The story of our colonies: with sketches of their present condition

Front matter

T I \ E

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DEDICATED TO EARL GRANVILLE, K.G.

Preface

Perhaps the title of this hook sufficiently explains its purport. Of the history of the British possessions — a theme large enough for several volumes — it does not pretend to give a complete account, or even a comprehensive epitome. If it succeed in showing what were the virtues and the vices, the designs and the accidents, which led to the formation and development of our Colonial Empire, what are its present value and prospective importance, and how these may be increased by proper cultivation of the emigration-fields that are open to our over-crowded country, its object will be attained.

London, October 1860.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I. OrR EARLIEST COLON’TM

lutrodqction — ^The Cathayan Fablea — DiacoTery of Americ* by John Cabot — His “ Ney-fonnd-landg " — The Firat Efforts of the English in Colonizing Americ* — Sir Hamphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh— The Rise of English Colonization — The Eatabliahment of tha United States — England's other Colonies. [1490-1776.3 1

CIUPTER n.

The First English Settlements in the Weat Indies — Tho Exploits of Sir John Hawkins and his Sncceaeors — The Colonization and Early History of Barbados — Lord Willoughby of Parham — The Civil War in Barbados —

Lord Willoughby and Sir George Ayscne — The Progress of the Island dnring the Seventeenth Century — Its Trade and Population — The Slaves and their SnflVriiigs. [1662-1700.] 16

CHAPTER la

JAMAICA AND THE BUCCAXKERS.

Columbus in Jamaica — Its GoTemment by the Spaniards — Cromwell’s Conquest — The Maroons — The Buccaneers —

The Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan — The Connection of Jamaica with the Buccaneers — Its Early Progress —

The Earthquake of 1692, and Subsequent Disasters. [1605-1694.] 29

CONTEXTS.

viii

CTIAPTER TV.

PAO«

The Progress of Jamaica — Its Value to England — Slavery —

The Slave InBUrrw.tions — The Uisiiig of 17C0 — The Con - dition of HiB iSlavcH — The InMirrcction of 1832 — The Abolition of Slavery in 1834. [1691-I834.1 ... 43

CILU>TER V.

oun WEST INDIAN rOHBKBSIOKfl.

The Bermndao— The Bahamas— Other WcHt Indian Iglanda — Rritiiih Oiiiann — Trinidml — Harhailr»« — .Tamaieg- -ThB Present Condition of our Wcat Indian f'ljloniea — The CauwH f»r tlieir neterioration anil the Meanii of their Improvement. [n>93-1861>.] 63

CHAPTER VL

NEWFOUNDLAND.

The Rcginning of the Ncwfotwidland Fishcrica — Tlie Growth of Ncwfoundlainl as a Colony — EiiKlish Ncp;lect of it —

The Fishera and the Colonists — Its Tronblcg during War with France — Its Hubaeguent Develofiment — Seal- Hunting and Cod-Fialiing. [1407-1867.3 ... 68

CHAPTER Vn.

FltENCll NOlfl'll AMEltlCA.

The French in North Ameriea — The Colony of New France — Samuel Champlain — Tiie Progress of the Colony — Wars with the Indians and the English — Tlie Contests be - tween the EnRlish and French Colotiists — The English Conquests of Nova Scotia, CajM- Breton, and Canada. [1624-1 7C0.] 81

CILVFTER VHI.

NOVA SCOTIA AND NEW lll.UNHWICg.

The French .Settlers in Nova Seotia — Tlieir RanisliTncTit In 3765 — Progress of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and New BninswiekundertheEiiglislt— A Fire in New Brunswick - -Prince Edward's Island. [1765-1861.] ... 07

CONTEXTS.

IX

CILVrTER IS.

CAX.VDA.

The History of Canada nnder British Rale — The First Ame - rican War — Internal Troobles — The French and English CanaHians — T he Spconil Amerira n War — Fr f-sh Dompstii-. Difficulties— The Rebelliona of 1837 and 1838— laard Durham’s Scrricea to the Colony — Its Later History — The Canadian Confederation. ri~60-lS67.1

CHAPTER X.

The Hudson’s Bay Company and its Territory — Rivalry in tho Eighteenth Century — The Character and Working of the Company — Its Servants and Subjects — The Red River Settlement — Vanfonver Island and British Columbia — Dissolution of the Hudson’s Bay Company. fl670- 18C8.]

BRITTSn NORTH AWnTPA.

A General View of the British North Anitrican Colontes— Prince Edward’s Island — Cape Breton — ypra Scotia —

New Brunswick — Canada — The Western Territories — British Columbia and Vancouver Island. fl869.] . 189

CHAPTER XII.

The 'West African Settlements — Sierra Leone— Gambia — Cape Coast Castle — Lagos. fl600-1869.1

CHAPTER XI 11.

rjLW ffiiovv-

The Dutch Settlement on the Cape of Good Hope — Early Quarrels with the Hottentots and Cruel Treatment of them — Transfer of the Colony to England — Its Progress under British Rule — Tlie Kaffir Wars and Other Troubles — The Present Constitution of the Colony — Its Natural Advantages. [1648-1869.1 156

X

Contents

CHAPTER XIV.

The Kaffirs — First English Visits to the Eastern Coaat of South Africa — The Settlement of Fort Natal — Its Early Troubles and Later Progress — The Present Condition and Resources of the Colony. [1683-1869.] . . . 175

CHAPTER XV.

Chapter II. Our First West Indian Colony

THE FIRST ENOLISn SETTLEMF.XTS IN THE WEST INDIES— THE EXPLOITS OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND HIS SUCCESSORS — THE COLONIZATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF BARBADOS — LORD WILLOUGHBY OF PARHAM — THE CIVIL WAR IN BARBADOS — LORD WILLOUGHBY AND SIR GEOROE AY8CUE — THE PROGRESS OF THE ISLAND DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — ITS TRADE AND POPULATION — THE SLAVES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. [ 1562 - 1700 .]

F the colonies now in the possession of Great Britain, the oldest are the West Indies. They were, indeed, the scene of frequent fighting between English and Spaniards, out of which grew the subsequent colonization, long before there was any permanent settlement of our countrymen upon the American continent.

It was an island of the Bahama group that Christopher Columbus, believing he had thus attained his project of discovering a western passage to Cathay, first visited on the 12th of October 1492; and at San Domingo, in Hispaniola, or Hayti, he soon afterwards organized the centre of Spanish government, whence proceeded countless expeditions for conquering and colonizing the adjoining islands and mainland, all of which were then known as the West Indies. For some time the Spaniards were left in imdisputed

H>

OUR FIRST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

possession of these regions. To the King of Spain they were assigned by a Papal bull, which none dared to dispute until Protestantism was powerful enough to set at defiance the authority of Eome ; and by the Spaniards they were cruelly despoiled without hindrance, until the native Indians, reduced to bitter slavery by their conquerors, were almost exterminated.

England, in fact, was first brought into important relations with the West Indies by a memorable plan — the successful w'orking out of which cannot be looked back upon without shame — to supply the need occasioned by the rapid dying out of these Indian slaves. The originator both of the negro slave-trade and of our West Indian colonization w'as Sir John Hawkins, one of the most eminent of the great seamen under Queen Elizabeth. In his youth, says his old biogi’apher, “ he made divers voyages to the isles of the Canaries, and there, by his good and upright dealing, being grown in honour of the people, informed himself of the state of the West Indies ; and being amongst other things informed that negroes w'ere very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, he resolved within himself to make trial thereof.”^

This he did in 1562. With three little vessels he proceeded from England to Guinea, where he captured three hundred negroes, and, crossing the Atlantic, he sold his cargo at good profit to the Spaniards in San Domingo. His only purpose in so doing was the adoption of a lucrative and, in his

^ Prince, “ Worthies of Devon,” p. 389.

HAWKINS’S SLAVE -TRADING. 17

eyes, a harmless trade. King Pliilip il. of Spain, however, regarded any English interference with his colonial possessions as an offence to himself, and a source of danger to those possessions. He confiscated a portion of Hawkins’s retum cargo which found its way to Cadiz, and sent out strict injunctions to the West Indies, that if Hawkins came again no dealings were to be had Avith him. Hawkins did not choose to be so thwarted.

In 1564 he fitted out a larger fleet of trading ships, five in number, and, having collected a larger cargo of negroes on the western coast of Africa, went to sell them to the Spanish colonists. King Philip’s orders prevented his going again to San Domingo, but he disposed of his slaves on the Spanish Main, and was able to take home a wonderful store of “ gold, silver, pearls, and other jewels,” Avhich yielded a profit of si.xty per cent., after all the expenses of \he voyage had been paid. Queen Elizabeth rewarded him with a baronetcy, and tlie addition of a negro, “in his proper colour, bound and captive,” to his coat-of-arms ; and King Philip complained loudly of his insolent conduct in again interfering with the colonial trade of Spain.

Those complaints, however, only induced Sir John Hawkins to make a third expedition, greater and, more eventful than either of its predecessors. Upon this he started, with young Francis Drake for one of his captains, at the head of six vessels and fifteen hundred men, in 1567. The voyage was to him and his followers wholly unfortunate. He could only obtain a scanty supply of negroes on the African coast, and of these he had

B

OUR FIRST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

difficulty in disposing on the Spanish Main. Returning to England he was forced to seek shelter from bad weather, and the water of which his ships were in great need, by entering the Spanish port of San Juan de Ulloa, in Mexico. There, after a terrible fight with tlie Spaniards, he w’as utterly defeated. Great numbers of his comrades were slain. A few escaped with him to England. A hundred were taken prisoners and made slaves of by their enemies. “ All our business,” wTote Hawkins after his return home, “ hath had infelicity, misfortune, and an unhappy end. If I were to ■write of all our calamities, I am sure a volume as great as the Bible will scarcely suffice.”

Those calamities, however, furnished even a stronger motive for continuance of the work begun by Hawkins than sprang from his earlier successes. Bitter hatred of Spain was growing up among all Engli.shmen, and the hatred was increased in the hearts of many by these West Indian disasters. A desire to punish tlie Spaniards for the injuries they had inflicted on the English, and forcibly to -wrest from them a share of that wealth of trade ■w'hich they w'ere forbidden to obtain in peaceable ways, actuated many, and none so keenly or with such famous consequences as Sir Francis Drake, who had himself suffered and lost much by the failure of Hawkins’s third expedition. Drake started on a warfare of his own against Spain. Over and over again he made what would now be called piratical voyages to the We.st Indies and the Spanish Main, and in the course of these he capturerl much and destroyed much more. Others joined with him or followed in his track after

ENGLAND AGAINST SPAIN.

he had entered upon nobler pursuits in the legitimate service of his countiy, Avhich service had the same great end, the injuring of Spain and tlie seizure of the ■wealth she was acquiring in the West Indies and on the neighbouring mainland. Actual conquest of the Spanish possessions was not then thought of. The one thing aimed at was the spoliation of the enemy.' But when that spoliation had been to a great e.xtent effected, conquest and colonization naturally and easily ensued. Tims it was that the West Indies began to pass from the hands of Spain into those of England.

The islands first seized by England, however, only nominally belonged to Spain, which, while laying a claim to the whole group by virtue of Columbus’s discovery, colonized none but those most conveniently situated in relation to Hispaniola, and most serviceable as places of resort for the fleets and armies engaged in the conquest and goveniment of the great territories on the continent that were owned by Spain, from Mexico down to Chili. !Many islands were never actually appropriated by her, although on that account she looked none the less jealously upon attempts at their appropriation made by other nations.

So it was with Barbados and all the Caribbean group. To Barbados — thus named by some Portuguese, who, first visiting it, were struck by its profuse store of luxuriant fig-trees, from whose branches hung down masses of foliage resembling “ barbudos,” or beards — the Spaniards only went to capture the fierce

* The story of this work has been told at some lensfth in the second volume of luy “ English Scjiraen under the Tudoin,'’

ligitized by Google

OUB FIKST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

Indians who there resided, and who proved such sturdy slaves that within a short time they were all kidnapped and the island was utterly deserted. It was uninhabited when, in 1605, the crew of the Olive Blossom — a vessel fitted out by Sir Olive Leigh, “ a worshipful knight of Kent ” — chanced to land on its shores. They took possession of the island, planting in a prominent locality a cross, with the inscription, “James, Eling of England and this island,” hut quitted it as soon as they had replenished their ship with a supply of pigs, pigeons, and fish, with which it abounded. Its colonization was not attempted tUl twenty years later, when another vessel, belonging to Sir William Courteen, the famous London merchant, having sought in its harbour shelter from bad weather, attention was again called to its beauty and fertility. In 1625 Lord Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough, obtained from King James i. a grant of the island for himself and his heirs, and by him Courteen was commissioned to establish thereon the first English colony in the West Indies. This was done by a party of about forty, who in the same year went out and began to build James-town around the cross that had been set up in 1605. Its progress was delayed by quarrels at home. In spite of the first patent, the island was in 1627 granted by Charles l. to the Earl of Carlisle, who proposed to organize “ a large and copious colony of English, to be named the Carlisle province,” embracing all the Caribbean Islands, from St Christopher down to Trinidad. Lord Carlisle had most influence at Court, and, after a temporary withdrawal of liis patent, obtained its renewal. In 1628 he sent out

TUE SETTLEMENT OF BAEBADOS.

sixty-four colonists, who, under the governorship of Sir William Tufton, formed a rival power to that established by the earlier settlers. An angry feud, often leading to bloodshed, prevailed between the two factions, known as the windward-men and the leeward-men, until a further an-ival of two hundred persons made Lord Carlisle’s party strong enough to compel the submission of the others ; and after that Barbados very quickly rose to importance, both as itself a prosperous plantation, with nearly two thousand inhabitants, reinforced each year by fresh arrivals, and as a centre for the capture and colonization of the neighbouring islands.

The details of this capture and colonization need not here be given. Some of the islands were only seized and abandoned, not to be permanently occupied by Englishmen until many years later. Others, of which St Christopher was the principal, became prosperous settlements for a time, but, for various causes, passed out of English hands, only to be ' recovered long afterwards. Barbados was the only one of the eastern group of West Indian Islands which greatly flourished during the seventeenth century, and in even its progress there were disturbing, though hardly restraining, influences. The main cause of turmoil within it was also an important cause of its advancement. The strife of parties at home under Charles l. and the Commonwealth leaders, inducing many Englishmen to seek peace in the second England that was growing up on the American continent, drove many also to the fertile little island. “ These adventmers,” says the Earl of Clarendon, “ planted without anybody’s leave, and without being

OUIi FIRST WEST I^'DIAN COLONY.

opposed or contradicted by anybody.” In 1650, only twenty-five years after the first party of settlers had arrived, the population comprised twenty thousand white men, with a goodly number of negi'o slaves.

It had already grown too large to be managed by the Earls of Carlisle or the agents whom they sent out as governors on their behalf. Accordingly, in 1647, the second Earl effected an arrangement with Lord "Willoughby of Parham, to whom he assigned half the property’’ of the whole Caribbean group for a term of twenty-one years, on condition of his going out as lieutenant-general, “ for the better settling and recovering of the islands.” That treaty had memorable consequences. Lord "Willoughby, till then a Parliamentarian, was at this time beginning to sympathize with the Cavalier party. Shortly before the execution of Charles i. he was impeached for high treason, and his estates were confiscated. He escaped to Holland, where he openly took up the Eoyalist cause, and thence, in 1650, he proceeded to Barbados, intending to make of the "West Indies a stronghold for Charles n. In the island civil war was already waging, and Lord "Willoughby organized troops, set up forts, and equipped vessels for the overthrow of the colonial Poundheads.

He was so successful that Lord Protector Cromwell despatched a fleet, with two thousand soldiers on board, under Sir George Ayscue, to oppose him. Ayscue arrived on the 15th of October 1651, and on the following morning made an easy capture of fifteen vessels lying in the harbour. He lost no time in informing Willoughby that the Parliament of England desired that the people of Barbados should be sharers

CIVIL WAR IN BARBADOS.

in the liberty "which had been purchased at the expense of so much blood and treasure,” and that he was commissioned to demand the surrender of the island. Willoughby’s answer was, that he acknowledged no authority but that of King Charles, and that he should expect reparation for the injuries inflicted on the loyal forces of the sovereign. Ayscue then attempted to effect a landing, but the resistance offered to him was too formidable. On the 26th of October he sent on shore a manifesto to the inhabitants, calling on them to accept the free trade and protection offered by the Commonwealth, urging them to avert the destruction of their " long-laboured-for estates,” which must result from their continued obstinacy, and promising forgiveness for their past misdeeds if they would now submit. Tlie Eepresentative Body of the island replied, on the 5th of November, that its good people were proof against the ai-guments of “ those loose and scandalous papers industriously scattered up and down the island to poison their allegiance,” and that neither fear of future sufferings nor hopes of reward would weaken their loyalty, “ to whieh their souls were as firmly united as to their bodies.” Willoughby also wrote to Ayscue, acknowledging the " civility ” of his conduct, and averring that he did not " serve the King so much in expectation of his majesty’s prosperous condition as in consideration of his duty,” and that “ he would never be a means of increasing the King’s affliction by delivering up the island.” “ If there be such a person as the King,” answered Ayscue, “ the keeping of Barbados signifies nothing to the King’s advantage. God will own us in our attempts against you as He

OUE FIEST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

lias hitherto done.” There was a little further parleying, which led to nothing, and in the middle of December Ayscue effected a landing with a loss of ninety of his men, against fifty of the enemy slain and a hundred captured. The fort taken by him, however, could not be held, and he had to return to his ships, wliere he tended his wounded prisoners with a “ courtesy ” for which Willoughby wrote to thank him. AVilloughby continued to hold the island for a month longer, but one of his regiments, a thousand strong, at length declared for the Parliament, and, with this increase to Ayscue’s strength, he was unable to resist it, although three thousand soldiers were still faithful to him. He proposed a dignified surrender, not because he himself was willing thereto, but, as he said, " seeing tliat the fire is now dispersed in the bowels of the island, and that what may be done in a few weeks would turn the face of a country so flourishing, and so great an honour to our nation, into desolation and sadness.” Favourable terms were granted to liim by Ayscue, who declared himself “ proportionately desirous to save Barbados from further ruin and, by a treaty signed on the 12th of Januar}^ 1652, he and his followers were allowed to proceed to England without confiscation of their property, and the island and its dependencies quietly submitted to the dominion of the Commonwealth.^ The peace thus honourably effected was followed by a new period of prosperity, although the rapid growth of the population was not altogether due to peaceable and willing colonization. In 1657, between seven and eight tliousand Scots, taken prisoners ^ Kccord Office MSS., Colonial Series, vol. xi.

WHITE SLAVES AND BLACK.

9 .^ at the battle of Worcester, were " sold as slaves to the plantations of the American isles,” many of them being consigned to Barbados; and, among others of like sort, seventy persons detected in the Salisbury plot of 1666 , including divines, officers, and gentlemen, were sold to Barbados for loOO pounds of sugar a-piece. These unfortunate captives, it was said, were “ bought and sold from one planter to another, or attached like horses or beasts for the debts of their masters, being -whipped at the whipping-posts as rogues, and sleeping in styes worse than hogs in England.”^ The wliite slaves naturally resented such treatment, and more than one insurrection was organized between them and their black fellowsuffereis in the hope of securing a more humane policy. These were easily quieted, but the laws of humanity were gradually recognised as far as the English bondsmen were concerned. They were admitted to share the freedom of their neighbours, and then the whole brunt of persecution fell upon the negi-oes, towards -whom the civilization of those days accorded no more generosity than was needed to keep them alive and make them profitable chatteL

A vigorous trade existed between Barbados and the mother country during the time of the Commonwealth and afterwards. In the middle of the seventeenth century about a hundred vessels came to the island every year, laden with emigrants, slaves, cattle, tools, clotliing, and Eiu-opean produce of all sorts; and their homeward cargoes consisted of indigo, cotton, wool, tobacco, sugar, and other commodities raised

^ “ Barbados Merchandize, a Petition to Parliament, printed in the eleventh year of England’s liberty, 1C59.”

OUR FIRST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

by the industry of the inhabitants. These inhabitants, reduced to submission by Sir George Ayscue, proved willing subjects of the Commonwealth. They even in 1652 sought permission to send two representatives to sit in the English Parliament, and, though this was not gi-anted, their interests were well looked after by the authorities at home. Soon after the Eestoration, Lord Willoughby was sent by Charles ll. to resume his governorship of an island that had thriven mightily during his absence.

With Willoughby’s return began a new period in the history of Barbados. From 1663 it and the other Caribbean Islands were taken out of the hands of the old proprietors, and placed under the direct authority of the Crown. The original patentees were grudgingly compensated, and the planters were established as independent proprietors, subject to their paying a tax of 4 ^ per cent, upon the value of aU their exports. As this tax yielded more than £6000, the prosperity of the island is apparent.

Lord Willoughby’s second government of Barbados, wise and generous, was brief. In 1666 he conducted a fleet of seventeen vessels to punish the French and Dutch, who had made numerous aggressions upon the Caribbean Islands claimed by Great Britain ; but a terrible hurricane overtook him off Guadeloupe. He and the crews of fifteen of the ships were lost.

These hurricanes and the attendant storms of rain were the chief hindrances to the full development of the resources of Barbados. In 1675, a storm of unexampled magnitude devastated nearly half the island. A century later, in 1780, another brought death to more than four thoivsand persons, and de-

TUE PROGRESS OF BARBADOS.

stroyed more tlian a million pounds’ worth of property. Huge guns were carried through the air by the force of winds and waves. It is recoixled that one twelvepounder thus travelled a hundred and forty yards. The fertility of the soil, however, and the industry of the inhabitants, augmented by a steady importation of slaves, caused the periodical injuries of this nature to be easily retrieved. In 1676 the island contained twenty thousand whites and thirty-two thousand negroes. The English population has never greatly surpassed that limit ; but the black and coloured population has been nearly always on the increase, and this in spite of the excessive loss of life which is a necessary result of slavery. Through more than a century about four thousand slaves were im[)orted every year. Of these, some three thousand supplied the place of predecessors killed before their time. The actual increase of the black population was something less than a thousand a year.

Those figures alone, if such evidence was needed, wovdd suffice to show the evil work of slavery. This, the great blot in the history of our West Indian possessions, and perhaps the chief cause of their deterioration in modern times, will receive fuller illustration in later pages. In Barbados it seems, during the seventeenth century, to have assumed its w'orst and most degrading forms. The early colonists, w hether going out by their own choice, or as exiles by decree of the Parliamentary authorities, were mainly of the Koyalist party. Imbued with aristocratic and domineering tendencies at home and in their relations with other Englishmen of meaner birtli, they were unable to make generous use of the power which they

OUR FIRST WEST INDIAN COLONY.

possessed over their negro bondsmen. Down to 1805, the utmost punishment assigned by law to the murder of a black man was a fine of £11 sterling, and so many difficulties were in the way of conviction, even if the murder was sudden and patent to all, that the law was hardly ever enforced. No penalty at all was allotted to slower and more cruel modes of killing by overwork, and castigation for failure in completing it. Tlie slave’s only defence against the ill-treatment of his master was in his value as a beast of labour, and so long as new victims could be easily and cheaply procured from the coast of Africa, it was often most economical to work the old ones to premature death. It was poor consolation to the negroes to reflect, if they were not too ignorant for even this reflection, that the cruelties heaped upon them reacted upon their masters and produced their own degradation.

Tiiose masters, however, reaped great profits ; and during the seventeenth century Barbados, hardly larger than the Isle of Wight, was, after the settlements on the continent of America, the most important colonial possession of Great Britain. The wise rule inaugurated by Lord Willoughby, and carried on for the most part by other governors, under whose administration there occurred no special incidents that need to be recorded, aided it in the path of

wealth, and rendered it alike famous as a resort of * *

adventurers and as a source of profit to the mother country.

Chapter III. Jamaica And The Buccaneeks

OOLUHBtrS IN JAMAICA — ITS OOVKRNJIEN’T BY THE 8PAXIARI1S— CEOMWELL’s C0N(JUE.ST — THE MAROONS — THE BUCCANEERS — THE EXPLOITS OF SIR HENRY MORGAN — THE CONNECTION OF JAMAICA WITH THE BUCCANEERS — ITS EARLY PROGRESS — THE EARTHQUAEE OF 1692 , AND SUBSEQUENT DISASTERS.

[ 1605 - 1694 .]

HE early history of Jamaica, including ^ matters of more varied interest, differs

^ widely from that of Barbados. This

island, being about a twentieth of the size of Great Britain, is nearly forty times as large as its eastern rival. It was discovered by Columbus in 1494, and in it, being driven thither by a storm in 1503, he took refuge for more than a year from the ingratitude of King Ferdinand of Spain and the craelty of his agents, barely supported by the charity of the gentle Indians upon whom his great exploit was to bring misery and extermination. “ Let the earth, and every soul in it that loves justice and mercy, weep for me,” he wrote from his place of exile ; “ and you, oh glorified saints of God, that know my innocence and see my sufferings here, have mercy ! For, though this present age is envious or obdurate, surely those that are to come will pity me, when they are told that Christopher Columbus rendered greater services than ever mortal man did to prince or kingdom, yet was left to perish,

JAMAICA AND THE BUCCANEEES.

without being charged with the least crime, in poverty and misery, all but his chains being taken from him, so that he who gave to Spain another world, had not safety in it, nor yet a cottage for himself. And surely,” he added, with prophetic truth, “ such cruelty and ingratitude will bring down the wrath of Heaven, so that the wealth I have discovered shall be the means of stirring up mankind to revenge and rapine, and the Spanish nation hereafter suffer for what envious, malicious, and ungi'ateful people do now.”