armies withdrawn from America. An engagement was fought off Brest, between the English fleet under the command of admiral Keppel, and the French fleet, under the command of count d'Orvilliers, July 27. St. Lucia taken from the French December 28. 1779 St. Vincent taken from the French. Granada taken by the French July 3. 1780 Admiral Rodney takes twenty-two sail of Spanish ships, January 8. The same admiral also engages a Spanish fleet, under the command of Don Juan de Langara, near Cape St. Vincent, and takes five ships of the line, one more being driven on shore, and another blown up January 16. Charleston, South Carolina, is surrendered to Sir Henry Clinton, May 4. Pensacola, and the whole province of West Florida, surrender to the arms of the king of Spain May 9. The Protestant Association, to the number of 50,000, go up to the House of Commons, with their petition for the repeal of an act passed in favor of the Papists, June 2. That event followed, by the most daring riots in the city of London, and in Southwark, for several successive days, in which some Popish chapels were destroyed, together with the prisons of Newgate, the King's Bench, the Fleet, several private houses, &c. These alarming riots were at length suppressed by the interposition of the military, and many of the rioters tried and executed for felony. Five English East Indiamen and fifty English merchant ships, bound for the West Indies, taken by the combined fleets of France and Spain, August 8. Major Andre, adjutant-general to the British army, hanged as a spy, at Tappan, in the province of New York, October 2. A declaration of hostilities were published against Holland Dec. 20. 1781 The Dutch island of St. Eustatia was taken by admiral Rodney and general Vaughan Feb. 3. Retaken by the French Nov. 27. A bloody engagement was fought between an English squadron, under the command of admiral Parker, and a Dutch squadron under the command of admiral Zoutman, off the Dogger Bank, Aug. 5. Earl Cornwallis, 1782 Trincomalee, on the island of Ceylon, was taken 1783 Preliminary articles of peace between his Britan- The decayed musicians, &c.) Mr. Lunardi ascended in a balloon from the Artillery ground, Moorfields, the first attempt of the kind in England, September 15. 1786 Commercial treaty signed between England and France, Sept. 26. £471,000 of 3 per cent. stock transferred to the landgrave of Hesse, for Hessian soldiers lost in the American war, at £30 a man, November 21. 1787 Mr. Burke, at the Bar of the house of lords, in the name of all the commons of Great Britain, impeached Warren Hastings, late governor-general of Bengal, of high crimes and misdemeanors, May 21. 1788 In the early part of October, the first symptoms appeared, of a severe disorder, which affected the reason of George 4th. On the 6th of November they were very alarming, and on the 13th a form of prayer for his recovery was ordered by the privy council. 1789 His majesty was pronounced to be in a state of convalescence, Feb. 17, and on the 26th to be free from complaint: A general thanksgiving for the king's recovery, who attended the service at St. Paul's, with a great procession, April 23. General George Washington proclaimed first President of the United States of America, April 30. Revolution in France - capture of the Bastilecution of the governor, &c., July 14. 1790 Grand French confederation in the Champ de Mars, July 14. exe 1791 Dreadful riots in Birmingham, in consequence of some gentlemen meeting to commemorate the French revolution, July 14. Marriage of the duke of York to the princess of Prussia, Sept. 29; remarried in England, Nov. 23. Insurrection in St. Domingo, in November. CHAPTER XIV. ST. DOMINGO OR HAYTI. THE island of HAYTI, a colored republic, formerly called HISPANIOLA, or ST. DOMINGO, lies at the entrance of the Gulph of Mexico, between 17 and 21 degrees north latitude, and between 1 and 8 degrees east longitude; 450 miles long, and 150 broad. The face of the country presents an agreeable variety of hills, vallies, woods, and rivers. It is extremely fertile, producing sugar, coffee, rice, cotton, indigo, tobacco, maize and cassava root. The European cattle are so multiplied here, that they run wild in the woods. The two great chains of mountains, which extend from east to west, and their numerous spurs, give rise to innumerable rivers - repel the violence of the winds-vary the temperature of the air, and multiply the resources of human industry. They abound with excellent timber, and mines of iron, lead, copper, silver, gold, some precious stones, and mercury. Hispaniola was the cradle of European power in the new world. Columbus landed on it the 6th of December, 1492. The natives called it Hayti, signifying high or mountainous land; it was also called Quisquya, that is, great country, or mother of countries. Others say it had the name of Bohio, which means a country full of habitations and villages. Columbus called it Hispanióla, or Little Spain, which name the Spaniards still retain, though St. Domingo is the name commonly used by other nations; so called from St. Domingo, the capitol, which was thus named by Columbus, in honor of his father. When the Spaniards discovered the island, there were on it, at least, a million of happy inhabitants, who were reduced to sixty thousand in the short space of fifteen years! It formed five kingdoms, each governed by caciques. The names of these kingdoms were Magua, Ma rien, Higuay, Maguana and Xaraguay. The Spaniards had possession of the whole island for 120 years, when they were compelled to share it with the French. The population in the year 1788, whites 27,717 free people of color 21,308 — slaves 405,528. About the year 1793, a war broke out, after repeated acts of oppression on the part of the whites, which severed the blacks from the French empire. Here opened the first scene of the great drama. This most horrid war has terminated in the expulsion of the whites from all parts of the island, and the establishment of an independent government, administered by a colored people. Dessalines, a chief, was proclaimed Emperor of Hayti, under whose virtue, talents, and bravery, the people of this government succeeded in the arduous struggle for liberty. The events of this period are singularly important, as connected with the establishment and progress of civil and religious liberty and free institutions. PORT AU PRINCE (except in time of war, when the Governor-General was directed to remove to Cape Francois) was considered as the metropolis of the colony. In 1790 it consisted of about 600 houses, and contained 2,754 white inhabitants. The situation is low and marshy, and the climate, in consequence, very unhealthy. It is surrounded moreover by hills, which command both the town and the harbor; but both the hills and the vallies are abundantly fertile. To the east is situated the noble plain of Cul de Sac, extending from thirty to forty miles in length, by nine in breadth, and it contained one hundred and fifty sugar plantations, most of which were capable of being watered in times of drought, by canals admirably contrived and disposed for that purpose. The circumjacent mountains were at the same time clothed with plantations of coffee, which extended quite to the Spanish settlements. The population and state of agriculture in the Western Province was as follow: white inhabitants of all ages 12,798, blacks in a state of slavery 192,962; plantations of clayed sugar 135, of muscovado 222. Plantations of coffee 894, of cotton 489, of indigo 1,952, besides 343 smaller settlements. |