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 1d. 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 6d. per head per diem, and the Treasury were asked to provide the sum of £912 10s.—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
