such like Vessel that has a hole at the bottom they separate the Oyl from the Water by suffering the Water to slide gently out but vvhen the Oyl appears they cautiously stop and preserve it for several servile uses as to burn in Lamps c. and has a most foveraign vertue to help against pains and Aches in any part of the Body In the Island of Tobago great quantities of this Oyl is procurable The Munjack is nothing else than a Confirmation or Coagulation of the Tarr we spoke of into a more solid body which Munjack were it in a frigid as it is in the torrid Zone would be absolute Cole such as we burn in England This Munjack after its beat into powder they incorporate or mingle it with Earth to burn under their Coppers in Barbadoes otherwise it runs into an oily Substance by reason of the heat as has been observed by melted Pitch instead whereof the Spaniard substitutes Munjack The Soap Earth represents to me a kind of Clay that Nature has indued with vertue and the Qualification of cleansing and purifying other bodies which dissolves in Salt or in fresh Water and makes a lather like sope-sudds wherewith I washed my hands and it not only scoured them but took off the tanning to Admiration and so it happens either to Linnen or Woolen by reason of its Mundificative Vertue and Quality There is also a Clay that serves to clay Sugar with or you may if you please make Earthen ware thereof Moreover it will make good Brick or Tile or to mingle it with Sand you may shape it into Glass Many curious Shells stones Markasites and Minerals are found up and down the Island of Tobago whose vertue and worth is as yet unknown and as by the Bounty of Heaven here 's plenty enough for the Sustentation of Man and Beast so by a natural instinct and inclination Nature opens her doors of Treasure wherewith to adorn and inrich the industrous God is pleased to endue this Island with plenty so let her Inhabitants be mindful not to Surfeit with excess for if fulness and ease be the parents of idleness idleness must of Necessity be the darling of a soft and remiss Generation that slides into the foolish Embracements of Honour and Ambition which is the overthrow of civil Society and from which two evils Libera nos Domine Directions for Improvement in the Island of TOBAGO SUppose a Man that has an hundred pound Sterlin is minded to transport himself and Family consisting of eleven in number to this Island of Tobago and suppose their passages may cost him fifty pound and Manuals with other things requisite and necessary for Planting as also Provision for the first twelve months together with the charge of Houshold stuffs and all other Necessaries may stand him in 47 l. 10 s. more Suppose also this man takes a Lease of fifty Acres of Land for a thousand years at the rate of twelve-pence an Acre anually it amounts but to two pound ten shillings a year except otherwise he purchase the Fee simple of the Proprietors which compleats the hundred pound This is the first Money laid out nor need he be at any more charge for in twelve months time he will have ground provision enough and in all Probability two Crops of Tobacco The next thing to consider of is the Improvement of the said Land which is as followeth After your Arrival in the Island of Tobago the first six Months may be spent to clear fifteen Acres of Land and to put Provisions into the ground to build Conveniencies to accomodate your self and Family to adapt and fit the ground for planting a Nursery of Cacoa-nuts as also a bed sowed with Tobacco seeds and be sure to keep your Nursery clear from Weeds Then about a Months time after you have sown your Tobacco seed provided the Seasons be good you may then draw your Tobacco Plants and plant them about some four foot distance one from another regularly and in rows which said Tobacco Tobago produces is nothing inferiour to Spanish Trinidado that lies about seaven Leagues distance from the said Island of Tobago where I have seen the Spaniards when I was a Prisoner amongst them sell great quantities of Trinidado Tobacco at the rate of two Shillings a pound which said Tobacco the Spaniards transport from thence to old Spain and sell it there to considerable advantage Now amongst your Tobacco plants you may plant your Cocoa and transplant them when about six Months old into new ground fitted at ten or twelve foot distance and be sure to keep clean from Weeds In which latter six Months time you may have on your cleared ground two Crops of Tobacco Now admiting you make but eight thousand weight of Neat Tobacco on the said Ground yet in all probability provided your People be healthy it may double the number to sixteen thousand But if it do not and put the case your Tobacco fell but for an eighth part of what the Spaniards sell for in Trinidado which is but three pence per pound fold here in our Island yet will this Crop yield you one hundred pounds Sterlin which is your Money gained the very first year and in six month time all charges being born Now suppose that at the beginning of the second year the said fifteen Acres be all cleared and Provision enough put into the ground sufficient for double your number of hands you may rationally then expect four Crops in twelve Months time when as formerly you made two Crops in the last six Months So that with the hundred pounds you gained last year you may now purchass seven or eight slaves or Servants which may in all probability treble the first year But put the case it but only double yet at the worst it may yield you and all charges born two hundred pounds Sterlin Now we cannot otherwise conclude if things succeed well but that the third year will double the second year by improvement as above is exprest and if so then your Crop will amount to four hundred pounds Sterlin And the fourth year doubles the third year by reason the Cocoa that was planted the first year on the fifteen Acres of Land may produce to the value of thirty pounds Sterlin an Acre besides the encrease of Tobacco and clearing of more ground together with your encrease of Servants and slaves and planting of more Cacao Trees which at least will arise to eight hundred pounds sterlin the fourth year The fifth year in all Probability doubles the fourth by reason the Cocoa that was first planted yeilds now to the value of sixty pound Sterling an Acre as the second years planted Cocoa yielded but thirty pounds per Acre So that clearing of more ground and purchasing more slaves and Servants your produce of Cocoa and Tobacco clears you at least one thousand six hundred pounds Sterlin as now the price goes The sixth year you may very well clear three thousand pounds
worm will seldom touch under water Now I fancy this Timber an excellent sheathing for Shipping The Man-grove by some called Red-wood the proper use of the Wood is for Diers which if further examined the Bark is useful in Tanning But white Mangrove is of little use save onely good to make Ropes with The White-wood is a Tree of that singular vertue the worm will seldom touch it therefore have the English Americans consulted with this Timber to build their shipping in regard of the singularity and durability of the Wood. The Yellow Sander Tree is from two to five foot diameter a Timber of excellent use and may be fitted to any purpose it 's very useful in the place where it grows and it 's profitable also to those that transport it The Bay-tree is a Tree of that admirable vertue most people admire it whose Bark is like Cinnamon and whose Berries as are those in Jamaica of a Clove and a Cinnamon scent and taste qualifies it with a double nature of Spice The Box-tree here is a solid and firm wood but seldom or rarely grows to that degree of Timber The Fiddle-tree so called has a sweet Flower and grows up to Timber also and is useful in building c. The Brazil Tree Nature has given it the growth of Timber and a tincture of that vertue that it 's useful for Diers in staining of stuffs or colouring of Cloth Brazilleto is a Minor or Junior Brazil seldom or rarely arriving to the magnitude of Timber but as useful in dying as the former Bully-Tree is a ponderous durable and compact Wood that sinks if put into the Water they use it in Barbados for Rolers but principally for Coggs to Spindles and Shafts in their Windmills besides several other uses The Cocus Tree we thought it unnecessary to range that among the Timber Trees having considered it very useful to inlay with and as profitable as plentiful to the industrious Turner The Cassia Fistula is a Tree but I cannot warrant it Timber however the Fruit is for Physical Use The Callabash Tree is a kind of tough Timber which we shape into Pumps Pump-boxes Knees and Timber for small Vessels and with the shell of the fruit some folks make drinking Cups which are called Calabashes The Granadilla is a bastard Cocus much of its nature and useful in the like cases Green Fustick is a sort of Timber fitted for Instruments or the art of inlaying but the Yellow Fustick is more proper for Diers as it may be directed or suited at pleasure to other uses Lignum vitae is a compact and ponderous Wood good to make Bowls with and as good to make Bowls of I mean your Punch Bowl and also Pestles and Mortars but the Gum Flowers Bark are preserved as Druggs c. and Ale or any other Liquor if provided it have stood ten or twelve hours in a Lignum-vitae-Cup and drunk it helps against Consumptions Manchioneel is a sort of Timber for Plank and Sheathing so naturally seasoned with some bitter taste that the Worm willby no means touch it Yellow Plumb-tree is a very good Timber and fitted for several uses The Cabbage Tree grows to a prodigious heighth some to one hundred foot in length yet has but a fibrous root and the Cabbage you shall observe at the extreamest part save onely a lovely Plume of green leaves over shade it But it 's no Timber tree by reason it contains so very much Pith however it 's useful for Palasades and to make Pumps Gutters Troughs and Pailing with but of the hard and outmost Rind the Indians by the use of fire make Piles for their Arrows and with the leaves they cover the tops of their Houses or Wiggwams but the Cabbage it self is a most delicious food and super-excells our in England The Ebony tree grows naturally here I need not to speak the use of that But the Shrubs that grow here are the Physick Nut and Flowerfence which are planted in rows or lines as our Hedges are to divide and distinguish Plantations And the Sensible Plant which contracts it self as soon as you touch it is but a Shrub neither that grows plentifully here The Staples of Tobago THe Cocao that maketh Chocolatto is a Nut so generally known that it needs no discription but yet I thought good to incert for encouragement that in the Latitude of the Island of Tobago one Acre of Land by modest computation may yield to the Planter 400 pieces of Eight per Annum which in Barbados is valued at 100 l. Sterling after the Trees have been planted six years Then there 's another thing worthy your consideration that never any Herricane nor the Blasts satal to Jamaica and Hispaniola has been ever known in the Latitude of Tobago to strike the tender blossom and buds with its perishing stroke which experience confirms unto us that by opening of the Woods in those parts thereby to plant Canes or ground provision they let in the Blast that invaded the Cocao but in this latitude were we open to the Ocean it 's never the worse for it never blasts here which Cocao was so plentiful in Jamaica and Hispaniola formerly that in the year 1654. I was at the taking of a Spanish Vessel loaden with Cocao which came from Hispaniola so great was the plenty then and to admiration but the reason I have already laid down why there is such a searcity now and think it needless to make repetition save onely to tell you that the Cocao Tree grows naturally wild in the Woods here in Tobago and the Indians here gathered of the Nuts and brought to us which Nuts were transported to Barbados as Mr. Rodderigo the Jew now in England can evidence The Sugar Cane was planted here by the Dutch and I almost blush to express their wonderful increase that the produce of one Acre of Canes should amount to six thousand pound of Sugar besides Rum and Mollassos which in Barbados and the Leward Islands they esteem it great profit if at any time one Acre yields them three thousand And yet the Sugar Cane we approve to be none of the best Staples in the Island of Tobago And the Tobacco that grows in this Island is nothing inferiour to Spanish Trinidado that lies distant about some seven Leagues and not above twenty miles North from the Verines from whence comes the best Tobacco in the world Several small Vessels have I seen loaden from Trinidado and the Tobacco sold in the Role for 2 s. per pound which Merchandize they transport to old Spain and other Parts to advance the price which turns to considerable profit So that in Tobago I perswade my self that a stout labouring man may make 3000 l. of Tobacco into Roll every year and do it with a great deal of ease which if sold but at seven pence per pound sterling comes to a considerable sum as the Holander when they had the Island ingrossed the same and gave six Stivers for
sterlin and all charges borne by reason the Cocoa planted the first year is now come to perfection is at its full height of bearing Which in this Latitude may yield one hundred ponnd Sterling an Acre viz. the first fifteen Acres which were Planted the first year And the second years Plants Planted the second year will yield you sixty pound sterling the third years Plants as by the same calculation may yield you thirty pound Sterlin an Acre So that by purchasing the more servants and slaves you may if you please decline so much planting of Tobacco as formerly you did The seventh year you will have all your Land Planted with Cocoa and that encreasing you need not plant above ten or fifteen Acres of Tobacco this year amongst your Cocao but you may Plant provisions amongst them for support and maintenance of your self and Family So that from that increase of your seventh years Crop you may hope and expect by a modest computation to clear from the said fifty Acres of Land at least five thousand pounds Sterling a year And now we come to the Reasons for this great improvement you must consider that the Spaniards in Trinidado c. give among themselves one hundred pounds Sterling for a Nigro Slave and yet the said slave will not stand his master in one single penny at the years end for his purchase And all the labour and service the Spaniard imploys him in the year about is only in Cocoa and Spanish Tobacco in this our Latitude Now pray consider that we can have Nigro Slaves brought and delivered to us at fifteen pound sterling a head by reason we have an open trade and the Spaniard allows not of a free trade VVhere note the Spaniard pays sixpence or more for every thing he wants when we can have the same for a single peny That 's one reason The second Reason is the Spaniard cannot have any Tunage for goods from old Spain to the West-Indies and home again for less then forty or fifty pounds sterling per Tun besides the Duties run very high And we can have Freight for five or six pounds per Tun and no Duties from us to a free Port. VVhen therefore to consider and compute the charge on either side we profit by what we transport six to one VVhich makes the Spaniard generally so poor in the Indies and we generally to flourish so much the more The third reason is that in a Ship of three hundred Tun the Spaniard has seldom less then two hundred men belonging to her and the wages of each man comes at least to Fifty Shillings Sterling per month which in the whole amounts to five hundred pound a month barely for wages then you are to Consider the monthly Provision to accomodate these men cannot come to less then one hundred and sixty pound Sterlin and ten months at six hundred and sixty pound per Month amounts to six thousand and five hundred pounds Sterlin for ten Months Moreover this Ship of three hundred Tun seldom carries less then forty Pieces of Ordinance which with their Provisions c. by modest computation takes up no less room then one hundred and fifty Tun. So that the Ship in all Probability cannot bring home more then one hundred and fifty tun of Merchants goods and the fraight of these goods comes to forty pound Sterlin a tun So that by this Calculation they must be loosers at least six hundred pound Sterlin and at fourty five pound per tun to pay ware and tare of the Ship and mens wages So that for the ships ware and tare it comes barely but to one hundred and fifty pound Sterlin clear Now admit an English ship of three hundred tun be bound for Jamaica and suppose the fraight of this ship be at six pound sterlin per tun this ship shall make her voyage better in eight months time then the Spaniard shall in ten Months now the fraight of the English ship comes to one thousand eight hundred pound sterlin and the Wages and Victuals of the said Ship at sixty pound per Month comes to four hundred and eighty pound sterlin so that you see the Ship clears for her ware and tare the sum of one thousand three hundred and twenty pound sterlin See here therefore the great difference The fourth and last reason is this The King of Spain contracts with a body of Merchants to furnish the West-Indies with four thousand Nigros every year and the Nigrillos or Merchants there engage to pay the King one hundred peices of Eight Custom for each Nigro slave brought unto them VVhich comes to four hundred thousand pieces of Eight by the year which is paid to the said King the King therefore prohibits all Merchants and others for bringing Nigros to the West-Indies And each piece of Eight is valued at five shillings sterlin in Barbadoes but in the Lee-ward Islands it goes for six Here followeth the Proposals made by my self and Company To all such People as are minded to Tiansport or Concern themselves in the Island of TOBAGO Which lieth about forty Leagues South from Barbadoes WHereas his Majesty the King of Great Brittain that now is hath given and granted unto James Duke of Courland his Heirs and Successors the said Island of Tobago on Condition that none shall inhabit the said Island save only the Subjects of the King of England and the Duke of Courland their Heirs and Successors On the said Condition I have contracted with the said Duke that my self and Company settle One hundred and Twenty Thousand Acres of Land in the said Island and to have several great and large Priviledges Some of which are here incerted viz. Imprimis That One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Acres of Land in the said Island of Tobago is given and granted to my self and Company and our Heirs for ever and Seven Years to be free from Payment of any Rent and after the Expiration of Seven Years each for himself is to pay Two Pence per Acre every Year to the said Duke his Lawful Heirs and Successors Secondly That my self and Company and all the Inhabitants shall enjoy Liberty of Conscience without Interruption Roman Catholicks only Excepted Thirdly That my self and Company c. are to be Governed by a Governour Deputy Governour and Assembly to be yearly chosen by the Majority of Freeholders Votes of the People in the Island to make good and wholesome Laws for the good Government and Defence of the said Island and all Controversies in the Premises to be decided by the Majority of Voices Note These are but Breviates and part of the Heads of the Grant from the Duke of Courland Ratified to my self and Company whereby we hold and enjoy our Land for that end I do refer all People to the Grant as more at large as also to them that have been on the Skirt or Body of the said Island to confirm the Truth of what is before spoken of the Products of the said Island Proposals for further Encouragement First Those which are desirous to concern themselves in the said Island shall and may have as much Land as they themselves please either by Lease or Purchase onely they are to put upon every Fifteen Acres of Land one White Man and so in proportion to the rest and this to be done in Three Years time Secondly All Persons that are desirous to Transport themselves to the said Island in the quality of Servants shall have Better Encouragement from my self and Company than has been yet Propounded by any of His Majesties Subjects in any Settlement in the American Plantations Thirdly And for a further Encouragement All those Persons and Planters that are any ways concerned in the Premises shall have Credit given unto them from Crop to Crop as the Factory is stor'd for what they shall stand in need of for which the said Company will Erect a Bank or Factory of Credit in the said Island the Debtor allowing only two and a half per Cent. Fourthly All Merchants and others that shall import any Negroes or other Merchandise into the said Island shall have their Goods and Debts Insured and disposed of for Two and a Half per Cent. with Factorage Storage Wharfage c. And Exported again for Two and a Half per Cent. more And all Tradesmen and Others tha Contract any Debts amongst themselves shall have Credit given them out of the Bank or Factory from Crop to Crop for Two and a Half per Cent. And the Proprietors do engage their Whole Interest for the True Performance of the aforesaid Premises Fifthly All Merchants and others that have Goods fit to Accommodate the said Island and have not ready Money to purchase Land nor to pay for their own or Servants Paslage such may barter with Goods in lien of Money Always provided This implies only such Persons as contract with the Proprietors or some of them before the first Shipping departs out of the River of Thames to Ship off as above their proportion of Goods or People as is already sufficiently above-expressed For the Accomodation of all Persons that desire to be Concern'd in the above-named Island of Tobago some of the Proprietors or their Agents will give their Attendance every day in the Week at Mr. Nathaniel Morin's at the Blew Anchor in Finch-Lane near the Royal Exchange from Eight a Clock in the Morning till two in the Afternoon And at Jones's Coffee House in Ship yard in Bartholomew Lane from two in the Afternoon till four And at the Amsterdam-Coffee-House in Bartholomew Lane from four in the Afternoon till six Where any Person may receive more Particular Satisfaction Where also may be seen a Schedule of the Proprietors for the setling Twenty Thousand Acres of Land in the said Island for a Joynt Stock for Subscriptions of any Persons that are willing to be Adventurers in the same And at each of which places these Books are to be Sold Price Stitcht Six-pence FINIS ADVERTISEMENT ☞ A nevv Map of the Island of Tobago with a Chart of all the Caribee-Islands is to be sold by John Seller at the VVest-side of the Royal Exchange