the coast of San Domingo.
Grammont, however, on learning of his new honour, wished to have a last
fling at the Spaniards before he settled down to respectability. He
armed a ship, sailed away with 180 men, and was never heard of
again.[453] At the same time Laurens de Graff was given the title of
"Major," and he lived to take an active part in the war against the
English between 1689 and 1697.[454]

These semi-pirates, whom the French governor dared not openly support
yet feared to disavow, were a constant source of trouble to the Governor
of Jamaica. They did not scruple to attack English traders and fishing
sloops, and when pursued took refuge in Petit Goave, the port in the
_cul-de-sac_ at the west end of Hispaniola which had long been a
sanctuary of the freebooters, and which paid little respect to the
authority of the royal governor.[455] In Jamaica they believed that the
corsairs acted under regular commissions from the French authorities,
and Sir Thomas Lynch sent repeated complaints to de Pouancay and to his
successor. He also wrote to England begging the Council to ascertain
from the French ambassador whether these governors had authority to
issue commissions of war, so that his frigates might be able to
distinguish between the pirate and the lawful privateer.[456] Except at
Petit Goave, however, the French were really desirous of preserving
peace with Jamaica, and did what they could to satisfy the demands of
the English without unduly irritating the buccaneers. They were in the
same position as Lynch in 1671, who, while anxious to do justice to the
Spaniards, dared not immediately alienate the freebooters who plundered
them, and who might, if driven away, turn their arms against Jamaica.
Vanhorn himself, it seems, when he left Hispaniola to join Laurens in
the Gulf of Honduras, had been sent out by de Pouancay really to pursue
"La Trompeuse" and other pirates, and his lieutenant, de Grammont,
delivered letters to Governor Lynch to that effect; but once out of
sight he steered directly for Central America, where he anticipated a
more profitable game than pirate-hunting.[457]

On the 24th of August 1684 Sir Thomas Lynch died in Jamaica, and Colonel
Hender Molesworth, by virtue of his commission as lieutenant-governor,
assumed the authority.[458] Sir Henry Morgan, who had remained
lieutenant-governor when Lynch returned to Jamaica, had afterwards been
suspended from the council and from all other public employ