140 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



planting utensils. The produce flowing into different chan- 

 nels, and the advantages arising from the colony being so libe- 

 rally offered to those who chose to settle there, induced 

 several British subjects from the West India islands to procure 

 grants of land, which could be obtained with little or no ex- 

 pense on the sea coast, and the land adjacent, as the Dutch 

 planters had neglected these, under an idea of their being 

 low and liable to inundation. This consideration had no 

 weighty however, with the English settlers, who brought over 

 seasoned negroes, and commenced with determined industry, 

 to clear and drain the land, dyked it all round, and then 

 began }>lanting. With those situated within the river, sugar 

 was their chief object. They introduced the art of distilling 

 rum into the colony, which had never been before attempted, 

 but the melasses had always been disposed of in the raw state, 

 I am convinced it is a mistake in British policy, to encourage 

 distilleries of any kind, in their own island. The grand use 

 of distillation, is to render moveable to any distance, and pre- 

 servable for any length of time, the superfluous produce of 

 agriculture. It ought, therefore, for the greatest good of the 

 whole, to be carried on, where agriculture has most surplus 

 produce ; which is always in the newly settled and therefore 

 underpeopled countries. We could deliver rum in the British 

 market, cheaper than the English can make gin ; so that the 

 diffusion of comfort, and invigoration could be had by the 

 people for less money, and less labor. The British distilleries 



