4o6 J A M A I C A. 



Were this duly attended to, and proper encouragement given to in- 

 formersj it would be inipoffible to ail fuch private oppreflion-! often ; 

 becaufe, out of the whole poiTe of white fervants on each plantation, 

 there might always be fuppofed one or more, who, from th^ abhor- 

 rence of fuch pra£lice3, if not the allurement cf reward, would quickly 

 impeach the tyrant. At the fame time, the \'ery apprehenfion of fuch 

 a confcquence would infallibly check the mo!l hardened ; efpecially 

 if, in addition to other punifliment, the law fliould difqualify the 

 offender from ever again exercifing his profeffion, or olfi.e, within 

 the ifland. 



If every owner of a plantation refided upon it^ there would be no 

 caufc for the interpofition of legiflative authority j but it is well 

 known, that a great many eftates belonging to different abfentees, and 

 lying in diftant parts of the ifland, are often given up to the charge of 

 one agent only, who cannot poffibly refide at all, nor vifit them very 

 frequently. Matters are then left to the difcretion of overfeers, whofe 

 chief aim it is to raife to themfehes a charaiiler as able planters, by 

 encreafing the produce of the refpedive eftates ; this is too frequently 

 attempted, by forcing the Negroes to labour beyond their abilities j 

 of courfe they drop off, and, if not recruited incefihntly, the gentle- 

 inan fleals away like a rat from a barn in flames, and carries the credit 

 of great planterfliip, and vafl: crops, in his hand, to obtain advanced 

 wages from fome new employer in another difirlcl of the ifland. The 

 abfentees are too often deceived, who meafure the condition of their 

 properties by the large remittances fent to them for one or two years, 

 without adverting to the heavy loffes fuftained in the produdion of 

 them ; and they find, too late, their incomes fuddenly abridged, and 

 the liuews of their eftate waffed far below their expeilation. It might 

 be of fervice to many of them, if they could bring themfelves to live 

 more within bounds ; be content with a moderate equal remittance, 

 fuch as they know is proportioned to the ftrength of their labourers ; 

 and once, in a certain number of years, revifit their plantations, in or- 

 der to regulate their future meafures from the plain evidence of their 

 own eyes and ears. 



When once they have fhot beyond the mark of oeconomy, and become 



involved in England, they grow infenlible to every other canfidera- 



tion than how to extricate themfelves ; which is commonly atchieved 



1 by 



