35 
chap, i.] WEST INDIES. 
cond, were filled with amazement and indignation, 
on finding its provisions adopted and confirmed on 
the restoration of that monarch. By the regulations 
of this act, and the establishment of the internal 
duty on their produce, of which I have so largely 
spoken, they thought themselves treated with a 
rigour which bordered on ingratitude, and they 
predicted the decline of their population, agricul¬ 
ture and wealth, from the effect of those mea¬ 
sures. How far their predictions have been accom¬ 
plished, a comparative state of the island at diffe¬ 
rent periods will demonstrate : with which, and a 
few miscellaneous observations, I shall dismiss my 
present account. 
Barbadoes is situated in 13 degrees 10 minutes 
north latitude, and in longitude 59 degrees west 
from London. It is about twenty-one miles in 
length, and fourteen in breadth, and contains 
106,470 acres of land, most of which is under 
cultivation. The soil in the low lands is black, 
somewhat reddish in the shallow parts; on the 
hills of a chalky marl, and near the sea generally 
sandy. Of this variety of soil, the black mould 
is best suited for the cultivation of the cane, and, 
with the aid of manure, has given as great returns 
of sugar, in favourable seasons, as any in the West 
Indies, the prime lands of St. Kitt’s excepted. 
That the soil of this island is, to a great degree, 
naturally fertile, we must necessarily admit, if we 
give credit to the accounts which are transmitted 
