ST. STEPHEN 'S PARISH. 6/ 



ruin stared many in the face. Besides, with the ex- 

 ception of rice the country had no staple crop ; for 

 since the bounty, which as colonists they had enjoyed 

 on the export of indigo and naval stores, had been 

 discontinued, these products ceased to have any 

 value, and negroes fell in price. Prime gangs were 

 not unfrequently sold for less than two hundred dol- 

 lars per head. 



I cannot better illustrate the total depreciation of 

 value than by the following case : Milford planta- 

 tion, consisting of one hundred acres of high land, 

 and between three hundred and four hundred acres 

 of swamp, had been purchased by Mr. Samuel Cordes 

 for six thousand guineas sterling, and at the period 

 of which I now write, was abandoned as worthless. 

 To add to the other causes of distress, those whose 

 property consisted in paper and securities were 

 either not paid at all, or paid in valueless continental 

 money. The people however had gained the great 

 object of their years of toil, and they were sanguine 

 respecting the future. Without relaxation of effort 

 however poorly requited, they were sustained by 

 the buoyant and elastic trait of the Huguenot char- 

 acter ; they had seen hardships before, and did not 

 sink under these. They strove to reduce their ex- 

 penses to the lowest possible point ; they manufac- 

 tured clothing for themselves and their slaves ; raised 

 abundant supplies of poultry and stock of vari9us 

 kinds, and with these contrived to live in plenty. The 



