Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

15

  • Prince of the forest, gave Barbadoes1 name:
  • Chief Nevis, justly for its hot baths fam’d:
  • And breezy Mountserrat,2 whose wonderous springs [135]

in their voyages to and from South-America, and the Islands; accordingly we are told, when the English first landed there, which was about the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, they found in it an excellent breed of wild hogs, but no inhabitants. In the year 1627, Barbadoes, with most of the other Caribbee-islands, were granted by Charles I. to the Earl of Carlisle,3 that nobleman agreeing to pay to the Earl of Marlborough,4 and his heirs, a perpetual annuity of 300 l. per annum,5 for his waving his claim to Barbadoes, which he had obtained, by patent, in the preceding reign. The adventurers to whom that nobleman parcelled out this island, at first cultivated tobacco; but, that not turning out to their advantage, they applied, with better success, to cotton, indigo, and ginger.6 At last, some cavaliers of good fortune transporting themselves thither, and introducing the Sugar-cane [A. D. 1647] probably from Brazil, in ten years time the island was peopled with upwards of 30,000 Whites, and twice that number of Negroes, and sent yearly very considerable quantities of sugar to the mother-country. At the Restoration, King Charles II. bought off the claim of the Carlisle-family; and, in consideration of its then becoming a royal instead of a proprietary government, the planters gave the Crown 4 1/2 per cent. on their sugars; which duty7 still continues, although the island is said to be less able to pay it now than it was a hundred years ago. It is upwards of 20 miles long, and in some places almost 14 broad.

VER. 134. Chief Nevis,] This island, which does not contain many fewer square miles than St. Christopher, is more rocky, and almost of a circular figure. It is separated from that island by a channel not above one mile and an half over, and lies to windward. Its warm bath possesses all the medical properties of the hot well at Bristol,8 and its water, being properly bottled, keeps as well at sea, and is no less agreeable to the palate. It was for many years the capital of the Leeward Island government; and, at that period, contained both more Whites and Blacks than it does at present, often mustering 3000 men. The English first settled there A. D. 1628. Sixty-two years aftewards, the chief town was almost wholly destroyed by an earthquake; and, in 1706, the planters were well-nigh ruined by the French, who carried off their slaves contrary to capitulation. It must have been discovered in Columbus’s second voyage, A. D. 1493.9

VER. 135. And breezy Mountserrat,] This island, which lies 30 miles to the south-west of Antigua,10 is not less famous for its solfaterre (or volcano), and hot petrifying spring, than for the goodness of its sugars. Being almost circular in its

  1. Barbados was first settled by the English in 1627. It gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. ↩︎

  2. Montserrat, a British overseas territory in the Leeward Islands. ↩︎

  3. James Hay, first earl of Carlisle (c. 1580-1636), a Scottish courtier and diplomat who came to the English court with James I. In 1627, he obtained a grant from Charles I for all of the Caribbean islands ranging from Barbados to St. Kitts. ↩︎

  4. James Ley, first earl of Marlborough (1550–1629), English judge and politician and rival to the earl of Carlisle for the English Caribbean islands. ↩︎

  5. Three hundred pounds per year. ↩︎

  6. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is probably native to India and was brought to the Caribbean by the Spanish in the sixteenth century (Higman 95). ↩︎

  7. Tax. ↩︎

  8. City located in the southwest of England. Also one of England’s most important sugar-refining cities in the eighteenth century. Although the initial steps of sugar production happened in the Caribbean, sugar was further refined in Britain before being sold to consumers there. ↩︎

  9. Columbus’s second voyage took place from 1493 to 1496. ↩︎

  10. Antigua is one of the Leeward Islands. It lies just to the east of St. Kitts. It was colonized by the English in 1632 and now forms part of the nation of Antigua and Barbuda. ↩︎