4o6 A. D. 1764. 



June I ft — A French ftiip of fixty guns, with feveral other velTcls undef 

 Fn nch colours, landed a number of men on the Turks iflands, burnt and 

 deftroyed all the huts ereded for the fhelter of the falt-rakers, and after 

 ereding two columns of ftone, as monuments ofvit-fory, or proofs of io- 

 vereigntv, they left the place, carrying with them all the Britilh fub- 

 jeds and ihipping, which confifted of fourteen fmall floops and fchooners, 

 and leaving a few of their people in pofllflion of the iflands. 



Thele fmall iflands or keys, which, fince the fiift fettlement of Caro- 

 lina, were reckoned an appendage of that province, as being a part of 

 the Bahama iflands *, were only ufeful for the great quantity of excell- 

 ent fait produced in fliallow ponds every feufon by the heat of the fun, 

 and had lutherco had no regular fettlement formed upon them. In the 

 proper feafon they were reforted to, chiefly by people from Bermuda, 

 and a few from Jamaica, for the purpofe of raking fait, and alfo by 

 fome veflels from the northern colonies in America, which brought 

 flour, provifions, lumber, &c. to exchange for the lalt. 



The court of France, upon the application of our ambaflador, dif- 

 avoxved the adl of the comte D'Eftaign, the governor of their portion 

 of St. Domingo (or Hifpaniola), who, if he really had no orders from 

 his court, may have fuppofed, that, as thofe fmall iflands were nearer 

 to his own, than to any other, feat of government, they ought to be- 

 long to it, and, as unoccupied territory, ought to become the property 

 of any who would occupy them. But, as they were too trifling an ob- 

 ject to go to war for, efpecially fo foon after the conclufion of a peace, 

 D'Eflaign was ordered to reftore them, and to make reparation for the 

 damages done to the Britifli fubjects. 



September — x\ fomewhat fimilar invafion of Britifli property was 

 made by the French governor of Goree, in attempting a fettlement 

 near the river Gambia, which the French in like manner difavowed, and 

 even called him home to anfwer for his offence. 



In confequence of a petition of the merchants, complaining of the 

 high price of provifions, the king, by the advice of the privy council, 

 and agreeable to the ad lately paflTed, iflued a proclamation for the free 

 importation of faked beef, pork, and butter, from Ireland ; and offered 

 a reward of /^loo for the difcovery of any unlawful combinations to 

 raife the price of provifions (Odober 9th). The high price of corn alfo oc- 

 cafionedfome dillurbances about this time. In Derby-fliire the colliers, 



appearance and plenty of the whales.] — Egede, in is fcarccly to be diftingulfhed from the bacon of 



his D^j'cnplh)! of the Foeroes, a duller of iflands pork. The lean part, in appearance and tafte, re- 



lyiii-^ north-well fiom Shetland, \_p. 171 of the fcmbles beef, and is ufed cither frclh, or cured by 



Englftj tranfla'.'ion~\ gives a fimilar account of the drying. 



plenty of wliales among thofe iflands, and fays, * In the year 1695 a vcflel was feized by order 



that about i3CO of them were taken in two places of the proprietors of Carolina for not paying the 



in the year 1664. The natives melt part of the tenth, claimed as due to them for taking fait on 



fat of thcfe fmall whales for oil, and the remainder Turks iflands. 

 they cure in the manner of bacon, which, he fays. 



