by Edmund Burke
These islands, however, were unhappily under the superintendance of an exclusive company, which, in spite of all that could otherwise be done, especially after the death of Richlieu, so neglected, or mismanaged their affairs, that they were obliged to sell a part of the settlements; and they left the rest hardly worth purchasing. But the government at length bought up the islands which they had alienated, and rescued the others out of their hands. The trade under proper regulations was laid open, yet protected under the wings of their great India company. These regulations took place about 1680, and the benefits of this arrangement were great, and soon apparent. Exclusive companies may probably be useful to nourish an infant trade. They may be useful too for a very distant one, where the market is to be nicely managed, and where it is under the dominion of foreign and barbarous princes. But where the trade is between different parts of the dominions of the same prince, under the protection of his laws, carried on by his own subjects, and with goods wrought in his own country, such companies must be equally absurd in their nature, and ruinous in their consequences to the trade.
CHAP. II.
AFTER the Spaniards had ruined the first colony at St. Christopher’s, they brought upon themselves by this act, a very heavy revenge for the injustice of it. Their example at the same time made it apparent, how much better it is to let a bold and adventurous people settle in some place where they can do but little mischief, and to suffer their spirit to evaporate in peaceful occupations, rather than to keep it up by difficulties, unable to quell it, but which may force it to take another and more dangerous turn.
Several of the French inhabitants, who were expelled from St. Christopher’s, being reduced to great indigence, began to think of desperate courses. They betook themselves to piracy; and uniting with some vagrant English, Dutch, and other outcasts of all nations, but resolute fellows, and not destitute of men of capacity amongst them, they began a piratical war upon the Spaniards. At first they satisfied themselves with taking their ships and destroying their trade; which they did effectually; but soon encouraged and strengthened by this success, they landed upon the continent of New-Spain and Terra Firma, burning and plundering the open country. Their boldness and number increasing with their success, they assaulted and took some of their strongest fortresses and most opulent towns. They took Portobello, Campeachy, Maracaibo, Gibraltar, and the fortress of Chagra; they even took the city of Panama by storm, and burned it, after defeating an army which came to beat them off. In all which places, and in the others which they had taken, they gained an incredible booty, and committed the most unheard of cruelties. Another party of these pirates passed the streights of Magellan, and entering into the South-Sea, turned the whole coast of Peru, Chili, and the East of Mexico, into one scene of desolation; every where attended with success, because every where acting with a bravery and conduct, that in any other cause had merited the highest honours.
It is not a little surprising, at first view, that all the great things which were done in this new world, were either done by actual pirates, as these men were, or by private adventurers, but one degree better authorized, and nothing better supported; whose own courage and skill were to be at once their commission, their magazines, and their treasury; being obliged to find the resources of the war, in the war itself. When the most numerous and the best provided armaments have shamefully failed, and failed in those very places, where the adventurers had shewn them such a glorious example of success. But the cause is not so hard to be assigned. None but men of great enterprise and bravery, conceive those expeditions of themselves. Unsupported, but at the same time unchecked by the higher powers, they were under the necessity of turning to every side, and of exerting every faculty. But then they had nothing to hinder this exertion. Their first attempts were generally low, and therefore they were prosperous. They did not lead great armies to be subsisted with great difficulty, and to be discouraged and wasted by the hardships of the climate; but they habituated themselves to hardships by degrees: they were encouraged by smaller successes; and having nothing to expect from their power and numbers, they made amends by their vigilance, their activity, and their courage. These are causes adequate to the effect; indeed adequate to any effect, Whereas in the regular way, a general of the first note and reputation has rarely been sent into America; the service seemed beneath him; and they that were tolerably expert at second and third parts, (worse than the absolutely inexperienced for the very first, where the scene is new,) were sent by court favour and intrigue. What armaments from England, Holland, and France, have been sent in different times to America, whose remains returned without honour or advantage, is too clear, and perhaps too invidious a topic to be greatly insisted upon.
The pirates, whom we called buccaneers improperly, the French denominated flibustiers, from the Dutch flyboats, in which they made their first expeditions. The buccaneers are no more than persons who hunt wild cattle in America for their hides and tallow. Some of these joined the flibustiers in their first expeditions; and from them we named the whole body, buccaneers. These people brought their prizes and plunder frequently into Jamaica, by which they enriched that island extremely. Others, finding that the Spaniards were very weak in Hispaniola, and that they had in a manner deserted a considerable part of the island, made it a place of rendezvous. They who hunted cattle saw the hideous desarts left by the Spanish tyranny, a proper place for exercising their profession. To these two sorts of people were soon added a third; who were some of the French in the lesser Antilles, who finding how much might be made by supplying a sort of people who expended largely, and were not very exact in their bargains, and perceiving that no part of America afforded a better soil, passed over to this island, and exercised here their business of planters and merchants. These three sorts of people, mutually in want of each other, lived in very good harmony. The Spaniards dislodged them several times; but they still returned, and with new strength; so that it was with difficulty, and after a long dispute, that the Spaniards were able to retain one part of the island.
The court of France saw the progress of these people silently. Whenever complaints were made, they disavowed their proceedings; resolved not to break measures with Spain for the sake of an object, which they were not sure they could hold, and the advantages of which were yet doubtful; but when they found the French in Hispaniola numerous, strong, and wealthy, they owned them as subjects, sent them a governor and regular forces to keep them so, and to defend them in what they had done: the old method of piracy was still connived at, whilst the trade of skins increased, and the plantations extended. At last the French obtained a legal right by the cession, which the Spaniards made them of the North-West part of the island by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697; the best and most fertile part of the best and most fertile island in the West-Indies, and perhaps in the world; that which was the first settled, and the whole of which is upwards of four hundred miles long, and one hundred and forty broad. This is the principal settlement of the French in the West-Indies, and indeed in all America. The country is mixed; pretty mountainous in some parts, but many of these mountains are fertile, and covered with beautiful woods. Others, which are barren and rocky, anciently had mines of gold; they are not worked now, though it is judged they not only contain those of gold, but mines of silver, copper, and iron. But the French think, and I believe, with reason, that their labour is better bestowed on the culture of the plains for these rich commodities, which vend so well in Europe, than in the pursuit of mines, really more precarious in their profits, and which yield a wealth after all, of a less useful kind.
This country has likewise prodigiously fine plains, of a vast extent, and extreme fertility; either covered with noble and beautiful forests of timber and fruit-trees, excellent in their kinds, or pastured by vast numbers of horned cattle, sheep, and hogs. The air in Hispaniola is of the most healthy in the West-Indies. The country is admirably watered with rivulets as well as navigable rivers. It is no wonder therefore, that this active and i
ndustrious nation, in possession of so excellent and extensive a country, has reaped from it prodigious advantages. They were the better enabled to do this, from the great encouragement their settlements met with in France; and from the wise regulations which were made concerning them. These we shall consider in their place. But it is certain they reckoned in the year 1726, that on this island they had no less than one hundred thousand negroes, and thirty thousand whites; that they made sixty thousand hogsheads of sugar of five hundred weight each; that the indigo was half as much in value as the sugar; that they exported large quantities of cotton, and that they had sent besides to France cacao and ginger in tolerable plenty. Since that time they raise coffee here to a very great amount. Now supposing since that time they have not improved, and that they raise no more of these several commodities than they did in 1726, which is far from the truth, and suppose that the sugar sells but at twenty shillings the hundred, yet at that rate the sixty thousand hogsheads must yield three hundred thousand pounds sterling. The indigo is somewhat fallen in its prince since this calculation was made; but as it certainly has increased largely in its quantity, it is not too much to value it at the old rate, at one hundred thousand pound. If to these we add the produce of the cotton, cacao, ginger, and hides, it will not be too much to allow one hundred thousand more. This is supposing things no better than they were in the year 1726, and at this rate her share of the island is worth to France five hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling a year. But if we consider that they are greatly increased since that time, that the sugars are in a higher demand; that without lessening any of the old articles, that of coffee is in a manner introduced there since that period, and now makes a great return; it will not be excessive to rate the value of this colony at seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling a year. It is true, that this part of the French trade suffered greatly in the last war, and that the progress of the colony must be somewhat retarded by it. Yet, allowing all this, Hispaniola has certainly increased at least in the measure I allow it.
Nations like France and England, full of people of spirit, and of industry, easily recover all the losses of war. The trade of France was in a deplorable condition at the treaty of Utrecht. She had not then five hundred vessels of all sorts in the world. At the beginning of the last war, but thirty years after, they had eighteen hundred. Their losses in that war were very great and yet their losses in this shew, that in a very little time they have more than repaired them. Wherever the vital principle subsists in full vigour, wounds are soon healed. Disorders themselves are a species of remedies; and every new loss not only shews how it may be repaired, but by the vigour it inspires, makes new advantages known. Such losses renew the spirit of industry and enterprise; they reduce things to their first principles; they keep alive motion, and make the appetites of traders sharp and keen. This is the reason that amidst their continual wars, and the losses all the nations of Europe suffer from each other, they are almost all thriving. And if I may indulge a conjecture, it may be one amongst several of the causes that have reduced the trade of Holland, that since the treaty of Utrecht, now above forty years, they have had no war. They may, during the quarrels of other powers, appear to have derived great advantages from their neutrality. But are they not with all this declining fast? And is not this country, which grew to be a nation, and to be a powerful trading and rich nation, in the midst of the most bloody and expensive wars, now losing it’s trade, it’s riches, and it’s power, and almost ceasing to be a nation, in the midst of a profound peace of upwards of forty years. We must not place our dependance for keeping ourselves on a par of power with France, upon the prejudice which we can do it’s trade in time of war, but upon the vigour, oeconomy, and wisdom of the of measures which we take to secure and advance our own, both in war and in peace.
The largest town in the French part of Hispaniola is Cape Francoise, which is situated on the Northern part of the island upon a very fine harbour. It is well built, and contains about eight thousand inhabitants, blacks and whites. But though this be largest town, Leogane on the Western side, a good port too, and a place of considerable trade, is the seat of government, which here resides in the hands of a governor and the intendant, who are mutually a check upon each other. There are besides two other towns, considerable for their trade. Petit Guaves on the West end of the island, and port Loüis on the South-West part.
CHAP. III.
MArtinico is the next island in importance, which the French possess in America. It is one of the Caribbees or Windward islands, and the principal of them; about sixty miles in length, and at a medium about half as much in breadth. It is forty leagues to the North-West of Barbadoes. It has pretty high hills, especially in the inland part. From those hills are poured out upon every side a number of agreeable and useful rivulets, which adorn and fructify this island in a high degree. The bays and harbours are numerous, safe and commodious; and so well fortified, that we have always failed in our attempts upon this place. The soil is fruitful enough, abounding in the same things which our islands in that part of the world produce, and upon which I shall the less insist on that account. Sugar is here, as it is in all the islands, the principal commodity, and great quantities are here made. Their export cannot be less than sixty or seventy thousand hogsheads, of five or six hundred weight annually, and this certainly is no extravagant estimation. Indigo, cotton, piemento or allspice, ginger, and aloes, are raised here; and coffee in great abundance; but to what value I cannot exactly say. Martinico is the residence of the governor of the French islands in these seas.
Guardaloupe is the largest of all the Caribbees, and in that division called the Leeward islands. It is almost cut in two by a deep gulph that closes the sides of a narrow isthmus, which connects the two peninsulas that compose this island. It is upwards of sixty miles long, and about the same breadth. It’s soil is not inferior to that of Martinico; it is equally cultivated; and it is fortified with equal strength; it’s produce is the same with that of Martinico; its export of sugar is as great, besides indigo, cotton, and those other commodities, which are produced in all the islands of that part of America called the West-Indies.
The rest of the French islands in those seas are Desiada, St. Bartholomew, and Marigalante; all of them inconsiderable in comparison of those which we have mentioned. They do not all together produce above seven or eight thousand hogsheads of sugar. As for the island of St. Vincent, it is in the possession of the native Americans, and of runaway negroes from the rest of the Caribbees. The French maintain them in this possession. Santa Lucia, or as it is often called, Sant Alouzie, of which the French are themselves in possession, and have settled, contrary to the faith of treaties, it is impossible to say any thing of it’s produce; it has been so newly planted, that it cannot as yet yield a great deal, and it is, even in our present circumstances, much our fault if it ever yields a great deal to France. These islands, besides their staple commodities, send home rocou, and brazil wood, in considerable quantities for the use of dyers, cassia for the druggists, and rosewood for joiners. The French have a settlement upon an island on the coast of Terra Firma in the province of Guiana, which they call Caen; and they claim besides a considerable part of the adjacent continent, but they have not much extended their settlements that way. The island is excessively unhealthy, though not so bad as formerly. The French here raise the same commodities which they have from the Caribbee islands, and in no inconsiderable quantity.
In estimating the produce of these islands, it is not in my power to be very exact. I have made the best enquiries I could, and principally took care not to exaggerate. I have, indeed, make the produce of the Caribbee islands very much greater than the ingenious collector of Harris’s voyages; but then I am the less fearful of differing from him, as he seems a little to differ from himself, and not to have considered this point with his usual attention; for of Martinico he says,
“That as it is larger, so it has many more inhabitants than Barbadoes, and produces more su
gars, &c.”
And speaking of Guardaloupe a little lower, he observes,
“That it produces more sugars than any of the British islands, except Jamaica;”
and yet afterwards coming to sum up the products of all these islands, he allows but fifteen thousand hogsheads of sugar, of about six hundred weight each, for the whole; when he makes the single island of Barbadoes to yield double the quantity of sugars which Martinico, Guardaloupe, and all the French Caribbees put together produce. For he rates it in the year 1730, at twenty-two thousand hogsheads, and upwards of thirteen hundred weight. He must therefore certainly have made some mistake, excusable enough in so vast a work, which is executed in general in a very masterly manner.
On the whole, from the best informations I can get, if the French do not greatly exceed, they certainly do not fall short of our islands in the quantity or goodness of their sugars; and it is as certain, that they are less on the decline in that trade than we are; that they cultivate great quantities of indigo; a trade which our colonies in the West Indies have entirely lost; that within these few years they have sent to France abundance of coffee, which our islands have not sufficient encouragement to raise; and that upon the whole, we have the greatest reason to be jealous of France in that part of the world. What advantages they derive from the noble island of Hispaniola we have seen. What must they do, if they come to possess the whole of that island, which in the cutting and shuffling of a treaty of peace is no way impossible? We shall then change the indolent Spaniard for the neighbourhood of the lively, vigilant, and enterprising French. And what a rivalry in peace, and what a danger in war that neighbourhood is even now, and much more will probably be, is but too apparent. Jamaica is near it; and for so valuable a possession in so dangerous a situation, perhaps not so well defended. If besides this, the French should retain the islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Tobago, though they should only turn them into plantations for fire wood, lumber, and provisions, as in such a case it would seem most adviseable to do with some of them at least, what an advantage to their colonies! what an annoyance to ours! which they in a manner surround, and can in a sort hold besieged by the private armaments they may from thence fit out.