e
seventy prisoners, among them a number of friars going to Campeache and
Vera Cruz. Some of the prize goods were carried to England, and Don
Patricio Moledi, the Spanish resident in London, importuned the English
government for its restoration.[185] Sir Charles Lyttleton had sailed
for England on 2nd May 1664, leaving the government of Jamaica in the
hands of the Council with Colonel Thomas Lynch as president;[186] and on
his arrival in England he made formal answer to the complaints of
Moledi. His excuse was that Captain Cooper's commission had been derived
not from the deputy-governor himself but from Lord Windsor; and that the
deputy-governor had never received any order from the king for recalling
commissions, or for the cessation of hostilities against the
Spaniards.[187] Lyttleton and the English government were evidently
attempting the rather difficult circus feat of riding two mounts at the
same time. The instructions from England, as Lyttleton himself
acknowledged in his letter of 15th October 1663, distinctly forbade
further hostilities against the Spanish plantations; on the other hand,
there were no specific orders that privateers should be recalled.
Lyttleton was from first to last in sympathy with the freebooters, and
probably believed with many others of his time that "the Spaniard is
most pliable when best beaten." In August 1664 he presented to the Lord
Chancellor his reasons for advocating a continuance of the privateers in
Jamaica. They are sufficiently interesting to merit a _resume_ of the
principal points advanced. 1st. Privateering maintained a great number
of seamen by whom the island was protected without the immediate
necessity of a naval force. 2nd. If privateering were forbidden, the
king would lose many men who, in case of a war in the West Indies, would
be of incalculable service, being acquainted, as they were, with the
coasts, shoals, currents, winds, etc., of the Spanish dominions. 3rd.
Without the privateers, the Jamaicans would have no intelligence of
Spanish designs against them, or of the size or neighbourhood of their
fleets, or of the strength of their resources. 4th. If prize-goods were
no longer brought into Port Royal, few merchants would resort to Jamaica
and prices would become excessively high. 5th. To reduce the privateers
would require a large number of frigates at considerable trouble and
expense; English seamen, moreover, generally had the privateering spirit
and would be