Ruin! 
By the Editor, 
\ 
"iT the present time when ruin stares the sugar 
| planter in the face, it may be perhaps useful 
to look back and see if any encouragement 
can be gathered from the past history of the colony. 
For, this is by no means the first time that the cry has 
been raised ; at intervals it has been heard for a century 
and a half. In most cases the causes for the depression 
were well known, and generally the planters also well 
knew what they wanted, as they do at the present time. 
Yet, although in some cases their petitions to the authori- 
ties were not granted, they still recovered after a longer 
or shorter time, or if one set of planters fell, others rose 
in their place, the general result being slow progress of 
the colony as a whole. 
The first downfall took place after the discovery that 
the soil on the upper banks of the rivers was barren. 
Coffee gave but a small return, cotton could not be 
grown at all, and sugar paid for but three years at the 
most. Then, there was the want of labour; slaves were 
imported in but small numbers, for the system of giving 
long credit made the West India Company very cautious. 
Almost before the estates on the banks of the river were 
properly surveyed, the grantees began to see that they 
would not pay, and when the cautious Amsterdam mer- 
chants, who had liens upon them, saw that their money 
was virtually lost, every attempt to raise capital failed. 
Some of the Barbadians, who had been lured over by 
K 
