_Buccaneers--Charles II._--There is a passage in Bryan Edward's _History
of the West Indies_ (vol. i. p. 164. 4to edit. 1793), in which he gives
an opinion that the buccaneers of Jamaica were not the pirates and
robbers that they have been commonly represented; and mentions, on the
authority of a MS. journal of Sir William Beeston, that Charles II. had
a pecuniary interest in the buccaneering, and continued to receive a
share of the booty after he had publicly ordered the suppression of
buccaneering: and also, speaking of Sir Henry Morgan, and the honours he
received from Charles II., gives an opinion that the stories told of
Morgan's cruelty are untrue. Can any of your readers tell me who Sir
William Beeston was, and what or where his journal is? or refer me to
any accessible information about Charles II.'s connection with the
buccaneers, or that may support Bryan Edwards's favourable opinion of
the Jamaica buccaneers and of Sir Henry Morgan?