SOUFRIERE, AXD 0N A VISIT TO MONTAGNE PELEE, IN 1902. 
459 
diction, for in the same Journal of August 2, 1718, he returns to the subject and 
says : “ They pretend to tell us a strange story, viz., that the island of St. Vincent is 
found again, and is turned into a volcano, or burning mountain, but we must 
acknowledge, we do not believe one word of it.” 
On account of its obvious exaggeration this record has l)een received ])y many with 
incredulity. Shephard, in his “ History of St. Vincent,” does not mention it, and it 
is generally held that the eruption of 1812 is the first of which there is historical 
evidence. Mr. Huggins, in liis “ Account of the Eruptions of the St. Vincent 
Soufrime,” discredits the story altogether.* 
‘ It is supposed by some that St. Vincent was the scene of an eruption in the year 1718, which produced 
what is called the old crater of the Soufriere, and, because some seamen that year heard and saw signs of 
volcanic disturbance having taken place somewhere in these seas, it has been concluded that St. Vincent 
was the place. This, however, is doubtful, and it is certain from the researches of Major Patrick 
Crichtox, of this island, that the Caribs did not even possess a tradition of such an occurrence, and their 
language, I believe, did not contain any word expressive of such an event, which, it must be supposed, 
would have left some trace behind, uneffaceable within a century. The Caribs, it is true, looked upon the 
mountain with dread, but only as the abode of a vengeful spirit hiding himself in the clouds.” 
The reasons he advances, however, are somewhat discounted liy Mr. Anderson’s 
statement in 1784.t 
“The most remarkable of these mountains is one that terminates the north-west end of the island and 
the highest in it, and has always been mentioned to have had volcanic eruptions in it. The traditions of 
the oldest inhaliitants in the island, and the ravines at the bottom, seem to me to vindicate the assertion.” 
It was well known, he says, to be a volcano, and this was the main reason wliicli 
led him to make tlie ascent. 
If an eruption took place in 1718, there must have been persons living in St. 
Vincent in 1784 wlio had witnessed it. But it is not mentioned by Mr. Anderson, 
and apparently he was in ignorance of its occurrence. Tliis is in itself strange, but it 
is not iiiex})lical)le. 
In 1718 the island was practically entirely in the liands of the Caribs, who, 
according to Defoe’s account, were not unwilling to trade with passing vessels, but 
resented the intrusion of white settlers. Shephard| states in his history that St. 
Vincent was first colonised in 1719 by a party from Martinique, who had been 
invited to take up land liy one of the two tribes into which the Caribs were divided. 
In 1723 the Duke of Montague sent an English expedition to take possession of the 
island, but they found the natives hostile and the Fiench colonists already in 
possession, and in consequence they gave up the attempt. Gradually, liowever, the 
English established themselves alongside of the French settlers, and for a time the 
* P. Foster Huocaxs, ‘An Account of the Eruptions of the St. Vincent SoufriO'e,’ 1902, p. 3. 
t “ An Account of Morne Garou, a Mountain in the Island of St. Vincent, with a Description of the 
Volcano on its Summit.” By Mr. Janes Anderson (‘ Phil. Trans.,’ vol. 75, p. 16, 1785). 
I ‘ An Historical Account of the Island of St. Vincent.’ By Charles Shephard, p. 23. 
3 N 2 
