The Early English Caribbean, 1570–1700 Vol 4

Book excerpt: This four-volume collection brings together rare pamphlets from the formative years of the English involvement in the Caribbean. Texts presented in the volumes cover the first impressions of the region, imperial rivalries between European traders and settlers and the experience of day-to-day life in the colonies. Volume 4: Making Meaning The flora and fauna of the islands and their economic potential was documented in a number of tracts which also helped to promote the colony as an attractive and bountiful place to settle. Running counter to the promotional literature was a whole sub-genre on natural disasters. Hurricanes and earthquakes were relatively common, and the commentators who wrote about them did so from a variety of motives: to entertain, to shock, to warn or simply to record them. Often portrayed as irreligious, settlers engaged energetically in the religious debates of the time. Dissenters were encouraged or coerced into leaving for the colonies and a number of Quaker publications condemned the transportation of their coreligionists. Though most settlers were members of the Church of England, its textual footprint was quite small and many more dissenting tracts have survived.