The Island that Disappeared

January 1, 2018
On a tiny Caribbean island in the 1630s, England vested her hopes of global domination.In 1631, 10 years after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Seaflower drew ashore on Providence, 150 miles off the coast of Nicaragua. Funded by wealthy English shareholders, the ship brought young men "driven to leave home by land hunger, the collapse of the wool trade, and their exasperated fathers." On the island's lush terrain, the shareholders hoped to reap financial rewards from bounteous crops and to establish a flourishing colony in the New World that "would dwarf their outposts in Virginia, Maine, and New England." In a spirited narrative bursting with eccentric characters, Feiling (Short Walks from Bogota Journeys in the New Colombia, 2013, etc.) traces nearly 500 years of the island's history, presenting it as a microcosm of European imperialism. From the beginning, the shareholders confronted dire problems: failure to find a marketable commercial crop, rivalry among the settlers, threats from Spanish strongholds throughout the region, and a dismaying lack of labor. The solution to the latter was slavery. By 1638, Africans outnumbered the English, who became "the privileged minority in a racial hierarchy of their own making." Despite challenges, England considered the island vitally important "as a refuge for godly migrants, base for the evangelization of the Miskito Indians, or fortress to protect a future English colony in Central America." Feiling vividly portrays the rise of lawless privateers who preyed on conflict and seized Spanish ships for their bounty in cargo and slaves. Among the most colorful of the buccaneers was Henry Morgan, a ruthless commander who signed on hundreds of sailors for his forays against Spain. Morgan, writes the author, became a folk hero in his own lifetime--not unlike drug mogul Pablo Escobar. Both men "defied the cant of the moralizers and the might of the most powerful nation on the planet"--for Morgan, that meant Spain--to reap riches. Visiting the island today, Feiling finds evidence of post-colonial neglect, with only stabs at tourism infusing the island's economy.A tumultuous history briskly told.

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January 29, 2018
Documentary filmmaker and author Feiling (The Candy Machine) explores centuries of transatlantic life through this vignette-driven history of Providence, an island near Nicaragua that has been variously inhabited by English colonists, Spanish soldiers, pirates, slaves, and their modern-day descendants. For many 17th-century Puritans aboard the Seaflower, the Caribbean seemed more promising than frigid New England. There, the Providence Island Co. was founded in hopes of growing tropical cash crops, securing financial aid for fellow dissenters, and enabling England to break its trade dependence on Portugal and Spain. Yet, as Feiling details, the colony immediately faced difficulties: disgruntled indentured servants, English privateers looking for a home base, and retaliatory Spanish attacks. Feiling also uses the ever-evolving Providence as a lens for examining England’s transformation into a colonial empire. In the book’s final section, Feiling meets Providence’s present-day inhabitants and attempts to uncover legacies of the island’s past, but while he encounters fascinating characters and reflects on globalization and post-
colonial neglect, he struggles to extend the insights of his historical sections. Nonetheless, his book holds appeal for readers interested in both Caribbean
history and an alternative view of New World settlement.

February 15, 2018
Feiling expertly draws on his journalism and documentary filmmaking background to create an intricately woven narrative that captivates the reader and weaves together the history of British and Spanish colonization, piracy, Puritanism, slavery, and how landscapes shape societies. Most dramatically, he retrieves the forgotten story of the Mayflower's sister ship, the Seaflower, which landed in 1630 on Providence Island in the Caribbean, where everything went disastrously wrong. Feiling provides a holistic, ethnographic story of Providence Island, which lies east of modern-day Nicaragua, unearthing many previously lost episodes, drawing on many disciplines besides history, including anthropology, economics, religious studies, and literature. It is obvious from its detail, cohesive style, and length that this work of discovery was a labor of love. Readers with many different interests will enjoy it, especially those fascinated by the Pilgrims, Caribbean history, and the true nature of the colonization of the Americas. With portraits of settlers, pirates, native populations, and the rulers of England and Spain, Feiling tells a highly informative, perception-altering, and richly entertaining story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)