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inflicted on the authors of it, nor could this ever be obtained, though it was demanded by the parliament; * and in their name several times urged with the greatest warmth by the council of state. And this has been hitherto one continued obstacle, and a very just one too, to the renewing of an alliance betwixt the two nations; nay, if we consider how other nations have frequently acted in like cases, it may be considered as a very just cause for a war.

But as to the disputes that have arisen in the West Indies, though we, both in the continent itself, and in the islands, have plantations as well as they, and have as good, nay, a better right to possess them, than the Spaniards have to possess theirs, and though we have a right to trade in those seas, equally good with theirs; yet without any reason, or any damage sustained, and that when there was not the least dispute about commerce, they have been continually invading our colonies in a hostile way, killing our men, taking our ships, robbing us of our goods, laying waste our houses and fields, imprisoning and enslaving our people: this they have been doing all along till these present times, wherein they have of late engaged in an expedition against them.

For which reason, contrary to what used to be done formerly in the like case, they have detained our ships and merchants, and confiscated their goods almost every where through the Spanish dominions; so that whether we turn our eyes to America or Europe, they alone are undoubtedly to be considered as the authors of the war, and the cause of all the inconveniences and all the bloodshed with which it may possibly be attended.

There are a great many instances of the most cruel and barbarous treatment, the English have perpetually met with from the Spaniards in the West Indies; and that even in time of peace, both since the year 1604, when the peace was patched up by King James, till the time that the war broke out again, and since that last peace, which was concluded in the year 1630, to this very day. We shall only mention a few of them.t

After a peace was concluded in the year 1605, a ship called the Mary, Ambrose Birch commander, was trading on the north coast of Hispaniola: the master being allured with promises of a safe and free commerce, by one father John and six of his accomplices, to go ashore to see some goods, twelve Spaniards in the mean time while going aboard to see the English goods, while the English suspecting no frauds were shewing

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• This is evident from the parliament's letter, signed by the hand of the Speaker, to the King of Spain, in the mouth of January, 1650, the words Whereof are as follow. "We demand or your majesty, and insist upon it, "that public justice be at length satisfied for the barbarous murder of An"thony Aschem our resident at your court, and the rather, that after we **have seen condign punishment inflicted on the authors of such a detest"able crime, we may be in no fear hereafter to send our ambassador to your royal court, to lay before you such things as may be equally adVantageous to your majesty and our commonwealth. On the contrary, "if we should suffer that blood, the shedding whereof was a thing in many #respects so remarkably horrible, to pass unrevenged, we must of neces "sity be partakers in that detestable crime in the sight of God, our only "deliverer and the eternal fountain of our mercies, and in the eye of the "whole English nation; especially it ever we should send any other of "our countrymen into that kingdom, where murder is allowed to go quite unpunished. But we have so great an opinion of your majesty, that we "will not easily be brought to believe that your royal authority is sub"jected to any other power superior to it within your own dominions."

As a ship called the Ulysses was trading along the coast of Guiana, the merchants and sailors happened to go ashore, by the persuasion of

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them their wares, the priest giving a signal from ne shore, the Spaniards every man drew his dagger, stabbed all the English that were in the ship, p two who leaped into the sea, and the rest ashen are put to death with an unparalleled cruelty; the st himself stript of his clothes, and fastened to a 25%, va exposed naked to be bit by the flies and vermin. 1.. after he had continued in this miserable case dez space of twenty hours, a negro bearing his gra came to the place, and as he was just on the point a expiring, stabbed him with a spear. This stap her goods was valued at 54007.

Another ship called the Archer was taken at St. mingo, and all the sailors put to death. She was t oned worth 13007.

Another ship, called the Friendship of London wi her loading, was taken by Lodowic Fajard, ad the Spanish fleet, all her goods confiscated, and dmerchants and mariners thrown into the sea, ex>, one boy who was reserved for a slave. This ship w her loading was estimated at 15007.

The sailors going ashore out of another ship, talthe Scorn, (the Spaniards having solemnly sworn ther would do them no prejudice,) were all nevertheless bound to trees and strangled. The ship with a goods was seized, and the merchants, to whom she telonged, lost at this time 15007.

In the year 1606, a ship called the Neptune, taken at Tortuga, by the Spanish guarda costas, valued at 43007.

The same year, another ship, called the Lark, was taken by Lodowic Fajard, and confiscated with all ter loading, valued at 45707.

Another, called the Castor and Pollux, was taken by the Spaniards at Florida, by whom she was confiscad and all her sailors either killed or made slaves: {* they were never heard of afterwards. This vessel v her loading was valued at 150004.§

In the year 1608, a Plymouth ship called th Richard, commanded by Henry Challins, fitted out the expense of Lord Popham, lord chief just.ce* England, Ferdinand Gorges knight, and others, to Virginia, happening to be driven by stress of weane upon the southern part of the Canary Islands, in b way from thence to the coast of Virginia, she chan~: to fall in with eleven Spanish ships returning from S Domingo, who seized her; and though the captain, rescue himself out of their hands, produced a r passport, yet the ship with all her goods was con cated, the captain himself barbarously used by iż-ż

Berry, governor of that place, who had promised, nay, even sw they should receive no burt; nevertheless there were thirty of th and committed to prison. Upon which the governor writes a le merchant, acquainting him, that he had indeed taken thirty of and that because some foreigners, who had come there to trade w had defrauded him of 20,000 ducats, which, if he would send he would restore all his inen, and allow him the liberty of com merchant sent him the sum he demanded, part in ready nes goods, which after the governor had received, he ordered all the men to be fastened to trees and strangled, except the furgeo reserved, to cure the governor of a certain disease. This ransom with other damages sustained there, was computed at 70004.

I John Davis lost two ships with all their goods, and the Spaniard all the men that were aboard of them, to the entire loss of that veya this was computed at 35007,

Another ship belonging to some London merchants, John Lack o mander, was taken by the Spanish fleet, at the isle of lortuga, be had been trading there, and bad felled some trees; for this confiscated, most of the sailors put to death, and the rest conde the galleys. This was esteemed a loss of 53004.

nd sent to the galleys. This was a damage of more

han 25007.

A ship, called the Aid, was served much the same vay by Lodowic Fajard, having been taken under preence of friendship; she too with her goods was coniscated, and all the sailors sent to the galleys, where ome were cudgelled to death for refusing to ply the ars. Which vessel with her goods, by the Spaniards' wn estimation, was worth 70007.

The same year another ship, called the gallant Anne, William Curry commander, as she was trading at Hisjaniola, was likewise confiscated with all her goods, and all the sailors hanged; each of them, by way of idicule, having a piece of paper sewed to his coat, which had these words written upon it, "Why came ye ither?" This ship with her burden was valued at 30001. These instances do sufficiently shew what kind of peace the Spaniards maintained with us during the reign of King James, who was always very much afraid of breaking the peace with them. And we may also plainly discover the same acts of hostility and barbarous treatment ever since the last peace, which was made in the year 1630, to this very day. For this end we will first speak a little of those colonies, that were planted by some noblemen of this nation, in the isle of Catelina, which they call the isle of Providence, and the island of Tortuga, by them called the island of Association. These islands about the year 1629, being then quite uninhabited, having neither men nor cattle in them, were seized by the English, who at that time were at war with the Spaniards. The year following, when peace was established betwixt the two nations, the Spaniards having made no exception about these islands, King Charles, in a charter under the great seal of England, declared himself master of the isle of Providence and some other islands adjacent to it, which he thought no way inconsistent with his peace, and gave them in possession to some noblemen and their beirs, and next year he extended this grant to the isle of Tortuga.

And though the above-mentioned planters had got possession of these islands by the king's grant, and though this grant was exceeding well founded, first on the law of nature, since neither the Spaniards, nor any other people whatever, were in possession of these places when they seized them; and secondly, on the right of war, since they were taken possession of in time of war, and were not excepted in the articles of peace, whence it follows from the second article of the last treaty, that the title of the Spaniards to these islands (even supposing they had had one) was made null by their own consent: and though likewise, neither the aforesaid company of planters in general, nor any one of them in particular by any action of theirs, had given any just cause of offence, either to the king of Spain or to any of his subjects, till they had first in a violent manner attacked our ships and colonies, and had slain several of the English, and set fire to their houses: yet the Spaniards, being firmly resolved to break the peace in these places, about the twenty-second of January 1632, without any the least provoca

tion, betwixt the isle of Tortuga and the cape of Florida, in a hostile manner fell upon a certain ship belonging to the company, called the Sea-Flower, on her return from the isle of Providence, in which engagement they slew some of the men aboard that ship, and wounded others.

After this, about the year 1634, the isle of Tortuga was attacked by four ships belonging to the Spaniards, without any injury done on the part of the English, in which attack upwards of sixty were slain, many wounded and taken prisoners, their houses burnt down and quite demolished, their most valuable goods carried off by the Spaniards, and the English almost wholly driven out of that island; of whom some were hanged, others carried to the Havanna, and detained in the most abject slavery. One Grymes, who had been a gunner in Tortuga, was distinguished from the rest, by a death remarkably cruel. Some of them flying for refuge to a certain desart island called Santa Cruz, were again set upon by the Spaniards, who even pursued them thither with three galleys in the month of March 1636, of whom forty were killed, and the rest taken prisoners, and used with the utmost barbarity.

In the year 1635, July 24th, the Spaniards, with two great ships and one galley, made likewise an attack upon the isle of Providence, and they fought for several hours, but at that time they were repulsed and forced to give over their enterprise. However, they attempted the same thing a second time, about the year 1640, with twelve ships, some large, and some of a lesser size, whereof the admiral's ship was called the Armadillo of Carthagena, one of the greater galleys of the royal plate-fleet, and having sent a great number of soldiers ashore, they were confident of making themselves masters of the whole island; but yet were repulsed with a great deal of damage, and forced to retreat. Nevertheless, having equipped another fleet, they returned a little after, when the planters, at variance among themselves, did not so much employ their thoughts about what method they should take to defend themselves, as about the terms upon which they might most advantageously surrender; which terms, upon their giving up the island, they found no difficulty to obtain. But the island was by this means wrested out of the hands both of the planters and the commonwealth, of whom the former sustained the loss of more than 80,000l. and the latter, besides the loss of the island, hereby received a very open and public affront. After the Spaniards had thus made themselves masters of the isle of Providence, a ship bringing some passengers hither, who wanted to transport themselves to this place from New-England, the Spaniards by stratagem having found means to get her brought within gun-shot, (the people in the ship knowing nothing of their late conquest of that island,) she was in great danger of being taken, and with very much difficulty rescued herself; the master of the ship, a very honest and worthy man, was killed by a bullet-shot from the island.

Nor were the Spaniards content to confine the acts of hostility, which they have exercised upon the people

of that colony, within the boundaries of America, but have also treated them in the same hostile manner in Europe. For in the year 1638, December 25th, a ship belonging to that same company, called the Providence, Thomas Newman commander, two leagues from Dungeness on the very coast of England, was assaulted and taken by Sprengfeld, captain of a privateer belonging to Dunkirk, to which place this ship was brought, and her cargo detained, which even by the computation of many persons in that place, was reckoned to amount to the sum of 30,000l. As for the sailors, some were slain, some wounded, and the rest, after having been treated with the greatest inhumanity in their own ship, were hurried away to Dunkirk, where they met with much the same usage, till they found some way to make their escape; and though the owners demanded satisfaction in the most earnest manner, and the last king by his resident Mr. Balthasar Gerber, and both by letters written with his own hand, and the hand of secretary Coke, asked reparation on their behalf; yet they could neither procure the restitution of their goods, nor the least compensation for these losses.

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since, which in her return from some of our plantations in the Carribee islands, springing a leak hard by Hispaniola, the sailors to save themselves, being obliged to get into the long boat, got ashore, where they were all made slaves, and obliged to work at the fortifica tions.

By these, and many more examples of the same kind too long to be reckoned up, it is abundantly evi dent, the king of Spain and his subjects think they no way bound by any condition of peace to be pe formed to us on their part in these places, since they have habitually exercised all sorts of hostilities against us, nay have even done such things as are more insuferable, and more grievous, than open acts of hostility; and since that cruelty, with which they usually trea: the English in America, is so contrary to the articles » peace, that it does not so much as seem suitable to the laws of the most bloody war: however, in that embargo of the king of Spain, by which he orders our merchant ships and their goods to be seized and confiscated, the whole blame is laid upon the English, whom he brands with the odious names of treaty-breakers and violaters of the most sacred peace, and likewise of free commerce, which he pretends to have so religiously mantained on his part, and gives out that we have violated the laws of peace and commerce with such strange and professed hostility, that we attempted to besiege the town of St. Domingo in the isle of Hispaniola. Which is the only cause he offers, why the goods of the Eng

But there are other examples of the Spanish cruelty, which are of a later date, and still more shocking; such as that of their coming from Porto-Rico and at tacking Santa Cruz about the year 1651, an island that was not formerly inhabited, but at that time possessed by an English colony governed by Nicol. Philips, who with about an hundred more of the colony was barba-lish are confiscated in Spain, and the trading people rously murdered by the hands of the Spaniards, who besides this attacked the ships in the harbour, plundered their houses and razed them from the very foundation; and when they could find no more to sacrifice to their fury, (the rest of the inhabitants having fled to the woods,) returning to Porto-rico, they gave the miserable remnant, who were well nigh famished, time to remove from Santa Cruz, and to betake themselves to some other neighbouring islands. But a little time thereafter, they returned in quest and pursuit of those who sculked in the woods; but they had the good fortune to find a way of making their escape, and stealing away privately to other islands.

In the same year 1631, a ship belonging to John Turner being driven into the harbour of Cumanagola by tempestuous winds, was seized by the governor of that place, and confiscated with all her lading. The same was done to captain Cranley's ship and her goods.*

And in the year 1650, a certain vessel pertaining to Samuel Wilson, loaden with horses, was taken on the high seas in her way to Barbadoes, and carried to the Havanna. Both the ship and her goods were confiscated, most of the sailors imprisoned, and like slaves obliged to work at the fortifications.

The same hardships were endured by the sailors aboard a certain ship of Barnstable about two years

And also to one belonging to John Bland, commanded by Nicol. Philips, in the very same harbour.

But Swanley, our admiral, was not so civilly treated in Sicily, in the harbour of Drepano, when in the year 1653, about the month of June, his ship called the Henry Bonaventure, together with a large and very rich

confined; though this is likewise aggravated by his boasted humanity; for he maintains that he in the most friendly way received our fleets into his harbours+ where it could be of any advantage for them to enter, and that his ministers did not at all require of as a strict observance of the articles of peace, that were agreed to by the two crowns, which forbid both parties to enter a harbour with more than six or eight ships of

war.

But as he, by talking in this strain, acquits our fleets of all trespasses and violations of treaty in these barbours, since if any such thing as is objected has been done and passed over, it has been done by the allow ance of himself and his ministers; and as it is exceed ing manifest, that he has not been so favourable for nought, if he will but reflect with himself what vast profits he has received from our fleets, so on the ot hand, that the king and his ministers have not at Li in fact observed the agreements he speaks of, in tà. twenty-third article of which, the following provisi is made in the most express terms; "That if any dit"ferences should happen to arise betwixt the two con"monwealths, the subjects on both sides should & "advertised, that they should have six months from "the time of the advertisement to transport their effers, 'during which time there should be no arrest, int "rupting, or damaging, of any man's person or gods

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Dutch ship called the Peter, which he had taken, was by the treachery the Spanish governor in that place, taken by seven Dutch ships, command of the younger Trump in the very harbour, no further small gun's shot from the bulwarks, whereby the merchants, to wton Ce ship belonged, lost more than 63,000.

In which affair, the king truly has shown but very little regard to those contracts, which he charges us with having broken, as appears from that late confiscation of our goods. But what he declares in that edict concerning the acts of hostility committed in the West Indies, their being to be considered as a violation of peace and free commerce in these parts, is a new and quite different explanation from what has $ ever been propounded hitherto by either of the two republics, though both parties have frequently had occasions to declare their judgment about this mat

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But seeing the king of Spain has declared both by word and deed, that the articles of peace ought to be thus understood, it follows, that by so many acts of hostility committed against the English in these parts, and which first began on his side, and have been continued from the very time of the last concluded treaty, as was formerly observed, to this very day; hence I say it follows, that he seems to be convinced, that the sacred bonds of friendship have been first broken on his side. Which thing is so clear and manifest, that our adversaries themselves in this contro95 versy are ashamed to deny the fact, and choose rather to dispute with us concerning the right of possession; which must be in the following manner: as the king of Spain, among his other titles, has assumed that of king of the Indies, so they affirm, that the whole Indies and Indian sea, both south and north, belong to him, and that they are all enemies and pirates, who approach these places without his commission. Which if it were true, both we and all other nations ought to leave and restore to him all our possessions there, and having brought back whatever colonies we have sent thither, should beg his pardon for the injury we have done him; but if we consider a little more narrowly the truth and reasonableness of this title, we shall find that it is built upon a very slender and weak foundation, to have such a vast pile of war and contentions erected upon it, as the present is likely to be. They pretend to have a double title, one founded upon the pope's gift, and another upon their having first discovered those places. | As to the first, we know the pope has been always very liberal in his gifts of kingdoms and countries, but in the mean time we cannot but think, that in so doing, he acts in a very different manner from him, whose vicar he professes himself, who would not so much as allow himself to be appointed a judge in the dividing of inheritances, far less give any one whole kingdoms at his pleasure, like the pope, who has thought fit to make a present of England, Ireland, and some other kingdoms.

But we deny his being invested with any such authority, nor do we think there is any nation so void of understanding, as to think that so great power is lodged in him, or that the Spaniards would believe this or acquiesce in it, if he should require them to yield up as much as he has bestowed. But if the French and others, who acknowledge the pope's authority in ecclesiastical matters, have no regard to this title of the Spaniards, it cannot be expected we should think of it

any otherwise. And so we leave this point, as not deserving a fuller answer.

Nor is the other title of any greater weight, as if the Spaniards in consequence of their having first discovered some few parts of America, and given names to some islands, rivers, and promontories, had for this reason lawfully acquired the government and dominion of that new world. But such an imaginary title founded on such a silly pretence, without being in possession, cannot possibly create any true and lawful right. The best right of possession in America is that which is founded on one's having planted colonies there, and settled in such places as had either no inhabitants, or by the consent of the inhabitants, if there were any; or at least, in some of the wild and uncultivated places of their country, which they were not numerous enough to replenish and improve; since God has created this earth for the use of men, and ordered them to replenish it throughout.

If this be true, as the Spaniards will be found to hold their possessions there very unjustly, having purchased all of them against the will of the inhabitants, and as it were plucked them out of their very bowels, having laid the foundations of their empire in that place, in the blood of the poor natives, and rendered several large islands and countries, that were in a tolerable case when they found them, so many barren desarts, and rooted out all the inhabitants there; so the English hold their possessions there by the best right imaginable, especially those islands where the Spaniards have fallen upon their colonies, and quite demolished them; which islands had no other inhabitants at all, or if they had, they were all slain by the Spaniards, who had likewise deserted these places, and left them without any to improve or cultivate them: so that by the law of nature and nations they belong to any who think fit to take possession of them, according to that common and well-known maxim in law, "Such things as belong to none, and such as are abandoned by their former possessors, become his property who first seizes them." Although, granting that we had beat the Spaniards out of those places where we have planted our colonies, out of which they had at first expelled the inhabitants, we should have possessed them with better right, as the avengers of the murder of that people, and of the injuries sustained by them, than the Spaniards their oppressors and murderers. But since we have settled our colonies in such places as were neither possessed by the natives nor the Spaniards, they having left behind them neither houses nor cattle, nor any thing that could by any means keep up the right of possession, the justness of our title to these places was so much the more evident, and the injuries done us by the Spaniards so much the more manifest, especially our right to those places that were seized while the two nations were at war with each other, such as the isles of Providence and Tortuga, which if the Spaniards could have shewn to be theirs, by any former title which they have not yet produced, yet since they have not done it in the last treaty of peace, by the sccond article of this treaty, they have for the future cut

themselves off from all such pretence, and if they had | any right, have now lost it. It is unnecessary to talk any further upon this argument.

state of our affairs, and of the form of our republic. | But if we omit this opportunity, which by reason of some things that have lately happened, may perhaps give us an occasion to fall upon some way, whereby through the assistance of God we may provide for ou safety, against this old and implacable enemy of our religion and country; it may happen, he will recover such a degree of strength, as will render him as formdable and hard to be endured as before. One thing is certain, he always will and cannot but have the greatest indignation against us. Meanwhile, if we sufe: such grievous injuries to be done our countrymen in the West Indies, without any satisfaction or revenge; if we suffer ourselves to be wholly excluded from that so considerable a part of the world; if we suffer our malicious and inveterate enemy (especially now, after he has made peace with the Dutch) to carry off with

There is no intelligent person but will easily see how empty and weak those reasons are, that the Spaniard has for claiming to himself alone an empire of such a vast and prodigious extent. But we have said this much, in order to shew the weakness of those pretences, whereby the Spaniards endeavour to justify themselves for having treated us with so much cruelty and barbarity in the West Indies, for having enslaved, hanged, drowned, tortured, and put to death our countrymen, robbed them of their ships and goods, and demolished our colonies, even in the time of profound peace, and that without any injury received on their part which cruel usage and havoc, made among our people, and such as were of the same orthodox faith with them, as oft as the English call to remem-out molestation, from the West Indies, those prodigious brance, they cannot miss to think that their former glory is quite gone, and their ships of war become entirely useless, if they suffer themselves to be any longer treated in such a disgraceful manner: and moreover, to be not only excluded from all free commerce in so great and opulent a part of the world, but likewise to be looked upon as pirates and robbers, and punished in the same manner as they, if they presume to sail those seas, or so much as look that way; or, in fine, have any intercourse or dealing even with their own colonies that are settled there.

Concerning the bloody Spanish inquisition we shall say nothing, this being a controversy common to all protestants, nor shall we speak of the many seminaries of English priests and jesuits nestling under the protection of the Spaniards, which is a perpetual cause of stumbling, and very great danger to the commonwealth; since what we principally propose is, to shew the grounds and reasons of the controversies in the West Indies, and we are confident we have made it plain to all, who weigh things fairly and impartially, that necessity, honour, and justice, have prompted us to undertake this late expedition. First, we have been prompted to it by necessity; it being absolutely necessary to go to war with the Spaniards, since they will not allow us to be at peace with them: and then honour, and justice, seeing we cannot pretend to either of these, if we sit still and suffer such unsufferable injuries to be done our countrymen, as those we have shewn to have been done them in the West Indies. And truly they see but a very little way, who form their notion of the designs and intentions of the Spaniards, according to that friendly aspect, with which the present declension of their affairs has obliged them to look upon us in these parts of the world, (that face which they have put on being only a false one,) for it is certain they have the same mind, and the very same desires, which they bad in the year 1588, when they endeavoured to subdue this whole island; nay, it is certain their hatred is more inflamed, and their jealousies and suspicions more increased by this change of the

treasures, whereby he may repair his present damages, and again bring his affairs to such a prosperous: and happy condition, as to deliberate with himself a second time, what he was thinking upon in the year 1588; namely, whether it would be more adviseable to begin with subduing England, in order to recover the United Provinces, or with them, in order to reduce England under his subjection; without doubt he will not find fewer, but more, causes why he should begin with England. And if God should at any time permit those intentions of his to have their desired effect, we have good ground to expect, that the residue of that cruel havoc, he made among our brethren at the foot of the Alps, will be first exercised upon us, and after that upon all protestants; which, if we may give credit to the complaints that were made by those poor orthodox Christians, was first designed and contrived in the court of Spain, by those friers whom they call missionaries.

All these things being considered, we hope the tim will come, when all, but especially true Englishmen. will rather lay aside their private animosities among themselves, and renounce their own proper advantages, than through an excessive desire of that small profit te be made by trading to Spain, (which cannot be obtained but upon such conditions as are dishonourable and in some sort unlawful, and which may likewise be go some other way,) expose, as they now do, to the most danger, the souls of many young traders, by the terms upon which they now live and trade there, qui suffer the lives and fortunes of many christian brethren in America, and in fine, the honour of this whole na tion, to be exposed, and, what of all is the mos momentous and important, let slip out of their hand's the most noble opportunities of promoting the glory God, and enlarging the bounds of Christ's kingdo which, we do not doubt, will appear to be the chief er. of our late expedition into the West Indies against the Spaniards, to all who are free of those prejudices whi hinder people from clearly discerning the truth.

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