ÍREFACE. XVII 



the riches they acquue, from then' industry and eco- 

 nomy, since, though they occupy the worst part of 

 the ¡shmd, they are, out of all comparison, in a bet- 

 ter condition than the Spanish inhabitants, who pos- 

 sess the better and more fertile part. He takes notice 

 likewise, that though all correspondence between the 

 - two nations is forbidden under the severest penalties, 

 it is notwithstanding open almost in the same degree 

 as if there was no such prohibition ; the reason is,- 

 because the French could scarce subsist, if they Avere 

 not supplied with cattle from the Spaniards ; and, on 

 the other hand, the Spaniards must go naked, if they 

 did not, by this means, obtain European commodi- 

 ties from the French; so idle a thing it is to think 

 of making a law against necessity ! By the balance 

 of this trade the French acquire annually about two 

 millions of pieces of eight, which returns in hard sil- 

 ver, with sugar, indigo, and the other commodities 

 of the growth of their part of the island, which is 

 admirably cultivated, to the ports of France; and is 

 a very considerable addition to the value of their 

 otherwise rich cargoes. 



But the Portuguese and French are not the only 

 strangers into whose circumstances, and management 

 of affairs in America, our authors have enquired ; the 

 reader will find they took no less pains to make tliem- 

 selves well acquainted with the proceedings of the 

 English. V/e have not only a full and distinct ac- 

 count of the taking of Louisbourg, and of the con- 

 quest of the island of Cape Breton in the war before 

 the last ; but we have also a very copious memorial, , 

 drawn from the papers of the marquis de la Maisoix 

 Forte, of the colony of New England, which he had 

 an opportunity of framing while he remained a pri- 

 soner at Boston. It would have been the more satis- 

 factory if we had had the whole of his memoirs ; for 



Vol. I. b there 



