12 Aug 1821

Antigua August 12^th 1821

Sir.

    At the time of writing you last I was about to proceed to the wreck of the Spanish schooner in search of the money said to be on board of her, but after every exertion nothing of the kind could be found, the Cotton &c was brought to this Island & sold; the Cotton sold very low being much damaged the amount if sales about six hundred pounds, one third of which has been awarded for salvage; but before I could finally arrange it I was obliged to return to Barbuda in consequence of another vessel running on shore on the west side of the Island, she was the ship Hound from St Vincent for London laden with sugar, Rum & Cotton she struck about one o:clock of the first of this month but soon got off and were proceeding on their voyage, but found she made so much water were obliged again to stand for the land, & fortunate for them they had not proceeded far, for in less than half an hour she went down in about twenty five feet of water consequently her Decks are covered and all the sugar lost, the Rum is saved, and so I hope will be the Cotton, the latter is but a small quantity.  I have brought to this Island one of your Schooners (the Bethel) laden with different articles & shall return for more as soon as she can be discharged which I hope will be tomorrow; this has been a troublesome wreck as she is about seven miles from the land & to leeward of the Island consequently we have been obliged for the last week to sleep on board that Boats, I rather think we shall be obliged to ship that Rum to England to prevent paying that Colonial duty, but that I have not been yet able to ascertain as I am but just landed and the mail boat sails immediately after the Packet, we are much in want of rain not been able as yet to plant much Corn. By The Percy Hale Captⁿ Head who sailed the latter end of last month I shipped for you four Turtle a barrel of Arrow Root, a barrel of Cashew seeds, and a box of turtle shell which I hope will arrive safe as I was then engaged with the Spanish wreck & therefore fear no bill of lading has been forwarded

                                                                       I am

                                                                                Sir

                     Your Most Obedient

                      Humble Servant

               (signed) John James

Reference: JJ271 Robson Lowe collection on microfilm 24995, University of Texas at Austin, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

30 April 1813

Antigua April 30, 1813

Sir

    On my arrival here on Wednesday, I had just time to forward you by the Fleet two Bills of Exchange for £100 drawn by Tho^s Allman on Alex^d Worswick, the other for £300 Sterling drawn by Edward Thompson on the Commissioners for the Transport Service, duplicates of which you have here with; also a duplicate of Blacks Bill for £150 the first of which was sent in Feby. Since I have been here I have received yours of the 15^th March, I should have written to you more frequently, but not being able to send you any Bills has been the only reason, I have done every thing in my power to get paid, the not able to effect it has I assure you given me a good deal of uneasiness, I am now promised more Bills this day, but am uncertain if I shall succeed; from Barbuda I could sell many things, but the difficulty of getting the money is beyond everything, and what a person in England can have no idea of; the greater part of my comings since I have been in this Country is now due to me, as far as lay in my power I have always endeavoured to pay you your Balances, & put what money was out standing to my own account, & could I have now raised the money by any means your Accounts should have been fully paid, but which I am sorry to say it is not in my power to do. For want of payment I have been obliged to curtail the sales from Barbuda, we have a great plenty of stock on the Island, Inclosed is Letter I received from Black with the last Bill for £300 by which you will receive I have done what I could to get payment from them, he still owes me about £100 Sterling & Holleran between 3 & 4 Hundred, the last part of his letter I shall not attend to, as I am so soon to leave this Country; nor have I been at all anxious to dispose of any thing from the Island, nor shall I until your determination respecting the supplies to the Navy is known, you may supply many Cattle & sheep but not sufficient when many ships are here, but what may be wanting you can as well procure as the present Contractors upon this head I will make a point of seeing you immediately on my arrival in England, and will get every information in the meantime. Your boat has been so much engaged carrying Sugar etc from your Estates, that she has not been able to go to Barbuda but once since Christmas, & that to get a new mast put in, & for 15 oxen for your Estates, the other which was driven onshore in the October Gale is now there, & is undergoing a thorough repair which will not be finished these two months, of course the sales this year have been trifling.  Your Letter of the 5^th Jany I have also received but not so soon as I ought the one of the 7^th reached me a Packet sooner, as soon as I received the Protest for Mr Rawlins Bill I went myself to St Kitt’s & have seen Mr R. who has promised to have the Bill paid by the sailing of the June Packet, he says that Mr Paynes failure has embarrassed him in consequence of which he shall not have Funds to meet the Bill until that time, I took advice on the occasion & was recommended that I remain till then, as I could not receive it sooner in a course of Law, then left the Protest with a Gentleman of St Kitt’s who will if its not paid by the appointed time commence a suit against him for its recovery, I had advised Mr Rawlins of the Protest for non acceptance immediately on its coming out. Since you first mentioned the Turtle shell not a bit has been disposed of in this Island, but has been sent to Mr Trattle, if I recollect aright I sent you Mr Trattles account of the sales of the first quantity shipped, the shell of last year would have gone in this Fleet had I not been detained so long at sea, a turtle has 13 pieces of shell which weighs from two to three pounds according on the size, we have not caught one as yet this season, July & August are the best months; the first that is caught shall be sent directly to you, there is now a ship here for Bristol by which I hope to be able to send it. The sheep of Barbuda are very small, taking a drive generally they will not average more than six or eight & twenty pounds, nor are they in their wild state ever very fat, good Mutton will at Antigua sell readily at 2/9 but that is very different from the Barbuda sheep, I have tried them every way, some time since I endeavoured to sell some at public auction, & sent over an Hundred for that purpose, but could get rid of of very few as they would not fetch 5$ I was therefore obliged to let Black & Holleran have them at that price, when I first went on the Island they were sold at a Currency per pound alive which did not bring 40/-I then sold them @ 40/6, & afterwards @45/- the other part of your letter I shall be much better able to explain when I have the pleasure of seeing you in England. As you are aware to the Balance due me on the Wreck Account being brought into the Island Accounts I have omitted it in the present, and shall place it against the money received for the oppossum which will still leave a balance due me on that scene of about 30£a statement of which you shall have by the next Packet, when I trust I shall send you the Balance due on the Barbuda Accounts to Christmas, the balance now due is £398: 14: 5³/₄ in my account current you will observe to accounts changed one of £49. 10 for three Asses which were sent there by Mr Athill, & to my knowledge have never before been paid for; they have now increased considerably; the other is an old Account contracted before I went on the Island, I paid it by the consent & advice of Mr Martin; it agrees with your own Books. You have also the Estates account the balance favouring Barbuda is £1395: 13: 2. We have been very dry for some time before I left the Island on Sunday I had ordered Hay to be given to the Cattle in the Enclosures, but I think on Monday we must have had a good rain I was becalmed with in a few miles all the day, & it appeared to rain hard on the land for three or four Hours. I remain

Sir

your Most Obedient Humble

servant

(signed) John James

Per Geo Hibbert Cap^t Head

I have shipped for you six Green Turtle.

Reference: Gloucestershire Records Office, Microfilm no.351, Section no.6, D1610 C24
Accessed through Simon Fraser University library

04 April 1809

Antigua April 4, 1809

Sir

I duly received your favours of 15^th January & 16^th of February both reaching me at the same time. I cannot but confess that their contents have produced some unpleasant sensations, & I will endeavour to reply as fully as possible. The leading feature appears to be the inadequate return that Barbuda makes for the very extensive capital invested in it, and I must readily allow that there is just ground of dissatisfaction on this part, but how it arises and whether it can be removed is what I shall endeavour to explain. The Island you observe has reverted to the original situation in which I found it. On reference to former accounts I found sales of livestock had formed the most considerable part of the Barbuda revenue & the Island when I took charge of it, was I conceived deficient in young breeding Cattle endeavours to increase this kind of stock, has as much employed my attention as the sales, they having been entirely confined to old Cattle, in few Instances have I parted with any which I thought necessary to augment the number proper to breed from, & I have now the satisfaction to think the island is getting well stocked in this respect. With regard to sheep, the Idea of them breeding twice in the year I have every reason to believe is erroneous, the dropping season is from the beginning of November to February, besides this kind of stock suffers much in long droughts, we lost a great number last year of which I informed you at the time. Horses & mules also formed a considerable part of former profits they have very much fallen off by the diminution of mares which I understand to place a few years since from the dryness of the weather. The sales of Cattle have been entirely confined to fat ones & which I have always wished to keep for the man of war, the blockade of Martinique & Guadeloupe has been the means of preventing them coming to Barbuda for some time past, the contractors on the station having been regularly & plentifully supplied from Porto Rico, the weather has been lately so extremely dry that it has been impossible to get any Cattle sufficiently fat for market, at least to sell to any advantage, working oxen at one time sold well, but the sales being now contained to cash only, none can be disposed of, Antigua it is so circumstanced that no dimination of price will command money if the same articles are to be had on credit & from this cause alone the demand for firewood has ceased. Cotton I do not ever remember you to have mentioned before your last letters & understanding long ago that it had been so unsuccessful an experiment that the cultivation was at last forbidden never seemed to me necessary to review it, the very few Cotton Estates in Antigua have fallen entirely thro’ want of success in adequate returns and they in some instances not clearing expenses; the present high a price of the article is owing to confusing circumstances and may not long continue. Hawks Bill Turtle has been sold at the usual price it fetched many years past the retail price of the meat also remaining as formally and as very few turtles yield more than from two to three pounds of shell; I never adverted that as an article likely to increase the revenue of the island as the disposing of the meat & collecting the money is troublesome, the shell has generally been considered the only profit; and in some instances the butcher has been the loser,  as by selling them principally to one person he took them dead or alive which was not the case formally, I have therefore suppose the shell which has been credited in your accounts must have been from those which died in their passage. The Estates have always been supplied with hoe sticks & when ever ordered & in any quantity.  Also no salted fish had ever to my knowledge then supplied from Barbuda to the estates, it never occurred to me to attempt it as the quantity to be caught could have never furnished a regular supply, nor is there in my opinion a sufficient quantity near the Island to make it worth attending to. With respect to Corn I must confess it’s the only cultivation in my opinion that can be attempted on Barbuda with any prospect of success, & even this in unfavourable seasons must also fail, but it frequently may be productive, to this cultivation I have for the last two years particularly attended, but from the want of rains at proper times I was not able to make any thing of it, last year I planted not less than 300 acres & in the beginning of November there was the greatest prospect of success, but the weather being extremely dry from that time, there was not sufficient moisture in the Earth to enable the greater part of it to come with an ear, & Those that did were very small in consequence of which I did not reap above 700 bushels, whereas, I had a right to expect six times the quantity. Last week I finished clearing & fencing about 70 acres of good land, intended to form part of the land for next year’s crop, the success must depend on the season, the nature of the Barbuda soil is such that there is no medium particularly if the weather is at all dry.  There is one thing I must by leave to draw your attention to that is the expenses of the Island which I am confident you will find much decreased.  The two vessels belonging to Barbuda were in such condition as not to be trustworthy to carry buyers from your estates to the shipping one of them the schooner was condemned as unfit for use; she has been hauled up at Barbuda & nearly new built, the other has undergone very great repairs, & that with a trifling expense, they are now in as good condition as any vessel can be, I have undertaken also to build a boat calculated to come into the lagoon the intention for her is to be kept constantly Barbuda and prevent the necessity of the larger ones crossing the Channel with letters etc, it will enable them also to be laid up during the Hurricane months if not particularly wanted, & will be always ready in case of a wreck or anything else happening at Barbuda, she will be built entirely from old wrecks she is a boat very necessary to have there, therefore hope the building her world with your approbation.  The reason for my not writing by the Packet which left this in December was that at the time of her sailing I was unwell on Barbuda & not able to do it as I did not then know the amount of the wreck, nor did I think of sending you the money supposing that Mr Hodge would have taken that as well as the list, & indeed I had no idea but that it was so (as I knew he was frequently getting money from Mr Besouth) until I was settling the Christmas accounts when I found that he had only taken one thousand pounds, for which he then gave me bills, & at a time when it was too late to procure others, I should not in the first place have place the money as I before informed you had he not shewed me your letter authorising him to get from Barbuda funds what he wanted, at the time of the arrival of the last packet the Barbuda boats were employed, Mr Hodge was good enough to send one over as soon as she was ready but it was too late for the packet, with respect to Crudens Bill I still hope to recover it, he is now in Demerara, at all events it shall be ultimately settled to your satisfaction. I am happy to find Mr Martin is coming out with Powers & Instructions from you respecting Barbuda particularly so as since  a very violent attack of fever which I had in September last & from which it was not thought I should recover, my health has been much impaired, with a fever regularly returning every month, which makes me very desirous of quitting the West Indies and which I hope Mr Martins arrival will enable me to do, it will give me great pleasure if he is able to point out anything for the benefit of the Island, every assistance that lays in my power I shall be glad to give him not only in forming his plans, but seeing them put into execution until he can procure a person to take charge of the Island.  Inclosed are the duplicates of Mr Hodges three Bills, and the first if one drawn by Mr Besouth on Mess^rs  SS & C Turner for £146:12:11 Sterling the amount of the salvage of the wreck & balance of the Christmas accounts Capt. Head of the George Hibbert has promised me to take charge of your turtle they shall be sent to him in time for the sailing of the Telud(?). I have the honor to be

                                            Sir

 

                                                   your most obedient

                                                         humble servant 

                                              (signed) John James

Reference: Gloucestershire Records Office, Microfilm no.351, Section no.6, D1610 C24
Accessed through Simon Fraser University library