Containing the Hiftory of the BRITISH and other CHAP. I. The Hiftory of BARBADO S. First dif- This dark as they are with regard to their original poffefTis furprising that the English in general are fo much in covery of Barbados. fion of this valuable ifland; nor can it be otherwise accounted for, than by the first colonists being fo much immersed in commercial purfuits, that they gave very little attention to matters of mere curiofity. As to the hiftory of the natives of this ifland there can be none, because, by the best accounts we have, it was entirely uninhabited when the Portuguefe, who certainly were its original difcoverers, first landed upon it. It is probable, however, that it was vifited at certain times by the neighbouring Caribbees, or favages, in their canoes. Even the origin of the name is uncertain, fome attributing it to a tree, the leaves and fruit of which at a dif tance fomewhat refemble a human beard; others with more probability think, that it was called Barbados by the Portuguese, on account of the barbarous, uncultivated prospect it prefented. As the Portuguese, long before the English took poffeffion of Barbados, had used to fail to the Brafils, there can be little or no doubt of their being acquainted with this ifland; and we learn from fome good authorities, that they left hogs there to ferve them for a stock of fresh provifions, and that when the English took poffeffion of the ifland, those hogs had multiplied extremely. As the Portuguese had dif covered Brafil in 1501, Barbados was probably known to them many years before the English took poffeffion of it, which undoubtedly muft have been before the death of James the Firft, which happened in the year 1625. The author of the Complete Syftem of Geography " informs us, that where the great fire happened at Bridge-Town, in 1666, fome papers were faved, which were afterwards printed on the island, and by them it appeared, that an English fhip, called the Glive, homeward-bound from Guiney, touched here; and, landing fome men, they fet up a cross in or about St. James's a Vol.II. p. 747 n town, river. town, now called the Hole, and marked on a tree, "James king of England, and this ifland :" that proceeding along thore, they left other marks of fuch their poffeffion at the Indian It seems to have been about this time that the earl of Marlborough, of whom we shall speak hereafter, obtained his patent of the Caribbees: after this Sir William Courteen, (S) one of the greatest merchants England ever had, about the year 1624, fitted out a fhip for the Brafil trade. This trade was prohibited to all the nations of Europe by the Spaniards and Portuguese, who made it death for any adventurer to fail weftward beyond fuch a latitude; but about the years 1623 and 1624, the fyftem of power in Europe having taken a different turn from what it ever had known before, the Spanifh court permitted the ftates-general to trade to the Brafils; and it must have been under their fanction that one of Sir William Courteen's fhips failed, as we are told it did, to Fernambucca, in Brafil. Returning from this, this hip was forced, by ftrefs of weather, upon the coaft of Barbados. Some of the crew had the curiofity to go a-fhore, but found this ifland over-grown with weeds, and no living creatures, but the Portuguese hogs already mentioned, upon it. BUT though this is the story that generally has been told concerning the first discovery of this valuable ifland, it is more than probable, that it had never been deftitute of English inhabitants from 1615 to 1624. Had it been entirely uninhabited, uncultivated, and almost unknown, a man like Sir William Courteen would not have rifked his property as he did in peopling and improving it; for it is agreed upon by all, that the failors who then went afhore, upon their return to England, made fo good a report of the ftate and fertility of the ifland, that Courteen and his friends, (among whom were people of the highest diftinction in England) refolved to make a fettlement there, but under the earl of Marlborough's patent. Every one who has read the Hiftory of England, knows with what indifcriminate profulion James the lit and Charles the Ift made grants to their favourites of the islands, as well as the continent, of America; and though Courteen and his friends had been at a confiderable expence in fitting out two fhips, with all kind of neceflaries, for planting and fortifying Barbados, his defign was no fooner known, than (S) We apprehend that this gentleman's fon, or one of his defcendants, was the fame who was originally concerned with Sir Hans Sloane in his amazing collection of natural and other curiofities, now repofited in the British Museum; where an original picture of Mr. Courteen is till fhewn. K 2 Hay Hay earl of Carlisle, who was a favourite with king James and his fon, applied for, and obtained, a gift from the crown of all the Caribbee Iflands, of which Barbados was one, upon agreeing to pay 300l. a year to the earl of Marlborough. By this time, Courteen's two fhips, one of which was called the William and John, captain John Powel commander, had put thirty men on fhore at Barbados, near the Hole Town, to the leeward part of the island, then called James Town, a strong prefumption that fome English were then living there; and began to fortify themfelves under one captain William Dean, who acted as their governor, and placed the English colours on the infant-fortification. The earl of Carlisle happened to be abroad on an embaffy when Courteen's fhips failed, and the then earl of Pembroke, who was that gentleman's friend, hearing a very promifing account of the new undertaking, obtained of Charles the Ift a grant of the island, in truft for Sir William Courteen. Upon the earl of Carlifle's return from his embaffy, he was furprised to hear of the fettlement that had been made upon an island which was within his prior grant, and refolved to defeat it; and, indeed, the ignorance and neglect which appeared on the part of the crown on this occafion, ftrongly indicate the genius of the then govern ment. granted to THE earl of Carlisle, to counteract Courteen's fettlement, the earl of made an agreement with Marmaduke Brandon, Robert WheatCarlisle, ley, Edmund Forfler, Henry Wheatley, John Farringdon, and who fettles others, of London, merchants, for 10,000 acres, under a go it. vernor of their own chufing. The choice fell upon one Charles Wolferflone. When this new colonift arrived upon the ifland, Courteen's fettlement was in a very promifing condition. They had cleared a confiderable quantity of lands, which were let at an eafy rate; and fo great was the fertility of the foil, that Barbados bade fair, in a fhort time, to be the moft flourishing of all the Caribbee Iflands; but two interefts fo incompatible as that of Courteen, or rather the earl of Pembroke, and that of the earl of Carlisle were, could not long fubfift upon the fame fpot. The Carlislemen fettled near a place called the Bridge, near Bridge Town, under the denomination of Windward-men, to diftinguifh themselves from the earl of Pembroke's men, who called themfelves the Leeward-men. Soon after Wolferstone's arrival upon the island, he emitted a kind of proclamation, in which he treated the Pembroke fettlement as being little better than an ufurpation. He therefore fummoned them to appear at the Bridge, which they did; and governor Dean, who, it feems, was a Bermudian, not only fubmitted to the earl of Carlife's authority, but marched marched with a party of armed men to reduce the fettlement at the Hole, who still held out for the earl of Pembroke, under the command of Mr. Powel, fon to the fhipmafter who had carried them over. This difpute might have terminated in bloodfhed, had it not been for the interpofition of a clergyman, who reconciled the two parties, and the Leewardmen fubmitted to the earl of Carlile's authority. THE planters had now made a great progrefs in cultivating Tobacco the island; an amazing proof of English induftry, confider- trade. ing the unpromifing appearances it bore, when they firft landed on it. But though thefe are reprefented as very dif couraging, yet Ligon, who lived upon the place, and near the time, allows, that befides the hogs already mentioned, the planters ufed to find fome vegetable fubfiftence in the woods, it being common for all nations, especially the Portuguese, when they landed upon a defart ifland which they expected again to vifit, to fow fome feeds for vegetables. Be this as it will, notwithstanding the grand difputes in England between the earls of Pembroke and Carlisle, concerning the property of the ifland, and which occafioned its fupplies to be flow and precarious, the potatoes, plantains, Indian corn, and other fruits, which the English planted, came up furprifingly. We are told, that thofe planters, in different parts of the ifland, found feveral pots and pans of clay finely tempered, and fo elegantly turned, that they did not feem to be the work of barbarians. They muft, however, have belonged to the Caribbeans in the neighbouring iflands, and made ufe of by them in their vifits to Barbados, in dreffing the hogs-flefh and vegetables which they found in that ifland. The planters, after clearing the land fo far as that it afforded them a ftock for their own fubfiftence, began to confider how to make it ufeful in point of commerce, and applied themfelves to the cultivation of tobacco, at that time the most profitable commodity of any that was raised in America. It is faid of Ligon and others, that their fuccefs in this undertaking was fo indifferent, and the tobacco they raised was fo poor, that it came to no account in England. Their cultivation of fugar, in which the inhabitants of Barbados have been fince fo eminent and fuccefsful, is differently accounted for. If we are to believe Mr. Ligan, they began to cultivate fugar with the plants which they brought from Fernambucca, in Brafil, where the making of fugar was perfectly well understood, and that, foon after the English began to inhabit Barbados. They raised the plants with wonderful facility, and they throve prodigiously; but they were entirely at a lofs as to the manufacturing of the product; fo that, for a long time, they K 3 put their fugars to no other ufe than fweetening the cooling drinks which the heat of the climate required. The intercourse which still continued to be kept up between the Brafils and Barbados, feems to have given rife to the proper manufacture of fugar in that ifland. This was not a little affifted by the Hollanders, (who had been indulged in trading to Brafil,) especially after they had quarrelled with the Portuguese. They not only furnished the Barbadians with the fugar-plants, but fome of them fettling in the ifland, put them upon erecting Original works for manufacturing the commodity. Those works of its jugartrade. were at first but imperfectly carried on; the Hollanders themfelves, as well as the English, being unfkilled in the chief myfteries of the art. Their perfeverance, however, in the end, got the better of their difficulties, being convinced that a little infight into the manufacture would make it practicable. They even ventured upon clandeftine vifits to Brafil, and were fo fuccessful, that they feldom returned without obtaining new lights as to what they wanted, which confifted in the manner of planting, the time of gathering, the right placing the coppers and furnaces, and the way of covering the rollers with plates or bars of iron; yet, after all, the manufacture in general reached no higher than to produce a moist, ill-cured kind of what is called mufcovade fugar, which did not answer for the English market. THOSE imperfections feem not to have been univerfal; for, according to the beft accounts of this infant-fettlement, one Mr. Drax, and, perhaps, one or two more, had engaged a Hollander from the Brafils, who carried on, but for his or their private advantage, a more complete mauufacture of fugar; but his method remained for feven or eight years a fecret to the inhabitants of the island in general, though it enriched the particular planters who had acquired it. It was not till about the year 1650, that the bulk of the planters got into the true fecret of making fugars, by fuffering the canes to ripen fifteen months inftead of twelve, and by boiling and curing them to a white confiftence; and after this fecret was found out, the value of lands on the island encreased to an incredible degree: but we are now to attend the civil hiftory of the island. AFTER the compromise between Powel and Wolferfione, captain Robert Wheatley, one of the original and chief fettlers, fucceeded the latter in the government of the island, or rather in the care of the plantations that were upon it. But a ftrong party of the Leeward-men ftill continued to hold out for the earl of Pembroke and Courteen, and even attempted to drive the Windward men from their fettlements; but they met |