138 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



The Company provided themselves with negroes from 

 Africa, at a price which did not exceed twenty pounds each: 

 the settlers also derived considerable advantage from gaining 

 the good opinion of the Indians, whom they engaged, by 

 trifling presents, to assist in their cultivation. Tliese natives 

 were also very useful and expert as huntsmen and fishers, be- 

 ing always sure to bring in a couple of hours, more than 

 could be consumed in one day, which made the first colonists 

 indifferent to the scarcity of European cattle and poultry. It 

 may be feared there has been a negligence in not inducing the 

 American Indians to continue for the colonists the occupations 

 of fishing, fowling, hunting, navigating boats, and felling 

 timber. A considerable quantity of labor is thus lost ; and 

 must be supplied from Africa, by persons whose local know- 

 ledge is for these purposes far less efficacious. The Indians, 

 too, would insensibly have learned to want more European 

 commodities, if they were induced to practise, in their mode, 

 arts, and occupations, for the benefit of a civilized population. 



At this time, as there were no public roads, or even foot- 

 paths, for any considerable distance, the only method of tra- 

 velling was by water, in tent-boats, rowed by six or eight In- 

 dians ; and as the seamen are governed by the wind, so were 

 they by the tide, which runs in all these rivers at the rate of 

 six or eight miles an hour. When the current is against them 



