The inhabitants are dependent on the neighboring islands, and importations from distant countries, for the means of sustaining life.

Even water for drinking and culinary purposes is brought from St.Martin, Nevis, or St.Kitts.It has a snug harbor on the western side, easy of access, in which many vessels can lie safely moored, excepting in a hurricane.

Indeed, there is hardly a harbor in the Windward Islands, north of Grenada, where a vessel can be secure during the hurricane months.

These tempests, when blowing from any quarter, seem to defy all the efforts of man to withstand their violence; twist the ships from their anchors, force them on the reefs or drive them out to sea, sometimes without ballast or the fraction of a crew.
It may appear singular that St.Bartholomew, with no productions whatever, and lying almost in the midst of the most fertile and productive of the Windward Islands, should nevertheless have been a place of great trade, and at certain times the most important depot for merchandise in those islands.

St.Bartholomew has belonged to Sweden during the whole of the present century; and Sweden having been occasionally exempted form the wars waged against each other by England and France, this island, of no intrinsic value in itself, became a sort of neutral ground; a port where all nations could meet on friendly terms; where traders belonging to England, France, the United States, or other powers, could deposit or sell their goods, purchase West India produce, and transact business of any description.
At the time to which I refer, in 1810, the "Orders in Council" of England, and the "Berlin and Milan Decrees" of Napoleon, were in force.
As a counteracting stroke of policy, the Non-intercourse Act, to which I have already alluded, was passed by our government, and the neutral port of St.Bartholomew suddenly became a place of immense importance.