he tenths and fifteenths if it discouraged
their submission; and if this course failed to bring in the rovers, he
was to use every means in his power "by force or persuasion" to make
them submit.[332] Lynch immediately set about to secure the good-will of
his Spanish neighbours and to win back the privateers to more peaceful
pursuits. Major Beeston was sent to Cartagena with the articles of
peace, where he was given every satisfaction and secured the release of
thirty-two English prisoners.[333] On the 15th August the proclamation
of pardon to privateers was issued at Port Royal;[334] and those who had
railed against their commanders for cheating them at Panama, were given
an opportunity of resorting to the law-courts.[335] Similar
proclamations were sent by the governor "to all their haunts,"
intimating that he had written to Bermuda, the Caribbees, New England,
New York and Virginia for their apprehension, had sent notices to all
Spanish ports declaring them pirates, and intended to send to Tortuga to
prevent their reception there.[336] However, although the governor wrote
home in the latter part of the month that the privateers were entirely
suppressed, he soon found that the task was by no means a simple one.
Two buccaneers with a commission from Modyford, an Englishman named
Thurston and a mulatto named Diego, flouted his offer of pardon,
continued to prey upon Spanish shipping, and carried their prizes to
Tortuga.[337] A Dutchman named Captain Yallahs (or Yellowes) fled to
Campeache, sold his frigate for 7000 pieces of eight to the Spanish
governor, and entered into Spanish service to cruise against the English
logwood-cutters. The Governor of Jamaica sent Captain Wilgress in
pursuit, but Wilgress devoted his time to chasing a Spanish vessel
ashore, stealing logwood and burning Spanish houses on the coast.[338] A
party of buccaneers, English and French, landed upon the north side of
Cuba and burnt two towns, carrying away women and inflicting many
cruelties on the inhabitants; and when the governors of Havana and St.
Jago complained to Lynch, the latter could only disavow the English in
the marauding party as rebels and pirates, and bid the Spanish governors
hang all who fell into their power.[339] The governor, in fact, was
having his hands full, and wrote in January 1672 that "this cursed trade
has been so long followed, and there is so many of it, that like weeds
or hydras, they spring up as fast as we can cut th