The English Subjects are computed at 7 or 8000, the Negroes at 80000; a Disproportion, that together with the Severity of their Patrons, renders the whole Colony unsafe; many hundreds of them have at different times run to the Mountains, where they associate and commit little Robberies upon the defenceless and nearest Plantations; and which I imagine they would not have done, but for the Cruelty of their Usage, because they subsist very hard and with Danger, by reason of Parties continually sending out by the Government against them, who have 5l. a Head for every one killed, and their Ears are a sufficient Warrant, for the next Justice to pay it; if the Negro be brought in a Prisoner, he is tormented and burnt alive. Our latest Advices from Jamaica concerning them is, that they have chose a King, daily increase, have some inaccessible Places of Retreat, and are suspected of being encouraged and supplied with Powder and Arms from Cuba.
The natural Remedy against this Evil, is an Increase of Hands. They have large Savannahs both on the North and South Sides, supposed formerly to have been Fields of Indian Wheat, that afford good Pasturage, and breed up a great number of Cattle with a great Waste of Land, still left capable of large Improvements into Sugar Plantations or Tillage; but here lies the Objection to any further Encouragement. If the present Proprietors can export 11000 Hogsheads of Sugar annually, and the Price with that number is kept low at Market, whoever contributes towards making 11000 more, is depreciating his own Estate, lending a Hand to ruin himself. Tillage and Grazing, tho’ not employing the Land to 1/10 Part its Value in such Colonies, would yet interfere with the present Interest also, by lowering the Price of Provisions; wherefore the Security from such Augmentation of People (the Merchants being Judges) give place to Profit, a Neglect that must be reaped in the End, by Undertakers of more generous Sentiments. This convinces me, that altho’ Trade be Wealth and Power to a Nation, yet if it cannot be put under Restrictions, controlled by a superior and disinterested Power, that Excess and Irregularity will be an Oppression to many, and counter-balance the publick Advantages by increasing the Difficulties of Subsistence, and with it, Men’s Dissaffection.
Here is a distant Evil; the Cure of which lies in an Expence that no body likes; nor for such Dislike will ever blame himself in time of Danger. The Merchant and Planter think, if less Sugars were made, it would be better, provided (every one means) the bad Crop do not happen upon their own Plantations, and this for the same Reason, the Dutch and other Companies burn their Spice, India Goods, Tobacco, &c. viz. to keep up a Price; for rendering things common or cheap, or assisting towards the same Liberty, would border too much on the christian Precepts.
The Sloop-Trade hence to the Spanish West-Indies, under the Protection of our Men-of-War, has been reckoned at 200000l. per Ann. In 1702, Orders came to the Governor to hinder it, on account of a Treaty between us and the Dutch for that purpose, who have since gone into it themselves from Curisao; and in 1716, a yet greater Obstruction was put, by the peculiar Privileges of the Assiento Factors; however, they continue on, and complain of no other Illegalities, than the Spanish Seizures, of late years very frequent, and together with the Decay of this Branch of Trade, their Want of Spanish Wrecks, Privateering, and Fall of Sugars, makes the Island not so flourishing as in times past.
Sir Nicholas Laws a Cræole, gives way as Governor, to the Duke of Portland, who arrived in that Quality (with his Dutchess and Family) about the middle of January this Year. He had put in to Barbadoes in the Passage, and met a generous Reception.
Here they have doubled the Salary, a Compliment to his Nobility, and that too little, it’s said, for his splendid and magnificent way of Living. His Table singly, has already rise the Price of Fowls, from 4 to 6 Bitts.
The Pelican is a great Curiosity among their Birds, as the Alligator in their watry Tribe; it is a common Water-Fowl, that is all day picking up his Living at Sea, and roosts at Night on high Rocks and Clifts, sitting with his Head to the Wind; his Body when skinned, is as large as an ordinary Goose, the Wings will extend to 7 or 8 feet, a short Tail, the Bill 14 Inches long, very hard, and increasing broader towards the End, where it crooks like a Parrot’s; their Necks are a foot and half, with a bay-colour’d Hair instead of Feathers on the back side of them, and from about half way there are membranous Bags or Pouches, which stretch thence to the Extremities of their under Bills, capable, when separated, of holding a couple of Pounds of Tobacco: in these they reserve their Prey when gorged with eating, and in these they are said to transport their young ones, when Danger or Instinct prompts them to change Places. They appear slow and heavy Birds flying, but have a piercing Sight to discern their Prey (the little fishy Fry below) from a considerable Height in Air, whence they fall like a Stone, and catch, or dive after them.
We killed three or four, and in opening their Bodies, met the same Observations, viz.