CHARA 
without intention, and even without 
knowing that it does so; I there- 
fore, the more readily record these 
facts, as they shew that the Ma- 
toons, however culpable in their re- 
bellion, or however true the stories 
respecting the ferocity and back- 
wardness of some tribes of them, 
were, in general, of use to the inha- 
bitants of the island, and prompt in 
their services on public occasions. 
Agriculture, among the Maroons, 
was a very simple science. They 
had few wants, and the supply of 
them required neither great know- 
ledge nor much labour. They 
placed a considerable dependence 
on hunting, and on their rewards 
for taking fugitives; but they did 
not, therefore, entirely neglect the 
cultivation of land, and were by no 
means so averse from the toil it de- 
mands, as they have been represent. 
ed. Many of them were negligent 
of the more certain modes of la- 
bour, for they were strangers to the 
passions which stimulate superflu- 
ous industry: but none could be 
said to be indolent, for their lives 
were passed in unusual personal 
‘exertions, which, as I before ob- 
seryed, conduced to their strength 
andsymmetry. A provident disposi- 
tion was spreading itselfamong them : 
they began to feel the advantages af- 
forded by money, and large parties 
of them, of their own accord, fre- 
quently hired themselves .to the 
planters and new settlers, to clear 
and plant large tracts of land for 
_ certain wages*, and several families 
of them, as I have already obsery- 
ed, settled by sutferance, on back 
; be the case, - 
CTERS 795 
lands, which they cultivated for 
themselves. 
Their provision grounds consisted 
of a considerable traét of unequal 
land, from which was produced a 
stock not only suflicient for their 
own use, but so superabundant, as 
to enable them to supply the neigh- 
bouring settlements. Plantain, corn, 
or maize, yams, cocoas, toyaus, and, 
in short, all the nutritious roots that 
thrive in tropical soils, were culti- 
vated in their grounds. In their gar. 
dens grew most of the culinary ve- 
getables, and they were not without 
some fine fruits : for though to these, 
in general, the soil of their moun- 
tains was unfavourable, being-either 
moist or clayey, yet they had some 
valuable fruit trees, among which 
the avocado, or alligator pear, rank- 
ed foremost. Mammees, and other 
wild but delicious fruits, were at 
their hand, and pine-apples grew in 
their hedges. They bred cattle and 
hogs, and raised a great quantity of 
fowls. When to this domestic pro- 
vision of good and wholesome food, 
we add the luxuries afforded by the 
woods, the wild boar, ring-tail 
pigeons, and other wild birds, and 
the land-crab, which some esteem 
the greatest dainty in the West In- 
dies, we may doubt whether the pa- 
late of Apicius would not have re- 
ceived higher gratification in Tre- 
lawny town than at Rome. 
It has been said, that the Maroons 
let their provision grounds, both 
those belonging to themselves, and 
those they held on sufferance, go to 
ruin, and trespassed on the provi- 
sion grounds of the settlers in the 
mountains. 
* This may. appear favourable to the system proposed, of cultivating Trinidad 
with free negroes; but let it be recollected, that the Maroons were a small body, 
and that power remained with the whites, which, in a general freedom, weuld aot 
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