Journal Historique Et Politique Des Principaux Événements Des Différentes Cours de L'Europe including "Traite de paix entre l'Angleterre & les Caraïbes de l'isle Saint-Vincent"

Genève [but probably Paris]: Ch.- J. Panckoucke. Very Good. 1773. First Edition. Hardcover. On offer here is an attractive volume in 18th century full calf, bound in the French style, (flat spine with floral tools in gilt, red label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, edges decoratively stained red). The volume in which these interesting numbers of the now-scarce 'Journal Historique Et Politique Des Principaux Événements Des Différentes Cours de L'Europe' is in a handsome contemporary binding which shows only minor rubbing -- mostly along the hinges, apart from some moderate fraying and loss at the corners and erosion of the top cap of the spine, exposing the headband. The original swirl-marbled endpapers are intact and the inner hinges are tight and secure; the sewing is sound and tight throughout. There are scattered brown marks and paper flaws, reflecting the mediocre quality of the paper selected for this journal, which was hardly expected to last for 240 years. This volume contains issues 10-18 of the interesting periodical "Journal Historique Et Politique Des Principaux Événements Des Différentes Cours de L'Europe," covering events of April-June of 1773. This journal was published every 10 days for the active Parisian publisher and bookseller Charles-Joseph Panckoucke. One of the "différentes Cours de L'Europe" in which events were covered extensively was London, with pages of details of goings on in England and its colonies offered in each issue. There is an unusually detailed account, with full text (in French) of a significant treaty signed by a representative of King George III: "Traite de paix entre l'Angleterre & les Caraïbes de l'isle Saint-VIncent." This appears on pp. 45-48 of Numero 12 -- issued 30 Avril, 1773. The treaty is presented as having been agreed to on the 17th "de ces mois," and so it is very much in the category of breaking news. This treaty is now fairly (but undeservedly) obscure, but the situation it attempted to settle grew out of one famous treaty, from ten years before and it proved to be a fascinating precursor to another more famous treaty, signed ten years later. In one of the lesser re-assignments of the territories of the world effected by the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War -- Britain was awarded the right to rule over the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. The island's history, of course, is much older; native American Arawak and Carib tribes settled over several centuries on a number of islands in the Lesser Antilles including St.Vincent. The Arawaks arrived around 100AD, and the Caribs about a thousand years later. The Caribs, more organized and aggressive, subdued and absorbed the culture of the Arawaks. Shortly after the first British claim on Saint Vincent in 1627, two Dutch ships carrying captured Nigerians destined for slavery were shipwrecked in 1635 off the coast of St. Vincent. Some of the Africans were able to swim ashore and find shelter in the Carib villages. This population of Africans and their descendants was augmented over the years, including in 1675 when a ship carrying British settlers and their slaves was shipwrecked between St. Vincent and Bequia. Only the slaves survived the shipwreck and they also came to live and mix with the native mixed Carib-Arawak population. A certain number of escaped slaves from nearby Barbados, Grenada and St. Lucia also added to the African-Carib population. After some friction, and even wars, eventually the native Caribs and the newer African arrivals merged and blended their cultures. British settlers distinguished them as "Black Caribs" and "Red (or yellow) Caribs. The "Black" people so-designated by outsiders preferred to call themselves Garifuna. Throughout some of this period, there were French settlers who arrived with the intention of making their living as planters. They seemed to get along with the native population with less friction, but the British land owners seemed united in their desire to form large plantations and to run the Caribs off the most desireable land. They tried to buy the land, tried military action with the minor forces available, but the "Black" Caribs resisted both efforts. The British raised the stakes by sending Major General William Dalrymple, with troops borrowed from around the Caribbean and augmented by two regiments which were sent from North America (Dalrymple himself had been dispatched from Boston, where he had technically been in command of troops involved in the Boston Massacre, although he himself had not been present). Despite his best efforts, Dalrymple was unable to subdue the resisting Caribs, led by the now-legendary Chief Joseph Chatoyer -- who knew the windward side of the islands and the hills far better than any of their combantants. In February, opponents of the Government of Lord North raised objections in Parliament, and obtained votes which compelled the British Government to end the fighting and secure peace on the best terms possible. The French language text offered here appears to be a word for word version of the 24 articles of the English treaty published in the 'Saint Vincent Gazette' of 27 February 1773. One article, number VIII, is of extraordinary interest concerning Slavery and the trade (which would continue in the British possessions for nearly another sixty years). The heart of this article requires that Runaway Slaves in the possession of the Caribs are to be given up, that efforts must be made to discover and capture others, and it must be agreed that no future efforts to encourage, receive or harbour other slaves shall be made, under the penalty of fortiture of lands. Finally, it was stated that removal of Slaves from the Island constituted a Capital crime. The Caribs were required to pledge allegiance to King George III, but were made British subjects (which gave legal standing to enforce article VIII, of course). In return, the British ceded a well-defined portion of the Island to the Caribs -- (called the prettiest and most fertile part of the land by at least one subsequent scholar). Thus concluded the first Anglo-Carib War. This treaty did not endure for the ages... During three days in June of 1779, French ships fighting on behalf of the Revolutionaries in (North) America quickly took possession of Saint Vincent (with the assistance of Joseph Chatoyer and the "Black Caribs"). But in the Treaty of Versailles which was an ancillary treaty to the Treaty of Paris 1783 by which Britain also recognized the end of the American Revolutionary War saw the British restored as sovereigns over Saint Vincent. Relations between the British and their once-again subjects, the Caribs, disintegrated. The situation brought about a second Anglo-Carib war (1794-6), once again led by Joseph Chatoyer. As in the first war, the Caribs gave the British forces all they could manage for over a year, but after the death in battle of Chatoyer on March 14, 1795, the end seemed inevitable, although fighting raged throughout St. Vincent over the next year with both sides sustaining heavy losses. The final battle took place at Vigie on June 10th, 1796. After a night of arduous fighting the Caribs approached the British with a truce flag. The victorious British then did a remarkable thing, which has repercussions lasting throughout the Caribbean and extending to South and North America through the present time. They sorted the 5000 Caribs who surrendered, separating the darkest skinned individuals, and those with the most "African" features, from the "Yellow Caribs." This darkest majority of the so-called Black Caribs were first sent to Balliceaux in the Grenadines and then on to Bequia. Eventually, in 1797 the survivors were transported hundreds of miles to the island of Roatan off the Honduran coast in Central America. This extraordinary settlement has permanently affected the modern populations of Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The 1773 treaty offered in its French version here, may have become moot in just over six years, but it will stand forever as the first time that Britain was compelled by military force to negociate a treaty as equals with indiginous citizens of the New World. The incident has lasting imporance to African American history, and the lamentable history of the Slave Trade. (There is even a painting which records the negotiations for the treaty -- commissioned of the itinerant artist Agostino Brunias by Sir William Young, a major landowner on Saint Vincent, who became governor of Dominica; lithographs based on the painting were sold). Of course, there is much other news from all over Europe in these pages, including an interesting account from the future United States with details of the grant of land to Phineas Lyman and some of his fellow veterans of the French and Indian Wars. General Lyman was the most experienced American soldier of the period prior to the Revolution. He moved to England after 1762 and spent the next nine years petitioning for a grant of land in the newly established colony of West Florida. A tract near Natchez (now Mississippi) was granted by royal charter in 1772. Lyman led a band of settlers to the region in 1773 -- (see pp. 42-3 of Numero 11, 20 Avril, 1773). There is much in these pages about the troubles of the East India Company, and the Wilkes affair, as well. And, finally, there is an account of a significant incident in the tensions which moved events towards the American Revolution. Colonial Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson, in a speech to the assembly, argued that either the colony was wholly subject to Parliament, or that it was effectively independent. The Boston Provincial Assembly's response, authored by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Joseph Hawley, countered that the colonial charter granted autonomy -- and was described in an account on pages 39-40 of Numero 13, 10 Mai, 1773. .