758 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



conditions equally liberal with 

 those granted to Martinique. 



No sooner had the conquest of 

 Martinique been effected, tfian co- 

 lonel Melville returned to his post 

 in Guadaloupe, to avoid inter- 

 course with the persons by whose 

 means the defection of Martinique 

 had been brought about ; and it is 

 , remarkable that, although on the 

 restoration of that and some other 

 islands to France, when the most 

 rigid inquiry was instituted res- 

 pecting the correspondence with 

 the British, of whose existence 

 little doubt was entertained by the 

 French government, yet of all the 

 persons suspected, and even pu- 

 nished on the occasion, not one of 

 those actually connected with co- 

 lonel Melville was even so much 

 as hinted at. 



The conquest of the French 

 islands, the great object of colonel 

 Melville's anxiet)', being now ac- 

 complished, he repaired "to Eng- 

 land, where he found his services 

 and general conduct highly ap- 

 proved ; although in fact the mea- 

 sures he had privately followed 

 to bring about the splendid suc- 

 cess already stated, could not, for 

 the sake of the persons implicated, 

 be either publicly known or ac- 

 knowledged : nor was the secret 

 ever divulged. Many years after- 

 wards, when general Melville 

 was employed on a mission to the 

 Court of Versailles, application was 

 made to him, from a very high 

 quarter, to learn whether certain 

 persons, whose names were men- 

 tioned, were in any way connected 

 with his projects i>i Martinique, 

 &c. and upon his declaration that 

 they were totally unknown to him, 

 those persons, or their surviving 

 'relations, were instantly relieved 



from the obloquy and losses they 

 had till that time endured from the 

 suspicions entertained concerning 

 them by government. 



Such was the impression made 

 on the minds of his majesty's mi- 

 nisters, by the conduct of colonel 

 M. in the West Indies, that, in ad- 

 dition to the rank of brigadier-ge- 

 neral in 1763, he was, upon the 

 recommendation of lord Egremont, 

 secretary of state for the colonies, 

 appointed by his majesty, on the 

 9th of April, 1764; to the peculi- 

 arly arduous and important situa- 

 tion of captain-general and gover- 

 nor-in-chief of all the islands in 

 the West Indies, ceded bj' France 

 to Britain by the treaty of 1763, 

 viz. Grenada, the Grenadines, Do- 

 minica, St. Vincent, and Tobago : 

 to this appointment was added that 

 of commander of the forces in those 

 colonies. 



In the autumn of 1764, gover- 

 nor INI. proceeded to his station, 

 carrying out two large store-ships, 

 with articles necessary for fixed 

 settlements in West India islands. 

 Tobago was at that period, desti- 

 tute of inhabitants, and almost to- 

 tally covered with wood : thither, 

 therefore, he first repaired from 

 Barbadoes with the stores, and a 

 few colonists from that island ; 

 and employed his stay in preparing 

 measures for the projected settle- 

 ment of the colony. His next ob- 

 ject was to enter on the establish- 

 ment of the British government, in 

 all the islands under his jurisdic- 

 tion, followed by legislatures 

 formed on principles similar to 

 those of the neighbouring British 

 colonies; 



During the whole of his govern- 

 ment, which lasted about seven 

 years, general M. only once 



quitted 



