chap, hi.] WEST INDIES. 109 
By this treaty the situation of the Charaibes, in 
Respect to the crown of Great Britain, was defined 
and clearly expressed; and I admit, that their fu¬ 
ture conduct was to be tried by the terms of it. 
On the 19th of June 1779, St. Vincent’s shared 
the common fate of most of the British West In¬ 
dian possessions, in that unfortunate war with 
America, which swallowed up all the resources of 
the nation, being captured by a small body of 
troops from Martinicq, consisting of only four hun¬ 
dred and fifty men, commanded by a lieutenant in 
the French navy. The black Charaibes however, 
notwithstanding the treaty of 1773, immediately 
joined the enemy, and there is no doubt, that the 
terror which seized the British inhabitants, from an 
apprehension that those people would proceed to 
the most bloody enormities, contributed to the very 
easy victory which was obtained by the invaders; 
for the island surrendered without a struggle. The 
terms of capitulation were favourable, and the 
island was restored to the dominion of Great Bri¬ 
tain by the general pacification of 1783. It con¬ 
tained at that time sixty one sugar estates, five 
hundred acres in coffee, two hundred acres in ca¬ 
cao, four hundred in cotton, fifty in indigo, and 
jive hundred in tobacco, besides lands appropriated 
to the raising provisions, such as plantains, yams, 
maize, &c. All the rest of the country, except¬ 
ing the few spots that had been cleared from time 
to time by the Charaibes, retained its native woods, 
and most of it, I believe, continues in the same 
state to the present hour. 
