applied, by the English, to a cluster of fmall islands, rocks and reefs of fand, which Atretch in a north-wefterly direction for the space of nearly three hundred leagues from the northern coaft of Hifpaniola to the Bahama ftrait oppofite the Florida

fhore.*

Such of the above islands as are worth cultivation now belong to GREAT-BRITAIN, SPAIN, FRANCE, HOLLAND and DENMARK.

The climate in all the Weft-India islands is nearly the fame. allowing for thofe accidental differences which the feveral fituations and qualities of the lands themfelves produce. As they lie within the tropics, and the fun goes quite over their heads, paffing beyond them to the north, and never returning farther from any of them than about thirty degrees to the fouth, they would be continually fubjected to an extreme and

* The whole group is called by the Spaniards Lutayos.

intolerable heat, if the trade winds, rifing gradually as the fun gathers ftrength, did not blow in upon them from the fea, and refresh the air in fuch a manner, as to enable them to attend their concerns even under the meridian fun. On the other hand, as the night advances, a breeze begins to be perceived, which blows fmartly from the land, as it were from the center, towards the fea, to all points of the compafs at once.

By the fame remarkable Providence in the difpofition of things it is, that when the fun has made a great progress towards the tropic of Cancer, and becomes in a manner verticle, he draws after him fuch a vast body of clouds, which fhield them from his direct beams, and diffolving into rain, cool the air and refresh the country, thirsty with the long drought, which commonly prevails from the beginning of January to the latter end of May.

The rains in the Weft-Indies are like floods of water poured from the clouds with a prodigious impetuofity; the rivers fuddenly rife; new rivers and lakes are formed, and in a short time all the low country is under water.* Hence it is, that the rivers which have their fource within the tropics, fwell and overflow their banks at a certain feafon; but fo mistaken were the ancients in their idea of the torrid zone, that they imagined it to be dried and fcorched up with a continual and fervent heat, and to be for that reafon uninhabitable; when, in reality, fome of the largest rivers of the world have their course within its limits, and the moisture is one of the greatest inconveniencies of the climate in feveral places.

The rains make the only diftinction of seasons in the WeftIndies; the trees are green the whole year round; they have no cold, no frofts, no fnows, and but rarely fome hail; the ftorms of hail are, however, very violent when they happen, and the hailftones very great and heavy. Whether it be owing to this moisture, which alone does not seem to be a fufficient cause, or to a greater quantity of a fulphureous acid, which predominates in the air of this country, metals of all kinds that are fubject to the action of fuch caufes ruft and canker in a very fhort time; and this caufe, perhaps, as much as the heat itfelf contributes to make the climate of the WeftIndies unfriendly and unpleasant to an European conftitu

tion.

It is in the rainy feafon, principally in the month of August, more rarely in July and September, that they are affaulted by

* Wafer's Journey across the Ifthmus of Darien.

hurricanes, the most terrible calamity to which they are subject, as well as the people in the Eaft-Indies, from the climate; this deftroys, at a stroke, the labours of many years, and proftrates the most exalted hopes, of the planter, and at the the moment when he thinks himself out of danger. It is a fudden and violent ftorm of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, attended with a furious swelling of the feas, and fometimes with an earthquake; in fhort, with every circumftance which the elements can affemble that is terrible and deftructive. First, they fee a prelude to the enfuing havoc, whole fields of fugar-canes whirled into the air, and fcattered over the face of the country. The strongest trees of the foreft are torn up by the roots, and driven about like stubble; their windmills are fwept away in a moment; their utenfils, the fixtures, the ponderous copper boilers, and ftills of feveral hundred weight, are wrenched from the ground and battered to pieces; their houses are no protection: the roofs are torn off at one blaft; whilst the rain, which in an hour raises the water five feet, rushes in upon them with an irresistible violence.

The grand ftaple commodity of the Weft-Indies is fugar; this commodity was not at all known to the Greeks and Ro mans, though it was made in China in very early times, from whence was derived the first knowledge of it; but the Portuguese were the first who cultivated it in America, and brought it into request, as one of the materials of a very universal luxury in Europe. It is not determined, whether the cane, from which this fubftance is taken, be a native of America, or brought thither to their colony of Brafil by the Portuguese, from India and the coaft of Africa; but, however that may be, in the beginning they made the moft, as they ftill do the beft, fugars which come to market in this part of the world. The juice within the fugar cane is the moft lively, excellent, and the leaft cloying tweet in nature, which, fucked raw, has proved extremely nutritive and wholefome. From the molaffes

rum is diftilled, and from the fcummings of the fugar a meaner fpirit is procured, The tops of the canes, and the leaves which grow upon the joints, make very good provender for their cattle, and the refufe of the cane, after grinding, lerves for fire, fo that no part of this excellent plant is without its ufe.

They compute that, when things are well managed, the rum and molaffes pay the charges of the plantation, and the fugars are clear gain. However, a man cannot begin a fugar planta.

tion of any confequence, not to mention the purchase of the land, which is very high, under a capital of at least five thousand pounds.

The negroes in the plantations are subsisted at a very easy rate; this is generally by allotting to each family of them a fmall portion of land, and allowing them two days in the week, Saturday and Sunday, to cultivate it; fome are fubfifted in this manner, but others find their negroes a certain portion of Guinea or Indian corn, and to fome a falt herring, or a small portion of bacon or falt pork, a day. All the rest of the charge confifts in a cap, a shirt, a pair of breeches, and a blanket, and the profit of their labour yields ten or twelve pounds annually. The price of men negroes, upon their first arrival, is from thirty to fifty pounds, women and grown boys less: but such negro families as are acquainted with the business of the islands generally bring above forty pounds upon an average one with another; and there are inftances of a single negro man, expert in the banels, bringing one hundred and fifty guineas; and the wealth of a planter is generally computed from the number of Raves he poffeffes.

BRITISH WEST-INDIES.

JAMAICA.

THIS iffand, the largest of the Antilles, and the most valua

ble, lies between 17° and 19° north latitude, and between 76% and 79° weft longitude, is near one hundred and eighty miles in length, and about fixty in breadth; it approaches in its figure to an oval. The windward paffage right before it hath the island of Cuba on the weft, and Hifpaniola on the east, and is about twenty leagues in breadth.

This ifland was discoverd by Admiral Chriftopher Columbus in his fecond voyage, who landed upon it May 5, 1494, and was io much charmed with it, as always to prefer it to the rest of the islands; in confequence of which, his fon chofe it for his dukedom. It was fettled by Juan d'Efquivel, A. D. 1509, who built the town, which, from the place of his birth, he called Seville, and eleven leagues farther to the caft ftood Melilla. Orifton was on the fouth fide of the island, feated on what is now called the Blue Fields river. All these are gone to decay, but St. Jago, now Spanish-Town, is ftill the capital. The Spaniards held this country one hundred and fixty years, and in their time the principal commodity was cacoa; they had an immenfe ftock of horles, alles, and mules, and prodigious quantities of cattle. The English landed here under Penn and Venables, May 11, 16:4, and quickly reduced the island. Cacoa was also their puncipal commodity till the old trees decayed, and the new ones did not thrive; and then the planters from Barbadoes introduc ed lugar canes, which hath been the great ftaple ever lince.