lOO 



ADDENDA. 



Add to the account of Rattan Ifland page 51. 



THIS ifland in the laft war was fettled, and garrifoned by Britijh troops 

 Uom Jamaica; but at the foUicitation of the court of Spairif was evacuat- 

 ed after the peace in 1748 j and tho' then the Spaniards ilTued fevei al placart^^, 

 inviting people to come and fettle on the ifland, yet it is uninhabiced j and the 

 reafongiven by a Spaniard of great fenfe, and very large property on the conti- 

 nent, was, that they were all truly fenfible that they could never expedx any af- 

 fidance or protetftion from their unweildy government, and therefore mufl be 

 defenfelefs and liable to be infulted and plundered by the firft enemy that comes, 

 and that as long as they were a little more fecure in their fettlements on the 

 main, it would never be worth the expence or hazard of any Spaniard to 

 fettle on the illands, which is a very cogent reafon why all the illands on this 

 coaft and bay, as well as on the coaft of Tierra Firmay are moftly uninhabited. 



jidd to the account of La Vera Cruz, page 6 1 . 



THE Barlovento fleet, feldom confitis of more than two or three men of 

 war, and three or four iloops ; they are employed in carrying the 

 Situado to the diftant places on the coaft, that is, to relieve the garrifon, pay 

 the forces, &c. and to fee that there is no contraband dealings: they generally 

 fet out from Vera Cruz in May, and go through the gulph, as high up as 

 Cumanagota to Puerto Rico, watering at the Aguada Nueva ; from thence 

 coafting it, they return to la Vera Cruz early in OBobery being generally 

 abfent from thence four months. 



On account of the unwholefpmnefs of the climate, many of the moft 

 fabftantial merchants and nobles of Mexico will not run the rifk of their 

 health in coming to Vera Cruz, but have fent their fadlors; this has often in- 

 duced the king of Spain to fend his mandate for removing the fair to Pueblo 

 de los AngeleSy and other places within land, that country being the finefl cli- 

 mate in the known world. 



The trade of la Vera Cruz has of late been very uncertain ; the flota hav- 

 ing beea fometimes fufpended for two or three years, and all the produce 

 and treafure of this country exported in a fingle bottom called the Sola Ihip. 



The 



