334 COMMERCE OF ST. LUCIA-WEIGHTS and measures.

COMMERCE. In 1810, the official notice of the exports was £43,830, and of imports £193,743. The total value of the exports for 1831 was £64,878, and of imports £83,003, employing a total shipping inwards, tons, 20,382; outwards, tons, 20,839. The greater portion of the trade is with great Britain, but a large part of it is still carried on with France.

The principal articles of export, from 1822 to 1831, were,

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The Weights in use are the French pound and quintal; the pound = 2 marc (Paris); the marc 8 oz.; the oz. 8 gros, the gros=72 grains; the quintal 100 French lbs.; the French lbs = 17 oz. 9 dr. English; quintal of 100 French lbs. = 109 English.

The Measures are (land or square measure); the carré, containing 3 acres, 78 perches, 28 feet square (Paris measure) or 10,000 square paces; the acre 100 square perches, or 2,644 paces, 11 feet; the perch = 26 paces, 5 feet, 72 inches square, or 9 square toises; the square toise = 36 square feet, or 2 paces, 11 feet, 72 inches square; the square pace = 12 square feet, and 30 square inches; the square foot

144 square inches; the square inch 144 square lines, (long measure); the toise 6 feet French; the foot = 12 inches; the inch 12 lines; the French foot 123 inches British; (cloth measure) the aune or ell 3 feet 8 inches; and it is subdivided into one-half, one-third, one-fourth, and one-eighth; the ell= 1 yard 10 inches. (Wine measure) gallon = 2 pots; 1 pot 2 pints (Paris measure), 1 pint = 2 chopines; 1 chopine" 2 raquils; 1 raquil = 2 muces. (Dry measure) the barrel = 44 quarts, or 55 pots; the half barrel 27 pots; the quarter ditto 13 pots; the half quarter ditto 6% pots.

=

FINANCE. The revenue of the colony is derived from cus* These are the only years in the Colonial Office documents.

REVENUE AND expenditure-MONIES-GOVERNMENT, &c. 335

tom duties, a capitation tax, licences, fines, stamp duties, &c. The only consecutive years of revenue and expenditure before me are

In 1831, the revenue was £9,452, and the expenditure £10,143.

MONIES. Accounts are kept in pounds, shillings and pence; but the value of the circulating medium is thus stated :— 12 deniers 1 sol; 2 sols and 6 deniers = 1 dog; 6 dogs, or 15 sols 1 bit; 8 dogs, or 20 sols 1 livre; 9 livres = 1 current dollar; 10 livres 1 round dollar; 20 livres one pound currency. There is no paper money in circulation.

GOVERNMENT. The inhabitants have their affairs administered by a Governor and Council, with French laws, where they are not adverse to the British; I hope soon to see St. Lucia, as well as every other English colony, with its own legislative assembly.

Another return gives as follows:-St. Lucia gross Revenue and Expenditure in pounds sterling.

The inhabitants of St. Lucia have recently complained of their heavy

taxation, and well they may when £10,000 per annum is wrung from so few colonists.

CHAPTER IX.

DOMINICA.

LOCALITY-HISTORY-ASPECT-GEOLOGY-CLIMATE-POPULATION

RESOURCES-COMMERCE-FINANCE-GOVERNMENT, &c. &c.

LOCALITY. The island of Dominica is situated in 15.25 N., 61.15 W., about twenty-nine miles in length, and sixteen in breadth, and containing 275 square miles, or 186,436

acres.

*

HISTORY. The discovery of this island was made by Columbus, on Sunday, the 3rd Nov. 1493, and so named by the great navigator; its right of occupancy was claimed by the three kingdoms, of England, France, and Spain; but the right of possession remained undecided, and Dominica was considered a neutral island by the three crowns, till the year 1759, when, by conquest, it fell under the dominion of Great Britain; and was afterwards ceded to England by the treaty of Paris, February, 1763. On the cession of the island to the English, commissioners were appointed under the great seal, and sent out there with authority to sell and dispose of the lands by public sale, to English subjects in allotments ' of not more than 100 acres of such land as was cleared; and not exceeding 300 acres of woods to any persons who should be the best bidder for the same.' These allotments were disposed of for the benefit of the crown, and were confirmed to the purchaser by grants, under the Great Seal of England, with conditions in each grant, that every purchaser should pay down 20 per cent. of the whole purchase money, together with sixpence sterling per acre, for the expence of surveying the land; and that the remainder of the purchase money should be secured by bonds, to be paid by equal instalments, in the space of five years, next after the

* It was the first land seen on his second voyage, after having been twenty days at sea from the Canaries.

SALE AND DISPOSAL OF DOMINICA LANDS.

337

date of the grants. That each purchaser should keep on the lands, so by him purchased, one white man, or two white women for every 100 acres of land, as it became cleared, for the purpose of cultivating the same. Or, in default thereof, or non-payment of the purchase money, the lands were to be forfeited to His Majesty, his heirs, and successors.' The Commissioners were also empowered to execute leases to the French inhabitants, of such lands as were found in their possession on the surrender of the island; which lands were again leased to those inhabitants, who were desirous of keeping them in possession, on consideration of their taking the oaths of allegiance to his Britannic Majesty.

These leases were executed for a term not less than seven, 'some fourteen, and others for forty years absolute, renewable at the time limited for the expiration of the same. With conditions in every lease, That the possessor, his heirs, or assigns, should pay to his Majesty, his heirs, or successors, the sum of two shillings sterling per annum, for every acre of land of which the lease should consist. And that they should not sell or dispose of their lands without the consent and approbation of the Governor, or Commander in chief of that island for the time being.' The Commissioners were likewise empowered to make grants, under the Great Seal, of lots to poor settlers, to such English subjects as should be deemed 'fit objects of his Majesty's bounty, in allotments of not more than thirty acres of land to any one person. With authority also, to the said Commissioners, to reserve and keep such lands, in the most convenient parts of the island as they should think proper, for fortifications, and the use of His Majesty's army and navy; together with a boundary of fifty feet from the sea shore, round the whole island; and reserving all mines of gold and silver, which might thereafter be discovered there, for the use of his Majesty, his heirs, and

successors.

By these measures 96,344 acres (half the inland,) were disposed of in lots of from fifty to 100 acres, which produced £312,090 sterling. The prosperity of the island rapidly in

338

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF DOMINICA-MOUNTAINS.

creased under a system of free trade; but the happiness of the inhabitants was interrupted on the capture of the island, by a large French force, from Martinique, under the Marquis de Bouillé, in 1778, after a gallant resistance on the part of the British colonists, by which they secured for themselves highly honourable terms; the subsequent advantages of which were however frustrated by the tyranny of the new French Governor, the Marquis Duchilleau, whose memory is deservedly held in the deepest scorn. After five years' brutal treatment by the French, our colonists were rejoiced on the restoration of the island to England at the peace of 1783. During the war of 1805, a devastating descent was made on the Island of Dominica by a formidable French squadron; and although Roseau, the capital, was burned, the colony was preserved to Great Britain by the skill of Sir George Prevost, and the gallant behaviour of the colonists. The island has ever since remained under the dominion of Great Britain.

PHYSICAL ASPECT. Dominica is one of the volcanic isles of the West, with lofty rugged mountains*, and fertile intervening valleys, watered by about thirty fine rivers and numberless rivulets, springs, and waterfalls, which descend with great impetuosity from the hills, and, under the umbrageous canopy of lofty and magnificent forests, form the most romantic cascadest. Roseau, the capital, is situate in the parish of St. George, (about seven leagues from Prince Rupert's Bay), on a point of land on the S. W. side of the island, which

* Their height has been thus noted: -Morne Diablotin, or Terre Firme, 5,314 feet above the sea; Laroche, 4,150; Coulisboune, 3,379; Outer Cabrite, 542; Inner ditto, 430; Morne Crabier, 485; Morne Bruce, 465; Daniole, 329. The heights of the forts and batteries are, Scots' Head, 231 feet; Melville's, 147; Magazine Bat. 320; Hospital ditto, 440; Fort Young, 440; Fort Shirley, 153; Barracks at Douglas Bay, 126; Grand Savannah, 170; Layon, 160.

+ About six miles from Roseau, almost in the centre of the island, and on the top of a very high mountain, surrounded by other more lofty hills, is a large lake of fresh water, covering a space of several acres, and in some places unfathomable; it spreads into three distinct branches, and - has a very extraordinary appearance.