number of homeward-bound ships collected, and it was not before April
the 6th that the combined fleet, numbering 16 Dutch and 9 English ships,
sailed for Europe. On the 14th of May the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_ crossed
the line for the eighth time. A course was now steered to the westward
of the Azores, and from thence north-eastward round the Shetlands to the
Texel, where the whole fleet anchored on the 23rd of July. Here Rogers
remained some little while, having received orders from the owners that
the East India Company resolved to trouble us, “on pretence we had
encroached upon their liberties in India.” Finally all difficulties were
amicably settled, and at the end of September the _Duke_, _Dutchess_,
and _Marquis_ sailed from Holland, convoyed by four English men-of-war.
On the 1st of October they arrived in the Downs, and on the 14th came to
an anchor at Erith, which finished their “long and fatiguing voyage” of
over three years.
Thus ended one of the most remarkable expeditions that ever left the
shores of Great Britain. The cost of fitting it out was less than
£14,000 and the net profits amounted to at least £170,000.[19] Of this
sum, two-thirds went to the owners, and the other third was divided,
according to their rating, among the officers and men. The prizes taken,
including the ships and barks ransomed at Guiaquil, amounted to twenty
sail.[20]
A rousing welcome must have been accorded Rogers and his plucky crew
when they arrived home in Bristol. By their daring and skill they had
ranged the seas in defiance of the enemy, and by their superb seamanship
and courage they had added a brilliant page to our naval history. Their
voyage was epoch making. In the words of a contemporary writer “there
never was any voyage of this nature so happily adjusted.” Once and for
all it stripped distant and tedious navigations of those terrors which
haunted them through the incapacity of their commanders, and it opened a
door to the great South Sea which was never to be closed again.[21]
Rogers was a born leader, besides being a magnificent seaman. He had a
way of maintaining authority over his men, which Dampier and others
before him sadly lacked, and whenever the occasion arose he had a happy
knack of ingratiating himself with the various authorities ashore.
Whether friend or foe he invariably parted with them cheerfully.
In many respects the voyage of Woodes Rogers is more noteworthy than
that of Anson thirty years later. Rogers had only two small merchant
ships fitted out by private enterprise, whereas Anson’s squadron was
fitted, manned, and armed, by the Admiralty. It comprised six ships of
the Royal Navy (with 236 guns and 2,000 men), in addition to two
victualling ships of the size of the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_. Rogers was
able to bring both his ships safely home, but fate was not so kind to
Anson, and only one, his flagship the _Centurion_, succeeded in reaching
England.
The success of the expedition naturally stimulated public interest, and
at the request of his many friends, Rogers agreed to publish his
“journal,”[22] which appeared in the following year under the title of
“A Cruising Voyage round the World.” It is written, as its author
informs us, in “the language of the sea,” and as such it is a
picturesque human document, enlivened with a quaint humour which makes
it delightful reading. During the eighteenth century the book was widely
read; three editions appeared within the space of fourteen years, and it
was also translated into French and German. It was used as a model by
later voyagers, and it is interesting to note that when Anson sailed on
a similar expedition thirty years later a copy of the “Cruising Voyage,”
found a prominent place in his cabin.
On returning to England Rogers took up his residence at a house in Queen
Square, Bristol, which had been built for him about 1708. His share of
the plunder taken by the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_ must have amounted to
about £14,000, and he was thus able to live in ease and retirement
during the next few years. At this period of his life he formed some
important and influential friendships, and among his correspondents we
find such well-known names as Addison, Steele, and Sir Hans Sloane.
To a man of Rogers’s disposition an inactive life must have been
particularly irksome, and his ever restless nature was continually
looking for some outlet where the spirit of adventure was combined with
service to the state. In the years following his expedition round the
world the Government had under consideration various schemes for the
settlements of Madagascar and the Bahama Islands, both of which had
become strongholds for the pirates and were a dangerous menace to the
trade and navigation in those waters. That Rogers had his own ideas on
the matter is shown in the following letter to Sir Hans Sloane, dated
7th May, 1716, which in its way is a model of brevity[23]:--
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
1_d._ 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 6_d._ per head per diem, and the Treasury were asked to provide the
sum of £912 10_s._--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.