The Choosing of Watches by John Masefield

The petty tally,Food,Work,Punishments

As soon as an ancient ship of war was fitted for the sea, with her guns on board, and mounted, her sails bent, her stores and powder in the hold, her water filled, her ballast trimmed, and the hands aboard, some "steep-tubs" were placed in the chains for the steeping of the salt provisions, "till the salt be out though not the saltness." The anchor was then weighed to a note of music. The "weeping Rachells and mournefull Niobes" were set packing ashore. The colours were run up and a gun fired. The foresail was loosed. The cable rubbed down as it came aboard (so that it might not be faked into the tiers wet or dirty). The boat was hoisted inboard. The master "took his departure," by observing the bearing of some particular point of land, as the Mew Stone, the Start, the Lizard, etc. Every man was bidden to "say his private prayer for a bonne voyage." The anchor was catted and fished. Sails were set and trimmed. Ropes were coiled down clear for running, and the course laid by the master.
THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS; CIRCA 1630 THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS
CIRCA 1630

The captain or master then ordered the boatswain "to call up the company," just as all hands are mustered on modern sailing ships at the beginning of a voyage. The master "being Chief of the Starboard Watch" would then look over the mariners for a likely man. Having made his choice he bade the man selected go over to the starboard side, while the commander of the port-watch[323] made his choice. When all the men had been chosen, and the crew "divided into two parts," then each man was bidden to choose "his Mate, Consort or Comrade." The bedding arrangements of these old ships were very primitive. The officers had their bunks or hammocks in their cabins, but the men seem to have slept wherever and however they could. Some, no doubt had hammocks, but the greater number lay in their cloaks between the guns, on mattresses if they had them. A man shared his bed and bedding (if he had any) with his "Mate, Consort, or Comrade," so that the one bed and bedding served for the pair. One of the two friends was always on deck while the other slept. In some ships at the present time the forecastles are fitted with bunks for only half the number of seamen carried, so that the practice is not yet dead. The boatswain, with all "the Younkers or Common Sailors" then went forward of the main-mast to take up their quarters between decks. The captain, master's mates, gunners, carpenters, quartermasters, etc., lodged abaft the main-mast "in their severall Cabbins." The next thing to be done was the arrangement of the ship's company into messes, "four to a mess," after which the custom was to "give every messe a quarter Can of beere and a bisket of bread to stay their stomacks till the kettle be boiled." In the first dog-watch, from 4 to 6 P.M., all hands went to prayers about the main-mast, and from their devotions to supper. At 6 P.M. the company met again to sing a psalm, and say their prayers, before the setting of the night watch; this psalm singing being the prototype of the modern sea-concert, or singsong. At 8 P.M. the first night watch began, lasting until midnight, during which four hours half the ship's company were free to sleep. At midnight the sleepers were called on deck, to relieve the watch. The watches were changed as soon as the muster had been called and a[324] psalm sung, and a prayer offered. They alternated thus throughout the twenty-four hours, each watch having four hours below, after four hours on deck, unless "some flaw of winde come, some storm or gust, or some accident that requires the help of all hands." In these cases the whole ship's company remained on deck until the work was done, or until the master discharged the watch below.[24] The decks were washed down by the swabbers every morning, before the company went to breakfast. After breakfast the men went about their ordinary duties, cleaning the ship, mending rigging, or working at the thousand odd jobs the sailing of a ship entails. The tops were always manned by lookouts, who received some small reward if they spied a prize. The guns were sometimes exercised, and all hands trained to general quarters.

A few captains made an effort to provide for the comfort of their men by laying in a supply of "bedding, linnen, arms[25] and apparel." In some cases they also provided what was called the petty tally, or store of medical comforts. "The Sea-man's Grammar" of Captain John Smith, from which we have been quoting, tells us that the petty tally contained:

"Fine wheat flower close and well-packed, Rice, Currants, Sugar, Prunes, Cynamon, Ginger, Pepper, Cloves, Green Ginger, Oil, Butter, Holland cheese or old Cheese, Wine-Vinegar, Canarie-Sack, Aqua-vitæ, the best Wines, the best Waters, the juyce of Limons for the scurvy, white Bisket, Oatmeal, Gammons of Bacons, dried Neats tongues, Beef packed up in Vineger, Legs of Mutton minced and stewed, and close packed up, with tried Sewet or Butter in earthen Pots. To entertain Strangers Marmalade, Suckets, Almonds, Comfits and such like."

"Some," says the author of this savoury list, "will say[325] I would have men rather to feast than to fight. But I say the want of those necessaries occasions the loss of more men than in any English Fleet hath been slain since 88. For when a man is ill, or at the point of death, I would know whether a dish of buttered Rice with a little Cynamon, Ginger and Sugar, a little minced meat, or rost Beef, a few stew'd Prunes, a race of green Ginger, a Flap-jack, a Kan of fresh water brewed with a little Cynamon and Sugar be not better than a little poor John, or salt fish, with Oil and Mustard, or Bisket, Butter, Cheese, or Oatmeal-pottage on Fish-dayes, or on Flesh-dayes, Salt, Beef, Pork and Pease, with six shillings beer, this is your ordinary ship's allowance, and good for them are well if well conditioned [not such bad diet for a healthy man if of good quality] which is not alwayes as Sea-men can [too well] witnesse. And after a storme, when poor men are all wet, and some have not so much as a cloth to shift them, shaking with cold, few of those but will tell you a little Sack or Aqua-vitæ is much better to keep them in health, than a little small Beer, or cold water although it be sweet. Now that every one should provide for himself, few of them have either that providence or means, and there is neither Ale-house, Tavern, nor Inne to burn a faggot in, neither Grocer, Poulterer, Apothecary nor Butcher's Shop, and therefore the use of this petty Tally is necessary, and thus to be employed as there is occasion."

The entertainment of strangers, with "Almonds, Comfits and such like," was the duty of a sea-captain, for "every Commander should shew himself as like himself as he can," and, "therefore I leave it to their own Discretion," to supply suckets for the casual guest. In those days, when sugar was a costly commodity, a sucket was more esteemed than now. At sea, when the food was mostly salt, it must certainly have been a great dainty.[326]

The "allowance" or ration to the men was as follows[26]:—

Each man and boy received one pound of bread or biscuit daily, with a gallon of beer. The beer was served out four times daily, a quart at a time, in the morning, at dinner, in the afternoon, and at supper. On Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, which were flesh days, the allowance of meat was either one pound of salt beef, or one pound of salt pork with pease. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, a side of salt-fish, ling, haberdine, or cod, was divided between the members of each mess, while a seven-ounce ration of butter (or olive oil) and a fourteen-ounce ration of cheese, was served to each man. On Fridays, or fast days, this allowance was halved. At one time the sailors were fond of selling or playing away their rations, but this practice was stopped in the reign of Elizabeth, and the men forced to take their food "orderly and in due season" under penalties. Prisoners taken during the cruise were allowed two-thirds of the above allowance.

The allowance quoted above appears liberal, but it must be remembered that the sailors were messed "six upon four," and received only two-thirds of the full ration. The quality of the food was very bad. The beer was the very cheapest of small beer, and never kept good at sea, owing to the continual motion of the ship. It became acid, and induced dysentery in those who drank it, though it was sometimes possible to rebrew it after it had once gone sour. The water, which was carried in casks, was also far from wholesome. After storing, for a day or two, it generally became offensive, so that none could drink it. In a little while this offensiveness passed off, and it might then be used, though the casks bred growths of an unpleasant sliminess, if the water remained in them for more than a month. However water was not regarded as a[327] drink for human beings until the beer was spent. The salt meat was as bad as the beer, or worse. Often enough the casks were filled with lumps of bone and fat which were quite uneatable, and often the meat was so lean, old, dry and shrivelled that it was valueless as food. The victuallers often killed their animals in the heat of the summer, when the meat would not take salt, so that many casks must have been unfit for food after lying for a week in store. Anti-scorbutics were supplied, or not supplied, at the discretion of the captains. It appears that the sailors disliked innovations in their food, and rejected the substitution of beans, flour "and those white Meats as they are called" for the heavy, and innutritious pork and beef. Sailors were always great sticklers for their "Pound and Pint," and Boteler tells us that in the early seventeenth century "the common Sea-men with us, are so besotted on their Beef and Pork, as they had rather adventure on all the Calentures, and Scarbots [scurvy] in the World, than to be weaned from their Customary Diet, or so much as to lose the least Bit of it."

The salt-fish ration was probably rather better than the meat, but the cheese was nearly always very bad, and of an abominable odour. The butter was no better than the cheese. It was probably like so much train-oil. The bread or biscuit which was stowed in bags in the bread-room in the hold, soon lost its hardness at sea, becoming soft and wormy, so that the sailors had to eat it in the dark. The biscuits, or cakes of bread, seem to have been current coin with many of the West Indian natives. In those ships where flour was carried, in lieu of biscuit, as sometimes happened in cases of emergency, the men received a ration of doughboy, a sort of dumpling of wetted flour boiled with pork fat. This was esteemed a rare delicacy either eaten plain or with butter.[328]

This diet was too lacking in variety, and too destitute of anti-scorbutics to support the mariners in health. The ships in themselves were insanitary, and the crews suffered very much from what they called calentures, (or fevers such as typhus and typhoid), and the scurvy. The scurvy was perhaps the more common ailment, as indeed it is to-day. It is now little dreaded, for its nature is understood, and guarded against. In the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, it killed its thousands, owing to the ignorance and indifference of responsible parties, and to other causes such as the construction of the ships and the length of the voyages. A salt diet, without fresh vegetables, and without variety, is a predisposing cause of scurvy. Exposure to cold and wet, and living in dirty surroundings are also predisposing causes. The old wooden ships were seldom very clean, and never dry, and when once the scurvy took hold it generally raged until the ship reached port, where fresh provisions could be purchased. A wooden ship was never quite dry, in any weather, for the upper-deck planks, and the timbers of her topsides, could never be so strictly caulked that no water could leak in. The sea-water splashed in through the scuppers and through the ports, or leaked in, a little at a time, through the seams. In bad weather the lower gun-decks (or all decks below the spar-deck) were more or less awash, from seas that had washed down the hatchways. The upper-deck seams let in the rain, and when once the lower-decks were wet it was very difficult to dry them. It was impossible to close the gun-deck ports so as to make them watertight, for the water would find cracks to come in at, even though the edges of the lids were caulked with oakum, and the orifices further barred by deadlights or wooden shutters. Many of the sailors, as we have seen, were without a change of clothes, and with no proper sleeping-place, save[329] the wet deck and the wet jackets that they worked in. It often happened that the gun-ports would be closed for several weeks together, during which time the gun-decks became filthy and musty, while the sailors contracted all manner of cramps and catarrhs. In addition to the wet, and the discomfort of such a life, there was also the work, often extremely laborious, incidental to heavy weather at sea. What with the ceaseless handling of sails and ropes, in frost and snow and soaking sea-water; and the continual pumping out of the leaks the rotten seams admitted, the sailor had little leisure in which to sleep, or to dry himself. When he left the deck he had only the dark, wet berth-deck to retire to, a place of bleakness and misery, where he might share a sopping blanket, if he had one, with the corpse of a drowned rat and the flotsam from the different messes. There was no getting dry nor warm, though the berth-deck might be extremely close and stuffy from lack of ventilation. The cook-room, or galley fire would not be lighted, and there would be no comforting food or drink, nothing but raw meat and biscuit, and a sup of sour beer. It was not more unpleasant perhaps than life at sea is to-day, but it was certainly more dangerous.[27] When at last the storm abated and the sea went down, the ports were opened and the decks cleaned. The sailors held a general washing-day, scrubbing the mouldy clothes that had been soaked so long, and hanging them to dry about the rigging. Wind-sails or canvas ventilators were rigged, to admit air to the lowest recesses of the hold. The decks were scrubbed down with a mixture of vinegar and sand, and then sluiced with salt water, scraped with metal scrapers, and dried with swabs and small portable firepots. Vinegar was carried about the decks in large iron pots, and converted into vapour by the insertion of[330] red-hot metal bars. The swabbers brought pans of burning pitch or brimstone into every corner, so that the smoke might penetrate everywhere. But even then the decks were not wholesome. There were spaces under the guns which no art could dry, and subtle leaks in the topsides that none could stop. The hold accumulated filth, for in many ships the ship's refuse was swept on to the ballast, where it bred pestilence, typhus fever and the like. The bilge-water reeked and rotted in the bilges, filling the whole ship with its indescribable stench. Beetles, rats and cockroaches bred and multiplied in the crannies, until (as in Captain Cook's case two centuries later), they made life miserable for all on board. These wooden ships were very gloomy abodes, and would have been so no doubt even had they been dry and warm. They were dark, and the lower-deck, where most of the men messed, was worse lit than the decks above it, for being near to the water-line the ports could seldom be opened. Only in very fair weather could the sailors have light and sun below decks. As a rule they ate and slept in a murky, stuffy atmosphere, badly lighted by candles in heavy horn lanthorns. The gloom of the ships must have weighed heavily upon many of the men, and the depression no doubt predisposed them to scurvy, making them less attentive to bodily cleanliness, and less ready to combat the disease when it attacked them. Perhaps some early sea-captains tried to make the between decks less gloomy by whitewashing the beams, bulkheads and ship's sides. In the eighteenth century this seems to have been practised with success, though perhaps the captains who tried it were more careful of their hands in other ways, and the benefit may have been derived from other causes.

Discipline was maintained by some harsh punishments, designed to "tame the most rude and savage people in the world." Punishment was inflicted at the discretion[331] of the captain, directly after the hearing of the case, but the case was generally tried the day after the commission of the offence, so that no man should be condemned in hot blood. The most common punishment was that of flogging, the men being stripped to the waist, tied to the main-mast or to a capstan bar, and flogged upon the bare back with a whip or a "cherriliccum." The boatswain had power to beat the laggards and the ship's boys with a cane, or with a piece of knotted rope. A common punishment was to put the offender on half his allowance, or to stop his meat, or his allowance of wine or spirits. For more heinous offences there was the very barbarous punishment of keel-hauling, by which the victim was dragged from the main yardarm right under the keel of the ship, across the barnacles, to the yardarm on the farther side. Those who suffered this punishment were liable to be cut very shrewdly by the points of the encrusted shells. Ducking from the main yardarm was inflicted for stubbornness, laziness, going on shore without leave, or sleeping while on watch. The malefactor was brought to the gangway, and a rope fastened under his arms and about his middle. He was then hoisted rapidly up to the main yardarm, "from whence he is violently let fall into the Sea, some times twice, some times three severall times, one after another" (Boteler). This punishment, and keel-hauling, were made more terrible by the discharge of a great gun over the malefactor's head as he struck the water, "which proveth much offensive to him" (ibid.). If a man killed another he was fastened to the corpse and flung overboard (Laws of Oleron). For drawing a weapon in a quarrel, or in mutiny, the offender lost his right hand (ibid.). Theft was generally punished with flogging, but in serious cases the thief was forced to run the gauntlet, between two rows of sailors all armed with thin knotted cords. Duck[332]ing from the bowsprit end, towing in a rope astern, and marooning, were also practised as punishments for the pilferer. For sleeping on watch there was a graduated scale. First offenders were soused with a bucket of water. For the second offence they were tied up by the wrists, and water was poured down their sleeves. For the third offence they were tied to the mast, with bags of bullets, or gun-chambers tied about their arms and necks, until they were exhausted, or "till their back be ready to break" (Monson). If they still offended in this kind they were taken and tied to the bowsprit end, with rations of beer and bread, and left there with leave to starve or fall into the sea. Destruction or theft of ships' property was punished by death. Petty insurrections, such as complaints of the quality or quantity of the food, etc., were punished by the bilboes. The bilboes were iron bars fixed to the deck a little abaft the main-mast. The prisoner sat upon the deck under a sentry, and his legs and hands were shackled to the bars with irons of a weight proportioned to the crime. It was a rule that none should speak to a man in the bilboes. For blasphemy and swearing there was "an excellent good way"[28] of forcing the sinner to hold a marline-spike in his mouth, until his tongue was bloody (Teonge). Dirty speech was punished in a similar way, and sometimes the offending tongue was scrubbed with sand and canvas. We read of two sailors who stole a piece of beef aboard H.M.S. Assistance in the year 1676.[29] Their hands were tied behind them, and the beef was hung about their necks, "and the rest of the seamen cam one by one, and rubd them over the mouth with the raw beife; and in this posture they stood two howers." Other punishments were "shooting to death," and hanging at the yardarm.[333] "And the Knaveries of the Ship-boys are payd by the Boat-Swain with the Rod; and commonly this execution is done upon the Munday Mornings; and is so frequently in use, that some meer Seamen believe in earnest, that they shall not have a fair Wind, unless the poor Boys be duely brought to the Chest, that is, whipped, every Munday Morning" (Boteler).

Some of these punishments may appear unduly harsh; but on the whole they were no more cruel than the punishments usually inflicted ashore. Indeed, if anything they were rather more merciful.

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GUNS AND GUNNERS by John Masefield

Breech-loaders—Cartridges—Powder—The gunner's art

Cannon were in use in Europe, it is thought, in theeleventh century; for the art of making gunpowdercame westward, from China, much earlier than peoplehave supposed. It is certain that gunpowder was used"in missiles," before it was used to propel them. Theearliest cannon were generally of forged iron built instrips secured by iron rings. They were loaded by movablechambers which fitted into the breech, and they wereknown as "crakys of war." We find them on Englishships at the end of the fourteenth century, in two kinds,the one a cannon proper, the other an early version ofthe harquebus-a-croc. The cannon was a mere iron tube,of immense strength, bound with heavy iron rings. Therings were shrunken on to the tube in the ordinary way.The tube, when ready, was bolted down to a heavysquared beam of timber on the ship's deck. It was loadedby the insertion of the "gonne-chambre," an iron pan,containing the charge, which fitted into, and closed thebreech. This gonne-chambre was wedged in firmly bya chock of elm wood beaten in with a mallet. Anotherblock of wood, fixed in the deck behind it, kept it fromflying out with any violence when the shot was fired.Cannon of this sort formed the main armament of shipsuntil after the reign of Henry the Eighth. They firedstone cannon-balls, "pellettes of lead, and dyce of iron."Each gun had some half-dozen chambers, so that the[299]firing from them may have been rapid, perhaps threerounds a minute. The powder was not kept loose intubs, near the guns, but neatly folded in conical cartridges,made of canvas or paper (or flannel) which practice prevailedfor many years. All ships of war carried "pycksfor hewing stone-shott," though after 1490, "the iron shottcallyd bowletts," and their leaden brothers, came intogeneral use. The guns we have described, were generallytwo or four pounders, using from half-a-pound, to a poundand a quarter, of powder, at each discharge. The carriage,or bed, on which they lay, was usually fitted with wheelsat the rear end only.

The other early sea-cannon, which we have mentioned,were also breech-loading. They were mounted on a sortof iron wheel, at the summit of a stout wooden staff, fixedin the deck, or in the rails of the poop and forecastle.They were of small size, and revolved in strong iron pivotrings, so that the man firing them might turn them in anydirection he wished. They were of especial service insweeping the waist, the open spar-deck, between thebreaks of poop and forecastle, when boarders were onboard. They threw "base and bar-shot to murder nearat hand"; but their usual ball was of stone, and for thisreason they were called petrieroes, and petrieroes-a-braga.The harquebus-a-croc, a weapon almost exactlysimilar, threw small cross-bar shot "to cut Sails andRigging." In Elizabethan times it was carried in thetops of fighting ships, and on the rails and gunwales ofmerchantmen.

In the reign of Henry VIII., a ship called the MaryRose, of 500 tons, took part in the battle with the French,in St Helens Roads, off Brading. It was a sultrysummer day, almost windless, when the action began,and the Mary Rose suffered much (being unable to stir)from the gun-fire of the French galleys. At noon, when[300]a breeze sprang up, and the galleys drew off, the MaryRose sent her men to dinner. Her lower ports, whichwere cut too low down, were open, and the wind heeledher over, so that the sea rushed in to them. She sankin deep water, in a few moments, carrying with her hercaptain, and all the gay company on board. In 1836some divers recovered a few of her cannon, of the kindswe have described, some of brass, some of iron. Theiron guns had been painted red and black. Those ofbrass, in all probability, had been burnished, like so muchgold. These relics may be seen by the curious, at Woolwich,in the Museum of Ordnance, to which they werepresented by their salver.

In the reign of Elizabeth, cannon were much less primitive,for a great advance took place directly men learnedthe art of casting heavy guns. Until 1543, they hadforged them; a painful process, necessarily limited tosmall pieces. After that year they cast them round acore, and by 1588 they had evolved certain general typesof ordnance which remained in use, in the British Navy,almost unchanged, until after the Crimean War. TheElizabethan breech-loaders, and their methods, have nowbeen described, but a few words may be added withreference to the muzzle-loaders. The charge for thesewas contained in cartridges, covered with canvas, or"paper royall" (i.e. parchment), though the parchmentused to foul the gun at each discharge. Burning scrapsof it remained in the bore, so that, before reloading, theweapon had to be "wormed," or scraped out, with aninstrument like an edged corkscrew. A tampion, or wad,of oakum or the like, was rammed down between thecartridge and the ball, and a second wad kept the ballin place. When the gun was loaded the gunner filledthe touch-hole with his priming powder, from a hornhe carried in his belt, after thrusting a sharp wire, called[301]the priming-iron, down the touch-hole, through the cartridge,so that the priming powder might have direct accessto the powder of the charge. He then sprinkled a littletrain of powder along the gun, from the touch-hole tothe base-ring, for if he applied the match directly to thetouch-hole the force of the explosion was liable to blowhis linstock from his hand. In any case the "huff" or"spit" of fire, from the touch-hole, burned little holes, likepock-marks, in the beams overhead. The match wasapplied smartly, with a sharp drawing back of the hand,the gunner stepping quickly aside to avoid the recoil.He stepped back, and stood, on the side of the gun oppositeto that on which the cartridges were stored, so thatthere might be no chance of a spark from his matchsetting fire to the ammunition. Spare match, newlysoaked in saltpetre water, lay coiled in a little tub besidethe gun. The cartridges, contained in latten buckets, wereplaced in a barrel by the gun and covered over with askin of leather. The heavy shot were arranged in shotracks, known as "gardens," and these were ready to thegunner's hand, with "cheeses" of tampions or wads. Thewads were made of soft wood, oakum, hay, straw, or"other such like." The sponges and rammers werehooked to the beams above the gun ready for use. Therammers were of hard wood, shod with brass, "to savethe Head from cleaving." The sponges were of soft fastwood, "As Aspe, Birch, Willow, or such like," and hadheads covered with "rough Sheepes skinne wooll," nailedto the staff with "Copper nayles." "Ladels," or powdershovels, for the loading of guns, were seldom used at sea.

The guns were elevated or depressed by means ofhandspikes and quoins. Quoins were blocks of wood,square, and wedge-shaped, with ring-hooks screwed inthem for the greater ease ofhandling.Two of the gun'screw raised the base of the cannon upon their handspikes,[302]using the "steps" of the gun carriage as their fulcra.A third slid a quoin along the "bed" of the carriage,under the gun, to support it at the required height. Therecoil of the gun on firing, was often very violent, butit was limited by the stout rope called the breeching,which ran round the base of the gun, from each side ofthe port-hole, and kept it from running back more thanits own length. When it had recoiled it was in theposition for sponging and loading, being kept fromrunning out again, with the roll of the ship, by a train,or preventer tackle, hooked to a ring-bolt in amidships.In action, particularly in violent action, the guns becamevery hot, and "kicked" dangerously. Often they recoiledwith such force as to overturn, or to snap the breeching,or to leap up to strike the upper beams. Brass gunswere more skittish than iron, but all guns needed a restof two or three hours, if possible, after continual firingfor more than eight hours at a time. To cool a gun inaction, to keep it from bursting, or becoming red-hot,John Roberts advises sponging "with spunges wet inley and water, or water and vinegar, or with the coolestfresh or salt water, bathing and washing her both withinand without." This process "if the Service is hot, asit was with us at Bargen" should be repeated, "everyeighth or tenth shot." The powder in use for cannonwas called Ordnance or Corne-powder. It was madein the following proportion. To every five pounds ofrefined saltpetre, one pound of good willow, or alder,charcoal, and one pound of fine yellow sulphur. Theingredients were braised together in a mortar, moistenedwith water distilled of orange rinds, or aqua-vitæ, andfinally dried and sifted. It was a bright, "tawny blewishcolour" when well made. Fine powder, for muskets orpriming seems to have had a greater proportion ofsaltpetre.[303]

The Naval Tracts of Sir W. Monson, contain a list ofthe sorts of cannon mounted in ships of the time ofQueen Elizabeth. It is not exhaustive, but as RobertNorton and Sir Jonas Moore give similar lists, thecurious may check the one with the other.

	Bore	Weight of Cannon	Weight of Shot	Weight of Powder	Point Blank Range	Random		Length in Feet
	ins.	lb.	lb.	lb.	paces	paces
Cannon Royal or Double Cannon	8½	8000	66	30	800	1930	M.L.	12
Cannon or Whole Cannon	8	6000	60	27	770	2000	"	11
Cannon Serpentine	7	5500	53½	25	200	2000	"	10
Bastard Cannon	7	4500	41½	20	180	1800	"	10
Demi-Cannon	6½-7	4000	33½	18	170	1700	"	10
Cannon Petro or Cannon Perier	6	4000	24½	14	160	1600	"	4
Culverin	5-5½	4500	17½	12	200	2500	"	13
Basilisk	5	4000	15	10	230	3000	"	4
Demi-Culverin	4	3400	9½	8	200	2500	"	11
Bastard Culverin	4	3000	7	5¾	170	1700	"	11
Saker	3½	1400	5½	5½	170	1700	"	9 or 10
Minion	3½	1000	4	4	170	1700	"	8
Falcon	2½	660	3	3	150	1500	"	7
Falconet	2	500	1½	1¼	150	1500	"	6½
Serpentine	1½	400	¾	¾	140	1400	"	4½
Rabinet	1	300	½	½	120	1000	"	2½

To these may be added bases, port pieces, stock fowlers,slings, half slings, and three-quarter slings, breech-loadingguns ranging from five and a half to one-inch bore.

Other firearms in use in our ships at sea were thematchlock musket, firing a heavy double bullet, andthe harquabuse[21] or arquebus, which fired a single bullet.The musket was a heavy weapon, and needed a rest,a forked staff, to support the barrel while the soldieraimed. This staff the musketeer lashed to his wrist,with a cord, so that he might drag it after him fromplace to place. The musket was fired with a match,which the soldier lit from a cumbrous pocket fire-carrier.[304]The harquabuse was a lighter gun, which was fired withouta rest, either by a wheel-lock (in which a cog-wheel,running on pyrites, caused sparks to ignite the powder),or by the match and touch-hole. Hand firearms werethen common enough, and came to us from Italy, shortlyafter 1540. They were called Daggs. They were wheel-locks,wild in firing, short, heavy, and beautifully wrought.Sometimes they carried more than one barrel, and insome cases they were made revolving. They were mostuseful in a hand-to-hand encounter, as with footpads, orboarders; but they were useless at more than ten paces.A variation from them was the hand-cannon or blunderbuss,with a bell-muzzle, which threw rough slugs ornails. In Elizabethan ships the musketeers sometimesfired short, heavy, long-headed, pointed iron arrows fromtheir muskets, a missile which flew very straight, andpenetrated good steel armour. They had also an infinityof subtle fireworks, granadoes and the like, with whichto set their opponents on fire. These they fired from thebombard pieces, or threw from the tops, or cage-works.Crossbows and longbows went to sea, with good storeof Spanish bolts and arrows, until the end of Elizabeth'sreign, though they were, perhaps, little used after 1590.The gunner had charge of them, and as, in a way, thegunner was a sort of second captain, sometimes takingcommand of the ship, we cannot do better than to quotefrom certain old books concerning his duties on board.Mr W. Bourne, the son of an eminent mathematician, hasleft a curious little book on "The Arte of Shooting inGreat Ordnance," first published in London, in 1587,the year before the Armada. Its author, W. Bourne,was at one time a gunner of the bulwark at Gravesend.The art of shooting in great guns did not improve verymuch during the century following; nor did the gunschange materially. The breech-loading, quick-firing guns[305]fell out of use as the musket became more handy; butotherwise the province of the gunner changed hardly atall. It is not too much to say that gunners of Nelson'stime, might have studied some of Bourne's book with profit.

"As for gunners that do serve by the Sea, [they] mustobserve this order following. First that they do foreseethat all their great Ordnannce be fast breeched, andforesee that all their geare be handsome and in a readinesse.& Furthermore that they be very circumspect about theirPouder in the time of service, and especially beware oftheir lint stockes & candels for feare of their Pouder, &their fireworks, & their Ducum [or priming powder],which is very daungerous, and much to be feared. Thenfurthermore, that you do keep your peeces as neer asyou can, dry within, and also that you keep their tutch-holescleane, without any kind of drosse falling into them."

The gunners were also to know the "perfect dispart"of their pieces: that is they were to make a calculationwhich would enable them in sighting, to bring "thehollow of the peece," not the outer muzzle rim, "rightagainst the marke." In the case of a breech-loader thiscould not be done by art, with any great exactness,"but any reasonable man (when he doth see the peeceand the Chamber) may easily know what he must doe,as touching those matters." In fighting at sea, in anythinglike a storm, with green seas running, so that"the Shippes do both heave and set" the gunner wasto choose a gun abaft the main-mast, on the lower orlop,"if the shippe may keepe the porte open," as in that partof the vessel the motion would be least apparent.

"Then if you doe make a shotte at another Shippe,you must be sure to have a good helme-man, that canstirre [steer] steady, taking some marke of a Cloudethat is above by the Horizon, or by the shadowe of theSunne, or by your standing still, take some marke of[306]the other shippe through some hole, or any such otherlike. Then he that giveth levell [takes aim] must observethis: first consider what disparte his piece must have,then lay the peece directly with that parte of the Shippethat he doth meane to shoote at: then if the Shippe beeunder the lee side of your Shippe, shoote your peece inthe comming downe of the Gayle, and the beginning ofthe other Ship to rise upon the Sea, as near as you can,for this cause, for when the other shippe is aloft uponthe Sea, and shee under your Lee, the Gayle makethher for to head, and then it is likest to do much good."

The helmsman also was to have an eye to the enemy,to luff when she luffed, and "putte roomer," or sail large,when he saw her helmsman put the helm up. If theenemy made signs that she was about to lay the shipaboard, either by loosing more sail, or altering her course,the gunner had to remember certain things.

"If the one doe meane to lay the other aboorde, thenthey do call up their company either for to enter orto defend: and first, if that they doe meane for to enter... then marke where that you doe see anye Scottlesfor to come uppe at, as they will stande neere thereaboutes,to the intente for to be readie, for to come uppe underthe Scottles: there give levell with your Fowlers, orSlinges, or Bases, for there you shall be sure to do mostegood, then further more, if you doe meane for to enterhim, then give level with your fowlers and Port peeces,where you doe see his chiefest fight of his Shippe is,and especially be sure to have them charged, and toshoote them off at the first boording of the Shippes, forthen you shall be sure to speede. And furthermore,mark where his men have most recourse, then dischargeyour Fowlers and Bases. And furthermore for the annoyanceof your enemie, if that at the boording that theShippes lye therefore you may take away their steeradge[307]with one of your great peeces, that is to shoote at hisRother, and furthermore at his mayne maste and sofoorth."

The ordering of cannon on board a ship was a matterwhich demanded a nice care. The gunner had to seethat the carriages were so made as to allow the gunsto lie in the middle of the port. The carriage wheels,or trocks, were not to be too high, for if they were toohigh they hindered the mariners, when they ran thecannon out in action (Norton, Moore, Bourne, Monson).Moreover, if the wheels were very large, and the shipwere heeled over, the wheel rims would grind the ship'sside continually, unless large skids were fitted to them.And if the wheels were large they gave a greater fiercenessto the impetus of the recoil, when the piece wasfired. The ports were to be rather "deepe uppe anddowne" than broad in the traverse, and it was verynecessary that the lower port-sill should not be toofar from the deck, "for then the carriage muste beemade verye hygh, and that is verye evill" (Bourne). Theshort cannon were placed low down, at the ship's side,because short cannon were more easily run in, and secured,when the ports were closed, owing to the ship's heeling,or the rising of the sea. A short gun, projecting itsmuzzle through the port, was also less likely to catchthe outboard tackling of the sails, such as "Sheetes andTackes, or the Bolynes." And for these reasons any verylong guns were placed astern, or far forward, as bow, orstern chasers. It was very necessary that the gunsplaced at the stern should be long guns, for the tallpoops of the galleons overhung the sea considerably. Ifthe gun, fired below the overhang, did not project beyondthe woodwork, it was liable to "blowe up the Counterof the Shyppes Sterne," to the great detriment of giltand paint. Some ships cut their stern ports down to[308]the deck, and continued the deck outboard, by a projectingplatform. The guns were run out on to thisplatform, so that the muzzles cleared the overhang.These platforms were the originals of the quarter-galleries,in which, some centuries later, the gold-lacedadmirals took the air (Bourne).

Sir Jonas Moore, who published a translation ofMoretti's book on artillery, in 1683, added to his chapterssome matter relating to sea-gunners, from the Frenchof Denis Furnier.

"The Gunner, whom they call in the Straights Captain,Master-Canoneer, and in Bretagne and Spain, and inother places Connestable, is one of the principal Officersin the Ship; it is he alone with the Captain who cancommand the Gunners. He ought to be a man ofcourage, experience, and vigilant, who knows the goodnessof a Peece of Ordnance, the force of Powder, andwho also knows how to mount a Peece of Ordnanceupon its carriage, and to furnish it with Bolts, Plates,Hooks, Capsquares [to fit over the Trunnions on whichthe gun rested] Axletrees and Trucks, and that maynot reverse too much; to order well its Cordage asBreeching [which stopped the recoil] and Tackling [bywhich it was run out or in]; to plant the Cannon topurpose in the middle of its Port; to know how tounclow[22] it [cast it loose for action], make ready hisCartridges, and to have them ready to pass from handto hand through the Hatches, and to employ his mostcareful men in that affair; that he have care of all, that,he be ready everywhere to assist where necessity shallbe; and take care that all be made to purpose.

"He and his Companions [the gunner's mates] ought[309]with their dark Lanthornes continually to see if the Gunsplay, and if the Rings in Ships do not shake." (Thatis, a strict watch was to be kept, at night, when at seain stormy weather, to see that the cannon did not workor break loose, and that the ring-bolts remained firm intheir places.)

"If there be necessity of more Cordage, and to seethat the Beds and Coins be firm and in good order;when the Ship comes to Anker, he furnisheth Cordage,and takes care that all his Companions take their turn[stand their watch] and quarters, that continually everyevening they renew their priming Powder [a horn offine dry powder poured into the touch-holes of loadedcannon, to communicate the fire to the charge], and allare obliged to visit their Cannon Powder every eightdayes, to see if it hath not receiv'd wet, although theybe well stopped a top with Cork and Tallow; to seethat the Powder-Room be kept neat and clean, and theCartridges ranged in good order, each nature or Calibreby itself, and marked above in great Letters the weightof the Powder and nature of the Peece to which itbelongs, and to put the same mark over the Port-holeof the Peece; that the Linstocks [or forked staves of wood,about two and a half feet long, on which the match wascarried] be ready, and furnished with Match [or cottonthread, boiled in ashes-lye and powder, and kept smouldering,with a red end, when in use], and to have alwaies onelighted, and where the Cannoneer makes his Quarterto have two one above another below [this last passageis a little obscure, but we take it to mean that at night,when the gunner slept in his cabin, a lighted match wasto be beside him, but that in the gun-decks below and abovehis cabin (which was in the half-deck) lit matches wereto be kept ready for immediate use, by those who kept watch],that his Granadoes [black clay, or thick glass bottles,[310]filled with priming powder, and fired by a length of tow,well soaked in saltpetre water] and Firepots [balls ofhard tar, sulphur-meal and rosin, kneaded together andfired by a priming of bruised powder] be in readiness, and3 or 400 Cartridges ready fill'd, Extrees [?] and Trucks[wheels] to turn often over the Powder Barrels that thePowder do not spoil; to have a care of Rings [ring-bolts]and of the Ports [he here means port-lids] that they havetheir Pins and small Rings."

Sir William Monson adds that the gunner was toacquaint himself with the capacities of every known sortof firearm, likely to be used at sea. He also gives someprofessional hints for the guidance of gunners. He tellsus (and Sir Richard Hawkins confirms him) that no sea-cannonought to be more than seven or eight feet long;that they ought not to be taper-bored, nor honey-combedwithin the bore, and that English ordnance, the best inEurope, was sold in his day for twelve pounds a ton.

In Boteler's time the gunner commanded a gang, orcrew, who ate and slept in the gun-room, which seemsin those days to have been the magazine. He had tokeep a careful account of the expenditure of his munitions,and had orders "not to make any shot withoutthe Knowledge and order of the captain."

Authorities.—N. Boteler: "Six Dialogues." W. Bourne: "The Artof Shooting in Great Ordnance"; "Regiment for the Sea"; "Mariner'sGuide." Sir W. Monson: "Naval Tracts." Sir Jonas Moore. R. Norton:"The Gunner." John Roberts: "Complete Cannoneer."

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THE SHIP'S COMPANY

Captain—Master—Lieutenant—Warrant officers—Duties andprivileges

By comparing Sir Richard Hawkins' "Observations"and Sir W. Monson's "Tracts" with Nicolas Boteler's"Dialogical Discourses," we find that the duties of ship'sofficers changed hardly at all from the time of the Armadato the death of James I. Indeed they changed hardly atall until the coming of the steamship. In modern sailingships the duties of some of the supernumeraries are almostexactly as they were three centuries ago.

The captain was the supreme head of the ship, empoweredto displace any inferior officer except the master(Monson). He was not always competent to navigate(ibid.), but as a rule he had sufficient science to checkthe master's calculations. He was expected to choose hisown lieutenant (ibid.), to keep a muster-book, and acareful account of the petty officer's stores (Monson andSir Richard Hawkins), and to punish any offences committedby his subordinates.

A lieutenant seems to have been unknown in ships ofwar until the early seventeenth century. He rankedabove the master, and acted as the captain's proxy, orambassador, "upon any occasion of Service" (Monson).In battle he commanded on the forecastle, and in theforward half of the ship. He was restrained from meddlingwith the master's duties, lest "Mischiefs and factions"should ensue. Boteler adds that a lieutenant ought not[312]to be "too fierce in his Way at first ... but to carryhimself with Moderation and Respect to the MasterGunner, Boatswain, and the other Officers."

The master was the ship's navigator, responsible forthe performance of "the ordinary Labours in the ship."He took the height of the sun or stars "with his Astrolabe,Backstaff or Jacob's-staff" (Boteler). He saw that thewatches were kept at work, and had authority to punishmisdemeanants (Monson). Before he could hope foremployment he had to go before the authorities at TrinityHouse, to show his "sufficiency" in the sea arts (Monson).

The pilot, or coaster, was junior to the master; butwhen he was bringing the vessel into port, or over sands,or out of danger, the master had no authority to interferewith him (Monson). He was sometimes a permanentofficial, acting as junior navigator when the ship was outof soundings (Hawkins), but more generally he was employedtemporarily, as at present, to bring a ship into orout of port (Monson and Boteler).

The ship's company was drilled by a sort of juniorlieutenant (Boteler), known as the corporal, who was somethingbetween a master-at-arms and a captain of marines.He had charge of the small arms, and had to see to it thatthe bandoliers for the musketmen were always filled withdry cartridges, and that the muskets and "matches" werekept neat and ready for use in the armoury (Monson). Hedrilled the men in the use of their small arms, and alsoacted as muster master at the setting and relieving of thewatch.

The gunner, whose duties we have described at length,was privileged to alter the ship's course in action, and mayeven have taken command during a chase, or runningfight. He was assisted by his mates, who commanded thevarious batteries while in action, and aimed and firedaccording to his directions.[313]

The boatswain, the chief seaman of the crew, wasgenerally an old sailor who had been much at sea, andknew the whole art of seamanship. He had charge of allthe sea-stores, and "all the Ropes belonging to the Rigging[more especially the fore-rigging], all her Cables, andAnchors; all her Sayls, all her Flags, Colours, andPendants;[23] and so to stand answerable for them" (Boteler).He was captain of the long boat, which was stowed onthe booms or spare spars between the fore and mainmasts. He had to keep her guns clean, her oars, mast,sails, stores, and water ready for use, and was at all timesto command and steer her when she left the ship(Hawkins). He carried a silver whistle, or call, about hisneck, which he piped in various measures before repeatingthe master's orders (Monson). The whistle had a ball atone end, and was made curved, like a letter S laidsideways. The boatswain, when he had summoned allhands to their duty, was expected to see that they workedwell. He kept them quiet, and "at peace one withanother," probably by knocking together the heads ofthose disposed to quarrel. Lastly, he was the ship'sexecutioner, his mates acting as assistants, and at hishands, under the supervision of the marshal, the crewreceived their "red-checked shirts," and such bilboedsolitude as the captain might direct.

The coxswain was the commander of the captain'srow barge which he had to keep clean, freshly paintedand gilded, and fitted with the red and white flag—"andwhen either the Captain or any Person of Fashion is touse the Boat, or be carryed too and again from the Ship,he is to have the Boat trimmed with her Cushions andCarpet and himself is to be ready to steer her out ofher Stern [in the narrow space behind the back boardof the stern-sheets] and with his Whistle to chear up[314]and direct his Gang of Rowers, and to keep them togetherwhen they are to wait: and this is the lowest Officer in aShip, that is allowed to carry a Whistle" (Boteler). Thecoxswain had to stay in his barge when she towed asternat sea, and his office, therefore, was often very wretched,from the cold and wet. He had to see that his boat'screw were at all times clean in their persons, and dressedalike, in as fine a livery as could be managed (Monson).He was to choose them from the best men in the ship,from the "able and handsome men" (Monson). He hadto instruct them to row together, and to accustom theport oarsmen to pull starboard from time to time. Healso kept his command well caulked, and saw the chocksand skids secure when his boat was hoisted to the deck.

The quartermasters and their mates had charge ofthe hold (Monson), and kept a sort of check upon thesteward in his "delivery of the Victuals to the Cook,and in his pumping and drawing of the Beer" (Boteler).In far later times they seem to have been a rating ofelderly and sober seamen who took the helm, two andtwo together, in addition to their other duties. In theElizabethan ship they superintended the stowage of theballast, and were in charge below, over the ballast shifters,when the ships were laid on their sides to be scrapedand tallowed. They also had to keep a variety of fishhooks ready, in order to catch any fish, such as sharksor bonitos.

The purser was expected to be "an able Clerk"(Monson) for he had to keep an account of all provisionsreceived from the victualler. He kept the ship's muster-book,with some account of every man borne upon it.He made out passes, or pay-tickets for discharged men(ibid.), and, according to Boteler, he was able "to purseup roundly for himself" by dishonest dealing. The purser(Boteler says the cook) received 6d. a month from every[315]seaman, for "Wooden Dishes, Cans, Candles, Lanthorns,and Candlesticks for the Hold" (Monson). It was alsohis office to superintend the steward, in the serving outof the provisions and other necessaries to the crew.

The steward was the purser's deputy (Monson). Hehad to receive "the full Mass of Victual of all kinds,"and see it well stowed in the hold, the heavy thingsbelow, the light things up above (Boteler). He hadcharge of all the candles, of which those old dark shipsused a prodigious number. He kept the ship's biscuitsor bread, in the bread-room, a sort of dark cabin belowthe gun-deck. He lived a life of comparative retirement,for there was a "several part in the Hold, which is calledthe Steward's room, where also he Sleeps and Eats"(Boteler). He weighed out the provisions for the crew,"to the several Messes in the Ship," and was cursed, nodoubt, by every mariner, for a cheating rogue in leaguewith the purser. Though Hawkins tells us that it washis duty "with discretion and good tearmes to givesatisfaction to all."

The cook did his office in a cook-room, or galley, placedin the forecastle or "in the Hatchway upon the firstOrlope" (Boteler). The floor of the galley was not atthat time paved with brick or stone, as in later days, andnow. It was therefore very liable to take fire, especiallyin foul weather, when the red embers were shaken fromthe ash-box of the range. It was the cook's duty to takethe provisions from the steward, both flesh and fish, andto cook them, by boiling, until they were taken from him(Monson). It was the cook's duty to steep the salt meatin water for some days before using, as the meat wasthus rendered tender and fit for human food (Smith).He had the rich perquisite of the ship's fat, which wentinto his slush tubs, to bring him money from the candlemakers.The firewood he used was generally green, if[316]not wet, so that when he lit his fire of a morning, hefumigated the fo'c's'le with bitter smoke. It was his dutyto pour water on his fire as soon as the guns were castloose for battle. Every day, for the saving of firewood,and for safety, he had to extinguish his fire directly thedinner had been cooked, nor was he allowed to relight it,"but in case of necessity, as ... when the Cockswain'sGang came wet aboard" (Monson). He would allow hiscronies in the forenoons to dry their wet gear at his fire,and perhaps allow them, in exchange for a bite or sup,to cook any fish they caught, or heat a can of drink.

Another supernumerary was the joiner, a rating onlycarried in the seventeenth century on great ships withmuch fancy work about the poop. He it was whorepaired the gilt carvings in the stern-works, and madethe bulkheads for the admiral's cabin. He was adecorator and beautifier, not unlike the modern painter,but he was to be ready at all times to knock up lockersfor the crew, to make boxes and chests for the gunner, andbulkheads, of thin wood, to replace those broken by theseas. As a rule the work of the joiner was done by thecarpenter, a much more important person, who commandedsome ten or twelve junior workmen. Thecarpenter was trusted with the pumps, both hand andchain, and with the repairing of the woodwork throughoutthe vessel. He had to be super-excellent in his profession,for a wooden ship was certain to tax his powers. She wasalways out of repair, always leaking, always springing herspars. In the summer months, if she were not beingbattered by the sea, she was getting her timber splitby cannon-shot. In the winter months, when laid upand dismantled in the dockyard, she was certain to neednew planks, beams, inner fittings and spars (Hawkins).The carpenter had to do everything for her, often withgrossly insufficient means, and it was of paramount[317]importance that his work-room in the orlop should befitted with an excellent tool chest. He had to providethe "spare Pieces of Timber wherewith to make Fishes,for to strengthen and succour the Masts." He had tosuperintend the purchase of a number of spare yards,already tapered, and bound with iron, to replace thosethat "should chance to be broken." He was to see theselashed to the ship's sides, within board, or stopped in therigging (Monson and Boteler). He had to have all mannerof gudgeons for the rudder, every sort of nuts or washersfor the pumps, and an infinity of oakum, sheet lead, softwood, spare canvas, tallow, and the like, with which tostop leaks, or to caulk the seams. In his stores he tooklarge quantities of lime, horse hair, alum, and thin feltwith which to wash and sheathe the ship's bottom planking(Monson). The alum was often dissolved in water,and splashed over spars and sails, before a battle, as itwas supposed to render them non-inflammable. It washis duty, moreover, to locate leaks, either by observing theindraught (which was a tedious way), or by placing his earto a little earthen pot inverted against one of the planksin the hold. This little pot caused him to hear the wateras it gurgled in, and by moving it to and fro he couldlocate the hole with considerable certainty (Boteler). Hehad to rig the pumps for the sailors, and to report to thecaptain the depth of water the ship made daily. Thepumps were of two kinds, one exactly like that in use onshore, the other, of the same principle, though morepowerful. The second kind was called the chain-pump,because "these Pumps have a Chain of Burs going in aWheel." They were worked with long handles, calledbrakes (because they broke sailor's hearts), and some tenmen might pump at one spell. The water was dischargedon to the deck, which was slightly rounded, so that it ranto the ship's side, into a graved channel called the trough,[318]or scuppers, from which it fell overboard through thescupper-holes, bored through the ship's side. Thesescupper-holes were bored by the carpenter. They slantedobliquely downwards and were closed outside by a hingedflap of leather, which opened to allow water to escape, andclosed to prevent water from entering (Maynwaring).Each deck had a number of scupper-holes, but theywere all of small size. There was nothing to take theplace of the big swinging-ports fitted to modern ironsailing ships, to allow the green seas to run overboard.

The cooper was another important supernumerary. Hehad to oversee the stowing of all the casks, and to make,or repair, or rehoop, such casks as had to be made orrepaired. He had to have a special eye to the great watercasks, that they did not leak; binding them securely withiron hoops, and stowing them with dunnage, so that theymight not shift. He was put in charge of watering parties,to see the casks filled at the springs, to fit them, whenfull, with their bungs, and to superintend their embarkationand stowage (Monson and Boteler).

The trumpeter was an attendant upon the captain,and had to sound his silver trumpet when that great manentered or left the ship (Monson). "Also when you halea ship, when you charge, board, or enter her; and thePoop is his place to stand or sit upon." If the ship carrieda "noise," that is a band, "they are to attend him, if therebe not, every one he doth teach to bear a part, the Captainis to encourage him, by increasing his Shares, or pay, andgive the Master Trumpeter a reward." When a prince,or an admiral, came on board, the trumpeter put on atabard, of brilliant colours, and hung his silver instrumentwith a heavy cloth of the same. He was to blow a blastfrom the time the visitor was sighted until his barge camewithin 100 fathoms of the ship. "At what time theTrumpets are to cease, and all such as carry Whistles are[319]to Whistle his Welcome three several times." As the giltand gorgeous row boat drew alongside, the trumpetssounded a point of welcome, and had then to stand aboutthe cabin door, playing their best, while the great man atehis sweetmeats. As he rowed away again, the trumpeter,standing on the poop, blew out "A loath to depart," a sortof ancient "good-bye, fare you well," such as sailors singnowadays as they get their anchors for home. In battlethe trumpeter stood upon the poop, dressed in his glory,blowing brave blasts to hearten up the gunners. In hailinga friendly ship, in any meeting on the seas, it wascustomary to "salute with Whistles and Trumpets, andthe Ship's Company give a general shout on both sides."When the anchor was weighed, the trumpeter soundeda merry music, to cheer the workers. At dinner eachnight he played in the great cabin, while the captaindrank his wine. At the setting and discharging of thewatch he had to sound a solemn point, for which duty hereceived an extra can of beer (Monson and Boteler).

The crew, or mariners, were divided into able seamen,ordinary seamen, grummets, or cabin-boys, ship-boys andswabbers. Swabbers were the weakest men of the crew;men, who were useless aloft, or at the guns, and thereforeset to menial and dirty duties. They were the ship'sscavengers, and had much uncleanly business to see to.Linschoten, describing a Portuguese ship's company,dismisses them with three contemptuous words, "theswabers pump"; but alas, that was but the first duty ofyour true swabber. Boteler, writing in the reign of JamesI., gives him more than half-a-page, as follows:—

"The Office of the Swabber is to see the Ship Keptneat and clean, and that as well in the great Cabbin aseverywhere else betwixt the Decks; to which end he is,at the least once or twice a week, if not every day, tocause the Ship to be well washed within Board and[320]without above Water, and especially about the Gunwalls[Gunwales or gunnels, over which the guns oncepointed] and the Chains and for prevention of Infection,to burn sometimes Pitch, or the like wholsom perfumes,between the Decks: He is also to have a regard to everyprivate Man's Sleeping-place; (to clean the cabins of thepetty officers in the nether orlop), and to admonish themall in general [it being dangerous perhaps, in a poorswabber, to admonish in particular] to be cleanly andhandsom, and to complain to the Captain, of all suchas will be any way nastie and offensive that way. Surely,if this Swabber doth thoroughly take care to dischargethis his charge I easily believe that he may have hishands full, and especially if there chance to be any numberof Landmen aboard."

Under the swabber there was a temporary rate knownas the liar. He had to keep the ship clean "withoutboard," in the head, chains, and elsewhere. He held hisplace but for a week. "He that is first taken with a Lieupon a Monday morning, is proclaimed at the Main-Mastwith a general Crie, a Liar, a Liar, a Liar, and for thatweek he is under the Swabber" (Monson).

The able seamen, or oldest and most experienced hands,did duty about the decks and guns, in the setting up andpreservation of the rigging, and in the trimming of thebraces, sheets, and bowlines. The ordinary seamen,younkers, grummets, and ship-boys, did the work aloft,furled and loosed the sails, and did the ordinary, never-ceasingwork of sailors. They stood "watch and watch"unless the weather made it necessary for all to be ondeck, and frequently they passed four hours of each dayin pumping the leakage from the well. They wore nouniform, but perhaps some captains gave a certain uniformityto the clothes of their crews by taking slopchests to sea, and selling clothes of similar patterns to[321]the seamen. In the navy, where the crews were pressed,the clothes worn must have been of every known cutand fashion, though no doubt all the pressed men contrivedto get tarred canvas coats before they had beenmany days aboard.

The bodies and souls of the seamen were looked after;a chaplain being carried for the one, and a chirurgeon, ordoctor, for the other. The chaplain had to read prayerstwice or thrice daily, to the whole ship's company, whostood or knelt reverently as he read. He had to leadin the nightly psalms, to reprove all evil-doers, and toexhort the men to their duty. Especially was he torepress all blasphemy and swearing. He was to celebratethe Holy Communion whenever it was most convenient.He was to preach on Sunday, to visit the sick; and, inbattle, to console the wounded. Admirals, and peers incommand of ships, had the privilege of bringing to seatheir own private chaplains.

The chirurgeon had to bring on board his own instrumentsand medicines, and to keep them ready to handin his cabin beneath the gun-deck, out of all possiblereach of shot. He was expected to know his business,and to know the remedies for those ailments peculiar tothe lands for which the ship intended. He had to producea certificate from "able men of his profession," to showthat he was fit to be employed. An assistant, or servant,was allowed him, and neither he, nor his servant did anyduty outside the chirurgeon's province (Monson).

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Captain Henry Jennings

Henry Jennings hunted Spanish and French merchantmen during the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713).

The governor of Havana sent a salvage crew to southeastern Florida to recover the cargo of silver being transported by a Spanish treasure fleet which perished in a hurricane in July 1715. Together with 3 small ships, Jennings and some 300 men left Jamaica came upon the salvagers. They drove off about 60 soldiers and their booty came to some 350,000 pesos. While returning to Jamaica, Jennings seized a Spanish ship ladened in rich cargo and another 60,000 pesos. The governor of Jamaica, who was worried about reprisals from the government, warned Jennings about his activities. Jennings left Jamaica and found a new base of operations at New Providence Island in the Bahamas. In 1717, the English government offered a pardon which Jennings accepted in Bermuda.

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The Conquest of Jamaica by C.H. Haring

The capture of Jamaica by the expedition sent outby Cromwell in 1655 was the blundering beginningof a new era in West Indian history. It wasthe first permanent annexation by another Europeanpower of an integral part of Spanish America. Before1655 the island had already been twice visited by Englishforces. The first occasion was in January 1597, whenSir Anthony Shirley, with little opposition, took andplundered St. Jago de la Vega. The second was in 1643,when William Jackson repeated the same exploit with500 men from the Windward Islands. Cromwell's expedition,consisting of 2500 men and a considerable fleet, setsail from England in December 1654, with the secretobject of "gaining an interest" in that part of the WestIndies in possession of the Spaniards. Admiral Penncommanded the fleet, and General Venables the landforces.¹¹⁹ The expedition reached Barbadoes at the end ofJanuary, where some 4000 additional troops were raised,{86}besides about 1200 from Nevis, St. Kitts, and neighbouringislands. The commanders having resolved to direct theirfirst attempt against Hispaniola, on 13th April a landingwas effected at a point to the west of San Domingo, andthe army, suffering terribly from a tropical sun and lackof water, marched thirty miles through woods andsavannahs to attack the city. The English received twoshameful defeats from a handful of Spaniards on 17th and25th April, and General Venables, complaining loudly ofthe cowardice of his men and of Admiral Penn's failureto co-operate with him, finally gave up the attempt andsailed for Jamaica. On 11th May, in the splendid harbouron which Kingston now stands, the English fleet droppedanchor. Three small forts on the western side werebattered by the guns from the ships, and as soon as thetroops began to land the garrisons evacuated their posts.St. Jago, six miles inland, was occupied next day. Theterms offered by Venables to the Spaniards (the same asthose exacted from the English settlers on ProvidenceIsland in 1641—emigration within ten days on pain ofdeath, and forfeiture of all their property) were accepted onthe 17th; but the Spaniards were soon discovered to haveentered into negotiations merely to gain time and retirewith their families and goods to the woods and mountains,whence they continued their resistance. Meanwhile thearmy, wretchedly equipped with provisions and othernecessities, was decimated by sickness. On the 19thtwo long-expected store-ships arrived, but the suppliesbrought by them were limited, and an appeal for assistancewas sent to New England. Admiral Penn, disgustedwith the fiasco in Hispaniola and on bad terms withVenables, sailed for England with part of his fleet on25th June; and Venables, so ill that his life was despairedof, and also anxious to clear himself of the responsibilityfor the initial failure of the expedition, followed in the{87}"Marston Moor" nine days later. On 20th September bothcommanders appeared before the Council of State toanswer the charge of having deserted their posts, and togetherthey shared the disgrace of a month in the Tower.¹²⁰

The army of General Venables was composed of veryinferior and undisciplined troops, mostly the rejected ofEnglish regiments or the offscourings of the West Indiancolonies; yet the chief reasons for the miscarriage beforeSan Domingo were the failure of Venables to commandthe confidence of his officers and men, his inexcusableerrors in the management of the attack, and the lack ofcordial co-operation between him and the Admiral. Thedifficulties with which he had to struggle were, of course,very great. On the other hand, he seems to have beendeficient both in strength of character and in militarycapacity; and his ill-health made still more difficult atask for which he was fundamentally incompetent. Thecomparative failure of this, Cromwell's pet enterprise, wasa bitter blow to the Protector. For a whole day he shuthimself up in his room, brooding over the disaster forwhich he, more than any other, was responsible. He hadaimed not merely to plant one more colony in America,but to make himself master of such parts of the WestIndian islands and Spanish Main as would enable him todominate the route of the Spanish-American treasurefleets. To this end Jamaica contributed few advantagesbeyond those possessed by Barbadoes and St. Kitts, andit was too early for him to realize that island for islandJamaica was much more suitable than Hispaniola as theseat of an English colony.¹²¹

Religious and economic motives form the key toCromwell's foreign policy, and it is difficult to discover{88}which, the religious or the economic, was uppermost inhis mind when he planned this expedition. He inheritedfrom the Puritans of Elizabeth's time the traditionalreligious hatred of Spain as the bulwark of Rome, andin his mind as in theirs the overthrow of the Spaniardsin the West Indies was a blow at antichrist and anextension of the true religion. The religious ends ofthe expedition were fully impressed upon Venables andhis successors in Jamaica.¹²² Second only, however, toOliver's desire to protect "the people of God," was hisambition to extend England's empire beyond the seas.He desired the unquestioned supremacy of Englandover the other nations of Europe, and that supremacy,as he probably foresaw, was to be commercial andcolonial. Since the discovery of America the world'scommerce had enormously increased, and its controlbrought with it national power. America had becomethe treasure-house of Europe. If England was to be setat the head of the world's commerce and navigation,she must break through Spain's monopoly of the Indiesand gain a control in Spanish America. San Domingowas to be but a preliminary step, after which the restof the Spanish dominions in the New World would begradually absorbed.¹²³

The immediate excuse for the attack on Hispaniolaand Jamaica was the Spaniards' practice of seizingEnglish ships and ill-treating English crews merely becausethey were found in some part of the CaribbeanSea, and even though bound for a plantation actually inpossession of English colonists. It was the old questionof effective occupation versus papal donation, and both{89}Cromwell and Venables convinced themselves thatSpanish assaults in the past on English ships andcolonies supplied a sufficient casus belli.¹²⁴ There was nojustification, however, for a secret attack upon Spain.She had been the first to recognize the young republic,and was willing and even anxious to league herselfwith England. There had been actual negotiations foran alliance, and Cromwell's offers, though rejected, hadnever been really withdrawn. Without a declarationof war or formal notice of any sort, a fleet was fittedout and sent in utmost secrecy to fall unawares uponthe colonies of a friendly nation. The whole aspectof the exploit was Elizabethan. It was inspired byDrake and Raleigh, a reversion to the Elizabethangold-hunt. It was the first of the great buccaneeringexpeditions.¹²⁵

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Cromwell was doubtless influenced, too, by therepresentations of Thomas Gage. Gage was an Englishmanwho had joined the Dominicans and had beensent by his Order out to Spanish America. In 1641he returned to England, announced his conversion toProtestantism, took the side of Parliament and becamea minister. His experiences in the West Indies andMexico he published in 1648 under the name of "TheEnglish-American, or a New Survey of the WestIndies," a most entertaining book, which aimed toarouse Englishmen against Romish "idolatries," to showhow valuable the Spanish-American provinces mightbe to England in trade and bullion and how easilythey might be seized. In the summer of 1654, moreover,Gage had laid before the Protector a memorial inwhich he recapitulated the conclusions of his book,assuring Cromwell that the Spanish colonies weresparsely peopled and that the few whites were unwarlikeand scantily provided with arms and ammunition. Heasserted that the conquest of Hispaniola and Cubawould be a matter of no difficulty, and that even CentralAmerica was too weak to oppose a long resistance.¹²⁶All this was true, and had Cromwell but sent a respectableforce under an efficient leader the resultwould have been different. The exploits of thebuccaneers a few years later proved it.

It was fortunate, considering the distracted stateof affairs in Jamaica in 1655-56, that the Spaniards werein no condition to attempt to regain the island. Cuba,the nearest Spanish territory to Jamaica, was beingravaged by the most terrible pestilence known therein years, and the inhabitants, alarmed for their ownsafety, instead of trying to dispossess the English, were{91}busy providing for the defence of their own coasts.¹²⁷ In 1657,however, some troops under command of the old Spanishgovernor of Jamaica, D. Christopher Sasi Arnoldo, crossedfrom St. Jago de Cuba and entrenched themselves on thenorthern shore as the advance post of a greater force expectedfrom the mainland. Papers of instructions relating tothe enterprise were intercepted by Colonel Doyley, thenacting-governor of Jamaica; and he with 500 picked menembarked for the north side, attacked the Spaniards in theirentrenchments and utterly routed them.¹²⁸ The next yearabout 1000 men, the long-expected corps of regular Spanishinfantry, landed and erected a fort at Rio Nuevo. Doyley,displaying the same energy, set out again on 11th Junewith 750 men, landed under fire on the 22nd, and nextday captured the fort in a brilliant attack in which about300 Spaniards were killed and 100 more, with manyofficers and flags, captured. The English lost aboutsixty in killed and wounded.¹²⁹ After the failure of asimilar, though weaker, attempt in 1660, the Spaniardsdespaired of regaining Jamaica, and most of those stillupon the island embraced the first opportunity to retireto Cuba and other Spanish settlements.

As colonists the troops in Jamaica proved to bevery discouraging material, and the army was soon ina wretched state. The officers and soldiers plunderedand mutinied instead of working and planting. Theirwastefulness led to scarcity of food, and scarcity of foodbrought disease and death.¹³⁰ They wished to force the{92}Protector to recall them, or to employ them in assaultingthe opulent Spanish towns on the Main, an occupationfar more lucrative than that of planting corn and provisionsfor sustenance. Cromwell, however, set himselfto develop and strengthen his new colony. He issueda proclamation encouraging trade and settlement in theisland by exempting the inhabitants from taxes, andthe Council voted that 1000 young men and an equalnumber of girls be shipped over from Ireland. TheScotch government was instructed to apprehend andtransport idlers and vagabonds, and commissioners weresent into New England and to the Windward and LeewardIslands to try and attract settlers.¹³¹ Bermudians,Jews, Quakers from Barbadoes and criminals from Newgate,helped to swell the population of the new colony,and in 1658 the island is said to have contained 4500whites, besides 1500 or more negro slaves.¹³²

To dominate the Spanish trade routes was one of theprincipal objects of English policy in the West Indies.This purpose is reflected in all of Cromwell's instructionsto the leaders of the Jamaican design, and it appears againin his instructions of 10th October 1655 to Major-GeneralFortescue and Vice-Admiral Goodson. Fortescue wasgiven power and authority to land men upon territoryclaimed by the Spaniards, to take their forts, castles andplaces of strength, and to pursue, kill and destroy all whoopposed him. The Vice-Admiral was to assist him withhis sea-forces, and to use his best endeavours to seize all{93}ships belonging to the King of Spain or his subjects inAmerica.¹³³ The soldiers, as has been said, were moreeager to fight the Spaniards than to plant, and opportunitieswere soon given them to try their hand. AdmiralPenn had left twelve ships under Goodson's charge, andof these, six were at sea picking up a few scattered Spanishprizes which helped to pay for the victuals supplied out ofNew England.¹³⁴ Goodson, however, was after larger prey,no less than the galleons or a Spanish town upon themainland. He did not know where the galleons were,but at the end of July he seems to have been lying witheight vessels before Cartagena and Porto Bello, and on22nd November he sent Captain Blake with nine ships tothe same coast to intercept all vessels going thither fromSpain or elsewhere. The fleet was broken up by foulweather, however, and part returned on 14th Decemberto refit, leaving a few small frigates to lie in wait for somemerchantmen reported to be in that region.¹³⁵ The firsttown on the Main to feel the presence of this new powerin the Indies was Santa Marta, close to Cartagena on theshores of what is now the U.S. of Columbia. In thelatter part of October, just a month before the departureof Blake, Goodson sailed with a fleet of eight vessels toravage the Spanish coasts. According to one account hisoriginal design had been against Rio de la Hacha nearthe pearl fisheries, "but having missed his aim" he sailedfor Santa Marta. He landed 400 sailors and soldiersunder the protection of his guns, took and demolished thetwo forts which barred his way, and entered the town.Finding that the inhabitants had already fled with asmuch of their belongings as they could carry, he pursued{94}them some twelve miles up into the country; and on hisreturn plundered and burnt their houses, embarked withthirty pieces of cannon and other booty, and sailed forJamaica.¹³⁶ It was a gallant performance with a handfulof men, but the profits were much less than had beenexpected. It had been agreed that the seamen andsoldiers should receive half the spoil, but on counting theproceeds it was found that their share amounted to nomore than £400, to balance which the State took thethirty pieces of ordnance and some powder, shot, hides,salt and Indian corn.¹³⁷ Sedgwick wrote to Thurloe that"reckoning all got there on the State's share, it did notpay for the powder and shot spent in that service."¹³⁸Sedgwick was one of the civil commissioners appointedfor the government of Jamaica. A brave, pious soldierwith a long experience and honourable military record inthe Massachusetts colony, he did not approve of this typeof warfare against the Spaniards. "This kind of marooningcruising West India trade of plundering and burningtowns," he writes, "though it hath been long practised inthese parts, yet is not honourable for a princely navy,neither was it, I think, the work designed, though perhapsit may be tolerated at present." If Cromwell was toaccomplish his original purpose of blocking up the Spanishtreasure route, he wrote again, permanent foothold mustbe gained in some important Spanish fortress, eitherCartagena or Havana, places strongly garrisoned, however,and requiring for their reduction a considerable army andfleet, such as Jamaica did not then possess. But to wasteand burn towns of inferior rank without retaining themmerely dragged on the war indefinitely and effected littleadvantage or profit to anybody.¹³⁹ Captain Nuberry{95}visited Santa Marta several weeks after Goodson's descent,and, going on shore, found that about a hundred people hadmade bold to return and rebuild their devastated homes.Upon sight of the English the poor people again fledincontinently to the woods, and Nuberry and his mendestroyed their houses a second time.¹⁴⁰

On 5th April 1656 Goodson, with ten of his best ships,set sail again and steered eastward along the coast ofHispaniola as far as Alta Vela, hoping to meet with someSpanish ships reported in that region. Encounteringnone, he stood for the Main, and landed on 4th May withabout 450 men at Rio de la Hacha. The story of theexploit is merely a repetition of what happened at SantaMarta. The people had sight of the English fleet sixhours before it could drop anchor, and fled from the townto the hills and surrounding woods. Only twelve menwere left behind to hold the fort, which the English stormedand took within half an hour. Four large brass cannonwere carried to the ships and the fort partly demolished.The Spaniards pretended to parley for the ransom of theirtown, but when after a day's delay they gave no sign ofcomplying with the admiral's demands, he burned the placeon 8th May and sailed away.¹⁴¹ Goodson called again atSanta Marta on the 11th to get water, and on the 14thstood before Cartagena to view the harbour. Leavingthree vessels to ply there, he returned to Jamaica, bringingback with him only two small prizes, one laden with wine,the other with cocoa.

The seamen of the fleet, however, were restless andeager for further enterprises of this nature, and Goodsonby the middle of June had fourteen of his vessels lying offthe Cuban coast near Cape S. Antonio in wait for thegalleons or the Flota, both of which fleets were thenexpected at Havana. His ambition to repeat the achievement{96}of Piet Heyn was fated never to be realised. Thefleet of Terra-Firma, he soon learned, had sailed intoHavana on 15th May, and on 13th June, three days beforehis arrival on that coast, had departed for Spain.¹⁴² Meanwhile,one of his own vessels, the "Arms of Holland," wasblown up, with the loss of all on board but three men andthe captain, and two other ships were disabled. Five ofthe fleet returned to England on 23rd August, and withthe rest Goodson remained on the Cuban coast until theend of the month, watching in vain for the fleet fromVera Cruz which never sailed.¹⁴³

Colonel Edward Doyley, the officer who so promptlydefeated the attempts of the Spaniards in 1657-58 tore-conquer Jamaica, was now governor of the island. Hehad sailed with the expedition to the West Indies aslieutenant-colonel in the regiment of General Venables,and on the death of Major-General Fortescue in November1655 had been chosen by Cromwell's commissioners inJamaica as commander-in-chief of the land forces. InMay 1656 he was superseded by Robert Sedgwick, butthe latter died within a few days, and Doyley petitionedthe Protector to appoint him to the post. William Brayne,however, arrived from England in December 1656 to takechief command; and when he, like his two predecessors,was stricken down by disease nine months later, the placedevolved permanently upon Doyley. Doyley was a veryefficient governor, and although he has been accused ofshowing little regard or respect for planting and trade, the{97}charge appears to be unjust.¹⁴⁴ He firmly maintained orderamong men disheartened and averse to settlement, and atthe end of his service delivered up the colony a comparativelywell-ordered and thriving community. He wasconfirmed in his post by Charles II. at the Restoration, butsuperseded by Lord Windsor in August 1661. Doyley'sclaim to distinction rests mainly upon his vigorous policyagainst the Spaniards, not only in defending Jamaica, butby encouraging privateers and carrying the war into theenemies' quarters. In July 1658, on learning from someprisoners that the galleons were in Porto Bello awaitingthe plate from Panama, Doyley embarked 300 men on afleet of five vessels and sent it to lie in an obscure baybetween that port and Cartagena to intercept the Spanishships. On 20th October the galleons were espied, twenty-ninevessels in all, fifteen galleons and fourteen stoutmerchantmen. Unfortunately, all the English vesselsexcept the "Hector" and the "Marston Moor" were atthat moment absent to obtain fresh water. Those twoalone could do nothing, but passing helplessly through theSpaniards, hung on their rear and tried without success toscatter them. The English fleet later attacked and burntthe town of Tolu on the Main, capturing two Spanishships in the road; and afterwards paid another visit tothe unfortunate Santa Marta, where they remained threedays, marching several miles into the country and burningand destroying everything in their path.¹⁴⁵

On 23rd April 1659, however, there returned to PortRoyal another expedition whose success realised thewildest dreams of avarice. Three frigates under command{98}of Captain Christopher Myngs,¹⁴⁶ with 300 soldiers onboard, had been sent by Doyley to harry the SouthAmerican coast. They first entered and destroyedCumana, and then ranging along the coast westward,landed again at Puerto Cabello and at Coro. At thelatter town they followed the inhabitants into the woods,where besides other plunder they came upon twenty-twochests of royal treasure intended for the King of Spain,each chest containing 400 pounds of silver.¹⁴⁷ Embarkingthis money and other spoil in the shape of plate, jewelsand cocoa, they returned to Port Royal with the richestprize that ever entered Jamaica. The whole pillage wasestimated at between £200,000 and £300,000.¹⁴⁸ Theabundance of new wealth introduced into Jamaica did muchto raise the spirits of the colonists, and set the island wellupon the road to more prosperous times. The sequel tothis brilliant exploit, however, was in some ways unfortunate.Disputes were engendered between the officers of theexpedition and the governor and other authorities onshore over the disposal of the booty, and in the early partof June 1659 Captain Myngs was sent home in the"Marston Moor," suspended for disobeying orders andplundering the hold of one of the prizes to the value of12,000 pieces of eight. Myngs was an active, intrepidcommander, but apparently avaricious and impatient of{99}control. He seems to have endeavoured to divert mostof the prize money into the pockets of his officers and men,by disposing of the booty on his own initiative beforegiving a strict account of it to the governor or steward-generalof the island. Doyley writes that there was aconstant market aboard the "Marston Moor," and thatMyngs and his officers, alleging it to be customary to breakand plunder the holds, permitted the twenty-two chests ofthe King of Spain's silver to be divided among the menwithout any provision whatever for the claims of the State.¹⁴⁹There was also some friction over the disposal of six Dutchprizes which Doyley had picked up for illegal trading atBarbadoes on his way out from England. These, too, hadbeen plundered before they reached Jamaica, and whenMyngs found that there was no power in the colony to tryand condemn ships taken by virtue of the Navigation Laws,it only added fuel to his dissatisfaction. When Myngsreached England he lodged counter-complaints againstGovernor Doyley, Burough, the steward-general, and Vice-AdmiralGoodson, alleging that they received more thantheir share of the prize money; and a war of mutualrecrimination followed.¹⁵⁰ Amid the distractions of theRestoration, however, little seems ever to have been madeof the matter in England. The insubordination of officersin 1659-60 was a constant source of difficulty and impedimentto the governor in his efforts to establish peace andorder in the colony. In England nobody was sure wherethe powers of government actually resided. As Buroughwrote from Jamaica on 19th January 1660, "We are herejust like you at home; when we heard of the Lord-Protector's{100}death we proclaimed his son, and when weheard of his being turned out we proclaimed a Parliamentand now own a Committee of safety."¹⁵¹ The effect of thisuncertainty was bound to be prejudicial in Jamaica, a newcolony filled with adventurers, for it loosened the reins ofauthority and encouraged lawless spirits to set the governorat defiance.

On 8th May 1660 Charles II. was proclaimed King ofEngland, and entered London on 29th May. The warwhich Cromwell had begun with Spain was essentially awar of the Commonwealth. The Spanish court wastherefore on friendly terms with the exiled prince, andwhen he returned into possession of his kingdom acessation of hostilities with Spain naturally followed.Charles wrote a note to Don Luis de Haro on 2nd June1660, proposing an armistice in Europe and Americawhich was to lead to a permanent peace and a re-establishmentof commercial relations between the two kingdoms.¹⁵²At the same time Sir Henry Bennett, the English residentin Madrid, made similar proposals to the Spanish king.A favourable answer was received in July, and the cessationof arms, including a revival of the treaty of 1630was proclaimed on 10th-20th September 1660. Preliminarynegotiations for a new treaty were entered upon atMadrid, but the marriage of Charles to Catherine ofBraganza in 1662, and the consequent alliance withPortugal, with whom Spain was then at war, put adamper upon all such designs. The armistice with Spainwas not published in Jamaica until 5th February of thefollowing year. On 4th February Colonel Doyley receivedfrom the governor of St. Jago de Cuba a letter enclosingan order from Sir Henry Bennett for the cessation ofarms, and this order Doyley immediately made public.¹⁵³{101}About thirty English prisoners were also returned by theSpaniards with the letter. Doyley was confirmed in hiscommand of Jamaica by Charles II., but his commissionwas not issued till 8th February 1661.¹⁵⁴ He was verydesirous, however, of returning to England to look afterhis private affairs, and on 2nd August another commissionwas issued to Lord Windsor, appointing him as Doyley'ssuccessor.¹⁵⁵ Just a year later, in August 1662, Windsorarrived at Port Royal, fortified with instructions "toendeavour to obtain and preserve a good correspondenceand free commerce with the plantations belonging to theKing of Spain," even resorting to force if necessary.¹⁵⁶

The question of English trade with the Spanishcolonies in the Indies had first come to the surface in thenegotiations for the treaty of 1604, after the long warsbetween Elizabeth and Philip II. The endeavour of theSpaniards to obtain an explicit prohibition of commercewas met by the English demand for entire freedom. TheSpaniards protested that it had never been granted informer treaties or to other nations, or even withoutrestriction to Spanish subjects, and clamoured for at leasta private article on the subject; but the English commissionerssteadfastly refused, and offered to forbid tradeonly with ports actually under Spanish authority. Finallya compromise was reached in the words "in quibus antebellum fuit commercium, juxta et secundum usum etobservantiam."¹⁵⁷ This article was renewed in Cottington's{102}Treaty of 1630. The Spaniards themselves, indeed, in1630, were willing to concede a free navigation in theAmerican seas, and even offered to recognise the Englishcolony of Virginia if Charles I. would admit articles prohibitingtrade and navigation in certain harbours andbays. Cottington, however, was too far-sighted, andwrote to Lord Dorchester: "For my own part, I shallever be far from advising His Majesty to think of suchrestrictions, for certainly a little more time will open thenavigation to those parts so long as there are no negativecapitulations or articles to hinder it."¹⁵⁸ The monopolisticpretensions of the Spanish government were evidentlyrelaxing, for in 1634 the Conde de Humanes confided tothe English agent, Taylor, that there had been talk inthe Council of the Indies of admitting the English to ashare in the freight of ships sent to the West Indies, andeven of granting them a limited permission to go to thoseregions on their own account. And in 1637 the Conde deLinhares, recently appointed governor of Brazil, told theEnglish ambassador, Lord Aston, that he was veryanxious that English ships should do the carrying betweenLisbon and Brazilian ports.

The settlement of the Windward and Leeward Islandsand the conquest of Jamaica had given a new impetus tocontraband trade. The commercial nations were settingup shop, as it were, at the very doors of the SpanishIndies. The French and English Antilles, condemnedby the Navigation Laws to confine themselves to agricultureand a passive trade with the home country, had no recoursebut to traffic with their Spanish neighbours.{103}Factors of the Assiento established at Cartagena, PortoBello and Vera Cruz every year supplied Europeanmerchants with detailed news of the nature and quantityof the goods which might be imported with advantage;while the buccaneers, by dominating the whole CaribbeanSea, hindered frequent communication between Spain andher colonies. It is not surprising, therefore, that thecommerce of Seville, which had hitherto held its own,decreased with surprising rapidity, that the sailings of thegalleons and the Flota were separated by several years,and that the fairs of Porto Bello and Vera Cruz werealmost deserted. To put an effective restraint, moreover,upon this contraband trade was impossible on either side.The West Indian dependencies were situated far fromthe centre of authority, while the home governmentsgenerally had their hands too full of other matters toadequately control their subjects in America. TheSpanish viceroys, meanwhile, and the governors in theWest Indian Islands, connived at a practice which linedtheir own pockets with the gold of bribery, and at thesame time contributed to the public interest and prosperityof their respective colonies. It was this illicit commercewith Spanish America which Charles II., by negotiation atMadrid and by instructions to his governors in the WestIndies, tried to get within his own control. At theSpanish court, Fanshaw, Sandwich and Godolphin in turnwere instructed to sue for a free trade with the Colonies.The Assiento of negroes was at this time held by twoGenoese named Grillo and Lomelin, and with them theEnglish ambassadors several times entered into negotiationfor the privilege of supplying blacks from the Englishislands. By the treaty of 1670 the English colonies inAmerica were for the first time formally recognised by theSpanish Crown. Freedom of commerce, however, was asfar as ever from realisation, and after this date Charles{104}seems to have given up hope of ever obtaining it throughdiplomatic channels.

The peace of 1660 between England and Spain wassupposed to extend to both sides of the "Line." TheCouncil in Jamaica, however, were of the opinion that itapplied only to Europe,¹⁵⁹ and from the tenor of LordWindsor's instructions it may be inferred that the EnglishCourt at that time meant to interpret it with the samelimitations. Windsor, indeed, was not only instructed toforce the Spanish colonies to a free trade, but was empoweredto call upon the governor of Barbadoes for aid"in case of any considerable attempt by the Spaniardsagainst Jamaica."¹⁶⁰ The efforts of the Governor, however,to come to a good correspondence with the Spanishcolonies were fruitless. In the minutes of the Council ofJamaica of 20th August 1662, we read: "Resolved that theletters from the Governors of Porto Rico and San Domingoare an absolute denial of trade, and that according to HisMajesty's instructions to Lord Windsor a trade by forceor otherwise be endeavoured;"¹⁶¹ and under 12th Septemberwe find another resolution "that men be enlisted fora design by sea with the 'Centurion' and other vessels."¹⁶²This "design" was an expedition to capture and destroySt. Jago de Cuba, the Spanish port nearest to Jamaicanshores. An attack upon St. Jago had been projected byGoodson as far back as 1655. "The Admiral," wroteMajor Sedgwick to Thurloe just after his arrival inJamaica, "was intended before our coming in to havetaken some few soldiers and gone over to St. Jago deCuba, a town upon Cuba, but our coming hindered himwithout whom we could not well tell how to do anything."¹⁶³In January 1656 the plan was definitely abandoned, because{105}the colony could not spare a sufficient number ofsoldiers for the enterprise.¹⁶⁴ It was to St. Jago that theSpaniards, driven from Jamaica, mostly betook themselves,and from St. Jago as a starting-point had come the expeditionof 1658 to reconquer the island. The instructionsof Lord Windsor afforded a convenient opportunity toavenge past attacks and secure Jamaica from molestationin that quarter for the future. The command of the expeditionwas entrusted to Myngs, who in 1662 was againin the Indies on the frigate "Centurion." Myngs sailedfrom Port Royal on 21st September with eleven ships and1300 men,¹⁶⁵ but, kept back by unfavourable winds, did notsight the castle of St. Jago until 5th October. Althoughhe had intended to force the entrance of the harbour, hewas prevented by the prevailing land breeze; so he disembarkedhis men to windward, on a rocky coast, where thepath up the bluffs was so narrow that but one man couldmarch at a time. Night had fallen before all were landed,and "the way (was) soe difficult and the night soe darkthat they were forced to make stands and fires, and theirguides with brands in their hands, to beat the path."¹⁶⁶ Atdaybreak they reached a plantation by a river's side, somesix miles from the place of landing and three from St.Jago. There they refreshed themselves, and advancingupon the town surprised the enemy, who knew of the latelanding and the badness of the way and did not expectthem so soon. They found 200 Spaniards at the entranceto the town, drawn up under their governor, Don Pedrode Moralis, and supported by Don Christopher de SasiArnoldo, the former Spanish governor of Jamaica, with areserve of 500 more. The Spaniards fled before the firstcharge of the Jamaicans, and the place was easily mastered.

{106}

The next day parties were despatched into the countryto pursue the enemy, and orders sent to the fleet to attackthe forts at the mouth of the harbour. This was successfullydone, the Spaniards deserting the great castle afterfiring but two muskets. Between scouring the countryfor hidden riches, most of which had been carried farinland beyond their reach, and dismantling and demolishingthe forts, the English forces occupied their time untilOctober 19th. Thirty-four guns were found in the fortificationsand 1000 barrels of powder. Some of the guns werecarried to the ships and the rest flung over the precipiceinto the sea; while the powder was used to blow up thecastle and the neighbouring country houses.¹⁶⁷ The expeditionreturned to Jamaica on 22nd October.¹⁶⁸ Onlysix men had been killed by the Spaniards, twenty morebeing lost by other "accidents." Of these twenty somemust have been captured by the enemy, for when SirRichard Fanshaw was appointed ambassador to Spain inJanuary 1664, he was instructed among other things tonegotiate for an exchange of prisoners taken in the Indies.In July we find him treating for the release of CaptainMyngs' men from the prisons of Seville and Cadiz,¹⁶⁹ andon 7th November an order to this effect was obtainedfrom the King of Spain.¹⁷⁰

The instructions of Lord Windsor gave him leave,as soon as he had settled the government in Jamaica, toappoint a deputy and return to England to confer with theKing on colonial affairs. Windsor sailed for England on28th October, and on the same day Sir Charles Lyttleton'scommission as deputy-governor was read in the JamaicanCouncil.¹⁷¹ During his short sojourn of three months the{107}Governor had made considerable progress toward establishingan ordered constitution in the island. He disbandedthe old army, and reorganised the military under a stricterdiscipline and better officers. He systematised legal procedureand the rules for the conveyance of property. Heerected an Admiralty Court at Port Royal, and above all,probably in pursuance of the recommendation of ColonelDoyley,¹⁷² had called in all the privateering commissionsissued by previous governors, and tried to submit thecaptains to orderly rules by giving them new commissions,with instructions to bring their Spanish prizes to Jamaicafor judicature.¹⁷³

The departure of Windsor did not put a stop tothe efforts of the Jamaicans to "force a trade" with theSpanish plantations, and we find the Council, on 11thDecember 1662, passing a motion that to this end anattempt should be made to leeward on the coasts of Cuba,Honduras and the Gulf of Campeache. On 9th and10th January between 1500 and 1600 soldiers, many ofthem doubtless buccaneers, were embarked on a fleet oftwelve ships and sailed two days later under commandof the redoubtable Myngs. About ninety leagues thisside of Campeache the fleet ran into a great storm, inwhich one of the vessels foundered and three others wereseparated from their fellows. The English reached thecoast of Campeache, however, in the early morning ofFriday, 9th February, and landing a league and a halffrom the town, marched without being seen along anIndian path with "such speed and good fortune" thatby ten o'clock in the morning they were already mastersof the city and of all the forts save one, the Castle ofSanta Cruz. At the second fort Myngs was wounded bya gun in three places. The town itself, Myngs reported,might have been defended like a fortress, for the houses{108}were contiguous and strongly built of stone with flat roofs.¹⁷⁴The forts were partly demolished, a portion of the townwas destroyed by fire, and the fourteen sail lying in theharbour were seized by the invaders. Altogether the bootymust have been considerable. The Spanish licentiate,Maldonado de Aldana, placed it at 150,000 pieces of eight,¹⁷⁵and the general damage to the city in the destruction ofhouses and munitions by the enemy, and in the expenditureof treasure for purposes of defence, at half a million more.Myngs and his fleet sailed away on 23rd February, but the"Centurion" did not reach Port Royal until 13th April,and the rest of the fleet followed a few days later. Thenumber of casualties on each side was surprisingly small.The invaders lost only thirty men killed, and the Spaniardsbetween fifty and sixty, but among the latter were thetwo alcaldes and many other officers and prominentcitizens of the town.¹⁷⁶

To satisfactorily explain at Madrid these two presumptuousassaults upon Spanish territory in America{109}was an embarrassing problem for the English Government,especially as Myngs' men imprisoned at Seville andCadiz were said to have produced commissions to justifytheir actions.¹⁷⁷ The Spanish king instructed his residentin London to demand whether Charles accepted responsibilityfor the attack upon St. Jago, and the proceedings ofEnglish cases in the Spanish courts arising from the depredationsof Galician corsairs were indefinitely suspended.¹⁷⁸When, however, there followed upon this, in May 1663, thenews of the sack and burning of Campeache, it stirred upthe greatest excitement in Madrid.¹⁷⁹ Orders and, whatwas rarer in Spain, money were immediately sent toCadiz to the Duke of Albuquerque to hasten the work onthe royal Armada for despatch to the Indies; and effortswere made to resuscitate the defunct Armada de Barlovento,a small fleet which had formerly been used tocatch interlopers and protect the coasts of Terra-Firma.In one way the capture of Campeache had touched Spainin her most vulnerable spot. The Mexican Flota, whichwas scheduled to sail from Havana in June 1663, refused tostir from its retreat at Vera Cruz until the galleons fromPorto Bello came to convoy it. The arrival of the Americantreasure in Spain was thus delayed for two months, andthe bankrupt government put to sore straits for money.

The activity of the Spaniards, however, was merely ablind to hide their own impotence, and their clamourswere eventually satisfied by the King of England's writingto Deputy-Governor Lyttleton a letter forbidding all suchundertakings for the future. The text of the letter is asfollows: "Understanding with what jealousy and offencethe Spaniards look upon our island of Jamaica, and howdisposed they are to make some attempt upon it, and{110}knowing how disabled it will remain in its own defence ifencouragement be given to such undertakings as havelately been set on foot, and are yet pursued, and whichdivert the inhabitants from that industry which alone canrender the island considerable, the king signifies his dislikeof all such undertakings, and commands that no suchbe pursued for the future, but that they unitedly applythemselves to the improvement of the plantation andkeeping the force in proper condition."¹⁸⁰ The original draftof the letter was much milder in tone, and betrays the realattitude of Charles II. toward these half-piratical enterprises:"His Majesty has heard of the success of theundertaking upon Cuba, in which he cannot choose butplease himself in the vigour and resolution wherein it wasperformed ... but because His Majesty cannot foresee anyutility likely to arise thereby ... he has thought fit herebyto command him to give no encouragement to such undertakingsunless they may be performed by the frigates ormen-of-war attending that place without any additionfrom the soldiers or inhabitants."¹⁸¹ Other letters weresubsequently sent to Jamaica, which made it clear that thewar of the privateers was not intended to be called off bythe king's instructions; and Sir Charles Lyttleton, therefore,did not recall their commissions. Nevertheless, in theearly part of 1664, the assembly in Jamaica passed an actprohibiting public levies of men upon foreign designs, andforbidding any person to leave the island on any suchdesign without first obtaining leave from the governor,council and assembly.¹⁸²

When the instructions of the authorities at home wereso ambiguous, and the incentives to corsairing so alluring,it was natural that this game of baiting the Spaniards{111}should suffer little interruption. English freebooters whohad formerly made Hispaniola and Tortuga their headquartersnow resorted to Jamaica, where they found acordial welcome and a better market for their plunder.Thus in June 1663 a certain Captain Barnard sailed fromPort Royal to the Orinoco, took and plundered the townof Santo Tomas and returned in the following March.¹⁸³On 19th October another privateer named Captain Cooperbrought into Port Royal two Spanish prizes, the larger ofwhich, the "Maria" of Seville, was a royal azogue andcarried 1000 quintals of quicksilver for the King of Spain'smines in Mexico, besides oil, wine and olives.¹⁸⁴ Cooper inhis fight with the smaller vessel so disabled his own shipthat he was forced to abandon it and enter the prize; andit was while cruising off Hispaniola in this prize that hefell in with the "Maria," and captured her after a four hours'combat. There were seventy prisoners, among them anumber of friars going to Campeache and Vera Cruz.Some of the prize goods were carried to England, andDon Patricio Moledi, the Spanish resident in London,importuned the English government for its restoration.¹⁸⁵Sir Charles Lyttleton had sailed for England on2nd May 1664, leaving the government of Jamaica in thehands of the Council with Colonel Thomas Lynch aspresident;¹⁸⁶ and on his arrival in England he made formalanswer to the complaints of Moledi. His excuse was thatCaptain Cooper's commission had been derived not fromthe deputy-governor himself but from Lord Windsor; andthat the deputy-governor had never received any orderfrom the king for recalling commissions, or for thecessation of hostilities against the Spaniards.¹⁸⁷ Lyttleton{112}and the English government were evidently attemptingthe rather difficult circus feat of riding two mounts at thesame time. The instructions from England, as Lyttletonhimself acknowledged in his letter of 15th October 1663,distinctly forbade further hostilities against the Spanishplantations; on the other hand, there were no specificorders that privateers should be recalled. Lyttleton wasfrom first to last in sympathy with the freebooters, andprobably believed with many others of his time that "theSpaniard is most pliable when best beaten." In August1664 he presented to the Lord Chancellor his reasons foradvocating a continuance of the privateers in Jamaica.They are sufficiently interesting to merit a résumé of theprincipal points advanced. 1st. Privateering maintained agreat number of seamen by whom the island was protectedwithout the immediate necessity of a naval force.2nd. If privateering were forbidden, the king would losemany men who, in case of a war in the West Indies, wouldbe of incalculable service, being acquainted, as they were,with the coasts, shoals, currents, winds, etc., of the Spanishdominions. 3rd. Without the privateers, the Jamaicanswould have no intelligence of Spanish designs against them,or of the size or neighbourhood of their fleets, or of thestrength of their resources. 4th. If prize-goods were nolonger brought into Port Royal, few merchants would resortto Jamaica and prices would become excessively high. 5th.To reduce the privateers would require a large numberof frigates at considerable trouble and expense; Englishseamen, moreover, generally had the privateering spiritand would be more ready to join with them than opposethem, as previous experience had shown. Finally, theprivateers, if denied the freedom of Jamaican ports, wouldnot take to planting, but would resort to the islands ofother nations, and perhaps prey upon English commerce.¹⁸⁸

Footnote 119: (return)Venables was not bound by his instructions to any definite plan. It hadbeen proposed, he was told, to seize Hispaniola or Porto Rico or both, afterwhich either Cartagena or Havana might be taken, and the Spanish revenue-fleetsobstructed. An alternative scheme was to make the first attempt onthe mainland at some point between the mouth of the Orinoco and PortoBello, with the ultimate object of securing Cartagena. It was left to Venables,however, to consult with Admiral Penn and three commissioners, EdwardWinslow (former governor of Plymouth colony in New England), DanielSearle (governor of Barbadoes), and Gregory Butler, as to which, if any, ofthese schemes should be carried out. Not until some time after the arrival ofthe fleet at Barbadoes was it resolved to attack Hispaniola. (Narrative ofGen. Venables, edition 1900, pp. x, 112-3.)

Footnote 120: (return)Gardiner: Hist. of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, vol. iii.ch. xlv.; Narrative of Gen. Venables.

Footnote 121: (return)Gardiner: op. cit., iii. p. 368.

Footnote 122: (return)Cf. the "Commission of the Commissioners for the West IndianExpedition." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, p. 109.)

Footnote 123: (return)Cf. American Hist. Review, vol. iv. p. 228; "Instructions unto Gen.Robt. Venables." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, p. 111.)

Footnote 124: (return)Cf. Narrative of Gen. Venables, pp. 3, 90;"Instructions unto Generall Penn," etc., ibid., p. 107.
After the outbreak of the Spanish war, Cromwell was anxious to clear hisgovernment of the charges of treachery and violation of international duties.The task was entrusted to the Latin Secretary, John Milton, who on 26thOctober 1655 published a manifesto defending the actions of the Commonwealth.He gave two principal reasons for the attempt upon the WestIndies:—(1) the cruelties of the Spaniards toward the English in Americaand their depredations on English colonies and trade; (2) the outrageoustreatment and extermination of the Indians. He denied the Spanish claimsto all of America, either as a papal gift, or by right of discovery alone, oreven by right of settlement, and insisted upon both the natural and treatyrights of Englishmen to trade in Spanish seas.

Footnote 125: (return)The memory of the exploits of Drake and his contemporaries was notallowed to die in the first half of the seventeenth century. Books like "SirFrancis Drake Revived," and "The World encompassed by Sir FrancisDrake," were printed time and time again. The former was published in 1626and again two years later; "The World Encompassed" first appeared in 1628and was reprinted in 1635 and 1653. A quotation from the title-page of thelatter may serve to illustrate the temper of the times:—

Drake, Sir Francis. The world encompassed. Being his next voyageto that to Nombre de Dios, formerly imprinted ... offered ... especiallyfor the stirring up of heroick spirits, to benefit their country andeternize their names by like bold attempts. Lon. 1628.

Cf. also Gardiner, op. cit., iii. pp. 343-44.

Footnote 126: (return)Gardiner, op. cit., iii. p. 346; cf. also"Present State of Jamaica, 1683."

Footnote 127: (return)Long: "History of Jamaica," i. p. 260; C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76.Addenda, No. 274.

Footnote 128: (return)Long, op. cit., i. p. 272 ff.

Footnote 129: (return)Ibid.; Thurloe Papers, VI. p. 540; vii. p. 260; "Present State ofJamaica, 1683"; C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 303-308.

Footnote 130: (return)Long, op. cit., i. p. 245; C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76.Addenda, Nos. 236, 261, 276, etc.
The conditions in Jamaica directly after its capture are in remarkable contrastto what might have been expected after reading the enthusiastic descriptionsof the island, its climate, soil and products, left us by Englishmen whovisited it. Jackson in 1643 compared it with the Arcadian plains andThessalien Tempe, and many of his men wanted to remain and live with theSpaniards. See also the description of Jamaica contained in the RawlinsonMSS. and written just after the arrival of the English army:—"As for thecountry ... more than this." (Narrative of Gen. Venables, pp. 138-9.)

Footnote 131: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 229, 232; Lucas: HistoricalGeography of the British Colonies, ii. p. 101, and note.

Footnote 132: (return)Lucas, op. cit., ii. p. 109.

Footnote 133: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 230, 231. Fortescue wasGen. Venables' successor in Jamaica.

Footnote 134: (return)Ibid., No. 218; Long, op. cit., i. p. 262.

Footnote 135: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, Nos. 218, 252; Thurloe Papers,IV. pp. 451, 457.

Footnote 136: (return)Thurloe Papers, IV. pp. 152, 493.

Footnote 137: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda, No. 236.

Footnote 138: (return)Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 604.

Footnote 139: (return)Ibid., pp. 454-5, 604.

Footnote 140: (return)Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 452.

Footnote 141: (return)Ibid., v. pp. 96, 151.

Footnote 142: (return)This was the treasure fleet which Captain Stayner's ship and two otherfrigates captured off Cadiz on 9th September. Six galleons were captured,sunk or burnt, with no less than £600,000 of gold and silver. The galleonswhich Blake burnt in the harbour of Santa Cruz, on 20th April 1657, weredoubtless the Mexican fleet for which Admiral Goodson vainly waited beforeHavana in the previous summer.

Footnote 143: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 260, 263, 266, 270, 275;Thurloe Papers, V. p. 340.

Footnote 144: (return)Cf. Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 12,430: Journal of Col. Beeston. Col.Beeston seems to have harboured a peculiar spite against Doyley. For thecontrary view of Doyley, cf. Long, op. cit., i. p. 284.

Footnote 145: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76. Addenda., Nos. 309, 310. In these letters thetowns are called "Tralo" and "St. Mark." Cf. also Thurloe Papers, VII.p. 340.

Footnote 146: (return)Captain Christopher Myngs had been appointed to the "Marston Moor,"a frigate of fifty-four guns, in October 1654, and had seen two years' service inthe West Indies under Goodson in 1656 and 1657. In May 1656 he tookpart in the sack of Rio de la Hacha. In July 1657 the "Marston Moor"returned to England and was ordered to be refitted, but by 20th February1658 Myngs and his frigate were again at Port Royal (C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76,Addenda, Nos. 295, 297). After Admiral Goodson's return to England(Ibid., No. 1202) Myngs seems to have been the chief naval officer in theWest Indies, and greatly distinguished himself in his naval actions against theSpaniards.

Footnote 147: (return)Tanner MSS., LI. 82.

Footnote 148: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 315, 316. Some figures put itas high as £500,000.

Footnote 149: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, Nos. 315, 318. Captain Wm. Dalysonwrote home, on 23rd January 1659/60, that he verily believed if theGeneral (Doyley) were at home to answer for himself, Captain Myngs wouldbe found no better than he is, a proud-speaking vain fool, and a knave incheating the State and robbing merchants. Ibid., No. 328.

Footnote 150: (return)Ibid., Nos. 327, 331.

Footnote 151: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1675-76, Addenda, No. 326.

Footnote 152: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 44, f. 318.

Footnote 153: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 17, 61.

Footnote 154: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 20.

Footnote 155: (return)Ibid., No. 145.

Footnote 156: (return)Ibid., Nos. 259, 278. In Lord Windsor's originalinstructions of 21st March 1662 he was empowered to search shipssuspected of trading with the Spaniards and to adjudicate the same inthe Admiralty Court. A fortnight later, however, the King and Councilseem to have completely changed their point of view, and this too inspite of the Navigation Laws which prohibited the colonies from tradingwith any but the mother-country.

Footnote 157: (return)Art. ix. of the treaty. Cf. Dumont: Corpsdiplomatique, T.V., pt. ii. p. 625. Cf. also C.S.P. Venetian,1604, p. 189:—"I wished to hear from His Majesty's own lips" (wrote theVenetian ambassador in November 1604),"how he read the clause about the India navigation, and I said, 'Sire, yoursubjects may trade with Spain and Flanders but not with the Indies.' 'Whynot?' said the King. 'Because,' I replied, 'the clause is read in that sense.''They are making a great error, whoever they are that hold this view,' saidHis Majesty; 'the meaning is quite clear.'"

Footnote 158: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 35.

Footnote 159: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 61.

Footnote 160: (return)Ibid., No. 259.

Footnote 161: (return)Ibid., No. 355.

Footnote 162: (return)Ibid., No. 364.

Footnote 163: (return)Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 154.

Footnote 164: (return)Thurloe Papers, IV. p. 457.

Footnote 165: (return)Beeston's Journal.

Footnote 166: (return)Calendar of the Heathcote MSS. (pr. by Hist. MSS. Commiss.),p. 34.

Footnote 167: (return)Calendar of the Heathcote MSS., p. 34. Cf. also C.S.P. Colon.,1661-68, No. 384:—"An act for the sale of five copper guns taken at St.Jago de Cuba."

Footnote 168: (return)Beeston's Journal.

Footnote 169: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 46.

Footnote 170: (return)Ibid., vol. 47.

Footnote 171: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 294, 375.

Footnote 172: (return)Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 11,410, f. 16.

Footnote 173: (return)Ibid., f. 6.

Footnote 174: (return)Dampier also says of Campeache that "it makes a fine show, being builtall with good stone ... the roofs flattish after the Spanish fashion, andcovered with pantile."—Ed. 1906, ii. p. 147.

Footnote 175: (return)However, the writer of the "Present State of Jamaica" says (p. 39)that Myngs got no great plunder, neither at Campeache nor at St. Jago.

Footnote 176: (return)Beeston's Journal; Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 13,964, f. 16:—"Originalletter from the Licentiate Maldonado de Aldana to Don Francisco Calderony Romero, giving him an account of the taking of Campeache in 1663"; datedCampeache, March 1663.
According to the Spanish relation there were fourteen vessels in theEnglish fleet, one large ship of forty-four guns (the "Centurion"?) and thirteensmaller ones. The discrepancy in the numbers of the fleet may be explainedby the probability that other Jamaican privateering vessels joined it after itsdeparture from Port Royal. Beeston writes in his Journal that the privateer"Blessing," Captain Mitchell, commander, brought news on 28th Februarythat the Spaniards in Campeache had notice from St. Jago of the Englishdesign and made elaborate preparations for the defence of the town. This iscontradicted by the Spanish report, in which it appears that the authoritiesin Campeache had been culpably negligent in not maintaining the defenceswith men, powder or provisions.

Footnote 177: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 46. Fanshaw to Sec. Bennet, 13th-23rd July 1664.

Footnote 178: (return)Ibid., vol. 45. Letter of Consul Rumbold, 31st March 1663.

Footnote 179: (return)Ibid., 4th May 1663.

Footnote 180: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 443. Dated 28th April 1663.

Footnote 181: (return)Ibid., Nos. 441, 442.

Footnote 182: (return)Rawlinson MSS., A. 347, f. 62.

Footnote 183: (return)Beeston's Journal.

Footnote 184: (return) C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, No. 571; Beeston's Journal.

Footnote 185: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 46, ff. 94, 96, 108, 121, 123, 127, 309(April-August 1664).

Footnote 186: (return)C.S.P. Colon., 1661-68, Nos. 697, 744, 812.

Footnote 187: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 46, f. 280.

Footnote 188: (return)S.P. Spain, vol. 46, f. 311.

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