I 
7 he Discoveries and Settlements Book f 
their Silver in Jars j and if any of the King’s Officers 
meet them nothing appears but Meal, which they pre- 
tend to be carrying to Porto Bello j but for the \iioft 
part they travel through Woods and Bye-Ways for fear 
of being difcovered by thofe Officers. When they have 
bought what Negroes and Goods their Money will pur- 
chafe, which they fell again up in the Country, and get 
very well by it ; the Goods are made up in little Packs 
fit for one Man to carry, and the Knglijh fupply them 
with as much Provifions as will ferve them Home, crofs 
the IJihmus to the South-Sea^ for they come very far off. 
A fingie familiar Inftance will make all this very plain. 
An Englijh Ship lying between Chagre and Porto Novo, 
a Signal was given from the Cajlle of Chagre, and fhe 
anchored two Miles from it. The Spaniards came to her, 
and oiie Merchant bought feventy Negroes and a good 
Quantity of Dry Goods, amounting to three or four 
thoufand Pounds, which was brought on Mules to the 
Water-fide, part Gold and part Silver. J'rom the G^'-out 
the Englijh Ship failed to the Brew near Carthagena, 
where fhe lay to trade with the Merchants of that City, 
from which it is about eight Miles diftant. The People 
of the Ifland Brew gave their Merchants Notice of her 
Arrival, and they came and traded as the others did at 
the Grout ; this trading Ship in about two Months dif- 
pofed of one hundred and fifty Negroes and a good 
Cargo of Dry Goods, by which, probably, the Pro- 
prietors cleared two thoufand Pounds more than would 
have been got in any other Market ; a plain Proof of the 
very great Advantage of this Trade between Jamaica and 
New Spain, of which we fee the Spaniards are fo fond, 
that they run as great Hazards in buying the Merchan- 
dizes as the Englijh do in felling it to them. 
There is likewife in time of Peace a great deal of Mo- 
ney brought into Jamaica by the JJfiento Trade, or Sale 
of Negroes, granted to us by xht Spaniards in the Treaty 
of Utrecht, which, whatever it may be in other Refpeds, 
has certainly proved a very beneficial Trade to that 
Ifland. I have indeed heard fome very able and in- 
telligent Perfons intimate, that if inftead of eredfing a 
new Company for the Management of this Trade, it had 
been put into the Hands of one already eredled, I mean 
the Royal African Company, it had preferved that once 
famous Corporation from falling into its prefent melan- 
choly Condition, as well as fecured much larger Profits 
to the Nation, which are Things that deferve to be con- 
fidered before we fet in earneft about any Negotiation 
with Spain, that we may indemnify ourfelves from the 
heavy Loffes and vaft Expences of this War by the 
Fruits of a folid and well regulated Peace ; which, with- 
out doubt, may be as eafily obtained as one of a loofer 
and more precarious Nature 5 it being the Intereft of the 
Spaniards as well as of ourfelves, to have all Matters fo 
adj lifted, as to prevent not only Wars, but Difputes for 
the future. 
Before I quit this Subjedl I find it abfolutely neceffary 
to take Notice of another Branch of Trade carried on 
from Jamaica, which has been made the Subject of much 
Debate ; I mean the cutting of Logwood in the Bay of 
Campeachy . This Matter came to be confidered with the 
utmoft Care and Circumbpeftion by the Board of Trade 
and Plantations in the Year 1717, who folemnly reported 
that we had an undoubted Right to that Trade, in 
which the Subjedts of the Crown of England had been 
maintained and fupported by former Kings, his Ma- 
jefty’s Royal Predeceffors. They obferve, that Log- 
wood is the Produdt of a Peninfula that ex- 
tends itfelf an hundred Leagues into the North Sea, on 
each Side whereof are the Bays of Campeachy and Hon- 
duras, where the Wood is chiefly cut by the Englijh. 
The Spaniards are poffeffed only of the Town of Cam- 
peachy, and two more fmall Places in this part of America, 
and that the reft of Jucatan was an uninhabited Defart, 
’till our Logwood Cutters fettled at Cape Catoch, the 
North Eaft Promontory of Jucatan, or at E riji, or the 
Laguna de Lerminos in the Bay of Campeachy, before, or 
in, the Year 1667, when a Treaty of Peace was conclud- 
ed between Great Britain arid Spain ; and thereupon the 
Privateers of Jamaica, who ufed to difturb the Spanifh 
Trade, being obliged to quit that way of Life, became 
' I 
/ 
Logwood Cutters, and fettled with others of their Coun- 
trymen at Eriji, and the Lake de Eerminos aforefaid, and 
great Quantities of Logwood, were afterwards imported 
from thence to Old and New England. 
They obferved that Sir Ehomas Lynch, Governor of 
Jamaica, under whofe Direftion that Trade was carried 
on, in the Year 1671, gave his Majefty King Charles 
II. the following Reafons for his encouraging this Trade. 
I ft. That the Englijh had then ufed it for divers Years. 
2clly, That the Logwood was cut in defolate and unin- 
habited Places, ^dly, That it was a Right confirmed by 
Treaty with the Spaniards, qthly. That thereby we ex- 
cluded the French and Butch from that Trade. 5thly, 
That the Spaniards had not then made any Complaint of 
it. 6thly, That this Employment made the reducincr 
our Privateers, who ufed to commit Hoftilities againft 
the Spaniards, more eafy. Laftly, that this Trad? em- 
ployed an hundred fail of Ships annually, and encreafed 
his Majefty’s Cuffoms, and the Trade of the Nation 
more than any of his American Colonies. ^ 
Sir Ehomas Modyford, the fucceeding Governor of 
Jamaica, informed the I.ords of the Privy Council, in 
the Year 1672, that the Rnglijh Logwood Cutters had 
ufed that diade for three Lears, and that they had plant- 
ed Corn, and built Houfes, for their Conveniency j and 
though they frequently hunted Qeer in the Country, 
they had never feen a fingie Spaniard, or any other Man 
in that Part of the Country, in all the L'ime they had 
been there j and concludes, that their felling of Wood, 
building of Ploufes, and clearing and plantincr the 
Ground, was fuch a Poffeffion, as in the WeJFIndies 
gave them an undoubted Right to the Countries they 
thus occupied. And Sir Ehomas, to juftify his ConducT 
in encouraging this Trade, in the Year 1672 (when the 
Spaniards firft complained of it) lent home the Copies of 
feveral Depofitions he had taken from the Matters of 
Ships, and others concerned in the Logwood Trade, 
with a Proclamation he had iffued for the Regulation 
and Security thereof, as a Confirmation of what he had 
afferted ; and the Lords of the Council thereupon let the 
Governor know that they approved what he had done. 
Thel.ords Commiffioners of Trade further obferved, 
that there is a Claufe in the abovefaid American Treaty, 
which provides that the King of Great Britain fliali keep 
and poffefs, in full Right of Sovereignty and Propriety, 
all Places fituate in the Wejl Indies, or any Part of Ame- 
rica, v/hich he and his Subjeds were then in Poffeffion 
of •, and that they adfually were then, and had been for 
feveral Years, in Poffeffion of Eriji and the Lake de Eer- 
minos, and feveral other Places in the Province of Jucatan, 
which the Spaniards began to fet up a Title to about this 
Time, notwithftanding they enjoyed the full Benefit of 
what Great Britain ftipulated on her Part, viz. ift. 
The fecuring the Trade of the Spanijh PFeft Indies to 
them; a Point which had never before been yielded, 
zdly. The obliging the Privateers to ceafe their Depreda- 
tions, whereby the Spanijh Trade had been miferably 
harraffed ; and this had been effecfted chiefly by the Care 
of his Majefty’s Governors, and the employing thofe 
People in the Logwood Trade. 
That in 1680 the Spaniards proceeded in a hoftile 
Manner to difpoffefs the Englifj Logwood Cutters of 
their Settlements of Eriji, &c. and even of the Ifland 
of Providence, a Britijh Plantation to which they had 
no Pretence ; but thefe were foon repoffcffed by his Ma- 
jefty’s Subjeds, and the Logwood Trade, in 1682, was 
greater than ever, and was maintained and carried on by 
tht Englijh, till the Treaty of Utrecht 1713; when the 
Adjuftment and Settlement thereof came again 'under 
Confideration ; and it was ftipulated that only fuch 
Places fhould be reftored to the Spaniards, as had been 
taken during the preceding War (in the Reign of Queen 
Anne) among which, Eriji could not be reckoned one, 
becaufe the Englijh were in Poffeffion of it many Years 
before that War comm.enced, and, indeed, had been in 
the adual Poffeffion of it from 1699 except 
for two or three Months in the Year 1689, when the 
Spaniards furprized and expelled them by Force, as re- 
lated above. 
They farther reprefented it by a Claufe in the Treaty 
