NOTKS DU CHAPITRE IX

(Pree Mulatto, Address to Earl Bathurst, p. 5 et seq.)

Mr Rome de St Laurent took advantage of his présence at the seat of government to accomplish the scheme on which he had 80 long meditated. He represented to the Intendant that few people would be tempted to settle in an island as yet in a wild State, without very bright prospects were held out to them ; that few would quit their old abodes, where they enjoyed every comfort to hazard living in woods and wilds, continually exposed to sickness, accompanied by ail the privations necessarily incidental to original- colonists, unless some very extraordioary advantages should be offered as an inducement. He further said that, conversant as he v^as vnth the inhabitants of the old exhausted settlements, he would pledge himself that a rapid increase of population would be acquirod so soon as an adéquate encouragement was offered .

There is something so contagions in enthusiasm, and so attractive in the gUttering idea of planting inhabitants in a désert, that Mr Rome de St Laurent found no difficulty in communicating the enthusiastic feelings which animated him, into the breast of a beuevolent man like Don Josef de Avalos. Any other than Mr Rome de St Laurent would bave shrunk

from the apparently visîonary plan; but it is the character of enthusiasm to remove every obstacle, to consider every attempt as praclicable, and not to calculate on the failure of the scheme \vhîch engrosses its attention.

The Intendant, struck by the plausibility of the reasoning^ and the splendonr of the project, fully entered into the views of |he necessity for granting some peculiar favours in order to attract settlers to the colony. Hère then were sketched out the oQtlines of the schedule which was aflerwards published in 1783.

(Bryan Edwards, History of the aboi, of the slave trade, t. lY,

ch. III, p. 450 et seq.)

Whatever may be the guilt which Spaîn incurs by her persévérance in a barbarous traffic, it must be owned that her code of slave laws, which was promulgated in 1789, deserves to be mentioned with the highest praise. Its mildness and equity are honourable to the feelings of the framers of it, and of the sovereign by whom it was sanctioned. Nor is thereany reason to believe that it is not faithfuUy executed. By this code, every owner of slaves must instruct them in the Christian religion, procure them to be baptized wilhin a ycar, and maintain a priest to say mass, and expound tothem )he doctrines of christianity ; he must provide them with such food and clothing as to the magistrates may seem to be sufficient, and likewise with commodious habitations; he must encourage marriages, and not prevenl the slaves of différent estâtes from intermarrying, ând, in cases where the estâtes are distant from euch other, he must dispose of the wife to the master of the husband at a fair valuation; he must not overtoil them, nor

338 HISTOniE DE Là TMMIDAD.

compel those to labour who are more than sixty or leas than seventeea years of âge, nor employ females in work ^wfakh is unBttitable to tbe eez ; he muât allow them reasonable innocent diversions; he must not tum old slaves or children adrift lo starve; in the Mgher class of crimes he must leave Uie punishmeat to the law, and in the lower class he must not punish any slavie wUh more than twenty five lashes, and those must begiven oaly by himself or his steward, and in ittcfa a manner as not to caoae any contusion or efflusion of blood. Obédience to thèse injunctions is secured by fines and punishments of varions Idnds : the judge may even deprive of ail his slaves an inhuman master. In addition to (his, the . negroes hâve the right to redeem themselves at an équitable priée ; freedom is given to every female with whom her master has cohabited; and if the father bave, by any act, acknowledged the illegitimate ofTspring, they may, in failure of lawful ohikiren, inberit Us property, and they may mcceed without any such act, to the property of their moiher.

(Free liaUtto, Address to Earl Bathurst, p. 8.)

In the mean time died Don Martin de Salavaria, a aian of ability, tomperato in his measures, affable in his dispositîoiu To hîs ready co-operation is to be attributed the rapid încrease of Ihecoloiiy; he laid the foundation stone, but did not live to witness thecomplelîcisi of the superstructure.

ffOT&6 <i779-i764). 309

La pièce suivante est une nouvelle preuve que Don Antonio Barreto était gouverneur 4e File en 1784 :

Don Antonio Barreto, Capitan de Ynfanteria de las tropas fiias de Gkiaiana, Grobernador, Commandante Greneral y Subdelegado de Real Hacienda per la Ysla de la Trinidad de Barlovento.

Por quanto me allô con la compétente autoridad para concéder à lo9 oaturales de los Domiinio^ de S. M. Gathôlica y à los £xtrigigero8 calhôlicos que se trasportasen en la Ysla coj^ el &JX de establecerse en eUa las tierras realengas que solicitan para cujtivar y poner en valor, y baviendoseme presentado el nu^ve colgm Juan B^* Sala soUcitando cou pedjmento judicial U <^ncesion ea forma de las tierras reajeogas que con aiencia y iiermiso anterior del Govicrno esta cultivando en el districlo ciel Corosal despues de baver heobo su jiiramento de fidelidad y vasallage al Rey nuestro seûor. Por tanto atendiendp â su instan<ûa y baviendose xnandado que se procediera por uno de los Âgrimensores jurados del Grovierno â la maasura de dicbas tierras cou arreglo a} Capitule quinte del R^lamento acordado y â lo demas decrejtado, ba resultado por el planp y la certUicacion, etc., etc.

Dado ea Puerto 46 Espaîla de Trinidad de Barlovento â los diaz y çeis de Fehrero de mil setecientos ocbenta y quatre a&os^ firmado 4e j»i loanp, sellado y refrendado por el in* fraescriio seorelario de GovîerxM).

▲utonio Bamusto,

Por M*« del S. Govw- y gub*> de R. Harienda : E. Andrée deEscuDEno^ 8eeQ àeChffM,