Mrs. Lanaghan - Antigua and the Antiguans (Vol. 1&2)

In 1672, his majesty Charles II. deemed it proper to make some alteration in the affairs of the West Indies. Hitherto all the Caribbee Islands were united under one government, but after the return of Lord William Willoughby to England, the king entered into fresh arrangements with the colonies, appointed him captain-general of Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent’s and Dominica; and Sir William Stapleton captain-general and commander-in-chief of Antigua and the other Leeward Islands. This Windward Island’s separation continues at the present time, after undergoing many changes, by having their own particular governor; as far as regards Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent’s. Dominica has at length been united with Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher’s, Anguilla, Tortola, and the Virgin Islands, which now form the Leeward Caribbee government.

During the general government, a general council and assembly was held at either of the islands whenever the legislature deemed any important matter rendered it necessary to convene them; but the respective islands in the government, however, retained each their laws as regarded local circumstances. When the commander-in-chief found it necessary for the public good to call together this general council and assembly, the freeholders of each island met together and made choice of five eligible inhabitants to act as their representatives.

The convening of this general council and assembly accounts for the affairs of these different islands being wound up together, and laws which were passed at the one, answering, in many instances, for the others.

Sir William Stapleton preferring Nevis, he made that island the seat of government, and Colonel Philip Warner (Sir Thomas Warner’s son by his second wife) was appointed governor of Antigua. A very necessary precaution was adopted about this time​—​namely, the preventing persons wandering about cane-pieces, with lighted torches, hunting for land-crabs. If a free person was found so offending, the culprit was to pay into the public treasury one thousand pounds of sugar or tobacco; or if a slave, he was to be publicly whipped. This very dangerous practice continues to this day in seasons when the land-crabs are upon their travels, and certainly ought to meet with some punishment. So careless and thoughtless are the negroes, that large pieces of fire are frequently dropped upon the road while thus employed, which they never think of extinguishing; and as the scene of their exploits is generally in the vicinity of cane-pieces, where there is often a large quantity of dry cane-leaves, called in the country idiom, trash, serious accidents might, and indeed have been the result.

It was also deemed advisable to ordain that marriages solemnized by the governor, council, or any justice of peace, should, in absence of beneficed clergymen from the island, be adjudged equally binding and lawful, as if the ceremony had been performed by an orthodox minister. This was a regulation very necessary in that early period, when there was as yet no established church erected, or any clergymen officiating in the colony; and, consequently, marriages were obliged to be celebrated by a civil power. It was also enacted by the legislature this year (1672), that slaves killed or maimed, while acting in defence of the country, should have their value ascertained by arbitration, and the amount paid over to their owners from the public treasury.

In 1674, the inhabitants of Antigua presented an address to the captain-general, Sir William Stapleton, praying him to grant them a commission “to kill and destroy the Indians inhabiting the island of Dominica.”

From the period when Antigua was first settled by the English, the Caribs, as we have already seen, had been in the constant habit of landing upon it, and perpetrating the most fearful and horrid acts of violence upon its inhabitants. So frequent and barbarous were these attacks, that the colony at one time was in danger of being abandoned; and nothing but firm and vigorous measures on the part of the English could restrain the fury of their Indian adversaries, and quell their turbulent assaults.

As soon, therefore, as his excellency, Sir William Stapleton, acceded to the request of the Antiguans in granting a commission, a large party of volunteers was formed, aided by some of the settlers from the neighbouring islands, of which, at the earnest entreaties of the council and assembly of Antigua, Governor Philip Warner took the command. They immediately proceeded to Dominica; and however different historians may relate the events of this action, they all concur in stating, that the English obtained a most signal victory over their Indian foes. In this fray the illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Warner, by a Carib woman​—​who was generally known by the name of Thomas Warner, or “Indian Warner,” and who is said to have headed the Indians in many of their attacks upon the English​—​fell, as it is supposed, by the hands of his half-brother, Philip Warner, the governor of Antigua. Whether this deed was done by open warfare, or by treacherous means, is uncertain; but, upon the return of Colonel Philip Warner, the governor, to Antigua, after the reduction of the Caribs, the circumstances of the death of Indian Warner were inquired into either by Sir William Stapleton or Lord Willoughby, the results of which were, that Colonel Philip Warner was sent to England to stand his trial for the murder of his half-brother. After being kept in the Tower of London for some time, Colonel Warner was placed on board the Phoenix frigate, and despatched to Barbados, in order that he might be tried in the Court of Oyer and Terminer in that island.

This resolution, on the part of the home government, was no sooner known in Antigua, than a strong remonstrance was drawn up in the name of the inhabitants, and after being signed by sixteen of the most influential men among the legislature, was transmitted to the justices for the trial of Colonel Warner at Barbados, setting forth the facts, that it was only through the most earnest prayer of the Antiguans, and not from any private motives of his own, that he was induced to take the command upon the attack of the Caribs, in which action the Indian Warner fell. The facts of this case being fully investigated, Colonel Warner was honourably acquitted, his lands, 22which he had quietly yielded up on being sent to England for trial, were restored, and he was again permitted to exercise the functions of governor of Antigua.

It certainly appears rather extraordinary that Colonel Warner should have stood his trial for this massacre of the Indians, when we find, that for more than fifty years after this occurrence, the Caribs were still hunted and destroyed as so many reptiles; but Indian Warner was one who ranked rather high in the opinion of Lord William Willoughby, and probably that nobleman felt incensed at his death. Many are the opinions of writers upon this subject. While some look upon Colonel Warner as the unjustified murderer of his half-brother; others are led to palliate the circumstances on the plea of Indian Warner being the chief actor in those cruel Carib attacks, which were generally made upon unarmed Englishmen, or their defenceless wives and children.

Dampier, one of the greatest navigators among the Buccaneers, (before that name had acquired a dread from the lawless and bloody deeds its chieftains committed,) visited Antigua about the period of Indian Warner’s death; and in his history of his voyages he has the following passage:—​“About this time (1674) the Caribbees had done some spoil on our English plantations at Antego, and therefore Governor Warner’s son by his wife took a party of men, and went to suppress these Indians, and came to the place where his brother Indian Warner lived. Great seeming joy there was at their meeting, but how far real the event shewed; for the English Warner, providing plenty of liquor, and inviting his half-brother to be merry with him, in the midst of his entertainment, ordered his men, upon a signal given, to murder him and all his Indians, which was accordingly performed. The reason of this inhuman action is diversely reported. Some say that this Indian Warner committed all the spoil that was done to the English, and for that reason his brother killed him and his men. Others, that he was a great friend to the English, and would not suffer his men to hurt them, but did all that lay in his power to draw them to an amicable commerce; and that his brother killed him because he was ashamed to be related to an Indian. But, be it how it may, he was called in question for the murder, and forced to come home, and take his trial in England. Such perfidious doings as these, besides the baseness of them, are great hindrances of our gaining interest among the Indians.”