FIRST VOLUME. XXV 



that assistance has been oftentimes denied me. Concerning 

 BarbaJoes and Saint Christopher's in particular, I have been 

 favoured with much accurate and acceptable information, by 

 John Braithwaite and Alexander Douglas, Esquires, gentle- 

 men who are intimately acquainted with the concerns of those 

 colonies ; and the polite and cheerful readiness with which 

 they satisfied my inquiries, entitle them to this public testi- 

 mony of my thanks. 



The same tribute is most justly due to Benjamin Vaughan 

 and George Hibbert, Esquires, merchants of London, for 

 many excellent and important remarks, and much valuable 

 matter; which, at length, have enabled me to look back on 

 the commercial disquisitions in the last book, with a degree of 

 satisfaction that at one period I despaired of obtaining; being 

 well apprized that this part of my work will, on many ac- 

 counts, be most obnoxious to criticism. That it is now ren- 

 dered free from mistakes, I do not indeed pretend. In all re- 

 searches of a political and commercial nature, the best autho- 

 rities are sometimes fallible; and there is frequently much 

 difference both in general opinion, and particular computation, 

 between those who are equally solicitous for the discovery ofc 

 truth. The facts, however, that I have collected cannot fail 

 to be of use, whether the conclusions I have drawn from 

 them be well founded or not. 



I might here close this introductory discourse, and leave 

 my book to the candour of my readers; but having made my 

 acknowledgments to those gentlemen who have given me 

 their kind assistance in the compilation of it ; and feeling, in 

 common with all the inhabitants of the British West Indies, 

 a just sense of indignation at the malignant and unmerited as- 

 persions which are daily and hourly thrown upon the planters, 

 for supposed improper and inhuman treatment of their African 

 labourers; I should ill acquit myself, as the historian of those 

 colonies, if I omitted this opportunity of giving my testimony 



Vol. I (1 



