repeated insults; and after the very recent accident at Owhy-he, one would have imagined that very different steps would have been taken. However the party returned to the [ships] without having suffered anything but the loss of the officer's hanger, a bucket, and the cooper's bag; which, in fact, were taken by force. Three or four women slept in the ship.

“Tuesday, 2nd March, '79.-The necessity of a strong guard was now proved beyond a doubt, and both ships' boats were manned and armed, and sent on shore, under the command of Mr. King. We landed with little trouble, and when on shore cut a very formidable figure; we had now at least fifty men under arms, besides others employed in watering. As they (the natives) plainly saw we were determined to resent any insult, and probably from our force saw that to-day we might be the beginners, kept at a pretty good distance, and we proceeded to our work. On the opposite side of the river to us they assembled very fast, so that in a short time there could not be less than 2000 people, and at least two-thirds men, and most of these armed with spears or daggers of iron or wood. However they remained very quiet, and by eleven o'clock the launches were sent to the ships with a turn of water; a hog was purchased of them, with some roots, and the natives suffered to come within the line made to keep out a body of people of 6 or 700, that had now assembled on the same side the river with us. Nor did they, to my knowledge, a man of them ever pass the line without being permitted, a favour not granted to many; and, from what I could judge, so far from having any intention to hurt or insult us at all, they took every step to convince us to the contrary. Whatever was wanted for the people they brought immediately on being desired, and took in return whatever was offered with great satisfaction. After dinner the launches returned with empty casks, and the people again went to work. In the afternoon six or seven double canoes came into the river, with two or three Arees, and told us the chief would arrive to-morrow; they had with them a few good caps and cloaks. In the afternoon, when a little of the dread of our warlike appearance was worn off, the girls swam from the opposite side of the river to us, and were very merry, in consequence of which several of the men attempted to swim over, but were not suffered. About four o'clock we all embarked without any molestation, and the natives to a great number came down to the beach. The only mark of insult we had all the day was a stone thrown at the cutter after everybody had left the shore. But as the throwing a single stone from a large body of people could not be called a general insult, the firing upon them was suppressed. What two or three people of consequence we saw appeared busy in apprehending the offender, a proof that they themselves did not intend it. Got all on board safe. Several women in the ship for the night.

Cætera desunt.

THE WEST INDIES.

[Continued from No. 159, page 195.]

GUADALOUPE.

Guadaloupe, Senegal,

And Quebec's mighty fall,

Will show we've no equal in war, brave boys!

Song of the Seven Years' War.

THE same reasons that led me to speak of Martinique, will also serve as an excuse for noticing this French colony, which has been at the same time the scene of some of our glorious exploits, and has witnessed some of our severest disasters.

During the glorious administration of the first William Pitt, in 1759, this island was taken from the French, its conquest at the time being looked on as an achievement of the very first order. At the peace of 1763 it was restored to France, and remained in her possession until 1779, during the American War, when it was taken by us, but restored at the peace of 1783.

Guadaloupe fell, with the other French colonies, in the beginning of 1794, to the expedition under Sir Charles Grey. The forces employed on this occasion were in number far inferior to the task allotted to them in such a climate; consequently, the garrisons left in the different islands were inadequate originally to their defence, and were further diminished by sickness. This was peculiarly the case at Guadaloupe, where, in addition to the number of deaths of soldiers, their commanding officer, Major-General Dundas, was numbered along with them: his loss at that critical moment was much felt. Still as there were many Royalists in the island, it was hoped that they might supply the deficiency caused by the loss of our men, with how little reason appeared in the sequel.

On the 3rd of June, a French squadron, consisting of two 50gun ships, one of 40, armed en flute, a frigate, and five transports, appeared off the island near Fort Fleur d'Epée, and effected a landing with a detachment, which seized upon, and established themselves in the village of Gozien. Colonel Drummond, of the 43rd, who commanded the troops, was solicited by the Royalists to allow them to attack this position, the strength of which, as well as the number of troops, were much underrated. The attempt consequently failed; the Royalists fled at the first volley, and very few of them were ever seen afterwards by our troops. This gave confidence to the Republicans, who landed the remainder of their troops on the 5th, and the next day marched to attack Fort Fleur d'Epée, which they carried by assault; the English garrison, originally weak, lost many men on this occasion, and retreated to Fort Louis. This also being considered untenable, the remainder of the troops retired to Basse Terre, and sent off despatches to Sir Charles Grey, describing their critical situation.

Guadaloupe may be properly said to be two islands divided by a narrow arm of the sea, called la riviere Salée; the northern portion is called Grande Terre, and on the southern part of this, are situated the

forts already named, Fleur d'Epée and Louis. On evacuating them, our troops passed the Salt Water River, directing their march on Basse Terre, which is situated on the south-west side of the southern division off the island called 'Cabesterre. They occupied Fort Matilda, and there waited for reinforcements, which speedily arrived under the command of Sir Charles Grey, who started with what force he could collect at St. Kitts', and landed in Guadaloupe on the 19th June; but the troops he brought were inadequate to the task of contending with Victor Hugues, the French Commissioner—an active and brave man—who, taking advantage of the decree of the Convention granting liberty to the slaves, armed them and all the Mulattoes who were attached to the French service. Several skirmishes with these people took place; and although in these our troops had the advantage, no decisive blow was struck. As the rains would soon set in, the Commander-in-Chief resolved to attempt the surprise of Point à Petre. Three battalions of flankers and volunteers, with a battalion of seamen, were despatched under the command of Brigadier-General Symes, to attempt the surprise of the town before daylight on the 2nd July. The guides furnished on this occasion, betrayed our troops, as they led them to the strongest part of the French position, and where it was impossible to scale the fort; from whence they were assailed with a heavy fire of round and grape: exposed to a flanking fire of musketry from the troops, and from the houses in the towns, they were placed in a situation where neither courage or discipline would avail them, and were finally obliged to retreat. The Brigadier was wounded; several officers were killed, among whom were Col. Gomm and Capt. Robertson of the Navy, and 600 men. Charles Grey took the requisite measures for strengthening the defences of the fort, and withdrew the rest of his force. The fort was soon afterwards invested by the French, but gallantly defended, when it was nothing but a mass of ruins, until the 10th of December, when 3000 French troops having arrived as reinforcements, it was thought no longer advisable to continue so unequal and desperate a contest. The fort was evacuated during the night, this operation having been so managed to deceive the French, that a large portion of the troops were embarked before the enemy took the alarm; and the whole affair was effected with the loss of sixteen killed, and seventy-five wounded. The British officers who had fallen into Victor Hugues' hands, were harshly treated, not allowed their parole, and imprisoned on board a hulk: they were chiefly of the 35th and 43rd Regiments, including Colonel Drummond of the latter corps. These, with the exception, I believe, of one man, resolved to attempt their escape. Watching the favourable moment when a boat was alongside, they overpowered the guard, leaped into the boat, and rowed off; luckily there was no vessel to pursue them, and once beyond the range of the guns they were safe.

Sir

I have entered further into the details of this disaster than perhaps I ought; but it was requisite to point out the source from which the subsequent evils that affected the West India islands in the following year arose. Victor Hugues, elated with his success, sent forth emissaries to all the islands where there was any part of the population French; the wild theories of the French Revolution were propagated with celerity and zeal, freedom held out to the slave, and every excitement given to revolt. These measures succeeded to their full extent in St. Lucia, as

I have already described, and it was only by the fidelity and courage of the British inhabitants that St. Vincent, Grenada, and Dominica did not share the same fate; they suffered, however, so severely from this species of civil war, that its effects lasted for many years, and even to this day can scarcely be said to have subsided. Guadaloupe remained in possession of France until 1810, when our fleets having nearly cleared the seas of French vessels, no reinforcements reached the colonies, and as the same means did not then exist of bringing into play the coloured population, the island fell into our possession with less resistance than might have been expected. After the retreat of the French from Moscow, one of the inducements held out to Sweden to join the coalition was the cession of this island, which, however, was again restored to France in 1814, and later in the year following her possession of it was confirmed.

THE SAINTS.

After the rupture of the peace of Amiens, a treaty which, as the school-boys say of pie-crust, was made to be broken, we were too busy at home in raising all manner of volunteers and martello-towers, to repel le petit Caporal, to give much attention to colonial affairs, which were comparatively neglected, such an operation, then, as the conquest of Guadaloupe could not be thought of; but the authorities in the West Indies conceived it would be an advantage to have a military post at its threshold, and possession was taken of these islands. They are five in number, Terre d'en Haut, Terre d'en Bas, Isle Percet, and two rocky islets. There was no difficulty attending their conquest. A regiment was stationed there; the islands were partly fortified, and became a considerable annoyance to Guadaloupe; lying to the southward of that island, and between it and Mariegalante, they could watch the passage, and give immediate information to our cruizers of all that was passing in the waters of the first-named island. The officers kept a schooner, to make visits to their friends in the other islands, and passed a gentlemanly amphibious sort of life. On one occasion they surprised a large French privateer, out of Guadaloupe, boarded and carried her. When Guadaloupe was taken, in 1810, the occupation of these islands was no longer requisite.

ANTIGUA.

Contrasted with the hostile proceedings just related, and uncertain rule we held when in possession of Guadaloupe, we turn with pleasure to the more placid and tranquil scenes of Antigua, one of the oldest of the British colonies, settled by Sir Thomas Warner in 1632, a descendant of whom still resides in the island, and is President of the Council. In 1666 a French armament from Martinique and Guadaloupe plundered and devastated the island.

In 1688, an auspicious date, the island was finally settled under British dominion, by the treaty of Breda, and has since that period continued to flourish, owing, in the first instance, to the zeal of the ancestors of the present Sir Bethel Codrington, who left no exertions untried to procure liberty of trade for the island, and to further its prosperity in every shape. The appearance of the island is prepossessing, being a succession of gently-swelling heights and cultivated valleys,

bright with verdure. This favourable aspect loses none of its charms by the reflection that this is one of the most healthy of the Caribbean islands. This impression is heightened afterwards by the appearance of the planters' houses, which have that sort of venerable and substantial look that puts one in mind of the old mansions in England. A small park or lawn generally surrounding the house adds to the illusion; besides these attractions they have within them "what passes show"in none of the islands are the intertropical virtues of good fellowship and hospitality better understood or more freely practised than here. If any man (particularly if he is anything of a pleasant sort of fellow,) wishes to go from St. John's to English Harbour, or across the island in any direction, let him keep his project secret, and perform his journey under the shades of night; otherwise he will be sure to be waylaid on the road, shut up for a week or a fortnight in an enchanted castle, from which there is no escape; be fed on turtle from the shores, venison from Barbuda, with numberless good things; find himself obliged to wash these down with madeira, claret, and the best of drink; and can only escape from his confinement by being handed over to another hospitable giant, and from him to a third, so that the journey, which ought to have cost only a few hours, requires five or six weeks for its completion; yet, curiously enough, none of the sufferers under this modus operandi ever complain of their detention, which shows it must be very enchanting.

The planters of Antigua have shown a noble example to their brethren of the colonies, by first meeting the wishes of the mother country as to the abolition of slavery: although they saw that it would put them to great inconvenience and probable loss, yet they wisely thought that a measure founded on honour and humanity could scarcely be wrong ultimately, and, even immediately, would not be that unmixed evil so generally apprehended; they, therefore, in 1834, abolished slavery, without waiting to pass it through the strainer of apprenticeship. In this step they had the approval of their own consciences, and the result has been such as to hold out the prospect of their being finally repaid for the sacrifice.

:

Barbadoes and Antigua are so densely peopled, in proportion to the superficial surface of the land, that they have not felt the transition from slavery to liberty of their servants so severely as elsewhere, while the natural fertility of the virgin soil of Trinidad compensates for the increased price of labour. In the other islands the trial has been very severe; in place of the master dictating or ordering his own terms, it is the servant, or rather free peasant, that dictates his he will work when and where he likes, and for the present he can name his own wages. All this will be rectified in time; but at present the planters may plead the proverb, "While the grass grows," &c. On no great question, perhaps, that ever came before the legislature of any country, has there ever appeared such a mass of contradictory evidence as has been produced on this; first, on the apprenticeship portion of the question, and final abolition. When it is considered that above 800,000 persons recovered their freedom in one day, not from any exertion of their own, but by the decree of a country they only knew the name of, at the distance of 5000 miles, it will not be too much to say that no event of history will appear more striking to posterity. It will, indeed, stand