BOOK III. CHAP. in. 437 



fliouid become lefs, the price of them would fall; and the Hune 

 annual demand might be kept up, by extending our plantations, 

 which is now produced by the mortaHty of thei'e people ; eftates 

 would be gradually well-ilocked, and rendered more flourifhing ; 

 and the circumftances of the planters totally changed for the better. 

 The purchafe of new Negroes is the moll: chargeable article at- 

 tending thefe eftates, and the true fource of the diflrefTes under 

 which their owners fuffer; for they involve themfelves fo deeply in 

 debt, to make thefe inconfiderate purchafe?, and lofe fo many by 

 difeafe, or other means in the feafoning, that they become unable 

 to make good their engagements, are plunged in law-fuits and anx- 

 iety ; while, for want of fome prudent regulations in the right 

 hufbanding of their ftock, and promoting its increafc by natural 

 means, they entail upon themfelves a neccfiity of drawing perpe- 

 tual recruits of unfeafoncd Africans, the expcnce of which forms 

 only a new addition to their debts and difficulties. 



I will not deny that thofe Negroes breed the beft, whofe labour 

 is leaf!:, or eafieft. Thus the domeftic Negroes have more children, 

 in proportion, than thofe on peniis ; and the latter, than thofe who 

 are employed on fugar-plantations. If the number of hogfneads, 

 annually made from any eftate, exceeds, or even equals, the whole 

 aggregate of Negroes employed upon it, but few children will be 

 biouglu up on luch eftate, whatever number may be born ; for the 

 mothers will not have futficient time to take due care of them ; 

 and, if they are put under charge of fome elderly woman, or nurfe, 

 as the cuftom is in many places, it cannot be fuppoied that they 

 meet with the fame tendernefs as might be expefted from their 

 parent. But, where the proportion of the annual produce is about 

 half a hogftiead for every Negroe, there they will, in all likelihood, 

 increafe very rapidly ; and not much lefs fo, where the 7-al'io is of 

 two hogfheads to every three Negroes, which 1 take to be a good 

 mefiie proportion ; agreeably to which, an eftate, making, commu- 

 nihus annh, two hundred hogftieads, ought to muftcr on its lift, old 

 and young, three hundred Negroes; and, if it makes three hundred 

 hogHieads, four hundred and fifty fuch Negroes: and fo on. hvy 

 eftate, fo handed, 7nay not only, ceeler'ts paribus, fave the expence of 

 buying recruits, but may every year afford foa:ie addition to the 

 2 ' " firft 



