About the end of this year, M. d'Enambuc died at St. Christopher's, and was succeeded in the command by M. du Halde, his lieutenant. Du Halde was commonly known by the name of "Bras de Fer," from the artificial arm which he wore, in place of one lost in the service. Du Halde disliked the appointment, and made repeated applications to be allowed to quit the island. But the Company obtained an order from the King, forbidding his quitting it, upon any pretence, until further orders. During the last thirteen years, the Dutch, who had constantly eight hundred vessels employed in commercial and military operations in the West Indies, captured, from the Spaniards and Portuguese, prizes to the amount of thirty millions. There were 766 landholders in Barbadoes this year, each occupying ten or more acres of land. "This year forms an important era in our colonial history, being marked by a law, authorizing the sale of Negroes and Indians for life."" 1637. The English population of the island of St. Christopher's were estimated at between twelve and thirteen thousand souls. Notwithstanding D'Olive's bad conduct, he had, by a grant of land to the Dominicans, so bound them to his interest, that one of them was sent to France, to counteract the representations made against him to the directors of the Company. Father Pelican succeeded so well, that he procured, through Cardinal Richelieu's interest with the Company, a new commission for D'Olive, confirming him as Captain General of Guadaloupe for the remainder of the term of ten years from his first grant, which was in 1635. The limits of the lands D'Olive had given the fathers, by a written grant, dated the 26th January, 1637, were from the River des Gallions to the Petite River, from their mouths to the mountains. The English were in possession of the island of Santa Catarina, or old Providence, and greatly annoyed the Spanish trade between Puerto Bello and Cartagena. The Spaniards called the island a den of thieves and pirates. Fifty-two sail of homeward-bound galleons, on board of one of which was Thomas Gage, in passing through the Gulf of Bahama, found two strange sail in company, supposed to be English vessels, Brougham's Colonial Policy, B. i. sec. 3. p. 338. Quarterly Review, vol. i. p. 262. continent, who, in revenge, caught basketsfull of these venomous reptiles, brought them over, and turned them loose-not only as an act of vengeance upon the living, one of which ran alongside one of the convoy, with a cargo worth 80,000 crowns, and after a short action carried her away in triumph, "without any hope of help from so proud and mighty a fleet !" 1638. The French Company of the American Islands agreed that M. de la Grange Fromenteau should be appointed to supersede M. du Halde at St. Christopher's; but M. de la Grange, not having sufficient money to establish himself on the island with proper splendour, he proposed to the commander, De Poincy, to accept the situation, and lend him 4000 livres, to fit himself out to go with De Poincy as his lieutenant. De Poincy accepted the offer, and his commission as Captain-General of St. Christopher's was dated the 16th of January, 1638, and another from the King, appointing him Lieutenant-General for his Majesty in the American islands, which was dated the 15th of February. This was the first appointment of that rank given to any person governing in those islands. M. la Grange having received 4500 livres from M. de Poincy, and got his appointment as lieutenant from the Company, sailed in April from Rochelle with his wife and family, and arrived at St. Christopher's in June. A French colony, under the command of M. St. Martin, was sent to the island of St. Martin's, and expelled by the Spaniards. At the same time the Dutch, after sustaining a siege of six weeks by 900 men, were driven off that island. Labat says, that M. de Poincy, though he took possession of that island for the King in 1636, was not able to send a colony there—a mistake certainly, because De Poincy's commission as Captain-General of St. Christopher's was not given him until the 16th of January, 1638. The Spaniards left a strong garrison upon the island. By a royal ordinance of the 28th December, 1638, stamped paper was established in the Spanish possessions in America, on the same footing as in the mother country. It was sent every year from Spain ready stamped, with an inscription at the head, designating the two years it was to be in force; after that time it became null and void, and was replaced by other paper, which the mother country took care to send in advance. When war or other occurrences prevented the receiving of new stamps in time, the governments prolong the validity of those they have. The highest stamps cost six dollars the sheet. The second class one dollar and a half each sheet; the third, half a dollar; and the fourth, the sixteenth of a hard dollar. Henry Hawley returned to England from Barbadoes, leaving Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 122. 126. 411. Davis's Hist. 173. Labat, vol. v. p. 137. Depon's South America, vol. ii. p. 122. Univ. Hist. vol. xxxvi. p. 187. his brother, William Hawley, deputy governor. The inhabitants obliged Henry Hawley to quit the island- they would no longer submit to his imperious mandates, or act under his authority. Mr. Henry Hunks assumed the government till another should be appointed to succeed Hawley. The Earl of Carlisle, convinced of Hawley's mal-administration, confirmed Hunks in the government. Sir Thomas Warner died, and was succeeded by Governor Lake. In Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 258, Colonel Rich is said to have succeeded Sir T. Warner. Colonel Jackson, with a force collected in the Windward Islands, invaded Jamaica, the inhabitants of which defended themselves with great gallantry in a pitched battle at Passage-Fort: but Jackson, after losing forty of his men, entered St. Jago de la Vega sword in hand, and having plundered the town of every thing valuable, received a considerable ransom for sparing the houses. He then retreated to his ships, and carried off his booty without interruption. The Spaniards, more alarmed at the new settlers in Tortuga and San Domingo than at the establishments of the English and French in St. Christopher's, thought, if the corps of adventurers (the name given these strangers) were dislodged from Tortuga, the rest would disappear as a matter of course. The general of the galeons had orders to attack the island, and put the whole of them to the sword. The time of attack was judiciously chosen when all the freebooters were at sea, and the greater part of the inhabitants hunting with the Buccaneers in Española. All who were taken at first were put to the sword: those who surrendered to save their lives, were hung. A few fled to the woods and mountains, where the Spaniards did not think it worth their while to follow them; and concluding that the freebooters would not venture to run the risk of such another punishment by settling there again, they departed without leaving any garrison upon the island. Some of the adventurers went to St. Christopher's. The Spaniards then tried to expel the Buccaneers from Española. For this purpose a corps of 500 lancers were embodied, to chase them: these marched generally fifty at a time, and this occasioned their being called the Fifties. The Buccaneers increased in numbers: and as the necessity of defending themselves from an enemy from whom they had no peace to expect, obliged them to elect a captain, their choice fell upon an Englishman of the name of Willis, a courageous and able man, who, with a few followers, took possession again of Tortuga : their numbers soon increased to 300, many of whom were Frenchmen. The French grew jealous of Willis's partiality to his own countrymen, and wished to appoint another captain; but Willis laughed at their efforts, and they sent secretly to St. Christopher's to De Poincy, governor-general of the islands, for assistance against the English, who were now sole masters of Tortuga. Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 96.; vol. iii. p. 7. Charlevoix, tom. iii. p. 12, 13. B. Edwards, vol. i. p. 152. 176. Du Tertre, tom. i. p. 169. 1639. M. de Poincy and suite sailed from France the 12th of January, 1639, in a large ship called La Petite Europe, and anchored at Martinico the 11th of February: he was received with military honours; and having read his commission from the King, Du Parquet, the governor, promised him obedience. Upon the 17th, De Poincy landed at Guadaloupe, and waited upon D'Olive, the governor; who, being blind, mistook De Poincy for one of his suite, and gave vent to his mortified feelings by declaring with an oath, that if he had his sight, he would prevent his general from taking possession of his island. De Poincy concealed his indignation, and after some time discovered himself, parted, apparently, upon good terms, and made sail for St. Christopher's, where he found that M. de la Grange, instead of having a house prepared for his reception, as he expected, had only thought of his own accommodation. This occasioned an immediate coolness between them, which was augmented by La Grange sending him eighteen Negroes as his share of a prize taken from the Dutch, and keeping seventy-eight for himself. De Poincy having taken a beautiful girl called Bellette from her father's house, upon the pretence that he was a debauchee and a drunkard, and afterwards making frequent visits to her, had occasioned several satirical things to be written upon him: one, in particular, called "La Nymphe Christophorine Prosopopee," written by a relation of Madame la Grange, so galled De Poincy, who blamed her for some other squib, that he seized all their moveables for the money he had advanced La Grange in France, and also twenty-two Negroes, which he claimed as his, and ordered Madame la Grange to be kept prisoner in her own house. M. de la Grange offered to pay M. de Poincy, and to send his wife to France in the first vessel; but De Poincy refused. Querolan, the author of "La Nymphe Christophorine," escaped from arrest, by seeking shelter in the woods first, and then returning to St. Eustatia in an English vessel. De Poincy claimed him from the Dutch governor; but being refused, he contented himself with confiscating his goods, and condemning him to have his head cut off-executing the sentence upon an effigy, for want of the original! A soldier, named La Barre, deserted to the English, with intelligence that De Poincy had a design to poison Sir Thomas Warner at the next dinner. This, and some disturbances at the salt lakes, had nearly produced a war between the two colonies; which was, however, settled for the time without bloodshed. October the 16th, M. de la Grange and his wife were tried by M. de Poincy's order, and found guilty of high treason. All their slaves were taken, and themselves sent prisoners to Basse Terre: from which place, however easy it might have been to escape, the fear of ambuscades and assassination prevented their making the attempt. An appeal against the sentence was made by the council of the island to the King and Company; and after enduring great indignities in prison for eleven months, La Grange and his family were released. De Poincy, however, obliged them to quit the island. Two of their servants being found at midnight near the powder magazine, De Poincy arrested them, and accused La Grange and his wife of having sent them to set fire to the magazine. Unable to substantiate his charge, he sent M. la Grange and his family away in the next vessel which sailed, and at the same time wrote to the Company and said he should have cut off their heads, if their servants had been proved guilty of the crime of which they were suspected. Upon the 26th of May, an order to desist from the cultivation of tobacco for eighteen months was, by the mutual consent of the two governors of St. Christopher's, affixed to the doors of all the churches in the island. The reason for this order was, that such a prodigious quantity had been grown, that the price in Europe was too low, and they feared it would not be worth the freight. De Poincy sent the order to M. d'Olive at Guadaloupe, and directed him to do the same; but he refused to submit to such a diminution of his income," for by his contract with the Company, they had engaged to take all the tobacco he could raise in his island, at six sous the pound, for six years. Shortly after this refusal, ill health, occasioned by vexation, obliged Ď'Olive to try the baths at Nevis: it is more than probable, remorse of conscience for the horrible cruelties he had committed upon the Caribs prevented any waters from relieving him ; at times he was strangely melancholy, and at intervals in frenzied convulsions. From Nevis he went to his house at St. Christopher's, where De Poincy refused to see him, and confined him to his own house. Having got possession of his person, De Poincy proceeded to put in execution a design he had meditated for a long time, of establishing himself at Guadaloupe, and making it the capital of all the French possessions. For this purpose he sent M. Aubert to France, to propose the sale of all their immoveable possessions in St. Christopher's, and the transporting all the slaves, &c. to Guadaloupe. In the interim, the colonists at Guadaloupe sent to beg assistance from De Poincy, who availed himself of this opportunity for sending M. de Sabouilly, with 132 colonists, to their assistance. In the month of November, more than sixty Negroes, from Capsterre, in St. Christopher's, left their masters, and fled to the Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 141-145. 153. Davis's History of the Caribs, p. 170. |