THE BARBADOS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 121, 19 November 1934, Page 7

THE BARBADOS

A ROMANTIC HISTORY

LOYALTY TO CROWN

I SMILES FOR ADVERSITY

(Frcm "TM Post's" Raprwantttlva.) ' KINGSTON (Jamaica), Oct. 24.

The most cohesive, non-cosmopolitan people of the West Indies are the residents of Barbados—Bimshire, or Little England, as it is' affectionately known, by reason of its Trafalgar Square, Hastings, and a hundred other place 'names that denote its English paternity. Its picturesqueness is different from the mountainous glory of Jamaica. Its scenery resembles certain parts of the Motherland—the wolds of Lincoln, or the gentle slopes of Devonshire, down, towards Torquay. Its people are born of the soil. Lying far out in the oee.au, fanned continuously by the trade winds, its climate is pleasantly salubrious. Its area of 166 square miles support* 180,000 people, its density of population, being rivalled only by Hong Kong and Malta. The history of Barbados is romantic and inspiring to a degree. Discovered ' by the Portuguese, who made no attempt to settle there, it was visited by an English vessel, driven off her course,' on the way to Guiana. In 1624, a privateer, chartered by the Courteen brothers of ' London Town, called there,. homeward bound from Brazil. A year later the little vessel the William and John founded the first settlement. Disputes as to ownership followed. The claim of the Earl of Carlisle was sustained, conditionally on his agreeing to pay the Earl of Marlborongh and. his heirs .£3OO a' year in perpetuity. Its relative value to Canada is indicated by the fact that 2,000,000 square miles of Canada were at about that'time rented to the Honourable Company for two beaver skins a- year. Earlier, Cabot was rewarded by Henry VII with £10 for discovering Newfoundland. A FREE CONSTITUTION. When trouble arose betweenthe King and Parliament, Barbados sided witli Charles, influenced by a ■ number of Loyalists, who fled there from England. When the King was beheaded, Barbados acknowledged Charles 11. For this the aolony was included in the • celebrated interdict of ,1650, which prohibited trade with Virginia, Barbados, and Bermuda, because of their "rebellious" attitude.. A fleet was sent out to subdue the'island. It is a tribute to the hardihood of "the islanders that, although the fleet arrived in October, not until January of the following year did they capitulate, and then only because of their'desire to save the'island from ruin and desolation. The term* of the capitulation alone show that it was not from, cowardice that they surrendered/ for they secured for themselves religious liberty, property rights, and representative government, • witk full powers over taxation. . After the Roundhead-Cavalier period, the Privy Council decreed that one-half of the annual revenue surplus oftha island should go to Lord Willoughbvduring his lease/ and the rest to .the Government, to be used to pay the Marlborough claim and a pension of £500 a year to the Earl of Carlisle and his heirs—subsequently increased to £1000. To raise the necessary sum, aa export tax of 4$ per cent, was imposed on all produce leaving the colony. The colony bore this grievance for 173 "years, for it was not until 1738 that the tax was repealed. REPULSION-OF THE DUTCH. In 1665 the island was attacked by, the great Dutch Admiral De Buyter, who, with his fourteen'men-of-war, was repelled by th« staunch5 settlers.- In the wars against France, Barbados rendered signal service, providing the regiment which captured St." Kitts from tho French in 1690." Three years later they, sent two, regiments to aid1- in the unsuccessful attack on Martinique. In 1762 another regiment from Barbados formed part of the force under Rodney which eventually captured Martinique. ■ Next --only, to England, Newfoundland, and Bermuda, Barbados is th« proud possessor of the oldest Parliament in the world. Its Constitution was granted as long ago . as'l627—at the time the illustrious Champlain was still in the "wilds of Canada." The Constitution provided that the.inhabitants of the island were to possess all the liberties, franchises, and privileges of the Kingdom, of England." This "tight little, bright little islartfl" has been pulling itself out of the depression just as it" pulled itself out of the troubles that beset it an tho early days of its history. 'Badians do not acknowledge the word." defeat. Froude, on his visit in the, eighties, the period of another great depression, declared that, "if these places are going to luin, Barbados at any rate is being ruined with a smiling face." Your 'Badian is neither an apologist nor a compromiser. Loyal they have ever been, and, equally with all the West Indian colonies, they'may be rehed on to preserve the British tradition. 'Badians laugh loudest and longest when they hear of some American politician or newspaper suggesting that they be handed over to Uncle Sam in payment of the war debt.—