628 A. D. 1778. 



account of a French colony may be prei'umed to be corred, when it 

 was reduced (December) by Admiral Barrington and General Mea- 

 dows : and the amount of its imports to Britain during the war fliows, 

 that, if it had remained under the Britifh dominion, a proper applica- 

 tion of capital and induftry could foon have rendered it one of the moft 

 important of our Weft-India iflands after Jamaica. 



While thefe various operations of war were going forward in the 

 Weft-Indies, the planters and merchants concerned in the profperity of 

 oxu- fugar colonies made frequent and earneft applications to the mini- 

 ftry for a naval force to be lent for the protection of their property. 

 To thefe they conftantly received palliative anfwers, but no pofitive 

 aflurance of relief, the whole naval force that could be fpared from 

 home fervice, being, in truth, engrofled by the hoftile operations 

 againft the American ftates. So, finding no profpe6l of help from that 

 quarter, they defifted from further application, after defiring the firft 

 lord of the admiralty to remember, that they had difcharged the duty 

 they owed to themfelves and to the public, by warning him of the great 

 danger to which the vaft Britifti capital, employed in the cultivation of 

 the iflands, was expofed by the total want of a protedting force, and the 

 hoftile preparations going forward in the French and Spanifli iflands. 

 They next addrefled (16"" December) a petition to the king, as the con- 

 Jiituticiial guardian of tbe property of all his fubjeSis, wherein they repre- 

 fented to him, that by the privation of the wonted fupplies of provifions 

 and lumber from America, the iflands were reduced to a fcarcity of 

 food almoft approaching to famine, and their eftates were in abfolute 

 want of many articles eflentially neceftary to their culture, whereby 

 their produce was greatly diminiflied ; that their property to a very 

 great amount had been taken by the enemy upon the feas ; that their 

 applications to his minifters had been without effe6l ; that the war of 

 defolation, declared by the commiffioners againft America, would pro- 

 bably provoke retaliations, in the courfe of which the unproteded fugar 

 iflands might be ruined, even by a fmall armament, conduded by peo- 

 ple perfedlly well acquainted with every part of them ; and that I'uch 

 calamities muft greatly affed his revenue and maritime power, and alfo 

 the manufadures, commerce, and wealth, of his fubjeds in general. 



In the meantime the Dutch were in great hopes, that, by virtue of 

 their profefl^ed neutrality they fliould be enabled to recover their for- 

 mer pre-eminence as the general carriers and fadors of Europe. But 

 great numbers of their veflels being feized by the Britifli cruifers, as 

 having PVench property and naval ftores onboard, the Dutch merchants 

 and owners of vefl^els made heavy complaints to the States-general, that 

 their ftiips loaded with mafts, planks, hemp, and other articles from 

 the Baltic, and even ftiips loaded with other kinds of goods, bound to 

 France, were feized and carried into Britifti ports. In confequence 

 of their complaints the Dutch ambaflTador at London prefented a me- 



