North's expedition.—In 1620 an attempt was made to reorganize Raleigh's company, and Captain Roger North was sent with one hundred and twenty men to Guiana, where they joined the remnant of Harcourt's colonists. But the attempt again failed because of opposition of the Spanish ambassador.
THE LESSER ANTILLES
The English occupation.—In a great half circle at the eastern end of the Caribbean are the Lesser Antilles. After the failures on the South American coast, the English grasped these outposts of the tropics and, side by side with the French, were soon firmly established across one of the principal highways of Spanish commerce. In 1623 St. Christopher was temporarily occupied and was actually settled in 1625. The same year (1625) Sir William Courten started the first colony in Barbados. In 1627 Lord Carlisle received a grant which covered the Caribbees, and the following year the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery also obtained rights to Trinidad. Tobago, and Barbados. In the contest between the claimants Carlisle won. He ejected Courten's settlers and established his own colonists. In 1628 Nevis was occupied. The following year the settlers on St. Christopher and Nevis were evicted by the Spaniards, but upon the retirement of the fleet the colonists returned to their plantations. In 1632 settlements were made on Antigua and Montserrat. As in the Bermudas, tobacco became the leading crop, but later the production of sugar cane superseded it. Barbados soon contained 6,000 inhabitants and in 1639, when Virginia had a total population of about 7,000, there were 20,000 planters in the islands governed by Carlisle. In the Lesser Antilles the proprietary form of government prevailed for half a century.
THE PROVIDENCE ISLAND COMPANY
The Puritan leaders.—During the great struggle between king and parliament, several of the merchant princes were on the Puritan side. One of the most powerful of these was Robert Rich, Lord Warwick. He had been an active member of the Virginia and Somers Islands companies, of the Guinea and Guiana companies, and of the Council of New England. Closely associated with Warwick were Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Nathaniel Rich, and John Pym. As the parliamentary contest increased in intensity, these leaders decided to plant a Puritan colony in the Caribbean.
The Providence Island Company.—The site selected was on one of the Mosquito Islands off the coast of Nicaragua. In 1629 a company was formed which was granted the greater part of the Caribbean Sea, from Haiti to the coast of Venezuela and to the mainland of Central America. Besides Jamaica, then in the possession of Spain, the Caymán Islands fell within these limits. The English fleet which was sent out in 1630 temporarily occupied Tortuga, where colonists from Nevis had recently arrived, and the company asked that this island be included in the patent. The request was granted, but the English were able to hold the island only until 1635 when they were driven out by the Spaniards. The islands along the Mosquito coast were occupied by the company, and a project was formed to colonize the mainland. In 1635 Providence Island was unsuccessfully attacked by a Spanish fleet, but in 1641 the Spaniards succeeded in overcoming the colony, thus for the time ending English operations on the Central American coast.
READINGS
VIRGINIA
Becker, Carl, The Beginnings of the American People, pp. 65-80; Beer, G.L., The Origins of the British Colonial System, 78-175; Brown, Alexander, Genesis of the United States; The First Republic in America; Bruce, P.A., Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, I, 189-330; Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, II, 229-262; Channing, Edward, History of the United States, I, 143-224; Doyle, J.A., English Colonies in America, I, 101-184; Eggleston, Edward, The Beginners of a Nation, 25-97; Fiske, John, Old Virginia and her Neighbors, I, 40-222; Hamilton, P.J., Colonization of the South, 55-119; MacDonald, William, Select Charters Illustrative of American History, 1-23; Osgood, H.L., The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, I, 23-97; Scott, W.R., The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish, and Irish Joint-Stock Companies to 1720, II, 246-289; Tyler, L.G., England in America, 34-103; Tyler, L.G., ed., Narratives of Early Virginia; Wertenbaker, T.J., Virginia under the Stuarts, 1-84; Johnston, Mary, Pioneers of the Old South; Flippin, P.S., The Royal Government in Virginia, 1624-1775.