ST,
D O M I N G O .
whole; and the liberality of nature was laudably feconded by the induftry of the inhabitants. Until thofe ravages and devafta tions which I have had the painful tafk of recording, deformed and deftroyed, with undiftinguifhing barbarity, both the bounties of nature, and the labours of art, the poffeffions of France in this noble ifland were confidered as the garden of the Weft In dies ; and for beautiful fcenery, richnefs of foil, falubrity and variety of climate, might juftly be deemed the Paradise of the New World. O F the territories which remained exclufively in poffeffion of the original conquerors, the Spaniards, my information is very imperfect. I fhall hereafter give the beft account I have been able to collect concerning them. On the fouthem coaft, more efpecially in the neighbourhood of the ancient city from which the ifland derives its prefent name, the lands are faid to be among the beft, and without doubt a very large proportion of the re mainder requires only the hand of the cultivator to become very productive. The interior country contains extenfive favannahs, or plains, many of them occupied only by wild fwine, horfes, and horned cattle ; for the Spaniards having exterminated the fimple and unoffending natives, fupplied their place with herds of domeftick animals, which running wild, foon multiplied be yond computation. Thus does the tyranny of man convert the fruitful habitations of his fellow-creatures into a wildernefs for beafts ! In the prefent cafe, however, the crime foon brought down its ownpunifhment;——a punifhment which almoft re venged the wrongs of the helplefs Americans ;—and who does R 2 not
123 C H A P . IX.