S. Gosnell, Printer, Little Queen Street, London.
-----
Footnote 1:
Dr. Monro.
Footnote 2:
Some medical men contend that fevers which are communicated by
contagion, cannot attack the same person twice. If there be any
foundation for the opinion, it may stand as an additional proof that
the yellow fever is not a contagious disease.
Footnote 3:
Many of these worse than useless distinctions have lately been done
away, and some general regulations established; but still the system
is incomplete; and much yet remains to be done, before the medical
department can take on that uniformity of character, or proceed with
that uniformity of movement, which is requisite in so important a
branch of the military body.——1805.
Footnote 4:
This regulation, which certainly had its advantages, has been found a
source of cavil and vexation, and it has since been made an order of
government that the fiscal should have his specific reward, and the
whole of the fines be devoted to the ways and means of the colony. But
it is to be feared, that this arrangement may make him less zealous in
executing the duty, and that the roads and bridges may not,
henceforth, be found in such excellent repair.
Footnote 5:
The Dutch weights and measures exceed by about ¹⁄₁₂th part those of
England.
Footnote 6:
Since these notes were written the number of estates has much
increased, and several that were only planted with cotton, now produce
the most luxuriant crops of sugar.
Footnote 7:
A large species of wasp.
Footnote 8:
Already increased to upwards of 80,000.——1805.
Footnote 9:
Unhappily, with a view to make the sea voyage as short as possible,
Dr. Master took his passage on board a vessel bound to South Carolina,
where the climate was not less insalubrious than at St. Domingo, and
where, soon after his arrival, he relapsed, and fell a victim to
disease.
Footnote 10:
The pen and the politics of this author have since made him generally
known to the British public.
Footnote 11:
In the “Select and posthumous Works” of the celebrated Monsieur de la
Harpe, it is related, that at a French table in 1788, where the
company was numerous and fashionable, “Chamfort had been reading some
of his impious and libertine tales, and the fine ladies had heard them
without once making use of their fans.”
Footnote 12:
Small carriages drawn by single horses.
Footnote 13:
Many excellent laws have been enacted in various colonies, for the
protection of the negroes; but as the testimony of a slave is not
admitted in evidence, these laws are of little avail.
Footnote 14:
These remarks were written in the year 1797; since which, the African
slave-trade has been abolished, by an act of Parliament.
Footnote 15:
It is probable that our troops might be rendered nearly as effective
for service in the West Indies, as in Europe, if it were possible, in
all cases, to prepare them for the climate by slow and gradual
approaches; as, for instance, by first letting them serve, for a time,
at Gibraltar, and afterwards employing them, for a year or two, in the
more windward islands, such as Barbadoes or Antigua, before they were
sent upon duty to the other colonies.
Footnote 16:
In the year 1793, a body of emigrants from St. Domingo, amounting to
upwards of 300 in number, who had made their escape from that colony,
under all the circumstances of the most afflicting depression, arrived
at Philadelphia, at the time when the yellow fever raged with its
utmost malignity; yet, not one of them was attacked with the malady,
which was then desolating the town. As if expressly to make this fact
the more striking, it happened likewise that the emigrants who arrived
at the same distressing period, from Ireland, the States of Germany,
and other parts of Europe were attacked by the fever, even in greater
proportion than the Americans themselves. It is not the property of
any contagion to exhibit such marked partialities. The autumnal
temperature of Philadelphia was congenial to the emigrants from St.
Domingo: they were acclimated, and therefore not susceptible of the
disease; while those from Europe, being the inhabitants of colder
regions, were in a peculiar degree predisposed.
Footnote 17:
This letter has been altered since it was originally written, and the
author has availed himself of the facts stated by Mr. Bryan Edwards,
in his “History of the British Colonies in the West Indies.”
Footnote 18:
The following summary is given, by Mr. Bryan Edwards, of the state of
agriculture, and of the average exports, in the French division of St.
Domingo, at the beginning of the year 1790.
ESTATES.
431 Plantations of clayed sugar.
362 ——————— moscovado.
—————
793
3,117 Plantations of coffee.
789 ——————— cotton.
3,160 ——————— indigo.
54 ——————— cocoa.
623 Smaller settlements of grain, yams, and other vegetables.
—————
8,536 Establishments of all kinds throughout the colony.
EXPORTS. _lbs._ _Value in Livres._
Clayed sugar 58,642,214 41,049,549
Moscovado sugar 86,549,829 34,619,931
Coffee 71,663,187 71,663,187
Cotton 6,698,858 12,397,716
Indigo, hhds. 951,607 8,564,463
Melasses, hhds. 23,061 2,767,320
An inferior sort of rum called taffia,
hhds. 2,600 312,000
Raw hides, No. 6,500 52,000
Tanned ditto, No. 7,900 118,500
———————————
Total value at the ports of shipping, in
livres of St. Domingo[19] 171,544,666
———————————
Footnote 19:
Being equal to £4,956,780 sterling.
Footnote 20:
The principal establishment might be fixed in or near London, and this
might be connected with collateral schools, as branches of the same
institution, in the several colonies; the whole being subject to the
management of a board or committee, appointed expressly for conducting
the affairs of the emancipation; and so regulated as to receive the
approbation and assistance of the West India proprietors. In doing
justice to the slaves, due care should be taken _to provide a full
compensation for their owners_; otherwise, no plan of enfranchisement
can be equitable, or administered with a fair prospect of proving
beneficial to the colonies. In the measure now suggested, this might
form a constituent part of the arrangement: a moderate tax might be
raised, both in this country and the settlements, for the combined
purpose of aiding the emancipation, and supplying the compensation.
As the system would be progressive in its operation, a very large sum
would not be immediately required: perhaps an adequate fund might be
derived from the following sources:
1. An appropriation of the “King’s Tax,” now levied in some of the
colonies, and an extension of it, to all the British settlements in
the West Indies.
2. A Sunday toll, to be collected at every toll-gate throughout the
United Kingdom.
3. Voluntary contributions, and collections after charity sermons, to
be preached half-yearly on the subject of the emancipation, in every
church, chapel, and licensed place of worship in Great Britain and
Ireland.
If these means should appear to be insufficient, it may be presumed
that, at this happy period of diminishing the national burthens, few
Englishmen could refuse themselves the gratification of promoting such
a benevolent cause, by contributing ten or fifteen shillings per cent.
according to the rate of the tax on property.
------------------------------------------------------------------------