During the administration of Colonel Rowland Williams as governor of Antigua, six towns were appointed as places of trade, instead of two, as was the former custom. These towns were Falmouth, St. John’s, Bridge Town, Carlisle Road, Parham Landing Place, and Bermudian Valley. In these different towns all business was to be transacted as relates to shipping, &c.; and no vessel was allowed to unload or sell their cargo at any other place, under punishment of forfeiting their goods. This, however, did not debar any freeholder from disposing of his own personal property or merchandise at any place in the island he deemed proper. It does not appear at what particular period a secretary and a marshal were appointed; but in 1677 an act was passed relating unto such officers. In 1680, provisions were made for settling the militia, and for ensuring a better martial discipline throughout the island. Antigua was divided into parishes about 1681, which then consisted of five—namely, Falmouth, Rendezvous Bay, and part of Willoughby Bay, to be the parish of St. Paul’s; the remaining part of Willoughby Bay, Nonsuch, and Belfast, to be the parish of St. Philip’s; divisions of New and Old North Sound to be the parish of St. Peter’s; the divisions of Pope’s Head, Dickerson’s Bay, St. John’s, and Five Islands, to be the parish of St. John’s; and the divisions of the Road and Bermudian Valley to be the parish of St. Mary’s. Churches were also ordered to be erected, and all parochial charges to be raised from the inhabitants of each parish. The yearly salary of their ministers was 16,000lbs. of sugar or tobacco, which was paid to them on the 24th day of June, being the feast of St. John the Baptist. The following year (1682) an expedition was despatched to act against the Indians of Dominica. His Majesty Charles II. having departed this life, Sir William Stapleton proclaimed his successor, James II. with great pomp, at Nevis. An old writer gives a long account of the ceremonies observed upon that day—of the gorgeous festival which succeeded, and the splendid attire of the governor; but as this work is strictly confined to Antigua, such detail will be superfluous. In 1684, during the administration of Sir William Stapleton, slaves were annexed to freeholds, and could be voted upon, the same as a freehold, or levied upon for distress. In illustration of this, a person possesses a family of slaves—say the mother and five or six children, the youngest in arms and drawing its daily nutriment from its parent; the owner of these slaves falls into difficulties—he owes a certain sum, and his creditor takes out an execution against him. The value of the negro woman covers, perhaps, the amount of debt, and accordingly she is seized, carried away, and sold, probably to a third or even a fourth person, and her baby and other children are severed from her, and she left alone. Oh! slavery, slavery, how dost thou debase the sons of men!