300 Anguillians and 2 privateers from St. Christopher invaded the French half of neighboring Saint Martin, holding it until the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Two French frigates landed 700 or 1000 men at Crocus Bay on Anguilla in 1745 but were repulsed by 150 militiamen under Governor Hodge. On 27 November 1796, amid the Napoleonic Wars, the French warships Décius and Vaillante landed 400 Frenchmen at Rendezvous Bay under Victor Hugues. These were able to destroy the villages at South Hill and The Valley, but the local British regrouped on the Long Path before Sandy Hill Fort. The frigate HMS Lapwing, sailing from St. Christopher under Captain Barton, was able to defeat the French ships and the assault again ended in failure. Attempts were made to develop Anguilla into a plantation-based economy employing enslaved Africans, but the island's soil and climate were unfavourable and the plantations were largely unsuccessful. Anguilla's population is estimated to have fallen from a peak of around 10,000 to just 2000. In 1819, there were 360 Europeans, 320 free Africans, and 2451 slaves. The British abolished slavery in their colonies during the 1830s. While the plantation owners returned to Europe, the freedmen continued to eke out livings on Anguilla as subsistence farmers and fishermen. There were droughts and famines in the 1830s and 1840s. The British government attempted to send the entire population of the island to Demerara in British Guiana (modern Guyana) but most remained. In the 19th century, the large lake in the center of the island was exploited for salt exported to the United States; around 3,000,000 bushels were produced each year. This formed the island's principal trade, although sugar, cotton, and tobacco were also produced. In 1871, Anguilla was forced into a federation with St Kitts; the next year, the islands petitioned the British colonial office to permit separate and direct rule. Around this time, the population had risen to 3000. In 1882, Nevis was added. The population had risen to 3890 by the time of the First World War. By that time, charcoal production had essentially deforested the entire island, but the expanded pastureland permitted export of cattle to Saint Thomas. Phosphate of lime was also produced. It was not until 1951 that Anguilla had a greater say in its administration, the British colony of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, itself part of the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands. Between 1958 and 1962,