202] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



lill, in which state he continued, 

 when the last dispatches were re- 

 ceived from the island. Nothing 

 further has been declared respect- 

 ing the intentions of France, with 

 regard to St. Domingo, but there 

 is no present appearance of a de- 

 sign to employ force for its re- 

 coverJ^ 



The island of Dominica has been 

 the theatre of a sanguinary war 

 .between the colonists, and the 

 Maroons, or runaway Negroes. A 

 proclamation issued on Feb. 25t]i, 

 by Governor Ainslie, after notify- 

 ing the destruction of several 

 camps of the Maroons, and the 

 .stationing of the Dominica Rang- 

 ers in the woods for the purpose 

 of harassing those who still keep 

 out, offers pardon to those who 

 surrender themselves, and rewards 

 to those who bring in a chief or a 

 murderer. It concludes with de- 

 claring, " that the Rangers have 

 orders to take no prisoners, but to 

 put to death men, women and 

 children, without exception." Such 

 are the horrors attending upon do- 

 jnestic slavery ! 



Asia has this year afforded 

 scanty materials for narrative. It 

 is affirmed, that the Wahabees, 

 though excluded from Mecca and 

 Medina, remain in great strength 

 in Arabia Felix ; and that their 

 troops, posted at the wells on the 

 skirls of the deserts, lay under 

 contribution, or cut off, caravans 

 going to the holy cities, A ca- 

 ravan of traders and pilgrims, num- 

 bering 1,200 persons, is said to 

 have been lately put to the sword, 

 in consequence of making a re- 

 sistance to the robbers, and that 

 about 400 who escaped the mas- 

 sacre, peribhed in the desert of 

 thirst. 



Letters from Busheer, of Feb. 

 14th, state that the Pashaw of 

 Bagdad had been defeated and 

 taken prisoner by the Meatfic 

 Arabs, the chief tributary tribe to 

 the Turkish sultan between the 

 Euphrates and Tigris. After the 

 victory, their Shekh took pos- 

 session of Busra (Bassora), which 

 was likely for some time to inter- 

 rupt the commerce between Bag- 

 dad and the Persian Gulph. 



The plague has in this year 

 made dreadful ravages in Lesser 

 Asia, Syria, and the adjacent is- 

 lands. Smyrna is computed to 

 have lost 30,000 persons, and the 

 keys of 800 houses, left vacant 

 bj' the extirpation of as many fa- 

 milies, have been delivered to the 

 governor. The crops of corn in 

 many places have remained un- 

 gathered in the fields, and several 

 towns and villages have been to- 

 tally abandoned. 



The British possessions in India 

 continue to enjoy a tranquillity, 

 but slightly disturbed by commo- 

 tions of the natives. A Calcutta 

 Gazette of December, 1813, con- 

 tains an account of the operations 

 of a body of troops under Lieut. - 

 col. Adam, which took the field 

 to chastise an unprovoked incur- 

 sion in the Rewah district by Sur- 

 naid Sing, a partisan of the Rao 

 Rajah. The Ghurree of En- 

 touree, a strong fortress, in which 

 the enemy had taken shelter, was 

 stormed, the garrison put to the 

 sword, and Surnaid Sing was 

 killed. Peace was in consequence 

 restored, the Rao Rajah agreeing to 

 pay to the East India Company 

 all the expenses of the armament. 

 The Java gazettes have given 

 an official account of the sijccess 

 of an expedition from Batavia, 



