3o8 HISTORY OF THE [book in, 
any other plea than that of political expediency, 
I am here speaking of the British claim, as against 
the actual possessors of the country , the black Cha- 
raibcs. This claim, no cession or abandonment on 
the part of France could have strengthened; inas¬ 
much, as Great Britain herself constantly disputed 
the pretensions of that crown to the neutral islands; 
St. Vincent’s among the rest. The Charaibes them¬ 
selves, as the report above quoted demonstrates, 
and as my friend admits, uniformly and absolutely 
denied any right in any of the sovereigns of Europe 
to their allegiance. They averred that they knew 
no king, and would acknowledge none. They said 
they had originally been landed on the island by 
shipwreck, and held it not only by right of con¬ 
quest over the aborigines, but also by actual pos¬ 
session for near a century.” Such was their title 
to St. Vincent’s, and it would have been difficult, 
I think, for any nation in Europe to produce a bet¬ 
ter. 
Happily, by the temperate councils and the hu¬ 
mane interposition of the civil commissioners em¬ 
ployed by government to dispose of the lands, the 
contest with these people (not however until hos¬ 
tilities had been commenced and many lives sacri¬ 
ficed) was at length finally compromised and ad¬ 
justed, to the satisfaction, as it was then hoped, of 
the contending parties. A treaty of peace and 
friendship was concluded with them on the 27 th 
February 1773 ; the articles of which I have sub¬ 
joined in an appendix to this chapter. 
» 
