284 ^he Discoveries and S e t x l E m e n t s Book I 
tions, which is hardly fo much as thought of, I mean 
the prodigious Increafe of our Shipping by the Timber 
Trade, between Portugal^ &c. and our Plantations, 
which ought to have all poffible Encouragement, for 
by it we have crept into all the Corners in Europe^ and 
become the common Carriers in the Mediterranean^ as 
well as between the Mediterranea?i^ Holland.^ Hamburgh 
and the Baltic^ and this is the Caufe of fo great an Ad- 
dition to our Shipping, and the Reafon why the Dutch^ 
&c. are fo exceedingly funk. But if ever a Stop fhould 
be put to the building of Ships in New England, &c. 
and carrying our Timber from thence, we fhould foon 
fink in our Navigation, and that of the Dutch flourifh in 
its former Height and Grandeur. The Numbers of En- 
glijh Ships we fo often read of, that are at Lijhon, or the 
Str eights, is a fufficient Demonftration of the Truth of 
this ; doubtlefs a great many of thefe Ships are laden 
upon Account of the Dutch, for nothing is more com- 
mon than their hiring our Ships (which difcharge their 
Loading in the Streights) to tranfport their Goods from 
Spain, &c. to Amfierdam, and other Places. 
We have a great many young Men who are bred to 
the Sea, and have Friends to fupport them if they can- 
not get Employment at home they go to New England, 
and the Northern Colonies, with a Cargo of Goods, 
which they there fell at a very great Profit, and with the 
Produce build a Ship, and purchafe a Loading of Lumber, 
and fail for Portugal or the Streights, lAc. And after 
difpofing of their Cargoes, they frequently ply from 
Port to Port in the Mediterranean, till they have cleared 
fo much Money, as will, in a good Part, pay for the 
firfl; Coll of the Cargo carried out by them •, and then, 
perhaps, fell their Ships ; come home j take up another 
Cargo from their Employers ; and fo go back and build 
another Ship ; By this Means multitudes of Seamen are 
brought up, and upon a War the Nation is better pro- 
vided with a great Number of Sailors, than hath been 
heretofore known. Here the Mafter becomes Merchant 
alfo, and many of them gain, by this Lumber Trade, 
great Eftates ; and a vaft Treafure is thereby yearly 
brought into the Kingdom, in a Way new and un- 
known to our Fore-fathers, and, indeed, it is gaining the 
Timber Trade (heretofore carried on by the Danes and 
Swedes) our Plantations being nearer the Markets of Por- 
tugal and Spain than they are. Thofe Advantages have 
made fome People think that though we efteem New 
England, and the Northern Colonies, of fmall Advantage 
to us, yet if things were truly Fated, they are as profit- 
able as moft other of our Plantations, or, which amounts 
to the fame thing, the C^ufe of the Profits we reap from 
thofe other Colonies, which, however, coming to us 
immediately from thence, feem to enrich us more than 
they really do, at the fame Time that they hide from 
us the true Sources of their own Wealth, But, 
We will now quit this Subjedl, in order to follow the 
Thread of our Hiftory, which leads us next to fpeak of 
the fettling the Bahama Iflands, Places that have not hi- 
therto anfwered in any Proportion to the great Expe6la- 
tions that were raifed upon the firft Grant of them ; tho’ 
this is certainly fo little to be afcribed to them, that 
about twenty- five Years ago there was a general Difpo- 
fition in the moft knowing People of this Kingdom, to 
attempt a new Settlement there, which degenerating into 
a Bubble, all Flopes of that kind feem to be loft. Our 
Bufinefs, however, is not with the modern, but with 
the antient. State of thefe Iflands •, of which, and of the 
Motives for fettling them, we fhall give the cleareft Ac- 
count we can. 
10. Tht Lucayos, ox Bahama Iflands, are fltuated in the 
Atlantic Ocean, and to the North of the Hand of Cuha, 
ftretching from the North-eaft to the South-weft, be- 
tween 21 and 27 Degrees of Northern Latitude, and be- 
tween 73 and 81 Degrees of Weftern Longitude. The 
Hand of Bahama, which communicates its Name to the 
reft, is feated in the Latitude of 26 Degrees 30 Minutes, 
at the Diftance of about twenty and thirty Leagues from 
the Continent of Florida. It is about fifty Miles in 
Length, but very narrow, fcarce any where fixteen, and 
in many Places not half fo broad, but very pleafant 
and fruitful ; the Air temperate and ferene ; the Soil re- 
markably rich, and the Country every where abounding 
with Brooks and Springs of frefh W ater. 
ft hough thefe Hands were the firft Fruits of the new 
World, Columbus arriving firft at Guanahani, which is 
one of them, and to which he gave the Name of St. 
Salvador, yet the Spaniards never thought of fettling 
there, but contented themfelves with extirpating the na- 
tive Inhabitants ; a moft barbarous Proceeding furely, 
fince at this Time they were the beft People of any 
Part of all America ; fo that they wantonly murdered 
many thoufands to no purpofe in the world. As thefe 
Hands lie pretty much out of the Courfe of Ships bound 
to the Continent of America, it was long before we had 
any Notice of them ; but in 1667 Captain William Sayle, 
being bound to Carolina, was forced by a Storm amongft 
thefe Hands, which gave him an Opportunity of examin- 
ing them carefully, particularly a large Hand, to which 
at that Time he gave his own Name, and is that which 
has been fince known by the Name of New Providence. 
Upon his Return to England, he acquainted the Pro- 
prietors of Carolina, with the Situation and Circum- 
ftances of thefe Hands j obferving, that in Cafe they 
v/ere fettled, they might prove a great Benefit to this 
Nation, and at the fame Time a conftant Bar and Check 
to the French and Spaniards, in cafe of a Breach with 
either or both of thofe Nations. Thefe Reafons being 
fuggefted to King Charles the Ild. his Majefty was gra- 
cioufiy pleafed to make a Grant of the Bahama Hands, 
between the Latitudes of 22 and 27 Degrees, to the fol- 
lowing Proprietors, viz. George Duke of Albemarle, Wil- 
liam Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret, John Lord Berkeley., 
Anthony Lord AJhly, and Sir Peter Colliton, whofe Heirs 
or Afligns are, as I take it, poflefted of thefe Hands at 
this Day ; by which I mean the Soil and Property, for as 
to the Government, it has been for fome time in the 
Hands of the Crown •, upon a Suppofition that this Change 
would render thefe Hands more beneficial to the Nation, 
as in Procefs of Time it very probably may j but hitherto 
they have not been of any great Service to the Proprietors, 
the Crown, or the Nation j as we fhall fhew, by entering 
a little into their Hiftory, from their firft Settlement to 
the prefent ft'imes, for Reafons that in this Hiftory will 
appear. 
Providence IJland lies in the Center of fome hundreds 
of Hands, fome of them many Miles in Length, others 
no bigger than Knolls or little Rocks, rifing above Water; 
fo that one may imagine it muft be very dangerous for 
Ships to be forced amongft them in Tempefts. The 
moft confiderable Profit made by the Inhabitants of Pro- 
vidence, was by the Misfortune of ftich as were fhip- 
wrecked, or fuch as, in a Winter Voyage for the Conti- 
nent of America, were driven to the Bahama IJlands, and 
put into Providence for Provifions ; for want of which, 
after they had lain a long while beating off the Hands, they 
ufed to be in great Diftrefs. ’Tis true, this Hand had 
little or none but what came from Carolina \ however, the 
ft raders here kept Store-houfes to fupply thofe that want- 
ed, and they were a great Relief to the unfortunate 
Mariners, of whom we are fpeaking. The He of Pro- 
vidence lies in 25 Degrees North Latitude, is twenty eight 
Miles long, and eleven Miles broad, where it is broadeft. 
It had the Name of Providence given it by Captain Sayle, 
after he had a fecond time been driven upon it, when 
he was bound for the Continent. The firft Governor that 
was fent thither by the Proprietaries, was Mr. Chilling- 
worth : The Time of his going there was about the Year 
1672; feveral People went from England, and the other 
Colonies, to fettle there, and living a licentious Life, 
they were impatient under Government ; Mx .Chillingworth 
endeavouring to bring them to Reafon, they aflembled 
tumultuoufly, feized him, and fhipped him oflF fox Jamaica, 
and lived every Man as he thought beft for his own 
Pleafure and Intereft. The Proprietaries- found they had 
got an unruly Colony to deal with, and it was a very 
fmall Encouragement for any Man to put himfelf into 
their Hands, after the Treatment Mr. Chillingworth met 
with from them. 
However, fix or feven Years after, the Lords Proprie- 
2 taries 
