The Puritan Colonists


tain Daniel Elfrith was trading in the West Indies and Vir-
ginia from Bermuda. In 1620 the Dutch captain Pieter
Schouten with three ships dropped in at the Somers Isles to
see his old friend Captain Powell whom he had known in
the West Indies. This one of the three Captain Powell of
this time was in the Dutch service, like Hudson. In 1624
Captain Schouten took the town of Sisal in Yucatan. In 1622
there were 1,500 inhabitants in the Somers Isles, in 1628 there
were 2,000. In 1624 Captains Elfrith and Powell had already
reconnoitred the Bahamas, St. Christopher and Nevis, Bar-
badoes, and the Cockscomb Coast.
 The "Seaflower" brought the first batch of colonists to
Santa Catalina or Old Providence in May 1631, most of them
Puritans, with their governor, Captain Philip Bell, who had
been governor of the Somers or Bermuda Islands in 1626-
1627. When the colonists arrived this island was inhabited
by some Dutch sea rovers amongst whom were the two broth-
ers Captain William Albert Blauvelt and Abraham Blauvelt.
The Cartauen, Cortown, or Big Cannon Caye, and Hayen,
Hain, or Shark Caye are names left in the Providence-Henri-
etta area by the Dutch. The selection of this island which
lay in the track of the Plate Fleet was made by the Earl of
Warwick's captains because of its position between the two
main objectives, the Plate Fleet sailing from Panama to
Havana, and the Cockscomb Coast as a base for bartering
with the interior of Guatemala. The newcomers wrote the
name of these men who had been formerly connected with
the expeditions of Captain Cornelis Jol, Bluefield or Blufeld.
They became friends and co-operated in many ways, sharing
that dislike for Spain, the cause of which did not escape the
Spaniards. Soon the colonists found out that the soil of Old
Providence was worthless for their agriculture, and they be-
gan to look elsewhere. In 1631 they were active in Tortuga
and resolved that henceforth that island should be called
Association. But the island of Tortuga was also too small and
too exposed to attack, and so they began in the same year to