The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII CenturyHaring, Clarence Henry
History
The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century
Haring, Clarence Henry
Buccaneers; West Indies -- History
On 4th January 1664, the king wrote to Sir Thomas Modyford in Barbadoes
that he had chosen him governor of Jamaica.[206] Modyford, who had lived
as a planter in Barbadoes since 1650, had taken a prominent share in the
struggles between Parliamentarians and Royalists in the little island.
He was a member of the Council, and had been governor for a short time
in 1660. His commission and instructions for Jamaica[207] were carried
to the West Indies by Colonel Edward Morgan, who went as Modyford's
deputy-governor and landed in Barbadoes on 21st April.[208] Modyford was
instructed, among other things, to prohibit the granting of letters of
marque, and particularly to encourage trade and maintain friendly
relations with the Spanish dominions. Sir Richard Fanshaw had just been
appointed to go to Spain and negotiate a treaty for wider commercial
privileges in the Indies, and Charles saw that the daily complaints of
violence and depredation done by Jamaican ships on the King of Spain's
subjects were scarcely calculated to increase the good-will and
compliance of the Spanish Court. Nor had the attempt in the Indies to
force a trade upon the Spaniards been brilliantly successful. It was
soon evident that another course of action was demanded. Sir Thomas
Modyford seems at first to have been sincerely anxious to suppress
privateering and conciliate his Spanish neighbours. On receiving his
commission and instructions he immediately prepared letters to the
President of San Domingo, expressing his fair intentions and requesting
the co-operation of the Spaniards.[209] Modyford himself arrived in
Jamaica on 1st June,[210] proclaimed an entire cessation of
hostilities,[211] and on the 16th sent the "Swallow" ketch to Cartagena
to acquaint the governor with what he had done. On almost the same day
letters were forwarded from England and from Ambassador Fanshaw in
Madrid, strictly forbidding all violences in the future against the
Spanish nation, and ordering Modyford to inflict condign punishment on
every offender, and make entire restitution and satisfaction to the
sufferers.[212]
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