A Voyage to the East Indies: Page 106

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A Voyage to the East Indies: Page 106

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of Inhabitants of the Island are said to be 2100, 1200 of whom are blacks who are kept under the most rigid subjection by their Masters. The Appearance of the interior parts of the Country after gaining the summit of one of the Hills is in some parts very romantic, because one of the highest peaks will be cover’d with verdure, whilst the next, the much lower may not have a blade of Grass. The country has a number of Houses dispers’d throughout, the owners of the greatest part of whom, have Houses likewise in the valley, on account of being in the Company’s service. Which circumstance alone has been the Destruction of the Island, for planters (so farmers are call’d) for many having no reliance but on their Cattle and their land, were really industrious and indefatigable; but when once receiv’d into the service, they get a sinecure for doing nothing, and lapse into a state of Negligence and Inactivity. . As this Island was originally peopled and is now held for the sole purpose of refreshing the Companies ships homeward bound, principal attention is paid to the rearing and keeping of black Cattle. And as Herbage is so excessively scarce, to prevent a greater Consumption of it than is absolutely necessary, several Ordinations have been establish’d, whereby every planter must annually give in an Account of the numbers of black Cattle he feeds (which number is limited by the Govr. & Council) [end page 106]
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