( 7 ) 
THE MANAGER. * 
THE requisite qualities and talents of the person 
to whom should be entrusted the conducting or 
management of a Plantation are so numerous, that it 
is in fact rare, if not next to impossible, to find 
them all concentered in one Man ; and this being the 
case, it can only be recommended to give a prefer¬ 
ence to the person who possesses the most of them. 
In the first place, he should be prudent, even- 
tempered, and sober ; for he is, in fact, when in 
the midst of his Sable Tribe, the miniature of a 
petty absolute Prince surrounded by his Subjects :— 
Plis 
* This is a term applied to the Chief Officer, or dire&or of an 
Estate, which on my first arrival in the West-Indies sounded in 
my ears as rather out of the way; though habit has since, in 
some degree, reconciled it. I should suppose some strolling 
Player, having turned Planter, was the first who conferred or as¬ 
sumed it. In Jamaica this Officer is termed the Overseer; and him 
whom we term Overseer, is there called the Book-Keeper: the 
reason of which is, we suppose, because his business is not to keep 
books, but to pad about the Field and Works, and perform the 
menial offices thereof. 
On reading thus much of this Note to an Intelligent Friend, he 
cast a light upon the matter, of which we must acknowledge our 
previous ignorance, viz. that the Officer of the subaltern white 
Superintendant in Jamaica had got so out of credit, that young 
men would not emigrate to take the situation, under the title it 
then bore, in consequence of which, the Proprietors resident in 
Europe, 
