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fented it at Madrid much greater than it really CHAP. was, in order to obtain commiffions of reprizal; alledging that the fubjects of England trafficked in the ports and on the coafts of the Spanish colonies, protected by British men of war and the governors of the British plantations; till at length, after repeated applications, the Spanish ministry gave power to the American guarda coftas, to ftop and fearch all English veffels they suspected of carrying on this trade, and to confifcate fuch cargoes, as confifted of logwood, cocoa, or pieces of eight, as legal captures, in direct violation of the treaties of 1667 and 1670: and under this fanction, the Spaniards committed the most outrageous acts of violence on the English.

THIS privilege was much too unlimitted; for cocoa is the produce of the British colonies, and pieces of eight the current fpecie of the Weft Indies; and as to the other commodity, the English seem to derive a liberty of cutting logwood on the coafts of Honduras and Campeachy, with as much propriety as the Spaniards; for by the 7th article in the treaty of 1670, it is ftipulated, "That the crown of England fhall

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always poffefs in full right of fovereignty, all

places in America, which the king of England "or his fubjects then held or poffeffed, in fo "much that they neither can nor ought here"after to be called in queftion." These words are fufficient to remove all objections raised by the Spaniards, as to the British poffeffions in the province of Yucatan, and their right of cutting logwood in the bay of Campeachy; for it appears by the report of the lords of trade and plantations, made in confequence of an application by the merchants to king George I. "That "the

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PART" the treaty of 1670 established a right in the "crown of Great Britain to the Laguna de Ter"minos, in the province of Yucatan, as being "at the time of the treaty, and for fome years "before, actually in the poffeffion of the British "fubjects." The Spanish claim of original conqueft, on which they fo much depend, means nothing in this cafe, as it cannot extend to places they never poffeffed, of which number is the Laguna de Terminos: and the Mufcheto Indians, having preferved themfelves from the Spanish yoke, the better to maintain their liberty, in the reign of king James II. fubmitted to the protection of the English, and have ever fince retained an inviolable friendship to that nation. As the Mufchetoes border on the uninhabited part of Honduras, they have the best right to the cutting of logwood there, and this right feem's by their fubmiffion to be transferred to the English; fo that the English right of logwood feems well grounded both in Honduras and Campeachy.

1713.

AFTER the proclamation of the peace of Utrecht, or rather the declaring a fufpenfion of arms between Great Britain and Spain, the Spaniards exercifed their violent infults on the Englith, whofe lofs, in lefs than one year afterwards, amounted to above 200,000 pieces of eight; for which though they demanded fatisfaction, they were never able to obtain the leaft; when at the fame time, the governor of Domingo having charged the English with landing at Hif paniola, and carrying off negroes, indigo and other goods, to a great value, the governor and council of Jamaica, ordered and made an ample reimbursement to the Spanish sufferers.

ON

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ON acceptance of the affiento contract by the CHAP. fouth fea company, pursuant to the treaty between her late majefty queen Anne and king Philip V. of Spain, concluded at Madrid the 1713. 26th of March, 1713; the company were thereby allowed, to introduce into the Spanish America, 144,000 negroes within the space of thirty years, to commence on March 1, 1713; being 4,800 yearly, and to pay a duty after the rate of 33 pieces of eight for every flave. But his catholic majefty, on the company's advancing him a loan of 200,000 pieces of eight, to be repaid out of the duties of the last ten years, at 20,000 pieces of eight yearly, in confideration of the prompt payment of that fum, obliged the affientifts to pay duty only for 4,000 negroes, those of 800 yearly being remitted. In this affiento treaty was comprized an additional article, whereby Spain granted to the English company, permiffion of sending every year, during the faid thirty years, a fhip of 500 ton with merchandize for the fairs of New Spain; on condition, that his catholic majesty should have a fourth of the profit of the fhip, as well as the negro treaty, and 51. per cent. for the other three parts belonging to England.

IN the year 1718 a rupture happening be- 1718. tween the crowns of Great Britain and Spain, Sir George Byng, the British admiral, destroyed the Spanish fleet in the ftreights of Meffina; and the king of Spain feized all the effects of the fouth fea company, that were any where to be found in his dominions, amounting to about 225,000. fterling. However, in the year 1721. 1721, a treaty was concluded at Madrid between the two crowns, by which the Spanish fhips and British effects were to be reciprocally reftor

ed,

PART ed, and commerce fet on the footing of former

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IN 1720 the Spaniards from Cuba and the continent, having committed many acts of hoftility on the English, Sir Nicholas Laws, then governor of Jamaica, and commodore Vernon, at that time commander in chief of all his Britannic majesty's fhips in the West Indies, fent letters to Trinadado in Cuba, demanding fatisfaction from the alcades or commanding officers of that city; but were so far from procuring it, that the Spaniards made frivolous pretences of the English carrying on a prohibited trade to their fettlements, and denied any reftitution as required by the governor and commodore. This ufage fo exafperated the governor, that foon after one of the guarda coftas being taken by the Launceston man of war, with fifty-eight Spaniards on board, who had a little before taken off Hifpaniola, a fnow belonging to Jamaica; the governor, affifted by his council and the commanders of the fleet, held a council of war to try the Spaniards for piracy, for which forty-three of them were convicted, condemned and executed.

1726. THE Spaniards, pretending that the fouth fea company's annual fhip practifed an illegal commerce, by ftationing cargoes in her way, and eluding the revenues due to his catholic majefty, had detained the Royal George, being the company's affiento fhip, at Porto Bello; and as the Spaniards were at that time meditating a combination with several European powers, for raifing a new war, particularly against England; admiral Hofier, in 1726, was difpatched with a fleet to the West Indies, to intercept the Spanish flota, or hinder them from conveying their

treasure

treasure into Europe; which he accordingly ef- CHAP. fected, and in fome measure prevented the per- I. nicious confequences, of fuch a confederacy as the court of Spain was then endeavouring to cement, purfuant to the treaty of Vienna. The arrival of this commander was alfo to demand reparation of the Spaniards, for the frequent infults and loffes the English had fuffered by them in their navigation and trade; for that end he failed to Porto Bello and demanded the Royal George, which was immediately delivered.

WHAT has been thus enumerated, may ferve to point out the long diffentions between England and Spain, concerning the navigation and commerce in America; it is not material to enter into a more particular detail, of the many mifunderstandings between both nations; let it fuffice, that complaints were grown fo numerous at the time of the treaty of Seville, October 29, 1729, that the commiffaries who were thereby 1729. appointed to examine all grievances on both fides, were allowed no less than three years to finish their commiffion; and in fix months after their report, the monarchs were reciprocally to execute what they should have decided.

By this treaty of Seville, the former treaties were renewed, and peace and perpetual union agreed on; the English never infringed this treaty, except fuch private adventurers as thought fit to run the rifque of a contraband or prohibited trade along the Spanish coaft, on whom alone, according to the treaty of 1670, the guarda coftas, ought to have executed their authority; but instead of this, they ftill continued violence to the fair trader, and indifcriminately exercised an unlimitted privilege, taking many British vef

fels,

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