and during that interval the island of Barbados is not lost to sight. I have already alluded, in the second chapter of this work, to some of the older maps in which it is delineated, but as I promised to recur to this interesting subject, I avail myself of the present opportunity of doing so. Juan de la Cosa accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, from 1493 to 1496, and Alonzo de Hojeda on his first voyage between 1499 and 1500. Baron de Humboldt has annexed to his erudite publication, 'Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent,' portions of a map of the world by Juan de la Cosa, executed in 1500, from the original in the collections of the late Baron de Walckenaer. In this map, which exhibits the "Islas Canibales," Barbados is omitted.

Among the rich collections of manuscripts in the British Museum is a map of the world on a plane scale, drawn on vellum and highly ornamented with figures, with the names in French'. According to the catalogue it is considered to have been executed in the times of Francis the First for his son the Dauphin, afterwards Henry the Second, as the crown over the arms of France is open, and the crown was so borne till the year 1536, from which period it was arched over. The island of Barbados occurs on this chart under the name of Bernados, and this is the first instance of its delineation as far as my researches reach. The accompanying fac-simile of that portion of this fine manuscript which represents the Caribbean islands will no doubt be equally welcome to the geographer and the antiquarian2. This chart fills up in a great measure the chasm which would otherwise occur between the occurrence of the name of Barbudos in the Spanish document and its description by Herrera: there are however other proofs which complete the link. In a portulano bearing the date of 1542, the author of which is John Rotz3, the island occurs on the seventeenth chart under the name of Barbudoss, and is situated east of St. Vincent and Grenada. In the subsequent map (No. 18) it is named Isla de Beruados, and three large islands called La Morosas occupy the situation which Fonseca afterwards occupied.

1 It is No. 5413 of the additional manuscripts; the size of the map is eight feet two inches by three feet ten inches. This chart formerly belonged to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, after whose death it was taken away by one of his servants, and was subsequently purchased by Sir Joseph Banks, who restored it to the Harleian Collection by presenting it in 1790 to the British Museum.

2 The author has to express his thanks to the authorities at the British Museum for the permission of tracing this part of the chart.

3 British Museum, Old Royal Library, M.S. 20, E ix. The title is, 'John Rotz, his book of Hydrography so called, being an account of the compass, elevation of the pole, latitude, seacoasts, &c.' This book is dedicated by the author to king Henry the Eighth, and the diagrams and maps have illuminated borders, and are ornamented in gold and colours. The author's dedication to the king is in French; otherwise the portulano is in English. At the end of it is written," Heir endeth this booke of Idrography made by me Johne Rotz, sarvant to the Kingis mooste exellent Majeste, in the yer of our Lord Gode j"V'xlij and of his mooste Triumphant Regne the xxxiiij yere excludit. Gode save his majeste."

In the map of the world by 'Giacomo, Cosmographo in Venetia,' published in 1546, Barbados is not mentioned; we find it however under the name of Baruodo in the map of Michaelis Tramezini, engraved by Julius de Musis, and published in 1554. According to this scarce map, its position is due east from Martinique, and north-north-east from Trinidad.

Zaltery published in 1566 in Venice Il Desegno del Discoperto della Nova Franza.' The island is called in this map S. Barduda, and its position is to the east of St. Vincent. In a map entitled 'Totius Orbis Descriptio,' it is mentioned under the name of S. Barbudos. Its position is not so far to the east of the chain of islands as in the former maps, and it approaches nearer between Mariegalante and St. Vincent. The author of this map is unknown, but it is probable that it was published in Venice about 1570. In the map America Novissima Descriptio,' published in 1589 by Judoco Hondio, Baruodos lies between St. Vincent and Tobago. In another edition, under the title of 'America noviter delineata, auctore Judoco Hondio apud Jansonium,' it occupies the same site. Richard Hakluyt published his third and last volume of the principal navigations, voyages, traffics and discoveries of the English nation,' &c. in 1600. This volume contains what he calls 'a ruttier for the islands of the West Indies;' and Barbados appears in the table of latitudes attached to it as lying in 13° north latitude. In 'Achtzehnden Theil der Newen Welt,' published in 1623 in Frankfort on the Main, it is described under the name of Los Barbudos: this scarce work is one of the publications of Livinus Hulse, or Hulsius; the map No. 3 attached to it is, 'Descriptione del Destricto del Audientia de la Espanola.' Barbudos occupies here a position between the eleventh and twelfth degree of north latitude, and lies about east from the southern point of St. Vincent. These references will no doubt be considered quite sufficient to prove the incorrectness of the assertion that "no mention is made of this island in the journals or charts of any European navigator earlier than the year 1600." Indeed I have no doubt that the island alluded to by Charles the Fifth, in his instructions to Figueroa, is Barbados, and this proves another interesting fact, namely its having been inhabited by Indians.

It is scarcely to be conceived that an island occupying such a prominent position as Barbados should have been left undiscovered by the Portuguese, as it lies almost in their course to and from Brazil. It is equally improbable that it should have remained unknown to the Spaniards, who in the sixteenth century made frequent voyages from Española to Trinidad and Costa Firma; indeed the instructions of the Licentiate Figueroa prove that it was resorted to by the Spaniards for the purpose of enslaving Indians. Mr. Hughes' opinion, that it must have been formerly permanently inhabited by Indians, grounded upon the number of

S

Indian implements and utensils found in different spots in the island, is therefore borne out by my researches.

The first English vessel which touched at Barbados appears to have been the "Olive Blossom1." This vessel was fitted-out at the expense of Sir Olive Leigh, Knight, and sailed from Woolwich on the 14th of April 1605, with colonists and stores for "Master Charles Leigh," his brother, who had settled a colony in the river Wiapaco (at present Oyapoco). She was commanded by Captain Cataline, and Richard Chambers acted under him as sailing-master: in consequence of his unskilfulness they were obliged to touch at Barbados. The crew, finding it destitute of inhabitants, took possession of the country by erecting a cross upon the spot where Jamestown was afterwards built, and cut upon the bark of a tree which stood near, "James K. of E. and this island," that is, James, King of England and this island. They then followed the shore, until their progress was stopped by the river, which afterwards received the name of the Indian River, where the explorers performed a similar ceremony of taking occupation of the island: they did not however commence any settlement, and only stayed to refresh themselves. From Barbados they went to St. Lucia, where Mr. John Nicholl and Captain St. John with the rest of the passengers, who proposed to have settled in Guiana, resolved to stay. Sixty-seven were consequently left there on the 23rd of August 1605, and the ship proceeded on its voyage to St. Vincent and Cumana. The new settlers were surprised by the Indians in St. Lucia, and the few who escaped arrived after many adventures at Carthagena. John Nicholl returned in February 1606 to England, and published a small work in which he gave a description of his adventures2. In the 'Memoirs of the First Settlement of the Island of Barbados,' it is stated that the Olive was returning from a voyage to Guinea when she touched at Barbados: this is unconfirmed by any contemporary historian, while the settlement of Charles Leigh in the river Wiapoco is authenticated by several historians of that period3.

Some Dutch vessels, which were specially licensed by the court of Spain to trade to Brazil, landed in Barbados on their return to Europe, for the purpose of procuring refreshments. On their arrival in Zealand they gave a flattering account of the island, which was communicated by a correspondent to Sir William Courteen, a merchant of London, who was at that time deeply engaged in the trade with the New World. The

1 Purchas's Collections, part iv. 1. 6, p. 255. The vessel is styled the "Oliph Blossome," according to the orthography of those days.

2 An hour-glasse of Indian Newes, or a discours showing miseries and distressed calamities endured by sixty-seven Englishmen, which were sent for a supply to the planting in Guiana in the year 1605, by John Nicholl, London, 4to, 1607.

3 Purchas, his Pilgrims, fourth part, liv. vi. chap. 12: and the Relation of a voyage to Guiana performed by Robert Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, London, 1626, p. 13.

favourable account given by the Dutch navigators was shortly afterwards confirmed by one of Courteen's own vessels, which on her return from Brazil was driven by stress of weather on the coast of Barbados. This must have occurred in 1624, at which time the Dutch West India Company had sent a great armament for the conquest of Brazil under Admiral Jacob Willekens and Colonel Jean van Dort, who in May 1624 took possession of the city of S. Salvador or Bahia, and thus opened the ports of Brazil to Dutch enterprise. It is probable that Courteen's ship sailed under Dutch protection to Brazil. San Salvador was retaken by the Portuguese in April 1625; consequently her voyage must have taken place previous to that period, and most likely in the middle of the year 1624.

Ligon says the vessel came from "Ternambock in Brasill" (Pernambuco); this is doubtless an error, as that port only fell into the hands of the Dutch in 1630, and the jealousy of the Portuguese prevented any foreign vessel from trading with their territories in Brazil.

The men on board Courteen's ship landed and stayed some time: they found the island thickly overgrown with wood, nor did they meet with any inhabitants. Ligon asserts however that there were wild hogs in abundance, which he considered to have been left by the Portuguese, on their landing here occasionally, for the purpose of breeding', in case that, should they at any future time be driven again on this coast, they might find fresh meat. The accounts which Sir William Courteen received from his own people respecting the fertility and commodious situation confirmed him in his plan of forming a settlement in Barbados.

Lord Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough and Lord High Treasurer, had been informed of the favourable accounts which were given of Barbados, and applied to James the First for a patent to secure the island to him and his heirs for ever. Under his protection Sir William Courteen fitted out two large ships, supplied with arms, ammunition, and the necessary tools for commencing a settlement. Of these ships, one only, the William and John, commanded by John Powell, arrived on the 17th of February 1625 in Barbados, and landed on the leeward side of the island forty English with seven or eight negroes3; of the former William Arnold

It appears to me more likely that the hogs here alluded to were of the indigenous breed, the Peccary or Dycoteles labiatus, and D. torquatus, of which there are still some specimens in the larger islands, as Trinidad, &c.

Ligon's History, p. 23.

3 The true travels, adventures, and observations of Captain John Smith in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, from A.D. 1593 to 1629. Together with a continuation of his general history of Virginia, Summeriles, New England, and their proceedings since 1624 to the present 1629; as also of the new plantation of the great river of the Amazons, the isles of St. Christopher, Nevis and Barbados, in the West Indies, all written by actual authors, whose names you shall find along the History. London, 1630, p. 55. The account which Smith gives of Barbados is derived from the relations

was one of the first that stepped on shore'. The colonists fortified themselves in the neighbourhood of the spot which had been taken possession of nearly twenty years previously by the crew of the Olive Blossom, and laid the foundation of a town which, in honour of their sovereign, they called Jamestown. They elected Captain William Dean their Governor, and thus Barbados was one of the few islands which fell into the hands of Europeans without bloodshed and the extirpation of its aboriginal inhabitants.

In a petition which the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and General Assembly of the island addressed to James the Second, they state particularly that the island was settled under James the First, who died in 1625, which renders it certain that the settlement of Courteen took place that year, and not, as is sometimes erroneously stated, in 1627.

It was at that period very usual among men of rank and distinction to embark their money in adventures and colonization beyond the seas: the history of Sir Walter Raleigh is a striking proof of this. There is therefore nothing surprising in seeing men like the Earl of Marlborough and James Hay Earl of Carlisle the owners of ships engaged in trade with the American colonies. It is asserted that the Earl of Carlisle obtained from James the First a grant, or warrant for a grant, under the great seal, of all the Caribbean islands, which the king erected into a

of Captain John White and Captain Wolferstone. He says of the island, "The isle is most like a triangle, each side forty or fifty miles square, some exceeding great rocks, but the most part exceeding good ground, abounding with an infinite number of swine, some turtles, and many sorts of excellent fish; many great ponds wherein is duck and mallard, excellent clay for pots, wood and stone for building, and a spring near the middle of the isle of bitumen, which is a liquid mixture of tar, that by the great rains falls from the top of the mountains. It floats upon the water in such abundance, that drying up, it remains like great rocks of pitch, and as good as pitch for any use."

1 Memoirs of the First Settlement, p. 3.

Sloane's MSS., No. 3984, Art. 16. The passage here referred to is as follows: "It was no small happiness to us, that this your Majesty's island had its first beginning to be settled under your royal progenitor, King James I. of blessed memory; and in the reign of your Majesty's royal father King Charles I., that blessed martyr, whom by the fate of those unnatural wars, which then happened, it was yet further inhabited and settled by the best and most loyal of subjects, who after they had according to their bounden duty done their utmost in adventuring their lives to defend the sacred person of that most blessed prince from falling into the barbarous hands of those cruel and bloody rebels who sought to destroy his precious life, being taken prisoner of war were sent hither, where they planted loyalty as well as lands with the sweat of their browes, as before they acted dutifully with the effusion of their blood; but the confusions those rebellious times produced gave us strength only to groan under them, till it pleased God to bless us with the rest of his Majesty's subjects in the happy and never-to-be-forgotten miraculous restoration of our late most gracious sovereign, Lord King Charles II.”

The petition is dated the 13th day of September 1685, and the document in the above collection is a certified copy of the original.