33 
chap, i.] WEST INDIES. 
the beginning of the commotions in the mother- 
country, the planters, having no other means of 
conveying the produce of their lands to Europe, 
had employed in this necessary navigation, many 
of the ships and seamen of Holland 5 and at this 
juncture the English government entertained very 
hostile intentions towards the subjects of that re¬ 
public. The reduction of Barbadoes would at once 
punish the colonists, and enable the English parli¬ 
ament to deprive the Dutch of so profitable an in¬ 
tercourse with them; it would also enrich the trea¬ 
sury of the new government, by the confiscation 
of many valuable ships and cargoes in the harbours 
of that and the other islands. The parliament had 
reason likewise, it was said, to apprehend that 
prince Rupert, with a squadron of the king’s ships, 
was about crossing the Atlantic, to secure all the 
English American possessions for Charles the Se¬ 
cond. 
Ayscue, who commanded the parliament’s forces 
employed on this expedition, arrived at Barba¬ 
does on the 16 th of October 1651 , and succeed¬ 
ed at length in bringing the island to capitulate :* 
But this was not effected without great difficulty ; 
for he met with so stout a resistance, as deter- 
* Ayscue agreed, among other things, that the government should 
consist of a governor, council, and assembly, according to the an* 
cient and usual custom of the island. The assembly to be chosen by 
a free and voluntary election of the freeholders of the island in the 
several parishes. That no taxes, customs, imposts, loans, or ex- 
Vol. II. 
E 
