XViii MEMOIR OF COLONEL 



from the fleet, that their scarcity, yea, famine, grew so 

 high, that they ate all the horses, asses, and dogs in the 

 camp ; yea, some ate such poisonous food, that they fell 

 dead instantaneously. But beyond all this, a motion 

 was made, that setting sail for England, the soldiers, 

 whom they of the fleet usually called dogs, should be 

 left ashore to the mercy of the enemy ; which motion, 

 Venables in behalf of the land-men, stiffly opposed, de- 

 testing so great inhumanity. Yet the soldiers were so 

 apprehensive of such a trick, that when they came to go 

 aboard, their officers would not suffer the sea regiment, 

 which was on shore, to be first shipped, lest they should 

 be so left in the lurch. 



The fifth day after they set sail from Hispaniola, 

 they came before Jamaica, where remembering the 

 cowardice of the soldiers, which if not experienced, 

 would scarce have been believed so great in Englishmen, 

 they published an order against runaways, that the next 

 man to any that offered to run, should kill him, or be 

 tried for his own life. Which done, Penn and Venables 

 placed themselves in the martin galley, and sailed up 

 to the fort, and played upon it with their great guns, as 

 it did upon them all the time that the soldiers were 

 getting into the flat bottomed boats. Which so soon as 

 they had done, a fresh gale of wind arose, which drove 

 the boats directly upon the fort; this the Spaniards 

 seeing, and a major, their best soldier, being disabled by 

 a shot from the martin galley, they were so daunted 

 that they took to their heels, and left the fort to the 

 English. The army finding fresh water here, and fear- 



