strong doses of bark frequently repeated, and sometimes accompanied by laudanum. Such were the remedies generally used by English practitioners; and, if the pulse began to resume its accustomed course, the patient recovered without hazard of a relapse: but, if repeated bleedings had been employed, the consequence was a very tedious recovery, attended frequently with obstructions of the spleen, jaundice, and a degree of weakness which took away the desire of exercise; in short, an impoverishment of the blood, which brought on symptoms of dropsy. In this alarming situation, the only plan was to return to a cool climate, whether in Bermuda, North America, or Europe; the effect of which was in general so successful, that invalids, whose friends had never expected to see them again, frequently came back in eight or ten months in as good health as they ever possessed.

• It was apparent from the freshness of my look,' says M. Lɛ B. that I had not yet paid the tribute, or, in other words, undergone a seasoning illness. My landlord repeatedly told me that I ought to be blooded, and use evacuants, &c., but, above all, to avoid going much into the town (St. Pierre), where I might catch the yellow fever. Having, on a particular occasion, passed two days there, I felt myself attacked in the evening by giddiness, to such a degree as almost to make me fall down in the street. I was carried to an inn, where a copious bleeding removed the giddiness. My landlord in the country, apprized of my situation by an express, sent me early next morning a hammock and two negroes, who carried me directly to his house; where the purity and freshness of the air succeeded in accomplishing my recovery, with the aid of a second bleeding, and an infusion of tamarinds and quassia. My colour returned, but less fresh than before; and, had I continued in town, in the midst of calms and oppressive heats, the consequence would have been a serious and perhaps a fatal illness.'

The author is not one of those who assert that the danger of a hot climate arises only from the imprudence of the individual; on the contrary, he doubts whether the most careful regimen, or the most tranquil mode of life, can do more than lessen in a certain degree the hazard to the new comer. The latter has to contend both with excessive heat and with the scorbutic habit which is always contracted more or less during the passage; and if to this be added the landing at an unhealthy spot, or in company with a numerous expedition, the yellow fever can scarcely fail to make its appearance. The best chance of escape is in passing several months after arrival in an elevated situation, where the heat is moderate, and the individual may accustom himself gradually to the use of the fruits and provisions of the country.

The

The cession of St. Lucia by the late treaty to Great Britain has given that island an additional interest in our eyes, and we regret to find the testimony of M. LE BLOND added to that of others respecting its insalubrity. This is more particularly the case at the Careenage, a naval station of great importance, where our homeward-bound merchantmen collected in the alarm of the year 1805, as the safest anchorage in the Windward islands; and the value of this station is supposed to have been a primary motive with our government for insisting on the retention of the island in the late treaty.

The end of the long bay of the Careenage,' says the author, is marked by a marshy plain, which at the time of my visit (1767) was covered with trees lately felled; and, though on my second arrival five years afterward the marsh was drained, the town continued extremely hot. A fort placed at the right of the entrance of the highest mountain, called the Morne Fortunée, commanded both the roadstead and the town. On reaching the inn, I found about a dozen inhabitants of the neighbourhood, whose pale complexions sufficiently proved the unhealthiness of the air. Eight or ten small vessels, chiefly from North America, were at anchor in the road; while some soldiers in the fort were walking slowly along, apparently recovering from serious illness. They told me that a number of their comrades had died, and that the survivors were hardly able to perform the duty. During the whole night, we heard the barking of a dog in a small American vessel, and, seeing no person appear on deck, we went on board, and found several of the crew in a dying state; the others had probably gone away in the boat. I saw the master disembark, covered with livid spots on his face and breast, while blood dropped from his lips and gums; his skin was yellow; and he vomited black matter: in the course of two hours, he expired. A similar illness manifested itself on board of other American ships; while vessels from Marti, nique, manned by negroes, or persons seasoned to the climate, had not a single person on the sick list.

The

In another part of the work, (p. 295.) M. LE BLOND gives an account of his manner of treating the small-pox, a malady of the most destructive character among the negroes. darkness of their skin prevented the colour of the eruption from being clearly perceived, but it was invariably of an unfavourable kind. His rule was to administer a strong dose of bark, with sulphuric acid or lemon-juice; wine properly diluted with water was their only drink; and the air of the room was purified several times in a day with the steam of vinegar. His medical partner having objected to this mode of treatment, they agreed to make trial of their respective methods on four negroes who were seized with the infection; and the result was that the two who underwent blood-letting and purgatives died before the third day, the time at which M. LE B.'s patients had become co

vered with the eruption as with a crust. Their pulse was strong; and the moisture on their tongue, which until then had been dry and black, indicated an approaching cure. Unluckily, most of the French practitioners adhered to the plan of bleeding and evacuating, having strong prejudices against the use of bark; and the consequence was a very general mortality among their negroes, which was not stopped until the year 1771, when the example of the English settlers at last induced the French to resort to inoculation. M. LE B.'s rule was to inoculate the negroes without any preparation, whenever they were in good health; and, having been successful in more than two hundred cases, he adopted the plan of admi nistering inoculation at the rate of twenty shillings for each person, but under the promise of paying 5ol. for every death: on which system, he inoculated more than five hundred without losing a single patient. The planters, seeing his uniform good fortune, and the simplicity of his method, began to apply it themselves to their negroes; and the success of the practice was almost universal.

St. Lucia was first settled by the English in 1639: but the planters, few in number, were soon afterward put to death by the Charibs. In 1650, forty French colonists ventured to take up their abode there, but experienced a similar fate before the lapse of many years. The island being captured in 1664 by the English was evacuated by them in two years, and repossessed by the French, who were however deprived of it in the course of the war of 1689. For a long time subsequently, all regular cultivation was stopped, and the island was frequented only by a few wood-cutters. After the peace of Utrecht, some seamen and deserters took refuge there; and Marshal d'Estrées, having obtained a grant of it from the French crown, carried over troops and cultivators: but the English government considered this as contrary to treaty, and in 1731 a convention was established for the evacuation of the island by both nations, under the stipulation that the ships of each might continue to resort thither for wood and water. In 1754 the French once more established themselves here in force; and the English, finding their account in the contraband trade thus opened, gave themselves no farther trouble, but allowed the retention of the island by the French to be sanctioned by the treaty of 1763. From that time, the latter endeavoured to push the cultivation of the colony, but their inexperienced efforts were attended with the loss of many lives and of much capital. While lamenting the mismanagement of their negroes, M. LE B. is led to advert to the scheme of bringing over Chinese settlers to cultivate the ground; -- an

7

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expedient which, though unsuccessful on one occasion, (we mean in Trinidad,) is likely, we hope, to be renewed with better prospects in this season of confirmed tranquillity.

The population of St. Lucia was increased by the emigrations of French settlers from St. Vincent, whose plantations attracted the attention of English colonists arriving from other islands with the command of capital; and the temptation of the offers from the latter was not to be resisted, especially by men who had the option of obtaining land for nothing in St. Lucia. The ease with which loans are procured, on particular occasions, from British merchants, is often injurious to an imprudent planter; and M. LE BLOND represents this as particularly the case with those of his countrymen who were settled at Grenada. Being in general very ignorant of calculation, they saw only the fair side of the question, and considered an interest of six per cent. as a mere trifle in comparison with the large incomes which they grasped in imagination from their estates. The magnitude of the intervening charges for the construction of buildings and the purchase of negroes was overlooked in their sanguine anticipations; purchases were made at very long credit; and for a season the planter seemed to overflow with wealth. Their humble dwellings were superseded by splendid mansions; and the cost of their rum and sugar-works amounted frequently to 8 or 9000l.: an expence which, added to a wasteful mode of living and the practice of gambling, soon brought a number of them to ruin, and obliged them to seek shelter from their creditors by flying to St.Lucia,

The unceremonious departure of these gentlemen, with their negroes, led to the enactment of a law in Grenada, prohibiting any person from quitting the island without the permission of government: but it was in vain to attempt to repress this practice. One planter, having invited his creditors to a splendid entertainment, under the pretext of settling his affairs, embraced the opportunity offered by the inebriation of his guests to embark with his negroes, his servants, and every person belonging to the house; and he had been at sea above an hour with a fair wind, before any of his credulous friends suspected the trick, or were able to make a search through the house, where they found only an old negro, who was too infirm to accompany his master. Some days afterward, a petty coffee-planter embarking with forty slaves in the night was stopped by two constables, but succeeded in getting off, with his swarthy attendants, by main force. The repetition of such evasions made the English creditors alter their plan; so that, on the slightest suspicion, the debtors were obliged to give security, or to go to prison, or to remain cooped up at home. It was amusing to see, in the town of St. George, a number of debtors leave their homes exactly at sun-set, and walk together without apprehension, during any part

of

of the night; taking, however, the precaution to get within-doors at sun-rise, and to keep close quarters at home on every day of the week except Sunday, when they were allowed to go abroad. Such was the law in those days; and a fraudulent debtor might thus bid defiance to his creditors, and live at his ease as long as he was not touched on the shoulder by a constable while the sun was above the horizon.'

In addition to the notices of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Grenada, M. LE B. communicates a variety of observations on other islands, viz. St. Vincent, Cariuacou, and the groupe called the Grenadines. Our other duties, however, do not permit us to dwell longer on his insular progress; and it is time to take some notice of the circumstances attending his travels on the continent of Spanish America. After having acquired some property in Grenada, he removed, in 1772, to Trinidad; where he formed a plantation as a place of retreat under any circumstances that might occur. He also obtained permission to travel with passports all over the continent of Spanish America, and with that view he studied the Spanish language. After these preparations, he began his travels on the main-land, and proceeded to Angostura, now called St. Thomas, the new capital of Spanish Guiana. The speculation which led him thither was not successful, but the expedition was of use in supplying him with curious facts regarding the lake of Parima, and the much-vaunted region El Dorado, the object of so many exaggerations, but which in reality is not destitute of gold mines. From that quarter he continued to sail up the Oroonoko, through immense meadows, all the way to Varinas; and, having achieved the narrow and dangerous passage of Los Callejones, he proceeded, through the long chain of the Cordilleras, which extend from the province of Merida, by the towns of Grita, Pamplona, Santa Fé de Bogota, Popayan, &c. to the province of Guayaquil, situated along the Pacific ocean. He visited likewise the coast stretching from the country of Platina, (le Choco,) beyond Lima, the capital of Peru.

A thousand obstacles oppose the progress of the traveller in these immense regions. In the plains, he finds roads rendered impracticable by rain; and, in ascending mountains, the fall of a rock or of a tree is sufficient to obstruct the path, and to oblige him to retrace his steps. He is under the necessity of providing himself with tents for his rest at night; being often obliged to proceed for several days together without finding inns, dwellings, or any thing except the tambos, or miserable receptacles which are provided by government in the Andes of Peru. Exposed to the attacks of the wild In3 dians,