chap. m.j WEST INDIES. io$ 
Such is the history of a very weak and fruitless 
attempt which was made under the authority of the 
British government, to obtain possession of this 
island in the year 1723: an interval of forty years 
succeeds* in which I find no occurrence in its histo¬ 
ry that deserves recital The country continued to 
be a theatre of savage hostilities between the ne¬ 
groes and the Charaibes, in which it is believed 
that the former were generally victorious* it is cer¬ 
tain that they proved so in the end, their numbers, 
in 1763* being computed at two thousand * where¬ 
as, of the red or native Charaibes* there were not 
left (as hath already been observed) more than one 
hundred families* and most of these, if I am right¬ 
ly informed, are by this time exterminated. It is 
however worthy of remark* that the African in¬ 
truders have adopted most of the Charaibean man¬ 
ners and customs * among the rest, the practice of 
flattening the foreheads of their infants, as descri¬ 
bed in the first part of this work, and, perhaps, it 
was chiefly from this circumstance that they acqui¬ 
red the appellation of the black Charaibes. 
The first measure of the English government in 
respect to this island, after the peace of Paris, was 
to dispose of the lands—I dare not say to the best 
advantage* for no less than 24*000 acres, being more 
than one-fourth part of the whole country, were 
gratuitously assigned over to two individuals.* 
* Mr, Swinburne had twenty thousand acres, and general Mon'ck- 
ton Four thousand; but from the disputes which aferwards arose with 
the Charaibes, I believe they did cot derive ali the benefit from those 
grants which they expected. 
Voi. ir. 
o 
