The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-19

to the world that he made them the arbiters of the fate of any Spaniards !, he should henceforth encounter upon the seas.
 And meanwhile the Spanish Admiral Don Miguel de Espanosa went raging up and down the Caribbean seeking his enemy, and in the meantime, as an hors- d'oeuvere to his vindictive appetite, he fell upon any ship of England or of France that loomed above his horizon. This illustrious sea-captain and great gentleman of Castile had lost his head. And so, reckless of the fact that Cap tain Blood was now Ill vastly superior strength, the Spaniard sought him up and down the trackless seas. But for a whole year he sought him vainly. The circumstances in which eventually they met are very curious.
 On the 18th of September of the year 16SS-a memorable year in the annals of England--three ships were afloat upon the Caribbean, which in their coming conjunctions were to work out the fortunes of several persons. The first of these was Captain Blood's flag ship the Arabella, which had been separated from the buccaneer fleet in a hurricane off the Lesser Antilles. She was beating up for the Windward Pas sage homing for Tortuga, the natural rendezvous of the dispersed vessels. The second ship was the great Spanish gal leon, the Milagrosa, which, accom- panied by the smaller frigate Hildalga, urged off the Caymites, to the north of the long peninsula that thrusts out from the southwest corner of Hispaniola. Aboard the Milagrosa sailed the vindic- tive Don Miguel. The third and last of these ships was an English man-of-war, the Royal Mary, which was at anchor in the French port of St. Nicholas on the northwest coast of Hispaniola. She was on her way from Plymouth to Ja- maica, and carried on board a very dis tinguished passenger in the person of Lord Julian Wade, who came charged by his kinsman, my Lord Sunderland, with a mission of some consequence and delicacy, directly arising out of that vexatious correspondence between Eng land and Spain.
 To satisfy King James anxiety to conciliate Spain, and in response to the Spanish ambassadors constant and grevious approximations my Lord Sund- erland, the secretary of state, had ap- pointed strong man to the deputy-gov- ernorship of Jamaica. This strong man was that Colonel Bishop who for some years now had been the most influential planter in Barbados. From his first coming to Jamaica, Colonel Bishop had made himself felt by the buccaneers. But do what he might, the one bucaneer whom he made his particular quarry that Peter Blood who once had been his slave-eluded him ever. He con fessed as much in letter to the secre- tary of state My Lord Sunderland be- thought him of the plan adopted with Morgan, who had been enlisted into the kings service under Charles II. It oc- cured to him that a similar course might be similarly effective with Cap tain Blood.
 Acting upon this conclusion, Sunder- land sent out his kinsman, Lord Julian Wade, with some commissions made out in blank. The crafty Sunderland, mas ter of all labyrinths of intrigue, advised his kinsman that in the event of his finding Blood intractable, or judging for other reasons that it was not de- sirable to enlist him in the kings serv- ice, he should turn his attention to the officers serving under him, and by seducing them away from him leave him so weakened that he must fall an easy victim to Colonel Bishops fleet.
 The Royal Mary made a good pass age to St. Nicholas, her last port of call before Jamaica. 1t was understood that as a preliminary Lord Julian should report himself to the deputy-gov- ernor at Port Royal, whence at need he might have himself conveyed to Tor tuga. Now it happened that the deputy