53^ y^A. D. 1773. 



articles permitted to be imported by the adt. Some indij^o was import- 

 ed, and a few negroes and other goods were given in return : but a 

 great and detrimental importation of other articles, and particularly of 

 coffee in great quantities, accompanied the indigo ; whereby the cof- 

 fee-planters, a ufeful clals of people, who cultivate the mountainous 

 grounds incapable of being occupied as fugar plantations, and who, 

 being all refident, add greatly to the ftrength of white people in the 

 ifland, were reduced to great diflrefs. The confequence of the free- 

 port act upon the trade with the Spanifh fettlements was, that the Spa- 

 nifli government immediately took the alarm, and, fufpeding that the 

 commanders of the guarda-coftas were corrupted by the traders, fuper- 

 feded them all, and appointed new ones *. In addition to the hardlliips 

 put upon the clandeftine trade by the jealoufy of the SpaniOi govern- 

 ment, the ftridtnefs and feverity of the cuflom-houfe officers in Jamaica 

 in enforcing the official formalities (which, the lieutenant-governor 

 thinks, ought to give way to the evident and great national advantage 

 of encouraging the trade) fo fettered that beneficial commerce, that it 

 was almofl annihilated at the very time when, and by the very means 

 by which it was expedled to be carried to a moft flourifliing ftate : 

 whereas, by proper meafures, the Spanifh trade could be made to pour 

 a continual ftream of filver into Jamaica, to the great benefit of that 

 ifland, and of the manufaduring interell of Great Britain. 



The official formalities, to which the lieutenant-governor alludes, 

 were attended with confequences infinitely worfe than fettering to the 

 Spaniards who engaged in the trade. By an unaccountable policy, the 

 revenue officers in the free ports were infl;ruded to keep regular ac- 

 counts of all foreign vefl'els, the names of their commanders (who, ap- 

 prehending no danger from that quarter, did not think of affuming fic- 

 titious names), and the quantity of bullion imported by them. The 

 confequences of this meafure were forefeen and foretold by fenfible 

 men in this country, and they verified the predidion as exadly as the 

 changes of the moon, or the eclipfes, can verify a calendar. The go- 

 vernment of Spain, ever jealous of their hard-fettered commerce, and 

 roufed by the free-port a&. to double vigilance and vindidtivenefs, found 

 means, by virtue of gold, to procure copies of the cuftom-houfe entries 

 of the Britifli free ports : and the unfortunate people, who were thus 

 clearly convided of the crime of carrying bullion to fupport the manu- 

 fadures of Great Britain, were doomed by a relentlefs government to 

 utter ruin f . When the Britifli miniftry were apprifed of the dreadful 



* And it appears that tliefe new officers were from a refpeftablc Spanifh merchant. [Sec his va- 



niorc vigilant than their prcdecefTors, for feveral luable Hi/lory of the Wejl-lndics, V. i, p. 233, id. 



fmall velTels belonging to Jamaica were taken by 1795-] But indeed, without any authority, one 



them. miglit venture to aflert, that fuch confequences 



-f- For this fa£t I follow the authority of Mr. followed fuch meafures as inevitably as night fol- 



Edwards, who then had the diredtion of the cuf- lows the fetting of the fun. 



tom-houfe in Jamaica, and received the intelligence 3 



