1783 Grenada and the Grenadines were restored to Great-Britain, with all the other captured islands in the West-Indies, excepting Tobago. Since that period this valuable colony has been attached to our own country, much, it is believed, to the satisfaction of the inhabitants.

In giving a brief account of the present state of this island, it may be observed that many of those smaller islands which are called the Grenadines, no longer appertain to the government of Grenada. A line of division passes in an east and west direction between Cariacou and Union Island. The former of these and some others south of it are all that are now comprised in the Grenada government; Union Island, with all the little adjacent ones to the north, are annexed to the government of St. Vincent.

Grenada contains eighty thousand acres of land, of which about two-thirds are well cultivated. The soil is very fertile, and adapted to every tropical production. In the year 1776 the exports, exclusive of freight, duties, insurance, &c. were worth 600,0002. It is divided into six parishes; and its chief dependency Cariacou forms a seventh. It has two ports of entry with separate establishments, one at St. George the capital, and one at Grenville-Bay, a town and harbour on the east or windward side of the island. The former is a free port.

Since these islands came into the possession of the English, the number of white inhabitants has greatly decreased. In 1771, they were more than sixteen hundred in 1777, they were only thirteen hundred; and in 1793, they did not exceed one thousand, of which about two-thirds were men able to bear arms, and incorporated into five regi

ments of militia, including a company of free blacks, attached to each. There are also in gene. ral about five hundred regular troops, which are supported on the British establishment.

The negro slaves have also decreased. By the returns made previously to 1779, they were thirty-five thousand, and in 1785, they amounted to less than twenty-four thousand. African cargoes sold at Grenada are in part exported to the neighbouring French and Spanish colonies. The free people of colour amounted to more than eleven hundred in the year 1787, and though the increase of this mixed race is discouraged as much as possible, yet it cannot be prevented. The evidence of all free coloured people, whether born free or manumitted, is received in the courts of this island, and they are tried on criminal charges, in the same manner as whites; they are also allowed to possess and enjoy lands and tenements to any amount, provided they are native-born subjects.

The governor is vice-admiral, and presides solely at the courts of chancery. His salary is 3,2001. per annum, which is raised by a poll tax on all slaves. The council consists of twelve members, and the assembly of twenty-six. The law courts are held twice a year, viz. in March and Septem ber.

ST. VINCENT AND DOMINICA.

Attempts were made at an early period to bring these islands with their dependencies under the English dominion which the French as constantly opposed. The rightful possessors the Caribbees, derived that security from the jealousy of the contending parties, which they might have sought in

vain from their justice and humanity. By a treaty in 1748, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Tobago, were declared neutral, and the ancient proprietors were left in undisturbed possession. This treaty of neutrality, intended to accommodate both parties, satisfied neither. After the next war they agreed to divide the spoil between them; and in February 1763, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago, were assigned to Great-Britain, and St. Lucia to France, in full and perpetual sovereignty; the Caribbees not being once mentioned in the whole transaction, as if no such people existed. Indeed they were reduced to a miserable remnant of the ancient or red Caribbees; not more than a hundred families survived in 1763, who retained only a mountainous district in the island of St. Vincent.

The first measure of the English government in respect to St. Vincent, after the peace of 1763, was to dispose of the lands; twenty-four thousand acres, being one-fourth of the whole, were gratuitously assigned over to individuals, of which Mr. Swinburn had twenty thousand, and general Monckton the other four. The remainder was ordered to be sold; and about twenty thousand acres fetched at public auction more than 160,000%. Nearly one half of the country was judged unfit for profitable cultivation, consequently these grants and sales comprehended all the lands of any kind of value from one end of the island to the other.

The sales and allotments excited a war with the Caribbees, in the course of which it became the avowed intention of government to exterminate those miserable people altogether; or, by conveying them to a barren island on the coast of Africa, consign them over to a lingering destruction.

By repeated protests from the military officers, administration desisted from their purpose, and the Caribbees, after surrendering part of their lands, were permitted to enjoy the remainder, which they possess to the present period.

In 1779, St. Vincent was captured by the French, but was again restored in 1783. It contains about eighty-four thousand acres, which are every where well watered. The country is rugged and mountainous; the intermediate vallies, however, are remarkably fertile, and well adapted for the cultivation of sugar. The extent of country at present possessed by British subjects is about twenty-four thousand acres ; and as much is supposed to be held by the Caribbees. The rest is thought to be incapable of cultivation. The British territory is divided into five parishes; the capital is called Kingston: houses are but thinly scattered over the island. In the frame of its government it dif fers but little from Grenada.

St. Vincent is celebrated for an extensive botanical garden, which abounds with almost every species of the vegetable world that the hand of nature has bestowed on these islands for use or beauty, for food or luxury; and also with many valuable exotics from the East-Indies and South America.

The island of DOMINICA was so named by Christopher Columbus, from the circumstance of its being discovered by him on a Sunday. The civil history of Dominica, like that of St. Vincent, is but a mere blank, till by conquest it fell into the hands of the English in the year 1759. At this period about half the island was sold by auction in lots of fifty to a hundred acres each, yielding the sum of 312,000l. and upwards.

The French inhabitants are still more numerous

than the English, and possess the most valuable coffee plantations in the island. They differ but little in manners, customs, and religion, from the inhabitants of the other French islands in the WestIndies. Before the commencement of the late unnatural American war, Dominica was in a most flourishing state, and was rising fast into importance. But during that unfortunate contest, all the faculties and means of Great-Britain were directed to the subjugation of America, to the utter neglect of the West-India islands. So much was this the case with Dominica, that at the height of the war it was protected only by six officers and ninety-four privates. Neglect in this instance was the more remarkable, as Dominica by its local situa tion, between Martinique and Guadaloupe, is the best calculated of all the British possessions, for securing to her the dominion of the Caribbee sea.

Dominica surrendered to the French in 1778, and the first measure of the conquerors was to disarm the English. The governor forbade them to assemble together more than two at one time or place, under the penalty of military execution, and he ordered the sentinels to shoot them if they passed in greater numbers. He prohibited all lights in the houses after nine in the evening, and suffered no Englishman to walk the streets without a candle and lantern. Mr. How, an English merchant and owner of a ship then in the bay, attempting to go on board his own vessel after that hour, was shot in the attempt, and the sentinel who killed him was raised in his regiment for having thus done his duty. Such are the tender mercies of the French over their vanquished foes!! The same governor, the marquis Duchilleau, VOL. XXIV.

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