WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. IV.] 
129 
probable, that the excessive price of the Mocha and 
Eastern coffee had formerly the effect of a prohibi¬ 
tion of the use of this beverage among the middling 
and lower classes of people in Europe; for the 
quantity raised in this single island of St. Domingo 
was so great, the increase of its cultivation so rapid, 
and the price of West Indian coffee, though two 
shillings and three-pence per pound less than that 
of Mocha, still continuing, at the time of the 
greatest export, at a profitable height for the cul¬ 
tivator; that it is difficult to account for these facts, 
but by supposing the consumers to be augmented 
by new and numerous people. On this supposition, 
it is imposible to foresee the extent to which the 
cultivation of this article iri the West Indies maybe 
carried. It is not enough to say it will equal that 
of sugar, nor is it likely, as in the case of sugar, to 
be checked by importation from the East, inasmuch 
as it has risen to its present wonderful importance 
in the West Indies, notwithstanding the rivalry of 
both the East Indies and the Levant.—The diminu¬ 
tion of the quantity of coffee produced in St. Do¬ 
mingo (upwards of one thousand coffee plantations 
having been destroyed) will most certainly be felt 
in a remarkable manner for some years to come: 
many persons from thence are of opinion, that the 
exportation will be reduced at least one half (that 
is forty millions of pounds), supposing even that 
the present rebellion was to terminate without 
further devastation. The export from the whole 
British Colonies in 1787 did not amount to four 
millions of pounds; and therefore, excepting by 
Vol. III. s 
