Irishman named "Don Juan Morf" (John
Murphy?),[90] who had been "sargento-mayor" in Tortuga, became
discontented with the _regime_ there and fled to Cartagena. The Spanish
governor of Cartagena sent him to Don Gabriel de Gaves, President of the
Audiencia in San Domingo, thinking that with the information the
renegade was able to supply the Spaniards of Hispaniola might drive out
the foreigners. The President of San Domingo, however, died three months
later without bestirring himself, and it was left to his successor to
carry out the project. With the information given by Murphy, added to
that obtained from prisoners, he sent a force of 250 foot under command
of Rui Fernandez de Fuemayor to take the island.[91] At this time,
according to the Spaniards' account, there were in Tortuga 600 men
bearing arms, besides slaves, women and children. The harbour was
commanded by a platform of six cannon. The Spaniards approached the
island just before dawn, but through the ignorance of the pilot the
whole armadilla was cast upon some reefs near the shore. Rui Fernandez
with about thirty of his men succeeded in reaching land in canoes,
seized the fort without any difficulty, and although his followers were
so few managed to disperse a body of the enemy who were approaching,
with the English governor at their head, to recover it. In the melee the
governor was one of the first to be killed--stabbed, say the Spaniards,
by the Irishman, who took active part in the expedition and fought by
the side of Rui Fernandez. Meanwhile some of the inhabitants, thinking
that they could not hold the island, had regained the fort, spiked the
guns and transferred the stores to several ships in the harbour, which
sailed away leaving only two dismantled boats and a patache to fall into
the hands of the Spaniards. Rui Fernandez, reinforced by some 200 of his
men who had succeeded in escaping from the stranded armadilla, now
turned his attention to the settlement. He found his way barred by
another body of several hundred English, but dispersed them too, and
took seventy prisoners. The houses were then sacked and the tobacco
plantations burned by the soldiers, and the Spaniards returned to San
Domingo with four captured banners, the six pieces of artillery and 180
muskets.[92]

The Spanish occupation apparently did not last very long, for in the
following April the Providence Company appointed Captain Nicholas
Riskinner to be governor of Tortuga in place