170 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. u. 



Sioner Butler returning to England without leave, the 



o o 



sole command of the army devolved on Major Gene- 

 ral Fortescuc, and of the fleet on admiral Goodson. 

 Nevertheless it was the intention of Cromwell to have 

 established a civil government in the island on very 

 liberal principles. Soon after he received the account 

 of its capture, he issued a proclamation declaratory of 

 that purpose, and on the return to England of Ccm- 

 missioner Butler, he sent over Major Sedgewicke to 

 supply his place. Sedgewicke arrived in Jamaica in 

 October, but Winslow and Serle having in the mean 

 time fallen victims to the climate, he was unwilling 

 to act under the protector's commission without fur- 

 ther assistance. An instrument of government was 

 thereupon framed, and subscribed, on the eighth of 

 October 1655, by Sedgewicke and the principal offi- 

 cers, who thereby constituted themselves a supreme 

 executive council for managing the general affairs of 

 the island; of which Fortescue \vas declared presi- 

 dent, and he dying soon afterwards, Colonel Edward 

 D'Oyley, the next in command, \vas chosen to pre- 

 side in his room. But the situation of the troops re- 

 quired martial array, and strict discipline ; for the 

 dispossessed Spaniards and fugitive negroes continued 

 to harass the soldiers with perpetual alarms. Men 

 were daily killed by enemies in ambush. The Spa- 

 nish blacks had separated themselves from their late 

 masters, and murdered, without mercy, such of the 

 English as rambling about the country fell into their 

 hands. They were even so audacious as to venture 

 by night to attack the English troops in their quar- 

 s, and to set fire to some of the houses in which 



