HISTORY OF THE [BOOK, n, 



Having mentioned the trade which is carried on be- 

 tween this island and the Spanish territories in Ame- 

 rica, some account of it in its present state, and of 

 the means which have been adopted by the British 

 parliament to give it support, may not be unaccepta- 

 ble to my readers. It is sufficiently known to have 

 been formerly an intercourse of vast extent, and 

 highly advantageous to Great Britain, having been 

 supposed to give employment, about the beginning of 

 the present century, to 4,000 tons of English shipping, 

 and to create an annual vent of British goods to the 

 amount of one million and a half in value. From the 

 wretched policy of the court of Spain towards its 

 American subjects, by endeavouring to compel them 

 to trust solely to the mother-country, for almost every 

 article of necessary consumption, at the very time 

 that she was incapable of supplying a fiftieth part of 

 their wants, it is not surprising that they had recourse, 

 under all hazards, to those nations of Europe which 

 were able and willing to answer their demands. It 

 was in vain, that the vessels employed in this traffic, 

 by the English and others, w 7 ere condemned to confis- 

 cation, and the mariners to perpetual confinement 

 and slavery 5 the Spanish Americans supplied the loss 

 by vessels of their own, furnished with seamen so 

 well acquainted with the several creeks and bays, as 

 enabled them to prosecute the contraband with facility 

 and advantage. These vessels received every possible 

 encouragement in our islands; contrary, it must be 

 acknowledged, to the strict letter of our acts of navi- 

 gation : but the British government, aware that the 

 Spaniards had little to import besides bullion, but 



