rench had designs upon Tortuga. A French
garrison was landed on the island, seemingly to protect the French
planters from the English, but in reality to seize the place for the
French crown. Another garrison encamped upon the coast of the larger
island. The English were now in a position like that of the spar in the
tale.[8] They could no longer follow the business of cattle hunting;
they could no longer find an anchorage and a ready market at Tortuga.
They were forced, therefore, to find some other rendezvous, where they
could refit after a cruise upon the Main. They withdrew themselves more
and more from the French buccaneers, though the two parties frequently
combined in enterprises of danger and importance. They seem to have
relinquished Tortuga without fighting. They were less attached to the
place than the French. Their holdings were fewer, and they had but a
minor share in the cattle hunting. But for many years to come they
regarded the French buccaneers with suspicion, as doubtful allies. When
they sailed away from Tortuga they sought out other haunts on islands
partly settled by the English.

[Footnote 8: Precarious, and not at all permanent.]

In 1655, when an English fleet under Penn and Venables came to the
Indies to attack the Spaniards, a body of English buccaneers who had
settled at Barbadoes came in their ships to join the colours. In all,
5000 of them mustered, but the service they performed was of poor
quality. The combined force attacked St Domingo, and suffered a severe
repulse. They then sailed for Jamaica, which they took without much
difficulty. The buccaneers found Jamaica a place peculiarly suited to
them: it swarmed with wild cattle; it had a good harbour; it lay
conveniently for raids upon the Main. They began to settle there, at
Port Royal, with the troops left there by Cromwell's orders. They
planted tobacco and sugar, followed the boucan, and lived as they had
lived in the past at Hispaniola. Whenever England was at war with Spain
the Governor of the island gave them commissions to go privateering
against the Spanish. A percentage of the spoil was always paid to the
Governor, while the constant raiding on the Main prevented the Spaniards
from attacking the new colony in force. The buccaneers were thus of
great use to the Colonial Government. They brought in money to the
Treasury and kept the Spanish troops engaged. The governors of the
French islands acted in precisely the same way. They g