Part 3

On the 17th, near the north coast of Java, they met a Dutch ship of 600 tons--the first eastward-bound merchantman they had seen for nearly two years. From her they had their first items of home news, the death of Prince George of Denmark, the Consort of Queen Anne, and the continuation of the wars in Europe. Three days later they anchored safely in the roadstead of Batavia “betwixt 30 and 40 sail, great and small.”

After such a long and perilous voyage the crew were naturally overjoyed at being in port. To them Batavia was a perfect paradise. They hugged each other, and thanked their lucky stars that they had found “such a glorious place for Punch, where they could have Arrack for 8d. per gallon, and sugar for 1 penny a pound.” In spite of the humours of his ship’s company Rogers was still very ill, the doctor having recently cut a large musket shot out of his mouth, and while at Batavia several pieces of his heel bone were also removed. As the _Marquis_ was found unfit to proceed to Europe, she was sold for 575 Dutch dollars, “an extraordinary bargain,” remarks Rogers.

On October the 12th, after a stay of nearly four months, they sailed from Batavia and proceeded direct to the Cape of Good Hope. The _Duke_ was in such a leaky condition that she was kept afloat with the greatest difficulty. By the end of October she had 3 feet of water in the hold, “and our pumps being choaked,” says Rogers, “we were in such danger, that we made signals, and fired guns for our consorts to come to our relief, but had just sucked her (i.e. pumped her dry) as the _Dutchess_ came up.” On the 28th of December the three ships arrived at the Cape, and 16 sick men were sent ashore. Several days were now spent in watering and re-fitting, and on the 18th of January, 1711, it was agreed that some of the plate and gold from the ships should be sold to buy “several necessaries and provisions.”

On account of his valuable cargo Rogers deferred his departure until a number of homeward-bound ships collected, and it was not before April the 6th that the combined fleet, numbering 16 Dutch and 9 English ships, sailed for Europe. On the 14th of May the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_ crossed the line for the eighth time. A course was now steered to the westward of the Azores, and from thence north-eastward round the Shetlands to the Texel, where the whole fleet anchored on the 23rd of July. Here Rogers remained some little while, having received orders from the owners that the East India Company resolved to trouble us, “on pretence we had encroached upon their liberties in India.” Finally all difficulties were amicably settled, and at the end of September the _Duke_, _Dutchess_, and _Marquis_ sailed from Holland, convoyed by four English men-of-war. On the 1st of October they arrived in the Downs, and on the 14th came to an anchor at Erith, which finished their “long and fatiguing voyage” of over three years.

Thus ended one of the most remarkable expeditions that ever left the shores of Great Britain. The cost of fitting it out was less than £14,000 and the net profits amounted to at least £170,000.[19] Of this sum, two-thirds went to the owners, and the other third was divided, according to their rating, among the officers and men. The prizes taken, including the ships and barks ransomed at Guiaquil, amounted to twenty sail.[20]

A rousing welcome must have been accorded Rogers and his plucky crew when they arrived home in Bristol. By their daring and skill they had ranged the seas in defiance of the enemy, and by their superb seamanship and courage they had added a brilliant page to our naval history. Their voyage was epoch making. In the words of a contemporary writer “there never was any voyage of this nature so happily adjusted.” Once and for all it stripped distant and tedious navigations of those terrors which haunted them through the incapacity of their commanders, and it opened a door to the great South Sea which was never to be closed again.[21] Rogers was a born leader, besides being a magnificent seaman. He had a way of maintaining authority over his men, which Dampier and others before him sadly lacked, and whenever the occasion arose he had a happy knack of ingratiating himself with the various authorities ashore. Whether friend or foe he invariably parted with them cheerfully.

In many respects the voyage of Woodes Rogers is more noteworthy than that of Anson thirty years later. Rogers had only two small merchant ships fitted out by private enterprise, whereas Anson’s squadron was fitted, manned, and armed, by the Admiralty. It comprised six ships of the Royal Navy (with 236 guns and 2,000 men), in addition to two victualling ships of the size of the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_. Rogers was able to bring both his ships safely home, but fate was not so kind to Anson, and only one, his flagship the _Centurion_, succeeded in reaching England.

The success of the expedition naturally stimulated public interest, and at the request of his many friends, Rogers agreed to publish his “journal,”[22] which appeared in the following year under the title of “A Cruising Voyage round the World.” It is written, as its author informs us, in “the language of the sea,” and as such it is a picturesque human document, enlivened with a quaint humour which makes it delightful reading. During the eighteenth century the book was widely read; three editions appeared within the space of fourteen years, and it was also translated into French and German. It was used as a model by later voyagers, and it is interesting to note that when Anson sailed on a similar expedition thirty years later a copy of the “Cruising Voyage,” found a prominent place in his cabin.

On returning to England Rogers took up his residence at a house in Queen Square, Bristol, which had been built for him about 1708. His share of the plunder taken by the _Duke_ and _Dutchess_ must have amounted to about £14,000, and he was thus able to live in ease and retirement during the next few years. At this period of his life he formed some important and influential friendships, and among his correspondents we find such well-known names as Addison, Steele, and Sir Hans Sloane.

To a man of Rogers’s disposition an inactive life must have been particularly irksome, and his ever restless nature was continually looking for some outlet where the spirit of adventure was combined with service to the state. In the years following his expedition round the world the Government had under consideration various schemes for the settlements of Madagascar and the Bahama Islands, both of which had become strongholds for the pirates and were a dangerous menace to the trade and navigation in those waters. That Rogers had his own ideas on the matter is shown in the following letter to Sir Hans Sloane, dated 7th May, 1716, which in its way is a model of brevity[23]:--

SIR,

I being ambitious to promote a settlement on Madagascar, beg you’ll (be) pleased to send me what accounts you have of that island, which will be a particular favour done

Your most obliged humble servant, WOODES ROGERS.

For some reason or other the proposed settlement never matured, and nothing further is heard of it. There remained, however, the question of the Bahamas, and it was not long before Rogers was called from the seclusion of his Bristol home to take command of an important expedition against the pirates of New Providence in the Bahamas, in which he was to become a pioneer in the settlement and administration of our West Indian Empire.

The story of this expedition, and Rogers’s subsequent career as Governor of the Bahama Islands, the most northerly of our West Indian possessions, has never been told in full before. It may be taken as a typical example of the pluck and enterprise shown by our early colonial governors against overwhelming odds and difficulties, and as such it fills an important chapter in colonial history. Although the islands had nominally belonged to Great Britain since 1670, they had been left without any systematic government or settlement for over half a century, and in consequence the House of Lords in an address to the Queen[24] during the early part of 1716, set forth the desirability of placing the Bahamas under the Crown, for the better security and advantage of the trade of this kingdom. They pointed out that twice within living memory the French and Spaniards had plundered the colony, and driven out the few English settlers, and that it was now necessary to establish a stable form of government there. Owing to their geographical position, the Bahamas were a favourite haunt of the pirates, whose headquarters were at New Providence, the principal island. Nothing however was done in the matter until the following year, when Rogers submitted a careful and considered proposal for their settlement to the Lords Commissioners of Trade, in the summer of 1717. He emphasised the importance of those islands to British trade and navigation, and the necessity of driving out the pirates and fortifying and settling the islands for the better protection of that trade. His endeavours were stoutly supported by some of the “most considerable merchants of London and Bristol,” who declared that Rogers was in “every way qualified for such an undertaking.”[25] In the meantime the Lords Proprietors of the Bahamas surrendered the civil and military government of the islands to the Crown with the reservation of quit rents and royalties. These they leased under an agreement dated 28th of October, 1717, to Rogers, who is described in the original lease as “of London, Mariner,” for a term of twenty-one years. For the first seven years Rogers was to pay fifty pounds a year; for the second seven years one hundred pounds a year; and for the remaining period two hundred pounds a year.[26]

Accordingly, Rogers’s suggestion, backed by the recommendation of Addison, then Secretary of State, was agreed to, and he was duly appointed “Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over our Bahama Islands in America,” the King “reposing especial trust” in his “Prudence, Courage and Loyalty.” On his appointment he assigned his lease to W. Chetwynd, Adam Cardonnel, and Thomas Pitt, with the proviso that the lessee was to have the right to grant lands “for not less than 1_d._ sterling per acre.”[27]

Among other things Rogers had represented to the Crown the necessity of taking out a number of soldiers to protect the colony, and on the 14th of October, 1717, Addison wrote to the Secretary of War stating that the company should consist “of a hundred men at least,” and that as the season was too far advanced to procure these forces from any part of America, he proposed that they should be “draughted out of the Guards, or any other regiments now on foot, or out of His Majesty’s Hospital at Chelsea.”[28] This garrison Rogers had proposed to victual at the rate of 6_d._ per head per diem, and the Treasury were asked to provide the sum of £912 10_s._--the cost of a year’s victualling--“provided your Lordships shall find the same to be a cheap and reasonable proposal.”[29]

On the 6th of November Rogers duly received his commission as “Captain of that Independent Company of Foot which we have appointed to do duty in our Bahama Islands in America.”

While in London Rogers had an opportunity of renewing his friendship with Steele, whom he met in the Tennis Coffee House in the Cockpit, Whitehall, on which occasions we are told the conversation “turned upon the subject of trade and navigation,” a subject which we may be sure was eagerly discussed, for Steele at the time was full of his idea for the “Fish Pool,” a scheme for bringing fish alive to London.[30]

On Friday the 11th of April, Rogers sailed from England to take up his appointment.[31] His commission gave him full power to employ whatever means he thought fit for the suppression of piracy, and he also carried with him the royal proclamation of pardon, dated 5th of September, 1717, to any pirates who surrendered before the 5th of September, 1718.[32] At the same time a determined effort was made by the Government to stamp out piracy in the whole of the West Indian Islands, and several ships were despatched to Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands for that purpose.

After a voyage of three and a half months Rogers arrived at his destination, and on the 25th of July the _Delicia_, with the Governor and his retinue on board, escorted by H.M. ships _Rose_ and _Milford_, anchored off Nassau, the principal town of New Providence, and the seat of government of the Bahamas. Owing to the lateness of the evening the pilot of the _Delicia_ decided that it was unsafe to venture over the bar that night, and in consequence it was resolved to wait till the morning.[33] From information received it was learnt that nearly all the pirates are anxious to avail themselves of the royal clemency. Two notable exceptions, however, were Teach, the famous “Blackbeard,” and Charles Vane. The latter swore that “he would suffer no other governor than himself” except on his own terms, and these he embodied in the following letter to Rogers:--“Your excellency may please to understand that we are willing to accept His Majesty’s most gracious pardon on the following terms, viz.--That you will suffer us to dispose of all our goods now in our possesion. Likewise, to act as we think fit with everything belonging to us.... If your Excellency shall please to comply with this, we shall, with all readiness, accept of His Majesty’s Act of Grace. If not, we are obliged to stand on our defence. We wait a speedy answer.”[34]

Rogers promptly replied by sending in the _Rose_ and the _Shark_ sloop, and after a desultory cannonade--Vane set fire to a French prize of 22 guns--and during the confusion and danger which followed he and about 90 of his crew succeeded in escaping to sea.[35]

The morning following Vane’s escape Rogers went on shore and was enthusiastically received by the principal inhabitants. The pirates who had availed themselves of the royal pardon, were not to be eclipsed in their desire to show their loyalty to the new governor, and on the way from the beach to the Fort, Rogers passed between two lines of reformed pirates, who fired their muskets in his honour. On arriving at the Fort the royal commission was opened and read, and Rogers was solemnly sworn in as Governor of the Bahamas. The next procedure was to form a Council, and for this purpose Rogers nominated six of the principal persons he had brought with him from England, and six of the inhabitants “who had not been pirates, and were of good repute.”[36] Within a week of landing Rogers assembled this Council, and among other business the following appointments were made:--Judge of the Admiralty Court, Collector of Customs, Chief Justice, Provost Marshal, Secretary to the Governor, and Chief Naval Officer.[37] Having appointed his Council and administrative officers, Rogers next turned his attention to the inhabitants and the condition of the islands generally. It was a task which required a man of strong and fearless disposition, and Rogers did not shrink from the responsibility. The secret of his success was that he found and made work for all. The fort of Nassau, in ruins and dismantled, was repaired and garrisoned. A number of guns were also mounted, and a strong pallisade constructed round it. All about the town the roads were overgrown with brushwood and shrubs and rendered almost impassable. A proportion of the inhabitants were therefore mustered and employed in clearing the ground and cleansing the streets, while overseers and constables were employed to see the work carried out in an efficient manner. Those not employed on cleansing and scouring were formed into three companies of Militia whose duty it was to keep guard in the town every night, to prevent surprise attacks. The neighbouring islands were not forgotten, and various members of the Council were appointed Deputy Governors of them. A militia company was also formed in each of the principal ones, and a fort constructed and provided with powder and shot. As an extra method of precaution the _Delicia_ was retained as the Governor’s guardship and stationed off the harbour of Nassau. A scheme of settlement was also devised, and in order to attract settlers to New Providence and the other islands, a plot of ground 120 foot square was offered to each settler, provided he would clear the ground and build a house within a certain time. As there was abundance of timber on the island which was free to be taken, this stipulation was not difficult to fulfil.[38]

Unfortunately the difficulties which Rogers had to contend with bid fair to wreck his almost Utopian scheme. Before many months had elapsed the pirates found this new mode of life less remunerative and much more irksome to their roving dispositions. As Captain Charles Johnson, their historian, tersely puts it, “it did not much suit the inclinations of the Pirates to be set to work.” As a result many of them escaped to sea at the first opportunity and resumed their former trade. One of their number, John Augur by name, who had accepted the royal pardon, was appointed by Rogers to command a sloop despatched to get provisions for the island. Captain John, however, soon forgot his oath of allegiance, and meeting with two trading vessels _en route_, he promptly boarded and rifled them. With booty estimated at £500, he steered a course for Hispaniola, little knowing that he had played his last card. Encountering a severe storm he and his comrades were wrecked on one of the uninhabited Bahamas, where Rogers, hearing of their fate, despatched a ship to bring them back to Nassau. Here they were quickly dealt with by the Court of Admiralty, and ten out of eleven of them were convicted and hanged “in the sight of their former companions.” A contemporary records that these trials were marked by “Rogers’s prudence and resolution, and that in the condemnation and execution of the pirates he had a just regard of the public good, and was not to be deterred from vigorously pursuing it in circumstances which would have intimidated many brave men.”[39]

Whenever the occasion offered, Rogers tempered justice with mercy, and the human side of his character comes out well in the case of the man who was pardoned. His name, Rogers informs us, was George Rounsivell,[40] and “I reprieved him under the gallows,” he wrote in a letter to the Secretary of State, “through a desire to respite him for his future repentance. He is the son of loyal and good parents at Weymouth in Dorsetshire. I hope this unhappy young man will deserve his life, and I beg the honour of your intercession with his Majesty for me on his behalf.”[41]

One of the greatest difficulties which Rogers had to encounter was the smallness of the force at his disposal for the preservation of law and order. The discovery of a conspiracy among the settlers to desert the island, and their friendship with the pirates, were matters of urgent importance which he brought to the notice of the home Government. From first to last his great ambition was to make the colony worthy in all respects of the British Empire, and amidst frequent disorders we find him busy about this time with plans for the development of the whale fishery, and for supplying Newfoundland and North America with salt.[42]

The failure of the Admiralty to send out ships for the protection of the colony against the swarms of pirates who still infested the West Indian seas caused Rogers to complain bitterly, and in a very interesting letter to his friend Sir Richard Steele, he regrets that several of his letters have fallen into the hands of the pirates.[43] In it he also gives an amusing account of a lady whose fluency of speech caused him considerable annoyance.

“To the Hon. Sir Richard Steele; to be left at Bartram’s Coffee-House in Church Court, opposite Hungerford Market in the Strand, London. Via Carolina.

NASSAU, ON NEW PROVIDENCE, _Jan. 30, 1718/9_.

SIR,--

Having writ to you by several former opportunities, and not hearing from you, I have the greater cause to inveigh against the malice of the pirates who took Captain Smyter, lately come from London, from whom I have since heard that there were several letters directed to me and Mr. Beauchamp, which the pirates after reading tore.

Every capture made by the pirates aggravates the apparent inclinations of the Commanders of our men-of-war; who having openly avowed that the greater number of pirates makes their suitable advantage in trade; for the Merchants of necessity are forced to send their effects in the King’s bottoms, when they from every part hear of the ravages committed by the pirates.

There is no Governor in these American parts who has not justly complained of this grand negligence; and I am in hopes the several representations will induce the Board of Admiralty to be more strict in their orders. There has not been one here almost these five months past; and, as if they wished us offered as a sacrifice both to the threatening Spaniards and Pirates, I have not had influence enough to make our danger prevail with any of them to come to our assistance because of their greater occupations in trade. I, however, expect to be sufficiently provided, if the Spaniards, as believed, defer their coming till April.

At my first arrival I received a formal visit from a woman called Pritchard, who by her voluble tongue, and mentioning some of our first quality with some freedom, and, withal, saying that she was known to you, Mr. Cardonnel,[44] and Sir William Scawen, next to whom she lived, near the Storey’s Westminster, that I gave her a patient hearing. She dressed well, and had charms enough to tempt the pirates; and, when she pleased, could assume an air of haughtiness which indeed she showed to me, when I misdoubted her birth, education, or acquaintance with those Noblemen and others, whom she could without hesitation call over, and indeed some very particular private passages. She had often a loose way of speaking, which made me conjecture she endeavoured to win the hearts of her admirers to the Pretender’s interest, and made me grow weary of seeing her.

This my indifference, and a little confinement, provoked her to depart hence for Jamaica, saying that she would take passage for England to do herself justice, and did not come abroad without money to support her. She talked much of Sir Ambrose Crawley and his son, from whom she intends to provide a good quantity of iron-work; and, with a suitable cargo of other goods, she says she will soon make another turn this way; and seldom serious in her talk. I thought fit to say thus much of a woman who pretends to such a general knowledge of men, particularly of you and Mr. Addison. If our carpenters had not otherwise been employed, and I could have spared them, I should have been glad to have made her first Lady of the Stool.[45] She went hence, as I thought, with resentments enough; but I have heard since from Jamaica, that she has not only forgot her passion, but sent her friendly service to me; and, as I expect, she now is on her way home, designs to do me all the good offices that she can with all the numerous gentlemen of her acquaintance. But I can’t believe it; and I beg if you see her soliciting in my behalf, be pleased to let her know I don’t expect her company here, and she can’t oblige me more than to let me and my character alone.