4 6 
HISTORY OF THE [book iii. 
Da Parquet having thus established a colony in 
Grenada, and built a fort for its protection, left the 
government of the island to a kinsman, named Le 
Compte, a man, according to Du Tertre, who pos¬ 
sessed very singular talents for government ,• and 
was remarkable for clemency and humanity. We 
find this gentleman, however, eight months after¬ 
wards, engaged in a most bloody war with the Cha- 
raibes; in the prosecution of which he authorised 
such acts of cruelty, as furnish a portrait of him ve¬ 
ry different from that which the historian has ex- 
j 
hibited. On receiving news of the revolt of the 
natives, Du Parquet sent a reinforcement of three 
hundred men from Martinico, with orders to ex¬ 
tirpate the natives altogether; but Le Compte 
seems not to have wanted any incitement to acts of 
barbarity; for Du Tertre admits, that he had already 
proceeded to murder, without mercy, every Cha- 
raibe that fell into his hands; not sparing even the 
women and children. 
Of the manner in which this humane and ac¬ 
complished commander, and his civilized followers, 
conducted hostilities against these miserable people, 
we may form an idea, from a circumstance that oc¬ 
curred in one of their expeditions, ot which the 
reverend historian concludes his narrative as fol¬ 
lows : Forty of the Charaibes were massacred on 
the spot. About forty others, who had escaped 
the sword, ran towards a precipice, from whence 
they cast themselves headlong into the sea, and 
miserably perished. A beautiful young girl of 
