The Danes had no sooner submitted to one single chief, than they
fell into a kind of lethargic state. To those great convulsions,
which are occasioned by the clashing of important rights,
succeeded the delusive tranquillity of servitude. A nation, which
had filled the scene for several ages, appeared no more on the
theatre of the world. In 1671, it just recovered so far from the
trance, into which the accession of despotism had thrown it, as
to look abroad, and take possession of a little American island,
known by the name of St. Thomas.
This island, the farthest of the Caribbees towards the west, was
totally uninhabited, when the Danes undertook to form a
settlement upon it. They were at first opposed by the English,
under pretence that some emigrants of that nation had formerly
begun to clear it. The British ministry stopped the progress of
this interference; and the colony were left to form plantations
of sugar, such as a sandy soil, of no greater extent than five
leagues in length, and two and a half in breadth, would admit of.
These improvements, which were at that time very rare in the
American Archipelago, were brought on by particular causes.
The Elector of Brandenburgh had formed, in 1681, a company for
the western part of Africa. The object of this association was to
purchase slaves; but they were to be sold again; and that could
be done in no other place than in the New World. It was proposed
to the court of Versailles to receive them in their possessions,
or to cede Santa-Cruz. These two proposals being equally
rejected, Frederic William turned his views towards St. Thomas.
Denmark consented in 1685, that the subjects of this enterprising
prince should establish a factory in the island, and that they
should carry on a free trade there, upon condition of paying the
taxes established, and of agreeing to give an annual stipend.
They were then in hopes of furnishing the Spanish colonies, which
were dissatisfied with England and Holland, with the Negroes
which those provinces were continually in want of. The treaty
not having taken place, and the vexations being incessantly
multiplied, even at St. Thomas's, the transactions of the
inhabitants of Brandenburg were always more or less unfortunate.
Their contract, however, which had been only made at first for
thirty years, was renewed. Some few of them still belonged to it,
even in 1731; but without any shares or any charter.
Nevertheless, it was neither to the productions, nor to the
undertakings of the inhabitants of Brandenburg, that the island
of St. Thomas was indebted for its importance.
The sea has hollowed out from its coast an excellent harbour, in
which fifty ships may ride with security. This advantage
attracted both the English and French Buccaneers, who were
desirous of exempting their booty from the duties they were
subject to pay in the settlements belonging to their own nations.
Whenever they had taken their prizes in the lower latitudes, from
which they could not make the Windward Islands, they put into
that of St. Thomas to dispose of them. It was also the asylum of
all merchant-ships which frequented it as a neutral port in time
of war. It was the mart, where the neighbouring colonies bartered
their respective commodities which they could not do elsewhere
with so much ease and safety. It was the port from which were
continually dispatched vessels richly laden to carry on a
clandestine trade with the Spanish coasts; in return for which,
they brought back considerable quantities of metal and
merchandise of great value. In a word, St. Thomas was a market of
very great consequence.
Denmark, however, reaped no advantage from the rapid circulation.
The persons who enriched themselves were foreigners, who carried
their wealth to other situations. The mother-country had no other
communication with its colony than by a single ship, sent out
annually to Africa to purchase slaves, which being sold in
America, the ship returned home laden with the productions of
that country. In 1719 their traffic increased by the clearing of
the island of St. John, which is adjacent to St. Thomas, but not
half so large. These slender beginnings would have required the
addition of Crab Island, or Bourriquen, where it had been
attempted to form a settlement two years before.
This island, which is from eight to ten leagues in circumference,
has a considerable number of hills; but they are neither barren,
steep, nor very high. The soil of the plains and valleys, which
run between them, seems to be very fruitful; and is watered by a
number of springs, the water of which is said to be excellent.
Nature, at the same time that she has denied it a harbour, has
made it amends by a multitude of the finest bays that can be
conceived. At every step some remains of plantations, rows of
orange and lemon trees, are still found; which make it evident,
that the Spaniards of Porto-Rico, who are not further distant
than five or six leagues, had formerly settled there.
The English, observing that so promising an island was without
inhabitants, began to raise some plantations there towards the
end of the last century; but they had not time to reap the fruit
of their labour. They were surprised by the Spaniards, who
murdered all the men, and carried off the women and children to
Porto-Rico. This accident did not deter the Danes from making
some attempts to settle there in 1717. But the subjects of Great
Britain, reclaiming their ancient rights, sent thither some
adventurers, who were at first plundered, and soon after driven
off, by the Spaniards. The jealousy of these American tyrants
extends even to the prohibiting of fishing-boats to approach any
shore where they have a right of possession, though they do not
exercise it. Too idle to prosecute cultivation, too suspicious to
admit industrious neighbours, they condemn the Crab Island to
eternal solitude; they will neither inhabit it themselves, nor
suffer any other nation to inhabit it. Such an exertion of
exclusive sovereignty has obliged Denmark to give up this island
for that of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz had a better title to become an object of national
ambition. It is eighteen leagues in length, and from three to
four in breadth. In 1643 it was inhabited by Dutch and English.
Their rivalship in trade soon made them enemies to each other. In
1646, after an obstinate and bloody engagement, the Dutch were
beat, and obliged to quit a spot from which they had formed great
expectations. The conquerors were employed in securing the
consequences of their victory, when, in 1650, they were attacked
and driven out in their turn by twelve hundred Spaniards, who
arrived there in five ships. The triumph of these lasted but a
few months. The remains of that numerous body, which were left
for the defence of the island, surrendered without resistance to
a hundred and sixty French, who had embarked in 1651, from St.
Christopher's, to make themselves masters of the island.
These new inhabitants lost no time in making themselves
acquainted with a country so much disputed. On a soil, in other
respects excellent, they found only one river of a moderate
size, which, gliding gently almost on a level with the sea
through a flat country, furnished only a brackish water. Two or
three springs, which they found in the innermost parts of the
island, made but feeble amends for this defect. The wells were
for the most part dry. The construction of reservoirs required
time. Nor was the climate more inviting to the new inhabitants.
The island being flat, and covered with old trees, scarce
afforded an opportunity for the winds to carry off the poisonous
vapours, with which its morasses clogged the atmosphere. There
was but one remedy for this inconvenience; which was to burn the
woods. The French set fire to them without delay; and, getting on
board their ships, became spectators from the sea, for several
months, of the conflagration they had raised in the island. As
soon as the flames were extinguished, they went on shore again.
They found the soil fertile beyond belief. Tobacco, cotton,
arnotto, indigo, and sugar, flourished equally in it. So rapid
was the progress of this colony, that, in eleven years from its
commencement, there were upon it eight hundred and twenty-two
white persons, with a proportionable number of slaves. It was
rapidly advancing to prosperity, when such obstacles were thrown
in the way of its activity as made it decline again. This decay
was as sudden as its rise. In 1696 there were no more than one
hundred and forty-seven men, with their wives and children, and
six hundred and twenty-three blacks remaining; and these were
transported from hence to St. Domingo.
Some obscure individuals, some writers unacquainted with the
views of government, with their secret negotiations, with the
character of their ministers, with the interests of the
protectors and the protected, who flatter themselves that they
can discern the reason of events, amongst a multitude of
important or frivolous causes, which may have equally occasioned
them; who do not conceive, that among all these causes, the most
natural may possibly be the farthest from the truth; who after
having read the news, of journal of the day, with profound
attention, decide as peremptorily as if they had been placed all
their life-time at the helm of the state, and had assisted at the
council of kings; who are never more deceived than in those
circumstances, in which they display some share of penetration;
writers as absurd in the praise as in the blame which they bestow
upon nations, in the favourable or unfavourable opinion they form
of ministerial operations; these idle dreamers, in a word, who
think they are persons of importance, because their attention is
always engaged on matters of consequence, being convinced that
courts are always governed in their decisions by the most
comprehensive views of profound policy, have supposed, that the
court of Versailles had neglected Santa Cruz, merely because they
wished to abandon the small islands, in order to unite all their
strength, industry, and population, in the large ones; but this
is a mistaken notion: this determination, on the contrary, arose
from the farmers of the revenue, who found, that the contraband
trade of Santa Cruz with St. Thomas was detrimental to their
interests. The spirit of finance hath in all times been injurious
to commerce; it hath destroyed the source from whence it sprang.
Santa Cruz continued without inhabitants, and without
cultivation, till 1733, when it was sold by France to Denmark for
738,000 livres (30,750l.). Soon after the Danes built there the
fortress of Christianstadt.
Then it was, that this northern power seemed likely to take deep
root in America. Unfortunately, she laid her plantations under
the yoke of exclusive privileges. Industrious people of all
sects, particularly Moravians, strove in vain to overcome this
great difficulty. Many attempts were made to reconcile the
interests of the colonists and their oppressors, but without
success. The two parties kept up a continual struggle of
animosity, not of industry. At length the government, with a
moderation not to be expected from its constitution, purchased,
in 1754, the privileges and effects of the Company. The price was
fixed at 9,900,000 livres (412,500l.) part of which was paid in
ready money, and the remainder in bills upon the treasury,
bearing interest. From this time the navigation to the islands
was opened to all the subjects of the Danish dominions.
On the first January 1773, there was reckoned in St. John
sixty-nine plantations, twenty-seven of which were devoted to the
culture of sugar, and forty-two to other productions of less
importance. There were exactly the same number at St. Thomas, and
they had the same destination, but were much more considerable.
Of three hundred and forty-five plantations, which were seen at
Santa Cruz, one hundred and fifty were covered with sugarcanes.
In the two former islands, the plantations acquire what degree of
extent it is in the power of the planter to give them, but in the
last, every habitation is limited to three thousand Danish feet
in length, and two thousand in breadth.
St. John is inhabited by one hundred and ten white men, and by
two thousand three hundred and twenty-four slaves: St. Thomas, by
three hundred and thirty-six white men, and by four thousand two
hundred and ninety-six slaves: Santa Cruz, by two thousand one
hundred and thirty-six white men, and by twenty-two thousand two
hundred and forty-four slaves. There are no freed men at St.
John's, and only fifty-two at St. Thomas, and one hundred and
fifty-five at Santa Cruz; and yet the formalities required for
granting liberty are nothing more than a simple enrolment in a
court of justice. If so great a facility hath not multiplied
these acts of benevolence, it is because they have been forbidden
to those who had contracted debts. It hath been apprehended, that
the debtors might be tempted to be generous at the expence of
their creditors.
This law appears to me a very prudent one; with some mitigation
it might be of service, even in our countries. I should very much
approve, that all citizens invested with honourable functions,
either at court, in the army, in the church, or in the
magistracy, should be suspended whenever they should be legally
sued by a creditor, and that they should be unremittingly
deprived of their rank whenever they should be declared insolvent
by the tribunals. It appears to me that money would then be lent
with more confidence, and borrowed with greater circumspection.
Another advantage which would accrue from such a regulation,
would be, that the subaltern orders of men, who imitate the
customs and the prejudices of the higher class of citizens, would
soon be apprehensive of incurring the same disgrace; and that
fidelity in engagements would become one of the characteristic of
the national manners.
The annual productions of the Danish islands are reduced to a
small quantity of coffee, to a great deal of cotton, to seventeen
or eighteen millions weight of raw sugar, and to a proportionate
quantity of rum. Part of these commodities are delivered to the
English, who are proprietors of the best plantations, and in
possession of the slave trade. We have before us at present, very
authentic accounts, which prove that from 1756 to 1773, that
nation hath sold in the Danish settlements of the New World, to
the amount of 2,307,686 livres 11 sols (96,153l. 125.1-1/2d.).
and carried off to the value of 3,197,047 livres 5 sols 6 deniers
(133,210l. 6s. 0-3/4d.). North America receives likewise some of
these productions in exchange for its cattle, for its wood, and
for its flour. The remainder is conveyed to the mother-country
upon forty ships of one hundred, and from that to four hundred
tons burden. The greatest part is consumed in Denmark, and there
is scarcely sold in Germany, or in the Baltic, for more than the
value of one million of livres (41,661l. 13s. 4d.).
The lands susceptible of cultivation in the Danish islands are
not all tilled, and those which are, might be improved. According
to the opinion of the best-in-formed men, the produce of these
possessions might easily be increased by one third, or perhaps by
one half.
One great obstacle to this increase of riches, is the extremely
narrow circumstances of the colonists. They owe 4,500,000 livres
(187,500l.) to the government, 1,200,000 livres (50,000l.) to the
trade of the mother-country, and 26,630,170 livres (1,109,590l.
8s. 4d.) to the Dutch, who, from the immensity of their capitals,
and the impossibility of employing them all themselves,
necessarily become the creditors of all nations.
The avidity of the treasury puts fresh restraints upon industry.
The provisions and merchandise which are not peculiar to the
country, or which have not been brought upon Danish vessels, are
obliged to pay four per cent. upon their departure from Europe.
The national and foreign commodities equally pay six per cent. on
their arrival in the islands; 18 livres (15s) are required for
every fresh Negro brought in, and a poll-tax of 4 livres 10 sols
(3s. 9d.). Some heavy duties are laid upon stamp paper; an impost
of 9 livres (7s. 6d.) for each thousand foot square of ground,
and the tenth of the price of every habitation that is sold. The
productions are all subjected to five per cent. duty on their
leaving the colonies, and to three per cent. on their arrival in
any of the ports of the mother-country, exclusive of the duties
which are paid for rum when consumed in retail. These tributes
collectively bring in to the crown an income of eight or nine
hundred thousand livres, (from 33,333 pounds. 6s. 8d. to
37,500l.).
It is time that the court of Copenhagen should give up these
numerous and oppressive taxes. Well-grounded motives of interest
ought certainly to suggest the same kind of conduct to all the
powers that have possessions in the New World. But Denmark is
more particularly compelled to this act of generosity. The
planters are loaded with such enormous debts, that they will
never be able to repay the capitals, and cannot even make good
the arrears, unless the treasury should entirely drop every kind
of claim upon them.
But can such a prudent measure be expected, either in Denmark or
elsewhere, as long as the public expences shall exceed the public
revenues; as long as the fatal events, which, in the present
order, or rather disorder, of things, are perpetually renewed,
shall compel the administration to double or to treble the burden
of their unfortunate, and already overloaded subjects; as long as
the councils of the sovereigns shall act without any certain
views, and without any settled plan; as long as ministers shall
conduct themselves, as if the empire, or their functions, were to
end the next day; as long as the national treasures shall be
exhausted by unparalleled depredations, and that its indigence
shall only be removed by extravagant speculations, the ruinous
consequences of which will not be perceived, or will be
neglected, for the trifling advantages of the moment? and to make
use of an energetic, but true metaphor, one that is terrifying,
but symbolical of what is practised in all countries; as long as
the folly, the avarice, the dissipation, the degradation, or the
tyranny of the rulers, shall have rendered the treasury so much
exhausted or rapacious, as to induce them to _burn the harvest,
in order the more speedily to collect the price of the ashes!_
If the treasury were by chance to become wiser and more generous
in Denmark than they have been, or than they are in any other
part of the globe, the islands of St. Thomas, of St. John, and of
Santa Cruz, might possibly prosper, and their productions might,
in some measure, compensate for the trifling value of those of
the mother-country.--ABBÉ RAYNAL, _A Philosophical and Political
History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East
and West Indies_, 1798, pp. 256-265.