Commerce of the colonies at the mercy of the corsairs. Disregard was also shown to the pressing demands of the marqués for the improvement of the defenses of the coast ports on the North and South seas. His request that the fortifications of San Juan de Ulúa should be repaired were not even answered.[1]
It was hoped that the treaty concluded between England and Spain, October 8, 1670, whereby either power was granted the sovereignty over the lands then in their possession in the Indies, and all trade forbidden between the two nations in those regions, would be of benefit to the provinces; but such was not the case. The governor of Jamaica, Thomas Lynch, continued to grant the pirates a tacit protection, and it was only under his successor, Lord Vaughan, that the licenses given to the corsairs were revoked, and a number of the sea-robbers hanged, when, in disregard of warnings, they returned to that island to dispose of their booty.
In the beginning of 1672 some English buccaneers landed near the mouth of Goazacoalco River, and thence made raids on the neighboring villages. The viceroy, afraid of provoking hostilities, or for some other reason, did not proceed against them, but asked for instructions from Spain. In reply he was rebuked for his hesitation, and ordered to dislodge the invaders, and try the captured pirates in Mexico, instead of sending them to Spain, as had been usual. An expedition was despatched, and succeeded in driving the English vessel ashore, where it was burned. The crew, however, fled to the woods. Subsequently detachments
- ↑ Mancera himself had inspected them in the beginning of 1670. Mancera, in Instrucc. Vireyes, 277; Robles, Diario, i. 86. It was not alone from pirate that danger threatened Vera Cruz; a garrison of tolerable force was also required to prevent an outbreak of the negro slaves, who at intervals had been sent there, sometimes several hundred at a time. In 1669 about 500 of them, when near Vera Cruz, on the road to Mexico, had risen, overpowered and killed the escort, and fled to the woods. It became necessary to send forces against them to remove such dangerous neighbors from the principal port of New Spain.
