October to the Isle la Vache.[288] One of the frigates captured at Santa
Marta, "La Gallardina," had been with Pardal when he burnt the coast of
Jamaica. Pardal's own ship of fourteen guns had been captured but a
short time before by Captain John Morris at the east end of Cuba, and
Pardal himself shot through the neck and killed.[289] He was called by
the Jamaicans "the vapouring admiral of St. Jago," for in June he had
nailed a piece of canvas to a tree on the Jamaican coast, with a curious
challenge written both in English and Spanish:--

"I, Captain Manuel Rivero Pardal, to the chief of the squadron of
privateers in Jamaica. I am he who this year have done that which
follows. I went on shore at Caimanos, and burnt 20 houses, and fought
with Captain Ary, and took from him a catch laden with provisions and a
canoe. And I am he who took Captain Baines and did carry the prize to
Cartagena, and now am arrived to this coast, and have burnt it. And I
come to seek General Morgan, with 2 ships of 20 guns, and having seen
this, I crave he would come out upon the coast and seek me, that he
might see the valour of the Spaniards. And because I had no time I did
not come to the mouth of Port Royal to speak by word of mouth in the
name of my king, whom God preserve. Dated the 5th of July 1670."[290]

Meanwhile, in the middle of October, there sailed into Port Royal three
privateers, Captains Prince, Harrison and Ludbury, who six weeks before
had ascended the river San Juan in Nicaragua with 170 men and again
plundered the unfortunate city of Granada. The town had rapidly decayed,
however, under the repeated assaults of the buccaneers, and the
plunderers secured only L20 or L30 per man. Modyford reproved the
captains for acting without commissions, but "not deeming it prudent to
press the matter too far in this juncture," commanded them to join
Morgan at the Isle la Vache.[291] There Morgan was slowly mustering his
strength. He negotiated with the French of Tortuga and Hispaniola who
were then in revolt against the _regime_ of the French Company; and he
added to his forces seven ships and 400 men sent him by the
indefatigable Governor of Jamaica. On 7th October, indeed, the venture
was almost ruined by a violent storm which cast the whole fleet, except
the Admiral's vessel, upon the shore. All of the ships but three,
however, were eventually got off and repaired, and on 6th December
Morgan was able to write to Modyford that he had 1