877 



BARBADOES. 



BARBAHY. 



878 



and its unsheltered inhabitants were reduced to the last extremity of 

 misery and despair. The loss of human life was estimated at 3000, 

 and the destruction of property at 1,018,9282. sterling. In 1785 

 several houses were swallowed up by yawning cavities in the surface 

 of the ground. Passing over a period of nearly half a century we 

 come to the hurricane of the llth of August, 1831, which surpassed 

 that of 1780 and was one of the most terrific on record. After many 

 hours of fierce gale the wind blew a perfect hurricane for two hours ; 

 the houses were levelled to the ground or unroofed, the custom-house 

 was blown down, all the churches were damaged and those of St. 

 Paul's and St. Mary's were entirely destroyed. The Government 

 House (called Pilgrim) was unroofed and the governor only saved 

 himself by taking refuge in a cellar. The largest trees were torn up 

 from the roots or broken like reeds. Daylight discovered to the 

 terrified inhabitants a most wretched and deplorable scene ; the fields 

 were completely stripped of their crops : neither canes, corn, nor 

 trees were left standing, with the partial exception of some well- 

 sheltered spots. It was estimated that 5000 persons perished ; and 

 the destruction of property was very great. 



Barbs/lot* appears quite detached from the Caribbean chain, being 

 80 miles to the eastward of St. Vincent the nearest island. It lies 

 N.W. nnd S.E., and is of an oval form, 15 miles long and 10 miles 

 broad in the widest part. Nature has fortified the greater part of 

 its coasts, which are inaccessible to vessels of above 50 tons, in conse- 

 quence of a coral reef which runs off all the eastern and northern 

 side of the island ; tne open parts of the coast have been fortified at 

 a great expense. The island contains 106,470 acres, nearly all of 

 which are under cultivation. In 1848 Governor Colebrooke estimated 

 that about 20,000 acres were planted with sugar-canes. The soil in 

 the lowlands is black, and somewhat reddish in the parts where it is 

 shallow ; on the hills chalky or marly ; and near the sea-shore sandy ; 

 the rock which supplies this soil is a tertiary shell limestone. There 

 are no appearances of volcanic action. The black mould is suited to 

 the sugar-cane. The destruction of the woods, though it renders the 

 country more healthy, has diminished the quantity of rain and 

 thereby been detrimental, to the planters. The river Mole and two 

 smaller streams flow through the island. 



The surface of the island is comparatively low with gently undula- 

 ting hills. The climate though warm is perhaps as healthy as any 

 part of the West Indies. Of the fearful hurricanes by which it is 

 occasionally visited we have before spoken. There are several 

 bituminous springs, some of which furnish the green tar used as a 

 substitute for pitch and lamp oil. Two remnants of the virgin 

 forest still remain, near one of which is a small pool of water, 

 perfectly cold, though from its constant bubbling it appears to be in 

 a state of ebullition ; if an ignited match or candle is passed over its 

 surface the air bursts into name and shoots upwards in a quivering 

 column of light, caused doubtless by a perpetual escape of sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen gas. 



Bridgetown the capital is situated on Carlisle Bay at the south-west 

 end of the island ; it is two miles in length and half a mile wide. 

 Of this town we must speak in relation rather to what it has been 

 than to what it is ; for one of its many conflagrations occurred in 

 1845, when numerous buildings and houses were destroyed, which have 

 been only partially restored. Though irregularly built it contained 

 before the fire of 1845 many very handsome houses, and a large 

 square ndorned with a good statue of Lord Nelson, who is a great 

 favourite in the West Indies. It contained a cathedral, spacious but 

 plain, ito towers scarcely rising above the roof for fear of hurricanes, 

 for which reason also the churches were without steeples. Besides the 

 churches there were several chapels and a great number of schools for 

 whites and blacks. The council and assembly met and held their 

 sittings in the same building with the common prison ; and here also 

 the various law-courts were held. There are some very excellent 

 literary and scientific societies in the town and some good libraries. 

 A free public library was established in 1847 in Bridgetown. A sum 

 of 29,128/. was expended in 1846 by the government for the purpose 

 of relieving the inhabitants whose property had been destroyed by 

 the fire of the preceding year, and to provide for the improvement 

 of the city. Bridgetown is a rapidly growing place, in spite of 

 its disasters it contained 19,000 inhabitants in 1844, and 21,384 

 in 1848. 



There are three other towns, called Oistin's, St. James's, and 

 Speight's : Oistin's and St. James's are little more than hamlets. 

 Speight's town is a place of considerable importance. The population 

 of the island was estimated in 1850 at 145,000. 



'I'll'- priii<M|l mid indeed almost the only anchorage is in Carlisle 

 Bay, off Bridgetown, where the merchant-vessels load and discharge 

 ill. ir cargoes, the sugar being brought from other parts of the island 

 in small vessels called droghers. Carlisle Bay is quite open to the 

 wi'Mt, but is sheltered by a projecting tongue of land called Needham's 

 Point from the trade-wind and the Atlantic swell, and except in case 

 of a hurricane may be considered a secure port. There is a small 

 bay also off Oistin's, where vessels occasionally anchor, as they do off 

 Speight's town. 



Tin' Chipping that belonged to Barbadoes on December 31st, 1852, 

 amounted to 34 of 121)3 tons burden. The produce of sugar in 

 1850 wan 35,000 hogsheads. The revenue for 1 850 amounted to 64,0642. 



and the expenditure to 47,0602. The assessed taxes raised in the 

 island in 1850 amounted to 84142. ; the customs duties to 45,6502. 

 The military expenditure for 1850, defrayed by the home government, 

 amounted to 93,4712. The imports in 1850 amounted to 736,3582., 

 and the exports to 831,6242. The tonnage employed in the trade 

 between Barbadoes and Great Britain in 1850 was 31,677. The total 

 amount of tonnage entered inwards was 96,381 ; outwards, 93,303. 



In 1847 the island was in danger of famine from the scanty arrival 

 of grain ships, so many of which were sent in that year to Ireland. 

 In 1847 a local act was passed for constructing a lighthouse at 

 Barbadoes; but from a government despatch issued in March, 1849, 

 it appears that nothing had up to that time been done in the matter ; 

 the government having refused to ratify the Act without the removal 

 I of a clause which went to tax the Mail Packet Company for the 

 support of the light. In 1847 sanitary barracks were planned for 

 construction on Gun Hill. In the governor's report for 1850 it is 

 stated that convict labour had been applied in the removal of a 

 mud-bank ; and proposals and plans were submitted for the construction 

 of a coaling wharf. 



A bishopric of Barbadoes was established in 1842. It is in effect 

 a bishopric of the Windward Islands : the bishop having ecclesiastical 

 | control over the islands of Barbadoes, Trinidad, Grenada, St. Lucia, 

 St. Vincent, and Tobago. There is an archdeacon of Barbadoes. 

 In 1850 there were 11 churches and 34 chapels of the Establishment 

 in Barbadoes, besides those belonging to other denominations. The 

 chief educational establishment is Codrington Grammar School or 

 College, which is under the care of a principal and a tutor; thirty-four 

 clergymen now officiating in the Windward Islands were educated at 

 this college : at the church schools there were in 1850 about 7500 

 scholars; at the Moravian schools 310; and at the Wesleyan schools 

 1042. 



(Foyer's Hitory of Sarladoca; Columbian Navigator; Bi-yau 

 Edwards's West Indies ; Colonial Reports.) 



BA'RBARY, a general and rather vague denomination which has 

 been adopted by Europeans to designate the northern part of Africa, 

 extending along the coast of the Mediterranean and as far inland 

 as the Great Desert, from the frontiers of Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. 

 It embraces four great states or divisions the empire of Marocco, the 

 former regency of Algiers now the French province of Alge"rie, and the 

 regencies of Tunis and Tripoli with their respective dependencies. 

 The appellation of Barbary appears to have been derived from Berber, 

 by which the Arabs designated the people who inhabited this region 

 before the Saracen conquest. Edrisi divides the country into the 

 regions of Barca, Afrikiah, Barbary, and El Acssa or Mauritania, El 

 Acssa meaning the Farthest. The Arabs now call Marocco Moghreb el 

 Acssa, or the Farthest West, whilst they call Algiers Moghreb el 

 Aousash, or Middle West. Edrisi's Barbary comprises Numidia and 

 Gsotulia, His Afrikiah includes Tunis and western Tripoli, and Barca 

 is the country east of the Great Syrtis. [BARCA.] Herodotus uses 

 the name of Libya for the whole continent (iv. 42) ; he considers 

 (iv. 197) the Libyans as the inhabitants of North Libya, and the 

 Ethiopians of South Libya, and in this passage seems to exclude Egypt 

 from Libya. He describes (chap, iv., 168-194) very minutely the 

 nations or tribes that lived in his tune in Libya between the frontiers 

 of Egypt and Carthage. The first nation proceeding from Egypt 

 westward along the coast were the Adyrmachidfe, whose manners 

 were Egyptian but whose dress was Libyan ; they extended along the 

 coast as far as Port Plunos. Next to them were the Giligaminic, who 

 extended as far as the island Aphrodisins, near Cyrene. The island of 

 Platea, now Bomba, was on the coast of the Giligamniio, but was 

 possessed by the Greeks of Cyrene. The Cyreneaus, who were a 

 Greek colony, and whose country was the most elevated and most 

 fertile district in this part of Libya, were possessed of an extent of 

 coast of about 120 miles to the west of the Giligammsc. They were 

 surrounded by Libyan nomadic tribes, the Asbytso to the south, and 

 the Auschisac and the Kabales to the west. Next came the Nasamoues, 

 the most powerful of all the nomadic tribes of Libya ; they extended 

 along the eastern shores of the great Syrtis, and likewise along its 

 southern or innermost coast, having occupied the land of the Psylli, a 

 tribe who were said to have been destroyed by the suffocating wind of 

 the desert. The Macae were next to the Nasamones, and stretched 

 along the western coast of the great Syrtis. They occupied the 

 present territory of Mesurata and Lebida as far as where Tripoli stands. 

 Next to them, the Lotophagi extended to the shores of the smaller 

 Syrtis, including the island of Meninx, the modern Gerbi. West of 

 the Lotophagi came, the Machlyes, who spread from the south-west 

 extremity of the lesser Syrtis to the lake Tritonis (the present lake 

 Lowdeah, in the southern extremity of the territory of Tunis), and 

 along the south-eastern coast of the same. On the opposite or northern 

 side of the lake were the Ausees, the last of the nomadic tribes of 

 Libya mentioned by Herodotus. The Maxyes, their northern neigh- 

 bours along the coast, called themselves descendants of the Trojans ; 

 they were husbandmen and lived in houses. The country hence 

 to the westward Herodotus describes as mountainous, covered with 

 forests, and abounding in wild animals, among which he enumerates 

 the elephant (iv. 191), while the country of the nomadic Libyans 

 above mentioned was sandy and flat. North of the Maxyes Herodotus 

 places the Zaueces, and farther still the Zygantes, who appear to have 



