CHAP. III.] WEST INDIES. 83 
cause, rather than to his own want cf capacity 
or foresight. 
That the reasons thus given, are the only ones 
that can be adduced in answer to the question that 
has been stated, I presume not to affirm. Other 
causes, of more powerful efficacy, may perhaps be 
assigned by men of wider views and better informa¬ 
tion. The facts however which I have detailed, 
are too striking and notorious to be controverted 
or concealed. 
Having now, I believe, sufficiently treated of 
the growth, cultivation, and manufacture of sugar, 
&c. and pointed out with a minuteness (tedious 
perhaps, but) suited, as I conceive, to the import¬ 
ance of the subject, the first cost and current con¬ 
tingencies attending the establishment and profit¬ 
able maintenance of a sugar plantation, together 
with the risque and gains eventually arising from 
this species of property, I shall proceed, in the 
following chapter, to furnish my readers with such 
information as I have been able to collect concern¬ 
ing the minor staples, especially those important 
ones of cotton, indigo, coffee, cacao, pimento, and 
ginger, which, with sugar and rum, principally 
constitute the bulky freight that gives employment 
to an extent of shipping, nearly equal to the 
whole commercial tonnage of England at the be¬ 
ginning of the present century. 
