ich entered through the
customs. There is evidence, moreover, that French privateers, being
unable to obtain from the merchants on the coast of San Domingo the
cables, anchors, tar and other naval stores necessary for their
armaments, were compelled to resort to other islands to buy them, and
that Jamaica came in for a share of this trade. Provisions, too, were
more plentiful at Port Royal than in the _cul-de-sac_ of Hispaniola, and
the French governors complained to the king that the filibusters carried
most of their money to foreign plantations to exchange for these
commodities. Such French vessels if they came to Jamaica were not
strictly within the scope of the laws against piracy which had been
passed by the assembly, and their visits were the more welcome as they
paid for their goods promptly and liberally in good Spanish
doubloons.[415]

A general warrant for the apprehension of Coxon, Sharp and the other men
who had plundered Porto Bello had been issued by Lord Carlisle in May
1680, just before his departure for England. On 1st July a similar
warrant was issued by Morgan, and five days later a proclamation was
published against all persons who should hold any correspondence
whatever with the outlawed crews.[416] Three men who had taken part in
the expedition were captured and clapped into prison until the next
meeting of the court. The friends of Coxon, however, including, it
seems, almost all the members of the council, offered to give L2000
security, if he was allowed to come to Port Royal, that he would never
take another commission except from the King of England; and Morgan
wrote to Carlisle seeking his approbation.[417] At the end of the
following January Morgan received word that a notorious Dutch privateer,
named Jacob Everson, commanding an armed sloop, was anchored on the
coast with a brigantine which he had lately captured. The
lieutenant-governor manned a small vessel with fifty picked men and sent
it secretly at midnight to seize the pirate. Everson's sloop was boarded
and captured with twenty-six prisoners, but Everson himself and several
others escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore. The
prisoners, most of whom were English, were tried six weeks later,
convicted of piracy and sentenced to death; but the lieutenant-governor
suspended the execution and wrote to the king for instructions. On 16th
June 1681, the king in council ordered the execution of the condemned
men.[418]

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