54 Term's Memoir relative to the 



When we consider the number of slaves, and the very small 

 proportion of those who possess them, it is evident, that each 

 proprietor, were he so inclined, would have sufficient hands 

 to employ in agricultural pursuits : some even possess from 

 six or eight hundred to a thousand slaves, and might easily 

 augment that number to any amount. A comparison between 

 the mutual advantages possessed in this respect, by the 

 American colonists and the inhabitants of this Captaincy, 

 places the latter in a very favourable point of view, to which 

 it may also be added, that many of the colonists may be pro- 

 cured to work for a particular time, or perform stated 

 services, — or other words free lahor is easily procurable. 



Article III. 

 Of Agriculture, raid the Product ions in the three Kingdoms of 



Nature. 

 In conformity with the principles of statistics, this article 

 ought to comprise three chief points, with the tables relative 

 to each of them. No. 1, should shew the total and absolute 

 mass of productions obtained from the earth. No. 2, the pro- 

 portion of them consumed in the country. No. 3, a calcula- 

 tion of the quantity and quality of those which are exported, 

 or serve as objects of exterior commerce. But those causes 

 which I have pointed out as invincible obstacles to an exact 

 enumeration of the population, are even more adverse to a 

 complete knowledge of the productions which are cultivated. 

 The colonists compose the greater number of cultivators ;.but 

 as they do not collect the different articles by any certain 

 method, no accurate account can be given of their consump- 

 tion, except such of them as are exported from Quillimane ; — 

 from which it may be concluded, that were agriculture but 

 moderately advanced throughout this vast and fertile territory, 

 the produce would be immense : that such is not the case, 

 may be attributed to the indolence and apathy of the whites, 

 together with their ignorance of the principles of agriculture, 

 passing their lives as they do in absolute idleness. It 

 frequently happens, that they are obliged to purchase from 

 the colonists, or their independent neighbours, the necessaries 

 of lite, whilst the rents of their lands scarcely cover the 

 expenses of their ordinary consumption. Even the wheat 

 which is not used in Tette, and of which about three thousand 

 bushel.- are exported, is not thegrowthof the Captaincy's lands 

 alone, more than one-half of it being purchased from the 

 Caft'res Maraves, who cultivate it for sale. The only article 

 actually grown and manufactured by the whites is sugar; 

 V; , although they raise sufficient for the consumption at 

 Tette, and a surplus remains for exportation, their vanity and 

 ostentation induce them to purchase a great quantity abroad, 

 which is even of a worse quality. This prejudice has, indeed, 



