:Chap. m. of the ENGLISH in AMERICA. , ji 
.)HOt entirely put an End to the Evil is very certain, fmce 
> fomething of the fame kind happened afterwards to Sir 
^ Charles Wager, and prevented his taking at leaft another 
Galleon. The Admirals alfo, and great Sea Officers, that 
; v/ere ffationed at Jamaica for the Protedion of the Eland 
and Security of Commerce, did not behave fo well as 
' they might have done, as appears from thofe authentic 
Regifters the Votes of the Houfe of Commons, where 
:i the Reader will find, that, after long and ftrift En- 
quiries, in v/hich the Merchants were admitted to make 
particular Charges, and allowed to fupport them by 
Evidence, Cenfures were palled upon thofe Officers who 
r appeared to be guilty ; and both Houfes ffiewed a warm 
Zeal for redreffing thofe Mifchiefs occafioned by the ill 
.'■Conduft of the Navy, and thereby left ample Telfimony 
of their Regard for the Public, though it was not at- 
:: tended with that Succefs that might have been wiffied. 
In the mean time the French went on in quite a dif- 
ferent way ; and, when they found their Fleets were able 
3 to do little againft ours, they very wifely declined waft- 
ing their Naval Force in Combats at Sea, and applied it 
almoft entirely to the protedling their own Trade, and 
1 diftreffing ours. They undertook the efcorting the 
\nip Plate Fleets, and were, generally fpeaking, but too 
fuccefsful in that Undertaking. Notwithftanding our 
iAuperior Force, they attempted a Commerce with the 
- Spanijh Settlements in the South-Seas \ and in this too 
: they fucceeded, notwithftanding the dangerous Naviga- 
I tion round Cape Horn, and from thence they reaped two 
i great Advantages, viz. maintaining and improving their 
' Manufadtures, even in a time of War; and bringing 
yaft Sums into France, without which ffie could not pof- 
1 fibly have continued the War. 
Yet, in fome refpedts, it manifeftly appeared that her 
‘ Force was very infufficient for fupporting her Views 
I in the V/eft Indies, fince, in an Attempt they made upon 
Carolina in 1 706, they were ffiamefully repulfed by the 
natural Force of that Colony, without any Affiftance 
• from hence. And, on the other hand, our People fiic- 
r ceeded in their Attempt to drive the French out of what 
!■ they pofiefied in the Eland of St. Chrijtophers ; which 
; plainly ffiewed what might have been done, in that War, 
V towards deftroying their Sugar Colonies, if, as our In- 
i' terefts moft certainly led us, we had confidered that Point 
I more attentively than we did fome others, which did not 
concern us near fo much. For, had we ufed the Oppor- 
. tunity that was given us to have driven the French out 
of all or moft of their Iflands, it muft have turned fo 
' much to our Advantage, in Point of Trade, that, in all 
human Probability, we ffiould have had no Reafon to 
. regret the vaft Expences of that long and confumino- 
■ War. ^ ^ 
But, inftead of doing this, our Views were almoft 
I entirely confined to Europe, where our ' Succefs was in- 
deed very honourable for our Arms, but was very far 
;; from procuring us any Advantages in relpedt to Trade ; 
which I do not fay with any Defign of refledling on the 
I Nlinifters by whom tnat War was managed, who perhaps 
■ might mean us well, and did for us as much as was m 
I their Power; but to fliew where the Fault really lay, which 
was our entering into many Engagements that were either 
P ufelefs or detrimental to our Commercial Interefts. 
- Whereas the French, who had but very lately enter- 
i tained any Thoughts of Trade, kept that continually in 
I view, both in their Operations during the War, and in 
I their Negociations for bringing about a Peace. In re- 
i; fpeft to the former, befides what they did againft us in 
. the IV f Indies, they attacked the Portuguefe in Brazil, 
i ruined the_ Commerce between the Dutch and Spaniards, 
1. and- eftabliffied their own ; and, befides all this, when 
: they had adlually begun to treat with us, and our Court 
confidered them in a manner as Friends, they fent a Fleet 
to diftrefs us in the Leeward Iflands ; which exceffively 
■ ptovoked our Miniftry, though they were too far ad- 
vanced in their pacific Meafures to retreat. 
ffie Conclufion of the Treaty, tkizFrench ffiewed the 
larne Care for, and the fame Steadinefs in, fupporting 
their Commerce. It was with Difficulty that they were 
' 5'^ reftore what they had taken from our 
I. ■ udjon Company. Nova Scotia WQ had, and, becaufe 
they could not take it from us, they left it to tis ; but 
they plainly cheated us out of Cape Breton. And tho* 
they pretended to renounce all Pretenfions on Newfound,- 
land ; yet they preferved what they never had any title 
to, and what, with refpedt to that Country; was all they 
ever wanted. By thefe Arts they fecured great Advan- 
tages to themfelves, which were all at our Expence 5 
brought a heavy Load of Reproach on the Minifters 
who tranfadted with them, and left the Treaty of Utrecht 
as a Memorial to all fucceeding Minifters of the Danger 
of entering into any feparate Negociations with France. 
9. After the Acceffiion of his late Majefty King George L 
to tht BritiJhThxont, there followed feveral Diiturbances 
at home and abroad, which might very well hinder the 
Minifters from contriving any new Schemes for the 
Advantage of our Colonies, or from perfedling thofe 
which had been formerly laid for that Purpofe. The 
Rebellion in Scotland firft, and after that the Qiiadruple 
Alliance, and the Meafures which preceded and followed 
it, fufficiently occupied their Thoughts, and if they 
went on in the ordinary way, in protedling them, and 
providing for their Security, they might very well be 
excufed tor poftponing Thoughts or Projedts of another 
Nature to more favourable Times. 
But the French, always watchful for their own Advan- 
tage, at the very time when they feemed moft follicitous 
in cultivating the Friendffiip ot Britain, and were daily 
receiving Benefits from it, projedled the Settlement 
of thelfland of St. Lucia, which had been always included 
in the Commiffion of the Governor of Barbadoes ; and for 
that Purpofe the French King thought fit, in the Year 
1719, to make a Grant of that Ifland to the Marffial 
dlEtree, who immediately made The necelTary Difpofi- 
tions for eftabliffiing a Colony in that Iftand, and fent 
over People for that Purpofe. The Governor of Bar- 
badoes, as it was his Duty, oppofed this Settlement vigor-’ 
oufly, and declared roundly. That, if the French per- 
fifted in fettling, he ffiould find himfelf under a Necef- 
fity of driving them off that Iftand, which belonged to 
the King his Mafter, by Force. 
At the fame time our Minifter at the Colirt of Paris 
prefented a Memorial, in which he fet forth ffie Title 
the Crown of Great Britain had to this Iftand, and, con- ’ 
fequently, the great Injuftice of the French King’s Grant, 
which was very apparent from the following Particu- 
lars in relation to the Hiftory of this Iftand, in which 
both Englifh and French Writers agree. The Englijb 
fettled on the Iftand of St. Lucia in 1639, and lived there 
near two Years without any Interuption or Difturbance • 
but in 1640 they were driven off from the faid 
Iftand, and the Governor and moft of the Inhabitants 
killed by the Caribbeans, and, as the Englifh fufpefted, 
by the Inftigatidn and Encouragement of the French j 
which the French Generals, Parquet and de Poincy, how- 
ever, both difowned. Nor did the French, at that time, 
or any other time, make any fort of Pretenfion to the 
Iftand. A tacit Acknowledgment undoubtedly of the 
Right of tht Englifh. 
The Civil Wars in England hrtdkimg out, the Englifh 
negledled this Settlement ; and Monf du Parquet fent 
thirty or forty Frenchmen to take Poffeffion of the Iftand. 
The Sieur de Roiijfelan governed here till 1694, and was 
fucceeded by de la Riviere, whom the Caribbeans killed 
with feveral of his Men, and carried off his Wife and two 
of his Children. Fie was fucceeded by Monf le Breton, 
he by Monf Jgremont, who was alfo deftroyed by the 
Caribbeans. After this the Englifh made a Treaty with 
the Caribbeans for the purchafmg the Iftand from them ; 
and, in 1663, fent fourteen or fifteen hundred Men on 
board of five Men of War, who, being joined by fix hun- 
dred of the Caribbeans in feventeen Canoes, came be- 
fore the Ifland in June 1664, which was delivered to 
them without Refiftance, on Condition that the French 
Governor and Garrifon in the Fort, which amounted only 
to fourteen Men, ffiould be tranfported to Martinico, 
with their Cannon, Arms, and Baggage. In 1666 the 
Englifh Governor, Mr. Robert Cook, by reafon ' of the 
Mortality of his People, Want of Neceffaries, aban- 
doned the Iftand, and fet fire to the Fort ; yet, two 
Days afterwards, a Bark arrived from Lord Willoughby, 
Governor 
