took up at leaſt eighteen months, before any produce could be planted.—Whilſt in ſeveral inſtances, ſome of them ſpent the money, which was intended to forward their plantations, in unneceſſary buildings; or in an unwarrantable luxury of living.
Others, from an unpardonable greedineſs, purchaſed, in the names of their acquaintances or families, ſeveral lots of land, each containing the number of acres limited in the grants; by which means, perſons who would have been more fit ſettlers, were deprived of them; and large quantities of land thus purchaſed, are now in the ſame ſtate (in woods) as they were, when firft ſold at the Commiſſioners ſales nearly thirty years ago.
Another material cauſe, to which the reduction of ſugar plantations in this iſland may be attributed, is, that ſeveral of the firſt Engliſh fettlers, from a want of knowledge in
