168 
HISTORY OF THE [book hi, 
overgrown with this sort of grass, as either to be 
converted into pasture land, or to become entirely 
abandoned. Exclusive of such deserted land, and 
a small part of the country that is altogether unim¬ 
provable, every part of the island may be said to be 
under cultivation. 
From the circumstances that have been related, 
it is difficult to furnish an average return of the 
crops, which vary to so great a degree, that the 
quantity of sugar exported from this island in some 
years, is five times greater than in others; thus in 
1779 were shipped 3,382 hogsheads, and 579 
tierces; in 1782 the crop was 15,102 hogsheads, 
and 1,603 tierces; and in the years 1770, 1773, 
and 1778, there were no crops of any kind; all the 
canes being destroyed by a long continuance of dry 
weather, and the whole body of the negroes must 
have perished for want of food, if American ves¬ 
sels with corn and flour had been at that time, as 
they now are, denied admittance.* 
It seems to me on the whole, that the island has 
progressively decreased both in produce and white 
population. The last accurate returns to govern¬ 
ment were in 1774. In that year, the white inha¬ 
bitants of all ages and sexes were 2,590, and the 
enslaved negroes 37,808, and I believe, that 17,000 
* In the year 1789 there was no fall of rain for seven months, 
whereby there was not only no crop of sugar, but 5,000 head of horn¬ 
ed cattle perished for want of water. 
