satisfaction, found two of his officers on board, from Guadaloupe MM. Ramee and Fontaine, who had been driven off that island by M. Houel. Two shirts and a great-coat, to serve as bed clothes during the passage, were left with De Thoisy, and the vessel immediately weighed anchor for Europe. On her passage, upon the 12th of May, she beat off a Spanish vessel; and upon the 17th of the same month, M. de Thoisy was landed at St. Maloes.

Thus was the Chevalier de Thoisy Patrocles driven from the West Indies, although he was furnished with fuller powers than any former governor. From the King he had a commission as lieutenantgeneral of the American islands: from the Company of the American islands a commission as seneschal of St. Christopher's, which gave him power to preside at all courts of justice; and from the Duke De Breze, grand master and superintendant of the navigation and commerce of France, he had a commission to regulate all maritime affairs. The captain who carried him out had orders from the King to bring M. de Poincy back in the same ship, and that officer had letters from the King and Company to resign his command to De Thoisy, who appears to have been a weak man; and the government which sent him allowed their orders to be disobeyed with impunity.

While M. de Thoisy was in prison at St. Christopher's, an order came out to De Poincy, allowing him to remain a year longer as lieutenant-general of that island, to put his affairs in order: and this was issued after the government knew that he had by force opposed the landing of their orders. De Thoisy was at the same time to be lieutenant-general of the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinico, and at the expiration of the year, his former commissions were to be in force.

M. du Parquet, the governor of Martinico, was released by M. de Poincy, and left St. Christopher's the 16th of February: he was received with great joy by the inhabitants at Martinico.

In Guadaloupe, M. Houel proceeded to banish all persons attached to M. de Thoisy: among the rest, the Dominicans were by an order in council directed to be embarked on board a vessel then in the road; but before the order could be executed, the vessel was taken from her anchors by a Spanish ship under Dutch colours.

In this year, the superstitious inhabitants of Guadaloupe were gratified by what they supposed a manifestation of the divine intentions. Before M. Houel's house a large mast was fixed, to which the arms of the King, the Company, and M. Houel were fastened: in a thunder shower the mast was struck by lightning, and the arms of the Company and M. Houel burnt to ashes, while the royal arms remained unhurt!

M. de Poincy, to clear his colony of the partizans of M. de Thoisy, sent 66 of them to the Virgin Islands, under

pretence of establishing a colony there. Left to their fate, Le Verrier, an ignorant and brutal man, was appointed captain and governor! They found the bones of a colony of English, who had been murdered by the Spaniards from Puerto Rico; and, notwithstanding the expectation of a similar fate, began to build houses, make canoes, and provide for remaining upon the island!

An epidemic disease raged in America and the West Indies: in Barbadoes and St. Christopher's, between five and 6000 persons died of it; at Barbadoes, the living were hardly able to bury the dead! The disease was more fatal, in the proportion of ten to one, to men than women. There was also a general scarcity of provisions throughout the island', and the mortality was increased by their throwing the dead bodies into the morass which surrounded the town: so that many died in a few hours, poisoned by drinking the water.

Many of the houses in the country were built with lines, bulwarks, and bastions, like fortresses, and fitted with cisterns, which supplied them with water in case of being besieged, either by the "Christian servants" or Negroes, and also supplied them with a means of defence: throwing scalding water upon the assailants, being one of the methods they used to prevent their walls being undermined!

About 100 sail of ships visited the island yearly: they brought servants and slaves, both men and women, horses, cattle, assinigoes,

Labet, tom. v. p. 126. Du Tertre, tom. i. p. 127.402. Holmes's A. Annals, vol. i. p. 284. Ligon's Hist. of Barbadoes, p. 21. 25. 29. 40.

The food of the servants and Negroes at Barbadoes at this time is thus described by Ligon, p. 37 ·

"But now, at my coming away from thence (Barbadoes), it was much better'd; for by the care and good husbandry of the planters, there was greater plenty, both of the victuals they were wont to eate as potatoes, bonavist, loblolly, as also of the bone meat, viz. porke, salt fish, and powdered beefe, which came thither by sea from forraine parts, in so much as the Negroes were allowed each man two maquerels a weeke, and every woman one, which were given out to them on Saturday in the evening, after they had their allowance of plantines, which was every one a large bunch, or two little ones, to serve them for a week's provision, and if any cattle dyed by mis. chance, or by any disease, the servants eat the bodies, and the Negroes the skinnes, head, and intrails, which was divided amongst them by the overseers; or if any horse, then the whole bodies of them were distributed amongst the Negroes-and that they thought a high feast, with which, never poor soules were more contented! and the drinke to the servants with this

dyet, nothing but mobbie, and sometimes a little beveridge; but the Negroes nothing but fair water!"

2 Ligon, in his History of Barbadoes, p. 54, thus relates the story of Yarieo : —

Shee

"He had an Indian woman, a slave, in the house, who was of excellent shape and colour: this woman would not be woo'd by any means to weare cloaths. chanc't to be with child, by a Christian servant, and lodging in the Indian house, amongst other women of her own country, where the Christian servants, both men and women, came; and being very great, and that her time was come to be delivered, loath to fall in labour before the men, walked down to a wood, in which was a pond of water, and there, by the side of the pond, brought herself a-bed, and presently washing her child in some of the water of the pond, lap'd it up in such rags as she had begg'd of the Christians; and in three hours time came home with her childe in her armes, a lusty boy, frolick and lively!

"This Indian dwelling near the seacoast, upon the Main, an English ship put into a bay, and sent some of her men a-shoar, to try what victualls or water they could

camels', utensils for boiling sugar, all sorts of working tools for tradesmen, cloth of all kinds, and victuals of all kinds. The exports from the island were indigo, cotton wool, tobacco, sugar, ginger, and fustic wood.

Tamarind trees were first planted in Barbadoes about this time, and also the palm tree: the latter was brought from the East Indies.

One of the first acts passed by the Assembly of Barbadoes, after the arrival of Lord Willoughby, was a declaration of their allegiance and fidelity to Charles the First, at that time a prisoner; and on the death of that monarch, in 1649, the popular feeling ran so high, that those planters, who were suspected to be in the interest of the Parliament, were obliged to seek protection in England.

Madame de Thoisy, the wife of General de Thoisy, followed her husband to Europe from St. Eustatia, in a ship commanded by Michael de Ruyter, afterwards the Dutch admiral.

Ligon's Hist. of Barbadoes, p. 60. B. Edwards, vol. i. p. 341.

finde, for in some distresse they were: but the Indians, perceiving them to go up so far into the country, as they were sure they could not make a safe retreat, intercepted them in their return, and fell upon them, chasing them into a wood, and being dispersed there, some were taken and some killed; but a young man amongst them stragling from the rest, was met by this Indian maid, who, upon the first sight, fell in love with him, and hid him close from her countrymen (the Indians) in a cave, and there fed him, till they could safely go down to the shoar, where the ship lay at anchor, expecting the return of their friends; but at last, seeing them upon the shoar, sent the long boat for them, took them aboard, and brought them away. But the youth, when he came ashoar in the Barbadoes, forgot the kindnesse of the poor maid, that had ventured her life for his safety, and sold her for a slave, who was as free-born as he! - And so poor Yarico for her love lost her liberty!"

After describing the chegoes (page 65), which, he says, are "no bigger than a mite that breeds in cheese," he says, "The Indian women have the best skill to take them out, which they do by putting in a small poynted pinne, or needle at the hole where he came in, and winding the poynt about the bagge, loosen him from the flesh, and so take him out. He is of a blewish colour, and is seene through the skinne; but the Negroes, whose skinns are of that color (or near it), are in ill case, for they cannot

Du Tertre, t. i. p. 394.

they are, many of them, very lame. Some of the chegoes are poysonous, and after they are taken ut, the orifice in which they lay will fester and rankle for a fortnight after they are gone. I have had tenne taken out of my feet in a morning, by the most unfortunate Yarico, an Indian woman !”

In the account of Capt. Charles Leigh's Voyage to Guiana, there is the following account of the Indian method of extracting these insects, ("niguas”) : —“ But one of our men, having his feete overgrowne with them, for want of hose and shooes, was faine to submit himself to the Indian's cure, who tying one of his legges, first, with his feet upward, powred hot melted waxe which is blacke upon it, and letting it lye upon it till it was thoroughly cold, they forcibly pulled it off: and there withall the wormes came out, sticking in the same, 7 or 800 in number. This man was named John Nettleton, a dier of London, which afterwards was drowned."-Purchas's Voyage, Partiv. Lib. 6. C. 2. p. 1252.

1 "Camells: these are very useful beasts, but very few will live upon the island; divers have been brought over, but few know how to diet them. Capt. Higginbotham had four or five, which were of excellent use, not only of carrying sugar to the bridge, but of bringing from thence hogsheads of wine, beer, or vinegar, which horses cannot do, nor can carts pass for gullies, and Negroes cannot carry it: a good camell will carry 1600lb. weight, and go the surest of any beast."- Ligon's Hist.

1648.

In January the Spaniards sent an expedition of 300 men, under the command of the governor's nephew, from Puerto Rico, to destroy the colonists upon the Virgin Islands; and, after a desperate resistance, they succeeded in killing and taking the whole, except eighteen, who escaped to the woods: the Spaniards then burnt and destroyed whatever they could not carry off, and embarked with their commander mortally wounded. When they were gone, the surviving French returned to their smoking habitations, and with some iron utensils made a canoe, in which five of them set off to look for help, and the others followed soon afterwards: they were all taken up by a Spanish bark, treated with great kindness, and carried to Puerto Rico, where the Governor, Don Francisco Maldonado, conceiving them men particularly favoured by God, kindly received them. Two afterwards married and settled on the island, and the others became the first colonists upon the island of St. Martin's. M. de Poincy sent a colony of fifty men, under the command of Jacques Gentes, to take possession of St. Bartholomew's for the West India Company. Du Tertre, in his second volume, p. 33, calls the governor, Le Sieur le Gendre.

The Spaniards, weary of expending 100,000 crowns per year to maintain a garrison upon the island of St. Martin's, resolved to withdraw their men, destroy the fortifications and cisterns, and lay waste the island. To assist at the demolition, a number of labourers were sent from Puerto Rico, and among those, four of the Frenchmen who had escaped upon a raft, or "pyperi," from the Virgin Islands. After the fortifications, &c., were destroyed, these Frenchmen and five Dutchmen fled into the woods till the Spaniards were gone; and then, upon a raft, the Dutchmen got to St. Eustatia, and gave the governor, Abraham Adriensen, intelligence that the Spaniards had left St. Martin's: they also promised the French to send information to their governor at St. Christopher's.

In the work which Davis has translated, it is stated that De Ruyter observed, as he passed the island, that it was abandoned by the Spaniards, and carried the intelligence to St. Eustatia. The occurrence is there dated in 1649.

The Dutch governor, however, sent some colonists, under the command of Martin Thomas, whose commission from Adriensen is dated the 14th of February, 1648, and Thomas took possession of the island in the name of the States General.

The French, who were headed by a man named Fichot, contrived to let M. de Poincy know that the Spaniards had abandoned the island; and that general, upon the plea that there had been a con

Labet, tom. v. p. 129. 137. 144. Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 408, 409. 416. Davis, p. 26.

vention between Fichot and his companions and the five Dutchmen, and also because he had in his possession an order from the French King, dated 1638, to M. St. Martin, to take possession of that island, which he said the Dutch had done by surprise the same year, and, in consequence of building a fort, given offence to the Spaniards, who expelled both nations from the island, sent M. la Tour, with thirty men, to St. Martin's, where the Dutch governor, Thomas, refused to let them land, because the island was in his possession, and gave La Tour a copy of his commission from the governor of St. Eustatia. With this La Tour returned to St. Christopher's, and De Poincy immediately sent his nephew, M. Lonvilliers, with 300 men, to take possession by force, if necessary, and to preserve the royal interests, such as they were when the Spaniards took the fort built by the Dutch. This order is dated the 16th of March. Lonvilliers arrived at St. Martin's the next day; and the Dutch, unable to prevent the landing of such a force, agreed to nine articles, by which it was settled, that the French were to have all the coast opposite Anguilla', and the Dutch that to the south; the subjects of both nations were to live in peace with each other; and the right of hunting, fishing, and the salt lakes, rivers, mines, minerals, dye-woods, and the harbours, were to be common to both. If any enemy appeared, both nations were to make common cause in defending the island.

A party of Dutch buccaneers fixed themselves at Tortola, and built a fort for their protection.

Extracts from the "Traité de Paix, entre Philippe IV. Roi Catholique d'Espagne, et les Seigneurs Etats-Generaux des Provinces Unies des Pais Bas: par lequel lesdits Etats sont reconnus libres et souverains, avec renonciation de la part dudit Roi, pour lui et ses successeurs, à toutes les pretentions qu'il y avoit auparavant. On y convient au reste de l'établissement d'une bonne et inviolable paix, entre les pais, et sujets de part et d'autre; et de tout ce qui regarde le commerce, la navigation, les possessions, et B. Edwards, vol. i. p. 500. Du Mont, tom. vi. partie i. p.429.

Du Tertre, tom. i. p. 411.

Mr. Coleridge's Account of Anguilla, in “ Six Months in the West Indies in 1825." "Anguilla presents a very singular appearance for a West Indian Island. A little wall of cliff of some forty feet in height generally rises from the beach, and when you have mounted this, the whole country lies before you gently sloping inwards, in a concave form, and sliding away, as it were, to the south, where the land is only just above the level of the sea. The Flat Island and St. Martin's terminate the view in this direction. Seven tenths of the country are entirely uncultivated; in some parts a few coppices, but more commonly a pretty species of myrtle called by the Negroes maiden berry, seem to cover the

over which it is most delightful to ride, and the houses and huts of the inhabitants are scattered about in so picturesque a manner that I was put in mind of many similar scenes in Kent and Devonshire. Indeed, there were scarcely any of the usual features of West Indian scenery visible; neither of those prominent ones, the lively windmill or the columnar palm, was to be seen; and there was a rusticity, a pastoral character on the face of the land, its roads and its vegetation, which is the exact antipode of large plantations of sugar. I believe I did see one dwarf cocoa-nut tree, but it looked miserable and unhappy, and was evidently