 In doing so, he was acting as a reserve naval force for the English government in the defence of Jamaica.As the Spanish did not recognise privateering as a legal activity, even if a captain carried letters of marque, they considered Morgan to be a pirate, something he firmly rejected.Rogoziński observes that Morgan does not appear in later fictional works as much as other pirates because of his "ambiguous mixture of charismatic leadership and selfish treachery", although his name and persona have featured in literature, including Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel "Captain Blood" and John Steinbeck's first novel, "Cup of Gold" (1929), both of which are based in large part on Morgan's career.