WEST INDIES, 
143 
CHAP. IV.] 
noble patron sent back as governor in 1626, with 
four hundred new recruits, amply supplied with 
necessaries of all kinds 3 while D’Esnambuc, under 
the patronage ofRichlieu, (the minister of France), 
projected the establishment of an exclusive com¬ 
pany for trading to this and some of the other 
islands. That minister concurred with D’Esnambuc 
in opinion, that such an institution was best adapt¬ 
ed to the purposes of commerce and colonization ;— 1 
an erroneous conclusion, which D’Esnambuc him¬ 
self had soon abundant occasion to lament 5 for the 
French in general either misunderstood or disap¬ 
proved the project. Subscriptions came in reluct¬ 
antly, and the ships which the new company fitted 
out on this occasion, were so wretchedly supplied 
with provisions and necessaries, that of five hun¬ 
dred and thirty-two recruits, who sailed from 
France with D’Esnambuc, in February 1627, the 
greater part perished miserably at sea for want of 
food. 
The English received the survivors with com¬ 
passion and kindness; and for preventing contests 
in future about their respective limits, the com¬ 
manders of each nation agreed to divide the whole 
island pretty equally between their followers. A 
treaty of partition for this purpose was reduced to 
writing, and signed, with many formalities, on 
the third of May 1627 : it comprehended also a 
league defensive and offensive; but this alliance 
proved of little avail against the Spanish invasion iu 
1629, the circumstances whereof I have elsewhere 
