hts. However, he was
imprisoned in the fort, where every effort was made to prevent his
communicating with England or the English colonies. Notwithstanding
these precautions he managed to send several letters, meanwhile
threatening the Court that if they kept him any longer he would be
forced to use such means of relief as he should be advised. After some
delay his communications reached Barbados, Jamaica, and New York, from
whence they at last reached King William, who soon got him released. But
even then Clifford could not get back his estate, and although he went
to London and petitioned the king, who directed inquiry of the
ambassador at the Hague, he could never get any redress. For seventy
years he, and his heirs after his death, kept up a stream of petitions
and memorials, without result, in the end claiming for illegal
detention, damages, and interest, over half a million pounds.

During the short peace which followed the treaty of Westminster
attention was again directed to the buccaneers, who were now called
pirates, and treated as such even in Jamaica, with the result that many
of them settled down. It has been stated that Charles the Second shared
in their gains even after he had issued proclamations against them, but
this sort of thing now came to an end. The French continued their
depredations up to the year 1680, when the king issued a proclamation,
forbidding the further granting of commissions, and recalling those
which had been issued, at the same time ordering that those who
persisted in the trade should be hanged as pirates. This tended to bring
the less audacious to settle down, but even to the beginning of the
present century piracy was still known in the West Indies.

While Sir Henry Morgan was Acting Governor of Jamaica, in 1681, Everson,
the Dutch pirate, came to Cow Bay on that island, but Morgan captured
him and his crew and sent them off to Carthagena, to be punished by the
authorities there for the ravages they had committed on the Spanish
coasts and shipping. During the ex-buccaneer's administration he also
got an Act passed to restrain privateers, and keep inviolable all
treaties with foreign states. Any British subject who treated a foreign
prince or State in a hostile manner should be punished with death as a
felon.

Peace did not last long, however, for in 1688 the French began to move
against Holland, and the year following King William was also bound to
declare war. Almost immediat