considerable progress toward establishing an ordered constitution in the
island. He disbanded the old army, and reorganised the military under a
stricter discipline and better officers. He systematised legal procedure
and the rules for the conveyance of property. He erected an Admiralty
Court at Port Royal, and above all, probably in pursuance of the
recommendation of Colonel Doyley,[172] had called in all the
privateering commissions issued by previous governors, and tried to
submit the captains to orderly rules by giving them new commissions,
with instructions to bring their Spanish prizes to Jamaica for
judicature.[173]

The departure of Windsor did not put a stop to the efforts of the
Jamaicans to "force a trade" with the Spanish plantations, and we find
the Council, on 11th December 1662, passing a motion that to this end an
attempt should be made to leeward on the coasts of Cuba, Honduras and
the Gulf of Campeache. On 9th and 10th January between 1500 and 1600
soldiers, many of them doubtless buccaneers, were embarked on a fleet of
twelve ships and sailed two days later under command of the redoubtable
Myngs. About ninety leagues this side of Campeache the fleet ran into a
great storm, in which one of the vessels foundered and three others were
separated from their fellows. The English reached the coast of
Campeache, however, in the early morning of Friday, 9th February, and
landing a league and a half from the town, marched without being seen
along an Indian path with "such speed and good fortune" that by ten
o'clock in the morning they were already masters of the city and of all
the forts save one, the Castle of Santa Cruz. At the second fort Myngs
was wounded by a gun in three places. The town itself, Myngs reported,
might have been defended like a fortress, for the houses were contiguous
and strongly built of stone with flat roofs.[174] The forts were partly
demolished, a portion of the town was destroyed by fire, and the
fourteen sail lying in the harbour were seized by the invaders.
Altogether the booty must have been considerable. The Spanish
licentiate, Maldonado de Aldana, placed it at 150,000 pieces of
eight,[175] and the general damage to the city in the destruction of
houses and munitions by the enemy, and in the expenditure of treasure
for purposes of defence, at half a million more. Myngs and his fleet
sailed away on 23rd February, but the "Centurion" did not reach Port
Royal until 13th April, and t