77 



fail of (hipping ; and the number of inhabi- 

 tants amounted to no lefs than one hundred 

 and fifty thoufand, being upwards of five 

 hundred to every fquare mile. 



To enable the land to continue the boun- 

 tiful produce it now afforded required much 

 labour, and a great and expenfive fupply of 

 manure, therefore as new colonies were fettled, 

 and new land brought into cultivation, which 

 was capable of yielding equal returns with 

 lefs labour, and lefs of artificial fupply, it be- 

 came an objed to individuals to emigrate from 

 the neighbouring ifland of Barbadoes, and 

 engage in the culture; of the more recent, and 

 lefs exhaufted fcttlements ; and, thus, with the 

 population, the commerce, which before had 

 been confined to the parent ifland, was 

 neceffarily diverted into new and various 

 channels. 



At this day the Dutch colonies of Gui- 

 ana, and the captured ifland of Martinique are 

 a continual drain upon the population of 

 Barbadoes. But notwithftanding its decline 

 from what it once was, it is ftill the moft po- 

 pulous, and one of the moft important of our 



