to inconvenience, and produce the most ornamental effect. Their cap is of fine linen covered with lace, in the shape of a mitre, plentifully starched, and not easily discomposed. This they call panito, and wear as an undress."

"In Jamaica," he says, "I have known a whole company of men pledge one another in laudanum. The women, although they sip it drop by drop, it is repeated so frequently, that they take pretty near as much as those who take larger doses at a time, and its effects are equally fatal. Some ladies are never without a bottle of it in their pocket, with some lumps of sugar, and take it privately, eighty or a hundred drops at a time." He speaks of it as a "horrid fashion," which had taken ❝ firm hold" in the island.

It was enacted by 10 Geo. III. cl. 2. cap. 37., that disputes having arisen in some ports of America, whether naval officers were entitled to receive such fees as their predecessors had before September 1764-after the 1st day of August, 1770, every officer in his Majesty's customs, and every naval officer, was entitled to receive such fees as they and their predecessors had received before the 29th of September, 1764-any act of Assembly made in the plantations to the contrary notwithstanding; and denouncing a penalty of fifty pounds on officers exceeding their usual fees.

Mr. Long says, "The admission of twelve principal merchants into the French council of commerce has always been regarded as a master-stroke of policy; and the surprising increase of French trade, shipping, and colonies, has very justly been dated from the first erection of that council." And if the legislature of Jamaica would, in imitation of the French, promulge a code of laws respecting the Negroes, punishing all secret practices of barbarity, men whose callous hearts are impenetrable to the feelings of human nature might be affected by legal pains and penalties; and if proper encouragement was given to informers, it would be impossible to act such oppressions often." He adds, "If the number of hogsheads (of sugar) annually made from any estate exceeds or even equals the whole aggregate of Negroes employed upon it, but few children will be brought up on such estate, whatever number may be born; but where the proportion is half a hogshead for every Negro, there they will, in all likelihood, increase very rapidly."

William Stewart, Esq. was appointed lieutenant-governor of Tobago.

Upon the 7th of September, the Dolly, Peter Maddock, arrived at Cowes, laden with sugar, from Tobago. This is the

Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 111.; vol. ii. pp. 405. 437. 546.
Annual Register, 1770, pp. 145. 182.

first vessel that ever cleared out for Europe, with produce from that island.'

The crew of the Berwick, Captain Moore, from St. Vincent's to London, were taken up by the Mars, Captain Holland, bound to Liverpool. The Berwick had foundered four days before, and the whole crew, thirteen men, and one woman passenger, were crowded in an open boat, without any provisions.

George Mackenzie, Esq. was appointed, in August, commander-in-chief of his Majesty's ships and vessels at Jamaica, in the room of Commodore Foster.

October the 18th, William Stewart, Esq. was appointed. lieutenant-governor of Dominica, and William Young, Esq. lieutenant-governor of Tobago.

The house of Somelsdyk sold its portion of the colony of Surinam to the city of Amsterdam for £60,000 sterling.

The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed eight ships, and consisted of 5795 hogsheads of sugar, 499 tierces and 1603 bags of coffee, and 337 bales of cotton.

The population of Martinico consisted of 12,450 Whites, 1814 free people of colour, 70,553 Negro slaves, and 443 runaway slaves.

The sugar ant, so called from its ruinous effects upon the sugar-cane, appeared for the first time at Grenada, on a sugar plantation at Petit Havre. They were supposed to have been brought from Martinico by some smuggling vessel.

"At St. Domingo, at the town of Cape François, it is asserted by Currejolles, in the Journel de Phys. p. 106, that a water barometer was observed to sink two inches and a half, immediately before the earthquake of 1770.”

A family of Whites settled on Boracha (the largest of the Caraccas islands), and cultivated maize and cassava. The father alone survived his children. As his wealth had increased, he purchased two black slaves. By these slaves he was murdered. His goats became wild. The two slaves escaped punishment, until one of them informed against his accomplice, and obtained pardon on condition of hanging all the prisoners, on whom sentence of death was pronounced. In 1799, he was still hangman at Cumana.

£346 2s. 6d. was collected at Liverpool for the sufferers by the late fire at Antigua, and sent to that island by the Favourite, Captain Kevish.

Annual Register, 1770, pp. 73. 149. 184, 185.
Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, p. 346. Appendix.
Edwards, vol. i. p. 397.

Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 317.

Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. ii. p. 224.; vol. iii. p. 359.

1 From the great value of the exports, as given by Campbell, I suspect this must be a mistake.

The King, by an order in council, directed that Dominica should be erected into a government separate from and independent of the general government of the southern Caribbee islands, of which it before made a part. Sir William Young, Bart. was appointed governor thereof.

Upon the 3d of June, about a quarter past seven in the evening, four violent shocks of an earthquake were felt at Cape Nicola Mole, in St. Domingo: the most severe lasted two minutes and a half, accompanied with a noise much like the echo from the hills after the firing of cannon. The town did not receive any damage, but the city of Port-au-Prince was entirely destroyed not one house was left standing, and above 500 persons were buried in the ruins. Petit Gouave and Leogane were also destroyed. The plains of Leogane, Port-au-Prince, Petit Gouave, suffered considerably-all the sugar works were destroyed; and La Croix de Bouquet, a small town, with the greatest part of its inhabitants, was swallowed up. The earthquake extended thirty-five leagues, and the sea rose a league and a half up into the island.

Jamaica, v. 3. act. 5., enacts, that coroners, upon information of any body being found, should take an inquest thereon agreeable to the laws of England. Fees to be paid on the view of a free person, out of the goods and chattels of the person found dead; and if such person shall be a slave, by the churchwardens of the parish where the inquisition shall be taken.

The exports from Jamaica, this year, amounted to £1,538,730. From Nevis to Great Britain, £43,827 10s.; and to America, £14,155.

From St. Christopher's to Great Britain, £367,074.

From Barbadoes to Great Britain, 311,012; to America, 119,828; and to the other islands, £1173.

From Antigua to Great Britain, £430,210; to North America, £35,551 7s. 6d.; to the other islands, £229 10s. From Montserrat to Great Britain, £89,907; to North America, 12,633.

From the Virgin Islands to Great Britain, £61,696; to North America, £10,132 10s.

From Anguilla to Great Britain, £3800; to North America, 2057 10s.

From Dominica to Great Britain, £46,365 5s. 8d.; to North America, £16,496 10s.

From Tobago to Great Britain, £451,650 8s. 3d.; to North America, £51,061 7s. 6d. ; to the other islands, £671 10s.

Annual Register, 1770, pp. 129, 130. 136.

Parliamentary Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789.

Campbell's Political Survey, vol. ii. pp. 666. 669. 671, 672. 674. 677. 684. 689.

Imported from the other islands and exported to England, £3326 10s. Total, 506,709.

1771.

Upon the 27th of December, a fire broke out in St. George's, Grenada. In a few hours the whole town was reduced to ashes, except some buildings in the careenage, and next the courthouse and custom-house, which were saved by the exertions of some seamen, landing from his Majesty's ships in the bay. The damage was estimated at £200,000 sterling. The buildings were chiefly constructed with timber.

Sir R. Payne arrived in the West Indies as governor-general of the Leeward Islands.

The population-return for this year, for the Grenadas, was 1661 Whites, 415 free Negroes, and 26,211 slaves.

In the beginning of this year, the commissioners at St. Vincent's proposed to the Carib chiefs an exchange of lands upon terms more favourable to them than the arrangement formerly agitated; but every proposal for parting with their lands was rejected by the Caribs with the greatest firmness; and on the question being asked, whether they acknowledged themselves subjects to the King of Great Britain, and would they take the oath of allegiance to him? they boldly replied, No-they were independent, and not subject either to the King of Great Britain or of France. There was no doubt that the Caribs were stimulated to this conduct by the governors of the neighbouring French islands, for their correspondence was detected.

Hitherto cultivation had not extended beyond the Yambore; but the British government made grants of land beyond that boundary, of which the colonists attempted to take possession. The Caribs resolutely opposed them, and hostilities commenced.

A great famine was occasioned, in the Bay of Honduras, by locusts. They ate up every green thing, and are said, in some parts, to have laid upon the ground a foot thick. It was computed that upwards of 80,000 Indians died from the famine occasioned by this awful visitation.

March the 2d, William Leybourne Leybourne, Esq. was appointed captain-general and governor-in-chief of the islands of Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, and Tobago.

Annual Register, 1771, pp. 163. 171. — 1772, p. 85. — 1773, p. 87. Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. pp. 58. 186. Parliamentary Papers, Slave Trade, 1790, Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789, Supplement to No. 15. Adolphus's History of England, vol. ii. p. 35. 4th edit.

The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed thirteen ships, and consisted of 3127 hhds. of sugar, 641 tierces, and 3538 bags of coffee, and 162 bales of cotton.

From the custom-house returns made to the House of Commons, it appears that Great Britain, in 1771, imported from her West India colonies, 1,425,874 cwt. of sugar, from which she derived a revenue of £416,111, exclusive of £50,999 paid for drawback upon the sugar exported again.

1772.

The Negroes in the Dutch colony of Surinam rose upon their masters, and involved the inhabitants in the greatest terror and distress. The insurgents had provided themselves with arms and ammunition, and one thousand of them defeated the militia and soldiers in several engagements, and took their cannon, which the Negroes managed with great dexterity.

The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed nine ships, and consisted of 3338 hhds. of sugar, 550 tierces, and 4740 bags of coffee, and 128 bales of cotton.

The aggregate amount of all complexions and conditions of inhabitants in St. Lucia, amounted to 15,476.

From the custom-house returns made to the House of Commons, it appears that Great Britain imported from her West India colonies in 1772, 1,760,345 cwt. of sugar, from which she derived a revenue of £513,436, exclusive of the monies paid for drawback.

Dr. George Young, who had the care of the botanical garden at St. Vincent's, which was established by Governor Melville, received a gold medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, for having in that garden 140 healthy plants of true cinnamon, plants of logwood, turmeric, East India mango, Tobago nutmeg, sesamum or oily grain, cassia fistula, vanelloes, anatto, China tallow tree, and many other curious plants.

On the 31st of August, his Majesty's ship Chatham, RearAdmiral Parry, and Active and Seahorse frigates, and Falcon sloop, were driven on shore by a storm in English Harbour, Antigua. After the gale they were all got off.

"The parish of Trou, in the northern part of St. Domingo, experienced five years of extraordinary drought, which com

Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, Appendix.

Sir W. Young's Common-place Book, p. 55.

Annual Register, p. 9. Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 297. Campbell's Political Survey, vol. ii. p. 681.