of the smaller and less valuable islands, such as Nevis, Mont-
serrat, and Antigua.

In those days the islands were prosperous, far more so than
now. Their owners reaped fortunes from slave-worked planta-
tions; buccaneers used their harbors as ports of call where they
might refit their ships and spend ill-gotten gains; slave traders
unloaded horrid cargoes on their shores and sold them at a
handsome profit; indeed, the Caribbees offered a field of oppor-
tunity to adventurous men not overburdened with scruples,
who did not hesitate to turn their hands to any profitable busi-
ness without asking too many questions. During the seventeenth
century, when the principle "No peace beyond the Line" ¹ was
tacitly recognized, these bold spirits, chiefly French and English,
could here organize predatory expeditions against the Spanish
possessions; for together with British Jamaica and French
San Domingo ² the Caribbees formed an outpost in that sphere
of influence where Spain claimed jurisdiction, and by fortifying
them they could hold the approaches to the Spanish Main.
But this obvious advantage, it must be admitted, was not the
motive which brought the Europeans there to appropriate and
colonize. The English, for their part, were interested primarily
in plantations that would enrich the mother country and serve
as an outlet for a surplus population, which even at this early
date roamed the countryside and collected in the towns to form
a problem for the authorities. Though not so greatly troubled
by a surplus population as were their British neighbors, the
French, who in the seventeenth century were beginning their
colonial adventures under the able leadership of Richelieu and
Colbert, quickly saw the advantages of establishing colonies

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