the ship and cargo, and satisfaction for the trouble and expence occasioned by the said seizure; or, in lieu thereof, £10,500, on condition, however, that she carried on no contraband trade. Bull-baiting appears, by the following circumstance, to have been a West India amusement:

Mr. How, master of the ship Lady Amelia, was killed at Jamaica by a bull he was baiting: one of the dogs being hurt, fastened on the calf of his leg, which as he was freeing himself from, the bull ran at him and ript him open, he died instantly.

Mr. Jeremy Woodyer embarked on board his Majesty's ship Tyger in June, in order to proceed to the West Indies to find out the longitude, "being furnished with necessaries by the lords of the admiralty." Mr. Woodyer had invented a machine by which he proposed to shew the longitude when the latitude was found by observation, and to shew the latitude without an observation.

Upon the 10th of January, 1732, the King of Spain sent orders to his governors in the West Indies, not to suffer any of his subjects to molest or abuse the English, or any of their ships that shall sail in those parts, as long as they keep at their proper distances, and are not concerned in any illicit trade. These orders induced their cruizers to search English ships wherever they could meet with them.

In February, a declaration between Great Britain and Spain, in the form of a treaty, was issued, in which the English forbade their ships of war "to convoy or protect, under any pretence whatsoever, ships carrying on an unlawful trade upon the coasts of the states belonging to his Catholic Majesty." Here the word coasts is substituted in room of ports and havens, as it stood in the American treaty.

The Moravian brethren, with "an ardent desire for the salvation of their fellow-men, by making known to them the gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ," sent missionaries into the three Danish West India Islands, to Jamaica, and to Antigua.

Rear-Admiral Stewart, commander-in-chief at Jamaica, demanded of the governors of Campeachy and the Havanah, the restitution of three ships taken and plundered by the Spanish guarda costas; and, at the application of the South Sea factors, a guarda costa, belonging to one Henriquez, was condemned and sold at St. Jago de Cuba, and the money paid to the said factors, towards making good their losses. One of the Spanish governors was sent home for misconduct, and another confined in the castle of Cuba.

Gent. Magazine, 1732, pp. 353. 721. 825.-July 1732, p. 879.- Nov. 1737, p. 686.

Sir Chaloner Ogle arrived at Jamaica, and superseded Commodore Lestock.

A register ship, taken as a reprisal for the Spaniards' confiscating the ship Woolball, was set at liberty, which, it was hoped, would produce a suitable return from the Spaniards.

An English sloop was attacked near Cuba by a Spanish sloop, fought her four hours, killed eighteen of her men, and wounded twenty-seven, and drove the vessel into shoal water. The English vessel had only thirty men on board, the Spaniard had seventy.

The imports from Jamaica into Great Britain," at a medium of four years," were £539,499 18s. 3 d.

1733.

Forty thousand pounds, out of the monies arising from the sale of lands in the island of St. Christopher's, were voted to King George the Second, as a marriage portion for his daughter. The cacao was first cultivated in Cayenne this year.

Lord Viscount Howe arrived at Barbadoes as governor of the island; the Assembly immediately settled £4000 per annum upon him he recommended the state of the fortifications to their utmost attention.

The French government sold the island of Santa Cruz to the Danes for £75,000.

Two Spanish line-of-battle ships attacked an English convoy near Tortuga : they were laden with salt, and under the protection of the Scarborough of twenty guns, Captain Durell. Thirty-two sail of the convoy escaped, and four were taken.

The runaway Negroes in Jamaica retook their town in the mountains, which had been forced from them.

The French King published an arrêt, prohibiting masters to suffer their slaves to go astray, or to keep private houses, under pain of confiscation of the slaves, and the effects found in their possession.

And also, an ordinance of the intendant was this year issued, prohibiting jailors from discharging slaves confined in jail, as runaways, without an order in writing from the procureur du Roi.

Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1732, p. 1081.-1733, p. 237.
Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 379. Smollet's History of England, vol. x. p. 409.
Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, p. 317.

Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 118.; vol. iii. p. 163. 329.
Parliamentary "Further Papers," p. 44.

1734.

There were 500 white inhabitants upon New Providence this year.

The population of Jamaica was estimated at 7644 Whites, and 86,546 Negroes: the decrease of white inhabitants was attributed to the decline of the privateering trade.

The island of Barbadoes suffered severely from want of rain. In a charity sermon preached at Bridgetown in May, by order of the governor, the clergyman states, that in the parish of St. Philip's he beheld all the signs of an approaching famine: "the face of the earth appeared, as it were, a dry crust, burnt up and gaping." It was much the same in Christ Church parish -several of the inhabitants perished from famine.

Atkins says, "the consequence of this distress now among the Barbadians, is shifting their old habitations: several, impelled by necessity and wants (stronger motives than religion), are stealing away, to mend it where they can." He also says, "the Dutch have Curasao, Oruba, and Bonaire."

"In 1734, the Guipuscoa Company obtained a grant from the King of Spain, to send as many vessels as it pleased. The Company was expressly bound to supply not only the province of Venezuela, but Cumana, Margarita, and Trinidad. And any person might be concerned in this commerce," without derogation to his nobility, and without loss of honour, estate, or reputation."

The number of inhabitants upon the Bahamas, according to the lists transmitted in," were Whites, 810; free Negroes, 77 ; Slaves, 488.

There were not any free Negroes upon the islands, according to the returns in 1731.

An imperfect account was transmitted of the population in the following islands, which stands thus:

"The governor represented, that the Leeward Islands, Virgin

Colquhoun's British Empire, p. 373.

Edwards, vol. i. p. 301.

Atkins's Voyage to the West Indies, Lond. 1735, pp. 212. 222.

Depon's South America, vol. ii. p. 12.

Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789, Supplement to No. 15.

Islands, and even Barbadoes, suffered in their population, by emigration to the Dutch and Danish Isles."

The rebellious Negroes near Port Antonio, in Jamaica, with augmented numbers, destroyed several plantations and estates in that neighbourhood. It was supposed that they were supplied with arms and ammunition from Cuba.

The chief station of the Negroes was on an eminence to which there is only a narrow pass, and that secured and made stronger with redoubts. They had lately cut off 150 white men. The Jews are also accused of supplying them with gunpowder.

In Jamaica, Captain Stoddart, who commanded one of the detachments employed against the Negroes in the interior, surprised their town "Nanny," near Carrion Crow Ridge, one of the highest mountains in the island; he gained an eminence commanding their huts, placed his portable swivels, and opened his fire upon them, while the Negroes were asleep. Many were slain in the huts-some threw themselves headlong down precipices and some were taken. The whole were destroyed or routed.

Another party of Blacks attacked the barracks at Bagnal's Thicket, whilst the officers were at dinner, and spread great alarm in Spanish Town. Every barrack was furnished with a pack of dogs, provided by the churchwardens of the respective parishes.

A hurricane at Jamaica did great damage on that island and to the shipping,

The Negroes at St. John's rose upon their masters and massacred all the Whites upon the island. The militia from St. Thomas's retook the fort and drove the Negroes into the woods.

The general and intendant of St. Lucia issued the following ordinance the 7th of January, 1734:

"Art. 1. Masters sending their slaves from their estates with coffee, to give a note signed by them, specifying the quantity delivered.

"2. Negroes found with coffee, without a billet from their masters, to be imprisoned, and the coffee confiscated.

"3. Prohibiting planters, under any pretext, from selling coffee by their slaves.

4. Forbidding slaves from selling coffee, even by order of their masters, under pain of being flogged, and the coffee confiscated.

5. Forbidding persons of all descriptions from buying coffee of slaves, even should they have their masters' permission.

"6. Ordering all public officers to cause to be arrested all

Gent. Mag. May 1734, p. 277. Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 340.343.

*

Sept. p. 510. · Nov. p. 626. — Jan. p. 48.
Parliamentary “Further Papers," 1826, p. 45.

Negroes who shall be found with coffee in their possession, and conducted to prison.

"Mem. By an ordinance of the above officers, dated 15th April, 1735, the dispositions of this ordinance were extended to the sale of cotton by Negroes."

1735.

The Spanish Company of Cuba was formed and endowed with exclusive privileges; but although it had factors at Cadiz, it belonged to Cuba. Their capital was about £200,000 sterling.

The Danish government granted to a company the full property and sovereignty of their three islands in the West Indies.

The Assembly of Jamaica enacted, that slaves may sell all manner of provisions, and small stock of all kinds, with a ticket from their employer. Also, that no slave was to be dismembered at the will and pleasure of his owner, master, or employer, under penalty of 100 payable to the informer.

By sect. 10. act 103., slaves were to be sold singly, except in cases of families, when a man and his wife, his, her, or their children, were not to be sold singly. No penalty is annexed to breaking this law.

By a return made to the government of Barbadoes, the inhabitants of St. Vincent's were estimated at 6000 Negroes, descendants from a cargo of Africans shipwrecked upon that island at the end of the last century, and 4000 native Caribs, who waged continual war against the Negroes.

Some troops from Gibraltar arrived at Jamaica; and in consequence of the force collected upon the island, the runaway Negroes deserted their chief town, and retired to the woods.

Upon the 14th of June, a large gang of the rebel Negroes at Jamaica surprised a detachment of Captain Pope's company, killed or wounded the greatest part of them, burnt their barracks, carried away their equipage, and plundered the plantation where they were quartered.

Lord Howe, the governor of Barbadoes, died there, upon the 29th of March. The Assembly as a tribute of gratitude, presented £2500 to Lady Howe, who died within three days afterwards.

Captain Turpin, his men and sloop, were taken upon the 15th of February, by a Spanish vessel of ten guns, the Spaniards beat the men with cutlasses, and then barred them down in the

Brougham's Colonial Policy, book i. sect. 3. pp. 435. 493.

Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 492. Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789. Gent. Mag. March 1735, p. 166.- May, p. 275.- July, p. 386. — Aug. p. 499. Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 119.