176 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



The negro population of Berblce is doubled within the last 

 ten years, principally owing to importations of the English 

 merchants and planters, who had extended their concerns and 

 cultivation of the vacant lands. It amounts to about forty 

 thousand souls ; one thousand free people of colour, and two 

 thousand five hundred whites. Deprived of the means of aug- 

 menting the population of negroes by importation, it has been 

 clearly proved that an average decrement takes place of two 

 per cent per annum, imaided by any other disorders than those 

 which are common to the colonies ; the small pock, the yel- 

 low fever, or a scarcity,* such as to render a change of diet 

 necessary, are circumstances which will make the deaths ten 

 per cent instead of two. 



Situated then as these colonies are, it would be almost utter 

 destruction to them to incur an immediate abolition of the 

 slave trade. It must be gradual, a series of years must be al- 

 lowed for effecting this important object, and proportioning 

 the sexes. Before such a step is taken, the questions for and 

 against it should be canvassed on all sides, and in every form. 



* The scarcity of colonial provision in 1803, obliged the planters to feed 

 the negroes on flour, rice, and maize, which disagreed with them so much, 

 that many of them died of dysenteries and other complaints. 



