504 A. D. 1770. 



pofTefled by refidents, though not all cultivated, was 2,591,762 acres, as 

 returned in lafl: year's tax. Since i" January 1769 there were 5,438 ne- 

 groes imported, and fold for about ^(^200,000 flerling. Hemp was in- 

 crcafing in quantity and improving in quality: this year 526,131 pounds 

 of it, brought to Charleftown, received the provincial bounty amount- 

 ing to £2,^00 fterling ; of which quantity nearly two fifths were work- 

 ed up in the province. The interior part of the country, he fays, is 

 found to be well adapted to vines ; and one poor German adually made 

 eighty gallons of wine *. The tobacco and flour were in want of legal 

 regulations. 



JMr. Bull alfo reported the profperous ftate of a colony of French pro- 

 teftants fettled in the province in the year 1764, and of a large body of 

 Germans eftabliflied there in 1765 at the expenfe of a number of pri- 

 vate gentlemen in London. 



Governor Bruere of Bermuda this year ftated the population of the 

 iflands under his command to be about 6,000 white people of all forts, 

 and full as many, or more, negroes f . He obferves, that in time of war 

 they are wealthy, their veflels, which fail remarkably fail, getting a pre- 

 ference everywhere for freight J, and alfo felling for high prices : but 

 in time of peace they can fcarcely fell them for the cofl. He flates the 

 ' fmall exports' to confift of fawed ftones for building, limes, onions, 

 cabbages, and ducks, which they carry to Barbados, Antigua, &c. and 

 their veffels find employment by carrying paiTengers and goods among 

 the Weft-India iflands ||. He very much regrets their negle6l of raifing 

 corn, whence their whole cafh is carried off for that article, and, what 

 is worfe, not by their own veflels, but by North Americans, who bring 

 it, by which means the fupply is alfo precarious, and he apprehends, 



* Mr. Collinfon, ths celebrated naturalift, had of them do, and is proprietor of four negro failors, 



before tliis time remarked, that the natural grapes pays no wages at all except to a mate. 

 of America were capable of making good wine, if || He might have added — and to the continent 



properly managed ; and he added, that if proper of America. He fays nothing of their wrecking, 



care were taken to improve the grape by cultivation, except incidentally noticing, that the people arc 



and the wine by a diligent and fkilful procefs in accuflomed to benefit by (liipwrecks ; nor of their 



making it, America might become one of the moft catching turtle, which they carry to the Weft-In- 



celebrated wine countries in the world. dia iflands and America. 



■\ If this very fmall tradl of country confifting Whales are fometimes taken near Bermuda ; but 



of chalk rock (which they work into pieces fit for they are not very numerous, as appears by a duty 



building with a faw and a plane) in many places not or tax of ^ir . on each full-grown whale not being 



even covered with foil, contain i:,ooo people, fnfficient to raife jf loo a-ycar of additional falary 



white and black, it is probably the mofl populous to the governor. This whale-fifheiy is conduced 



part of theBritifhdominions, excepting large towns; at almoft uo expenfe in open boats manned by ne- 



as there muft be about one inhabitant for every groes. 



acre, the whole country being only about 74 miles The incidents of a whale-fifhing adTcnture, and 



long, and from half a mile to three miles in breadth, the beautiful appearance of the ifland, have been 



A much lower, and apparently an accurate, ftate- celebrated by Waller, who had never fefn any 



ment of the popiUation was afterwards given by other evergreen country, and who fpentfome weeks 



Governor Browne. in the ifland, whereby the fame of this trifling fpot 



J In lime of war other owners mud give cxor- has been raifed almoft above that of any of th« 



bitant wages to their feamen. The Bermudian Weft-India iflands. Such arc the creatire powers 



•wner, if he commands the veflel hirafelf, as many of poetry. 



