BARBADOS. Barbados is the most ancient of all the British colonies, the crew of an English ship having taken possession of it in the year 1605, in the name of James I. By him it was granted to Lord Ley, who sent out a body of settlers in 1625; but in 1627 the Earl of Carlisle obtained from Charles I. a grant of all the Caribbee Islands, including Barbados, which proved a fruitful source of dissension and misery to this island for many years. From 1641 to 1650, Philip Bell, a person of great zeal, uprightness and wisdom, was governor. In his time the island was divided into eleven parishes, and a church and clergyman provided for each. In the unhappy reign of Charles I. many of the royalists took refuge here, and amassed large fortunes; but it was afterwards selected by Cromwell as a place of punishment for his Irish and English captives, who were sold for slaves. At this time the state of religion in Barbados was very deplorable, and the slaves were treated with great cruelty. The connexion of the Society with Barbados commenced in 1710, when it became trustee, under the will of General Codrington, for two estates in this island bequeathed by him for the purpose of "maintaining professors and scholars" with the ultimate view of "doing good to men's souls." In discharge of this trust the Rev. Joseph Holt was sent out as chaplain and catechist in 1712. A college was built and opened (at first as a grammarschool) in 1743. Being nearly destroyed by a hurricane in 1780, its operation was suspended for nine years. Indeed at this time there was extreme danger of the property being utterly ruined and the trust becoming bankrupt. By the judicious management of Mr. Braithwaite, a settler on the island, who rented the estates, and most liberally devoted the whole of the profits to the restoration of the property, the affairs of Codrington College (of which he may justly be regarded as the second founder) were again placed in a situation not only of security, but of greatly increased efficiency. The College having been rebuilt, was used as a grammar school for many years. But at length it was determined, as the increased funds allowed it, to make it a place of higher education. Accordingly, in 1830, having been much enlarged, it was opened for the reception of students of a more advanced age, with scholarships and exhibitions which are free without restriction to the youth of all the islands. Since that event more than a hundred of its students have been ordained in the West Indian Church. Besides the College which contains twenty students, there is a self-supporting grammar school with fifty-nine pupils, and primary schools in which 600 children of the labourers on the estate are receiving education. On the 25th July, 1824, the Rev. W. H. Coleridge was consecrated Bishop of Barbados, and on his arrival in his diocese was received by the coloured population with expressions of passionate rejoicing. In 1831, the Society granted 2,000l. towards the restoration of the churches which had been thrown down or injured by the fearful hurricane which had visited these islands. For some years previously to the general emancipation of 1834, and without any reference to the measures of Government, the attention of the Society was directed to the gradual preparation of the negroes for enfranchisement on the Codrington estate. Allotments of land were given to the most deserving of them, on condition that they should provide for themselves and families out of the produce of the allotment, and labour on the estate during four days in each week, by way of rent for the land. This was in fact an anticipation of the system of apprenticeship subsequently adopted by the Government; but the terms were 106 WORK IN THE COLONIES. more favourable to the negroes than those which were settled by Parliament. In 1842, after eighteen years of unwearied devotion to his episcopal duties, Bishop Coleridge found his health seriously failing, and resigned his arduous charge. His activity may be judged of from the fact that during his episcopacy, in the single Archdeaconry of Barbados, the number of clergy had increased from twenty-four to fifty; of churches and chapels, from twentytwo to eighty-one; of schools, from twelve to 196; and of scholars, from 500 to upwards of 13,000. Friendly societies had been formed to the number of fifty-seven, consisting of more than 7,500 members; while other religious and charitable institutions had either been called into being, or multiplied under his care. It was also by the advice of Bishop Coleridge that his large diocese was broken up into three, and he had the satisfaction of himself assisting in the consecration of his three Archdeacons, Thomas Parry for Barbados, Daniel Gateward Davis for Antigua, and William Piercy Austin for Guiana, on the 14th August, 1842. The missionary spirit of this diocese, encouraged and supported by the fostering care of the Society, has exerted itself in a deeply interesting work, namely, sending a mission direct from the West Indian islands to the western coast of Africa. Barbados is the most easterly of all these islands, and the noble institution of Codrington College is placed upon the most easterly side of the island. The eye, therefore, looks from it far away over the waves of the Atlantic, towards the shore of Africa, so many of whose sons and their descendants are now inhabitants of these western isles. It seems to be the spot then from which should first be heard, as it were, the cry of their distant brethren, "Come over and help us," from which also that cry should be |