CHAP, v.] WEST INDIES. 255 



from the circumstances stated, that the ancient con- 

 traband system is nearly at an end. In like manner it 

 may be said of the importation of foreign indigo and 

 cotton, that if it be not made in foreign vessels, it 

 will cease altogether; and thus, instead of infring- 

 ing the navigation-act, as some persons contend, the 

 measure of opening the ports is strictly consonant to 

 the spirit of that celebrated law; for, by furnishing 

 an augmentation of freights to Great Britain, it tends 

 ultimately to the increase of our shipping. 



Having now, to the best of my judgment and know- 

 ledge, furnished my readers with such particulars as 

 may enable them to form a tolerably correct idea of 

 the present trade and productions of Jamaica, I shall 

 conclude with a concise display of its progress in cul- 

 tivation at different periods, for a century past. 



By a letter, dated March the 29th, 1673, from the 

 then governor, Sir Thomas Lynch, to lord Arlington, 

 the secretary of state, it appears, that the island at 

 that time contained 7,768 whites, and 9,504 negroes; 

 its chief productions were cacao, indigo, and hides. 

 " The weather (observes the governor) has been sea- 

 sonable, and the success in planting miraculous. Ma- 

 jor-general Bannister is now not very well, but by 

 the next, he sends your lordship a pot of sugar, and 

 zvrites you its story " It would seem from hence, 

 that the cultivation of sugar was then but just entered 

 upon, and that Blome, who asserts there were seven- 

 ty sugar- works in 1670, was misinformed. So late 



