lating in his closet, would seem sufficient to deter a wise man from adventuring in this line of cultivation, it is chiefly owing, that so much money has been expended in it: I mean the fluctuating nature of its returns. The quality of sugar varies occasionally to so great a degree, as to create a difference in its marketable value of upwards of ten shillings sterling in the hundred weight, the whole of which is clear profit, the duties and charges being precisely the same on Muscovado sugar, of whatever quality. Thus, fine sugar has been known to yield a clear profit to the planter of no less than £.1,500 sterling on 200 hogsheads of the usual magnitude, beyond what the same number, where the commodity is inferior in quality, would have obtained at the same market. To aver that this difference is imputable wholly to soil and seasons in the West Indies, or to the state of the British market, is to contradict common observation and experience. Much, undoubtedly, depends on skill in the manufacture; and the process being apparently simple, the beholder (from a propensity natural to the busy and inquisitive part of mankind) feels an almost irresistible propensity to engage in it. In this, therefore, as in all other enterprises, whose success depends in any degree on human sagacity and prudence, though perhaps not more than one man in fifty comes away fortunate, every sanguine adventurer takes for granted that he shall be that one. Thus his system of life becomes a course of experiments, and if ruin should be the consequence of his rashness, he imputes his misfortunes to any

cause, rather than to his own want of capacity or foresight.

That the reasons thus given, are the only ones that can be adduced in answer to the question that has been stated, I presume not to affirm. Other causes, of more powerful efficacy, may perhaps be assigned by men of wider views and better information. The facts however which I have detailed, are too striking and notorious to be controverted or concealed.

Having now, I believe, sufficiently treated of the growth, cultivation, and manufacture of sugar, &c. and pointed out with a minuteness (tedious perhaps, but) suited, as I conceive, to the importance of the subject, the first cost and current contingencies attending the establishment and profitable maintenance of a sugar plantation, together with the risque and gains eventually arising from this species of property, I shall proceed, in the following chapter, to furnish my readers with such information as I have been able to collect concerning the minor staples, especially those important ones of cotton, indigo, coffee, cacao, pimento, and ginger, which, with sugar and rum, principally constitute the bulky freight that gives employment to an extent of shipping, nearly equal to the whole commercial tonnage of England at the beginning of the present century.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the minor Staple Commodities; viz. COTTON, its growth and various species.-Mode of cultivation and risques attending it.-Import of this article into Great Britain, and profits accruing from the manufactures produced by it.-INDIGO, its cultivation and manufacture.-Opulence of the first Indigo planters in Jamaica, and, reflections concerning the decline of this branch of cultivation in that island.-COFFEE, whether that of the West Indies equal to the Mocha?—Situation and soil.-Exorbitant duty to which it was subject in Great Britain.-Approved method of cultivating the plant and curing the berry.-Estimate of the annual expenses and returns of a Coffee plantation.CACAO, GINGER, ARNOTTO, ALOES, and PIMENTO; brief account of each.

TH

COTTON.

HAT beautiful vegetable wool, or substance called cotton, is the spontaneous production of three parts of the earth. It is found growing naturally in all the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America; and may justly be comprehended

among the most valuable gifts of a bountiful Cre ator, superintending and providing for the necessities of man.

The cotton-wool, which is manufactured into cloth (for there is a species in the West Indies, called silk or wild cotton, unfit for the loom) consists of two distinct kinds, known to the planters by the names of GREEN-SEED COTTON, and SHRUB COTTON; and these again have subordinate marks of difference, with which the cultivator ought to be well acquainted if he means to apply his labours to the greatest advantage,

GREEN-SEED cotton is of two species; of one of which the wool is so firmly attached to the seed, that no method has hitherto been found of separating them, except by the hand; an operation so tedious and troublesome, that the value of the commodity is not proportionate to the pains that are requisite in preparing it for market. This sort therefore is at present cultivated principally for supplying wick for the lamps that are used in sugar-boiling, and for domestic purposes; but the staple being exceedingly good, and its colour perfectly white, it would doubtless be a valuable acquisition to the muslin manufactory, could means be found of detaching it easily from the seed.

The other sort has larger seeds, of a duller green than the former, and the wool is not of equal fineness; though much finer than the cotton