chap, it.] WEST INDIES. 
*79 
SECTION IV, 
MONTSERRAT\ 
Of this little island, neither the extent nor the 
importance demands a very copious discussion. It 
was discovered at the same time with St. Chris¬ 
topher’s, and derived its name from a supposed re¬ 
semblance which Columbus perceived in the face 
of the country to a mountain of the same name 
near Barcelona. 
The name was all that was bestowed upon it by 
the Spaniards. Like Nevis, it was first planted by 
a small colony from St. Christopher’s, detached in 
1632, from the adventurers under Warner. Their 
separation appears indeed, to have been partly oc¬ 
casioned by local attachments and religious dissen- 
tions; which rendered their situation in St. Chris¬ 
topher’s uneasy, being chiefly natives of Ireland, 
of the Romish persuasion. The same causes, how¬ 
ever, operated to the augmentation of their num¬ 
bers 5 for so many persons of the same country and 
