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Jenkins got his ear cut off by Spanish coast guard
Source: The Debatable Land #557
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Since the time of Hawkins, Englishmen had smuggled right and left in Spanish American waters. Then, by the Treaty of Utrecht the South Sea Company was granted legal right to a limited amount of trade in Spanish America. This privilege the company brazenly abused, and other English merchants continued to smuggle as of yore. Spain, weary of protest, established a rigorous coast guard. She freely exercised the "right of search," and captured scores of British vessels. Herein, too, abuses occurred. The blame was two-sided, of course. …[Para.] The wails of the British merchants resounded throughout the realm. Parliament held a fiery debate on Spanish depredations. Robert Jenkins, one of the plaintiffs, caused a sensation. Seven years before, off Florida, a Spanish coast guard had boarded his ship, cut off one of his ears and handed it back.1 As Exhibit No. 1 Jenkins now showed the bottled ear in Parliament (1739).
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