from him, or him from the provisions, if he shall endeavor to march towards you. We have sent Commissioners and Instructions into New England, to try what people may be drawn thence. We have done the like to the Windward English Islands; and both in England and Scotland and Ireland, you will have what men and women we can well transport We think, and it is much designed amongst us, to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas; and therefore we could heartily wish that the Island of Providence were in our hands again: believing that it lies so advantageously in reference to the Main, and especially for the hindrance of the Peru trade and Carthagena, that you would not only have great advantage thereby of intelligence and surprisal, but might' even block up Carthagena.† It is discoursed here that, if the Spaniard do attempt upon you, it is most likely it will be upon the East end of the Island, towards Cuba; as also 'that' Cuba, in its chief Town, is a place‡ easily attempted, and hath in it a very rich copper-mine. It would be good, for the first, as you have opportunity, to inform yourself: and if there be need, to make a good work upon the East end of your Island, to prevent them. And for the other, and all things of that kind, we must leave them to your judgment upon the pace, to do therein as you shall see cause. To conclude: As we have cause to be humbled for the reproof God gave us at St. Domingo, upon the account of our own sins as well as 'others,” so, truly upon the reports brought hither to us of the extreme avarice, pride and confidence, disorders and debauchedness, profaneness and wickedness, commonly practised amongst the Army, we can not only bewail the same, but desire that all with you may do so; and that a very special regard may be had so to govern, for time to come, as that all manner of vice may be thoroughly discountenanced, and severely punished: and that such a frame of government may be exercised that virtue and godliness may receive due encouragement. The brave Fortescue never received this Letter: he already * Long Correspondences about it, and details, from assiduous Mr, Gookin, chief of those Commissioners, in Thurloe, iv. t'the same' in orig. 'Cuba upon Cuba is a place,' as the original has it. The first Cuba' here must, of course, mean Cuba Town, now Havanna. § Thurloe, iv., 634. 6 lay in his grave when it was written; had died in October last,* a speedy victim of the bad climate and desperate situation. Brave Sedgwick, his Partner and Successor, soon died also :† a very brave, zealous and pious man, whose Letters in Thurloe are of all others the best worth reading on this subject. Other brave men followed, and soon died; spending heroically their remnant of life-fire there, as heroes do, making paths through the impassable.' But we must leave the heroisms of Oliver Protector and his Puritans, in this Jamaica Business, to the reader's fancy henceforth,―till perhaps some Jamaica Poet rise to resuscitate and extricate them. Reinforcement went on the back of reinforcement, during this Protector's lifetime: 'a Thousand Irish Girls' went ; not to speak of the rogue-and-vagabond species from Scotland,' we can help you' at any time to two or three hundred of these.'§ And so at length a West-India Interest did take root; and bears spices and poisons, and other produce, to this day. * Thurloe, iv., 153. † 24 June, 1656 (Long's History of Jamaica, i., 257). Long, i., 244. § Thurloe, iv., 692, 5. LETTERS CXLIV.-CXLVIII. TAKE the following Letters in mass; and make some aim His tory of Eleven Months from them, as best may be. LETTER CXLIV. HENRY CROMWELL has no Major-Generals in Ireland, but has his anarchies there also to deal with. Let him listen to this good advice on the subject. SON, For my Son, Henry Cromwell, at Dublin, Ireland. 'Whitehall,' 21st November, 1655. I have seen your Letter writ unto Mr. Secretary Thurloe; and do find thereby that you are very apprehensive of the carriage of some persons with you, towards yourself and the public affairs. I do believe there may be some particular persons who are not very well pleased with the present condition of things, and may be apt to show their discontent as they have opportunity: but this should not make too great impressions in you. Time and patience may work them to a better frăme of spirit, and bring them to see that which, for the present, seems to be hid from them; especially if they shall see your moderation and love towards them, if they are found in other ways towards you. Which I earnestly desire you to study and endeavor, all that lies in you. Whereof both you and I too shall have the comfort, whatsoever the issue and event thereof be. For what you write of more help, I have long endeavored it, and shall not be wanting to send you some farther addition to the Council, so soon as men can be found out who are fit for the trust. I am also thinking of sending over to you a fit person who may command the North of Ireland; which I believe stands in great need of one; and ‘I' am of your opinion that Trevor and Colonel Mervin are very dangerous persons, and may be made the heads of a new rebellion. And there fore I would have you move the Council that they be secured in some very safe place, and the farther out of their own countries the better. I commend you to the Lord; and rest, Your affectionate father, OLIVER P.* 'The Letter writ untò Mr. Secretary Thurloe' which is responded to in this wise and magnanimous manner, does not appear in Thurloe or elsewhere. November 14, the day before the date of this, Henry writing to Thurloe excuses his present brevity, his last Letter having been so very copious: that copious Letter, now lost, is probably the one in question here. • November 22d,' the day after this Letter, 'came several accounts from the Major-Generals out of divers Counties. Out of Norfolk it was certified that Cleveland the Poet and one Sherland a wild Parson were apprehended' at Norwich by Colonel Haynes,' the Lord Fleetwood's Substitute in those regions. This is John Cleveland the famed Cantab Scholar, Royalist JudgeAdvocate, and thrice-illustrious Satirist and son of the Muses; who had gone through eleven editions in those times, far transcending all Miltons and all mortals,—and does not now need any twelfth edition, that we hear of. Still recognizable for a man of lively parts and brilliant petulant character; directed, alas, almost wholly to the worship of clothes,—which is by nature a transient one! His good fortune quitted him, I think, nine years ago, when David Lesley took him prisoner in Newark. A stinging satire against the Scots had led Cleveland to expect at least martyrdom on this occasion; but Lesley merely said, "Let the poor knave go and sell his ballads ;"‡ and dismissed him,—towards thin diet, and a darkness which has been deepening ever since. Very low, now at Norwich, where he is picked up by Colone! Haynes: Thirty pounds a year;' 'lives with a gentleman to whom he is giving some instruction ;'-unfortunate son of the Muses. He indites a highflown magnanimous epistle to Crom *Thurloe, i. 726. Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 154); Thurloe, iv., 185. well, on this new misfortune; who likewise magnanimously dismisses him,* to sell his ballads' at what little they will bring. Wednesday, December 12th, 1655. This day 'in a withdrawing-room at Whitehall,' presided over by his Highness, who is much interested in the matter, was held a Conference concern. ing the Jews;'t-of which the modern reader too may have heard something. Conference, one of Four Conferences, publicly held, which filled all England with rumor in those old December days; but must now contract themselves into a point for us. Highest official Persons, with Lord Chief Barons, Lord Chief Justices, and chosen Clergy have met here to advise, by reason, Lawlearning, Scripture-prophecy, and every source of light for the human mind, concerning the proposal of admitting Jews, with certain privileges as of alien-citizens, to reside, in England. They were banished near Four-hundred years ago: shall they now be allowed to reside and trade again? The Proposer is 'Manasseh Ben Israel,' a learned Portuguese Jew of Amsterdam; who, being stirred up of late years by the great things doing in England, has petitioned one and the other, Long Parliament and Little Parliament, for this object; but could never, till his Highness came into power, get the matter brought to a hearing. And so they debate and solemnly consider; and his Highness spake ; -and says one witness, "I never heard a man speak so well."+ His Highness was eager for the scheme, if so might be. But the Scripture-prophecies, Law-learnings, and lights of the human mind seemed to point another way: zealous Manasseh went home again; the Jews could not settle here except by private sufferance of his Highness;-and the matter contracts itself into a point for us.§ This same Jew-Wednesday, Wednesday, the 12th, as a laborious unimportant computation shows, was the 'evening' when Republican Ludlow had the first interview with his Highness and certain of his Council in the Protector's bedchamber.'|| Solid * Life of Cleveland, prefixed to his Poems. † Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 154). Sir Paul Rycaut (in Spence's Anecdotes, p. 77;-as cited by Godwin. iv., 299). || Ludlow i., 55 et seq. § Godwin, iv., 243–9. |
