62 MONTSERRA T. 



These men, as soon as they have cleared as iiiuch land as 

 their wives and cliildren, with their help, can keep in order, 

 go off, usually, in gangs of ten to fifteen, to work, in many 

 instances, on the estates from which they originally came. 

 This fact practically refutes the opinion which was at first 

 held by some attorneys and managers of sugar-estates, that 

 the settling of free Indian immigrants would materially affect 

 the labour supply of the colony. I must express an earnest 

 hope that neither will any planters be short-sighted enough 

 to urge such a theory on the present Governor, nor will the 

 present Governor give ear to it. The colony at large must 

 gain by the settlement of Crown lands by civilized people 

 like the Hindoos, if it be only through the increased exports 

 and imports ; while the sugar estates will become more and 

 more sure of a constant supply of labour, without the heavy 

 expense of importing fresh immigrants. I am assured, that 

 the only expense to the colony is the fee for survey, amount- 

 ine: to eighteen dollars for a ten-acre allotment, as the Coolie 

 prefers the thinly-wooded and comparatively poor lands, 

 from the greater facility of clearing them ; and these lands 

 are quite unsaleable to other customers. Therefore, for less 

 than U., an acclimatized Indian labourer with his family (and 

 it must be remembered, that, while the Xegro families increase 

 very slowly, the Cooliea increase very rapidly, being more 

 kind and careful parents) are permanently settled in the 



