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37, 670.) New articles of cultivation, or a more vigorous profecution of the old, APPENDIX. fhould, at the fame time, be encouraged; fo that they may always have objects on which to exert their activity, in order to procure the offered luxury.

759. The first thing, therefore, to be encouraged in a new African colony, (and through the colony among the furrounding natives,) is the raifing of an abundance of provisions, provender, and cattle. This point being gained, which, upon every fyftem, must be the foundation of all folid improvement, fome new luxury might be introduced, and the cultivation of cotton, ginger, coffee, or other easily raifed article for exportation, at the fame time, encouraged by premiums (if neceffary,) confifting of the new luxury.

Native chiefs to be concili

ated.

760. I have already intimated the neceffity of engaging the co-operation of the native chiefs, in the great work of civilization. Though the colony at S. Leona is not fo closely connected with those chiefs, as I think could be wifhed, ($130.) yet the Directors feem greatly and juftly to value their friendship, and it is pleasing to obferve their fuccefs in cultivating it. (§ 495, et feq.) They appear indeed to be fo ready to adopt the improvements they fee at Freetown, that, if they should not be, in the first instance, frightened or disgusted at obferving the intolerable manual labour attending the W. INDIAN mode of cultivating the fugar-cane, there cannot be a doubt, that the S. Leona government, by encouraging cultivators and artifts from the colony, to go and live with fuch chiefs as Cuddy, ( § 499.) will fucceed in gradually reconciling the natives to all forts of regular industry.-Provifions of all Provifions, kinds, and also cotton and ginger, may be raised by any man of common sense, even &c. eafily raised; if he had never before seen them planted. That they require less labour than fimilar articles in Europe, has been already mentioned; and the bare fight of the plants will point out, how they are to be treated. Thus I think any man who has feen the potato planted in Britain, where it is exotic, may, if he please, raife yams, eddoes, fweet potatoes, ground nuts, ginger, &c. in Africa, where those roots are indigenous. The culture of Indian and Guinea corn, is as fimple as that of pease and beans in England. Plantains and bananas, are certainly as easily raised in Africa, as cabbages and greens are in Europe. Oranges, limes, cocoa-nuts, &c. &c. require far lefs attention, than any kind of fruit in this part of the world. And, had there been any mystery in the cultivation of cotton, we fhould not have feen it fo fuddenly fupplant fugar, as it lately did, in feveral W. Indian iflands; especially in Barbadoes, where, after the fugar-works were deftroyed by the hurricane in 1780, cotton was planted with great fuccefs, by many perfons who had never before attempted it. Thus every kind of provisions, and even fome articles for exportation, may certainly be cultivated, without the tuition of W. Indian artists*: and their culture may be carried

If any man should doubt his ability to raise cotton, ginger, and even coffee, without any particular course of inftruction, he may look into Mr. Long's Hift. of Jamaica, and Edwards's Hist, of

APPENDIX. carried on by manual labour, till the roots of the trees are removed, and till cattle can be raised to draw the plough.

also provender

but not fugar, indigo, &c.

761. If the natural grass should not afford fufficient or proper food for the cattle, Guinea-grafs, Scotch-grafs, and other kinds, may be raised by hand, as in the Weft Indies. Thefe, with the blades of Indian and Guinea corn, potato vines, the leaves and flocks, or trunks, of plantain and banana trees, not to mention cane-tops, fupport cattle fo well, that were they cultivated with proper care, in the fugar-islands, the ne. groes would not be much harraffed with grafs-picking; especially as the artificial graffes, and the blades of Indian and Guinea corn, may be converted into hay, as in fome parts of Jamaica, where they alfo cure the wite grafs and the four grass, which when green, the cattle will not taste *.

762. Sugar, indigo, and one or two lefs confiderable articles, are the only tropical productions that require any great art or experience, either in the cultivation or the manufacture. As to indigo, the manufacture of it is fo deftructive to human life, that I would as foon think of introducing the plague into any country. But when the fugar-cane comes to be cultivated, fome inftruction from a perfon well skilled in the boiling of fugar, and the diftillation of rum, will be abfolutely neceffary. I fhould think that such instruction might be obtained from some person poffeffing the proper qualifications, of humble profpects and a manageable difpofition, who might be sent out in a subordinate station. In order to prevent bribery, and to interest him in the undertaking, he should have a liberal share of the neat produce. But by no means fhould he be intrufted with difcretionary power, in any shape; for, however low his education and condition, and however submissive he may be to white fuperiors, he has most probably been habituated to despise every man with a black skin, and to abuse his authority, in fome land of flavery, where authority, though frequently abused, must be supported; and where the superiors on estates, though ever fo well difpofed, have too much on their hands to attend minutely, to the complaints of every individual flave.

the Brit. Col. in the W. Indies, where, to gratify the curiofity of European readers, the cultivation of
these articles, among others which require a far more complex process, is described. Several other
books and pamphlets contain similar defcriptions. But the culture of provisions of all kinds, is rec-
koned too plain a bufinefs to require particular explanation.-By Mr. Beaver's planting and gardening
journal now before me, it appears that he was very successful in raifing Indian corn, yams, ground-nuts,
pine-apples, bananas, oranges, limes, goavas and pepper. He not only raised, but dreffed and eat
caffada, which is rather a delicate process. Cotton alfo throve with him to admiration. Yet a know-
ledge of planting cannot be added to that gentleman's other excellent qualifications. In his journal he
not only declares his total ignorance of cultivation, but shows it, by sowing several European feeds,
which could never yet be brought to thrive within the tropics; but others failed from being musty.
• Some of the natural grafs, in the Savannahs, yields 4 tons of hay annually.-Long, Vol. I. p. 453.

763. Thus

introduced.

763. Thus I have endeavoured to clear the way for the introduction of the fugar. APPENDIX. cane, the fuccefsful cultivation of which, at S. Leona, I will venture to fay, I am as anxious to promote as any one member of the Company. But, in order to infure When sugar the fuccefs of that important fpecies of agriculture, I wish it to be introduced with fhould be due precaution and preparation, and profecuted in such a manner as may improve and preferve, instead of deftroying, as it has uniformly done in the W. Indies, the morals, the happiness and the lives of the poor labourers. I muft, therefore, repeat my opinion, that, after the cultivation of provisions, provender, cotton, ginger, coffee, and perhaps fome other minor ftaples*, fhall have taken firm root, after cattle fhall abound-in fhort after the colony fhall, by the bleffing of Providence, have become populous, and, in all respects vigorous and flourishing-then, it appears to me, but not before, may the cultivation of the sugar cane be fafely introduced, and prosecuted by the following method practised near Batavia, and at Bencoolen (but not in Bengal, fee § 139.)

Mr. Botham on the cultivation of a Sugar Plantation at Batavia and Bencoolen.
From Abridg. Min. Evid. before the House of Commons, 1791, p. 133. See also
Privy Council's Report, Part III.

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at Batavia,

764. Having been two years in the English and French W. India islands, and Cultivation of fince conducted fugar eftates in the E. Indies; it may be defirable to know that Sugar eftates fugar, better and cheaper than that in our islands, and also arrack, are produced in the E. Indies, by the labour of free people. China, Bengal, and the coast of Malabar, produce quantities of fugar and spirits; but, as the most confiderable fugar eftates are near Batavia, I shall explain the improved mode of conducting those eftates. The proprietor is generally a rich Dutchman, who has built on it subftantial works. He rents the eftate (fay of 300 or more acres) to a Chinese, who lives on and fuperintends it, and who re-lets it to free men, in parcels of 50 or 60, on condition that they fhall plant it in canes for so much for every pecul, (1334lb.) of fugar produced. The fuperintendant collects people from the adjacent villages to take off his crop. One fet of task-men, with their carts and buffaloes, cut the canes, carry them to the mill and grind them. A fecond fet boil them. A third clay and basket them for market, all at fo much per pecul.

765. Thus the renter knows with certainty what every pecul will coft him. He by free lahas no unnecessary expence, for when crop is over, the tafk-men go home, and, for bourers, 7 months in the year, there only remain on the estate the cane planters, preparing the next crop. By dividing the labour, it is cheaper and better done. Only clayed fugars are made at Batavia, which are equal to the best from the W. Indies, and

So called in the Weft Indies, in contradistinction to Sugar.

L12

fold

APPENDIX. fold at 18s. per pecul. The Shabander exacts a dollar per pecul on all fugar exported. The price of common labour is from 9 to 10d per day. But the task-men gain confiderably more; not only from extra work, but from being confidered artists in their feveral branches. They do not make fpirits on the fugar eftates; the molaffes and skimmings are fent for fale to Batavia, where one diftillery may buy the produce of 100 eftates. Here is a vast faving in making spirits; not as in the W. Indies, a diftillery for each eftate. Arrack is fold at Batavia at about 8d. per gallon; the proof of the fpirit is about 5 tenths.

alfo at Bencoolen.

Plough and other impleiments uled.

Manufacture

766. "After spending two years in the West Indies, I returned to the East in 1776, and in the last war conducted fugar works at Bencoolen, in Sumatra, on nearly the fame principles as the Dutch; I confined my expences to what they had done, allowing for the unavoidable charges, on a new and fole undertaking.

767. "The cane is cultivated to the utmost perfection at Batavia. The hoe, almost the fole implement of the Weft, is there fcarcely used; the lands are well ploughed by a light plough with a fingle buffalo; a drill is then ploughed, and a perfon, with two baskets filled with cane plants, fufpended to a stick across his fhoulders, drops plants into the furrow alternately from each basket, covering them at the fame time with earth with his feet. Young canes are kept often ploughed as a weeding, and the hoc is used to weed round the plant when very young; but of this there is little need, if the land has been fufficiently ploughed. When the cane is ready to earth up, the space between the rows is ploughed deep, the cane-tops tied up, and: with an inftrument like a fhovel, with teeth at the bottom, a spade-handle, and two cords fixed to the body of the fhovel, ending by a wooden handle for a purchase, isufed by two perfons to earth up the cane, the strongest holding the handle of the fhovel, preffing it into the ploughed earth, while the other on the oppofite fide of the plant, by a jerk of the cord, draws up to the plant, all the earth that the plough. had loofened. Two perfons, with this inftrument, will earth up more canes in the day than 10 negroes with hoes. The canes in India are much higher earthed than in the West Indies; in moift foils, they, with little labour, earth them as high as. the knee, at once making a dry bed for the cane, and a drain for the water.

768. "The improvement in making the cane into fugar, at Batavia, keeps pace of the Sugar with that in its culture: evaporation being in proportion to the furface, their boilers have as much of it as poffible. The cane juice is tempered and boiled to a fyrup; it is then thrown into vats, which hold one boiling, there fprinkled with water, to fubfide its foul parts. After ftanding fix hours, it is let off by 3 pegs of different heights, into a copper with one fire; it is tempered again, and reduced to sugar, by a gentle fire; it granulates, and the boiler dipping a wand into the copper, ftrikes it on the fide, then drops the fugar remaining on it; into a cup of water, fcrapes it up with his thumb nail, and can judge to a nicety of the fugar's being properly boiled.. The vats I mentioned are placed all at the left end of a fet of coppers. After run

ning off, for boiling all that is clear, the rest is ftrained on the outside of the boil- APPENDIX. ing-house; what is fine is put into the copper for fugar, the lees kept for diftilling. 769. "Claying of fugar is as in the W. Indies. The cane trafh is not, as in our islands, carried into fheds, where it lofes much of its ftrength before it is ufed; but is laid out immediately to dry, then made into faggots, fet up in cocks, and ufed. immediately when dry; hence its force of fire is much greater, and the carrying it to and from the trafh-houfe is faved.

770. "The culture of the cane in the West Indies is in it's infancy. Many alterations are to be made, expenses, and human labour leffened; the hoe, now used to turn up foils of different texture, is of one conftruction, cheap and very light; fo that the negro, without any help from its weight, digs up the earth, (and the cane roots, on replanting) by the fevereft exertion. In the Eaft, we plough up the cane roots. Having experienced the difference of labourers for profit, and labourers from force, I can assert, that the favings by the former are very confiderable.

W. Indian

cultivation
in its infancy..

771. "The Weft India planter, for his own interest, should give more labour to How to be beaft, and lefs to man; a larger portion of his eftate ought to be in pafture. When improved.. practicable, canes should be carried to the mill, and cane tops and grafs to the flock, in waggons; the cuftom of making a hard-worked negro get a bundle of grafs twice. a day, abolished; and in fhort a total change take place of the miferable management in our West India islands. By this means following, as near as poffible, the East India mode, confolidating the diftilleries, I do fuppofe our fugar islands might be better worked than they now are, by two-thirds, or indeed one-half of the prefent force. Let it be confidered, how much labour is loft by the persons overseeing the forced labourer, which is faved when he works for his own profit. I have flated, with the fricteft veracity, a plain matter of fact-that fugar eftates can be worked cheaper by free perfons than flaves.-Whether the flave-trade can be abolished, and the blacks freed, is for the confideration of Parliament. In my judgment, thefe defirable purposes, may be effected without materially injuring the W. India planter. He has but to improve his culture, and leffen human labour, and the progeny of the prefent blacks will anfwer every purpose of working. Wefts

India eftates.

772. "The flaves in the French iflands, appeared to be better cloathed, better fed, French neand better behaved, than in the British: and their being well fed is chiefly owing groes better to the French planter putting a great proportion of his eftate in provifions. Whe- British, and why. ther it might or might not be ultimately for the intereft of the British planter, and the benefit of his flaves, if he were to allot to provifions, more of the land now deftined to fugar, is a queflion that can only be decided by experiment in the different iflands, as the fame answer to it would not fuit each. In iflands that feldom fail in rains, it is no doubt for the planter's intereft, to facrifice a part of the groundi

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