uch a harbour as Grenada it
would be an island without a rival in the world. If Grenada belonged to
the English, who knew how to turn to profit natural advantages, it would
be a rich and powerful colony. In itself it was all that man could
desire. To live there was to live in paradise.' Labat found the island
occupied by countrymen of his own, '_paisans aisez_', he calls them,
growing their tobacco, their indigo and scarlet rocou, their pigs and
their poultry, and contented to be without sugar, without slaves, and
without trade. The change of hands from which he expected so much had
actually come about. Grenada did belong to the English, and had belonged
to us ever since Rodney's peace. I was anxious to see how far Labat's
prophecy had been fulfilled.

St. George's, the 'capital,' stands on the neck of a peninsula a mile in
length, which forms one side of the harbour. Of the houses, some look
out to sea, some inwards upon the _carenage_, as the harbour is called.
At the point there was a fort, apparently of some strength, on which the
British flag was flying. We signalled that we had the Governor on board,
and the fort replied with a puff of smoke. Sound there was none or next
to none, but we presumed that it had come from a gun of some kind. We
anchored outside. Mr. S---- landed in an official boat with two flags, a
missionary in another, which had only one. The crews of a dozen other
boats then clambered up the gangway to dispute possession of the rest of
us, shouting, swearing, lying, tearing us this way and that way as if we
were carcases and they wild beasts wanting to dine upon us. We engaged a
boat for ourselves as we supposed; we had no sooner entered it than the
scandalous boatman proceeded to take in as many more passengers as it
would hold. Remonstrance being vain, we settled the matter by stepping
into the boat next adjoining, and amidst howls and execrations we were
borne triumphantly off and were pulled in to the land.

Labat had not exaggerated the beauty of the landlocked basin into which
we entered on rounding the point. On three sides wooded hills rose high
till they passed into mountains; on the fourth was the castle with its
slopes and batteries, the church and town beyond it, and everywhere
luxuriant tropical forest trees overhanging the violet-coloured water. I
could well understand the Frenchman's delight when he saw it, and also
the satisfaction with which he would now acknowledge that he had bee