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Show 68 ANTIGUA· many of the planters of Antigua have ceased to convert their molasses into rum. It ought to be observed that these five years offreedom includecl two ofdrought, one of which was very calamitous. The statement for 183!), forms an admirable climax to this account. It is as follows; sugar, 22,383 ho~!;slwads, (10,000 beyond the last average of slavery); 13,433 puncheons of molasses (also 10,000 beyond that average) and only 582 puncheons of rum! That, in the sixth year of fi·eedom, after the fair trial of five years, the exports of sugar from Antigua almost doubled the average of the last five years of slavery, is a fact which precludes the necessity of all other evidence. By what hands was this vast crop raised and realised? By the hands of that lazy and impracticable race, (as they have often been described) the negroes. And under what stimulus has the work been effected? Solely under that of moderate wages. The Governor made a parting visit to us at our hotel in the evening, and seemed to derive pleasure from freely imparting to us his just and admirable views of colonial policy. They are founded on the immutable basis of Christian principle. Our brigantine had now returned from St. Christopher's, and early on the 28th we sailed for Dominica. I cannot, with honesty, quit my narrative of Antigua, without acknowledging that, amidst the profusion of evidence poured in upon us, in that island, of the favorable working of freedom, we met with one opposing testimony. It was that of a wealthy old gentleman whom I met one day in the str~ets of St. John's, and of whom every one who visits Antigua ANTlGUA. 69 is pr.etty sure to hear. No sooner were we introduced to lm~ than he b~gan to pour forth his complaints of the m1scondnct of the laborers, impending ruin, &c.&c. It so happens, however, that not an acre of" groom] I·S offered for sale, within his reach, which he does not purchase with the utmost avidity; 80 that his landecl property, already large, is constantly on the increase. His words were sad enough, but every one acknow-ledged, that ample was the refutation of the1n , t·l lfl11·S · h - ~~by ~is deeds. Confident we are, that our elderly fnend IS fa~ too much alive to his own interest, to form any exceptiOn to the following declaration of the Governor and N. Gilbert. On our asking them whether there was any person on the island who wished for the restoration of slavery, they answered, without a moment's hesitation, "No-not one." I am, &c. &c. |