you are upon the place,-where certainly you may be better able to judge what may tend more to your accommodation than at a distance. Surely the sooner you remove thither,1 you will have the more time to strengthen yourself, in such place or upon such port as you shall like of. And for your own part, I have named you one of the Commissioners there for managing of the whole affair; whereby you will have your vote and interest in that Government.

Having said this, I think fit to let you know that we have twenty men-of-war already there, and are sending eight more, many whereof have forty guns and upwards, and the rest above thirty. We hope the Plantation is not lacking in anything; having at the least seven-thousand fighting-men upon the place: 3 and we are providing to supply them constantly with fresh men, and we trust they are furnished with a twelve-month's victuals; and I think, if we have it in England, they shall not want.

4

We have also sent to the Colonies of New England like offers with yours, to remove thither; our resolution being to people and plant that Island. And indeed we have very good reason to expect considerable numbers from thence, forasmuch as the last winter was very destructive, and the summer hath proved so very sickly.

I pray God direct you; and rest,

Your loving friend,

'OLIVER P.'*

1 Will mean, if our Addressing of this Letter is correct, that it had at one time been intended and decided to send Searle of Barbadoes, an experienced man, the ablest and principal English Governor in the West Indies, to take charge of Jamaica himself. Which however, in the quick succession of new lights and occurrences, never came to pass. [But see note on page 473 above.]

2 Same phrase in the preceding Letter.

[The Protector no doubt believed this when he wrote, but it was much too sanguine an estimate. In the January following, Sedgwick and Goodson plainly told him that they had not 3,000 men, and of these many were sick and weak, and dying at the rate of fifty a week; "which is much," they add sadly, "considering our small numbers." At the same time, Sedgwick wrote to Thurloe saying that they seemed to think that he had 7,000 men, but he hoped they now understood that the army, far from assisting in any design, was hardly in a capacity to maintain the Island. Thurloe iv. 454, 455.]

Encouragements to them, as to your' Colony, to emigrate thither.

*Thurloe, iv. 130. [Now printed from Thurloe's MS. copy at the Bodleian.]

Undoubtedly to Daniel Serle,' or else to Major-General Sedgwick,' the other of the Four new Commissioners, this Letter must have been addressed. With either of which Addresses it remains historically somewhat obscure; but is legible enough for our purposes with it here. The next seems to be of slightly later

date.

SIR,

LETTER CCVI

To Major-General Fortescue, 'at Jamaica

'Whitehall, October 30 (?) 1655."

You will herewith receive Instructions for the better carrying-on of your business, which is not of small account here, although our discouragements have been many; for which we desire to humble ourselves before the Lord, who hath very sorely chastened us. I do commend, in the midst of others' miscarriages, your constancy and faithfulness to your trust in remaining 2 where you are, and taking care of a company of poor sheep left by their shepherd: 3 and be assured that, as that which you have done hath been good in itself, and becoming an honest man, so it hath a very good savour here with all good Christians and all true Englishmen, and will not be forgotten by me as opportunity shall serve.

I hope you have long before this time received that good supply which went from hence in July last, whereby you will perceive that you have not been forgotten here. I hope also the ships sent for New England are, before this time, with you: and let me tell you, as an encouragement to you and those with you to improve your utmost diligence, and to excite your courage

1[Carlyle dated this 'November' but Cromwell's allusion to it in the letter to Goodson (see p. 469 above) shows that it was written not later than October 30.] 2 [Mis-read "every" by Birch.]

3 Fortescue's own expression: in a Letter of 21st July 1655 (Thurloe, iii. 675). Vaughan, i. 303; Thurloe, iv. 4.

Thurloe, iv. 157; one, the first of them, did arrive, Nov. Ist: 'sent from Jamaica to New England for provisions.'

in this business, though not to occasion any negligence in prosecuting that affair, nor to give occasion to slacken any improvement of what the place may afford, that you will be followed with what necessary supplies, as well for your comfortable subsistence as for your security against the Spaniard, this place may afford, or you want.

And therefore study first your security by fortifying: and although you have not moneys, for the present, to do it in such quantities as were to be wished, yet, your case being as that of a marching army, wherein every soldier, out of principles of nature, and according to the practice of all discipline, ought to be at the pains to secure the common quarters,—we hope no man amongst you will be so wanting to himself, considering food is provided for you, as not to be willing to help to the uttermost therein. And therefore I require you and all with you, for the safety of the whole, that this be made your most principal intention. The doing of this will require that you be very careful not to scatter, till you have begun a security in some one place. Next I desire you that you would consider how to form such a body of good Horse as may, if the Spaniard shall attempt upon you at the next coming into the Indies with his galeons, be in a readiness to march to hinder his landing; 'who' will hardly land upon a body of horse; and if he shall land, be in a posture to keep the provisions of the country from him, or him from his provisions, if he shall endeavour to march towards you.

[We trust we shall furnish you with bridles, saddles and horseshoes, and other things necessary for that work, desiring you to improve to the utmost what you have already of those sorts. Should it be known that you had five hundred horse well appointed, ready to march upon all occasions in that island, even that alone might deter the Spaniard from attempting anything upon you.] 2

We have sent a Commissioner and Instructions into New Eng

[Printed "presenting" in Thurloe.]

2[The passage in square brackets was omitted by Carlyle.]

land, to try what people may be drawn thence.1

We have done

the like to the Windward English Islands; and both in England and Scotland and Ireland, you will have what men and women we can well transport.

2

We think, and it is much designed amongst us, to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas: and therefore we could heartily wish that the Island of Providence were in our hands again; believing that it lies so advantageously in reference to the Main, and especially for the hindrance of the Peru trade and Cartagena, that you would not only have great advantage thereby of intelligence and surprise, but 'might' even block up Cartagena. It is discoursed here that, if the Spaniard do attempt 'upon' you, it is most likely it will be on the East end of the Island, towards Cuba; as also that Cuba, upon Cuba, is a place easily attempted, and hath in it a very rich copper-mine. It would be good, for the first, as you have opportunity, to inform yourself, and if there be need, to make a good work thereupon, to prevent them. And for the other, and all things of that kind, we must leave them to your judgment upon the place, to do therein as you shall see cause.

3

To conclude: As we have cause to be humbled for the reproof God gave us at St. Domingo, upon the account of our own sins as well as others', so, truly, upon the reports brought hither to us of the extreme avarice, pride and confidence, disorders and debauchedness, profaneness and wickedness, commonly practised in that Army, we cannot only bewail the same, but desire that all with you may do so, and that a very special regard may be had so to govern, for time to come, as that all manner of vice

1 Long Correspondences about it, and details, from assiduous Mr. Gookin, chief of those Commissioners, in Thurloe, iv. [He was the only one.]

2 the same,' in orig.

3[Carlyle altered this to "Cuba, in its chief town is a place," with a note, "Cuba upon Cuba is a place' as the original has it. The first Cuba' here must, of course, mean Cuba Town, now Havanna." But it is more probably a mistake or mis-reading for St. Iago upon Cuba; for the Generals, in their reply, say, "We had long since attempted St. Iago de Cuba, could our army have afforded us but 500 men," etc. (Thurloe, iv. 457.).]

may be thoroughly discountenanced, and severely punished; and that such a frame of government may be exercised that virtue and godliness may receive due encouragement.

'I rest,

'Your loving friend,

'OLIVER P.'*

The brave Fortescue never received this Letter; he already lay in his grave when it was written; had died in October last,1 a speedy victim of the bad climate and desperate situation. Brave Sedgwick, his Partner and Successor, soon died also:2 a very brave, zealous and pious man, whose Letters in Thurloe are of all others the best worth reading on this subject. Other brave men followed, and soon died; spending heroically their remnant of life-fire there,—as heroes do, making paths through the impassable.' But we must leave the heroisms of Oliver Protector and his Puritans, in this Jamaica Business, to the reader's fancy henceforth,-till perhaps some Jamaica Poet rise to resuscitate and extricate them. Reinforcement went on the back of reinforcement, during this Protector's lifetime: a Thousand Irish Girls' went; not to speak of the rogue-and-vagabond species from Scotland,-we can help you at any time to two or three hundred of these.' 3 And so at length a West-India Interest did take root; and bears spices and poisons, and other produce, to this day.

1

LETTERS CCVII.-CCXIV

TAKE the following Letters in mass; and make some dim History of Eleven Months from them, as best may be.4

* Thurloe, iv. 633. [Now printed from Thurloe's draft at the Bodleian.] 1 Ibid., iv. 153.

224th June 1656 (Long's History of Jamaica, i. 257).

3 Long, i. 244; Thurloe, iv. 692, 5-new Admonitions and Instructions from the Protector, of Thurloe's writing, 17th June 1656 (Thurloe, v. 129-131); etc. [There was a proposal (and a great deal of correspondence with Henry Cromwell on the subject), to send "young wenches and youths" from Ireland. The Committee of Council voted that "a thousand girls and as many youths be taken up for that purpose" (Thurloe iv. 75, 87), but it does not appear that they were ever sent.]

4 [See also Supplement, Nos. 113-115.]