Have just found my copy of "The St Vincent Botanic Gardens 1765 - 1965. A Brief Historical Pamphlet Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the oldest Botanic Garden in the Western Hemisphere." It is only 5 pages (with picture) so if anybody is interested I will gladly scan it and send it to them. Send me a private email. It states "In 1779 St Vincent surrendered to the French. During 1780-83 the gardens had an unexpected benefactor in the French Commander-in-Chief in Martinique - General de Bouille. He was a keen botanist too and struck up a warm friendship with Dr George Young - which resulted in many fruitful exchanges of plants. In 1783 St Vincent was returned to the British under the Treaty of Versailles. In that year too Dr Alexander Anderson succeeded Dr Young. He like his predecessor, did invaluable work in enhancing the beauty and utility of the gardens ......... Anderson's fruitful relationship with General de Bouille continued and in 1791 specimens of black pepper and nutmeg were received from French Guiana." (Note that the "e" in Bouille is "e" acute.) In another pamphlet (A History of the Botanic Garden of St Vincent, British West Indies by Richard A. Howard, reprinted from The Geographical Review, Volume XLIV, No. 3, 1954, Pages 381-393) I have found another reference "In 1791 Anderson made a trip to French Guiana and returned with many plants for the St Vincent garden, among them the true black pepper and two plants of the nutmeg. In reports to the Royal Society he expressed the hope that the nutmegs would be male and female, and later his delight when they flowered and were. However, a short time afterward the female tree died, and 18 years passed before Anderson obtained another one. It is now believed that all the nutmegs so important in the economy of Trinidad and St Vincent are progeny of those originally introduced by Dr Anderson." Neil.

I have been intrigued by the diversity of evidence provided by the various publications quoted. At first sight, most of them give the appearance of being authoritative, and yet here and there contradictions appear, and I suspect a similarity with problems I have discovered in my researches into the Corps of Colonial Marines, raised in the US in the War of 1812 and later settled in Trinidad. For eighteen months after the war and before going to Trinidad they formed part of the garrison of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda, and many of them worked on the construction of the dockyard, some as labourers, others as skilled artisans. (When they left, the first convicts to be transported to Bermuda took over the work.) Almost all the histories of Bermuda give an erroneous view of the origins of the Corps, whose personnel are confused with various other Blacks, both slave and free, who worked in and on the dockyard. I found that several authors quoted the memoirs of the first Superintendent of the Dockyard, Dunsier, and you would have thought he would have got it right, but if the quotations are correct, then he was widely off the mark. The oddity of this became less when I found his memoirs were written much later, possibly after his retirement, when the documents of record - correspondence, pay sheets, musters - had no doubt long been despatched to the Navy Board in London, and what was a minor episode in the prolonged saga of the building of the Dockyard (and concerning Blacks, whom he lumped all together, free men and slaves, both "King's Slaves" and those hired from island slaveholders) had to be recalled without, probably, recourse to his own original documents. Because I have ploughed through those of the documents that are preserved in the National Archives in London (PRO) I can see that Dunsier's memory appears to have served him badly, but as he was the Superintendent at the time of the sojourn of the Colonial Marines, he was evidently the proper authority for later Bermudian historians to turn to, and each successive republication of his error has been treated as authority for the next. This is a common phenomenon in historical writing generally, and it seems very much to me that Vincentian nutmeg has been ground up somewhat in the same mill of history. John Weiss http://homepage.virgin.net/john.weiss/trinidad/trinidad.html ----- Original Message ----- From: <neil@peter.com.au> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 5:07 AM Subject: Oh No - Not more on Nutmegs!!! : Have just found my copy of "The St Vincent Botanic Gardens 1765 - 1965. : A Brief Historical Pamphlet Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the : oldest Botanic Garden in the Western Hemisphere." : : It is only 5 pages (with picture) so if anybody is interested I will : gladly scan it and send it to them. Send me a private email. : : It states "In 1779 St Vincent surrendered to the French. During 1780-83 : the gardens had an unexpected benefactor in the French : Commander-in-Chief in Martinique - General de Bouille. He was a keen : botanist too and struck up a warm friendship with Dr George Young - : which resulted in many fruitful exchanges of plants. : In 1783 St Vincent was returned to the British under the Treaty of : Versailles. In that year too Dr Alexander Anderson succeeded Dr Young. : He like his predecessor, did invaluable work in enhancing the beauty and : utility of the gardens ......... : : Anderson's fruitful relationship with General de Bouille continued and : in 1791 specimens of black pepper and nutmeg were received from French : Guiana." : : (Note that the "e" in Bouille is "e" acute.) : : In another pamphlet (A History of the Botanic Garden of St Vincent, : British West Indies by Richard A. Howard, reprinted from The : Geographical Review, Volume XLIV, No. 3, 1954, Pages 381-393) I have : found another reference "In 1791 Anderson made a trip to French Guiana : and returned with many plants for the St Vincent garden, among them the : true black pepper and two plants of the nutmeg. In reports to the Royal : Society he expressed the hope that the nutmegs would be male and female, : and later his delight when they flowered and were. However, a short time : afterward the female tree died, and 18 years passed before Anderson : obtained another one. It is now believed that all the nutmegs so : important in the economy of Trinidad and St Vincent are progeny of those : originally introduced by Dr Anderson." : : Neil. : : : ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== : all messages posted to CARIBBEAN-L are archived at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ : Before posting a query, see if the question has already been asked : :