4* STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



ttm made. They cmpioy themselves in needlje-work, and 

 other domestic affairs. Their usefuhiess in presei"vin:g the arts 

 and diffusing the habits of cleanliness as iek and allowed by 

 all, there being a lack of civilized Eiiropean women. If 

 a young progeny of coloured dhildren is brought forth, 

 these are emancipated, and mostly sent 'by those fathers who 

 can afford it, at the age of three or four years, to be educated 

 •in England. Some remain in the country as free subjects, 

 ■and preserve the stock for a future generation,, in these colo- 

 -mies, where the population of females of this description is so 

 small, and the demand for them so great, the common method 

 of supplying the deficiency, or the wants of individuals, is 

 to send orders to Barbadoes and other fully peopled islands, 

 for ladies, who are always to be procured either by purchase, 

 •JOT hy inducing those fhiSt are free to come and nettle among 

 the Demerariatos. Indeed, there are coloured women residing 

 in Stabroek, who have of late years made a traffic of femi- 

 ttiine importation, and receive a premium for whatever la- 

 -dies they introduce, beside the expences, from the geritle- 

 anen with whom they afterwards cohabit. The French 

 ' islands of Martinique and Grenada have not contributed a 

 little towards populating these infant co'lonies with free wo- 

 men of color. Perhaps it would be a more useful fashion to 

 anake these purchases, which is not impracticable, among the 

 indigenous Americans : the mestees are a more beautiful race 

 than the mulattoes, and the continental savages would gradu- 



