Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/86

 to ſuppoſe, that where the labour is diſproportionate, there will be the greateſt mortality. Under the preſent ſyſtem of general managerent, I am apt to believe that, if the introduction of Africa ſlaves were inhibited, in twenty years one third of the number would be diminiſhed; in thirty, more than one half; and in fifty, the whole rage very nearly extinct. As humanity ſhould rather wiſh to relieve than oppreſs labour, and ſave, than be the means of extinguiſhing life, a recruit from other countries, (if treated with proper tenderneſs,) would rather be a ſubject of benevolence, than the traffic of oppreſſion.

If planters would be contented to make only half the quantity of produce, they in a common year, now do, their capital of negroes would be better preſerved, and upon ſome properties, upon pens in particular, (upon which ſugar is not made) the number may be certainly kept up, if not encreaſed: but then the ſituation muſt be healthy, and proviſions abundant. The principal occaſion of a planter’s diſtreſs, is the improvident purchaſe of ſlaves; therefore he, who by a ſteady attention, proper indulgence, and ,