An Old Book Upon Barbados. 19 



Who was Richard Ligon ? We know hardly anything of him but 

 what he tells of himself. He was a Royalist who had been badly hit by 

 the Great Civil War, — "that Barbarous Riot."' as he calls it. Two years 

 after Naseby, he resolves, rather than abide in England where he was now 

 a stranger, many of his friends being dead or scattered, " to lay hold on 

 the first opportunity that might convoy me to any other part of the 

 World, how far distant soever." He was then above sixty years of age. 

 On June 16, 1647, he embarks aboard the " Achilles," a ship of 350 tons. 

 He travelled under the wing of Thomas Modiford, who afterwards became 

 Governor of Jamaica. After touching at St. Jago, one of the Cape Verde 

 islands, the u Achilles " arrived at Barbados in September, 1647. Modiford 

 had intended to plant in Antigua, but was persuaded to buy the moiety 

 of a plantation in Barbados and to remain there. The traveller may yet 

 pass in the pleasant parish of St. John the plantation Modiford bought 

 from Hilliard. It was known as " Bushlands then ; it is now ' : Kendall's. " 



The " Exact History " is largely autobiographical, and from it one 

 may fairly gather how Ligon passed his time. His main employment 

 was to assist Modiford in the " Businesses of plantations. - ' But he turned 

 his hand to other work. He was an architect, and he designed for the 

 Island one or two of its most notable Great Houses, including that on 

 Indian River plantation, or Fontabelle. He was a Surveyor, and he cut 

 bush-paths through the woods. He was something of a Cook, and re- 

 lates how r occasionally riding down to the Bridge, and supping at the 

 taverns of Mistress Joan Fuller and Master Jobson, he imparted to those 

 worthies hints whereby their cooking of fish was improved. Certainly 

 the Barbadians to this day know how to prepare fish tastily. As a 

 philosopher and a humorist, intensely interested in the world however 

 dark the world might be, as a raconteur, and as a master on the theorbo, 

 Ligon was made welcome by all the planters, whether Roundhead or 

 Cavalier. He dined with Colonel Humphrey Walrond (the Cavalier) at 

 Indian River plantation, near the sea : he dined with Colonel James 

 Drax (the Roundhead) at Drax Hall, in the woods. Of both dinners — 

 the one the natural basis of which was fish, the other the natural basis of 

 which meat— he has left us a True & Exact, affectionately detailed, menu. 



As regards the main industry of the Island, the bone and sinew of 

 plantation, sugar-making, he tells us a good deal. Modiford was mainly 

 interested in sugar as all the bigger planters were beginning to be in 

 those days. Tobacco, cotton, indigo, and fustick wood were taking a 

 back seat. The Royalist finds room, however, to say of tobacco — as do 

 some other writers of the period- — that the tobacco grown in Barbados 

 was surely the worst on earth. 



Ligon had some talk with the African negro who was then rooting 

 himself in Barbados. I wish that some of this talk had been reproduced, 

 verbatim, in the book, because this English of the early Blacks was of 

 quaint interest. His description of one or two of those early " Salt 

 Waters " is very tenderly done. Here is a pleasant picture. 



