"2. Proprietors of, or persons having houses, are forbid letting out chambers or shops to slaves of either sex and all persons are forbid lending their names to slaves, either directly or indirectly, under penalty of 500 livres for the first offence, and severe punishment for the second.

"3. Slaves permitted to be employed as workmen at their masters' houses, and under their inspection. They are also permitted to be hired out to free persons, being handicraftsmen.”

On the 12th of August, 1765, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance respecting the suppression of hawking.

"Art. 1. Forbidding persons of colour, of either sex, whether free or slaves, from carrying in trunks, bales, or baskets, merchandize for sale, from plantation to plantation, and in the towns. Forbidding them, likewise, from carrying poultry, fruits, vegetables, and other produce; the said articles to be sold in the markets of the towns only, under penalty of 300 livres against the master for the first offence, and of confiscation of the goods, &c.

"3. Persons of colour, whether free or slaves, allowed to carry to market poultry, fruit, vegetables, &c. for sale; the slaves to have their masters' permission, otherwise the poultry, fruit, &c., to be confiscated, and the slaves subject to the penalties laid down in former ordinances."

The Moravian missionaries arrived at Barbadoes.

"By the 6th of George III. chap. 12, it is declared, that the King's Majesty, with the Lords and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, have power to make laws to bind the people of the British colonies in all cases."

Upon the 15th of November, orders were signed at the Treasury Board, "for the free admission of Spanish vessels into all the colonies." Mr. Long says, the orders were given, rather unwisely, in a public manner, and laid open what ought to have remained clandestine; so that the guards, cautions, and penalties against it were multiplied. It was in fact one government complying with the request of its colony, and authorizing smuggling into the colony of another state, with whom they were at peace; as though it could be right to encourage disobedience in your neighbour's children, because you would gain thereby !

An act was passed in England, declaring the officers in his Majesty's colonies entitled to demand and receive such fees as their predecessors were entitled to demand, on or before the 29th of September, 1764; and if the fees received by the comptroller of the customs did not equal one-third part of those received by the collector, it was declared lawful for him to demand a sum

Coke's West Indies, vol. i. p. 209.

Jordan's Examination of the Slave Registry Bill, p. 55.

Burke's Works, vol. ii. p. 209. Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 110. 197, 198.

equal to that. For demanding more, the penalty was £50 for the first offence, and dismissal for the second. The plantation merchants inveighed bitterly against this law.

General Melville, the governor, called the first Assembly at Grenada this year. Previous to their meeting the four and a half per cent. duty was demanded by the British government, in lieu of the duties formerly paid the French King. This was resisted by the inhabitants, and became a question of law in the Court of King's Bench.

A considerable ferment was raised in the island, by government ordering a certain number of Roman Catholics to be admitted into the council and house of Assembly. Great disorders prevailed in consequence, which continued until it was captured by the French in 1779.

In consequence of the orders to the English men-of-war, to seize all foreign vessels in the English ports in the West Indies, the exports from Great Britain to Jamaica fell short £168,000 sterling of what they were in 1763.

The Spanish trade to their West India islands was laid open to most of the ports in Spain, with permission to return to any port of the mother country.

The quantity of British colonial sugar imported, exported, and consumed upon an average of five years, ending in 1765, was as follows:- Imported, 123,781; exported, 29,536; consumption, 94,245 hogsheads, of 12 cwt. each.

The inhabitants of St. Christopher's, instigated by the crews of some vessels from New England, burnt all the stamped papers upon the island, made the officers appointed to distribute them renounce their office, and went over in a body to Nevis, to assist their neighbours in taking the same rebellious precautions against the stamp act.

The French inhabitants of Grenada, in a fulsome petition, requested the King to grant them, "without distinction, every advantage of a British subject."

The trade from Cuba scarcely employed six vessels.

The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed eight ships, and consisted of 3678 hhds. of sugar, 56 tierces and 881 bags of coffee, and 18 bales of cotton.

Colquhoun's British Empire, p. 356.

Edwards, vol. i. p. 294.

Brougham's Colonial Policy, book i. sect. 3. pp. 426. 442.

Appendix to the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, on the State
of the Colonies in 1807, p. 73, from Quarterly Review, vol. ii. p. 10.
Annual Register, pp. 56. 270.
Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, Appendix.

1766.

The sloop Fanny, Henderson master, from Jamaica to Honduras, was wrecked, on the 31st of October, off Cape Gracias à Dios. Eight of her crew died through fatigue and famine: the three survivors were saved by eating the dead bodies of their shipmates.

The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed nine ships, and consisted of 4120 hhds. of sugar, 37 tierces and 2532 bags of coffee, and 101 bales of cotton.

The number of slaves imported into Jamaica, from January 1765 to July 1766, was 16,760. Upon a gentleman's estate in Westmorland, thirty-three Coromantins, newly imported, rose, and in an hour killed and wounded nineteen white persons. They were soon defeated, some killed, and the remainder executed or transported.

Jamaica, act 43, sec. 5. Free Negroes absenting themselves from their respective Negro towns, to be deprived of their freedom. By sec.7, they are to forfeit 100 if they purchase a slave. The population of Dominica was returned at 2020 Whites, and 8497 slaves.1

In pursuance of directions from Old France, the commanding officer at Cape François ordered all English vessels to leave the island within forty-eight hours. Four, belonging to New York, were seized, and their crews imprisoned for not complying with the order.

The French Goree merchants entered into a new contract with the Havaña company, for the annual supply of slaves from the coast of Africa.

The bay-men at Honduras transmitted to Jamaica complaints against the irregular proceedings of the French, who were said to have upwards of forty sail from Martinico employed in the logwood trade.

The Druid sloop of war (it was said) took formal possession of Turk's Island in his Majesty's name: to this cause the impri

Annual Register, 1766, pp. 54, 55, 56. 62. — 1767, p. 105.
Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, Appendix.
Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 442. 471.

Report of the Lords of the Committee, Supplement to No. 15.

1 "About the latter end of March, an ancient sepulchral Indian monument was dug up in the island of Dominica, containing an iron javelin, headed with gold and divers ornaments of the same metal.

The vault branched out into separate
apertures, and was thought to be the
Annuai
burial place of their kings."
Register, 1766, p. 104.

sonment of the English at Cape François was attributed. The French considered the island as neutral.

Rear-Admiral Parry was appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, and had his flag on board the Preston, fifty guns. He remained there three years, then returned to England, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, and settled a dispute with the governor of Puerto Rico about the possession of Crab Island.

January the 27th, 1766, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance respecting the sale of fish.

"Art. 2. Negroes working out, prohibited going on the bays to buy fish on any pretext whatever, under penalty of confiscation of the fish, and eight days' imprisonment for the first offence; and in case of repetition, to be flogged and pilloried during three days successively, even subject to greater penalties if necessary."

The same officers, on the 1st of March, 1766, issued another ordinance respecting slaves working out for hire.

"Art. 1. Owners of slaves working out on hire, to give in to the commis à la police of their quarters, the number and names of such slaves, within fifteen days after publication of the ordinance. The commis of police to keep a register, in which to be inserted their names, under penalty of three hundred livres against their masters.

2. Slaves intended for hire to be presented by their masters to the commis à la police of their quarters, who will deliver to each slave, gratis, a brass bracelet, to be soldered on the left arm, and to contain the number of each Negro, as inserted in the register of the commis à la police.

"3. After the 1st of May, no slave to be permitted to go on hire without the bracelet numbered agreeably to foregoing article, under penalty of eight days' imprisonment against the Negro, and three hundred livres against the person who shall have hired the Negro.

"4. Slaves not permitted to work out of the place in which their names may have been inscribed, unless it may be to go on errands, which, however, cannot be done without a ticket from their masters.

"5. Slaves forbid changing their numbers, or lending them to others, under pain of flogging and eight days' imprisonment. "6. Masters desirous of recalling their slaves from hire, or of selling them, shall be compelled, under the penalties mentioned in the first article, to return the numbered bracelet which they had received into the hands of the commis à la police, who will take note thereof.

Naval Chronicle, vol. v. p. 114.

Parliamentary "Further Papers," 1826, pp. 51, 52.

"8. Slaves in whose dwellings runaways are taken, to receive thirty lashes by the hands of the hangman, and to suffer eight days' imprisonment.

9. Forbidding proprietors of slaves from leaving their slaves at liberty to work at their pleasure, by means of hire, under penalty of three hundred livres for the first offence; and in case of repetition, the confiscation of the Negro.

10. Proprietors forbid, likewise, to let out their slaves to others but Whites, or resident free persons."

Upon the 13th of May, at half-past eleven at night, a fire broke out at Bridge Town, Barbadoes: it burnt till nine the next morning. Four hundred and forty houses, including the custom-house and other public buildings, were destroyed, the annual rents of which amounted to £16,421, besides a great number of warehouses. The damage was estimated at £300,000 sterling.

- Captain Duane, of his Majesty's ship Beaver, proceeded from Antigua to the Caraccas, and procured the liberation of three vessels belonging to Bermudas, which had been taken by the Spaniards at the Salt Tortugas. The damages were left by Captain Duane to be settled by the courts of Great Britain and Spain.

The city of St. Jago, in Cuba, suffered severely from an earthquake: forty persons were killed.

The provision-grounds and cane-plantations at St. Eustatia were destroyed, on the 21st of September, by a violent hurricane. Several vessels were lost. The salt works at Tortuga were also destroyed by a hurricane, and three French and five Newfoundland vessels driven on shore there.

Upon the 6th of October, five vessels were driven on shore at Dominica in a gale of wind, and upwards of fifty sail at Guadaloupe.

On the 13th, 14th, and 15th of September, all the vessels at Montserrat, and thirteen at St. Kitt's, were driven on shore and lost. At Montserrat, half the town was destroyed, and upwards of two hundred persons reduced to distress, by the torrents from the mountains.

December the 2d, William Hill, Esq. was appointed governor of Tobago, in the room of Alexander Browne, Esq. deceased.

On the 22d and 23d of October, a violent hurricane did considerable damage in the harbour of Pensacola. The Spanish

Annual Register, 1766, pp. 114. 127. 142. 155, 156. 167.—1767, p. 52.

1" At Antigua, a free Negro discovered a very rich crimson die, from a preparation of the fruit of the manchineal tree; which, for brilliancy of colour, ex

ceeds any thing hitherto attempted, and is extremely durable.”—Annual Register, 1766, p. 109.