454 ^' ^' ^79^' 



The plantations, which were deflroyed, are re-ellablifhed. The Ne- 

 groes, now free agents, make agreements with the proprietors of plant- 

 ations to do the work for certain wages, or for a (lipulated proportion 

 of the crop : and the cultivation of the Weft-Indies is for the firft time 

 carried on by the hands of free labourers, who are at liberty to leave 

 their employers at the e:xpiration of the term agreed for, if they find, 

 or fuppole, themfelves ill ufed. 



Touffaint, prudently confidering the exhaufted ftate of the ifland, al- 

 lowed not only the neutral veflels of the United ftates of America, but 

 alfo Britifh veflels, to have free entry for the purpofes of commerce, 

 and efpecially for the importation of provifions and lumber ; a meafure 

 which was fandioned by the approbation of the prefident of the United 

 ftates, as it has alfo fince been by that of the king of Great Britain. 



June — In the fliort time fince the Dutch colonies of Demararay and 

 Ifl'equibo fell under the Britifli dominion, the number of plantations 

 was now increafed from 156 to 313, and that of the flaves from 20,600 

 to near 35,000. 



The exports from thefe colonies within this period were 



22,t)79,2ig pounds of coffee, 



10,043,486 cotton, 



11,936,583 sugar, and 



591,043 gallons of rum. 



It is probable that fmuggling, which by a clandeftine conveyance 

 eludes the prohibitions, or the payment of duties, impofed by govern- 

 ment on the importation and exportation of merchandize, is co-eval 

 with the impofition of the prohibitions and duties. It is equally pro- 

 bable that the habits of fecret combination and dexterous conveyance 

 acquired in the operations of clandeftine trade, and the relaxation of 

 inorals induced by it, have had confiderable influence in generating, 

 maturing, and difl^minating, the fyftem of depredation, which has 

 grown up in all the crowded ports of the kingdom to fuch an aftonifli- 

 ing and alarming height. 



The port of London, from the prodigious extent of its trade, and the 

 very difproportionate fpace allotted upon the furface of the water for the 

 accoinmodation of the fliipping, barges, and other craft, and upon the 

 land * for the ftowage of the cargoes dayly arriving from, or fliipping 

 off to, all parts of the world, and alfo from the facility afi:orded to the 

 fecret difpofal of merchandize and property of every kind, is peculiarly 

 liable to the depredations of an innumerable hoft of plunderers, trained 

 up in their nefarious arts with all the regularity ancl fyftem of a dif- 

 ciplined army, whofe numbers and ftratagems have increafed with the 

 increafe of the commerce of the river, and efpecially with the pradice 

 of fending cargoes in lighters to wharfs at the diftance of feveral miles 



* See the extent of it in p. 363. 



