Page 90 - All About History - Issue 52-17

REVIEWS

All About History on the books, TV shows and

films causing a stir in the history world

THE ISLAND THAT DISAPPEARED:

OLD PROVIDENCE AND THE MAKING OF THE WESTERN WORLD

The hidden history of Britain’s failed Caribbean empire revealed
Author Tom Feiling Publisher Explore Books Price £14.99 Released Out now

retty much everyone has heard While strictly non-fiction, Feiling
of Mayflower, the iconic ship recreates the most dramatic scenes
that sailed the Pilgrim Fathers – such as the discovery of the island
to the New World and straight by English explorers and an attack
Pinto American mythology. by Spanish forces – with a enthralling
However, have you heard of its sister narrative flourish. But the journalist
ship, Seaflower? Both transported is careful to bring his cast of puritans,
plucky bands of English puritans, but Parliamentarians and pirates to life only
where the famous vessel travelled by quoting from their private letters and
to Massachusetts, Seaflower instead the official documents of Providence
journeyed south. Its passengers were Island Company. After exhausting the
convinced that the empire England records of the National Archive, the
needed would be built in luscious author even moved to Providence (or
Central America, so founded their own Old Providence / Isla de Providencia
rival colony on Providence, a tiny island as it’s now known by its bilingual
off the coast of Nicaragua, in 1630. residents) for four months. After arriving
While the venture clearly didn’t work to find the island’s own records office
out quite as the colonists had hoped, had burnt down many years ago, he
British journalist Tom Feiling explores turned to interviewing the locals. These
the island’s secret history in The Island conversations, along with a travelogue
That Disappeared. of the writer’s experiences, make up
Though almost entirely forgotten the latter half of the book. On the one
today, Feiling reveals that the island hand, these accounts offer insight into
has actually been a touchstone for the modern life on the island and to
major historical events. The colony what extent Britain’s legacy lives on in
was in part financed by John Pym this Colombian territory. However, these
and John Hampden, who were two of vignettes – which consist of people
the openly critical MPs (the so-called sitting around talking – intersperse the
‘Five Members’) King Charles I tried tail end of Providence’s history, as it
to arrest in 1642, sparking the English slipped into obscurity. Following such
Civil War. After crops failed, many of a heady mix of swashbuckling and
the colonists turned to privateering, civil war, the second half does leave
so Providence served as a pirate den, us wondering if Feiling should have
earning it a passing mention in Robert instead narrowed the focus of his 400-
Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and year history.
occupation by the infamous Captain Ultimately, The Island That
Henry Morgan (who later inspired Disappeared does a remarkable job “Though almost forgotten
the spiced rum). The island was also of walking a tightrope between local about today, Feiling reveals the
continually caught in the crossfire of and global events, personal and public
Britain and Spain’s competing imperial history, as well providing a compelling island has been a touchstone
ambitions and was an early adopter of case of why Providence’s hidden past
the African slave trade. deserves remembering. for major historical events”
90