great Spanish galleon, the Milagrosa, which,
accompanied by the smaller frigate Hidalga, lurked off the Caymites,
to the north of the long peninsula that thrusts out from the southwest
corner of Hispaniola. Aboard the Milagrosa sailed the vindictive Don
Miguel.

The third and last of these ships with which we are at present concerned
was an English man-of-war, which on the date I have given was at anchor
in the French port of St. Nicholas on the northwest coast of Hispaniola.
She was on her way from Plymouth to Jamaica, and carried on board a
very distinguished passenger in the person of Lord Julian Wade, who
came charged by his kinsman, my Lord Sunderland, with a mission of
some consequence and delicacy, directly arising out of that vexatious
correspondence between England and Spain.

The French Government, like the English, excessively annoyed by the
depredations of the buccaneers, and the constant straining of relations
with Spain that ensued, had sought in vain to put them down by enjoining
the utmost severity against them upon her various overseas governors.
But these, either--like the Governor of Tortuga--throve out of a
scarcely tacit partnership with the filibusters, or--like the Governor
of French Hispaniola--felt that they were to be encouraged as a check
upon the power and greed of Spain, which might otherwise be exerted to
the disadvantage of the colonies of other nations. They looked, indeed,
with apprehension upon recourse to any vigorous measures which must
result in driving many of the buccaneers to seek new hunting-grounds in
the South Sea.

To satisfy King James's anxiety to conciliate Spain, and in response to
the Spanish Ambassador's constant and grievous expostulations, my Lord
Sunderland, the Secretary of State, had appointed a strong man to the
deputy-governorship of Jamaica. This strong man was that Colonel
Bishop who for some years now had been the most influential planter in
Barbados.

Colonel Bishop had accepted the post, and departed from the plantations
in which his great wealth was being amassed with an eagerness that had
its roots in a desire to pay off a score of his own with Peter Blood.

From his first coming to Jamaica, Colonel Bishop had made himself felt
by the buccaneers. But do what he might, the one buccaneer whom he
made his particular quarry--that Peter Blood who once had been his
slave--eluded him ever, and continued undeterred and in great force
to harass the Spaniards