Antigua and the Antiguans (Vol. 1&2). Mrs. Lanaghan

of their lineal descent may not be deemed superfluous, and will be found in the Appendix, No. 2.

      ¹ The names of these adventurous few were as follows:—​William Tasted, John Rhodes, Robert Bims, Mr. Benifield, Sergeant Jones, Mr. Ware, William Ryle, Rowland Grasscocke, Mr. Bond, Mr. Langley, Mr. Weaver, Sergeant Aplon, one sailor, and a cook.

      ² Vide copy of the first commission granted, No. 1, Appendix.

      ³ Sir Thomas Warner died at St. Christopher’s in 1648. His tomb is still to be met with in the parish church for the township of Old Road, (a place which derives its name from the involuntary exclamation of Columbus upon his second visit to St. Christopher’s, “Ah! we are at the old road again,”) the inscription upon which is as follows:—

      An Epitaph vpon Th-------------------

       Noble & Mvch Lamented Genr^l Sir Tho. Warner, K^t Lievtenant General of y^e Carribee Ielands & Gover^r of y^e Ieland of S^t Christopher Who Departed This Life the 10th of March 1648.

      First Read then weepe when thou art hereby taught,

       That Warner lyes interr’d here, one that bought,

       With losse of Noble bloud Illustrious Name,

       Of A Comander Greate in Acts of Fame.

       Trayn’d from his youth in Armes, his courage bold,

       Attempted braue Exploites, and vncontrold

       By fortunes fiercest Frownes, hee still gaue forth

       Large Narratiues of Military worth.

       ----ritten with his sword’s poynt, but what is man

       -------the midst of his glory, and who can

       ----------this Life A moment, since that hee

       -------------by Sea and Land, so longe kept free

       -----------al, Mortal Strokes at length did yeeld

       ------------ace) to conquering Death the field,

       fini Coronat.

      The black lines shew where the marble is broken, or the letters from some other cause are quite obliterated.

      CHAPTER II.

       Table of Contents

      History of the island continued​—​Sir Henry Hunks​—​Descent of the Caribs​—​Legend of Ding-a-ding Nook​—​Arrival of the Ship Nonsuch​—​Sir Thomas Modiford​—​Earl of Warwick, Captain-General​—​Captain Edward Warner​—​Colonel Rich​—​Colonel Lake​—​Mr. Everard​—​Sir George Ayscue​—​Colonel Christopher Reynall​—​Invasion by the Caribs​—​Dissensions among the inhabitants​—​Copy of Colonel Reynall’s letter to Cromwell​—​Attack upon St. Domingo and Jamaica​—​Major-General Poyntz​—​Grant of Antigua to Lord F. Willoughby.

      We will now return to the history of Antigua, which we shall hereafter pursue, as closely as possible, in chronological order.

      In 1639, Sir Henry Hunks paid Antigua a visit. This gentleman (who was nephew to Lord Conway, Secretary of State) was the first governor of Barbados with a regular commission; but upon his arrival at that colony, Henry Hawley, the then acting commander-in-chief, would not resign the government, and raised so formidable a party, that Sir Henry Hunks quietly retired to Antigua, where he remained from June to December; at which latter period, he was installed in his government, according to the instructions which he received from England.

      In 1640, the English settlers were disturbed in their possessions at Antigua by the Caribs, who made a descent upon the island, pillaging it, and destroying everything that fell in their way. After many lives being lost on both sides, the English were enabled to repel their invaders; who, however, succeeded in carrying away the governor’s wife and her two children. It is maintained by some authors, that the after fate of this unfortunate woman was not known; but that everything the worst might be imagined from the character of the Caribs, goaded on as they were by the loss of their country.

      There is, however, a tradition still extant in Antigua, which most probably relates to this catastrophe. In the first years of this island becoming an English colony, it was, of course, but thinly peopled by Europeans, and consequently there was but little force to repel any invasion. Parties of Caribs from the different islands, particularly Dominica, used frequently to land upon it, and distress the inhabitants. In these invasions, no mercy was shewn, no quarter given, to the unhappy people who fell in their power, and after a combat, numerous were the bodies left upon the field of battle. Armed with their massive clubs and sharp spears, at the end of which was inserted a fish-bone, dipped in the poisonous juice of the lianas or the manchineel, the Caribs were no mean foes. No sooner had they set fire to a cluster of houses, or destroyed a field of tobacco, the chief production of the island in those days, than they immediately flew to their canoes, which were so fast in sailing, that before the alarm had subsided in one part, they were burning and plundering in another.⁴ At that period, the house where the governor resided was situated near Falmouth Bay; and in the village itself the principal of the English settlers lived. Government House, from its situation, was particularly open to the attacks of the Caribs; and here the first part of the scene took place, which gave rise to

      The Legend of Ding-a-ding Nook.⁵

      It was night. The wind, which had been blowing rather hard during the day, as evening drew in, gradually sank, until about midnight, the time when the legend opens, it was a dead calm. Nothing was to be heard but the dull moaning of the waves, as they broke heavily upon the beach, or, now and then, the distant bark of a dog from the houses of the settlers, which, with the natural fidelity of that animal, had followed his master to these sunny islands, when he came in search of that fortune which his native land denied him.

      The family of the governor consisted of himself, his young and beautiful wife, two lovely children, and his numerous domestics. At an early period of this evening, his lady, with the warm solicitude of a mother’s love, had seen her infants safely deposited in their cot; and with a mother’s prayer for their happiness upon her lips, watched beside them until the deepening rose upon their cheeks, and their measured breathings, shewed that they slept the quiet sleep of childhood.

      Hours rolled on, and all beneath that roof sought their resting-place​—​all but the governor’s wife were quickly in the arms of sleep. As if some “spirit of the night” had whispered a hint of the sufferings she was fated to endure, an irresistible feeling of melancholy hung over her. Sleep she could not; and to allay the fever of her brow, she arose from her couch, and throwing her robe around her, she opened the lattice. The scene she looked upon was wild but beautiful. Dark masses of clouds still hung about the heavens, and strove to hide the beams of the rising moon; but she, “fair Cynthia,” kept on her way in peerless majesty, and shed on every object her mellowed light. The simple houses of the English were visible amid the trees; above which the stately cocoa-nut reared its head, its long pendant branches perfectly motionless. On one side, the bay of Falmouth lay stretched before the eye of the gazer, every snow-crested wave of which could be counted; and on the other were the dark mountains, except in the opening of the bay, where nothing was to be seen but an extent of waters.

      Long did that beautiful lady gaze upon this scene: many thoughts did its loveliness conjure up​—​thoughts of her native land, its verdant hills and spangled dells, and all its towering cities. Present objects were fast fading away, when a splash of the waters was heard, and as her eye sought the ocean, a swift-gliding canoe came in sight. At this moment, the moon, which had been lately obscured, shone out with redoubled brightness, and she could plainly discover that the canoe contained about twenty armed men, and was quickly followed by another, with even more than that number. Who could these strangers be? was the first thought; and what their business at such an hour? Were they Caribs? And one more glance at their wild forms, and the dreadful truth