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away our guide, refufing to run the fleet into the haven, landing against vote and defire fo far off the town, and fuffering the feamen to traduce me; about which I writ to him. Whether he could have acted more deftructive to the defign than what he did, let all rational men judge. But being ready to return for England, he writ to me to remind me of our engagement; without which letter I could not have proved our engagement, or his breach of faith, nor cleared myfelf in general particulars, efpecially in trufting to his word and promife; which made me not fo cautious to prevent his defigns upon me; for who could have thought that a man profeffing religion, and employed about the advancement of the gofpel of Chrift, durft have acted fo much for its enemies. formerly, without the leaft provocation from me, (fave my refufàl to fign Mr. Poole's acquittance and commiffion, and a letter to his highnefs which contained my confent to his return) fent me a letter, with a ftrange clofe, which followeth :

SIR,

He had

SEVERAL commanders of the fleet having, at the request of the late major-general and other land officers, iffued out divers parcels of cloaths, laid on board by the state for the ufe of feamen, for prefent fupplying the neceffities of feveral, and many of the foldiers in cold weather at coming out of England, I therefore defire you will be pleased to appoint fome perfon or perfons to receive the account thereof, and take fome courfe that fatisfaction be given to the faid commanders; for, otherwise, they will affuredly be made at home to pay for the fame out of their own purfes, which will be very hard requital for their readinefs to comply with the faid officers in that exigency. Hoping you will confider thereof, and let them have no occafion to complain.

I reft, fir,

Swiftfure, June 8, 1655.

SIR,

WILLIAM PENN.

I HOPE we fhall both bear in mind the mutual promise made folemnly

between

between us, as in the prefence of God, of love, and affection, to be confidered inviolable between us; and how that if any fower of fedition should endeavour to diffolve fo facred a tie, to discover fuch perfons and projects either to other. I, for my part, have and do firmly adhere to the fame, and I hope you are like minded. If you have any commands to lay upon me, now homeward bound, you fhall find them with all faithfulness effected, and that I fhall in all things ftudy to be

Sir, your true friend and fervant,

WILLIAM PENN..

But, having no return from me (to his of the 8th June, 1655,) unfuitable to our engagement of love, he fent me for his farewel another letter about fome business, the close of which fpeaks as above. I purpofely omit the matter of bufinefs, the letter being very long, and my antwer declares what the matters were. My letter followeth :

To GENERAL PENN.

I RECEIVED your's this inftant, being scarce able to hold a pen, and weaker than ever. The merchants debt on the committee of the navy I defire may be difcharged. There are prize fhips enough to reimburse them, but for any thing I can fee, if we exhauft the land treafury, the army may starve before fupplies come; and if the money be above our fum it is confiderable; and our commiffioners at Barbadoes went beyond their commiffions and inftructions, to charge money on us who are so low; and if you please to draw an order to fatisfy them in England, I do hereby engage to join with you in it. For hides we have few, except fuch as are old or wet, and they refufe to take them at the fame rates as other merchants give. The reafon I figned not the bills of fale of prize fhips was this, I know your order is fufficient without my hand, and I must sign with an implicit faith, knowing neither their worth or appraisement, and ignorant of all the rates prefcribed in the particular; and fome of those I defired might not be fold, but left to carry on the fervice. Sir, if you would be pleafed to fend any to receive the cattle, you fhould be fitted hence; or if the ropes fent hence to lead fuch were returned, we should

ferve

your

ferve you to our power; but neither being done, though both defired, we were incapacitated to do it. The abufe offered your men I have given orders to have it examined, and, being found, punished. I defire help in it. Sir, my ftrength is fpent, yet one word I cannot omit, I have a little more of a gentleman in me than to break my promife or engagement of peace and love, having never been of a contentious fpirit, and will be found as true of my word as any perfon in the world fhall be unto him, who is,

Sir, your

real friend and fervant,

RICHARD VENABLES.

SIR,

SINCE the clofing of my letter there came a feaman, who, as captain Bingham and others aver, faid he was fent to overtake the packet to which this is an anfwer, and that it was a falfe and miftaken thing; which expreffion questioning him about, he confeffed he was fent to ftay it, and doth not much deny that other, which had raised fome thought in my mind, not being able to conceive the reafon.

But, notwithstanding all my refufals to join in the fale of fhips, or difcharging of debts, with landmen's money only, when there were prizes fufficient to defray all, yet he and captain Butler fold fome vefiels that were very good failers, good veffels, and very fit for the fervice of thofe parts; and fome of them to officers in the fleet, who laded them and fent them to Virginia, whither himself alfo fraught the Katherine (which by his highneffes order, with all her ordnance, fails, and tackling, was given him, being a veffel of about five hundred tons, and thirty pieces of ordnance). And here I fhould queftion whether the freight of thefe fhips was had, for betwixt England and Barbadoes we touched at: no place, and (though I enquired diligently) I could never learn that he nor the officers that freighted thofe fhips, bought one ton of fugar at Barbadoes, or any other commodities, at Hifpaniola not a hide; and at Jamaica all the hides we could get were fold to buy fack and brandy for the army; fo that I am at a stand to find out where they could poffibly be got, and therefore leave every one to their own conjecture.

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But, before the fleet departed for England, I urged for brandy; it was anfwered there was none for us. I was told in England there was above a hundred, I think two hundred, tons of brandy aboard the fleet for fea and landmen; we took, as I was affured from general Penn and his coufn Poole, above thirty tons more at Barbadoes; but I do not know the army ever had ten tons whilft I was in the Indies.

Whilft the commiffioners and myfelf were tranfacting thefe matters, fome in the army were not idle in taking the advantage of my diftemper, which encreated daily; fo that colonel Buller called a council of war of his own officers, to debate what was fit for the army to do, and no body (leaft they fhould add to my diftemper) would tell me of thefe diforders, which were not at the firft incurable; but captain Butler, a commmiffioner, falling in with them upon this account, Mr. Winflow informed general Penn and me how he got drunk at Barbadoes, and ran fhouting through the town; whereupon we fent him, with fome other officers, as commiffioner to St. Chriftopher's, to dispatch bufinefs there, left his stay at Barbadoes fhould difgrace us: but there, in a treaty with the French, he was fo overcome with drink that he fell from his horfe, and vomited before the French and moft of the English gentlemen, that the French jecred at his highneffes commiffioners. These things he practifing at Jamaica, I told him of it, and defired him to reform; but he, being difguited thercat, affociated himfelf with all difcontented perfons, and made it his bufinefs to rail upon and revile me, as Mr. Wentworth's letter which followeth, will teftify:

May it please your honour,

YOURS of the fixteenth inftant I received, and, after interlocution with lieutenant Newton, was well informed of the fudden departure of this conveniency, which, out of a tender refpect, I have to the vindication of your honour, and that duty which I owe to Chriftian profeffion, I defire to make ufe of it. Thefe, therefore, may inform all whom it my concern, that on Thursday, before we came with the Mariton Moore from Jamaica, I went on fhore with captain Buder, who was commiffioner for the fleet, and faw fuch mifcarriages by him as I never faw before, and which were not befitting a gentleman; which I fuppofe was through excefs of drink, and that feveral of his near retinue we ex

tremely

aforefaid, and the with

tremely difcontented with the them were mutually fomenting expreffions of difcontent. I with my perfon or teftimony may in point of equity ferve you. In the mean while thefe lines are attefted by,

Sir, your honour's humble fervant,

Portsmouth, October 20, 1655.

JOHN WENTWORTH.

THIS carriage of his towards me gave fuch encouragement to fome officers, fuch as knew themfelves guilty of mifdemeanours, that, if I had lived, they muft think to fuffer; but finding it the only way to their own fecurity, to lay all upon me, who was not likely to live to excufe myfelf, to have proceeded on for the time to come. Colonel Buller, being the principal leading man, and all his officers with him, came to defire me to take notice of a vote of a council of war; when I, being gone to the fleet to the commiffioners, who would not come to me, captain Butler refiding there conftantly, as though all his bufinefs and employment had been only for the navy and not for the army. I told you before how I had ordered the officers to fet conftantly to order the quartering of the army, and to put them into plantations, whilft I went to the fleet; but Buller in my abfence, forced the commiffioners to fall about what he and his officers had before confulted about, fo that at my return nothing was done. But Buller came to me, to defire a council might be called, to confult about fending into England, now the fleet was ready to depart. I replied, I had writ already, and reprefented our condition. He defired me however to confult the officers. He had prepared all to his own mind, and I knew nothing of all this. Some of his affociates feconded him, I confented, and when they were met, I, not being able to ftay with them, told them I muit leave the matter and them together, being not able to ftay. I being gone, Buller propounded that an agent might be fent to England; for though I had writ, yet letters were but dead things, without one to folicit, hoping he had provided himfelf thould be the man. One of the officers faid, a perfon without intereft and unacquainted with affairs, was as dead as letters, and that none was fo interested in the affairs of the army as the general (who was difabled with ficknefs), and was a perfon of more intereft at court than any man they could fend. Replies paft in the confultation. They paffed the following votes, which they prefented to me for my aflent:

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