Upon the 1st of April, a Spanish half-galley captured a pink, the Blessing, of Boston, David East, master. They twisted a piece of sea-net round the head of Mr. Charles Cretchet, the mate, until his eyes were ready to start out, and then hung him up by the thumbs; but not being able to get any information from him, as to what money there was on board the pink, they carried the whole crew, Robert Pierce, Peter Clement, John Bath, Peter Rowland, and another seaman, to one of the uninhabited Bahama Islands; where, after stripping them stark naked, they tied them, with their arms spread, to the branches of some mangrove trees, two by two, each couple about a quarter of a mile apart, standing up to the middle of their legs in water, and their faces turned that they might behold each other's misery: in this state they were left to perish.

About three hours after the Spaniards left them, one of the men saw a stick, with a crook at the end of it, not far from him: in a little time he and his companion contrived to lift it up with their feet, and at last got hold of it. With this, by degrees, they loosened the knot upon the "bowing" of their arms, and shifted it to their fingers, and then, by "little and little," set themselves at liberty, and released their despairing friends.

Soon afterwards, they saw one of the Spaniards in a tree looking out for strange sails: they immediately hid themselves in the thickets, and did not meet again until the third night following in all which time they were without water, except what dew they could lick from the leaves, and the master had his arm very much torn by an alligator. Next day, they killed a rabbit and devoured it raw, but applied its entrails to the master's arm: they also found some wilks and crabs.

The 13th of April, Charles Cretchet, the mate, with Robert Pierce, and Peter Clement, made a raft, and put to sea. Mr. East, John Bath, and Peter Rowland were left behind very feeble, and quite naked. The musquitoes tormented them grievously they were too weak to go over the rocks for wilks, but gnawed such dry bones of turtles as were lying about. In this extremity they found a dead eel, which they supposed some bird had dropped. Upon the 19th, they got to sea upon a raft-were picked up by some canoes, and carried to the Havannah.

The Blessing had been brought into that harbour, and her cargo taken out; but she had no Spanish goods on board, and they could not make a prize of her: she was therefore restored to Mr. East, who was liberated from prison after eighteen days confinement.

Upon the 10th of June, "the Hunters" brought Robert Pierce and Peter Clement to the Havannah, where the governor ordered

History of New England, Cotton Mather, B. 6. p. 6.

them to be sent on board the Blessing. These men were five days upon the raft, with only two crabs to live upon they had been driven back to the island, where they had wandered about for a month. The mate was too weak to travel with them, and they had lost him. The pink now sailed for Boston, and arrived there safe; but her unfortunate crew, having only a canvas shirt each, which the Hunters had given them, were almost starved with the cold.

Upon the 7th of April, M. de la Salle arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi: he there caused Te Deum to be sung, set up a cross, and carved the arms of France on a great tree. M. de la Salle had travelled from the lakes in Canada to Frontenac, entered the River Illinois the 24th of January, 1683, and the Mississippi on the 2d of February. The 11th of April following, he embarked in a canoe, and sailed for Quebec, to inform the Count de Frontenac, governor-general of New France, of his discoveries. Father Louis Hennepin had been down the river two years before him.

Captain William Phips sailed from England in the Algier Rose, of eighteen guns and ninety-five men, to search for the wreck of a Spanish galleon among the Bahama Islands.' In the West Indies his men mutinied, and intended to carry the vessel to the South Sea. The carpenter informed Captain Phips of their plans, who contrived to carry the vessel to Jamaica, where he got another crew, and sailed again in search of the wreck.

At Española, an old Spaniard told him that the wreck lay a few leagues to the northward of Puerta de la Plata, which was so called, because some of the crew, with a boat, full of plate, landed there after the frigate was wrecked.

Captain Phips sailed for the shoal, and searched it very carefully, but without success; and being doubtful of his crew, he returned to England.

Two ships were freighted with horses and pipe staves to Barbadoes from Philadelphia, one year only after the foundation of that city by William Penn.

Boyer's Pol. State of G. B., v. xix. p. 43. Hist. of New England, C. Mather, p. 38. Life of W. Penn, Clarkson's, vol. i. p. 383.

་

Phip's cruize for the wreck was no new thought. In a political squib, entitled An exact Account of the Receipts and Disbursements expended by the Committee of Safety upon the Emergent Occasions of the Nation, 1660-is the following item:

which he had to look into the middle of the Western Ocean for a great Spanish galleon, that was sunk with the weight of the gold that she carried, some thirty years ago,-two thousand five hundred pounds.

1684.

Captain Laurent was a tall man, fair and with light hair: he wore mustachios, and was very fond of amusing himself on board his ship with music: violins and trumpets were his favourite instruments. He was remarkable for superior manners and address. In the Spanish service he was employed against the buccaneers, from whom he took a great many prisoners. At last, however, he was taken by them, and having been offended by the Spaniards, he determined to join the buccaneers, and got the command of a vessel with them. He was cruizing as a single ship when he fell in with two Spanish galleons, each of sixty guns, from which he found it impossible to escape by running away: he therefore made an animated speech to his crew, and concluded by telling them, that the only chance of escape was by fighting. He ordered a man to stand by him with a lighted match, ready to blow up the vessel if they should be overpowered, and at the same time ran in between the two vessels, and poured in a welldirected fire of musketry, which killed forty-eight of the Spaniards. The action continued for some time, when the main-mast of the largest ship was carried away, and her consort not daring to board, Captain Laurent escaped with flying colours.

The report of this action produced very different effects upon the courts at Paris and Madrid - that of France sent out letters of naturalization to Laurent, and of pardon for the death of Van Horne. The court of Spain sent out orders to try their commander for cowardice, and cut off his head.

Laurent afterwards, in company with the captains Michel Junque, le Sage, and Braha, was cruizing off Carthagena. The Spaniards sent out two thirty-six-gun ships and a small craft of six guns to engage Laurent: they made sail for a bay to leeward of Carthagena, where he had been seen, but were surprised to find more vessels than they expected: they endeavoured to retreat, but Laurent attacked them, and after an action of eight hours, and killing 400 Spaniards, he took the admiral, and the other ship was taken by Junque. Laurent's prize was driven ashore shortly afterwards, and the prisoners escaped.

Colonel Hender Molesworth was appointed to succeed Sir Thomas Lynch in the government of Jamaica.

M. de Cussy arrived at St. Domingo as governor: he had been the competitor of M. de Pouancy, and afterwards was under his order, and now his successor. The colony was in a most disor

Histoire des Aventuriers, par A. O. Oexmelin, tom. i. pp. 276. 283.

Univ. Hist. vol. xxxvi. p. 309.

Charlevoix, tom. iii. p. 184.

derly state, without any religion or, police, or established forms of justice: the increase of population rendered this state no longer to be tolerated. The Chevalier St. Laurent, the King's lieutenant-governor of the French islands in America, and M. Begon, the intendant, were ordered to St. Domingo, to consult with De Cussy, and reform the abuses in that island: they arrived at Cape François in August.

Several persons convicted of participating in the Rye-house Plot, and reprieved from hanging, on condition they should serve ten years in the West Indies, arrived in Jamaica, where the governor, "by special directions from his Majesty's command," recommended the Assembly to prepare an act" to prevent all clandestine releasments, or buying out of their time, to the end that their punishment, after so great a mitigation, may yet in some measure be answerable to their crime.”

July the 24th, M. de la Salle, with four ships and 200 soldiers and tradesmen, sailed from Rochelle, to establish a colony on the banks of the Mississippi (down which river he had descended the preceding year). Off St. Domingo, one of his vessels was wrecked in a gale of wind, the other three missed the mouth of the Mississippi; and two of them were wrecked in a bay, which M. de la Salle named after St. Louis: the men and most part of their cargoes were saved. The fourth vessel, under the command of

M. de Beaujeu, returned to France.

M. de la Salle built a fort near a river, which he named Vatches, and after a search of two months, he discovered the entrance of the Mississippi by the marks he had left there in his first voyage. From hence he set out to explore the country, and was murdered by two of his own people.

1685.

L'Ordonnance of the Code Noir was issued this year: one of its sections provided for the marriage of slaves, and forbade the separation, by sale, of the husband from the wife or children.

A great majority of the French planters opposed this law, because it abridged their power of alienation. M. Hilliard d'Auberteuil considered it calculated to produce insubordination, conspiracies, and insurrections!!!

Charlevoix, tom. iii. p. 187.

Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 625.

Boyer's Political State of Great Britain, vol. xix. p. 43.
Stephens on West Indian Slavery, p. 164.

Harris's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 362.

1 "March, 1685.. Ordinance of the King, concerning the Discipline of the Church, and the Condition of Slaves in the West India Colonies.

"Art. 2. All slaves to be baptized according to the Roman Catholic religion.

"4. No person but a Roman Catholic to have the charge of slaves.

If marriage was to produce such consequences, it is not to be wondered at, that, to teach them Christianity, should, in after

Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. p. 117.