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Updated: September 28, 2025
Had the hills of Tortola and Virgin Gorda, in shape and size much like those which surround a sea-loch in the Western Islands, ever been furred with forests like those of Guadaloupe or St. Lucia? The loftier were now mere mounds of almost barren earth; the lower were often, like 'Fallen Jerusalem, mere long earthless moles, as of minute Cyclopean masonry.
Then the terror flared on increasing, until the remotest Southern States were found shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection; until far-off European colonies Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola recognized by some secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms; until the very boldest words of freedom were reported as uttered in the Virginia House of Delegates with unclosed doors; until an obscure young man named Garrison was indicted at common law in North Carolina, and had a price set upon his head by the Legislature of Georgia.
In the British island of Tortola, only a few years before my sojourn in Grenada, the manager of a plantation was arrested for causing the death of a slave by inhuman punishment. He was tried, convicted of murder, and hanged. The penalty exacted met the sanction of public opinion.
The proprietary form of government continued until 1685, with a long succession of good, bad, and indifferent Governors. Many acts of piracy were perpetrated at different times by the inhabitants of these islands. In 1665 Captain John Wentworth made a descent upon the island of Tortola and brought off about ninety slaves, the property of the Governor of the place.
John's appearing next on the horizon, then Tortola, and last of all St. Thomas's; all pink and purple in the sun, and warm-gray in the shadow, which again became, as we neared them one after the other, richest green, of scrub and down, with bright yellow and rusty rocks, plainly lava, in low cliffs along the shore.
I have gone over every part of Tortola, and though it is far more fertile than the Off Islands, yet even these are sufficiently productive for the laborer to raise the lesser and necessary provision of life, and yet with these islands in their very face, the Legislature of Tortola has passed the act of abolition.
The trade is done at Tortola, dat English island; and at Saint Thomas or Santa Cruz, dem Danish islands; all de oders do little trade." "Yes, Dominique, but I don't think that she wants to trade at all. What she wants to do is to lie up quietly, where she would not be noticed." "Plenty of places in the islands for dat, sar." "Did they take a pilot here?" Dominique shook his head.
It may be remarked in passing that the vernacular name of the dove I have described is Torcasa, which I take it is a corruption of Tortola, the name first given to it by the early colonists on account of its slight resemblance to the turtle-dove of Europe.
Then the terror flares on increasing, until the remotest Southern States are found shuddering at nightly rumors of insurrection, until far-off European colonies, Antigua, Martinique, Caraccas, Tortola, recognize by some secret sympathy the same epidemic alarms, until the very boldest words of freedom are reported as uttered in the Virginia House of Delegates with unclosed doors, until an obscure young man named Garrison is indicted at Common Law in North Carolina, and has a price set upon his head by the Legislature of Georgia.
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