employed.spies who insinuated themselves into private families, and related all that passed in the privacy of domestic intercourse. He repeatedly threatened to set the town of Roseau on fire; and when an almost universal conflagration, on Easter Sunday 1781, consumed five hundred houses, like another Nero he diverted himself with the scene, forbade his soldiers to assist in extinguishing the flames, and permitted them to pillage the sufferers.

At the general peace Dominica was restored to the government of England. The joy which on this event illumined the countenance of every person, whose sufferings under an arbitrary government, had taught to appreciate the blessings of the British constitution, may be conceived, but cannot be described.

Dominica is about the same size as St. Vincent, and is divided into ten parishes. Roseau is the capital of the island. It contains many high mountains, in some of which are burning volcanoes that frequently discharge vast quantities of sulphur. The vallies are fertile, and the island is well watered, there being more than thirty fine rivers in it. Coffee is the principal produce of the island. The native inhabitants are of a clear copper colour: they have long, sleek, black hair: their persons are short, stout, and well made, but they disfigure their faces by flattening their foreheads in infancy. They live chiefly by fishing in the rivers and the sea, or by fowling in the woods, in both these pursuits they use their bows and arrows with wonderful dexterity. They display also considerable ingenuity in making curious wrought panniers or baskets, of silk-grass, or the leaves and bark of trees.

ST. CHRISTOPHER'S, NEVIS, ANTIGUA, MONTSERRAT, AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS.

These several islands since the year 1672 have constituted one distinct government, called the Leeward Caribbean Government. The governor visits each occasionally, but his principal residence is in Antigua; in his absence the government of each island is administered by a lieutenant-governor, whose authority is limited to that particular island and where no lieutenant-governor is appointed, the president of the council takes the .command.

The island of St. Christopher was called by its ancient possessors, the Caribbees, the fertile island. It was discovered by Columbus in 1493, who was so pleased with its appearance that he gave it his own Christian naine. It was neither planted nor possessed by the Spaniards; but it was the eldest of all the British territories in the WestIndies, and in truth the common mother both of the English and French settlements in the Caribbee Islands. Mr. Warner and fourteen other persons Janded at St. Christopher's in January 1623, and by the month of September they had raised a good crop of tobacco, which they proposed to make their staple commodity; but before the end of the year their plantations were demolished by a dreadful hurricane, which put a sudden stop to their progress. Mr. Warner returned to England to implore succour, and obtained the patronage of the earl of Carlisle, who fitted out a ship for him, and thus preserved a settlement which otherwise could not have survived its infancy. Warner himself did not return till the next year, when he was

accompanied by a large body of recruits. About the same time D'Esnambuc, captain of a French privateer, arrived with thirty veteran troops, who were cordially received by the English. Hitherto Warner's first colony had lived on friendly terms with the native Caribbees; but under pretence of a supposed plot, the French and English attacked the poor Indians by night, and according to a contemporary historian*, murdered one hundred and twenty of the stoutest in cold blood, and drove the rest from the island, except such of the women as were young and handsome, of whom they made concubines and slaves. The Europeans had, however, but little reason to congratulate themselves on this exploit, having left one hundred of their number dead on the field.

From this period the Caribbees appear to have quitted altogether this and some small islands in the neighbourhood, and to have retired southwards. In the year 1627 the French and English agreed to a partition of the whole island; but for nearly half a century it exhibited a disgustful scene of internal contention, violence, and bloodshed. At the peace of Utrecht, the island was ceded wholly to the English, and the French possessions were publicly sold for the benefit of the English government. In 1733, 8000l. of the money was appropriated as a marriage portion with the princess Anne, who was betrothed to the prince of Orange. Such was the origin and progress of the British establishment in this island. In 1782 it was taken by the French, and in the following year it was restored to Great-Britain.

Pere du Tertre.

St. Christopher's 'contains about forty-four thousand acres, of which seventeen thousand are appropriated to the growth of sugar: and the sugar grown in this island is unquestionably better than that of any of the other islands. Canes planted in particular spots have been known to produce 8000 lb. per acre. The general average produce for a series of years is sixteen thousand hogsheads of sixteen hundred weight each.

The island is divided into nine parishes, and contains four towns. Basseterre the capital contains eight hundred houses. The proportion which St. Christopher's contributes with the other islands, towards an honourable provision for the governorgeneral is 10004. currency per annum, which is settled on him by the assembly immediately on his arrival. He has besides perquisites, which in time of war are considerable. Each island within this government has a separate council, and each of them an assembly, or house of representatives.

With St. Christopher's surrendered also the island of Nevis; from which it is divided only by a narrow channel: and of this we shall now give a brief account.

NEVIS is a most beautiful spot, but is nothing more than a single mountain, rising like a cone in an easy ascent from the sea, the circumference of its base does not exceed eight English miles. The country is well watered and the land very fertile. The general produce is about sixteen hundred weight per acre from all the canes that are annually cut, which being four thousand acres, the return of the whole is an equal number of hogsheads, which was the average fixed on by the French government in 1782 as a rule for regulating the taxes. Nevis is divided into five parishes; it contains a

town called Charlestown, the seat of government. The commandant is appointed by the crown, but receives a salary from the island. The present number of whites does not exceed six hundred, while the negroes are about ten thousand, a disproportion which necessarily converts all the white men, capable of bearing arms, into a militia

The English first established themselves in Nevis under Warner, in the year 1628. And what Mr. Warner began wisely was happily com. pleted by his immediate successor Mr. Lake, under whose administration the island rose to opulence and importance. About the year 1640 it is said that there were four thousand whites in the island; so powerfully are mankind invited by the advantages of a mild and equitable system of govern

ment.

ANTIGUA is situated about twenty leagues to the eastward of St. Christopher's; it has not a single spring or rivulet in it, but nature presents few obstacles which the avarice or industry of civilized man will not endeavour to surmount. The soil of Antigua was found to be fertile, and it was discovered that cisterns might be contrived to hold rain water. So early as 1632 a few English families took up lands there, and began the cultivation of Tobacco. The prosperity of the island was manifest in its extensive population till the beginning of the last century, when Daniel Park, esq. was appointed to the government of this and the neighbouring islands. This man was a native of Virgi nia, and was distinguished for his excesses at a very early period of life. And in his government of Antigua he showed his contempt of every divine and moral obligation. He debauched the wife of Mr. Chester, the most considerable merchant in