A true & exact history of the island of Barbados

by Richard Ligon

To prevent them from comming on our shelves where our meat is kept, we hang them to the roofe by ropes, and tarre those roapes, and the roofes over them, as also the strings of our Hamacks, for which reason we avoid them better in Hamacks then in beds.

Sometimes when we try conclusions upon them, we take the Carpet off the Table, and shake it, so that all the Ants drop off, and rub down the leggs and feet of those tables, (which stood not in water) and having done so: we lay on the Carpet againe, and set upon it a Sallet dish, or Trencher, with suger in it, which some of them in the room will presently smell, and make towards it as fast as they can, which is a long journey; for he must begin at the foot of the table, and come as high as the inside of the Carpet, and so go down to the bottome and up of the outside of the Carpet, before he gets on the table, and then to the sugar, which he smels to; and having found it, returns againe the same way, without taking any for his paines, and enformes all his friends of this bootie; who come in thousands, and tenne thousands, and in an instant, fetch it all away; and when they are thickest upon the table, clap a large book, (or any thing fit for that purpose) upon them so hard as to kill all that are under it, and when you have done so, take away the book, and leave them to themselves, but a quarter of an houre, and when you come againe, you shall find all those bodies carried away. Other trials we make of their Ingenuity, as this. Take a Pewter dish, and fill it halfe full of water, into which put a little Gally pot fill’d with Sugar, and the Ants will presently find it, and come upon the Table; but when they perceive it inviron’d with water, they try about the brims of the dish, where the Gally pot is neerest, and there the most venturous amongst them, commits him selfe to the water, though he be conscious how ill a swimmer he is, and is drown’d in the adventure: the next is not warn’d by his example, but ventures too; and is alike drown’d and many more, so that there is a small foundation of their bodies to venture on; and then they come faster then ever, and so make a bridge of their own bodies, for their friends to passe on; neglecting their lives for the good of the publique; for before they make an end, they will make way for the rest, and become Masters of the Prize; I had a little white sugar which I desired to keep from them, and was devising which way to doe it, and I knockt a Nayle in the beam of the roome, and fastned to it a brown thread, at the lower end of which thread, I tyed a large shell of a fish; which being hollow I put the sugar in; and lockt the door, thinking it safe; but when I returned, I found three quarters of my sugar gone, and the Ants in abundance, ascending and descending, like the Angels on Jacobs Ladder, as I have seen it painted, so that I found no place safe, from these more then busie Creatures.

Another sorts of Ants there are, but nothing so numerous or harmfull as the other, but larger by farre; these build great nests, as bigge as Bee hives, against a wall, or a tree, of Clay and Lome, sometimes within doors, and in it severall little Mansions, such as Bees make for themselves, but nothing so curious; these the Cockroaches and Lizards meet withall, way-laying them neere their nests, and feed upon them: which to prevent they make from thence, many and severall galleries that reach some of them sixe or seaven yards severall waies, of the same earth they doe their nests; so that for such a distance as that, they are not to be perceiv’d, by any of their enemies, and commonly, their Avenues go out amongst leaves, or mosse, or some other Covert, that they may not be perceiv’d; but the most of these are in the woods; for we have destroyed their nests, and their galleries within doors so often, as they are weary of building, and so quit the house, I can say nothing of these, but that they are the quickest at their work of building, of any little Creatures that ever I saw. Spiders we have, the beautifullest and largest that I have seen, and the most curious in their webs; they are not at all Poysonous.

One sort more of these harmefull Animals there are, which we call Chegoes; and these are so little that you would hardly think them able to doe any harme at all, and yet these will do more mischiefe then the Ants, and if they were as numerous as harmefull, there were no induring of them; they are of a shape, not much unlike a Louse, but no bigger then a mite that breeds in cheese, his colour blewish: an Indian has laid one of them, on a sheet of white paper, and with my spectacles on I could hardly discern him; yet this very little Enemy, can and will do much mischiefe to mankind. This vermine will get thorough your Stocken, and in a pore of your skinne, in some part of your feet, commonly under the nayl of your toes, and there make a habitation to lay his off spring, as bigge as a small Tare, or the bagge of a Bee, which will cause you to go very lame, and put you to much smarting paine. The Indian women have the best skill to take them out, which they do by putting in a small poynted Pinne, or Needle, at the hole where he came in, and winding the poynt about the bagge loosen him from the flesh, and so take him out. He is of a blewish colour, and is seene through the skinne, but the Negroes whose skinns are of that colour (or neer it) are in ill case, for they cannot finde where they are; by which meanes they are many of them very lame: some of these Chegoes are poysonous, and after they are taken out, the Orifice in which they lay, will fester and rankle for a fortnight after they are gone. I have had tenne taken out of my feet in a morning, by the most unfortunate Yarico an Indian woman.

Some kind of Animals more there are in the woods, which because I never saw I cannot speak their formes: some of them I guesse are no bigger than Crickets; they lye all day in holes and hollow trees, and as soon as the Sun is downe, they begin their tunes, which are neither singing nor crying, but the shrillest voyces that ever I heard: nothing can be so neerely resembl’d to it, as the mouths of a pack of small beagles at a distance; and so lively, and chirping the noyse is, as nothing can be more delightfull to the eares, if there were not too much of it, for the musick hath no intermission till morning, and then all is husht.

I had forgotten amongst my fishes to mention Crabs; but because this kind of them live upon the land, I might very well overslip them and now bring them in, amongst these Animals: they are small Crabs, such as women sell by dozens in baskets in the streets, and of that colour raw and alive, as these are boyl’d, which is of a reddish colour. These Crabs are comming from the Sea all the year long, (except in March) they hide themselves in holes, and in houses, and sometimes in hollow trees; and into every part of the Iland they come, some times we meet them going up stairs in the night, sometimes in our low rooms, sometimes in our Gardens, where they eat the berries. We hold them not good meat: But the Negres will often upon Sundaies go a Crabbing, and think them very great dainties when they are boyled. These Crabs in March come all out of their holes, and march down towards the Sea in such multitudes, as to cover a great part of the ground where they go, and no hedge, wall, or house can stop them, but they will over. As we ride, our Horses tread on them, they are so thick on the ground. And they have this sense, to go the nearest way to the Sea, from the place where they are, and nothing can stop or stay them, but death. ’Tis the time I guesse they go to breed.

Trees.

Having past through all the reasonable and sensitive Creatures of this Iland, I come now to say somewhat of the Vegetables, as of Trees: and of those there are such infinite varieties, as to mention all, were to loose my selfe in a wood; for, it were impossible for any one in the time I stayed there, (though he studied nothing else) to give an account of the particulars. And therefore I will onely mention such, as for beauty or use, are of most and greatest esteem in the Iland.

Physick-Nut.

And for that there is none of more use than the Physick-Nut, I will begin first with that, which though the name seem to promise health, yet, it has poyson lodg’d secretly within, and that poyson may bring health, being physically applyed, and in fit times and seasons. The reason why I think it poysonous, is, because Cattle will not brouse, nor feed on the leaves, nor willingly come neer the shade. This tree will grow to be eighteen foot high, but we have a way to employ it; as for beauty and use, there are none such in the Iland. This tree (which is of the height as I have told you) has many sprigs, of four, five, and six foot long; we lop them one after another, and as we take off the branches, cut stakes of them, about foure foot and a halfe long, and stick them in the ground an inch deep, and no more, close to one another, in the manner of Palissadoes; and so, with a rail of either side, to keep them eeven, and here and there a spur or braket on either side, to keep them steedy for a month; by which time, they will not only gather roots to strengthen them, and hold them up, but leaves to cover their tops, and so even and smooth they fall, as to cover the tops of themselves, at least two foot and a halfe downward; and will in a month more, be so firmly rooted in the earth, as you may remove your railes and brakets, to assist those that are planted after them, in other places. These leaves being large, smooth, and beautifully shap’t, and of a full green, appear to your eyes like so much green Satin, hang’d on a rail or line, so eeven and so smooth they hang naturally.