; 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