St. Martin's, and St. Bartholomew's; Messieurs Boisseret and Houel, Guadaloupe, Mariegalante, Desirada, and the Saints; Madame du Parquet, Martinico and St. Lucie; and M. de Cerillac, Grenada and the Grenadines. Each lord was a sovereign in his own island: the three first had the quality of lieutenant-general for the King. Orders from the court were addressed to each in particular, and they paid all expences for the militia and government. Their judges could condemn to death, and the proprietor had the power of pardoning.

The Order of Malta sent out the Chevaliers St. Juré and De Salles to succeed M. de Poincy; but no civilities which the former shewed M. de Poincy were satisfactory, and not being able to accommodate himself to De Poincy's humour, St. Juré returned to France - De Salles staid out, and succeeded De Poincy.

M. Houel, the governor of Guadaloupe, under the pretext that the inhabitants were to be exempted from mounting guard, doubled the seignorial droits, making them two hundred and eighteen pounds of tobacco: all the inhabitants took arms to oppose the imposition, and would have driven M. Houel off the island, had he not abolished all the seignorial droits, and published a general amnesty, to which, however, he paid no attention, for he afterwards banished upwards of one hundred heads of families. Having thus disembarrassed himself of his principal opponents, he proposed to change the capitation tax into a tenth, to be levied upon all property in the island; and having persuaded fifteen or sixteen of his chief friends, by promising them an exemption from the tax, to make a request to him that the alteration might be made, and they having induced their friends, by a similar promise, to sign, M. Houel got possession of the document, and levied the tax upon the whole, because it was established at their request.

A violent earthquake was felt at Martinico this year.

:

In October, the Caribs at Martinico sent to make peace with the French their envoy was one of their principal men, named Nicholas. Du Parquet was brought out to the fort in his bed, to conclude the desirable treaty: they promised not to harbour any more run-away Negroes, and left a child as their hostage, taking a French child with them, which they returned in the course of the day.

Upon the 14th of September, M. d'Ogeron arrived at Martinico, in a vessel called the Pelagie, with the intention of joining the colonists upon the banks of the river Ouanarigo. Finding, upon his arrival, that that attempt had entirely failed, he resolved to establish himself in Martinico, and obtained from M. du Par

Edwards, vol. i. pp. 206. 208. 523.

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 447. 498. 504. 552.

quet a grant of all the Cul de Sac quarter: he, however, offended Madame du Parquet, and the grant was recalled. After this disappointment, he, with a party of engagées, embarked in a small vessel to join the buccaneers in St. Domingo: his vessel was wrecked in the grand Cul de Sac of that island', and only part of his property saved: he then liberated his engagées, and joined the buccaneers.

After staying some time among them, he returned to France by the way of Martinico, where he found that a vessel which had been sent out to him with supplies from France, was sold, with her cargo, by a M. Vigne, from whom he received to the value of 500 livres in merchandize, which was all M. d'Ogeron had remaining of 17,000 livres he had expended in the expedition. He afterwards made another unsuccessful trading voyage to Jamaica, and returned again to France a considerable loser.

There was a woman burnt at Martinico for witchcraft this year. Du Tertre says, "That it was almost impossible to doubt of her guilt; for they proved, that the moment she touched infants, they became languid, and died in that state! That she sent a sort of unknown caterpillar to the houses of those with whom she quarrelled, which destroyed the best of every thing they had, while none of the neighbouring houses suffered any injury from these insects, and other similar things! The judge having put her in irons, to get the truth from her, had her examined, to see if she had any mark, such as they say that the devil puts upon all sorcerers, but not finding any he resolved to try if the remark which, he said, he had read in several authors worthy of credit, was true: it was, that sorcerers never cry while they are in the hands of justice! He therefore begged one of our fathers, without discovering his design to him, to go and see this

Du Tertre, tom. iii. p. 139, 140. 143.

"Un jeune homme Normand, qui ayant fait naufrage à la coste de S. Domingue, aima mieux aller chercher sa vie dans les bois, que de s'aller rendre aux Espagnols comme firent ses compagnons. Il estoit nud, et n'avoit pour toutes choses que deux petits couteaux. Le premier jour il fut assez heureux pour prendre à la course deux petits cochons. Il en tua un, et se reput de sa chair crue, et fit boire le sang à l'autre, qui, estant pressé de la faim, l'avalla comme du laict. Il avoit envie de le tuer le landemain pour se nourrir, mais ayant remarque qu'il le suivoit par tout, et qu'il estoit devenu friand du sang des autres petits cochons, jusques à chasser avec lui, pour

les prendre, et attendre qu'il les eust egorgez pour en boire le sang, il se resolut de le conserver. Peu de jours apres, il mangeoit la viande crue, et à mesure qu'il croissoit, il arrestoit de plus grands porcs, les tenant toujours saisis par les oreilles, jusques à ce que le sang en ruisslait; et alors il beuvoit le sang, et en suite mangeoit la chair avec son maistre. Le Normand et le porc vecurent ainsi 14 mois, partageant leur chasse et se faisant fidelle compagnie, et l'homme et le porc devinrent si grands, et si gros, qu'ils sembloient deux géans, ou deux monstres."-Du Tertre, tom. iii. p. 146.

Du Tertre says d'Ogeron told him this story.

poor unfortunate, and say every thing the most touching that he could, to make her sensible, and weep for her fault.

"This good priest did not fail to go, and in the guard-room, which served her for a prison, he said every thing he could to affect her, but in vain. The judge, having now this further proof, had her conducted to a magazine, where he requested the same priest to speak to her again; but scarcely had he opened his mouth, when she began to cry, and shed so many tears, that she made all those who saw her cry likewise. The judge, not satisfied with this proof, followed the counsel of a Mr. Jacques, a surgeon, an Italian by birth, and called the Roman, who told him that he had seen the trial by water practised in Germany and in Italy, and he was allowed to use it. This good man,' without taking the advice of the Jesuit fathers, or ours, condemned this poor wretch !

"The next day, they carried her to a tolerably deep river near the Carbet,' where they stripped her. M. Jean, who upon this occasion acted more like an executioner than a surgeon, tied her two thumbs to her two great toes, and having fastened a great rope round her waist, which was across the river, she was pushed into the water, and hauled to the deepest part, where she floated like a balloon, without their being able to sink her, although she herself made several efforts to go to the bottom! More than 200 persons were present at this sight, and would have gone away sufficiently convinced; but this Roman sent a little boy to swim to her, who, having fastened a sewing needle in her hair, she sunk, like a piece of lead, to the bottom : in the space of a good 'miserere,' they saw her motionless: and when they had taken her out of the water, were obliged to give her something to quench her thirst! These three circumstances, of not being able to sink her without a little morsel of iron- of her being under water without breathing, and without having swallowed any water, determined the judge to condemn her to death the next day!

"But while he was preparing the sentence, this Roman thought proper, during the evening, to give her the trial according to his plan; and he burnt her so severely upon the sides and flanks, that she died the same night, without having confessed the crime of which she was accused!"

Upon the 9th of May, 1657, a treaty between Louis the Fourteenth, King of France, and Oliver Cromwell, Protector of England, was signed at Paris. The articles were to be kept secret, "afin que les desseins du Roy T. C. et du Seigneur Protecteur ne soient revelez en aucune maniere." Part of their design was "la ruine et destruction de l'orgueilleuse et tirannique monarchie d'Espagne."

Du Tertre, tom. ii p. 448.

Colonel Moore arrived at Jamaica with a regiment of soldiers, and several planters soon afterwards came from New England and Bermudas.

Colonel Brayne, the governor, died in October, and left Colonel d'Oyley to succeed him.

Juan de Bolas, a Negro, who commanded the main body of the fugitive blacks, or Maroons, in Jamaica, surrendered to the English, upon terms of pardon and freedom: he was afterwards made colonel of a black regiment.

1658.

D'Oyley embarked 300 soldiers, burnt two galleons, bound from Carthagena to Porto Bello, and destroyed the town of Tolu, situated on the coast of the Spanish Main. Their settlements at Santa Martha and other parts had suffered greatly, some time before, from the attack of Admiral Goodson.

Two hundred and fifty settlers came to Jamaica from Bermudas, and several quakers, who had been driven out of Barbadoes. D'Oyley gave them a friendly reception, and they dispersed godly books among the soldiers.

The frigates, by cruizing off the Havannah, so obstructed the intercourse with that place, that the Spaniards sent home their treasure by the way of Buenos Ayres, "a track disused ever since the reign of Queen Elizabeth."

The population of Jamaica was estimated at " 4500 Whites, and 1400 Negroes; but little or no progress was made in planting or furnishing articles for an exportation to the mother country, until about the year 1665."

Upon the 8th of May, thirty companies of Spanish infantry, under Don Christopher Sasi (Arnoldo, the former governor of Jamaica, landed upon that island, at Rio Nuevo, a small harbour on the north side, and entrenched themselves. Twelve days elapsed before the governor, Colonel d'Oyley, knew of their landing, and six weeks more before he could approach them by sea: at the end of that time, he, with 750 picked men, attacked them in their entrenchments-carried by assault a strong fortress which they had erected on an eminence over the harbour- and compelled Arnoldo to retreat to Cuba, leaving all his stores, &c. behind him he lost 300 killed, 106 prisoners, the royal standard, and sixteen colours. After this, the Spaniards made no effort of consequence to reclaim Jamaica. Arnoldo returned to share the fortunes of some wanderers who lurked in the woods, but they

Du Mont, tom. vi. partie ii. p. 178.

Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 277, 278. 375.
Edwards, vol. i. p. 210.

Univ. Hist. vol. xxxvi. p. 281.

were betrayed by run-away slaves, and entirely routed: a few of them escaped to Cuba.

Upon the 3rd of January, at one in the morning, M. du Parquet, the governor of Martinico, died upon that island: his death was accelerated by the disobedience of his colonists, who refused to pay some duties that he had laid on for enabling him to maintain a force to attack the Caribs. Upon his death, he recalled from Mr. Foppe, a Dutch merchant and Calvinist, the permission he had given him to purchase a house on the island. Mr. Foppe might thank the father confessor for this.

Soon after M. du Parquet's death, a mutiny broke out at Martinico, for which various reasons are assigned: one was, that Madame du Parquet was too partial to her countrymen the Parisians, and obtained from her husband all the lucrative offices in the island for them. M. du Parquet was from Normandy, and his countrymen and the Parisians vied with each other in processions and extraordinary rejoicings, upon New-year's day and Madame's birth-day: this competition led to scoffings and quarrellings. M. de Maubray arrived at the island soon after M. du Parquet's death, and was by his widow intrusted with the direction of all public business: this incensed M. de Courcelas, who had been Du Parquet's lieutenant-general, and murmurs were circulated against the interference of a stranger, and scandalous reports propagated of his intimacy with Madame du Parquet.

But what occasioned the inhabitants to proceed to open violence was M. de Maubray's enforcing an old ordinance of M. du Parquet's, for marking all the rolls of tobacco that were exported. They assembled tumultuously, and demanded that De Maubray should be driven from the island as a disturber of the public peace, and they were only pacified by his agreeing to retire to another part of the island, the "Case Pilote," four leagues from Madame du Parquet's house, for two months, after which time he was to leave the island. From this place De Maubray wrote to Madame du Parquet, but his letters were intercepted and opened by the discontented, who pretended that they contained information that De Maubray was treating with the English at Barbadoes for succours to support Madame du Parquet and himself in the government of the island, to the exclusion of the royal authority. The insurgents proceeded to Madame du Parquet's house, and forced her to sign an order for the immediate embarkation of De Maubray, and his sister and nephew: they were sent off the island, and went to Antigua, from which island De Maubray continued to correspond with Madame du Parquet: his letters were again intercepted, and the insurgents, headed by

Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 276.

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 523. 535. 537.