GRE-NADA, one of the Caribbee islands, lying in W. Long. 61. 40. N. Lat. 12. 0. It is the last of the Windward Caribbees; and lies 30 leagues north of New Andalusia, on the continent. According to some, it is 24 leagues in compass; according to others,
Grenada, only 22; and it is said to be 30 miles in length, and in some places 15 in breadth. The chief port is called Lewis; and stands on the west side of the island, in the middle of a large bay, with a sandy bottom. It is pretended that 1000 barks, from 300 to 400 tons, may ride secure from storms; and that 100 ships, of 1000 tons each, may be moored in the harbour. A large round basin, which is parted from it by a bank of sand, would contain a considerable number of ships, if the bank was cut through: but by reason of it, the large ships are obliged to pass within 80 paces of one of the mountains lying at the mouth of the harbour; the other mountain lying about half a mile distant. The island abounds with wild game and fish; it produces also very fine timber, but the cocoa-tree is observed not to thrive here so well as in the other islands. A lake on a high mountain, about the middle of the island, supplies it with fresh-water streams. Several bays and harbours lie round the island, some of which might be fortified to great advantage; so that it is very convenient for shipping, not being subject to hurricanes. The soil is capable of producing tobacco, sugar, indigo, pease, and millet.
In 1638, M. Poincy, a Frenchman, attempted to make a settlement in Grenada; but was driven off by the Caribbeans, who resorted to this island in greater numbers than to the neighbouring ones, probably on account of the game with which it abounded. In 1650, Monf. Parquet, governor of Martinico, carried over from that island 200 men, furnished with presents to reconcile the savages to them; but with arms to subdue them, in case they should prove intractable. The savages are said to have been frightened into submission by the number of the Frenchmen; but, according to some French writers, the chief not only welcomed the new-comers; but in consideration of some knives, hatchets, scissors, and other toys, yielded to Parquet the sovereignty of the island, reserving to themselves their own habitations. The Abbe Raynal informs us, that these first French colonists, imagining they had purchased the island by these trifles, assumed the sovereignty, and soon acted as tyrants. The Caribs, unable to contend with them by force, took their usual method of murdering all those whom they found in a defenceless state. This produced a war; and the French settlers having received a reinforcement of 300 men from Martinico, forced the savages to retire to a mountain; from whence, after exhausting all their arrows, they rolled down great logs of wood on their enemies. Here they were joined by other savages from the neighbouring islands, and again attacked the French, but were defeated anew; and were at last driven to such desperation, that 40 of them, who had escaped from the slaughter, jumped from a precipice into the sea, where they all perished, rather than fall into the hands of their implacable enemies. From thence the rock was called le morne des sauteurs, or "the hill of the leapers;" which name it still retains. The French then destroyed the habitations and all the provisions of the savages; but fresh supplies of Caribbeans arriving, the war was renewed with great vigour, and great numbers of the French were killed. Upon this they resolved totally to exterminate the natives; and having accordingly attacked the savages unawares,
they inhumanly put to death the women and children, as well as the men; burning also their boats and canoes, to cut off all communication between the few survivors and the neighbouring islands. Notwithstanding all these barbarous precautions, however, the Caribbeans proved the irreconcilable enemies of the French, and their frequent insurrections at last obliged Parquet to sell all his property in the island to the Count de Cerillac in 1657. The new proprietor, who purchased Parquet's property for 30,000 crowns, sent thither a person of brutal manners to govern the island. He behaved with such insupportable tyranny, that most of the colonists retired to Martinico; and the few who remained condemned him to death, after a formal trial. In the whole court of justice that tried this miscreant, there was only one man (called Archangeli) who could write. A farrier was the person who impeached; and he, instead of the signatures, sealed with a horse-shoe; and Archangeli, who performed the office of clerk, wrote round it these words in French, "Mark of M. de la Brie, council for the court."
It was apprehended that the court of France would not ratify a sentence passed with such unusual formalities; and therefore most of the judges of the governor's crimes, and witnesses of his execution, disappeared. Only those remained whose obscurity screened them from the pursuit of the laws. By an estimate, taken in 1700, there were at Grenada no more than 251 white people, 53 free savages or mulattoes, and 525 slaves. The useful animals were reduced to 64 horses, and 569 head of horned cattle. The whole culture consisted of three plantations of sugar, and 52 of indigo. The island had been sold in 1664 to the French West India company for 100,000 livres.
This unfavourable state of the affairs of Grenada was changed in 1714. The change was owing to the flourishing condition of Martinico. The richest of the ships from that island were sent to the Spanish coasts, and in their way touched at Grenada to take in refreshments. The trading privateers, who undertook this navigation, taught the people of that island the value of their soil, which only required cultivation. Some traders furnished the inhabitants with slaves and utensils to erect sugar-plantations. An open account was established between the two colonies. Grenada was clearing its debts gradually by its rich produce; and the balance was on the point of being closed, when the war, in 1744, interrupted the communication between the two islands, and at the same time stopped the progress of the sugar-plantations. This loss was supplied by the culture of coffee, which was pursued during the hostilities with all the activity and eagerness that industry could inspire. The peace of 1748 revived all the labours, and opened all the former sources of wealth. In 1753 the population of Grenada consisted of 1262 white people, 175 free negroes, and 11,991 slaves. The cattle amounted to 2298 horses or mules, 2456 head of horned cattle, 3278 sheep, 902 goats, and 331 hogs. The cultivation rose to 83 sugar-plantations; 2,725,600 coffee-trees; 150,300 cocoa-trees, and 800 cotton-plants. The provisions consisted of 5,740,450 trenches of cassava; 933,596 banana trees; and 143 squares of potatoes and
Grenada. and yams. The colony made a rapid progress, in proportion to the excellence of its soil; but in the course of last war, the island was taken by the British. At this time one of the mountains at the side of Lewis harbour was strongly fortified, and might have made a good defence, but surrendered without firing a gun; and, by the treaty concluded in 1763, the island was ceded to Britain. On this cession, and the management of the colony after that event, the Abbe Raynal has the following remarks.—“This long train of evils [the ambition and mismanagement of his countrymen] has thrown Grenada into the hands of the English, who are in possession of this conquest by the treaty of 1763. But how long will they keep this colony? Or, will it never again be restored to France?—England has not made a fortunate beginning. In the first enthusiasm raised by an acquisition, of which the highest opinion had been previously formed, every one was eager to purchase estates there. They sold for much more than their real value. This caprice, by expelling old colonists, who were inured to the climate, has sent about L. 1,553,000 out of the mother-country. This imprudence has been followed by another. The new proprietors, misled, no doubt, by national pride, have substituted new methods to those of their predecessors. They have attempted to alter the mode of living among their slaves. The negroes, who from their very ignorance are more attached to their customs than other men, have revolted. It hath been found necessary to send out troops, and to shed blood. The whole colony was filled with suspicions. The masters who had laid themselves under a necessity of using violent methods, were afraid of being burnt or massacred in their own plantations. The labours have declined, or been totally interrupted. Tranquillity has at length been restored. The number of slaves has been increased as far as 40,000, and the produce has been raised to the treble of what it was under the French government.
“The plantations will still be improved by the neighbourhood of a dozen of islands, called the Grenadines or Grenadillos, that are dependent on the colony. They are from three to eight leagues in circumference, but do not afford a single spring of water. The air is wholesome. The ground, covered only with thin bushes, has not been screened from the sun. It exhales none of those noxious vapours which are fatal to the husbandman.
“Cariacou, the only one of the Grenadines which the French have occupied, was at first frequented by turtle fishermen; who, in the leisure afforded them by so easy an occupation, employed themselves in clearing the ground. In process of time, their small number was increased by the accession of some of the inhabitants of Guadalupe; who, finding that their plantations were destroyed by a particular sort of ants, removed to Cariacou. The island flourished from the liberty that was enjoyed there. The inhabitants collected about 1200 slaves, by whose labours they made themselves a revenue of near L. 20,000 a year in cotton.—The other Grenadines do not afford a prospect of the same advantages, though the plantation of sugar is begun there. It has succeeded remarkably well at Becouya, the largest and most fertile of these is-
lands, which is no more than two leagues distant from Grenada, St. Vincent.”
All these islands have lately been reduced again under the power of France, and the inhabitants treated with inhumanity and injustice.