1708, that it annually required 3640, or about seven per cent., to keep up the stock. The average price of a Negro was £23 8s. 1708. Upon the 28th of May, Commodore Wager, with the Expedition, Kingston, Portland, Vulture fire-ship, and Anne sloop, got sight of a fleet of seventeen sail of galleons coming from Carthagena. The Spaniards despising Commodore Wager's force, waited for him in line of battle, off the small island of Baru. Two of the seventeen were French ships; they stood off under all sail, and had no share in the action; two more were sloops, and one a brigantine, which stood in for the land. At sun-set, Commodore Wager came alongside the Spanish admiral: in an hour and a half afterwards the Spanish ship blew up. Commodore Wager then stood after their rear-admiral, and brought her to action at about ten P.M. The Kingston and Portland (who had lost sight of the rest of the fleet, and had followed the commodore's lights), came up, and assisted in taking the rearadmiral, who hailed for quarter at two in the morning. At day-light on the 29th, the Kingston and Portland were sent in chase of three sail, four leagues off, on their weather quarter, Commodore Wager's ship, the Expedition, being too much disabled to go. On the 30th, the Kingston and Portland left off chase, but were again, by signal, ordered to continue it, which they did, and lost sight of the commodore and his prize. On the 31st they returned, and told the commodore that the ship they had chased was the vice-admiral's, into whom they had fired their broadsides, but that they were forced to tack and leave her, as they were close to the Salmadinas (a shoal off Carthagena). Captain Bridges of the Kingston, and Captain Windsor of the Portland, were afterwards dismissed the service, by the sentence of a court-martial, for their conduct upon this occasion. The Spanish admiral's ship was the St. Joseph, of sixty-four brass guns and 600 men, and had on board five millions of pieces of eight: the rear-admiral had only twenty-four guns mounted, and 350 men; the vice-admiral had sixty-four brass guns, and between 4 and 500 men, with four millions of pieces of eight on board: one of the others had forty guns. The remainder were chiefly laden with cacao. The two French ships had one hundred thousand pieces of eight on board. A grain of fine gold, which weighed nine ounces, was found in the River Yaque in St. Domingo, and sold to an English captain for 140 piastres. The French and Spaniards, from Petite Goave, landed upon New Providence, surprised the fort, took the governor prisoner, burnt the town of Nassau, all but Mr. Lightgood, the governor's house - destroyed the fort, spiked the guns, plundered the inhabitants, and carried off the governor and half of the Negroes; the rest saved themselves in the woods: but in October the French returned and caught the most of them. After this second visit, the English inhabitants abandoned the island. The proprietors appointed Mr. Birch as governor, who arrived after all the inhabitants were gone: he remained there two or three months, and then left the place uninhabited. Various endeavours were used to procure a reinforcement of white people at Jamaica, but without success. Between June, 1698, and June, 1708, 44,376 Negroes were imported into that island, being about 4437 yearly, "though many of them were annually exported." 1710. Colonel Codrington devised, by his will, two plantations in Barbadoes and part of Barbuda, in value about £2000 per annum, or upwards, to the Society de Propaganda Fide, for the purpose of instructing Negroes belonging to Barbadoes and the other Caribbees in the Christian religion, and for erecting and endowing a college in Barbadoes, in which the liberal arts should be taught, particularly physic and surgery. Upon the 7th of December, about 500 armed men appeared in the town of St. John's, Antigua. Colonel Park, the governor, had converted the government-house into a garrison, and stationed in it all the regular troops in the island; his previous conduct had outraged the feelings of all the inhabitants: complaints had been sent to England against him, and the Queen had sent orders for him to resign his command to the lieutenantgovernor. The triumphant joy of the inhabitants, upon the receipt of this order, provoked the governor to desperation; but upon the approach of the inhabitants, coming forward to execute on his person that punishment which his enormities merited, his courage forsook him-he sent the provost-marshal to say he was ready to meet the Assembly at Parham, and to consent to what Charlevoix, tom. iv. p. 324. Report of the Lords of the Committee, Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 285. ever laws they should think proper to pass for the good of the country; offering, at the same time, to dismiss his soldiers, provided six of the principal inhabitants would remain as hostages for the safety of his person. The Speaker of the Assembly and one of the council proposed themselves as two of the hostages required; but the people, apprehensive of delay, called out for immediate vengeance, and marched forwards in two divisions: one of these, led by Mr. Piggot, attacked the government-house with great fury, and after an obstinate resistance broke into it. The governor shot Piggot dead with his own hand, but received at the same moment a wound which laid him prostrate: his attendants then threw down their arms; and the enraged populace, seizing the living carcase of the governor, tore it into pieces, and scattered the bloody fragments in the street. On the governor's side an ensign and thirteen soldiers were killed; and a lieutenant and twenty-four men wounded. Thirty-two of the people were killed and wounded, besides Mr. Piggot. Some of the insurgents were sent to England, and tried upon the act of Henry the Eighth. The English government, after a full investigation, was so satisfied of Colonel Park's misconduct, as to issue a general pardon for all persons concerned in his death; and two of the principal actors therein were promoted to seats in the council. Mr. Thomas Manning devised the bulk of his estate to trustees, for the purpose of founding a free-school near Beckfordtown, Jamaica, for maintaining and educating poor children of the parish till the age of fourteen. Mr. Long says, this and similar foundations have not answered the good ends of their institution. 1711. The Count de Choiseul Beaupre, governor of St. Domingo, on his passage to France in the Thetis, was taken by an English squadron, in the latitude of the Havannah. The count died of the wounds he received in the action at the Havannah, the 18th of May, 1711. M. de Valernod commanded as governor of St. Domingo, after the departure of the Count de Choiseul; but, dying the same year, he was succeeded by M. de Gabaret, who was removed from the government of Martinico to that of St. Domingo. Edwards, vol. i. p. 482. Rights of Great Britain asserted, 4to. edit. Lond. 1776. Lord Archibald Hamilton succeeded Colonel Thomas Handaof Jamaica. side as governor The Assembly of Jamaica passed "an act to prevent any person from holding two or more offices of profit in the island;" and for regulating the fees. The Assembly of Jamaica passed a law, which enacts, that slaves destroying fish by poisoning, using nets of meshes less than one inch and a quarter, destroying turtle eggs, or killing pigeons in the months of May, June, or July, are punishable with thirty-one lashes on the bare back, on conviction before a justice of the peace. No slave to keep any horses, mares, mules, asses, or cattle, on penalty of forfeiting the same. No slave to hire himself out to work to another without leave of his owner penalty, whipping not exceeding thirty-one lashes. Slaves selling beef, veal, mutton, salt fish, or any manufactured goods, except baskets, ropes of bark, earthen pots, and such like, to be whipped. Selling sugar or sugar-canes without a ticket, to be whipped. Free persons or slaves buying such goods, to forfeit £10 and be whipped, not exceeding twenty lashes. An act was passed in St. Christopher's, "for the better government of Negroes and other slaves," which states, that the conduct of the slaves had been more insolent than heretofore, and their villanies more frequent; therefore any justice of the peace may issue a warrant for apprehending any slave complained of, and, with one other justice of the peace, "without a jury, hear, examine, try, award, and appoint pains, penalties, and inflict, or cause execution to be done, as to life or limb, by warrant under their hand." Any person carrying another's slave off the island guilty of felony or dealing with them for sugar, syrup, molasses, indigo, tobacco, ginger, cotton, copper, brass, pewter, or any other merchandize, shall be fined not exceeding £20. Any slave struggling with a white person shall be publicly whipped; and if the white person be hurt or bruised by such slave, the slave "shall be adjudged to death, dismembering, or such other punishment as two justices in their discretion shall think fit." The act then states the reward for bringing in a runaway Negro, and the fine for employing them : And then enacts, That " any person who shall kill a slave, in just defence of his person or property, or in pursuit of his slave, Atkins's Voyage to the West Indies, p. 249. Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1789, St. Christophe, D. being runaway such person shall not be liable to any prosecution whatsoever, either in law or equity. A condemned slave is to be appraised, but never valued at more than five thousand pounds of sugar; and, if he has but one limb, at less, according to the conscience of the appraiser. Three thousand pounds of the sugar to be given to the owner of the slave, and two to the person robbed or injured, if the damages amount to as much. The provost-marshal to have five hundred pounds of sugar for every slave he executes. No person to sell any liquor of any sort to any slave, under the penalty of £3; and slaves playing at dice, or drinking in a public-house, to be whipped not exceeding thirty stripes. A reward of twenty pieces of eight is to be given for apprehending any slave absconded, with the intention of withdrawing himself into the French quarters. A justice refusing to perform his duty to be fined £20 currency —a constable not exceeding ten. In April, the French King issued an ordinance, intituled, "Reglement du Roy au sujet de la competence des juges ordinaires à l'egard des chatiments imposes aux Negres Esclaves par l'Ordonnance de Mars, 1681." And on the 20th of April another, enacting, "notwithstanding the 54th article of Code Noir, a private agreement, making the tenant answerable for the deaths of slaves, and giving him the benefit of births, to be binding.” Also a regulation of the King, respecting the competency of the ordinary judges with regard to punishments inflicted upon slaves by ordonnance of March, 1685. 1712. The French attacked the Dutch colony of Berbice. The colonists bought them off with a considerable composition, paid partly in goods and money, partly in a bill of exchange drawn upon the house of Van Peere in Holland. For the acceptance of this, the French took two hostages of rank, and as these died soon afterwards, the proprietors refused to honor the draft. The money was paid by three great mercantile houses, and one fourth of it by the Van Peeres, who thus transferred three fourth shares of the colony to the other merchants as co-proprietors, who formed a company at Berbice, administered exactly in the same manner as the Surinam society. Parliamentary "Further Papers," 1826, pp. 33. 42. |