The Sugar Barons (67 page)

p. 97

‘wee saw Jamaica Iland, very high land afar off’: Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 136.

p. 98

‘the fairest island that eyes have beheld’: Black,
History of Jamaica
, 25.

p. 98

‘otherwise a paradise and worth more than gold’: Cundall,
Historic Jamaica
, 271.

p. 100

the men were leaping out into the waist-deep warm waters of the bay: Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 136–7.

p. 100

‘but must vanquish or die’: Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, 35.

p. 100

‘wanting guides … very weak … with bad diet’: ibid., 35.

p. 100

‘divers Spaniards … with other large overtures, and high compliments’: ‘I.S.’,
A brief and perfect Journal
, 520.

p. 101

The hides were collected (and later sent on a Dutch ship to New England to exchange for provisions): Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 138.

p. 101

‘a uery sad creater’ … afflicted with the ‘French-disease’. ‘I.S.’,
A brief and perfect Journal
, 520.

p. 101

‘if they complied, they were utterly ruined, and desired rather to expose their lives to the hazzard of warr then to condescend to such termes’: Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 137.

p. 101

Bodies of dead English soldiers started being discovered, stripped naked and horribly mutilated: Taylor,
Western Design
, 100.

p. 102

‘did more weaken and disable them in ten miles march there, than forty in their own country’: ‘I.S.’,
A brief and perfect Journal
, 521.

p. 102

on starvation rations of half a biscuit per man a day: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:240.

p. 102

within 12 days of the landing, lack of food and water had halved the strengths of the companies: Whistler,
Journal of the West India Expedition
, 166.

p. 102

‘dead men, just crept abroad from their graves’: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:241.

p. 102

‘which sweep them away by Ten and twenty per diem frequently’: Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, 49–50.

p. 102

‘in some parts of this town a man is not able to walk’: Lieut. Col. Barrington, 14 July 1655, quoted in Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, xxxv.

p. 102

‘The enemie lye still on the mountains, expecting our deserting this country’: Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 140.

p. 102

1,000 men were killed by ambushes: Burns,
History of the British West Indies
, 254.

p. 102

‘did the English spare any of the dogs, cats, colts or donkeys’: Marks,
Family of the Barrett
, 23.

p. 103

a combination of ‘flux’ and ‘fever’:
Firth, Narrative of General Venables
, 103.

p. 103

which he saw as the Lord’s punishment for his own iniquity: Haring,
Buccaneers in the West Indies
, 87.

p. 103

he had shut himself in his room and become ill: Hill,
God’s Englishman
, 185.

p. 103

‘fret, fume, grow impatient’: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1: 242.

p. 103

Tools were also required, he wrote: Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, 63.

p. 103

‘all known, idle, masterless robbers and vagabonds, male and female, and transport them to that island’:
Cal Col
1574–1660, p
p. 431
, 441; Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:244.

p. 104

‘… a chief end of our undertaking and design)’:
Cal Col
1554–1660, p
p. 429
–30.

p. 104

‘… the skulking Negroes and Spaniards’: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:258.

p. 104

‘they lived more comfortably like Englishmen than any of the rest of the Plantations’: Hutchinson,
History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay
, 191n.

p. 105

‘… to annoy and infest the Enemies of our Nation’: Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, 65.

p. 105

‘… is not honorable for a princely navy … though perhaps it may be tolerated at present’:
Cal Col
1675–6, no. 236.

p. 105

‘a cruel, bloody, and ruinating people … worse than the Spanish’: Taylor,
Western Design
, 138.

p. 105

‘fair beginnings of a town’: ibid., 131.

p. 106

‘a place which abounds in all things’: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:256.

p. 106

‘… do anything, however necessary, for their own benefit’: ibid., 1:247.

p. 106

3,720 were still alive, besides 173 women and children: Firth,
Narrative of General Venables
, xxxii.

p. 106

‘… out of a strange kind of spirit, desir[ing] rather to die than live’: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:254.

p. 106

‘Poore men I pitty them at the heart … it is a very Golgotha’: Anon.,
Letters Concerning the English Expedition
, 142.

p. 107

‘there scarce a week passeth without one or two slain’: Taylor,
Western Design
, 102.

p. 107

‘industry, unanimity, perseverance, and good order’. Long,
History of Jamaica,
1:221.

p. 107

‘very scum of scums, and mere dregs of corruption’: ‘I.S.’,
A brief and perfect Journal
, 492.

p. 108

Other prominent figures in the island’s early history: Dunn,
Sugar and Slaves
, 176.

p. 111

it was equipped with six cannon, each firing four-pound shot: Taylor,
Western Design
, 171.

p. 111

Three hundred Spanish soldiers were killed, against some 50 English: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:276.

p. 111

‘extreme want and necesitie’ on the island: BL Egerton MSS 2395, fol. 242.

p. 111

‘All the frigates are gone’:
Cal Col
1574–1660, p. 485.

p. 115

For at least two years after his departure from Barbados, Drax remained in London:
Cal Col
1574–1660, p. 451.

p. 115

‘a Gentleman of much worth, and of great Interest in Plantations at the Barbadoes, where he formerly lived for some years’:
Mercurius Politicus Compromising the Summ of All Intelligence
, 31 December 1657 (issue 397).

p. 116

‘ministers that precht for the Parson’: MacMurray,
Records of Two City Parishes
, 391.

p. 117

‘It hath pleased the Lord of his mercy and goodnesse’: Drax will, PRO Prob 11/307.

p. 117

the average annual wage at the time was about £8: Faraday,
Herefordshire Milita
, 17.

p. 117

‘the greatest Dominion in the World … win and keepe the Soveraignty of the Seas’: Bridenbaughs,
No Peace Beyond the Line
, 306.

p. 118

Molesworth’s petition was ordered to be ‘laid aside’:
Lords’ Journal
, 9:297.

p. 118

‘and inform themselves of the true state of the Plantations in Jamaica and New England’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 3.

p. 119

‘ringin ye Great Bell for Sr James Drax’: MacMurray,
Records of Two City Parishes
, 390.

p. 119

Henry would write down a series of instructions: Drax, ‘Instructions which I would have observed’

p. 119

‘adept at figures, and all the arts of economy, something of an architect, and well-skilled in mechanics’, as well as ‘a very skilled husbandman’: Martin,
An Essay upon Plantership
, vi–vii.

p. 120

‘distinguished not only by gentle birth but by many virtues’: MacMurray,
Records of Two City Parishes
, 316.

p. 120

‘intelligible … and of no faction, which is rare in Barbados’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1819.

p. 120

expanding the Drax estates as established by his father:
Cal Col
1669–74, no. 1101ii.

p. 120

his Barbados estates yielded income:
Cal Col
1677–80, no. 317; Lord Atkins to Lords of Trade and Plantations, 4 July 1677. PRO CO 29/2, 181

p. 120

his will, written in 1682: B. Arch. RB6/12, 358.

p. 120

‘by the consent of her brother Henry Drax and her uncle William Drax esq. guardians’: Foster,
London Marriage Licences
, 1222.

p. 120

‘Planters and Merchants trading to Barbados’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1342.

p. 120

He was 24, she was 20: Foster,
London Marriage Licences
, 419.

p. 121

scattered mentions of them in wills: Codrington wills, reprinted in Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 1:142–75.

p. 122

‘being of a debonaire liberal humour’:
Cal Col
1669–74, no. 549.

p. 122

‘divers goods, wares, and merchandizes … being of great value’: Jesse, ‘Barbadians Buy St Lucia’, 181.

p. 122

‘He is well beloved … and free from faction, an ingenious young gentleman’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1283.

p. 122

‘that fair jewell of your Majesty’s Crown’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1204.

p. 122

then producing more than 85 per cent of the sugar imported to England: Sheridan,
Sugar and Slavery
, 398; Dunn,
Sugar and Slaves
, 202–3.

p. 122

‘worth all the rest … which are made by the English’: Gragg,
Englishmen Transplanted
, 1.

p. 122

‘the most flourishing Colony the English have’: Anon.,
Great Newes from the Barbadoes
, 3, 14.

p. 122

‘A mean planter … thinks himself better than a good gentleman fellow in England’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1871.

p. 122

‘by a rational estimate’ that the ‘plates, jewels, and extraordinary household stuffs’ on the island were worth about £500,000.
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1657.

p. 122

‘splendid Planters …’: Anon.,
Great Newes from the Barbadoes
, 6.

p. 123

‘The Devel was in the English-man’: ibid., 6–7.

p. 123

‘The Masters … live at the height of Pleasure’: Blome,
Description of the Island of Jamaica
, 84.

p. 123

‘the most inconsiderable of the … endeavour[ing] to outvye one the other in their entertainments’: Davies,
History of the Caribby-Islands
, 198–9.

p. 123

‘built after the English fashion … now general all over the island’:
Cal Col
1681–5, no. 136.

p. 124

‘very fair and beautiful … like castles’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 1657.

p. 124

‘Delightfully situated … pleasant Prospects to the Sea and Land’: Ogilby,
America
, 379.

p. 124

‘to Strangers at their first coming: [was] there scarce tolerable’: Anon.,
Great News from the Barbadoes
, 5.

p. 124

‘abundance of well-built houses’: Blome,
Description of the Island of Jamaica
, 80.

p. 124

‘Costly and Stately’: Anon.,
Great Newes from the Barbadoes
, 5.

p. 124

‘many fair, long, and spacious Streets … noble structures … well furnish’d with all sorts of Commodities’: Davies,
History of the Caribby-Islands
, 9.

p. 125

‘not a foot of land in Barbados that is not employed even to the very seaside’:
Cal Col
1675–6, no. 973.

p. 125

‘a design full of accident’: BL Sloane MSS 3984, fol. 217, quoted in Amussen,
Caribbean Exchanges
, 75.

p. 125

‘strange and unusual caterpillars and worms’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 578.

p. 125

‘The island appears very flourishing … what they owe in London does not appear here’:
Cal Col
1669–74, no. 549.

p. 125

by as much as half between 1652 and the end of the century: Menard,
Sweet Negotiations
, 69.

p. 125

about 20 per cent on their capital for the rest of the century: Craton,
Sinews of Empire
, 138–9.

p. 126

‘the fewer the better’: Drax, ‘Instructions which I would have observed’, 587.

p. 126

a labour force of 327 black slaves and only seven white servants. Hotten,
Original Lists of Persons of Quality
, 462.

p. 126

3,075 slaves to Barbados in the seven months after August 1663: Thomas,
Slave Trade
, 201.

p. 126

the retail price slipping from 1.25 shillings a pound … per capita consumption in 1650 was barely a pound: by the end of the century it was five pounds: Shamas,
Pre-Industrial Consumer
, 81.

p. 126

England was importing 23,000 tons of sugar a year: Amussen,
Caribbean Exchanges
, 40; Menard, ‘Plantation Empire’, 316.

p. 126

‘Slavery is so vile and miserable a state of man’: Locke,
Two Treatises on Government
, 1.

p. 127

nearly half of all products from the West Indies by value: Zahedieh, ‘Overseas expansion’, 404.

p. 127

The Crown, for one, made £300,000 a year from sugar duties by the mid-1670s: Menard, ‘Plantation Empire’, 315.

p. 127

some 700 by 1686: Amussen,
Caribbean Exchanges
, 40.

p. 127

consumed three times more by value than their cousins in the mainland North American colonies: ibid., 41.

p. 127

‘the centre of trade … but also draw profits from them’: Cary,
An Essay on the State of England
, 68–70.

p. 127

A street near the wharf in Bridgetown was renamed New England Street: Smith,
Slavery, Family and Gentry Capitalism
, 19.

p. 128

His letter book: Sanford,
Letter Book of Peleg Sanford.

p. 128

‘afatting of the swine’: ibid., 35 (19 October 1667).

p. 128

‘not be very Beeg in the head’: ibid., 45 (10 January 1667).

p. 128

‘Ronged onboard’: ibid., 68 (21 December 1668).

p. 128

more than half of the ships entering and clearing Boston were involved with the Caribbean trade: Dunn,
Sugar and Slaves
, 336.

p. 129

‘to treat with the natives … or if injurious or contumacious, to persecute them with fire and swords’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 489.

p. 130

‘The Caribbeans have tasted of all the nations that frequented them’: Bell, ‘Caribs of Dominica’, 21.

p. 130

Thereafter, Carib raids on Antigua became an almost annual affair: ibid.

p. 130

‘Mrs Cardin and children’: Flannigan,
Antigua and the Antiguans
, 15.

p. 130

In 1655 the Governor wrote to London that unless they were sent some servants, they would have to abandon the colony.
Cal Col
1654–60, p. 439, 443.

p. 130

‘a reall Winthrop and truely noble to all’: Dunn,
Sugar and Slaves
, 125.

p. 130

Warner, the story goes, then imprisoned his wife: ibid., 24.

p. 130

‘I doe not find this country good for children’: Bridenbaughs,
No Peace Beyond the Line
, 399.

p. 131

‘the most beautiful and fertile part of the West Indies and perhaps of the world’: Williams
, From Columbus to Castro
, 81.

p. 131

‘the dispute will be whether the King of England or of France shall be monarch of the West Indies’:
Cal Col
1661–8, no. 823.