204 HISTORY OF THE [book iv 
■ « 
and they constitute a numerous body of people, 
composed of men of all countries and characters; 
for, unfortunately, every enterprising adventurer, 
who has either learned no particular trade, or has 
been brought up to one which is useless in these 
regions, fancies himself capable of speedily acqui¬ 
ring all the various knowledge of the sugar planter, 
and the right management and government of his 
fellow-creatures, the negroes; though in truth a 
more weighty charge in itself, and one more im¬ 
portant in its consequences, can scarcely fall to the 
lot of man, 
I have, I think, in a former place, assigned the 
causes to which it is partly ascribable, that emi¬ 
grants from various parts of the mother country, 
successively constitute the bulk of the sugar colo¬ 
nists; of whom it is certain, that the major part re¬ 
tain, in a considerable degree, the manners and ha¬ 
bits of life in which they were educated. Yet, 
there are authors, who affect to describe the inhabi¬ 
tants of all the West Indies as a herd of criminals 
and convicts; and cite the stale crimes and violences, 
of lawless men, a century ago, when these islands 
were the rendezvous of pirates and bucaniers, as a 
just representation of the reigning colonial habits, 
manners, and dispositions! 
Calumnies so gross defeat themselves by their 
absurdity;—but although it is in the highest degree- 
ridiculous to imagine, that a voyage across the At¬ 
lantic creates any sudden or radical change in the hu- 
