and a half per centum on produce exported.-Arguments for and ob-

jections against the measure. Decisions of the court of King's Bench

on this important question.-Strictures on some positions advanced by

the lord-chief justice on this occasion.—Transactions within the colony.

-Royal instructions in favour of the Roman Catholic capitulations.

-Internal dissentions.-Defenceless state.-French invasion 1779.—

Brave defence of the garrison.—Unconditional surrender.—Hardships

exercised towards the English planters and their creditors.-Redress

given by the court of France.-Grenada, &c. restored to Great Bri-

tain by the peace of 1783.-Present state of the colony in respect to

cultivation, productions and exports; government and population. 43

Postscript to the History of Grenada.

APPENDIX to Chap. II.

81

84

93

131

CHAP. IV.

Leeward Charaibean Island Government, comprehending Saint Chris-

topher's, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, and the Virgin Islands.

Civil History and Geographical Description of each.-Table of ex-

ports from each island for 1787; and an account of the money ari-

sing from the duty of four and a half per centum.-Observations con-

cerning the decline of these islands, which conclude their history. 137

BOOK IV.

PRESENT INHABITANTS.

CHAP I.

Summary account of the inhabitants of the several islands.-Classes.-

Emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland.-Predominant character

of the European residents.-Creoles or natives.-Effect of climate.-

Character of the Creole women and children. Of the people of co-

lour, and their different tribes or casts.-Limitations and restrictions

on the mulattoes and native blacks of free condition.-Their character

at length,

c.

CHAP. II.

199

Of Negroes in a state of slavery.-Preliminary observations.-Origin

of the slave trade.-Portuguese settlements on the African coast.-

Negroes introduced into Hispaniola in 1502, and the slave trade re-

vived at the instance of Barth. de las Casas, in 1517.-

-Hawkins's

Voyages to the Coast, in 1562, and 1563.—African company esta-

blished by James I.—Second charter in 1631 by Charles I.-Third

charter in 1662.-Fourth charter in 1672.-Effects of the Petition

and Declaration of Rights in 1688.-Acts of the 9th and 10th of

William and Mary, c. 26.-New regulations in 1750.-Description

of the African coast.-Forts and factories.-Exports from Great

Britain.-Number of negroes transported annually to the British Co-

lonies.-State of the trade from 1771 to 1787.-Number of negroes

at this time exported annually by the different nations of Europe. 235

CHAP. III.

Mandingoes, or Natives of the Windward Coast.-Mahometans.-

Their wars, manners and persons.-Koromantyn negroes, or natives

of the Gold Coast.-Their ferociousness of disposition displayed by an

account of the negro rebellion in Jamaica in 1760.—Their national

manners, wars, and superstitions.-Natives of Whidah or Fida.-

Their good qualities.-Nagoes.-Negroes from Benin.-Persons and

tempers.-Canibals.-Natives of Kongo and Angola.—Survey of the

character and dispositions of negroes in a state of slavery.

CHAP. IV.

263

Means of obtaining slaves in Africa.-Observations thereon.—Objec-

tions to a direct and immediate abolition of the trade by the British

nation only. The probable consequences of such a measure, both in

Africa and the West Indies, considered.-Disproportion of sexes in

1

the number of slaves annually exported from Africa.Causes thereof.

-Mode of transporting negroes to the West Indies, and the regula-

tions recently established by act of parliament.—Effects of those regu-

lations.

309

CHAP. V.

Arrival and sale in the West Indies.-Negroes newly purchased, how

disposed of and employed.-Detail of the management of negroes on

a sugar plantation.-Mode of maintaining them-Houses, cloathing,

and medical care.-Abuses.-Late regulations for their protection

and security.-Causes of their annual decrease.-Polygamy, &c.-

Slavery in its mildest form unfriendly to population.-General obser-

vations-Proposals for the further meliorating the condition of the

slaves, with which the subject concludes.

APPENDIX to BOOK IV.

337

Account of the number of ships, with their tonnage, which cleared

from Great Britain to Africa in each year, from 1700, together

with the total exports to Africa in each year, during the same periods;

distinguishing the value of the British, India, and Foreign goods;

to which are added the quantity and value of each article from the

year 1782.

497

THE HISTORY,

CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL,

OF THE

BRITISH COLONIES

IN THE

WEST INDIES.