EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



produced by a yellow flower, and when ripe opens of 

 itfelf, and difclofes the globular contents as white as 

 flakes of fnow; in the middle of thefe are contained 

 fmall black feeds, formed not unlike thofe that are ufually 

 found in grapes. The cotton will profper in any of the 

 tropical foils, and produces a good profit if the crops are 

 not Ipoiled by a too long rainy feafon, being cultivated 

 with very little trouble and expence : all indeed that is 

 required is, to plant the feeds at a little diftance from each 

 other, when each feed, as I have faid, produces the firft 

 year it is put in the ground. The feparation of the feeds 

 from the pulp, is the work of one man only, by the help 

 of a machine made for the purpofe ; after which the cot- 

 ton has undergone all the neceflary procefs, and is put in 

 bales of between three and four hundred pounds weight 

 each for tranfportation, which bales ought to be well 

 moiftened at the time of flowing it, to prevent the cotton 

 from flicking to the canvas. In the year before my ar- 

 rival in Surinam, near three thoufand bales of cotton 

 were exported from this colony to Amflerdam and Rot- 

 terdam alone, which produced about forty thoufand 

 pounds fterling. The beft eftates make twenty - five 

 thoufand pounds weight. The average prices have 

 been from eight pence to twenty-two pence per pound. 

 The raw material is fpun in the Weft Indies by a rock 

 and fpindle, and extremely fine, when by the negra 

 girk it is knit into fl;ockings, Sec. one pair of which are 

 3 fometimes^ 



