340 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



In 1770 the house of Somelsdyk sold its portion of the 

 colony to the city of Amsteldam for sixty thousand pounds: 

 but this is no exact criterion of the general prosperity. The 

 administrative bodies often derive least from a country when it 

 is internally thrifty and flourishing. 



About 1772 the Cottica rebels began to collect; they were 

 opposed by a rifle corps of picked negroes, bought of the 

 planters for the purpose of being trained to arms. It was this 

 alarm,ing insurrection which gave occasion to the expedition 

 narrated in so instructive and interesting a manner by captain 

 Stedman. The general relaxation of severity in the treatment 

 of negroes, the increased proportion of Creole vassal ry, who 

 are formed from their very birth to the habits and requisitions 

 of the European planters, the growing knowlege of negro 

 tempers, opinions, and dispositions, the more certain and 

 wholesome system of nutriment, the more liberal allowances 

 of tobacco, rum, and similar luxuries, and the real diminu- 

 tion of hard and unpleasant labor, which the progress of set- 

 tlement and the introduction of machinery necessarily prepare, 

 seem likely to put an end to these long hostilities. 



