al treasure
intended for the King of Spain, each chest containing 400 pounds of
silver.[147] Embarking this money and other spoil in the shape of plate,
jewels and cocoa, they returned to Port Royal with the richest prize
that ever entered Jamaica. The whole pillage was estimated at between
L200,000 and L300,000.[148] The abundance of new wealth introduced into
Jamaica did much to raise the spirits of the colonists, and set the
island well upon the road to more prosperous times. The sequel to this
brilliant exploit, however, was in some ways unfortunate. Disputes were
engendered between the officers of the expedition and the governor and
other authorities on shore over the disposal of the booty, and in the
early part of June 1659 Captain Myngs was sent home in the "Marston
Moor," suspended for disobeying orders and plundering the hold of one of
the prizes to the value of 12,000 pieces of eight. Myngs was an active,
intrepid commander, but apparently avaricious and impatient of control.
He seems to have endeavoured to divert most of the prize money into the
pockets of his officers and men, by disposing of the booty on his own
initiative before giving a strict account of it to the governor or
steward-general of the island. Doyley writes that there was a constant
market aboard the "Marston Moor," and that Myngs and his officers,
alleging it to be customary to break and plunder the holds, permitted
the twenty-two chests of the King of Spain's silver to be divided among
the men without any provision whatever for the claims of the State.[149]
There was also some friction over the disposal of six Dutch prizes which
Doyley had picked up for illegal trading at Barbadoes on his way out
from England. These, too, had been plundered before they reached
Jamaica, and when Myngs found that there was no power in the colony to
try and condemn ships taken by virtue of the Navigation Laws, it only
added fuel to his dissatisfaction. When Myngs reached England he lodged
counter-complaints against Governor Doyley, Burough, the
steward-general, and Vice-Admiral Goodson, alleging that they received
more than their share of the prize money; and a war of mutual
recrimination followed.[150] Amid the distractions of the Restoration,
however, little seems ever to have been made of the matter in England.
The insubordination of officers in 1659-60 was a constant source of
difficulty and impediment to the governor in his efforts to establish
peace and o