TYRANNY OF COLONEL PARKE.
Nevin to jesty and Esq., the sist them W hile
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England, to lay their grievances before her Macouncil ; and letters were written to Richard Cary, colonial agent, calling upon that gentleman to asin their designs. these measures were pursued by the disaffected
party, the governor, who was not ignorant of these cabals against him, lost nothing of his arrogance of manner, which so incensed his adversaries, that at length an attempt was made upon his life. As he was riding along the high road, leading from St. John's to English Harbour, a negro, named " Sandy," fired at him from a piece of canes belonging to the plantation of the Honourable Otto Baijer,* and dangerously wounded him, of which deed Colonel Parke accused Mr. Jacob Morgan and some of the other members of the assembly, with being the instigators. About this time, Colonel Parke thought proper to accuse Barry Tankard, Esq., (a proprietor of sugar estates in Antigua, and an intimate friend of Colonel Codrington,) of caballing against his government ; and accordingly he despatched his emissaries to the estate of that gentleman, with orders to seize his person, and bring him into town. Upon their arrival at Mr. Tankard's house, they were informed of his absence from home ; but doubting the truth of this information, they broke open the door of Mrs. Tankard's chamber, (who was confined to her bed from severe indisposition,) and so alarmed that lady, that for some time her life was in danger. This arbitrary behaviour on the part of the governor led Barry Tankard to resent it, by calling his excellency out in a duel ; but Colonel Parke, considering it beneath the dignity of the queen's representative to accept the challenge of a private gentleman, the matter ended. While these dissensions were going on in Antigua between the governor on the one side, and the members of the assembly and the principal inhabitants on the other, Mr. Nevin * This spot is now appropriated for the Wesleyan burial-ground. VOL. I.
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