ordering it you must expect to have it excellent his fancy and contrivance of a Feast being as far beyond any mans there as the place where he dwells is better scituate for such a purpose And his Land touching the Sea his House being not halfe a quarter of a mile from it and not interposed by any unlevell ground all rarities that are brought to the Iland from any part of the world are taken up brought to him and stowed in his Cellars in two hours time and that in the night as Wine of all kinds Oyl Olives Capers Sturgeon Neats tongues Anchoves Caviare Botargo with all sorts of salted meats both flesh and fish for his Family as Beefe Pork English Pease Ling Haberdine Cod poor John and Jerkin Beef which is hufled and slasht through hung up and dryed in the Sun no salt at all put to it And thus ordered in Hispaniola as hot a place as Barbadoes and yet it will keep longer then powdred Beefe and is as drie as Stock-fish and just such meat for flesh as that is for fish and as little nourishment in it but it fills the belly and serves the turne where no other meat is Though some of these may be brought to the inland Plantations well conditioned yet the Wines cannot possibly come good for the wayes are such as no Carts can passe and to bring up a But of Sack or a Hogshead of any other Wine upon Negres backs will very hardly be done in a night so long a time it requires to hand it up and down the Gullies and if it be carried in the day-time the Sun will heat and taint it so as it will lose much of his spirit and pure taste and if it be drawn out in bottles at the Bridge the spirits flie away in the drawing and you shall finde a very great difference in the taste and quicknesse of it Oyle will endure the carriage better then Wine but over much heat will abate something of the purity and excellent taste it has naturally And for Olives 't is well known that jogging in the carriage causes them to bruise one another and some of them being bruised will grow rotten and infect the rest So that Wine Oyle and Olives cannot possibly be brought to such Plantations as are eight or ten miles from the Bridge and from thence the most part of these commodities are to be fetch'd So that you may imagine what advantage Collonell Walrond has of any inland Plantation having these materialls which are the main Regalia's in a Feast and his own contrivance to boot besides all I have formerly nam'd concerning raw and preserv'd fruits with all the other Quelquechoses And thus much I thought good to say for the honour of the Iland which is no more then truth because I have heard it sleighted by some that seem'd to know much of it # About a hundred sail of Ships yearly visit this Iland and receive during the time of their stay in the Harbours for their sustenance the native Victualls growing in the Iland such as I have already named besides what they carry away and what is carried away by Planters of the I le that visit other parts of the world The commodities this Iland trades in are Indico Cotten-wool Tobacco Suger Ginger and Fustick-wood # The Commodities these Ships bring to this Iland are Servants and Slaves both men and women Horses Cattle Assinigoes Camells Utensills for boyling Sugar as Coppers Taches Goudges and Sockets all manner of working tooles for Trades-men as Carpenters Joyners Smiths Masons Mill-wrights Wheel-wrights Tinkers Coopers c. Iron Steel Lead Brasse Pewâ—er Cloth of all kinds both Linnen and Wollen Stuffs Hatts Hose Shoos Gloves Swords knives Locks Keys c. Victualls of all kinds that will endure the Sea in so long a voyage Olives Capers Anchoves salted Flesh and Fish pickled Maquerells and Herrings Wine of all sorts and the boon Beer d' Angleterre # I had it in my thought before I came there what kinde of Buildings would be fit for a Country that was so much troubled with heat as I have heard this was did expect to find thick walls high roofes and deep cellers but found neither the one nor the other but clean contrary timber houses with low roofes so low as for the most part of them I could hardly stand upright with my hat on and no cellars at all besides another course they took which was more wonder to me than all that which was stopping or barring out the winde which should give them the greatest comfort when they were neer stifled with heat For the winde blowing alwaies one way which was Eastwardly they should have made all the openings they could to the East thereby to let in the cool breezes to refresh them when the heat of the day came But they clean contrary closed up all their houses to the East and opened all to the West so that in the afternoones when the Sun came to the West those little low roofed rooms were like Stoves or heated Ovens And truly in a very hot day it might raise a doubt whether so much heat without and so much tobacco and kill-devill within might not set the house a fire for these three ingredients are strong motives to provoke it and they were ever there But at last I found by them the reasons of this strange preposterous manner of building which was grounded upon the weakest and silliest foundation that could be For they alledged that at the times of rain which was very often the wind drave the rain in at their windowes so fast as the houses within were much annoyed with it for having no glasse to keep it out they could seldome sit or lie drie and so being constrained to keep out the ayer on that side for fear of letting in the water would open the West ends of their houses so wide as was beyond the proportion of windows to repair that want and so let in the fire not considering at all that there was such a thing as shutters for windowes to keep out the rain that hurt them and let in the winde to refresh them and do them good at their pleasure But this was a consideration laid aside by all or the most part of the meaner fort of Planters But at last I found the true reason was their poverty and indigence which wanted the means to make such conveniences and so being compelled by that had rather suffer painfully and patiently abide this inconvenience than sell or part with any of their goods to prevent so great a mischiefe So loath poor people are to part with that which is their next immediate help to support them in their great want of sustenance For at that lock they often were and some good Planters too that far'd very hard when we came first into the Iland So that hard labour and want of victualls had so much deprest their spirits as they were come to a declining and
cloaths or in the knocking room and sometimes to bring in pans of coals well kindled into the Cureing-house If I have omitted any thing here you shall finde it supplyed in the Indexes of my Plots As for distilling the skimmings which run down to the Still-house from the three lesser Coppers it is only this After it has remained in the Cisterns which my plot shewes you in the Still-house till it be a little soure for till then the Spirits will not rise in the Still the first Spirit that comes off is a small Liquor which we call low-Wines which Liquor we put into the Still and draw it off a gain and of that comes so strong a Spirit as a candle being brought to a 〈◊〉 distance to the bung of a Hogshead or But where it is kept the â—pirits will â—â—ie to it and taking hold of it bring the fire down to the vessell and set all a fire which immediately breakes the vessell and becomes a flame burning all about it that is combustible matter We lost an excellent Negre by such an accident who bringing a Jar of this Spirit from the Still-house to the Drink-room in the night not knowing the force of the liquor he carried brought the candle somewhat neerer than he ought that he might the better see how to put it into the Funnell which conveyed it into the Butt But the Spirit being stirr'd by that motion flew out and got hold of the flame of the Candle and so set all on fire and burnt the poor Negre to death who was an excellent servant And if he had in the instant of firing clapt his hand upon the bung all had been saved but he that knew not that cure lost the whole vessell of Spirits and his life to boot So that upon this misadventure a strict command was given that none of those Spirits should be brought to the Drink-room ever after in the night nor no fire or candle ever to come in there This drink though it had the ill hap to kill one Negre yet it has had the vertue to cure many for when they are ill with taking cold which often they are and very well they may having nothing under them in the night but a board upon which they lie nor any thing to cover them And though the daies be hot the nights are cold and that change cannot but work upon their bodies though they be hardy people Besides comming home hot and sweating in the evening sitting or lying down must needs be the occasion of taking cold and sometimes breeds sicknesses amongst them which when they feel they complain to the Apothecary of the Plantation which we call Doctor and he gives them every one a dram cup of this Spirit and that is a present cure And as this drink is of great use to cure and refresh the poor Negres whom we ought to have a speciall care of by the labour of whose hands our profit is brought in so is it helpfull to our Christian Servants too for when their spirits are exhausted by their hard labour and sweating in the Sun ten hours every day they find their stomacks debilitated and much weakned in their vigour every way a dram or two of this Spirit is a great comfort and refreshing to them This drink is also a commodity of good value in the Plantation for we send it down to the Bridge and there put it off to those that retail it Some they sell to the Ships and is transported into forraign parts and drunk by the way Some they sell to such Planters as have no Sugar-works of their owne yet drink excessively of it for they buy it at easie rates halfe a crown a gallon was the price the time that I was there but they were then purposing to raise the price to a deerer rate They make weekly as long as they work of such a Plantation as this 30 l. sterling besides what is drunk by their servants and slaves And now for a close of this work of Sugar I will let you see by way of estimate to what a Revenue this Iland is raised and in my opinion not improbable If you will be pleased to look back to the extent of the Iland you shall find by taking a medium of the length and breadth of it that there is contained in the Iland 392 square miles out of which we will substract a third part which is the most remote part of the Iland from the Bridge where all or the most part of Trade is which by many deep and steep Gullies interposing the passage is in a manner stop'd besides the Land there is not so rich and fit to bear Canes as the other but may be very usefull for planting provisions of Corn Yeams Bonavista Cassavie Potatoes and likewise of Fruites as Oranges Limons Lymes Plantines Bonanoes as also for breeding Hoggs Sheep Goats Cattle and Poultry to furnish the rest of the Iland that want those Commodities For which reasons we will substract a third part from 392. and that is 130. and so the remaining â— is 262 square miles the greatest part of which may be laid to Sugar-works and some to be allowed and set out for small Plantations which are not able to raise a Sugar-work or set up an Ingenio by reason of the paucity of acres being not above twenty thirty or forty acres in a Plantation but these will be fit to bear Tobacco Ginger Cotten-wool Maies Yeames and Potatoes as also for breeding Hoggs But most of these will in short time be bought up by great men and laid together into Plantations of five sixe and seven hundred acres And then we may make our computation thus viz. A mile square will contain 640 acres of land and here we see is 262 acres being â— of the Iland So then we multiply 262. by 640. and the product will amount unto 167680. Now we will put the case that some of those men that have small Plantations will not sell them but keep them for provisions which they may live plentifully upon for those provisions they raise will sell at good rates for which use we will set out thirty thousand acres So then we substract 30000 acres from 167680 and there will remain 137680 acres to be for Sugar-works out of which â— may be planted with Canes the other â— for Wood Pasture and Provisions which must support the Plantations according to the scale of Collonell Modiford's Plantation as I said before Now these two fifts are as you see 55072 acres and an acre of good Canes will yield 4000 pound weight of Sugar and none will yield lesse then 2000 weight but we will take a Medium and rest upon 3000 weight upon which we will make our computation and set our price upon the Sugar according to the lowest rates which shall be 3 d. per pound as it is Muscavado to be sold upon the Iland at the Bridge In fifteen months the Canes will be ripe and in a month
for their habitations though they suffer the Store-houses to remain where they are for their convenience But the other scituation may be made with some charge as convenient as that and abundantly more healthfull Three Bayes there are more of note in this Iland one to the Eastward of this which they call Austin's Bay not in commemoration of any Saint but of a wilde mad drunken fellow whose lewd and extravagant carriage made him infamous in the Iland and his Plantation standing neer this Bay it was called by his name The other two are to the West of Carlile Bay and the first is called Mackfields Bay the other Spikes Bay but neither of these three are environ'd with Land as Carlile Bay is but being to the Leeward of the Iland and good Anchorage they seldome are in danger unlesse in the time of Turnado when the wind turnes about to the South and then if they be not well â—oor'd they are subject to fall foul on one another and sometimes driven aground For the Leeward part of the Iland being rather shelvie then rockie they seldome or never are cast away # The length and breadth of this Iland I must deliver you only upon trust for I could not go my selfe about it being full of other businesse but I had some speech with the antientest and most knowing Surveyer there one Captain Swann who told me that he once took an exact plot of the whole Iland but it was commanded out of his hands by the then Governour Sir Henry Hunks who carried it into England since which time neither himselfe nor any other to his knowledge had taken any nor did he believe there was any extant I desired him yet that he would rub up his memory and take a little paines in the survey of his Papers to try what could be found out there that might give me some light in the extent of the Iland which he promised to do and within a while after told me that he had found by some Papers that lay scattered in his Study the length of it but for the breadth it was very uncertain by reason of the nooks and corners that reach'd out into the Sea so that it must of necessity be broad in some places and narrow in others I desired then to know how many miles the broadest and how few the narrowest parts might be He told me that he guest the broadest place could not be above seventeen miles nor the narrowest under twelve and that the length he was assured was twenty eight miles Out of these uncertain grounds it was a hard matter to conclude upon any certainties and therefore the evenest way I can go is upon a Medium between twelve and seventeen and I will be as modest as I can in my computation and take but 14. which is lesse then the Medium and multiply 14. which is supposed to be the breadth by 28. which is assured to be the length and they make 392 square miles in the Iland Beyond this my enquiries could not reach and therefore was compell'd to make my estimate upon this bare Supposition But for the forme of the Superficies of the Iland I am utterly ignorant and for the Upright I have given it you in my first view of the Iland that it rises highest in the middle # When the Sun is in the Aequinoctiall or within 10 Degrees of either side we finde little change in the daies length for at six and six the Sun rises and sets but when he is neer the Tropick of Capricorn and is 37 Degrees from us we finde a difference for then the day is somewhat shorter and we perceive that shortning to begin about the end of October the Crepusculum being then not much longer then at other times which is not halfe the length as 't is with us in England At the time of new 〈◊〉 we finde both her Corners equally high when the Sun is neer us but when it is at the distance of 37 Degrees to the Southward we finde some difference for then it hangs not so equall but one end is higher then the other by reason of the position we are in Eight months of the year the weather is very hot yet not so scalding but that servants both Christians and slaves labour and travell tenne hours in a day As the Sunne rises there rise with him coole breezes of wind and the higher and hotter the sunne shines the stronger and cooler the breezes are and blow alwaies from the Nore East and by East except in the time of the Turnado And then it sometimes chops about into the South for an hour or two and then returnes againe to the same poynt where it was The other foure months it is not so hot but is neer the temper of the aire in England in the middle of May and though in the hot seasons we sweat much yet we doe not finde that faintnesse that we finde here in the end of July or beginning of August With this great heat there is such a moysture as must of necessity cause the ayer to be very unwholsome We are seldome drye or thirsty unlesse we overheat our bodyes with extraordinary labour or drinking strong drinks as of our English spirits which we carry over of french Brandy or the drinke of the Iland which is made of the skimmings of the Coppers that boyle the Sugar which they call kill-Divell And though some of these be needfull if they be used with temper yet the immoderate use of them over-heats the body which causes Costivenesse and Tortions in the bowels which is a disease very frequent there and hardly cur'd and of which many have dyed but certainely strong drinks are very requisit where so much heat is for the spirits being exhausted with much sweating the inner parts are left cold and faint and shall need comforting and reviving Besides our bodyes having bin used to colder Clymates finde a debility and a great fayling in the vigour and sprightliness we have in colder Climats our blood too is thinner and paler than in our own Countreys Nor is the meat so well relisht as in England but flat and insipid the hogges flesh onely excepted which is indeed the best of that kinde that I thinke is in the world Our Horses and Cattle seldome drinke and when they do it is in very small quantities except such as have their bodies over heated with working This moysture of the ayre causes all our knives etweese keyes needles swords and ammunition to rust and that in an instant for take your knife to the grindstone and grind away all the rust which done wipe it dry and put it up into your sheath and so into your pocket and in a very little time draw it out and you shall find it beginning to rust all over which in more time will eate deep into the steele and spoyle the blade Our locks too that are not often made use of will rust in the wards and
conclusion for he got such love of his servants as they thought all too little they could do for him and the love of the servants there is of much concernment to the Masters not only in their diligent and painfull labour but in fore seeing and preventing mischiefes that often happen by the carelessnesse and slothfulnesse of retchlesse servants sometimes by laying fire so negligently as whole lands of Canes and Houses too are burnt down and consumed to the utter ruine and undoing of their Masters For the materialls there being all combustible and apt to take fire a little oversight as the fire of a Tobacco-pipe being knockt out against a drie stump of a tree has set it on fire and the wind fanning that fire if a land of Canes be but neer and they once take fire all that are down the winde will be burnt up Water there is none to quench it or if it were a hundred Negres with buckets were not able to do it so violent and spreading a fire this is and such a noise it makes as if two Armies with a thousand shot of either side were continually giving fire every knot of every Cane giving as great a report as a Pistoll So that there is no way to stop the going on of this flame but by cutting down and removing all the Canes that grow before it for the breadth of twenty or thirty foot down the winde and there the Negres to stand and beat out the fire as it creeps upon the ground where the Canes are cut down And I have seen some Negres so earnest to stop this fire as with their naked feet to tread and with their naked bodies to tumble and roll upon it so little they regard their own smart or safety in respect of their Masters benefit The year before I came away there were two eminent Planters in the Iland that with such an accident as this lost at least 10000 l. sterling in the value of the Canes that were burnt the one Mr. James Holduppe the other Mr. Constantine Silvester And the latter had not only his Canes but his house burnt down to the ground This and much more mischiefe has been done by the negligence and wilfulnesse of servants And yet some cruell Masters will provoke their Servants so by extream ill usage and often and cruell beating them as they grow desperate and so joyne together to revenge themselves upon them A little before I came from thence there was such a combination amongst them as the like was never seen there before Their sufferings being grown to a great height their daily complainings to one another of the intolerable burdens they labour'd under being spread throughout the Iland at the last some amongst them whose spirits were not able to endure such slavery resolved to break through it or die in the act and so conspired with some others of their acquaintance whose sufferings were equall if not above theirs and their spirits no way inferiour resolved to draw as many of the discontented party into this plot as possibly they could and those of this perswasion were the greatest numbers of servants in the Iland So that a day was appointed to fall upon their Masters and cut all their throats and by that means to make themselves not only freemen but Masters of the Iland And so closely was this plot carried as no discovery was made till the day before they were to put it in act And then one of them either by the failing of his courage or some new obligation from the love of his Master revealed this long plotted conspiracy and so by this timely advertisment the Masters were saved Justice Hethersall whose servant this was sending Letters to all his friends and they to theirs and so one to another till they were all secured and by examination found out the greatest part of them whereof eighteen of the principall men in the conspiracy and they the first leaders and contrivers of the plot were put to death for example to the rest And the reason why they made examples of so many was they found these so haughty in their resolutions and so incorrigible as they were like enough to become actors in a second plot and so they thought good to secure them and for the rest to have a speciall eye over them # It has been accounted a strange thing that the Negres being more then double the numbers of the Christians that are there and they accounted a bloody people where they think they have power or advantages and the more bloody by how much they are more fearfull than others that these should not commit some horrid massacre upon the Christians thereby to enfranchise themselves and become Masters of the Iland But there are three reasons that take away this wonder the one is They are not suffered to touch or handle any weapons The other That they are held in such awe and slavery as they are fearfull to appear in any daring act and seeing the mustering of our men and hearing their Gun-shot than which nothing is more terrible to them their spirits are subjugated to so low a condition as they dare not look up to any bold attempt Besides these there is a third reason which stops all designes of that kind and that is They are fetch'd from severall parts of Africa who speake severall languages and by that means one of them understands not another For some of them are fetch'd from Guinny and Binny some from Cutchew some from Angola and some from the River of Gambra And in some of these places where petty Kingdomes are they sell their Subjects and such as they take in Battle whom they make slaves and some mean men sell their Servants their Children and sometimes their Wives and think all good traffick for such commodities as our Merchants sends them When they are brought to us the Planters buy them out of the Ship where they find them stark naked and therefore can not be deceived in any outward infirmity They choose them as they do Horses in a Market the strongest youthfullest and most beautifull yield the greatest prices Thirty pound sterling is a price for the best man Negre and twenty five twenty six or twenty seven pound for a Woman the Children are at easier rates And we buy them so as the sexes may be equall for if they have more men then women the men who are unmarried will come to their Masters and complain that they cannot live without Wives and desire him they may have Wives And he tells them that the next ship that comes he will buy them Wives which satisfies them for the present and so they expect the good time which the Master performing with them the bravest fellow is to choose first and so in order as they are in place and every one of them knowes his better and gives him the precedence as Cowes do one another in passing through a narrow gate for the most of them
the Platforme or Superficies of an Ingenio that grinds or squeezes the Sugar A THe ground-plat upon which the Posts or Pillars stand that bear up the house or the Intercolumniation between those Pillars B The Pillars or Posts themselves C The wall between the Mill-house and Boyling-house D The Circle or Circumference where the Horses and Cattle go which draw the Rollers about E The Sweeps to which the Horses and Cattle are fastned that draw about the Rollers F The Frame of the Ingenio G The Brackets or Butteresses that support that Frame H The Dore that goes down stairs to the Boyling-house I The Cistern into which the Liquor runs from the Ingenio immediately after it is ground and is carried in a Pipe under ground to this Cistern where it remaines not above a day at most K The Cistern that holds the Temper which is a Liquor made with ashes steept in water and is no other than the Lye we wash withall in England This Temper we straw in the three last Coppers as the Sugar boyles without which it would never Corn or be any thing but a Syrope but the salt and tartarousnesse of this Temper causes it to turn as Milk does when any soure or sharp liquor is put into it and a very small quantity does the work L The Boyling-house The five black Rounds are the Coppers in which the Sugar is boyled of which the largest is called the Clarifying Copper and the least the Tatch M The Cooling Cistern which the Sugar is put into presently after it is taken off the fire and there kept till it be Milk-warm and then it is to be put into Pots made of boards sixteen inches square above and so grow taper to a point downward the Pot is commonly about thirty inches long and will hold thirty or thirty five pounds of Sugar N The Dore of the Filling-room O The Room it selfe into which the Pots are set being fild till the Sugar grow cold and hard which will be in two daies and two nights and then they are carried away to the Cureing-house P The tops of the Pots of sixteen inches square and stand between two stantions of timber which are girded together in severall places with wood or iron and are thirteen or fourteen inches assunders so that the tops of the Pots being sixteen inches cannot slip between but are held up four foot from the ground Q The Frame where the Coppers stand which is raised above the flowre or levell of the room about a foot and a halfe and is made of Dutch Bricks which they call Klinkers and plaister of Paris And besides the Coppers there are made small Gutters which convey the skimmings of the three lesser Coppers down to the Still-house whereof the strong Spirit is made which they call kill-devill and the skimmings of the two greater Coppers are conveyed another way as worthlesse and good for nothing R The Dore that goes down the stairs to the fire-room where the Furnaces are which cause the Coppers to boyl and though they cannot be exprest here by reason they are under the Coppers yet I have made small semi-circles to let you see where they are behinde the partition-wall which divides the fire-room from the boyling-house which wall goes to the top of the house and is mark'd with the Letter c as the other walls are S A little Gutter made in the wall from the Cistern that holds the first Liquor to the clarifying Copper and from thence is conveyed to the other Coppers with Ladles that hold a gallon a piece by the hands of Negres that attend that work day and night shifting both Negres and Cattle every four hours who also convey the skimmings of the three lesser Coppers down to the Still-house there to be twice distill'd the first time it comes over the helme it is but small and is called Low-wines but the second time it comes off the strongest Spirit or Liquor that is potable T All Windowes U The Fire-room where the Furnaces are that make the Coppers boyl W The Still-house X The Cistern that holds the skimmings till it begin to be soure till when it will not come over the helme Y The two Stills in the Still-house Z The Semi-circles that shew where about the Furnaces stand Place this after Folio 84. The superfities or Plottforme of the Ingenio that grinds or squeeses the canes which make the suger A scales of 40 foote The upright of the Ingenio or Mill that squeeses or grinds the Suger Canes â— a. the foundation or plates of the house which must be of massey and lasting timber b. the frame of the Ingenio c. the planks that be are up the Rollers d. the suporter or propp that beares upp those planks e. the Rollers themselves f. the shaft that is grafted into the midle roller which turnes both the other g. the swepes that come over all the worke and reach to the Circle where the horses and Cattle draw h. the Bracketts that keepe the frame from shakeing whereof there must be 8. i. the sides of the house which are strong posts or studds whicâ— beare up the house and are plact att ten foote distance with Brackeâ— above and below to strengthen them forbearing up the plates of the house aboue k. the out Brackets that keepe the posts from starting orbucâ— l. the great Beame to which the Shaft of the midle Roller is let in by a goudg in a sockett and goes cross the midle of the house m. the Brackets that support the great beame and likewise all the Roofe of the house n. the Roofe or cover of the house A scale of 40 foote The first Storie of the Cureing house where the potts stand which hold the Suger and is 8. foote a inches from the ground haveing 14. steps to rise of 7. inches to a stepp In this storie is 924 potts and they use to have another storie above this which will hold above 600. potts more The Index of the Cureing house a. the roome where they knock out the suger when it is cured or made into whites and is called the knocking roome when they knock it out for muscavados they finde the midle of the pott well coloured but the upper and nether parts of a broâ—â—er colour the topp frothy and light the bottom verie browne and full of Molosses both which they sett aside to be boyld againe with the Mosses in the Cisterns of which they make Penneles which though it be a worse kinde of suger in the spending yet you will hardly know it from the second sort of Muscove suger b. the two dores c. the passages betweene the potts upon the flour above d. the great passage in the midle of the rome from end to end e. the topps of the potts which are 16. inches square and hang betweene stantions of timber borne up by verie strong and Massy studs or posts and girded or bract togither with Iron plates or wood the length of