WEST INDIES. 
137 
CHAP. IV.] 
come subject to the British government. Blome, 
who published a short account of Jamaica in 1672, 
speaks of cacao as being at that time one of the 
chief articles of export: “ there are, says he, in 
this island, at this time, about sixty cacao walks, 
(plantations), and many more now planting.” At 
present I believe there is not a single cacao planta¬ 
tion from one end of Jamaica to the other. A few 
scattered trees, here and there, are all that remain 
of those flourishing and beautiful groves which 
were once the pride and boast of the country. 
They have withered, with the indigo manufacture, 
under the heavy hand of ministerial exaction. The 
excise on cacao when made into cakes, rose to 
no less than twelve pounds twelve shillings per 
cwt. exclusive of eleven shillings and eleven pence 
half-penny, paid at the custom-house; amounting 
together to upwards of four hundred and eighty 
per cent, on its marketable value! 
It is to be hoped, that the error of imposing such 
heavy impositions on our own colonial growths, is 
at length become sufficiently manifest. 
After all, there is reason to apprehend, that our 
sugar islands can never again enter into competi¬ 
tion with the Spanish Americans in the cultivation 
of the article of which I treat. At present the 
only cacao plantations of any account, in our colo¬ 
nies, are in Grenada and Dominica; and the quan¬ 
tity annually exported from both those islands can- 
Vol. III. 
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