FALKLAND ISLANDS. SO'j 



Islands. When the colours were spread, a 

 salute was fired from the ship. 



Possession was thus taken, with all the usual 

 formalities, in the name of the King of Great 

 Britain. 



On the 8th of January, 1766, Captain Mac- 

 bride arrived at Port Egmont, with a military 

 force, erected a block-house and stationed a gar- 

 rison. No traces of former habitations, culti- 

 vation, or people, were perceived; but the 

 English made some attempts to cultivate ; and 

 as there was no native wood, several thousand 

 young trees, with the mould about their roots, 

 were transported from Port Famine Bay, in one 

 of the ships of Commodore Wallis's squadron, 

 for the purpose of being reset at the Falklands. 



All this was done by the command of the 

 King of Great Britain, and as to all consequent 

 rights the occupation was complete. 



It is true, that it is said some Frenchmen had 

 made a temporary establishment on one of the 

 Falkland Islands, about this period, and that in 

 consequence of a remonstrance made by Spain, 

 the King of France ceded all his right to those 

 islands to his Catholic majesty. If the doctrine 



