The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

A Letter from a Gentleman in the Grenades, to his Friend in London, has these passages.

I am daily pleased, more and more, with the Island in general, round which I have lately made a tour, it as much exceeds my imagination as words can paint. No Small share of this is owing to the abilities and extreme attention of Colonel Scott, our Worthy Governor. You would not credit your eyes, were you to behold the changes made in Basse-Terre, which at the conquest of the place, was no more, you know, than a paltry collection of scattered hovels, hid in a thicket, or drowned in a bog. The woods and underbrush are entirely cleared away; the impending hills have been pulled down, and tumbled into the noxious fens beneath them the intervalls between the thin-sown huts have been filled with decent houses, which arose as if by enchantment, while the foundation of a larger and more convenient town, on the bay, have been laid in those very fens, now drained and filled up, which 2 years ago were the cause of the desolate state of the place, and a habitation for frogs alone. The smaller towns have been improved in proportion; new roads have been laid out, the old mended, and the entire face of the country wears a very different aspect. The seat of famine and disease has been changed into the house of health and plenty; and the nests of thieves and smugglers, who preyed upon the necessities of the miserable inhabitants, as the French in their address pathetically express themselves, have been converted into hospitable warehouses for a fair and open trade, which daily improves. The harbour has been enlarged, by cutting down the rank weeds and underwood, which rendered it as shocking to the sight, as if was fatal to the lives of the poor sailors obliged to reside in it. In short, such a foundation is laid for the final improvement of this fertile island as cannot fail to make it the most opulent and valuable of all his Majesty's Charibbean possessions.