chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 2.81 
to visit this island with repeated hurricanes, which 
spread desolation throughout most parts of the 
island ; but the parishes which suffered more re¬ 
markably than the rest, were those of Westmore¬ 
land, Hanover, Saint James, Trelawney, Portland, 
and Saint Thomas in the East. By these destruc¬ 
tive visitations, the plantain walks, which furnish 
the chief article of support to the negroes, were 
generally rooted up, and the intense droughts which 
followed, destroyed those different species of ground 
provisions which the hurricanes had not reached. 
The storms of 1780 and 1781 happening during the 
time of war, no foreign supplies, except a trifling 
assistance from prize-vessels, could be obtained on 
any terms, and a famine ensued in the leeward 
parts of the island, which destroyed many thousand 
negroes. After the storm of the 30th of July 1784, 
the lieutenant-governor, by the advice of his coun¬ 
cil, published a proclamation, dated the 7th of Au¬ 
gust, permitting the free importation of provisions 
and lumber in foreign bottoms, for four months from 
that period. As this was much too short a time to 
give sufficient notice, and obtain all the supplies that 
were necessary, the small cjuantities of flour, rice, 
and other provisions, which were imported in con¬ 
sequence of th.e proclamation, soon rose to so exor¬ 
bitant a price as to induce the assembly, on the 9th 
of November following, to present an address to the 
lieutenant-governor, requesting him to prolong the 
term until the latter end of March 1785; observing, 
that it was impossible for the natural productions 
of the country to come to such maturity as to be 
Vol. III. 
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