led with shipping,
and the stores with goods, the vessels numbering two hundred and fifty,
and the contents of the stores worth about three million pounds. Here
was indeed a disaster to the Jews, not only of St. Eustatius, but even
of British islands, for they were all in correspondence. Rodney went so
far as to say that many of the English merchants ought to have been
hanged, for it was through their means, and the help of this neutral
port, that the enemy were able to carry on the war.

The people were astonished at such unheard-of treatment. Never before
had such a thing happened, except in the raids of buccaneers and
pirates. The Jews petitioned Rodney and General Vaughan to rescind their
decision. They had received orders to give up the keys of their stores
and inventories of the goods in them, as well as household furniture and
plate; then they were to prepare themselves to quit the island. Such
orders from British commanders, whose principal characteristics were
mercy and humanity, had distressed them in the extreme, so that their
families were absolutely in despair.

This appeal had no effect, even when it was supported by some of the
British officers, and such an auction now began as was never known
before. The news reached Barbados and the other islands, and down came a
horde of speculators, prepared to make their fortunes at once if
possible. Such a haul did not occur every day, and they intended to take
advantage of it. Thousands of bales of goods were brought out and sold,
without either seller or buyer knowing anything of their contents. They
might contain rich silks and velvets or the cheapest slave clothing. It
was a grand lottery in which every bidder got a prize, although they
were in some cases of little value. No one needed to despair of a
bargain, however, for there was so much to sell as compared with the
number of purchasers, that everything went cheap. Some few got bitten,
but in the end hardly a tithe of the value of the goods was obtained.

While this was going on at St. Eustatius, some Bristol privateers got
information of the outbreak of hostilities, and pounced upon Demerara
and Berbice, where they levied blackmail and captured most of the
shipping. As usual with these plunderers, they had no authority to
capture the colony, nor had they in this case even commissions against
the Dutch. However, they put the inhabitants in a state of
consternation, until, a few days later, two men-of-war ar