360 HISTORY OF THE [book iv. 
been anticipated, and in part answered, in the pre¬ 
ceding pages, by the proof that has been given of 
the great disproportion of the sexes in the yearly 
importations from Africa. It has been shewn from 
unquestionable authority, that one-third only are 
females. Thus, notwithstanding every allowance 
for the creoles or natives, who may reasonably be 
supposed to have increased according to the gene¬ 
ral laws of nature, there was in the year 1789, in 
Jamaica alone, an excess in its negro population of 
30,000 males. But this is not the whole extent of 
the evil. It is a truth well known, that the prac¬ 
tice of polygamy, which universally prevails in 
Africa, is also very generally adopted among the 
negroes in the West Indies; and he who conceives 
that a remedy may be found for this, by introdu¬ 
cing among them the laws of marriage as establish¬ 
ed in Europe, is utterly ignorant of their manners, 
propensities and superstitions. It is reckoned in 
Jamaica, on a moderate computation, that not less 
than ten thousand of such as are called head ne¬ 
groes (artificers and others) possess from tw T o to 
four wives. This partial appropriation of the wo¬ 
men creates a still greater proportion of single 
men, and produces all the mischiefs which are ne¬ 
cessarily attached to the system of polygamy. In 
Africa, the redundancy of males, occasioned by an 
unequal distribution of the females, is undoubtedly 
one of the sources which supplies the European 
trader with slaves; and the consequences attending 
it among the negroes in the West Indies, are a 
shocking licentiousness and profligacy of manners 
