CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 155 



themselves, on the promise of mercy, after the first 

 attack. 



The unhappy monarch at that time on the throne 

 of England, was too deeply engaged in contests with 

 his subjects at home, to be able to afford protection 

 to his colonists abroad; and those contests terminating 

 at length in a civil war, the Spaniards proceeded in 

 the same career with impunity; treating all the Bri- 

 tish subjects, whom they found in the West Indies, 

 as intruders and pirates. In the year 1635, the Eng- 

 lish and Dutch had jointly taken possession of Santa 

 Cruz, which before that time was wholly unpeopled 

 and deserted. Disputes afterwards arising between the 

 new settlers, the English took arms and became sole 

 masters of the island. In 1650 the Spaniards landed 

 there, and without the smallest provocation, extermi- 

 nated every inhabitant that fell into their hands, mur- 

 j * 



derin^ as at Tortuffa, even the women and children. 



o o J 



As usual with this revengeful nation, they conquered 

 only to desolate ; for having destroyed all the people 

 they could seize, they laid waste and then deserted 

 the island, and when some of the Dutch nation, incon- 

 sequence of such desertion, took possession a second 

 time, the Spaniards returned and treated them as they 

 had treated the English, 



O 



Of their cruelties towards the subjects of foreign 

 states, even such as were forced on their coasts in dis- 

 tress, the instances were without number. Their 

 treatment of the sailors was as barbarous and inhuman, 

 as their pretences for seizing their ships were common- 



