[31] The persons to whom these rewards were given, owed their residence in Antigua to the following cause:—To increase the white population, great encouragement was given to persons importing white protestant men-servants into the island, paying to the importer to much per head from the public treasury. These white servants were sold for a certain number of years, and at the end of that time they became free, and were incited to settle, by having small grants of land given to them. Every proprietor was obliged to have one of these white servants to so many slaves; and they were to be furnished with clothes and arms, and to serve in the militia. It was customary to sell them upon hogsheads, which I shall have further occasion to mention when I come to treat of the white inhabitants. [32] Extract from the London Gazette, No. 2602, published by authority, from Thursday, October 16th, to Monday, October 20th, 1690, giving an account of the capture of St Christopher’s, the forces for which service arrived in Frigate Bay, in that island, 20th June; the French offered to surrender on the 12th July, and articles agreed to on the 14th July:— “Colonel Byam was dangerously wounded in the neck.” Extract from “London Gazette,” 4th to 8th September, 1690. No. 2590:— “Bermudas, July 24th. “On the 20th June, the English arrived at St. Christopher’s, consisting of eleven men of war, besides fire-ships and tenders, and other vessels, under command of Captain Wright, who was himself in the Mary of 64 guns, and 450 men. These ships had on board 3000 land forces—viz., 700 English soldiers, commanded by Colonel Holt; 800 Nevis and Barbados soldiers, commanded by Sir Timothy Thornhill; 800 Antigua, commanded by Colonel Rowland Williams; 400 Montserrat men, commanded by Colonel Blackstone, and 200 gentlemen volunteers, commanded by Colonel Willoughby Byam, which served as a life guard to Colonel Codrington, governor of the Leeward Islands, and general on this expedition. The conduct of which forces was much commended in the second Gazette from 16th to 20th October.”