x Preface.

by an Order in Council, pending the final decision of the Court of
Chancery.

In 1740 Maryland became mixed up to a slight extent with a Euro-
pean crisis. The growth of contraband trade had forced Spain to organise
a system of guardacostas, or cruisers to protect the coasts of her Ameri-
can possessions, and these, it was alleged, had perpetrated great out-
rages and cruelties on English merchant vessels. For these Spain
agreed in 1739 to pay an indemnity of £97,000. But the party opposed
to Walpole, who had negotiated the treaty, declared that this was not
enough, but that Spain must be compelled to renounce the right of
search. The particular case of a Captain Jenkins who had been bar-
barously maltreated, and had had his ear cut off, was used to inflame
the public mind; and hence the war which followed is sometimes
called "the war of Jenkins's ear." Popular indignation rose to such a
height that the pacific Walpole was forced to yield and declare war,
adroitly placing it on the ground that Spain had broken the treaty by
defaulting in the payment of the indemnity.

A call was made upon the British American colonies to furnish
troops for operation against Spain's American possessions, and Gov.
Ogle bestirred himself in enlisting Maryland's contingent of three
companies. The expedition, commanded by General Wentworth and
Admiral Vernon, attacked Cartagena, a strongly fortified place on the
mainland, but the attempt resulted in disastrous failure. The troops
suffered frightfully from pestilential disease, and probably few of the
Marylanders returned to their homes.

The death of the Emperor, Charles VI, in 1742, kindled a war
throughout Europe. Great Britain managed to keep out of it for a
while; but war with France was declared in 1744/5, and proclaimed in
the colonies, which might expect hostilities on the side of Canada. As
the French relied much on the services of their Indian allies, the colon-
ists took great pains to confirm the friendship of the Iroquois con
federacy.

The news of the capture of Louisburg, the strongest fortress on the
continent, with the island of Cape Breton, by a combined British and
colonial force in 1745, thus making a breach in the French cordon,
was received with great joy in Maryland. The British government
now embarked upon a plan for the complete reduction of Canada, and
the colonies were called upon for their quotas of men, Maryland's share
being three companies, which were promptly raised and despatched to
New York.