Two societies, two conceptions of justice, collaborated and collided when French forces stormed Cartagena of the Indies in May 1697. For their commander, the baron de Pointis, a naval captain in the mould of Drake, this bloody if strategically pointless success fulfilled a long-postponed design ""that might be both honourable and advantageous"", with ships lent and soldiers (but not seamen) paid by the King, who in return would take the Crown''s usual one-fifth interest in such ""preis de vaisseaux"", the remaining costs falling on private subscribers, in this case no less than 666 of them, he. |
