chap, hi.] WEST INDIES. 77 
The total amount, therefore, of the annual con¬ 
tingent charges of all kinds, is *£.2,150 sterling, 
which is precisely one-half the gross returns; lea¬ 
ving the other moiety, or *£.2,150 sterling, and 
no more, clear profit to the planter, being seven 
per cent, on his capital, and *£.50 over, without 
charging, however, a shilling for making good the 
decrease of the negroes, or for the wear and tear 
of the buildings, or making any allowance for dead 
capital, and supposing too, that the proprietor re¬ 
sides on the spot; for if he is absent, he is subject, 
in Jamaica, to an annual tax of six pounds per 
cent, on the gross value of the sugar and rum, for 
'legal commissions to his agent. With these, and 
other drawbacks, (to say nothing of the devastations 
which are sometimes occasioned by fires and hur¬ 
ricanes, destroying in a few hours the labour of 
years), it is not wonderful, that the profits should 
frequently dwindle to nothing; or rather, that a su¬ 
gar estate, with all its boasted advantages, should 
sometimes prove a mill-stone about the neck of its 
unfortunate proprietor, which is dragging him to 
destruction !* 
Admitting even that his prudence, or good for¬ 
tune, may be such as to exempt him from most of 
the losses and calamities that have been enumera¬ 
ted, it must nevertheless be remembered, that the 
* In Jamaica, the usual mode of calculating in a general way, the 
average profits of a sugar estate, is to allow £.10 sterling per annum 
for every negro, young and old, employed in this line of cultivation. 
