Commons, pursuant to their Order of Tuesday last, copy of a Representation from the Board of Trade, relating to the Right of the Subjects of Great Britain to cut Logwood in the bay of Campeachy; which Representation follows:

A REPRESENTATION

From the Honourable Board of Trade to his late Majesty King George 1. asserting and proving the Right of the Subjects of Great Britain, to cut LoGwooD in the BAY OF CAMPEACHY.

To the King's most excellent Majesty,

May it please your Majesty, The right honourable Paul Methuen, esq. one of your Majesty's principal secretaries of state, having transmitted to us on the 15th of November last, by order of his royal highness, a letter or memorial he had received from the marquis de Monteleone, ambassador extraor dinary from his Catholic Majesty, relating to the trade carrying on in the West Indies, and to the settlement made by your Majesty's subjects on the island of Trist, and on or near the lake or marsh de Terminos, in the province of Jucatan in which parts he represents, That they employ themselves in cutting of logwood, or (as the Spaniards call it) Campeachy wood, and that the Spanish viceroy and governor had proposed to dislodge them from thence, but that his said Catholic Majesty would not send his orders before he had given your Ma'jesty notice of it, not doubting, but that ac'cording to all the treaties of peace, and particularly that made at Utrecht, your Majesty would oblige your said subjects to leave the

quantities of logwood were transported both to Jamaica and New England. This being the state of that trade in 1669, and the American treaty being concluded in 1670, which, by the clause of uti possidetis, confirmed to the English all their possessions in America, their logwood trade and possessions upon the bay of Campeachy, were thereby clearly confirmed. Nevertheless, the maxims of the Spanish government admitting no competition about what they looked upon to be their property in America, in 1672, they began to question the English right to that trade. For on the 22nd of June that year, the queen regent of Spain published a royal cedula, importing, That such as 'should make an invasion, or trade without licence in the ports of the Indies, should be proceeded against as pirates, &c.' This cedula was constructed by the Spaniards in America, to inhibit the English from cutting logwood in Campeachy, and they actually confiscated all English ships that had any on board. This, however, being an act of unjust power, and not acquiesced in by the English, their right to the settlements in Campeachy and the logwood trade, was not thereby weakened, the treaty of Utrecht confirmed it, because, after confirming the American treaty, a stipulation is inserted, That the same shall be without

aforesaid lake de Terminos, and give positive orders to your governors at Jamaica, and of the other islands, not to suffer the least trade to be carried on for Campeachy wood, and to declare, that if, in the space of eight months, they do not leave the said place, they shall be 'looked upon and used as pirates.'

that although we did humbly propose such We beg leave to represent to your Majesty, methods as we esteemed proper and necessary to support the cutting of logwood in the West Indies, when the said Mr. Methuen was on departure for Madrid, yet on this occasion, when a trade of so great importance to our navigation and the American colonies, is in danger of being lost, we have again carefully perused the books and papers in our office, and received from the merchants and others the fullest information we can hope to obtain, which hath taken up much time; and we do now humbly crave leave to lay before your Majesty the past and present state of this trade, with the arguments that formerly engaged your Majesty's royal predecessors to protect and support the same; to which we shall add some observations, and the reasons that induce us to conclude your Majesty's subjects have now as full and ample right to this trade, as to any other liberty or privilege that has been allowed by the crown of Spain, and enjoyed by them, by virtue of any treaty whatsoever.

In the first place, therefore, it must be observed, That logwood is one of the products of the province of Jucatan, which extends itself into the north sea, in form of a peninsula, about 100 leagues in length. The Spaniards are possessed of San Francisco de Campeachy,

'any prejudice to any liberty or power, which the subjects of Great Britain enjoyed before, either through right, sufferance, or in'dulgence.?

"Such is the substance of this famous Representation, which was now laid before the House of Commons, to whom several other petitions about this time from merchants and .others complaining of Spanish depredations, were presented. These complaints coming so thick, raised a flame in the nation, which the minister durst not attempt to stifle; but it is uncertain, whether he did not connive at some officious writings, which represented the petitioners in no favourable light, and the petitions as destitute of real foundation. These writings and pamphlets did inconceivable prejudice to the minister, who, as has been observed before, generally employed the press very injudiciously, and no arts were wanting on the part of the opposition to persuade the public, that he secretly abetted the Spaniards in their depredations. Though nothing could be more ridiculous and groundless than this accusation, yet still the minister bore it with invincible patience, and without throwing the least obstacle in the way of the Committee, which sat from day to day upon the Spanish depredations." Tindal,

its capital town and port, which has been thrice taken by the English, and besides they have two other inland towns, Meridia and Valladolid, of no great importance, having few inhabitants; but the rest of the province, before the logwood cutters were settled, was in a manner wholly desolate and uninhabited.

Nevertheless, it must be allowed, that the Spaniards had, from time to time, cut wood in several places near their own settlements; but during the hostilities that were committed in the West Indies before the year 1667, they deserted that employment, being frequently interrupted by the privateers, both by sea and land, who by degrees becoming acquainted with the coasts, and with those parts where the wood grew, that were most remote from the Spaniards, they at last fell into the trade, and laid the foundation of their future establish

ment.

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Their first settlements were near to cape Catoche but upon (if not before) the publication of the treaty concluded at Madrid in 1667, by the earl of Sandwich, they likewise settled near Suma-Sunta, adjacent to the Laguna de Terminos, and to Trist and Beef islands, which being the most convenient place for cutting of wood, and a tolerable harbour for their ships and vessels, the whole trade soon centered there. For notwithstanding the aforesaid treaty was principally intended to settle and adjust our commerce with his Catholic Majesty's dominions in Europe, yet a general, firm and perfect amity, confederation and peace being thereby agreed, and concluded (as in the first article) between the two crowns, to be observed inviolably, as well by land as by " sea and fresh waters, and between the countries, kingdoms, dominions and territories belonging unto or under the obedience of either ' of them,' &c. It was concluded, that the peace extended to America as well as Europe; whereupon many of the British privateers that had before used those seas, to the great interruption of commerce, were then induced to quit their former course, and to settle with the logwood cutters in the Laguna de Terminos;. so that in the year 1669, their numbers were considerably increased, and great quantities of wood were transported both to Jamaica and New England.

The American treaty for restraining depredations in those parts being afterwards concluded by sir William Godolphin in July, 1670, added to their strength by encouraging several others of the privateers or seamen, to fall in with this employment of cutting wood, to which it was now generally supposed they had a right by the said treaty.

And as the logwood trade was of the greatest importance to Jamaica, on the 10th of March, 1671, sir Thomas Lynch, then governor of that island, not having received any orders how to govern bimself in this affair, transmitted to the Lords of the Council the reasons that induced him to encourage the same under proper regulations.

1. That the English had done so for divers years.

2. It was in desolate and uninhabited places. 3. That this seems a possession granted by the American treaty.

4. It might give a right to seclude the Dutch and the French, if we should break with. Spain. 5. The Spaniards had not, to that time, made any complaints of it.

6. This employ makes the reducing of the privateers more easy. And

7. That it will employ 100 sail annually, and bring in more to bis Majesty's customs and the nation's trade, than any colony the King hath.

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While these arguments were under sideration, the earl of Arlington laid before the lords of the Committee, a letter from sir Thomas Modyford the late governor of Jamaica, dated the 16th of May 1672, wherein, after he had given an account of the great extent or compass of the country, in which the lodgwood grows; how meanly the Spanish towns, on the foresaid tract of land were peopled; and of the places frequented by the English, he adds,

"That they have used this trade for three years past, at first finding it by the sea-side, but afterwards being forced to go four or five miles up into the country for their refreshment, they had planted Indian provisions, and built houses there to keep themselves and their provisions from the sun and rain: That, in general, they had affirmed to him, never to have seen any Spaniards or other person, in all the time of their working, although they had gone six or seven miles farther into the country to kill deer, &c. This possession, he says, in the West-Indies, is held the strongest that can be, viz. felling of wood, building of houses, and clearing and planting the ground."

Sir Thomas Lynch, to confirm what he had before asserted, and to justify his proceedings, in November 1672, sends home the copies of several depositions he had taken from the mas ters of ships, and others concerned in the log. wood trade, and a proclamation he had issued out for the better regulation and security there of, importing,

That whereas he was informed, by the oaths of many credible witnesses, that his Majesty's subjects have used to hunt, fish, and cut wood in divers bays, islands, and parts of the continent, not frequented or possessed by any of the subjects of his Catholic Majesty, and had, for some years, peaceably done the same without any molestation; nevertheless, divers vessels having been seized at anchor and under sail by some pirates and fugitives of this island, and being in danger of being so surprised again, therefore he orders and appoints all vessels sailing out of the Port Royal, for the aforesaid lawful employments, to go out together in small squadrous, four at least in company, and to give bond to keep company with, and to obey him, whom he should make commander for the voyage, and their mutual defence, and what they should lawfully do in their own do

In January following, the secretary to the Lords of the Committee, by their order, advises the said sir Thomas Lynch, That he had acquainted him with their lordships' pleasure fully, concerning cutting of logwood, and that they did altogether allow of the same, provided those rules were observed, which they had formerly directed, and which were agreeable to what the said governor himself had already mentioned.

This allowance of carrying on the trade as aforesaid, gave fresh vigour to those engaged in it, though about this time the Spaniards began to interrupt them in the prosecution thereof, and to dispute their right to that liberty they had so long quietly enjoyed.

For we must insist on it, as an undoubted and uncontested fact, that from the publication of the treaty in 1667, until about two years after the conclusion of the American treaty, the logwood cutters had never been in the least disturbed or molested in their employment, either directly or indirectly; nor does it appear, that the Spanish governors took any umbrage at it, or made any complaint about it; much less did they pretend to an exelusive right, or that it was contrary to the laws of their commerce.

Nay, so far were they from expressing any resentment on this account, or making it a pretence to justify the first hostilities they committed, in violation of the treaties both of 1667 and 1670; that when sir Thomas Lynch sent to Don Fernando Francisco Descavedo, the governor of St. Francisco de Campeachy, to demand satisfaction for two English ships which had logwood on board, and were taken by some Spanish men of war; in his answer to that charge on the 6th of April 1672, he takes no notice of our cutting logwood, or that those ships had any on board, or that we had settled on the Laguna de Terminos, nor had he any other complaint to make by way of retaliation, save that an English vessel had taken a Spanish bark at the Laguna de Terminos bound to Tobasco, which is the more remarkable, because the said Laguna was, at that time, and had been several years, actually in our possession.

It must likewise be farther urged, That before the queen regent of Spain had published a royal Cedula, bearing date the 22d of June 1672, which orders, That such as should make 'invasion, or trade without licence in the ports of the Indies, should be proceeded against as 'pirates, &c.' It does not appear that cutting of logwood was esteemed by the Spaniards to be an invasion, and trading without licence; but by virtue of this Cedula, it was at length carried to that height, that if our ships bad but any logwood on board, they were confiscated without remedy.

Upon this subject, the earl of Arlington, on the 19th of March 1674, wrote to sir William VOL. VIIIL

lows:

In a word, his Majesty is so sensible of the 'sufferings of his subjects in this particular, 'that you must endeavour, by all the skill you 'have, to procure some liberty for the cutting of logwood, in those remote parts, where the Spaniards have none, and his Majesty's subjects have had long abode and residence; and 'the rather, for that we find, by all the replies 'we have seen, they justify themselves by that 'single point of cutting logwood, nay, even of finding it on board our vessels, which to us appears very unreasonable.'

And sir Lionel Jenkins, the judge of the admiralty, in his report to his late Majesty King Charles II, of the 8th of October 1675, intimated, That the American treaty does require a a farther elucidation and adjustment between your Majesty and the crown of Spain; 'for it appears by the judgment of the Queen, in the matter of Campeachy, and by their 'Cedulas 'Reales, that they affix a new inter

pretation upon that treaty, in declaring what

'shall be private or not private, prize or no* prize, without communicating, it seems, with your Majesty, and without publication, that may reach your Majesty's subjects.'

Thus, by a Spanish Auto, or a decree of that court, which was inconsistent with, and made (ex post facto) after the ratifications of a public and solemn treaty, it was manifestly intended, not only to debar the British subjects of that liberty they enjoyed before the said treaty was made, but in some measure, to deprive them of the common right of all nations; whereas, if your Majesty's subjects did actually hold and possess the Laguna de Terminos, and the parts adjacent, at the time of the conclusion of the American treaty, as hath been already proved, the last clause of the 7th article will determine to whom the same belongs, viz.

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'Moreover, it is agreed, that the most serene king of Great-Britain, his heirs and successors, shall have, hold, and keep, and always possess, in full right of sovereignty, seniority, possession, and propriety, all the lands, countries, islands, colonies, and other places, be they what they will, lying and situate in the West-Indies, or in any part of America, which the said king of Great-Britain and his subjects now hold and possess, insomuch they neither can, nor ought hereafter to be contested or called in question for them, upon any account, or under any pretence whatso' ever.'

And as long as the 8th article of the same treaty subsists, it will appear very extraordinary, that the Spaniards should pretend to any dominion or power in the ports or havens where they neither had fortifications, nor magazines, or in those places which were not possessed by them, because these descriptions are undoubtedly laid down by the treaty, as the sole and distinguishing marks of the sovereignty of the crown of Spain in those parts and places, which 2 Y

only we were to forbear sailing to and trafficking in, while all other ports and places were left open and free.

But notwithstanding the said treaty was so strong in our favour, the Spaniards having thereby compassed the two main ends they proposed to themselves, viz.

1st, The securing their West-India trade to themselves, by excluding us, and consequently all other nations, from trafficking with them; a point which could never be before obtained, though it was strenuously insisted on, in the reign of king James I. and afterwards in 1630. 2dly, The dispersion of the privateers, who had long miserably harrassed and distressed the Spaniards' settlements, and notably checked the increase both of their power and trade in those parts, but are now entirely reduced, by the great care of the English governors, and by their entering into the logwood trade.

Yet the only advantages Great-Britain aimed at by the treaty, viz. That, her subjects might carry on their trade without interruption, and peaceably enjoy those places they then held and possessed, were, in a great measure, absolutely defeated.

For, after the publication of the aforesaid royal Cedula, many of our ships were made prizes, under that pretence, sometimes by Spanish men of war, at other times by English pirates, seduced by the governors into the service of Spain, and afterwards by the Biscayneers, that were sent to cruise in those seas.

And, upon the same pretence, in April 1680, several ships under the command of Don Philippo de Varedda Villegas, arrived at the island of Trist and the Laguna de Terminos, attacked our logwood-catters, while separated from one another, and dislodged them from thence.

Moreover, the Spanish governors encouraged by this success, and little regarding the just right of your Majesty, or your subjects, even to plantations still more distant from their dominions, did soon resolve upon another expedition, and in 1682 surprized New Providence, one of the Bahama islands.

But these places were again soon repeopled, and the trade from Trist and the Laguna, in 1682, was greater than ever.

The rise and progress of the log-wood trade from a out the year 1667, to the year 1682, being thus stated, and laid before your Majesty, we presume it would be too tedious, and not very material to the point in question, to enter into the particulars, how, and in what manner, it was afterwards constantly carried on; and how it has been from time to time interrupted and supported until the year 1713, when the adjustment and settlement thereof was again under consideration, both at Madrid and Utrecht. But since the Spanish ambassador insists on it, that by the treaty of peace made at Utrecht, in which (he says) it is stipulated, That the lands or other places which had been taken in the Indies during the war, should be evacuated; your Majesty is engaged to

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By the 8th article it is, indeed, agreed. by his Catholic Majesty, not to alienate any of his territories in the West-Indies, to the French or any other nation; and upon this 'condition her late Majesty engages, that she will endeavour and give assistance to the Spaniards, that the ancient limits of their do'minions in America be restored, &c. if it shall appear that they have in any manner 'been broken into, and lessened in any part, 'since the death of king Charles 2.' But to argue from hence, that the Laguna de Terminos, in possession of the English before the year 1670, must be evacuated, when this treaty has only reference to what has passed siuce the demise of the said king Charles 2, is very extraordinary.

But if the ambassador refers to the memorial on the affairs of commerce, that was signed at Madrid the 13th of July 1715, by the lord Lexington, and the marquis de Bedmar, we must confess, that the article relating to the logwood trade, proposed therein by his lordship, had not then its effect: but we are assured it was from thence, among other things, referred to the discussion of the plenipotentiaries at Utrecht.

What passed particularly on this affair at Utrecht, doth not appear to us; but by the treaty of commerce concluded the 28th of November following (of which the said ambassador takes no notice in this memorial) and wherein the several interests of the two crowns, and their subjects, with respect to commerce, were more particularly under consideration, it is manifest, that the rights and liberties insisted on by the British subjects in the West-Indies, were adjusted by the Lords plenipotentiaries, and that a clause in the treaty which deternines this contest relating to the cutting of logwood, beyond all possibility of dispute for the future, was then agreed upon and concluded; it being expressly stipulated in the first article after the confirmation and ratification of the American treaty in 1670, as follows:

Without any prejudice, however, to any liberty, or power, which the subjects of