e rest of their plunder
they brought ashore and divided among our people. The ship was no
longer usable. I have decided not to confiscate it, in order to avoid
any unfriendliness with sea-robbers. The inhabitants of St. Thomas
have decided that the said seven men shall remain among them". Later,
Captain Sharp himself came and spent his last years at St. Thomas.]

[Footnote 110: Ooze.]

[Footnote 111: This sentence sounds as if our narrator, himself one of
the seven, had finally reached England or Jamaica. If so, he was more
fortunate than some of the others; see the next document.]

_46. Sir Henry Morgan to Sir Leoline Jenkins. March 8, 1682._[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 1:48, no. 37. The writer,
lieutenant-governor of Jamaica from 1674 to 1688, and at the time of
writing acting governor, was the same Henry Morgan who in earlier
years had been the most famous of buccaneers, capturing Portobello in
1668, Maracaibo in 1669, Panama itself in 1671--wonderful exploits,
carried out with great bravery and cruelty. Now he is governor, holds
piracy in abhorrence, and is determined to suppress it! It must be
remembered, however, that his own exploits were carried out under
commissions from proper authority, and legally were not piracy. His
correspondent, Sir Leoline Jenkins, for twenty years judge of the High
Court of Admiralty, and at this time also secretary of state, was one
of the most learned admiralty lawyers England ever produced. Morgan's
view of his own competence as admiralty judge in his colony is given
with engaging frankness in a contemporary letter: "The office of Judge
Admiral was not given me for my understanding of the business better
than others, nor for the profitableness thereof, for I left the
schools too young to be a great proficient either in that or other
laws, and have been much more used to the pike than to the book; and
as for the profit, there is no porter in this town but can get more
money in the time than I made by this trial. But I was truly put in to
maintain the honour of the Court for His Majesty's service." _Cal. St.
Pap., Col._, 1677-1680, p. li.]

_May it Please your Honour_

Since I in obedience to his Majesties commands caused the Three
Pyrates to be executed, The whole party which these two last yeares
have molested the Spaniards in the South Seas are by the help of a
Spanish Pilote come about to the windward Islands; Sixteen whereof are
gone for England with Bart