chap, in.] WEST INDIES. 
CHAPTER III. 
ST. VINCENT and its DEPENDENCIES , 
AND 
DOMINICA. 
HE civil history of these islands may be com- 
A prised in a narrow compass; for the sove¬ 
reignty of them having been long an object of dis¬ 
pute between the crowns of Great Britain and 
France, the rightful possessors, the Charaibes, de¬ 
rived that security from the reciprocal envy and 
avarice of the contending parties, which they might 
have expected in vain from their justice and huma¬ 
nity. As both St. Vincent and Dominica were in¬ 
cluded, with many other islands, in the earl of Car¬ 
lisle’s patent, it is not wonderful that attempts were 
made, at different times, to bring them under the 
English dominion. These attempts the French 
constantly opposed, with design, it was urged, se¬ 
cretly, and surreptitiously to occupy the islands 
themselves; and their conduct towards the Cha¬ 
raibes on other occasions seems to justify the sug¬ 
gestion. 
