s of the buccaneers, drawn from the
island to swell their ranks; and most of all, men who were now outlawed
in Jamaica, driven to desperation turned pirate altogether, and began to
wage war indiscriminately on the ships of all nationalities, including
those of the English. Morgan repeatedly wrote home urging the dispatch
of small frigates of light draught to coast round the island and
surprise the freebooters, and he begged for orders for himself to go on
board and command them, for "then I shall not much question," he
concludes, "to reduce them or in some time to leave them shipless."[421]
"The governor," wrote the Council of Jamaica to the Lords of Trade and
Plantations in May 1680, "can do little from want of ships to reduce the
privateers, and of plain laws to punish them"; and they urged the
ratification of the Act passed by the assembly two years before, making
it felony for any British subject in the West Indies to serve under a
foreign prince without leave from the governor.[422] This Act, and
another for the more effectual punishment of pirates, had been under
consideration in the Privy Council in February 1678, and both were
returned to Jamaica with certain slight amendments. They were again
passed by the assembly as one Act in 1681, and were finally incorporated
into the Jamaica Act of 1683 "for the restraining and punishing of
privateers and pirates."[423]

Footnotes:

[Footnote 332: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, No. 367.]

[Footnote 333: Ibid., Nos. 604, 608, 729; Beeston's Journal.]

[Footnote 334: Ibid., Nos. 552, 602.]

[Footnote 335: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 608, 633.]

[Footnote 336: Ibid., No. 604.]

[Footnote 337: Ibid., Nos. 638, 640, 663, 697. This may be the Diego
Grillo to whom Duro (_op. cit._, V. p. 180) refers--a native of Havana
commanding a vessel of fifteen guns. He defeated successively in the
Bahama Channel three armed ships sent out to take him, and in all of
them he massacred without exception the Spaniards of European birth. He
was captured in 1673 and suffered the fate he had meted out to his
victims.]

[Footnote 338: Ibid., Nos. 697, 709, 742, 883, 944.]

[Footnote 339: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 796.]

[Footnote 340: Ibid., No. 729.]

[Footnote 341: Ibid., Nos. 742, 777, 785, 789, 794, 796.]

[Footnote 342: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 742, 945, 1042.]

[Footnote 343: C.S.P. Colon., 1669-74, Nos. 733, 742, 779, 796, 820,
1022.]

[Footnote 344: Ibid., No