144 
HISTORY OF THE [book hi. 
related.* Yet surely, unjustifiable as that attack 
may be deemed, if the conduct of the new settlers 
towards the Charaibes was such as Du Tertre re¬ 
lates, we have but little cause to lament over the 
miseries which befel them. The mind exults in 
the chastisement of cruelty, even when the instru¬ 
ments of vengeance are as criminal as the objects 
of punishment. 
It may now be thought, that those of the two 
nations who survived so destructive a storm, had 
learnt moderation and forbearance in the school of 
adversity; and indeed, for some years they appear 
to have lived on terms of good neighbourhood with 
each other; but at length national rivalry, and here¬ 
ditary animosity were allowed their full influence, 
insomuch that, for half a century afterwards, this 
little island exhibited a disgusting scene of internal 
contention, violence, and bloodshed. It is impos¬ 
sible at this time to pronounce with certainty, whe¬ 
ther the French or the English were the first ag¬ 
gressors. It is probable that each nation would lay 
the blame on the other. We are told that in the first 
Dutch war, in the reign of Charles II. the French 
king declaring for the United States, his subjects in 
St. Christopher’s, disdaining an inglorious neutrali¬ 
ty, attacked the English planters, and drove them 
out of their possessions; which were afterwards, 
by the treaty of Breda, restored to them. In 1689, 
in consequence of the revolution which had taken 
* Book ii. chap. H, 
