About

In the winter of 1654-55, Oliver Cromwell sent out a massive fleet to perform some unknown service in the Americas. While the people of England (and indeed of all western Europe) waited to hear of the purpose and plight of this expeditionary force, two publications appeared in London purporting to convey news of great victories.

The pamphlets drew together rumors and supposition to convey entirely untrue details of events in the distant Caribbean. These false stories were eventually superseded by true accounts of events, but these false tales provided a sense of English hopes and expectations at a pivotal moment in the interregnum era.

Carla Gardina Pestana is Professor of History and Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America in the World at the University of California, Los Angeles. A Guggenheim Fellow, she is author of The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire and The English Atlantic in an Age of Revolution, 1640-1661.