WEST INDIES. 
19 
CHAP. I.] 
been officers of rank in his service, to follow their 
example. The emigration from the mother-coun¬ 
try to this island was indeed so great during the 
commotions in England, that in 1650 it was com¬ 
puted there were 20,000 white men in Barbadoes, 
half of them able to bear arms, and furnishing 
even a regiment of horse to the number of one 
thousand. 
Cf These adventurers,” says lord Clarendon, 
t( planted without any body’s leave, and without 
“ being opposed or contradicted by any body.” 
The case seems to have been that the governor 
granted lands to all who applied, on receiving a 
gratuity for himself; and the claim of the proprie¬ 
tor, whether disputed in the island, or disregarded 
amidst the confusions at home, was at length tacitly 
and silently relinquished.* 
The colony left to its own efforts, and enjoying 
an unlimited freedom of trade, flourished beyond 
example. In the year 1646, however, the then 
earl of Carlisle, who was son and heir of the pa¬ 
tentee, stimulated by the renown of its wealth and 
prosperity, began to revive his claims as hereditary 
proprietor; and entering into a treaty with lord 
Willoughby of Parham, conveyed to that nobleman 
all his rights by lease for twenty one years, on con¬ 
dition of receiving one half the profits in the mean 
* Lord Carlisle had originally stipulated for an annual tribute of for¬ 
ty pounds of cotton wool froa! each person who held lands under his 
