In addition to this, may be reckoned the fandango licences, which cost eight dollars a-piece. In short, every thing that was capable of being made lucrative, he turned to his advantage, so that the first year of his government yielded more than £.15,000, most of which sum, however, I am well informed, was obtained by op pression and peculation. The oppressor and peculator, I have always considered the pests of society. The plea of a series of national services (even where there is a colour for it), cannot palliate the charge of having made thousands miserable; but, I cannot find that this oppressor and peculator has any such plea to urge, unless indeed we explode truth for a while, to give credence to his panders, when they boast of his false exploits, in frustrating invasions, insurrections, witchcraft, mighty magic, &c. which they have been in the habit of trumpeting so long, that they now firmly believe the reality of what was originally the child of imagination. Supposing their empty assertions were really well founded, will it for a moment diminish the crimes and the cruelties laid to his charge which I am about to develope? Settlers (British) began now to crowd into the island; they were all obliged, as soon as they landed, to be introduced to him, according to the usual custom of the West India islands, when he never failed (if he disliked the appearance of any of the strangers) to usher them to his mirador; and after pointing out to them a gallows which he had caused to be erected in an oblique direction from his house, he used thus to accost them: "Look at that gallows, Sir! if you do not behave yourself properly, you may depend on being hanged,-go about your business, and let me not hear any complaint about you." What a salutation for a British subject from a British governor, in a British island! One would be apt to sup pose, though born and bred among the goats on the mountains of Wales, that he might have had a little more sense, than to make use of such language to the meanest of his Majesty's subjects, who are taught, by the constitution of England, to believe that they were not created to be the sport of any tyrant whatever, within the pale of that immortal fabric! A reception so harsh, so blasphemously absurd, did not fail to gain governor Picton a formidable host of enemies. At this early period of his career, he was very lonely for want of a domestic partner to share his amorous embraces, to ease his mind of the arduous duties of his station; but no one could be conveniently found suitable to his taste, which, en passant, is not very refined. Hence, it is said of him as was said of a late Antigua governor (Park), who was put to death by the inhabitants for his cruelties, that "he neither spared a man in his rage, nor a woman in his lust." How far he merits this assimilation, it will be soon in your power to judge. * These repeated acts of brutality did not fail to rouse the indignation of many whose minds were yet in an oscillatory state respecting his conduct. The British viewed him as a ferocious barbarian; the French and Spanish inhabitants, habituated to oppression and crimes, seldom gave his actions any serious consideration ;—— however, his panders were now alarmed. Fearful that reports of his conduct would reach the throne, they advised him to procure some female to prevent a repetition of such crimes: in the mean time, he This volume may, in all probability, fall into the hands of some of the fair sex, therefore my high regard for them prevents my giving publicity to these shocking tales. T had several pimps who foraged for him,-black or livid coloured were equally welcome to his depraved embraces. After much trouble and many vexatious efforts, a loving fair one was found congenial to his mind, of the name of Rosetta Smith, of whom I made honourable mention in my preceding letter. She was solicited to leave her husband and her children, to become Lady Governess. Allured by ambition, she abandoned every thing dear to the imagination of a female, to share the pillow and power of the greatest man in the colony, and as he is called "the most potent governor in his Majesty's dominions." Soon after the honey moon was over, be sented her with the fuel contract for the garrison; saying, 66 pre Accept of this bagatelle, my darling; the profits of it will enable you to buy trinkets, &c.” The profits of this bagatelle, as he was pleased to call it, enabled Rosetta to bribe almost all the kept ladies in the colony to reveal the secrets of their paramours, and thereby he became acquainted with the sentiments of the inhabitants generally. Those who unguardedly insinuated their disapprobation, or animadverted on his tyrannical conduct, became the immediate objects of his vindictive rage, were arrested and confined in the bastille, amongst negroes afflicted with loathsome distempers; their friends and acquaintances were denied the satisfaction of visiting them, and even the common comforts of life frequently denied. I intreat you to pause for a moment, while you give a full scope to your imagination, to anticipate, if possible, the feelings which must necessarily occur under such a degrading predicament. Incarcerated in a nauseous prison, without a breath of fresh air, respiring the putrid exhalation copiously emitted from your fettered fellowprisoners, the clangour of their chains, together with their hideous yells, must assimilate your situation to that of the infernal regions. Your mind would be either racked with horror, or corroded with despair and resentment against him who thus hell-doomed you; but, all this was extremely gratifying to Governor Picton, whose sole delight was to torment indiscriminately. "Ah! what a scene of horror! with'ring there, "Their cause unpleaded, and their crime unknown; Rosetta, though not tinctured with humanity, was however prompted by avarice to visit the recesses of hor ror, to tender her services, and for a few doubloons would set them at liberty; so that it appears that this method of "raising the wind' was too lucrative not to be followed with peculiar attention. Her influence over his mind increased the more he discovered her talents of accumulating wealth, consequently nothing was resorted to that would tend to embarrass her financial operations. There is hardly a store or shop in this town but she regularly visited; any article that took her fancy (particularly toys) she would carry away without paying for it; indeed it would be death to take notice of her, I have heard only of one person who dared to resist her encroachments. Whereupon she flew in a rage to government-house, and complained to governor Picton of this gentleman's insolence in refusing her some trinkets, A file of soldiers were instantly dispatched for the offender, and he was ignominiously dragged to governmenthouse, when colonel Picton thus accosted him: "You are a pretty fellow, a dd insolent jacobin rascal; I'll make an example of you, to shew the rascals I govern; that I will be obeyed." One of his judges made his ap pearance, and after a few minutes private conference, the gentleman was ordered to the bastille for sedition. It is customary with him never to hear both sides of a question. If any malicious individual of his junto, or their dependants, had taken the least umbrage against another person, however modest and innocent his deportment, by giving a fee to Rosetta, the unfortunate accused would be either hanged, burnt, put in the bastille, or otherwise punished. Rosetta now regulated the government, commanded the military*, held her levee twice a week, which was numerously attended by a croud of sycophants, male and female panders, &c. Those who did not pay their devoirs, might apprehend trouble, if not destruction. An instance of this nature soon followed. Mrs. Griffiths, and two amiable daughters, never attended the levee, therefore, Rosetta marked them out for destruction. It is unnecessary to remark, that if they did attend the levee of this MEDEA, their conduct would be deemed no less than extremely reprehensible by those who hold virtue in esteem; for, without that inestimable jewel, the fair sex would present nothing but a disgusting shadow of uniform depravity, the baneful effects of which we see strongly exemplified in the case before us. Dr. Johnson says, that "virtue is merely local. In some situations the air diseases the body, and in others poisons the mind." That as it may, I am not going to dispute the matter with the doctor, but to assert that it is a crime to be virtuous in this island, and for that reason, these ladies experienced implacable resentment. They inhabited a house belonging to themselves in Queen Street,— *I do not mean to assert that she commanded the forces publicly, but that she was commander in chief privately, may be credited as an absolute fact. Idler, vol. ii, p. 2. |