GENERAL SIR THOMAS
WARNER.
5
prictor, and, under warrant from the king, Governor ot St. Christopher, Nevis, Barbados, and Montserrat, sent his son Edward, a captain in the army, with a sufficient party, to colonize Antigua, which design he carried into effect, and during the remainder of his life continued to act as governor, although we have discovered no evidence of his having ever possessed, either as principal or deputy, any warrant for assuming the title, or executing the functions of governor, except so far as his father, as agent for the Earl of Carlisle, the lord proprietor of the island, might be considered as vested with authority ; for in his commission from the crown, no mention is made of Antigua. The name of Warner being thus distinguished in the annals of Antigua, we may be excused for making a digression upon the history of its founder, more especially as it affords a good illustration of the process of colonization in our West Indian and American possession-. General Sir Thomas Warner was a scion of an ancient and distinguished English family ; but from being a younger son, he was obliged to use personal efforts, in order to effect an honourable passage through life. Having entered into the army at an early age, and attained the rank of captain, he accompanied Roger North, brother of Lord North, in his expedition to Guiana, a country which was then looked upon as a perfect Eldorado. Here he became acquainted with a Captain Painton, a great navigator of those times, and one who had well studied the then all-engrossing subject of colonization. This gentleman suggested to Captain Warner how much more facility would attend a settlement in one of the smaller islands, than in a country so extensive as Guiana; and from his own personal experience, he thought St. Christopher's (at that time unoccupied by any European power) would be an island particularly adapted for the exercise of a daring spirit, in the way of planting a settlement. These suggestions of his friend appear to have made due impression upon the mind of Mr. Warner ; for in 1620, after the death of Captain Painton, he resolved to return to Eng-