WEST INDIES. 
CHAP, IV,] 
267 
of America, pressed itself on the attention of go¬ 
vernment with a force winch was not to be resist¬ 
ed. Petitions, complaints, and remonstrances, were 
poured in from every island in the West In¬ 
dies. Some of the petitioners represented that 
they had not six weeks provisions in store, and all 
of them anticipated the most dreadful consequen¬ 
ces, if the system of restriction should be much 
longer persisted in; expecting nothing less than a 
general revolt of their slaves, in the apprehension 
of perishing of hunger. 
On the other hand, the inhabitants of the re¬ 
maining continental colonies, especially such of the 
new settlers there as were emigrants from the 
United States, promised to themselves the acqui¬ 
sition of sudden and immense riches from the vast 
advance of price which it was foreseen their few 
exports, when no longer depressed by competition, 
would obtain at the West Indian markets. Every ex¬ 
ertion, public and private, was therefore made by their 
friends in Great Britain, to convince administration, 
and innumerable pamphlets were circulated to sa¬ 
tisfy the public, that the West Indies might be ve¬ 
ry amply supplied with every article of North 
American produce (rice excepted) from Canada,, 
Nova Scotia, and the island of St. John. Hence 
they not only strenuously recommended a steady 
adherence to the system of restriction on the part 
of Great Britain, but openly expressed their wishes 
that the United States might retaliate, by prohibit¬ 
ing, in return, British ships from trading in the 
