ANNALS OF JAMAICA. THE of 3famatca BY THE REV. GEORGE WILSON BRIDGES, A.M MEMBRA Ot THB UNIVKR8ITIKS OF OX7OBD AND UTRBCRT, AND KKCTOR OF THB PA&ISH OF 8AINT ANN, JAMAICA. VOLUME THE FIRST. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. MDCCCXXVII. i 7 J? LONDON : Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford -street. THE arduous undertaking of printing a voluminous work, with the Atlantic roiling between the pen and the press, will, the Author hopes, plead in extenuation of those errors which might possibly have been corrected under his own superintendence ; and the charitable reader will extend his indulgence to that arrangement of the numerous Notes which advice or experience might probably have improved. Jamaica, May, 1826. ll'iiO Bill I. PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME. OF all the various descriptions of literature, History has ever been esteemed the most instructive, the most liberal, and the most amusing; and that the history of our own country deserves our first and best attention, is a proposition which can require neither argument nor illustration. Although these Western Isles may seem to afford but little scope for historical research, and their domestic institutions are unhappily founded upon a system repugnant to the spirit of the times we live in ; yet even that system has become interesting, since it was fostered and en- couraged as a source of national wealth and naval power. Human foresight, it is true, could not anti- cipate the experience of two hundred years. It was enough for mortal statesmen to consult the wishes, and promote the happiness of their own age ; while the system, objectionable as it may now appear, still rests upon the surest of all foundations the security of public faith. Vlll PREFACE. The Island of Jamaica has not been without its his- torians,, but their works are defective, scarce, or erro- neous. Discussions upon colonial subjects have, in- deed, wearied the eye of late, but they have been dis- torted by prejudice, or influenced by faction seldom confined within the limits of national controversy, and never free from an interested bias. The ungracious task of correcting errors, or supplying defects, sug- gested, therefore, the compilation of an historical work differently arranged, and continued down far beyond the period where others have closed their la- bours. To rescue an interesting portion of history, intimately connected with that of the empire, from the dark sea of oblivion into which it is rapidly de- clining to preserve the substance of those records and traditional observations, ad historiam pretiosissi- mum supellex, which time is hourly sweeping away and to exhibit a valuable possession of the British crown in its true light, is the object of the present undertaking. It is unnecessary to detain the reader by apolo- gising for the apparent, though relevant variety of the subjects comprehended in a local history of such limited extent ; but to explain the nature of my plan, it may be proper to state that such original materials as could illustrate the subject, and those authorities whose fidelity might be relied on, have PREFACE. IX been diligently consulted and accurately quoted. A dark cloud hangs over the early annals of Jamaica, a cloud which the scanty materials surviving the age when America was closely sealed by Spain, sel- dom enable us to penetrate. Where, however, one source of information has failed, another has been sought, and sometimes found ; while every little stream has been directed into the common channel. In that portion of the work which has unavoidably extended beyond ttie limits of a note, comprehending a sketch of slavery, I am not ignorant that, in strictly adhering to the truth of history, the result of my en- quiries may affect the interests of some, and clash with the opinions of others. Yet those enquiries have been pursued without prejudice or partiality. Authentic facts alone have been reported, and such conclusions drawn from them as experience may jus- tify, and reason approve. The course of events which is rapidly changing the important features of the ecclesiastical establishment of Jamaica, must ne- cessarily leave that comprehensive portion of its his- tory, for the present, incomplete. And in treating, very imperfectly it must be confessed, of the natural productions of the island, I have chosen rather to select such points as may excite attention and invite research, than to describe objects already common, and productions now become familiar. PREFACE. The progress of my subject will lead me through the detail of an age stained by domestic revolt, and agitated by the effects of a revolutionary war, to the gratifying consideration of the present peaceful con- dition of the colony. And here, perhaps, I ought to pause. I am aware that no praise bestowed by me can add to the high character of the illustrious personage who, during a period of unprecedented extent and varied danger, has administered the go- vernment of Jamaica. I am sensible that my feeble pen can never increase the attachment which is uni- versally felt towards a nobleman, who by a rare com- bination of candour, magnanimity and prudence, has had the singular happiness to be honored by the ap- probation of his sovereign, and to secure the grati- tude of those whom he has so ably governed. Should I be charged with presumption for thus introducing the name of the Duke of Manchester, I must plead in extenuation the many favours which his Grace has been pleased to confer on one who cannot restrain the overflowing of a grateful heart. Were this volume to be submitted to the judg- ment of the liberal and enlightened only to such as seek truth and information, without partiality to mis- lead or prejudice to bias their opinion of those whom chance has placed in these isles who can believe that an English gentleman may visit and faithfully PREFACE. XI describe them, without a deriliction of the virtues which adorn his native land, or who allow that they give birth to men inheriting the same consideration for those whom the laws have placed beneath them, as is elsewhere found, I should feel but little an- xiety for its fate. But experience teaches me to an- ticipate the united attacks of calumny and detraction ; of those whose purpose it is to bring ruin and de- solation on these devoted colonies ; and with whom no authority, however great, no testimony however respectable, has any influence, unless it tend to the advancement of their own visionary projects ; of those, in short, who insidiously confound the reported acts of former times with the present improved con- dition of Africa's transplanted sons. To such per- sons the page of history is uselessly unfolded. The origin and progress of slavery in the British Indies, the gradual melioration of its early conditions, and the present comparative lightness of its bonds, the experience of ages, and the fate of nations, are alike disregarded by them, although they afford the most irrefragable arguments against the wild and destruc- tive scheme of sudden emancipation. Whenever these false philanthropists shall feel (a calculation of time which who shall dare to furnish them with ?) that the happiness of barbarian tribes depends upon something more substantial than civil liberty, they Xll PREFACE. may perhaps form a different opinion of the present state of evanescent servitude in these Western Isles. Not discouraged, however, by the multitude of powerful assailants whose hostile ranks already threaten me, I look forward, if my life be spared amidst the diseases which impair, and the difficulties which embitter it in a country little friendly to the pursuits of literature to the completion of a task long- since undertaken with the purest motives. Without expectation of pecuniary recompense, or ambition of literary fame, but with the ardent hope that I may thus become instrumental in removing those prejudices which, although fostered by the ig~ norant, or inflamed by the artful, have instilled a fatal poison into the generous and unsuspecting minds of the British public. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, page 1. CHAPTER I. Geological Formations Divisions of the Ocean Disruption of the Charaibean Archipelago Geological Peculiarities of Jamaica, p. 33. CHAPTER II. Theories of the American Population Noah's Knowledge of America very possible Acquirements of the Ancients, in some respects, superior to ours Their Knowledge of Marine Archi- tecture and of Navigation The Voyage of Eudoxus and of Sataspes Discovery of the Mariners Compass, of the Tele- scope, and Quadrant High Antiquity of Sacred Writ above the Records of profane Historians The Chinese and Japanese pro- bably in America long before the birth of Phoenician Enterprize Seneca's Prediction Jamaica probably one of the Hesperides of Hesiod A Welsh Colony in America The Bishop of Shel- bourn's Voyage during Alfred's reign Behaim's Discovery Eastern Origin of Inhabitants Coincidence of Religious Rites Probable Union of Asia and America Bagniouski's Voyage How the inferior Orders of Creation could be transported from Eden Certain obscure Glances cast at America from the Mount of Vision, by David and by Isaiah, p. 49. XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. The Indians of Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Cuba Their distinct Origin Superiority of the Jamaica Indians Their Persons, Tempers, Language, Religion, Habits, and their Extirpation Remains of their Villages, and Agriculture, p. 76. CHAPTER IV. The Charaibs of the Windward Islands Le Borde's Descrip- tion of them Distinct from the Indians Peculiarity of Lan- guage Their Religion, Wars, and Habits Reputed Canni- bals, p. 94. CHAPTER V. The Origin and Progress of Navigation and Commerce Their decline, and revival by Prince Henry of Portugal His Discoveries led immediately to those of Columbus Difficulties which remained for that Navigator to overcome The Crown of Arragon took no part in the Discovery of America The first Voyage and Discoveries of Columbus His triumphant Return Arrogance of the Roman Pontiff Line of Demarcation Co. lumbus's second Voyage, and the Discovery of Xaymaca The Sovereignty of the Island traced throughout his Family until its lapse to the Crown of Spain, p. 104. CHAPTER VI. Derivation of the word "Xaymaca" The first approach of Columbus His Reception by the Natives His second Visit His third Visit His fourth Visit, and Shipwreck at Santa Gloria The Mutiny of his Crew His ineffectual Efforts to obtain Relief His great Distress, and memorable Expedient The Mutineers attack him, and are repulsed His Departure The Repose of the Indians broken by the Partition of Jamaica between Ojeda and Nicuessa Diego Columbus outstrips them both, and seizes the Island Founds the Town of Seville d'Oro CONTENTS. XV Its Buildings, Extent, and Prosperity Esquimel settled Garay's Expeditions Extraordinary Mass of native Gold found by him Oristan founded, and Melilla Seville d'Oro harassed by the French Pirates The Inhabitants seek a more secure Retreat Their Progress over the Monesca Savanna and Monte Diablo Discovery of the River Passage Encampment on the Banks of the Rio Cobre Establishment of a Town there Seville destroyed by the French Pirates The Abbey transferred to Saint Jago The rising Prosperity of that Town Shirley's Attack Jackson's Descent State of Jamaica during the Spanish Occupation Its Savannas, Towns, Culture, Roads, Population, and Poverty, p. 141. f CHAPTER VII. The Provocations offered by the Spanish Nation formed the popular Plea for Cromwell's Attack on the West Indies His Politics influenced by secret, though deeper Motives His Hesi- tation between the Cause* of France or that of Spain His Reasons for espousing the former Power He disposes of the Disaffected by sending them to the West Indies His selection of Commanders Anecdote of Stoupe Failure of the Attempt on Rio Hayna Descent on Jamaica Defeat of the Spaniards at Passa-ge Fort Treaty and Capitulation of Saint Jago de la Vega^Weakness of the Spanish Governor Infringement of the Treaty by the Portuguese The Spaniards remove their Effects, ^nd desert the Town Disappointment of the Con- querors Dissentions between the Commanders The Distress of the Army The Freebooters assist in the Conquest Depar- ture of Penn and Venables Goodson and Fortescue succeed to the Command The Protectors Proclamation The Council of State issue an Order for a Thousand Irish Girls to be sent to Jamaica The Council of Scotland transports the Convicts thither Sedgewick arrives as Commissioner Fortescue dies, and is succeeded by D'Oyley State of the Spanish Refugees encamped on the Rio Hoja Their Defeat at San Cheireras At XVI CONTENTS. Rio Neuva The Despair of their Governor The rising Pros- perity of Caguaya Establishment of a Custom-house there Total Defeat, and final Evacuation of the Spaniards Don Sasi escapes from Runaway Bay The Conspiracy and Execution of Tyson and Raymond The Restoration of Charles II. p. 188. CHAPTER VIII. D'Oyley confirmed in the Command of Jamaica The Origin of the Council Chamber, and Division of the Island The twelve Parishes named and appropriated at the Caprice of the twelve Members Taxes, Patents, and Offices D'Oyley's Mili- tary Spirit discourages the Civil Establishment of the Colony His Loyalty, Deception, and Character Lord Windsor arrives as Governor The Judges, Magistrates, and Militia established Expedition against Saint Jago de Cuba Improvident Allot- ments of Land Lord Windsor retires, and is succeeded by Deputy-Governor Lyttleton Successful Attack on Campeche Wealth of the Colonists derived from the Freebooters The Jews gain a footing The first Assembly of Jamaica Govern- ment of Sir Thomas Modyford His Character The Assembly attempts to exclude the Crown from the Privilege of a Double Negative The 'Oxford' Frigate blows up at Port Royal Morgan's extraordinary Success Sir Thomas Lynch returns to the Island Its Produce in the year 1670 Privateering discou- raged Agriculture augmented First Census of the Island Murder of General Bannister Resignation of Lynch Admi- nistration of Sir Henry Morgan, and Appointment of Lord Vaughan The Surinam Settlers arrive Cranfield's Answers to the Queen's Queries Government and Character of Lord Vaughan Apprehension of a French Invasion Preparations The Earl of Carlisle arrives as Governor He attempts to impose the Irish Constitution and Poyning's Law Dis- tress of the Colony in consequence Its Struggle, Patriotism, Perseverance, and Success The Quit- Rents relinquished by the King Count D'Estree's Fleet Lord Carlisle's Character He CONTENTS. XV11 declines returning to the Island Morgan's Administration, and Lynch's Appointment as Governor New Style of enacting the Laws Their Force and Effect Morgan sacrificed to the Re- sentment of the Spanish Government The Conspirators in the Rye-house Plot arrive Sir Philip Howard appointed Governor ; but does not come Violent Measures in the Assembly Moles- worth's Government The Duke of Albemarle arrives The papal Intrigues of Father Churchill The Freedom of Election violated Gross Abuses, and seasonable Death of the Duke Suspicion of Poison unfounded Sir Francis Watson the first President of the Council nominated by the Crown He assumes the Government, and the distinction of "Right Honourable" Post-office established--The Earl of Inchequin arrives as Go- vernor His intemperate Rejection of the Address Serious Rebellion in Clarendon Death of the Earl The Government devolves on the President, who is killed by the Earthquake ; and then on the next senior Member of the Council Detailed Account of the great Earthquake in 1692. p. 245. CHAPTER IX. Sir William Beeston arrives as Lieutenant- Governor First Dispute between the Council and the Assembly upon the Right of amending Money-bills Invasion of the French under Ducass and Rollon Narrative of that Event Its Failure and Conse- quences The first serious Alarm caused by the runaway Slaves Treaty between England and Spain Sir James de Castillo resides as Agent for the latter Power, under the Assiento Con- tract The Assembly refuses to burden the Island with a perpe- tual Revenue Petition of the Jews for political Equality Its Failure Suppression of the Scotch Settlement at Darien -It removes to Jamaica Character of Sir William Beeston Gene- ral Selwyn arrives as Governor Dies Beckford acts as Lieu- tenant-Governor Proclamation of Queen Anne" The Grand Alliance " Admiral Benbow's Victory Cowardice, and Execu- tion of his Officers The Earl of Peterborough receives his VOL. I. b XV111 CONTENTS. Appointment of Governor ; but goes to Catalonia Beckford superseded by General Handasyde Destruction of Port Royal by Fire Immense Treasure lost there Admiral Croydon removed from the command for Abuse of Power The Queen demands a perpetual Revenue from the Island It is strenu- ously opposed ; and the Assembly refuses to allow her Troops to land until their Maintenance should be provided for The present Mode of dating 1 , endorsing, and passing the Bills intro- duced The public Buildings broken open, and the Journals scattered about the Streets Suspicions thereupon Port Royal again rebuilt The Violence of General Handasyde Prosperity of Spanish Town and Passage Fort Police, Inhabitants, Equi- pages, Stand of Coaches Serious Commotions in the House of Assembly The Members draw their Swords, and hold the Speaker in the Chair The Doors forced by the Governor- Consequent Death of the elder Beckford His immense Wealth Fifteen Sessions and eight Assemblies in nine Years Han- dasyde superseded by Lord Archibald Hamilton The Effects of his mild Administration His Quarrel with Sir Hovenden Walker The latter publicly censured Peace of Utrecht Attorney-General Broderick dismissed Lord Hamilton's Re- moval from the Government His Character Chief-Justice Bernard deprived by Governor Heywood Sir Nicholas Lawes appointed Governor Outrage at the Council-table Depres- sion of the Colony The Pirates plunder the north Side of the Island Instance of atrocious Cruelty in Saint Ann's Parish The Inhabitants subscribe for a Sloop of War to protect them- selves Attorney- General Kelly expelled the Assembly The high Office of Attorney-General obnoxious in these times Why The Hurricane of 1722 Sir Nicholas Lawes sells his House and Land to assist in defraying the Expenses of his Government Disputes in the Assembly, and many Members expelled The Duke of Portland arrives His gratifying Reception Colonel Dubourgay his Lieutenant-Governor The Colony refuses to pay his Salary during the residence of a Governor, and he returns The contested Revenue Bill introduced, and again lost CONTENTS. XIX Monk, the Attorney-General, expelled the Assembly Irre- gularities of the Marquis Duquesne Death of the Duke of Portland His Character ; and the Regret of the Colony The Government devolves on Ayscough, the President of the Council His officious Perversion of the King's Instruction detected by the House The Members of Assembly insist on being sworn in under their own Roof; and prevail The Revenue Bill again lost Character and Conduct of President Ayscough His re- moval hailed with universal Joy His Impeachment Major- General Hunter arrives as Governor ; and is the happy Instru- ment in terminating all Disputes between the Parent State and the Colony He carries the important Revenue Bill ; by which means the English Laws, hitherto suspended in Jamaica, are declared to be in full force there for ever. p. 310. NOTES. With the Constitutional History of the Council of Jamaica- The Jews And the Freebooters. p. 361. APPENDIX. Historical Notes On Slavery On the Ecclesiastical History of Jamaica On its Natural History. p. 451. THE ANNALS OF JAMAICA. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE genuine journals of Columbus, the Pinions, Ojeda, Ovando, Balboa, and others of the first navigators who successively discovered the different regions of the New World, have unfortunately been lost, or never published ; and if the originals be extant amongst the archives of Lisbon, or Goa, they are still beyond our reach. The sources, therefore, from whence we principally derive our acquaintance with this hemisphere, are little better than compila- tions from these authors, made by various collectors, some of whom have never quitted Europe, and many of them been biassed by national prejudices, or blinded by credulous ignorance ; thus transmitting accumulated errors through every successive work. As the testimony of such historians will not weigh equally in the scale of criticism, it becomes important to make some observations on the character of the several authors, on whose faith rest many of the facts recorded in the following pages. VOL. I. B 2 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. The most celebrated historians of the New World are, Amongst the Italians and Spaniards, Oviedo, Cortez, Las Casas, Gomera, Peter Martyr,, Herrera, Benzo, Diaz del Castillo, Solis, Acosta, Bernard de Vergas, Pedro de Cieca, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego Fernandez, Mendez Pinto, Texeira, Jean de Laet, Antonio de Remosal. Amongst the French, Lescarbot, Champelain, Jean de Leri, Vincent le Blanc, Moquet, Cluvier, Oexmelin, Rochefort,, L'Abbe Raynal, La Borde, M. de Pauw, Labat. Amongst the English and Scotch, Gage, Hickeringill, Brown, Oldmixon, Blome, Sir Hans Sloane, Lionnel Waffer, Long, Edwards, Trapham, Dallas, and Robertson. The following writers I would particularly notice, as their works are very important, and their observa- tions often quoted : Who wrote in Who wrote in Peter Martyr A.D. 1488 Trapham A.D. 1676 Cortez 1520 Lionnel Waffer ... 1677 Diaz Castillo 1520 Barham 1679 Oviedo 1535 Sir Hans Sloane 1687 Benzone 1542 Browne 1755 Las Casas 1550 Oldmixon 1708 Gomera 1550 Robinson 1760 Acosta. 1599 Long 1774 Herrera 1620 L'Abbe' Raynal 1780 Gage 1625 De Pauw 1770 Solis 1640 Bryan Edwards 1793 Rochefort.. 1658 Dallas... 1803 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 3 I. The author of The Decades of the Ocean, PETER MARTYR, was born at Arona on the Lake Major, in the year 1455: his family, one of the most illustrious in Milan, took the name of Anghiera, or Anglerius, from a small town in that neighbour- hood ; which distinguishes this historian from another contemporary, Peter Martyr, who was born at Florence, and whose work on Magellan's expedition Was destroyed in the sack of Rome by the Constable de Bourbon. In 1477 he went to Rome, and entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza ; and afterwards that of the Archbishop of Milan. During a residence there of ten years, he formed an ac- quaintance with the most eminent literary men of his time, and amongst others with Pomponio Leto. In 1487 he went to Spain, in the suite of the Spanish ambassador, who was returning home, and by whom he was presented to Ferdinand and Isabella. He served in two campaigns, and then changed his profession of arms for that of the church being appointed by the Queen to the situation of teacher of belles-lettres to the young men of the court, and afterwards preferred to the office of state- counsellor. In 1501 he was sent on an embassy to the Sultan of Egypt ; and, returning in the following year, was named a member of the memorable Council of the Indies upon which occasion the Pope, at the King's request, made him his Apostolical Prothonotary, and Prior of the church of Grenada. After the death of Ferdinand, he continued in favour with the Emperor B2 4 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 1 Charles, who presented him with the honours and emoluments of the abbey of Jamaica. He never visited his distant cure; but died at Grenada in 1526, leaving several historical works unpublished. The work which is quoted in the following pages, was compiled from the manuscripts and despatches of Columbus himself, and, therefore, ranks highest in the scale of authority : it comprises thirty letters, divided into three parts, under the title of " De Rebus Oceanicis, et Orbe Novo, decades. " These letters were, at first, published separately the first of them, which, with the second, is dedicated to his early friend the Cardinal Sforza, is dated in 1493, the year in which Columbus brought home the news of his discoveries ; and being written from the court by which that navigator was employed, it doubtless contains the recital of the great discoverer himself. The succeeding letters, of which some are addressed to Cardinal Louis d'Arragon, and others to Pope Leo X., correspond with the progress of the disco- veries, and are all written in good Latin. Long and Edwards are undoubtedly wrong in assuming that Peter Martyr was ever personally in Jamaica; they have done so upon the mere authority of a sculptured stone found in the ruined abbey at New Seville, which bore his name and titles. It is certain, however, that he merely enjoyed the honour- able, but sinecure, appointment of abbot of that newly-founded monastery, and never crossed the Atlantic. Yet his merit as an author, his excellent INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5 opportunities of obtaining- information from its very source, and the simplicity of his style, have justly given to his work a reputation of accuracy, singular in those times of ignorance and amazement. In 1516 he collected all his letters, and dedicated them, under the above title, to Charles V. They were reprinted at Alcala in 1530. His friend, Anthony of Nebrissa, who again reprinted them, added a treatise, De Insulis nuper inventis, et incolarum mo- ribus; and another^ De Legatione Babylonicd; two anterior works of this historian, which, until then, had not been published. At the same time he blamed the modesty of the author for having so long sup- pressed them : " My dear Martyr," says he, " is capable of distinguishing himself in every species of composition, but he is the most modest of men." The edition herein used, is that of Basle, 1533, folio. II. FERDINAND CORTEZ was a native of Medelino, a town in Estremadura : he undertook the conquest of Mexico in 1518; attached it to the kingdom of New Spain, which he established, and died there in 1547. His letters to Charles V. , which were written during his expedition, amidst the clash of arms and the din of war, are not, consequently, much in de- tail ; yet they form a valuable source of authentic information. They were published at Madrid, under the title of " Cartas de D. Hernando Cortez, Marquis del Valle y de la Conquista de Mexico, al Emperador." INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. III. BERNARD DIAZ DEL CASTILLO confines him- self chiefly to the voyages and wars of Cortez in his famous expedition to Mexico. An author who pro- fesses to have been the constant companion of his hero, and to have reported nothing- but what he wit- nessed, merits, no doubt, our greatest confidence. Accordingly, he is not suspected of error, though his writings are tinctured with no small portion of jea- lousy and ambition ; which causes him often to con- demn the conduct of the general, or to attribute his actions to the worst of motives. Solis observed of him, that he explained himself better with the sword than with the pen ; and though he reproaches him with the rudeness of his style, he declares that the defect carries with it an appearance of good faith, which lends much authority to the history he details. His work was not published till 1632, long after his death, by a brother of the order of Mercy : it is entitled, Historia Verdadera de la Conquesta de la Nueva Espanna, folio, Madrid, of which I have never met with a translation. IV. GONZALE OVIEDO was governor of the for- tress of St. Domingo ; and in 1535 published his history, entitled, La Historia General y Naturd de las Indias, taking, as he says, Pliny for his model ; with this difference only that he commences with the discovery and conquest of the country he treats of. He left Madrid in 1513, appointed to the si- tuation of comptroUer of the mines. The duties of INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7 this office called him to the continent of America, where his services were eminently useful in the various treaties with the Indians ; and, after an ab- sence of twelve years, on his return to Spain, finding nothing but erroneous accounts of matters familiar to him, he was induced to compose from memory a summary of the natural history of the West Indies. Residing afterwards in Hispaniola, as governor of that colony, he perfected his work ; and published it in one volume, comprising twenty books. To these he soon after added two more ; and undertook a voyage home to present them to the Emperor Charles, who had honoured him with the title of his historiographer, as well as a considerable pension. But this seems to have been the last of his labours, at least I cannot discover that he ever returned to his government ; and Jean Poleur, valet-de-chambre to the Dauphin, to whom we owe the translation of his work in 1556, throws no light upon his future destiny. The Seville edition of 1535 is that from which I have quoted. V. JEROME BENZO was born at Milan in the year 1519: his father, who was in low circumstances, having suffered by the wars then raging, sent him to seek his fortune through Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The accounts he received of the newly- discovered world so captivated him, that he deter- mined upon visiting it: for which purpose he went to Spain in 1541, embarked thence for America, 8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. and remained there fourteen years. He returned, and published his History at Venice, in Italian, 1565, 4 to., reprinted 1572, 8vo., and afterwards translated into Latin, French, German, and Flemish. In this book he adds, to his own adventures, the disco- veries and conquests of the Spaniards during- his residence in America, marking this distinction, that, in relating circumstances which he did not witness, he professes to follow only the best authorities. This work is rendered doubly valuable by the impartiality with which the author, at the same time that he eu- logises the constancy and courage of the Spaniards, gives a faithful picture of their cruelties, their avarice, and their excesses. Benzo professes this advantage over Las Casas : that, in exposing, as he does, their vices and passions, he has rendered impartial justice to the memory of the Spanish invaders, by recording their virtues also ; and of all the rare qualities which must enter into the compo- sition of an accurate historian, this balance between virtue and vice is doubtless the most difficult, and the most rare. Vrain Chauveton translated his work into French, in 1579 ; but the edition I have used is that of Urbanus Calve to, in Latin, 1581, Svo. VI. The famous history of Spanish tyranny, en- titled, Relation de la Destruction de las Indias ocd~ dentales por los Castilanos, by BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS, was written for the purpose of describing the INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 9 misery and misfortunes of the Indians, and the fana- ticism which depopulated America, rather than as an history of connected events. The Author, after having accompanied his father in the first voyage of Columbus, employed the greater part of his life in advocating the causes of the unhappy sufferers whom they had discovered, and whose peaceful re- pose they had so inhumanly broken. The name of Las Casas is, therefore, intimately connected with all the early acts and regulations of the Castilian conquerors. The inutility of his efforts, and the virulence of the persecutions which followed himself, induced him to embrace the Dominican habit ; but the Court of Spain, not at first recognising the justness of the cause he pleaded, nor the benevolence of his intentions, forced upon him the bishopric of Chiapa, hoping thus to keep him in subservience. He, nevertheless, continued his charitable labours, until his infirmities obliged him to quit his new charge, in the year 1551. His work contains the principal historical records during the space of fifty years subsequent to the discovery of America; while it possesses the rare merit of having been written by a man of undoubted benevolence and unshaken fidelity, who collected his materials from actual observation, and never lost sight of his generous object. The eulogiums passed upon it by the Protestants of his time had the effect of exciting suspicion and jealousy amongst the Catholics ; yet Le Pere de Charlevoix thus adds his 10 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, powerful testimony to its merit : " On ne peut dis- convenir qu'il regne dans Pouvrage de Las Casas un air de vivacite et exaggeration qui previent un peu contre lui, et que les faits qu'il rapporte, sans etre alteres dans la substance, ont, sous sa plume, je ne sais quoi d'odieux et de criant, qu'il pouvoit peut-etre adoucir. II n'avoit pas assez fait reflexion qu'il ne suffit pas a un historien d'etre veVidique, et qu'il doit encore etre extremement en garde contre ce que la prevention, la haine, Pinteret, 1'amitie, 1'engagement, un zele trop amer, ou trop ardent, peuvent donner de couleurs, ou etrangeres ou trop vives, aux faits d'ailleurs les plus certains. Mais on peut bien assurer que le Saint Eveque de Chiapa, dont, malgre ces defauts, ou, pour parler plus juste, les exces de ses vertus, le nom est demeure tres respectable dans les annales du Nouveau Monde, et dans les histoires d'Espagne, ne prevoyoit pas les mauvais efFets que son ouvrage produisit^, peu d'annees apres sa publication, lorsqu'il eut ete tra- duit par un Hollandois." The polite Father here adverts to the tenor of the work, and the barbarous facts it discloses ; which had confirmed the inhabi- tants of the Low Countries in their rooted hatred of the Spanish name. Such testimony cannot, there- fore, be suspected. The life of Las Casas is so blended with the events of the times he lived in, that a brief memoir of him may elucidate many points in the following history. Born in the year 1474, of a very ancient family, in INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 11 Seville, at the age of nineteen he followed his father to the Indies, with Columbus. Upon his return to Spain in 1498, he resumed his theological studies, and added to it a thorough knowledge of the civil and canonical law. In due time he was admitted to holy orders, and went to Hispaniola, and from thence to Cuba, where he obtained the cure of Zaguarama. Soon, however, he quitted his preferment, to labour with more effect for the liberty of the Indians, whom he saw so inhumanly oppressed by his merciless country- men ; who, not content with having drenched the land with their blood, reduced the wretched remnant to the most cruel servitude upon their own soil, and covered their oppression with the cloak of religion. These nu- merous invading bands frequently met each other in the centre of the ruined provinces, and vied with each other in acts of cruelty and blood. The benevolent Las Casas, seeing that the only way to produce the effect he desired was to obtain emancipation from unjust and arbitrary slavery, with a rare zeal, em- ployed fifty years of his life in the attainment of his object : yet he employed them not in taunting invec- tive and groundless defamation ; he did not set him- self down in listless ease, to enjoy his fortune and appointments, nor allow himself to be actuated by party-spirit, or commercial speculation. He visited, and saw the actual state of those abuses which it was the labour of his life to counteract ; he returned to Spain, and by the irresistible evidence of facts, so worked upon the sensibility, and roused the policy of 12 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. his monarch, that he carried back with him full pow- ers for the investigation of the conduct of the different governors, under whose authority the abuse existed. Unfortunately, he found this power ineffectual for the suppression of the enormities daily committed : to restrain them as much as possible, however, he took the habit of the religious order of St. Dominic, and founded many establishments of it ; which tended, in some degree, to meliorate the condition of the sur- rounding Indians. Not content with his personal labours in the cause of humanity, he again returned to Spain ; and, by his unremitted remonstrances, obtained in the year 1542* the authority of express laws in favour of the objects of his solicitude : these the several governors were obliged to respect, and compelled to execute. This was a great point gained, though short of the object he pursued ; and he met with all the opposition which personal interest, and political subtilty, could marshal to oppose his views. The court was at that time held at Valla- dolid where Sepulveda, and some others, to their eternal disgrace, publicly maintained, in an express convocation, that there was no moral sin in subjecting to slavery an idolatrous people ; an argument which Las Casas fairly beat to the ground, by the publica- tion of various tracts, detailing the excesses of the Spaniards in the Indies. Broken with age, and fainting under the infirmities of a tropical distemper, he at length resigned the bishopric of Chiapa into the * Benzo. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13 hands of the Pope, retired from the scene of his exer- tions, and died at Madrid in the year 1566, at the age of ninety-two. Besides the works already named, he composed many which were never published ; amongst others, a General History of the Indies, of which Herrera made use in compiling his own. The edition of Las Casas's work herein quoted, is that of Seville, 1552. VII. FRANCIS LO'PEZ DE GOMERA, another Spanish historian, (of whose work there is an ancient French edition by Martin Fumee,) has given a general history of the West Indies, in six books. He travelled through America to its southern extremity ; and in his topographical descriptions, and measurement of distances, he may be consulted with confidence and success : but that correctness has lent to his work a greater reputation than, perhaps, it really deserves ; for, in wishing to embrace too great a field, he often wanders from his subject, and falls into inextricable confusion ; while, in abandoning the testimony, and disdaining the opinions of other writers, he forgets to explain the foundation of his own. No wonder, therefore, that his narrative has been discovered to be false, by the more enlightened travellers who suc- ceeded him. Still there is much information to be gathered from his materials ; and he treats of a most interesting period of the American history. Antwerp edition, 8vo. 1554. 14 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. VIII. JOSEPH ACOSTA, a Spanish Jesuit of Medina del Campo, took the habit at Salamanca, and acquired great proficiency in almost every branch of science. After a long residence in Spain,, he was employed in the West Indian missions, where he became a pro- vincial of the various houses established in Peru. This employment was consonant with his zealous regard to the conversion of the Indians ; and during seventeen years he laboured to accomplish it : then returning to Spain, he proceeded to Rome in further- ance of his object, and there published a treatise, De Procurandd Indorum Salute. He also com- posed in Spanish, L'Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Indes, tant Orientates qu Occident ales, which was translated into many languages, and into French by Regnauld: Paris, 1616. He was the author of many discourses, De Naturd Novi Orbis ; De Tern- poribus Novissimis, &c. : and after a life of use- fulness and vigour, he died rector of the College of Salamanca, on the 15th of February, 1599, at the age of sixty years. / IX. ANTHONY HERRERA TORDESILLAS was the son of Roderic de Tordesillas, and Agnes de Herrera, and bore his mother's name, as was the Spanish cus- tom. He was well educated ; and his first appoint- ment was to the office of secretary to Vespasien de Gonzaque, viceroy of Navarre, and afterwards of Valence: upon whose death, Philip II. of Spain, aware of the merit of Herrera, nominated him Grand INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15 Historiographer of the Indies, with a considerable pension. By Philip IV. he was made secretary of state ; but ere he could enter upon the active duties of his high office, he died at an advanced age in the year 16*25. Of his works we have the General His- tory of the Indies in four volumes folio, entitled, His- toria General de los Hechos de los Castilanos en las Islas y Terra Fierme del Mar Oceano, with maps and geo- graphical descriptions; The two first volumes com- prehend events between the years 1492 and 1531 ; and the succeeding *two carry down the history to the year 1554. Herrera composed various other historical works ; but that on the Indies is the most esteemed, and has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. His means of informa- tion were good, and though he relates nothing from actual experience, his narration is considered cor- rect, and is quoted as authority by all writers upon the subject. X. THOMAS GAGE, the English historian, whose work on the West Indies attracted the serious attention of Cromwell, and eventually led to the conquest of Jamaica, was lineally descended from Robert Gage, the third son of Sir John Gage, of Firle in Sussex, the governor of the Tower in the reign of Queen Mary, and who died in 1557. He was the son of John Gage of Hailing-house in Surry, and the brother of Colonel Gage the Royalist, u go- vernor of Oxford, and Masse-founder of that famous 16 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. University," who was killed in the battle at Culham- bridge. His other brother, Colonel George Gage, was also a man of great celebrity in his time : he it was who so gallantly relieved Basing-house when it was besieged, on the 14th of September, 1644; and he had been employed as early as 1621, to nego- tiate the dispensation when the marriage was pend- ing between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain. "The coming of Mr. Gage has given me infinite contentment," writes Padre Maestre at Rome, to the Spanish ambassador in England ; " no man could have come hither that could better ad- vance the business than he, as well in respect of his good affection, as for his wisdom and dexterity in all things."* This historian, instead, therefore, of having been " a runagate priest," as he has been called, was a man who, by the repute of his connexions, and the accuracy of his observations, might be supposed to have considerable weight and interest in the councils of the Protector. He was educated in the Roman faith, in foreign universities, and entered into mo- nastic orders ; but refusing to subscribe to the rule of the Jesuits, at the positive desire of his father, he was disinherited by him, and expelled the family. His father left his property between a daughter and two sons, whom he had by a second marriage, and died before the subject of this memoir returned from * Cabala Mysteries of State, by a Noble Hand, p, 238. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17 his wanderings in America, whither he went, as he expresses it, " to abide till such time as death should surprise his angry father, Ignatius Loiola, his de- voted Mecaenas, and till he might there gain, out of Potosi, or Sacatecas, treasure that might counter- poise that child's part, which, for detesting the four- cornered cap and black coat of the Jesuits, his father had deprived him of." It appears that Tho- mas Gage had long entertained some scruples of conscience with respect to his religion; and, cer- tainly, the conduct of its professors in the new world did not tend to overcome the difficulty, or dispel the doubt. He sailed from Cadiz, attached to a mission of the Dominicans, destined to the Philippine islands, in the year 1625 ; and the course of the mission necessarily taking him to Mexico, for the purpose of embarking on the South Sea, he there heard such a disgusting account of the depraved and wretched condition of the missionaries in those islands, that he determined upon abandoning his undertaking : being refused permission to do so, by his commissary, Friar Calvo, he deserted the company, and travelled through Chiapa, and Guatemala, dissembling his religious doubts, and amassing, by the usual means of papal extortion, a large sum of money. With this, the fruits of his religious impositions on the Indians, he determined on returning to England "to satisfy his conscience;" arid after various un- lucky adventures, he reached his native land in 1638. He then went to Rome, to satisfy his doubts on some VOL. I. C 18 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. points of doctrine; and there, distracted by the sophisms and subtilties of the Roman church, he trusted the establishment of his wavering faith to an experiment, which is too characteristic of those times to be passed over in silence : " I bethought myself further," says he, " that I would try one way, which was to see if I could find out a miracle which might give mee the better satis- faction of the Romish religion than had the former experience of my life, and the lives of the priests, cardinals, and all such with whom I had lived in Spain and America. I had heard much of a picture of our Lady of Loretto, and read in a book of miracles, or lies, concerning the same, that whosoever prayed before that Picture, in the state of mortall sinne, the Picture would discover the sinne of the soule, by blushing, and by sweating. Now,, I framed this argument to myself, that it was a great sinne, the sinne of unbeliefe ; or to waver and stagger in points of faith : but in mee, according to the tenents of Rome, was the sinne ; for I would not believe the point of Transubstantiation, and many others ; there- fore, if the miracles which were printed of the afore- said Lady of Loretto were true, and not lies, cer- tainly shee would blush and sweat when such an unbeliever as I prayed before her. To make this triall, I went purposely to Loretto; and kneeling down before God, not with any faith in the Picture, I prayed earnestly to the true Searcher of hearts, that, in his Son Jesus Christ, he would mercifully INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 19 look upon me, a wretched sinner ; and inspire, and enlighten, mee with his Spirit of truth, for the good and salvation of my soule. In my prayers I had a fixed and settled eye upon the Lady's picture, but could not perceive that she did either sweat or blush : wherewith I arose up from my knees most comforted, and encouraged in my resolution to renounce and abandon Popery; and saying within myself, as I went out of the church, Surely if my Lady neither sweat nor blush, alHs well with me, and I am in a good way for salvation ; and the miracles written of her are all lies. With this I resolved to follow the truth in some Protestant church in France, and to relinquish error and superstition*." Trusting, however, to the protection of the Par- liament, he returned to England in the autumn of 1640, and was ordered by the Bishop of London to preach his recantation sermon in St. Paul's ; in which he alluded to a circumstance that, he says, struck him with such force, that he desired publicly to record it as a main argument in support of his rational conversion. This circumstance is detailed at length in the 197th page of his work, and was no other than, that one day, as he said mass at Porto Bello, a mouse stole away " the wafer-god of the Papists," committing the larceny while he was pray- ing with his eyes shut. This convinced him " that bread really and truly was eaten upon that altar ; and by no means Christ's glorious body, which can- * Survey, p. 210. C2 20 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. not be subject to the hunger and violence of a creature." Soon after his recantation, the Parliament pre- sented him to the benefice of Acryse, in Kent, a rectory now in the gift of the Crown. His brother, the Colonel, continued his efforts to restore him to his lost faith; but, finding persuasion ineffectual, he, in the spirit of that merciless fanaticism which is characteristic of the church of Rome, actually sent an officer of his own regiment to assassinate him. His intended victim, however, escaped the snare ; and, in 1648, published his book, The English- American his Travail by Sea and Land, or a Survey of the West Indies ; and dedicated it to Sir Thomas Fairfax. This work excited great animosity, yet met with much encouragement ; for its author was the first foreigner who had, from experience, de- scribed a country barred against all strangers. For that reason M. Colbert ordered it to be translated into French, by Beaulieu. Thuvenot also translated it in the second volume of his Collection, with an History of the Mexicans, in hieroglyphics, copied from Gage's MSS. The means which Gage pos- sessed of acquiring information, and the internal proofs of accuracy and observation, which his work everywhere bears, render his Survey worthy of implicit credit. He is stigmatised by Labat for his apostacy, and the ample disclosure he makes of papistical fooleries ; yet even that prejudiced histo- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 21 rian gives him full credit as an author, and acknow- ledges the accuracy of his details as a traveller. * Having drawn the attention of Cromwell to these islands, he left his retirement to embark with Penn and Venables ; and died in Jamaica, a few months after its conquest. His recantation sermon was published in London, 1642, quarto; and in 1651 he wrote A Duel between a Jesuit and a Dominican, begun at Paris, fought at Madrid, and ended at London ; 4to. XL The conquest of Mexico by ANTONIO DE Sous, although composed from anterior publica- tions, is one of great credit and reputation ; as are also the works of Corneille Wytfleet, Jean de Laet, Ogilby, and Torquemada. XII. ROCHEFORT, who wrote an history of the Antilles, was chaplain to Le Vasseur, the treacherous governor of Tortuga, in the year 1643. This work is filled with exaggerations and romantic anecdotes, by a man who proves himself to be neither a naturalist, an accurate observer, nor a classical scholar. XIII. Dr. THOMAS TRAPHAM was physician to Lord Vaughan, with whom he came to Jamaica in 1676, and soon afterwards published A Discourse on * Hist. Gt?n. des Voyages, par M. PAbbtS Prevost, torn, xviii. Labat, torn. ii. p. 332. 22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. the State of Health in this island: London, 1679. 12mo. pp. 149. In 1677, he was elected a member of Assembly for the parish of St. Mary. He assisted Sir Hans Sloane in his professional attendance upon the Duke of Albemarle, and, upon the decease of that nobleman, in 1688, he insinuated a groundless suspicion, that his grace had died by poison. In 1694, he was elected member for St. Thomas' in the East, and continued to take an active part in the business of the country, till the year 1702, when his ill-health obliged him to quit the island, to which he never returned ; neither did he publish his more copious History, to redeem the pledge he quaintly gives, of u a more retired inquisition, when the desirable country shall be my chief study." XIV. LIONEL WAFFER, an English traveller, was in Jamaica about the year 1677, and was considered an accurate observer. He afterwards visited various other parts of Spanish-America, and embellished the work he published with some tolerable delineations of fruits and animals. In 1706 it was translated into French by Montreal ; and an excellent edition was published by Cellier ; Paris. 12mo. XV. Dr. BARHAM cultivated the science of natural philosophy in Jamaica, about the same period. His observations are confidently quoted by various au- thors ; and his MSS. were collected and published in 1793, by Mr. Aikman. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 23 XVI. Sir HANS SLOANE embarked for Jamaica, as physician to the Duke of Albemarle, in Septem- ber, 1687, and in the twenty-eighth year of his age. His patron dying in the following year, he had only the short space of fifteen months to make his researches in ; yet, so well did he apply his time, and such was his diligence in his favourite pursuit, that he had already formed a collection of more than eight hundred different plants. He was the first man of practical learning whom the love of science had led from the British shores to visit these tropical regions. A virgin field was therefore open to one who possessed the enthusiasm of a lover towards his object ; and was at an age when activity of body combined with ardour of mind to overcome all diffi- culties. Under this happy coincidence of circum- stances, it is not surprising that he should return to England with the fruits of a rich harvest. A con- siderable time, however, elapsed before he gave to the world his Prodromo to the History of Jamaica plants, under the title of Catalogus Plantarum quce in insulci Jamaica sponte proveniunt. 8vo. But this volume, intrinsically valuable as it is, is only the systematic index to the work he published in 1707 : his Voyage to the Islands of Madeira, Barbados, Nevis, St. Christopher, and Jamaica. The second volume was not printed until the year 1725 ; in it, the plates are continued to the number of two hun- dred and seventy-four. This publication contributed much to the extension 24 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. of science, by exciting a spirit of emulation, both in Britain and on the continent. Upon the accession of George I., he was created a baronet; and was the first English physician-general to the army. He was also President of the Royal Society and College of Physicians ; but his declining health compelled him to resign these honours, and he died at Chelsea, on the llth of January, 1752, at the age of ninety years. His magnificent cabinet of natural curiosities was purchased by Parliament, for the British Museum, at the price of twenty thousand pounds. This celebrated naturalist, during his stay in Jamaica, resided in the old Spanish-fronted building still visible in the lane at the back of the king's house in St. Jago de la Vega ; where, not long since, some of his etchings were discovered in a ruined out* house. XVII. PATRICK BROWN, M.D., was born at Woodstock, in the parish of Crosboyne, county of Mayo, in the year 1720 ; and after receiving the best education his country could afford, he was sent to Antigua, in 1737 ; but, the climate disagreeing with his constitution, he travelled through France and Holland, where he formed an intimate friendship with Linnaeus and Gronovius. He then practised as a physician in London, and afterwards came out to Jamaica, where he collected and preserved speci- mens of birds, plants, and shells. Having chosen Kingston for his residence, it was by his advice that INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 25 the governor was persuaded to represent to Earl Granville the expediency of making that town the capital of the island ; whence originated those dis- sensions which long afterwards agitated the colony. He was a sound mathematician and a good astrono- mer. He collected materials for a map of Jamaica, which was published in London in 1755, engraved by Dr. Bayly. Soon after this he published, by subscrip- tion, his Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, folio, illustrated by forty-nine engravings. There were but two hundred ancl fifty copies printed ; and the plates, with the original drawings, were unfortunately destroyed by the fire on Cornhill, in 1765 ; an acci- dent which prevented the appearance of a second edition, for which he had prepared copious materials during his subsequent visits to these islands. He died in 1790. XVIII. OLDMIXON was the author of an anonymous publication, entitled The British Empire in America, 2 vols., 8vo., 1708. XIX. Dr. ANTHONY ROBINSON formed a collection of several hundred figures and descriptions of Ja- maica plants and animals ; correcting the errors of Sloane and Brown, and supplying their deficiencies ; but he died before it could be digested into a regular series for publication. He invented a vegetable soap, for which he obtained a premium of a thousand pounds sterling from the House of Assembly ; and 26 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. prepared the sago and tapioca from that species of palm which is commonly used only as thatch. His MSS. are now in the possession of Mr. Aikman, whose library, indeed, comprehends almost all that is rare and valuable in West-Indian history. XX. EDWARD LONG, the historian of Jamaica, was the descendant of Colonel Samuel Long, who came here as a lieutenant in Colonel D'Onley's regiment, and secretary to the expedition in 1655; and who afterwards delivered the island from the thraldom of that constitution which Lord Carlisle was sent hither to enforce. The subject of this memoir was the fourth son of Samuel Long, of Tredudwell, in the county of Corn- wall, by his wife Mary, the second daughter of Bartholomew Tate, of Delassre, in Northampton- shire. He was born on the 23d of August, 1734 ; entered Gray's Inn in 1752; and his father dying in this island five years afterwards, he filled the situa- tion of private-secretary to his .brother-in-law, Sir Henry Moore, the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica. He afterwards held the appointment of judge of the Vice- Admiralty Court here ; and, in 1758, married Mary, the second daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Beckford. Eleven years afterwards he quitted Jamaica, and devoted himself to literary pursuits, particularly to the completion of his History of Jamaica, which he published in 1774, in 3 vols., 4to. His high station in the island afforded him INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 27 every opportunity of procuring authentic materials, which he compiled with ingenuity, and digested with candour, although, in some instances, with a little too much haste. He was aware, however, of the imperfections of his work, and had been preparing a new edition at the time of his death, which happened in 1813, at Arundel Park, in Sussex. Besides the History of Jamaica, Mr. Long pub- lished various other works, particularly the Reflec- tions on the Sugar- Cane, 1772, 8vo. Letters on the Colonies, 1775, 8vo.* The Sugar Trade, 1782, 8vo. In early life he had written The Prater, by Nicholas Babble, Esq. ; and The Triall of Farmer Carters Dog Porter, for Murder, 1771, 8vo. XXI. The ABBE' RAYNAL compiled his work on the Indies during the reign of Louis XVI., and published it about the year 1770, in seven vols. 8vo., under the title of Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Etablissements et du Commerce des Europeans dans les deux Indes. It was received with great applause at the time, and rapidly went through several edi- tions ; but experience has deprived the Abbe of all credit. He never visited the regions he so confi- dently treats of ; was careless, and credulous, in his researches ; and no better, in fact, than an indifferent editor of the ideas of others. The historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who met the Abbe in their mutual retreat at Lausanne, observed, that in his conversation, which might be very agree- 28 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. able, he was intolerably loud, peremptory, and inso- lent ; and you would imagine that he alone was the monarch and legislator of the world. Such is his work on the Indies ; and it is, therefore, seldom read, or consulted, otherwise than as a dictionary of local situations. XXII. M. DE PAUW was the author of an anony- mous work, entitled, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, written in the French style of levity and shallow fluency. It passed through several editions about the year 1770. An appearance of philosophy, with real ignorance of his subject ; thoughts trivial, or false ; affectation of style, exag- geration, and vulgarity of description ; such is the work of M. de Pauw. It was judiciously, and de- servedly, attacked by the Abbe de Briigel, in his Dissertation sur rAmerique et les Americains. M. de Pauw published a defence, in a third volume; and attempted, but unsuccessfully, to overwhelm his antagonist by the flippancy and the impudence of his assertions. XXIII. BRYAN EDWARDS was born in the year 1743, at Westbury, in Wiltshire the eldest son of a respectable maltster who, dying when the historian was thirteen years of age, left a widow, and six chil- dren, in distressed circumstances. She had, how- ever, two opulent brothers in the West Indies ; one of whom was Zachary Bayley, of this island, who INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 29 took the family under his protection, and educated Edwards. In 1759 he came out to Jamaica ; where Mr. Teale, a clergyman, was employed in supplying his deficiency in the learned languages. In the course of a few years, the death of his uncle, and of his relation Mr. Hume, put him in possession of a considerable fortune, which enabled him to return to England ; and in 1796, he took his seat in Parlia- ment for the borough of Grampound, which he con- tinued to represent until his death, on the 15th July, 1800. His first publication was a pamphlet, entitled, Thoughts on the Proceedings of Government respect- ing the Trade to the West India Islands with the United States of America, 1784. This was followed by a speech delivered at a free conference between the council and assembly of Jamaica, held on 23rd November, 1789, on the subject of Mr. Wilberforce's propositions in the House of Commons concerning the Slave Trade. But his most distinguished work is his History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, 1793; 3 vols. 4to., which has been continued to a later period, by an anonymous writer, evidently no great friend to their prosperity. XXIV. R. C. DALLAS, the Novelist, published the History of the Maroons, from their Origin to the Establishment of their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone, including the Expedition to Cuba, for the purpose of INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. procuring Chasseurs, and the Slate of the Island of Jamaica, 1803 ; 2 vols. 8vo., a work very inaccu- rate in many of its details, and entertaining rather as a novel than as a genuine history. XXV. The classical pages of ROBERTSON it may be considered profaneness to impugn ; yet, having never visited the Western hemisphere, his work would have been more consistent with his general character, as an historian, had he delivered his sen- timents with less confidence, and not vainly attempted to palliate the enormities of the conquering Spaniards by the tender expressions he applies to them. Many of his opinions need, however, no other refu- tation, than may be found in the subsequent pages of his History ; for which work, published in 1775, the learned author received no less a sum than four thousand five hundred pounds*. XXVI. A New History of Jamaica, from the Earliest Accounts to the Taking of Porto Bello, was published in the year 1740, in the form of thirteen letters from a gentleman to his friend, a work pirated from A New and Accurate Account of Jamaica, written by Charles Leslie. It contains much curious information. XXVII. An History of the Caribby Islands, with a Vocabulary, translated from a French Work, * See Note I. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 31 edited In) various Literary Characters in Paris, by Jjio. Davies, of Kidwelly, 4to., 1 vol., 1666, is little better than a compilation from the work of Father Raymond. XXVIII. The Buccaniers of America; or , a True Account of the most remarkable Assaults committed of late years upon the Coasts of the West Indies, by the Buccaniers of Jamaica and Tortuga, both English and French; where are . contained, more especially, the unparalleled Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan, was written originally in Dutch, by JOHN ESQUEMELING, one of the Buccaniers. 1 vol. 4to. 1684. XXIX. The West-India Common-place Book, com- piled from Parliamentary and Official Documents ; showing the Interest of Great Britain in its Sugar Colonies, by Sir Wm. Young, appeared in the year 1807 ; a work worthy of the name of its distinguished author. XXX. A GENTLEMAN, long resident in the West Indies, published, in the year 1808, An Account of Jamaica, and its Inhabitants ; a book teeming with inaccuracies, which the author has not corrected in his late work entitled The Past and Present State of Jamaica ; to which he has prefixed his name J. STEWART. 32 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. As tending to illustrate the following- pages, a statement of the extent, proprietary, and population, of the Charaibbean Archipelago may not be here misplaced. Islands. Square miles. Whites. Malattos, and Blacks. Total Population. To whom belonging. Cuba Hispaniola 54,000 30,000 234,000 30,000 198,000 500,000 432,000 530,000 Spain, f Partly to Spain: 1 partly independ. Jamaica 6,400 30,000 330,000 360,000 Britain. Porto-Rico The Bahamas. St. Thomas's 4,140 5,500 40 80,000 3,923 550 30,000 11,396 4,530 100,000 14,318 5,050 Spain. Britain. Denmark. St. John's 40 180 2,250 2,430 Denmark. Santa Cruz 100 2,223 29,164 31,387 Denmark. Tortola 90 10,000 Britain. Virgin Gorda 80 1,500 6,500 8,000 Britain. Anguilla 30 ... 800 Britain. St. Martin 90 6,100 Netherlands. St. Bartholom. 60 4,000 *4,000 8,000 Sweden. Saba 10 1,600 Netherlands. Barbuda 90 1,500 Britain. St. Eustacia 22 5,000 15,000 20,000 Netherlands. St.Christopher 70 4,000 21,000 25,000 Britain. Nevis 20 1,000 10,000 11,000 Britain. Antigua 93 2,102 33,637 35,739 Britain. Montserrat 78 1,000 9,730 10,730 Britain. Guadaloupe 675 12,745 102,092 114,839 France. Deseada 25 300 600 900 France. Mariegalante 90 1,938 10,347 12,385 France. Dominica 29 1,594 24,905 26,499 Britain. Martinique 370 9,206 87,207 96,413 France. St. Lucia 225 1,290 15,350 16,640 France. St. Vincent's 131 1,350 22,550 24,000 f Partly to Brit.: [partly independ. Barbadoes 166 16,289 65,650 81,939 Britain. Grenada 109 771 30,591 31,362 Britain. Tobago 140 900 15,483 16,483 Britain. , Trinidad 1,700 2,261 24,984 28,477 Britain. Margaritta 364 5,500 6,500 14,000 Caraccas. Curac,oa 600 1,200 7,300 8,500 Netherlands. 105,000 450,000 1,600,000 2,050,000 CHAPTER I. FORMATION OF THE CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. WHEN the Spirit of God called forth the earth from chaos, the earliest separations from the confused mass of unorganised matter formed a class of rocks which are still discoverable in its crust, and are therefore termed primitive. The emanations of their strata, being- generally superior to those of all other classes, bear ample testimony to their remote anti- quity. Having been formed in the unproductive state of the earth, these granites contain neither petrifactions nor mechanical deposits ; but are found pure and unmixed, originating from the wonderful chemistry of nature. When land appeared, or during the transition of the earth from its chaotic to its habitable state, transition rocks were formed ; chemical productions also, but mingled with a small proportion of mechanical deposition: for now the summits of the primitive mountains just appeared above the waters, the attrition of whose turbulent waves wore off, and deposited, particles of their original mass. As the level of the sea subsided, so did the surface on which its waves acted increase ; and with it, the quantity of mechanical deposition. Hence these depositions are still more abundant in the rocks of the next formation, which are denomi- VOL. I. D 34 FORMATION OF THE [Chap. natedjtos, as being generally formed in horizontal, or flat, strata ; and, having been deposited after the creation of animals and vegetables, petrifactions are abundant in them all. Countries composed of these rocks are therefore not so rugged, nor so marked by rapid inequalities, as those in which the primitive and transition rocks predominate ; and from various appearances in them there seems reason to conclude, that the waters in which they were formed, had risen with great rapidity, and, falling gradually, had after- wards subsided into a state of almost stagnant tran- quillity. Their chief formation may, therefore, be referred to the Deluge. To form, however, an accurate idea of the surface of our globe in its present state, we must imagine that the ocean has its correspondent marine hills, and vallies, and plains ; and that the mountains, of which the isles, rocks, and shoals are the exposed summits, are so situated as that the invisible chains which they form are but the prolongations of the terrestrial mountains. At the time when Divine Justice, satisfied with the sacrifice of an impious race, recalled the waters which had been the tremendous instrument of its vengeance, the points of the highest moun- tains, such as Ararat and the Andes, were the first which appeared above the surface of the flood; forming a small number of islands, then alone con- stituting the whole habitable earth. Presently, however, the inundation, gradually decreasing, discovered other mountains less elevated; which I.] CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 85 appeared as a few scattered islands dotted over the vast bosom of the deep. The diminution of the floods continuing, the elevated crStes, or crests, which united these isles, began to appear : the lofty plains of Quito and Mexico, formed by a plateau of mountains, next disclosed themselves, and were soon followed by the less elevated plains, as they now appear in the four quarters of the world. It is evident, if it had pleased the Divine Power further to reduce the level of the waters, that other lands would have discovered themselves : so that, in fact, the depths of the ocean would have appeared as one vast valley ; the present continents as raised plains ; the islands as the pointed summits of the mountains, and all united,, either by the continuity of the vallies, or by the summits of those hills which, in the actual state of the ocean, are now covered by its waters. The direction of all the islands, rocks, and shoals, which traverse the seas, and which unite the series of terrestrial mountains, the soundings of navigators, and their observations on the course of currents, are incontestable proofs of this integral and original arrangement of nature. They give rise to two incontrovertible positions : first, that the globe is formed of, and sustained by, numerous chains of mountains, which are continued through the seas from their apparent courses upon the earth ; and serve as skeletons to augment the solidity of the sphere : secondly, that these submarine mountains actually, though invisibly, divide the seas into sepa- D 2 36 FORMATION OF THE [Chap. rate basins, which appear united only because the barriers which inclose them are themselves, for the most part, covered by its waves, but which present a providential obstacle to the otherwise uncontrolled movement of the mighty mass of fluctuating waters. These basins, or marine vallies, are of various depths : as, for example, the arm of the sea which separates England from France is not so deep as the Atlantic; and, if the waters were to subside only twenty-five fathoms, they would lay bare the crest of the mountain which joins Dover to Calais, which ceases only to be an isthmus because it is submarine. Were they to subside yet a little more, the Isle of Wight would become a mountain, separated from the coast of Hampshire by a dry valley : and did they sink sixty fathoms, England itself would become one vast mountain separated by a deep vale from Normandy, and connected to Flanders by the crest between Dover and Calais : while the mouth of the British channel, between the Scilly Isles and Ushant, would become the barrier to the Atlantic. The Gulph of Mexico is one of the minor divisions of these vast marine basins into which the whole ocean is thus divided by its submersed mountains. As in the above example, if its waters were to subside about eighty fathoms, the chain of the Antilles would become the boundary of its floods, and present a barrier of lofty mountains inclosing a vast valley, and continuing the terrestrial series, from the Caraccas to East Florida : while amongst the loftiest summits of !.] CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 37 this chain would appear the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The Almighty was, however, pleased to stay the recession of the flood at that elevation which leaves the habitable earth as it now appears ; except in as far as it has been subject to the subsequent effects of storms and earthquakes. What the world was before the flood, we have little means of ascertaining : earthquakes no doubt accompanied that tremendous revolution, and have left in Jamaica, and on every island in the bosom of the deep, some extraordinary record of their powers. It was at that age of the uorld, probably, that England was torn from France; Sicily from Italy ; Cyprus from Syria ; Eubcea from Bceotia* ; and the Antilles from America. Strabo refers the straits of the Euxine and Mediterranean seas to the same cause. The Cape de Verd islands, the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries, bear internal evidence of having formed constituent parts of their neighbouring continental lands, or of some other regions now perhaps sunk in the ocean. The obser- vations of modern navigators tend to prove that the islands of the South Sea have been disunited from one mass. New Zealand, the largest of them, is filled with mountains, where are yet visible the undoubted traces of extinct volcanoes ; its inhabitants are a different race from those of America ; and, although at the distance of six hundred and eighty leagues, they speak the same language as those of * Pliny, 1. 2. c. 88, et seq. FORMATION Ofr THE [Chap. Otaheite. The Straits of Magellan also appear to have been formed by the disunion of that part of the continent. The characteristic appearances which attest these mighty changes are of a nature which cannot be mistaken. The shells of every species, some, at this age of the world, unknown ; the corals ; the beds of oysters ; the sea-fish entire, or mutilated, yet buried in regular strata throughout all the countries of the world, in places far removed from the sea, at the heart, or in the surface of mountains * ; the instabi- lity of the earth, still continually beaten, sapped and Fretted by the ocean, losing ground in one part while it gains it proportionably in another; the sandy plains now spread before cities which are recorded as having been celebrated havens f ; the horizontal and parallel layers of earth, and marine productions, alternately bedded in uniform order, and composed of the same materials ; the correspondence between the riven cliffs divided by the sea ; the formation, and relative continuity of hills and vallies, where an overwhelming ocean has left an eternal testimony of its fluctuation, all tell us that the waters have over- stepped their natural boundaries, or, more properly speaking, have never been assigned any by their great Creator. We are assured that, as His mighty agent, they still continue to dispose of the earth at his will and pleasure, contracting or enlarging the * Ray's Travels in the Netherlands, p. 114. t See Note IT. I.] CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 39 boundaries of man,, to fulfil the inscrutable designs of his creation*. Thus, whatever may have been the various ob- scure causes of these general or partial appearances ; whether they may be referred to the period of the Deluge, or to some local revolutions of nature, which may have happened at later periods, the effects are still the same, and may be traced to the prominent features of every country. They are particularly observable amongst, the Antilles, where violent concussions are ever felt when the tremendous vol- canoes of the Cordilleras rage, a circumstance bear- ing powerful testimony to the * accurate observations of Humboldt, who imagines that unquenchable fires are burning beneath these tropical seas, connected in the cavernous bowels of the earth with the numer- ous volcanoes on the continent. Some of the largest volcanoes which we know of are in the neighbouring continental territories : five of them are now burning, Popocatepell, Orizaba, Jorullo, Colima, and Tustla ; and the most tremendous earthquakes which ever shook the globe, have occurred in the cities of Cu- mana, Riobamba, Guatimala, and Lima. Not half a century ago, the volcano Jorullo burst, and wag immediately surrounded by an innumerable multitude of smoking hills ; since which period subterraneous noises have been 'constantly heard at Guanaxuato, and its neighbourhood. And who can doubt but that, had the volcano Jorullo burst beneath the * See Note III. 40 FORMATION OF THE [Chap. ocean, instead of the earth, the same smoking hills would have arisen therein, and formed a cluster of islands, each similar to Jamaica, with its hot springs, porous rocks, and crustaceous surface? By the eruption of such imprisoned fires, when the waters of the Deluge flowed in upon them, the Charaibbean Archipelago was probably torn from its adjacent lands, crumbled into islands, and its inclosed valley overwhelmed by the bubbling tide. Many minor revolutions and volcanic convulsions have, however, changed the face of these islands since the days of Noah ; earthquakes have shaken them to their very foundations, tropical floods have swept away their outlines, leaving them the sport of hurricanes, and the but of waves. They will remain the shattered monuments of miraculous fury, until the eternal fires which still rage beneath shall have re- cruited strength sufficient to rend asunder their mighty caverns, and produce another stupendous change. During the memorable earthquake which hap- pened in Jamaica in the year 1692, the convulsions were "observed to continue longer, and were more sensibly felt, on the mountains than on the plains, and the former, in some instances, bore evident marks of depression in their height, while numerous huge masses of disjointed rock, with many a yawning chasm and mural precipice, which we are now apt to consider as coeval with the Deluge, perpetuate the memory of that tremendous explosion *. In the * See Note IV. I.j CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 41 island of Nevis, which consists but of a single moun- tain, gently rising from the bosom of the deep, there are traces of a volcano ; and on its summit the crater is still visible, while hot sulphureous springs, with sulphur itself in substance, are found in the neigh- bouring clefts and chasms. At both ends of the Blue Mountain chain of Jamaica are also to be dis- covered the traces of extinct volcanoes, and a hot sulphureous spring rises near the highest summit. The longitudinal direction of this elevated ridge, and that, indeed, of all the mountains with which the Antilles are covered, corresponds with that which the islands relatively preserve amongst themselves. This connected uniformity is so regular, that, in con- sidering only the summits of the mountains, without any reference to their bases, they form, as before observed, a regular chain, dependent on the conti- nent, at Caraccas and at East Florida ; while it is further remarkable that, in the Windward Islands, all the springs and rivulets which flow from this chain, fall on their western sides. We need not go far from home, however, nor resort to remote ages, for a proof of the vast changes which earthquakes, or the more silent sappings of the ocean, have effected : well-attested instances of which are beneath our notice at St. Omers, Old Romney in Kent, and Rye in Sussex f . The Isle of Wight was probably divided from * Dugdale's " History of Draining," p. 173. 4'2 FORMATION OF THE [Chap. Hampshire by an inroad of the sea, long- since the Deluge : yet the most remote historians make no further mention of the actual occurrence than this : " Nomen enim hoc insulse ab antiquis Britannis multis ante seculis, quam Getse, sive Vitse, (si lubeat sic vocare) illuc accesserint datum est ; qui illam GUYTH nominarunt, quod divortium significat, quia ex maris eruptione a continente divulsa sit cujus olim (ut antiqui tradunt) pars erat" *. If, then, in such places as have been long beneath our observa- tion, the most obvious mutations have been effected, while yet the time or circumstance of them is utterly lost, much more may similar, or even greater, revo- lutions have occurred, without record, in the unknown, remote, and vast marine tracts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and yet have been posterior to the Deluge. Besides the foregoing arguments, which support the assumption that Jamaica, and the larger islands of the Antilles, though detached from the continent upwards of four thousand years ago, have since un- dergxme very many and mighty revolutions, other evidence of a different nature may be adduced. For instance, the islands of Tobago, Marguerita, and Trinidad spontaneously produce the same species of vegetation as characterises the continent to which they are contiguous ; while such plants are not to be found, at least not in native abundance, in the islands * Sherringham, " De Angl. Gentis Origine," p. 42, edit. Cantab. 1670. I.] CHARAIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 43 which compose the other extremity of the chain, as Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Cuba. These afford nearly the same productions as Florida, whence they seem more immediately to have been detached. The difference of climate produces, no doubt, the differ- ence of vegetation between the two extremities of the insular chain ; and the like gradation of dissi- militude is equally observable between the two corresponding latitudes on the adjacent continent. Acosta also observes, of the Antilles, that " Quoy- qu'elles fussent fertiles, et de grande e ten due, il n'y avoifaucune sorte d'animaux de service quand les Espagnolsy arriverent." This curious fact can be accounted for only by supposing that the revolution of nature, which detached the Antilles, occurred at the period of the Deluge, which convulsion cut off terrestrial animals, and precluded the possibility of their natural return there. That these islands had previously possessed their share, is proved by the fossile bones still frequently discovered. Besides the fact that volcanic remains are dis- tinctly to be traced in the island of Jamaica, the general outline and prominent features of the country bear evident marks of convulsive violence, in that abrupt irregularity which meets the eye, in the shape of fissured cliffs, mural precipices, cavernous pits, and rocky vallies, phenomena which the dynamic effect of the distribution of the floods during the Deluge, or the gradual subsidation of its waters, could not alone have caused. 44 FORMATION OF THE [Chap. Primitive rock, the naked skeleton of the globe, is here rarely to be met with ; but in all stages of the mountains are discoverable vast disjointed fragments of transition rock, filled with corallites, rudely thrown together, or buried in alluvial matter, yet without preserving that order or those strata, in which the gradual recession, or the simple evaporation, of the floods could possibly have left them. In the lower regions, clefts, and chasms, through a more regular stratum of floetz rock, are found, and a softer species of limestone, containing the remains of shells and fishes ; while the characteristic outline of the island presents the irregularity of knocks, or insulated hills, disjointed vallies, hollow unconnected dells, deep cock-pits, and rocky sink-holes. These plainly demonstrate, that the water which once as- sisted in forming them, could only have been drained off by subterraneous channels, opened, during their submersion, by volcanic explosions. Such mighty convulsions must have shaken the globe during the Deluge, when " the fountains of the deep were broken up," and the waters, rushing in upon the fiery bowels of the earth, would doubtless have raised a vapour, whose unbounded powers might rend asunder the very globe itself. In this part of the world, the very seat and centre of contending ele- ments, such accidents may have occurred beneath the waves, even since that miraculous event, and caused many of those abrupt crags and clefts which are now so observable in Jamaica. Those stupend- I.] CHARA1BBEAN ARCHIPELAGO. 45 ous fragments of disjointed rock, which are never found but on the superficies of disturbed strata, except, indeed, where they may have rolled from an adjacent mountain, afford a strong argument in favour of the supposition that they were ejected from beneath since the Deluge. At that period they must have been deposited with other transition rocks below, but some bursting volcano may have subse- quently dislodged and projected them so far as to have broken up the superincumbent alluvial strata, on whose surface they are now left resting. If the several facts and observations which are thus thrown together blend themselves into a consistent and natural system, they form no weak argument in favour of the hypothesis that (although natural causes and the influence of those combustible materials with which the earth in these regions is charged, have since effected great changes, and left this archipe- lago in that disordered state, which is the peculiar characteristic of volcanic violence) the period of the great convulsion which tore the Antilles from the adjacent continent, and formed their earliest features, must be referred to the Deluge, when the face of the whole earth underwent a mighty and miraculous revolution. laticum concussa lacunas Pandit hians tellus, et fontibus ora relaxat : Succutiturque pavens, et fimdamenta revelat Et reserat chaos. JEterm sic vox tonat oris, Sic ibrmidandsG grave spiritus infremit irae. BUCHANAN, Paraph. Psalm. 18. p. 21. CHAPTER II. POPULATION OF AMERICA. How the fourth quarter of the globe was supplied with inhabitants is a question which has puzzled mankind ever since its discovery. Some have ven- tured to apply the dream of Esdras to the origin of the American population, but it is as easy to conceive that it received its inhabitants, as all the rest of the world did, direct from Eden. Reason and Reli- gion teach us that we are all descended from a common parent. That parent received an order from Heaven to people the earth ; and the earth was peopled : it became necessary to overcome difficulties ; and they were overcome. The Omni- potent Being who created man could doubtless furnish him with the means of fulfilling the purposes of his creation. Was it more easy for mankind to transport themselves from the extremities of Asia, of Africa, and of Europe, to the distant islands of the Southern and Pacific Oceans, than to pass from thence to America? Certainly not. Navigation, though apparently brought to perfection within the last few years, was probably as perfect in former ages : at any rate we cannot doubt but that it was advanced far enough to answer the purposes of the Almighty in furnishing the earth with those beings Chap. I.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 47 for whom it was created. If it be not evident that there is any land-communication between the Old and New Worlds,, yet the contrary has not been y proved. Besides the passage is neither long, nor difficult, from Africa to Brazil ; from the Canaries to the Azores, or from the Azores to the Antilles. We are not surprised at finding inhabitants on islands, equally distant from the shores of Asia ; why then should it excite our astonishment to find them in America ? It cannot be supposed that the children of Noah, when they found themselves obliged to separate, in order to fulfil the designs of their Creator, should be excluded from one entire quarter of the globe. Nor is it impossible that Noah himself, who lived three hundred and fifty years after the Deluge, should have undertaken the re-establishment of America. It is not probable that he would remain so many subsequent years without performing great exploits, and undertaking noble enterprises. He, the in- spired and experienced navigator, could he not build another ship, his own remaining fast on the mountains of Ararat, to repair the desolation of the earth? He who possessed a knowledge of a thousand things we are yet unacquainted with, by the tradition of sciences with which our first father was inspired, and whose children he had conversed with, could he be ignorant of these western lands, in which it is even possible that himself might have been born .' It cannot be imagined that the artisan of the largest 48 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. ship the world ever saw, a ship destined to float upon a boundless ocean, agitated by an overwhelming and miraculous tempest, would have been unable to communicate to his children the art of navigation upon a sea reduced within its natural limits, compa- ratively tranquil, safe, and narrow. We must rather believe that he possessed means of fulfilling the decrees of Him who had especially elected him for the purpose of regenerating the race of man. Accordingly we read that Jacob, who died about two hundred and fifty years after Noah, speaks of ships, and havens for shipping, as things already well known: particularly Zidon, where Zebulon's lot was to be cast. In the days of Moses, Balaam mentions the ships of Greece and Chittim. In the reign of Solomon, the Tyrians are noticed as expert seamen: and Solomon himself had a fleet upon the Red Sea, which pursued its annual course to Ophir and Tarshish ports, most probably, in the East Indies*. Combining the testimony of sacred and profane authors, it is probable that the Egyptians possessed fleets, even before the reign of Solomon. Moses tells us that all the lands and islands were peopled ; it is not likely therefore that the children of Noah knew only one half of the world. Eudoxus, during the reign of Claudius, sailed from Egypt ; and though the report of Cornelius Nepos, that he circumnavigated Africa, be not satisfactorily established, yet there is no doubt that he made a * See Note V. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 49 long- voyage in the attempt*. Herodotus declares that Neco, Pharaoh of Egypt, who reigned six hun- dred years before the Christian era, sent a fleet by the Red Sea, into the southern ocean, to make dis- coveries in Africa; that it returned by the straits of Gibraltar : and, to verify the assertion that it actually doubled the southern promontory, he mentions, as a phenomenon, that in their course these adventurers beheld the sun on their right hand ; which would, in fact, have been the case after they had passed the Equator f. These concurrent probabilities, and con- sistent narratives, carry great weight with them ; and the Periplus of Hanno, which we have every reason to believe has been handed down to us uncorrupted from the days of Aristotle, proves that the spirit of discovery animated the Senate of Carthage, at least five hundred years before Christ J. The voyage of Sataspes, though failing in its object, was extensive and authentic. Under the reign of Xerxes, the Persian youth was condemned to death for violating a noble virgin ; but a sister of Darius interceded, engaging to inflict a punish- ment no less severe ; and he accepted, as the con- dition of his pardon, the task of sailing round Libya, and returning by the Red Sea. His ship and mari- ners were prepared in Egypt ; and, after passing the columns of Hercules, the adventurer steered his * Pompon. Mela de Situ Orbis, lib. 3. c. 9. t Herodotus, lib. 4. I Pompon. Mela, obs. J. Vossii. lib. 3. VOL. I. E 50 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap, course in the Atlantic ocean. But his voyage being one of compulsion rather than of spirited adventure, he beheld, with despair, the prospect of an endless sea ; and his complaint, that his ship was stopped, may be imputed to the dead calms that prevail in the neighbourhood of the Line. The natives, alarmed at the aspect of the watery monster, fled into the country wherever he landed ; and the un- fortunate youth, compelled to brave the danger of an unsuccessful return to the court of his kinsman, was impaled, in expiation of his crime of love*. It would be strange presumption, therefore, to maintain,, contrary to the combined testimony of so many historical facts, that the science of navigation is but the fortuitous effect of human enterprise ; or that it entered not into the immediate views and active agencies of the Almighty. The present age has, certainly, contributed not a little to the advancement of modern science, by a multitude of ingenious discoveries ; but it must be admitted that the ancients had smoothed the path, and paved the way, over which we are now so rapidly advancing. They prepared the canvass on which we have worked : they made discoveries on which it has been, comparatively, easy for us to improvef ; and we may still say, what Quintilian declared seventeen hundred years ago : " tot nos praeceptoribus, tot exemplis instruxit antiquitas, ut * Herod. Ruscelli, Indice degli Huom. illust. t Vitmvius ; and Dutens, Origine des Decouvertes, II.J POPULATION OF AMERICA. 51 possit videri null a sorte nascendi aetas felicior, quam nostra, cui docendae priores elaboraverunt. " Long- continued observations, and repeated experiments, have advanced all the arts to that state of perfection in which we now enjoy them. The secrets of nature, which one age alone could not penetrate, have given way to, and been developed by, the succession of several. By practice, we have now advanced far in the science of navigation ; yet much, no doubt, remains, to reward the labours of future ages. We have even gone so far as to reach a World which had been long lost ; yet, without the aid of the com- pass, it might probably have still escaped our search, and millions of our fellow-creatures been yet enjoying the calm repose of their native forests. This boasted compass, however this Herculean stone, as Plato calls it, was not the invention of phi- losophic research; but, like gunpowder, and the telescope, was the mere offspring of a combination of happy accidents accidents which, in some other shape, might as easily have directed the ancients in their discovery of America. Their skill and percep- tion, although perhaps ruder, were as deep as ours ; yet they could not boast of so many thousand years of experience and experiment. The effects of gra- vity the centripetal and centrifugal forces, were known to them, and are clearly noticed by Anax- agoras, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Lucretius. Democritus and Phavorinus had correct ideas of the milky-way, and announced the discovery of the satel- 2 52 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. lites to a wondering world*. Without the compass, then, might not the daring navigators of their age have had some unrecorded means of traversing the ocean? It is even possible that the compass was familiar to them. The attractive virtue of the mag- net was certainly known to Plato f, and noticed by Hippocrates even before that time. Plutarch speaks of it under the same name J ; and Alexander Aphro- disseus, in his Qucest. Nat. (lib. 2. c. 23.) cites the opinion of Empedocles, and subjoins the theory of Democritus, that the magnet owes its virtues " ad effluxiones atomarum^." Descartes gives precisely the same explanation of its powers which had been given by Lucretius fifty-four years before Christ, and which still remains all we know upon the subject. Some authors affirm that, by its assistance, the ancients performed long voyages; that the Egyp- tians, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, were actually acquainted with its polar attraction, but that it was lost in the lapse of time, as were many of their other ancient arts. A passage from Plautus is adduced, in which it has been supposed that the author refers to the mariner's compass itself: " Hue secundus ventus nunc est : cape modo Vor- sarium, Stasime ; cape Vorsarium ; recipe te ad Herum||." * Aulus Gellius, 1. xiv. c. 1. t P. in Timaeo. t Platon. Quaest. ii. p. 1005. Gassendi, Opera, ii. p. 108; also, Galen de Nat. Facult. 1. i. c. 14. J In Mercatore, act v. seen. 2 ; and in Trinummo. See also, II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 53 Certain it is, that the arts of astronomy and navi- gation suffered the fate of many others which we have no reason to believe the ancients were ignorant of: some have been lost, and others but partially preserved amongst a few nations, or obscure tribes. Reason, as well as religion, suggests the principle, that such as were necessary for the designs of the Creator have never been withheld from the crea- tures destined to fulfil them. Many had fallen into oblivion, because, probably, they were no longer needful ; and amongst them the art of distant navi- gation disappeared, when unnecessary, and all the regions of the earth had been furnished with inha- bitants through its means. Pliny regrets, that in his time navigation was not so perfect as in former ages ; and Strabo says, that the inhabitants of Cadiz once excelled in that art. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians were long reputed the most expert seamen ; but it answered all the common purposes of commerce to coast along the shores, or cross to some of the nearest islands. We cannot, then, be sur- prised that, for want of practice, they lost the secret or art of distant navigation over an element so variable, and subject to so many accidents. If their voyages of discovery had even been productive of any fruits, the spirit, and perhaps the very records of their naval enterprises, might have been lost in the destruction of Tyre and Carthage : for their con- Henvardus Admiranda Ethnicae Theolog. Mysteria. Ann. 1623, p. 975, and Panciroll. de Rebus deperditis. 54 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. querors would have been naturally unwilling to believe the achievements which they were unable to emulate. The stars were probably the chief guide to the ancient mariners, who launched out upon the un- explored deep; and there are grounds to believe that, if not the telescope and quadrant, some con- trivances, which supplied their uses, aided their astronomical observations. lamblicus says, that Pythagoras attempted to render the same assistance to the sense of hearing as he had already afforded to that of sight, by means of the hoirrpotf, and other instruments : " Oiav (*ev o4/K ta rou Jja/Soiroz/, xa< Jia rou xavovof, 01 vn Aia * Aiovrpas* ." Wlien we compare this record, and the testimony of Strabo, with the astronomical knowledge which Democritus had ac- quired, and which seems to depend on the aid of the telescope, it is hardly possible to deny this boasted modern invention to the ingenuity of the ancients. Not being, however, in vulgar use, it was, perhaps, like other sciences, neglected, till by the mischances of time it was buried in oblivion. Whether, then, the ancients directed their course upon the seas by the magnet t, or with the assistance of the stars alone, must remain one of the deep secrets of antiquity ; but we may safely rely upon the Scriptures, for a proof that they did navigate them to a vast extent, and in very early ages of the world. * Edit. Amst. 4to. 1707, p. 97. De Vitd Pythag. t See Note VI. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 55 Those whose knowledge of antiquity is drawn only from the sources of profane authors, may treat it as impossible that America could have been peopled from the West ; or that the Chinese and Japanese could have passed thither long before the Phoeni- cians, whom they have been accustomed to regard as the very earliest of navigators*. But, be it remembered, the records of the most remote profane history are comparatively of modern date, when referred to the pages of Holy Writ. The great establishments of the Phoenicians are stated, by the most learned chronologists, to have had their origin about the time of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt : it was long after that when they ventured upon the ocean, and founded Cadiz. But Diodorus of Sicily, having associated them with the Carthagi- nians in the supposed discovery of America, we must refer the period of such an event to an age sub- sequent to the aggrandisement of Carthage by Dido ; and, since this republic was jealous of the Tuscans, navigation having flourished late in Italy, it is doing much for the credit of the ancient mariners, to fix the epoch of their earliest voyage to the shores of America, one hundred years before the first Punic war. Now that war did not commence until two hundred and sixty-four years before Christ about five hundred years after the retreat of Dido to Car- thage; and, therefore, twelve or thirteen hundred * See Note VII. 56 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. years after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. Yet, even at the remote period of the transmigra- tion of the Israelites, the arts necessary to the per- fection of architecture were not new. Nearly eight hundred years before that time, in the plains of Sennar, mankind had performed its chef-d'oeuvre, by the construction of the tower of Babel. The conse- quent confusion of tongues, which obliged the artifi- cers to separate before they had finished their under- taking, did not deprive them of the knowledge of arts they had probably long possessed. They doubtless carried them to distant lands ; and, amongst others, that of navigation, which the chiefs of tribes had acquired by an examination of the ark of Noah itself, beneath the shade of which they were born*. It is true some tribes preserved the arts longer and better than others ; of which fact we have examples in the children of Japheth and of Ham. The same might have happened to the descendants of Shem, who retired towards the east ; and the ignorance in which we remain as to their future deeds, is no proof that they were idle. Thus, during the space of two thousand years, which elapsed between the dispersion of mankind and the first Punic war, the inhabitants of the East, instructed in navigation by the most perfect marine architect whom the world ever saw, and having only to traverse a sea so calm as to be called the Pacific, * See Poole's Synopsis. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 57 might easily have been in America long before the Phoenicians could have reached it on its opposite shores ; and might have there erected buildings, and rendered the face of the country equal to the beau- tiful description of it given by Diodorus Siculus, whose delineation is too clear and definite to be condemned as altogether fabulous. He reports that some Phoenicians, after having passed the columns of Hercules, were carried away, by a violent tempest, to far distant lands bejond the ocean, and at length cast upon a fertile island, whose mountains were covered with evergreen forests ; and the plains, wa- tered by a multitude of streams, were filled with the golden fruits of the earth, spontaneously and con- stantly contributing to the luxuries of their inhabit- ants. For reasons, however, which he assigns, the Carthaginians kept the discovery a profound secret. It is difficult, indeed, to read this passage, and concur in any other opinion, than that it actually refers to the fertile shores of the tropical regions of America to the great Atlantic island, of which the ancients so frequently make mention, and which they supposed had sunk in the ocean, for this very simple reason, that they had neglected and lost the arts which had enabled their forefathers to reach it. The author of The Book of the World, supposed to be Aristotle, or his disciple Theo- phrastus, speaks of other lands than Europe, Asia, and Africa ; and Pliny and Arnobius allude to the distant islands of which Plato speaks, as having 58 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap, been overwhelmed by an earthquake and deluge meaning 1 Atlantis ; and are supported in the record by Origines, Proclus, and others. Indeed, the histories of the Tyrians, the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Persians, and of all succeeding ages, bear ample testimony to the industry of those nations in seeking, as well as subduing, foreign countries. The navigation of the Argonauts to Colchis,, one of the epochae of Grecian computation, happened eleven hundred years after the Deluge ; and,, two hundred years before that expedition, Danaus sailed from Egypt to Greece: while Pliny explains the various forms and appendages of shipping, referring to still higher memorials. The idea, therefore, that it is only in these latter ages of the world that man- kind have ventured upon distant voyages, confident in the size of their ships, or the expert fearlessness of their navigators, is disproved by a thousand con- curring testimonies : amongst others, by that of Pliny, who says that wrecks of Spanish vessels were actually found in the Arabian sea*. It seems, as by a prophetic spirit, indeed, that Seneca predicted the discovery of America in these remarkable lines : Venient annis saBCula sens, Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethysque novos detegat orbes ; Nee sit terris ultima Thule. * See Note VIII. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 59 Roger Bacon also, in his Opus Mqjus, pointed with the finger of prophecy to the probability of the existence of this western world, which was not dis- covered until two hundred years after. Some authors have gone so far as to assert, that Augustus extended the Roman empire to America. Marinaus Siculus reports that an old gold coin, impressed with the figure of Augustus, was found there ; and the Spa- nish conquerors named a town they discovered in Peru, IMPERIOLA, because they observed the Roman eagle carved and painted on many of the houses *. Upon the evident probability, therefore, of there having once been a communication between the old and new worlds, might be founded an hypothesis, that the Hesperides of Hesiodf were the islands of Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola ; for as they are said to have been situated beneath the setting sun, these islands seem better to answer that description than the Canaries, or Gorgones. Pliny tells us that Statius Sebosus took forty days to navigate from these latter isles to the Hesperides J : now it certainly would not take forty days, nor more than eight, to go from the Cape de Verd islands to the Canaries, where some authors place the Hespe- rides ; but that space of time might, and probably would, in those ages of navigation, have been con- sumed in a passage to the Antilles. * Jonston's Thaumatographia, p. 85. t Hesiod. Op., ed. Lips. 1585, p. 142296. I Lib. vi. c. 13. 60 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. The ancient Celts and Gauls, so famed for their skill in navigation, who sent so many colonies to the extremities of Asia, and of Europe, and whose origin may be traced almost to the children of Japheth, might not they also have penetrated through the Azores to America? If it be objected that these islands were not inhabited until the fifteenth century, it may be answered that those who first discovered them, in all probability would pass on, encouraged by their success, to the continent, which is at no great distance. The Esquimaux, and some other tribes of America, bear so strong a resemblance to those of the north of Europe, and of Asia, and have so little affinity with other nations of the New World, that this fact necessarily suggests a suspicion of their being descendants of the former, possessing nothing in common with the latter. Through ages succeeding those we have been treating of, the thread of tradition remains unbroken ; and conveys to us accounts, confused it may be allowed, of various voyages and migrations from Europe towards America some from Britain, others from Germany, Norway, Tartary, and Scythia. Hackluyt says, that America was discovered by the Welsh about the year 1170; and that a colony was planted there by Madoc, the son of Owen Guynedd. Meredith Ap Reece, a Cambrian bard, who died in the year 1477, that is, fifteen years before the dis- covery of America by Columbus, composed an ode in II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 61 his native language on this expedition of which ode the following is an extract : Madoc Wyf, Mwyedic Weedd lawn genou, Owyn-Guyedd Ni frinnum dir, fy enaid sedd Na da mawr, nid y moroedd*. Sir Morgan Jones, who was chaplain to General Bennet, in Virginia, about the year 1669, published an account of his having discovered a tribe of Doeg Indians on the Pantijo river, near Cape Atros, whose origin he conceived to have been Welsh ; and Owen, in his British Remains, supposes that this transmigra- tion happened near the time of William Rufus, or of Henry the First. That even so far back as the reign of Alfred, the Britons explored the seas, is recorded by William of Malmesburyf, who gives an account of a voyage, made under that monarch's reign, to the peninsula of India, by Sigelmus, a priest ; and that the successful navigator was afterwards made bishop of Sherburn. Spelman also, in his Life of Alfred, p. 151, mentions a memorial, in the Cotton library, of a voyage, during the reign of that king, made for the purpose of dis- covering a north-west passage ; which relation is also to be found in the Saxon version of Orosius, made by Alfred himself- a fair copy of which curious antique is preserved amongst Junius's MSS. in the Bodleian library J. With reference to the emigrations from other * See Note IX. f De Gestis Pontif. Angl. lib. ii. p. 247. J See Note, X. 62 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. European states, Grotius reports, that Ericus Rufus colonised Iceland and part of Greenland, as early as the year 982 ; and Doppelmayer, in his work upon the lives of the mathematicians of Nuremberg, cites authority to prove that one of them, named Martin Behaim, discovered America itself a short time before Columbus, whom he suspects to have profited by such intelligence. This mathematician, who closely applied himself to the study of geography, in the persuasion that there must be much undiscovered land in the west, went to the Low Countries, and solicited from the Duchess Isabella, daughter of John I. of Portugal, a vessel to attempt the dis- covery. He obtained it, and actually discovered, in 1460, the island of Fayal ; but without confining himself to this discovery, he prevailed on John II to supply him with some ships, with which he de- parted, in company with a Portuguese named Jacques Canut, and in 1484 discovered (his biographer says) the southern shores of Patagonia and Magellan. Upon this discovery he framed a chart, and placed it in the hands of the king of Portugal, in whose cabinet Magellan saw it thirty-four years after- wards, and took advantage of it to appropriate the discovery. Puffendorf mentions an extraordinary resemblance between the religious forms amongst the natives of Campeachy and the heathen worship of the East * ; and many are the instances of similitude to support * See Note XI. 11.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 63 the probability of an eastern origin to the inhabitants of the New World. The barbarous rites of the Charaibs, and other tribes, practised on the admission of their youth to the privileges of manhood, may find examples in the prevalence of a similar custom amongst the Lacede- monians ; and the Indian usage of the father to with- draw and fast on the birth of his first-born son, was practised by the Iberians of Asia and the Tibero- nians of the Euxine. Grijalva, when he discovered the island of Cozumel,* found there, if we may believe Herrera, a cross built of stone, nine or ten feet high, which the natives invoked to obtain rain; and at Yucatan, the Spaniards are said to have met with crucifixes painted on the walls of houses. La Borde, who lived many years amongst the Charaibs, observes, " a entendre plusieurs de leurs fables, il y a lieu de croire qu'ils ont ete autrefois eclairez de la lumiere de 1'Evangile." It is also remarkable that Cortez observed the Indians per- forming various religious ceremonies peculiar to the Christian worship, and asked Montezuma whence they derived them ; who replied that a strange people had formerly visited his shores, from whom they had been handed down, referring perhaps to Madoc's expedition. That they believed in a resurrection is certain ; for when the Spaniards, in their eager search for gold, broke into the silent repositories of their dead, the unfortunate natives, with tears and suppli- cations, interceded for those sanctuaries, which had 64 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. ever been held sacred, fearing, as they declared, that, by so dispersing the ashes of the departed, their reunion would be rendered impossible*. Gage also asserts, that before an Indian idol he found pots of maize, honey, and burnt frankincense f , and the word ALLELUYA was used by them in their invoca- tions. Lescarbot distinguishes between the priests and the divines of the Indians, assigning the former appellation to such only as made human sacrifices, and the latter to the more harmless natives of Flo- rida, Virginia, and Brazil. In these countries the divines were called Charaibs, and the physicians Pages J. The natives of Florida invoked the sun on particular occasions, but paid no adoration to it. That the sun and moon, however, in the infancy of human intelligence, should become the objects of admiration, approaching to veneration, and that savages, observing the wondrous effects produced by them, should make them the objects of worship, appears very natural, and is a species of adoration beautifully expressed by Job, chap. xxxi. v. 26. Again, the Brazilian interpretation of the word divines, and its appellation, Charaibs, bear a most remarkable affinity with the Greek word w^v^s, a priest of Cybele ; and the word Sagamos, used by the Indians of New France, for a king or chief, is actually applied in the same sense in the east, if we may credit Maffeus. Sago was indeed a title given * Lescarbot, pp. 717, and 728. f Gage's " Survey," pp. 173. { Lescarbot, pp. 725, and 855. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 65 to Noah, as the father of knowledge, according- to Berose ; thence we no doubt derive the word sage. Rabbi David says, that the Hebrew word sagan sig- nifies a ruler, and it is so translated in Jeremiah,, chap. li. v. 23. Humboldt perceived traces of the Chinese language in that of Mexico. The Indians universally painted their faces, and their favourite colour was red : so likewise did the Romans in triumph*, who also painted the face of the statue of Jupiter red. The Picts both painted and lacerated themselves, as Herodian records, also Claudian, thus ferroque notatus Pertegit exanimes Picto moriente figuras. The Indians made a distinction between the colours used ; if gallantry or joy were the predominant feel- ing, the painted red or blue ; but if they contem- plated revenge in any of their warlike expeditions, black was their established hue. The custom of mark- ing their bodies was, in fact, as prevalent amongst the Indians of the New World, in the time of Columbus, as it was amongst the Israelites of the Old in the days of Moses -f-. Yet, perhaps, a still more extra- ordinary coincidence of custom is to be found in the fact, that the Charaibs were in the constant habit of chewing the betel, prepared with calcined shells, after the manner of the east, a circumstance recorded * Pliny, lib. 3. c. 7. and lib. 6. c. 30. also Acosta, p. 151. t 1 Kings, c. viii. v. 28. Levit. c. xix, v. 27. VOL. I. F 66 POPULATION OF AMERICA. cha P by Peter Martyr, from the actual investigation of Columbus*. Instances like these of concurring rites,, languages, and habits between countries whose means of com- munication had been, to all appearance, cut off and obliterated for more than four thousand years, furnish a very powerful argument in favour of a common origin. No one can doubt but that, in the infancy of mankind, the different tribes were mingled, dis- persed, divided, and subdivided into endless varieties. Foreign wars and domestic feuds, ancient as the passions of man, the necessity of separating and emigrating, sometimes because a country was unequal to the maintenance of its increased inhabitants ; at others, because the weak were oppressed by the powerful ; natural restlessness, intuitive curiosity, and a thousand other motives, must have produced infinite migrations throughout all the ages of the world. The disorders attendant upon such changes, the difficulty of preserving arts and traditions amongst fugitives transplanted into a distant land, and the unperceived accidents of tempests, earthquakes, and shipwrecks, in process of time would effectually cut off all record of their origin. In some, and probably in all, of these ways has America been supplied with inhabitants. And we may easily imagine that a wandering race, forced to unite for mutual defence, or engaged by the eloquence of a chieftain, would soon have been able to erect itself into a monarchy, * Decad. 8. c. 6. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 67 frame laws, and comprehend many distinct nations. Such was the origin of the greatest empires in the Old World, and such must have b,een the case of Mexico and Peru in the New. Nor does this conclusion at all invalidate the tes- timony of recent discoveries. We are no where told that those who went to America found the country destitute of inhabitants ; on the contrary, Diodorus Siculus, and the earliest traditions, speak of the coun- tries discovered in the west as thickly populated. The accidents which may have cast the natives of the Old Word upon the shores of the New, would probably have precluded the possibility of their return to tell their wondrous tale ; but we are not to argue from their silence that they died of famine, or were the only human beings upon the untenanted wilderness. And that such accidents have occurred is clearly proved by the discovery of the stern-post which had belonged to some stranded vessel, and was found by Columbus upon the shores of Guada- loupe. Glass also, in his History of the Canary Islands, speaks of a ship, bound from Lancerota to Te- neriffe, which was, by foul weather, driven upon the distant coast of the Caraccas, where she was relieved by an English cruiser, and carried into the port of La Guaira. And Gumilla saw a vessel driven off the coast of Teneriffe into the port of St. Joseph, in Trinidad. Our countryman, Sir Dodmore Cotton, who, in the year 1626, went ambassador to the Per- sian court, was in his voyage thither driven, in lat. F 2 68 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. 24 42' S., one hundred leagues by winds and cur- rents ; and at length actually found himself upon the coast of Brazil. Peter Martyr records the circum- stance of Vasco Nunez having met with a colony of negroes near Quare?jua, in the gulph of Darien, whose appearance there could only be accounted for by supposing that they had been driven across by stress of weather, from the African coast *. Such accidents might as easily have happened three thousand years ago, as in later ages: and unaided, as the ancients probably were, by the compass, and the ingenious contrivances of marine architecture, it is but reasonable to suppose that they were even much more subject to similar casualties than we are. The dark sea of conjecture may be partially illuminated by the suggestions to which these probabilities lead ; and we may very reason- ably arrive at this conclusion : first, that America derived its population from the cradle of the human race ; and that Europe, Asia, and Africa, all contri- buted at various periods to furnish the fourth quarter of the world with all the works of the creation. Secondly, that the casual, or intentional, emigrations which have peopled America with its present race, have all happened since the Deluge ; that is, within the period of the last four thousand years. And even supposing the first migration to have taken place only two thousand years ago, thus allowing two thousand years for those progressive improvements * See Note XII. H.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 69 in navigation which the building of the Ark would suggest, and that no more than fifty pairs composed the moving tribe, it is easily ascertained that suffi- cient numbers might have been propagated, to people the vast regions of "the New World*. Driven by necessity into the habits of a barbarous life, they would necessarily lose the arts and tradi- tions they might have brought with them ; they would degenerate in their successive offspring, and their progeny would Assimilate to the nature of the country and climate into which they had been transplanted. Some authors attempt to prove that the human race can have existed in America little more than six hundred years f ; but their arguments are errone- ous : for if barbarity and ignorance were to be taken as incontestable evidence of the infancy of a people, the negroes would be the most recent of men; whereas their origin surpasses all age and record. If we consider the want of tradition and barbarous superstition as proofs of late descent, there is a con- flicting example at hand. The Buccaneers of St. Domingo were Christians ; but leading a brutal life amongst themselves, in the short space of one gene- ration they became barbarians; wild as the woods they dwelt in, and cruel as the beasts they hunted. If they had been suffered to exist to the third genera- tion, they would have lost all record of their origin, * Sir Mat. Hale. Origination of Mankind, p. 196. t See Note XIII. POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. and formed a race of white savages, the objects of terror, and speculation to future ages. They might possibly have preserved some outward forms of the worship of their forefathers ; but of that they could have given no account, further than what was found amongst the Indians of the Antilles, and in the religious rites of many of the nations of America. Besides the passage across the Atlantic, which the above facts and observations tend to establish as one of the various means whereby America has been supplied with inhabitants, the supposition of a land communication between America and the old hemi- sphere must be admitted : or how, it may be asked, could the latter have obtained its vast varieties of the inferior animals of the creation? The continuity might have been either at the northern, or at the southern, extremity of the continent ; or perhaps in points at this moment very far separated *. In con- sidering this question, two very doubtful perplexities assail us : first, whether insects, fish, and vegetables, which by their nature may arise from equivocal gene- ration, had as large and universal a nativity as the globe they overspread ? Secondly, whether the pri- mitive genera of the more perfect animals were diffusively created over the whole surface of the earth; or whether they were only certain capita specierum utriusque sexus, produced within a parti- cular determinate district, near to the garden of Eden ; and propagated thence throughout the world ? See Note XIV. II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 71 Divine authority and physical reasoning lead us to the conclusion that the race of perfect terrestrial animals was created near to the place of Adam's birth: and that from these, and these only, such animals were propagated, and dispersed over the surface of the whole earth ; moreover, that the American breed was, by some means, deduced from those which were preserved in the Ark. For we are told, in very plain language,, that all the fowls and beasts were brought into the presence of Adam to receive their names; which seems to convey that their several kinds were within some reasonable and approachable distance. The difficulties which lie in the way of the trans- portation of such animals as mankind would not have exerted their ingenuity in conveying across the seas to the distant regions of America, may be surmounted by the very probable supposition that, within the circle of three thousand years, there may have been some practicable communications,, some remote con^ tinuity between the northern regions of Europe, or Asia, and the arctic ices of America; though, for ages past, the revolutions of nature, which have caused such visible mutations in the climate and confines of the Old World, have broken and oblite- rated these lines of communication with the New. The fury of the ocean, the violence of the tempest, or the still more irresistible concussions of the earth itself, might as easily have effaced the union in those remote regions, as they have altered the countries which 72 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. are subject to our observation : and thus would be destroyed the hypothesis of the Prae-Adamites, which is built upon arguments as absurd in themselves, as they are incompatible with the sacred truths of revealed religion. If we observe the disposition of the numerous small islands lying between China and New Guinea, almost contiguous to each other, there are some grounds for the supposition that they were not always islands ; and a convulsion, which could rend asunder such a portion of the earth, might as easily have effaced those communications with America, which had then fulfilled the designs of Providence by affording a passage to the Ark's contents. The alteration of climate, the fortuitous mixture of breed, and the peculiarities of their exotic association, would produce, in the same genera, those infinite varieties of species, which are now esteemed pecu- liar to the regions of America. Similar variations were, long ago, observed in Africa ; arising from the promiscuous meeting of the different animals which, in its arid deserts, took place at the partial waters. The circumstance was observed by Aristotle, and gave rise to the proverb, Semper aliquid novi Africa affert. The Spaniards, who stocked America with Euro- pean animals, found that they increased with amazing rapidity, and were soon spread from the islands throughout the neighbouring continent. Benzo ob- serves, " Ibidem omne genus quadrupedum, pecu- II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 73 dumque ex Hispania transvectum ad propagandam stirpem, magno proventu sobolescit : et Hispani nonnulli sex octove millia animalium in pecuariis atque armentis possident." This was as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and the fact proves how soon exotic animals became assimilated to a genial climate. From all that has been said, and from much more that might be deduced from analogy, and confirmed by experience, we may confidently refer the popula- tion of the new world to the early ages of the old ; to a people who, although they might be ignorant of what semi-barbaric societies are now familiar with, knew what might put the most civilised nations to the blush. It is impossible to form any accurate ideas of the state of society in ages before the inven- tion of letters, and so far removed beyond all tradi- tion. If we receive the most moderate account of the first empires, according to the precise terms of description which are now familiar to us, we grossly exaggerate the picture: if, on the other hand, we deny all arts to men who were ignorant of those which now seem to be the springs of civilisation, we equally misrepresent the truth. Mighty are the changes which, in little more than three hundred years, have been effected in the fourth vast quarter of the earth ; and the mind is lost in contemplating what may probably happen there in future ages. Freedom has been proclaimed ; inde- pendence has been established there; and, as the 74 POPULATION OF AMERICA. [Chap. first steps to civilisation were originally made on the banks of the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Persian Gulph, where the ruins of Nineveh, Babylon, and Susa attest the early sway of mighty empires, Co- lumbia, in the spirit of her own institution, may one day send back her genius to kindle up the light of liberty in Asia, and to break the rayless night of despotism which now broods over that entire quarter of the globe. Jt is what she owes to the sacred cause of liberty, by which she has herself been exalted : it is but a reasonable tax upon the birth-right which she has thence received. May we not trace some obscure glances cast at America from the Mount of Vision ? as if it were from a consciousness of the future relationship be- tween that undiscovered land, and Asia. David says, " If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the west." Thus Malachi : " From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering." And since the Hebrews gave the name of islands to all countries beyond the sea, perhaps the words of Isaiah may be applied: " Surely the isles shall wait for me." Again, in the last chapter of the same Pro- phet : " I will gather all nations and tongues ; and they shall come, and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, II.] POPULATION OF AMERICA. 75 that draw the bow ; to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off ; that have not heard my fame, neither have they seen my glory : and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." Let America, then, from her western hills, reflect back the morning light which she received from Asia ; and thus explain why the eyes of eastern seers came, before Columbus, to these distant lands. CHAPTER III. THE INDIANS. THE testimony of all early navigators corroborates the opinion of Columbus, that the natives found upon the islands of Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, and, according to Las Casas, upon Trinidad also, were scions from the same root ; differing ma- terially from the inhabitants of those windward and smaller islands which prolong the great chain of the Antilles to the Southern Continent. The Mex- ican empire was probably the offidna gentium ; its territories, in a teeming climate, where man was but a weed, would soon swarm with human life, and naturally seek to disburthen themselves upon those adjacent islands which offered the tempting lure of peace and fertility. Yucatan and Florida would present the nearest points from which to embark ; and a navigation neither long nor difficult would disperse the settlers throughout the greater Antilles, where they would keep up their intercourse with each other, and with the parent stock upon the main. Columbus, when he discovered Cuba, found, in one of its villages, a mass of bees' wax, which he carried with him to Spain as a curiosity ; for he could discover no trace of that substance in any other part of the island ; and he afterwards had reason to believe Chap. III.] THE INDIANS. 77 that it was brought from Yucatan, through some com- mercial intercourse between those countries, which he declared he could never accurately develope*. What his reasons were for such a conclusion we do not find; but if, as we must believe of so accurate a traveller, they were well-founded, the circumstance throws some light upon this probable origin of the islanders ; who thus, after their emigration, continued a friendly intercourse with the continental tribes. Some years afterwards, during the fourth voyage of Columbus, in 1502, a large canoe was picked up near the Isle of Pines, on the coast of Cuba, in which were found twenty-five men, with various manufactures of cotton, palm-nets, hard- wood swords, flint knives, and such articles as induced the Spa- niards to believe that they also came from Yucatan. Peter Martyr says, that the natives of Yucatan spoke the same language ; and we shall presently find that the component parts of the Indian word Xaymaca, were of that dialect. No further light can, at this distance of time, be thrown upon the obscure origin of the Indian islanders, found, as they were, without the testimony of written records, without tradition ; and who were exterminated almost as soon as found. Martyr declares, that the island of Jamaica was inhabited by a race of Indians more enlightened, kind, and gentle, than any its discoverers had met with. Columbus described it as by far the most * Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn, xviii. pp. 19 119. 78 THE INDIANS. [Chap. beautiful island in these seas ; and said, that the innumerable canoes which came off to him, attested an abundant population ; but that, upon his standing in-shore, to obtain soundings, armed bands menaced his nearer approach. Las Casas, who declares that the island abounded with inhabitants "as an ant-hill with ants/' accuses the Castilians of having massa- cred upwards of six thousand of them in a very short space of time, some of whom were burnt, and many torn in pieces by their blood-hounds. There can be no doubt, therefore,, that Jamaica was thickly popu- lated, and its favoured spots, the savannahs, richly, though rudely, cultivated. In point of personal appearance, the Indians were tall and well-proportioned ; their complexion, a sun- burnt brown beneath a transparent tint of a redder hue ; their features, hard and gross, with wide nos- trils, long black hair, discoloured teeth, and eyes possessing all the wild perplexity which characterises savage life. Yet this rude exterior was not alto- gether natural; for, beneath an artificial mask of prevailing fashion, the natives possessed dispositions mild, humane, and amiable ; and manners far from ungraceful. The red tint was caused by the annotto pigment ; and the natural shape of their heads was destroyed by the universal custom of depressing the sinciput in infancy ; or by manual force folding it beneath the occiput, where it was retained by liga- tures, and thin metal plates, until the forehead became totally depressed and doubled in thickness ; III.] THE INDIANS. 79 thus changing a naturally fair physiognomy into a wild and distorted expression. Their martial spirit probably suggested this practice ; for their skulls, being thus folded, became almost impenetrable to the strokes of the wooden swords they used, and frequently even the Castilian blades broke short upon their heads *. Yet this warlike spirit, which exacted such a barbarous sacrifice, was combined with a dis- position that shamed their merciless invaders ; and, in spite of the hideous exterior, there shone forth, in these unhappy islanders, expressions enlivened by confidence and softened by compassion. The men used no clothing whatever ; the women, but little ; and the younger females, none. They were of a phlegmatic and weak temperament, occa- sioned chiefly by the nature of their diet, which con- sisted chiefly of vegetables and shell-fish. Very little labour earned for them the gratification of every want, and induced an apathetic indolence which it required some extraordinary occasion to disturb. They possessed, however, in some degree of perfec- tion, the art of manufacturing the cotton which grew spontaneously in their Eden, and they wrought it into hamacks or beds, variously dyed with much brilliancy and beauty. After their favourite exercise of dancing, they would dedicate the remainder of the day to the voluptuousness of the couch, resigning themselves to profound repose, without a disquieting thought, or a * Ferdinand Columbus, c. xxiii. 80 THE INDIANS. [Chap. wish ling-ratified. Simple, gentle, and good natured, they were as destitute of genius or memory as they were devoid of malevolence or envy. Their island was to them an untainted paradise, yielding abun- dantly to the full gratification of their desires. A few songs comprehended all their historical know- ledge : yet these, changed as they were with the dynasty of each successive cacique, could not be received as established traditions, except in the case of their confused fables relating to the origin of the human race. These their annals were always re- hearsed with music, and accompanied with dancing ; one of the company regulated the step and word ; cadence and time were duly observed ; and in their alone, or the ffinckkl itoitf of :the village, was authorised to touch' * . Another of their amusements, the nature of which it is difficult to reconcile with their reputed inactivity, was the batos, in which the women joined, and inspired the men with their superior vivacity. It consisted in the dexterous management of a rebounding elastic ball, light and porous, com- posed of boiled roots and macerated herbs. They caught it, like the jugglers of the East, upon the head, shoulders, back, and knees, quickly and suc- cessively, without its being allowed to rest or touch the ground, and he who thus held it longest was declared the victor. Every village had its batos- ground, and the victory between two neighbouring * P. Martyr Dec. 3. c. 7. Herrera, 1.3.C.4, Oviedo, lib. 6. c. 2. IIJ.J THE INDIANS. 81 villages was always celebrated by a fete, at the ex- pense of the vanquished. The evening- usually closed with the fumes of tobacco, which were inhaled from a hot vessel of leaves, through a tube in the shape of a Y, whose two branches were inserted into the nostrils of the smoker. Of course, intoxication speedily ensued, and they all remained upon the spots on which they had fallen, except the cacique, whose exclusive privilege it was to be carried away by his women. The inebriation was quickly dissipated, but the dreams and visions of fancy which haunted their sleeping imaginations were noted and sanctified as the oracles of heaven*. The curiosity of the first Spanish invaders was unfortunately but little excited by the manners and customs of the Indians, and they have left us few descriptive particulars. Gold was all they sought for, and in their eager search they were blind to every species of irrelative information. Oviedo justly reproaches them with having never thought of describing the various newly-discovered countries, and their interesting inhabitants, until the face of the former was changed, and the latter were utterly de- stroyed by them. This hiatus it is which must render his testimony suspicious in the odious picture he attempts to draw of the vices of those unhappy vic- tims of Spanish cruelty, in whose defamation he seems interested, in order to extenuate or palliate * See Note XV. 82 THE INDIANS, [Chap. the exterminating cruelties which his countrymen had inflicted. " II pretend, par exemple, que le peche de Sodome etoit commun dans toutes les isles : tandis que d'autres historiens assurent que cette abomination n'y etoit pas meme connue." Between conflicting testimonies the truth generally lies with the least interested Oviedo must, therefore, yield to the authority of more charitable historians. Love, with this happy people, was not a transient and youthful ardour only, but the source of all their pleasures, and the chief business of their lives. They gave full indulgence to the instincts of nature, while the influence of climate heightened the sensibility of the passions. Their blood was thus so much cor- rupted, that most of them were subject to that dread- ful disease, whose communication to the Old World has caused a contamination which all the treasures of the New can never compensate. Their incontinence was moderated by no law of limitation, and their isle was to them an isle of luxury and love. Amongst their numerous wives, one was always advanced to a superior rank. When their common husband died, some of them would suffer themselves to be buried in his grave, though such examples were voluntary and rare. It was, however, their peculiar office to attend to the obsequies of their dead. They enve- loped the body in broad folds of cotton, and placed it in a deep pit, with all the most precious posses- sions of the deceased. It was there left in a sitting position, and over it a kind of wooden arch, built to HI.] THE INDIANS. sustain the weight of the superincumbent earth. The great depth of the grave accounts for the fact that these Indian inhumations are seldom discovered. Their funeral ceremonies were accompanied with singing ; and the body of a Cacique was always embowelled, and carefully dried. It was upon these occasions that they composed those traditional songs which commemorated the praises of the deceased chief, and the events of his reign. These were sung at all the fetes 9f his successor ; but giving place in their turn to new compositions, all records of the remote reigns were thus irrevocably cut off. The Mosquito Indians,, to whom those of Jamaica bore a strong affinity, adopted more strictly the East- ern practice of burying, with the deceased head of every family, all those who had been his household servants ; an affectionate regulation, which included even his wives. Oexmelin tells a story of a Portu- guese, who, after losing an eye in vain resistance, had been captured by these savages, and reduced to slavery. He had soon to encounter the additional misfortune of surviving his new master; and was surprised by an order to attend his body in the grave. While they were preparing it, he calmly remon- strated with them on their thoughtless folly in send- ing him, with only one eye, to wait upon his master in the other world, where it would redound little to his credit to be seen with a blind slave in his suite. The Indians relished the reason, and released the man. G 2 84 THE INDIANS. [Chap. If necessity, at any time, roused these Islanders from their habitual inactivity, it was for the purpose of fishing-, and hunting-. It was from the Indian fishermen on the coast of Cuba that Columbus ob- tained the name of Xaymaca ; and it is probable that these were, in fact, Jamaica fishermen, gone so far in pursuit of their object for,, although the distance be considerable, the high lands of these islands are reciprocally visible. They manufactured a species of net, which, in shallow water, was effective ; but their ordinary mode of fishing was by a bark line, and a bone hook. In hunting the agouti, they used a small species of native mute dog, which they called goschis. Their dexterity scarcely served them in the use of the arrow to hit the feathered tribe ; but they supplied the defect by stratagem the abundance of parrots, and other birds, enabling their pursuers to entrap them by imitating their cry and notes. Although their estimation of the precious metals differed widely from ours, yet they valued them so far as to gather them with care, and pre- serve them with veneration. But their search for gold was confined to the collection of it in grains, which they knew how to find in the beds of the rivers, and mountain-torrents ; while all the labour bestowed upon them was that of beating them flat, to serve as personal ornaments. That the simple Indians esteemed them, even as sacred particles, would how- ever appear from the fact, that they never went in search of them without a previous preparation of III.] THE INDIANS. 85 fasting 1 and continence. Historians relate that Columbus took the hint, in his memorable endeavour to establish the same custom amongst the Spaniards ; obliging- them to fast and confess, before they went into the mines : but his Aumoniers, with more gal- lantry than truth, informed him that the church was not so cruel as to require such extraordinary service ; for that, while the Atlantic separated them from their wives, life was one continual fast and mortification. Agriculture was so little attended to by the Indians, that they were destitute of every species of imple- ment: fire was the only instrument of their hus- bandry ; they burned the herbage of their dry savannah s, drilling- the teeming- earth with a short stick, and planting there the maize, or cassava. It was such repeated burning- that baked, and almost sterilized the soil leaving the traces of this barba- rous cultivation still visible in the Pedro plains, in the fern-grounds of Manchester, and in various other sites of their thickest population. They obtained fire from two pieces of dry wood one light and porous ; the other compact, and hard : this last they inserted in a small cavity of the former ; and, by violent and confined collision, produced ignition, which rapidly spread through the porous wood. Though possessing- flints, they seemed ignorant of their power of yielding fire with greater facility. Fire was their greatest treasure, and chief artificer ; for by its aid they also formed their canoes. When a tree was selected, fire destroyed its vegetation ; and 86 THE INDIANS. [Chap. when dry, fire felled it : a smothered fire consumed its heart ; which, when they had sufficiently charred, was cut out by a small greenstone hatchet speci- mens of which curious instrument are still often found. It is said that the Spaniards could never discover from whence this species of stone was brought. Some have affirmed that it is no where to be found native, except in the bed of the river of the Amazones ; the petrified sediment of which hardens into such a substance ; but it is difficult to conceive that these Islanders held any communication with so distant a nation. Their form of government was despotic ; but the Caciques seldom abused their power. They had few laws; and the most severe that which punished theft for the detected culprit was impaled without mercy. Such rigour produced confidence and secu- rity in their mutual intercourse, banished all sem- blance of avarice, and engendered such reciprocal aid, that hospitality and benevolence welcomed even the invasions of their merciless persecutors. Dis- putes seldom arose ; and if there ever happened any difference between the Caciques, with regard to their respective rights, they were bloodless wars. Their arms indeed were scarcely murderous, for their only use of the bow and arrow was in the chase ; and there it seems to have been learnt from their ene- mies, the Charaibes, their own national arms being simply a javelin of hard wood, and those heavy clubs called macanas. The royal succession to the HI.] THE INDIANS. 87 r they conceived it ..,:_, ..... ^ tribes never occasioned war; for they conceived it founded on the laws of nature, which substitute the children for the deceased parent : and the order of blood being certain on the female side, the estate of a Cacique who chanced to die childless, passed to the children of his sisters*. The houses of these islanders were built in two ways : the poorer orders fixed posts in the ground, in the form of a circle, and at distances of four feet ; upon these they placed thick plates, which supported a conical roof, covered with transverse layers of wild canes, and thatched with the palm-leaf, or the tops of the canes themselves. To form the walls, they bound the canes to the posts with the China withesf, called by them boschiuchi ; and to that parasite they attributed all the medicinal virtues for which we now esteem it. The canes were so well secured by these means, that they resisted the most impetuous hurri- canes ; and were so strait, and closely bound, that the walls were impervious to the tropical rains which beat so fiercely upon them. The building- was com- pleted by the erection of a post in the centre, to which the extremities of all the poles, forming the apex of the conical roof, were united. The habita- tions of the chiefs were constructed of the same mate- rials, but under a different form, and resembled rather the plan of an English barn : they were larger, more ornamented, and better covered, than the rest ; in liict, Oviedo assures us that their roofs were better * Hen-era. t Smilax China: Dioecia Hexandria. 88 THE INDIANS, [Chap. arranged, and better thatched, than are those of the cottages in a Dutch village. The dialects of all the Indian islanders were sub- divisions of the same language, and have been esteemed particularly harmonious. It may be esti- mated by those words which the Spaniards adopted, many of which are still in use ; as canoa, amacha, and uracane. The word savannah, used in all the early descriptions of these islands, is also, no doubt, derived from the same language ; though Mariana erroneously places it amongst those words which the Spaniards have preserved from the Visigoths. The Indian religion was an ill-assorted tissue of the grossest superstitions, and most extravagant absurdities. The first historians of the New World agree in relating the opinion of the natives, that a demon frequently appeared to them, delivering oracles, to which they bowed with profound and blind submission. But this demon existed, it seems, only in the intoxicating fumes of the tobacco. The various forms and figures which they gave to their divinities were, through its means, suggested to the visionary conceptions of their torpid intellects. The most tolerable were those of toads, turtle, and snakes ; but they generally adopted human figures, horribly and dreadfully monstrous. If such variety of idols assured them of a plurality of gods, their excess in deformity would as naturally suggest the apprehen- sion that they were fearful beings, possessing evil influence rather than the power of doing good. The III.] THE INDIANS. 89 object of their worship would,, therefore, be directed to appease these tremendous divinities, which they called Chemisy or Zemez * ; and were formed of lime- stone, or baked earth. As they had no place of public worship, these horrid images were placed in the corners of their apartments as household gods ; and being there constantly before their eyes, it is not surprising that hideous associations should be formed during their hours of intoxication, despondency,, or sleep. They did not Conceive them to be uniformly instrumental in the same manner : one presided over the seasons, another inflicted pains ; some ruled the fortune of the chase ; while each exacted its peculiar worship. Some historians affirm., that the Zemez were only subaltern divinities ; the supposed ministers of a Supreme Being, invisible, omnipotent, whom they called locahuna f ; to whom they gave a mo- ther, under five different names, and whose residence was in the sun and moon. They worshipped, how- ever, neither the one nor the other, but addressed themselves only to these their ministering household gods. The historian of Christopher Columbus re- lates, on the authority of a missionary, whose Me- moires he adopts, that the Zemez were the tutelar deities ; and that each islander attached himself to one which he esteemed superior to the rest. When the Spaniards came amongst them, they concealed these idols ; but some sailors, one day, surprising a company of worshippers in the house of a Cacique, * See Note XVI, f P. Martyr, Dec. 1, 1. 9. 90 THE INDIANS. [Chap. perceived a Zemez, from which issued incomprehen- sible sounds, which were received as oracles. Sus- pecting the imposture, they broke the image in pieces, and found within it a tube, one extremity of which terminated in the head, and the other beneath a bed of leaves, under which an Indian lay concealed. The Cacique intreated that his secret might not be disclosed, assuring the Spaniards that it was only by such means that he could exact tribute or submission from his people. Oviedo gives a description of a religious festival amongst the first-discovered islanders. The Cacique published the day by heralds, and it commenced with a procession, wherein the men and women bore with them all their most precious possessions; the girls alone being, as usual, totally naked. The Cacique himself headed the procession with his tam- bourine of state, and led them into a place filled with all the collected idols. There the bohitos, or priests, joined them ; prepared to receive their offerings, which consisted principally of little figures moulded in clay, and presented in baskets adorned with blooming branches. After this ceremony, the fe- males received a signal to commence dancing, and singing the praises of their Zemez : then succeeded eulogiums on their Cacique, and a prayer for the prosperity of the tribe ; while the bohitos broke the little moulded figures, and distributed the fragments amongst their worshippers, by whom they were pre- served as amulets until the next festival. The III.] THE INDIANS. 91 Cacique, during 1 these ceremonies, was without the building, beating his tambourine incessantly; and, at the conclusion, he passed the whole procession in review ; when the people betook themselves to their particular idols, and, ceasing their minstrelsy, barbarously thrust short sticks into their mouths, to occasion vomiting. The spirit of this strange cere- mony was described to be, that they might so evince their unworthiness to appear before their God other- wise than with a heajt, purified, chaste, and un- sullied, and, as it were, upon their lips. Such of the priests as practised the art of healing, were called Butios, and were highly esteemed as especially inspired by their Zemez. Their healing art consisted in mysteriously sucking the diseased part of the patient, feigning to extract thence some extraneous substance, which they took care to have ready in their mouths, declaring it the cause of the malady, which they attributed to the malignity of some person, from whose future attacks they alone could secure them. The remains of the Indian villages in Jamaica may still be traced by the accumulated heaps of broken pottery, and beds of marine shells. The latter supplied the principal food of the islanders ; and amongst the former are usually found the re- mains of those plates upon which they dried their cassava; with earthen pots, "en facon," as Les- c -in-hot says, " de bonnet de nuit." Peter Martyr speaks with admiration of the workmanship of their 92 THE INDIANS. [Chap. earthenware, as ornamented with accurate represen- tations of animals,, and sometimes even exquisitely wrought. The early historians, perhaps too credulous, agree in reporting that, a short time before the arrival of Columbus, the islanders had received a distinct warning from their Zemez, that an approaching event was about to plunge them in ruin, and reduce them to slavery. Columbus is said to have been informed of the circumstances attending this extraor- dinary prediction. The father of one of their reign- ing caciques having had the curiosity to consult the Zemez on the fate of the island after he should die, the oracle delivered a prediction, that there would shortly arrive a bearded race of men, clothed from head to foot; that these strangers would destroy their gods, and abolish their worship ; and that they carried thunder in their belts, with which they would exterminate the inhabitants of the isles. This pro- phetic menace was disclosed consternation spread the deaf deities were importunately invoked, and the usual hymn of praise gave place to a song of death. Similar predictions are related with respect to the expiring empires of Mexico and Peru. In the little village of Iwanee, on the south side of Cuba, it is said that the descendants of a few of the Jamaica Indians are still existing. Certain it is that this island did not contain a single Indian native when the English forces took possession of it, nor, probably, for a century before that period. To III.] THE INDIANS. 93 this day many caverns may be found strewed with the skulls of these people, who, immured in such gloomy recesses, or hunted thither by the Spanish blood-hounds, were reduced to the alternative of perishing by hunger, or bleeding under the swords of their merciless pursuers. A remarkable cavern of this description was lately discovered amongst the sea-beaten rocks of Pedro Bluff. The visitor will there find himself in a fetid charnel-house, surrounded with mouldering bones, and literally ancle deep in human dust. The more perfect skulls, with the pottery which the persecuted islanders had conveyed into the spot destined to be their tomb, have been carried away by the curious : but the artificial anatomy of the former sufficiently attests their Indian origin ; while the selection of the place, and the state in which the remains were found, prove that these victims of Spanish cruelty preferred starving to butchery. The number destroyed in Jamaica alone, has been estimated at sixty thousand, and perhaps this estimate is not far wide of the truth ; for Columbus reported the island to be very thickly populated, and is supported in that fact by the testimony of Las Casas, who was an eye-witness of the inhumanity which exterminated them. CHAPTER IV. THE CHARAIBES. THE Charaibes, or inhabitants of the lesser Antilles, were the implacable enemies of the peaceable and more civilised natives of Jamaica,, Cuba, and His- paniola. Benzo says, t( Charaibes proprie dicebantur quondam, Boriquense, Dominige, Martitini, Cibu- cheirse, (hodie S. Crucis) insularum incolse ; qui canois, id est lintribus monoxylis, vecti, Hispa- niolensibus et Jamaicensis Indis bellum inferebant." Le Sieur de la Borde employed twenty years in attempting 1 their conversion to Christianity ; and the character of these people, drawn by one whose long residence afforded great opportunities of accurate information y differs so essentially from that given by all other historians, that he thought it necessary thus to preface his work *. " II y a un si grand nombre de relations des Isles, qu'il est inutile de repeter ce que Ton en a dit tant de fois, S'il semble neanmoins que je le fasse en quelques rencontres, c'est qu'on a represente les choses autrement qu'elles ne sont, faute de les avoir vues, ou pour quelques raisons et considerations, ils nous les ont de'guisees, et dit plus, ou moins, qu'il * The MS. of La Borde was found in the collection of M. Blondel, and published at Leyden, 1704. Chap. IV.] THE CHARAIBES. 95 n'y en avoit. Je ne pretens pas parler ici de l'air, du climat, et de la nature, du pais ; d'autres en ont assez parle ; je fais seulement quelques remarques pour satisfaire ceux qui le desirent sur les coutumes, et superstitions des sauvages; et ce que j'en dirai, je le puis assurer veritable, pour la grande habitude que j'ai cue avec eux, et pour avoir ete assez curi- eux d'y prendre garde,, et de m'en informer. Cette curiosite n'est pas blamable lors qu'on en tire quel- que profit ; car, quand je considere que les Charaibes sont hospitaliers, sans ambition, tres simples, sans avarice, tres sinceres, sans larcin, sans fraude, sans blasphemes, sans mensonges, je ne peux que les admirer, et les imiter en leur morale, quant aux points ci-dessus ; car s'ils ont leurs perfections, ils ont aussi leurs vices ; dont nous parlerons dans la suite de ce discours. Lors que je considere leur aveugle- ment, et qu'ils n'ont ni foi, ni loi, ni roi, je me sens oblige de remercier mon Createur," &c. La Borde observed an obscure tradition amongst the Charaibes ; that their ancestors came originally from the continent, and conquered a nation of the Isles, destroying all but the women : a circumstance which accounts for the different languages spoken by the males and females at the time of their disco- very, for it was not at first observed that they formed a race distinct from the Indians. Rochefort pro- nounces the Charaibes to have been originally an iiiviidino nation of Florida, to whom the lesser islands became an easy prey ; while Jamaica and its neigh- 96 THE CHARAIBES. [Chap. bouring isles possessed strength and resources suffi- cient to drive off the hostile bands of their savage assailants. Martyr, on the other hand, conceives them to have emigrated from South America ; and Sir Walter Raleigh, in his romantic expedition to Guiana, found the natives on those shores speaking the same language as those of Dominica *. The remarkable distinction between the male and female languages of the Charaibes seems to have escaped the notice of most historians ; but La Borde exemplifies it thus : Male tongue. female tongue. a bed amac nehera a bow aullaba chimala the moon nortum kati the sun hyyayon kachi cassava bread .... aleba marow Benzo observes, that the Charaibes derive their name from Caribana " Urabensis sinus orientalis ora in continente Indise occid." The word, in the Indian language, signified brave, and strong. Brigstock says, that it had the same signification in the Apala- chian tongue, and it was used, as we have seen, by the Brazilians to designate priests. Some authors suppose that Galabis, and Charaibes, were appella- tions confined to the inhabitants of the Antilles by their European discoverers, corruptions of the word Gallinago. The people called Galibis, mentioned by Dr. Robertson, were however no other than the con- * Hakluyt. v. 3. p. 668. IV.] THE CHARAIBES. 97 tinental Charaibes ; and such might have been the national appellation. All intuitive idea of a Deity, for whom, according to Rochefort, they had not even a name, was extin- guished by the brutality of these people. They feared an evil spirit which they called Maboia, although they did not worship it. Their creed, as it related to the origin of their race, was this : Lonquo was their common father, he was not made, but de- scended from the skies, and lived long upon earth. The first generation of human beings issued from his body : he formed the fish from pieces of cassava cast into the ocean. After his death, in three days he arose from the earth, and ascended into the skies. Other terrestrial animals came soon afterwards ; but whence they could not discover. Their earliest food was fish : but, after the departure of Lonquo, they discovered a small garden of cassava, which he had left ; yet being unacquainted with its use, they neg- lected it, until an aged man appeared, who taught them that it was designed for their food ; and that, if they would break the branches into small pieces, and cast them upon the earth, the roots would be renewed and multiplied. At first it required but three moons to bring it to perfection ; but as the wickedness of mankind increased, its maturity was delayed to nine moons. The sky they supposed immutable from all eternity ; but not so either the earth, or the sea; which were formed by Lonquo himself. Soon after this arrangement, the moon VOL. I. H 98 THE CHARAIBES. [Chap. appeared ; but it then becoming- necessary to supply her pale deficiency of light, the sun was formed, while the hapless moon, finding herself outshone, veiled her face for very shame, and showed herself only at night. All the stars they supposed to be dead Charaibes ; for although no maladies assailed them in their primitive innocence, and the earth spontaneously produced all the requisites for a life of complete ease and inactivity, their wickedness roused the vengeance of the great master-spirit of good whom they called Chemeens, and who sent a rain of many days, which drowned all but a few who saved themselves on the summit of the only moun- tain upon the earth. This event, which they dwelt much upon, they called the Deluge of the Tempest ; and considered the present inequalities of the earth's surface to have been caused by its floods. The poetic enthusiasm of the Missionary may perhaps have too readily adapted, and too highly coloured the original fiction ; but there is cer- tainly a remarkable coincidence between this tra- ditionary creed, and the facts recorded in the Mosaic writings. Similar ideas of an universal deluge pre- vailed throughout all the most barbarous nations of America ; and afford a strong proof of their uni- versal identity with the race of Noah. Though dressed in poetic guise, yet these fictions may rank, at least, as high as those of the ancients, who imagined man to have sprung from the serpents' teeth sown by Cadmus ; or the stones thrown over IV.] THE CHARAIBES. 99 their heads by Deucalion and Pyrrha. So that the general tradition that man derived his origin ex non genitis, is a greater evidence that it was true, than that he was made out of arrows stuck in the ground, or exfolliculis terras innascentibus, as the ancient phi- losophers contended *. Racumon was one of the first Charaibes whom Lonquo formed : his form was afterwards changed into that of a serpent, with a man's head, and he lived on the tree called Cabatos, but is now a star in the heavens. Others were changed into birds, which ruled the rains and tempests. When first discovered, the Charaibes were, like the Indians, of a melancholy temperament, and indolent constitution ; attached to their soil, and mode of life ; and, pos- sessing no disquieting desire of gain, they thought of no provision for the future. In their habits of living they were filthy and disgusting. Although canni- bals, the novelty of the sight inspired an idea, that the flesh of their Christian visitors would poison them : this squeamishness, however, soon wore off; for, says La Borde, " ils ont neanmoins mange encore depuis un an le cceur de quelque Anglois." Such prisoners as they took in war they compelled to fast for a day before they devoured them ; and in these foraging expeditions, they consumed six thousand natives of Porto Rico in the short space of twelve years. Martyr particularizes their preference of the arms to any other part of the body ; and Benzo says that, so * See Note XVII. I! 2 100 THE CHARAIBES. [Chap. late as the year 1551, when he was in the West Indies, most of the Windward Islands were still in the undisturbed possession of the Charaibes : tf qui humanis carnibus, id est hostium, vesci consueve- runt." It would seem, therefore, that it was not mere wanton appetite which induced this savage brutality, but a spirit of exterminating spleen, indulged alike by all the continental tribes, who, as Hennepin declares, " only used human flesh in cases extraor- dinary, to wit, when they are resolved utterly to root out a nation." Their national arms were a bow, arrow, and club : their arrows were poisoned with the sap of the Man- cinelle *, a tree so named by the Spaniards, from an incision in whose bark distils a milky fluid of most deadly character: fibres, dipt in this liquid, were attached to the arrow's point : and the Spaniards felt the effects of this poison in their attempts to enslave these warlike people. Many were the reputed anti- dotes which they had recourse to, and at length they conceived they had discovered one in the leaves of the tobacco plant. The discovery was announced in Spain with all the eclat which the savage desire of capturing these poor wretches with impunity could inspire. Even Philip was eager to try the experiment ; but the dogs provided to satisfy his royal curiosity proved the fallibility of the pretended specific f. * See Note XVIII. t Monardes. Hist. Med, Novi Orbis. IV.J THE CHARAIBES. 101 Another poison used by the Charaibes was ex- tracted from a plant called liane, or bejuque; the effective strength of which they tried by rubbing a little upon a pointed stick, and dipping it into fresh- drawn blood : if the blood did not instantly coagulate, further concentration was effected by repeated boil- ing*. Bancroft speaks of a similar poison in South America, on which he made many curious experi- ments ; observing that, when too dry on the arrow's point, they moistened.it with lime juice, which re- stored its activity, and caused it instantly to arrest the circulation of the blood by a general concre- tion f. The Charaibean bow was made of the brasilicum lignum, and every way adapted to its warlike service. The great obstacle to the civilisation of these people, was their perfect freedom and natural independence, which would not permit them to brook even the authority of a parent ; and we are assured by La Borde, that, in some respects, they were mere "brutes." Their common food was cassava, crabs, fish, and birds all highly seasoned with pimento : crabs and lizards, however, they never partook of when on the eve of any of their predatory expedi- tions entertaining an idea that, as these animals always remain at home, those who ate them would be prevented from reaching another land. Their prin- cipal household utensils consisted of the calabash, * Gumilla. t Naturgeschichte von Guiana, p. 182. 102 THE CHARAIBES. [Chap. and a vessel made of baked clay, formed like the Indian pots, but called a canary. Supplying- provi- sions for all the men constituted the sole and slavish occupation of the women, who were treated with every indignity, and subjected to every abuse. Their ordinary beverage was the fermented juice of the cassava, and sweet potatoe, which they called ouicou ; and of this they drank to excess. They also had a liquor, like the atolle of Mexico, of thick con- sistence, and composed of maize and flour, seasoned with sugar and spices. The Charaibes were generally well made, strong, healthy, and sometimes even handsome ; with olive complexions, long black hair ; and disfigured only, like the Indians, by an unnatural compression of the head in infancy. They were destitute of clothing ; but wore round their necks an amulet of greenstone, which they described as coming from far distant lands. Their contempt of the precious metals was remarkable ; and whenever these poor wretches felt the deprivations which their Spanish persecu- tors subjected them to, they attributed all their suffering to the hated metal which had brought them thither. Gage thus mentions his first rencontre with the Charaibes : " We could not but wonder at that sight, never yet seen by us, of people naked, with their hair hanging down to the middle of their backs, with their faces cut out in several fashions, or flowers ; with their plates hanging at their noses, like hogs' IV.] THE CHARAIBES. 103 rings ; and fawning 1 upon us like children, some speaking in their unknown tongue, others using signs/' &c. &c *. But we have little to do with the Charaibes, further than to note that they were a race of men totally distinct from the Indian natives of Jamaica, against whom they waged a perpetual and sanguinary war. * See Note XIX. CHAPTER V. . iL? lijJi.lU'.' ti, I ;*:./ ;;> i; u-\; THE DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF THE SPIRIT OF NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE, AS IT WAS CONNECTED WITH THE PROGRESS OF EVENTS WHICH LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. HISTORY and experience alike concur in establishing the fact, that there have been certain eras of the world remarkably propitious to the success of particular arts and undertakings. The fifteenth century, which polished away scholastic rust, and revived the lite- rature of Greece and Rome, was singularly favour- able also to the arts of navigation and commerce. Arabia had been the cradle of infant trade ; and there the figures, by which its calculations are made, were invented. The Ninevites conveyed the spices of Arabia and the corn of Egypt to the Euphrates and the Tigris ; and planted stations there for the maintenance of their traffic on the Red Sea. It is not perhaps far wide of historical truth, therefore, if we place the birth of commerce about eighteen hun- dred years before the Christian era. It was soon extended by the colonies which the flourishing sta- tions on the Arabian Gulf sent forth to the ports of the Mediterranean ; and especially to the commercial mouths of the Nile. The narrow isthmus of Suez, and the nearest branch of the Delta, proved rather an excitement to industry, than an obstruction to trade ; Chap.V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 105 and, as colonies were pushed westward, the spirit of commerce was roused by the consequent necessity of making longer voyages to fetch the riches of the East. From the fertile soil of Egypt, the shores of the Mediterranean soon became colonised, to the pillars of Hercules ; these emigrants carrying with them the literature and civilisation of the mother country to Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, and Cadiz ; to Attica and Marseilles ; to Magna Grsecia, to Rome, and finally to the widest extent of that vast empire. But the commerce of the East, which had thus, for so many ages, flourished successively under the mighty influence of the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Romans, after the decline of the latter stupendous power, fell almost ex- clusively into the hands of the wandering Arabs; whose camels, loaded with the rich productions of Persia and Hindostan, annually pursued their route through the Holy Land, and across the sandy deserts of Nubia and Arabia. But when their empire be- came divided under the Khalyfs of Egypt and of Bagdad, they relinquished the Oriental trade to the more powerful merchants of Persia, and to the Turk and Tartar traders. Still the Arabs remained poets and philosophers ; and the arts which minister to the convenience and luxury of life were known only in the east, and at Constantinople. After the fall of the western empire, when all Europe was exposed to the 106 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. ravages of the Goths and Vandals, little time was afforded to the projects of commerce,, or the adventures of navigation. Charlemagne made a feeble attempt to establish himself upon the Mediterranean ; but the Normans, descending with barbarous fury into the south, surprised the kingdom of Naples,, conquered Sicily, and annihilated all his views in that quarter. Spain, it is true, flourished under the Ommiades more than in any former or later period. The ac- tive genius of the Arabs was still employed in war, science, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce ; and while the Mussulmans preserved the light of science, Europe was sinking deeper into ignorance, barbarism, and superstition. The destruction of the Caliphate of Spain, the overthrow of the Arabs there, and their expulsion from Sicily, were the pre- ludes to the great enterprise of the crusades ; those execrable wars, falsely honoured with an holy title, which plunged the south of Eu- rope and the Levant into such inextricable confusion, as obliterated all thought of commercial speculation, and almost extinguished literature itself. The inhabitants of the rocks of Genoa and of the marshes of Venice, during this long interval of in- activity, were the only people of Europe who sought first, a subsistence, and then wealth and power, in the useful employments of trade and navigation. Under their partial auspices, the northern countries V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 107 were scantily supplied with the rich productions of the East, through the towns of Caffa and Astracan. When the latter was destroyed by Tamer- AD 1 *?99 lane, the Venetians made Alexandria their entrepot ; while the Genoese maintained themselves in those towns which they had captured from the Greeks. They were even led, perhaps by a glim- mering light from Greece, to attempt the discovery which two hundred years afterwards amazed the world ; Fedisia Doria ,and Ugolino Vivaldi sailed for the purpose of discovering strange countries in the west, but they were never heard of more. When the Turks overturned the empire of Con- stantinople, Mahomet II. seized upon Caffa, and destroyed all their establish- ments upon the Euxine. Like their rivals, the Venetians, they were then compelled to resign all the advantages of Oriental commerce to such na- tions as might be rich and strong enough to assume them : and the two powers, which had so long been the sole masters of all the treasures of the east, soon became little more than pilots to the succeeding ad- venturers. Such had been the history, and such was the state, of commerce in Europe, when the mariner's compass became known : an event which cannot be traced up to the beginning of the fifteenth century, but floats upon a period of nearly fifty years ; for the culpable negligence of historians has left us entirely in the dark both as to its inventor, and the age in 108 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. which he lived. About the year 1415, however, the spirit of discovery first began to show itself in Portugal. The commotions which had so long dis- turbed the west of Europe were now allayed ; the Moors had been nearly subjugated ; and tranquillity was sufficiently restored, to admit of the re-establish- ment of commercial intercourse, and the speculations of scientific navigation. John I. reigned in Portu- gal, and Prince Henry, his third son, by the daugh- ter of John, Duke of Lancaster, nobly jealous of the fame which the Venetians had acquired in their com- merce with the East, conceived the proud design of outstripping all competitors, by opening an easier route thither round the southern extremity of the unexplored continent of Africa. He had accompa- nied his father to the siege of Ceuta ; and on his return, this ambitious project, which, in the event, produced the discovery of a new hemisphere, occu- pied all his attention. The gratitude of posterity has, therefore, with great justice, placed upon the head of this scion of Britain's stock, the naval crowns of all his successful disciples. Not content with the knowledge he gained from science, the prince drew much information from the experienced seamen of Venice, whom he tempted into his service ; seeking instruction also from the Moors of Fez, and the mariners of Morocco. From such genuine sources of information, he acquired a knowledge of the Arabs who traverse the vast deserts of Africa and Assena ; and that he might devote himself en- V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 109 tirely to his favourite pursuit, he chose his residence at Tercenabal, near Cape Sagres, from whence he beheld that unexplored ocean which inflamed his eager hopes, and over whose waves he anxiously watched the progress of his adventurous caravels. The discovery of Cape Non had been effected about thirty years before that period ; but its tem- pestuous terrors were still the term of Spanish navi- gation. The tremendous surge which breaks upon Cape Bojador the promontory of Siloe, of Sataspes had alarmed all previous adventurers. The prince, however, true to the inspiration of his own genius, perceived their error ; and, by his powerful man- date, urged his caravels to double this terrific cape. Then, to add new spirit to his enterprise, he sought and obtained, from Pope Martin V., a donation of all the territories which he might discover between it and the East Indies. Thus encouraged, and armed with such power, his vessels moved along the shores of that sandy desert, which, for a thousand miles, drinks the waters of the Atlantic : they explored the mighty rivers of the Senegal and the Gambia ; and from the fertile and populous banks of these they still advanced slowly towards the south. But lassi- tude and suspense abated their ardour : so that the Sierra Leone formed the most remote discovery of this adventurous prince, who, in the labour of forty years, did not attain even the extent of Hanno's navigation. The Canaries had, however, emerged from the 110 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. darkness of the middle ages, and the vessels of Por- tugal were driven by the winds, or guided by the compass, to the more distant isles of Madeira. Henry's ardour increased with every discovery, and was inspired by every success. He attached the Azores, in the year 1448,, and the Cape de Verd Islands, in the following year, to the possessions of his father's crown ; while his own commercial profits were as great as his utmost ambition could desire. The settlement of Madeira had been rapid and useful; large quantities of cedar and rosewood were ex- ported ; the sugar-canes which he introduced, sur- passed, in the richness of their production, those of Cyprus and Sicily ; while the vines of Candia derived a new flavour from the virgin soil and genial climate of more southern latitudes. A plentiful fishery atoned, in some degree, for the barrenness of the continental desert. Arquin was enriched by the in- land trade ; and the land of the negroes afforded a fair promise of gold dust, ivory, and slaves. But this father of modern navigation lived not to witness the completion of the object nearest his heart. It was not until the year 1486 that the spirit of enter- prise which he had thus inspired, became sufficiently matured to carry the Portuguese as far as the Cape of Good Hope : nor until eleven years afterwards, that it was doubled by Vasquez de Gama, who suc- ceeded, for the first time, in modern navigation, at least, in that formidable attempt. The discoveries of the Portuguese were thus the V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. Ill slow effect of time and industry ; and having- now formed a new and more independent route to the Indies, they soon diverted the commerce of the East from Alexandria and Venice to Lisbon. Yet they still perceived not the vast importance of the Cape they had discovered. They passed a thousand times by its shores, still unoccupied, and never thought of settling there. The fame of the discovery, pregnant as it was with the commerce of the East, excited the emulation of all scientific navigators in every coun- try of Europe. Although effected rather by perse- verance, than with the aid of any real knowledge in navigation, yet it roused universal inquiry, and drew attention to the slumbering hope of finding a western passage to the Indies, as the Portuguese had thus opened an eastern one. The uncertainty as to the possible length of such a voyage held them long in suspense ; yet they rightly conjectured that, if the Portuguese, by sailing in an eastern direction, had come to the western coast of Asia, they, by sailing west, might hope to arrive at its eastern shores. They had but faint ideas of meeting with a continent in their course : the suspicions of the ancients as to the existence of such a world, and which were founded but on obscure traditions, or the reasonings of philosophy, then but in its infancy, were motives too weak to engage the most hazardous in so great an undertaking. Providence, however, which regulates the order of events, assembled, in this favourable moment of 112 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. rising- expectation and increasing enterprise, many presumptive proofs of a western continent, which re- freshed curiosity, strengthened conjecture, and were, at length, established almost as conclusive evidences of the fact. Such, for instance, was the circum- stance of Pedro Correa having observed, in the island of Puerto Santo, a piece of wood strangely wrought, together with an unknown species of cane, cast ashore by a westerly wind ; and the inhabitants of the Azores found two extraordinary canoes wrecked on their coasts by the same prevailing storms. These and similar incitements to the spirit of research, which seem to have been necessary, at this precise period, to animate courage, and point to an object which was pregnant with more extraor- dinary events than the world had witnessed since the Deluge, deserve to be recorded and consecrated in the lasting memory of man. The thirty years which elapsed between the death of Prince Henry and the expedition of Columbus were not idly spent: they opened an extensive field of theory and practice. The study of the ancient classics had been partially revived; and many learned Greeks, who fled from the Turkish arms, assisted in the literary search. The manu- scripts which they had saved, or which were disco- vered in old libraries, were quickly diffused and multiplied by the useful invention of printing ; while the original text of Pliny, and the Latin versions of Herodotus and Strabo were edited at Rome and V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 113 Venice*. The circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians and the Persians, by Hanno and Eu- doxus, had thus become the favourite theme of conversation; and these doubtful tales served to kindle the ardour and promote the discoveries of the modern Argonauts. A planisphere was deline- ated in the convent of Murano at Venice f, and marine charts were drawn by experienced Italian artists ; the rude invention of the astrolabe assisted, and the outline of ancient knowledge clearly pointed out the field of inquiry. The first individual, however, who evinced suffi- cient intelligence, or possessed the necessary ability, to combat the remaining prejudices of the age, was Christopher Columbus : a man, till then, so little known, that posterity have never yet agreed as to his extraction, or the place of his birth points of doubt which even his own children were unable to elucidate +. Some assert that he was the son of a wool -carder of Cogureto, a village in the territory of Genoa, and fix his birth in the year 1442. He assured a Spanish lady, however, in a letter which is cited by his son, that he was not the first admiral in his family. Jealousy, inspired by his extraordinary success, soon raised many reports, which the envious enemies of his glory industriously published, to di- minish his fame. Time has, however, swept these * See the Greek and Latin Bibliothecae of Fabricius ; and the Annales Typographic of Mattaire. t See Note XX. J See Note XXI. VOL. I. I 114 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap, away, and posterity has done him ample justice, by establishing- the fact, that he availed himself of no other previous information than what he derived from the obscure opinions of the ancients, enlight- ened by recent corroborating 1 accidents. These aids, sustained by correctness of reasoning, and strength- ened by natural bravery, were his only guides in an enterprise as full of difficulties, as it was pregnant with extraordinary events. Its complete success has raised him far above all rivals, and justly ren- dered his memory immortal; for, in adventuring across the Atlantic, he plunged headlong into an unknown sea of darkness, and struggled hard against dangers and despair ; while the merit of his rivals is abated by the previous inspirations of hope and knowledge. The discoveries of Columbus were, in short, the efforts of rare genius and persevering courage. It is by no means clear, though we have a life of Columbus written by his son, and collected partly from his own manuscripts, at what period that navi- gator first entertained thoughts of seeking countries, a knowledge of whose existence had been so long lost. It seems, however, to have been early in his life ; for his own notes prove that he had already under- taken several voyages with a view of fixing his no- tions upon this speculative subject. When at length he had thoroughly methodised his scheme, and ren- dered it, as he conceived, both practical in its oper- ation, and probable in its result, he proposed it to the V.J NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 115 state of Genoa. His proposals were rejected ; for that expiring mart of oriental commerce was already occupied in a trade more extensive than it possessed the means to manage ; and its merchants were afraid of launching out into speculations so new and unpromising. Columbus then made an offer of his services to the king of Portugal, who was much too wise a prince not to discern the benefit which might arise from such discoveries as he projected, or the strength of those arguments which were urged to prove that the design was feasible. He therefore appointed commissioners to treat with the adven- turer ; but they, having basely succeeded, as they conceived, in drawing from him his valuable secret, advised the king, while they entertained Columbus with deceptive hopes, to fit out a ship, which, under colour of going to the Cape de Verd islands, might traitorously attempt the execution of what he had proposed. The issue of their basely-contrived scheme was, however, as unfortunate as its origin was dishonourable ; and the fraud coming to the ears of Columbus, he was so disgusted with the perfidy, that he immediately determined to quit Portugal, and seek patronage in some more ge- nerous Court. It was towards the close of the year 1484, A.D. 1484. . . that he resolved upon going into Spam ; and it was in the next succeeding year that he sent his bro- ther Bartholomew into England, where Henry VII. had just ascended the throne. A man could scarcely I 2 116 . DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. be more unfortunate than was Bartholomew Columbus in this expedition : he was taken by pirates, abused as a captive, and chained to the oar as a slave. Making- his escape, however, he found means to reach London ; yet in so deplorable a condition, that he wanted both the energy and the means to pursue the design which brought him there. He applied himself to the art of drawing marine charts. Disco- vering more than ordinary skill in cosmography, he succeeded in attracting the notice of the king, and he at length obtained admission to the royal presence. On the 13th February. 1488, he presented A.D. 1488. J '. a map of the world of his own projecting ; and this accident led to a negotiation in behalf of his brother*. The king esteemed the man so much, and liked his scheme so well, that they came to a mutual understanding before Christopher had accomplished his purposes in Spain : though, by a new series of cross accidents, in which England's genius bore a part, Bartholomew was not able to convey the account of his success to his brother, until the American islands were actually discovered, and attached to the crown of Spain f . As we have these facts from the son of Christopher Columbus, the authority cannot be doubted ; and the very map drawn by Bartholomew was preserved till the reign of Elizabeth. Thus, it would appear, if the earliest agreement * See Note XXII. t See Hakluyt Purchas and Harris's Collection. y.j NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 117 with the agent of the Discoverer has any claim to priority, that we have as good a title as the Spaniards to the discovery of America. Henry VII. has been condemned for the delay which lost us the credit of it ; but he may be excused, for at that moment his hands were full. The attempt of Perkin Warbeck the expedition to Scotland his breach with France, and his voyage thither, all occurred during the pending negotiation of Colum- bus. The assiduity of that Monarch in promoting commerce, was soon after manifested by his letters- patent to Hugh Elliott and Thomas Ashurst, mer- chants of Bristol, for the settlement of colonies on the shores of America*. And considering the pro- bable issue of the discovery, had it been effected by British shipping, it does not indeed appear that we have been the sufferers by allowing the Spaniards to have the start of us. If we had first settled the shores of America, we might, perhaps, have pursued a more moderate course than they did ; but it is more than probable that we should have been intox- icated as they were. Their country contained thirteen millions of souls before they discovered America ; and in the year 1747, the number was reduced to little more than seven millions, so soon did the mines of America convert the fertile fields of Spain into uncultivated and dreary wastes. Portugal also suffered a lamentable diminution of inhabitants by her intercourse with the New World : for, within * Rymer's Focdera, v. xiii., p. 37. 118 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap, the same periods, her population sunk from three millions to less than two ; and the drain which would have been opened from England by the melting heat of the American climes, the enticing luxuriance of the soil,, and the wild wealth of the mines, would, more than probably, have enfeebled all the native* genius and honest industry of Great Britain. The Spaniards purchased Mexico and Peru at too high a price no less than that of their naval superiority ; while we remain far richer in the increase of our manufactures, the stability of our trade, and the enterprising spirit of our merchants and mariners. While Bartholomew Columbus was endeavouring to execute his mission at the court of London, his brother was advocating his cause with that of Spain, where he sought such persons of distinction as he conceived most likely to dispose their Catholic Majes- ties to a favourable reception of his extraordinary proposals. Accordingly, Hernand de Talavera, the prior of Prado, and confessor to the queen, received an order to assemble a council of cosmographers to confer with him. The process was so tedious, and the result so unfavourable, that after having wasted nearly five years in uselessly combating the preju- dices of ignorance on the one hand, and the objec- tions of pedantry on the other, the only answer he received was, that the war with Grenada, in which the king was engaged, forbade his incurring fresh expenses ; but that when it should be terminated, he might hope to surmount the difficulties which opposed y.j NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 119 the project *. Columbus now lost all hope ; A.D. 1489. , , . j , . , , , he was advanced m years, and his valuable time was lost in fruitless discussions, and fatiguing anxiety. Restless and impatient, he took the road to Seville ; making overtures to the powerful nobles as ^he passed. Finding universally the same obstacles to the accomplishment of his project, he addressed a letter to the King of France ; but that Monarch was occupied in the Italian wars. Then again he turned his thoughts .to England ; and although so many years had elapsed without any tidings of his brother there, he determined upon a voyage in search of him. Yet he wished first to embrace his son Diego, who was left in the Franciscan convent of La Rabida, near Palos, and whom he desired to place with his family at Cordova. Although historians are silent upon the subject, it seems probable that he had married a second wife during his protracted stay in that town, and that this was his second son. The superior of La Rabida, John Perez de Mar- chena, heard, with regret, the determination of Co lumbus to bestow his services on a foreign power ; and urged him to delay his departure. With the assistance of some friends who possessed consider- able influence at court, this ecclesiastic obtained from Isabella what had been denied to the importu- nate intreaties of the most favoured courtiers. He addressed her at Santa Fe, during the siege of Gre- nada ; and Columbus was summoned to the court, * See Note XXIII. 120 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. where he immediately obtained an audience. The queen, however, considered his pretensions exces- sive, and his demands extravagant : for, with pardonable vanity, he required to be made admiral, and hereditary viceroy of the territories which he might discover. But the fact was, Isabella feared the reproach of credulity which might attach to the confidence she placed in the fair promises of a foreign adventurer, should he fail in performing them ; and she therefore thus declined his services. This new disappointment, although it was softened by expressions of esteem, and marked by unusual condescension, determined Columbus absolutely to quit Spain. But ere he departed, his friends, Quin- tanilla, Santangel, and the Father Marchena, pro- cured him an audience of the Cardinal of Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo, and president of the queen's council. The honour of the interview was, however, all he gained. He offered from his shallow purse to bear an eighth of the attendant expenses ; but even this generous proposal was refused, and he quitted Santa Fe in January 1492, to proceed to Cordova, where he purposed making his arrange- ments for a voyage to England. At this juncture Grenada opened its gates to the victorious Spaniards, and Santangel eagerly em- braced the lucky moment to show to the queen her error in neglecting the proffered opportunity of aug- menting the power and splendour of her Castilian crown ; while she left the achievement to a foreign V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 121 state, where it would be improved, to the probable destruction of the marine strength of Spain. So powerfully did he advocate the cause of his friend, that the queen yielded, and at length became an en- thusiast. She even declared her resolution to pawn her jewels, for the purpose of replenishing her drained coffers to fit out the expedition. Santangel, in the generous excess of his joy, replied that such a sacri- fice was unnecessary, and that his own purse should supply the deficiency., Columbus was immediately recalled : he eagerly flew to the court, and the flat- tering reception he met with effaced all the vexation he had endured during eight years of fruitless solici- tation. Don Juan de Colonna, the secretary of state, received an order to expedite the necessary papers, by which their majesties conferred even greater pri- vileges than Columbus had required*. These ce- lebrated deeds, which extended their dominion into a new hemisphere, were signed, the one at Santa Fe, and the other at Grenada, at that auspicious moment when, after a domination of eight hundred years, the Moors were finally subdued, and Spain was freed from their bitter yoke. The manly virtues of Isa- bella, and the profound policy of Ferdinand executed the grand project of delivering their dominions from the Infidels. The Moors of Grenada defended their la>t possession with obstinate valour, and stipulated, by their capitulation, the free exercise of the Maho- metan religion. It was the happy result of a ten * See Note XXIV. 122 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. years war a proud moment for Spain,, pregnant as it was with the fate of another world. It is worthy of remark that the crown of Arragon took no part in the enterprise of Columbus. The documents, it is true, were all drawn in the joint names of Ferdinand and Isabella; but as Castile bore the entire expenditure, America was discovered, and conquered for her alone. Accordingly we find that, as long as the Queen lived, permission to emi- grate, and settle there, was granted solely in her name, and scarcely to any others than Castilians. . Here then the first blush of morning dawns upon the long night of the New World; and from this moment the scale of events becomes subservient only to the regular succession of years. Columbus re- ceived his letters, which insured him assistance, and respect from all the courts of the world : and his only restraint was an interdiction from approaching within one hundred leagues of the conquests of Portugal. Having passed a short time in Cordova, he went to Palos, a port long reputed for the experience of its mariners ; and there he found the preparations for his equipment already commenced. Marchena's zeal was undiminished ; it had engaged in his service all the best seamen there ; and, amongst the number, two wealthy brothers, named Pincons experienced navigators, who embarked a considerable portion of their wealth in the expedition. The town of Palos was, at that time, compelled to equip two caravels to guard the coast, during two V.J NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 123 months in the year: these were transferred to the service of Columbus, who provided another at his own charge, and named her the Santa Maria. Of the Palos caravels, one was the Pinta, commanded by Martin Alfonzo Pinion ; and the other the Nina, under Vincent Yanes Pinion. The three vessels were manned by ninety-six seamen and volunteers, victualled for twelve months, and sailed on A D 1492. Friday, the 3rd of August, 1492. An ac- cident, which happened to the Nina, delayed their arrival at the Canaries until the llth ; when they re- paired the damage, and pursued their course. It was upon the 7th of September that this little fleet lost sight of land ; and at ten o'clock in the dark night of the 10th of October, after enduring hardships, and suf- fering indignities from his mutinous crew, sufficient to daunt the most adventurous courage and to make the stoutest heart despair, Columbus first discovered, from his round-house, a distant fire gleaming over the bosom of the deep, which day-light proved had proceeded from some unknown land. Thus the great captain of the fleet himself ob- tained the annuity of two thousand maravedis, which had been promised to the first discoverer of land ; and which were paid to him during his life, from the butt heries of Seville. Triana, one of his inferior officers, who saw the land about two o'clock in the morning, and before his commander had thought it expedient to publish his prior discovery, was so dis- 124 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. appointed at the loss of the anticipated reward, that he fled to Africa, and abjured his faith*. Armed with vice-regal authority, Columbus im- mediately named this first- discovered land, San Sal- vador, and took possession of it in the name of their Catholic Majesties. The natives called it Guana- ha?ii, and gave him to understand that they were en- vironed by many other Islands under the name of Lucayos, an appellation which has been continued to all those which lie to the north-west of the Great Antilles. Seven leagues to the southward he ap- proached another island, which he called La Con- ception; and passing by one which received the name of his monarch, he descried a fourth, called by the natives Saamoto, but on which he conferred the name of his illustrious patroness, Isabella. Thence continuing his southern course, he discovered eight islets, called by him the Isles d' Arena ; and on the twenty-seventh day, that is, seventeen days after the first discovery of land, he perceived a vast tract of country, over whose shores arose high and distant mountains. From the inhabitants he learnt that the name of this land was Cuba, a name which it has ever since retained, although he would have changed it for that of Juana. On the 3rd of December, after having passed nearly the whole of the previous month in visiting various parts of the island, and es- * Benzo, p. 27. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 125 tablishing a friendly intercourse with the astonished Indians, he reached its Eastern point ; and obstructed by strong currents, eight days were occupied in standing across the channel which divides it from Hayti : the features of which appearing, at first sight, somewhat to resemble those of Spain, he named it Espagnole. There, in the bay of St. Thomas, he remained a few days, receiving visits from the Ca- ciques, and bartering his European trinkets for the ornamental plates of gold which were worn by the natives. A little farther to the eastward, he built a fort, which he called Navidad. But his attention was now turned to another ob- ject, deeply affecting his fame. Alfonzo Pinion de- serted him, for the ungenerous purpose of conveying the first intelligence of success to Spain, and robbing him of the bright honours he had so hardly earned. Columbus, therefore, deemed it expedient to leave Diego d'Arana, and thirty-eight of his most effective men in the new colony, where he had already pro- pitiated the neighbouring Caciques, and established a friendly commerce with their subjects. On the 4th of January he took his leave of them, and after experiencing cross-currents and tempestuous weather, made the rock of Cintra on the 4th of March. On Friday, the 15th, he entered the port of Palos. Thus, in the short space of eight months, he, with unexampled industry and rare success, com- pleted an enterprise regarded by the world as vision- ary ; and which he had himself considered as the 126 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. probable labour of many years. A New World was at once opened to the studious, as well as to the active part of mankind ; and the most original, per- haps the most curious, portion of the history of human manners was exposed to view. His unlocked for return was celebrated by those demonstrations of joy and gratitude which such an event was calculated to inspire. Astonishment would hardly permit the Spaniards to think it real ; and a voyage to the moon would have been little less credible* The tale of the perfidious Pinion was not believed. Although he arrived before Columbus, he had been refused an audience, and eventually died of chagrin and dis- appointed ambition *. The admiral hastened to Seville, accompanied by seven Indians who had vo- luntarily returned with him, and followed by the rich rarities which he had collected during his short stay in the New World. The impatience of the court to behold the extraordinary discoverer was so urgent, that he received a letter from their Majesties, ad- dressed to " Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral on the Ocean, Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the Indies." He instantly obeyed the royal summons ; and was magnificently entertained at Barcelona, where the court was then held. A triumphant escort announced his approach to the palace : in the splendid procession marched the seven islanders, the noblest ornaments of his tri- * Life of Columbus, ch. 41. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 127 umph forming, as they did, a constituent part of it. Next appeared to the gaze of the wondering multitude,, the Indian crowns, and glittering plates of gold : these, not the fruits of violence, or the spoils of the victorious soldier, but the free-will offerings of the several caciques whose services he had both merited and rewarded. Then were ex- hibited branches, twenty-five feet high, filled with paroquets, the vaunted syrens of the ancients ; with balls of cotton, and with caskets of pimento, the pre- cious rival of the Eastern grain. Such was A D 1493. the pomp with which Columbus traversed the principal streets of Barcelona to the royal au- dience, where was assembled the most brilliant court which Spain had ever witnessed. Blessings were showered upon his head honours and rewards were heaped upon him ; while every species of festivity was gratuitously opened, and a display of ecclesiastical pomp and royal munificence everywhere spread their richest attractions, to render his reception worthy of his unexampled success. Although their Majesties had nothing more at heart than the speedy return of their new admiral to those promising regions whence they hoped to reap so rich an harvest, yet a courtly etiquette re- quired that the reigning Pontiff should be informed of the extended limits of that world over which he claimed a sovereign sway; and they were aware that, by such a line of conduct, they might also con- ciliate the Holy See, while, at the same time, they 128 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. risked nothing in the concession : for Alexander VI. in settling 1 the disputes concerning the crown of Arra- gon, had his hands too full to enable him to take any active advantage of the discovery *. Ferdinand, therefore, charged his ambassadors to assure that Pope (the Tiberius of Christian Rome), that the expe- dition which was made under his orders, should not prejudice the rights of the crown of Portugal ; and that his admiral had faithfully observed his instruc- tions, not to approach within one hundred leagues of the possessions of that power. But, for the inte- rests of that religion, which it was his desire to ex- tend with the limits of his empire, he prayed for the authority of bulls. The Pope sent two, which were executed on 2d and 3d of May, 1493 ; and con- tained the same conditions as his predecessors had judged necessary in those which had been granted on similar occasions to the kings of Portugal. But to prevent any possible disputes between the two crowns, he assigned what was called " the line of demarcation;" by which he regulated their respec- tive limits in such countries as were already known, as well as in those which might eventually be dis- covered, and have been taken possession of by no Christian prince before Christmas day in the preced- ing year. This imaginary line was modestly drawn from one pole to the other, cutting in two equal por- tions the space between the Azores and the Cape de Verd Islands f , and leaving all towards the west * Herrera. t See Note XXV. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 129 and south to the crown of Castile, while all to the eastward was apportioned to that of Portugal. These futile acts of papal presumption reached Spain at the moment when Columbus had prepared every thing for his return to the Indies. He had already received his instructions, and taken his last audience of leave. Having obtained permission to place his two sons at court, in quality of pages ; at Seville he joined his fleet, composed of seventeen vessels, well equipped, and provided with all that such an expedition might suggest ; particularly in- struments for the use of the mines, horses, and the seeds of all the most useful European plants. Fif- teen hundred volunteers, amongst whom was num- bered the flower of the Spanish nobility, accompa- nied the admiral in this expedition : their passions inflamed by the prospect of wealth, and the ani- mating views of certain glory. On the 25th of September this splendid fleet went down the Guadalquiver, and sailed from the bay of Cadiz. On the 5th of the following month, it en- tered the port of Gomera, to receive a supply of calves, goats, sheep, hogs and poultry : whence the origin, observes Herrera, of all those animals with which America now abounds. Sailing again on the 7th, the admiral held a more southerly course than during his last voyage, until the 24th, when he cal- culated that he had run four hundred and fifty leagues. On Sunday, the 3d of November, he de- scried land, and named it, from that circumstance, VOL. I. K 130 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. Dominique: though some authors have erroneously confounded it with St. Domingo. He perceived other islands to the north and north-west ; one of them he named Marigalante, after his own vessel ; and on the following morning fulfilled his promise to the convent of Guadaloupe, by conferring its name on the next island he came to : the inhabitants of which told him of many others to the south ; some peopled, and others deserted ; which they respec- tively called Borriquen, Giaramachi, Cairoaco, Huino, Buriani, Arubeira, and Sixiboi ; with a continent which they named Quarica. They also informed him that the king of Guadaloupe was then gone upon an expedition through the neighbouring isles, for the purpose of capturing men for food. From these canibals the Spaniards obtained some intelli- gence of their course to Hispaniola. Coasting along the north-west shores of Guadaloupe,, they discovered another island, which, from its resemblance to the lofty rocks of Notre Dame de Montserrat in Cata- lonia, they so named : and in succession, Columbus gave to the several islands he passed, the names of St. Maria de la Rodonde ; Antigua ; St. Christo- pher; San Martino; and Santa Cruz. To the largest of that cluster which then presented itself, he gave the name of St. Ursula ; and to all the sur- rounding ones that of the Eleven Thousand Virgins ; from the ancient tradition respecting that saint, and her extraordinary company of English ladies at Cologne. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 131 After coasting- along another island which the natives called Borriquen, now Porto Rico, but which he named St. John the Baptist, he anchored in one of its bays to refresh his weary mariners: and on the 22nd of November proceeded fifteen leagues further to the bay of Samana in Hispaniola. Three days afterwards, in sailing by Monte Christi, his suspicions were awakened as to the fate of the little colony he had left upon the island ; and anchoring during the night of the 27th, in the offing of Puerto Real, his fears were but too well confirmed : for at day-light he discovered his fort in ruins, and was soon made acquainted with the miserable fate of all its intemperate inhabitants. They richly merited the death they met with ; for their barbarous and wanton cruelties had justly provoked retribution at the hands of the oppressed natives. Yet the re- membrance of the injuries which these artless Islan- ders had received, was soon effaced by the generous treatment of Columbus in whom they placed un- bounded confidence. He immediately selected a spot more to the east- ward, called Puerto de Plata, on which to form a new establishment. There he commenced by the erection of a church ; and laid out a plot of ground, which rapidly arose in streets and squares, under the name of Isabella. Having gained intelligence of the source whence the natives derived their gold, Ojeda was despatched into the interior in search of the mines, and soon returned richly laden with their K2 132 . DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. dazzling treasures : affording to the admiral the for- tunate opportunity of transmitting to his Royal Mis- tress the first fruits of his expedition. He accord- ingly embarked them on board twelve ships under the command of Torrez ; reserving only five of the smaller vessels, with which to prosecute his disco- veries. Having established order in his infant colony, he determined on visiting the mines of Cibao himself ; which he found about eighteen leagues from Isabella ; there he built a small fortress, to which he gave the name of St. Thomas ; in raillery of his companions, who would not believe the report of such riches as there displayed themselves, until with their own eyes they had beheld them. On his return, Colum- bus found the colony already suffering from the want of provisions; while the Castilian nobles who had embarked in the expedition, not doubting that they should reap a rich harvest without labour, began to evince symptoms of disorganization and discontent. Boyl, the chief missionary, fomented the discord, and basely took advantage of an hostile disposition which manifested itself amongst the Indians, whose suspicions were roused by these repeated visits to the mines. The decisive measures adopted by the admiral, quickly dissipated the bursting storm, and restored tranquillity to his little colony. The natives resumed their friendly inter- course, and were sincere in their artless efforts merit the good will and assistance of their powerfi V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 133 visitors. The revolt of a nation so timid, so simple, as to be dispersed by the evolutions of a single horseman, promised no very serious result to the establishment. Columbus formed a council of government com- posed of the repentant Boyl, Fernandez Cortoel, Sanchez de Carvagel, and John de Luxan, at the head of which he placed his brother Diego: and having given them his instructions, he quitted them on the 24th April, witfi two vessels, to prosecute his discoveries. His course was first westerly, by Monte Christi and Navidad; thence he passed the little island of Tortue ; and contrary winds compelled him to seek shelter in the river which he named the Gua- dalquiver. On the 29th he again saw the island of Cuba, which the Indians now called Bayatiquiri : but which he now named Alpha and Omega *, because this name differed as widely from that which the same people had formerly given it, as those two let- ters did from each other. He then stood across the strait which separates the two islands, and coasting along the southern shores of Cuba, entered a deep bay called by him Puerto Grande. Quitting it on Sunday the 1st of May, he stood on in a south- easterly direction to reach an island whose faint outline he now first discovered bounding the south- ern horizon, and which the Indians told him was XAYMACA. * Hist. G4n. des Voyages, torn, xviii. p. 49, 134 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF HERE then we must remain, abandoning the ulte- rior expeditions of the enterprising- discoverer to pur- sue more particularly the narrative of events on this island, since become the source of so much wealth to individuals, and one of the brightest jewels in the British crown *. But as Jamaica was particularly attached to the family of Columbus, whose grandson received it from Charles V., in perpetual sovereignty, as a fief of the Castilian crown, it may be well to efface the vulgar error, that the English took it from his family in the person of a Duke of Veragua, by tracing their respec- tive rights to it, until it was forfeited to the power which gave it, by their connexion with the Braganza family in the Portuguese revolution. When preparing for his second voyage, Columbus had been offered by his sovereign the choice of a territory in Hispaniola, with the title of duke, or of marquis. He accepted neither; pretending that he should increase the jealous hatred of his envious enemies, who already persecuted him by every means which baseness could suggest, or power perpetrate. In consideration of his discovery of the promising islands of Jamaica and Cuba, the King afterwards re- leased him from the contribution of an eighth share in the expenses of the expedition ; allowing him that proportion of such treasures as he might obtain with- out any deduction ; and he confirmed to him all the powers and immunities possessed by the admiralty * See Note XXVI. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 135 of Castile, although that royal department opposed the measure, as conferring- privileges dangerously extensive. Yet the politic and perfidious Ferdinand, who owed the means of carrying on his enterprises, and even the government itself, to the vast and timely influx of wealth thus discovered, with unex- ampled ingratitude never fulfilled his royal pro- mises ; and these important services remained sub- stantially unrequited to the last hour of the disco- verer's life. That monarch, who always covered his profound policy with the veil of religion, although often re- pugnant to the principles of justice, had, in fact, married Isabella, less from choice, than the need of her resources : and although she was faithfully dis- posed to keep her promises with her favourite Ad- miral, she had been unable to effect her purpose with her wary husband. All she obtained was a letter to Columbus, dated the 14th of March, 1502, in which the King thus expressed himself: " We confirm all your privileges to you and to your chil- dren, and will put your eldest son in possession of all your appointments whenever you may require it*." In the year 1504, however, Isabella died; and with her expired the last hopes of the neglected mariner. Her eldest daughter, the wife of Emma- nuel, King of Portugal, was also dead ; and the crown of Castile passed to Philip, Archduke of Austria, who had married her second daughter, * Life of Columbus, v. ii., c. 25. 136 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. Jane. Columbus was now once again promised the fulfilment of all his claims, but died before the return of his brother Bartholomew with the happy intelli- gence. He was buried, according to the tenour of his will, in the monastery of the Chartreuse at Se- ville: and, according to the doubtful authority of M orreri, was afterwards carried to Hispaniola, and interred in the Cathedral of San Domingo there. Benzo is, however, silent as to this exhumation *. Columbus had been twice married, according to the best information we have : although Morreri de- clares that Ferdinand was a natural son by Beatrice Henriques. There seems, however, greater reason to give credit to Oviedo, who was the intimate friend of Ferdinand ; and who affirms that, by his first wife, Philippe Monniz Perestrello, who was the daugh- ter of one of Prince Henry's captains, he had Diego, who was born in Portugal : and that Ferdinand was the issue of a second marriage with Beatrice Hen- riques. This second son, the author of the life of Columbus, embraced the sacred profession, and left to the Cathedral at Seville the large collection of books known by the name of the Colombine Library. Diego now succeeded to the titles and appoint- ments of his father, and obtained a greater right to the favourable consideration of his monarch by marrying Maria, the daughter of Ferdinand de To- ledo, Grand Commandant of Leon, cousin-german to the King, and brother to the all-powerful Duke * See Note XXVII. V.] NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 137 D'Albe. From this noble alliance, and the eminent services of his father-in-law in the Neapolitan war, Diego had certainly just reason to expect a favour- able issue to the long-pending- suit of his family ; but the greatest obstacle was in the wary jealousy of the king himself; who, after many subterfuges and eva- sive delays, yielded him his royal permission to re- sort to the common courts of law for the adjudication of his claims. There the chance of a single vote at length obtained for him a favourable decision. This sentence, supported by the solicitations of his father- in-law, and backed by the potent interest of the Duke D'Albe, produced the decree recalling Ovando from the government of Hispaniola, and substituting himself as governor-general: but still without the recognition of his promised title of Viceroy ; although his wife, by her alliance with the blood royal, ob- tained that of Vicereine. With a splendid equipage, and a numerous suite, they arrived at San Domingo in July 1509 ; where the presence of so many females, composing the re- tinue of the vicereine, gave to the rising colony a de- gree of eclat which the New World, till then, had never known*. Some coruscations of the courtly splendour fell upon the neighbouring Island of Ja- maica, and shone for a time there in the rising town of Seville Nuevo. It was in the month of November, in the same year, that the Cover nor- general nominated Jean * See Note XXVIII. 138 DECLINE AND REVIVAL OF [Chap. d'Esquibel commandant of that island, till then un- occupied : and he seems to have done so rather with a view of settling a contested point between Ojeda and Nicuessa, than with any idea of its value to himself; though he afterwards took some pains in its settlement. He continued in his government (quitting it but once, between the years 1517 and 1520, in which latter year he returned with fuller powers) until 1526, when he died; leaving three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Louis, then only six years of age, succeeded to his father's just claims, and to his mis- fortunes : for though the Emperor Charles conferred many distinguished favours on him as a minor, he would never recognise his titles as a subject. On coming of age, he instituted a legal suit, as his father had done ; but it never was brought to an issue : and in 1545 we find him residing in Hispaniola as admiral, but without any authority as governor *. About this period it was, that, tired with the vexa- tious delays of his long-pending suit, he agreed to renounce all his higher claims for the dukedom of Veragua, and the marquisate of La Vega ; to which last was attached the perpetual, though poor, sove- reignty of Jamaica ; where La Vega, then an infant hamlet (borgata), was situated. The new capital did not rise so rapidly into repute as to be of suffi- cient consequence to afford a permanent title : for it soon gave way to that of Marquis of Xaymaca. * See Note XXIX. V.j NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. 139 Iii the year 1546 he sent Christopher Pega to subdue his ducal territories in Veragua: but the attempt was attended with such fatal unsuccess that he relinquished his claim to domains so wild, and so unconquerable*. Nor do we find that he bestowed much attention on his Jamaica Marquisate. He out- lived his two brothers ; and, dying without issue, his sister Isabella inherited his. empty titles, and his fallen fortunes. We have seen that her grand- mother was a Portuguese, and she connected herself again with that nation by her marriage with the Count de Gelvez, a branch of the Braganza family ; by which foreign alliance she would have alienated her territorial rights, and titles, had not her mater- nal relationship to the blood royal of Spain still pre- served them to her. Philip II., in the year 1580, attached Portugal to the crown of Spain by means of the army under her uncle, the Duke D'Albe; and the sovereignty of Jamaica was thus confirmed to her family through the succeeding generations ; and until the Spaniards, by attempting to compel the Portuguese to serve in their wars against Catalonia, provoked the revolt which in the year 1640 placed John, Duke of Bra- ganza, upon the throne. This defection of the family in which she had carried, and left, the sovereignty of Jamaica, caused it to revert to the crown which had bestowed it, and from which the English captured it fifteen years afterwards. * See Note XXX. 140 NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE. [Chap. V. Its formal possession was conceded, and confirmed to England, by the seventh article of the treaty signed at Madrid in June 1670: for the partisans of royalty had raised doubts upon the point of its having been taken under the usurped authority of the Protector, whose lawless acts, they conceived, could not be sanctioned by the King's government. It was therefore expressly stipulated that " The King of Great Britain, his heirs, and successors, shall have, hold, and possess for ever, with full right of sove- reign dominion, property, and possession, all lands, countries, islands, colonies, and dominions, what- ever, situated in the West Indies, or any part of America, which the said King of Great Britain, and his subjects, do, at this present, hold and possess : so that in regard thereof, or upon any colour, or pretence whatever, nothing may, or ought, ever to be urged, nor any question or controversy moved concerning the same hereafter." CHAPTER VI. SUBJUGATION OP JAMAICA BY THE SPANIARDS IN THE YEAR 1494. ITS CONDITION FROM THAT PERIOD UNTIL IT WAS CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH FORCES IN 1655. WE have traced the eventful progress of Columbus to the moment when he discovered Jamaica : a A.D. 1494. distant view of whose lofty blue mountains he first obtained, on the morning of the 3d of May 1494, from the offing- of a deep bay called by him Puerto Grande (now Puerto de St. Pedro) on the coast of Cuba. The Indian fishermen, who accompanied him, gave him to understand that the land he saw was called "Xaymaca;" a word implying, according to the received opinion of historians, an overflowing abundance of rivers: and therefore not, in that exclusive sense, at all applicable to this Island. In the rise of human speech, a method must have been wanted, and sought, and found, of discrimi- nating first between familiar persons, and then between common objects : for in every language the invention of proper names must have had the earliest origin. The primitive choice of every word must also have had a cause, and meaning: each name must have been derived from some accident or allu- sion, or (Duality of the object, mind, or body: and 142 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. the truth of this observation is attested by the Ancient World, from India to Spain ; and by the New, from the lakes of Canada, to the mountains of Chili ; where the titles of the savage chieftains announced their personal qualifications, their wisdom in the council, or their valour in the field. . We must therefore suppose that the word Xaymaca would probably denote the most obvious qualities of the land to which these Indian savages pointed : and so in fact it did ; for in the speech of Florida, cha- bauan signified water, and makia, wood*. The compound sound would approach to Chab-makia; and, harmonized to the Spanish ear, would be Cha- makia, or some such indistinct union of these two significant expressions, denoting a land covered with wood, and therefore watered by shaded rivulets, or, in other words, fertile. Nor is this conclusion un- supported by example; for in the 10th chap. 7th verse Deuteronomy, Ier*a$ is said to be yw xfipdppov vbdruv, " a land of rivers of waters"; an expression familiar to the children of Israel as signifying/rm'Z/w/ abundance. Moses made use of the same words when he promised to bring them to the land of plenty : and the yw ^i^xppov vSdruv aptly brought to their recollection the contrast between the land of Egypt, which was but periodically watered by a single river, and the promised territory which should be refreshed by abundant springs, and mountain showers. * Lescarbot,! 6. c. 6. VJ.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 143 Now this characteristic fertility of Jamaica was particularly noted by Columbus ; who concurred with the Indians in distinguishing it, at first sight, from all the islands he had ever met with, as the most fertile. The same name might, it is true, have been applied in the same rude speech to any other luxuriant land, without assigning to it the literal meaning of " abounding in springs," which Jamaica in fact does not. And so we find it was applied in a case which puts it beyond a doubt ^ that such was not its simple or exclusive signification : for, according to the tes- timony of Ferdinand Columbus, Antigua, an island little less fertile than Jamaica, though without a single spring of water* , was called Xaymaca by its native Charaibes. This circumstance might seem to prove an affinity between the Indian and Charaibean lan- guages : but it is more probable that Columbus ob- tained the name of Antigua from the same Indians who continued with him, and had applied it to Ja- maica, and who would have applied the same ex- pression to any other fertile land they saw. Indeed, it appears that the Indian language possessed few definite or proper names ; for when Columbus first visited the shores of Cuba, the natives called the island by that name : but on his next voyage thither, they called it Bayatiquiri f. * See Note XXXI. t Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn, xviii. p. 19. A late author gives to America one thousand two hundred and sixty four lan- guages. 144 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. Mav 3 ^ Approaching 1 the shore in a south-west 1494 * course from the eastern point of Cuba, he named the headland he first encountered, Santa Maria, from the name of his first ship. The nu- merous canoes which came off to meet him, gave Columbus the first intelligence that Jamaica was thickly inhabited : but some boats, which he would have sent in to obtain soundings in what is now called Port Maria, met with a large body of armed Indians, who seemed determined to oppose a land- ing. With no better success they attempted to effect their purpose of taking possession of the island in another harbour, which he called Ora Ca- beca ; and annoyed by such barbarity, several can- non, or arbaletes, were discharged. The Indians, seeing some of their companions fall, became less daring; conciliation was the consequence, presents were interchanged, and the country was formally added to the acquisitions of the Spanish crown. Remaining amongst the astonished natives for the space of ten days, on the 18th the discoverers coasted along in a westerly direction ; but a baffling wind obliged the admiral to stand across to Cuba ; when he resolved upon ascertaining whether that large tract of country were an island, or a part of that continent which he was seeking. On the 22d of the following month, while still cruising in boisterous weather, he again approached the shores of Jamaica from Cape de la Cruz in Cuba. VI.J SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 145 Then it was, that, according to Oldmixon, he gave to the island the name of St. Jago *, which that author says it has since retained in Jamaica, the augmenta- tive of James. That he bestowed the appellation, might probably be the case ; for St. Jago was the patron of Spain, and therefore very likely to have lent his name to the discovered land : especially as it was the war-cry of the Spaniards, who, being here, for the first time, opposed in their landing, had doubt- less used it ; but that \t was retained in the shape of any Anglicism, is a gross mistake. Acosta called it Jamaycque, and Benzo, Jamaica, nearly a century before it was thought of by any English adventu- rers. Columbus now again coasted along in the same direction as before : but a heavy swell forbad his landing. He ascertained, however, pretty accu- rately, the dimensions of the Isle, which he could not have effected had he not doubled the west end of it, and beat to windward along the south side. As it was on the 22nd of June that he made the land some- Aag. 20, where about Rio Bueno, and not until the 1494 -' 20th of August that he reached San Mi- guel, now Cape Tiburon, it is very probable that during this interval of thirty-nine days, on which all historians are silent, he was employed in this survey ; for he observes that, the weather continuing stormy, he cruised first in a westerly direction ; when, other winds arising, he resolved to steer eastward, towards * See Note XXXII. VOL. I. L 146 SUBJUGATION OP JAMAICA. [Chap. Hispaniola. He had met with no encouragement to land, though he observed many excellent harbours, with every appearance of a vast population, and it was not until eight years afterwards that we hear any thing more of Jamaica. AD On the 14th of July, 1502, Columbus on 1502 * his fourth voyage, sailed from Port Ya- quimo, now Aquin, near St. Louis, in Hispaniola, intending to pursue his course towards Terra-firma. He therefore again approached Jamaica: but con- trary winds and strong currents drove him amongst the Archipelago called the Jardin de la Reyna, on the coast of Cuba ; and eventually compelled him to take shelter in the little isle which the Indians called Guanaja, now the Isle of Pines. Still no European settlement had been formed on A D these shores ; nor was it till the following 1503. year y^ CoJuj^bus again, for the fourth time, bent his course hither. His visit was then one of compulsion. With his son and brother, and two ships, on his return from his disastrous expedition to Veragua, he was driven by foul weather to take shelter in the Indian settlement of Maxaca, on the southern coast of Cuba, where he imperfectly repaired his shattered vessels, and put to sea again. The leaks, however, increased, and in a sinking state he was forced from his course upon the northern shore of Ja- maica ; in an unfrequented spot where he could obtain neither water nor provisions. Once more, then, he was driven out to sea ; and the trade-wind driving him VI. J SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 147 down the coast to the westward, he presently per- ceived a shallow bay, which, with the gratitude of a storm-beaten mariner, he named Santa Gloria; and St. Ann's bay still marks the memorable spot. Here the exhausted seamen ran their sinking- wrecks ashore to save themselves. Protected by a reef of rocks, the two vessels were lashed together with timbers, and an awning erected over the united decks af- forded shelter to the weary crews *. The shore was quickly thronged by the astonished natives, who rushed down from a village on the neighbouring heights. They soon learnt, and supplied the wants of their visitors ; and a little rivulet flowed past their stranded ships to allay their thirst. For a glass bead, the Indians gave a cake of cassava ; and their most valued treasures were anxiously exchanged for a bell. The neighbourhood was fruitful, the inha- bitants simple, friendly, and kind. Yet to preserve that harmony which was vital to the existence of the needy Spaniards, their admiral immediately esta- blished rigid regulations, and strict discipline. Find- ing that there remained no hopes of refitting his ships, he resolved upon acquainting Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, with his wretched situation ; and to desire Carvajal, his agent there, to send a vessel to his assistance with all speed. This, how- ever, was an undertaking full of danger. Nearly two hundred leagues separated him from the capital of the Western Islrs; and he had nothing but the * See Herrera, and Life of Columbus, chap. 39. Li 148 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. frail canoes purchased from the natives, in which to attempt the desperate voyage. The little rock of Navasa could afford the only resting-place ; and the course was directly against the prevailing wind. The case, however, was urgent ; and Diego Mendez, the secretary to the squadron, undertook the enterprise ; in which he was assisted by a Genoese named Fieski. These intrepid mariners embarked in two canoes, each furnished with six Castilians and ten Indians : Mendez instructed to make the best of his way to Spain with a Memorial to the King * ; Fieski with orders to deliver a letter to Ovando, and to return quickly with such assistance as he could obtain from Carvajal. Columbus accompanied them as far as the north- east point of the island, apprehending the hostility of the Indians in those districts which he had not visited. From thence they took their departure with the fervent prayers of their disconsolate com- rades. In about five days they safely reached Cape Tiberon, after resting a few hours upon the barren rock of Navasa. The admiral returned to Santa Gloria, where he was attacked with the gout, which confined him to his bed. Disease broke out amongst his crews, and they would inevitably have sunk under accumulated afflictions, had it not been for the benevolence of the generous Indians. The idea of being abandoned in a savage country, and doomed never again to see * See Note XXXIII. VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 149 their native land, was too much for Castilian pride or patience. When the last hopes of Fieski's return had failed them, and six long 1 months had elapsed without any tidings of relief, their wearied imagi- nations suggested the most injurious suspicions of their admiral ; and they believed that Ovando, who they knew was his bitter enemy, would leave them all to perish there. Jan 2 On the 2nd of January, the disaffected 1504. crews assembled in arms, headed by the two brothers Porras ; the one a commander, the other the military treasurer. The elder Porras, rushing into the cabin of the sick Admiral, charged him with being the cause of all their misfortunes. His mild remon- strance would have satisfied ttye most captious ; but the monster, whose sister was the mistress of a powerful courtier at home, presumed upon his in- terest there, and openly raised the standard of revolt; seducing the sailors to join him, and pro- posing to sacrifice Columbus to the hatred of Ovando. Bartholomew Columbus placed himself, with a pike in his hand, upon a narrow beam which served as a communication with the vessel in which his brother was confined, and opposed their passage across it. A parley was the consequence, conciliatory measures were adopted, and Porras retired : but it was only to seize the ten canoes which the Admiral had been preparing, and to embark in them with his band of base conspirators. Few were left with Columbus, except his particular friends and the invalids. These 150 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA* [Chap. remained faithful to his cause and obedient to his commands. The rebels pursued their course along the shore to the east end of the island ; with which route their late excursion had made some of them acquainted. They landed each night, plundering the Indians, or urging them to rise, and destroy their helpless admiral. Arrived at the point, they attempted to stand across to Hispaniola : but their frail canoes were unequal to the voyage, and to relieve them, in a heavy sea, they cast overboard their baggage, with the unfortunate Indians whom they had forced on board to paddle them. The storm increased, and they were obliged to return. They then waited for more favourable weather, dis- persing themselves through the neighbouring vil- lages, and dealing destruction on all around them. Six weeks afterwards they repeated the attempt, and were again repulsed by the unwilling elements. They were then compelled to abandon the enterprise as impracticable, not doubting but that Mendez and Fieski had both perished; and, distressed for provisions, they wandered about the island, plunder- ing the unfortunate natives, and living upon the spoil. Columbus was now reduced to the extremity of depending solely on the generosity of the Indians for his daily subsistence. His European manufac- tures, wherewith he had bartered, were nearly ex- pended, and his prospects of relief almost hopeless. A strict discipline, softened by his own unwearied Vf.j SUBJUGATION OP JAMAICA. 151 attentions and parental solicitude, had preserved har- mony amongst his remaining people ; and, while his scanty means lasted, he had received nothing from the natives without payment ; their contributions had therefore been voluntary and abundant. But, ac- customed as they were, to provide only for their daily wants, these warm-hearted people found their own resources fast failing, and they ceased to supply their strange guests who had already drawn so largely upon their little stores. The ravages com- mitted by the mutineers, who were ranging with wild fury throughout the island, at length irritated them, and they withdrew from their village of Mayma, seeking refuge in the interior, and leaving the wretched Spaniards to their miserable fate. Thus reduced to the last extremity, Columbus saw, with hopeless despondency, the rapid approach of death, in its most lingering and cruel shape. In this emergency, he conceived the memorable expedient of playing upon the credulous simplicity of the fugitive islanders. He was aware of an ap- proaching eclipse of the moon ; and it occurred to him that use might be made of so imposing a phe- nomenon to bring the superstitious fugitives to terms. On the plea of having some interesting communication to make, he succeeded in recalling them to a confer- ence. Having upbraided them with their cruel de- sertion, he assured them that he was under the pro- tortion of a God who would undoubtedly avenge it; and that the commencement of their sufferings would 152 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. be the immediate loss of their favourite planet, the moon ; which, he told them, would, that night, be shrouded in blood, and gradually extinguished. The eclipse commenced ; the moon assumed its dark and frightful hue; while the Indians fell prostrate and uttered the most terrific shrieks. Columbus, to give effect to the fruitful stratagem, was long deaf to their loud entreaties, and penitent submission. At length he withdrew to his cabin, to intercede for them ; and reappeared with the emerging moon, a convincing proof of the efficacy of his intercession, and that they would be spared as long as they brought food to those who worshipped so powerful a Deity. From that night nothing was refused to the Christians ; while the slightest offence was sedu- lously avoided by the abject islanders*. This succour was the more opportune, as a new conspiracy had just then disclosed itself amongst the wretched crews at Santa Gloria. The surgeon, named Bernardi, and his two assistants, Villatora and Zamora, had succeeded in poisoning the minds of the sick beneath their care ; and these wretches menaced the lives of Columbus and his brother. At this eventful moment a sail appeared in the offing, and sanguine hopes of relief united all parties in one universal sentiment of gratitude for their approaching deliverance ; but it came only to mock their hopes, and insult them in their distress. The captain, Diego d'Escobar, had been selected for * See Note XXXIV. VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 153 this odious embassy, as the personal enemy of Columbus, by whose sentence he had been con- demned to death for a mutiny in Hispaniola. His orders were, that he should not visit the wrecks, nor hold any conference with the admiral or his people ; but that he should reconnoitre his situation, deliver what he was charged with, and return forthwith. Escobar executed his commission with the brutal exactitude which might be expected from such a man. He anchored outside the reef, and, in a boat, approached the wreck on which the admiral lived. When within hail, he cast overboard a barrel of provisions, and one of wine ; and then, ordering Columbus to be summoned, told him, that the governor-general was very sorry to hear of his misfortunes ; had no power to relieve him ; but begged he would accept the supply which he sent, as a mark of his personal esteem. He rowed back to his ship, and waited for the admiral's reply. It contained a faithful picture of his wretched situation, with thanks for the good intentions of Ovando ; although he had received such proof of their in- fidelity. On the departure of Escobar, the evil effects of his insulting visit became apparent ; for the remain- ing crew, perceiving the indignities to which their admiral was subjected, naturally concluded that the (K -jo a of Ovando was to leave him, and all who espoused his cause, to perish, without relief or even further notice. He found means once more to calm 154 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap, the rising tumult ; and even flattered himself that he should succeed in quelling the mutiny of Porras, who, with his lawless band, had again wandered through the interior to the neighbouring hills of Santa Gloria. This rebel, reduced at length to the extremity of distress, had the insolence to demand a share of the scanty supply which Columbus had received; and, with taunting insults, threatened to possess himself of it by force. He accused the admiral of witchcraft ; and succeeded in persuading his followers, that the appearance of Escobar's ves- sel was but the delusion of the black art, and the effect of sorcery. To execute his insulting threats, he advanced to the May 20, heights on which the village of Mayma 1504 ' stood. From thence he gained a view of the two wrecks which afforded shelter to his intended victim, and prepared to force him in his retreat. Columbus, still confined to his bed by the torments of the gout, sent his brother, with fifty men, to bring him to terms; offering a free pardon to such as would accept it. The mutineers gave them no time to make the proposition ; but attacked the amicable bearers of it with desperate fury. Bartholomew withstood the onset ; and his party, by the first fire, killed six of them. The elder Porras, now hopeless and desperate, rushed upon him, and by one stroke cleaved asunder his buckler ; but his more powerful antagonist seized him without blow, held him his prisoner, and put the rest VL j SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 155 flight. The admiral again owed his life to the intrepidity of his brother ; for it appeared that the rebels had bound themselves, by an oath, to sacrifice him to their fury that night, as one guilty of witch- craft. The first European blood which was shed in the New World by European hands, thus stained the virgin soil of Jamaica; and, drawn in a contest between those whom the Indian spectators had con- ceived to be invincible, it could not but tend to depreciate them in their estimation. It cost but the life of one man to the victors, though several were desperately wounded ; and the maitre-d'hotel of the admiral eventually died of the injuries he had re- ceived. Ledesma, his favourite pilot, was left as dead upon the field of skirmish ; but the Indians, led by their curiosity to examine whether their strange visitors, whom they had considered as beings of another world, could indeed be injured, probed his wounds with their fingers. This occasioned the pain which restored the suspended powers of animation ; while the piercing shriek which the sufferer uttered, effectually relieved him from the presence of his ter- ritied tormentors. The day after this affair, all the mutineers who had escaped the sword, sought an opportunity of throwing themselves at the admiral's feet, and, by a solemn oath, bound themselves to future fidelity and strict obedience*. He received them with open * See Note XXXV. 156 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA, [Chap. arms, exacting 1 only that Porras, their misguided chief, should remain in chains ; and that, as long as they continued upon the island, they should receive a captain whom he would appoint, under whose com- mand they should be at liberty to establish them- selves where they pleased, and gain their support by the barter of such articles as he could afford them from his little store. From this period until the end of June he con- tinued to suffer all the torments of lingering suspense, scanty subsistence, and disappointed hope. At length, however, Diego de Salcido, whom he had despatched, during the late disturbances, to urge Ovando to assist him, appeared with a ship expressly equipped; and it happened that the two vessels, which had been prepared by Mendez and Fieski, but whose departure had been retarded by the machina- tions of the governor, arrived at the same time. Thus terminated the tedious and eventful captivity of Columbus ; who collected his scattered crew, and, on the 28th of June, bade adieu to June 28. . . an island which he was destined never more to see. A D Its native inhabitants were now left to the 1509> enjoyment of their few last days of calm re- pose and peaceful obscurity. They were not again visited until three years after the death of their disco- verer ; when the court of Spain, dividing the Darien government between Alfonzo d'Ojeda and Diego Nicuessa, authorised them, jointly and severally, to VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 157 make what use they pleased of the unoccupied island of Jamaica, which was the nearest to their territories, and might be to them a fertile garden, from whence they could draw their provisions, and force their slaves. The wretched islanders immediately per- ceived their cruel fate, and found the iron yoke of merciless captivity set hard upon them. They were bestowed upon rival chieftains, without law to appro- priate, or restraint to protect them. The contending interests of their powerful oppressors were visited upon their devoted heads : their villages were laid waste ; their caciques murdered ; and their children borne away in endless captivity to the mines. Such as were fortunate enough to escape their pursuers, fled to the mountains, or secreted themselves in the recesses of their tangled forests ; and there, in caves or huts, they lingered out a miserable existence, till death put an end to their sufferings. This foreign participation of an island which owed its discovery to his father, whose memorable misfortunes there had rendered it peculiarly dear to him, could not but be galling to the filial feelings of Diego Columbus, who at that moment was embark- ing as Admiral of the Indies, with his wife and brother, for the colony of San Domingo *. Circum- stances, however, compelled him to dissemble ; and he resolved to await the issue of the expedition which * Herrera, 1. 7, c. 7. Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn, xviii, p. 153. 158 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. Ojeda and Nicuessa were then preparing, to take possession of their new continental territories, ere he asserted his prior claim to Jamaica. The oppor- tunity soon offered : for these rival governors had not been long appointed, before their respective rights engaged them in serious altercation. The di- vision of Jamaica caused their first dispute. There the admiral stept between them and asserted his su- perior claim. And he outstripped them both by sending Juan d'Esquimel, with seventy men, to take possession of the island, and to form a settlement on the spot which his father's shipwreck had rendered sacred to his affections. Ojeda was bold and strong. He threatened that if he found Esquimel in Jamaica, he would have his head : but Esquimel found the moment of victory and revenge. The rival gover- nors sailed on their respective missions ; and although Esquimel weighed anchor at the same time, he never encountered them in the Island which had been the subject of their disputes : but quietly took possession of it about the end of November. He landed at Santa Gloria, and immediately fixed the seat of his government on the banks of the small rivulet there ; above which, on the side of a wooded mountain,, still remained the Indian village of Mayma. Diego Columbus had desired him to name the settle- ment Sevilla Nueva ; to commemorate the success- ful termination of his suit against the crown, which had then been recently decided in the council of the YI.J SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 159 Indies : and soon after he sent his brother Ferdinand to found a monastery, and assist in the establishment of the colony. A D In the meantime the miscarriage of Oje- 10t da's continental expedition had reduced that adventurer to the last extremity. On his disastrous re- turn to Hispaniola with the wreck of his forces, he was cast upon the coast of Cuba and reduced to implore the aid of an enemy who might smile at his distress. He supplicated assistance from the governor of Jamaica : the man whose head, in the pride of power, he had threatened to take ; and Pierre d'Ordas, his messen- ger, reached New Seville with letters to Esquimel, praying him not to abandon him in his misfortunes. It was a tempting opportunity for Esquimel to be revenged on him, but he was too generous to take advantage of it : and immediately despatched a vessel to the assistance of his rival, under the orders of Pamphile de Narvaez. The timely succour arrived ; the governor of Jamaica, nobly forgetful of the in- sults he had received, welcomed the unfortunate chieftain to his colony, treated him as his equal in the government ; and, after a few days repose, pro- vided him with the means of returning to Hispa- niola. The splendour of San Domingo, the cradle of the Spanish settlements, graced as it was by the presence of ro\al blood, had now attained its meridian height. Amongst the numerous attendants who composed the suite of the Vicereine, were many of the officers and 160 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. nobility of the court of Spain, both male and female. Fetes and marriages took place every day : the mines poured forth their golden treasures at the expense of Indian life ; commerce flourished ; new settlements were multiplied ; and many of the admiral's friends hearing of the luxuriant beauties of Jamaica, or ex- pecting places and privileges in his favourite colony, came with, or followed Esquimel hither. Bringing with them the refinements of taste, and the means of displaying it, they assisted in the foundation of Sevilla Nueva, whose fame long attested its superi- ority over every other which has since been built here. In their dress, their tables, their houses, and their furniture, they are said to have united every refinement of conveniency and of elegance : what- ever, in short, could soothe Castilian pride, or gratify unbounded sensuality, was to be found in that city whose only vestiges are now to be traced in the luxuriant cane-fields which still retain the name of Seville. A D From the prompt assistance which Esqui- i5ii. me } wag enabled to send to Ojeda so soon after he obtained possession of the Island, we may con- clude that its conquest had cost him but little. After a slight resistance on the part of those who remembered too well the injuries they had received from the Spa- niards five years before, when they found that he was now come, not to carry them off, but to settle amongst them, the Indians perceived the hopeless- ness of all opposition ; and, naturally inclined to the VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 161 peaceable occupations of their rude agriculture, they passively retired into the interior, or submitted to the service of their Christian invaders ; assisting them in the cultivation of their provisions, and clothing them with the manufactured produce of their native cotton. Although the Spaniards changed the name of their new town from Sevilla Nuevato Sevilla remained. The seat of government was 43 ' soon after transferred thither, and a nucleus was thus formed, around which the scattered colonists were speedily concentrated for mutual safety and sup- port. Columbus had bestowed the name of St. Jago on the island; but its earlier name outlived the hal- lowed title. The vindictive Saint was offended at the neglect, and its first city fell. Superstition therefore suggested the conciliatory measure of conferring his name upon the new town : the savannas, which dis- played their grassy pride around, lent their aid to the necessary completion of its name ; and it was called Saint Jago de la Vega, or Saint Jago of the Plains ; to distinguish it from its neighbouring capital, Saint Jago de Cuba. The buildings there now rose as rapidly as those of Seville decayed. A safe and convenient situation attracted a crowd of settlers : their labours were warded by the conversion of the neighbouring VI j SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 169 vannas into a productive district ; and in sixteen years from its foundation, the town was esteemed worthy of giving a second title to the grandson of the man who had discovered the island, and opened the treasures of the New World to the increasing necessities of the Old. The wars raging between Charles V. and Henry of France, the Spaniards in their American settlements suffered more than ever from the incursions of the freebooters, and the unfor- tunate city of Seville d-Oro received a fatal blow from a spirited attack of the French pirates, who, in the year 1554 razed it to the ground *. Bare walls and sculptured archways alone survived the loss of the inhabitants, affording shelter to a few fishermen, and a convenient resort to the corsairs of Tortue. The English privateers also assisted in its final destruc- A D tion. /'Queen Elizabeth commenced her 1558. r eign by rejecting the matrimonial offers of Philip of Spain ; and although war did not break out between the two crowns until the year 1568, she was so incensed at the treacherous manner in which Hawkins and his crew had been treated, that she em- braced all masked opportunities of retaliation. / As matters then stood, she could not openly resent the insult, all English trade in Spanish America being repugnant to existing treaties ; yet, to distress Philip in bringing home his treasures, she equipped adven- turers to cruise there, and reaped some private emo- * Benzo, 1. 2. c. iv. This act was, however, cruelly revenged by the Spaniards, who, twelve years afterwards, massacred the French in Florida. 170 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. laments from this predatory warfare. The English privateers, which she licensed, carried on an illicit trade, not more to their own profit than to the public benefit : for they gained a perfect knowledge of the ports, rivers, and fortresses, the nature of their com- mercial relations, and the modes of sharing them by fair means,, or destroying them by force. Such constant alarms, and repeated attacks, obliged the Spaniards of Jamaica to confine them- selves to the immediate neighbourhood of their new capital ; where they contented themselves with the cultivation of the adjacent lands, by means of the few slaves which their limited resources had enabled them to purchase; for the native population was now extinct. Their effective strength being so concen- trated, they bestowed all their attention on the esta- blishment of the town, which was soon distinguished by the residence of an Abbot, and the privileges of a city. Religion once again forced architecture into her service ; the Metropolitan See of San Domingo lent its aid ; and the monastic institution of New Seville, over which Peter Martyr had presided as titular abbot, was now transferred to St. Jago, where an abbey was founded, and two churches, of no mean designs, were built. Prosperity once again dawned upon the Island, for Portugal, in the year 1580, was added to the crown of Spain ; and the territorial right of Jamaica being then vested in the Braganza family, the Portuguese poured into it, expecting peculiar privileges from the circumstance VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 171 of its sovereignty being- in one of their own nation. By their industry and perseverance they, for a time, augmented its culture and commerce. But too soon they found invincible obstacles in the narrow policy and national jealousy of the proud and idle Castilians, who, passing a life of thoughtless ease and listless affluence, contented themselves with con- suming the produce of their plantations, and dis- posing of the small casual surplus to such vessels as visited them from the- Havannah, or touched acci- dentally upon their coasts. For the exclusive pos- session of so neglected, yet so beautiful an island they had exterminated its natural possessors ; and now wanted strength to take advantage of the teeming soil which they had gained. Its exuberant fertility did more for them than their industry : for in the year 1587 it was so overrun by the wild off- spring of the cows, and hogs, and horses, which had originally been transported from Hispaniola, that a considerable bartering trade was carried on in provi- sions, hides, and hog's-lard. This fortuitous success opened the way to the partial cultivation of ginger, and then sugar ; which last had been totally unat- tended to, since the destruction of Seville d'Oro*, and which indeed never supplied them with an article <>f export. A D St. Jago now felt the influence of increas- 9G * ing prosperity, and reared its head, a thriv- ing capital ; yet it displayed a scene of proud, rather * See Note XXXVIII. 172 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. than of tasteful magnificence. Nine years afterwards its fame exposed it to a predatory visit from Sir An- thony Shirley, who was cruising- in the neighbourhood with a powerful fleet : he made an easy conquest of it ; plundered the most accessible parts of the island, and retired. Yet he gained, or confessed, so little spoil, that no one thought it worth while again to trouble the insignificant colony, untif Colonel Jack- son, after a repose of thirty-nine years, during which the town rose to its meridian splendour, made a descent upon it from the Windward Islands. At the head of five hundred men, he beat the Spaniards, who fought bravely at Passage Fort ; overran the island, and exacted" a considerable sum for the pre- servation of its capital. /Upon evacuating it, many of his troops, seduced by the beauty of the country, deserted him, and joined the Spaniards : yet they soon found, to their cost, that they were unable to inspire that indolent people with their own natu- ral energy, or to gain more than a scanty subsist- ence for themselves ; and they were given up, by treaty, to Venables, when the English took pos- session of the island twenty years afterwards. The Hidalgos of St. Jago again enjoyed oblivious repose ; but it was a tranquillity now oppressed by poverty, and enfeebled by sloth. Their past mis- fortunes roused them not into activity, nor did the example of the neighbouring colonies, which daily suffered from the same powerful enemies, urge them to provide against dangers which on all sides VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 173 approached, and threatened them. Little informa- tion can, however, be gathered, as to the internal history of Jamaica during- its last period of heedless inactivity, and. total neglect: for, as Gage observes, " nothing hath been written of these parts, for these hundred years past, which is almost ever since the first conquest thereof by the Spaniards, who are con- tented to lose the honor of that wealth and felicity they have there purchased by their great endeavours, so long as they may enjoy the safety of retaining what they have gotten in peace and security." A D j The insignificance of Jamaica had been s6 ' its preservation from the serious notice of the English, who had frequently preyed upon the larger and more opulent Spanish settlements around it ;-^und the Spaniards themselves were too much occupied by their continental concerns to bestow a thought upon an island whose days of novelty had long since passed away, and whose early splendour had so rapidly decayed. The mines of Mexico and Peru engaged all their attention, and required all their strength. The immense wealth of Attabaliba, which was divided amongst the soldiers of Pizarro, points out the readier and richer spoils, for which Jamaica had been neglected. The other islands had shared almost a similar fate. Acosta declares that abun- dance* of gold still remained in the rivers of Cuba, and all the neighbouring islands, but that little found its way to Spain, for want of hands to collect it, or energy to make the attempt. He observes, 174 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. moreover, that so scarce were the precious metals become in all these islands, though plenty was to be obtained here, that the inhabitants used copper money, and even pieces of leather. /Yet, when Jamaica became lost to Spain, its occupation was considered of so much importance by that power, that it was made the subject of a declaration of war ; and all English ships and effects found in any Spanish port were confiscatedd'^ome years afterwards, when Richard Cromwell treated with the French ambas- sador respecting the conditions of a peace with Spain, he was told that his Catholic Majesty would never consent to leave Jamaica in the hands of the English, for that " it would in time overthrow all the maxims by which he governed his American dominions ;" moreover, that he would give a consi- derable sum for its repossession. / Richard was too wise, or too honest, to encourage the proposal ; but the circumstance proves the vast importance of an island whose loss threatened the subversion of the western monarchy of Spain, little as it was regarded for its intrinsic wealth or worth. / The only notice which Gage takes of Jamaica, is very incorrect and imperfect ; and it clearly shows that, though his information accidentally led to its conquest, he had no intention of directing the views of the Protector to the capture of an island of which he knew so little. " Jamaica," says he, " is another A a island under the power of the Spaniards; 163T * which is in length two hundred and eighty 1 VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 175 miles, and seventy in breadth ; which, though it ex- ceeds Margarita in sweet and pleasant streams and fountains of water, yet is far inferior to it in riches. Some hides, some sugar, and some tobacco, are the chief commodities from thence. There are only two towns of note in it Oristana and Sevilla : here are built ships which have proved as well at sea as those that are made in Spain. This island was once veiy populous, but now is almost destitute of Indians ; for the Spaniards have slaui in it more than sixty thou- sand, insomuch that women, as well here as on the continent, did kill their children before they had given them birth, that the issues of their bodies might not serve so cruel a nation." The fame attached to the ancient splendour of Seville d'Oro seems therefore to have outlived the subsequent prosperity of St. Jago de la Vega ; and this vague report of an island, then on the eve of falling into the hands of the English, and made by an Englishman who had been fifteen years in its neighbourhood, is an additional proof of its insig- nificant obscurity under the Spanish dominion. This fact, added to the national jealousy of its inhabitants, are obstacles which prevent our acquaintance with it- interior government and political history^ Impe- netrable secrecy always covered with a sacred veil the Spanish administration of the American domi- nions : and whatever transpired in Europe, relative to their allairs here, has always been as destitute of authenticity as it was, generally, of bare consistency*/ 176 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. The navigation and commerce of these seas were interdicted to all foreign powers, while/ all their colonies were sealed alike against the curiosity of the traveller, and the researches of the philosopher. Neither agents nor consuls were maintained there by other states ; and Europe knew no more of the transactions of the western hemisphere than what Spain herself chose to communicate .[/ Another reason for the deficiency of information relative to the Spanish government of Jamaica, may be found in the fact, that the island was out of the way of all direct communication with Europe: for its few hides, and other exports, were carried to the Havannah, the common rendezvous of the fleets from Mexico and Peru ; and, for the purposes of this short transit, the colonists here built caravels of their own*. The history of Spanish Jamaica must, therefore, be imperfect ; and indeed the British con- querors gave a very confused and contradictory ac- count of the state in which they found it. We must be content, then, to mark some points the mile- stones of its existence which measure the extent and intervals of the vacant way. IJEsquimelt was the spot selected for the principal ship-yard, where the Rio de la Puente^ empties itself into the little bay of Guavagera. This and Caguaya were the chief ports ; and, in the hills between them, according to the information of the * See Note XXXIX. t Old Harbour, t Black River. Port Royal, VI .J SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 177 Portuguese, were two rich mines of silver and copper intelligence which delighted the English army, but proved delusive/ The country between Esquibel and St. Jago, as far as Passage Fort, and up to the very base of the St. John's Mountains, was all open down, or savanna, having been, in the first instance, cleared by the Indians for the cultivation of maize and ginger. Its fertility was great ; but at length, by incessant culture, repeated burning, and the recurrence of dry seasons, it failed; and the wild opopanax choked the exhausted pasturage. Such savannas were, throughout the island, divided into hatos ; and were everywhere well supplied with horned cattle and horses whence numerous herds escaped into the woods and stocked the country. Such were the hatos of Yama and Guatibocoa now the districts of Vere and Withy-wood. In the hato of Yama is the Panda Botella, or Round Hill ; and six miles to the westward, the Manate Mountain*. Over this ran the only southern road of communication with the west end of the island ; a rugged bridle-path, from Swift River, across Long Bay and the Devil's Race, to the hato of Peredaf, once considered the best, as it undoubtedly is the largest, savanna in the island. On this stood the village of that name, which was a Considerable hamlet as late as when the English took it ; but the downs around it formed, as they do * Carpi-liter's Mountain. > called, probably, from perecida, dry ; and now corrupted to 178 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. now, a worn-out district of unproductive land, loamy, hard baked by sun and fire, interspersed with sand- galls, and covered thinly with withered wire-grass. Clumps of stunted trees break the monotony of the dreary waste, where the rocks, rising through the yellow soil, retain a little moisture to nourish their thirsty roots. Six miles beyond the mahogany district of Cao- bana river *, was the hato of El Ebano -f~ ; next to this the hato Cabonico, near Oristan ; and adjoining the latter, Savanna la Mar, a name which that level tract of country, reaching to Punto Negrillo, still retains. Oristan itself had been demolished, and deserted, some time previous to the arrival of the British forces ; but the precise period we have no means of ascertaining. To the eastward of Punto de Caguaya, was the hato of Lignany, abounding with cedar and other timbers used in -ship-building. On its shore was another ship-yard, where the English invaders found several vessels on the stocks. This part of the country was also overrun by cattle, wild as the woods they browsed beneath ; and the first employment of the troops was hunting them for their hides and tal- low. Sedgewicke declares that his men killed twenty thousand in the course of the first four months ; and as to horses, " they were in such plenty," says Ad- miral Goods on, " that we accounted them the very vermine of the country." The only part of this dis- * Black River. t Ebony, or black savanna, VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 179 trict which was cultivated, was possessed by a rich Spanish widow, who had a sugar-work there, and whose house was taken possession of by Colonel Barry. It was encircled with a gallery, and long re- mained under the name of Cavaliers : to commemo- rate that unfortunate attempt which caused the ba- nishment of many royalists to Jamaica. The narrow slip of land lying between the Long Mountain and the Great Blue Mountain chain, was called Lezama. To the eastward of it 'was the hato of Ayla, full of tame cattle, and reputed for its sugar-works, having the command of two rivers, the Hope and the Cane. It was, however, dangerously open to the incursions of the pirates, who repeatedly landed at the coves of Los Ana* and La Cruz de Padre f. Next to this was the hato of Morante, spacious and abund- dant in hogs and cattle ; this terminated in what was called the Mine, at the Cape of Morante, to the northward of which was Port Antonio. During the I ;ist fifty years of its Spanish occupation, the north side of the island was abandoned, and allowed to irrow wild in wood except a small spot in the neigh- bourhood of the decayed ruins of Seville d'Oro* which still remained in rude cultivation. /The den- of the forests soon became so great, that the Kno-lish troops, on their expedition to dislodge the Spaniards in the year 1658, were unable to penetrate Ihcm, and compelled to go round by water/ The halos were the exclusive properties of twelve Spa- * Bull Bay. t Yallahs, N 9 180 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap, nish and Portuguese Hidalgos ; and upon each of them was erected a mansion which the owner seldom visited contented to derive the produce of his farm from the labour of his slaves there,, while he passed a life of luxurious sloth in the town of St. Jago. Five rugged tracks afforded communications be- tween the different parts of the island. That along the southern side, extended from Oristan, over Ma- natee mountain to Esquimel ; and thence over the wide savanna,, past La Cruz de Padre to Morante cape. That on the northern shore commenced at Port Antonio, where there was a small hamlet ; crossed the Bay of Rio Nuevo_, thence it passed the ruins of Seville and Melilla to Pedro Point, near the western extremity. The three interior paths esta- blished a communication between the north and south sides ; the most considerable from St. Jago_, over the Monte Diablo, and the Monesca savanna *, led to the ruins of Seville d'Oro. Another from Esqui- bel through Old Woman's Savanna, and Pedro and Mayma (now Mammee Ridge), led to the same point; and the third from Oristan, by the head of Great River to Melilla. A descriptive account of the island f ,, written about the time of the English conquest, contains the follow- ing passage. " La ville d'Oristan, batie par les Es- pagnols, etoit peu eloignee d'une Baie ou la riviere de Blewfields se decharge, en lui donnant son nom. Toute cette cote est remplie de rocs,, et bordee par * Moneague. t Hist. Gen, des Voyages, torn, xviii. VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 181 quelques petites isles ; telles que Sernavilla, Quites- vena, Cascabel, et Serrano *. C'est dans celle-ci que le fameux Serrano, dont elle tire son nom, fut jete seul par une tempete qui avoit brise son vais- seau, et qu'il passa trois ans sans aucun commerce avec les hommes." The same author states Oristan to have been fourteen leagues from Seville ; adding-, " onze lieues au-dela, on trouve quelques restes de Melilla, autre ville Espagnole, dans la paroisse de St. James." These relative distances, which correspond exactly with the known sites of two of the towns, and the supposed situation of the third, pretty well establish Melilla on the banks of the Marthabrae River ; and the supposition is confirmed by the fact of one of these Spanish roads having communicated between that identical spot and the town of Oristan. Thus the Spaniards seem to have disposed of their towns, in the first instance, with a due regard to the inte- rests of expected commerce. Oristan was conve- niently situated for an intercourse with Carthagena ; Melilla, for a traffic with the Havannah and the southern parts of Cuba ; while the harbour of Seville ";'.< well adapted to a trade with Hispaniola ; and Cagua and Esquimel offered sheltered anchorage to the vessels passing from San Domingo to the west- v. aid. How all their commercial projects were frus- trated we have seen ; and nipped in the bud as was unfortunate colony, its inhabitants possessed * See Note XL. 182 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. neither strength nor energy to make the most of what remained to them. Small settlements had been formed at Paratee, Rio Espafiol *, Rio Nuevo, and Chireiras ; but they contributed little or nothing to the resources of the Island, and barely furnished a subsistence to their indolent tenants. About eighty thousand hogs were killed annually during the latter part of the Spanish occupation ; and their lard, a favourite ingredient in the Olla, was sent to meet the homeward-bound fleets at the Havannah. This, with mahogany^, fustic, ebony, lignum vitae, and cacao, supplied the bartering trade ; for though ginger and sugar were cultivated, and pimento was a weed in the country, the Spaniards attended to no more than the supply of their own immediate wants. Of the inland districts, Guanaboa was reputed for its cacao trees, whose berries were selling at the Havannah at three shillings a bushel ; and the low- lands of Clarendon were celebrated for their exten- sive plantations of tobacco. The bases of the moun- tains were the favourite spots of Spanish cultivation ; with the rich vallies and level bottoms, around which the lower ranges of hills rise in amphitheatre. Such are Porus and Green Pond, where are still visible the vestiges of former industry, and the remains of ancient wells. The indigenous fruits of the country yielded their rich luxuries without the aid of culture, and formed a considerable part of the Spanish diet ; * Spanish River, in the parish of St. George, t See Note XLI. VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. the pine-apple and avocado pear had been but re- cently introduced when the English arrived, at which period the former sold as high as sixpence each. Little other than copper coin supplied the circu- lating medium. Large quantities of such money, stamped somewhat like the pistorins, have been dis- covered in St. Jago and the adjacent hills; but neither gold nor silver coins were ever found. The scarcity of these metals was so great, that they were employed only in the household articles of the most wealthy, and in the sacred relics of the Abbey*. The British troops, disappointed in their expecta- tions of a rich booty, supposed that the surprised Spaniards had buried their reputed wealth. The scanty portion which they possessed was probably, however, carried with them when they retired to Cuba ; and as they expected to be soon reinstated, Ilicy buried their less valuable copper-money, a list of which interments was long preserved in a register at the Havannah, by way of ascertaining and per- petuating the claims of the descendants from the original proprietors. It is not likely, however, that the concealed treasure remained long neglected, when the Spaniards were for so many years hovering about the country, and possessed of so many ways of clandestinely recovering it. These copper coins were very thin, and equal in weight to about one lartlung sterling f , but some of them were cut so i > pass current even at one-fourth of the whole. * See Note XLII. t See Note XLIII. 184 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. The almost effaced inscription of one that I have seen, appears to be " Carolus et Joanna, Hispania- rum rex et regina ;" which would fix its date as early as the year 1517. The population of Jamaica, at the time of its cap- ture, has been variously reported ; arid cannot now be ascertained with any degree of certainty. /The most probable account is that contained in the " Apology" which Venables made to the Protector; from which we are given to understand that it con- sisted of no more than fifteen hundred Spaniards and Portuguese, with about an equal number of mu- lattoes and negro slaves *. / To so impoverished a state was the island reduced, that its higher class of inhabitants was composed of only eight families, who were amongst the first that made their escape to Cuba. The slaves were, in fact, better provided for than their owners ; their wants were few, their labour easy, and their sustenance abundant. They neither obtained nor desired freedom ; but, residing on the scattered plantations of their absent owners, led a life of uncontrouled indolence and native sloth. Yet poor as the country was, and monotonous as must have been the lives of its sluggish inhabitants, their attachment to it was warm and remarkable. The hard terms imposed upon them by their Eng- lish conquerors were certainly unjustifiable, and drew forth the most bitter complaints from these out- cast patriots. When the conditions of the capitu * See Note XLIV. VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 185 tinn which had been ratified by their pusillanimous governor, were made known to the inhabitants of the capital, they rejected them with disdain, and de- clared that rather than swerve from their natural allegiance, they would die to maintain it ; that having neither friends, nor means elsewhere, they would perish in the woods sooner than beg their bread in a foreign land. The Portuguese headed this deter- mined little band ; but it was too late for them to attempt the defence of iheir town, and they chose the wiser plan of retreating into the interior. One old duenna, who lost all she was possessed of in St. .lago, obtained permission to end her days quietly on her hato ; which to this day retains the name of Old Woman's Savanna. That the mountains and rivers of Jamaica contain both gold and silver is certain. The Healthshire hills are said to have furnished the copper which composed the bells of the Abbey Church in St. Jago; and Mr. Beckford obtained a large native grain of gold from the bed of the Rio Mina, whose richness in metallic ore might probably supply its name. That the Spaniards were acquainted with the valu- able quality of its sand, is proved by the remains of the lavaderos, which may yet be traced upon Long- Mile plantation. These lavaderos were a succession of basins chisseled out of the solid rock, which there t'ums the bed of the river, and the asperities of whose surface were filled with cement. They afforded the most humane and economical method of pro- 186 SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. [Chap. curing gold ; and were the native inventions of the original Indians themselves who dug a little bay in the eddying angle of such streams as they had reason to expect were rich in ore, and the water flowing rapidly through it, washed away the mud, leaving only the heavier sandy sediment. When they perceived any signs of the metal, they diverted the water through another channel, and carried the sand to the lavadero. Into these basins they conducted a heavy stream, which broke and loosened the lumps of earth, bore away the soluble and extraneous parts, and precipi- tated the metal, mixed with heavy black sand. This was again washed from basin to basin, until in the last of the series were found the golden grains in a state of purity; some as large as bird shot, and sometimes masses weighing from two ounces to a pound. The former were called oro en polvo, and the latter pepitas, their fineness being generally from twenty-one to twenty-three carats. Yet so little of this treasure was derived from Jamaica, that we do riot find it mentioned in any of the Spanish records of the island. It is probable that the Spaniards had ceased their search for it a considerable time before they lost possession. Their labouring slaves were too few in number to be spared from the necessary occupations of the field ; and the expulsion of several A D Portuguese families, about fifteen years be- 1640. f ore that event, had fatally reduced th scanty resources of the colony. Many of the S VI.] SUBJUGATION OF JAMAICA. 187 niards themselves,, alarmed by the incursions of Shirley and Jackson, oppressed by their despotic governors against whom they had no appeal, and foreseeing the probability of the event which soon after happened, had also thrown up their little pro- perty, and removed to Cuba, leaving the deserted remains of former prosperity visible only in the num- ber of edifices which rendered apparently respectable their once populous capital of St. Jago de la Vega. Thus it is only by ttye glimmering light of a few obscure records, that, during the last twenty years, the existence of Spanish Jamaica is rendered visible. CHAPTER VII. THE CONQUEST OF JAMAICA BY THE BRITISH FORCES UNDER PENN AND VENABLES. ITS HISTORY FROM THAT PERIOD UNTIL THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. THE provocations * which the English nation had so repeatedly received from the arrogant monopoly of Spain, have been assigned as the ostensible motives influencing Cromwell in that sudden act of aggres- sion which led to the subjugation of Jamaica. From the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, the sovereigns of Spain had assumed an exclusive right of navi- gating the American seas ; and had maintained the exercise of perpetual hostility on the ships and sub- jects of all the nations of Europe found in any part of the new hemisphere. The frequent depredations committed upon their colonies, and the numerous losses which they sustained in the annual transit of their plate-fleet, by acts which, it must be confessed, were little better than piratical, had kept them in a state of continual irritation,, and urged them to the vain measure of assuming a position which they pos- sessed very little ability to maintain. Consequently,, while the courts of London and Madrid were at peace in Europe, their subjects were permitted or encouraged to continue a desultory species of war- * See Purchas, v. iv. p. 1177; also Speed, Hollingsh Stow, Hakluyt, Sir W. Raleigh's Essays, and Note XLV. Chap. VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 189 fare in the American seas. The acts of aggression were often wantonly great; while the deliberate cruelty of the Spaniards measured the provocation, and exceeded the revenge. Of their inhumanity towards the subjects of foreign states, such even as were wrecked upon their coasts, the instances are numerous, and the details mon- strous. Their very mercies were cruel ; for if they forbore to inflict instant death upon their victims, it was but to avail themselves of their services in the barbarous slavery of the mines. The remarkable act of Spanish treachery, which, in the year 1629, condemned six hundred peaceable English settlers at St. Christopher's to this subterraneous bondage, led to the treaty of the following year ; which was intended to terminate the unbounded pretensions of the Spanish monarchs on the one hand, and the pre- datory warfare of British subjects on the other. By it the latter power was assured of an uninterrupted intercourse with Barbadoes, and its other colonies in these seas ; while such, savage retaliations were no Id i iger to be permitted. Peace was therefore mutu- ally proclaimed in the year 1630. But, in violation of all that is sacred and solemn between Christian s, and to the eternal disgrace of the perfidious Spaniards, only eight short years had elapsed, when ili \ wantonly attacked a small English colony whicii had peaceably taken possession of the unoccupied island of Tortuga, and put every inhabitant to the sword. Charles I. was too deeply engaged in con- 190 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. tests at home to resent this flagrant violation of faith. The Scots had at that moment thrown off their alle- giance ; and the fanatical foolery of the Kirk threat- ened the entire subversion of his government. The Spaniards, taking advantage of his inability to reta- liate, grew bold in their perfidy, and twelve years afterwards repeated the same bloody tragedy at Santa Cruz, exterminating every Englishman whom they found there, and murdering, as at Tortuga, even the women and children. Perfidy so flagrant, and pretensions so exorbitant, could not fail of having their due influence on the deliberations of the Protector ; and he was satisfied that he had the popular plea of retribution for the measures which he had determined to pursue. But Cromwell had also other motives, of a deeper political tendency, urging him to the act of ag- gression which he contemplated. He was a hero both in good and evil ; endowed with great depth of judgment, and as exquisitely refined in the hypocri- tical cant of his times, as he was devoted to the eager pursuits of his ambition. He was good- natured, and cruel, as it best suited his interests: destitute alike of faith in his religion, honour in his word, or fidelity in his friendship. In short, he pos- sessed, in an eminent degree, the qualities of a deep politician ; nothing being wanting to his in- creasing fortune but the attainment of it by just means, a longer life, and children worthy of succeed- ing to it*. * See Note XLVI, VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 191 The voice of the nation cried aloud for retaliation on the treacherous Spaniards; but Cromwell, like liis murdered monarch, had too much to do at home, to have spared the force, and risked the loss, of seven thousand of his troops in the hazardous enter- prise of a distant invasion, had he not hoped to have profited in some nearer point than the protection of his American subjects, or the satisfaction of retri- butive justice*. At that moment he had his most difficult game to play > and the time which elapsed between the equipment of the expedition and its sailing 1 for America, was occupied in views of deeper interest than the mere consideration of colonial pros- perity. Although Whitlock's unseasonable advice had induced him to dissemble his aim at royal power, yet he thought that some great or popular exploit might so raise his reputation as to obtain him, at least, the offer of it. Nor was he mistaken in his expectations ; although, in the interim, circumstances occurred which prevented his acceptance of the prof- fered crown. But his great difficulty, at the present crisis, was, A D which to choose the cause of France, or that of Spain. The Spaniards, influenced by the Prince de Conde, who was then in the Nether- lands, ollered that, if Cromwell would assist in their disastrous war against France, they would never make peace with that power until he should have recovered Calais. But Cardinal Mazarin outbid * See Note XLVII. 192 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. them, by proposing- his assistance to take Dunkirk, a place of much more importance to the immediate interests of the Protector. The tyrant found domes- tic parties, also, growing- so strong 1 against him, that if the king- or his brother were assisted by France with an army of Huguenots, in a descent on England (an invasion which was threatened should he join with Spain), it might prove fatal to one who had so many enemies at home, and so few friends anywhere. This important consideration, with relation to his own peculiar position, made the scale preponderate in favour of France ; for he well knew that, happen what would, the Spaniards, distracted by internal divisions, and weakened by their memorable defeat at Rocroij could afford the king no succour; nor were there any Protestant subjects of that crown to attempt the restoration of the expelled monarch. To gain him still further to his purpose, and seal the compact which was to destroy the crumbling edifice of the Spanish monarchy, Mazarin further gratified him by the dismissal of the unfortunate Charles from the court of France. Here, then, may be found the strongest motive which actuated Cromwell in the course which he pursued. But he had again another object in view, when he commenced the attack by invading the unprepared colonies of Spain ; those vital and vulnerable points, from whence flowed the resources which alone could render her formidable to his interest. Soon after his determination accept the proposals of the wily Cardinal, the con VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 193 spiracy of the Cavaliers, and Penruddock's brave, but unfortunate attempt to proclaim the king- at Salisbury, convinced him that some drain must speedily be opened to carry off the disaffected ; that he must furnish some immediate employment for the troops, who, for want of active service, were thus continually plotting against himself. This result of idleness Fairfax had been forewarned of by Gage, whose work on the West Indies was now brought into notice, and drew the, attention of Cromwell to a part of the world hitherto closed against the inspec- tion of all Europe. The gaols throughout the em- pire were crowded with petty delinquents, or the unfortunate partisans of royalty ; and Cromwell con- sidered that if he could maintain the reputation which his military talents had gained him, by the employment, or perhaps the sacrifice, of such disaf- fected subjects, it would be a very easy purchase. The West Indies afforded him, at least, a fair field for the experiment: his success there would be a fatal blow to the Spanish monarchy ; and his failure could only rid him of those subjects whose fidelity, on home service, he could not depend upon. Gage's account of the wealth and weakness of the Spaniards promised him, indeed, a speedy conquest ; and fol- lowing the perfidious example which they had set him, he determined to seize upon Hispaniola before he declared hostilities. He conceived, moreover, ihat its fall would cause the immediate submission of all their other islands ; while the treasures which VOL. I. O 194 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. he should acquire would enable him to establish his government without the aid of parliament. Such, then, was his determination ; but he warily kept his project a state secret, even from his own council ; for he had yet neither broke with Spain, nor finished his alliance with France. Here the crafty tyrant deceived the keenest poli- ticians of his age ; for, having overturned the mo- narchy of his own country, they naturally looked upon him as a republican champion, destined to curb the tyranny of kings one whose evident policy it was to check the bold career of the French monarch, who at that moment threatened to subjugate Spain to compel the marriage of the Infanta to usurp the inheritance of Charles V. and to give laws to enslaved Europe. But Cromwell wore a mask with deeper layers than these ; his politics were of a deeper cast than to be swayed by such superficial projects. He had little to fear from the power of Spain, and everything from the policy of France. He was assured that if he succeeded in espousing the fallen fortunes of the former power, all the glory he should reap would be that of simply restoring an equilibrium between the two crowns ; but that if he sided with the latter, his naval superiority would enable him to vent his spleen against a bitter enemy : and he contemplated, in the true spirit of his nature, that he might then turn upon his ally, and despoil him of the fruits of that triumph which he had assisted him in obtaining. VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 195 His resolution, therefore, was at length taken, and, in November, 1654, he ordered an expedition to be prepared at Portsmouth, under the superin- tendence of General Desbrow ; but he kept its des- tination a profound secret. Some supposed it was going to Loretto ; and the report occasioned such an alarm, that a fortification was actually drawn around the papal treasures of the Church there. Others conceived that it was preparing against Rome itself; for Cromwell's fanatical preachers had often expressed that, if it were not for the divisions at home, " he would go and sack Babylon." All the explanation he chose to give was, that he prepared it to guard the seas, and to restore England to her natural dominion. Of those whose personal attachment he had reason in suspect, General Venables was amongst the first: that officer had rendered eminent services to the parl lament, in the relief of Dublin, and in all the principal actions fought in England ; he was, there- fore, become a powerful favourite with the army, and with Cromwell a rival in military glory*. The A\ary usurper had fathomed his principles, and dis- ci >\ cred his designs ; and he determined upon send- ing him on such an errand as should effectually remove him from all possible communication with the exiled court at Cologne. During five months, Inwever, the project slept, or seemed to sleep ; and the preparations for the expedition \verealmost for- * See Note XLVIII, '- H A 9 196 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. gotten. Venables had accepted the proffered com- mand, in the secret hope that it might enable him to serve his monarch, whose cause he now warmly espoused, although he clothed his designs under the garb of a parliamentary soldier. He imagined that, disguised as his sentiments were, he should be allowed to select his troops, and thus have the disposal of a formidable body of men, whose services might be required in the cause of the king. But here he erred : instead of his commanding a chosen army, the prison doors were thrown open, and their contents so plenteously disgorged, that, with the outcasts of the various regiments, they furnished the number necessary for his equipment. Still no orders were given for the departure of the fleet. The dis- appointed general remained in London, and had actually engaged in an active project for the restora- tion of the Royal Exile ; but Cromwell was on the alert, penetrated his secret, and sent Desbrow to his lodgings at midnight, with orders that he should March, leave London, and embark immediately at less. Portsmouth. So little time did he give him, that even the store-ships were left behind ; and the fleet was hurried out to sea about the middle of the stormy month of March, but no one knew its destination. Stoup, being one day called to Whitehall, saw Cromwell intently examining a new map of the bay of Mexico; and, not daring to ask a question, he merely noted the engraver's name. On the follow- VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 197 ing morning he visited the artist, to procure a copy ; but the cautious printer denied all knowledge of the work, until Stoup declared that he had seen it. " Then/' said he, " it must have been in the hands of the Protector, for he alone had one of the prints, and strictly charged me to sell no other without his permission." Stoup immediately suspected the real destination of the fleet ; and happening, on some public occa- sion, to mention his suspicions, the Spanish ambas- sador requested an immediate conference. Stoup attended, and was offered ten thousand pounds if he would discover the ground on which he had ventured to entertain such an idea. With candid simplicity he confessed to Bishop Burnet, " that he had a great mind to the money ; and fancied he betrayed nothing if he did discover the ground of these con- jectures, since nothing had been trusted to him ; but he expected greater matters from Cromwell, and so kept the secret." In the mean time the expedition had made an unsuccessful descent upon Ilispaniola, and captured Jamaica ; an acquisition inconsiderable to the dis- appointed hopes of the usurper, but greatly magni- fied, to cover the failure of the main design. The i-oiirt of France was astonished at the undertaking was rejoiced at the failure ; and the Cardinal de- dared that, if he had suspected it, he would have concluded peace with Spain on any terms, rather than have given England the chance of possessing colonies which would have poured the wealth of the 198 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. world into her lap*. In November, however, France ratified her peace with England ; and, in the following month, Spain declared war CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. IT was early on the morning of the 3d of May, in 1655 the year 1655, after the Spaniards had May 3d. ^ een j n possession of Jamaica one hun- dred and forty-six years, that the British fleet, compelled to relinquish its prey on the island of Hispaniola, and too much disheartened to pursue its ulterior object in Cuba, appeared off these shores. It carried a force of six thousand, five hundred, and fifty men ; constituted, however, of such materials, that it had little chance of success except against that weak and slothful race here destined to oppose itf. The naval and military commanders were equally cramped in their powers, and divided in their operations ; and their men were a mixture of all that was base, ignorant, and cowardly led by some of the most bigoted enthusiasts of a puritani- cal age. Admiral Penn commanded the fleet, which consisted of about thirty vessels of all descriptions. Like Venables, he was sent on the expedition as one whose fidelity could not be trusted on domestic service. * Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times, t See Note XUX. VII.] r.VGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMMf \. 199 Over two such disaffected subjects, the wily usurper thought it necessary to place a watch, that the force committed to their management might not be employed in the service of the King, whose cause he was now satisfied that they both secretly espoused. He therefore appointed three Commissioners, Serle, Winslow, and Butler, creatures of his own, who wriv invested with the power of controuling all their operations, and reporting all their acts. This ar- rangement necessarily destroyed every hope of co- operation, and caused divisions which were fatal to their success in Hispaniola, and productive of the most lamentable consequences in all their future undertakings. Such was the state of discipline amongst the troops, that the general, to prevent the recurrence of disasters similar to those which befell them at Rio Hayna, issued a general order that the first man who turned his back should be shot by his neighbour ; and some basely suffered the ignomi- nious fate. Before day-break beacon fires were visible on various parts of the coast, which seemed to indicate that their approach was expected, and their descent prepared for. In this, however, they were mistaken ; for, lulled in slothful security, the Spaniards had so little intercourse with the neighbouring islands, that thr attack on Hispaniola was unknown to them ; and tlu' Hi MI had been perceived only a few hours before mr round the point of Caguaya. Sailing directly up to Passage Fort, the only fortification that 200 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. defended the capital, the galley which carried the two commanders covered the landing 1 of the troops. After a very feeble opposition, the Spaniards were driven from their guns, and the British flag waved 0ver one of the fairest islands in the world. Nine effective pieces of ordnance fell into the hands of the victors ; while the terrified garrison, consisting of five hundred men, rushed into St. Jago, magni- fied the exploit, and spread the alarm. The recollection of Jackson's predatory visit warned them of the supposed nature of the present attack : every thought of the surprised inhabitants was, therefore, directed to the speedy removal or concealment of the little treasure they possessed ; for they expected that, as in the former invasions, the English would soon return to their ships, and leave them in the peaceable enjoyment of their habitual indolence. They possessed no organised force to resist such an attack ; and contented them- selves with sending a reconnoitring party on the savanna which encircled their town, to watch the approach of the enemy, and give them timely notice ta withdraw. As soon as they had gained possession of the fort, the British commanders held a council of war, in which it was resolved to invest the town the same afternoon; tyit finding the country immediately around them covered with thick wood, they returned, and remained that night under arms, reasonably apprehensive of ambuscade or surprise. At day- VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 201 break, however, they advanced, and cautiously ap- proached the open plains, whence they obtained a distinct view of the town, which exhibited an outline of considerable extent, broken by the lofty turrets of the Abbey, and the glittering spires of several churches. They descried the Spanish scouts, who seemed disposed to parley. The troops were, there- fore, halted ; and an equal number of English offi- cers were sent, with a flag of truce, to meet them. The Spaniards rode off, but presently re-appeared, made a stand, and expressed their readiness to treat. Venables, in his defence against the charge of pusillanimity, for negotiating before a town which, in fact, was open to him, declared that his men could not be trusted in any conflict of a serious nature ; that he was assured, by Jackson's previous invasion, of finding nothing there worth the risk of an assault ; and that, by treating, he could lose no advantage, having his army to support him, while he gained a supply of fresh provisions for his famished men. With prudence, or perhaps timidity, he therefore retreated again to the fort ; and informed the Spa- nish authorities that he was ready to receive their terms, provided persons, duly commissioned, were sent to him for that purpose. On the following morning, the Abbot and the Town-major waited on him with proposals to capitulate, assuring him that, while the conditions were under discussion, he should be unmolested, and amply supplied with all he re- quired. Venables informed them that the British ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. were come not to plunder, but to possess themselves of the Island ; and that his troops required a daily supply of one hundred cattle, and cassava bread in proportion. The Spaniards were thunderstruck at the information and the demand ; and then at once perceived the necessity of temporizing measures,, in order to allow them to make such a retreat as would insure their possession of the interior parts of the island, until reinforcements could be procured from Cuba. They agreed, therefore, to what was re- quired, as far as regarded the supply of cattle ; but confessed that the whole island could not produce bread enough to meet the demand. The commissioners, appointed by Venables, were Major-general Fortescue, and Vice-admiral Goodson, with Colonels Holdipe, and D'Oyley. Don Acosta, a noble Portuguese, Was joined with the Town-major, on the part of the Spanish Governor, who was a man far advanced in years, humane, persevering, and valiant, but guided by the timid counsels of the Abbot, a crafty Jesuit, who persuaded him that his life, and even his soul, could only be saved by instant capitulation *. The terms were dictated in the trenches of the British general, whose wife's vanity was flattered by some valuable presents from the Governor: for Venables was endowed with the patient virtues of a husband, and has been accused, like Marlborough, of more than prudent subser- vience to female wit, or charms; although those * See Note L. VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 203 charms had arrived at the autumnal ripeness of fifty- tlirt'o years. Don Sasi, however, with more art than iralhuitry, preserved his own treasures from violence, by the sacrifice of these presents, and by persuading the credulous general not to let his troops wander near the town, where they might be way-laid, and murdered, by the treacherous mulattos. The first six days were thus wasted by the British forces, and taken advantage of by the Spaniards in the removal of their property. Had the foolish old man been endowed with Castilian spirit, or common courage, he might have saved the island, by the resolution to fall. Had he listened to the advice of the bolder Portuguese officers, a sally on the half- formed camp would have dissipated the undisciplined troops, who would have ceased to be formidable when they ceased to be feared. The siege of St. Jago was an arduous enterprise for such men : courage would have given him time ; time would have given him friends. The governor of Cuba would have armed for his interest; and his own many brave adventurers would have drawn their swords in his defence ; and the novelty of danger, the lassitude of war, the chance of mortality, would have inclined liis enemies to a safe and speedy evacuation. Far different, however, were the counsels of the timid Spaniard. On the llth of May he submitted to a hard, and humiliating capitulation, and Don Acosta, with the Town-major, remained in the British lines, hostages for the performance of its terms. 04 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. The Governor, on a visit to the British Com- mander, was, soon afterwards, treacherously detained, to expiate an outrage committed in the town ; where a Spanish colonel, bolder than the rest, had per- suaded the inhabitants to transgress the first article of the treaty,, by driving away the cattle into the interior, hoping thus to starve out their inexorable enemies. Don Acosta, hearing of this breach of faith, sent his priest, " a discreet negro," to remon- strate * ; but the indignant Portuguese, refusing to subscribe to the cowardly terms, hanged the unfor- tunate ecclesiastic, and abandoned the Governor to his fate. He, however, soon escaped from his ill- disciplined guards; while Don Acosta, to revenge the death of his sable priest, assisted the British commander in recovering the cattle, by informing him whither they had been driven, and how they might be taken at their usual watering-places. According to the terms of the treaty, the British troops had yet abstained from entering the town ; and they did so some days longer, the soldiers dis- persing themselves throughout the country, and wantonly destroying the wild cattle in the woods so that the resource they fancied inexhaustible soon began to fail. At length the General, finding the treaty was broken by the entire abdication of the Spaniards that it had, in fact, served only to facili- tate the clandestine removal of their effects, marched into St. Jago, and to his utter dismay found the town * Manuscripts in the Council Chamber. VII.} ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 205 abandoned, the bare walls alone remaining 1 , to dis- appoint the eager expectations of the outwitted inva- ders. The Spaniards had all retired ; but they retired with a spirit of revenge. Some of the Por- tuguese, justly indignant at the oppressive terms imposed upon them, had persuaded all the inhabi- tants to follow them into the country, where they might be able to make a stand until they obtained assistance to expel their enemies. They, therefore, retreated to some settlements in those mountains which encompass the vale of Luidas, about eight leagues from the town, where the Governor soon joined them, with all the slaves and mulattos which Jiis influence could collect. Our imperfect view of the history of the times will afford some apology, or may even allow some praise for the extraordinary capitulation which enabled the Spaniards thus to escape into the moun- tains, loaded with the curses and the anticipated spoils of the British troops. Few of the events re- lating to that transaction were recorded, and few records have been preserved ; but Venables under- \\cnt a severe ordeal before the enraged Protector, and his fame has suffered, though his friends were numerous. The main body of the British army was immedi- ately dispersed in quarters throughout the town, and upon the neighbouring estancias, where the officers M'lected the best houses, and abandoned the rest to the wanton depredations of their men, whose fanati- 06 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. cal fury was instantly displayed in the demolition of the sacred edifices of Papal worship. The Abbey, with the Red and the White Cross Churches, they levelled with the ground ; the bells they melted into shot ; and the principal houses were eagerly de- stroyed, in the fruitless search for treasures which they imagined must be concealed there. Outposts were established upon the surrounding savannas to prevent the enemy from approaching the provision grounds, and to protect those who might be disposed to cultivate more for the relief of their pressing necessities. But dissensions arose, which frustrated all their plans, and deprived them of the fruits of conquest. The Admiral resented the cautious conduct of Ve- nables, who had refused to ratify the appointment of his nephew to the lucrative and responsible situation of prize-master ; and all harmony between the naval and military forces was now at an end. Twelve valuable Dutch prizes had been captured at Barba- does, and followed the fleet to Jamaica : for Crom- well had determined upon putting an end to the carrying system of that nation. Venables appre- ciated the responsibility of the situation to which Penn arrogated the exclusive right of appointment, and insisted that some person should be joined in the office. The Admiral was offended at the hesita- tion, which bespoke a doubt of his honour ; and this dispute fomented the jealous enmity which already subsisted between the Commanders, deprived the \ll.j ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 207 army of the assistance of the fleet, and caused the most contradictory details in the reports of these rival chiefs. One of the first and most fatal consequences of this want of co-operation, was the refusal of the supplies now so much needed*. Two thousand of the troops were sick, distressed for clothing, medicine, and food ; yet none could be obtained from the peevish and inexorable Admiral, who despatched two vessels to the Camanas for turtle, and then provokingly consumed them all on board his fleet, while dis- ease spread rapidly through the ranks of the famished army. In the extremity of distress, parties were sent out to forage, and, into the woods of Lignania, to catch the wild Barbary horses, which were serviceable, not only in the pursuit of the enemy, but in hunting the cattle for food. Many of the troops thus fell into ambuscade ; and the Spaniards, perceiving their dis- tress, ventured upon the northern suburbs of St. Jago, and fired it in many places. Although it be not mentioned in the despatches of the Commanders to Secretary Thurloe, there is little doubt that the French corsairs had joined the fleet in its attempt upon Hispaniola, and now assisted in the conquest of Jamaica, where their knowledge of the seas, their acquaintance with the Spanish lan- guage, which neither Penn nor Venabies knew a word of, and above all, their experience in the art of bush-fighting, rendered their assistance most valu- * See Note LI. 208 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. able. The orders given to the General instructed him to commence planting- wherever he could gain a footing, and to settle the troops as soon as possible, with the intent, no doubt, of preventing their return to England. It was for this reason that the soldiers had been encouraged to bring their wives. Venables had brought his, intending, if the climate agreed with him, to remain in the West Indies until he could render efficient service to the Royal Exile ; and, with this object in view, he still retained his command in Ireland. The discord which now reigned between the Commanders, as well as the Commissioners, caused, however, so scanty a supply of the necessary implements of husbandry, that all his agricultural projects failed; and finding his endeavours frus- trated and remonstrance vain, he addressed Thurloe. " A threefold cord" (I use his words) " cannot easily be broken ; but when they twist not equally together they many times cut one another ; and thus I am sure that in martial affairs, where commanders should execute like lightning, and those variable as the wind, according as the present emergency re- quires, and not go for consent, to the loss of all ; I well know his Highness would never submit, in all his past actions, to such curbs ; nor can brave de- signs ever succeed with such bridles, which I hope will be amended." By the 13th of June, some Portuguese prisoners had been captured ; and many more would June. have submitted, had they not been appre- hensive that no quarter would be given. Alarmed VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 209 at the violence of a few disorderly soldiers, who were driven, by extreme want, to acts of desperation, they still maintained their posts in the mountains, and were formidable to the wretched though victorious garrison of St. Jago. The wary Admiral, apprehending the censures which might attach to his conduct from the report which Venables was preparing, now adopted the ex- pedient of forestalling him, by returning directly to England with the chief strength of the fleet, and contrary to the strong remonstrances of the General. Butler, one of the Commissioners, who was charged by his brother officers with acts of the basest nature, determined to accompany him, that he also might make good his defence. Penn ostensibly grounded this proceeding upon the refusal of the General to quit Jamaica with the main body of the army, and to assist him in a descent upon Carthagena ; a propo- sition which was objected to, as " it was not positive in his instructions." Venables was also in such ill health that he was unable to attend the council of war, which had voted his return to England for the purpose of reporting the state of the army, its ill success in Hispaniola, and its distress here. He apprehended a conspiracy against him by the friends of the Admiral, and those whose conduct he was Compelled to censure: for he declared that "one r, to put some life into the wretched race it had consigned to Jamaica, and infuse a little native spirit, it determined to follow the example of the French in Canada, by transporting hither one thou- sand Irish o-?W.vf, with as many male labourers: while the Council of Scotland, with due regard for their morals, ordered all convicts to be transported t > Jamaica. In the autumn, a large body of the * See Note LII. t See Note LIII. P 2 212 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. Spanish slaves submitted, and were made free ; while many of the Portuguese inhabitants, weary of the miserable life which for the last five months they had been enduring- in the woods, gave themselves up, and were shipped off to such destinations as they desired. The task of government, in this early state, required rather a strong than a skilful hand ; and the situation of the army demanded the continu- ance of strict discipline and martial law. A consi- derable body of the Spanish fugitives yet held out, harassed the settlers, and often approached the town. A spirit of discontent also manifested itself amongst the troops. When they found that preparations were made for the settlement of the country, and that the Protector had sent out his proclamation* to that effect, they suspected that they were destined never more to see their native land. Experience had yet proved Jamaica to be no very desirable place of banishment, and still no better prospect opened to their view ; for, although they had hitherto been able to procure wild cattle and hogs in abun- dance, their wasteful improvidence already rendered the supply precarious, and barely sufficient. Many of the officers, disappointed in their expectations of plunder, secretly inflamed the disobedience of their men ; and hoped, by discouraging agriculture, and so throwing the expense of maintenance upon the government, that their recall from a country they had so much reason to detest would speedily ensue. * See Note LIV. VJI.j ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 213 In this state Sedgewick found the colony when he arrived, bearing Cromwell's commission to supply the place of Butler. In one of his first despatches he complained, that " the soldiers had destroyed all sorts of provisions and cattle ; that they would neither dig nor plant, but were determined rather to starve than work." And starve they shortly did : a famine ensued ; every species of unwholesome food was eagerly devoured, and contagion ran rapidly through their ranks. The deaths amounted to more than two hundred weekly* ; and the living gazed on each other's livid faces with horror and despair. The thousand tons of provisions, which the new commis- sioner had brought, were inadequate to check the flaming disease ; and Fortescue himself became one of its earliest and most regretted victims. In virtue of the commission which Sedgewick had brought, Colonel D'Oyley, a soldier of fortune, suc- ceeded to the command ; and, under this active officer, the new recruits were assisted by the sailors in the erection of a storehouse and a military depot at Passage Fort. The provident measures which he adopted, checked, in some degree, the progress of disease ; and a strict discipline once more restored subordination. At this crisis Colonel Humphrey whose father had borne the sword before Bradshaw, at the mock trial of the unfortunate Charles arrived from England, with his regiment of eight hundred ; but, within a fortnight, more than two-thirds numbered with the dead. Sedgewick tried 214 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. every means in his power to fix the remaining men on the plantations allotted to them; but their idle prejudices counteracted all his schemes, frustrated all his hopes , and proved their own destruction. The sailors alone were actively employed ; for the contagion had not yet reached the fleet. Cruisers were sent out, which captured several valuable prizes ; plundered some settlements on the main ; and, in an expedition to the north side of the island, dislodged a formidable party of the enemy. While the crews in harbour were planting a small spot of ground, still called Green Bay, the army around them admired their activity, wondered at their pa- tience, but remained inactive tamely suffering the horrors of disease, and the pangs of famine. Nor was the situation of the expelled fugitives better than that of their invaders. To the number of three hun- dred they were now collected on the banks of the RioHoja, exposed to the inclemency of the autumnal season, destitute of shelter, and distressed for food. Yet this little band of patriots was resolved to bear its hard lot ; still entertaining the hope that their invaders, when they found nothing to reward their conquest, would evacuate the island, as their prede- cessors had done. The eight families, their principal landholders, had already retreated to Cuba, leaving A D their slaves to defend their properties ; and 55> Don Sasi himself was at length compelled to withdraw first instructing a few small parties, under a maestro del campo, to disperse themselves VJI.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 215 through the country, and keep up the form of posses- sion until assistance should arrive. The little village of Paratte had already been burnt by a detachment of A D> the English troops ; and, early in the spring, ;56 * another party was sent into the same neighbourhood, where they discovered the dead bodies of two of their comrades, and several Spanish slaves concealed in the ruins. By them they were informed that the negroes, deserted by their masters, were still resolved tf> hold the country as long as any cattle remained for them to subsist on. Twenty Spaniards were found in ambush, and seven of them captured. These people confessed themselves to belong to a party of forty, who had fled to the north side when Paratte had been destroyed ; and that a reinforcement of one thousand men was daily ex- pected to land at Pedro, from Carthagena ; while an army from Spain was to make a descent at Passage Fort. They declared that they had been sent back to Paratte by their maestro del campo, who was then collecting all his scattered men to join the expected forces. The Viceroy of Mexico ordered the Spanish re- fugees to return to Jamaica, and forbade the Gover- nor of Cuba to allow their residence on that island ; at the same time promising every assistance for the \ cry of their own. To these rigorous mandates they were reluctantly compelled to submit. Arriving :i.^iiu on the north side of the country, they dis- persed themselves in small parties, hoping to elude 216 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. the vigilance of their pursuers, until sufficiently strong to face them in the field. But this miserable mode of life, so little resembling their luxurious laziness in St. Jago, rapidly thinned their ranks ; so that, when the promised assistance of five hundred men actually arrived, they were still too weak to show themselves, and retreated to an entrenchment at San Cheireras, waiting for a further reinforce- ment. During these transactions, Cromwell, disappointed by the miscarriage at St. Domingo, feigned much dissatisfaction at the paltry acquisition of Jamaica, and declared that he could spare no additional force to recruit the diseased troops, or to maintain so worthless an appendage to his government. It has been justly observed, however, that the island he despised, is now, under all its past difficulties, yield- ing a larger revenue to Great Britain than did the entire amount of the national income in the Protec- tor's time. As soon as his vexation had evaporated, he exerted himself, with his usual vigour, to afford relief, by sending out provisions and supplies of every description. He discovered also the high value which the Spanish government set upon the island, and he determined to maintain a conquest which annoyed a detested enemy so much. Sedge- wick was therefore directed to strengthen the prin- cipal harbour by an adequate fortification; and a battery was erected at Careening Point, mounting twenty-one pieces of ordnance, but protected only VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 217 by a rude wall of stockades and loose stones a work which the army refused to join in, and which was completed by the seamen alone. The redoubt at Passage Fort was also repaired,, for the protection of the depot there ; and two companies in each regiment having been reduced, D'Oyley exerted himself to put the remainder into an effective state. The disgraced St. Christopher's regiment, composed of the very dregs of the armament, was disbanded, and dispersed throughout the island ; so that the remaining force of two thousand five hundred men, disburdened of such useless members, became both more healthy and more serviceable ; yet not at all more inclined to enter upon the labours of cultivation around its quarters. A military spirit, fostered during the turbulent times in England, rendered both officers and men dissatisfied with their civil inactivity, and anxious to be carried on some more profitable expedition to the main. The fleet con- sisted of twenty-three vessels ; and it was with re- luctance that the Vice-admiral found himself com- pelled, by the threatening posture of affairs, to keep them confined in port. But the apprehension of a Spanish invasion, strengthened by the information of the Paratte captives, rendered it necessary to concentrate all the forces ; while a common sense of danger, now, for the first time, united the army and navy in their services for mutual safety and support. A council of war was called, and thirty acres of land were allotted to each soldier, as an encourage- 218 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. tnent for the culture of provisions. Yet all the inducements offered, or reasons urged, to excite a spirit of industry, were of no avail ; for the dissen- tient officers, who constituted a large majority, de- siring their recall from unprofitable service, secretly influenced their men to transgress the orders which they had thus officially given. The few who really wished to promote the provident scheme, now there- fore despaired of subduing this unconquerable aver- sion : and Sedgewick represented the matter to Cromwell ; who, after instructing him to form a troop of cavalry, to oppose the threatened invasion, thus concluded his despatch : " As we have cause to be humbled" (such was the language of the age) " for the reproof God gave us at St. Domingo, upon the account of our sins, as well as others, so truly Upon the reports brought hither to us of the extreme avarice, pride, and confidence, disorders, and de- bauchedness, profaneness, and wickedness, practised among the army, we cannot but bewail the same." A party, which had been despatched to catch the wild Barbary horses for the projected troop, went down thirty miles to leeward, and encountered a body of Spaniards. A warm engagement ensued ; four women only were captured, and these were brought to St. Jago. Success encouraged the enemy: they continued to harass the army even in its quar- ters ; and, as the British grew more secure and careless, the Spaniards became more enterprising and sanguinary. To such banditti the Castilians VII;] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 219 had long before applied the name of Cimaronos ; whence the English word maroons* ; and Sedgewick, in his letter to Thurloe, prophesied truly, that these people would one day become formidable : " Be assured they must either be destroyed, or brought in upon some terms or other, or else they will prove a great discouragement to the settling of people here/' What he foretold was shortly experienced : within a few months, the partial success of a small detachment, sent against the fugitives, was severely retaliated by the cbld-blooded butchery of forty British soldiers ; and thus commenced a servile and sanguinary war, which was kept up, with little ntermission, during a hundred and forty years. Provisions soon began to fail again: nothing could induce the soldiery to plant, even for their own consumption ; and the few who were cultivating the Spanish settlements raised barely sufficient to supply themselves. A party of Colonel Buller's regiment, harassed by hostile incursions, and dis- tressed by their scanty fare, revolted ; and the instant execution of the ringleaders scarcely staid the general defection. Sedgewick, tired of his heavy charge, which he had repeatedly petitioned to resign, now KM vived the Protector's orders to assume the sole command, which hitherto he had divided with DOyley. But disappointment and difficulty every- where thwarted him; his spirits were broken, sick- * See Note LV. 220 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. ness assailed him, and his worldly troubles were terminated by the hand of death. Colonel D'Oyley, for the second time, now succeeded to the embar- rassments and honours of Commander-in-chief. This brave officer, who still maintained a secret corre- spondence with his Royal Master, possessed every desire to establish the colony ; but both his temper and his abilities were better adapted to a military than to a civil form of government. His habits of life had blinded him to the interests of commerce, and he allowed his prejudice to conquer his judg- ment, or bias his decrees. Martial law was again strictly enforced ; but its administration was arbitrary and unjust. Colonel Holdip jcendered himself ob- noxious by becoming an active planter, and recom- mending a civil government ; he was therefore charged with oppression by his men, and eagerly cashiered by his general, though afterwards restored to favour by the Protector. Major Throckmorton was shot ; and D'Oyley, acquainted with the dissa- tisfaction which his conduct occasioned, resolved, at the point of the bayonet, to suppress its apprehended consequences. Barrington and Archbould, for their diligence in opening new plantations in the Lignany district, became objects of aversion ; and there is reason to believe that they also would have been sacrificed, had not Barrington's brother been one of the lords of the bedchamber to Cromwell. The military faction was therefore obliged to rest satisfied VII.J ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 221 with exhibiting charges against him, as one in the interest of the Royal Exile ; and he was tried, but acquitted. The Spaniards of Cuba were now actively em- ployed in the protection of their own shores. Threat- ened by the English cruisers, and reduced by an epidemical disease, they were in no condition to attempt the recovery of Jamaica. Cromwell, asto- nished at the value which they had set upon the possession of it, was intent upon the defence of his conquest and the augmentation of his forces. He ordered out Colonel Moore's well-disciplined regi- ment, from Carrickfergus ; but the transport was wrecked, and only two hundred men escaped a watery grave. Lieutenant-general Brayne, the go- vernor of Lochaber, was appointed to succeed Sedge wick, and sailed from Port Patrick with a thousand recruits ; while Governor Stokes, with sixteen hundred men from Nevis, arrived, and settled near Port Morante, where his descendants of the same name, for many succeeding years, possessed extensive lands. Such examples were not lost upon the settlers in New England, whom the Protector had hitherto vainly solicited to remove hither. Gookin, his agent there, began to recruit with extra- ordinary success : he convinced them that the reports prejudicial to Jamaica were greatly exaggerated ; and three hundred substantial inhabitants of that colony removed, bringing with them a spirit of industry, and the means of displaying it. Brayne 22*2 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. touched at Barbadoes, and painting in lively colours the superior advantages of the island he was coming to govern, he persuaded some active planters to accompany him. In December he landed, and D'Oyley was again superseded in the government. The co- UCC. 11. lony was in the utmost confusion ; the disinclination to labour increased amongst the troops, and violent animosities existed in all the depart- ments. But he discovered that all these disorders originated with a few disaffected officers,, the most turbulent of whom he discreetly permitted to retire ; and soon perceived the good effects of this well- timed indulgence. The men, no longer awed, or no longer led, sought a relaxation from strict military discipline in the less arduous labours of the field, which the luxuriance of a teeming soil rendered far more profitable and less toilsome than they had imagined. Their agricultural ardour was roused and maintained by a six months' supply of provi- A D sions ; and by five hundred guineas distri- 165T * buted amongst the men who had laboured upon the fortifications. The Governor recommended that a general liberty of trade with all nations at peace with England should immediately be granted ; and this measure had some effect in encouraging the settlers to improve their plantations. But sickness assailed him, and the difficulties he had to contend with urged him to solicit a recall : he therefore ten- dered his resignation by Goodson, who was sailing VH.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 223 for England with a fleet of nine ships. The industry of the Nevis planters had afforded some hopes of success ; but Stokes died, and the greater part of his people were buried within the first three months. A great proportion of the recruits were also dead ; and, before the crops could be gathered, provisions failed, and famine again threatened the unfortunate colony. Nor were there any hopes of a further supply from New England. The condition of Ja- maica was now worse than ever : the last extremities of distress and hunger assailed the troops, and the prospect was on all sides black and comfortless, for the seamen now shared in the general calamity. The wild cattle afforded the only hope of relief : the salt- \vorks, established in Healthshire, were therefore suspended, and all the inhabitants joined in the eager search for food. One of these hunting parties intercepted some Spaniards, from whom they learnt that the greater part of their unfortunate countrymen had again returned to Cuba, in vessels expressly sent by the governor, who was in the utmost distress for people to defend its southern shores : that about two hundred men, women, and children,, were still left; and that they had taken up a position at Oristan. Thence they were quickly driven by a detachment sent to attack them ; and these wretched exiles were again hunted into the interior recesses of the country. But the English dreaded a surprise from a much more formi- 224 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. dable body,, hourly expected from Spain ; and they were in no condition to oppose it. The governor, therefore, sent home two frigates, to solicit speedy assistance ; and it was on board these that a few tons of fustic, the first exported produce of the island, were put, by some officers more enterprising than their comrades. As the year advanced, the most pressing necessi- ties of the colonists were again partially relieved by the matured, though scanty, products of the planta- tions ; and by the seasonable success of the hunting parties. The earth yielded so plenteous an increase, that the army at length discovered the advantage of attending more closely to its cultivation. Both officers and men were encouraged to open planta- tions, yet still to hold themselves in readiness to combine and act as occasion might require. Jamaica was thus vivified by rising industry. A force of five hundred men was kept under arms ; and the settle- ments increased so rapidly, that the General hoped, in a short time, to dispense with all assistance from the parent government, excepting only the main- tenance of those who were on permanent duty. Colonel Barrington, with his whole regiment, was one of the earliest and most successful planters ; and prosperity, the usual attendant upon active industry, dawned upon a colony, which increased with its growing independence. Horses were still so plenti- ful, that they were to be purchased at forty shillings VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 225 each ; and the arrival of the fleet,, with some vic- tuallers, from England, gave fresh spirit to the colonists. The judicious policy of Brayne was rewarded by a large and happy increase. But the arts of cultiva- tion have far less energy and effect than the spon- taneous vigour of nature, and of freedom. The vigour of the soldiers, who were now urged to labour beyond their strength, soon melted beneath a vertical sun : many who possessed not the means to settle plantations of their own, sold their services to their more fortunate neighbours, and perished beneath the toils imposed upon them. The Governor, in this emergency, applied to the Protector for a supply of indentured servants, or an importation of African slaves ; urging, that " their masters having by this means an interest in their servants, would be more careful of them, and work them more moderately/* The military operations carrying on in Flanders held out a great inducement to many of the men here, to abandon their colonial pursuits and engage in that service; and this martial spirit was confirmed by the non-payment of the arrears due to them, while Vavassor, Buller, and others, on their arrival in England, had been paid in full. Brayne, however, contrived, by his judicious management, to suppress this military mania, and the buildings at Careening IVmt still proceeded rapidly. Tlus new town he had projected as a naval and military depot, and an 'emporium for future trade. VOL. I. Q 226 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. He established a small colony at Tortuga, to prevent its exclusive occupation by the French, and erected extensive salt-works there. But the active exercise of his mental and bodily faculties exhausted his weak frame, and he died, a victim to his exertion, after a residence of ten months, during which period his spirited management, and prudent policy, had quelled the factions that had caused so much trouble to his predecessors, won the affections of the people, and founded the two great pillars of the colony planting, and commerce. He was buried in St. Jago, and the chief command for the third time devolved upon D'Oyley. But this officer having been so often, and so rudely superseded, and expecting, perhaps, another speedy dismissal, feigned disinclination to accept it; wishing, pro- bably, to convince Cromwell, by an apparent reluc- tance, that his views were disinterested, and that the suspicions were unjust which ranked him as a par- tisan of royalty. He prayed for leave to return to England, and recommended Colonel Barring-ton as his successor. His letters to Fleetwood, and to the Protector, were not couched in terms the most modest or discreet. t( Your Highness," he observes to Cromwell, " is not to be told how difficult it is to command an army without pay; and I tremble to think of the discontents I am to struggle withal until the return of your commands ; though, I bless God, I have the affections of the people here beyond any that ever yet commanded them, and a spirit of mine VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. own not to sink under the weight of unreasonable discontents." To Fleetwood he writes " I would have refused to accept of this command, if I could have quitted with honour and faithfulness to my country ; but I am now resolved to go through, until I receive further orders from his Highness, or a discharge from him, which I humbly desire your Lordship to effect for me. Honours and riches are not the things I aim at. I bless God I have a soul much above them. .Pray, my Lord, decline your greatness, and command your secretary to give me an answer ; for if I were disrobed of all my titles of honour and great command, yet you know I am a gentleman, and a faithful friend to my country." The style of these letters conveys a strong im- pression of what were the desires and designs of Colonel D'Oyley. And his projects for a time suc- ceeded : for instead of accepting his proffered resig-^ nation, Cromwell confirmed him in the permanent command of the island. Fortunately, his vigorous administration overcame the obstacles which were opposed to him. His military predilection engaged the affections and secured the services of the army, at a time when the recovery of Jamaica became an object of great national concern to Spain ; and pro- bably it is to his defence of it that Britain owes her present possession. The Viceroy of Mexico, whose power was then great, formed a plan, and made ad- mirable dispositions, for the destruction of the English settlers, and the recapture of the island. The scheme Qi 228 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. was developed in an intercepted letter from Bayona, the governor of Cuba, to John de los Reyes, a Spanish resident of some repute ; and D'Oyley once again found a field for the exercise of his martial talents. The plan of action was drawn with more than ordinary caution by the wily Spaniard. The point of attack was to be Port Morante ; for there much discontent already prevailed amongst the Nevis planters, and a landing might be easily effected. There were about twelve hundred negro slaves on the island, and Reyes (a worthy predecessor of the insidious Lescesne) was instructed to send some of the Spanish negroes, who still hovered about the country, to incite insurrections, and prepare them for a simultaneous revolt. It was likewise determined to give no quarter to the English. Sasi again col- lected in Cuba all his surviving subjects, was pro- mised a reinforcement of eight hundred men from Spain, with a strong detachment from Carthagena ; and the foolish old man flattered himself with the prospect of certain success. He even despatched a letter to his sovereign, commending his royal decree for the recovery of an island so important to his Indian empire ; and assured him that he would speedily bring it under his dominion again. But he was soon awakened from this dream of ambition, and his prospects were blasted for ever. D'Oyley had scarcely time to take the necessary steps to counteract his menaced approach, when he received intelligence that Don Sasi had actually VJI.J ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 229 landed at San Cheireras, and was collecting his scattered parties throughout the island. He there- fore resolved to attack him before his forces could form a junction; and, with a body of five hundred chosen men, he sailed in quest of him for the interior woods and guarded passes forbade a shorter approach to his position. So rapid was his motion, so vigorous his command, that the Spaniards were surprised : he commenced the assault with such de- termined bravery, that they were instantly driven from their rude works* and those who did not bleed beneath the British sword, fled in disorder to the woods, where Sasi would have been taken, had not his brave and faithful adherents defended, with per- severing arms, their aged and unfortunate leader. These fugitives continued to distress the colony: they often prevailed in the surprise and stratagems of excursive hostility ; and the traces of their foot- steps were lost in the impervious woods, or deep lagoons, with which the country was covered. The assistance they had so long expected, at A D length, however, arrived ; and had, in fact, i58 * been disembarked a considerable time be- fniv D'Oyley received any intelligence of its appear- ance. The reinforcement consisted of a thousand ivo-nlai -s from Spain ; and they immediately erected a redoubt, of no inconsiderable strength, on the rocky sea-girt cliff, to the westward of the Rio Nuevo, whore it empties itself into the sea. Seven hundred and fifty men were selected to attack them; and 230 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. eleven days after sailing- from Passage Fort, they June appeared off the Bay ; landed within mus- 22 * ket-shot of the fort, drove in the party which opposed them, and killed an officer, with twenty-three men. Under a heavy fire from six guns, D'Oyley attempted to bring his ships to bear upon the fortification ; but the rocky steep on which it was erected forbade the necessary elevation of the cannon, and no effectual impression could be made. He was resolved, however, to maintain his ground, and pursue the advantages he had already gained, although against numbers greatly superior. He therefore ordered the ladders to be prepared, and spent the night in making the necessary disposition for a coup-de-main : while the Spaniards, less active in their defence, passed the time in prayer, and placed all their hopes on that Being who loves jus- tice, and punishes the plunderer. At break of day D'Oyley despatched a flag of truce to summon the rightful owners of the island instantly to submit to terms ; and l\e desired his messenger to notice the approaches to the fort, with the depth of the river below it. The envoy was admitted to the governor, presented with twenty-five pieces of eight for himself, and a jar of sweetmeats for his general, but charged with a bold refusal to surrender. D'Oyley was exasperated by this polite defiance ; but the day was too far advanced to commence the assault, and in a stormy night his men found their only shelter in the rocks. VU.J ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 231 On the following morning he laid two of his ships to leeward, and by a vigorous fire drew the attention of the enemy to that quarter. He brought his other vessels to bear in front, and at the same instant fording the river, he came up with an advanced post of the Spaniards, who had taken a position on the rising ground about six hundred yards from the foil, and fortified their front by trenches. They were driven in by the first desperate onset; and the British,, observing the walls lowest on that side, rushed on with an inlpetuosity which seemed to an- nounce and secure the victory, carrying with them their ladders and hand-grenades. The fortress was instantly assailed. Five times did they mount to the assault but they were repulsed five times with slaughter and dismay. British courage at length prevailed : the Spaniards, disconcerted by the per- severing intrepidity of the attack, fired at random ; while their spirited assailants poured a volley of small arms through the loop-holes, and effected a dreadful carnage amongst them, crowded as they were within the narrow compass of their little fort. Their flankers were carried; and the survivors, finding them- selves under a cross fire, rushed out upon the plain. After a contest of an hour, the English slew, or drove into the river, two hundred men; and the glory of tin- day was ascribed to Colonel D'Oyley, who fought in the foremost ranks. Some sought refuge upon the rocky cliffs, which the sailors perceiving, they 232 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. put off in boats,, and shot them like birds upon the crags. The field was covered with the bodies of the hapless Spaniards, and in the hot pursuit some ad- venturous British officers became the victims of their own rashness. The Spaniards lost three hundred and eighty privates, several captains, one serjeant- major, and two priests : their royal standard and ten colours were taken ; and six captains, with about a hundred privates,, were made prisoners. Ten bar- rels of powder were found in the fort, with abun- dance of shot ; six guns,, small arms, wine, brandy, and provisions : a most welcome store to recruit the exhausted conquerors. The English had to lament the loss of Captains Wiseman, Mears and Robinson, with Ensign Farrer, and twenty-three privates. The fort was immediately demolished; the fugitives pur- sued into the interior, again dislodged, and more prisoners taken. The victory was decisive and com- plete. The Spaniards again took care of their unfortunate governor. They covered him with their bodies du- ring the assault, and effectually protected him in all their future skirmishes. They now, however, de- spaired of conquest ; and many withdrew in small parties to Cuba. Yet Sasi still remained unwilling to resign his pretensions to the government of Ja- maica, as long as he could retain a man to support his claim. But the news of this last signal defeat soon deprived him of all hope ; for the Spanish fleet VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 233 of fifteen ships, which had been destined to take in auxiliary troops at Carthagena, now altered its course, and made the best of its way to the Havanna. The success of the British arms in this brilliant exploit effaced the stain which they had received in Hispaniola, and convinced the enemy that the colony possessed spirit and strength sufficient to maintain its conquest. D'Oyley returned to his capital : he found the seas open to him ; his military ardour was roused by his success ; the flame of enthusiasm was kindled in every martial bosom, and he resolved, with eight hundred men, to make a descent upon the Spanish main. There he destroyed the town of Tolu, burnt ten galleons, and loaded his ships with spoil. On his return he sent a detachment to Pedro Point, where the straggling Spaniards were again uniting ; he drove them from their retreat, and chased them back to their trackless woods. Jamaica was now confirmed by conquest as a British possession. Secure in their properties, the inhabitants applied themselves to the improvement of the plantations ; and cultivation was rapidly ex- tended. Three hundred settlers arrived from Ber- muda, with some industrious Quakers, who had been driven from Barbadoes ; and the progress of their settlements as they opened the woods added to their mutual security, while it gave them a more promi- sing prospect of a fertile island. The consequence \va-, that its productions soon found' their way , from the interior, to Caguaya, already become the mercan- 234 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. tile depot. Hides, salt, dye-woods, tobacco and tortoise-shell, were at first the principal articles of export: while the lawless spoils of the ocean con- buted to the wealth of the rising town. Captain Muins, of the Marston Moor, sacked several towns on the continent, and returned with immense booty. A spirited attack was also made on Santa Martha ; and the freebooters, by barter, or sale, here found a ready market for their plunder. The prizes which daily fell into the hands of these corsairs, whose sails whitened the ocean, poured their rich cargoes on the shore at Caguaya, and were the chief source of that wealth which long afterwards distinguished Jamaica as the first of Britain's colonies. The glittering trea- sures of Mexico and Peru were borne to the Jamaica storehouses, both by their British and foreign cap- tors. Here the Freebooters found themselves more protected, or less restrained than elsewhere ; while they obtained a readier and better market for their extraordinary spoil*. Here, too, their prodigality was unlimited ; every refinement of luxury was placed within their reach ; and an inordinate indulgence often reduced them to the extremities of distress, or the agonies of despair. Poverty, in the midst of plenty, whetted their appetites for more plunder, and urged them to fly in quest of new adventures. Thus was Jamaica profited by their vicissitudes of fortune, and drew its wealth from those vices which were both the source of her riches, and the ruin of * See Note LVI. VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 235 her treasures. For these pirates were naturally di- minished by their own murderous activity ; while the funds which they left in the hands of their agents, were appropriated by these usurpers as unjust and cruel as themselves, and became the basis of that opulence which enabled Jamaica to open a commerce interlope with all the Spanish possessions. The re- gular trade was chiefly confined to the North Ame- rican states. Thus, under the shadow of D'Oyley's power, Ca- guaya arose on a broad and permanent basis ; while the erection of a naval depot, and the establishment of a custom-house, declared the riches and the hopes of the colony. The frigates on the station gave the enemy such continual annoyance by cruising off the Havanna, and obstructing all intercourse with that place, that the Spaniards found themselves obliged to carry home much of their treasure by the way of Buenos Ayres ; a circuitous course which had been disused since the reign of Elizabeth, when it was interrupted by the numerous English adventurers in these seas. Although D'Oyley's efforts to expel the Spaniards had been crowned with such signal success, yet their _^roes still continued troublesome to the country settlers, by encouraging their slaves to rebel, or tempting them to desert. Finding themselves aban- doned by their owners, some few joined the English, and a>-isl<>d in the destruction of their fellows ; but the majority, assuming the character of a wild and 236 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. roving banditti, murdered their Maestro del Campo, and elected one of their gang-, named Juan de Bola, whose head-quarters a steep mountain in St. John's parish still bear his name. Sasi, unable longer to command, was compelled to implore the aid and protection of this negro ; and they main- tained themselves in the interior woods upon the plunder of the adjacent plantations. But the con- stant fear of surprise compelled them at length to think of terms, and D'Oyley imposed conditions which were accepted. About forty still, however, held out, amongst the number Juan de Bola, and the old governor, who retired into the most inacces- sible fastnesses, where they nestled until they grew strong enough, by the accession of runaway slaves, to repeat their depredations, and give rise to that species of warfare which, according to the predic- tion of Sedgewick, so long harassed the colony. Too weak to conquer, they were yet strong enough to injure and annoy. The population of Jamaica was at this period estimated at about four thousand five hundred whites, and fourteen hundred negroes ; and the late success of the colonists arrested the attention of the Protector, who supplied the island liberally with all that it could require for its mainte- nance and protection. But its internal peace had nearly been broken by the inundation of royalists, who abandoned the country and the cause they could no longer maintain; hoping to find, in the 'New Ml.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 237 World, that rest and consolation which their defeats had deprived them of in the Old. The turbulent spirit, which had so long- and so cruelly torn asunder the nearest ties of kindred at home, followed them across the Atlantic. One party triumphed in the protection of Cromwell, whom it had raised upon the ruins of the throne ; while the other reposed all confidence in the impartial government of D'Oyley ; who, although forced to bend beneath the authority of a despot, was not, they suspected, sincerely in his cause. His firm and* able conduct dissipated all the mac -lunations of his enemies, while it drew around him the best services of his friends ; and he dis- creetly held the balance equal between the faction he detested, and the party he espoused. The com- mand remained with him until the restoration of the Koyal Exile ; for the decoration of whose crown he had, with such rare policy, preserved one of its richest gems. Cromwell died * on the 3rd of September 1658 ; and his son Richard paid but little attention to this part of the world. In the following- year the Rump Purl lament was up, and Jamaica was again left to her own resources. We find, indeed, that a .charge to the Commonwealth had been made of 110,228/. llv. 3{c/., for the maintenance of the forces here; and according- to Long-, the annual issues from thai period until the Restoration, were to the amount of about .>1,000/. But in this statement there seems * See Note LVJI. 238 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. to be some error or deception : for it is certain that the army served a considerable part of the time without pay ; and it is probable that a considerable portion of this charge was a fraud upon the ex- chequer. A monthly court-martial met at St. Jago for the despatch of business, at which D'Oyley was assisted by Major Fairfax and Captain Burroughs ; but this species of government grew irksome as the affairs of the country became complex, and threw pro- voking obstacles in the way of the planters,, which encouraged the prevailing complaint, that the gover- nor was not friendly to their interests. No doubt he preferred a military command to a civil one ; and happily the spoils of the ocean amply compensated for any deficiency which he might have caused in the fruits of the land ; for trade flourished under all its disadvantages,, provisions were cheap, the island was abundant, and the people healthy. The buccaneers made it their principal resort, and poured in such vast treasures, that the military inhabitants amassed considerable wealth with little difficulty, while they despised the more peaceful occupations of honest labour. In the spring, D'Oyley received information that his old antagonist, Sasi, was lying desti- tute on the north side of the island ; he therefore ordered out Colonel Tyson with a detach- ment of eighty men, and a party of his new negro allies, to take him. After a tedious march through VII.] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 239 mountain forests, they found the unfortunate object of their search, who, for his courage and perse- verance, deserved a better fate, posted on the hill above San Cheireras, with one hundred and thirty- three men, the sad remnant of his former govern- ment. The spot is marked in the grounds of Shaw Park by a piece of heavy ordnance still lying there. Here the Spanish blacks, now in the English service, rendered great assistance by their knowledge of the country, and led the advance into such a position, that, by their first fire, the second in command of the Spa- nish force was killed ; the rest fled, and about fifty were slain by their pursuers. All these ineffective at- tempts at length convinced Sasi that he was too weak to succeed in an enterprise which he could neither execute nor abandon ; and he reluctantly submitted to the decrees of fate. The British troops pursued him to a little bay about eight miles to the westward of the ruins at Seville ; thence he escaped in a canoe, and ended his days in the bosom of peace and Chris- tianity, by retiring to a monastery in Spain. The spot from whence he embarked still retains the name of Runaway Bay. From thence Tyson returned to San Cheireras, where a vessel lay at anchor, which the Spaniards had employed to bring to them their monthly sup- plies from Cuba. The better to secure themselves, i ew had placed scouts throughout the neighbour- In ncl to give alarm on the approach of an enemy; for they yet knew not the fate of their friends. 240 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. Tyson had intelligence of this, secured their scouts, made himself master of the vessel, and returned to Caguaya in her. The few remaining Spaniards who had eluded his search, embraced the earliest oppor- tunity of effecting their escape from an island which they now despaired of regaining. About twenty negroes only remained in the mountains, who joined the runaway slaves ; and the English, thus become the undisputed masters of Jamaica, were no more disturbed by the vain pretensions of the exterminated Castilians. In the summer, these twenty Spanish slaves, wearied with their wretched mode of life, surrendered, with their commander Juan de Bola, and were made free ; while their captain was pre- sented with a commission to resume his command in the English service. Another party of negroes, called the Vermahollis gang, was destroyed by a detach- ment under Captain Ballard ; and not more than fifty still held out. D'Oyley was anxious to subdue these fifty rebels before he relaxed the severity of martial law, that there might remain no nucleus around which any disaffected slaves could rally ; but the planters de- sired a civil government, and the soldiers, kept so long under the rigours of regimental discipline, without pay, became dissatisfied : they considered themselves neglected, and they still entertained a hope that the parliament would recall them; for they were still ignorant of the Restoration. The discontents caused a meeting at Guanaboa, of th VII.J ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 241 regiment of Tyson, which had been formerly com- manded by Barrington; and, instigated by Ray- mond, the men unanimously declared that they would no longer live under military restraint. The two colonels made a pretence of the good reception which D'Oyley gave to the Cavaliers, to persuade the veterans attached to them by long service under Cromwell, that he encouraged so many of the Royal party with a view to the expulsion of the Parliament men ; and this conviction determined them to set up Raymond in* D'Oyley's place. They raised the standard of revolt, and proclaimed their purpose of settling the island under a civil go- vernment, electing constables, and apportioning the country to certain detachments of their adherents. The conspiracy was discovered, and the enterprise failed ; not, however, before the mutineers had entered Saint Jago, and were joined by many who were panting for the extermination of the Royalists. D'Oyley saw that the danger was imminent, and was compelled to suppress it by such an act as might strike terror into the breasts of the minor actors in the plot. He immediately put himself at the head of the Royalists, drove the conspirators from the town, and captured both Raymond and Tyson. Major Hope of the Liguany regiment assisted in the suppression of this rebellion, by prevailing on the greater part of the men to abandon these disaffected "Hirers to their fate; yet so much was D'Oyley alarmed at the threatening consequences of his pre- VOL. I. R 242 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. sent unpopularity, that he had ordered a transport to be in readiness at Passage Fort, to receive him in case of failure. The fortunate issue of the affair rendered other measures necessary. He summoned a court-martial, and, although unauthorised by any express commission to punish such offences capitally, the two colonels were condemned to be shot upon the ground on which they stood : while their adhe- rents were pardoned or punished according to the magnitude of their offences, or the measure of their power. The valiant Raymond (he deserves that praise) met his fate with a magnanimity worthy of a better cause ; but his fellow-sufferer, who so recently after his gallant exploit in freeing the island from the last remaining Spaniards, had unwarily pledged himself to a participation in a crime from which he could not retreat, appeared overwhelmed by the magnitude of his offence, and the ignominy of his end. The trial and execution of these officers took place under a tamarind tree, described as growing near the river below the old Hall of Audience ; and tradition still points out the spot. To disappoint the last hopes of the Parliament party, only twelve days after this violent attack upon the Royalists, a man-of-war arrived with the union jack at the mast-head ; and communicated intelligence of the Restoration, which had taken place on the 29th of the preceding May. The news was received with every demonstration of joy ; a day was appointed for the solemn proclamation o ' VII,] ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 243 King- Charles II. ; and while the inhabitants of St. Jago were thus employed, another of his Majesty's ship's appeared in the offing, and seeing the re- joicings on shore, fired a royal salute as she entered the harbour. These ships came away, however, without orders, and brought only vague intelligence of what was passing in England. No instructions reaching the Governor, the people conceived that they should all be called off immediately, and that the island would be restored to the Spaniards, with whom Charles had long been leagued. This very natural suspicion put an immediate stop to the busi- ness of the colony ; the sugar-works were thrown up ; the plantations dismantled ; and every white inhabitant prepared to quit the island. The mis- chievous growth of vegetation, and the frequent inundations of rain or rivers, were no longer checked by the vigilance of labour ; and it is incredible to those who know not the soil and the climate, how soon this cessation operated on the face of the country, and proclaimed the need of constant hus- bandry. In this state of suspense the colonists remained May 29> until the 29th of May in the following 61 * year ; and it is a curious coincidence that the first communication between the King and his subjects in Jamaica, arrived on the first anniversary <>l the day which had restored him to his throne. On that day the Diamond frigate arrived, and four days afterwards, the Rosebush. These ships had R2 244 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. [Chap. VII. sailed in company, and brought a commission from his Majesty to D'Oyley, confirming- him in the com- mand of the island, with orders that the army should be immediately disbanded, and settled throughout the country. The despatches contained also instruc- tions for the constitution of judicial courts ; with patents for the several departments of secretary, provost-marshal, and surveyor-general. The inhabitants of Jamaica, whose loyalty was yet warm, caught the reviving flame, and sincerely participated in the great, though tardy triumph, which restored their rightful monarch to his throne. CHAPTER VIII. THE HISTORY OF THE COLONY CONTINUED TO THE PERIOD ov THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN THE YEAR 1692. CHARLES I. was beheaded on the 30th January 1648, A D charged with an offence which had been 61 ' j u dg e( l * n the field of Naseby before it was tried in Westminster* Hall ; and on 29th May, 1660, Charles II. was conducted to the throne by the ac- clamations of that nation which had as joyfully led his father to the block *. It then became necessary to confer the sanction of Royalty upon the few satis- factory acts of usurpation which marked the interme- diate era of disorder and dismay. The conquest of Jamaica was one of the most happy events that had occurred, or could be confirmed; and the colony was thus formally enrolled amongst the honourable titles and splendid possessions attached to the British crown. Colonel, now General D'Oyley, deserved the con- fidence of Cromwell, without forfeiting the esteem of the King ; and he was confirmed in the command of an island in whose conquest he had acted so promi- nent a part. To conciliate the affections of his sub- jects, Charles prudently forbore awaking the slum- bering feuds, by making any inquiry after those ob- * See Note LVIII. 246 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. noxious characters who had sought refuge here : and such of the regicides as were known to have taken shelter on this side of the Atlantic, were permitted to remain unmolested, while their guilty fellows were bleeding under the axe in expiation of a murdered Monarch's blood. The Governor's commission was proclaimed at Ca- reening Point (Caguaya) ; and that town June 5. 1-^ft^ has ever since borne the name of Port Royal, to commemorate the event. His appoint- ment was accompanied by instructions to release the troops from the restraints of martial law, to cause the oath of allegiance to be taken, to appoint the courts of session, and to convene a council of twelve*. A hasty, irregular meeting anticipated the sun> mons and the forms of election ; but the choice was ratified by the consent of all parties, and it was then The first that the island was partially surveyed, and council. lonely divided into twelve districts, cor- responding with the number of representatives, each member whimsically appropriating to his own pecu- liar precinct the name he liked best : as, Saint David Saint Catherine Saint Andrew Saint John Saint Thomas Saint George Saint Mary Saint Ann Saint James Saint Elizabeth Port Royal and Clarendon. The council then proceeded to frame laws for the government, and to levy a tax for the maintenance of the island. A salary of eight hundred pounds * See Note LIX. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 247 was attached to the office of Governor, and another of one hundred pounds to that of Chief Justice : which last appointment was filled by Colonel Ward; to whom soon succeeded Colonel Barry. This esta- blishment of a civil government gratified the agricul- tural part of the community, but gave great offence to the military, who were in a state of mutiny at the change. So great, indeed, was the dissatisfaction, that it became necessary to hang one of the soldiers, " to let them see," says D'Oyley, " that the law can do as much as a court-martial." In this first assize every complaint was heard ; every wrong redressed ; every crime punished ; and the civil judge was pro- tected by the military commander. The troops still, however, possessed a powerful friend in the Governor, who gave no encouragement to his agricultural subjects ; and even the patentees found their privileges invaded in every way short of actual deprivation. The government had hitherto been military ; and a military government, as Jamaica has often to her cost experienced, always verges to- wards despotism. These patentees were not men of D'Oyley 's own selection ; and as he suspected that his command was merely temporary, he considered it his interest to give all his support to the priva- teering system, from which he so soon, and so se- curely, reaped a profit. Happily for the interests of the colony, his govern- ment now drew towards a close : he was informed that Lord Windsor was coming to supersede him ; 248 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. and then his views became apparent. The complaint of age and infirmity might have seemed, indeed, ill adapted to the ripe manhood of forty-three: yet a soldier might express no dishonourable fear of the climate, the diseases or the difficulties which had been fatal to so many before him. But the insin- cerity with which he had urged these reasons for his recall was now developed, and he bore his degra- dation with ill-dissembled resentment. He was con- scious of the public odium, and he dreaded or envied the popularity of his successor. " He spoke/' says Beeston, "very disrespectfully of that nobleman, dis- couraged the traders, used all means to get money and enrich himself, and Lord Windsor's coming being prolonged from the time he was expected, made him almost confident that he would not come at all : on which he began to threaten the abolition of the patents, and to new model the government." D'Oyley, in fact, who had been praised as a hero, was gradually, and at length generally, abhorred as a tyrant. Two hundred settlers arrived in His Majesty's A D ship, the Great Charity ; and many more in 1662 ' the Diamond, which had been sent to the Windward Islands to fetch them. Information was brought that Lord Windsor had arrived at Barbadoes, and might be hourly expected in Jamaica intelligence which utterly destroyed the lingering hopes of D'Oyley, and frustrated those de- signs which threatened the total subversion of the VJJI.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 249 civil government in favour of his military friends. In August this nobleman arrived with a large company of colonists, well supplied with every requisite for their immediate settlement. With him came Sir Charles Lyttleton, as lieutenant-governor and chan- cellor ; and Colonel Mitchell, as judge of the courts of common-law and admiralty: with many persons in expectation of emolument or office under his pa- tronage. He brought a seal and mace for the island *, and a royal donative for the troops : for, although the King was not bound to make good the pay of the Usurper's army, he deemed it expedient to give some remuneration for its services ; and he judged this mode the least objectionable, as it would appease the discontent which prevailed, and have the conciliating appearance of a bountiful largess. But the money was committed to the management of some mercenary factors, and so laid out in merchan- dise, that, when it was divided amongst the soldiers, it was despicable and despised. D'Oyley received Lord Windsor with politeness, but his pride could neither stoop to obey, nor hope to be forgiven ; and he told him that he would probably hear many complaints against him, but that they were false ; and that, by the time his lordship had been one year in his government, he must expect the same to be said of himself. He was ordered, however, to provide for his immediate departure from the island; ;i peremptory mandate which he had by no means * See Note LX. 250 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [chap. anticipated. He petitioned against the harsh com- mand, requesting a delay ; but it was re- fused, and he sailed in September. The Royal Proclamation * was immediately published, in which every encouragement was given to the plan- ters. The council was convened to remodel, or renew, the action of the laws, which had slept during the last three months, under the unsettled views of D'Oyley; and the establishment of a municipal government secured the personal, and prepared the political, liberty of the colonists. Lord Windsor appointed the judges of session, and the magistracy ; he established the militia, and assumed the peculiar command of the Port Royal regiment himself. Under the terms of the proclamation, he granted patents of land in free soccage, and afforded assistance to those who took them. But folly, or favour, was evident in the allotment; for " several particular first- comers," says Mr. Nevil, in his letter to Lord Car- lisle, " having obtained title to six, eight, ten, or twenty thousand acres a man, left no room for neighbourhood on that side, where those delicate savannas, if divided into proportionable parcels, had given a comfortable support." Thus Sir Thomas Lynch came into possession of very extensive do- mains ; and Major Hope, of the Oliverian regiment, with Colonel Archbould and Sir William Beeston, held the entire district of Liguania between them- selves. * See Note LXI. VIII,] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 251 If such a mass of landed property were now accu- mulated on the head of a Jamaica planter, the annual return might satisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice ; and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of agriculture, the manufactures of industry, and the refinements of taste. But, at the period when such extravagant grants were made, labour was wanted to improve, or spirit to divide, them ; and the land, thus appro- priated, remained covered with its native forests, to the exclusion of industrious tenants. Apprehensions were entertained that Lord Windsor intended to exact heavy fees and taxes on the seal, and land, as well as the sugar, which was now cultivated to a considerable extent; and whatever might be the grounds for such alarm, it operated powerfully upon the military planters. They again evinced a dispo- sition to revolt, and it became necessary to commit many to prison ; while, so great was the alarm, that a party of thirty horsemen kept guard at Passage Fort, to secure that point of communication between the seats of government and trade. The acts and a-surances of the governor, however, restored order; and many who had abandoned their plantations returned to them. But what most tended to allay the ferment, was the opportunity which afforded a chance of service to the martial spirit of the dis- banded army ; for Lord Windsor, with the advice of his council, assumed the responsibility of proclaiming 252 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. war* against the Spaniards ; and his plea was, that he had sent a frigate from Barbadoes to Porto Rico and Hispaniola, to demand trade which was re- fused. He, therefore, formed a plan of attack upon St. Jago de Cuba ; and the soldiery, poor and des- titute of the necessary means of settling, joyfully embraced the opportunity of pillage ; so that thirteen hundred men, and eleven sail of shipping, Sept. 21. left Port Royal with the most sanguine expectations of success and spoil. During the absence of this expedition, the militia was organised, and the Port Royal regiment, well armed and accoutred, met, for the first Oct. 6. time, under its colonel. The council was engaged in framing laws ; one to restrain runaway slaves, and another to rate the articles of the country as a bartering transfer. Although authority was vested in the governor for summoning a general assembly to settle these points, he never used the discretionary power, reasonably satisfied with the council of his own election. Ill health, and disgust, induced Lord Windsor to resolve on quitting the island as soon as the expedition should return ; and it was hinted to him that, to satisfy the court of Spain, which complained of the encouragement he afforded to pirates, his resignation would be readily received. A shallop arrived with tidings Get 21 of the capture of St. Jago ; and, on the * Beeston's Narrative in the Council Chamber. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 253 following day, the fleet appeared, laden with plate, wine, sugar, and other rich plunder of the town. Seven ships were also captured; the castle was destroyed, and the guns were the ponderous trophies of the victors. This gallant exploit cost the lives of only six men ; while the booty was sufficient to satisfy the most sanguine expectations of all who were concerned in it. The governor secured his share, and sailed immediately ; leaving Sir Charles Lyttleton " deputy-governor, and Colonel Mitchell chief over the sea affairs, and over all the coasts." The darkness of Jamaica history has cast a veil over the character and administration of this noble- man; but a census*, taken upon his departure, proves that, under his government, the population had not much increased. It amounted to no more than four thousand three hundred and fifty-five, including five hundred and fifty-two negroes. The success of the expedition he planned, had, however, revived the spirit of commerce, and quieted the dis- contents of the people. The privateers went to sea again, and the silver stream flowed plentifully into Port Royal. The unprotected state of that town, and the apprehension that the Spaniards would reta- liate upon it for the destruction of St. Jago, induced his successor to call in the Crown dues, and to expend them upon the reparation of a small stone lower, which he embanked against the sea, and * See Note LXII. 254 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. which was thenceforth called Fort Charles. Before the end of the year, the platform in the halfmoon on the beach was laid ; four brass guns were mounted, and the volunteers employed to complete the work were indefatigable, so anxious were they to be away again in an expedition which was meditated against 1668 . Campeche. But the death of Captain Jan. 11. Lyttleton, Sir Charles's brother, delayed the preparations ; and it was not until the following year that the fleet, consisting of twelve sail, with about sixteen hundred men, was able to go to sea. The Lieutenant-governor and Council issued a proclamation offering freedom, and thirty acres of land, to such of the rebellious slaves as yet remained abroad, if they would submit to the command of Juan de Bola, their former chief ; and a few of them accepted the proffered indulgence. Nothing disturbed the repose of the colony, until Captain Mitchell, who had been cruising in the Bay of Campeche, brought intelligence of the wreck of three ships belonging to the late expedition; and that the Spaniards, who had received timely notice of the design, had fortified themselves, hauled their ships on shore, and sent their treasures up the country to Mereda. This failure and misfortune was calculated to spread the utmost alarm ; for the island had been drained of its chief strength, to insure the success of the important enterprise. To complete the consternation, Colonel Barry arrived, and detailed his .unsuccessful attempt to reduce the VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 255 French at Tortuga, of which island he was to have been appointed governor. He attributed his failure to the timidity, or treason, of Captain Maunders, who refused to obey his instructions, and deserted his flag. These twenty-four hours afforded a variety of important news ; for, before night, a ketch arrived in Macary Bay, with a report that, on the same day on which Barry had been defeated at Tortuga, the fleet, with the loss of only thirty men, had made a successful descent upon Campeche, sacked the town, and taken twenty sail, of shipping deeply laden with a vast treasure. This report proved true : but an alarm accompanied it which threw a damp upon the joy of the exulting colonists; for information was received that there were thirty-five ships at Cartha- gena ready to make a descent upon Jamaica. Al- though without foundation, the panic this intelligence produced rendered infinite service ; for it caused a diligent application to the works at Fort Charles, which, under such strenuous exertions, soon assumed the appearance of a respectable fortress. During its progress, Colonel Beeston officially reported that "all the planets in the heavens were in Mars as- cendant of the Spanish nation," which argued, he conceived, inauspiciously to the interests of Ja- maica*. Until this period the Jews had been carefully i'xi hided from the colony ; but they now gained a footing, under the specious pretext that they came in * See Note LXIII. * 25G HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. search of a vein of gold, known to them during the Spanish government, although the apprehension of its richness enticing enemies to a place so ill pro- tected, had hitherto caused it to remain unopened. Their real design was, however, in the true spirit of their extraordinary nation, to insinuate themselves where they perceived such treasures floating ; and this, their characteristic object, they soon effectually gained. The colony now lost one of its brightest orna- ments ; and the death of Colonel Mitchell was long deplored, as an event most inauspicious to its rising prospects. His vigilant and sagacious eye had per- vaded every department of the government, and he rendered the most eminent services to his adopted country, by arranging the constitution, modelling the laws, and deciding the many intricate points which the privateering system had already raised. This systematic species of robbery, of which Jamaica was now become the nursery and rendez- vous, still continued to pour its unhallowed treasures upon these thirsty shores. Although the prospect of a peace with Spain had urged the British monarch to the measure of conciliation, and orders had, in fact, been issued to restrain the swarming corsairs, yet the evil had taken too deep a root, the ground was too rich, and the fruit too enticing, to be checked by proclamation, or to be speedily eradi- cated even by force. Prizes daily arrived, and were publicly Misposed of, in defiance of the royal VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 257 mandate ; while the fame of one, unprecedented in its freight of quicksilver, resounded on the shores of Europe. Many of the colonists were literally rolling- in wealth ; and their houses displayed scenes of proud, but tasteless, magnificence. Their tables, and utensils of service, were of silver, and their horses were sometimes shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed, and carelessly dropped, to indicate the contempt or pride of riches. The wealth which was displayed in the streets of Port Royal might indeed have presented a pleasing image, if the sound of arms, and the riot of intem- perance, could have been excluded from an assembly of successful corsairs. On the 1st of November, the dispersed negroes met with their old captain, Juan de Bola, Nov. engaged, and destroyed him -the only act of violence which had been committed for a con- siderable time ; all else remaining tranquil, and the country rapidly improving by the circulation of the treasures which flowed, in an ample stream, from the mines of Mexico and Peru. This tranquillity offered a fair opportunity for executing that part of the Lieutenant-governor's commission, which em- powered him to call an Assembly to frame a more explicit code of laws than his Council had been able to compose, and to raise money for the expenses of his government. Lyttleton, with sound policy, eagerly embraced it. Writs were i-sik'd in Dm'inber for the election of thirty per- Voi., I. S 258 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. sons ; and the first Assembly of Jamaica met in the Jan. 20, following month. Robert Freeman was The first cnosen Speaker, and the session continued Assembly. until the ^dle of February. It was then adjourned until May, and resumed at Port Royal; as it was considered advisable to divide the sittings between the seats of government and trade. This early attempt at popular legislation was eminently successful ; the members were unanimous, met with patriotic unanimity, and parted amidst scenes of festivity, and good humour, after framing a code of laws, as sound and serviceable as could be reason- ably expected from such infant statesmen. Their act, which raised supplies for the use of the island, provided a collector of their own, who was not com- pelled to account to the parent state for any part of the funds. Nothing, however, occurred materially affecting the form of the constitution during the ad- ministration of Lyttleton : privateering occupied the attention of all classes ; and it was encouraged by him, as it afforded the easiest mode of giving satis- faction to the colony, by rendering it the readiest relie In the spring the fleet arrived from Oroonoque, with considerable plunder taken from the town of St. Thomas, in defiance of the cessation of hostilities which had been publicly proclaimed. Captain Cole- beck succeeded in reducing a party of rebellious negroes on the north side of the island. But a re- port of the speedy arrival of Sir Thomas Modyford, VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 239 as governor, checked these expeditions, and induced Sir Charles to quit the island, leaving the president of the council, Colonel Lynch, in chief com- mand. Upon his arrival in England, he was desired to lay his observations before his Majesty in council ; and, amongst other remarks, he declared that " The government was plain and easy, and was not truly, if he might have the liberty to say so, dis- agreeable : so were the laws, and their execution ; neither merchant nor planter, that he knew of, the least dissatisfied ; every cause being determined in six weeks, with thirty or forty shillings charges ; that the acts of Assembly were sent, and most humbly desired to be confirmed by his Majesty ; that the people were in general easy to be governed, yet apter to be led than driven. " It is certain that Sir Thomas left his government with regret ; and it is probable that the object of his voyage was to recover the appointment he coveted : in this he eventually succeeded ; and afterwards proved himself one of the best friends Jamaica ever possessed. At this time the island was surveyed and more accurately divided into the twelve districts which had hitherto been but loosely named : no more parishes were, however, added, and the regions now (ailed Hanover and Manchester, still remained un- noticed and unappropriated. The arrival of Colonel Morgan, as Lieutenant-governor, dissolved the As- sembly ; and the preference he gave to the assist- ance or advice of his council, laid the foundation of S 2 260 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. those dissensions which broke out when it was con- vened in the following autumn. He immediately proclaimed a cessation of hostilities with Spain ; and sent to acquaint the governor of Carthagena with that event. But while this circumstance threatened to close the avenues through which so much wealth had flowed into Jamaica, the agricultural interests of the colony received a seasonable augmentation by the arrival of four hundred planters from Barba- does, who were speedily followed by Sir Thomas Modyford, with two hundred more. No sooner had he arrived than he caused his commission to be proclaimed, travelled through the country, and took every means of acquiring information. He de- spatched two frigates to England, and sent his bro- ther to Barbadoes for his wife and family. The Swallow, one of the frigates, after a long and unsuc- cessful attempt to beat to windward in tempestuous weather, returned again to Port Royal ; but the other two were never heard of more. He issued writs for the election of an Assembly ; in which Sir Thomas Whetstone was chosen Speaker, and Samuel Long the clerk : but a temper, very different from that of the preceding session, soon manifested itself. The house was divided into factions, and proceeded with the heat and animosity inseparable from party-spirit. The obscurity which prevails throughout the early records of the Assembly, is not dispelled by a reference to those of the Council, \ 1,1.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 261 scarce less imperfect ; but there are some manu- scripts amongst the archives of that board, which throw a glimmering' light upon the intrigues and animosities which prevailed during this administra- tion. Sir Thomas Modyford is charged with two faults ; a boundless ambition, and a suspicious tem- per, which was always haunting him with imaginary enemies. He envied the wealth, or feared the in- fluence, of the patentees, the total extirpation of whose authority he contemplated as necessary to se- cure his own. Under a frivolous pretence, he de- prived Major Povey, the island secretary, of his office ; and bestowed it on his own nephew. He perversely directed writs for Port Royal, to Major Man, the surveyor-general, who was a magistrate there; and the election of Beeston and Loveing was opposed. It was urged that another should have been returned in Loveing's room. Many harsh epithets issued from the Speaker's chair upon this occasion ; and nothing could be done until the elec- tion was allowed or annulled. At length it was care- lessly put to the vote, not whether Loveing's elec- tion only, but the election at Port Royal, were cor- rect ; and it was declared illegal. Beeston walked to the bar, thanked the House for freeing him from a troublesome duty, and took his leave ; but he was recalled by the Speaker, who assured him that the Assembly meant not him, but Loveing : thus the vote was entered in the Journals contrary to the express words of it. Beeston however withdrew ; 262 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. refused to obey the warrant, and was committed to prison. The Governor, to inflame the wound, per- haps, nominated Provost- marshal Lynch to the council, and to the bench. Under his patent, he was desired to bring- Beeston before the council ; and was then arraigned and deposed, for so far demeaning the dignity of a judge. The office of survey or-ge- neral was subdivided by the moderation, or malice, of the governor, and rendered of no value ; while the spirit of party caused the " business of the house," I adopt the language of the record, " to go on like bells rung by boys, all jarring ; and every day caused more ill-blood.*' In November the Assembly adjourned till March ; and, to heal all differences, the members resolved to give the governor and council a public dinner. The wine, however, produced an inflammation of old wounds, and, in an unlucky moment, Captain Rutter, a member of Assembly, was killed by Major Joy of the council. When the House met again, it was but to be adjourned, and never to be resumed during this administration ; but most of the members, before they parted, received commissions of the peace* The dissension between the Governor and the Assembly, though originating in individual pre- judice, was ostensibly founded on the omission of the King's name in the enacting clause of the Revenue bill. This caused the subsequent commitment of Mr. Long, the clerk, under the governor's warrant ; in whose instructions the due form of enactment had VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 263 been prescribed. An objection was urged by Mr. Long, and supported by the House, to the insertion of the King's name in a money-bill, whose provi- sions, taking immediate effect, differed essentially from those of all other acts which were not in force until confirmed at home. The spirit of this legisla- tive effort was, however, to exclude the crown from the privilege of a double negative ; and if the point had been carried in this instance, the same form might have been introduced into all other acts; which would have established the desired principle, " that the Governor being here the representative of the Crown, his act should bind the Crown ; and the operation of the laws thus passed should not be im- peded or suspended, by waiting for the King's deter- mination upon them." This early spirit of opposition to the parent state served only to hasten the arrangement then under consideration, for introducing a new system of colo- nial legislation, so planned as to deprive the Assem- bly of the means of defending itself against any future act of tyranny exercised by the Crown : an experiment which produced the memorable struggle which was carried on, with little intermission, through sixty-four successive years. War was again proclaimed against Holland, and De Ruyter was hovering around this island with a powerful fleet. The privateering system, however, continued unabated. An expedition was prepared against Curagoa, and five sail were intrusted to 264 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. Lieutenant-general Morgan, who succeeded only in the attempt upon Eustatia and Saba, where he died. A D Another expedition, under Captain Fack- 1665 * man, met with better success in the plunder of Tobascoe and Villa de Moos, in the bay of Mexico. About the same period the Royal African Company's factors first came to Jamaica to arrange their slave- trade. Ships from Carthagena soon crowded the Ja- maica ports, eager to purchase them ; and they were profusely furnished by the Company, under the ad- vantageous terms of the Spanish contract. But the Governor, finding the monopoly ill suited to his views of personal interest, broke the agreement ; and although charged to preserve peace with Spain, and to stop the system of privateering, he assumed the extraordinary power of proclaiming war. The eloquence of entreaty, or the force of gold, prevailed ; and commissions were issued with greater liberality than ever. It has even been affirmed that Sir Thomas Modyford A.D. 1666. J was pleased graciously to accept a leopard's skin filled with pistorins, as a fine for the irregularity of requesting them. Certain it is, that, under his sanction alone, the town of Saint Spiritus, in Cuba, was plundered ; Providence taken, garrisoned by British troops, and lost again to the Spaniards; while Charles, with that want of faith which was characteristic of his weakness, connived at these lawless, but profitable, acts of his representa- tive. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 265 During these eventful times of predatory prospe- A.D. rityj the planting interest was not for- 6T< gotten ; for Modyford, determining to pro- fit by his power, had patented vast tracts of land, on which he erected salt-works, and planted cocoa groves. These, however, never thrived in English hands ; and Beeston discovered, and officially re- ported, a reason, in the appearance of a comet, on the fourth of December, 1664 : "the forerunner," he said, " of the blasting of the cocoa-trees ; after which time they generally failed in Jamaica.' 1 The plunder of Porto Bello amply compensated the damage sustained by the comet ; " the Oxford frigate arrived, sent by the King to countenance the war with Spain. Certain persons then entered into a kind of co-partnership with the Governor, in behalf of Charles, to supply the pressing necessities of that monarch from this illegitimate source*." Captain Collier was immediately appointed to the Oxford, and sent to the rendezvous at the Isle de Vache. There he seized a French ship commanded by M. Vivien, whom he sent in chains to Port Royal, although peace with both France and Holland had been long concluded. An attempt on Carthagena A D was resolved on ; and a general invitation 68 * to celebrate this promising expedition, as- sembled all the officers of the fleet. While at dinner the ship blew up ; two hundred and fifty men were destroyed ; and Morgan alone, with those who sat on * Beeston's Narrative. 266 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. his side of the table, miraculously escaped. This accident saved the threatened town. Peace with Spain was proclaimed in London, but it had no effect in checking- the privateering system here ; although it was more than hinted that the Feb pillage of Porto Bello was not authorised, 1669 * and that Modyford must be sent home to answer for it. In June the cessation of hostilities was publicly announced ; but the privateers, still un- willing to relinquish the spoil they had depended on so long, went to sea without commissions, and con- tinued doing so, until the war was rekindled in the following year. The opportunity was then eagerly seized by Morgan to capture Panama, whence he returned loaded with the curses and the treasures of the astonished Spaniards. Providence and Coga Castle felt the power of his arm, but he lost his frigate in the enterprise. Nine hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight, and as much more in plate, jewels, and merchandise, crowned the hopes, and rewarded the gallantry of the captors. Grenada was also taken, and the golden days of Jamaica lasted until there came offi- cial intelligence of the memorable peace at length ratified with Spain, by Sir William Godolphin *. Sir Thomas Lynch then returned as governor, and brought instructions to send home Modyford, whose encouragement of the pirates demanded serious notice. * See Note LXIV. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 267 The muster-rolls of the militia, which were now A D transmitted to the Board of Trade, showed 167 * an internal strength of two thousand seven hundred and twenty men, while the seamen about the island amounted to two thousand five hundred ; and the total of white inhabitants to fifteen thousand, one hundred and ninety-eight. The northern region of the island, which the Spaniards had so long neg- lected, was now vivified by the rising industry of the English ; and when its extraordinary fertility became known, the influx of settlers was so great, that, had experience confirmed the prolific virtues attributed to the land and climate did the Jamaica hens lay one or two eggs every day did the ewes drop their lambs twice or thrice in every year ; or were the women delivered of two or three infants at a birth (as early historians affirm,) the island would soon have been overstocked, and the soil exhausted. But after translating these silly fables into the language of simple truth, we shall still acknowledge this northern district to be the most pleasant and plentiful in Jamaica: a soil abundantly productive of grass, corn, sugar-canes, coffee, and even vines, as the Spaniards had proved in the neighbourhood of Se- ville d'Oro. Fifty-seven sugar-works were esta- blished, producing an annual return of about one million, seven hundred, and ten thousand pounds of siii^ar; also forty-seven cocoa walks, yielding one hundred and eighty-eight thousand pounds of nuts ; and forty-nine indigo works, producing about forty- 268 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. nine thousand pounds of dye, an immense return from a colony only fourteen years old, and which had contended, during one-half of that time, against the numberless misfortunes which threatened to annihi- late it. These plantations were moreover rapidly improving, and many others were coming forward. There were, also, three salt-ponds, comprehending four thousand acres, and yielding an annual return of ten thousand bushels of salt ; while the yearly export of pimento, which flourished an indigenous plant, amounted to fifty thousand pounds. The receiver-general, Thomas Tothill, in his re- port of ''the commodities which the island pro- duceth," added the following note : " here is also an undestroyable quantity of fustic, brazelletto, lignum vitse, ebony, sweet-smelling and other curious woods, for several uses, of which great quantities are daily exported. We have also anotto, what the Spaniards called acheot, begun to be made, which we expect will prove a good commodity. We have, also, venillions, China roots, cassia fistula, and ta- marinds, which the planters do endeavour to in- crease, they being good drugs. We find the land very good for cotton and tobacco; but the other commodities being more staple and profitable, very few busy themselves with it. We have large savan- nas, and now great stock of cattle; which we judge have increased within these six years, from sixty tame cattle, to six thousand : sheep, goats, and tame hogs, in great plenty ; so that we are past all danger VIII.J TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 269 of want, and hope, in a short time, to be able to fur- nish the ships homeward bound." Sir Thomas Lynch put an end to the privateering A D system, by sending Major Beeston, with the 167L articles of the peace, to Carthagena, to bring back the English prisoners ; and thus undi- vided attention was given to the more prudent but less profitable speculations of agriculture. An as- sembly was convened, constituted of two members from each of the parishes of Saint Catherine, Cla- rendon, Saint Andrew, Port Royal, Saint John, Saint David, Saint Elizabeth, and Saint Thomas ; and two from the Northern district of the island. The go- vernor's instructions thus named his council : Major- general James Bannister, Colonel Sir James Mody- ford, John Cope, Thomas Freeman, Thomas Ballard, William Joy, Robert Byndloss, Charles Whitfield, Thomas Fuller, Anthony Collier, and Captain Render Molesworth. The revenue was then fixed: land at the Point (Port Royal), an halfpenny per foot : sa- vanna, and all cleared land, a penny per acre : every license for selling liquor, forty shillings per annum : brandy and spirits sixpence per gallon. Portuguese and Spanish wines four pounds per ton : beer thirty shillings per ton, and mum forty shillings per ton. Every ship paid twelvepence per ton, anchorage; and foreigners double. These duties were made applicable to the public uses of the island, in the following proportions: one thousand pounds per annum to the governor or commander in chief: four 270 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. hundred pounds to the lieutenant-governor: two hundred pounds to the major-general : eighty pounds to the chief justice : twenty pounds to every judge ; and ten pounds to his assistant. " But," says Sir Thomas Lynch, "it never held out to pay all this." Collectors of the dues were nominated by the gover- nor, and approved of by the council. Sir Thomas Modyford was now confined on board his ship, with strict orders that his person should be guarded, and that, when he arrived in the Thames, no communication should be allowed with him. But his definite crime, or the necessity for so much cau- tion, is not evident. Reason, however, may sug- gest, and fancy will pronounce, that he was the master of secrets, which, if divulged, would not only exculpate himself from the responsible charge of piracy, but might implicate the King himself in a participation of the spoil. Sir Thomas Lynch used A.D. every means to suppress this lawless sys- 1672< tern; and, at the desire of the governor of Saint Jago de Cuba, he despatched Major Beeston to bring in the privateers, a proceeding which Long stigmatizes as "infamous and mean." Sir Thomas Lynch was directed to publish the treaty concluded with Spain within eight months, to be computed from the 10th of October 1670 namely, between that period and the 10th of June 1671 ; and at the time of such publication to revoke all commissions and letters of marque and reprisal, that had been granted to privateers. He was further instructed by VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 271 all means to prevail on the captains, officers and seamen, belonging to these vessels, to apply them- selves to agriculture or trade ; and by way of greater encouragement, thirty-five acres of land were to be assigned to such as might be willing to accept them. The rest were allowed to use their vessels as if they were English-built ; or they were admitted to serve on board his Majesty's ships of war. Lastly, he was ordered to proclaim a general pardon and in- demnity for all crimes and offences committed by them since the month of June 1660, and previous to the ratification of the treaty. All this was, it seems, merely intended as a lure, to engage them to come into port with their spoil : where the same governor who issued these deceitful orders, was directed to take from them the tenths and fifteenths of all their booty, which the crown reserved for its share under the condition of their commissions. Thus govern- ment derived a direct emolument from a system of piracy ; and it was fortunate that Jamaica was then independent of ministers whose policy was so con- temptible, and whose monarch was so weak. The stream of wealth had saturated the island ; and its inhabitants were now enabled to maintain its government without the pecuniary assistance of the parent state. The impost on spirituous liquors, and the poll-tax levied occasionally, afforded an ample fund to defray all their public expenses ; so that from the moment Jamaica became settled in a regular civil form, and felt the advantages of diffusive commerce, 272 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. no colony under British dominion ever cost less for maintenance, or supplied greater resources, on a fair balance of accounts, than this has done. Morgan immediately desisted from all further en- terprises against the Spaniards ; and after the cap- ture of Panama he retired into the peaceful walk of civil life, where, by a rare felicity, he was as well qualified to shine, as he had proved himself able to fight the battles of his country. The war still raged between England and Holland : the island of Tobago was taken, and a fleet was sent to Jamaica to pro- tect its coasts; while many valuable Dutch prizes were sold in Port Royal, one with six hundred ne- groes. Peace was proclaimed in the following year, A D under the treaty which exchanged the co- 1673 * lony of Surinam for the Dutch province of New York ; and commissioners Cranfield, Ducken- field and Brent were sent to execute that provision, by removing all British subjects from the former set- tlement. An account was again, in this year, taken of " the number of Christian men, women, children, and negro slaves, in the several parishes:" by which census the population appears to have been com- posed of four thousand and fifty men, two thousand and six women, one thousand seven hundred and twelve children, and nine thousand five hundred and four negroes. There were also eight hundred sea- men, who had volunteered to repel the threatened attack of the Dutch. Thus the inhabitants had in- V1II.J TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1GU2. 273 creased, between the year 1662 and 1673, from four thousand two hundred and five, to seventeen thou- sand two hundred and seventy-two. The Governor wrote to Lord Arlington, that " the weather was seasonable, and the success in planting miraculous. Bannister," says he, " is not very well, but sends your Lordship a pot of sugar, and writes its history.*' Proclamation was, however, made, prohibiting the importation of any of the commodities of Europe AD which were not laden in England; and 1675. f or p u tting the laws relating to the West India trade in force ; and these restraints materially injured the prosperity of Jamaica. A great sensation was soon afterwards caused, by the murder of General Bannister, by Mr. Burford, who was tried and hanged for it. In the spring, Sir Henry Morgan, now raised to the honour of knighthood, for his brave attack on Panama, escaped from shipwreck on the Isle de Vache, and arrived as Lieutenant-governor. Hi commission was read at Port Royal ; while the council sat at St. Jago, and received the resignation of Sir Thomas Lynch. Shortly afterwards, March 14. , J J Lord vaughan arrived, and his commis- sion as Governor was opened. He nominated his council, and directed the election of an Assembly, that laws might be immediately framed, and assimi- lated, as nearly as possible, to those of England. This Assembly met, chose Long for its speaker, and passed the forty-five expired VOL, I. T s 274 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. laws; when it was first prorogued, and then dis- solved. The evacuation of Surinam was, Dec 13 in the mean time, effected ; forty families arrived, and were soon followed by the Hercules, with eleven hundred persons, who were all settled in a district which still retains the name of " The Surinam Quarters." Commissions against the Spaniards had now been A D long withheld, and privateering was offi- 1 676< cially discountenanced ; yet numerous prizes were still brought in by stealth, to the great enhance- ment of both public and private interest ; while the government was carried on with such political facility, that the unbroken repose of the island offered no occurrence to distract attention from the important avocations of improving agriculture. Under these happy circumstances, when fortune smiled upon the colony, a statistical account of Jamaica was drawn up by Mr. Cranfield, in answer to his Majesty's queries of March, 1674. " There is/* says Mr. Cranfield, " a council, con- sisting of twelve gentlemen : our Assembly, elected by the freeholders, two from every parish, except from St. Jago and Port Royal, where they have the privilege of choosing three. The chief court of judi- cature is held at St. Jago ; its jurisdiction over the whole island : it holds and determines all pleas, and proceeds thereon according to the law of England, and pleas of the King's Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster ; and hath also the jurisdiction of VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 275 the Court of Exchequer, in all matters touching the King's revenue, fines and forfeitures : writs of error and false judgments lie in this court, from all inferior courts; all proceedings and records in the said court, as near as may be, according to the form and practice of Westminster Hall. The officers of the said court are, the clerk of the crown, the clerk of the pleas, the provost-marshal, and the crier. The present chief justice and chief judge is Sir Thomas Modyford; S. Barry, S. Long, J. Colbeck, and S. Bernard are his assistants; who have a com- mission under the hand of the Governor and seal of the island. The court is held every three months ; and an appeal lies only before the Governor, as chancellor. Besides this court, there are six inferior courts established in several precincts of the island ; these are held once every month, and hold pleas of any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, unless by justices, and then of any sum whatever." The names of the judges and their assistants it may be interesting to record. PORT ROYAL PRECINCT. William Beeston, Judge; Reginald Wilson, and Anthony Swimmer, Assistants. ST. THOMAS AND ST. DAVID. William Stan, Judge; E. Stanton, and C. Richardson, Assistants. LIQNANIA. Richard Brayne, Judge ; William Parker, Assistant. T 2 276 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. ST. JOHN. Thomas Ayscough, Judge ; William Aylemer, and Richard Oldfield, Assistants. CLARENDON. J. Pennant, Judge; W. Bent, and G. Faucett, Assistants. The sixth court was established, with extensive jurisdiction, on the north side, and held only once in six months. Quarter-sessions, according 1 to the custom of England, were also held in each precinct, under local commissions of the peace ; where all offences were cognisable, except those affecting life. In the Admiralty Court, Sir H. Morgan, Colonel Byndloss, and Colonel Beeston, sat as commissioners, and from their decision there was an appeal before the Governor as vice-admiral. The strength of the colony consisted of one regi- ment of cavalry, five hundred strong ; with seven regiments of infantry, containing altogether about five thousand men : " no others than planters, mer- chants, and servants; none of the blacks." Since the Restoration, no troops had been maintained on pay, excepting twenty horsemen in Lord Windsor's time. One gunner, and two matrosses, at Fort Charles, were all that were now charged to the country. Fort Charles had been completed, ostensibly, by the King's bounty, but not so in fact ; for the cost was afterwards repaid by the country : and it was now defended by thirty-six guns, and capable of contain- ing seven hundred men. Fort James mounted thir- \ ni.j TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1092. 277 teen guns, and was built, by subscription, on another commanding spot in the harbour of Port Royal ; while a redoubt, with six guns, was erected by the inhabitants of the town. These, with a platform of five cannon at Port Morant, and another at Morante Bay, were the only fortifications which defended the rich and envied shores of Jamaica. In answer to the query " What are commodities of the growth and manufactures of the plantations?" Cranfield replied, " Cocoa, sugar, cotton, indigo, ginger, dyeing-woodsj &c. There is a great deal of cocoa planted on the north side within the last five years, since the blast, and thrives well. The cotton not inferior to any in the Indies : experience shows that it grows on the worst land, if it be within three or four miles of the sea on the south side, it being there warmest. The great product, and returns from New England, make it very profitable, especially to the middle sort of planters, that cannot compass a sugar-work. The inhabitants have no manufactures, only making some few shoes and hamacs." From Scotland, or Ireland, few people came to Jamaica ; but five hundred indentured servants had arrived within the last five years, by the Bristol ships. From England adventurers chiefly came as transitory traders, and many ultimately settled here, when they perceived how soon the rich soil rewarded labour. Thus it was computed that twelve or fourteen hun- dred persons came annually ; and about three-fourths of them remained. Of British ships trading to the 278 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. several plantations, there were now about one hun- dred and seventy though the war had diminished the number within the last two years ; and the dis- turbance amongst the Indians of New England had so interrupted husbandry, that little produce was brought thence. Import duties were charged upon all strong liquors, while exported goods paid nothing ; nor was the colony burdened by any other impost than that of five pounds on wine licenses, and certain parochial taxes for the maintenance of roads and public buildings. The governor's salary was raised to two thousand pounds ; and that of the lieutenant- governor to six hundred. The only revenue claimed by the King was derived from the quit-rents, which amounted to about nineteen hundred pounds per annum. The secretary's office was granted by patent, under his Majesty's seal ; as were also the offices of provost-marshal, clerk of the supreme court, clerk of the patents, and chancery, and clerk of the court for the town of Port Royal : the last three held by persons in England, and executed by deputies. Such was the state of Jamaica when Lord Vaughan arrived. He found his name illustrious, his friends faithful, his enemies silent, and the island pros- perous. The differences which a factious spirit had fomented between the King and his Parliament at home, allowed of no interference on the part of his ministers with the internal regulations of the colo- nies ; and Jamaica, thus left to her own resources, VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 279 governed by her own men, and ruled by her own ordinances, displayed a spirit of popular freedom, and commercial industry, which announced her rising fortunes. The indulgent, steady, and impartial conduct of A D> the nobleman who now assumed the reins 1677. o f government, afforded a prospect of serener days than had yet been experienced. The threatening aspect of public affairs induced him, however, to add considerably to the effective force of the island, and four thousand five hundred and twenty-five men now constituted a well-armed and tolerably disciplined militia. The quantity of sugar exported soon increased in a fourfold proportion ; but this prosperity was not lasting : it met with a lamentable interruption, and nothing could have saved the colony, had it not possessed the resources which it did. Two years had now elapsed since the laws had been sent to England for confirmation, and still they were not returned. New writs were there- fore issued for an Assembly, which chose April 9. J Colonel Beeston as its Speaker. One of the members was committed to prison, for offering an insult to the Governor ; and after a session of two months, distracted by adjournments, and dis- graced by faction, it was dissolved in haste and anger. A culprit had been condemned to death for bringing in negroes under a French commission, and the House, interfering to procure him another trial, 280 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. infringed the supposed prerogative of the Governor, and led to this result. The principal bills had been, however, re-enacted, with the exception of the Revenue Act, which the Governor rejected ; and, on the day of the dissolu- tion, it was made known that the Earl of Carlisle was coming out to supersede him. The council immediately met, and new writs were issued for another House, the last not having completed the body of laws. Beeston was again chosen Speaker : that which had been omitted was now perfected; and Lord Vaughan agreed to all, " except some few of little use, and the act for the revenue." He then 1678. dissolved the House, and closed his go- March, vernment by leaving the island, Sir Henry Morgan, and Lord Carlisle, without any revenue whatever. This nobleman, during a short but noisy adminis- tration, evinced a temper of stern inflexibility, little suited to the circumstances of the times, or to the people he had to deal with, who, as his predecessor had reported to the King, were " more easily led than driven/' He was neither to be awed by the frown of power, nor led by the voice of popular applause ; and, had he governed the island in times of greater political freedom, he would not have left an impression unfavourable to his popularity. In the course of a few days after this change in the affairs of the colony, intelligence arrived from VJII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 281 Barbadoes, that all the windward islands were forti- fying themselves, under apprehension of a rupture with France. The council therefore assembled, and preparations were made to defend Jamaica. Martial law was proclaimed ; while every tenth negro from the country, with every fourth in Port Royal, were employed on the public works. Thus were Fort James, Fort Carlisle, and several new lines, com- pleted ; although the prolongation of martial law caused an alarming mutiny, in which several of the /engineers were killed" by the negroes. The report that Count D'Estrees, with a powerful force, was hovering about the shores, kept the colony in conti- nual alarm, until intelligence was received May SI. that he had been cast away, and eleven sail of his fleet totally lost. The Earl of Carlisle arrived with Major-general Sir Francis Wilson, and two companies of July 19. infantry, well supplied with arms and stores. His commission was immediately read in the old church ; and he was splendidly entertained by the inhabitants. This commission empowered him " to summon general assemblies of the free- holders and planters, within the island and other territories thereon depending, in such manner and form as had been formerly practised and used in the island ; and to agree and consent to all laws, statutes, and ordinances, for the public peace, wel- fare, and good government of the island, &c. ; which said laws, being framed with the advice and consent 282 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. of the Council, should be transmitted to his Majesty, to be by him approved, and remitted back under the great seal of England : the said laws to be framed as near as conveniently might be to the laws and statutes of England." A power was likewise given him, " upon invasion, rebellion, or any sudden emergency, to pass laws, with consent of the Assem- bly only, for raising money, and without transmitting such money-bills to his Majesty." In the early part of his administration, Lord Carlisle relaxed that stern severity which had marked the government of his predecessor. He adopted many excellent regulations for the defence of the colony, which are still in force. And, indeed, during no period of its British occupation had greater vigilance been required to keep it for the Popish plot had diverted the attention of Great Britain from her foreign possessions, and Jamaica was left en- tirely to her own resources while the odious mea- sure with which his Lordship was charged, was calculated to render his administration arduous and himself unpopular. He had been selected to carry into execution a long-meditated form of government, modelled according to that of Ireland; and, amongst other laws framed with that intent, he brought a bill for settling a perpetual revenue. The acts which were sent home for confirmation, had been condemned by the Lord of Trade. His Majesty, therefore, rejected some, and ordered others to be remodelled after VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 283 Poyning's laws* ; in which mould they were all in future to be cast. Certain privileges which the Assembly contended for, and under which they had even imprisoned a member, were now disallowed, though considered necessary to the due representa- tion of the colony, and similar to those enjoyed by the House of Commons. Under these circumstances the Council met, reviewed these acts, and agreed that an Assembly should be convened to consider them. Although dissatisfied with the accommoda- tions provided for hkn in St. Jago, the Earl went there to meet the House, and was attended in state from Passage Fort. The base arts and mean evasions which then were used to make the country submit to the imposition of a yoke which would have enslaved it, may be estimated by the Governor's speech. " He would not say that the body of laws, which he had now brought, were altogether the same which were sent home the last time, the Council of Plantations having had but one day of meeting after they came ; neither could he answer for the exactly true writing of them, because the great seal was affixed to them but two days before he came away, and so he had no time to compare them. Those who were present when his commission was published might observe some alte- ration in the model of the laws, the style and title being changed to the King and Assembly ; which was a greater honour than any plantation ever yet * See Note LXV. 284 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. shared. That the laws to be made were, for the future, to be framed after those of Ireland. That Jamaica was under great obligation to his Majesty, who expected a suitable return ; and that he should, next day,, send over an act of the revenue, which it was necessary should be quickly despatched, that arrears due might be paid." He concluded by stating, that the King- was displeased at the passing of some acts in former Assemblies without using his name ; and that in the militia acts, last framed, a clause was omitted derogatory to the Governor's power, which had been given in the King's com- mission. The struggle for liberty, in which the colonists were thus engaged, merits more than ordinary atten- tion ; for it forms an epoch in the annals of Jamaica, from which are dated the constitution which it now enjoys, and the rank which it now holds. It was desired that the Assembly should give their consent to the laws which the Earl of Carlisle had brought with him, without the power of object- ing to, or the liberty of examining, any part of them ; and that no Assembly should be called, except by special order from England, or upon any extraordi- nary emergency. This was the intention of the words, inserted in the commission, " necessary emergency ;" for, under the latitude of their con- struction, it was left to the Governor's discretion to judge of, or to create, that necessity, in what manner and as often as he pleased. All laws, in future, were J : VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN l!hJ. 285 to be framed by the Governor and his Privy Council ; and remitted, from their board, to his Majesty ; and, after receiving- his approbation, they were to be returned under the great-seal, and passed by the General Assembly, according to the usage in Ireland. Such was the monstrous system of legislation with which it was proposed to bind Jamaica : and, per- suaded that he should easily succeed in placing these iron fetters on a helpless people, Lord Carlisle, with unbecoming confidence and haughty pride, met the Assembly, which once more elected the patriotic Beeston for its Speaker. No threat was left untried no persuasion neglected no art omitted, which might induce the members to bend their necks beneath this Irish yoke. They temperately, but unanimously, resisted all his attempts, declaring- " that the mode proposed was repugnant to the con- stitution of England, of which country they were the natural subjects ; and that they were not desirous of living under any other than the laws of England." His Lordship finding all his efforts abortive, and that the resources of the colony were likely to be with- held, permitted them, in their own way, to pass a revenue bill of one year's duration ; and, having signed it, he dissolved them ; not however before they had separately and distinctly rejected each law which he had imported, and requested him to inter- cede with his Majesty on behalf of the oppressed colony. The abhorrence which the proposed system ex- 286 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. cited, was, therefore, represented at home ; and the consideration of the measure was again referred to the lords of trade, who, with more obstinacy than prudence, adhered to their former resolve ; and upon their report to the King in council, the same laws were returned, accompanied by his Majesty's order, that they should be once more tendered to the Co- lonial Assembly. Such was the pernicious advice which the opinion of the twelve judges afterwards declared unconstitutional ; and which was calculated A.D. to enforce a tyrannical government without 1679 * reason, and almost without example. Armed with this mandate, the Governor summoned another assembly, of which Beeston was still the Speaker ; and the laws which were passed in Lord Vaughan's time were continued by proclamation dur- ing the pleasure of the King. His lordship commu- nicated his orders, which were received by the House with the utmost respect ; but with a fixed and unani- mous resolve never to consent to its own bondage. The character of the Earl, which was deeply tinctured with vanity, that passion of a little mind and a cold heart, had been justly estimated ; and perceiving that his intemperance would drive them to the alarming alternative of admitting or rejecting the King's au- thority, the members took advantage of the popular rumour of a French invasion, to gain time for consi- deration, or strength for resistance. They passed a bill for continuing the impost six months, and pre- sented it to the Earl, with a desire that they might VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 287 be spared from legislative duties, to secure their shores. To this request he acceded, signed the bill, and prorogued them. When they met again, the same entreaties were renewed, and the same resolution opposed Oct. 20. them. The Earl's emissaries had been busy and persuasive ; but every obnoxious law was again distinctly negatived. His pride was now sti- mulated by shame and resentment ; and he resorted to the most unbecoming threats. He declared that if the members persisted in their obstinate rejection, he would send them as rebels to England. He com- manded their attendance, and produced that memor- able oath which was to be the test of their fealty *. The Speaker refused it, and most of the ministers did the same a constancy of principle which drove the intemperate Earl beyond all the bounds of mo- deration and decency. Long, the chief justice, was suspended from his seat in the council, and dismissed from his office on the bench. But fury was encoun- tered by firmness ; and the mortification of defeat "was embittered by a tardy sense of folly. The Go- vernor dissolved the assembly, yet deemed it neces- sary to appear before his Majesty with his oppressed opponents, as his prisoners. Such was the patriotic guilt of Long and Beeston, that they alone were se- lected ; and the fetters which had been thus forged for Jamaica, were broken by the perseverance of the former, who was animated with the zeal of a citizen, * See Note LXVI. 288 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. and the philosophy of a stoic. As soon as he arrived in England, he fearlessly impeached the Earl ? , and subscribed a declaration which spoke the language of loyalty and resentment. He stood before the King to deliver the sentiments of his fellow-colo- nists ; he spoke in the name, and in the cause of his peers, and the King yielded to the call of justice and of freedom. The question was referred to the judges ; and they immediately decided in favour of independence and Jamaica. Ministers readily, or reluctantly, gave up the point ; the old form of government was restored ; and its privileges renewed or enlarged. The report of the judges was never made public, but the question was: "whether, by his Majesty's letter, proclamation, or commission, his Majesty had excluded himself from the power of establishing laws in Jamaica ; it being a conquered country, and all laws settled by authority there being expired?" Sir Thomas Lynch, the succeeding governor, de- clared that " His Majesty, upon the Assembly's humble address, was pleased to restore us to our beloved form of making laws ; wherein we enjoy, beyond dispute, all the deliberative powers in our Assembly, that the House of Commons enjoy in their houses." To seal the compact, and heal the wound thus wantonly inflicted, the King relinquished his right to the quit-rents, then estimated at one thousand four * See Note LXVII. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1G92. 289 hundred and sixty pounds per annum, and decreed that in future they should be appropriated solely to the use of the island. The apprehension of a French invasion increased the excitement which these important measures pro- duced: while a report that the island was actually sold to that power, gave little encouragement to im- proving agriculture. Count D'Estre'es was again visible from the threatened shores ; and he sent four officers to Blue-fields bay, for liberty to wood and water. It was granted, and he departed ; but mar- tial law was immediately proclaimed, and the mem- bers of Assembly dispersed to their respective posts, having first obtained the governor's sanction to a bill continuing the impost six months longer. The des- tination of the hostile fleet, now strengthened by nine men of war, and two fire-ships, under the Count de Bethune, was, however, still unknown. I may be permitted here to fix a date in natural history, by observing that it was this fleet so long cruising in these seas, which collected, and was the means of introducing to Europe, the destructive worm which is the most dangerous enemy to the British navy. The privateers once more crowded the seas, and again were they rewarded by their accustomed spoil ; while from a wreck at Ambrosia, the Spaniards had fished up a large quantity of silver, which was all poured upon the shores of Jamaica. Sir Henry Morgan acted as lieutenant-governor VOL. I. 290 HISTORY OF THE COLONY. [Chap. during Lord Carlisle's absence ; and the Earl declining AJ) to resume his government, Sir Thomas 80 * Lynch, who had once already presided over the island, was appointed its governor, and AD empowered, "with the advice and consent 1681 - of the council and assembly, to frame such laws as should be conducive to his Majesty's interest, and agreeable to themselves." Several acts were therefore passed in the new style, by the, Governor, AD Council, and Assembly ; of which the long- 1682 disputed Revenue Bill, for seven years, was one. Twenty-eight were confirmed by the King, for the same period ; and the duration of these, with some others which completed the first volume of the laws of Jamaica, was afterwards extended to the pe- riod of twenty-one years. One of the most important of these laws, is that still in force, enacting that " freeholders of known residence are not subject to arrest, and being held to bail in civil process/' The peculiar mode of proceeding, is to deliver the party a summons (leaving it at his house is deemed good service), together with a copy of the declaration, fourteen days before the court ; whereupon the de- fendant is bound to appear, or judgment will .pass by default. Twenty-eight days after the first day of each court, execution issues ; for which there is but one writ, comprehending both a fieri facias, and a capias ad satisfaciendum ; but as no general impar- lance is allowed before judgment, the effects levied on must remain in the defendant's hands until the VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 291 next court, to give him an opportunity of disposing of them to the best advantage : and if he then fails paying over the money, a venditioni exponas issues to the marshal to sell those, or any other goods, or to take his person. An explanatory commission * to Lord Carlisle con- tained those privileges of making laws in Assembly which are still in force, and which have ever since been minutely the same, with the solitary exception that, in the year 1716, the Governor was directed not to pass any laws that should repeal a law confirmed by the Crown, without a clause of suspension, or first transmitting the draft of the bill ; and in the year 1734, this limitation was extended to all laws re- pealing others, even though such repealed laws should not have been confirmed by the crown. What possible misconduct on the part of the colonists, or what secret expectations on the part of the Crown, gave birth to a project which would have deprived Jamaica of the privileges of the British constitution, is a question of more difficulty than importance. Yet it may, perhaps, receive a ray of light from an act of the Assembly of Barbadoes, which, in the year 1663, had been prevailed upon, by Lord Willoughby, to grant an internal revenue to the crown of four and a half per cent, on the gross produce of that island, and for ever. The steady refusal of the Jamaica planters to entail a similar burden on their posterity, might perhaps have sug- * See Note LXVIII. U 2 292 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. gested the arbitrary measure of depriving them of those constitutional franchises which alone could give security to their laws, or value to their posses- sions. Happily for their descendants, neither in- trigue nor violence was successful against the spirit of popular freedom. But Jamaica, always prodigal, and often poor, was scorched by the flame which this contest kindled; and its vigour received a check which almost withered it. Many large proprietors deserted the island in those turbulent times, and sought a refuge in other countries; while a very natural apprehension was entertained > that if the solemn promises, held out to them in the King's proclamation brought over by Lord Windsor, and the uniform assurances of all their governors, were thus infringed in one essential point, they could hope for no security against subsequent violations in eveiy other. The government at home was not insensible to the misery it entailed. But the King was the feeble head of a great body; and the ruinous con- dition of Jamaica demonstrated the wretched policy, if not the base perfidy, of attempting such a mon- strous innovation on the constitutional rights of an industrious people. The character of the Earl of Carlisle was in unison with the mission he was charged with. According to the experience of human nature, we may calculate a hundred, nay a thousand, chances against the public virtues of a statesman: yet his public character betrayed both political and constitutional perfidy; while his vices VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C02. 293 WIM v as scandalous as his talents were mean. His avarice was exemplified in the memorable transaction of Paul Abney, the pilot ; which proved, that if it were sometimes checked by fear, it was never re- strained by humanity or justice. The desertion of the island was at this time so great, and the want of agricultural strength so press- ing, that multitudes of English labourers were kid- napped, and brought here by force ; an abuse which called forth an order from the royal council. Dec. 13. Industry, 'however, always treads in the footsteps of liberty. The colonists supported with A D firmness the calamities of war and faction ; J683> they had now gained a material point in the arrangement of their constitution, and they soon improved, and enjoyed, the prosperity of repose and peace. " Who," said the Governor in his opening speech, " has ever seen Port Royal so full of ships, or known the planters to have sold their goods so dear ? If we have had losses at sea, have they not been borne with that equanimity and silence that becomes merchants and reasonable men ? and our trade is nevertheless increased : so that we have more seamen and vessels than any king's colonies in these Indies; and are you not all my \\itnesses that, within fifteen months, every man's freehold, throughout this great island, is almost risen in value from fifty to two hundred per cent?' 1 In this speech, Sir Thomas Lynch claimed for the British Government a grateful return from the people 294 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. of Jamaica for having dropped an oppressive and pernicious project, as if it had actually conferred upon them a positive and permanent benefit; and the question of political privileges being settled, that of revenue was again started. The royal sanction was still withheld from many of the laws passed after the re-establishment of the Assembly's rights; al- though it was not urged that these laws were either useless, or repugnant to those of England. Amongst others, that important act, declaring the laws of Eng- land to be in force here, was peevishly disallowed. The same mistaken policy which had urged the ministers of Charles to enslave the colony by the introduction of the Irish constitution, now induced them to attempt the imposition of a perpetual inter- nal revenue, by advising their sovereign to refuse his assent to the laws, and to suffer the administra- tion of justice to remain here in a precarious and unsettled state, for the space of more than half a century. For the purpose of erecting forts, and repairing fortifications, the English government had insisted on the supply bills being past for seven years*; but the Assembly, equally resolute, con- tinued to enact them from year to year only plead- ing that the money granted by the island of Barbadoes was notoriously appropriated to purposes widely different from those for which it was expressly given ; and justly demanding some security against a similar misapplication here, before it would subject the island * See Note LXIX. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 295 to a permanent and irrevocable burden : and it was not until the year 1728 that this point was compro- mised, or the discussion dropped. Mr. Neville,, in a letter to the Earl of Carlisle *, referring to the law which had been introduced by Modyford, declaratory of the English laws being in force here, and which, in default of the royal sanc- tion, had been renewed every two years, writes, " Thus my lord did to encourage vexatious and troublesome proceedings, that the whole wealth of the island came into, the hands of attornies and so- licitors ; and became so grievous that the Assembly, in Sir Thomas Lynch's time, made a law that every man should plead his own cause. This did rather hurt, than good : for the lawyers being suppressed, and the laws continuing as voluminous as ever, the cunningest knave carried all before him ; and in- deed none but such as intended to cozen everybody, durst, or did, become administrators to the dead, or guardians to children : so that perceiving the wolves increase, they were forced to let go the tamer de- vourers, the lawyers." Sir Henry Morgan now fell a sacrifice to the re- sentment, legitimate or unjust, of the Spanish court ; and to the pusillanimity of the English government, as Sir Walter Raleigh had done before him. Under the authority of a letter from the secretary of state, he was sent a prisoner to England. He survived his misfortune three years, in close confinement dead to his enemies and to the world. * MSS. in the Council Chamber. 296 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. The administration of Lieutenant-governor Moles- A.D. worth was tranquil and obscure : marked 168 K only by the first serious rebellion which had occurred amongst the negro slaves. The agri- cultural strength of the island was considerably aug- mented by the arrival of many who were convicted of participation in the Rye-house plot, and reprieved from hanging, on condition of serving ten years in the West Indies. The rigour with which this sen- tence was executed, may be inferred from the gover- nor's speech, requiring the House to prepare " an act for ascertaining the servitude of the rebels lately sent from England ; and to prevent all clandestine releasements, and buying . out their time." Few lived, however, to its expiration, In the following year Sir Philip Howard received A D> his commission as Captain-general and less. Governor-in-chief. His instructions named his council ; and the judges of the Admiralty, with several other individuals, having been deprived of their seats in the council by the late governor, a re- port of that proceeding was called for by the King. The Assembly had been dissolved by the demise of Charles II, ; the intelligence of which event was communicated to the council in the month of April ; but it was not until the eighth of April in the following year, that writs were issued for A D another house. We hear no more of Sir 1686. phiiip Howard's appointment. The go- vernment of W[olesworth continued, obscure and in- VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 297 glorious ; while his adminiatration was rather busy than active. The colony, however, recruited its strength ; trade revived, and the laws were duly en- forced. Its riches were now the fruit of industry ; and its industry was guarded by liberty and peace. The Jews flocked hither in multitudes ; and by in- structing the planters in the arts of commerce, they found great encouragement to stay *. A dispute, however, arose respecting the Poll-tax Bill; and the House was dissolved "in detestation* of its partial and unjust pro- ceedings.'* Such was the language of Sir Hender Molesworth, now created a baronet. Soon after this A D rupture, Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, 1G87 * the only surviving son and heir of General Monk, was appointed Governor of Jamaica. His health ruined by vice, and his fortune by extrava- gance, he was driven to the necessity of imploring bread from James II. ; and it was insidiously reported that this appointment was a species of banishment for his zeal against the Roman Church. 1 1 is subsequent acts, however, sufficiently proved that he was sent here rather as an engine to load the colonists with Popish fetters. He was accompanied by Father Churchill, and by his duchess; "whose presence," I use the words of legislative gallantry, is was an honour which the opulent kingdoms of Mexico and Peru would never arrive at ; and Co- lumbus's ghost would be appeased for all the indig- * See Note LXX. 298 M HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. nities he suffered from the Spaniards, could he but know that his beloved soil was hallowed by such footsteps." The active interference of Father Churchill was soon apparent ; and he wandered through the coun- try, literally, an itinerant preacher of the Roman doctrines. He had the pleasure, in one of his jour- nies, to be halfrdrowned in a river, and half-starved on a rock; and he vainly hoped to convert the heretics of Jamaica to the true faith. The first act of the Duke was to convene an As- AD sembly; but after fair promises and flatter- less. j n g, S p eecnes> ft exhibited a scene of poli- tical commotion which was the forerunner of greater disasters than the colony had yet been threatened with. The conduct of this nobleman affords many instances of the arbitrary principles of the times. Needhaiii, one of his creatures, accused Towers, an irreproachable member of assembly, of treason; for having used the words " salus populi, summa lex." For this speech the patriotic offender was compelled to pay a fine of six hundred pounds, and to give security for four thousand. The House pro- tected its member, and -was dissolved ; but not be- fore it had passed a just censure on the base informer. Writs were issued for another assembly: when the freedom of election was so grossly violated, that the Duke admitted hosts of servants and discharged seamen to the poll ; and actually imprisoned many legal voters of wealth VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 299 and consideration. He imposed fines on them to a large amount, and threatened " to whip two gentle- men' * for requesting an habeas corpus for their friends. He made Doctor Rose give ten thousand pounds security for reporting the fact, that the Chief Justice told the people, in open court, that they should be now ruled with rods of iron : an expres- sion which threatened such consequences, that many abandoned their properties and left the island. That the mission of the Duke was connected with the Holy See, is probable ; that he attempted to convert the island to Popery, cannot be doubted* The King had been publicly at mass in Saint James's, and had published two papers taken out of the late King's strong box, to prove that he had died a Papist. The Duke of Albemarle had, per- haps, his own religion to choose ; but he was a pliant tool a man not less contemptible for his weakness, than odious for his vices. Fortunately for Jamaica, he held not long the reins of govern- ment ; the change of climate, and habitual intem- perance, terminated all his worldly contentions a few months after his arrival, but not before the indigna- tion of the colonists had been strongly expressed in an address to his Majesty. A death thus premature, thus sudden, thus seasonable, might awaken sus- picions of poison and such suspicions were propa- gated and believed by the zeal of party ; but they are not justified by the character of the times, of the island, or of the personal adversaries of the Duke* 300 HISTORY OF THE COLONY . [Chap. His body was embalmed, and followed to England by the Duchess, who was afterwards Duchess of Montague. The government devolved on Sir Francis Watson, who had been nominated President of the Council in the King's commission to the Duke ; and the Assembly, then sitting, was ad- journed, and continued by prorogation, until dis- solved by the accession of William and Mary. The members of the Council, who had secured themselves from arrest during session, as legislators ; and out of session as privy-councillors, now assumed the distinction of tc Honourable," and the President as- serted his right to the title of " Right Honourable ;" but the borrowed plume was quickly plucked from Sir Francis Watson by the King's command. It was about this period that a post-office was first established here, under the superintendance of James Wade ; but it did not succeed, and was for many A.D. years little more than a nominal appoint- 1689 * ment. The laws which had been lately passed were now petitioned against ; and his Majesty was pleased to remit them, with the illegality of the House which had enacted them, to the decision of the next Assembly. The judges and other officers, -displaced by the late governor, were restored to their respective appointments ; and the fines which had AD been imposed were remitted. The Earl 90 ' of Inchequin arrived as Governor. Ano- iher Assembly was immediately summoned; and V11I.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 301 its first act was to offer him a Bill abrogating the laws passed in the late reign of tyranny and terror. He was overwhelmed with addresses and congratu- lations upon " the miraculous power of God in rais- ing his Majesty to be the glorious instrument of de- liverance from the Philistine bondage which had ex- tended itself into these the remotest of his Majesty's dominions." Some dissensions, however, again arose in the Assembly, respecting a Bill for the de- fence of the island ; and the Earl intemperately re- jected the congratulatory address of the House to himself, and " threw it to them with some contempt." War was declared against France, and the hostile cruisers were committing continual depredations on the sea-side plantations. A large sum was raised for the temporary relief of the sufferers, but the alarms thus occasioned were increased by internal commotions. The runaway negroes also began to be troublesome ; they came down from the woods, robbed the neighbouring settlements, and committed AD atrocious cruelties. Yet they were pos- 91 sessed of retreats so secure, that all en- deavours to dislodge them were vain. The failure of the troops sent for that purpose strengthened their force, by inducing many of the disaffected to join them ; and although every possible precaution \\ as taken to prevent their arming themselves, they collected to the number of four hundred, and at- tacked Mr. Sutton's plantation in Clarendon. There they murdered every white person, and seized fifty 302 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. stand of musket s, four small field-pieces, with abundance of ammunition and provisions. From thence they proceeded to the neighbouring- plan- tations, acting the same tragic scenes, until they were met by a party of the militia, who drove them back to Button's house, where many were killed, some tried and hanged, and the least culpable par- doned. Distracted by dissensions, and overwhelmed with difficulties, brought on by his own intem- Jan. 16. perate government, the Earl died. His passions were buried in his tomb; but the same policy, with a milder aspect, still reigned in the councils of his successors. The government de- volved on the President, who was soon after killed by the earthquake ; and then it fell to John Bourdon, the next in succession ; after an address had been voted by the council, praying to be heard before their Majesties, against the late proceedings in as- sembly, the violation of the freedom of election, and the attempts made to introduce the Roman Catholic religion. The Swan and Guernsey men of war, which the late governor had sent to destroy the French settlements in Hispaniola, had been emi- nently successful ; and returned with many valuable prizes. But when the colony was thus full of hopes, AD and wallowing in riches, it was subjected . -:,; 1692 * to the most awful calamity that ever visited a people. The town of Port Royal, the receptacle of so much wealth, and the scene of so much wick- yiJI.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 303 edness, sunk into the earth, and three thousand of its inhabitants instantly disappeared ! It was upon the 7th of June, about mid-day, that a mysterious roar was heard in the distant mountains. The noise rolled onwards, and the greater part of the town fell before the cause was known. The wharfs, ponderous with spoil, sunk instantaneously; and the water stood five fathoms deep, where, a moment before, the crowded streets had displayed the glittering- treasures of Mexico and Peru. The Council,. which had that morning voted the address above referred to, was held there, and had but a few minutes adjourned. The President was lost, and the Rector escaped, to give the following curious detail, in a letter dated a few days after this dreadful event. " After I had been at church reading prayers, which I did every day since I was rector of this place, to keep up some show of religion, and was gone to a place hard by the church, where the mer- chants meet, and where the President of the council was, who came into my company, and engaged me to take a glass of wormwood wine, as a whet before dinner, he being my very good friend, I staid with him : upon which he lighted a pipe of tobacco, which he was pretty long in taking ; and not being willing to leave him before it was all out, this determined mr from o-oing to dinner to one Captain Ruden's, whither 1 was invited : whose house, upon the first 304 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Char. concussion, sunk into the earth, and then into the sea, with his wife and family, and some that were come to dine with him : had I been there, I had been lost. But to return to the President, and his pipe of tobacco: before that was out, I found the ground rolling 1 , and moving 1 Under my feet ; upon which I said to him, ' Lord, Sir, what is that?' He replied, being a very grave man, ' It is an earthquake ; be not afraid, it will soon be over.' " The confidence of the unfortunate President proved his destruction, for he was never heard of more ; but, says the Rector, " I made toward Morgan's fort, because, being a wide, open place, I thought to be there securest from the falling houses : but as I was going, I saw the earth open, and swallow up a multitude of people ; and the sea mounting in upon them, over the fortifications. Moreover, their large and famous burying-place, called the Palisadoes, was destroyed, and the sea washed away the carcasses. The whole harbour, one of the fairest and goodliest, was covered with dead bodies, floating up and down. In the opening of the earth the houses and inhabit- ants sinking down together, some of them were driven up again by the sea, which arose in those chasms, and wonderfully escaped." Such was the case, it has been said, of Lewis Galdy, who was afterwards, during many years, a member of Assembly for Port Royal, and now lies buried in Green Bay> opposite. On his tomb the VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 305 event is recorded in an inscription, still legible, be- neath a shield bearing a cock, two stars, and a cre- scent, with the motto, Dieu sur tout. " Here lies the Body of Lewis Galdy, Esquire ; who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22nd December, 1736, aged 80 years. He was born at Montpellier in France, but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island ; where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 1692 ; and, by the providence of God, was, by another shock, thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming-, until a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation, beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death." " Others," continues the Rector, " were swallowed up to the neck ; and then the earth shut upon them, and squeezed them to death : and in that manner several were left buried with their heads above ground ; only some heads the dogs have eaten ; others are covered with dust and earth by the people which yet remain in the place, to avoid the stench. So that they conjecture, that, by the falling of the houses, the opening of the earth, and the inundation of the watersy there are lost fifteen hundred persons of good note; as Attorney- general Musgrove, Pro- yost-marshal Reeves, Lord-secretary Reeves, &c." Appalling as was this visitation, yet there is some reason to believe that the strength of the wormwood wine, or the terror of the moment, operated power- VOL. I X 306 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. fully upon the Rector's senses ; and that this detail is, in some points, exaggerated. The town was principally built upon a triangular bank of sand, loosely adhering to a shelving rock, whose base is in the sea. A slight concussion, therefore, aided by the enormous weight of buildings thereon, would cause this Delta to slip into the water, whence it had been, by degrees, and but lately, thrown up. Indeed so recently had the sand accumulated there, that when Jackson invaded St. Jago, only fifty-four years previous, the point, upon which Port Royal stood, was entirely separated from the main land ; and even when Venables took the island, it was joined to it only by a slender ridge of sand just breaking through the waves. Comparing the foregoing account with the testi- mony of many witnesses, it appears that the morning of the 7th of June had been clear, hot, and sultry ; not a cloud was above the horizon, nor a breath of air abroad. The earthquake commenced at forty minutes past eleven, A. M. with a gentle, tremulous motion ; and was succeeded by another shock some- what more violent, but accompanied with a hollow, rolling noise, mysteriously sounding in the earth and air. This dreadful warning, too familiar to West Indian ears, was instantly followed by a third tremendous shock ; when screams of anguish, and in- articulate cries of horror, were as quickly drowned by the rush of waters, and the simultaneous crash of a thousand falling edifices. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1692. 307 The ruins are even yet visible in clear weather from the surface of the waters under which they lie. The harbour appeared in motion, as if agitated by a storm, although no air was stirring ; mighty billows rose and fell, with such unaccountable violence, that many ships broke from their cables ; and the Swan frigate was forced over the tops of the sunken houses. This afforded a providential refuge for many of the drowning sufferers. Of the whole town, perhaps the richest spot in the world, no more was left than the fort, and about two hundred houses. In the opposite rock, at Port Henderson, the shock rent many caverns, which are still visible ; and through these the waters, forced up to an eleva- tion of twenty feet, continued gushing, with a sul- phureous steam, during several succeeding days. The houses in Spanish Town were shaken to their foundations ; the walls of all were split ; and those recently erected, upon a plan less secure than that adopted by the wary Spaniards, were totally de- molished. On the road to Sixteen-mile-walk, two mountains fell, and met : the riven hills were closed with colossal masses of disjointed rock, which Mopped up the bed of the river, and which in some places still remain the eternal witnesses of that day's dreadful convulsion. The water, thus con- fined, rose to an overwhelming height; and then, bursting its adamantine barrier, bore all before it There was scarcely a mountain in the Island that did not change its outline ; or a rock which was not X 2 308 HISTORY OF THE COLONY [Chap. split. In Saint David's parish the traveller is amazed by a fearful precipice of solid rock ; and shudders at the tradition of an entire plantation having been buried by the fall of the enormous mass which thus leaves the bleached cliff bare. Every spring was observed to rise ; or, what is more pro- bable, the entire surface of the island somewhat subsided ; and on one spot ' ' above one thousand acres of land are said to have sunk with thirteen inhabitants*." The tremendous convulsions were repeated, with little intermission, though with de- creasing violence, for the space of three weeks ; and every fissure in the rocks, every cleft in the cracked and parching earth, was steaming with sulphureous fumes. The air reeked with noxious miasmata; and the sea exhaled an offensive putrid vapour which destroyed a great proportion of those destitute and wretched beings whom the convulsion itself had spared. No fewer than three thousand were the victims of this dreadful endemic ; and the few sur- viving inhabitants of Port Royal who sought a refuge in temporary huts where Kingston now stands, were yet within reach of the contagious cause : for the dead bodies still floated in shoals about the harbour, and added horror to a scene which the pencil could not delineate, much less the pen describe. The insupportable heat of a tropical midsummer was not, for many weeks, refreshed even by a partial breath of air ; the sky blazed with irresistible fierceness ; * Long's Hist, of Jamaica, v. ii. p. 142. VIII.] TO THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN 1C92. 309 swarms of musquitoes clouded the atmosphere ; while "the lively beauty of the mountain forests suddenly vanished, and the fresh verdure of the lowland scenery was changed to the russet grey of a north- ern winter. The cane-fields were disfigured by masses of fallen rock, and presented to the wearied eye a barren wilderness, parched, and furrowed. Thus vanished the glory of the most flourishing emporium in the New World, by a succession of tre- mendous judgments, resembling those visitations of an offended Deity or! some cities in the Old World, where an iniquitous race was overwhelmed in sudden and unexpected ruin. Large sums of money, arising- from the treasures of unknown or lost proprietors fell into the hands of many individuals ; and amongst others, into those of Sir William Beeston, who was charged by the Assembly, ten years afterwards, with having appropriated a considerable share to his own use. One loss was irrecoverable, and is still se- A D verely felt : that of all the official papers 961 public and records of the island, whose history is thereby rendered so obscure and incom- plete*. * See Note LXXI. CHAPTER IX. THE HISTORY OF THE COLONY CONTINUED UNTIL THE SETTLE- MENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. THE enemies of Great Britain,, who had suffered so 1 between the council and the assembly, in the consideration of a money-bill to provide for the defence of the island, and a suitable residence for its governor. An offensive message was carried from the lower house Chap. IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 311 by a member, who said " that he was commanded to acquaint the board that, notwithstanding the miscon- structions from the lame report of its clerk, and the uncommon usage to the house in their expected access, yet, for their Majesties' service, and the safety of the island, they had let all disputes fall, and brought up the money-bill a second time, which the house adhered to." To this it was replied, "that the message sent up by the Assembly was false and scandalous," (such was the style of the council,) " and an unworthy* reflection on their Majesties' Lieutenant-governor, and this board ; and that this board never knew of their sending up a money-bill after it was sent down with the amendment, till this pre- sent afternoon. " The right arrogated by the members of the council at this early period of their legislation, not only to reject but to amend money-bills, and to apply public money, has since been very frequently made the subject of contention. Like other matters which allow not of proof, it yet admits of endless con- troversy, although totally repugnant to the usages of Parliament. To waive the probable issue of the disputed point in this instance, the Lieute- nant-governor thought it prudent to dissolve the Assembly*. The depredations committed by the French cruisers AD now became seriously alarming, and a 1694 - formidable descent was hourly expected. Colonel Beckford was immediately sent " to lay at * See Note LXXIL 312 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. their Majesties' feet their present deplorable condi- tion ;" and on the nig-ht of the 31st of May. May 81. ... intelligence reached the Lieutenant-go- vernor that the enemy's fleet was actually upon the coast. He instantly convened the Assembly; and adjourned it, after holding a council of war to adopt the means of defence. The following detail of the invasion is from his official pen. ; - >Fc. NARRATIVE OF THE FRENCH INVASION. BY SIR WILLIAM BEESTON. "A BRIEF account of what happened in their Majes- ties' island of Jamaica during the time the French were preparing to attack that island, and remained upon, or about it, in 1694, in which I shall be obliged to make some short digressions, because I shall have occasion to mention some persons, without which all things will not be so well understood. " Privateering having been for some years past dis- countenanced in this island, and encouraged amongst the French at Hispaniola, many of our people went over to them, and, in time, became theirs : others, some Roman Catholics, some Irish, some much inclined to think they could that way serve King James ; and others, through dissatisfaction, and being in debt, ran away to them by which means they were strengthened, and we were weakened. The chief of these rogues was one Grubbin, who was born here of English parents, and who, knowing all IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 313 parts of the island, has done much mischief by land- ing in the night upon lone settlements near the sea, and robbing them of all they had, and away again before any notice could be given. Stapleton and Lynch, also, two Irishmen, have, since my coming, proved very inveterate. The first came from the Windward Islands, and brought his wife and chil- dren, and was kindly received about Port Morant ; the other, I guess, came in a sloop for a spy to him. I tendered the oaths, but he refused them, and got out of the way before*! could have him apprehended. After him I sent a warrant all over the island ; but Major Kelly found a way to send them off in a sloop that he pretended was to go to Cura^oa, to get sailors (whither many of our seamen had resorted because they would not be pressed into the navy) for a great Dutch ship he had brought there, and probably that was part of his design ; but he put in the sloop about twelve hundred pounds* worth of indigo, and sent it privately, contrary to the act of navigation. About this time he was killed alone by the French, who had landed a party at Cocoa Bay to plunder, as he was riding up to Port Morant to despatch this sloop. Soon after it sailed, and those two men in her ; who, to requite him for his kindness, ran away with her, and all the indigo, to the French ; and there these two wretches told Le Sieur Ducass, the governor, that this island was to be easily taken ; the fortifications at Port Royal were out of order, and few men there; so 314 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. that two hundred men would take that place, and two hundred more would march in any part of the country, the people were so few, and so unused to arms. Stapleton wrote to his wife, whom he had lodged near the sea, in St. Thomas's parish, that he would come and fetch her, and some company, meaning negroes ; and other discoveries he made therein ; but by chance the letter came to my hand, and I secured his wife. " Sometime in April, one Captain Elliot was sent in the Pembroke sloop, with a cargo of eight or ten thousand pounds, to trade upon the coasts of Carthagena and Porto Bello ; and there in a bay, he was taken by two French privateers, and carried to Petit Goave. About the same time I got the Falcon manned, and gave orders to Captain Bryan to cruise seven or eight leagues to windward ; where he presently met six privateers with five hundred men, designed to land and plunder the parishes of St. Thomas and St. David. The pri- vateers fled, but a prize of theirs fell into our hands. At this juncture arrived at Petit Goave some mer- chant-ships from France, and three large men-of-war. The Governor there being told by the privateers where the Falcon was cruising, these ships were sent out, with another of twelve guns, to take her ; which they effected. " All our ships had been on the coast of Hispa- niola, and there, accidentally, met with Grubbin's wife, a French woman he had married there, and IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 315 at her desire they brought her hither, where she earnestly desired to stay, and to have protection from her husband ; and as it was a stated agreement between Ducass and myself, that what of their nation were with us, and desired to continue so, should not be obliged to be sent away against their wills, and the like with ours that were with them; therefore, when they had a flag of truce here, I would have had her gone with M. Lepass, but she refused : so Grubbin, in revenge, told the people, when he landed and plundered ; and wrote to me, that if I did not send off his wife, he would carry away every woman he could meet with, till he had his wife again. " Accordingly, one night he landed at a lone house in St. Elizabeth's, one Mrs. Barrow's, a minister's widow, plundered all her negroes, and all she had ; tortured her to discover her money, and took away with him her maiden daughter, Miss Rachael Bar- row, to Petit Goave. This passed a hundred miles from me, so that I heard not of it presently. Other privateers went to the north side of the island, where they took Major Terry and his wife, and several sloops. I then considered these were inhumanities beyond the custom of war, and therefore sent Major Low, one of the council, and Lieutenant-colonel Clarke, with a flag of truce, and a letter to M. Ducass, remonstrating with him; but they were seized, plundered, and detained as prisoners. ' Whilst I was under some doubts and concern- ments, which daily increased upon me as the time 316 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. passed away, on Thursday the last day of May, in the evening as I was sitting* with some gentlemen, comes into my house Captain Elliot, whom I have before mentioned to have been taken by the French, in a very mean habit, and with a meagre weather- beaten countenance, and told me that, for the safety of the island, he and two more had ventured their lives to the will of the sea in a small canoe ; and had, the Saturday night before, stolen away from the enemy, to let me know that the French had recruits of men, and men-of-war, from France, and Martinique ; that they had taken the Falcon ; that they had twenty sail, and three thousand men, designed to take this island ; and in order to it, M. Ducass was coming with them ; that Stapleton, Lynch, and others, had told him he would meet with but little difficulty, for the fortifica- tions at Port Royal were down since the earthquake, and that at least five hundred men, some Roman Catholics, and others affected to King James, would join him ; that they were ready to sail when he came away, and might be expected in two or three days, hoping to take us by surprise. " This was surprising news ; but the Council and Assembly being then together here, I presently sent for the former, and soon after for the Speaker, and concluded he should call the Assembly together, and adjourn for one month : which was accordingly done ; and a council of war of the officers immediately called, and martial law proclaimed, and every officer or- dered to his post. At this time one of the bastions IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 317 of Fort Charles was built but up to the sills of the ports : but Colonel Beckford, who commanded there, quickly put all in order,, laid a line of nineteen cul- verins to the east of the fort, and five to the west, and fitted a fire-ship : at the same time he laid the Advice to second the fort ; drew all the merchants' ships into a line; barricaded the streets, and lined them with great guns. To strengthen him, I sent him fifty white men, and fifty blacks, from Saint Catherine, and as many from Saint Andrew, and Kingstoti ; while, in the latter places, Colonel Lawe drew lines, and secured a narrow pass to the eastward of Kingston ; and Sir James Castillo, having garrisoned and provided his house, which was well walled and gunned for a defence, they built a regular fort on the parade. At Saint Catherine's side we likewise made very good breast- works, and planted guns, as was done at Old Har- bour, and Carlisle Bay ; while I sent for all the forces from the out parts, and drew them together into Saint Dorothy, Saint Catherine, Saint Andrew, and Port Royal; leaving some few to defend the breastwork at Carlisle Bay, which was thirty miles off. The people of Saint Thomas, and Saint David, the easternmost parts of the island and most obnoxious to the enemy, I ordered all in : at Fort William, and Port Morant, I ordered the guns to be spiked, the shot buried, and the powder brought away. " According to our daily expectation, on Sunday e n. moniiug the fleet came in sight, with 318 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. a fresh gale; and we thought they would have come directly into Port Royal; bnt they had met with no intelligence, and therefore eight sail stayed about Port Morant, and fourteen of them went to an anchor in Cow Bay. Here a negro presently came to them, and told them that Captain Elliot was arrived, that we had notice of their coming, and that Port Royal was fortified. Nevertheless M. Ducass would have come in, but M. Rollon, the admiral, who commanded the Temeraire, would not venture. Then they fell to landing their men, plundered, burnt, and destroyed all before them eastward ; and cut down the very fruit trees. Some of the strag- gling people, that were left behind, they tortured particularly Charles Barber ; and James Newcastle they murdered in cold blood. During their stay at Port Morant, they despatched four or five vessels to the north side ; and in Saint Mary, and Saint George, burnt several plantations : while the admi- ral's ship was blown from her anchors in Cow Bay, and, for want of water, bore away for Blue-Fields Bay ; where he landed sixty men, but Major Andress soon drove them on board their ship again. " The fleet, having done all the mischief it could at Port Morant, sailed ; and some of them came in sight of Port Royal, and went to anchor again in Cow Bay. To amuse us, they landed their men very fast, and made fires along the Bay ; which gave us cause to think they designed to force the pass into Saint Andrews : for fear of which I sent thither about an hundred men; but IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 319 still doubted a trick ; and so it happened : for, as soon as it was dark, they all took their men on board again, and sailed; all but three of their biggest ships, which still kept in Cow Bay to amuse us : so that the 18th in the morning we saw seventeen of them from our lookouts in the country, standing to the westward ; and then I concluded their design was to surprise Carlisle Bay ; but I presently sent there two troops of horse, and part of the regiments of Saint Catherine, and Clarendon, and Saint Eli- zabeth. ''*V " The enemy came all to an anchor in that Bay, in the afternoon : where lay a ship from July 18. . J Guinea, which the Captain set fire to, and withdrew his crew to defend the breastwork. Into this breastwork were gotten two hundred and fifty men, besides blacks, being those of the regiments that got down first ; and Colonel Sutton of Claren- don was the chief officer, and builder of the work ; but it was ill made, and worse contrived. On the south was the sea ; on the west a large river ; on the north a village ; and on the east they had left a wood standing, and made no provision for the men or horses. "Next morning, some hours before day, the French, in all their fleet, made signs for landing, by throwing up, in every vessel, small balls of wildfire; and by daylight they had landed about fifteen hundred, but avoided the breast- work, and landed about a mile and a half to the east- 320 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. ward of it ; where were small guards to watch them, who fired as they approached, and retreated about ten in the morning. They having now very good guards came down the wood on the east side ; they fell very hotly on the breastwork, which kept up a great fire ; and the French officers forcing on their men, ours gave way and fled to the westward; where many got over the river, and were saved; others bogged, and drowned. Many of the officers, and most of the men, fought bravely, and killed many of the enemy before they were forced to retreat. Colonel Claybourn of St. Elizabeth's, and his Cap- tain-lieutenant Vassell, were killed ; as also Lieute- nant-colonel Smart, of Clarendon, Lieutenant Daw- kins, and others. Captains Dawkins and Fisher, and many others, taken prisoners, and four of their colours lost. " Just as the French forced the breastwork, three or four companies of the St. Catherine's regiment, with one of St. Elizabeth, and some horse, came in after a march of thirty miles that night, weary, lame, and hungry ; yet they fell bravely on the right of the enemy, and charged them so warmly that they could not follow our men across the river, or else they had been all cut off. Here both officers and men be- haved themselves with that gallantry that they made the enemy retire, and ours then being very much fatigued, did the like, to recruit themselves. Here Captain Rakestead, and some others, were wounded, and some killed, on our side, and many of the French ; JX.J SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 321 who, as soon as the rencounter was over, fell, accord- ing- to their wonted barbarity, to burn and destroy all they came near, and made no other advance toward our forces, nor we toward them, but in several skir- mishing- parties, till Sunday: then they marched upwards, and came to a brick house of one Mr. Hubbard, who had gotten about five-and-twenty men into it, well provided with arms, ammunition, water, and conveniences. On this house they fell smartly ; but they from within applied themselves so to their defence, that they killed many, and wounded more; and of these, several of their considerable officers. A party of horse and foot came up in time, and beat them off; but here we lost some men : also our scouts brought news this evening that the enemy were providing great guns to batter the house. " At this time, some of the chief of our officers not being so brisk, nor managing with such conduct as the case required, the commissioned officers chose Major Richard Lloyd, major to myself, of the regi- ment of horse, to direct and command all the force there, which then was above seven hundred ; and sent an express to me to confirm it, which I did. " The next day, being Monday, Major Lloyd put about fifty men into Mr. Hubbard's house, July 23. J and laid the rest of the forces in an excel- lent ambuscade, expecting the enemy to come on, as they had reported ; which had they done, few had returned alive: but that night they set fire to the VOL. I. Y 322 .HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. small town of Carlisle, and went all aboard their ships. On Tuesday their whole fleet sailed, M. Ducass, and two or three or ships, made the best of their way, and stayed not anywhere ; but about seventeen sail went into Port Morant to wood and water, which they did with all speed. On Saturday they put ashore most of the prisoners they had taken, and we have heard nothing of them from that time." THUS happily terminated the most formidable at- tack which was ever made upon the shores of Jamaica; and with no greater cost to the English than about one hundred men killed, or wounded ; while the French lost upwards of seven hundred. To Captain Elliot the island presented a medal and chain, with 500/. ; and the two men who ventured with him in the canoe were each handsomely re- warded. The brick house, in which so gallant a stand was made, remains with the shot visible in its walls ; and a solitary cotton-tree, in the road from the Abbey to Carlisle Bay, still marks the rallying point of the English, and the grave of many a valiant soldier. Labat, with his usual inaccuracy, asserts that }iis countrymen captured and burnt Port Royal, and destroyed more towns in Jamaica than Jamaica ever possessed : and that Ducass and his officers " y ont fait des fortunes si considerables, qu'elles auroient .IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 323 pu faire envie aux plus riches particuliers de I'EuropeV Aided by the melancholy catastrophe of the earth- (jiiake, the consequences of his visit were, however, as disastrous as the greatest enemies of Jamaica could desire. Fifty sugar-estates were totally de- stroyed, with many plantations in St. Thomas, St. David, and St. Mary; and thirteen hundred negroes were carried off, besides spoil to a consider- able amount. In the parish of St. Ann, a detach- ment under BeauregArd laid waste a large tract of country belonging to Mr. Waterhouse, and captured several merchant-ships at Ocho Rios. Sir William Beeston received the thanks of their Majesties, and a promise of such assistance as should "not only free Jamaica from the insults of the enemy at present, but reduce the French in its neighbourhood to such a condition as to put them out of capacity for the future to molest the inhabit- ants, or to disturb the trade or commerce of their Majesties' subjects in those parts." A squadron A D was therefore despatched, commanded by 95 - Commodore Wilmot, with twelve hundred land forces under Colonel Lillingston, to retaliate on the French settlements in Hispaniola. In this expe- dition, the English and the Spaniards for once fought side by side on Indian ground. Numerous towns fell beneath their united efforts, and a vast plunder became the property of the conquerors. But the * Labat, torn. ii. p. 215. 4to. ed. 1724. Y2 324 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. treacherous Commodore, to increase his own portion of the spoil, sacrificed his troops, and shared no better fate himself. About this period the rebellious negroes, having formed several considerable settlements in the inte- rior of the island, commenced offensive war, under Cudjoe, their native leader ; and, during the forty- seven succeeding years, they continued to harass the country, causing the expenditure of at least two hundred and forty thousand pounds, and the enact- ment of forty-four different laws. The Assembly met, according to adjournment; but no proceedings of that session are to be found on record, nor any other information than may be collected from the official intercourse between it and the council. Thence it appears that a dissension arose upon the question, whether the sum of thirteen hundred pounds, voted to Colonel Beckford for going to England, should not be applied to " the exigency of relieving the people who were undone by the enemy.'* The Governor offered rather to give a hundred pounds for that purpose from his private purse ; and urged that, if he sanctioned any altera- tion in the former vote, " his neck would answer for any mischief which might happen to the island for want of the required succours." At length he com- plied with the desire of the House, and then dis- solved it. The treaty, ratified between England and Spain, among other points, had arranged that which related IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 325 to their joint commerce in negroes ; and Sir James de Castillo, who received his knighthood from King William, resided here as agent for the latter power, to purchase slaves and ship British manufactures to the Main. His services during the late invasion induced the Assembly to confirm to him a parcel of land in the neighbourhood of Kingston, which still retains his name ; and, during the third Assembly of Sir William Beeston, a donation of four thousand pounds was presented by the King to those who had suffered by the incursions of the French. Their numerous cruisers still harassed the northern A D shores of the island, and M. Ponti feigned >96 * an attack ; but Admiral Neville pursued him, and captured one of the richest ships of his squadron, worth about two hundred thousand pounds sterling ; after which they never made any serious attempt upon Jamaica. Nothing of importance occurred, either in colonial politics, or local incident, during the last few years of the seventeenth century. Sir William Beeston failed in obtaining any concession from the Assembly towards the enactment of a perpetual revenue ; and, wearied with fruitless attempts, dissolved it. Peace A D having been proclaimed with France, the 1698. nex j. Assembly profited by the favourable opportunity to improve the internal condition of the island, as well as to complete its defence in those points where it had been lately found so vulnerable. But the rebellious negroes still continued to harass 326 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chapi the interior plantations, and as it was found neces- sary to give further encouragement to the import- ation of a white population, an act was passed " to enable certain persons to sell white servants.'* The Jews, now become a body of considerable opulence, forgot the humility which had rendered them respectable, aspired to political equality, and applied for a removal of their disabilities. Their petition met with a decided refusal; and one of their irritated body was compelled literally on his knees, to ask the pardon of the House for having dared to strike the negro servant of a member. At this time the Scotch settlement at Darien* was suppressed by an order, directed to the several British Governors in the West Indies, prohibiting all assistance to that unfortunate establishment The company had fortified Golden Island at the bottom of the gulph, where the narrow isthmus would be a defence against an host of invaders, and deny all access to the Indies of the East. But this commercial enterprise, which promised the fairest prospects, and was supported by the most respectable individuals, was sacrificed to the new alliance, the legitimate rights, or the vain arrogance, of the Spanish nation ; which conceived a foreign settle- ment in a nation of unconquered Indians to be an infringement of its ridiculous pretensions to the New World* In vain did the Scotch repeat their peti- tions to the King for a re-establishment of their * See Note LXXIII. IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 327 settlement : in vain did they beseech his Majesty to call upon his Parliament to support their expiring Colony, the only answer they obtained was, " that his Majesty was sorry for the loss of his ancient kingdom, and of the company ; that they still had the same liberty to trade to the West Indies, as formerly; and that he would call the Parliament when he thought the good of the nation required it." Jamaica was closed against them by a proelama- A D tion, in which it was declared that " their set- 1699> tlement wa contrary to the peace between his Majesty, and his allies ;" and all his Majesty's subjects were forbidden to hold any correspondence with them, or afford them any assistance. The House of Lords addressed the King against their re-establishment ; and that circumstance becomes memorable, when it is coupled with the fact that it afforded an occasion to his Majesty then Feb. 12. . first to propose the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. Several inhabitants of Port Royal were convicted of, and punished for, having arranged a plan to support the Darien colony; and in this humane plot Sir James de Castillo was implicated. Such councils decreed,, and such power executed, the destruction of the company, that a book, fair and harmless in itself, but entitled " An Enquiry into the Scots Colony at Darien," was declared by the Com- mons to be a false and traitorous libel, and ordered 328 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. to be burned by the common hangman. Thus hunted down, the remains of the ill-fated colony, ruined in their fortunes and starved out of their possessions, solicited, and, at length obtained, per- mission to join the Surinam planters in Jamaica. They established themselves between Bluefields and Luana Point ; where they may yet be traced at Cul* loden, and Auchindown. The government of Sir William Beeston was one of political embarrassment, and no inconsiderable responsibility. It fell to his lot to provide against, and encounter, the most formidable attempt which was ever made by a foreign power to subdue the island. He had, moreover, to stem the torrent of overwhelming distress which followed the destruction of its great commercial capital ; while his instruc- tions respecting the Revenue Bill were in opposition to the wishes of the community, and the decisions of its senate. Yet he, for a considerable time, secured to himself a greater share of popularity than had been enjoyed by any of his immediate predecessors ; A D and he dissolved this Assembly in tolerable 1700 ' harmony with all its members. There happened indeed an instance of stubborn opposition to his will, in the re-election of Usher Tyrrell, the member for Saint James's, who, at his instance, had been expelled the house. He sent back the return for further consideration ; but, with the advice of his council, he at length forbore the provocation, IX.} SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 329 and confirmed the writ. The succeeding Assembly, 170 , however, exhibited a scene of boisterous June 24. con f us j on ^ an ^ continued irritation ; for the governor would give no account of large sums of money, books, and writings, connected with unowned treasures found after the earthquake ; and charity may suggest that he could render no statement of the disbursement of his Majesty's bounty of four thousand pounds intended to relieve the sufferers by the French invasion. But the consequence was, that the house refused to proceed, was July 28 prorogued, and then dissolved by procla- mation ; leaving a stigma upon the character of Sir William Beeston which his explanation never effaced. He was superseded in the government by 1702 Major-general Selwyn, governor of Tilbury Jan. 21. p ol ^. m w hose Assembly an address was presented praying that Sir William Beeston might not be permitted to quit the island without account- ing for the monies he had appropriated. Selwyn died; and Colonel Beckford, who had a dormant commission, of old date, caused his power, as Lieutenant-governor, to be proclaimed; and so continued the session. Beckford had passed through almost all the public offices in the island, as he observed in his speech, " though with no great applause, yet without complaint ;" and he carried on the business of this session in a manner which redeemed the pledge he had given, that he would 330 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. " comport himself as well like a faithful servant to his King, as a true lover of his country*" Nothing of importance occurred, however ; the death of the King caused a premature dissolution, and the proclamation of Queen Anne* Louis XIV. having seized the Spanish dominions in right of his grandson, their territories in America fell, of course, into his hands. This occasioned " the Grand Alliance" which the late king con- cluded with the Emperor, arid the States-general, against France ; and which now involved all Europe jn a long, and bloody war, terminated only by the peace of Utrecht in the year 1713. The Queen, therefore, liberally encouraged all adventurers who should attempt to clip the Spanish dominions in the west; and Lieutenant-governor Beckford seconded her views by such means as Jamaica could afford. Admiral Benbow insulted the French, and their new allies, even in their ports. He sought M, Du- cass, encountered, and gallantly beat him ; but he was compelled to withdraw from the action, ere he had effected the destruction of his squadron. The cowardice of his captains cast a veil over the glory of this achievement, which the gallant Admiral did not long survive : he received a mortal gun-shot wound, and was buried in Kingston church. A court-martial was held on board the Breda, at Port Royal ; and of the five officers tried, two were sent home, and suffered the fate which their cowardice merited. IX.] SETTLEMENT OF ITS CONSTITUTION. 331 The governor had now convened another. Assem- Aug. e. bly ; and lists of negroes, stock, and ser- vaiiis, were returned as follows: Servants 1307 Slaves.. 41,596 Cattle 38,248 Sheep 28,598 The windward districts of the island were ha- rassed by the rebellious slaves ; and after adopting measures for " pursuing and destroying them," the house was prorogued without any occur- Aug.23. * rence worthy of record. The Earl of Peterborough was appointed governor of Jamaica, and the queen gave him far greater pow- ers than any one in that station had ever enjoyed. Why he came not to his government does not appear : probably a better appointment awaited him ; for soon afterwards we find him commanding the land forces on board the fleet, which* under Sir Cloudesley Shovell, sailed for the coast of Spain, and receiving the thanks of his country for his signal services in Catalonia. The offensive war, maintained by the Duke of Marlboro ugh in Flanders, withdrew all attention from the prosecution of active hostilities against the Spaniards here ; and a small squadron only came to Jamaica. The merchants seized the opportunity A D for reviving the privateering system ; and 1708 ' the gold mines at Santa Cruz Decana rewarded their daring industry with an immense 332 HISTORY OF THE COLONY TILL THE [Chap. treasure. Bat as if to exemplify the instability of human prosperity, Port Royal had no sooner reared its head above the ruins of the earthquake than it was a second time, even more completely, destroyed by a conflagration, which burst forth from the crowded warehouses where these spoils were heaped. With the exception of the two royal forts, and magazines, not a building was left. The rapid devastation was principally owing to the quantity of gunpowder, and other combustibles, which were lodged beneath roofs of pitch-pine ; a species of covering thenceforth prudently forbidden. This ruinous accident caused a second emigration to Kingston, which now rose as rapidly as her elder sister declined. Port Royal long remained a mere heap of ashes ; but possessing all the conveniences of trade, it still continued the favourite, though fear- ful,