which he answered in the affirmative; and being preffed as to particular names, mentioned one of confiderable rank and confequence in the island, and who had a principal share in all the measures that had been pursued for stripping them of their poffeffions.

Some officers were examined, who had ferved, or borne command, at different times in St Vincent's; thefe gentlemen, in general, gave favourable accounts of the Carribs, and attributed entirely their late turbulent and fufpicious temper, to the attempts that had been made to deprive them of their lands: they all concurred in their accounts of the unhealthinefs of the island, and particularly in the rainy feafon, when, they declared, it must prove fatal to any troops that were under a neceffity of acting in it, and that the conftitution of fuch as efcaped with life, would be totally ruined.

On the other fide, one of the principal planters in the island, and of confiderable rank by his office, with fome others, were examined. They, in general, defcribed the Carribs as a faithlefs, cruel, and treacherous, race, who were abandoned to all manner of exceffes, particularly with refpect to liquor, in which ftate they were capable, of the most barbarous actions. That while they continued on the island, there could be no fecurity for the perfons or property of the inhabitants; they were charged with murders, robberies, with enticing the negro flaves from their mafters, and deftroying others whom they caught in the fields; no particular proofs were, however, brought in fupport of thefe charges. The connections and intelligence which the Carribs held with the French, and their application to the governor of Martinique for protection and affiftance, were fhewn in a very dangerous light; and no care was neglected to defcribe

the

the fatal confequences that muft attend the island, whenever a war broke out with France, with fuch a deadly enemy lying in its bofom. Their mortal enmity to our government and people, was alfo much infifted on; and it was concluded upon the whole, that there was no other alternative, but that either his majesty's natural fubjects, or the Carribs, muft quit the island, if the latter are permitted to continue in their prefent ftate of independence.

After several strictures upon the nature of this evidence, and on the interested views by which it was faid to be apparently directed, the following motions were made, ift, That the expedition against the Carribs in the island of St Vincent was undertaken, without fufficient provocation on the part of thofe unhappy people, and at the inftigation of perfons interested in their destruction, and appears to be intended to end in their total extirpation; 2dly, That the fending the troops, part of which were totally unprovided with camp epuipage and neceffaries, on that fervice, in the unhealthy feafon of the year, is not juftified by any neceffity of immediately increasing the military force in that island, was contrary to the voice of the governour, and must prove unneceffarily deftructive to fome of the best troops in the fervice, probably defeat the purpose for which they were fent, and bring difgrace on his majesty's arms; and, 3dly, That an humble addrefs be presented, defiring that his majefty will be graciously pleased to acquaint the house, by whofe advice the measure was undertaken, of attacking the Carribs in the island of St Vincent; and of sending the troops for that purpofe in the most unhealthy feafon of the year; a meafure equally repugnant to the known humanity of his majefty's temper, disgraceful

to

to his arms, and difhonourauble to the character of the British nation.

These motions were principally fupported upon the injuftice of the measure, and the dishonour it brought upon our national character, as being equally a violation of the natural rights of mankind, and contrary to his majesty's proclamation of the year 1764, in favour of the Carribs; on the extreme cruelty of attempting to transport a whole people from their native foil, and to land them defencelefs on the coast of Africa, where they had no right, no property, no connection, and where they must be liable to all the dangers and enmities, to which Europeans, or any others, who were turned adrift in a strange country, would be fubject; that they had been guilty of no act of forfeiture, even fuppofing them to be natural fubjects of Great Britain, unless an oppofition to a violent invafion of their rights and properties, was to be confidered as fuch; that the only evidence of any weight against them, was hinifelf the devifer of the projects that had been formed for their extirpation, was deeply interested in their destruction; that on the contrary, the united teftimony on the other fide, where there was not a poffibility, of fuppofing the fmallest bias or partiality, was uniformly in favour of the Carribs, and represented them as a quiet, peaceable, and inoffenfive people, and to all appearance, well affected to our government, until they were urged by violence and injustice to a different conduct, Thefe arguments, with fuch others as the ftate we have already reprefented afford, were concluded with fevere strictures on the weakness of those counfels, which had blindly adopted the views of avaricious, rapacious, and mercilefs planters, and thereby rendering government the inftrument of their iniquitous defign, engaged it in

cruel

cruel, unjust, and dishonourable meafures, which were not more injurious to the Carribs, than deftructive to ourselves, by wantonly sporting with the conftitutions and lives of fome of our bravest troops, whofe former fervices merited another return, and who were now facrificed upon an inglorious fervice, in which they were ashamed to draw their fwords.

On the other fide it was obferved, that an amazing fund of tenderness and humanity had been displayed in favour of the Carribs, while the fmalleft degree of either was refused to our natural born fubjects and countrymen, who had purchased estates at high prices from the crown under the fanction. of its protection and fecurity, and whofe lives and fortunes were at stake in the event of the prefent expedition. That the charge of injustice was ill founded, as the yellow Carribs, who were the aborigines, and real proprie tors of the ifland, were in no degree affected by the present measures, except only fo far as they would obtain fecurity, by the reduction or removal of a cruel and perfidious race of favages, by whom they had been nearly exterminated; that it could not be pretended, that the black Carribs had any legal or natural rights in the island, but those which they had obtained through the kindness and hofpitality of the natives; and that those rights, would, in the eye of the strictest justice, have been fully cancelled, by their fubfequent conduct and ingratitude.

That the charge of cruelty was equally ill founded; the removal of the black Carribsbeing the last refort; and only to be put in execution, in cafe of their proving fo incorrigible, that all means would be found ineffectual for reducing them to fuch a state of submiffion to government, as was abfolutely neceffary, not only for the fecurity but the prefervation of the island;

that

that even in that laft extremity, the measure of trans portation was guarded from being accompanied with any circumftances of cruelty, or even of hardship, except those which might be fuppofed to arife from their feelings, on quitting a country in which they had hitherto lived, and going to another, equally fit for them, but with which they were not yet acquainted; that whether they were removed to the coaft of Africa, or to the island of St Mathew, care had been taken, that they were to have fufficient lands affigned them for their fupport, and were to be laid down, in nearly the fame degrees of latitude and climate, and in a country furnished with much the fame advantages as to fishing and hunting, which they had enjoyed at St Vin

cent's.

It was faid, that government had neither adopted the views, nor been misled by the fchemes of interested planters; that it had duly weighed, as well the circumftances of the island, as the reprefentations of the governour, council, and affembly, together with thofe of the commiffioners for the fale of lands; that as the Carribs were poffeffed of near two thirds of the profitable lands, and the French inhabitants of a great part of the remainder, it was evident, that we never could in that state, have a natural intereft or ftrength in the ifland, fufficient for its fecurity; that as thefe lands were of no particular value to the Carribs, who had neither means nor inclination to cultivate them, equitable terms had been repeatedly propofed to them for an exchange, all of which, they not only contumaciously rejected, but daringly difclaimed all allegiance to the king, and refufed all obedience to government. As to the strictures that had been paffed, with refpect to the employment of the troops in an unhealthy climate and feafon, there were anfwered by

the