he exigencies of diplomacy demand it.[263] Moreover, at this same time,
in the middle of 1666, Albemarle was writing to Modyford that
notwithstanding the negotiations, in which, as he said, the West Indies
were not at all concerned, the governor might still employ the
privateers as formerly, if it be for the benefit of English interests in
the Indies.[264] The news of the general peace reached Jamaica late in
1667; yet Modyford did not change his policy. It is true that in
February Secretary Lord Arlington had sent directions to restrain the
buccaneers from further acts of violence against the Spaniards;[265] but
Modyford drew his own conclusions from the contradictory orders received
from England, and was conscious, perhaps, that he was only reflecting
the general policy of the home government when he wrote to
Arlington:--"Truly it must be very imprudent to run the hazard of this
place, for obtaining a correspondence which could not but by orders from
Madrid be had.... The Spaniards look on us as intruders and trespassers,
wheresoever they find us in the Indies, and use us accordingly; and were
it in their power, as it is fixed in their wills, would soon turn us out
of all our plantations; and is it reasonable that we should quietly let
them grow upon us until they are able to do it? It must be force alone
that can cut in sunder that unneighbourly maxim of their government to
deny all access to strangers."[266]

These words were very soon translated into action, for in June 1668
Henry Morgan, with a fleet of nine or ten ships and between 400 and 500
men, took and sacked Porto Bello, one of the strongest cities of Spanish
America, and the emporium for most of the European trade of the South
American continent. Henry Morgan was a nephew of the Colonel Edward
Morgan who died in the assault of St. Eustatius. He is said to have been
kidnapped at Bristol while he was a mere lad and sold as a servant in
Barbadoes, whence, on the expiration of his time, he found his way to
Jamaica. There he joined the buccaneers and soon rose to be captain of a
ship. It was probably he who took part in the expedition with Morris and
Jackman to Campeache and Central America. He afterwards joined the
Curacao armament of Mansfield and was with the latter when he seized the
island of Providence. After Mansfield's disappearance Morgan seems to
have taken his place as the foremost buccaneer leader in Jamaica, and
during the next twenty years he was o