ur guns upon the ruins of the larger
fort previously erected by the French. Watts received a commission for
the island from General Brayne, who was then governor of Jamaica, and in
a short time gathered about him a colony of about 150, both English and
French. Among these new-comers was a "poor distressed gentleman" by the
name of James Arundell, formerly a colonel in the Royalist army and now
banished from England, who eventually married Watts' daughter and became
the head of the colony.

It was while Watts was governor of Tortuga, if we are to believe the
Jesuit, Dutertre, that the buccaneers determined to avenge the treachery
of the Spaniards to a French vessel in that neighbourhood by plundering
the city of St. Jago in Hispaniola. According to this historian, who
from the style of the narrative seems to be reporting the words of an
eye-witness, the buccaneers, including doubtless both hunters and
corsairs, formed a party of 400 men under the leadership of four
captains and obtained a commission for the enterprise from the English
governor, who was very likely looking forward to a share of the booty.
Compelling the captain of a frigate which had just arrived from Nantes
to lend his ship, they embarked in it and in two or three other boats
found on the coast for Puerta de Plata, where they landed on Palm Sunday
of 1659.[191] St. Jago, which lay in a pleasant, fertile plain some
fifteen or twenty leagues in the interior of Hispaniola, they approached
through the woods on the night of Holy Wednesday, entered before
daybreak, and surprised the governor in his bed. The buccaneers told him
to prepare to die, whereupon he fell on his knees and prayed to such
effect that they finally offered him his life for a ransom of 60,000
pieces of eight. They pillaged for twenty-four hours, taking even the
bells, ornaments and sacred vessels of the churches, and after
refreshing themselves with food and drink, retreated with their plunder
and prisoners, including the governor and chief inhabitants. Meanwhile
the alarm had been given for ten or twelve leagues round about. Men came
in from all directions, and rallying with the inhabitants of the town
till they amounted to about 1000 men, marched through the woods by a
by-route, got ahead of the buccaneers and attacked them from ambush. The
English and French stood their ground in spite of inferior numbers, for
they were all good marksmen and every shot told. As the Spaniards
persisted, h