

24 Timehri. 



Hilliard-Modiford agreement, to which Ligon is a witness, recorded in 

 the Secretary's Office.'" Alas ! this agreement has since disappeared. I 

 searched for it seven years ago, as a matter of personal curiosity, but it 

 was not to be found. It may have been among those other Records 

 which a former Colonial Secretary, who would be surprised if we called 

 him a Vandal, as we do, put into twelve bags, and sunk in the bay. In 

 another place Judge Lucas says : — " To me, Oldmixon (In the Barbados 

 section of his ; British Empire in America) often appears arrogant, 

 presumptuous and pert, especially when he quotes the faithful and accu- 

 rate Ligon. •• Oldmixon," adds the Judge, in his best Bench manner, 

 • is always to be credited with caution." 



Judge Lucas is my principal witness. There is really no need for 

 any other. But other evidence may be adduced if it is wanted. Take 

 Ligon's description of sugar-making, for example. His Boyling-House 

 and Curing-House (allowing for a few improvements which have been 

 made during two hundred and fifty years) may be seen any day of the 

 week among the Barbados hills. Barrels long ago took the place of the 

 old BU.ar-pots, but the term " potting " survives, as signifying to cure the 

 green muscovado. On some of those hill estates, too, one may yet see, 

 as Ligon saw, the canes "bound up in faggots." and brought "home, 

 Devon-fashion, " upon the backs of Assinegoes."' 



We have heard Ligon on the bog at the Bridge. Some years ago, 

 when they were digging the foundations of the Public Buildings, some of 

 the earth was taken away and thrown in the garden of Government 

 House. Air and sunlight awakened the dead soil, and after a month or 

 two there was observed to be springing from this earth the green shoots 

 of the bog mangrove. 



Take again Ligon's description of the Indians, a few of whom, — the 

 remnant of a batch from Essequebo, — he found in Barbados. He gives 

 a pleasant picture of the gentle Arawak. It tallies with our knowledge 

 of the Arawak as we know him to-day in Guiana. 



Again. Ligon's " Mapp." A lively presentation of the life of the 

 Island it is. Here is what looks like a Highlander, in kilts and all, 

 driving an Assinego. And here, at the north end of the Island, about 

 that level champaigne, locally known as " Champion Ground," is a man 

 on horseback shooting at a negro w r ho is running away. That is a touch 

 of imagination, you might think. But it is not. Look through the early 

 records, and note in support of the faithful Ligon, a day that was " set 

 apart for a general hunting of the runaway negroes/' And for the place 

 where the runaways were, it was just at the north end of the Island, 

 where they lurked — they and those rebels, the Irish — in cave and wood 

 and gully. 



Finally, as indicating Ligon's extreme regard for accuracy, w r e may 

 note that he leaves the year of the settlement of Barbados blank. A 

 later authority has tilled it in as 1627. 



