The division was amicably made, and they spread their sails to return to Jamaica, there to squander, in a few days of insane excess, all that they had gained through weary months of danger, toil, suffering, and crime. The entrance of a richly laden piratic fleet into the harbor of Kingston was an occasion of public rejoicing. The gamblers, the courtezans, the rumsellers were all overjoyed. Even the children expected to see the strange visitors scatter their doubloons through the streets to be scrambled for. We are told that every door was open to them, and that, for a whole week, all loudly praised their generosity and their courage. At the end of a month they had squandered all, and every door was shut in their faces. Morgan was a drunkard as well as a robber. He spent his gains as infamously and as speedily as did the rest. Shrewder men than he emptied his purse at the gambling-table. The Delilahs of Jamaica speedily transferred his jewels to their necks. But one short month had passed away when Morgan and all his crew, utterly impoverished, were eager for another expedition. Undismayed by the past, this bold adventurer planned an enterprise of such magnitude that he boasted that, at its close, both he and his men might be able to retire, if they wished, with a sufficiency for the rest of their days. A rendezvous was appointed at De la Vaca or Cow Island, on the south side of the Island of Hispaniola. This would be easily accessible by the pirates, both French and English, ever swaggering through the streets of Tortuga. Again the desperadoes rushed to his banner. They came in boats and in small vessels and by land. Men enough were found to furnish the adventurer with funds. A large English ship, which mounted thirty-six guns, entered the harbor of Kingston, Jamaica, from New England. This ship, the Oxford, carried a crew of three hundred men. It was on a buccaneering cruise against Spanish commerce. Oexemelin says that the ship actually belonged to the King of England, Charles II. He had fitted it out at his own expense, and the captain was employed in his service. What authority he had for this astonishing assertion we know not. But it is certain that the governor at Jamaica felt at liberty to send this ship to join Morgan’s expedition. And when we subsequently find Charles II. conferring the honor of knighthood on this desperate marauder, and appointing him governor of Jamaica, the report receives much confirmation. The harbor at Isle de la Vaca was a fine one. A large French ship, the Cerf Volant, on a trading excursion, entered the port. The ship was well armed, mounting twenty-four iron guns and twelve guns of brass. The captain and crew, disappointed in the results of trade, were disposed to try their luck as buccaneers. Morgan, anxious to secure so powerful a ship, urged them to join his expedition. But the French officers would not accede to his terms.