166 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK IK 



the fact, that it was one entire desert, from east to 

 west, totally uncultivated and uninhabited. 



Of the inland parts, it appears from Sloane, that 

 Guanaboa was famous for its cacao-trees, and the 

 low lands of Clarendon for plantations of tobacco. 



Upon the whole, although the Spaniards had pos- 

 sessed the island a century and a half, not one hun- 

 dredth part of the plantable land was in cultivation 

 when the English made themselves masters of it. 

 Yet the Spanish settlers had no sooner exterminated, 

 in the manner we have seen, the original proprietors, 

 than they had recourse, with their neighbours of Hi- 

 spaniola, to the 'introduction of slaves from Africa. 

 We are told that the number of negroes in the island, 

 at the time of its capture, nearly equalled that of the 

 whites. It is not easy to discover to what useful 

 purpose the labour of these blacks was applied. 

 The sloth and penury of the Spanish planters, when 

 the English landed, were extreme. Of the many va- 

 luable commodities which Jamaica has since produced 

 in so great abundance, some were altogether un- 

 known, and of the rest the inhabitants cultivated no 

 more than were sufficient for their own expenditure. 

 Their principal export, besides cacao, consisted of 

 hogs lard and hides. The sale of these articles, and 

 supplying the few ships that touched at their ports 

 with provisions, in barter for European manufactures, 

 constituted the whole of their commerce; a com- 

 merce which the savages of Madagascar conduct with 

 equal ability and success. They possessed nothing 



