by the late French King, erected into a 'marquifate, with the title of St. Mary, in favour of the then proprietors of the island, M. Houel and Meffieurs Boifferet. It is obferved that ginger comes up exceedingly well in the eaft part of the island of proper Guardaloupe, between the Great Cul de Sac and the river of Cabes Terre ; and that, though the climate of these islands is very hot, the people eat a vast quantity of it, even when it is green, because of the extraordinary moisture of the country. The Cabes Terre river is called the Great river, because the biggest in all that part, being, in fome places, 180 feet wide. Its water is very clear, but it is almoft impaffable, by reason of a great number of

rocks.

The next river, to the fouth, is called the Grand Carbet; and half a league farther is the Grand Bananiers, that terminates the quarters called Cabes Terre, which is by much the finest part of the ifland: For from this river to the Gros Morne, where begins the Great Cul de Sac, on the weft fide, it is a very even country, of near 20 leagues in extent by the fide of the fea, which is but a league in fome places, and, at moft, but four from the mountains.

That called the quarter of the Trois Rivieres, or the Three Rivers, on the fouth eaft fide of Guardaloupe, is 4 miles in breadth, and has a good foil for fugar-canes, with feveral confiderable fettlements. The French have a fort here, at the fouth end of Guardaloupe (called the Old Fort) for the fecurity of the coaft, which is very even, has good anchorage, and a fmooth water; and is therefore the more liable to defcents from an enemy, who, if they had this part of the island, might cut off the communication between the Cabes Terre and the Baffe Terre, and thereby make themfelves mafters of the whole. The French have therefore planted two iron guns at the point, to give an alarm; and in those called the Sulphur mountains there is a redoubt, called the Dos d'Afne, to which the French, when fuch a defcent has happened, fend their beft effects, together with their wives, children, and old men: But, as for the country here, it is fo full of woods and precipices, that a handful of men might keep off an army.

The river of the Galleons, on the fouthweft fide of Guardaloupe, where the French have another fort, is fo called, because the Spanish galleons used to put in there for refreshments, before the islands were in the hands of the French. It is a confiderable river, and, when fordable, the only paffage from the Cabes Terre to the Baffe Terre.

Here is excellent anchorage for fhipping, but the water taftes of fulphur and vitriol, and caufes fluxes in those not used to it.

The chief fort of the whole island is that at the town of Baffe Terre, two leagues north from the point of the old fort, which, in the time of the first Company that peopled that island, and of the Gentlemen who purchased their right, was the finest quarter of the island, and confifted of two confiderable towns; one close by the river St. Louis, or the river des Peres, or the Jacobine Friars river;' the other on both fides of the Bailiff river, where was, at first, only a chapel that was afterwards converted into a parochial church: But, the former having been carried away twice by the furious inundation of the river in a hurricane, the remaining inhabitants removed towards the fort, where by degrees, they built the latter, which is now the chief town of the island, having several churches, monafteries, and magazines, and a castle with four bulwarks, befides a fort on a neighbouring mountain; yet it has been ruined more than once. It was burnt by the English in 1691, after 35 days fiege, together with fome other forts; and, when it was almost intirely rebuilt, it was again carried away by a furious inundation of the river Bailiff. It was begun to be rebuilt, when it was again burnt by the English in 1703, together with Magdalen and other forts. This fort ftands upon higher ground than the town. Its walls are washed, on the fouth east, by the river of the Galleons; on the fouth-weft it faces the fea, from which it is but an 100 paces diftant; and on the north-weft fide it looks towards the town and the mountains. The moft confiderable part of the town is between the fort and that called the river of Herbs; and this is properly called the town of Basse Terre; and that which extends from the river to the brook of Billan, is called the town of St. Francis, because the Capuchins had a church and convent in it, which General Codrington lodged in, when he befieged the fort in 1691; and on that confideration he fpared both thofe and alfo the Jefuits convent: But his fon, when he came to befiege it in 1703, fet fire to it, as he went away. Labat computed the houses in the two towns, in 1696, to be 260; but fays they were generally of timber.

Between the river Bailiff on the weft, and the great river of Goyaves, or St. Charles, on the east, are the ruins of another fortification, which was deftroyed by the English in 1691. All the ground between the Bailiff river, and that of Pleffis, is called the marth of St. Robert. The paT

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rish of Bailiff is feparated by the Pleffis river from what they call the parish of the Inhabitants, because, in the time of the firft Company which planted a colony here, all that had ferved the term of three years, which they had contracted for with the Company, retired to this place, that they might no longer be confounded with thofe that were under the fame engagements with the Company as they had been; and they called themselves Inhabitants. There is a river here of the same name; and, on the weft of it, about 5 or 600 paces, another fmall one, called Beaugendre, which is the boundary of the Inhabitants quarter. About half a league from hence is that called Anfe à la Barque, a creek, which we the rather mention, because it was here the English made their defcent in 1691; the most likely place they could have chofen for every man to be cut to pieces, if the General Officers had behaved as they ought, fays Labat, because of the many defiles, difficult paffes, mountains, and rivers, between the landing-place and the fort of Baffe Terre.

Mr. Labat was here at the hunting of a bird of paffage, which he met with in none of the islands but this and Dominica; to which islands they repair, at a certain time of the year, to couple, lay their eggs, and hatch their young. He fuppofes it to be the devil-bird, that is feen in Virginia, and the neighbouring countries, from May to October: He fays it is about the fize of a young pullet. Its plumage is as black as jet; its wings are long and ftrong; its legs very fhort, with feet like thofe of ducks, but armed with ftrong claws; its beak is an inch and an half in length, but crooked, fharp-pointed, and extremely hard; it has large eyes, which it fees beft with at night, when it catches fish out of the fea; but, if it be disturbed in the day-time, the light dazzles them, fo that they fly full-butt at every object in their way, till they fall to the ground. They return from the fea in the morning to that which is, from them, called the Devil's mountain, not far from Bailiff river. There they lodge in pairs in holes like rabbets; and at night, when they fly out to fea, make fuch a chatter, as if they called or anfwered one another. They stay here from the beginning of October to the end of November, after which they are not feen again till about the middle of January; and then only fingle ones are to be found in each hole till March, when they are taken up by the dam, and her two young ones. Thefe, before they are fledged, are covered with a thick yellow down like goflings, and are called cottons. A

bout the end of May they are ready to fly, and then they are not seen or heard more till September. Their flesh is blackish, and has a fifhy tafte, but otherwise is good and very nourishing. The young ones are indeed the moft tender food, but their fat is like fo much oil. The young ones are best either roafted or boiled, and seasoned with falt and pepper: The old ones are put into a large pot over the fire, with falt and fine herbs, and, when parboiled, taken out to drain, which cleanses them of their fisby tatte. Then they are put into the kettle again till boiled enough, and served up with the fauce or ragou of orange-peel, and leaves of the Indian wood. Our author dignified these birds with the character of manna fent from heaven every year, for the fuftenance of the negroes and the poor people, who have nothing else to live on, during the feafon; and he thought it a great providence, that these birds harboured in places fo difficult to climb, as he found this mountain to be, otherwise the French would have destroyed the fpecies long ago. With very great toil and danger, he once indulged his curiofity to accompany four negroes in this kind of fowling, which took them up fix hours, before they got to the top of the mountain: There they lay all night; and next morning, when the devils were returned from their fifhery, the negroes repaired to their holes, with dogs trained up to the chace. Each of the negroes carried a switch, about an inch thick, and feven or eight feet in length, with a crook at the end of it. As foon as the dogs, which fmelt at every hole, had found one with a devil in it, they barked, and would have fcratched up the ground at the entrance; but were prevented by the huntfmen, for fear the birds should forfake their haunts another year. They then thrust the fwitches into the holes, till they came to the birds; which either fasten on them with their beaks, fo that, rather than quit their hold, they fuffer themselves to be dragged out; or elfe, if they do not bite the switch, it is twined about fo often round the hole, till, one of its wings being intangled in the crook, it is drawn out by force. He adds, that by noon they had taken 198 of these birds, and does not fcruple to own, that he fed on them heartily, though it was Lent; but, for fear that weak brethren should be fcandalifed at the unfeasonable indulgence of his palate, he takes notice, that the Miffionaries in the islands, who, by an apoftolical grant, exercise epifcopal power in feveral cafes, had, after mature deliberation of their own, as well as confultation with the phyficians, declared, that lizards and devils

were