CHAP, v.] WEST INDIES. 



tish free-ports were instructed to keep regular ac- 

 counts of the entry of all foreign vessels, and of the 

 bullion which they imported, together with the names 

 of the commanders. These accounts having been 

 transmitted to the commissioners of the customs in 

 England, copies of them were, by some means, pro- 

 cured by the court of Spain, and the absolute destruc- 

 tion of many of the poor people who had been con- 

 cerned in transporting bullion into our islands, was the 

 consequence. This intelligence I received soon after- 

 wards (having at that time the direction of the custom- 

 house in Jamaica) from a very respectable Spanish 

 merchant, who produced to me a letter from Cartha- 

 gena, containing a recital of the fact, accompanied 

 with many shocking circumstances of unrelenting se- 

 verity in the Spanish government. Information of this 

 being transmitted to the British ministry, the former 

 instructions were revoked, but the remedy came too 

 late; for what else could be expected, than that the 

 Spaniards would naturally shun all intercourse with a 

 people, whom neither the safety of their friends, nor 

 their own evident interest, was sufficient to engage to 

 confidence and secrecy? 



The little trade, therefore, which now subsists 

 with the subjects of Spain in America, is chiefly car- 

 ried on by small vessels from Jamaica, which con- 

 trive to escape the vigilance of the guarda-costas. 

 But although, with regard to the revival of this par- 

 ticular branch of commerce, I am of opinion, that the 

 free-port law has not so fully answered the expecta- 

 tion of its framers as might have been wished ; its 



