68 
HISTORY OF THE [book iii. 
conservators j and the produce be paid into the pub¬ 
lic treasury. Thus was plunder sanctioned by au¬ 
thority; and the absent proprietors were not the on¬ 
ly victims. The shameful facility with which every 
French claimant was put into possession of estates to 
which the slightest pretension was set up, gave 
the resident planters reason to apprehend, that the 
only indulgence they were to expect, was that 
which Poliphemus promised Ulysses, of being de¬ 
voured the last. 
Most of these injurious proceedings, and various 
acts ot personal oppression, inflicted on the con¬ 
quered inhabitants of Grenada, were, by them, 
imputed to the too great influence with the gover¬ 
nor of their late fellow subjects and neighbours, 
the French planters; and it is much easier to ac¬ 
count for, than to justify their conduct. Let it be 
remembered, however, to the honour of the french 
nation, that these nefarious proceedings were no 
sooner made known to the court of France, than 
they were disapproved and reprobated. The ap¬ 
pointment of conservators was abolished, and re¬ 
storation ordered to be made of the estates of 
absent proprietors. Redress was likewise very ge¬ 
nerally given by appeals in the last resort, to such 
of the resident planters as had been illegally depri¬ 
ved of their possessions. Rut it was not long before 
the island itself reverted to the British dominion. 
Grenada and the Grenadines were restored to 
Great Britain, with all the other captured islands 
