SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, 8ZC. 335 



one hundred thousand pounds sterhng to an infant settlement, 

 would naturally be felt a long time after. On the colonies ca- 

 pitulating to the British, in this present war, expectations were 

 entertained that immediate remittances, to a large amount, 

 would be made to Great Britain, but great obstacles occurred 

 to prevent their accomplishment. From a drought, scarsely 

 ever experienced before, in 1803— 4, nearly the whole crop 

 of plantains, the negroes chief food, failed, and those that 

 came to perfection were purchased with avidity from three 

 shillings and four-pence to five shillings per bunch, when the 

 current price is only seven-pence halfpenny, and much better 

 and larger in a good season than those which now sold at such 

 an extravagant price. The plantations which had a large 

 quantity of ground provisions, such as yams, sweet cassada, 

 and potatoes, ochres, callallieu, peas, beans, &c. found their 

 account in it. To make up the deficiency, large importa- 

 tions were made from North America and the West India 

 islands, of flour, rice, maize, &c. a quantity of the latter, 

 however, was produced in the colonies, but not equal to the 

 consumption. The importations within the twelve months 

 may be computed as follows : — 30,000 barrels of flour, 6,000 

 hogsheads of rice, 1,000 puncheons of Indian corn ; all of 

 which sold at immense high prices, and for cash or present 

 bill. Thus these large and unexpected demands consumed 

 the available part of the planters' funds intended for the liqui- 

 dation of their debts. 



