On the 25th of January, 1765, there was issued a memoir of the King, to serve as instructions to the Count d'Ennery, governor, and to the Sieur de Pernier, intendant of Martinique, recommending to them the greatest attention to the feeding of slaves by their masters, and prohibiting the giving of Saturday to the slaves to work, in lieu of granting them the allowance ordered by law. February the 9th, 1765, the same officers issued an ordinance concerning persons of colour, free as well as slaves. "ART. 2. Slaves belonging to different masters, who, under any pretext whatever, meet together in assemblies, to be flogged and marked for the first offence, and to be more severely punished in the event of repetition. "3. Masters or others convicted, having permitted or tolerated, at their own houses, meetings of slaves, or having lent or hired their houses to slaves for the purpose of dancing, to be condemned, viz. masters, for the first offence, 100 livres, and double in case of repetition; and other persons who shall lend or hire their houses to slaves for the purpose of dancing, or otherwise, to be condemned 500 livres for first offence, and to be more severely punished in the event of a repetition. "4. Slaves arrested in the streets, masked or disguised, to be flogged, marked, and placed in the pillory three hours for the first offence, and to be more severely punished for the second; and if found masked or disguised, with arms of any kind, to suffer death. "5. Forbidding merchants and others from selling to slaves the arms mentioned in the preceding article, even with their masters' permission, under pain of being punished, according to the ordinances and regulations already issued to this effect. "6. Masters ordered to see that the orders laid down in this ordinance be duly observed by their slaves." May the 6th, 1765, the Conseil Souverain published an arrêt, ordering the inhabitants of the colonies to conform exactly to articles 22 and 24 of the edict of 1685, under pain of 500 livres fine. And another, 2d July, in which the inhabitants are desired to keep planted in their plantations the quantity of manioc prescribed by law, or other produce equivalent thereto, under penalty of 500 livres. On the 1st of August, 1765, the French general and intendant · issued an ordinance concerning slaves employed as workmen. "ART. 1. Masters forbid suffering their slaves to straggle about, or to keep private houses, under pretext of commerce or otherwise, under pain of confiscation of the slaves, as well as of the effects found in their possession. Parliamentary "Further Papers," 1826, pp. 50, 51 "2. Proprietors of, or persons having houses, are forbid letting out chambers or shops to slaves of either sex and all persons are forbid lending their names to slaves, either directly or indirectly, under penalty of 500 livres for the first offence, and severe punishment for the second. "3. Slaves permitted to be employed as workmen at their masters' houses, and under their inspection. They are also permitted to be hired out to free persons, being handicraftsmen." On the 12th of August, 1765, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance respecting the suppression of hawking. "Art. 1. Forbidding persons of colour, of either sex, whether free or slaves, from carrying in trunks, bales, or baskets, merchandize for sale, from plantation to plantation, and in the towns. Forbidding them, likewise, from carrying poultry, fruits, vegetables, and other produce; the said articles to be sold in the markets of the towns only, under penalty of 300 livres against the master for the first offence, and of confiscation of the goods, &c. 3. Persons of colour, whether free or slaves, allowed to carry to market poultry, fruit, vegetables, &c. for sale; the slaves to have their masters' permission, otherwise the poultry, fruit, &c., to be confiscated, and the slaves subject to the penalties laid down in former ordinances." The Moravian missionaries arrived at Barbadoes. "By the 6th of George III. chap. 12, it is declared, that the King's Majesty, with the Lords and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, have power to make laws to bind the people of the British colonies in all cases." Upon the 15th of November, orders were signed at the Treasury Board, "for the free admission of Spanish vessels into all the colonies." Mr. Long says, the orders were given, rather unwisely, in a public manner, and laid open what ought to have remained clandestine; so that the guards, cautions, and penalties against it were multiplied. It was in fact one government complying with the request of its colony, and authorizing smuggling into the colony of another state, with whom they were at peace; as though it could be right to encourage disobedience in your neighbour's children, because you would gain thereby ! An act was passed in England, declaring the officers in his Majesty's colonies entitled to demand and receive such fees as their predecessors were entitled to demand, on or before the 29th of September, 1764; and if the fees received by the comptroller of the customs did not equal one-third part of those received by the collector, it was declared lawful for him to demand a sum Coke's West Indies, vol. i. p. 209. Jordan's Examination of the Slave Registry Bill, p. 55. Burke's Works, vol. ii. p. 209. Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 110. 197, 198. equal to that. For demanding more, the penalty was £50 for the first offence, and dismissal for the second. The plantation merchants inveighed bitterly against this law. General Melville, the governor, called the first Assembly at Grenada this year. Previous to their meeting the four and a half per cent. duty was demanded by the British government, in lieu of the duties formerly paid the French King. This was resisted by the inhabitants, and became a question of law in the Court of King's Bench. A considerable ferment was raised in the island, by government ordering a certain number of Roman Catholics to be admitted into the council and house of Assembly. Great disorders prevailed in consequence, which continued until it was captured by the French in 1779. In consequence of the orders to the English men-of-war, to seize all foreign vessels in the English ports in the West Indies, the exports from Great Britain to Jamaica fell short £168,000 sterling of what they were in 1763. The Spanish trade to their West India islands was laid open to most of the ports in Spain, with permission to return to any port of the mother country. The quantity of British colonial sugar imported, exported, and consumed upon an average of five years, ending in 1765, was as follows:- Imported, 123,781; exported, 29,536; consumption, 94,245 hogsheads, of 12 cwt. each. The inhabitants of St. Christopher's, instigated by the crews of some vessels from New England, burnt all the stamped papers upon the island, made the officers appointed to distribute them renounce their office, and went over in a body to Nevis, to assist their neighbours in taking the same rebellious precautions against the stamp act. The French inhabitants of Grenada, in a fulsome petition, requested the King to grant them," without distinction, every advantage of a British subject." The trade from Cuba scarcely employed six vessels. The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed eight ships, and consisted of 36784 hhds. of sugar, 56 tierces and 881 bags of coffee, and 18 bales of cotton. Colquhoun's British Empire, p. 356. Edwards, vol. i. p. 294. Brougham's Colonial Policy, book i. sect. 3. pp. 426. 442. Appendix to the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, on the State of the Colonies in 1807, p. 73, from Quarterly Review, vol. ii. p. 10. Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, Appendix. Annual Register, pp. 56. 270. 1766. The sloop Fanny, Henderson master, from Jamaica to Honduras, was wrecked, on the 31st of October, off Cape Gracias à Dios. Eight of her crew died through fatigue and famine: the three survivors were saved by eating the dead bodies of their shipmates. The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed nine ships, and consisted of 4120 hhds. of sugar, 37 tierces and 2532 bags of coffee, and 101 bales of cotton. The number of slaves imported into Jamaica, from January 1765 to July 1766, was 16,760. Upon a gentleman's estate in Westmorland, thirty-three Coromantins, newly imported, rose, and in an hour killed and wounded nineteen white persons. They were soon defeated, some killed, and the remainder executed or transported. Jamaica, act 43, sec. 5. Free Negroes absenting themselves from their respective Negro towns, to be deprived of their freedom. By sec.7, they are to forfeit £100 if they purchase a slave. The population of Dominica was returned at 2020 Whites, and 8497 slaves.1 In pursuance of directions from Old France, the commanding officer at Cape François ordered all English vessels to leave the island within forty-eight hours. Four, belonging to New York, were seized, and their crews imprisoned for not complying with the order. The French Goree merchants entered into a new contract with the Havaña company, for the annual supply of slaves from the coast of Africa. The bay-men at Honduras transmitted to Jamaica complaints against the irregular proceedings of the French, who were said to have upwards of forty sail from Martinico employed in the logwood trade. The Druid sloop of war (it was said) took formal possession of Turk's Island in his Majesty's name: to this cause the impri Annual Register, 1766, pp. 54, 55, 56. 62. - 1767, p. 105. sonment of the English at Cape François was attributed. The French considered the island as neutral. Rear-Admiral Parry was appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, and had his flag on board the Preston, fifty guns. He remained there three years, then returned to England, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, and settled a dispute with the governor of Puerto Rico about the possession of Crab Island. January the 27th, 1766, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance respecting the sale of fish. "Art. 2. Negroes working out, prohibited going on the bays to buy fish on any pretext whatever, under penalty of confiscation of the fish, and eight days' imprisonment for the first offence; and in case of repetition, to be flogged and pilloried during three days successively, even subject to greater penalties if necessary. " The same officers, on the 1st of March, 1766, issued another ordinance respecting slaves working out for hire. "Art. 1. Owners of slaves working out on hire, to give in to the commis à la police of their quarters, the number and names of such slaves, within fifteen days after publication of the ordinance. The commis of police to keep a register, in which to be inserted their names, under penalty of three hundred livres against their masters. "2. Slaves intended for hire to be presented by their masters to the commis à la police of their quarters, who will deliver to each slave, gratis, a brass bracelet, to be soldered on the left arm, and to contain the number of each Negro, as inserted in the register of the commis à la police. "3. After the 1st of May, no slave to be permitted to go on hire without the bracelet numbered agreeably to foregoing article, under penalty of eight days' imprisonment against the Negro, and three hundred livres against the person who shall have hired the Negro. 4. Slaves not permitted to work out of the place in which their names may have been inscribed, unless it may be to go on errands, which, however, cannot be done without a ticket from their masters. "5. Slaves forbid changing their numbers, or lending them to others, under pain of flogging and eight days' imprisonment. "6. Masters desirous of recalling their slaves from hire, or of selling them, shall be compelled, under the penalties mentioned in the first article, to return the numbered bracelet which they had received into the hands of the commis à la police, who will take note thereof. Naval Chronicle, vol. v. p. 114. Parliamentary "Further Papers," 1826, pp. 51,52. |