There are very few people in the colony who are possessed of the capital necessary to start a plantation on a large scale. And the existing laws prevent or check foreigners doing so, unless they get married to a Spanish or native woman, which, from their general character, few British would like to do; or by abjuring their religion, and getting naturalized, which is a measure equally or more repugnant to the human breast, unless self-interest is the beacon which directs the path, or is the motive for doing so.
However, should plantations on a large scale ever be carried on in these islands with an equal degree of facility, science, care, and attention, and with the improved machinery now employed in sugar estates in Jamaica and elsewhere, there can be little doubt that the productions of the islands will be greatly increased, and it will do good so far; but whether it would tend to improve the condition, or increase the comforts of the people, now so independent of care for a livelihood, appears to be more than doubtful; in other respects, it would do them good, by stimulating their energies.
At present there are no large plantations on the islands, although two or three of small size exist, none of which are understood to be sufficiently remunerating to offer any inducement to invest money in a similar manner.
At Jalajala, M. Vidie, an hospitable old Frenchman, has an estate; but I understand that the most unceasing efforts, and the greatest economy, care, and attention, have been necessary to make it answer, both on his part and on that of its former owner, an Anglo-American, and a person of great ingenuity, who got so much disgusted with the incessant battle he had to fight with the soil, and those who tilled it, that after overcoming the greatest difficulties, he sold the estate, and was glad to be quit of it.
The whole of the productions of the islands are raised by the poor Indian cultivators, each from his own small patch of land, which they till with very simple, though efficient implements of agriculture.
With the existing high prices of labour, there is, however, probably nearly as much surplus produce available for exportation as there would be for years to come, under the system of large plantations and dear labour. Because the present occupiers of the land—employing no hired labour, but only directing the industry of the farmer and that of his family, to the small patch on which they were born, and, of course, have some affection for—are certain to expend far more labour on their own land, and to bring it to a much higher degree of cultivation, than it would suit the purpose of a large planter to do; who, like the Australian or Canadian colonist, would probably find it most for his interest to cultivate a large surface of land imperfectly, as under high wages of labour, and comparatively cheap land, it would be likely to yield him a better return than if he cultivated only a small surface of ground highly.
For this seems to be the only policy, where the elements to be combined are dear labour and cheap land; just as when they are dear land and cheap labour, the contrary would be the case, as it is in Britain.
Now, when I call a quarter of a dollar per diem a high rate of labour, I may be misunderstood if it is not stated that this rate, when paid to the slow and careless Indian labourer, is fully equivalent to three times that sum to a white or British labourer working at home; as an able-bodied man at home would do about three times as much work, and would perform it in a highly superior manner.
These reasons make me loath to see the present system of small holdings changed, which would sever old and respectable ties, and would force the present independent Indian cottage-farmer to seek employment from the extensive cultivator, and, without getting more work out of him in the course of a year, would lower him in self-respect, and in the many virtues which that teaches, without deriving any correspondent advantage to society.
In a tropical climate the elements of society are varied, and quite different from those of a country with a climate like that of Great Britain. A native Indian, under a tropical sun, could scarcely support a system of really hard labour for six days of the week for any length of time; and their indolent habits are, in some degree, necessary to their existence, perhaps as much as his night’s rest is to the British labourer; for without days of relaxation to supply the stamina which they have lost during exposure to the sun and hard labour under it, it is my decided opinion that the men so exposed, and exhausted, would, after a very few years, knock themselves up, and become unfit to work, thereby rendering themselves an unproductive class, and burdens on their friends and on society.