Carthagena and Porto Bello fairs--The trade of the Isthmus--The joint-stock mania--William Paterson and the Darien scheme--Caledonia and New Edinburgh founded--Destruction of the colony--The _Assiento_ contract--The Great South Sea Bubble--Vain attempts of the English to obtain free trade with the Spanish provinces--Attacks on the logwood cutters of Campeachy--War with Spain--Contraband traders and their losses--Captain Jenkins' ear--Another war with Spain--Admiral Vernon takes Porto Bello--His failure at Carthagena--English exploits. X. SLAVE INSURRECTIONS AND BUSH NEGROES 207-236 Sufferings of the planters from war--Barbados alone as having never fallen to the enemy--Internal difficulties--Ferocity of slaves and cruelty of their punishments--The Maroons of Jamaica and bush negroes in Guiana--Slave insurrections--Abortive plots in Barbados--Troubles in Jamaica--Revolt in Antigua--The great slave insurrection in Berbice--The whites driven from the colony--Haunts of the Guiana bush negroes--Surinam in continual fear of their raids--Expeditions sent against them--Treaties--Great insurrection in Jamaica and suppression of the Maroons. XI. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEAS 237-255 Downfall of Spain--England and France--Contraband traffic of the Dutch and Danes--Advantages of neutrality--The Jews in the islands--They support the buccaneers--The great war--England against the world--Admiral Rodney--His abortive fights with De Guichen--The training of his fleet--He captures St. Eustatius and confiscates private property--Capture of Demerara--Outcry against Rodney--British disasters--Rodney appears again--His decisive victory over De Grasse--Peace and its results--The great struggle with France and her allies--British supremacy--Peace of Amiens--War again--Nelson in the West Indies--The American war--Decline of the plantations from the abolition of the slave-trade. XII. DOWNFALL OF HISPANIOLA 256-275 Results of the French Revolution--The friends of the blacks--The rights of man--Civil disabilities of free coloured people--Agitation in the French colonies--James Ogé--Demand of the coloured people for equal rights--Civil war in Hispaniola--"Perish the colonies"--Great slave insurrection--The whites concede equal rights, but the Convention revokes their original decree--Truce broken--The struggle renewed--Devastation of the colony--The British expedition and its failure--Toussaint L'Ouverture--Slavery abolished--It is re-established by Napoleon--Treachery to L'Ouverture and the negroes--Dessalines and Christophe declare the independence of Hayti--Massacre of the whites--The Empire and Republic. XIII. EMANCIPATION OF THE SPANISH MAIN 276-288