"island in the West Indies for a collection of petri"factions. I am endeavouring to procure some;

and, if I succeed, I will send you a part of my "stock. I can hardly give you an idea of the very "fine specimens shown me by an old inhabitant of "the place. I believe the best are procured in a "curious cave somewhere in the vicinity of the ridge.

"I could tell you a great deal more about this "island, and the state of its society, but must defer "it to a future period, for you see I have filled two "sheets of paper, very closely written, and have now only just space enough to sign myself

was not

Reader, if the letter of Colonel B

amusing, it was, at least, instructive; and as it is always good policy to sacrifice the smaller to the greater good, I have no doubt but that you will agree with me, that moments spent in acquiring knowledge are, generally speaking, of more advantage than those which we devote to pleasure; and that one chaper of history is better than one volume of romance. There are, however, times when light reading is advisable, to relax the mind after the perusal of works which require a greater share of study and attention; and the gay epistle of Lieutenant L- will, therefore, come in very à propos after the quiet letter of the Colonel; and, if the reader

gain less information, let him console himself with having more entertainment.

As, however, I am one of those persons who deem patience a virtue, I intend to postpone the production of the said epistle a little longer, and to give the reader a chapter, peculiarly my own, respecting the Islands of Anguilla, Barbuda, Nevis, and Montserrat, which belong to the two governments of Antigua and Kitts.

My little description of these places is drawn from notes and memoranda given me by many persons who were in the habit of going backwards and forwards between them and St. Vincent, while I was in that island; and who were, from personal observance, enabled to give me the most correct and authentic accounts.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

ANGUILLA-BARBUDA-NEVIS-AND MONTSERRAT.

"Before we take leave of the British Leeward Islands, it is "proper to give some account of the appendages to the large and flourishing colonies." Coke.

ANGUILLA.

ANGUILLA is the most northerly of the Charaibean Colonies of Great Britain; and although so small and uncultivated, it had formerly a legislative body, who enacted laws, and fines, and punishments for the misdeeds of its inhabitants. A Governor also and a government house wherein to dwell; a provost-marshal to seize, but, alas! no jail to confine the culprits ; and a code of severe regulations, which were never attended to, because trouble is a disagreeable thing, and because those whose duty it was to put them into execution were fast asleep and dreaming. The little island is, however, now roused from its lethargy; and even as the worthy inhabitants of the counties of the land of Roast Beef and Plumpudding do send their representatives to the annual meeting of the London Parliament, so do the people of Anguilla dispatch theirs to the Assembly-house of the Island of St. Kitts.

The situation of the place lies about sixty miles to the north west of this latter island, in the latitude of 18° north, and in the longitude of 64° west from London. Its breadth is about one-third of its length, which is near thirty English miles.

The scenery of Anguilla is quite original, and its formation differs from that of any other of the West India Islands. It is begirt by a thousand little rocky cliffs and eminences that rise from the sea, some barren, some woody, and some cultivated; and these sloping gradually off, leave the interior of the island, in many parts, as level as Barbados or Berbice. There the whole aspect of the country is pleasing, because it is new-because there is a total absence of the natural and domestic scenery which distinguish the other colonies; and to an Englishman, because there are certain features in the view before him, that remind him of corresponding scenes in his native land. Instead of the busy bustle observable on a sugar plantation; instead of the working of mills, the driving of bullock carts, the cutting of canes, the boiling of sugars, and the columns of black smoke that rise from the works of the several estates, he beholds a number of pretty little dwellings scattered over the face of the country, "few and "far between;" with negroes' huts erected on the grassy lands, and the sheep and cattle grazing peacefully around them. Instead of long avenues of the lofty palm, and innumerable branches of the waving cocoa-nut; instead of extensive fields of the luxuriant cane, or large plantations of rising coffee-plants,

he looks around upon a woody and fertile tract, with scarcely more than a third cultivated, yet that third forming a contrast, so striking and delightful, with the native wildness of the other lands, that he cannot help feeling pleased with the prospect:-green roads and greener pasture lands, fields that display the fairest crops of Indian corn, and extensive grounds for the cultivation of vegetables, but more particularly of yams, which in this island are of superior quality.

So much for the scenery of Anguilla:—for its domestic conveniences and internal necessaries, I can say little. It has been more backward than the other colonies in many essential points, from several causes: -Its little cultivation and want of importance, as to size, the poverty of its inhabitants; and, perhaps, more than all, the destruction of their town and estates, and the blasting of their better prospects by the French, in 1796.

Four hundred picked troops were sent by Victor Hughes, of savage and ferocious memory, with directions to burn the town, and exterminate the inhabitants of Anguilla, whom he knew to be defenceless and without the power of making resistance. They arrived in two French men of war and several smaller vessels, and having landed on the 26th of November, set fire to the town, and committed the most atrocious barbarities on the people. The inhabitants were, however, happily relieved by the arrival of Captain Barton, in the Lapwing man of war, who brought the French ships to action, and succeeded in taking one and sinking the other; he received for his very gal