420 



WORKING OF MINES. 



humanity and all the better feelings of the 

 heart rejoice at it; but poor Chocd will be al- 

 most deserted, — the only inhabitants will be 

 free blacks, who are too lazy to work mines, 

 being perfectly contented if they can procure 

 a sufficiency of plantains and Indian corn for 

 subsistence. 



From investigations I made, I found that 

 the best mines of Chocd scarcely pay the 

 working now; in consequence, they cannot de- 

 fray the hire of free negroes, who demand six 

 rials, or three shillings and three-pence, per 

 day. As yet the mines have been worked 

 entirely without machinery. They have not 

 even a common pump to draw the water from 

 the pits they make ; and to remove a very 

 large stone sometimes requires the whole force 

 of many negroes for three weeks. Did they 

 but know the use of gunpowder to blast the 

 rocks ; or had they but proper patent cranes 

 for removing the pieces, and pumps for draw- 

 ing off the water, the mines might be worked 

 to much greater advantage ; but there is not a 

 man of capital in the whole province, who can 

 enter into the expense, or afford to lay out his 

 money for a year. 



