ed to England as a prisoner in the
_Welcome_ frigate. But he was too popular to be convicted, and after being
acquitted was appointed Deputy Governor of Jamaica, and in November, 1674,
he was knighted and returned to the West Indies. In 1672 Major-General
Banister, who was Commander-in-Chief of the troops in Jamaica, writing to
Lord Arlington about Morgan, said: "He (Morgan) is a well deserving
person, and one of great courage and conduct, who may, with His Majesty's
pleasure, perform good public service at home, or be very advantageous to
this island if war should again break forth with the Spaniards."

While Morgan was in England he brought an action for libel against William
Crooke, the publisher of the "History of the Bucaniers of America." The
result of this trial was that Crooke paid L200 damages to Morgan and
published a long and grovelling apology.

Morgan was essentially a man of action, and a regular life on shore proved
irksome to him, for we learn from a report sent home by Lord Vaughan in
1674 that Morgan "frequented the taverns of Port Royal, drinking and
gambling in unseemly fashion," but nevertheless the Jamaican Assembly had
voted the Lieutenant-Governor a sum of L600 special salary. In 1676
Vaughan brought definite charges against Morgan and another member of the
Council, Robert Byndloss, of giving aid to certain Jamaica pirates.

Morgan made a spirited defence and, no doubt largely owing to his
popularity, got off, and in 1678 was granted a commission to be a captain
of a company of 100 men.

The Governor to succeed Vaughan was Lord Carlisle, who seems to have liked
Morgan, in spite of his jovial "goings on" with his old buccaneer friends
in the taverns of Port Royal, and in some of his letters speaks of
Morgan's "generous manner," and hints that whatever allowances are made to
him "he will be a beggar."

In 1681 Sir Thomas Lynch was appointed to be Governor, and trouble at once
began between him and his deputy. Amongst the charges the former brought
against Morgan was one of his having been overheard to say, "God damn the
Assembly!" for which he was suspended from that body.

In April, 1688, the King, at the urgent request of the Duke of Albemarle,
ordered Morgan to be reinstated in the Assembly, but Morgan did not live
long to enjoy his restored honours, for he died on August 25th, 1688.

An extract from the journal of Captain Lawrence Wright, commander of
H.M.S. _Assistance_, dated August, 16