rifield and Thomas Warner, for in July, 1627, a grant of all the
Caribbees was made to the Earl of Carlisle. This was sweeping enough,
however, to suit those who wanted English colonies, however it ignored
the rights of the first settlers in St. Kitt's and Barbados, which
latter island had been settled a few months after the first.

Now, also, Roger North came forward with his story and got the revoked
patent renewed, so that he could go on with the settlement in the
Oyapok. For a time it did very well, but the tide had turned in favour
of the islands, and Guiana was soon abandoned to the Dutch and French.

The most important of the two islands first colonised was Barbados,
which, fortunately for her comfort, never suffered from such calamities
as befel the sister island of St. Christopher's. As far as the English
were concerned Barbados was discovered by a vessel going out to Leigh's
settlement, in Guiana, in 1605. A pillar was erected with the
inscription, "James, King of England and this island," but nothing was
done in the way of a settlement until immediately after Warner commenced
planting in St. Kitt's. The most intimate connection existed between
Barbados and Guiana from the earliest times, as in fact it does to the
present day, for Captain Powell, the commander of the little company of
pioneers, sent to his Dutch friend, Groenwegel, in Essequebo, for a
party of Arawak Indians to teach the new-comers how to plant provisions,
cotton, and tobacco.

In 1630 another group of islands was added by the granting of a patent
to the "Governor and Company of Adventurers for the Plantation of the
Islands of Providence, Henrietta, and the adjacent islands." Under this
charter possession was taken of the Bahamas, but little was done in the
way of settling them for about a century. Thus West Indian colonisation
was commenced, and claims made to all the smaller islands on behalf of
England.

But it is not to be supposed that France and Holland were going to let
everything go by default--on the contrary, they soon began to settle in
some of the very islands which had been granted to the Earl of Carlisle.
The Dutch, as we have seen, were traders from the beginning, preferring
the so-called contraband traffic with the natives and Spanish colonists
to anything like the raids of English or French. Yet, in their plodding
way they went on steadily, and as early as the year 1600 took possession
of the island of St. Eustatius. When t