^{page 1 note 1} Sloane MSS. (British Museum), 793 or 894 :—Otherwise entitled ‘Mercurius Americanus’ The narrative is preceded by a short preface recalling the voyages of discovery conducted by the Ancients and by Columbus. “Since w^ch time,” the writer concludes, “divers of our Countrymen have prosperously attempted y^e search of these Occidentall parts, as Drake, Cavendish, Frobisher, &c., leaveing behinde them a glorious testimony of their worthy designes. In y^e last place Capt. William Jackson, one who hath as much studied the honor & benefitt of his Country, as any of y^e former, presents himselfe to y^e View of y^e world … ”

^{page 5 note 1} So called by Richard Norwood in a letter to the Governor and Company of Adventurers to the Somers Islands, in which he described the religious dissensions there on Jackson's arrival, “after his voyage through the West Indies,” in May, 1645. Calendar of State Papers (America and West Indies), 1574— 1660, p. 327.

^{page 5 note 2} He is not to be confused with the Capt. William Jackson who from 1650–1660 regularly corresponded with Capt. Adam Baynes. (See the Baynes Correspondence. Addit. MSS. 21,418, f. 317; 21,419, ff. 1, 22, 112, 157; 21,420, ff. 70, 274; 21,421, ff. 22, 104; 21,425, f. 210; 21,427, f. 87.) This Capt. Jackson was an officer in the Commonwealth Army, and a landowner at Wilton in Cleveland, “the towne in which I was borne and live.” Entries relating to several other persons also bearing the name of William Jackson appear in the State Papers about this time (e.g. C.S.P. Domestic, 1640, pp. 385, 386; and ibid. 1645–7, p. 512) ; but it is impossible to identify them with the sea rover.

^{page 6 note 1} Lord's Journals, IV, p. 248^b; V, p. 139^b ; H.M.C. (House of Lords MSS.) Fourth Report, calendared in App. pp. 60, 63. Among other activities Maurice Thompson took a leading part in financing and directing the preparations for the Venables Expedition in 1655. Thurloe State Papers, II, p. 542.

^{page 6 note 2} Briefly calendared in House of Lords MSS. H.M.C. Fifth Report, app. p. 18. See Newton, A. P., Colonising Activities of the English Puritans (Yale University Press) pp. 268–9Google Scholar, who quotes from the original petition.

^{page 6 note 3} Winthrop's Journal, Vol. I, p. 309 (August 27th, 1639). Quoted by Newton, op. cit..

^{page 6 note 4} See the following entries from the Minute Book of the Providence Company :—

(a) 1641, January 4th. “Capt. Jackson, who lately brought in a ship richly laden with indigo, attends the Company.” C.S.P. (Am. and West Indies) 1574–1660, p. 316.

(b) 1641, March 9^th. “Weight of indigo received from Captain Jackson, Cwt. 247.1.13 ; sold at 441. per chest.” Ibid, p. 318.

(c) 1641, March 29^th. (There has been) “little encouragement to undertake more charges. Only last year, Capt. Jackson's voyage brought home a retribution of some of our expenses.” Ibid, p. 319. (Letter from the Company to the Governor and Council.)

^{page 7 note 1} House of Lords MSS. H.M.C. Fourth Report, app. p. 59.

^{page 7 note 2} As the Long Parliament was in permanent session, its members and their dependants frequently used the opportunity thus afforded, to set their creditors at defiance.

^{page 7 note 3} Lord's Journals, IV., p. 221^{a and b} (1641, April 19). Frere, on humbly acknowledging his fault was released the following day. Ibid, p. 222^b.

^{page 8 note 1} Lord's Journals, IV, p. 248 (May 14, 1641). ; p. 139 (June 20, 1642). Calendared in H.M.C. Fourth Report, app. p. 63 ; and Fifth Report, app. P 34.

^{page 8 note 2} Lord's Journals, VIII, p. 522. Attached to this document is the affidavit of one Francis Froggatt, “that he heard Richard Pim, living at the Bull in Bishopsgate, say that he would keep William Jackson in prison, in spite of Lord Warwick, and that the order of the House of Lords should not be obeyed.”

^{page 8 note 3} The entries are as follows :—

“14 March, 1645. Capt. Wm. Jackson, at Mr. Pennoyer's, Assessed at 15001.”

“24 March, 1645. Another assessment at 15001.”

“9 April, 1645. To be discharged on affidavit that he has not 1001.” (Calendar of the Committee for the Advance of Money. Domestic. Part I, 1642–1656, p. 519.)

^{page 9 note 1} C.S.P. Domestic, 1653–4 (Navy Papers, Vol. 90). July 19th, 1653. ‘From Capt. Wm. Jackson, in the Dover Road, to the Navy Commissioners.’

^{page 11 note 1} Owing to its position on the sea routes and to its abundant supply of food in the form of wild cattle, Tortuga had for many years been the resort of pirates of all nations. In 1630 John Hilton, who had taken part in the first settlement of St. Christophers (see his well-known account in Egerton MSS (Brit. Mus.) 2395 f. 503 et seq.) left that island with a party of colonists, and settled in Tortuga. A year later the London merchants, who had become interested in this venture, amalgamated with the influential Providence Company; hence the reprisals in which that company engaged when the Spaniards captured Tortuga.

^{page 11 note 1} See extracts above from C.S.P. (Am. and West Indies), 1574–1660, p. 316–9.

^{page 11 note 2} In conjunction with Maurice Thompson and the band of London merchants with whom Jackson had co-operated in his present ventures.

^{page 11 note 3} See footnotes, pp. 1 and 3 respectively.

^{page 12 note 1} The month, though not specified in the MS., can be inferred from Robin's petition in the House of Lords MSS., H.M.C. 5th Report, app. p. 18 (op. cit.), Lord's Journals, V, p. 169^b ; and from his arrival at Barbados in September, the voyage out normally being about seven weeks.

^{page 13 note 1} That the first settlement of Barbados took place in 1627, and not (as often stated) in 1625, is amply proved by N. Darnell-Davis, Cavaliers and Roundheads in Barbados.

^{page 13 note 2} See Rawlinson MSS. (Bodleian), “C,” 94, passim, and similar versions in Trinity College, Dublin MSS. G. 4, 15. These affidavits of contemporary Barbadians describe the nature and effects of the controversy in detail. Cf. Sloane MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 3662 ff. 61 et seq. ; Egerton MSS. 2395, f. 602 et seq. ; and Some Memoirs of the First Settlement.…Barbados, 1741.

^{page 13 note 3} See Rawlinson MSS., “C,” 94 op. cit. It may be noted here that Jackson's possession of a commission from the Earl of Warwick would be likely to carry weight with the Barbadians, for many of them looked to Warwick (who had bought up the rights of Philip, Earl of Montgomery, one of the several claimants to the proprietorship) to deliver them from the tyranny of the Carlisle regime. Cf. Thomas Verney to Sir Edmund Verney, Feb. 10th, 1639. “But I hope, if my Lord of Warwick hath bought the Island that we shall have better orders in the Island than we have hitherto had.” Letters and Papers of the Verney Family. Cf. C.S.P.(Am. and West Indies), 1574– 1660, p. 286.

^{page 13 note 4} Acts of the Privy Council, No. 449 (Jan. 15, 1640) ; also CO. 1 /10. No. 70, Public Record Office.

^{page 14 note 1} Ligon, , True and Exact Account of Barbados. .… London, 1657Google Scholar.

^{page 14 note 2} “Through the restraint on Tobacco,” wrote Sir Thomas Warner from St. Christopher, “the poor planters are debarred from free trade, and unable to furnish themselves with necessaries.” C.S.P. (Am. and West Indies), 1574–1660, p. 295. Cf. Acts of the Privy Council, Nos. 269, 270, 291 and 380.

^{page 14 note 3} For a price list of foodstuffs in Barbados in 1634, see the Calvert Papers No. III, p. 26 (Baltimore, 1879). The condition of St. Christopher, which had been sacked by the Spaniards in 1638, was far from prosperous. Cf. John Hilton's Account (op. cit.), Egerton MSS. 2395, f. 503 et seq.

^{page 16 note 1} The similarity in detail of the two conquests of Jamaica, that of Jackson in 1643, and that of Venables in 1655, is very striking. Cf. footnote on p. 18.

^{page 17 note 1} The majority of these deserters were handed over to Jackson by the Spanish Governor of Jamaica. In 1655 General Venables insisted, in his terms of capitulation, on the surrender of the remainder. See footnote pp. 19, 20.

^{page 20 note 1} Lords' Journals, VII, 301^b. The Captain Taylor mentioned in the petition had no connection with Jackson's expedition, though he appears to have been in Spanish waters about the same time. (Cf. p. 32 of the narrative.).

^{page 20 note 2} See below, pp. 34, 35.

^{page 20 note 3} Thomas Modiford was a cousin of General Monk, but a royalist who had fought for the King in the West of England. On the collapse of the Royalist cause, he emigrated, as did so many others, to the West Indies, arriving in Barbados about 1647. He bought half of Major Hilliard's plantation for £7,000, (Ligon, op. cit., p. 22) and became one of the leading planters in the island, receiving command of the Windward Regiment. When Sir George Ayscue's expedition arrived in 1652 to enforce submission to the Commonwealth, Modiford at first supported Lord Francis Willoughby in active resistance ; but to the disgust of the royalists, he eventually deserted with his regiment, and by so doing compelled them to accept Ayscue's terms of peace. (Tanner MSS. Bodleian, 55 passim : Egerton MSS. 2395, f. 54). He then became one of the chief promoters of Cromwell's ‘Western Design ’—” utterly abjuring y^e cause of y^e Stuarts,” and earned the intense dislike of the Barbadians for his support of the Venables Expedition at that island in 1655. (See Thurloe, III, pp. 157–9, 537, 566–7.) After the Restoration he turned again with the wind, was knighted in 1663, and in the following year became Governor of Jamaica, where he did much to promote the prosperity of the colony.

^{page 21 note 1} “A Paper of Col. Muddiford Concerning the West Indies, Dec, 1654,” Thurloe, III, p. 62.

^{page 21 note 2} “Instructions unto General Robert Venables.… “Addit. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 11410, f. 41. Quoted in extenso by C. H. Firth. The Venables Narrative, p. III.

^{page 22 note 1} See under name in the Dictionary of National Biography.

^{page 22 note 2} “Some briefe and true observations concerning the West Indies, presented to his highnesse, Oliver, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.… .” Thurloe, III. pp. 59–61.

^{page 23 note 1} Seeley, Growth of British Policy, II, 75 et seq.

^{page 23 note 2} That of A. P. Newton, Colonising Activities of the English Puritans.

^{page 24 note 1} “Mr. Thurloe's account of the negotiations between England, France, and Spain from the time of Oliver Cromwell's assuming the government, to the restoration, delivered to the lord chancellor Hyde.” Thurloe, I, 759–763.

^{page 25 note 1} “A brief and perfect Journal of the late Proceedings and Success of the English Army in the West Indies, … Together with some Queries inserted and answered, … by I. S. an Eyewitness.” (London, 1655.) Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, III, pp. 487–510.

^{page 25 note 2} This was the Scriptum Domini Protectoris contra Hispana which received the approval of the Protector's Council on October 26th, 1655 :—that is to say after the despatch of the Venables Expedition, and was evidently a governmental defence against such criticism as that of the pamphleteer quoted above.

^{page 25 note 3} The Venables Narrative, ed. C. H, Firth, pp. 91–2.

^{page 1 note 2} For the relations of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, with Captain Jackson, see Introduction, pp. vii–viii.

^{page 1 note 3} The experience which Captain Axe had previously gained at Providence Island, and on the Mosquito Coast, was of the greatest assistance to the expedition. On account of the military service that he had seen in the Netherlands, he had been appointed in 1630 to superintend the fortification of the newly-settled Santa Catalina or Providence ; and in the same year he was left as Deputy-Governor when Elfrith returned to Bermuda. Owing to a personal quarrel with Elfrith in 1631, he left Providence and took charge of a depot of goods and provisions, which had been established on the largest of the Mosquito cays by Capt. Thomas Camock, as a base for his trading expedition on the Main. On hearing of the peril to which Providence was exposed from a Spanish attack, he returned there in 1635. When the Spaniards in 1641 eventually succeeded in capturing the island, Axe led a party of refugees to St. Christopher's, whence he joined Capt. Jackson in the following year. (Newton, A. P., Colonising Activities of the English Puritans, Yale University Press, 1914, pp. 54, 156, 196, 315, etc.).Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 1} I.e. plunder.

^{page 2 note 2} Cf. Introduction, pp. xiii–xiv.

^{page 3 note 1} William Rous, like Samuel Axe, had obtained previous experience in leadership at Providence Island. He was a kinsman of John Pym, being the eldest grandson of Sir Anthony Rous, who had married Pym's widowed mother. He had been appointed a member of the first Providence Council, and took a leading part in the military training of the colonists. As a daring privateer, he had already gained a great name for himself when in 1636 he commanded the Blessing on a raid to the Main, which cost him his liberty. His proud spirit bitterly resented the treatment which he received at the hands of the Spaniards. He was sent to Europe ; and it was not until 1639 that Pym's efforts to effect his escape were at last successful. He commanded the military forces under Capt. Jackson until 1643, when he returned to England, having learnt that he had been elected a member of the Long Parliament. (Newton, op. cit., pp. 94, 224, 231–233.)

^{page 3 note 2} Anthony Rous was probably another grandson of Sir Anthony Rous. He was a prominent Barbadian planter, and from that island conducted in 1650 a successful colonising expedition to Surinam in Guiana. (Sloane MSS. 3662, ff. 40^b–41.)

^{page 3 note 3} Shortly before Jackson's arrival at Barbados, Capt. Wiborne, who had emigrated there from England in 1639, had experienced brutal treatment at the hands of the Governor, Council and Assembly. He was put into the pillory with his ears nailed to it by tenpenny nails. According to his own statement this savage sentence was inflicted “for writinge a booke which they tearmed a libell.” The person libelled was apparently Major Hilliard, a member of the Council. On persisting in his slanderous statements, he was again pilloried, and then whipped and branded in the face, “with F.A. for a foule accuser.” An eye-witness named Peter Strong afterwards swore in an affidavit that “he saw Wiborne stigmatized, and heard the iron hisse on his cheeke.” His departure from Barbados with Capt. Jackson was therefore probably a relief both to himself and the islanders. (Trinity College, Dublin, MSS., G. 4. 15 (No. 736); Rawlinson MSS. [Bodleian], “C,” 94, f. 12^b. Cf. N. Darnell Davis, Cavaliers and Roundheads in Barbados, p. 61.)

^{page 4 note 1} A heavy type of cannon.

^{page 6 note 1} I.e. Curaçoa. This, and many other attempts of the Spaniards to capture Curaçoa from the Dutch—notably that of the Governor of Venezuela in 1633—failed completely, owing to the presence of a large garrison and to the natural strength of the place. The island has been in the possession of the Dutch continuously since 1632.

^{page 6 note 2} Tortuga Salada, to be distinguished from Tortuga or Association Island, off the North Coast of Hispaniola.

^{page 7 note 1} Puerto Cabello. It was settled in 1549, and soon became notorious as a haunt of smugglers and privateers.

^{page 8 note 1} Curaçoa.

^{page 8 note 2} Now known as Bonaire or Buen Ayre, in the possession of Holland. See note above re Dutch defence of Curaçoa.

^{page 8 note 3} I.e. Maraicaibo, on the western shore of the Gulf of Venezuela.

^{page 9 note 1} This may be a son of the Diego Saurez de Amaya, who as Governor of Cumana, wrote to Philip III on December 8, 1600, suggesting that the salt pond at Punta Araya should be poisoned in order to exterminate the English and Dutch pirates. Additional MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 36317, f. 372. Quoted by Newton op cit., p. 19. The Saurez were one of the leading families in Spanish America. See mention of Don Luys Saures in 1590. Hakluyt VIII, 315.

^{page 11 note 1} This Thomas Powell may have been a son of the one of three brothers John, Henry, and William Powell, who, under the auspices of Sir William Courteen, conducted the first settlement of Barbados in 1627. The family owned a large estate on the island called the Powell Plantation, where George, a son of John Powell, died in 1649. (Rawlinson MSS., C. 94 passim.)

^{page 13 note 1} Lewis Morris played an important part in West Indian affairs for many years. On his return to England in 1645 he presented the following petition to the House of Lords against Capt. Jackson :—

“Your Petitioner who has been employed for fifteen years in the West Indies, was denied his commission to return hither by Capt. Jackson, Commander-in-Chief there, until he entered into bond for 400l., for a bale of cochineal taken of Jackson by Capt. Cromwell at 40 shillings per pound, and to become payable within two months after Cromwell or your Petitioner should arrive in London. Upon your petitioners arrival, the cochineal proved to be Silvester, and not worth four shillings a pound, and yet one Roiston has in Jackson's name arrested Petitioner, and he now remains in the Poultry Compter. Prays for his discharge.” (H.M.C. 6th Report, p. 79^b, House of Lords MSS., calendared from Lords' Journals VII, p. 632.) Morris, however, was “left to the law.” In 1652 he served under Sir George Ayscue at the Scilly Islands, where he earned high praise for his gallantry. Proceeding to Barbados, he was appointed a member of the Council, and was one of the chief supporters of the Commonwealth regime under Governor Daniel Searle. In 1655 he was appointed to be one of the Barbadian Commissioners for the Venables Expedition. (Thurloe III, pp. 200, 543.) When Venables and his force arrived at the island, Morris was created Colonel of “the Barbados Regiment.” Just before sailing, however, Morris refused to go unless his debts were paid by the State. “He told us in plaine terms,” wrote Edward Winslow, “if we would give him an 100,000 weight of sugar, that so he might pay his debts, and leave his estate cleere to his wife, then Lewis Morris would shed his blood for us … The truth is he prizeth himself at so high a rate, as if the expedition could not go on without him.….” (Thurloe, III, p. 250.) Morris finally agreed to march his men on board before handing over his command to Colonel D'Oyley. Cf. The Venables Narrative, ed. C. H. Firth, App. p. 121.

^{page 18 note 1} The capture of Jamaica by Capt. Jackson in 1643, and that by Venables in 1655 are curiously similar in detail. The latter campaign is briefly described by an eye-witness. Rawlinson MSS. D. 1208, ff. 63–5. Quoted in extenso by C. H. Firth, The Venables Narrative, op. cit., App. D, pp. 136–8.

^{page 19 note 1} Some of these deserters, however, evidently remained with the Spaniards, for in the articles of surrender in 1655, Venables inserted the following clause :

“Seventhly, That nothing in these present Articles be understood to Extend to any person that came to this Island upon a former Attempt under Capt. William Jackson, and then forsaking their Colours revolted to the Enemy, and that the Governor deliver the said Persons into the Power aforesaid.” Narrative, op. cit., pp. 37–8. This proviso is another indication of the attention which Jackson's campaign had attracted in England.

^{page 20 note 1} Rio de la Hacha, noted for its pearl fisheries. Hawkins visited the place in 1565, and again in 1568 ; but on both occasions had to overawe the Spanish authorities by armed force before they could be induced to allow him to sell his negro slaves to the planters. Hakluyt III. 471.

^{page 21 note 1} The (Great) Cayman island.

^{page 22 note 1} Cape Gracias a Dios.

^{page 22 note 2} In June, 1638, the Providence Company made a grant of incorporation to William Claiborne, a planter from Virginia and Maryland, for the settlement of this island of Ruatan. On the capture of Providence island in 1641, some of the fugitives fled to Cape Gracios a Dios, where they were kindly received by the Indians (with whom the islanders had always been on good terms), and others fled to the new colony at Ruatan. The respite of the latter party had been consequently short. From the wording of the narrative it would seem that the Spaniards had carried away the entire settlement as prisoners.

^{page 23 note 1} Truxillo was the chief port whence the produce of Honduras was shipped to Spain, and accordingly suffered special attention at the hands of English privateers. In 1597 Sir Anthony Shirley and Capt. Parker had made an unsuccessful attempt to capture it (Hakluyt VI, 220) ; but in 1639 Capt. Butler, the piratical Governor of Providence, took the place by surprise, and exacted a ransom of 16,000 pieces of eight. (A. P. Newton, Colonising Activities of the English Puritans, p. 257.) Various raids by Dutch and French privateers had also contributed to reduce it to “a very poor and ruinous condition.” (See narrative below.)

^{page 23 note 2} Philip Roberts afterwards fell upon evil days. In July, 1661, he presented a humble petition to Charles II, asking for “some small employment.” He had been employed, so he stated, in the West Indies for twenty-six years. “In the year 1642 he had command of a company under Capt. William Jackson against the Spaniards in the West Indies, having taken and plundered many towns whereby he had purchased much diamonds, pearls and other rich jewels; but coming for England in 1646 was taken by Dunkirk men of war, who sunk the ship and all the goods.… “(See the narrative below.) He then recounts his recapture by the Spaniards in the West Indies in 1660.

Attached to this petition is a “Certificate of Sir Edward Massey showing that Roberts was one of those engaged with Jackson in a voyage for the West Indies in making discoveries there, that he was reputed a very honest, expert, and valiant soldier, that he had suffered much misery and loss by being taken by the Spaniards, and that his imprisonment had gained him such knowledge of the Spaniards' Plantations as renders him very capable of doing his Majesty good service.” C.S.P. (America and West Indies), 1661–8. No. 143.

^{page 25 note 1} For Captain Axe's previous relations with the Indians of Cape Gracias à Dios, see footnote pp. 1, 2.

^{page 27 note 1} Escudo de Veragua.

^{page 29 note 1} Chagres, on the Panama Coast.

^{page 31 note 1} In October, 1636, Captain William Rous on board the Blessing had sailed into the Bay of Santa Marta with a view to capturing the town, but had been overpowered by superior numbers and compelled to surrender, he himself being sent a prisoner to Spain. (See note on William Rous, p. 3.)

^{page 31 note 2} Cape Cruz.

^{page 32 note 1} Don Alonzo de Cardenas, the Spanish Ambassador in England, coupled the names of Jackson and Taylor together in his protest against their depredations ; but the two captains had no connection with each other in their respective cruises. (See Introduction, pp. xix–xx.)

^{page 32 note 2} I.e. Tabasco.

^{page 33 note 1} Hawkins put into the port of San Juan de Ulua on September 16th, 1568, “And in our entry, the Spaniards thinking us to be the fleet of Spain, the chief officers of the country came aboard us. Which, being deceived of their expectation, were greatly dismayed : but immediately when they saw our demand was nothing but victuals, were recomforted.” Hakluyt.

^{page 34 note 1} I.e. Matanzas.