the chief of the French Caribbee islands, the middle of which is situated in W. Long. 61. o. N. Lat. 14. 30.

This island was first settled by M. Defnambue a Frenchman, in the year 1635, with only 100 men from St Christopher's. He chose rather to have it peopled from thence than from Europe; as he forelaid, that men, tired with the fatigue of such a long voyage, would mostly perish soon after their arrival, either from the climate, or from the hardships incident to most emigrations. They completed their first settlement without any difficulty. The natives, intimidated by their fire-arms, or seduced by promises, gave up the western and southern parts of the island to the new comers. In a short time, however, perceiving the number of these enterprising strangers daily increasing, they resolved to extirpate them, and therefore called in the savages of the neighbouring islands to assist them. They fell jointly upon a little fort that had been hastily erected; but were repulsed, with the loss of 700 or 800 of their best warriors, who were left dead on the spot.

After this check, the savages for a long time disappeared entirely; but at last they returned, bringing with them presents to the French, and making excuses for what had happened. They were received in a friendly manner, and the reconciliation sealed with pots of brandy. This peaceable state of affairs, however, was of no long continuance; the French took such undue advantages of their superiority over the savages, that they soon rekindled in the others that hatred which had never been entirely subdued. The savages, whose manner of life requires a vast extent of land, finding themselves daily more and more straitened, had recourse to stratagem, in order to destroy their their enemies. They separated into small bands, and way-laid the French as they came singly out into the woods to hunt, and waiting till the sportsman had discharged his piece, rushed upon and killed him before he could charge it again. Twenty men had been thus assassinated before any reason could be given for their sudden disappearance: but as soon as the matter was known, the French took a severe and fatal revenge; the savages were purified and massacred, with their wives and children, and the few that escaped were driven out of Martinico, to which they never returned.

The French being thus left sole masters of the island, lived quietly on those spots which best suited their inclinations. At this time they were divided into two classes. The first consisted of those who had paid their passage to the island, and these were called inhabitants; and to these the government distributed lands, which became their own, upon paying a yearly tribute. These inhabitants had under their command a multitude of disorderly people brought over from Europe at their expense, whom they called engaged, or bondmen. This engagement was a kind of slavery for the term of three years: on the expiration of which they were at liberty, and became the equals of those whom they had served. They all confined themselves at first to the culture of tobacco and cotton; to which was soon added that of arnotto and indigo. The culture of sugar also was begun about the year 1650. Ten years after, one Benjamin d'Acoffs, a Jew, planted some cocoa trees; but his example was not followed till 1684, when chocolate was more commonly used in France. Cocoa then became the principal support of the colonists, who had not a sufficient fund to undertake sugar plantations; but by the inclemency of the season in 1718, all the cocoa trees were destroyed at once.—Coffee was then proposed as a proper object of culture. The French ministry had received, as a present from the Dutch, two of these trees, which were carefully preserved in the king's botanical garden. Two young shoots were taken from these, put on board a ship for Martinico, and intrusted to the care of one Mr Defclieux. The ship happened to be stranded for want of fresh water; and the trees would have perished, had not that gentleman shared with them that quantity of water which was allowed for his own drinking. The culture of coffee was then begun, and attended with the greatest and most rapid success. About the end of last century, however, the colony had made but small advances. In 1700, it had only 6597 white inhabitants. The savages, mulattoes, and free negroes, men, women, and children, amounted to no more than 507. The number of slaves was but 14,566. All these together made a population of 21,645 persons. The whole of the cattle amounted to 3668 horses or mules, and 9217 head of horned cattle. The island produced a great quantity of cocoa, tobacco, and cotton; had nine indigo houses, and 183 small sugar plantations.

After the peace of Utrecht, Martinico began to emerge from that feeble state in which it had so long continued. The island then became the mart for all the windward French settlements. In the ports of it the neighbouring islands sold their produce, and bought the commodities of the mother country; and, in short,

Martinico became famous all over Europe. In 1736, Martinico, there were on the island 447 sugar works; 11,953,232 coffee trees, 103,870 of cacao: 2,068,480 plants of cotton, 39,400 of tobacco, 6750 of arnotto. The supplies for provisions consisted of 4,806,142 banana trees, 34,483,000 trenches of caflava; and 247 plots of potatoes and yams. The number of blacks amounted to 72,000 men, women, and children. Their labour had improved the plantations as far as was consistent with the consumption then made in Europe of American productions; and the annual exports from the island amounted to about 700,000l.

The connexions of Martinico with the other islands entitled her to the profits of commission, and the charges of transport; as she alone was in the possession of carriages. This profit might be rated at the tenth of the produce; and the sum total must have amounted to near 765,000l. This standing debt was seldom called in, and left for the improvement of their plantations. It was increased by advances in money, flaves, and other necessary articles; so that Martinico became daily more and more a creditor to the other islands, and thus kept them in constant dependence; while they all enriched themselves by her assistance.

The connexions of this island with Cape Breton, Canada, and Louisiana, procured a market for the ordinary sugars, the inferior coffee, the molasses, and rum, which would not sell in France. In exchange the inhabitants received salt fish, dried vegetables, deals, and some flour. In the clandestine trade on the coasts of Spanish America, consisting wholly of goods manufactured by the nation, she commonly made a profit of go per cent. on the value of about 175,000l. sent yearly to the Caraccas, or neighbouring colonies.

So many prosperous engagements brought immense sums into Martinico. Upwards of 787,000l. were constantly circulated in that island with great rapidity; and this is perhaps the only country in the world where the specie has been so considerable as to make it a matter of indifference to them whether they dealt in gold, silver, or commodities. This extensive trade brought into the ports of Martinico annually 200 ships from France; 14 or 15 fitted out by the mother country for the coast of Guinea, 60 from Canada, 10 or 12 from the islands of Margaretta and Trinidad; besides the English and Dutch ships that came to carry on a smuggling trade. The private navigation from the island to the northern colonies, to the Spanish continent, and to the windward islands, employed 120 vessels from 20 to 30 tons burden.

The war of 1744 put a stop to this prosperity. Not that the fault was in Martinico itself; its navy, constantly exercised, and accustomed to frequent engagements, which the carrying on a contraband trade required, was prepared for action. In less than six months, 40 privateers, fitted out at St Peter's, spread themselves about the latitude of the Caribbee islands. They signalized themselves in a manner worthy of the ancient freebooters; returning constantly in triumph, and laden with an immense booty. Yet, in the midst of these successes, an entire stop was put to the navigation of the colony, both to the Spanish coast and to Canada, and they were constantly disturbed even on their own coasts. The few ships that came from France, France, in order to compensate the hazards they were exposed to by the loss of their commodities, sold them at a very advanced price, and bought them at a very low one. By this means the produce decreased in value, the lands were ill cultivated, the works neglected, and the slaves perishing for want.

When every thing thus seemed tending to decay, the peace at last restored the freedom of trade, and with it the hopes of recovering the ancient prosperity of the island. The event, however, did not answer the pains that were taken to attain it. Two years had not elapsed after the cessation of hostilities, when the colony lost the contraband trade he carried on with the American Spaniards. This was owing to the substitution of register ships to the fleets; and thus were the attempts of the smugglers confined within very narrow bounds. In the new system, the number of ships was undetermined, and the time of their arrival uncertain: which occasioned a variation in the price of commodities unknown before; and from that time the smuggler, who only engaged in this trade from the certainty of a fixed and constant profit, would no longer pursue it, when it did not secure him an equivalent to the risks he ran. But this loss was not so sensibly felt by the colony, as the hardships brought upon them by the mother country. An unskilful administration clogged the reciprocal and necessary connection between the islands and North America with so many formalities, that in 1755 Martinico sent but four vessels to Canada. The direction of the colonies, now committed to the care of ignorant and avaricious clerks, soon lost its importance, sunk into contempt, and was profited to venality. The debts which had been contracted, during a series of calamities, had not yet been paid off, when the war broke out afresh. After a series of misfortunes and defeats, the island fell into the hands of the British. It was restored, however, in July 1763, 16 months after it had been conquered; but deprived of all the necessary means of prosperity, that had made it of so much importance. For some years past, the contraband trade carried on to the Spanish coasts was almost entirely lost. The cession of Canada had precluded all hopes of opening again a communication, which had only been interrupted by temporary mistakes. The productions of the Grenades, St Vincent, and Dominica, which were now become British dominions, could no longer be brought into their harbours; and a new regulation of the mother country, which forbade her having any intercourse with Guadaloupe, left her no hopes from that quarter.

The colony, thus deprived of every thing as it were, and deftite, nevertheless contained, at the last survey, which was taken on the 1st of January 1770, in the compass of 28 parishes, 12,450 white people of all ages and of both sexes; 1814 free blacks or mulattos; 70,553 slaves, and 443 fugitive negroes. The number of births in 1766, was in the proportion of one in 30 among the white people, and of one in 25 among the blacks. From this observation, if it were constant, it should seem that the climate of America is much more favourable to the propagation of the Africans than of the Europeans: since the former multiply still more in the labours and hardships of slavery, than the latter in the midst of plenty and freedom.

The consequence must be, that in process of time the increase of blacks in America will surpass that of the white men; and, perhaps, at last avenge this race of victims on the descendants of the oppressors.

The cattle of the colony consists of 8283 horses or mules; 12,376 head of horned cattle; 975 hogs; and 13,544 sheep or goats.

Their provisions are, 17,932,596 trenches of cassava; 3,599,048 banana trees, and 400 squares and a half of yams and potatoes.

Their plantations contain 11,444 squares of land, planted with sugar; 6,638,957 coffee trees; 871,043 cocoa trees; 1,764,807 cotton plants; 59,966 trees of cassia, and 61 of annatto.

The meadows or lawns take up 10,072 squares of land; there are 11,966 in wood, and 8448 uncultivated or forsaken.

The plantations which produce coffee, cotton, cocoa, and other things of less importance, are 1515 in number. There are but 286 for sugar. They employ 116 water-mills, 12 wind-mills, and 184 turned by oxen. Before the hurricane of the 13th of August 1766, there were 302 small habitations and 15 sugar-works more.

In 1760, France imported from Martinico, upon 202 trading vessels, 177,116 quintals of fine sugar, and 12,579 quintals of raw sugar; 68,518 quintals of coffee; 11,731 quintals of cocoa; 6048 quintals of cotton; 2518 quintals of cassia; 783 casks of rum; 307 hogheads of molasses; 150 pounds of indigo; 2147 pounds of preserved fruits; 47 pounds of chocolate; 282 pounds of rafed tobacco; 494 pounds of rope-yarn; 334 chets of liqueurs; 234 hogheads of molasses, &c. 451 quintals of wood for dyeing; and 12,108 hides in the hair. All these productions together have been bought in the colony itself, for 536,031l. 9s. 10d. It is true, that the colony has received from the mother country to the amount of 588,412l. 16s. 6d. of merchandise; but part of this has been sent away to the Spanish coasts, and another part has been conveyed to the English settlements.

The island is 16 leagues in length and 4.5 in circumference, leaving out the capes, some of which extend two or three leagues into the sea. It is very uneven, and intersected in all parts by a number of hillocks; which are mostly of a conical form. Three mountains rise above these smaller eminences. The highest bears the indelible marks of a volcano. The woods with which it is covered continually attract the clouds, which occasions noxious damps, and contributes to make it horrid and inaccessible; while the two others are in most parts cultivated. From these mountains issue the many springs that water the island. These waters, which flow in gentle streams, are changed into torrents on the slightest storm. Their qualities are derived from the soil over which they flow. In some places they are excellent; in others too bad, that the inhabitants are obliged to drink the water they have collected during the rainy season.

Of all the French settlements in the West Indies, Martinico is the most happily situated with regard to the winds which prevail in those seas. Its harbours possess the inestimable advantage of affording a certain shelter from the hurricanes which annoy these latitudes. The harbour of Fort Royal is one of the best in all the the windward islands; and so celebrated for its safety, that, when it was open to the Dutch, their shipmatters had orders from the republic to take shelter there in June, July, and August, the three months in which the hurricanes are most frequent. The lands of the Lamentin, which are but a league distant, are the richest and most fertile in the whole island. The numerous streams which water this fruitful country, convey loaded canoes to a considerable distance from the sea. The protection of the fortifications secured the peaceable enjoyment of so many advantages; which, however, were balanced by a swampy and unwholesome foil. This capital of Martinico was also the rendezvous of the men of war; which branch of the navy has always oppressed the merchantmen. On this account, Fort Royal was an improper place to become the centre of trade, which was therefore removed to St Peter's. This little town, notwithstanding the fires that have four times reduced it to ashes, still contains 1700 houses. It is situated on the western coast of the island, on a bay, or inlet, which is almost circular. One part of it is built on the strand along the sea side, which is called the anchorage; and is the place destined for ships and warehouses. The other part of the town stands upon a low hill; it is called the Fort, from a small fortification that was built there in 1665, to check the seditions of the inhabitants against the tyranny of monopoly; but it now serves to protect the road from foreign enemies. These two parts of the town are separated by a rivulet.

The anchorage is at the back of a pretty high and steep hill. Shut up as it were by this hill, which intercepts the easterly winds, the most constant and most salubrious in these parts; exposed, without any refreshing breezes, to the scorching beams of the sun, reflected from the hill, from the sea, and the black sand on the beach; this place is extremely hot, and always unwholesome. Besides, there is no harbour; and the ships which cannot winter safely upon this coast are obliged to take shelter at Fort Royal. But these disadvantages are compensated by the convenience of the road of St Peter's, for loading and unloading of goods; and by its situation, which is such that ships can freely go in and out at all times, and with all winds.

Martinico again fell into the hands of the British in 1794; was restored to France by the treaty of peace in 1801; and has since been retaken by the British arms.