SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO 1660 31 
The late expedition had been much in the Protectot’s 
mind and great store he set by it, to judge from his 
letters and speeches as given us by Carlyle. I have, 
by advice of the Council, he wrote to Speaker 
Lenthall on September 2, 1654, ¢ undertaken a design 
by sea, very much (as we hope and judge) for the 
honour and advantage of the Commonwealth.” 1 In 
December 1654 the ill-fated expedition under Penn 
and Venables started for West Indian waters; in 
April 1655 came the fiasco at Hispaniola ; and in May 
the capture of Jamaica. Cromwell’s letters show how 
bitter was his disappointment at the failure at His- 
paniola, which was in his eyes a divine chastisement for 
sin; but they also show how resolute and practical 
was his character, holding fast to the aim which he had 
proposed to himself, and making the most of such 
slight gain as had been achieved. ‘We think, and it 
is much designed among us, to strive with the Spaniard 
for the mastery of all those seas,” he wrote to Jamaica 
in November 1655.2 In the previous month he had 
written to Barbados of his determination ‘to people 
and plant > Jamaica,? and from every quarter he sought 
and procured settlers, free or forced, for his newly 
acquired island. We have sent commissioners and 
instructions into New England, to try what people 
may be drawn thence. We have done the like to the 
Windward English Islands ; and both in England and 
Scotland and Ireland, you will have what men and 
women we can well transport.’ 4 He was resolved by 
4 Carlyle, ut sup., Appendix No. 28, p. 225. 
2 Ibid, Part IX, p. 148. 
\ Ibid, p. 148. 
8 Ibid. p. 146.