CLIMATE-WINDS AND SAILING INSTRUCTIONS.

263

in December and January they prevail from the N.—often very strong and cold. So decidedly salubrious are the high lands of the interior, that Dr. Lloyd, the principal medical officer, reported to Sir James M'Gregor* in 1827, that' on some of the estates in the interior, no European resident had been buried for upwards of ten years' !

TIDES, WINDS and SAILING DIRECTIONS. The currents round the island are very uncertain, especially in the Trinidad channel. At new and full moon the rise of the tide is four feet. The N. E. trade blows all the year about the island. The island being seen towards evening, the mariner cautious of approaching, should stand under easy sail to the southward, as the current sets to the N. W.; coming from the E. steer for the S. coast, and keep well to the southward to stem the N. W. current, which always sets round the lesser Tobago. On, entering any of the bays to leeward, ships may approach quite close to St. Giles's rock. There is nothing to fear at the S. W. Bay of Courland but rocks above water, except the Chesterfield rock. Tobago is free from hurricanes, though Grenada, the most southward of the Antilles, and only thirty leagues from the continent, is as much under the influence of squalls as the other Antilles.

Vegetable KinGDOM. Almost every kind of plant that grows on the Antilles flourishes at Tobago-and also, in common with Trinidad, the greater part of those which are cultivated in Guyana and Cumana. The orange, lemon, guava, pomegranate, fig and grape are in perfection; the two latter yield fruit twice a year, (if pruned three weeks after the fruit has been gathered) and all the culinary plants of Europe arrive at perfection. The cinnamon and pimento (some say also the nutmeg) trees grow wild in different parts of the island—and the cotton of Tobago is of excellent quality.

* Through the kindness of Sir James, I have been enabled to render my labours more beneficial to the empire by the facile access, which the head of the Army Medical Department most politely granted me, to refer to the valuable topographical reports, furnished by the medical officers of the army, from our different colonies.

264

VEGETATION AND ZOOLOGY OF TOBAGO.

ZOOLOGY. Although the vegetation of Tobago and Trinidad is similar, some quadrupeds and birds are found in the latter which do not exist in the former, and vice versa; the Katraka, for instance, a very singular species of pheasant, although taken from Tobago to Trinidad and let loose, has not multiplied there; while the Hoccos of Trinidad are in a similar position with regard to Tobago; and although nearly all the quadrupeds of the immense region between the Amazons river and the isthmus of Panama, are to be found at Trinidad, very few of them are to be seen at Tobago; even the small deer of Guyana, so plentiful at Trinidad, do not exist here. The indigenous birds are-varieties of wild ducks, pigeons, blackbirds (yellow and black) white woodcocks, thrushes, herons, pouched pelicans, &c. The eagles of the Orinoco, and flamingoes, frequent the coasts. Three varieties of humming birds exist, and a small bird of the size of a sparrow, with magnificent plumage; the head, neck and upper part of the body is of a most brilliant redthe feathers of the wings and tail of a deep purple above and a sky blue underneath, and the breast and belly of an azure hue. A great variety of shell-fish is found on the coast, which is frequented by sea-cows and turtles in abundance.

*

POPULATION. Of the yearly increase or decrease of the inhabitants I can find no connected details; the whites are estimated at 450; the free coloured, males 477, females 686; the following Table shews the numbers, increase and decrease, of the slave population from 1819 to 1832.

* Since the text was written I have found the following statements of early population; it would appear from this that the whites have not augmented of late. In 1776 the population was 2,397 white, 1,050 free negroes, and 10,752 slaves; in 1787, whites, 1,397; free coloured, 1,050; slaves, 10,539; and the import of slaves, in a medium of four years, 1,400; in 1805, whites, 900; coloured people, 700; slaves, 14,883.

1831

POPULATION, Commerce, revenue, GOVERNMENT, &c. 265

COMMERCE.-EXPORTS. The principal exports are sugar, molasses and rum-of which there were exported in 1831 -sugar, 8,453 hogsheads; molasses, 183 puncheons; rum, 5,171 ditto. The value of the trade of the island, and the shipping employed for the same year was—

IMPORTS. VALUE IN STERLING., EXPORTS, VALUE IN STERLING.

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.-The gross receipts of the island revenue for 1831 was £9,992, and the expenses of the civil establishment £7,388.

FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Tobago is ruled by a Governor, Council and House of Assembly, whose powers and authority are similar to those of Jamaica, &c.

Total Value.

Females.

Males.

Females.

CHAPTER V.

GRENADA.

ITS LOCALITY - PHYSICAL ASPECT-MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, AND LAKES— GEOLOGY-VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KINGDOMS POPULATION-COM

MERCE-REVenue and expENDITURE-GOVERNMENT, &c.

LOCALITY. Grenada, the most southerly of the Antilles, and most lovely of our West India isles, is situate between the parallels of 12.20 and 11.58 N. Lat. and 61.20 and 61.35 W. Long., nearly equi-distant from Tobago (60 miles) and the nearest point of the continent of South America; its greatest length, N. and S. about twenty-five miles, (and at either extremity narrowing to a point)-in its greatest breadth 12, in circumference 50, miles, and containing about 80,000 acres. GENERAL HISTORY. Christopher Columbus, during his third adventurous voyage in 1498, discovered Grenada, and found it fully occupied by a warlike race, (the Charibs) among whom the Spaniards never attempted to form a settlement, and who remained for a century after in peaceable possession of their native home. In 1650 the French Governor of Martinique, Du Parquet,* collected 200 hardy adventurers, for the purpose of seizing on the island, which, from the manly character of the natives, was considered an enterprize of difficulty and danger.

7:

This expedition,† as related by Father du Tertre, exhibits a monstrous mixture of fanatacism and knavery. The commanders administered the holy sacrament, in the most solemn manner, to all the soldiers on their embarkation, and again on their landing—and Du Parquet, causing a cross to be erected,

* Du Pacquet subsequently sold the island to Count Cerillac for 30,000

crowns.

+ I am indebted to the Grenada Almanac for many details relative to this isle.

FRENCH CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT OF GRENADA. 267

compelled them to kneel down before it, and join in devout prayer to Almighty God for the success of their enterprize.

The natives received and entertained the French with the utmost kindness and cordiality, pretending to open a treaty with the chiefs of the Charibs for the purchase of the country. The latter gave the natives "some knives and hatchets, and a large quantity of glass beads, besides two bottles of brandy for the chief himself;" and then asserted that the island was fairly ceded to the French nation, by the natives themselves, in lawful purchase!

Du Parquet thus established a colony in Grenada, built a fort for its protection, and left the government of the island to a kinsman, named Le Compte. Within eight months after this period we find a war of extermination carried on by the French against the Charibs. Du Parquet sent a reinforcement of 300 men from Martinique, with orders to extirpate the natives altogether; but Le Compte seems not to have wanted any incitement to acts of barbarity; for Du Tertre admits that he had already proceeded to murder, without mercy, every Charib that fell into his hands-not sparing even the women and children.

The manner in which the unfortunate aborigines were destroyed may be judged of by a circumstance which Father Du Tertre relates of one expedition. Forty of the Charaibes were massacred on the spot. About forty others, who had escaped the sword, ran towards a precipice, from whence they cast themselves headlong into the sea, and miserably perished. A beautiful girl, of twelve or thirteen years of age, who was taken alive, became the object of dispute between two of our officers, each of them claiming her as his prize; a third coming up, put an end to the contest, by shooting the girl through the head. The place from which these barbarians threw themselves into the sea, has been called ever since le Morne de Sauteurs, (Leapers' Hill.) Our people, having lost but one man in the expedition, proceeded in the next place to set fire to the cottages, and root up the provisions of the savages-and having destroyed or taken