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.
HANG
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, 1727/8, clearly shows[66]:--
[Sidenote: 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]