1642.

M. Houel, one of the Company governing the French West India Islands, arrived at Guadaloupe: he was received with all possible respect by M. Aubert, who communicated to him all the information he could respecting the island, and also all his plans for the future-little suspecting that M. Houel was only looking out to see what situation and which island it would suit him to apply for, for himself.

In March, the French Company of the American Islands obtained a charter, with new privileges and greater concessions, from the French court, granting to the Company and their successors, in perpetuity, the property of the said islands, from latitude 10° N. to latitude 30° N., with permission to have, upon application, the dignities of barons, counts, and marquesses, and leave to import all the productions of those islands duty-free. Four patents of nobility were given to the company, to dispose of as they thought proper, to any who should live in the said islands two years, with fifty men, at their own expence.

M. Renou, the judge at St. Christopher's, having been assassinated by one of the officers whom he had condemned to death for letting M. Maret escape from confinement, the French Company of the American Islands sent out M. Clerselier de Leumont, as civil and criminal judge, and intendant over all commissaries and officers in the island, with power to suspend them from exercising their duties, in cases of negligence or fraud, till orders from the Company could arrive, and to appoint others in the interim: his powers were to last for three years from 1642. He arrived at St. Christopher's in December, and was for some time afterwards upon very friendly terms with M. de Poincy, till he thought their duties clashed, and that M. Clerselier made unfavourable reports of his actions.

During this year, there were three hurricanes in the West Indies: the second lasted twenty-four hours, during which, at St. Christopher's, twenty-three fully-laden vessels were wrecked upon the coast one of them belonged to the celebrated De Ruyter. The houses were all blown down, and the whole of the cotton and tobacco plants were destroyed: the salt lakes overflowed their banks, and were for some time afterwards unproductive.

In 1642, or thereabouts, the Dutch, from Flushing, sent a considerable colony to (Tobago), who fixed themselves very commodiously, and though at first they found the climate sickly and unwholesome, yet by degrees, as they cleared it, the air agreed

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 207. 209. 217. 219. 221.

Harris s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 369.

with them better, and they began to extend their settlements. The Spaniards, however, from the island of Trinidad, in conjunction with the savages from St. Vincent's, fell upon the Dutch, murdered them all and destroyed their plantations: after which, the island lay for several years desert.

1643.

M. de Bretigny, on his way to take the command at Cayenne, touched at St. Vincent's. Some Negroes brought him a present from the governor, of nineteen goats, upon asses: in return, biscuit and brandy were given, with which they were very well pleased, because they had nothing to eat but goat's flesh and turtle, being without bread and without casava; yet some of M. Bretigny's men wished to remain there.

The Spanish government issued a royal ordinance upon the 15th July, 1643, declaring men of colour incapable of serving in the royal troops.

The Dutch commandant of Seara, in Brazil, had been summoned to defend Maranham against the Portuguese: he fell into an ambush, and was cut off, with about thirty Dutchmen and 100 Indians. The governor, enraged at the loss, delivered twenty-five Portuguese of St. Luiz to be devoured by the savages from Seara ; and he sent fifty to Barbadoes, to be sold as slaves to the English. The English governor ordered them to be brought on shore, as if he meant to bargain for them, and then set them at liberty, after indignantly reproving the agent, who had insulted him by offering white men and Christians for sale!"

The Spaniards sent six vessels, with 600 soldiers, besides sailors, to drive the French from the island of Tortuga. When the boats were within half gun-shot of the shore, they were received with a discharge of artillery, which sunk one, and obliged the rest to retreat. The ships weighed anchor, and proceeded two leagues further, where they made good their landing, and attacked the French. Le Vasseur, the governor, laid soldiers in ambush, by whom 100 of the Spaniards were killed, and the rest only thought of saving themselves by flight. This victory gained Le Vasseur great applause.

M. Poincy became jealous, and fearful of being reprimanded by his government for having granted the situation to a Huguenot: he tried to induce Le Vasseur to return to St. Christopher's, and sent his nephew, M. de Lonvilliers, under pretence of compli

Paul Boyer's Voyage, p. 60.

Southey's Brazil, vol. ii. p. 37.
Du Tertre, tom. i. p. 172.

Depon's South America, vol. i. p. 174.
Labat, tom. v. p. 85.

Charlevoix, tom. iii. pp. 17, 18.

menting him upon his victory, to request Le Vasseur would repair to St. Christopher's to settle with M. Poincy, about establishing a colony in the island of Española. Le Vasseur excused himself, pretending that it would be imprudent in him to quit the island, lest the Spaniards should make another attack Lonvilliers, seeing his design was suspected, returned to St. Christopher's without delay.

Le Vasseur, flushed with success, proceeded to acts of tyranny: he burnt the Roman Catholics' chapel, forbade them to exercise their religion, and obliged their priest to quit the island — a Capuchin named Father Marc, who had been driven there by a hurricane. Not content with the riches he had accumulated, he laid on new and oppressive taxes. The slightest faults were punished with excessive severity: he had an iron cage made, which he called his Hell, into which he put the criminal's head, arms, and legs, and thus kept him constantly bent together. Confinement in this was inflicted for the most trivial offences. The dungeon in his fort he called his Purgatory!

The Dutch sent a colony from St. Eustatia to Santa Croix.

Upon the 15th of September, M. Houel arrived at Guadaloupe, to supercede M. Aubert as governor; and soon afterwards there came out a cargo of young women, from the hospital of St. Joseph, at Paris: they were under the direction of Madame la Fayolle, and sent out to prevent the inhabitants from going home to France to seek for wives. Madame Fayolle brought out letters of recommendation from the Queen and other ladies of high rank, which secured their being treated with great respect, and a house was provided for them by the governor. Madame Fayolle was soon relieved from all trouble in taking care of her young friends, by the officers, who eagerly sought them in marriage.

After some short stay at Guadaloupe, M. Houel proceeded to St. Christopher's, to call upon M. de Poincy, whom he offended by calling upon M. Leumont, the intendant, first. He then waited upon De Poincy, and shewed his commissions. De Poincy said he expected M. Houel would take the oaths to him as the former governors of the islands had done. This M. Houel refused, because he was one of the Lords of the Company, and therefore in a different character from the other governors; and because, by a royal edict, he had absolute power over all the places, except that of governor-general of all the islands. M. Houel, however, afterwards offered to take the oaths, which De Poincy refused to receive, supposing himself sufficiently powerful to force him to acknowledge the royal authority. This dispute occasioned the ruin of many families, and great bloodshed,

M. Houel returned to Guadaloupe; M. Aubert, to avoid per

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 19. 172, 173. 225. 227, 228.

Charlevoix, tom. iii. p. 18.

petual disputes, quitted the island, under pretence of going to his wife at St. Christopher's.

1644.

M. Houel wrote to M. de Poincy at St. Christopher's, accusing M. Aubert of persuading the Caribs that he, M. Houel, intended to massacre them; and requesting M. de Poincy would not suffer M. Aubert to return to Guadaloupe, until the truth of the report was ascertained.

Some Caribs soon afterwards landing at Guadaloupe, M. Houel seized one, called Du Rivage, pretending that he knew what M. Aubert had said to his countrymen, and confined him in a small prison, where he was for more than two months subjected to various torments, to make him confess what was plotting among them. At last, upon being promised his liberty, Rivage confessed it was true he had told his countrymen, by M. Aubert's orders, that M. Houel was come to that country to chase them from Dominica, and massacre them. Upon this confession, M. Houel assembled his council, before whom Du Rivage repeated his confession, though it was concluded to be false, because M. Aubert's only son, and all his slaves and effects, were at Guadaloupe. M. Houel now remitted the whole statement to M. de Poincy, and sent M. Aubert's son with the officers who carried it; declaring, at the same time, he should be satisfied, if M. Aubert never returned to Guadaloupe.

De Poincy, suspecting that it was M. Houel's ambition which led him to adopt this stratagem, to oblige a lieutenant-general, whose authority clashed with his, to quit the island, directed that the witness Du Rivage should be sent to him; and for this purpose sent M. Tostain, a notary, to examine the witnesses at Guadaloupe, and bring back Du Rivage, that he might be confronted with M. Aubert. M. Tostain was furnished with an order from Du Poincy to M. Houel, to put the whole examination of the affair into his hands. Upon his arrival at Guadaloupe, the 8th of April, M. Houel refused to see him, saying he acknowledged no other judge in his island, than the Grand Council of the King: he, however, ordered his judge to answer M. Tostain as far as he could, without derogating from his particular privileges: but when M. Tostain called upon M. Marivet, and told him M. Houel's orders, the judge refused to comply with them, because the commission was not addressed to him; upon this, Tostain called upon M. Houel, who promised to refer the subject to the council: this, however, was never done; and M. Tostain, unable to obtain any satisfaction

returned to St. Christopher's, to report his bad success to M. Poincy; who, offended at his authority being disputed, drew up several articles of complaint against M. Houel, to be sent to his government in France, stating that M. Houel had declined his jurisdiction, after having acknowledged it, by demanding justice upon M. Aubert; and that the whole of the proceedings against that gentleman were null and void, because they were irregular. At the same time, M. de Poincy begged to resign the commission the Company had given him, in favour of his nephew, reserving to himself his commission from the King as lieutenant-general of the island.

M. Houel, expecting that M. de Poincy would push things to extremity, and come himself for Rivage, got a petition signed by some of the inhabitants, stating that they were not safe, from the attacks of the savages, in their houses, or gardens, or whilst fishing, and demanding the condemnation of him who wished to have all their throats cut by these barbarians. When it was known that such a petition had been handed about, general murmurs took place, to appease which M. Houel pretended to cut the petition in pieces at the church door, declaring he would not do any thing against the wish of the inhabitants: but it was only a copy that he destroyed; the original he kept, and carried with him to France, for which place he sailed in August, taking his prisoner Rivage with him: he found M. Aubert already there, making his complaints to the Company.

The director of the Company advised M. Aubert to return to the West Indies, because he thought that M. Houel's interest was too powerful to contend against. M. Aubert obeyed; and during his absence, M. Houel succeeded in getting him condemned to be beheaded for contumacy.

As soon as M. de Poincy heard that M. Houel had sailed for France, he sent fresh articles of complaint against him to the Company, to weaken, as much as he could, the injurious representation which he knew would be made against himself: he forwarded letters of complaint from the Dutch governor of St. Eustatia, Van de Woetyne, accusing M. Houel of detaining the captain of a Dutch vessel, and confining him unjustly; and from Sir Thomas Warner, accusing him of harbouring in Guadaloupe, English and Irish fugitives, who had fled from their creditors in St. Christopher's, without leave; and also for quitting the country without his leave, as lieutenant-general of the islands, and appointing a person to govern during his absence, without his sanction.

After sending his complaints to Europe, M. Poincy sent the intendant from St. Christopher's, to govern in Guadaloupe during M. Houel's absence. The intendant arrived at Guadaloupe the 3d of November, and three days afterwards waited upon M. Marivet, who had been left by M. Houel to govern that island during