BOOK II. CHAP. Vll. (,y 



in a flouiiniing ftate. The large extent of it hitherto unpeopled 

 will alfo iuggeft this obvious remark, that it requires many more 

 fettlers, to bring it to a more ample ftate of culture, and render it 

 ftill more beneficial. Its advantages in point of water are ob- 

 ferveable from the number of its water-mills, there being no fewer 

 than fifty. Befides fugar, ginger, and cacao, the article of coffee is 

 largely cultivated here ; and the annual crops of corn are fo great, 

 that none of the parifhes are better flocked with hogs and poultry. 

 Its low lands alio abound with horfes, cattle, and fheep. 



SECT. VIL 



Vere, in the Precincl of Clarendon. 



THIS parifli, with Clarendon, forms one precin£t. It is bounded 

 Eaft and North by Clarendon ; Weft, by St. Elizabeth ; and South, 

 by the fea. The town of Carlifle, fo called in honour of the earl 

 of that name, formerly governor of the ifland, was intended near 

 the mouth of Rio Minho ; but it is at prefent only an inconfi- 

 derable hamlet, of ten or twelve houfes. This place is remark- 

 able for having been the fcene of a£lion between the French and 

 Englifh in the year 1694, when Monfieur Ducafle, the goverjior of 

 Hifpaniola, with a fquadron of three men of war, and twenty- 

 three tranfports, having onboard 1300 men, invaded the ifland ; 

 and, after fome ineffectual attempts at Port Morant, Cow Bay, and 

 Bluefields, where he met with a repulfe, anchored in Carlifle Bay 

 on the 1 8th of June. The governor. Sir William Beefton, who 

 had carefully watched their motions, and conje£lured their inten- 

 tion o'i making a defcent on this part of the coaft, immediately or- 

 dered thither two troops of horfe, the St. Catharine regiment, and 

 part of the Clarendon and St. Elizabeth regiments of foot-militia. 

 On the 19th in the morning, the French landed between fourteen 

 and fifteen hundred men, who proceeded to the attack of a breaft- 

 work, which had been haftily thrown up, near the fliore. This 

 was gallantly defended for a confiderable time by two hundred of 

 the militia; who, finding at length that they could not maintain 



K 2 i\\z 



