Lot Essay
Hearne pictured the lively shore scene at Basseterre, the best anchorage on St. Christopher's and also the largest town on the island. The name of the town derived from the period between 1627 and 1713 when, for much of the time, St. Christopher's was divided up between English and French settlers. The area known as the Salt Pond, which occupies the middle ground of the image, was a low-lying peninsula which the two sides recognised as common property, as they were both dependent upon salt for the preservation of food. After the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French renounced their claim to the island. In the far distance is the island of Nevis, another English sugar colony in the Leewards.
The English military presence is emphasised with Fort Londonderry on the left, and Fort Smith around the coast in the middle distance; both are flying the Union Jack. There are also fifteen ships at anchor in the bay, many of which are merchantmen, with small boats moving to and from the shore. St. Christopher's was the most productive of the Leeward Islands during the eighteenth century, and was especially renowned for its high quality sugar. Hearne shows many casks of muscavado at the shore waiting to be taken out to the ships. The stacks of timber, piled high against the buildings on the left, would have been imported from the English colonies in North America. The Leeward Islands used large quantities of wood for construction of buildings and there would have been a particular need for it after the destruction wrought by a hurricane in 1772.
Janet Schaw, a Scottish visitor to the Leeward Islands in the mid 1770s, remarked of Basseterre, "The people in town live very well and are extremely polite and hospitable, as they are everywhere. The Stores are full of European commodities and many of the merchants very rich."1
In the foreground is a group of four, well-dressed black women, one of whom is grooming the head of a black man. Their striped and coloured skirts, turban head-dresses and neckerchiefs imply that they are either servants or free blacks, rather than field slaves. Their appearance contrasts markedly with the naked black slave, standing to the right near the sugar casks.
1 Janet Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality 1774-6, 3rd edn. New Haven and Oxford, 1939, p. 130
The English military presence is emphasised with Fort Londonderry on the left, and Fort Smith around the coast in the middle distance; both are flying the Union Jack. There are also fifteen ships at anchor in the bay, many of which are merchantmen, with small boats moving to and from the shore. St. Christopher's was the most productive of the Leeward Islands during the eighteenth century, and was especially renowned for its high quality sugar. Hearne shows many casks of muscavado at the shore waiting to be taken out to the ships. The stacks of timber, piled high against the buildings on the left, would have been imported from the English colonies in North America. The Leeward Islands used large quantities of wood for construction of buildings and there would have been a particular need for it after the destruction wrought by a hurricane in 1772.
Janet Schaw, a Scottish visitor to the Leeward Islands in the mid 1770s, remarked of Basseterre, "The people in town live very well and are extremely polite and hospitable, as they are everywhere. The Stores are full of European commodities and many of the merchants very rich."1
In the foreground is a group of four, well-dressed black women, one of whom is grooming the head of a black man. Their striped and coloured skirts, turban head-dresses and neckerchiefs imply that they are either servants or free blacks, rather than field slaves. Their appearance contrasts markedly with the naked black slave, standing to the right near the sugar casks.
1 Janet Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality 1774-6, 3rd edn. New Haven and Oxford, 1939, p. 130