chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 109 
which speculations like these have raised in the 
minds of thousands, have vanished on actual expe¬ 
riment, like the visions of the morning. I think I 
have myself, in the course of eighteen years resi¬ 
dence in the West Indies, known at least twenty 
persons commence Indigo planters, not one of 
whom has left a trace by which I can now point 
out where his plantation was situated, except per¬ 
haps the remains of a ruined cistern covered by 
weeds, and defiled by reptiles. Many of them 
too were men of knowledge, foresight, and pro¬ 
perty. That they failed is certain, but of the 
causes of their failure, I confess I can give no sa¬ 
tisfactory account. I was told that disappointment 
trod close at their heels at every step. At one time 
the fermentation was too long continued; at ano¬ 
ther, the liquor was drawn off too soon. Now the 
pulp was not duly granulated, and now it was 
worked too much. To these inconveniencies, for 
which practice would doubtless have found a reme¬ 
dy, were added others of a much greater magni¬ 
tude: the mortality of the negroes from the va¬ 
pour of the fermented liquor, (an alarming circum¬ 
stance, that, as I am informed, both by the French 
and English planters, constantly attends the pro¬ 
cess), the failure of the seasons and the ravages of 
the worm.—These, or some of these evils, drove 
them at length to other pursuits, where industry 
might find a surer recompense. 
Their history, however, furnishes a new illustra¬ 
tion to a very trite but important remark, that a 
