forty colts, forty oxen, and one hundred sheep at least to dispose of, which would amount to more than 20001. and would well reward the induftrious grazier. There are some fine penns in the parish of St. Ann's, where many of the proprietors reside, and live content and happy. I shall conclude this subject, and proceed to the natives; and though I may be severe in the following pages against many, be assured, I will speak from experience, not from prejudice; and that I will give merit or vice the wreath or the rod. All people are regarded according to their appearance and merit (save only country prejudice) more than in Great-Britain and Ireland, where the poor are despised by the rich. "Talk not of ancestors, nor of their state; And I should think it strange if it was otherwife, when I consider how many great men there are in those torrid regions, successful knaves, who by cunning, fraud, and deceit, are elevated daily from the dunghill to the fenate, which I shall hereafter speak of; and it commonly happens that fuch are more respected than men of real merit, whose noble fouls scorn to practise base means to enrich themselves; I must observe that all ranks and denominations of people are more friendly, kindly, and hospitable, than in colder countries. I believe warm climates expand the heart with liberal liberal and generous ideas; as there are not regular taverns to be met with in the country, it is quite customary for travelling people to call on each other, though strangers, for refreshment for themselves, servants, and horses, and that too without any ceremony or formality, and behave friendly and polite to each other. The governor's revenues, including his falary of 2000l. which he has from Great-Britain, is, as I was informed, 10,000l. per annum. A late governor, towards the conclusion of his reign, rendered himself obnoxious to the people, and was reprobated and lashed at severely in the public papers for his public and private conduct; instead of putting the island in a proper state of defence, he put it twice to a very great and unnecessary expence, by enforcing martial law in 1779 and 1780; his proclamation of a "glorious" expedition intended against the Spanish main, to be headed in person by himself, and thereby decoying about fifteen hundred overseers, clerks, and book-keepers, to enter as volunteers; his mean manœuvre, after he had collected them all together, in remaining behind; his combination with griping, pedling merchants, in furnishing the troops and volunteers, on this expedition, with rotten cargoe, beef and pork, and new rum, by which means they died like rotten sheep at St. Juan, and were so sickly at the last, that they were not able to bury each other; and those lingering, faw their fellow E 3 fellow creatures, friends and acquantance, daily devoured by the carion crows; so that out of fif. teen hundred volunteers, only eighteen or twenty returned to tell the doleful tale; the troops fared almost as bad. Governor Campbell surprisingly gained the love and affection of the people; he put the island in a proper state of defence, and is a brave and judicious general. The council is composed of ten men, some of whom are, though possessed of estates, thousands worse than nothing; yet they cannot be arrested; their bodies are sacred; there are several other great gentlemen of this description in the island, who have their estates well fenced round; the managers, and overseers, with some trusty negroes, keep a constant look out, the gates are always locked, so that no stranger or other person if not well known will get admittance; the produce is all shipped on Sundays; the slaves, and other stock, are only to be met with on Sundays. I once had occafion to wait on an honorable gentleman of this kind in St. James' parish; the gate being locked, I knocked several times; but how great was my surprize when a musket ball came whistling by my ears; a negroe came running to me, and faid, "Massa will shoot you 'tone dead if you no go avey 'rectly." Having a letter of introduction to his master, I was shortly after received very politely; he made several apologies for his rasiness; that he took me to be a marshal, &c. &c. He had an elegant house, and a fine : fine parcel of creole ladies about him, and they lived most luxuriously, in defiance of the law ! There is a law of the island favouring insolvent debtors, by which any person in the space of three months, by rendering all his property to his creditors, may get from prison; in every parish there is a deputy provost marshal, each of whom make pretty livings: I suppose the place of the marshal of Kingstown is worth from two to three thousand pounds yearly. It is something surprising to think what frequent executions take place; the news papers teem with little more than that of fales, vendues, houses and lands to be rented, runaway negroes, and strayed horses. There are about seventy attornies at law, and twenty barristers in the island; amongst the latter, the oratorial Mr. Lewis and facetious Mr. Brown have distinguished themselves; tho' Mr. Brown is not so fluent in speech as Mr. Lewis, yet he understands the law well, points out the substantial parts of his causes, and sticks to them; and when he has a weak cause he handles it very ingeniously to divert the Jury, and soften the rigour of their sentence. Mr. Lewis was clerk to the late Mr. Hebert (a very capital merchant), and having taken a propensity to the law, after serving him four or five years very faithfully, he was sent at the expence of Mr. Hebert to the Temple, where he was generously supported for three or four years; if his genius had not E4 been been so long cramped in a store and comptinghouse, he certainly would be a prodigy of wit and elocution. There are some extensive merchants in Kingftown, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, &c. a few of whom are English and Irish, but ten times the number of Scotch; they all in general live elegantly; it is not thought strange for a peasant's fon from Glasgow, or Aberdeen, in the space of four or five years, to commence merchant, and in a few years afterwards to make a pretty independence; or if he enters into the planting line, to fucceed as well; to get possession of flaves, &c. whilst many English and Irish young men, though ever fo clever, are often hard fet to procure themselves the neceffaries of life : I cannot conceive what the difference can be owing to, unless it be that the Scotch are more enterprising, partial and friendly to each other than other nations; besides, they are in general well educated young men; I never knew a raw lad from that country, who had not a letter of recommendation to his Excellency, or to some Mac or other; upon the delivery of which, he was taken notice of, and immediately put into fome 'business, and in some time after, if he lived, was either a military wood cock, merchant, or cowskin hero! The markets are very precarious; I have known falt provisions to fell at one hundred and fifty per cent. profit one week, and the fame fold again in the |