procuring Chasseurs, and the State of the Island of Jamaica, 1803; 2 vols. 8vo.,-a work very inaccurate in many of its details, and entertaining rather as a novel than as a genuine history.

XXV. The classical pages of ROBERTSON it may be considered profaneness to impugn; yet, having never visited the Western hemisphere, his work would have been more consistent with his general character, as an historian, had he delivered his sentiments with less confidence, and not vainly attempted to palliate the enormities of the conquering Spaniards by the tender expressions he applies to them. Many of his opinions need, however, no other refutation, than may be found in the subsequent pages of his History; for which work, published in 1775, the learned author received no less a sum than four thousand five hundred pounds*.

XXVI. A New History of Jamaica, from the Earliest Accounts to the Taking of Porto Bello, was published in the year 1740, in the form of thirteen letters from a gentleman to his friend,-a work pirated from A New and Accurate Account of Jamaica, written by Charles Leslie. It contains much curious information.

XXVII. An History of the Caribby Islands, with a Vocabulary, translated from a French Work,

*See Note I.

edited by various Literary Characters in Paris, by Jno. Davies, of Kidwelly, 4to., 1 vol., 1666, is little better than a compilation from the work of Father Raymond.

XXVIII. The Buccaniers of America; or, a True Account of the most remarkable Assaults committed of late years upon the Coasts of the West Indies, by the Buccaniers of Jamaica and Tortuga, both English and French; where are contained, more especially, the unparalleled Exploits of Sir Henry Morgan, was written originally in Dutch, by John Esquemeling, one of the Buccaniers. 1 vol. 4to. 1684.

· XXIX. The West-India Common-place Book, compiled from Parliamentary and Official Documents ; showing the Interest of Great Britain in its Sugar Colonies, by Sir Wm. Young, appeared in the year 1807; a work worthy of the name of its distinguished author.

XXX. A GENTLEMAN, long resident in the West Indies, published, in the year 1808, An Account of Jamaica, and its Inhabitants; a book teeming with inaccuracies, which the author has not corrected in his late work entitled The Past and Present State of Jamaica; to which he has prefixed his name— J. STEWART.

As tending to illustrate the following pages, a statement of the extent, proprietary, and population, of the Charaibbean Archipelago may not be here misplaced.

CHAPTER I.

FORMATION OF THE CHARAIBBEAN
ARCHIPELAGO.

WHEN the Spirit of God called forth the earth from chaos, the earliest separations from the confused mass of unorganised matter formed a class of rocks which are still discoverable in its crust, and are therefore termed primitive. The emanations of their strata, being generally superior to those of all other classes, bear ample testimony to their remote antiquity. Having been formed in the unproductive state of the earth, these granites contain neither petrifactions nor mechanical deposits; but are found pure and unmixed, originating from the wonderful chemistry of nature. When land appeared, or during the transition of the earth from its chaotic to its habitable state, transition rocks were formed; chemical productions also, but mingled with a small proportion of mechanical deposition: for now the summits of the primitive mountains just appeared above the waters, the attrition of whose turbulent waves wore off, and deposited, particles of their original mass. As the level of the sea subsided, so did the surface on which its waves acted increase; and with it, the quantity of mechanical deposition. Hence these depositions are still more abundant in the rocks of the next formation, which are denomi

VOL. I.

D

nated flatz, as being generally formed in horizontal, or flat, strata; and, having been deposited after the creation of animals and vegetables, petrifactions are abundant in them all. Countries composed of these rocks are therefore not so rugged, nor so marked by rapid inequalities, as those in which the primitive and transition rocks predominate; and from various appearances in them there seems reason to conclude, that the waters in which they were formed, had risen with great rapidity, and, falling gradually, had afterwards subsided into a state of almost stagnant tranquillity. Their chief formation may, therefore, be referred to the Deluge.

To form, however, an accurate idea of the surface of our globe in its present state, we must imagine that the ocean has its correspondent marine hills, and vallies, and plains; and that the mountains, of which the isles, rocks, and shoals are the exposed summits, are so situated as that the invisible chains which they form are but the prolongations of the terrestrial mountains. At the time when Divine Justice, satisfied with the sacrifice of an impious race, recalled the waters which had been the tremendous instrument of its vengeance, the points of the highest mountains, such as Ararat and the Andes, were the first which appeared above the surface of the flood; forming a small number of islands, then alone constituting the whole habitable earth. Presently, however, the inundation, gradually decreasing, discovered other mountains less elevated; which