86 
ignorance shown by Mr. FROUDE of main fa6ls in the 
History of the English connection with the West Indies. 
Sir Ralph Abercrombie was the Commander of the 
Expedition which captured Trinidad in 1797, but Mr. 
FROUDE says PlCTON took the Island (p. 63). He says, 
in the same place, that until that conquest, the Island 
" was alternately Spanish and French," a statement 
wholly unfounded, as the French never held the place. 
It was in Gros Islet Bay, St. Lucia, that Rodney col- 
lected his Fleet before giving battle to DE GRASSE, and 
not in the harbour of Castries as Mr. FROUDE imagines 
(p. 132). It was Sir Samuel Hood who took posses- 
sion of the Diamond Rock, and not Lord Howe (p. 
140). Mr. Froude fancies that Drake tried to take 
Havana and failed : and that PENN and VENABLES 
failed, in a similar venture (p. 291). DRAKE did not 
fail in any such attempt, as he made none, but he got 
the worst of it in an attack upon San Juan, Porto 
Rico, in 1595. As to PENN and Venables, Mr. FROUDE 
is evidently mixing up with Havana the disastrous 
attempt of those Commanders upon San Domingo. 
Lastly, DRAKE did not die in the Bahama Channel 
(p. 338). He died off Porto Bello, and his coffin was 
thrown overboard near a rock by the Castle of St. Philip, 
which stood opposite to Fort St. Jago. Mr. FROUDE tries 
to set the Barbadians right as to the origin of the name 
of their Island. The Islanders hold that a species of the 
Ficus Indicus, or banyan, which abounded in the Island, 
presented a ' bearded ' semblace to the Discoverers. 
Mr. FROUDE says, " I disbelieve in this derivation. 
11 Every Spaniard whom I have consulted confirms my 
" own impression that ' barbados ' standing alone could 
