en
English since 1612, and had now a considerable population of opulent
settlers, attracted by their beauty and the salubrity of the climate;
_Barbadoes_, English since 1605, and with a population of more
than 50,000, had been a refuge of Royalists, but had been taken for
the Commonwealth in 1652, and had been much used of late for the
reception of banished prisoners; such other Islands of the Lesser
Antilles as _Antigua_, _Nevis_, _Montserrat_, and the
_Virgin Islands_, together with _The Bahamas_, to the north
of Cuba, had been colonised in the late reign; and _Jamaica_ had
been Cromwell's own conquest from the Spaniards, by Penn's blunder,
in 1655. The war with Spain had given new importance to those West
India possessions of the Protectorate. They had become war-stations
for ships, with considerable armed forces on some of them; and some
of Cromwell's best officers had been sent out, or were to be sent
out, to command in them. Of them all Jamaica was Cromwell's pet
island. He had resolved to keep it and do his best with it. The
charge of it had been given to a commission consisting of Admiral
Goodson, Major-General Fortescue, Major-General Sedgwick (the
recaptor of Nova Scotia from the French), and Daniel Serle, Governor
of Barbadoes; and Fortescue and Sedgwick, and others in succession,
were to die at their posts there. To have the rich island colonised
at once with the right material was the Protector's great anxiety;
and his first thoughts on that subject, as soon as he had learnt that
the Island was his, had issued in a most serious modification of his
former offer to the New Englanders. As they had refused to come back
and colonise Ireland, would they not accept Jamaica? "He did
apprehend the people of New England had as clear a call to transport
themselves thence to Jamaica as they had had from England to New
England, in order to the bettering of their outward condition;"
besides which, their removal thither would have a "tendency to the
overthrow of the Man of Sin." They should be transported free of
cost; they should have lands rent-free for seven years, and after
that at a penny an acre; they should be free from customs, excise,
or any tax for four years; they should have the most liberal
constitution that could be framed: only his Highness would keep the
right of appointing the successive Governors and their Assistants.
The answer of the Massachusetts people, when it did arrive, was
evasive. They spoke of