! 4 6 HISTORY OF THE [book. hi. 
the peace of Utrecht, the island was ceded wholly 
to the English, and the French possessions publicly 
sold for the benefit of the English government. In 
1733, £. 80,000 of the money was appropriated as 
a marriage portion with the princess Anne, who 
was betrothed to the prince of Orange. Some few 
of the French planters, indeed, who consented to 
take the oaths, were naturalized and permitted to 
retain their estates. 
Such w r ere the origin and progress of the British 
establishment in the island of St. Christopher. The 
circumstances which attended the French invasion 
in the beginning of 1782, when a garrison of less 
than one thousand effective men (including the mi¬ 
litia) was attacked by eight thousand of the best 
disciplined troops of France, supported by a fleet 
of thirty-two ships of war; the consequent surren¬ 
der of the island, after a most vigorous and noble 
defence; and its restoration to Great Britain by the 
general peace of 1783, being within every person’s 
recollection, need not be related at large in this 
work. I shall therefore conclude with the follow¬ 
ing particulars, which I presume are somewhat less 
familiar to the general reader, and their accuracy 
may be depended on. 
St. Christopher lies in 17 degrees 15 minutes 
north latitude, and 63 degrees 17 minutes west 
longitude; it is about fourteen leagues in circuit, 
and contains 43,726 acres of land, of which about 
17,000 acres are appropriated to the growth of su- 
