tionary at Antigua: in hearing the caufes from the other iflands he fits alone, but in caufes arifing within the island he is affifted by a council; and by an act of affembly, fanctioned by the crown, the prefident and a majority of the council may hear and determine chancery causes during the abfence of the governor-general; befides this court, there is a court of King's Bench, a court of Common Pleas, and a court of Exchequer.

The legislature of Antigua confifts of the commander in chief, a council of twelve members, and an affembly of twenty-five. The legiflature of Antigua fet the first example of a melioration of the criminal law respecting negro flaves, by allowing them a trial by jury, &c. And the inhabitants, still more to their honour, have encouraged the propagation of the gospel among their flaves.

GRE

GRENADA,

AND THE

GRENADINES

GRENADA lies in weft longitude 61° 40′, north latitude 12° 0′,

It is the laft of the windward Caribbees, and lies thirty leagues north of New-Anda'ufia, on the continent. According to fome, it is twenty-four leagues in compafs; according to others, only twentytwo; and it is faid to be thirty miles in length, and in fome places fifteen in breadth. The ifland abounds with wild game and fish; it produces alfo very fine timber, but the cocoa tree is observed not to thrive here fo well as in the other iflands. A lake on a high mountain, about the middle of the ifland, fupplies it with fresh water streams. Several bays and harbours lie round the ifland, fome of which might be fortified to great advantage; fo that it is very convenient for fhipping, not being fubject to hurricanes. The foil is capable of producing tobacco, fugar, indigo, peafe and millet.

Columbus found it inhabited by a fierce, warlike people, who were left in quiet poffeffion of the ifland till 1650; though, according to others, in 1638, M. Poincy, a Frenchman, attempted to make a fettlement in Grenada, but was driven off by the Caribbeans, who reforted to this ifland in greater numbers than to the neighbouring ones, probably on account of the game with which it abounded. In 1650, however, Monf. Parquet, governor of Martinico, carried over from that ifland two hundred men, furnished with prefents to reconcile the favages to them; but with arms to fubdue them, in cafe they should prove untractable. The favages are faid to have been frightened into fubiniffion by the number of Frenchmen; but, according to fome French writers, the chief not only welcomed the new-comers, but, in confideration of fome knives, hatchets, fciffars, and other toys, yielded to Parquet the fovereignty of the island, referving to themselves their own habitations. The Abbé Raynal informs us, that thefe firft French colonifts, imagining they had pur.

chafed

chafed the island by thefe trifles, affumed the fovereignty, and foon acted as tyrants. The Caribs, unable to contend with them by force, took their ufual method of murdering all those whom they found in a defenceless state. This produced a war; and the French fettlers, having received a reinforcement of three hundred men from Martinico, forced the favages to retire to a mountain; from whence, after exhaufting all their arrows, they rolled down great logs of wood on their enemies. Here they were joined by other favages from the neighbouring islands, and again attacked the French, but were defeated anew; and were at last driven to fuch defperation, that forty of them, who had efcaped from the flaughter, jumped from a precipice into the fea, where they all perished, rather than fall into the hands of their implacable enemies. From thence the rock was called le morne des fauteurs, or, "the hill of the leapers," which name it still retains. The French then destroyed the habitations and all the provifions of the favages; but frefh fupplies of the Caribbeans arriving, the war was renewed with great vigour, and great numbers of the French were killed. Upon this they refolved totally to exterminate the natives; and having accordingly attacked the fa vages unawares, they inhumanly put to death the women and chil dren, as well as the men; burning all their boats and canoes, to cut off alfo communication between the few furvivors and the neigh bouring iflands. Notwithstanding all these barbarous precautions, however, the Caribbees proved the irreconcileable enemies of the French; and their frequent infurrections at laft obliged Parquet to fell all his property in the island to the Count de Cerillac in 1657.† The new proprietor, who purchafed Parquet's property for thirty thoufand crowns, fent thither a perfon of brutal manners to govern the island. He behaved with such infupportable tyranny, that most of the colonists retired to Martinico; and the few who remained condemned him to death after a formal trial. In the whole court

*

Of the manner in which thefe perfons carried on the war against the natives, a pretty correct estimate may be formed from the following circumftance: a beautiful young girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age, who was taken alive, became the object of difpute between two of the French officers; each of thern claiming her as his prize, a third coming up, put an end to the contest by shooting the girl through

the head.

+ Mr. Edwards attributes this fale to another caufe; he fays, the Caribbees were totally extinct, and that it was the great expense which Parquet had been at in conquering the island which obliged him to fell it.

of

257

of justice that tried this mifcreant, there was only one man (called Archangeli) who could write. A farrier was the person who impeached; and he, inftead of the fignatures, fealed with a horfefhoe; and Archangeli, who performed the office of clerk, wrote round it thefe words in French, "Mark of Mr. de la Brie, counsel for the court."

Cerrilac receiving, as fuppofed, but little profit from his capital, conveyed all his rights, &c. to the French Weft-India company; the charter of which being abolished in 1674, the island became vefted in the crown of France. Under the various calamities to which this ifland was fubjected, it will not be fuppofed to have made much progrefs. By an account taken in 1700, there were at Grenada no more than two hundred and fifty-one white people, fiftythree free favages or mulattoes, and five hundred and twenty-five flaves. The useful animals were reduced to fixty four horfes and five hundred and fixty-nine head of horned cattle. The whole culture confifted of three plantations of fugar, and fifty-two of indigo. This unfavourable state of the affairs of Grenada was changed in 1714. The change was owing to the flourishing condition of Martinico. The richest of the fhips from that ifland were fent to the Spanish coafts, and in their way touched at Grenada to take in réfreshments. The trading privateers, who undertook this navigation, taught the people of that ifland the value of their foil, which only required cultivation. Some traders furnished the inhabitants with flaves and utenfils to erect fugar plantations. An open account was established between the two colonies. Grenada was clearing its debts gradually by its rich produce, and the balance was on the point of being clofed, when the war in 1744 interrupted the communication between the two islands, and at the fame time stopped the progrefs of the fugar plantations. This lofs was fupplied by the culture of coffee, which was purfued during the hoftilities with all the activity and eagerness that induftry could infpire. The peace of 1748 revived all the labours, and opened all the former fources of wealth. In 1753, the population of Grenada confifted of one thousand two hundred and fixty-two white people, one hundred and feventy-five free negroes, and eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-one llaves. The cattle amounted to two thousand two hundred and ninety-eight horfes or mules, two thousand four hundred and fifty-fix head of horned cattle, three thousand two hundred and seventy-eight teep, nine hundred and two goats, and three hundred and thirty-one

VOL. IV.

LI

hogs.

hogs. The cultivation rose to eighty-three fugar plantations, two millions feven hundred and twenty-five thousand fix hundred coffee trees, one hundred and fifty thoufand three hundred cacoa trees, and eight hundred cotton plants. The provifions confifted of five millions feven hundred forty thousand four hundred and fifty trenches of caffada, nine hundred and thirty-three thousand five 'hundred and ninety-fix banana trees, and one hundred and fortythree fquares of potatoes and yams. The colony made a rapid progrefs, in proportion to the excellence of its foil; but in the course of 'the laft war but one, the island was taken by the British. At this time, "one of the mountains at the fide of St. George's harbour was strongly fortified, and might have made a good defence, but furrendered without firing a gun; and by the treaty concluded in 1763 the inland was ceded to Britain. On this ceffion, and the management of the colony after that event, the Abbé Raynal has the following remarks: "This long train of evils [the ambition and mifmanage. ment of his countrymen] has thrown Grenada into the hands of the English, who are in poffeffion of this conqueft by the treaty of 1763. But how long will they keep this colony? Or, will it never again be reftored to France? England made not a fortunate beginning. In the firft enthufiafm raifed by an acquifition, of which the highest 'opinion had been previously formed, every one was eager to purchafe eftates there; they fold for much more than their real value. This caprice, by expelling old colonists who were inured to the climate, fent about one million five hundred and fifty-three thoufand pounds out of the mother country. This imprudence was followed by another. The new proprietors, mifled by national pride, fubftituted new methods to thofe of their predeceffors; they attempted to alter the mode of living among their flaves. The negroes, who from their very ignorance are more attached to their cuftoms than other men, revolted. It was found neceflary to fend out troops, to shed blood: the whole colony was filled with fufpicions: the mafters, who had laid themfelves under a neceffity of ufing violent methods, were afraid of being burnt or maffacred in their own plantations: the labours declined, or were totally interrupted. Tranquillity was at length reftored, and the number of flaves increafed 'as far as forty thousand, and the produce raifed to the treble of what it was under the French government. The plantations were farther improved by the neighbourhood of a dozen of islands, called the Grenadines or Grenadilloes, which are dependent on the colony.

and

They