century of its existence, it had indeed become considerable; but for a
century afterward it dwindled away, neglected and apparently forgotten
by the parent country, until even the remembrance of its former
greatness was lost.

At length, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards
were roused from their repose. So early as the year 1630, the severity
of the French colonial system had driven many of the most resolute of
the colonists from the islands belonging to that nation, especially from
St. Christopher's. Numbers of these men, in order to an unrestrained
enjoyment of liberty, took refuge in the western division of St.
Domingo, supporting themselves with game, and by hunting wild cattle,
for which they continued to find a market, either in the Spanish
settlements, or by trading with vessels visiting the western coast for
that object. Meanwhile the exactions upon the colonists of St.
Christopher's and the submission required of them to exclusive
privileges, induced a further and greater number to abandon the island,
and join the adventures of their own countrymen in the forests of St.
Domingo. Those adventurers--many of whom had already been roaming the
St. Domingo forest for nearly half a century, increasing in numbers by
accessions from time to time--had, in 1630, established a social and
political system of their own, peculiar to their own community. Their
original calling was the hunting of wild boars and cattle, which
abounded in the island. To this was added, to a small extent, the
business of planting, and to this again the more adventurous profession
of sea-roving and piracy. Their vessels were at first nothing larger
than boats, or rather canoes, constructed from the trunks of
trees--excavations after the manner of the ordinary light canoes of our
own aboriginals. But from the size of some descriptions of trees growing
in that climate, these canoes were capable of carrying crews of from
thirty to fifty and seventy-five men, with the necessary supplies for
short voyages among the Antilles. As they had no women among them, nor
other consequent responsibilities, it was their custom to associate in
partnerships of two, called comrades, who lived together, and assisted
each other in the chase and in the domestic duties of their huts or
cabins. Their goods were thrown into common stock; and when one of a
partnership died, the survivor became the absolute heir of the joint
stock--unless the deceased,