18 Timehri. 



The full title of the book is :— 



A True & Exact 



History 

 of the Island of 



BARBADOS. 



Illustrated with a Map of the Island, as 



also the Principall Trees and Plants there, set forth 



in their due Proportions and Shapes, draA r ne out by 



their severall and respective Scales. 



Together with the Inoenio that makes the Sugar, with 



the Plots of the severall Houses. Boomes, and other places that 



are used in the whole processe of Sugar-making, viz., the Curing 



house, Still-house, and Furnaces ; 



All cut in Copper. 



By Richard Ligon Gent. 



LONDON. 



Printed for Humphrey Mosely, at the Prince's Amies 

 in St. Paul's Church-yard : 1057. 



Material for a True and Exact View of early Barbados is not abun- 

 dant. A short chapter on the Island may be found in Captain John Smith's 

 '•True Travels, Adventures and Observations" (London: 1630). Two 

 manuscripts have been unearthed which throw some light on the infant 

 plantation, namely, Major John Scott's Description, (Sloane 3,002, British 

 Guiana.) and the "Voyage of Sir Henry Colt, Kt.," preserved in the 

 University Library, Cambridge. These manuscripts, unearthed and 

 copied by a West Indian bibliophile, were printed in the Demerara 

 " Argosy," but now they are buried again in the back files of that 

 newspaper ; they are not available in pamphlet form. " Cavaliers and 

 Roundheads of Barbados " (Georgetown : 1887), which is a mine of 

 information about the infant plantations in the West Indies, gives us two 

 valuable letters written from Barbados in 1027. and two further letters 

 dated 1047 and 1048. When we enumerate these documents we about 

 clear the field. 



This dearth of books and of manuscripts is rather astonishing, because 

 a number of literate people went to Barbados shortly after its settlement, 

 and they must have written about Barbados to their friends in Old 

 England or in Virginia. Possibly some more documents may be unearthed 

 as the search for buried history goes on. 



However, while "canty for more,"' we must be thankful for what we 

 have, and the True and Exact History of Richard Ligon is a book of value, 



