L30/14/260/4

From Valentine Morris:

2 Feb 1783

From: 1783 To: 1783

The cession of St Vincent to England makes it absolutely necessary before the troops are withdrawn from St Lucia, to send a considerable force to the latter, not barely to take possession of it, but to completely disarm the numerous Charibs belonging to it, whom the French furnished with arms before the breaking out of the war, and since their possession of the island have completely armed and given out ammunition. Grantham will recollect from the official letters Morris wrote to Lord George Germain that these people are in general much attached to the French, and at the breaking out of hostilities with the France, were rendered quite inimical to the English by what they asserted to be a fraud committed on them by Lieutenant Colonel Ethrington, obtaining a sale of a large tract of lands from them when they say they only meant a small spot. The sale was confirmed by the Lords of the Treasury, and the Charibs called in the French as a result. Thus Morris believes the safety and prosperity of the island absolutely requires their being disarmed at this juncture, when fulfilling the terms of the peace treaty will keep the French from interfering. 1000 or 12,000 troops would be required for the purpose, and then it would be done without bloodshed. For some years afterwards, the island could not safely be entrusted to less then 500 effective men, even 600. The French ought to stipulate that these people are not permitted to enter any of their harbours of Martinique or St Lucia without producing on their landing a permission for such a voyage, under the signature of the Governor of St Vincent, and on no account to allow their people to give or to sell to them any fire arms, cutlasses or other offensive weapons, or any kind of ammunition. Fire arms would be fatal in a peaceful colony, and unnecessary, for the natives "live on the fruits, and grains of the earth, and fishing, and use arms chiefly for annoyance, and in support of unnecessary feuds, which would not exist but for these means of pursuing them now and then, but this most rarily, they kill with fire arms as an amusement only one or two of those few wild birds of the country, which the more peaceable of them catch in springes, or shoot with bows and arrows." Grantham will see from Morris' letters at the Treasury that he recommended that the sale to Colonel Etherington should not be confirmed, and that in letters to Lord George Germain Morris recounted how the Charib chiefs had declared his presence and that of Colonel Etherington to the French commander that they would not have called in the French and helped them had it not been for his robbing them of that tract of land. Mentions again a former letter regarding the making out of a commission for Grenada. Has heard that the Court of Versailles made during the war grants of lands to "persons highly prejudicial to his Majesty's dignity and interest in that Island", who intend to request of the French Minister for an article in the peace to confirm these grants. P.S. that since finishing the letter, Morris has received Grantham's letter, which greatly concerns him.

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Morris, Valentine,
Germain, George,
Ethrington

St.Vincent & the Grenadines, St.Lucia, lieutenant colonel, French Army, French