January the 3d, Thomas Thompson, of the sloop Sally, saw a white flag flying upon the island of Inagua: he found twentythree women and fifty-three men and boys, who had been landed there from a brig, from Dunlary in Ireland, bound to Charlestown. They were told the island was well inhabited, and provisions plenty; but when they found themselves deceived, and wanted to return on board, they were fired at, and one man killed. They were all in a most distressed situation.

The island of Jamaica exported 1,201,801 pounds of coffee, this

year.

In April, the following regulations were made at Jamaica, in favour of the Negroes:

"Firstly. Every possessor of a slave is prohibited from turning him away, when incapacitated by sickness or age; but must provide for him the wholesome necessaries of life, under a penalty of £10 for every offence.

"Secondly. Every person who mutilates a slave shall pay a fine not exceeding 100, and be imprisoned not exceeding twelve months; and in very atrocious cases, the slaves may be declared free.

"Thirdly. Any person wantonly or bloody-mindedly killing a slave, shall suffer death.

"Fourthly. Any person whipping, bruising, wounding, or imprisoning a slave, not his property, nor under his care, shall be subject to fine and imprisonment.

"Fifthly. A parochial tax to be raised for the support of Negroes disabled by sickness and old age, having no owners."

The annual loss of slaves, in twenty years ending this year, (that is, the excess of deaths above the births), was in Jamaica about one in a 100.

Thirty-two millions of pounds of coffee were exported from the French part of St. Domingo this year.

For four years and nine months previous to the 30th of September, 1788, only fifty-two slaves had been executed in Jamaica.

Montserrat is stated to contain about 30,000 acres, of which 6000 are appropriated to the culture of sugar, 2000 to cotton, 2000 to ground provisions, 2000 to pasturage: the rest is either very mountainous or very barren.

There were 8310 slaves upon the island, one-third of whom were employed in cultivating the land, one-third were old Negroes or children incapable of work. Tradesmen, grass-gangs, and domestics formed the remainder.

The average crop, from 1784 to 1788, both inclusive, was

Annual Register, 1788, pp. 201. 206.-1791, p. 178, Pitt's Speech.

Sir W. Young's Common place Book, p. 74.

Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789.

2737 hhds. of sugar, 1107 puncheons of rum, 275 bales of cotton. No coffee or cocoa grown for exportation.

The net income of the value of the estates, not above three per cent. on the capital invested.

Nevis was stated to contain 24,640 acres, whereof 6000 were capable of culture. About 4000 slaves were employed in the cultivation of sugar; 1000 in menial offices; 500 in fishing, trades, and other employments; and 2800 unfit for labour, from infancy, age, and infirmity. The produce, one hogshead of sugar per acre. If the planter resided on the spot, his net income was £10 per hogshead ; if he resided in England, £ 8.

In Grenada, there were 26,775 slaves; and of free coloured people, 454 males and 661 females.

A new Negro, if of a good country and young, was worth £40; and a young woman, £38. The island is stated to contain 80,000 acres, of which 45,000 were cultivated.

The number of slaves in St. Christopher's were estimated at 23,000; and the produce of an acre, at a hogshead and a half of sugar. The net income of the owner, " perhaps at six per cent."

Mr. Dawson, a Liverpool merchant, contracted with the Spanish government to supply the Spanish colonies with not less than 3000 slaves, but as many more as he could procure, at 200 dollars for the males, 190 for the women, 175 for the boys, and 145 for girls. The proportion to be two-thirds males and one-third females.

1789.

The Moravian missionaries began their pious labours in Tobago. About this year, the Assembly at Grenada passed a law to provide guardians in every parish, who were obliged, upon oath, to oversee and protect the Negroes from injurious treatment. Soon afterwards, a lady was fined £500, for cruelty towards her Negro. Dr. Coke says, that the inhabitants of Grenada treat their slaves with less severity than those of any of the other islands.

The Moravians in Antigua baptized, in the course of this year, 507 adults and children in St. John's, and 217 in Gracehill, from Easter 1788 to Easter 1789.

The Assembly of Jamaica passed an act, to give the overseers twenty shillings a head, for every child they raise to twelve months old, in any of the plantations.

At Demerara, about 1000 Negroes from the different plantations agreed to murder all the white men. The time was fixed; but

Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789, Mr. Spooner's Evidence. — Spain, Part VI. Dr. Coke's History of the West Indies, vol. i. p. 209.; vol. ii. pp. 75. 425.

the Negroes, on one of the plantations, mistaking the day, murdered every white man on it; which gave the alarm, and saved the rest. The ringleaders were put to the torture, which they bore with fortitude, glorying in what they were about to execute.

The population of Surinam and Berbice was estimated at 4000 Whites and 90,000 Negroes - being an increase of 40,000 slaves since the year 1769, while the number of Whites remained the

same.

The lords of the privy council determined, on an appeal from the Bahama islands, that upon change of property of a vessel, a new register cannot be obtained for her at any other port than that where she was originally registered; and that a British subject, without a fixed place of residence, cannot be the owner of a vessel, so as to be entitled to register her as a British ship.

There was not any rain fell in Antigua for seven months. The crop of sugar was destroyed, and 5000 horned cattle perished for want of water.

By the statement of the Liverpool merchants, in the report of the committee of 1789, the average number of Negroes exported by Great Britain was estimated at 38,000. The opinion of the French traders, mentioned in the same report, is, that the British carry over 40,000 to their West India islands, and re-export two-thirds of that number.

A slave, in Tobago, was stabbed by a White, manager of an estate, in the presence of many other slaves. The man died on the spot, and the White was tried; but, for want of such evidence as West India courts of law require, was acquitted. “Another case (Mr. Justice Ottley says) occurred in St. Vincent's. A White was strongly suspected of having shot his brother-in-law. The fact was said by two or three slaves to have been done in their presence, and the coroner's inquest (he thinks) confirmed this suspicion, by a verdict of wilful murder against this White. At a court where he (Mr. Justice Ottley) presided, the cause was tried; and although there scarcely remained a doubt with the jury of the man's guilt, he was nevertheless acquitted, for want of sufficient evidence.”

In February, the Methodist missionary at St. Christopher's (Mr. Hammet) had raised in different parts of the island a society of 700 members. These converts were raised in the space of two years.

In June, Mr. Hammet applied to General Walterstorff, the governor of Santa Cruz, for permission to instruct the slaves in that island. He was ordered to draw up a petition to the King of Denmark for that purpose: he did so; and Dr. Knox, a Presbyterian

Annual Register, 1790, p. 16.

Edwards, vol. i. p. 485.

Brougham's Colonial Policy, book i. sect. 3. p. 531.; book ii. sect. 3. p. 179. Parliamentary Papers, 1790, Henry Ottley, Esq., Chief Justice of St. Vincent's, Evidence. Coke's West Indies, vol. iii. pp. 58. 169.

minister upon the island, got it translated into the Danish language, and the original and the translation were sent to Copenhagen. On the presumption of the future success both of the petition and of the preaching, Mr. Hammet provisionally engaged a spot of land on which to erect a chapel for public worship. No answer was returned to this petition.

Upon the 21st of May, the Moravians at St. Christopher's laid the foundation of their chapel: it was opened in the October following. "After the usual Sunday's service, seventeen Negroes were baptized; three baptized women were received into fellowship, and twenty-five were added to the candidates for baptism. The day was closed by the communicants, who were sixty in number, who then partook of the holy sacrament." "In general (they observe), the number of Negroes that attend the chapel has much increased this year, and many have become not only hearers of the word of God, but doers also; seventy-five adults and eleven children were baptized in the year 1789; and the number of Negroes that were baptized, or considered as candidates for baptism, belonging to this mission, was upwards of 300 at the close of the year."

The King of Spain issued a royal order respecting the supplying the islands of Cuba, Santo Domingo, and the provinces of Caracas, with Negroes; by which Spaniards and foreigners were allowed for two years to import them duty free. If bought for domestic service, the purchaser was to pay an annual capitation-tax of two dollars, in order to check luxury."

It appears from official documents from the Havaña, dated July 1811, and laid before the Cortes, that the import of slaves into the Havaña, from 1763 to this year, 1789, was only 24,875.

Coke's West Indies, vol. iii. p. 50.

Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789, Spain, Part VI. Inquiry into the Duty of compelling Spain to relinquish her Slave Trade in Northern Africa, 1816, p. 57.

Upon the 31st of May, the Spanish government issued the following royal ordinance for the government and protection of slaves in the Spanish colonies :

PROCLAMATION.

"In the code and other collection of laws published in this kingdom; in the abridgment of the statutes concerning the Indies; in the general and particular orders communicated in my dominions in America since the discovery of it; and in the ordinances, which, being examined by my council of the Indies, have merited my royal approbation, the system of making slaves useful has been established, observed, and constantly followed, and every thing necessary decreed, with respect to the edu

their masters are obliged to give them, agreeable to the principles and rules of religion, humanity, and the good of the state dictate, consistent with slavery and the public tranquillity: nevertheless, as it is not an easy matter for all my subjects in America who keep slaves to be sufficiently instructed in all the laws of the said collection, and much less in the general and particular orders and ordinances approved of for different provinces; and considering that, on this account, notwithstanding what has been decreed by my august predecessors with respect to the education, treatment, and occupation of slaves, some abuses have been introduced by their masters and the stewards, which were not at all conformable, but, on the contrary, opposed to the

The French in St. Domingo had in their possession, this year, 480,000 Negro slaves.

Edwards, vol. iii. p. 13.