COLONY. 



753 



Colony, estimate of the total value of capital in the British West 

 '**~~*~~*' Indies. Such calculations are necessarily vague ; but it 

 is not unimportant to mention, that, from two different 

 estimates, (Sir William Young's common-place book, 

 p. 25.) the result appears about eighty millions sterling. 

 This valuation it to be understood in a very compre- 

 hensive sense, as it comprises negroes, lands, buildings, 

 cattle, dwellings, and even shipping. We conclude our 

 tables on the subject of sugar produce with a minute of 

 the importations for several years from the East Indies. 



IX. East India sugars were expected, twenty years 

 ago, to form a great article of importation ; but it was 

 soon discovered, that, from our settlements at least, they 

 could not be afforded at so low a rate as the West In- 

 dia sugars. Accordingly, the supplies from that quar- 

 ter have been comparatively insignificant. 



Hhds. of 13cwt. 



In 1801 4700 



1802 4200 



1S03 5300 



1804 8000 



1805 4100 



The insalubrity of our West India colonies, is a topic 

 too serious and too important to be passed over ; but 

 we reserve our documents on this head till we come to 

 make some general observations on the nature of colo- 

 nies. 



New South ffcw '*">"'/' Wales. This article would be incomplete 

 were we to omit noticing a colony of a peculiar kind 

 formed in our own day. Though the experiment of 

 transporting convicts has been found highly expensive, 

 (the whole cost, from first to laat, exceeding L,. 300 

 a-head,) and though the practice, as a measure of pu- 

 nishment, is not likely to be continued, the settlement in 

 New South Wales is, as a colony, an object of consi- 

 derable interest. Its growth, in point of population 

 particularly, has of late years been more rapid than was 

 to be expected from the bad habits of the people, and 

 the desert condition of the country on their first arri- 

 val. Imagination cannot conceive a tribe less likely to 

 become useful and productive labourers., than the occu- 

 pants of this settlement. Distance from home had by 

 no means the effect of operating a reformation in their 

 conduct. They had hardly arrived, when they were 

 tempted to display their habits of knavery even on the 

 poor and miserable natives. Some time after, a theatre 

 being erected, the persons who ventured to resort to 

 this amusement, generally found, on their return home, 

 that their neighbours had made free with their proper- 

 ty. It became necessary, in consequence, to destroy 

 the theatre ; and it was at the same time found indis- 

 pensible to erect a stone prison, the wooden buildings 

 of that description having been wilfully burned. A vice 

 equally odious, and productive of more general mischief 

 than the propensity to theft, was a rooted habit of in- 

 toxication. Whatever was the price ot spirit", a price 

 rising frequently to 20s. a bottle, these victims of de- 

 pravity were found to expend their last pittance in thig 

 ruinous gratification. Such excesses were confined, in- 

 deed, to the convicts ; but the high profit attending 

 the spirit trade, had a bad effect likewise on the free 

 settlers, mny of them being tempted away from the 

 pursuits of agriculture by the dazzling prosp'ects of this 

 noxious traffic. 



Such was the state of the colony during its first years. 

 In 1795, Governor Hunter entered on office, and was 

 indefatigable in hit efforts to reclaim the inhabitants, 



VOL. vi. PART n. 



and improve the settlement. He continued governor 

 during six years, and, at his departure, the number of 

 colonists of all descriptions amounted to 6000. By this 

 time the natives had become reconciled to their Euro- 

 pean neighbours. It was a matter of some consequence 

 to suspend their acts of hostility, although their incura- 

 ble indolence afforded no room to hope for their co- 

 operation in useful labour. They seem to belong to the 

 least promising class of barbarous tenants of the woods ; 

 and even in a state of peace, they have little scruple in 

 plundering the corn of the settlers. In the midst ox 

 their misery, they ridicule the labour and precautions of 

 Europeans j and, after a temporary residence in a civilized 

 quarter, they are found to return with double relish to 

 their original wildness. Their chief weapon is a spear, 

 which they throw with great force, and with unerring 

 aim, to a distance of more than one hundred and fifty 

 feet. Next to the savages, the Irish convicts proved 

 the most troublesome inmates in this new establishment. 

 A detachment of them arrived in 1800, after the unfor- 

 tunate rebellion, and were eager to disseminate their se- 

 ditious feelings among the rest of the prisoners. Tile 

 vigilance of the governor, however, prevented them from 

 gaining ground, so as to disturb the tranquillity of the 

 settlement. 



The colony of Botany Bay differs from our other fo- 

 reign settlements, in the material point of being a go- 

 vernment undertaking. While in North America and 

 the West Indies, each settlement has had to make its own 

 way, and to find its chief resources within itself, the go- 

 vernment in New South Wales was authorized to draw 

 capital in large sums from the mother country. The 

 consequence has been, a rapid progress in the formation 

 of the colony, accompanied, however, with an extraor- 

 dinary degree of expence. Part of that expence, indeed, 

 was unavoidable, in consequence of the wretched habits 

 of the colonists ; but part, also, has been very unprofit- 

 ably incurred. New establishments have been formed on 

 distant points ; and one of them, that of Norfolk Island, 

 has been abandoned. Under such a system, ;/e must 

 not expect to find a favourable display of the virtues of 

 industry and economy ; nor are military or naval men 

 (who have hitherto tilled the station of governors) the 

 tittcst persons to give a beneficial direction to the la- 

 bour of the prisoners. There is now, we understand, a 

 disposition to put an end to farming for government ac- 

 count ; a symptom which we hail as indicative of consi- 

 derable amendments. Among grievances of a different 

 nature, we mean the abuses calculated to excite sympa- 

 thy and regret, one of the most striking is the want of 

 humanity shewn to convicts on the passage out. Thi 

 is strongly exemplified by the contrast between our ships 

 of war and the contract ships employed to carry out 

 these unfortunate people. The former have been known 

 to perform the passage, long as it is, without almost any 

 loss of lives, while the latter sometimes lose so large a 

 proportion as a third of the number embarked. This is 

 owing, in some degree, to excessive severity of treat- 

 ment, but much more to a scandalous embezzlement of 

 the provisions. Equal mismanagement has prevailed in 

 regard to the clothing sent out from home. It has been 

 mrde up, in the first instance, without sufficient regard 

 to the nature of the climate ; and, on arrival in the colo- 

 ny, it has been distributed at once, without attending to 

 the necessity of dealing it out by piece-meal to the 

 thoughtless creatures, who are impatient to sell whatever 

 they do not require for present use. 



The convicts, on arriving, are in general released 



Colony. 



