258 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK H. 



The amount of the sum total, according to the 

 prices current, including the same allowance for mis- 

 cellaneous articles, of which no precise account can 

 be obtained, as was allowed by the inspector general 

 for the vear 1787, maybe fairly stated at two millions 

 of pounds sterling. 



But Jamaica had now nearly attained the meridian 

 of its prosperity ;)* for early in the following year, the 

 fatal and unnatural war which has terminated in the 

 dismemberment of the empire, began its destructive 

 progress; in the course of which, the blameless inha- 

 bitants of this and the rest of the British sugar islands, 

 felt all its effects without having merited the slightest 

 imputation on their conduct. Their sources of sup- 

 ply for plantation necessaries were cut off, and pro- 

 tection at sea, if not denied, was not given; so that 

 their produce was seized in its way to Great Britain, 

 and confiscated without interruption or mercy. To 

 fill up the measure of their calamities, the anger of 

 the Almighty was kindled against them; no less than 

 five destructive hurricanes in the space of seven 

 years, as I have elsewhere observed, spread ruin and 

 desolation throughout everv island! The last of these 



O J 



terrible visitations in Jamaica happened in 1786. 



f The greatest improvement which Jamaica has manifested since 1774, 

 has been in the increased number of its coffee plantations. In that year, 

 the export of coffee, as we have seen, was 654,700 Ibs. In 1780, the 

 crop having been shipped before the hurricane happened, the export was 

 735,391 Ibs. For ;he last ten years, see Appendix, No. II. page 2.64, 



