In many respects the voyage of Woodes Rogers is more noteworthy than that of Anson thirty years later. Rogers had only two small merchant ships fitted out by private enterprise, whereas Anson’s squadron was fitted, manned, and armed, by the Admiralty. It comprised six ships of the Royal Navy (with 236 guns and 2,000 men), in addition to two victualling ships of the size of the Duke and Dutchess. Rogers was able to bring both his ships safely home, but fate was not so kind to Anson, and only one, his flagship the Centurion, succeeded in reaching England.
The success of the expedition naturally stimulated public interest, and at the request of his many friends, Rogers agreed to publish his “journal,”[22] which appeared in the following year under the title of “A Cruising Voyage round the World.” It is written, as its author informs us, in “the language of the sea,” and as such it is a picturesque human document, enlivened with a quaint humour which makes it delightful reading. During the eighteenth century the book was widely read; three editions appeared within the space of fourteen years, and it was also translated into French and German. It was used as a model by later voyagers, and it is interesting to note that when Anson sailed on a similar expedition thirty years later a copy of the “Cruising Voyage,” found a prominent place in his cabin.
On returning to England Rogers took up his residence at a house in Queen Square, Bristol, which had been built for him about 1708. His share of the plunder taken by the Duke 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]