if effectually secured, they will soon contribute very much to distress any power which may attempt to molest the British Dominions or trade in the West Indies.
Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays that your most sacred Majesty would be graciously pleased to restore him to his former station of Governor, and Captain of an independent Company of these Islands, in which he hopes to give farther proofs of zeal for your Majesty’s service. Or if it is your royal pleasure his successor be continued there, he most humbly relies, that through your great compassion and bounty he shall receive such a consideration for his past sufferings and present half pay as will enable him to be usefully employed for your Majesty’s and his country’s advantage, and in some measure retrieve his losses, that he may support himself and family, who for above seven years past have suffered very much by means of this employment wholly for the public service.
And your Majesty’s petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.
At the same time, a petition,[67] bearing twenty-nine influential names, among whom was Sir Hans Sloane, Samuel Shute, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, Alexander Spotswood, Deputy-Governor of Virginia, Benjamin Bennett, ex-Governor of Bermuda and Lord Montague, was sent to Sir Robert Walpole, in favour of Rogers, stating “we never heard any complaint against his conduct in his duty there, nor that he behaved otherwise in that employ, than with the utmost resolution and fidelity becoming a good subject, though to the ruin of his own fortune.”
It is evident from this petition that at the time the Government were considering the question of the Bahamas, and the policy to be pursued there. The influential support which Rogers had received, and the general desire shown by the colonists for his return, were factors which could not be ignored in the situation. By the end of the year it was decided to recall Phenney and send Rogers out for a second tenure of office. His commission, drawn up in December, 1728, gave him among other things, “power and authority to summon and call General Assemblies of the said Freeholders and Planters in our Islands under your Government, which Assembly shall consist of twenty-four persons to be chosen by a majority of the inhabitants,”[68] instead of the previously nominated Council. As Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief he was to receive a salary of £400 a year.[69] Just prior to sailing he had a family picture painted by Hogarth, which represents him, with his son and daughter, outside the fort at Nassau. On the wall is a shield, with the motto “Dum spiro, spero.”[70]
In the early summer of 1729 Rogers, with his son and daughter, sailed for New Providence, and among other things it is interesting to note that he took with him “two little flagons, one chalice, one paten, and a receiver to take the offerings for the use of his Majesty’s Chapel there,”[71] the building of which had commenced a few years earlier. One of his first duties on arrival was to proceed with the election of an Assembly, which met on the 30th of September in that year. In its first session no less than twelve Acts were passed which it was judged would be beneficial to the welfare of the colony, and efforts were made to encourage the planting of cotton and the raising of sugar canes. Praiseworthy as these endeavours were they were fraught with considerable difficulties. The settlers which it was hoped to attract from the other islands in the West Indies and from the American Colonies were not forthcoming in sufficient numbers, principally owing to the poverty of the colony. In the October of 1730 Rogers wrote: “I found the place so very poor and thin of inhabitants that I never mentioned any salary to them for myself or any one else, and the fees annexed to all offices and places here being the lowest of any part in America, no one can support himself thereon without some other employment.” Nevertheless the spiritual needs of the colony, as we have seen, were not neglected, and Rogers says that they were “in great want of a Chaplain,” and that the whole colony had requested him “to get an orthodox divine as soon as possible.”[72]
To add to his other embarrassments Rogers had considerable difficulty with the members of his Assembly, and the opposition, led by the Speaker, did all in their power to wreck the various schemes that were brought before them. In a letter to the Lord Commissioners of Trade, dated February 10th, 1730/1, he mentions an incident which caused him to dissolve the House[73]:—“During the sessions of the last Assembly I endeavoured (pursuant to his Majesty’s instructions) to recommend to them the state and condition of the Fortifications, which much wanted all the assistance possible for their repair … to which I did not find the major part of the Assembly averse at first, but since, they have been diverted from their good intentions by the insinuations of one Mr. Colebrooke, their Speaker, who imposed so long on their ignorance, that I was obliged to dissolve them, lest his behaviour might influence them to fall into schemes yet more contrary to the good of the Colony and their own safety. Another Assembly is lately elected, and [I] still find the effects of the above Mr. Colebrooke’s influence on the most ignorant of them, who are the majority.” He added that the present ill-state of his health, “which has been lately much impaired, obliges me to have recourse to his Majesty’s permission of going to South Carolina for change of air, from which I hope to return in three weeks or a month.”
The growth of constitutional government in the colony, and the moulding of the powers and procedure of the legislature on similar lines to the home Government, are vividly brought out in the official reply to Rogers’s despatch. This reply is dated 29th of June, 1731, and it is evident from the tone of it that they realised the difficulties which he had to contend with. “It would be proper,” they wrote, “that the Proceedings of the Assembly also should resemble those of the Parliament of Great Britain so far as the circumstances of the Colony and your Instructions will permit. It would be a pretty difficult task to lay down a plan for the Proceedings of your Assembly in future times, but in general we may observe to you that the Constitution of England owes its preservation very much to the maintaining of an equal Balance between the branches of the legislature, and that the more distinct they are kept from each other, the likelier they will be to agree, and the longer they will be likely to last.”[74]
Up till this date the Crown had only taken over the civil and military jurisdiction of the colony, and the retention of the lands by the proprietors and lessees of the islands undoubtedly hampered their economic progress and well being. Finally, in response to a suggestion from the Crown, the proprietors in a letter of April 11th, 1730, offered to sell out their rights “for one thousand guineas each, clear of all fees,” and Rogers in a letter to the Board of Trade emphasised the necessity of the Crown taking this step, and so bringing to “an end the discouraging contests on titles to land.”[75] By an irony of fate Rogers was not spared to see this suggestion carried into effect.[76] Though his efforts on behalf of the colony had undermined his health, he did not spare himself or shrink from his responsibility. How great that responsibility was, and how he overcame a widespread conspiracy by Colebrooke to overthrow his government is shown in the following letter to the Board of Trade written from Nassau on the 10th of June, 1731[77]:—“How great an enemy Mr. Colebrooke hath been to this Government, and what vile means he used to make the Garrison mutiny, and stir up a spirit of discontent and opposition in the inhabitants, by the great influence which he had artfully gained over the most ignorant of them, while he was Speaker of the Assembly, from all which I humbly hope that the method taken to prevent his proceeding in his seditious and wicked designs will meet with his Majesty’s and your Lordships’ approbation.” The “method taken” was the arrest and indictment of John Colebrooke for sedition. He was tried before the Chief Justice of the Bahamas at the end of May, and found guilty. A fine of £750 was imposed, and he was ordered to be “confined during his Majesty’s pleasure,” and was not to be discharged until he had given “sufficient security” for his future good behaviour.[78]
The influence that such a person could wield over an ignorant community two hundred years ago is strangely reminiscent of the twentieth century! In spite of Colebrooke’s detention, the danger was not yet over, and the canker of sedition seems to have been very deep rooted. Two months later, in August, 1731, Rogers thus reports on the situation[79]:—“I can yet procure no assistance from the inhabitants towards the fortifications, though I have without any help from INTRODUCTION them built a new Barrack for the Garrison in the Fort, and have made upwards of twenty new carriages for guns of this country timber, and shall continue to do all I can towards the Fortifications as soon as the heat of the summer is over, that I can put the garrison to work again, without endangering their healths. And as soon as possible will try