: Essays 67 
Lucia; which in this, as well as other respects, 
would be more valuable possessions, and which, I 
doubt not, the peace will secure to us. Nor is it 
nearly so well situated for that of the rest of the 
Spanish Main as Jamaica. As to the greater safety 
of our trade by the possession of Guadaloupe, ex- 
perience has convinced us that in reducing a single 
island, or even more, we stop the privateering busi- 
ness but little. Privateers still subsist, in equal if not 
greater numbers, and carry the vessels into Martinico 
which before it was more convenient to carry into 
Guadaloupe. Had we all the Caribbees, it is true, 
they would in those parts be without shelter. 
Yet, upon the whole, I suppose it to be a doubtful 
point, and well worth consideration, whether our 
obtaining possession of all the Caribbees would be 
more than a temporary benefit; as it would neces- 
sarily soon fill the French part of Hispaniola with 
French inhabitants, and thereby render it five times 
more valuable in time of peace, and little less than 
impregnable in time of war, and would probably end 
in a few years in the uniting the whole of that great 
and fertile island under a French government. It is 
agreed on all hands, that our conquest of St. Christo- 
pher’s, and driving the French from thence, first 
furnished Hispaniola with skilful and substantial 
planters, and was consequently the first occasion of 
its present opulence. On the other hand, I will 
hazard an opinion, that, valuable as the French pos- 
sessions in the West Indies are, and undeniable as the 
advantages they derive from them, there is some- 
what to be weighed in the opposite scale. They 
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