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Before and After Babel
 Before and After Babel
Writing as Resistance in Ancient Near Eastern
Empires

MARC VAN DE MIEROOP

 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the
University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing
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certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2023

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You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same
condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Van de Mieroop, Marc, author.
Title: Before and after Babel : writing as resistance in ancient Near
Eastern empires / Marc Van De Mieroop.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022029901 (print) | LCCN 2022029902 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780197634660 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197634684 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Cuneiform writing—History. |
Writing—Middle East—History—To 1500.
Classification: LCC PJ3211.V36 2023 (print) | LCC PJ3211 (ebook) |
DDC 492/.1—dc23/eng/20220920
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029901
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029902

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197634660.001.0001
For Hector, who will always be remembered
 Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

PART I: The Babylonian Cosmopolis: The Cuneiform Sign

1. Reading Gilgameš in the Zagros Mountains: The Eighteenth
Century BC
2. In the Spell of Babylonian Writing
3. Mystery Guardians of an Ancient Tradition
4. The Height of Cosmopolitanism: Reading Gilgameš in Hattusas
Coda

PART II: The Vernacular Millennium: The Tower of Babel

5. Scrupulous Continuity
6. Luwian: The Ephemeral Success of a Non-Cosmopolitan
Tradition
7. Vernaculars That Changed the World: Phoenician and Aramaic
8. From Minority Languages to World Literatures: The Hebrew
Case
9. From Minority Languages to World Literatures: The Greek Case
10. The Vernacular and Its Consequences
Epilogue: Clash of Cosmopoleis?

Notes
Bibliography
Index
 Illustrations

Map I.1 The ancient Near East

Figure 1.1 Babylonian school tablet from the early second
millennium
Figure 2.1 An Old Assyrian loan document from Kaneš
Figure 3.1 A bilingual prayer from Sippar-Amnanum
Map II.1 The western Near East in the first millennium
Figure 5.1 Cuneiform and alphabetic scribes
Figure 6.1 Shell inscribed with Luwian hieroglyphs
Figure 7.1 Brick inscribed with the name of Adad-nadin-aḫḫe
Figure 9.1 A 5th-century Attic painted amphora inscribed with
names of the characters depicted
Figure 10.1 The Kilamuwa stele
 Introduction

HISTORIANS OF ANTIQUITY would be out of a job were it not for the

written word. From their perspective, writing was one of the most
important inventions in world history—had it not been created, we
could still study people of the distant past, but we would not know
their names and most of their thoughts, and numerous other aspects
of their existence would be so unclear to us that we could not apply
most methods of historical analysis to them. From the perspective of
the ancient people, too, writing was a critical invention. Even if few
of them knew how to write, for those who did it provided
opportunities unimaginable otherwise. Beyond its very practical
applications, writing opened up intellectual prospects and pathways.
It allowed scholars to speculate, to communicate and record ideas.
Not all languages were written down, however. Potentially scribes
had many options, but they were not allowed to use them all if they
wanted to be taken seriously. Only certain languages were
considered suitable for intellectual pursuits, as is still true today
when no one publishes scholarly research in colloquial idioms.
Throughout history not all scripts had the same status either: cursive
scripts are not considered suitable for monumental inscriptions, for
example. A present-day parallel may be that no academic publication
would accept a contribution in which emojis make its point.
The choices of languages and scripts are not inconsequential. For
modern historians they determine what they can investigate through
written remains—some scripts remain undeciphered and some
languages incomprehensible. Moreover, throughout history when
scribes utilized certain languages and scripts, they became part of
specific traditions that could extend back millennia in time and
carried much intellectual baggage. It is thus important for us to
understand what scripts and languages the people we study used
and why. This book investigates these matters in the long history of
the ancient Near East, exceedingly well documented with hundreds
of thousands of manuscripts. They stretch in time from the fourth
millennium BC to the first centuries AD, in space from the eastern
Mediterranean to western Iran. In this vast domain we can recognize
multiple attitudes toward the uses of languages and scripts—
attitudes that give us insight into these ancient people’s thoughts
that go much deeper than what they expressed with the words they
wrote down.
This book will contrast two distinct approaches toward the writing
down of languages in this long time frame and wide geography. On
the one hand, there was the shared use of the Babylonian languages
—Sumerian, Akkadian, and their combination in bilingual texts—all
written in the same cuneiform script across many regions and by
people who spoke a wide variety of languages. This was a
cosmopolitan tradition with roots in the southern region of Iraq
today, but scribes from all over the Near East maintained and
developed it. Over many dozens of generations they copied out and
rewrote texts that were in foreign languages, one of them already a
dead language early in this sequence. On the other hand, there was
a wide variety of languages with several linguistic backgrounds,
spoken and written down regionally and in multiple scripts. Those
were the vernaculars of the eastern Mediterranean with a great
diversity of texts written in each of the individual cases, some of
them with ephemeral existences, others with a very long-term
impact on world literature. This book will argue for an evolution in
the attitudes of writers toward these systems with radical differences
between the second and first millennia BC. In the earlier millennium
no one who wrote a work of high literary or scholarly value would
think of doing so in anything but the cosmopolitan Babylonian idiom;
in contrast, in the later millennium numerous vernacular systems
existed alongside the cosmopolitan one which survived in the
imperial centers of Mesopotamia alone. A major question will be
what caused the change in behavior and what the consequences
were.
The existence of cosmopolitan and vernacular writings is not
unparalleled in world history. My work here owes much to that of
Sheldon Pollock in his studies of two other examples, somewhat later
in history than what I study here, in the first millennium AD: the
Sanskrit and Latin cosmopoleis and the vernaculars that succeeded
them. I use the terms “cosmopolitan” and “vernacular,” which can be
employed in different contexts, as he does, that is, applied to literate
culture and irrespective of the geopolitical circumstances. In a
cosmopolitan system people with different cultural backgrounds,
speaking diverse languages and living in distinct political formations
share the same language and script for their written
communications. In contrast, vernaculars make use of individual
languages and oftentimes scripts to record all types of writing.
Those are not limited to documenting speech but also enable high
literary and scholarly creativity. The vernaculars exist in a context
that includes the cosmopolitan and interact with it.1 Very
importantly, these usages are all the outcome of choices made
consciously. It is not the case that one is elite, the other popular, but
the same kind of people—in the cases studied here, those attached
to courts and government institutions—decide which system to use.
It should be clear that the evidence we will deal with does not reveal
the conditions among the populations in general. One of the
remarkable aspects of the eastern Mediterranean world, today and in
the past, is the diversity of languages its inhabitants actively use. I
will repeat that throughout the book in order to counteract groups
like Daesh but also its critics, who try to erase that fact and whose
rewriting of history has penetrated the world’s perception of the
region. Although the polyglot situation I will describe in the distant
past was surely not the same as now, the general setting of people
living in the same region and using multiple languages and scripts is.
But while we may have access to all levels of society today if we
make the effort, that is not true for the past when only written
remains inform us. And those of the periods discussed here are all
the products of small segments of the populations, the literate men
and women, some with basic levels of education, others with much
more advanced ones. Not only the Babylonian cosmopolitan system
was one of high culture, so were the vernaculars.
The Sanskrit and Latin cases show different reasons for the
existence of cosmopolitan systems and for the appearance of
vernacular ones. The ancient Near Eastern situation has its own
distinctive features, the bilingualism of the cosmopolitan tradition a
very major one. I aim to demonstrate in the first part of this book
how the Babylonian cosmopolis functioned as a truly “international”
(an anachronistic term in a period without nations) system with
active participation and input of many different people. In the
second part, I will describe the emergence of some of the
vernaculars (not all as there were too many and the evidence on
them can be too scanty to allow for substantive conclusions) and
their relationship to the cosmopolitan tradition that continued to
exist, as well as what the consequences of their appearance were.
My discussion will deal with many texts, cultures, and traditions that
have been the subject of numerous investigations and have
provoked much scholarly debate. While my bibliography is already
very long, I cannot say that I have been able to consult all this work
and integrate it here. Some colleagues may feel slighted, which was
not my intention. Obviously there will be people who disagree with
my interpretations while others will feel that my discussions are too
superficial. My aim is to stimulate further debate by combining topics
often studied independently is a wider context, and I welcome
elaborations including those that prove me wrong.
I could not resist to call the book Before and After Babel, using
the probably somewhat hackneyed biblical reference to “the
confusion of tongues.” It is especially appropriate for this study,
however, because the story in the biblical book of Genesis
dramatically explains how humankind came to use multiple
languages. The story focuses on Babel, the city of Babylon, and its
tower, which stand as the icons of Babylonian culture. I will focus
here on that other cultural icon of Babylonia, the cuneiform script.
While at one time every Near Eastern literate intellectual understood
that script, that was no longer the case when Genesis was written.
How could that have happened?
Without having planned this, it became clear to me while writing
the various chapters of this book that the Epic of Gilgameš provides
the clearest example of how people throughout Near Eastern history
changed their attitudes toward what to write and how. I do not want
to repeat here the idea, popular a century ago, that Gilgameš
inspired the stories of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Paul—a theory
elaborated at length by Peter Jensen in his monumental Das
Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur (1906–1928). But Gilgameš was
a central character in the literary imagination of the ancient Near
East. Stories about him certainly circulated in writing in the early
second millennium ascribing a remarkable array of adventures and
accomplishments to him. After an Akkadian-writing author at that
time molded them into a whole that we now call the Babylonian Epic
of Gilgameš, discarding some earlier ideas but also enriching the
character with new aspects, the text was copied and elaborated by
numerous ancient Near Eastern authors over many centuries.
Manuscripts with sometimes surprisingly new variants continue to
appear. This was not the preserve of Babylonians; authors from
Anatolia, Syria, and the Levant engaged with the epic, modified it,
excerpted it, and translated it. And once cuneiform was no longer
the dominant script, people referred to elements of it in a variety of
languages. They did not translate passages, but reformulated them
to fit new contexts and ideologies or simply mentioned characters
from the epic. Gilgameš started out as a truly cosmopolitan text,
shared by all those who knew cuneiform. Every author contributed in
shaping this text, which was alive and never finished, and as a study
of the evolution of the epic now decades old pointed out, each of
these versions should be “taken seriously as a piece of literature in
its own right.”2 But it was also a text that was so famous in the
ancient Near East that writers who did not use cuneiform knew
about elements of it and reacted to it. The memory of the main
character and some others in the epic lingered for a long time in the
later Near East. Thus I decided to refer to the epic at least once in
every chapter (whenever possible) as a narrative strategy. This book
is not an analysis of Gilgameš and its history, but the epic is just one
illustration of the long history of interaction with and manipulation of
texts that was common practice in the ancient Near East.
That is the aim of this book: I want to shed light on a millennia-
long tradition about how and what to write, a tradition that upheld a
system of thought inherently connected to the script. While it
dominated the entire Near East for more than a thousand years, it
lost that power later on. But that did not mean that its presence was
not acknowledged or inconsequential. When competing, less
encompassing systems emerged, they did so in dialogue with it. For
a full understanding of the literate cultural history of the ancient
Near East—which gave rise to traditions that had a massive impact
on the later world—we need to understand this interplay between
the cosmopolitan and the vernacular.
I started to think about elements of this book when I was invited
to participate at a conference the Center for Canon and Identity
Formation at the University of Copenhagen organized in 2010 and
only afterward realized the scale of the project. Throughout the
subsequent decade I brought up aspects of it to many people,
whose comments influenced the final outcome without either they or
I being fully conscious of it, as all of the discussions were in informal
settings. I hope my friends and colleagues with whom I chatted over
the years do not feel snubbed if I do not mention them by name.
Writing a book takes time and the American Council of Learned
Societies helped me find it when it enabled me to extend a
sabbatical leave in 2016–2017 for another semester. At the same
time, my home institution, Columbia University, remained an ideal
supporter of this type of research through its leave policies and
other assistance. Paradoxically perhaps, the COVID-19 epidemic
stirred me to work hard on finishing the book, a process whose final
stages OUP’s Stefan Vranka skillfully and enthusiastically guided. I
am grateful to all people and institutions named and unnamed for
their generous help. I dedicate this book to Hector, who came into
our lives right after the manuscript was finished and tragically left us
much too soon thereafter—it will always remind me of him.
 PART I

The Babylonian Cosmopolis

The Cuneiform Sign

In those days the lands of Šubur and Hamazi, twin-tongued Sumer—the great
country of princely order—, Akkad—the country that has everything befitting
—, and the land of Martu—where one lies in green pastures—, the whole
universe of people entrusted to him, addressed the god Enlil in a single
language.
Back then, because of the contests between lords, princes and kings, Enki—
because of the contests between lords, princes and kings, Enki—, the lord of
abundance, who speaks the truth, the wise lord who looks after the land, the
leader of the gods, chosen for his wisdom, the lord of Eridu, put foreign
languages in their mouths, while the language of mankind had been one.

These words written on a clay tablet sometime in the early centuries

of the second millennium BC are part of the epic we call Enmerkar
and the Lord of Aratta, a story that recounts the contest between
Enmerkar, the king of the southern Babylonian city Uruk in modern
Iraq, and the unnamed lord of Aratta, a city in modern Afghanistan.
While Enmerkar bluntly demanded submission, his distant rival
replied with seemingly impossible requests, such as a delivery of
grain in nets. Yet Enmerkar always found solutions. The hero of the
tale is the herald, also nameless, who made seven trips carrying
messages back and forth. Framing these travels are two passages
that form a pair. In the first, just quoted, the author looked back at a
golden age when everyone—in the north and the east, in Sumer and
Akkad, and in the west—spoke the same language. Because lords,
princes, and kings squabbled, Enki, the god of wisdom had changed
that, and now there were foreign tongues.
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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aside; and what was a greater Misfortune, the Prince and his
Retinue beheld with winking Eyes, all their Hovels on fire ashore:
The Occasion this; we happening to have all our Colours flying, and
some Guns let off in honour of the 28th of May, another Leader on
shore misinterpreting it as a particular Respect to Jacobus, grew
jealous, seized his House during the Revel, his Wives, and his
Dashees, drank up all his Brandy, eat all his Victuals, cudgelled his
People, and set both his Houses on fire.
Next Morning, on unravelling the Mystery, the Surprize was over,
and all became good Friends again. They have very little Knowledge
or Use of Fire-Arms, because no Trade scarce; their Weapons being
Spears, Arrows, and Clubs, and it is a bloody Battle among them,
when half a dozen of a side are knocked down.
 A
V O YA G E
TO
Brasil, and the West-Indies.
From Cape Lopez (parting with the Coast) we came in sight of the
Island Annabona, the Breezes small at South, and Calms
alternatively; hereabout we cruised three or four days, for our
Consort the Swallow, that some how or other was separated; and
missing her, bore away for Brasil.
In the Passage it may be first observed, that when we had sailed
ninety Leagues to the Westward, and got into 3°° S. the Winds that
were at South veered, so as to become a true S E. Trade, that
carried us four or five Knots.——And still as we advanced farther
Westward, it blew fresher at E S E. 7, 8, and 9 Knots constantly, with
neither Thunder nor Lightning. Quære, whether this distance is not a
proper Medium to allow for the Attraction of all Exhalations by the
Land; at least that they considerably abate after that length from all
Shores, allowing for Latitude, and as they are Montainous or Plain.
We see within this Dimension, (plainly) that it takes off the Influence
of the Sun, and varys the Trade Wind towards itself: Nor is it so
astonishing, since Animals themselves obey; several sorts of Fish
and Fowl have a periodical return to such and such places, and not
so of those inhabiting the more stable Element of Land: Wherefore it
is highly rational to think, that as the fluid Elements they live in yield
to the attractive Power of the Earth and Planets, so also their
Inhabitants have their Instinct more sensibly fated by them.
 Secondly, in this Trade-Wind sailing, we are every day diverted
with flying Fish, Bonetos, and Sea-Fowl; the Sails require little labour
in trimming, the Ship goes steady, and the Bowl unslung; so that at
leaving such a Country we might cheerfully sing,

How happy were we, when the Wind blew abaft!

One of these cheerful Evenings, eleven at night, the full Moon
became totally eclipsed, a Darkness surprizing, as it was
unexpected; when she had recovered her Light, we repeated our
Sacrifice in Bowls, and fell into Reflections and Admiration of that
Power which supports the Regularity of the planetary Motions, and
the Sublimity of that Art which can so exactly calculate them: They
demonstrate the Sphericity of the Earth, because Countries, as they
are farther East or West, observe them hours sooner or later,
according to their Longitude, which could not be on a Plain, but
visible to all at once.
This Longitude therefore in a general View, is the same thing as
Time, the difference of it being the distance East and West of any
two places, allowing 15 Degrees, or 300 Leagues to an Hour; the
whole 24 being lost or gained in a Circum-navigation of the Globe,
West or Eastward.
A natural, tho’ hitherto incorrect way of estimating the Parts of
Longitude in those Runs, till Instruments and Rules are discovered,
is, I think, First, to make exact Tables of the Sun’s Risings and
Settings, at Places commonly departed from, and those we go to for
every day in the year: and then, Secondly, to carry two proved
Watches of equal Goodness, kept in equal Warmth, and freest from
Motion and Weather, to measure the difference of time where you
are, by the same edge of the Sun the Tables were made from; the
Minutes sooner or later, according as you go East or West, is so
many Leagues of Longitude for that day. I would insinuate by this
only my Opinion, that those literal Improvers of Time, the Watch
Makers, bid as fair for the Discovery of Longitude as the Astronomer;
for if Watches can be made not to err above two or three Minutes in
the time a Ship is running 1000 Leagues, or if they do err more, a
Rule could be found how much, (like as an Azimuth corrects the
common Compass;) or if any Movement could be depended on only
from Observation to Observation, then the Error would be no greater
than what is met in different Quadrants, observing Latitude. As it is, it
seems a proper Method to correct or assist the present Rules of
calculating meridional Distance.
We made this Passage of 8 or 900 Leagues to Brasil in three
Weeks; but having elsewhere given my Observations on the Country,
I shall only take notice that the Trade blowing very fresh, and
bringing in a great Swell, we hastened from the Coast to our
intended Ports in the West-Indies.
In our Progress thither, a Remark or two: First, that in the
Navigation from Brasil, we crossed the Æquinoctial, two or three
Degrees W. of Cape Roque, keeping on with a pleasant S E. Trade
that gradually lessened, and in 4°° North Latitude, left us in Calms,
Rains, and uncertain Squalls, (varying round the Compass;) That
this continued for several days, till we drew in or near the Parallel of
Barbados, and then we as gradually had obtained the Trade to
Northward of the East, running 150 Leagues with it, that is, to
Barbados.
Secondly, The reason of Calms, and Rains met in Latitudes
between 4°° and 11°° N. (with a little Variation, as the Sun is of this
or that side the Equinoctial) is probably from a Contest between the
N E. and S E. Trade; but whether the passing them be more
favourable far to the Eastward or Westward, I am uncertain.
 BARBADOS.
Barbados was discovered by Sir William Carter, in King James I’s
time, planted to little purpose until 1627; since which, the Crops have
been so advantageous, as to have raised the Price of Ground thirty
fold.
We anchored here in Carlisle-Bay the beginning of August, the
resort of most Shipping who load at this Island. The Bay is made by
Needham and Pelican Points; the Anchorage 20 Fathom, so clear
Water that you may see to the bottom; but so foul and rocky, that the
Cables are always buoy’d up with Cask. In the bottom of the Bay
stands Bridgetown, the principal of the Island, and is the Residence
of the Governor, Factors, and Merchants, who transact their
Business here and at their Plantations alternately. There is only one
large Church, with an Organ, and about twenty Chappels at different
parts of the Island, all Episcopal, there having been no Dissenters
these many years. The People are for the most part polite and well-
bred, promoting Trade by a magnificent way of living; the chief of
them are Colonels, or Captains of Militia, and in the Assembly are
divided into a Party-Interest, on the civil Affairs of the Island, their
chief Distinction; murmuring, or elate, just as they are in or out of the
Governor’s Favour, who can abate in the Customs, or imploy in the
Application: (tho’ by the way the fewer Officers, and those Menials,
the better advantage to him.)
The whole is a sweet Spot of Earth, not a Span hardly uncultivated
with Sugar-Canes; all sides bend with an easy Declivity to the Sea,
and is ever green: This delight to the Planter has its Inconveniencies,
that there is no Recreation out of Business, but in Drinking or
Gaming.
 The Propriety was given by King James I. to the Earl of Carlisle;
and Anno 1661, King Charles II. purchased it back of Lord Kinoul,
that Earl’s Heir, allowing him 1000l. per Ann. Acknowledgment.
Anno 1663, an Act passed by the President (who acts as
Governor in their absence) the Council and Assembly, for 4½ in
Specie Duty of all Commodities, the Produce of the Island, which it’s
computed will amount to 10000l. per Annum.—Madeira Wines
imported, at 4l. 10s. per Pipe, raises 7000l. and this, with one Pound
of Gunpowder per Tun on each Ship, is appropriated for Stores, and
Repairs to Forts.
The Governor is appointed by the King, his Salary formerly used to
arise at an uncertain Sum of 4 or 5000l. per Ann. from Presents and
Perquisites, since fixed at 1200l., 2000l. and now is 6000l. And as
the Council, a part of their Constitution, is in a manner of his own
Nomination, being appointed by Letters of Mandamus, as they have
Power to make Demands on ancient Perquisites, and sway in the
Application of the publick Money; there are various ways of obliging,
and his Party will always be uppermost in the Legislature, which
consists of him, the Council of twelve, and an Assembly of twenty
two, chose at the several Parishes by a Majority of Votes.
One Law is, That no Inhabitant shall be carried off the Island
without Leave; whoever engages in the Project, is liable to the
Debts; so that when a Family sees Ruin approaching, (a frequent
Case of late years) their Remedy is stealing away in Boats to some
other Place of Subsistence; and if they cannot this way escape a
hard Creditor, they comfort themselves in dying, that it may be their
Lot next. Those who depart fairly, are obliged to give publick notice
at the Secretary’s Office; and no body objecting in twenty one days,
are at liberty.
Another Act in 1676, passed against the Industry of the Quakers,
whose Conversion of the Negroes, it was pretended, hazarded the
Safety of the Island. They are computed at 80 or 90000, and are
countenanced in Polygamy; yet not dangerous, because no
Mountains to fly to, Detections and Executions would soon follow
their Rebellions. The English are reckoned 20000, the Women
among them most Scotch and Irish, very homely, and great
Swearers. The Men, contrarily, are very gay, clean, and handsome,
from mean Originals, often succeeding with rich Widows; it being but
Justice to link a fat Plantation to the truely nauseous Draught of
Matrimony.
The way of feeding such a Multitude, and providing Necessaries in
an Island yielding little besides Sugar, is principally by their Fisheries
and Importations.
The Sea gives them great plenty of flying Fish, Dolphins,
Barricuda and King Fish, particularly the first; they bait with their own
Specie, which thrown about, the Fish fly in such numbers to the
Boats, that they take them up with Dip-nets, and sometimes the
Dolphins with them; the Season goes off at the Autumnal Equinox.
Their Importations by Ships from England, Ireland, New-England,
Pensylvania, Carolina, or New-York, constantly supplying any Defect
of Food or Necessaries, every Vessel bringing them something or
other of this kind, which the Merchants keep in store and sell the
Planters occasionally, who give their Sugars, Rum, and Molosses in
return. The Price in what I was acquainted is, viz.
Bought,
Rum at 1s. 2d. per Gallon.
Citron Water 40 0
Pickled Pepper 10 0
Preserved Ginger 5 0 per lb.
Sugar, twenty Shillings a hundred; and before
our Improvements (says Gee) the
Portuguese sold for 7 and 8l. a hundred.
Cocoa, 3 or 4l.
Aloes 4d. per lb.

Sold,
Salt Beef and Pork, 40 Shillings for a
Cask of 2 Cwt.
Bisket, 17s. per hundred
 Candles, 6½ per lb. &c.
Exchange 30 per Cent. or more.

I have heard that the Custom-house Books had one year 35000
Hogsheads of Sugar entred, which at 10l. per Hogshead, amounts to
350000l. Every Acre was supposed 10s. a year Profit to the national
Stock of England, besides what the Planter got, and Mouths fed by
it; but I must observe, the Crops of late years have very much failed,
and put many of them under great Necessities. The Soil fertile in the
Age past, seems now growing old, and past its teeming-time; they
endeavour to mend this by a few Cattle kept for the sake of Manure;
few, I say, because Land imploy’d this way, gives not 1/10 its Value.
Wherefore when a thoughtless Man has joined to unlucky Events
and Seasons an inadvertent way of living, he falls a Prey to the more
astronomical Heads of Factors, who supply him with Food and
Necessaries. The Hardships of many Planters at this time, through
such Inclemencies, cannot be better laid open to the Reader, than in
transcribing part of a Sermon, that I am informed was preached by
Command of his Excellency the Governor, May 1734.

A Charity S e r m o n at Bridgetown,
for the two Parishes, St. Philip, and Christ-Church.

“Here I should have left off, but I am commanded by his Excellency

the Governor, to exhort you to that Charity, the Necessity of which
has been laid before ye.
“Remember therefore, that one of the ways observed of seeking
God is, by obeying the Dictates of his Holy Spirit, that Humanity and
Charity undepraved Nature feels towards all that are poor and
distressed.
“What an excellent Grace of Christianity this is, St. Paul from the
Spirit of God teacheth, (1 Cor. xiii.) saying, that when the Gift of
Tongues, of Prophecies, of Miracles shall cease, a greater, even that
of Charity, shall never cease in the Church militant, never in the
Church triumphant; nor can there be any greater Inducements to
provoke us to Charity, than first, it covers a Multitude of Sins, and
next, bringeth God himself (as he is pleased to esteem it) in debt to
us; for he who giveth to the Poor lendeth to the Lord, and look, what
he layeth out shall be paid him again; paid in Blessings here, and
hereafter eternal Life, if no mortal Sin continue in the Giver, to hinder
these blessed Effects.—I need say no more to ye who read the
Bible, how dear to God those Christians are, who according to their
Ability are liberal to poor Persons and Families; so that what remains
for me to say, is to expatiate a little upon the miserable State of the
Poor of these two Parishes, and leave the whole to your pious
Consideration.
“In one of these, St. Philip’s, mine Eyes beheld all the Signs of an
approaching Famine; the Face of the Earth appeared as it were a
dry Crust, burnt up and gaping for its watry Nutriment; hardly any
thing green appeared, and I am told, the Face of the Country is
much the same in Christ-Church Parish. Now how miserable must it
be with the single Poor, and with Families! I assure you, several are
come into ours, and others are gone farther Leeward to seek for
Work and Food. You who are tender Parents, consider how terrible it
must be for Families with nothing in their House, nothing growing on
their Land, not a grain of any thing to support themselves and dear
helpless Children: No Money, and no Credit, no Relief from without,
and no Bread, nor Water either, hardly within or without. I have heard
of poor Men going about for Work, to sustain their own Bodies,
forced to leave Wife and Children at home to starve; sure your
Hearts must relent, and every one of you give according as you are
able, with a free Mind, and willing Heart. But here some may object,
Why should I give to those two Parishes, when our own Poor may be
in as great Want? I answer, some may be so; but the Calamity
(blessed be God) is not so general here; it is not so bad with us in
that one necessary Article of Water. Thirst is terrible, let us then pity
our poor Brethren, their Wives and Children, who go so far for Water
that they have not due time to get their Bread, were there Work for
them to earn it by.
“I believe, you know we have here poor Families in great want,
and I could wish our Vestry would meet, particularly to consider it;
but in the mean time, let us not forget the poorer People of these two
Parishes, as now perishing for want of Food; yea, his L——p and the
Council’s Belief is, (you hear) that some have already died for want
of Bread.
“What Christian Man or Woman then in Affluence and Plenty, can
have an Heart so hard as not to bestow liberally on so great, so sad,
so calamitous a Necessity and Misery? and what poorer Christian,
who has somewhat, tho’ little above his daily Wants, but will fling his
Mite to stop so dread an Evil?
“What Christian Woman, who has young and helpless Children of
her own, and Bread to give them, but whose Bowels must yearn and
Heart ake to hear, that in these two Parishes are many Infants crying
at the empty Breasts of their Mothers, and their Mothers weeping
and languishing at the same time for Bread to sustain themselves.
“What compassionate Fathers or Brothers but must grieve to
understand, that grown Children too young to work, are now starving
in these Parishes, and their Parents and Brothers nothing to relieve
them.
“What good Children but must bleed at heart to see their Parents
starving? yet such is the Fate of some in these Parishes.
“Christians consider, that one way of keeping Famine from us of
this Parish, is to bestow our Charity in a Proportion to their Wants,
and our Ability: That is the likeliest Method to move God to give us
fruitful Seasons, to renew our Springs, and bring a cheerful Green
over the Face of our Plants and Seeds.
“May the blessed Spirit, &c.”

The Consequence of this Distress now among the Barbadians, is

shifting their old Habitations; several impelled by Necessity, and
Wants, (stronger Motives than Religion;) are stealing away to mend it
where they can.
The Sufferings of these Islanders, I think, will carry some
Similitude to larger Countries; where the remarkable Decay, or Loss
of one single Branch of Trade, it’s observed, will sensibly affect
Multitudes, not only those immediately concerned in the retailing,
who must change Trades, infringing on others, or seek other
Countries, but also those not concerned; because as an
extraordinary Trade stamps an extraordinary Value on Land, and that
on Provisions, when the one fails, or changes hands, as it has and
will do, (Venice, the Hans Towns, Antwerp, Holland, and which by
the way, shews all Countries bordering on the Sea, within 50°° of
Latitude, equally advantageous for Trade) the other ought to give
way for the lowering of Provisions, and Charge of Subsistence to the
Poor, (some ways of it being supposed now to be cut off or
curtailed:) and if Landlords do it slowly, the Law should oblige;
because, as publick Virtue is no private Man’s Profession, he will
take his Lands into his own hands, tho’ with Loss, rather than submit
to the Reduction of his Rents; and because he can afford it, will
hoard, and suffer Grain to decay and spoil, before he will fall the
Price.
In our Plantations, the inferior sort of Merchants are not unlike
Sharpers in Gaming; they by a better Skill, know how to prey on the
Wants, the Weakness, and Passions of their Customers (the
Planters and Artificers) chaining them down by degrees to their
Service; many of the Inconsiderate being ruined without knowing it,
till the very Day they want Victuals.
 SUGAR-CANES.
In the Wars between Holland and Portugal in Brasil, a Dutch-Man
arrived here from thence, who taught them the way of Planting and
making Sugars. They are set out between August and December, six
Inches deep, and do not come to Maturity until one year and a
quarter: when ripe, which is known by their Colour, they cut them up
with a Bill, and send them to the Wind-mills, which presses out the
Juice so clean, the Canes by being an hour or two in the Sun,
become fit for Fuel.
The Liquor must not remain in the Cistern above a day, for fear of
souring; it is therefore by a Gutter conveyed to the Copper or Boyler,
and in the boiling, the Filth scummed off; thence it’s conveyed into
the second and third, and in the last, called the Tack, is boiled to a
Consistency, and turned into a Grain by throwing in of Temper, which
is only the Infusion of Lime and Water made strong according to the
Goodness of the Cane. Nine Pounds of Juice makes one of
Muscovado, and one of Molossus.
From hence it is carried to the cooling Cistern, till fit to put in Pots,
which have Holes at Bottom to drain off the Molossus.
Of these Molossus again, they sometimes make another worse
Sugar, called Paneels. Of the Scum, coarse Molossus, Washings of
the Boilers and Pots, fermented together, is made Rum.
To refine Sugar, is to boil it over again, and clarify with the same
Lime-Water and Eggs, reckoned better than the clayed Sugars of
this Region, made by putting a clayey Earth mixed with Water to the
thickness of a Batter upon them, and repeated three or four times
according to the degree of Whiteness design’d; both ways carry the
Treacle and Molossus downwards, but the former most esteemed,
as mixing less, and purging to better purpose. Lime refines from
Impurities, and imparts a softer Taste, experienced in throwing it into
Wells of hard Water; the best refin’d in Loaves comes back to the
Sugar-Colonies from England, sell at 50 or 100 per Cent. Advance,
and are of common Use; they must be kept dry, a hot and moist Air
dissolving them.
From Molossus, Distillers make a clean Brandy, and it gives a
pretty tasted Spirit to Malt Liquors, boiled and worked in the Tun.
Besides Rum and Sugars, they have Quantities of Ginger, Aloes,
Tamarinds, Citron, Cassia, Coloquintida, Cassava, Limes, Oranges,
Guavas, Pine-Apples, Mastick, Cedar, Cotton and Palmeto Trees,
prickled Pear; but our Apples and Pears, nor any of our Shrub-Fruits,
Goose-berry or Currant, will thrive. Of the Potato they make a brisk
Small-beer, called Mobby.
About two or three years ago, the low Price of Sugars, that had
reduced and beggar’d the Planters, brought on a Complaint, and Bill
in Parliament in their favour. They urged, according to the best of my
Remembrance, that the northern Colonies, especially New-England,
being suffered to trade with the French Islands, was in a great part
the Occasion of this, and a Loss to the Nation; for they took off all
the French Molossus, which before they had no use for, but sold it
our Islands at very low Prices.
The French therefore were helped by this Sale, to afford their
Sugars cheaper, and still more enabled by a nearer Way of Living;
by the Customs being taken off, allowing them to go thence to any
Market, and other Encouragements to undersell, and take the foreign
Markets from us, who were clogged with all those Inconveniencies.
The New-England People alledged, their Trade seemed the least
essential Article in the Injury complained of; for unless our Islands
found means to take off the other Impediments, and bring their
Sugars to as cheap, or cheaper Price than the French and Dutch,
they would be the same in respect to foreign Markets; and if new
Grounds are better, or more wanted in Plantations, there are enough
at Jamaica, St. Christopher’s, &c. to redress the Evil. But this is not
in their View, say they; the more Lands are employed, the less will
be the Value of the present Estates, an impolitick Reduction of all
prodigal Expences; for every Island singly, reckon their Happiness in
part, not from the flourishing Condition of another, but from
Casualties, and bad Seasons; the less quantity there is to answer
the Demand, the higher the Price.
Barbados formerly used to buy the French and Dutch Sugars,
making all that Trade go through their own hands, till in 1715, laying
a Duty turned the Channel, and they would now make up that
oversight by imposing their own Price on us.
The Northern Colonies deserve Favour, they think, as vastly
superior in Number and Trade, take off more of the Manufactures of
England for themselves, and their Trade with the Indians, who
exchange Furrs and Pelfry to make Hats; for the same Reason, they
want more Molossus to manufacture among themselves, than our
Islands can sell, or if they could, cannot take off one quarter of the
Lumber, Horses, and refuse Fish, with which we trade with the
French, not only for Rum and Molossus (which may as well come to
us this way, as through their hands) but sometimes also Money; and
without which we have no means of purchasing, nor could get rid of
our Produce and Industry, which is very unreasonable.
To lay a Tax of six-pence a Gallon on French Molossus, is the
same as a Prohibition, which their Country cannot so easily bear.
They take 20000 Hogsheads a year (each 100 Gallons) from the
Dutch and French, which is 50000l. whereas they have no Specie to
pay it, their Currency being all Paper, and that but 30000l. Besides, it
would be the first Tax on a charter’d Colony from England, where
they have no Representatives.
Lastly, it was said, the French buy their Negroes, and Sugar-
Materials (Mills, Coppers, &c.) 40 per Cent. dearer than us; therefore
for our Islands to say they cannot afford as cheap, is to say, they will
not abate of their Pride and Luxury, but help to maintain it by a Tax
on our more humble Industry.
 T h e W E S T- I N D I E S .
For a general Idea of the West-Indies, we may understand by that
Term, all the Continent, Sea, and Islands, from Terra Firma to
Florida, or from near the Equinoctial to 28°° of N. Latitude; and if you
include Bermudas, to 32°°. The main Land in this Circuit divided into
Spanish Provinces, is more peculiarly called the Spanish West-
Indies, they possessing all, unless to the Southward in Guiana and
Paria, where there are a few English, Dutch, and French,
interspersed on the Rivers and Coast of Oronoko, Surinam, and
Amazons.
They import hence to Europe, besides Rum and Sugars, great
quantities of Cocoa, Indigo, Cotton, Logwood, Ginger, Lignum-vitæ,
Cochineel, Snuff, Cassia, Aloes, Pimento, Tortoise-shell, Dyers, and
other Wood, a Variety of Drugs, and above all, prodigious Quantities
of Plate, and some Gold.
The Islands in this Sea are the Charibbees, Sotovento, Antilles,
and Bahama.
Charibbees were the lesser Antilles, about 30 in number, whereof
the French have Martinico, St. Lucia, Bartholomew, Deseada,
Granada, Marigalant, Guadalupe, and Santa Cruz. To the Dutch
belong in whole or part, Saba, Eustatia, St. Vincent, and Tobago, or
Tobacco Island; so called, from the Plenty of that Weed there, or the
Weed so called, as first transplanted thence. The rest are English,
and of them Barbados is chief. Others next of Note are Antegoa,
Nevis, St. Christopher’s, and Montserrat; which have a separate
Governor, stiled General of the Leeward Islands, their principal
Produce with us, is Rum and Sugars; but the French, besides these,
cultivate Cocoa, and Indigo: and as the managing of more Lands
naturally gives Plenty, and makes room for an Increase of People,
the French Policy of late years has considerably increased their
Colonies at Martinico and Hispaniola; some say 40000 settled there
at the French King’s Expence, with the Addition of a year’s
Maintenance, to countenance their Mississipi Settlements, and these
further Views of drawing over Men’s Affections, by affording
Europeans the West-India Commodities, at the cheapest rate, and
strengthning themselves against the Resentment of any who dislike
it.
In some are found large Caves that run half a Mile under ground,
supposed the Dwelling-places of the old Natives, who quickly
forsook them to the new Inmates; tho’ Dampier says, he met some of
these Charibbees at St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, and others say the
like of Curasao: The Name imports Cannibals, an Inhumanity
charged on them at the Discovery, as a proper Accusation for
Dispossessors.
Sotovento Isles lie E S E. and W N W. along the Terra Firma,
called so because the Spaniards in their Voyages to Mexico, make
them one after another sub vento (to Leeward.) Of these, the Dutch
have Curasao, Oruba, and Berraire. The Spaniard the others, (La
Trinidad, and Margarita, chief;) from whence, and the Antilles, they
have of late years very much infested this Navigation, with their
Guard le Costas, confiscating the English Effects in Reprisal, it is
supposed, for the Loss of their Fleet near Messina, 1718.
The greater Antilles are, Cuba, Hispaniola, Portorico, and
Jamaica; the three former, Spanish.
Cuba is principal; a very pleasant and flourishing Island, the
Spaniard building and improving for Posterity, without dreaming, as
the English Planters do, of any other Home. They make the best
Sugars in the West-Indies. It was from this Island, (Velasquez
Governor,) that Cortez in 1518, made his Expedition and Conquest
of Mexico.
The Havana, its chief Port and Town, is esteemed the richest in
America; for besides its own valuable Produce, the Spanish Fleets
from all parts on the Main, make up here in their return to Europe.
 The Islands on the South Side of it, and the Camaines, are
resorted to for the largest and best Turtle.
Porto-Rico, and Hispaniola (the diminutive of Hispania) are Islands
we make, in our Passage to Jamaica, famous of late for their Guard
le Costas. These Privateering Fellows, when they are not acting by
lawful Commission, they know the Governor’s Mind, and bring in
Ships on a pretence they are trading with the King of Spain’s
Subjects in a clandestine and prohibited manner; if they find any
Pieces of Eight, it is a Condemnation; an Encouragement in
searching a Ship, to deposite some there themselves: Or if this Trick
fails, they are yet detained, and on various Pretences lengthned out
with Law-suits, till ruined. We called, after weighing from Barbados,
at Sancto Domingo, the chief Town of Hispaniola, where we found
three English Masters of Ships under these Hardships. They had got
the better in Law, but with such Charge and Delay, that it had spoiled
their Ships and Voyages; and lest that should not do it effectually,
their Damages are against the Captains of the Privateers, who are
perhaps the Governor’s servile Dependants, and not worth a Groat.
Sancto Domingo Harbour has 15 Fathom Water at the Bar, and
the Entrance defended by several Batteries. The Town is the
Residence of an Arch-Bishop, and a President from Spain, who lives
in a House that is said to have been built and occupied by
Christopher Columbus himself. To this Officer (on account of its prior
Settlement) Appeals come from all the Spanish West-India Islands,
whose Sentence is definitive, unless called by a particular
Commission to Old Spain. They buy their Places, it seems, and
consequently execute them oppressively.
The Island is diminished of its Inhabitants, for this, or a securer
and better Settlement on the Continent; so that the French now,
about Petit Guavas, equal, if not outnumber them, tho’ both together
are vastly short of what its Extent and Fertility deserves. A Soil that
produces any thing; their Sea and Rivers full of Fish, and the
Country spread with Forests of Cabbage and Palm-Trees, in which
are prodigious Numbers of wild Hog and Beef, which the Hunters of
different Nations at certain Seasons shoot, the latter for their Hides;
and the Pork, they jerk (as they call it) that is, strip it from the Bones,
and then salting the Flesh a little, dry it in the Sun.
Bahamas, so called from the Principal, or Lucayes from Lucayone
(new Providence, the largest of them) where the English have a
Governor: They are noted for a dangerous and rapid Chanel,
commonly called the Gulph of Florida, through which the Spanish
Fleets always take their Passage to Europe, and are frequently
shipwrecked.
The Pyrates often take their rise here, or if not, seldom fail in the
Course of their Adventures to visit these Seas. There are Multitudes
of little Islands and Kays, besides this Division above, that afford
Refreshments of wild Hog, Cow, Goat, Sheep, Parrots, Guanas,
Turtle, and Fish; many of them uninhabited, and seldom visited but
on that account, whereby they are a natural and good Security. The
Sailor, when he would express the Intricacy of any Path-way, stiling it
the Caribbees.
They commonly make their Beginning here after this manner;
when any Spanish Ship is wrecked in Florida, the Jamaicans fit out
Vessels to fish upon her, (the best I believe, being always pleas’d
with going shares in such Voyages, which may be judged of by their
Treatment of the Galleon cast away on Jamaica, a very few Years
ago) and dispute a Right of Plunder with the Spaniard himself, who
is also fitted from the Havana on these Accidents, to recover what
they can; the Contest therefore is with various Fortune, and
sometimes turns to a bad account.
Our Logwood-Cutters from Campechy and Honduras, who have
been unfortunate by the frequent Visits of the Spaniards to destroy
that Trade, remove hither, or those to them, to consult of Reparations
to their broken Fortunes. Saunterers also, who are turtling from
different Parts, do all together make a considerable Resort
sometimes, and being prompted to Revenge for the Injuries
sustained, they combine and furnish out a little Sloop perhaps
against them at first, who finding little come by confining their Ways
and Means to the Spaniards only, who sail in Fleets, they fall at last
on any Nation; the Transition being easy from a Buccanier to a
Pyrate; from plundering for others, to do it for themselves.
These Logwood-Cutters, (since mentioned) I must observe, were
originally settled at the Bay of Campechy, but with a contested Right
that made it hazardous, the Spaniard opposing the Legality, and
when uppermost, treating them as Pyrates, which our People have
frequently returned again with Interest. It was taken 1659, by Sir
Christopher Mins. In 1678 again, by the English and French
Privateers; and what Licence the Peace of Utrecht gave, I am
uncertain, but they are since drove out, and now support themselves
with their Arms at the Bay of Honduras.
They are about 500 (Merchants and Slaves,) and have taken up
their Residence at a Place called Barcaderas, about 40 Miles up a
narrow River full of Alligators; and what is a greater Inconvenience
against transporting their Effects, is a strong Current in it from the
Freshes up Land, and the Banks being covered with Shrubs, that
makes it difficult to walk and tow the Boats; covered also with infinite
Numbers of Sand-Flies, and Muskitos. They live in Pavilions; a
Servant at their time of lying down to rest, shaking them till cleared of
these Vermin, that are an unsufferable Plague and Impediment to
Sleep.
At the Season (once a year) they move their Pavilions from the
pleasurable Spots, the better to attend the Logwood cutting, which
carries them sometimes many Miles from this principal Residence, to
follow the Wood, which runs in a Line or Vein (like Minerals in the
Earth) of some Miles perhaps, and then as many, without a Stick of
it. They cut it into large Pieces, and leave it on the Ground till the
Land-Flood favours their bringing it into the River, and then Canoos
are laden away with it, to lay in store at Barcaderas, where the Chief
are still left residing.
They have all good Arms, and knowing the Spanish Clemency,
defend themselves desperately, if attacked; which has happened
seldomer than at Campechy, and always by Sea.
A Servant, which is the first Step with Seamen into the Trade, is
hired at a Tun of Logwood per Month, and has one Day in seven for
himself, making together about 10l. a Month to him; hence, if
thoughtful and sober, they in time become Masters, join Stock, and
trade independently. They have a King, chose from among their
Body, and his Consort is stiled Queen, agreeing to some Laws by
common Consent, as a Guide to them.
The Ships that come into the Bay, are on their Guard also, fetch it
down in flat-bottomed Boats, each Crew being allowed on the
Voyage, a Bottle of Rum and some Sugar, and row generally in the
Night, as freest from those stinging Flies, and rest in the Day.
The Exchange with Ships is for Money, Beer, Flower, or any sort of
Provisions and Necessaries; these, the cunningest reserve in Store
against the Wants and Demands of the Inconsiderate, and so make
extraordinary Returns.
It may not be improper to conclude this Head with an Observation
or two on the Channel and Current of Florida, which I submit to the
more Skilful.
This Gulph is as dangerous a Navigation as any known; the
Spaniards often experience it, because it’s an Addition to the
Danger, that they have unwieldy Ships, and lubberly Seamen. We
commit Errors, I imagine, by our common Charts, which lay down the
Channel double the Breadth it is; the most intelligent in the Passage
having assured me, it is not above 16 or 18 Leagues over; and
therefore when a Storm happens, build on a false Supposition.
The Spaniard is likewise over-careful to be safe; the nicer
Observations made on Shoals, Currents, or Winds, either here or in
the Bay, when and how to make them advantageous, are from an
imagined Security against any maritime Power, committed only to
their Admiral (according to common Report) whose Light the Fleet
are to follow; and for their better Recovery of any shipwrecked Cargo
in the Gulph, (frequent in losing the Admiral,) they have a Garrison at
St. Augustine, on the Florida Shore, a barren Spot where they are
almost starved, and which would not be worth keeping but for this.
Ships and Vessels may, and often have sailed through this Channel
from the N End to Cuba, or the Bay of Mexico, notwithstanding the
common Opinion, on account of the Current, that is against it. They
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