that met them. One report states that four-fifths of the men that left Jamaica on the expedition were lost.150 Nevertheless, the Council of Jamaica passed a vote of thanks to Morgan and approved his action throughout.151

This was the last ambitious exploit of the buccaneers of Jamaica, for a little later Modyford's régime came to an end. Sir William Godolphin had succeeded in negotiating with Spain the Treaty of Madrid, signed July 18, 1670, the month after Modyford began his war. The treaty promised peace and amity between the subjects of the two kings in America and the West Indies, called for the revocation of all letters of marque and reprisal, and the cessation of hostilities. Spain acknowledged England's possession of those parts of the New World of which she was in occupation

149 46 'They loaded the mules . . . with plate and other good plunder to the value of above 70,000 l., besides other rich goods, and cheated the soldiers of a very vast sum, each man having but 10 l. a share, and the whole number not being above 1,800. At Chaugrave they gave what they pleased, for which . . . we must be content or else clapped in irons." Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., August 21, 1671, p. 252, Richard Browne to Williamson.

at the time of the treaty, though no places or boundaries were named. Finally each party agreed to abstain from any attempt to trade in the territories of the other in America.152

154

It is probable that Spain made the recall and punishment of Modyford a condition to her acceptance of the treaty. Rumors that a change of governors might be expected had reached Jamaica by the middle of 1670,153 and Modyford's letters show that he himself was aware of them in October of that year. Even before the taking of Panama the commission of Sir Thomas Lynch to be governor of Jamaica had been drafted,155 and he arrived in Port. Royal at the end of 1671. In accordance with his instructions he sent Modyford a prisoner to England to answer for exceeding his powers and disregarding orders in the matter of the privateers.156 He was committed to the Tower where, apparently through Arlington's influence and in spite of the efforts of the second Duke of Albemarle to obtain his release, he remained until 1674,157 returning to Jamaica the following year. He may be regarded as the scapegoat of Lord Arlington, who, as Secretary of State, had tacitly allowed him to experiment with the privateers until their uselessness for any real gain was evident, and then had handed him over to the punishment demanded by Spain.

He

Henry Morgan was also dispatched to England to defend his raids on the Spanish towns,158 but his commission from Modyford proved sufficient justification for everything that he had done. was handsomely lionized in London as the hero on whom Drake's mantle had fallen and amused his entertainers with stories of Spanish treasure and English adventure.159 At court he caught momentarily the fancy of the king who made a knight of him.160 In 1675 he returned to Jamaica as lieutenant-governor of the island and commander-in-chief of its forces,161 and until the end of his life figured turbulently in local politics.

In Jamaica Lynch in his turn dealt with the problem of suppressing the privateers. For the moment he seemed on the verge of success. The terrible loss of life at Panama, the unprofitable

152 Dumont, vol. VII., pt. 1., pp. 137-139.

153 Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., August 7, 1670, p. 78.

154 Ibid., October 31, 1670, p. 121.

155 Ibid., September 23, 1670, p. 105.

156 Ibid., January (?), 1671, pp. 159-160.

157 Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson (Camden Soc. Pub.), I. 122 also, Hatton

Correspondence, II., June 24, 1673.

158 Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., December 17, 1671, p. 299.

159 Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn (London, 1857), II. 93.

160 Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., November 20, 1674, p. 623.

161 Ibid., November 6, 1674, p. 617.

ness of the expedition, the recall and imprisonment of Modyford and Morgan, who had conducted the miserable little war—all discredited privateering, and a humbled Jamaica welcomed the new peace. The island had been sadly distracted from the orderly and prosperous life of the other English plantations. Sober, industrious people were afraid to settle in a place where property was insecure from the constant danger of invasion. Laborers, artisans, merchants, and planters were tempted away to cruise for a livelihood instead of working for it, hence planting languished and provisions were dear. Some few enriched themselves through speculation in privateers' booty and then departed to spend their wealth elsewhere. The one considerable town, Port Royal, was a place of dram-shops, ill-kept lodgings, and shoddy stores where drunkenness and immorality were encouraged that seamen might the more easily be parted from their money.

Lynch applied himself to his task with great energy and honesty of intention. He dispatched the two frigates placed at his service here and there among the islands to the haunts of the privateers to wheedle and threaten them into port. He notified the Spanish governors in the Indies of the recent treaty, and returned to them as many as he could collect of the negro slaves taken by Morgan's buccaneers, receiving in reply "many compliments of Panama " 162 He wrote, too, to the French governor at Tortuga, requesting him to refuse reception there to all English privateers.163 At the time, however, there was no governor of recognized authority in Tortuga, the buccaneers being in rebellion against the French West India Company which had shown a disposition to prevent their trading except with the company's ships.164 Such professional pirates as were frightened away from Jamaica were welcome reinforcements to the mutineers. More than Lynch at first realized took refuge there and assisted in forcing the company to compromise. When Louis XIV. took up once more in 1672 his designs upon the Netherlands, they found easy cover under French letters of marque for the old piracy. The scum of the Indies drifted away from Jamaica to Hispaniola and Tortuga where aliens of any nation or reputation were received with obliging catholicity. The pirate ship La Trompeuse, which enjoyed a brief but exciting career in the rôle of French man-of-war in 1684, had a crew which included-besides Frenchmen-Scotch, Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedes, Irish, New Englanders, negroes, and Indians.165 Lynch complained 162 Cal. St. P., A. and W. I., August 20, 1671, p. 247.

163 Ibid.

164 Ibid.

185 Ibid., September 12, 1684, p. 86.