rs of Barbadoes and Jamaica to permit the
Spaniards to buy goods and Negroes in their respective islands, and to
refrain from charging duties on these Negroes in case they were
reexported by the agents of the Royal Adventurers.[74] This was
followed by a royal order of April 29, 1663, commanding the governor
to stop all hostile measures against the Spaniards. Sir Charles
Lyttleton, the deputy governor, replied that he hoped the attempt to
begin a trade with the Spaniards would be successful, especially in
Negroes, which the Spaniards could not obtain more easily than in
Jamaica.[75]

When Sir Charles Modyford became governor of Jamaica in 1664, the king
repeated his desire to promote trade and correspondence with the
Spanish plantations. Indeed Modyford's previous success in selling
Negroes to the Spaniards probably influenced his appointment to this
office. As soon as Modyford reached Jamaica he wrote a letter to the
governor of Santo Domingo informing him that the king had ordered a
cessation of hostilities and desired a peaceful commerce with the
Spanish colonies.[76] Modyford instructed the two commissioners by
whom the letter was sent to emphasize the trade in Negroes and to
induce the Spaniards, if possible, to negotiate with him in regard to
this matter.[77] Again the answer of the governor of Santo Domingo was
unfavorable. He pointed out that it was not within his power to order
a commerce with Jamaica, but that this was the province of the
government in Spain. The governor, moreover, complained that the
people of Jamaica had acted in the same hostile manner toward the
Spaniards since the Restoration as they had in Cromwell's time, and
therefore his people were little inclined to begin a trade with
Jamaica.

The refusal of the Spanish governor to consider Modyford's proposition
seemed all the more bitter since it was well known at that time that
the Spaniards were obtaining many Negroes from the Dutch West India
Company. The Genoese also had a contract with the Spaniards to deliver
24,500 Negroes in seven years nearly all of whom they expected to
obtain from the Dutch at that "cursed little barren island" of
Curacao, as Sir Thomas Lynch called it. Lynch also observed that if
the Royal Company desired to participate in the Spanish trade it would
either have to sell to the Genoese or drive the Dutch out of Africa,
because he did not believe it was possible to call in the privateers
without the assistance of sev