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applied, by the English, to a cluster of small iflands, rocks and reefs of fand, which stretch in a north-westerly direction for the space of nearly three hundred leagues from the northern coaft of Hifpaniola to the Bahama strait oppofite the Florida shore.*

Such of the above islands as are worth cultivation now belong to GREAT-BRITAIN, SPAIN, FRANCE, HOLLAND and DENMARK.

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The climate in all the Weft-India islands is nearly the fame, allowing for thofe accidental differences which the several situations and qualities of the lands themselves produce. As they lie within the tropics, and the fun goes quite over their heads, paffing beyond them to the north, and never returning farther from any of them than about thirty degrees to the fouth, they would be continually

The whole group is called by the Spaniards Lucayes.

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fubjected to an extreme and intolerable heat, if the trade winds, rifing gradually as the fun gathers ftrength, did not blow in upon them from the fea, and refresh the air in fuch a manner, as to enable them to attend their concerns even under the meridian fun. On the other hand, as the night advances, a breeze begins to be perceived, which blows fmartly from the land, as it were from the cen ter, towards the fea, to all points of the compass at once.

By the fame remarkable Providence in the difpofing of things it is, that when the fun has made a great progrefs towards the tropic of Cancer, and becomes in a manner vertical, he draws after him fuch a vaft body of clouds, which fhield them from his direct beams, and diffolving into rain, cool the air and refresh the country, thirty with the long drought, which commonly prevails from the beginning of January to the latter end of May.

The rains in the West-Indies are like floods of water poured from the clouds with a prodigious impetuofity; the rivers fuddenly rife; new rivers and lakes are formed, and in a fhort time all the low country is under water. Hence it is, that the rivers which have their fource within the tropics, fwell and overflow their banks at a certain feafon; but fo mistaken were the ancients in their idea of the torrid zone, that they imagined it to be dried and fcorched up with a continual and fervent heat, and to be for that reafon usinhabitable; when, in reality, fome of the largest rivers of the world have their courfe within its limits, and the moisture is one of the greatest inconveniencies of the climate in feveral places.

The rains make the only diftinction of feafons in the Weft-Indies; the trees are green the whole year round; they have no cold, no frofts, no fnows, and but rarely fome hail; the storms of hail are, however, very violent when they happen, and the hailstones very great and heavy. Whether it be owing to this moisture, which alone does pot seem to be a fufficient cause, or to a greater quantity of a fulphureous acid, which predominates in the air of this country, metals of all kinds that are fubject to the action of fuch caufes ruft and canker in a very fhort time; and this caufe, perhaps, as much as the heat itself, contributes to make the climate of the Weft-Indies unfriendly and unpleafant to an European conftitution.

It is in the rainy feafon, principally in the month of August, more rarely in July and September, that they are affaulted by hurricanes,

Wafer's Journey across the Ifthmus of Darien

the

the most terrible calamity to which they are fubject, as well as the people in the East-Indies, from the climate; this deftroys, at a stroke, the labours of many years, and proftrates the most exalted hopes of the planter, and at the moment when he thinks himself out of danger. It is a fudden and violent ftorm of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, attended with a furious fwelling of the feas, and fometimes with an earthquake; in fhort, with every circumftance which the elements can affemble that is terrible and destructive. First, they fee a prelude to the enfuing havoc, whole fields of fugar-canes whirled into the air, and fcattered over the face of the country. The ftrongest trees of the foreft are torn up by the roots, and driven about like ftubble; their windmills are fwept away in a moment; their utenfils, the fixtures, the ponderous copper boilers, and stills of feveral hundred weight, are wrenched from the ground and battered to pieces; their houfes are no protection; the roofs are torn off at one blaft; whilft the rain, which in an hour raises the water five feet, rubes in upon them with an irresistible violence.

The grand ftaple commodity of the Weft-Indies is fugar; this commodity was not at all known to the Greeks and Romans, though it was made in China in very early times, from whence was derived the first knowledge of it; but the Portuguele were the first who cultivated it in America, and brought it into requeft, as one of the materials of a very univerfal luxury in Europe. It is not determined, whether the cane, from which this fubftance is taken, be a native of America, or brought thither to their colony of Brafil by the Portuguefe, from India and the coaft of Africa; but, however that may be, in the beginning they made the most, as they still do the beft, fugars which come to market in this part of the world. The juice within the fugar cane is the most lively, excellent, and the leaft cloying sweet in nature, which, fucked raw, has proved extremely nutritive and wholefome. From the molaffes rum is distilled, and from the fcummings of the fugar a meaner spirit is procured. The tops of the canes, and the leaves which grow upon the joints, make very good provender for their cattle, and the refuse of the cane, after grinding, ferves for fire, so that no part of this excellent plant is without its ufe.

They compute that, when things are well managed, the rum and molaffes pay the charges of the plantation, and the fugars are clear gain. However, a man cannot begin a fugar plantation of any con

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fequence,

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fequence, not to mention the purchase of the land, which is very high, under a capital of at least five thousand pounds.

The negroes in the plantations are fubfifted at a very easy rate this is generally by allotting to each family of them a small portion of land, and allowing them two days in the week, Saturday and Sunday, to cultivate it; fome are subsisted in this manner, but others find their negroes a certain portion of Guinea or Indian corn, and to fome a falt herring, or a fmall portion of bacon or falt pork, a day. All the rest of the charge confifts in a cap, a fhirt, a pair of breeches, and a blanket, and the profit of their labour yields ten or twelve pounds annually. The price of men negroes, upon their first arrival, is from thirty to fifty pounds, women and grown boys lefs: but fuch negro families as are acquainted with the business of the iflands generally bring above forty pounds upon an average one with another; and there are inftances of a fingle negro man, expert in the bufinefs, bringing one hundred and fifty guineas; and the wealth of a planter is generally computed from the number of flaves be poffeffes.

BRITISH

BRITISH WEST-INDIES.

JAMAICA.

THIS ifland, the largest of the Antilles, and the moft valuable,

lies between 17° and 19° north latitude, and between 76° and 79° weft longitude, is near one hundred and eighty miles in length, and about fixty in breadth; it approaches in its figure to an oval. The windward paffage right before it hath the ifland of Cuba on the weft, and Hifpaniola on the east, and is about twenty leagues in

breadth.

This island was discovered by Admiral Christopher Columbus in his fécond voyage, who landed upon it May 5, 1494, and was fo much charmed with it, as always to prefer it to the rest of the iflands; in confequence of which, his fon chofe it for his dukedom. It was fettled by Juan d'Efquivel, A. D. 1509, who built the town, which, from the place of his birth, he called Seville, and eleven leagues farther to the east food Melilla. Orifton was on the fouth fide of the island, scated on what is now called the Blue Fields river. All these are gone to decay, but St. Jago, now Spanish-Town, is still the capital. The Spaniards held this country one hundred and fixty years, and in their time the principal commodity was cacoa: they had an immense stock of horses, affes, and mules, and prodigious quantities of cattle. The English landed here under Penn and Venables, May 11, 1654, and quickly reduced the island. Cacoa was also their principal commodity till the old trees decayed, and the new ones did not thrive; and then the planters from Barbadoes introduced fugar canes, which hath been the great staple ever since.

VOL. IV.

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