CHAP, v.] WEST INDIES. 223 



thirty-three of which are capital stores or warehouses. 

 The number of top-sail vessels which clear annually at 

 this port are about one hundred and fifty, of which 

 seventy are capital ships; but in this account are in- 

 cluded part of those which enter at Kingston. 



Falmouth, or (as it is more commonly called) the 

 Point, is situated on the south-side of Martha-Brae 

 harbour, and including the adjoining villages of Mar- 

 tha-Brae and the Rock, is composed of two hundred 

 and twenty houses. The rapid increase of this town 

 and neighbourhood within the last sixteen years is 

 astonishing. In 1771, the three villages of Martha- 

 Brae, Falmouth, and the Rock, contained together 

 but eighteen houses; and the vessels which entered 

 annually at the port of Falmouth did not exceed ten. 

 At present it can boast of upwards of thirty capital 

 stationed ships, which load for Great Britain, exclu- 

 sive of sloops and smaller craft. 



Each parish (or precinct consisting of an union of 

 two or more parishes) is governed by a chief magis- 

 trate, styled Custos Rotulorum, and a body of justices 

 unlimited by law as to number, by whom sessions of 

 the peace are held every three months, and courts of 

 Common pleas to try actions arising within the parish 

 or precinct, to an amount not exceeding twenty 

 pounds. In matters of debt not exceeding forty shil- 

 lings, a single justice is authorized to determine. 



The whole twenty parishes contain eighteen church- 

 es and chapels, and each parish is provided with a 



Two or three more have been erected sine: this account was written. 



