CAPTURED AND PUNISHED BY SPANIARDS 317 



breecli-loading cannon, have driven the freebooters from the sea. 

 But while history and tradition still preserve their memory, their 

 blood, to some extent, courses down to our times in the channels 

 of descent. The motto upon the Bahama Coat of Arms, and 

 which is engraved upon its Great Seal — "JExpulsis Piratis, Hes- 

 titutia Conimercia''' — is an official and durable testimonial of 

 the power which the j^irates possessed, and the terror they in- 

 spired in former times. 



The proprietors in 1G70, appointed one Collingworth (or Chil- 

 lingworth), Governor of the Bahamas, but the inhabitants con- 

 cluded they had no need of him, and therefore took forcible 

 possession of his person, and shipped him off to Jamaica. 



In 1G77 the proprietors conferred the vacant gubernatorial 

 crown upon one Clark, whose great exaltation was purchased at 

 the price of his life. Ilis piratical subjects, by their filibuster- 

 ing excursions, had so exasperated their Spanish neighbors, that 

 the latter invaded New Providence, destroyed the houses upon 

 it by fire, took all the inhabitants captive who did not find refuge 

 in the woods, carried Governor Clark to Cuba, and, it is said, 

 tortured him to death and roasted him. 



In 1G84, the Spaniards again surprised the people upon the 

 island, and, after destroying the improvements which had been 

 made, they carried off some of the inhabitants. After the inva- 

 ders left, such of the inhabitants as survived, emerged from their 

 hiding places in a forlorn and necessitous condition, again started 

 a settlement, and in 1687 chose a Presbyterian minister by the 

 name of Bridge, their governor — a rather heavy and cumbrous 

 title considering the limited number and poverty of the people, 

 fle held his high office three years. 



In 1690 the proprietors sent out one Jones to be Governor 

 ** in and over " the Bahamas. He tyranized over the people with 

 a high and nnscrupuloua hand, being aided by the pirate Averv 



