CHAPTER XI.

ANTIGUA.

LOCALITY-HISTORY-ASPECT-GEOLOGY-CLIMATE-VEGETATIONICHTHYOLOGY-POPULATION-COMMERCE-REVENUE-GOVERNMENT,

&c.

LOCALITY. This fertile island is situate in lat. 17.3 N. long. 62.7 W. 40 miles N. of Guadaloupe, 25 N. E. of Montserrat, 30 S. of Barbuda, extending in parallel lines from Friar's Head in the E. to Peyrson's Point in the W., 152 miles; containing from Shirley's Heights in the S. to Boon's Point in the N. 11 miles, being about 20 miles long, about 54 in circumference, and containing 108 square miles, equivalent to 69,277 acres.

HISTORY. Antigua was discovered by Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, in 1493, and named by him, from a church in Seville, Santa Maria de la Antigua. Next to Barbadoes and St. Christopher's it is the oldest British colony in the leeward isles, having been settled by Sir Thomas Warner* with a few English families in 1632. In 1666 a French armament from Martinique and Guadaloupe, assisted by some Caribs, got temporary possession of the island, and plundered the planters unmercifully. By the treaty of Breda the island was in 1688 finally settled under the British dominion, and by means of free trade, and beneath the auspices of the Codrington family, rapidly prospered.

* Antigua was granted to Lord Willoughby, of Parham, by Charles II. in 1663.

+ Want of space has unavoidably compelled me to omit the notice of local events in each colony; an occurrence, however, which took place in Antigua, deserves being chronicled, not less for its daring and sanguinary nature than because it has no parallel in our Colonial annals. Colonel Daniel Parke (a man whose character has been alternately condemned and praised,) succeeded, in 1706, to the Government of Antigua,

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF ANTIGUA.

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PHYSICAL ASPECT. Antigua is nearly of an oval shape, with an extremely irregular coast, indented with numerous bays, and almost surrounded by islets, rocks, and shoals, which render the approach to it very dangerous on every side except to the S. W. More than one-half of the island on the N. E. is low, in some places rather marshy, and interspersed with gentle acclivities and swelling eminences, which, if less denuded of trees, would present the beautiful hill and dale scenery of England. Towards the S. and S. W. the elevation of the land gradually increases, forming round backed hills of a moderate height, generally running E. and W. intersected by cultivated vallies, and partially cloathed with small trees and brushwood. The greatest elevation (computed at 1210 feet) is on the Sheckerley range of mountains, called Boggies Hill, about six miles to the W. of Monks Hill. The highest district may be said to take its rise from Falmouth, and to continue with various elevations to Five Island Harbour. The height to the N. E. and S. W. is not considerable, but on the latter part the hills are occasionally bold and precipitous, forming numerous ravines and vallies, their summits being extemely irregular, sometimes round,―at other times conical, and occasionally tabular; the rest of the island may, as a general feature, be said to consist of broad slopes, and repeatedly occurring undulations.

No island in the W. Indies can boast of so many excellent bays and harbours, but they are all, except those of St. John, English Harbour, and Falmouth, (which require pilots) vacant by the death of Sir Christopher Codrington. During four years of Colonel Parke's administration, party spirit and Colonial feuds rose to the greatest height; the House of Assembly refused to be dissolved by the Governor; the Colonists finally rose, en masse, in arms against Parke, who, with the aid of the Queen's troops, gallantly defended himself for some time, until many of the soldiers were killed, and the Governor and several of the officers wounded; the unfortunate Parke was then dragged into the streets, his cloaths torn from him, and his back broken with the musket stocks, in which condition he soon expired.

356

VIEW ON ENTERING ANTIGUA'S CAPITAL.

difficult of access.* St. John's, the capital,† is irregularly laid out, pretty large, and built on the N. W. side of the island, at the head of a large but not deep harbour, the N. side of

* The other bays and harbours are St. Freeman's (at the entrance of English harbour.) Rendezvous Bay, Morris Bay, Five Island Harbour, Lydesenfis Bay, Parham, Nonsuch, and Willoughby harbours, and Indian Creek, contiguous to Freeman's Bay.

+ Mr. Coleridge thus beautifully describes his feelings on entering the harbour of the capital of Antigua

This is, without exception, the prettiest little harbour I ever saw. The extreme neatness of the docks, the busy village which has grown up in their vicinity, the range of hills of various shapes and colours, which encircle the inland sides, and the rocky Ridge which frowns over the mouth, with its Union, and cannons, and ramparts, presents such a combination of tropical beauty, and English style and spirit, as I never saw elsewhere in the West Indies.

'I was very pleasantly surprised with the look of the country. Antigua is so generally spoken of as a dry and adust place, where the earth refuses to yield water for the use of man, that I received more than ordinary pleasure in gazing on the gentle wooded hills and green meadow vales which decorate the interior of the island. Antigua on a larger scale is formed like Anguilla, that is, without any central eminences, but for the most part ramparted around by very magnificent cliffs, which slope inwards in gradual declivities. From some of these rocks, especially near the parsonage of St. Philip's parish, one of the finest panoramic views in the world may be obtained. The whole island, which is of a rough circular figure, lies in sight; the grand fortifications on the Ridge and Monk's Hill silently menace the subject fields; St. John's rises distinctly with its church on the north-western horizon, whilst the woods which cover the sides and crest the summit of Figtree Hill just break the continuity of sea in the south-west. The heart of the island is verdant, with an abundant pasturage or grassy down, and the numerous houses of the planters, embosomed in trees, have more of the appearance of country mansions in England than almost any other in the West Indies. The shores are indented in every direction with creeks and bays and coves, some of them running into the centre of the plantations like canals, some swelling into estuaries, and others forming spacious harbours. Beyond these, an infinite variety of islands and islets stud the bosom of the blue sea, and stand out like so many advanced posts of defence against the invading waves. They are of all shapes and sizes, and are given up to the rearing of provisions and the maintenance of a

ST. JOHN'S HARBOUR-MILITARY STATION.

357

which is partly formed by an elevated rock, called Rat Island,* about midway up the harbour, and connected with the main land by a causeway, which is submerged at high water. From St. John's to the extreme N. and N. E. of the island the land is generally very low, interspersed with numerous ponds and marshy hollows; but, with these exceptions, the surface of the whole is sufficiently varied to prevent the accumulation and stagnation of water on its surface. Monkshill (a military station) gradually rises from the bottom of Falmouth Bay, and, as it ascends, becomes precipitous till surmounted by Great George Fort,† at the height of 625 feet, commanding to the N. and N. E. an extensive view of a

great number of cattle. From the same hill, when the western sky is clear, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitt's may all be distinguished by the naked eye.

The tortuous descent of Figtree Hill, though not so rich and imposing as the mountains and vallies of Trinidad, is yet a landscape so exquisitely beautiful that no painter or poet, who had once seen it, could ever forget the sight. A prodigious number of forest trees grow on the tops and declivities of the cliffs, and luxuriant festoons and knots and nets of evergreen creepers connect them all together in one great tracery of leaves and branches. The wild pine sparkled on the large limbs of the wayside trees; the dagger-like Spanish needle (bidens pilosa), the quilled pimploe (cactus tuna), and the maypole aloe (agave Americana), shooting upwards to twenty feet with its yellow flowering crown on high, formed an impenetrable mass of vegetation around the road, and seemed fixed on purpose there to defend the matchless purplewreaths or lilac jessamines, which softened the dark foliage amongst which they hung, from being plucked by the hand of the admiring traveller. Meanwhile a vigorous song of birds arose, and made the silent defile ring with the clear morning sound of European warblers, in the midst of which, and ever and anon, some unseen single creature uttered a long-drawn quivering note, which struck upon my ear with the richness and the melancholy of a human voice. Many persons have remarked the extraordinary tones of this bird, but I could not learn any name for it. It is the love-lorn nightingale of a silent tropic noon.'

* On this isle a regiment was stationed during the war, but the buildings are now solely used as a Colonial hospital.

Great George Fort at Monk's Hill extends over about ten acres of ground. It was constructed by the colony, at a very great expense, as a

358

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ANTIGUA.

highly cultivated country, overlooking the bay below the peninsula of Middle Ground, English Harbour, and the Ridge, whilst in the distant horizon are to be seen Guadaloupe, Montserrat, and in clear weather Nevis and St. Christopher's. English Harbour is a very complete dock-yard, on a small scale, surrounded by hills, on one of which at the N. E. the naval hospital is situate. With the exception of a few scanty rivulets amongst the hills, the whole island is destitute of running water, and the wells, heretofore dry; have proved brackish; ponds, and tanks are, therefore, the mainstay of the planters. The plan of boring for water should be adopted.

GEOLOGY. The soil of the high lands is of a red clay, argillaceous, with a substratum of marl; in the low lands it is a rich dark mould, on a substratum of clay. The most superficial strata occupy the N. and E. parts, and are of a calcareous formation, and the outline of the district is in round hills and knolls, similar to those found in the chalk districts of England. Through the stratum of marl which appears on the surface run layers and irregular masses of limestone, containing a variety of fossil shells, nodules of calcareous spar, cellular and chrystalized quartz, chalcedony, agate, and corallines, both in a calcareous and silicious state. A calcareous sandstone is also found in this marl formation, composed of

place of refuge for the wives and children of the inhabitants, in the event either of insurrection or foreign invasion: permission being given to them, under certain restrictions, to build houses for the reception of their families. These houses have fallen in ruins. The fortress is still supported by the Colony, and, from its commanding situation, has very properly been selected as a signal station, displaying to most parts of the island information of the arrival of mails from England, which is first communicated by signal from Rat Island, in the harbour of St. John.

From this elevated point, on one side, an extensive country of plantations, stretching to the extreme verge of the opposite shores of the island, forms a most singular and pleasing contrast with the scene which the different eminences, and the fortifications and harbours already noticed, present on the other. The town, or rather village of Falmouth, lies immediately under the brow of this hill to the southward.