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Plainville and Sigaly, publicly renounced their oath of fidelity to Madame du Parquet, and appointed their own officer; they then sent an order for her to attend their council, and upon her arrival, one of them took off a mask which he had on, saying the mask was now off: upon this, as a signal, she was seized, and sent prisoner to another part of the island, where she suffered all the insults they could inflict; and having found a copy of Machiavel among her books, they requested the council to order it might be burnt by the hands of the common hangman!

While she was in confinement, they made her sign a paper, by which she renounced the government of the island into the hands of M. de Gourselas, and consented that all those guilty of a design to murder the inhabitants should be tried; promising, at the same time, to procure from the King a pardon for all that had passed, contenting herself with being restored to her house and honours. Upon getting possession of this paper, tranquillity was restored, until one of her servants declared publicly that his mistress had been forced to sign the paper, and that she would complain to the King, and would be justified. The insurgents again flew to arms seized and banished ten or twelve of the principal officers and were upon the point of doing the same to Madame du Parquet herself; but, fearful of the consequences, they contented themselves with placing her under the care of the Jesuits.

M. de Gourselas, however, after having removed every person from the island likely to interfere with him as governor, found it more convenient to liberate Madame du Parquet, and replace her in her former authority and right, reserving to himself the executive power.

Soon afterwards, a party of eighteen Caribs, with one of their principal captains, named Nicholas, upon the promise given them by the inhabitants of Martinico, that all past aggressions were forgiven, landed at St. Pierre's, and proceeded to the store of M. le Maistre, and were drinking brandy with some Frenchmen, when Beau Soleil, one of the leading insurgents in the late disturbances, collected sixty or eighty followers, and, under pretence of revenging the death of some of their countrymen, attacked the unsuspicious Caribs, and killed thirteen of them; three others they arrested, and sent prisoners to the guard-house. Nicholas lived to reach the sea, where he defended himself for some time, diving for stones, and throwing them at his murderers, till they shot him through the head: two, however, escaped, to carry the news of the massacre to their countrymen.

Open war was now determined upon by Gourselas and his council, and 600 of the principal men of the island were selected

to proceed and attack the Caribs in their huts. Two hundred men were embarked in five vessels, to go by water; while the other 400, who were to go by land, were divided into two parties: one party had orders to go by the mountain Pelée, and the other by the mountain Des Gommiers.' Bonin, the superior of the Jesuits, went with the party by water, and Boulogne, the superior of the Dominicans, went with La Loubiere and those by land. The Caribs, by their spies, discovered the approach of the French, and guessing the road they would take, they dug a great number of holes in the ground, in which they placed poisoned arrows, with their points upwards, and covered them over with leaves and a little earth: after a slight skirmish, the Caribs retreated, in order to draw the French after them over the arrows; but night approaching, one of the Frenchmen, suspecting some design, advised his countrymen to change their route, and march all night to attack the Caribs in their huts: his advice was followed; the Caribs, seeing them descend by another road, supposed it was another party, and their look out man, by throwing a quantity of sand upon his head, had given them to understand that the French were very numerous: they fled towards their huts, where their bravest men made a stand, to allow time for the women and children to get off in their piraguas: they were, however, soon put to flight, and the French, instead of pursuing them, ran to their huts, which they set on fire, and massacred the women and children without mercy: some few, however, escaped to the boats, and retired to St. Vincent's and Dominica, leaving the French complete masters of the island of Martinico. Among the smoking ruins the cross was

Du Tertre, tom. i. p. 544.. — tom. iii. errata, p. 545.—tom. i. p. 545.

"Quelques habitans, que la curiosité a porté sur le sommet de ces hautes montagnes, m'ont asseuré que la pluspart des arbres qu'y croissent sont semblables à nos bouleaux de France, et qu'il y a des eaux chaudes et des montagnes d'alun; c'est, sans doute, avec cet alun, que feu Monsieur le General de Poincy faisoit accommoder et corroyer ses cuirs, faute de tan; car j'ay appris de quelques tanneurs fort habiles, que l'alun y est presque aussi bon que le tan. - De Tertre, tom. ii. p. 6.

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2❝In the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica, there are some Caribbeans who have many Negro slaves: some of them they got from the English plantations, and some from some Spanish ships wrecked upon their coasts; they call them Tamons, that is, slaves, and the Negroes

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erected by Father Boulogne, and the arms of France fastened on it; after which, Te Deum was chaunted for the victory!

Until this year, the Court of Rome had always avoided acknowledging any other sovereign of the West India Islands than the Spanish King, for fear of contradicting the grant of Pope Alexander the Sixth, in 1493, to that sovereign; but Alexander the Seventh, in the brief he sent to Father Fontaine, Apostolic Prefect of the Dominican missionaries, dated the 25th July, 1658, acknowledged the King of France as sovereign of the conquests and colonies which his subjects had made in the American islands; and in all subsequent briefs, this formal acknowledgment was always expressed.

James, Duke of Courland, being taken prisoner by Charles Gustavus of Sweden, the Dutch, at Tobago, upon hearing the news, immediately attacked his colony in Fort James, which was surrendered by the garrison, then in a state of mutiny, upon being promised, that when the duke recovered his liberty, the fort should be restored to them.

France, without alleging any claim, inserted Tobago among the islands granted to their West India Company.

1659.

M. de Bois embarked from St. Christopher's in April to take the government of Santa Cruz. Upon his arrival at that island he found only fifty men capable of bearing arms, and those in a wretched condition. He had obtained from M. de Poincy, before he would accept the government, permission for the inhabitants to enjoy a free trade, and a promise of 400 men to defend the island from the attacks of the Spaniards. He shifted the colony to a more healthy part of the island; and through the mediation of Father Le Clerc, of the Dominican order, he established an intercourse with the island of Puerto Rico, which, added to the exemption from all duties but the capitation tax, and his own judicious regulations, soon changed the state of the colony, and it began to flourish.

Madame du Parquet, the governess of Martinico, had from her sufferings become paralytic, and too unwell to remain upon the island until her brother-in-law M. de Vanderoque arrived, who was to command during her son's minority; she therefore embarked with two infant daughters, her cousin, and some officers

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 579. 455. 547. tom. iii. p. 116. Sir W. Young's Com

of her household, for France, intending to try the Bourbon waters for relief. But she died upon the passage; and her officers were obliged to throw the body overboard, because the Portuguese sailors said it was the cause of a gale of wind they had, which lasted for three days.

M. de Vanderoque sailed from Dieppe in October, and arrived at Martinico after a six weeks' passage. He soon afterwards obliged M. de Gourselas to quit the island. That officer returned to Paris.

In July, M. le Chevalier Houel, with his two nephews, M. de Temericourt and D'Herblay, with one hundred soldiers, arrived at Mariegalante from Somme in Picardy, for the purpose of claiming their mother's rights in Guadaloupe from their uncle the governor. As soon as the vessel was at an anchor, Temericourt wrote to the commandant that he was arrived, and very unwell and in want of refreshments. The commandant immediately came on board to pay his respects, with a boat full of the best things he had. The Chevalier Houel and his nephews then explained to him their intentions; and being secure of his person, they landed with him, and made the garrison ground their arms, and after reading to them a manifesto which had been written in France, a new oath of fidelity was administered to them, which they took, and twenty of them volunteered going to Guadaloupe with the Chevalier. At nine the next morning they arrived at Grand Anse, Guadaloupe. The Chevalier and M. de Temericourt landed at his own house, from whence he sent to the fort of Santa Marie, of which, as every person in that district was in his interest, he obtained immediate possession. The Superior of the Prescheurs (or Dominicans) was fixed upon to be the bearer of the Chevalier's letter to his brother. They then landed their soldiers, and marched with colours flying and drums beating, and took post in an advantageous situation, sending off in all directions at the same time to acquaint their friends of their arrival. So large a proportion of the inhabitants soon joined them, that they no longer doubted of success.

The governor was astonished when he heard of his brother and nephews' arrival with a force to claim their rights, and that the inhabitants in general had joined them; he however ordered the people to arm, assembled the council, declared his brother and nephews guilty of high treason, and forbade all persons to join them, or even to quit their houses.

The Chevalier had not come from France to be frightened by an edict; and the inhabitants sent word to the governor that they had neither powder or ball to use against their lords. By the mediation of Fathers Beaumont and Fontaine bloodshed was

Du Tertre, tom. i. pp. 548. 560. 564.

avoided; and upon the eighth day after the Chevalier landed, both sides agreed to an arbitration, each side to select four arbitrators, and those eight to chose a ninth, which ninth was the Chevalier de Salles, then at St. Christopher's. After seven weeks' consultation the island was divided between the claimants, each having the same rights in their respective districts, but M. Houel to keep the title of governor of Guadaloupe; and in the event of the force of the island being collected to repel invasion, the command of the whole to be with him. This was signed the 13th of August, 1659.

Upon Palm Sunday, 400 French, under the command of De l'Isle, landed at Puerto di Plata from Tortuga, and marched twenty leagues to attack the city of St. Jago, for the purpose of revenging the death of ten of their nation who had been taken and shot by the Spaniards from on board a Flemish vessel, on their passage to St. Christopher's. De l'Isle surprised the city, and caught the governor in bed; his life was promised him, upon condition of paying 60,000 crowns ransom, part of which he paid immediately in hides, but the city was pillaged for twenty-four hours, and the pirates carried away all the ornaments from the altars, and the clocks from the churches. Upon their march back to the coast they were attacked by 1,000 men who lay in ambush for them, and would have been more severely handled had not the French produced the governor of St. Jago and their other prisoners, and threatened to put them to death if they were not allowed to retreat without molestation. menace produced the desired effect, and upon their arrival at the coast they liberated their prisoners. De l'Isle was furnished for this expedition with a commission from Elias Ward, the English governor of Tortuga; and when the Spanish ambassador in France claimed justice upon the plunderers of St. Jago because they were Frenchmen, that government referred him to England, assuring him that they had a commission from an English governor.

This

M. de Poincy sent a colony of thirty men to St. Bartholomew's.

Du Rausset, having obtained his commission as governor of Tortuga, repaired to England, and there had interest enough to obtain an order from parliament to the governor of Jamaica, by which that officer was enjoined to acknowledge him as governor of Tortuga, upon condition that all the English were to remain independent as at St. Christopher's. With this order Du Rausset repaired to Jamaica. Intelligence was soon carried to Ward, the English governor, that the governor of Jamaica had issued an order, which directed all the English in Tortuga

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