plantation, with gold bracelets on the arms, supposed to have been deposited there before the island was known to Europeans. The snow Rodney, with convicts for Maryland, was driven into Antigua by stress of weather. The convicts were in a deplorable condition: eleven had perished for want, and the survivors had eaten their shoes, &c. to sustain life. A dangerous conspiracy among the Negroes at Montserrat was discovered by a woman, who overheard two of the leaders disputing about the disposition of their arms. The plot was to have been carried into execution upon St. Patrick's day, which the inhabitants usually assembled together to commemorate. The Negroes within were to have secured the swords of the gentlemen, and those without were to fire into the roomt, and put every man to death. They were then to cast lots for the ladies, whom they intended to carry to Puerto Rico, in the vessels that lay in the harbour. Several of the conspirators were executed; three suffered the rack, and several destroyed themselves. On the 30th of January, 1768, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance concerning sporting. "Art. 1. Persons of all descriptions forbidden to sport with guns or otherwise from the 1st of March to the end of July, or to catch turtle ashore, or to take their eggs, or to take birds' nests, under penalty, for slaves, if without their masters' permission, of flogging and pillory during three days for the first offence, and a more heavy punishment in case of repetition. 2. Slaves found with fire arms during the period prohibited by the foregoing article, to be imprisoned, their arms confiscated, and to suffer besides the penalties laid down in article 1, and to be placed on the chain of Fort Royal during three months. 3. Slaves surprised with, or who sell birds during the period prohibited, to suffer the penalties imposed by article 2. On the 5th of February, 1768, the same officers issued another ordinance concerning freedom given to slaves without the permission of the governor. 2. Forbidding notaries from receiving acts of freedom for slaves without a permission in writing from the general and intendant, under penalty of 1000 livres against the notary. "3. Forbidding persons of all conditions from sending their slaves to foreign colonies to be manumitted, under pain of the penalty laid down by the ordinances of the King of 24th October, 1713, and 15th June, 1736. "4. Navigators and masters of vessels forbid receiving on board slaves, even with their owners' permission, without an authority in writing from the intendant, under a penalty against the said navigators or masters of vessels of 500 livres for each slave, and six months' imprisonment. Priests and other religious persons forbid baptizing as free any children, unless the act of liberty, in due form, of the mother, shall be produced, under the penalty laid down in the said ordinance of June 1736." On the 1st of March, 1768, the French King issued a declaration on judgments given against slaves. "Art. 1. Governors, lieutenant-governors, and intendants of Martinique are authorized, in case of slaves, to commute the punishment of the galleys and that of death against runaway slaves, for the punishment hereafter mentioned. "2. Slaves who shall have been guilty of a crime liable to the punishment of the galleys to be marked with a fleur-de-lis on the cheek, one ear cut off, and to be attached to the chain in perpetuity, for the first evasion to lose the remaining ear, and to be hanged in the event of a second, the penalty of death to be inflicted on the first evasion by force. "3. Slaves who have merited death as runaways to be marked with a fleur-de-lis on the cheek, to have both ears cut, and to be attached to the chain for life; to be hanged for the first evasion." On the 4th of May, 1768, the French general and intendant issued an ordinance respecting fishing. "Art. 1. Forbidding all persons, whether Whites, free, or slaves, from poisoning the rivers, or marigots, under penalties, against slaves, of being sentenced to the galleys for life. "2. Forbidding also the turning the course of rivers for the purpose of taking fish in larger quantities, under penalty of flogging for slaves and of pillory during three days, and of greater punishment in case of repetition. "3. All Whites, free persons of colour, or slaves, who shall place cloth in the rivers for the purpose of taking small fish called tritri, to be subject to the same penalties as pronounced by art.2. of this ordinance." The governor of St. Jago, in Cuba, in answer to an application made from Jamaica for the delivery of some slaves, declared, "That although he knew many Negroes were at that place who had made their elopement from Jamaica, yet he would not deliver them up, having received orders from the court of Spain, enjoining that all Negroes coming thither from the British islands, in what manner soever, should be employed in His Catholic Majesty's service, until further instructions should be given concerning them." Upon the 25th of October, a hurricane at the Havaña destroyed ninety-six public edifices and 4048 houses; above 1000 persons perished almost instantaneously. The storm began from the southward, and died away from the north: it did not continue more than two hours. The harbour was also very much injured. March 8th, William Young, Esq. was appointed lieutenantgovernor of St. Dominica, in the room of George Scott, Esq. deceased. The exports from Essequibo and Demerary employed seven ships, and consisted of 28964 hhds. of sugar, 166 tierces and 2510 bags of coffee, and sixty-six bales of cotton. The Assembly at Jamaica enacted, "1. That slaves attempting to desert from the island were to suffer death, or other punishment, at the discretion of the court. "2. If two were tried, the ringleader to suffer death. "3. Free Negroes assisting, to lose their freedom. 4. Provost-martial to pay £200 for not transporting them within six months. 5. Found at large afterwards death. "6. Penalty of 100 on white persons assisting them." Jamaica exported 4203 lbs. of coffee this year. ' The population of Jamaica was estimated at 17,000 Whites, and 166,914 Negroes; and the cattle 137,773. The value of the exports, at £1,400,000 sterling. The English settlers at St. Vincent's represented to the lords of the treasury, that the plain and fertile part of that island was in the hands of the Caribs, who derived little advantage from it -their cottages being scattered at a great distance in the woods, and only small spots of ground near them cleared or cultivated; and that the neighbourhood of a lawless banditti, who held constant correspondence with the French, rendered the English settlers unsafe. Government, in consequence of these representations, ordered the Caribs' lands to be surveyed and sold. For the parts which they had cleared, they were to be paid in money, and to have other lands allotted in return, sufficient for their support, in a different part of the island; which lands were Annual Register, 1768, pp. 202. 210.—1773, p. 85. Report of the Lords of the Committee, 1798, Supplement to No. 15. 1 "A gentleman in Coleraine has now living a parrot, which was sent over to his father, among other curiosities, from Jamaica, in the year 1694: it is of the Edwards, vol. i. p. 302. Mackaw kind, but, through its great age, has lost its former beautiful diversity of feathers, and is become entirely grey."Annual Register, 1768, p. 178. pos to be granted and secured in perpetuity to them and their terity, free from all conditions, except their peaceable behaviour, and obedience to government: and that the lands were to be for ever unalienable to any white person. Five years were given for effecting this transplantation. The Caribs thought this was only a prelude to a design formed either for their utter extermination, or for reducing them to a state of slavery. They applied to the governor of Martinico for assistance, and refused to part with their lands, or to admit of any exchange. The commissioners, however, proceeded in making the survey, and advanced a road into their country. The Caribs expressed their dissatisfaction, but seemed unwilling to proceed to actual violence. Sir William Trelawney was appointed governor of Jamaica. The Assembly at Antigua voted a settlement of £1000 currency per annum to the governor, Lieutenant-General Woodley, in addition to the former salary of £1200 per annum, and also a house to be provided for him at the public expence. Upon the 12th of July, the royal hospital of Greenwich, in Jamaica, suddenly took fire, supposed by lightning, and in a few hours was reduced to a heap of ruins. Upon the 15th of July, at Santa Cruz, a fire begun on Mr. Manning's estate, and in a short time nine others were destroyed. Above 1000 acres of canes were burnt, and the damage was estimated at £250,000. It lasted from ten A.M. to four P.M., the wind blowing hard all the time. 1769. August the 4th, James Purcell, Esq. was appointed lieutenantgovernor of Tortola and the Virgin Islands. The population of St. Lucia amounted to 12,794 persons. France imported from Martinico, this year, in 102 vessels, 177,116 quintals of refined sugar, and 12,579 quintals of raw sugar; 68,518 quintals of coffee; 11,731 quintals of cocoa; 6048 quintals of cotton; 2518 quintals of cassia; 783 casks of rum; 307 casks of syrup; 150 lbs. of indigo; 2147 lbs. of preserved fruits; 47 lbs. of chocolate; 282 lbs. of rasped tobacco; 494 lbs. of rope yarn; 234 chests of liqueurs; 234 barrels of molasses; 451 quintals of wood for dyeing; and 12,108 hides in the hair. The Assembly at Jamaica reduced the premium for taking Annual Register, 1768, pp. 152. 160. 181.-1769, p. 171.—1773, pp. 86. 221. Coke's West Indies, vol. ii. pp. 297. 316. up runaway Negroes to £2 a head, or so much only as the magistrate may deem meet, and the mile money at the rate of seven-pence halfpenny per mile. "Slaves found selling fresh fish in any part of Kingston except the fish market, within the hours of eight A.M. and two P.M., to be punished at the discretion of any of the magistrates, and the fish forfeited." Attempts were made to import into Barbadoes some of the rich soil from Dutch Guiana, which is, for twelve inches in depth, a stratum of perfect manure; but the wood ants committed such ravages in the vessel, that the attempt was never repeated. A black girl who was kept by a Jew at Kingston in Jamaica, gave information of a conspiracy among the Negroes in that town, to burn it, and massacre the inhabitants. The colonel of the militia proceeded, with his men, to the place of rendezvous, where he surprised 300 armed Negroes, and made several of them prisoners, many of whom were afterwards executed. Upon the 17th of March, a French smuggling schooner, of ten swivels and eighteen men, was captured by the Grenada custom house schooner of eight swivels and twelve men, after a severe action, in which the French had three killed and several wounded. Upon the 17th of August, the town of St. John's, in Antigua, was almost destroyed by fire: the custom house and store houses were burnt. Government ordered £1000 to be distributed among the poor sufferers, by the governor and ten principal merchants. Upon the 21st of December, Captain Kennedy sailed from Jamaica, bound to Whitehaven. On the 23d day they were obliged to lie to under their foresail. In a gale from the north, the vessel sprung a leak, and in less than an hour, the water was over the lower deck, and the crew, thirteen in number, had only time to get into the yawl, when the vessel sunk. A keg of biscuit, some cheese, and two bottles of wine, was all their store of provisions. For three days they stood to the eastward, with a hard gale from the north, and then bore up for the Bay of Honduras, as the only chance for saving their lives. On the seventh day they made Swan's Island. They were without a quadrant, and did not know what land it was. Some wilks, and a few quarts of brackish water, in the hollow of a rock, was all they found. It was with great difficulty Captain Kennedy could get the men to embark and make sail again for the Bay of Honduras. p. 274, from Mr. Bancroft's Long's Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 489. Annual Register, 1769, pp. 110. 112. 141. 190. Natural History of Guiana. |