24 
Dwindling Labour Supply. 
granted iiim tlie unalienable right over his own destiny, and at the same 
time the liberty to give free scope to his inborn tendency to habitual 
idleness. The hitherto bustling hands disappeared from the estates, and 
every former labourer there tried to purchase at the lowest rates his own 
piece of land : lie could get his living from oift of its produce with the 
minimum of trouble because his ordinary wants and the inexhaustible 
productiveness of the Tropics forced him to no great efforts. The scarc- 
ity of labour arising from this cause increased the daily pay to such an 
extent that the free negro who worked for one or two days could earn 
enough to live as he liked, comfortably, for the remainder of the week. 
Without exaggeration it may he stated that the estates los't two thirds of 
their labour supply which could by no manner of means be replaced, so 
that particular works which had to be taken in hand at definite times, 
however unusually fatiguing they were and however quickly they had to 
be completed one after the other, could not be undertaken at all or only 
very inadequately executed. 
8S. The European labourer thanks the man who gives him work : the 
free negro on the other hand, in addition to his pay, asks his employer 
to thank him for dedicating his services to him. So as to enable them 
to continue part-cultivation of the estates, the planters naturally compete 
with one another in the pay they offer these men and, even if offering 
the highest wages, one must still be considered fortunaite to keep a ser- 
vant, because the slightest inducement causes him to throw up his job: lie 
knows quite well that ten other employers will receive him with open 
arms. Plantations that wjere formerly worked by 4-600 slaves do not 
possess more than 100 now. With the scarcity of labour, capital was also 
naturally withdrawn, and one estate after another went to ruin. Cotton' 
cultivation had first of all to be abandoned, because it could not enter into 
competition with the North American article carried on with slave la- 
bour. All cotton plantations Avere turned into cattle farms and pasture 
lands : at present the coffee estates are following suit, 
89. In 1841 Guiana owned but 213 Sugar estates, 67 coffee plantations, 
and 31 cattle farms. The produce of all the Plantations in 1842 amount- 
ed to 52,043,897 lbs. sugar, 1,543,652 gallons rum, and 1,214,010 lbs. cof- 
fee estimated at a total value of 4,583,370 dollars: as compared with 
previous years this gives a decrease, during the past five, of 55,762,352 
Jbs. sugar, 1,436.644 gallons rum, and 3,061,722 lbs. coffee at a total value 
of 5,648,269 dollars. 
90. The chief solution for the best measures to remedy the present 
precarious state of the Colony lies in answer to the question : “Will 
the black population return to the condition they Avere in formerly he. 
will they want to work?” — to which, up till now as I have already stated, 
they only feel constrained so far as their oavu sweet will apd momentary 
needs may prompt them. 
91. HoAvever many also the efforts hitherto made to replace the 
lost supply- of labour by Immigration, they haA 7 e almost all proved un- 
successful on account of the awful climatic conditions, and so far have 
not managed to restore the declining value of the landed property. 
East Indians, Negroes, the unfortunate prisoners on forfeited slave-ships, 
Canadians, Portuguese from Madeira, even Germans all came ou here 
with the result that already by 1842 Guiafüa had 20,071 immigrants 
