heat, though violent, does not warm it sufficiently to produce any thing valuable. It has many large and safe harbours, and several considerable rivers. The great quantity of timber that grows here, may hereafter afford copious supplies of masts, yards, and all sorts of lumber for the West-India trade.

At present it is chiefly valuable for the fishery of cod that is carried on upon those shoals which are called the Banks of Newfoundland. The great fishery begins the 10th of May, and continues till the end of September. The cod is either dried for the Mediterranean, or barrelled up in a pickle of salt for the English market. These banks and the island are enveloped in a constant fog, or snow, and sleet. The fishery is computed to yield about 300,000l. a year from the cod sold in Roman Catholic countries. By the treaty in 1713 the French "were allowed to dry their nets on the northern shores; and in 1763 it was stipulated that they might fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and the *small isles of St. Pierre and Miquelon were ceded to them*. By the treaty in 1783, the French were to enjoy their fisheries on the northern and western coasts; the inhabitants of the United States having the same privileges as they enjoyed before their independence. And the peace of 1801, confirms the privileges granted to the French.

The chief towns are St. John's, Placentia, and -Bonavista, but not more than a thousand families remain during the winter. In the spring a small ́squadron is sent to to protect the fisheries and settlements, the admiral being also governor of the

These have been captured during the present war; an account of which arrived while the article was transcrib

island,

island, its sole consequence depending on the fishery.

We cannot finish our account of North America without saying a few words concerning Hudson's and Baffin's Bays. The knowledge of these seas was owing to a project for the discovery of a north-west passage to China. So early as 1576 this noble design was conceived; since then it has frequently been revived, but never completed. The most competent judges do not, however, despair of eventual success.

The inland sea, denominated Hudson's Bay, was explored in three voyages made by Hudson, during the years 1607, 1608, and 1610. This bold navigator penetrated to 801°, nearly into the heart of the frozen zone. His ardour for discovery not being abated by the difficulties that he struggled with in this world of frost and snow; he remained here until the spring of 1611, and then prepared to pursue his discoveries; but his crew mutinied, seized him and seven of his most faithful companions, and committed them in a boat to the open seas, after which they were no more heard of.

A charter for planting and improving the country, and carrying on trade, was granted to a company in 1670. The Hudson's Bay company has since retained a claim to the most extensive terri tories, the length of which is thirteen hundred and fifteen miles, and the breadth three hundred and fifty; but it is not understood that the gains of of the company are very considerable. The annual exports are about 16,000i.; and the returns, which yield a considerable revenue to government, amount, perphaps, to 30,000l. The principal trade consists in beaver and other species of furs, and of beaver and deer skins.

The regions around Hudson's Bay, and Labrador, which are sometimes called New Britain, abound with animals whose fur is excellent; and it has been thought that the company do not carry the trade to its full extent.

No colony has been attempted at Hudson's Bay. The country is every where barren; to the north of the bay, even the hardy pine tree is seen no longer. Winter reigns, with an inconceivable rigour, for nine months of the year; the other three are violently hot. In summer a variety of colours deck the several animals; but when that is over, they all assume the livery of winter, and every thing animate and inanimate is white as snow. And what is still more remarkable, dogs and cats that have been carried from England to Hudson's Bay, have, on the approach of winter, entirely changed their appearance, and acquired a much longer, softer, and thicker coat of hair than they had originally.

Even in latitude 572 the winter is very severe; the ice on the rivers is eight feet thick. The rocks burst with a horrible noise, and the splinters are thrown to an amazing distance. Mock-suns and haloes are not unfrequent; and the sun rises and sets with a large cone of yellowish light. The aurora borealis diffuses a variegated splendour which surpasses that of the full moon; the stars sparkle with peculiar brilliancy, and Venus appears as a lesser moon. The fish in the Hudson sea are far from humerous; and the whale fishery has been attempted without success. There are few shell-fish; and the quadrupeds and birds correspond with those of Labrador and Canada. The northern indigenes are Esquimaux, but there are other tribes in the south, by all of whom the factories are visited. For these there seems no provision

г

provision but what their own art and ingenuity can furnish; and they exhibit a great deal of these in their manner of kindling a fire, dressing their food, clothing themselves, and in preserving their eyes from the ill effects of that glaring white which every where surrounds them the greatest part of the year; in other respects they are perfectly savage.

CHAP

CHAP. XIII.

West India Islands, how divided.

Climate. Seasons. Caribbees. Their character. Manners. Treatment of their Children. Of their Wives. Religion. Dancing. Jamaica. When discovered. Taken by the English. Treatment of the Natives. Mode of peopling Jamaica. Attacked by the Spaniards. Buccaneers, account of. Constitution given to Jamaica. Attempts made to tax the Inhabitants. The Island described. Proportion of Slaves to free People. Exports. Earthquake at Port-Royal.

HE continent of America is, as we have already seen, divided by geographers into two great parts, north and south; the narrow isthmus of Darien serving as a link to connect them, and forming a rampart against the encroachments of the Atlantic on one side, and of the Pacific Ocean on the other. But to that prodigious chain of islands which extend in a curve from the Florida shore on the northern peninsula, to the Gulf of Venezula in the southern, is given the name of the West Indies; from the name of India, originally assigned to them by Columbus*. Thus the whole of the new hemisphere is generally comprized under three great divisions; North America, South America,

and the West Indies.

That portion of the Atlantic which is separated from the main ocean, to the north and east by the

See p. 23, of this volume.

islands,