the decay of the forts and wealth of this place, and also the
affections of this people to His Majesty's service; yet I continued
discountenancing and punishing those kind of people till your Lordship's
of the 12th November 1664 arrived, commanding a gentle usage of them;
still we went to decay, which I represented to the Lord General
faithfully the 6th of March following, who upon serious consideration
with His Majesty and the Lord Chancellor, by letter of 1st June 1665,
gave me latitude to grant or not commissions against the Spaniard, as I
found it for the advantage of His Majesty's service and the good of this
island. I was glad of this power, yet resolved not to use it unless
necessity drove me to it; and that too when I saw how poor the fleets
returning from Statia were, so that vessels were broken up and the men
disposed of for the coast of Cuba to get a livelihood and so be wholly
alienated from us. Many stayed at the Windward Isles, having not enough
to pay their engagements, and at Tortuga and among the French
buccaneers; still I forebore to make use of my power, hoping their
hardships and great hazards would in time reclaim them from that course
of life. But about the beginning of March last I found that the guards
of Port Royal, which under Colonel Morgan were 600, had fallen to 138,
so I assembled the Council to advise how to strengthen that most
important place with some of the inland forces; but they all agreed that
the only way to fill Port Royal with men was to grant commissions
against the Spaniards, which they were very pressing in ... and looking
on our weak condition, the chief merchants gone from Port Royal, no
credit given to privateers for victualling, etc., and rumours of war
with the French often repeated, I issued a declaration of my intentions
to grant commissions against the Spaniards. Your Lordship cannot imagine
what an universal change there was on the faces of men and things, ships
repairing, great resort of workmen and labourers to Port Royal, many
returning, many debtors released out of prison, and the ships from the
Curacao voyage, not daring to come in for fear of creditors, brought in
and fitted out again, so that the regimental forces at Port Royal are
near 400. Had it not been for that seasonable action, I could not have
kept my place against the French buccaneers, who would have ruined all
the seaside plantations at least, whereas I now draw from them mainly,
and lately David Mart