The fleet now consisted of about sixty vessels, and there were about 9000 soldiers on board, some of them veterans, but most of them recruits of bad quality.

They were off St.Domingo, the capital of the Island, on the 14th of April, 1655, and from that moment there was misunderstanding and blundering.

Penn, Venables, and the Chief Commissioner who had been sent out with them, differed as to the proper landing point; the wrong landing point was chosen for the main body; the men fell ill and mutinied; the Spaniards, who might have been surprised at first by a direct assault on St.Domingo, resisted bravely, and poured shot among the troops from ambuscade.

Two attempts to get into St.Domingo were both foiled with heavy loss, including the death of Major-General Heane and others of the best officers.

The mortality from climate and bad food being also great, the enterprise on Hispaniola was then abandoned; but, dreading a return to England with nothing accomplished, Penn and Venables bethought themselves of Jamaica.