SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, kc. 205 



planted by new negroes ; and the first settlers were so scat- 

 tered about, as to be ten and fifteen miles from each other, or 

 any cultivated estates; and then, the only method of getting to 

 them, was by a boat or canoe, by which means they were also 

 obliged, for the first year, to convey their plantains, till they 

 could have their own planted. The planters and negroes 

 were, also in the first instance, obliged, until they could build 

 temporary huts, to sleep in the open air, with their hammocks 

 hung between two trees ; this was a pretty hard trial for both 

 negroes and master, but nothing to what they arc continually 

 obliged to bear in the settlement of new estates. They had 

 not very liberal encouragement, as the east coast planters had 

 examined the land, and declared it incapable of producing 

 cotton, and would not answer cultivating. 



The new adventurers were stimulated by a desire to excel, 

 and by industry and perseverance, soon got a crop off, but 

 which, from the richness of the soil and youngness of the 

 trees, did not produce as much as was expected, from their 

 growing moi-e into wood and branches, than pod ; they then 

 took in more land, and planted with cotton and plantains ; 

 the trees which yielded before, had now grown to a proper 

 age, and the ensuing crop sufficiently repaid them, by pro- 

 ducing a quarter of a pound of cotton per tree; and indeed 

 at the end of six years, these estates improved themselves, and 

 would produce tree for tree, as much as the east coast. This 



