496 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



eit at when they eat it. During the wet season, 

 the land where the logwood grows is so over- 

 flowed, that they step from their beds into the 

 water, perhaps two feet deep, and continue stand- 

 ing in the wet all day till they go to bed again; 

 but nevertheless account it the best season for 

 doing a good day's labour in. 



" Some fell the trees, others saw and cut them 

 into convenient logs, and one chips off the sap, 

 and he is commonly the principal man ; and 

 when a tree is so thick, that after it is logged, it 

 remains still too great a burden for one man, we 

 blow it up with gunpowder. The logwood- 

 cutters are generally sturdy strong fellows, and 

 will carry burthens of three or four hundred 

 weight ; but every- man is left to his choice to 

 carry what he pleaseth, and commonly they 

 agree very well about it : for they are con- 

 tented to labour very hard. In some places, 

 especially in the west creek of West Lagune, they 

 go a hunting wild cattle every Saturday to pro- 

 vide themselves with beef for the week fol- 

 lowing. When they have killed a beef they 

 cut it into quarters, and taking out the bones, 

 each man makes a hole in the middle of his 

 quarter, just big enough for his head to go 

 through, then puts it on like a frock and trudg- 

 etli home ; and if he chanceth to tire, he cuts off 

 some of it, and throws it away." 



The hides of these wild cattle, and many 

 which they killed merely for their hides, were 

 another valuable article of commerce to these 

 hardy adventurers. Many of these men made 

 considerable sums of money ; and Dampier re- 

 marks, generally, that those who had the advan- 

 tage of some education, were careful to improve 

 their time, industrious and frugal; but that those 

 who did not possess this advantage, " would 

 extravagantly squander away their time and 

 money in drinking and making bluster." 



As these settlements continued to be regarded 

 with an hostile eye by the Spaniards, the intro- 

 duction of the logwood-tree into Jamaica was 

 attempted in 171.5. Seeds were procured from 

 Campeachy for this purpose, and the growth of 

 the plants was found to be so rapid, that in three 

 years they attained to the height of ten feet. In 

 a comparatively short period this tree flourished 

 abundantly in the island, large plantations were 

 formed for the purpose of cutting, and the tree 

 has so multiplied, that in the course of years it 

 has become completely naturalized in Jamaica. 

 The wood of Campeachy is, however, prized 

 beyond that of Jamaica. The success attendant 

 on its cultivation in that island, did not, there- 

 fore, by any means cause a cessation of the 

 demand for Campeachy wood, and accordingly 

 the cutters still continued to contend with the 

 Spaniards for the right of cutting down these 

 trees. 



In the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the com- 



mercial relations of the two countries in America 

 were not again neglected, and at length the pri- 

 vilege of cutting logwood was confirmed to the 

 English in plain and express terms, so that 

 it was supposed the question was set at rest 

 for ever. It, however, stiU continued to be 

 a subject of constant dispute between the 

 parties, and, in 1717, the Marquis de Monte- 

 leone, then Spanish ambassador-extraordinary 

 at the court of St James, delivered a memorial 

 to the British government against tlie settle- 

 ments in the isle of Trist, and at Laguna de Ter- 

 minos, in the bay of Campeachy, declaring that 

 if, in the space of eight months, these places 

 were not evacuated, the inhabitants should be 

 considered and treated as pirates. This docu- 

 ment was submitted to the Board of Trade in 

 England, which, after much investigation, came 

 to the decided opinion that British subjects were 

 entitled to cut wood in the bay of Campeachy. 

 Spain reluctantly acquiesced in this positive 

 decision, and the settlement continued without 

 being matter of farther dispute or treaty for more 

 thanforty years. During this longperiod the Brit- 

 ish settlers had not been idle. Fortifying them- 

 selves against the assaults of the Spanish Ameri- 

 cans, their colony assumed a more important and 

 imposing aspect, not only having the power fo 

 resist, but to resent aggression. 



These defensive measures were naturally 

 viewed with alarm by the Spaniards, and in a 

 treaty concluded in 1763, the two countries came 

 to a compromise on this question ; the English 

 government consenting that the fortifications 

 erected in the bay of Honduras, and other Span- 

 ish territories in America, should be demolished; 

 while the Spanish government engaged that the 

 subjects of Great Britain should not be molested 

 in cutting or shipping logwood. 



Notwithstanding the above treaty, the gover- 

 nor of Yucatan in the ensuing year gave great 

 annoyance to the British logwood-cutters in 

 Campeachy Bay, and even drove them from the 

 place, on the pretext that they had no certificate 

 to prove them British subjects ; and that, more- 

 over, they made too free with the produce of the 

 country. No time was lost in remitting a remon- 

 strance to the Spanish court, which unreservedly 

 disavowed and disapproved of the conduct of the 

 governor. Positive orders were sent out to that 

 man of office, and the English once more ob- 

 tained their logwood without molestation. They 

 were not, however, allowed to remain long undis- 

 puted occupiers of this coast. The French now 

 attempted to supplant, or to share with them in 

 this lucrative employment, and invaded their 

 privilege by cutting logwood on those parts of 

 the coast, the productions of which had been 

 assigned to tlie English by the last treaty. 

 Although this had forbidden them to raise forti- 

 fications, it had at the same time not only given 



