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Sir,

I being ambitious to promote a settlement on Madagascar, beg you’ll (be) pleased to send me what accounts you have of that island, which will be a particular favour done

Your most obliged humble servant,

Woodes Rogers.

For some reason or other the proposed settlement never matured, and nothing further is heard of it. There remained, however, the question of the Bahamas, and it was not long before Rogers was called from the seclusion of his Bristol home to take command of an important expedition against the pirates of New Providence in the Bahamas, in which he was to become a pioneer in the settlement and administration of our West Indian Empire.

The story of this expedition, and Rogers’s subsequent career as Governor of the Bahama Islands, the most northerly of our West Indian possessions, has never been told in full before. It may be taken as a typical example of the pluck and enterprise shown by our early colonial governors against overwhelming odds and difficulties, and as such it fills an important chapter in colonial history. Although the islands had nominally belonged to Great Britain since 1670, they had been left without any systematic government or settlement for over half a century, and in consequence the House of Lords in an address to the Queen[24] during the early part of 1716, set forth the desirability of placing the Bahamas under the Crown, for the better security and advantage of the trade of this kingdom. They pointed out that twice within living memory the French and Spaniards had plundered the colony, and driven out the few English settlers, and that it was now necessary to establish a stable form of government there. Owing to their geographical position, the Bahamas were a favourite haunt of the pirates, whose headquarters were at New Providence, the principal island. Nothing however was done in the matter until the following year, when Rogers submitted a careful and considered proposal for their settlement to the Lords Commissioners of Trade, in the summer of 1717. He emphasised the importance of those islands to British trade and navigation, and the necessity of driving out the pirates and fortifying and settling the islands for the better protection of that trade. His endeavours were stoutly supported by some of the “most considerable merchants of London and Bristol,” who declared that Rogers was in “every way qualified for such an undertaking.”[25] In the meantime the Lords Proprietors of the Bahamas surrendered the civil and military government of the islands to the Crown with the reservation of quit rents and royalties. These they leased under an agreement dated 28th of October, 1717, to Rogers, who is described in the original lease as “of London, Mariner,” for a term of twenty-one years. For the first seven years Rogers was to pay fifty pounds a year; for the second seven years one hundred pounds a year; and for the remaining period two hundred pounds a year.[26]

Accordingly, Rogers’s suggestion, backed by the recommendation of Addison, then Secretary of State, was agreed to, and he was duly appointed “Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over our Bahama Islands in America,” the King “reposing especial trust” in his “Prudence, Courage and Loyalty.” On his appointment he assigned his lease to W. Chetwynd, Adam Cardonnel, and Thomas Pitt, with the proviso that the lessee was to have the right to grant lands “for not less than 1d. sterling per acre.”[27]

Among other things Rogers had represented to the Crown the necessity of taking out a number of soldiers to protect the colony, and on the 14th of October, 1717, Addison wrote to the Secretary of War stating that the company should consist “of a hundred men at least,” and that as the season was too far advanced to procure these forces from any part of America, he proposed that they should be “draughted out of the Guards, or any other regiments now on foot, or out of His Majesty’s Hospital at Chelsea.”[28] This garrison Rogers had proposed to victual at the rate of 6d. per head per diem, and the Treasury were asked to provide the sum of £912 10s.—the cost of a year’s victualling—“provided your Lordships shall find the same to be a cheap and reasonable proposal.”[29]

On the 6th of November Rogers duly received his commission as “Captain of that Independent Company of Foot which we have appointed to do duty in our Bahama Islands in America.”

While in London Rogers had an opportunity of renewing his friendship with Steele, whom he met in the Tennis Coffee House in the Cockpit, Whitehall, on which occasions we are told the conversation “turned upon the subject of trade and navigation,” a subject which we may be sure was eagerly discussed, for Steele at the time was full of his idea for the “Fish Pool,” a scheme for bringing fish alive to London.[30]

On Friday the 11th of April, Rogers sailed from England to take up his appointment.[31] His commission gave him full power to employ whatever means he thought fit for the suppression of piracy, and he also carried with him the royal proclamation of pardon, dated 5th of September, 1717, to any pirates who surrendered before the 5th of September, 1718.[32] At the same time a determined effort was made by the Government to stamp out piracy in the whole of the West Indian Islands, and several ships were despatched to Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands for that purpose.

After a voyage of three and a half months Rogers arrived at his destination, and on the 25th of July the Delicia, with the Governor and his retinue on board, escorted by H.M. ships Rose and Milford, anchored off Nassau, the principal town of New Providence, and the seat of government of the Bahamas. Owing to the lateness of the evening the pilot of the Delicia decided that it was unsafe to venture over the bar that night, and in consequence it was resolved to wait till the morning.[33] From information received it was learnt that nearly all the pirates are anxious to avail themselves of the royal clemency. Two notable exceptions, however, were Teach, the famous “Blackbeard,” and Charles Vane. The latter swore that “he would suffer no other governor than himself” except on his own terms, and these he embodied in the following letter to Rogers:—“Your excellency may please to understand that we are willing to accept His Majesty’s most gracious pardon on the following terms, viz.—That you will suffer us to dispose of all our goods now in our possesion. Likewise, to act as we think fit with everything belonging to us. … If your Excellency shall please to comply with this, we shall, with all readiness, accept of His Majesty’s Act of Grace. If not, we are obliged to stand on our defence. We wait a speedy answer.”[34]

Rogers promptly replied by sending in the Rose and the Shark sloop, and after a desultory cannonade—Vane set fire to a French prize of 22 guns—and during the confusion and danger which followed he and about 90 of his crew succeeded in escaping to sea.[35]

The morning following Vane’s escape Rogers went on shore and was enthusiastically received by the principal inhabitants. The pirates who had availed themselves of the royal pardon, were not to be eclipsed in their desire to show their loyalty to the new governor, and on the way from the beach to the Fort, Rogers passed between two lines of reformed pirates, who fired their muskets in his honour. On arriving at the Fort the royal commission was opened and read, and Rogers was solemnly sworn in as Governor of the Bahamas. The next procedure was to form a Council, and for this purpose Rogers nominated six of the principal persons he had brought with him from England, and six of the inhabitants “who had not been pirates, and were of good repute.”[36] Within a week of landing Rogers assembled this Council, and among other business the following appointments were made:—Judge of the Admiralty Court, Collector of Customs, Chief Justice, Provost Marshal, Secretary to the Governor, and Chief Naval Officer.[37] Having appointed his Council and administrative officers, Rogers next turned his attention to the inhabitants and the condition of the islands generally. It was a task which required a man of strong and fearless disposition, and Rogers did not shrink from the responsibility. The secret of his success was that he found and made work for all. The fort of Nassau, in ruins and dismantled, was repaired and garrisoned. A number of guns were also mounted, and a strong pallisade constructed round it. All about the town the roads were overgrown with brushwood and shrubs and rendered almost impassable. A proportion of the inhabitants were therefore mustered and employed in clearing the ground and cleansing the streets, while overseers and constables were employed to see the work carried out in an efficient manner. Those not employed on cleansing and scouring were formed into three companies of Militia whose duty it was to keep guard in the town every night, to prevent surprise attacks. The neighbouring islands were not forgotten, and various members of the Council were appointed Deputy Governors of them. A militia company was also formed in each of the principal ones, and a fort constructed and provided with powder and shot. As an extra method of precaution the Delicia was retained as the Governor’s guardship and stationed off the harbour of Nassau. A scheme of settlement was also devised, and in order to attract settlers to New Providence and the other islands, a plot of ground 120 foot square was offered to each settler, provided he would clear the ground and build a house within a certain time. As there was abundance of timber on the island which was free to be taken, this stipulation was not difficult to fulfil.[38]

Unfortunately the difficulties which Rogers had to contend with bid fair to wreck his almost Utopian scheme. Before many months had elapsed the pirates found this new mode of life less remunerative and much more irksome to their roving dispositions. As Captain Charles Johnson, their historian, tersely puts it, “it did not much suit the inclinations of the Pirates to be set to work.” As a result many of them escaped to sea at the first opportunity and resumed their former trade. One of their number, John Augur by name, who had accepted the royal pardon, was appointed by Rogers to command a sloop despatched to get provisions for the island. Captain John, however, soon forgot his oath of allegiance, and meeting with two trading vessels en route, he promptly boarded and rifled them. With booty estimated at £500, he steered a course for Hispaniola, little knowing that he had played his last card. Encountering a severe storm he and his comrades were wrecked on one of the uninhabited Bahamas, where Rogers, hearing of their fate, despatched a ship to bring them back to Nassau. Here they were quickly dealt with by the Court of Admiralty, and ten out of eleven of them were convicted and hanged “in the sight of their former companions.” A contemporary records that these trials were marked by “Rogers’s prudence and resolution, and that in the condemnation and execution of the pirates he had a just regard of the public good, and was not to be deterred from vigorously pursuing it in circumstances which would have intimidated many brave men.”[39]

Whenever the occasion offered, Rogers tempered justice with mercy, and the human side of his character comes out well in the case of the man who was pardoned. His name, Rogers informs us, was George Rounsivell,[40] and “I reprieved him under the gallows,” he wrote in a letter to the Secretary of State, “through a desire to respite him for his future repentance. He is the son of loyal and good parents at Weymouth in Dorsetshire. I hope this unhappy young man will deserve his life, and I beg the honour of your intercession with his Majesty for me on his behalf.”[41]

One of the greatest difficulties which Rogers had to encounter was the smallness of the force at his disposal for the preservation of law and order. The discovery of a conspiracy among the settlers to desert the island, and their friendship with the pirates, were matters of urgent importance which he brought to the notice of the home Government. From first to last his great ambition was to make the colony worthy in all respects of the British Empire, and amidst frequent disorders we find him busy about this time with plans for the development of the whale fishery, and for supplying Newfoundland and North America with salt.[42]

The failure of the Admiralty to send out ships for the protection of the colony against the swarms of pirates who still infested the West Indian seas caused Rogers to complain bitterly, and in a very interesting letter to his friend Sir Richard Steele, he regrets that several of his letters have fallen into the hands of the pirates.[43] In it he also gives an amusing account of a lady whose fluency of speech caused him considerable annoyance.

“To the Hon. Sir Richard Steele; to be left at Bartram’s Coffee-House in Church Court, opposite Hungerford Market in the Strand, London. Via Carolina.

Nassau, on New Providence,

Jan. 30, 1718/9.

Sir—

Having writ to you by several former opportunities, and not hearing from you, I have the greater cause to inveigh against the malice of the pirates who took Captain Smyter, lately come from London, from whom I have since heard that there were several letters directed to me and Mr. Beauchamp, which the pirates after reading tore.

Every capture made by the pirates aggravates the apparent inclinations of the Commanders of our men-of-war; who having openly avowed that the greater number of pirates makes their suitable advantage in trade; for the Merchants of necessity are forced to send their effects in the King’s bottoms, when they from every part hear of the ravages committed by the pirates.

There is no Governor in these American parts who has not justly complained of this grand negligence; and I am in hopes the several representations will induce the Board of Admiralty to be more strict in their orders. There has not been one here almost these five months past; and, as if they wished us offered as a sacrifice both to the threatening Spaniards and Pirates, I have not had influence enough to make our danger prevail with any of them to come to our assistance because of their greater occupations in trade. I, however, expect to be sufficiently provided, if the Spaniards, as believed, defer their coming till April.

At my first arrival I received a formal visit from a woman called Pritchard, who by her voluble tongue, and mentioning some of our first quality with some freedom, and, withal, saying that she was known to you, Mr. Cardonnel,[44] and Sir William Scawen, next to whom she lived, near the Storey’s Westminster, that I gave her a patient hearing. She dressed well, and had charms enough to tempt the pirates; and, when she pleased, could assume an air of haughtiness which indeed she showed to me, when I misdoubted her birth, education, or acquaintance with those Noblemen and others, whom she could without hesitation call over, and indeed some very particular private passages. She had often a loose way of speaking, which made me conjecture she endeavoured to win the hearts of her admirers to the Pretender’s interest, and made me grow weary of seeing her.

This my indifference, and a little confinement, provoked her to depart hence for Jamaica, saying that she would take passage for England to do herself justice, and did not come abroad without money to support her. She talked much of Sir Ambrose Crawley and his son, from whom she intends to provide a good quantity of iron-work; and, with a suitable cargo of other goods, she says she will soon make another turn this way; and seldom serious in her talk. I thought fit to say thus much of a woman who pretends to such a general knowledge of men, particularly of you and Mr. Addison. If our carpenters had not otherwise been employed, and I could have spared them, I should have been glad to have made her first Lady of the Stool.[45] She went hence, as I thought, with resentments enough; but I have heard since from Jamaica, that she has not only forgot her passion, but sent her friendly service to me; and, as I expect, she now is on her way home, designs to do me all the good offices that she can with all the numerous gentlemen of her acquaintance. But I can’t believe it; and I beg if you see her soliciting in my behalf, be pleased to let her know I don’t expect her company here, and she can’t oblige me more than to let me and my character alone.

Captain Whitney, Commander of his Majesty’s ship the Rose, man-of-war, being one of the three that saw me into this place, and left me in an utmost danger so long ago—he also pretends to a knowledge of you, and several of my friends in London: but he has behaved so ill, that I design to forget him as much as I can; and if he is acquainted with you, and sees you in London before me, I desire he might know his character from the several accounts I have sent hence, which, with what goes from other ports, may serve to convince all his friends that he is not the man that he may have appeared to be at home.

I hope Mrs. Ker and Roach who I sent hence has been often with you, and that this will keep your hands in perfect health and that you have thrown away your great cane, and can dance a minuet, and will honour me with the continuance of your friendship, for I am, good Sir,

Your most sincere humble servant,

Woodes Rogers.

Be pleased to excuse my writing to you in such a hurry, as obliged me to write this letter in two different hands. My humble service to Mr. Addison and to Mr. Sansom.[46] This comes enclosed to Mr. G. with whom I hope you will be acquainted.

W. R.

In a subsequent letter he writes regretting that his Majesty’s ships of war have “so little regard for this infant colony,”[47] and he certainly had just cause to complain. His statement about the Admiralty, and the representations of other colonial governors, is borne out by the following letter from the Governor of South Carolina, written on the 4th of November, 1718[48]:—“’Tis not long since I did myself the honour to write to you from this place (S. Carolina) which I hope you’ll receive, but having fresh occasion grounded upon advice received by a Brig; since that arrived from Providence I thought it my duty, after having so far engaged myself in that settlement once more to offer you my opinion concerning it. My last, if I forget not, gave you account of the mortality that had been amongst the Soldiers and others that came over with Governor Rogers and the ill state of that place both in regard to Pirates and Spaniards, unless speedily supported by a greater force than are yet upon the place; and especially the necessity that there is of cruising ships and Snows and Sloops of war to be stationed there, without which I do assure you it will at any time be in the power of either Pirates or Spaniards at their pleasure to make ’emselves masters of the Island, or at least to prevent provisions or other necessaries being carried to it from the Main, and without that it’s not possible for the King’s garrison or inhabitants to subsist. The Pirates yet accounted to be out are near 2,000 men and of those Vain,[49] Thaitch,[50] and others promise themselves to be repossessed of Providence in a short time. How the loss of that place may affect the Ministry, I cannot tell, but the consequence of it seems to be not only a general destruction of the trade to the West Indies, and the Main of America, but the settling and establishing a nest of Pirates who already esteem themselves a Community and to have one common interest; and indeed they may in time become so, and make that Island another Sally but much more formidable unless speedy care be taken to subdue them. … I should humbly propose that two ships of 24 or 30 guns and 2 sloops of 10 or 12 guns should be stationed there, one ship and sloop to be always in harbour as guard.”

In these days of rapid transit and wireless communications, it is difficult to realise what this isolation meant to a colonial Governor, with the perpetual menace of the enemy within his gates, and the risk of invasion from outside. The existence of the settlement depended entirely on his initiative and resource, and at times the suspense and despair in these far-flung outposts of empire must have been terrible in the extreme.

The difficulties which Rogers had to contend with are vividly shown in the following letter from him to the Lords Commissioners of Trade[51]:—

Nassau on Providence,

May 29, 1719.

My Lords—

We have never been free from apprehension of danger from Pirates and Spaniards, and I can only impute these causes to the want of a stationed ship of war, till we really can be strong enough to defend ourselves. … I hope your Lordships will pardon my troubling you, but a few instances of those people I have to govern, who, though they expect the enemy that has surprised them these fifteen years thirty-four times, yet these wre(t)ches can’t be kept to watch at night, and when they do they come very seldom sober, and rarely awake all night, though our officers or soldiers very often surprise their guard and carry off their arms, and I punish, fine, or confine them almost every day.

Then for work they mortally hate it, for when they have cleared a patch that will supply them with potatoes and yams and very little else, fish being so plentiful. … They thus live, poorly and indolently, with a seeming content, and pray for wrecks or pirates; and few of them have an(y) opinion of a regular orderly life under any sort of government, and would rather spend all they have at a Punch house than pay me one-tenth to save their families and all that’s dear to them. … Had I not took another method of eating, drinking, and working with them myself, officers, soldiers, sailors and passengers, and watch at the same time, whilst they were drunk and drowsy, I could never have got the Fort in any posture of defence, neither would they [have] willingly kept themselves or me from the pirates, if the expectation of a war with Spain had not been perpetually kept up. It was as bad as treason is in England to declare our design of fortifying was to keep out the pirates if they were willing to come in and say they would be honest and live under government as we called it even then. I ask your Lordships’ pardon if I am too prolix, but the anxiety I am in, and it being my duty to inform your honourable Board as fully as I can, I hope will plead for me till I can be more concise.

I am, with the utmost ambition and zeal

Your Lordships’ most obedient and most humble servant,

Woodes Rogers.

An interesting sidelight on the Spanish attack which Rogers mentioned in his letter to Steele, is to be found among the Treasury papers in the form of a claim for provisions supplied to Woodes Rogers “Captain General, Governor and Vice-Admiral of the Bahama Islands, during the invasion from the Spaniards against the Island of Providence,” when the inhabitants and others of that place were forced to continue under arms for a considerable time and the Governor was obliged to be at an extraordinary charge to support near 500 men, exclusive of His Majesty’s garrison.[52]

Though he had been sent out to the Bahamas as the representative of the Crown, his position was more like that of a shipwrecked mariner, so completely was he cut off from the outside world. On the 20th of November, 1720, the Council wrote to the Secretary of State the following letter which reveals an amazing situation.

“Governor Rogers having received no letter from you dated since July, 1719, and none from the Board of Trade since his arrival, gives him and us great uneasiness least this poor colony should be no more accounted as part of His Britannick Majesty’s dominions.”[53]

The intolerable position thus created, and the utter impossibility of getting either help or guidance from the home Government, at last forced Rogers to return. The strain of the last two years had told severely on his health, and he decided to make the journey to England, and personally plead the cause of the colony. In a letter written on the eve of his departure, dated from Nassau, 25th of February, 1720/1, he writes[54]:—“It is impossible that I can subsist here any longer on the foot I have been left ever since my arrival.” He had been left, he stated, with “a few sick men to encounter five hundred of the pirates,” and that he had no support in men, supplies or warships. He had also contracted large debts through having to purchase clothing and supplies at extravagant rates. “This place,” he wrote, “so secured by my industry; indefatigable pains, and the forfeiture of my health, has since been sold for forty thousand pounds and myself by a manager at home, and Co-partners’ factotem here. All the unworthy usage a man can have,” he added, “has been given me, and all the expenses designed to be thrown on me.”

Leaving the government of the island in the hands of “Mr. Fairfax” he left for England, carrying with him a remarkable “Memorial”[55] drawn up and signed by the Council, principal inhabitants and traders of the Bahama Islands, dated 21 March, 1720/1, setting forth the services he had rendered to the colony. In this document they expressed the belief that “too many of these neglects of, and misfortunes attending us, are owing to the want of a power to call an Assembly, and that the colony being in the hands of Proprietors, and Co-partners, who we are sensible have it not in their power to support and defend their settlements, in such a manner as is necessary, more especially in young colonies: and this place being left on so uncertain a foundation, and so long abandoned, has discouraged all men of substance coming to us. We hope,” they added, “his Majesty, and the wisdom of the nation will not suffer this colony to be any longer so neglected and lost to the Crown, as it inevitably must, and will be soon abandoned to the pirates, if effectual care is not taken without any farther loss of time. We thought it a duty incumbent on us, as well to the Country, as to his Excellency the Governor, and his Majesty’s garrison here to put these things in a full and true a light … that we might as much as in us lies, do our Governor justice, and prevent any farther ungrateful usage being offered him at home, to frustrate his good endeavours when please God he arrives there, for the service of his country, to preserve this settlement; for next to the Divine protection, it is owing to him, who has acted amongst us without the least regard for his private advantage or separate interest, in a scene of continual fatigues and hardships. These motives led us to offer the truth under our hands, of the almost insurmountable difficulty, that he and this colony has struggled with for the space of two years and eight months past.” With these assurances of good will and support Rogers left for England, calling en route at South Carolina, where he ordered provisions to be despatched to New Providence sufficient to last the company till Christmas. During the second week in August he landed at Bristol, and then proceeded to London.[56]

On arrival in London Rogers met with as many difficulties as he had encountered in the Colony, and he does not appear to have succeeded to any extent in the objects of his mission. That he strongly objected to return for a further tenure of office under the same conditions is apparent, and in the same year George Phenney was appointed to succeed him as Governor. Within two months of his arrival in England, he addressed a petition to the Lords of the Treasury setting forth his services and impoverished condition, stating that in preserving the islands “from destruction by the Spaniards, or from again being possessed by the pirates, he had disbursed his whole fortune, and credit, and stood engaged for large sums. He prayed that he might be granted an allowance of victualling for the last three years.”[57]

Those who have had occasion to search into the records of the 18th century know the difficulties which confront the searcher, especially in writing for the first time the life of a man like Woodes Rogers. There must inevitably be some missing links in the biographical chain, and such a missing link occurs in the years immediately following his return to England. For some reason or other he seems to have been in bad odour with the Government—possibly on account of his pugnacity and outspoken nature—and there is no record of his petition being answered. On slender authority he is said to have gone in 1724, in the Delicia of 40 guns, to Madagascar for the purpose of buying slaves for the Dutch Colony at Batavia, during which voyage he narrowly escaped capture by the pirates who had settled there from the Bahamas. This, however, seems an unlikely procedure for a man of Rogers’s attainments, and the story is not corroborated by any authoritative source.[58]

The next mention of Rogers occurs in connection with the operations against Spain. In March, 1726, Vice-Admiral Hosier was appointed to command a squadron which was despatched to the West Indies for the purpose of intercepting the Spanish treasure ships lying at Porto Bello. On hearing of Hosier’s expedition and its object the ships were dismantled and the treasure sent back to Panama. Hosier, however, in spite of a virulent epidemic among the crew of his ships, kept up a strict blockade of Porto Bello. In the spring and summer of 1727, while his ships were blockading Havana and Vera Cruz, the epidemic continued, and Hosier himself fell a victim to the disease, dying at Jamaica on the 25th of August.[59] The Government did all in their power to prevent the Spanish treasure ships reaching Europe, and Rogers, who was in London at the time, was consulted by the Government as to the probable means and route the Spaniards would adopt to get their treasure home. The situation was rendered more difficult by a despatch from William Cayley, our Consul at Cadiz, informing the Government of the sailing of a squadron from Cadiz to assist in bringing the treasure home. From past experience Rogers probably knew more than any other person then in England of the difficulties of the voyage and the report which he delivered, in conjunction with Jonathan Denniss,[60] to Lord Townshend the Secretary of State, is of considerable interest and is now printed for the first time.[61]

My Lord—

According to what your Lordship was pleased to command us, we have considered the account given by Mr. Cayley from Cadiz to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle of three men-of-war and a ship of ten guns being sent under the command of Admiral Castañetta from that port in the month of May last, with canon and land forces which, your Lordship apprehends, may be ordered round Cape Horn, in order to bring to Spain the Bullion now detained at Panama, and we give it your Lordship as our opinion, that it is not only improbable, but almost impracticable, for the following reasons:—

First, because of the time of the year in which those ships sailed from Cadiz, which is at least three months too soon to attempt getting round Cape Horn, or through the Straits of Magellan, especially if the nature of the ships be considered, and their being deeply laden, and having canon and land forces on board.

Secondly, because their can be no need of canon in Peru or Chile, those provinces abounding in metal for casting them, and the Spaniards being able to do it (as they always have done) cheaper and full as well as in Spain, and as to the Soldiers, the transporting them that way seems altogether improbable because of the many better methods there are of doing it.

Thirdly, my Lord, as the Bullion is now at or near Panama, the embarking it thence to Lyma, and so to be brought round Cape Horn, will require so prodigious an expence both of time and money, that renders the doing of it extremely improbable.

’Tis true, my Lord, were the money now at Potosi or Lyma ’twould be easy enough to bring it round Cape Horn, or rather overland to Buenos Ayres, where Castañetta might be gone to receive it, but as it is not, the bringing of it from Panama to Lyma will require too long a time, because of the difficulty of the Navigation from the former to the latter place, being against both winds and currents, so that the Spanish ships are commonly from six to eight or ten months performing the voyage, and though the French formerly often came with their money round the Cape to France, yet your Lordship will consider their tract of trade was never to Leeward, or to the Northward of the coasts of Peru, by which means the greatest fatigue of the voyage was avoided.

But, my Lord, what seems to us the most likely is that Castañetta after refreshing at the Havana, may go to La Vera Cruz, and there wait for the Bullion from Panama (from whence it may be sent to La Vera Cruz under a notion of its being re-shipt for Peru) and so bring it to Havana there to join in the Flota, and so come for Spain (or send it home in running[62] ships) and our reason for this suggestion is not only for the above difficulties that must and will attend bringing the Bullion now at Panama to Spain, round Cape Horn, or by the way of Buenos Ayres; but because of the facility and dispatch, with which it may be transported from Panama to Acapulco, and so by land to La Vera Cruz, which is what has been often practised by the Spaniards, even when there was no blockade at Porto Bello nor fear of enemies (as a conveniency for Spain has offered) for the navigation from Panama to Acapulco is very safe and easy, and the carriage from thence to La Vera Cruz is neither so difficult nor expensive as that between Lyma and Buenos Ayres.

This, my Lord, is what occurs to us worthy your Lordship’s notice. We are, with the uttermost respect and submission

My Lord,

Your Lordship’s most devoted and most obedient humble servants,

Woodes Rogers.

Jonath: Denniss.

Rt. Honble. Lord Townshend,

London, 10 of Nov. 1726.

In the meanwhile things were going from bad to worse in the Bahamas. Phenney, Rogers’s successor, had failed in his efforts to bring about a stable form of government, and he appears to have been without the commanding and organising abilities of his predecessor. At the beginning of 1726, he wrote complaining of the difficulties of government, stating that he had been unable to get sufficient of his Council together to form a quorum, and that many of them were “very illiterate.”[63] Phenney himself was not above reproach. It was reported that he and his wife had grossly abused their office. The governor’s wife and her husband monopolised “all the trade,” so that the inhabitants could not have any provisions “without paying her own exhorbitant prices,” and it was reported that she sold “rum by the pint and biscuits by the half ryal.”[64] Added to this she had “frequently browbeated juries and insulted even the justice on the bench,” while Phenney himself was stated to have dismantled the fort, and sold the iron for his own benefit.[65] If half the misdemeanours attributed to Phenney and his wife are true, it is not to be wondered at that his recall was demanded by the principal inhabitants, and that a strong desire was shown by the Council and others to have Rogers re-instated, as the following petition and its annexed paper dated 28 February, 172⅞, clearly shows[66]:—

INTRODUCTION

To the King’s most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Petition of Captain Woodes Rogers, late Governor of the Bahama Islands in America, and Captain of the Independent Company there,

Sheweth:—The Petitioner had the honour to be employed by your royal Father to drive the Pirates from the Bahama Islands, and he succeeded therein. He afterwards established a settlement and defended it against an attack of the Spaniards. On your Majesty’s happy accession he humbly represented the state of his great losses and sufferings in this service, praying, that you would be graciously pleased to grant him such compensation for the same as might enable him to exert himself more effectually in your Majesty’s services having nothing more than the subsistence of half pay as Captain of Foot, given him, on a report of the Board of General Officers appointed to inquire into his conduct; who farther recommended him to his late Majesty’s bounty and favour.

The Petitioner not having the happiness to know your royal pleasure, humbly begs leave to represent that the Bahama Islands are of very great importance to the commerce of these Kingdoms, as is well known to all concerned in the American trade; and the weak condition they now are in renders them an easy prey to the Spaniards, if a rupture should happen; but if effectually secured, they will soon contribute very much to distress any power which may attempt to molest the British Dominions or trade in the West Indies.

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays that your most sacred Majesty would be graciously pleased to restore him to his former station of Governor, and Captain of an independent Company of these Islands, in which he hopes to give farther proofs of zeal for your Majesty’s service. Or if it is your royal pleasure his successor be continued there, he most humbly relies, that through your great compassion and bounty he shall receive such a consideration for his past sufferings and present half pay as will enable him to be usefully employed for your Majesty’s and his country’s advantage, and in some measure retrieve his losses, that he may support himself and family, who for above seven years past have suffered very much by means of this employment wholly for the public service.

And your Majesty’s petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.

At the same time, a petition,[67] bearing twenty-nine influential names, among whom was Sir Hans Sloane, Samuel Shute, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, Alexander Spotswood, Deputy-Governor of Virginia, Benjamin Bennett, ex-Governor of Bermuda and Lord Montague, was sent to Sir Robert Walpole, in favour of Rogers, stating “we never heard any complaint against his conduct in his duty there, nor that he behaved otherwise in that employ, than with the utmost resolution and fidelity becoming a good subject, though to the ruin of his own fortune.”

It is evident from this petition that at the time the Government were considering the question of the Bahamas, and the policy to be pursued there. The influential support which Rogers had received, and the general desire shown by the colonists for his return, were factors which could not be ignored in the situation. By the end of the year it was decided to recall Phenney and send Rogers out for a second tenure of office. His commission, drawn up in December, 1728, gave him among other things, “power and authority to summon and call General Assemblies of the said Freeholders and Planters in our Islands under your Government, which Assembly shall consist of twenty-four persons to be chosen by a majority of the inhabitants,”[68] instead of the previously nominated Council. As Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief he was to receive a salary of £400 a year.[69] Just prior to sailing he had a family picture painted by Hogarth, which represents him, with his son and daughter, outside the fort at Nassau. On the wall is a shield, with the motto “Dum spiro, spero.”[70]

In the early summer of 1729 Rogers, with his son and daughter, sailed for New Providence, and among other things it is interesting to note that he took with him “two little flagons, one chalice, one paten, and a receiver to take the offerings for the use of his Majesty’s Chapel there,”[71] the building of which had commenced a few years earlier. One of his first duties on arrival was to proceed with the election of an Assembly, which met on the 30th of September in that year. In its first session no less than twelve Acts were passed which it was judged would be beneficial to the welfare of the colony, and efforts were made to encourage the planting of cotton and the raising of sugar canes. Praiseworthy as these endeavours were they were fraught with considerable difficulties. The settlers which it was hoped to attract from the other islands in the West Indies and from the American Colonies were not forthcoming in sufficient numbers, principally owing to the poverty of the colony. In the October of 1730 Rogers wrote: “I found the place so very poor and thin of inhabitants that I never mentioned any salary to them for myself or any one else, and the fees annexed to all offices and places here being the lowest of any part in America, no one can support himself thereon without some other employment.” Nevertheless the spiritual needs of the colony, as we have seen, were not neglected, and Rogers says that they were “in great want of a Chaplain,” and that the whole colony had requested him “to get an orthodox divine as soon as possible.”[72]

To add to his other embarrassments Rogers had considerable difficulty with the members of his Assembly, and the opposition, led by the Speaker, did all in their power to wreck the various schemes that were brought before them. In a letter to the Lord Commissioners of Trade, dated February 10th, 1730/1, he mentions an incident which caused him to dissolve the House[73]:—“During the sessions of the last Assembly I endeavoured (pursuant to his Majesty’s instructions) to recommend to them the state and condition of the Fortifications, which much wanted all the assistance possible for their repair … to which I did not find the major part of the Assembly averse at first, but since, they have been diverted from their good intentions by the insinuations of one Mr. Colebrooke, their Speaker, who imposed so long on their ignorance, that I was obliged to dissolve them, lest his behaviour might influence them to fall into schemes yet more contrary to the good of the Colony and their own safety. Another Assembly is lately elected, and [I] still find the effects of the above Mr. Colebrooke’s influence on the most ignorant of them, who are the majority.” He added that the present ill-state of his health, “which has been lately much impaired, obliges me to have recourse to his Majesty’s permission of going to South Carolina for change of air, from which I hope to return in three weeks or a month.”

The growth of constitutional government in the colony, and the moulding of the powers and procedure of the legislature on similar lines to the home Government, are vividly brought out in the official reply to Rogers’s despatch. This reply is dated 29th of June, 1731, and it is evident from the tone of it that they realised the difficulties which he had to contend with. “It would be proper,” they wrote, “that the Proceedings of the Assembly also should resemble those of the Parliament of Great Britain so far as the circumstances of the Colony and your Instructions will permit. It would be a pretty difficult task to lay down a plan for the Proceedings of your Assembly in future times, but in general we may observe to you that the Constitution of England owes its preservation very much to the maintaining of an equal Balance between the branches of the legislature, and that the more distinct they are kept from each other, the likelier they will be to agree, and the longer they will be likely to last.”[74]

Up till this date the Crown had only taken over the civil and military jurisdiction of the colony, and the retention of the lands by the proprietors and lessees of the islands undoubtedly hampered their economic progress and well being. Finally, in response to a suggestion from the Crown, the proprietors in a letter of April 11th, 1730, offered to sell out their rights “for one thousand guineas each, clear of all fees,” and Rogers in a letter to the Board of Trade emphasised the necessity of the Crown taking this step, and so bringing to “an end the discouraging contests on titles to land.”[75] By an irony of fate Rogers was not spared to see this suggestion carried into effect.[76] Though his efforts on behalf of the colony had undermined his health, he did not spare himself or shrink from his responsibility. How great that responsibility was, and how he overcame a widespread conspiracy by Colebrooke to overthrow his government is shown in the following letter to the Board of Trade written from Nassau on the 10th of June, 1731[77]:—“How great an enemy Mr. Colebrooke hath been to this Government, and what vile means he used to make the Garrison mutiny, and stir up a spirit of discontent and opposition in the inhabitants, by the great influence which he had artfully gained over the most ignorant of them, while he was Speaker of the Assembly, from all which I humbly hope that the method taken to prevent his proceeding in his seditious and wicked designs will meet with his Majesty’s and your Lordships’ approbation.” The “method taken” was the arrest and indictment of John Colebrooke for sedition. He was tried before the Chief Justice of the Bahamas at the end of May, and found guilty. A fine of £750 was imposed, and he was ordered to be “confined during his Majesty’s pleasure,” and was not to be discharged until he had given “sufficient security” for his future good behaviour.[78]

The influence that such a person could wield over an ignorant community two hundred years ago is strangely reminiscent of the twentieth century! In spite of Colebrooke’s detention, the danger was not yet over, and the canker of sedition seems to have been very deep rooted. Two months later, in August, 1731, Rogers thus reports on the situation[79]:—“I can yet procure no assistance from the inhabitants towards the fortifications, though I have without any help from INTRODUCTION them built a new Barrack for the Garrison in the Fort, and have made upwards of twenty new carriages for guns of this country timber, and shall continue to do all I can towards the Fortifications as soon as the heat of the summer is over, that I can put the garrison to work again, without endangering their healths. And as soon as possible will try in a new Assembly what I can do, though I fear little public good is to be expected from them if Mr. Colebrooke and his accomplices here can have any influence to prevent the peoples working, they being too poor to contribute anything worth contributing in money.”[80] At what period Colebrooke was released we do not know, but that he appealed to the home Government is certain, and in order that the Lords Commissioners of Trade should have all the facts at their disposal Rogers despatched his son to England with the following letter, dated 14 October, 1731.[81]