elf.[382] The quarrel hung fire, however, until on 24th July
when the governor, in obedience to orders from England,[383] cited
Morgan and his brother-in-law, Colonel Byndloss, to appear before the
council. Against Morgan he brought formal charges of using the
governor's name and authority without his orders in letters written to
the captains of the privateers, and Byndloss he accused of unlawfully
holding a commission from a foreign governor to collect the tenths on
condemned prize goods.[384] Morgan in his defence to Secretary Coventry
flatly denied the charges, and denounced the letters written to the
privateers as forgeries; and Byndloss declared his readiness "to go in
this frigate with a tender of six or eight guns and so to deal with the
privateers at sea, and in their holes (_sic_) bring in the chief of them
to His Majesty's obedience or bring in their heads and destroy their
ships."[385] There seems to be little doubt that letters were written by
Morgan to certain privateers soon after his arrival in Jamaica, offering
them, in the name of the governor, favour and protection in Port Royal.
Copies of these letters, indeed, still exist;[386] but whether they were
actually used is not so certain. Charles Barre, secretary to Sir Henry
Morgan, confessed that such letters had been written, but with the
understanding that the governor lent them his approval, and that when
this was denied Sir Henry refused to send them.[387] It is natural to
suppose that Morgan should feel a bond of sympathy with his old
companions in the buccaneer trade, and it is probable that in 1675, in
the first enthusiasm of his return to Jamaica, having behind him the
openly-expressed approbation of the English Court for what he had done
in the past, and feeling uncertain, perhaps, as to Lord Vaughan's real
attitude toward the sea-rovers, Morgan should have done some things
inconsistent with the policy of stern suppression pursued by the
government. It is even likely that he was indiscreet in some of his
expressions regarding the governor and his actions. His bluff,
unconventional, easygoing manners, natural to men brought up in new
countries and intensified by his early association with the buccaneers,
may have been distasteful to a courtier accustomed to the urbanities of
Whitehall. It is also clear, however, that Lord Vaughan from the first
conceived a violent prejudice against his lieutenant, and allowed this
prejudice to colour the interpretat