large for the purpose of navigating these narrow waters, and as the stores of all his ships were nearly exhausted, many of them having been entirely destroyed in the tropics, whilst his own health was in a very precarious state, he felt compelled to shorten his voyage, and hasten for Hispaniola.
Discovers Tobago, Granada, and other islands, reaching Hispaniola 19th Aug.
Finds everything in disorder.
Discovering on his way the islands of Tobago and
Granada, as also the islands of Margarita and Cubagua,
afterwards famous for their pearl fisheries, he
made the island of Hispaniola on the 19th August,
about fifty leagues to the westward of the river
Osema, the place of his destination; and having, on
the following morning, anchored under the little
island of Beata, he sent a boat on shore to procure
an Indian messenger, to take a letter to his brother
Bartholomew, who, during his absence, had formed a
new settlement at Dominica. On his arrival he
found that between fresh wars with the natives, and
seditions among the colonists combined with their
own indolence, everything had again been thrown
into a state of confusion and poverty, saved only
from utter annihilation by the tact and ability of
Bartholomew. Too idle to labour, and destitute
of those resources prevalent at home as a means
of killing time, the colonists had quarrelled among
themselves, mutinied against their rulers, wasted
their time in alternate riot and despondency,
while their evil passions, which had inflicted great
calamities on the once pure and innocent natives,
had likewise ensured a merited return of suffering
to themselves. Confirming, by proclamation, the
measures of his brother, and denouncing the leaders
of the conspiracies which had been the cause of so
