/ 
j6 HISTORY OF THE [book hi. 
down to us, of its ancient population and opu¬ 
lence. We are assured, that about the year 1670 , 
Barbadoes could boast of fifty thousand white, and 
upwards of one hundred thousand black’ inhabit¬ 
ants, whose labours, it is said, gave employment 
to sixty thousand tons of shipping.* I suspect that 
this account is much exaggerated. It cannot how¬ 
ever be doubted, that the inhabitants of this island 
have decreased with a rapidity seldom known in 
any other country. I have now before me authen- 
* The earliest planters of Barbadoes were sometimes reproached 
with the guilt of forcing or decoying into slavery the Indians of the 
neighbouring continent. The history of Inkle and Yarico, which the 
Spectator has recorded for the detestation of mankind, took its rise 
in this island; but happily this species of slavery has been loBg since 
abolished : and perhaps, such of my readers as have sympathized with 
the unfortunate Yarico, may not be sorry to hear, that she bore her mis¬ 
fortunes with greater philosophy than they have hitherto fancied. The 
story was first related by Ligon, who (after praising poor Yarico’s ex¬ 
cellent complexion, which, he says, was “ a bright bayand her 
small breasts “ with nipples of porphyrie”) observes, that, “ she 
il chanc’t afterwards to be with child by a Christian servant, and be- 
(t ing very great, walked down to a woode, in which was a pond of 
“ water, and there, by the side of the pond, brought herselfe a-bed, 
“ and in three hours came home with the child in her arms, a lusty 
boy, frolicke and lively.” The crime of Inkle the merchant, how¬ 
ever, admits of no palliation; but it is ridiculous enough to hear 
Abbe Raynal (willing to improve upon Addison) ascribe to it an in¬ 
tended revolt of all the Negroes in Barbadoes, who, as he asserts, 
moved by indignation at Inkle’s monstrous cruelty, vowed with one 
accord the destruction of all the Whites ; but their plot was disco¬ 
vered the night before it was to have been carried into effect. The 
Histoire Pbilosophique has a thousand beauties; but it grieves me to 
say, that in point of historical accuracy, it i§ nearly on a level with the 
History of Robinson Crusoe , or Tom Thumb. 
