ed, when we regard the description of persons usually sent out to these settlements? With the exception of the Governor and his staff, the rest have been mostly culprits exiled for transgression. The place being so unhealthy, and bearing so indifferent a character, that very few people of respectability would volunteer their services. To maintain themselves when they arrive, they are obliged to enter into speculations with the native traders and planters, whose chief employment consisting in the nefarious traffic of dealing in slaves, renders them not very scrupulous about the means of obtaining wealth.
The great encouragement given to this trade, which constitutes one of the principal perquisites of the Governor, has also contributed greatly to the degradation of the Settlement, from its having rendered the planters vicious, indolent, and careless of improving their property. Had a more enlightened policy been pursued, and the cultivation of the land more closely attended to, the proprietors might have now seen prosperous villages rising round them, inhabited by free settlers, and have possessed an export of cotton, indigo, sugar, and other valuable commodities, instead of being surrounded by wretched assemblages of slave-huts, woods of cocoa-nut trees, and unprofitable plantations of manioca.
The two distinct classes above-mentioned, consisting of European Portuguese, and of native planters descended from the old settlers, may be estimated at about five hundred with their families. Next to these may be enumerated the descendants of the old Arab settlers and the Banians; the former are mostly engaged in a sea-faring life; and the latter are in general petty traders, or mean artizans.[1] Both together may amount to about eight
- ↑ The following passage from Captain Weatherhead's Journal is admirably characteristic of this people—"They are a very unpleasant people to trade with, especially for an European unaccustomed to their manners. They will offer about half the value of an article at first—then examine into every particular of quantity and quality—go away—return and offer a little more—and so continue to proceed till their conduct becomes almost unbearable. When they do make a purchase they generally take the whole quantity to secure a monopoly. Several of them agreed for goods; but as I would not let them be taken away without payment, they never were sent for, being, as it appeared, wanting in funds, which is a general complaint on the island."
