and Demarara, upon being precluded from the importation of Negroes by foreign ships. The words are:
"It is impossible to inform your High Mightinesses of the real annual diminution of our Slaves, but it is generally calculated at five in the hundred, or a twentieth part. This is little felt the first year: nineteen Negroes hardly perceive that they do the work which the preceding year employed twenty; but the second year, the same work falls to eighteen; and if another year passes without any augmentation by purchase, seventeen must do the work dirst allotted to twenty. This must give rise to discontent, desertion, and revolt; or if the Negroes put up patiently with this surcharge of labour, illness, and an earlier death, must be the consequence; or lastly, if the Planters seek to avoid these inconveniencies, they must gradually contract the limits of their plantations, and of course diminish their produce.”
