32 



THE OSPKEY. 



doves, pif;"eons, etc.. and I doubt not the same 

 welcome would be extended a visitor that I my- 

 self received a score of j-ears ag^o. 



I do not know if the ffenial overseer, Mr. 

 Hopkins, is yet alive nor if the hospitable 

 parson who "put me on to" the fallow deer is 

 still caring" for the iinregenerate blacks; but if 

 they are not, doubtless they left successors, who 

 will accord the visitor a most generous reception. 

 One thing- is certain- there is no island of the 

 West Indies better stocked with game of the 

 sort I have mentioned than this of Barbuda. 



Along- with the negro, when he was torn from 

 his native Africa and transported to the West 

 Indies, came some products of the animal and 

 veg-etable kingdoms not enumerated on the mani- 

 fests. As, for instance, a stock of African su- 

 perstitions and relig-ioiis customs which have 

 developed into the serpent sorcery practiced by 

 the mountaineers of Haiti and other islands; 

 g-uinea g-rass, guinea corn, and finally guinea 

 birds or fowl, all of which have taken root in the 

 American tropics, and in many places flourished 

 exceedingly. 



Like the negro, the guinea-fowl has found the 

 climate and productions of the southern islands 

 just suited to his warm-blooded and vivacious 

 nature, and in certain parts of Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 Jamaica and other smaller islands has become 

 the leading game bird of the country. There is, 

 in fact, no wild feathered game to rival him, 

 either in size or quality, throughout all the West 

 Indies. 



While good sport may now and then be had 

 with this bird in a few islands of the Greater 

 Antilles, the only place where the g-uinea bird 

 fairly swarms is less known and seldf)m visited. 

 This spot is a small island lying- about thirty 

 miles north of Antigua, the seat of government 

 of the Leeward confederation belonging to the 

 British. Antigua can boast of having been a 

 British possession for more than two hundred 

 and sixty years, and, like Barbados, has never 

 been anything but English since it was first 

 settled, about 1682. It was, the Caribs said, too 

 dry for them, and it has proved not much better 

 for the English planters, but they have stuck 

 there with praiseworthy tenacity, and today its 

 capital and only town of Saint Johns is a place 

 of some attractions and consequence. 



About thirty years after the planters had set- 

 tled in Antigua the French from Martinique 

 combined with a band of Carib Indians to ravage 

 the island with fire and sword, taking away all 

 the negro slaves and plundering the white people 

 of everything they possessed, even to the cloth- 

 ing on their backs and the shoes on their feet. 

 For several years after this event the Antiguans 

 were unable to make head against their many 

 calamities, but about the year 1674 there came 

 here, from Barbados, a wealth^' and honorable 

 gentleman of distinguished family. Col. Cod- 

 rington, who set an example to the others by 

 planting the waste lands with sugar cane. He 

 was later made captain general and commander- 

 in-chief of all the Leeward Islands, and thus 

 was the first of a long line of sub-governors, 

 which has existed to the present time. 



To Col. Codrington Barbados owes its charm- 

 ing seat of learning, Codrington College, found- 

 ed by him about 1710, and in manj' other ways 

 he showed his public sj)irit and interest in the 

 welfare of these islands. 



Col. Codrington, it seems, had an eye to per- 

 sonal aggrandisement, and early in liis rule ob- 

 tained possession of the outlying island of 

 Barbuda. It was not long before he had stocked 

 it with cattle, sheep, fallow deer from England, 

 and guinea fowl, so that we may safely say that 

 the island was made a game preserve more than 

 200 years ago. And, as those cattle, sheep and 

 deer soon ran wild, while besides the guinea 

 fowl the island was the natural home of doves, 

 pigeons, plover, curlew and many other birds, it 

 goes without saying that Barbuda became so 

 well stocked that royalty itself would not scorn 

 to own it and to shoot there on occasion. 



Some negro slaves and an overseer were sent 

 over at the time of the first settlement, and they, 

 too (at least the blacks), obeyed the injunction 

 literally to increase and multiply. At the be- 

 gining of this centur3' there were 200 negro res- 

 idents and one white; on the occasion of my 

 visit, a few years ago, there were about 800 black 

 colored residents, and two white men. 



In the year 1813, the British man-of-war, 

 "Woolwich", was wrecked at Barbuda, in a furi- 

 ous hurricane. The officers and crew escaped to 

 the island, which was described by Captain 

 Sullivan. He wrote that it had, at that time, 

 few blacks resident there, and one white man, 

 the overseer or lessee. An income of about 

 $35,000 was annually derived from wrecks and 

 sales of live-stock. Almost the entire island 

 was covered with wood and the stock ran wild — 

 reckoned at 3,000 cattle, 40,000 sheep, 400 horses, 

 and 300 deer. Bull-hunting'- was a sport fre- 

 quently indulged in, with blood-hounds from 

 Puerto Rico. By means of cordons of neg'roes, 

 vast flocks of sheep were driven upon narrow 

 necks of enclosed land between arms of the sea, 

 and thus easily captured when wanted for 

 market. The wild cattle, when caught, were 

 lashed to the horns of tame oxen, who were then 

 turned loose, and never failed eventually to 

 conduct them to headquarters. Guinea-fowl, 

 even then, were to be found in profusion, also 

 wild duck, plover and snipe in their season, 

 pig-eons, turtle-doves, etc. Captain Sullivan 

 mentions the stone castle, built by the Bucca- 

 neers, who used to resort here as a rendezvous, 

 after the dispersal of the French and English 

 on St. Kitts, by Don Frederic Toledo, about 

 1630. 



Barbuda is about ten miles long, with an 

 area of seventy-five square miles, the greater 

 portion of which is covered with dense forests 

 of scrubby wood, and a portion only cultivated. 

 There is only land enough cultivated to feed the 

 people living there, and today the vast fields 

 with hig-h stone walls show that more has 

 reverted to original conditions than is now 

 planted. 



The first object that attracted mj' attention as 

 thc'little sloop in which I had taken passage from 

 Antigua arrived within sight of Barbuda was 



